Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 71
16 Pages in 2 Sections
Wednesday, December 12, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
oard installment plan
o be eliminated next fall
m
By CAROL HANCOCK
Battalion Reporter
Beginning next fall, Texas A&M Uni-
hity students will no longer have the
lion of paying their board fee in three
Itallments.
lifter hearing a recommendation from
jward Vestal, vice president for business
vices, the Board of Regents voted dur-
! the Nov. 30 Board of Regents meeting
[discontinue the installment plan.
Vestal said during the meeting that the
[(ailment payment plan caused prob
in bookkeeping and was expensive
[the University.
Lloyd Smith, assistant director of food
vices, said the plan causes problems for
|th the Food Services Department and
Fiscal Office.
Many students fail to read the rides of
the installment plan and think that failure
to pay an installment drops them from the
board plan. Smith said. This is not the
case, he said. After signing up for the
board plan, students are committed to
complete payment whether they continue
to eat or not.
The Food Services Department does
not know if a student has failed to make
payments until it is notified by the Fiscal
Office, which collects the payments.
Often, Smith said, Food Services is not
notified until up to V/2 months after a stu
dent’s payment was due. Meanwhile, the
student can continue to eat in the dining
halls.
Smith said the plan has also caused mis
understandings and sometimes hard feel
ings between students and the Food Ser
vices Department. “Every time a board
payment is due, for about a week I get up
to 50 people a day in to see me trying to
straighten finances,” he said.
Robert Smith, assistant controller for
the fiscal office, said the main cost to the'
University is administrative services. Hav
ing to track down students with delin
quent payments takes time and personnel,
he said.
“It doesn’t really cost the University
much in terms of someone getting some
thing for nothing,” he said. The Fiscal Of
fice tries to be as lenient as possible with
students but almost always gets the money
due, Smith said.
Although the plan was initiated to help
students who had insufficient funds to pay
tuition and fees at the beginning of the
semester, some students found the in
stallment plan to be more of an inconveni
m
homeini says ‘American
veto blame for violence
United Press International
ABRIZ, Iran — Iran’s political crisis
rteriorated and new clashes and killings
re reported Tuesday in the troubled
Jthwest region where a government
ee commission held talks to try to halt
violence. »
At least two people were killed and
Slit 20 wounded in clashes Monday in
west Azerbaijan capital of Urumieh be-
Jeen loyalist revolutionary guards and
Isident supporters of Ayatollah Kazem
priatmadari, who bluntly accused the
emment of reneging on recent prom-
to the populous region,
abriz, scene of weekend violence, was
[uiet Tuesday as the government commis-
n headed by Finance Minister Abol
san Bani-Sadr held a second session of
talks to try to halt further bloodshed.
But the demonstrators, demanding gre
ater autonomy and a revision of the Islamic
constitution giving Khomeini absolute
powers, controlled most of the city and
were encouraged to continue their resis
tance by Shariatmadari s refusal to
intervene.
“I see no reason to intervene further,
the ayatollah said in a statement.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini blamed
the crisis in Turkish-speaking Tabriz on
“American spies (sent) from the embassy,
where Moslem militants have been hold
ing 50 Americans hostage for 39 days.
The leader of those opposed to Kho
meini’s absolute rule. Ayatollah Kazem
Shariatmadari, countered with charges the
79-year-old religious leader was moving
steadily toward a political dictatorship and
breaking agreements designed to end the
current strife in northwest Iran.
Moderate Ayatollah Shariatmadari said
he would not actively intervene to halt the
crisis in Tabriz where his supporters bat
tled loyalist revolutionary guards for days
to control public buildings.
“How can I guarantee peace in a city
where agents of the Islamic republic,
without any reason, have caused deaths
and injuries?’’ he said.
Shariatmadari’s bluntest warning to the
government and his charge that the Tabriz
violence was government-inspired effec
tively appeared to deadlock the crisis.
At least nine people died and 60 were
wounded over several days of fighting and,
Tehran Radio said Monday there was re-
ence than a help.
Dana Creel, a freshman physical educa
tion major on the board plan, said she was
planning to pay her board in full next
semester. By being on the installment
plan, Creel said, she had to worry about
getting enough money to pay three times
instead of once.
Sylvia Nolan, a junior marketing major,
said she, too, was going to get off the in
stallment plan next semester. Nolan de
scribed it as being a hassle and said mis
takes were made on her records for pre
registration because of it.
