by Jim Earle
“7 keep having this dream that a guy from the Registrar’s
Office pulls me out of line as Vm waiting to get my dip
loma!’’
Opinion
Discrimination?
Here at A&M? Yes
Texas A&M University is going to get nailed to the wall
— for discrimination on account of sex.
And well it should.
It’s unfortunate it may hike a court order to do it, but the
tradition of excluding women from certain elite groups in
the Corps of Cadets must change.
The Corps is discriminating against women.
A&M challenges the lawsuit it’s facing with two basic
arguments. -
One, the institution says the laws under which the suit
was filed do not apply to A&M. In other words, A&M slips
through under loopholes.
A&M also says — truthfully — that no women have
applied to join the groups (except the Ross Volunteers),
and none of the groups officially prohibit female members.
A&M’s reply is that women may join alternative organiza
tions in the Corps, such as the Women’s Drill Team.
But there is no alternative for women who can’t join —
or who are strongly discouraged from joining — the Aggie
Band, the Ross Volunteers and Parsons’ Mounted Cavalry.
Cadet Melanie Zentgraf applied last year to join the Ross
Volunteers and was not accepted as a member. The Corps
argues that since the RVs are selected by members of the
outfit, Zentgraf had no right to expect to be chosen.
But it is obvious to anyone who has sampled RV opinion
concerning women in the Corps that as long as that closed
selection system exists, no woman will become an RV.
Women have been in the Corps since 1974, but only this
semester were they allowed to wear senior boots.
While few may have applied to join the elite groups, the
women should still have the option to do so — as well as
the right to be seriously considered for membership. As
long as they aren’t, there will still be discrimination.
Traditions — such as enrolling no women at all — have
changed before, and A&M has become stronger for it.
Besides tradition, what good reason is there to keep
women out of these Corps organizations?
The Battalion
usps
LETTERS POLICY
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Address correspondence to Lettirs to the Editor. The
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article and are not necessarily those of the
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045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor • - Liz Newlin
Managing Editor Andy Williams
Asst. Managing Editor Dillard Stone
News Editors Karen Cornelison
and Michelle Burrowes
Sports Editor Sean Petty
City Editor Roy Bragg
Campus Editor Keith Taylor 4
Focus Editor Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy
Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver,
Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt
Allen, Debbie Nelson, Rhonda Watters
Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographers Lynn Blanco, Sam
Stroder, Ken Herrera
Cartoonist Doug Graham
Regents. The Battalion is a non-piofit, self-
supporting enterprise operated by students
as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
Viewpoint
cai
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
December 12, 1979
Broder
Cutting states from federal funds
gives Carter chance to play politm
The offi
| University
“Out of
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Two kinds of head
lines have dominated the news from
Washington in recent weeks. One con
cerned a president supposedly preoc
cupied with the unending crisis of the
Tehran hostages. The other concerned an
administration purportedly using federal
grants to reward the friends and punish
the opponents of the same president s re-
election effort.
Those two issues provide the political
context for a scheduled meeting of a dele
gation of governors with Jimmy Carter this
week. The meeting will focus on the issue
of bypassing the states in federal-aid prog
rams for the cities.
The session is part of the process of con
sultation Carter is going through before
making his final decisions on the budget
he sends Congress next month.
A year ago, in a similar session, the gov
ernors asked Carter to recommend re
moval of some of the categorical-program
restraints which now impair the flexibility
in state and local use of federal aid, and to
avoid the temptation to bypass the states
in future grant-in-aid programs.
Their plea will he repeated this year,
with special emphasis on the 1980 renewal
of the general revenue-sharing program.
Carter has said from his campaign days
onward that he wants to eliminate the
states from their one-third share of that $7
billion a year distribution. The governors,
understandably, think that is a rotten idea.
But they are not alone. The U. S. Con
ference of Mayors and the League of
Cities, representing municipal govern
ments, have both endorsed continuation of
the present program. Their view is that
any alteration in the distribution formula
might jeopardize the political coalition
supporting revenue-sharing.
There are also substantive reasons for
keeping the states in the program. As Tom
Cochran of the U. S. Conference of Mayors
noted, “The studies show that at least 40
percent, and probably more, of the state
share is passed on to the local govern
ments. ”
And there is evidence that the pass
through process targets money more effec
tively, on areas of real need, than does
direct federal aid to the cities. A National
Science Foundation study of 20 years of
grant-in-aid programs made by a pair of
scholars from the University of Missouri-
Kansas City, G. Ross Stephens and Gerald
W. Olsen, concluded that “the states do a
much better job of placing these funds
with ‘active’ local governments than does
direct federal-to-local formula allocation.”
A newly issued study by the National
Governors Association staff on aid to “dis
tressed cities,” found that, whatever
“hardship index” is used, there is better
targeting of resources when the states are
used to channeled the funds.
Pennsylvania Gov. Richard L.
Thornburgh, one of the National Gover
nors’ Association officials scheduled to
meet with Carter on Thursday (Dec. 13),
drew the Iranian connection when he said,
“With the increasing tempo of interna
tional concerns on the part of the federal
government, it hardly seems necessary for
selected,
dent. “Jud
year.
■ “After tl
Contrar
on talent t
“This is
them to be reaching for respoi
the local level, when the statestaf ||talent pres
monstrated their ability to judge ihtip Noak fel
ity needs of their localities with midp
ater skills.”
What Thorburgh, a Republican,4;U the turnon
say was that bypassing the states,*
ting states entirely our of program
revenue-sharing, does increase the-K
of Carter and his agents to plaiBNoak. Fc
election politics with federal graititH ships. Wh
cities. Busing theii
The pending decision on the stasL, The tale
tion of revenue-sharing thus bea>,H Interviews
index, not only of Carter’s commitafE intelligenc
effective use of resources in a tiraedi
budgets, but also of his willii
abandon some short-term political
tage in order to concentrate on the
tial elements of his own job.
‘The ini
national a
If good government is indeedthj
him
politics, then the governors
sympathetic hearing from their fbm
league.
[rad
(c) 1979, The Washington Post Compu
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Analysis
Politically organized homosexuals
may he affecting political platforms
By PETER A. BROWN
United Press International
WASHINGTON — California Gov.
Edmund G. Brown is courting the gay
vote with unusual enthusiasm and if the
move pays off politically, other candidates
also may decide homosexuals are worth
wooing.
Brown is running behind both President
Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy in the
race for the Democratic presidential
nomination. He is trying to build a coali
tion based on his fiscal conservatism and
social liberalism.
Recently, he was the only major presi
dential candidate to appear at a gay disco
bar for a fund-raiser to help a homosexual
group. He is also the first governor ever to
appoint an openly gay judge.
Behind the gay bar appearance is an ap
parent decision by Brown — who has
stressed gay rights in his California cam
paigns — that it is politically profitable to
go after the homosexual vote nationally.
In the past, gay rights has been a subject
presidential candidates ran from, feeling
that being friendly would cost more among
voters horrified by gays than it would win
from homosexuals.
But gays — like blacks, Jews, women,
labor and virtually every other interest
group — have begun organizing politi
cally. And, at least on the local level they
have had some successes.
In San Francisco — which has the na
tion’s most visible gay population —
Washington D.C., and other major cities,
mayors have been elected in recent years
in part because of gay support.
But the suspicion persists among politi
cians that any votes a candidate identified
with gay rights gets in cities with big
homosexual populations will be over
shadowed by losses in more conservative
area.
Of particular importance in presidential
campaigns is that Iowa, New Hampshire
and Florida all hold early primaries or cau
cuses and have a good deal of influence in
winnowing out the candidates.
Many candidates