Vestal said at the board meeting that
most students were capable of paying for
board plan in one payment. The resolution
passed by the board, however, enables
students to pay on an installment basis if
they can show hardship.
spies
in Iran
newed fighting, including one report of
another three deaths. But correspondents
at the scene saw no evidence of renewed
clashes.
Shariatmadari said Khomeini and his
aides should “have the courage' to state
facts and added, “to connect all happen
ings to American imperialism will not
solve any problems. ”
Despite the domestic crisis in the
northwest, diplomatic sources said deli
cate contacts were still being maintained
to try to secure the release of the hostages.
And in the capital, Canadian Ambas
sador Kenneth Taylor said Tuesday U.S.
Charge d’Affaires Bruce Laingen and two
other embassy officials in protective cus
tody at the Foreign Ministry are in good
health.
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. S. denies setting deadline for Iran
United Press International
I WASHINGTON — The State Depart-
fnient Tuesday denied the United States
;ta 10-day deadline for the safe release of
be hostages or that it seeks to encourage
t ie fall of the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah
[homeini.
“There is not such deadline ... (and) we
not seeking the overthrow of the Kho-
eini regime,” department spokesman
Tom Reston said.
“Clearly, we don’t want this thing to go
on forever, but there is no 10-day deadline
or a two-week deadline or anything of the
sort.”
Regarding possible economic measures
against Iran, including an embargo, Re
ston noted Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
is now in Europe talking to U.S. allies
“about what we have done and what we
might do.”
“But I am not prepared to specificy”
those measures, he said.
ABC News reported the deadline Mon
day, saying that despite the State Depart
ment denial it stands by the story by its
diplomatic correspondent Ted Koppel.
Koppel said the administration has indi
cated it would try to bring down the Kho
meini government through economic
means if the 50 American hostages are not
released within 10 days. A blockade was
not ruled out.
“The message to Tehran has two sides,”
Koppel reported. “Release the hostages
within the next 10 days, and that would go
a long way towards softening the consequ
ences of U. S. anger; but anything less than
a total release within that time period, and
the United States will embark on a policy
of actively trying to bring about the
downfall of the Khomeini government —
initially through a policy of tightening the
economic screws at Washington’s disposal,
but not ruling out an eventual blockade.
RCA loses satellite,
fears it has blown up
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — U.S.
space-tracking stations around the world
scanned the skies Tuesday for a lost $20
million communications satellite that may
have blown up.
The missing one-ton satellite, designed
for the cable television industry and
owned by RCA American Communica
tions Inc. (Americom), was launched
Thursday night. On Monday RCA realized
it had lost track of the satellite.
After the launch NASA officials said the
satellite had gone into its preliminary
transfer orbit as planned. They then
turned the satellite’s future guidance over
to RCA.
Americom spokesman John Williamson
reported late Monday that RCA scientists
lost all track of Satcom III after they
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Battalion plioto By Clay B. Cockrill
With a little help
Lenny Barszap, 22 months, apparently wasn’t participating enough in
singing caroles at the MSC Hospitality Committee Christmas party
Tuesday, so friends Rayne Kelley (left) and Christine Howe decided to
help him along. Lenny is the son of Michael Barszap, a professor in the
modern languages department.
Carter doesn't plan to be
‘spectator to hostage trial
radioed a signal to fire a rocket motor on
board the satellite to guide it into its per
manent, stationary orbit 22,300 miles
above the Pacific Ocean at the Equator.
“We don t know if the satellite exploded
or whether it’s gone into the wrong orbit, ”
said Donald Quinn, a spokesman for
Americom.
A source close to the RCA project
speculated it had exploded? because
otherwise it would have remained on
tracking screens longer, the Florida news
paper Cocoa Today reported.
NASA spokesmen said they believe it
was only the second time a satellite had
been lost in that manner. The first was
Syncom I, launched Feb. 14, 1963, and
lost when a “kickmotor was fired a few
days later to adjust its orbit.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
does not intend to “sit by as a spectator” if
the 50 American hostages in Iran are put
on trial, presidential aides have indicated.
Press secretary Jody Powell refused to
say what Carter contemplates if “show
trials” are held in Tehran. Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance has been discussing a
possible trade embargo with European
leaders.
With Congress closing shop in a couple
of weeks. Carter arranged an early morn
ing legislative breakfast Tuesday with
Democratic leaders. In the evening, he
and Mrs. Carter gave a Christmas ball in
honor of Congress.
The Iranian crisis is now in its sixth
week and Powell continues to insist that
there is only one issue — the release of the
hostages.
Carter considers the question of the al
leged crimes of the deposed shah extrane
ous at the present time.
The siege began Nov. 4 when militant
students stormed the American Embassy
in Tehran nearly two weeks after Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was permitted
into the United States for medical treat
ment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh
Qotbzadeh has threatened trials of some of
the hostages. He has said an international
panel will be convened and the rule of the
shah and U.S. wrongdoing over the past
25 years will be aired.
“The issue is the illegal holding of our
people, Powell said. “Their release is the
only issue. While they are in the posture
of holding our people illegally, other mat
ters — grievances, whatever — are simply
beside the point.
Powell referred to national security ad
viser Zbigniew Brzezinski’s statement
Sunday, in which he said “further abuse of
these already maltreated hostages would
give us very grave concern and we could
hardly sit by as spectators.”
The aide said Brzezinski’s comments
about not sitting by “were in reference to
such an action on their part. The aide also
said the administration obviously would
draw a distinction between physical harm
being meted out to the hostages and other
situations.
Posthumous degree awarded
to senior killed in accident
A posthumous degree in aerospace
engineering was awarded Tuesday to
21-year-old Amer Sheikh, a Texas
A&M senior killed in a car wreck near
Hempstead Friday.
Silver Taps for Sheikh, a Pakistani,
will be Jan. 22 after the return of stu
dents from Christmas break. Services
for him are pending in Pakistan.
Officials said Sheikh had completed
required degree work and was to re
ceive his diploma this weekend at
regidar commencement ceremonies.
Sheikh is the 11th student fatality
of the current academic year and is
the 12th Texas A&M student to die in
an auto accident since mid-May.
Eight of those traffic deaths have oc-
cured since September.
Academic Council to tighten policy
Grad students must register officially
IS
ers
# €\ fL-r Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco
Studying? ISJo ...
Robert Keen portrays Death in the “Death Knocks” segment of a
Reader’s Theatre adaptation of Woody Allen’s “Getting Even.” Keen
and four other students presented their interpretation of four of Allen’s
works in Rudder Forum Tuesday evening. The oral interpretation group
is part of speech communication at Texas A&M University.
By LAURA CORTEZ
Battalion Reporter
Graduate students who have finished
their course work and are working on their
research, but who fail to properly register
with the University each semester, will be
dropped from enrollment, the Academic
Council decided Tuesday.
Furthermore, these students will not be
re-admitted to the graduate college unless
they have a GPR of at least 3.0, and they
must pay a $50 reinstatement fee and pre
sent evidence that their graduate program
is being successfully pursued.
There is also the possibility that a re-
evaluation procedure will take place in
order to determine if these students
should be allowed to continue in the
graduate program. This action may in
clude formal re-appointment of a student’s
committee and filling out a new degree
program.
The guidelines for in absentia registra
tion were drawn up and approved by the
Graduate Council following a study in this
area, and these guidelines were submitted
to the Academic Council for consideration
at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Many students continue to work in ab
sentia for several years without register
ing,” the study states, “during which time
they expect to have help from the faculty.
including the reading of their theses, dis
sertations, or other required documents.”
The study also says that graduate college
files shows that 11 doctoral students who
were registered for the 1978 fall semester
did not register for the 1979 spring semes
ter. Since none of these students
graduated, all are probably continuing
work on their degrees, the study con
cluded.
Based on an informal check, these 11
students represent 15-25 percent of the
students who are not now enrolled but
who are working toward an advanced de
gree at Texas A&M, according to the
study.
It continued that if this estimate is cor
rect, the University may be losing about
$50,000 per semester in subvention funds
(funds granted to the University by the
state.)
Beginning in fall 1980, graduate stu
dents who have completed all course work
on their degree program, but who are still
engaged in reasearch for their disserta
tions, theses, or records of study must re
gister for a minimum of four hours of 691
(Research) or 692 (Professional Study) cre
dit each semester or 12-week summer ses
sion until all requirements for the degree
have been completed.
Exceptions to these guidelines will be
the prerogative of the dean of the graduate
college.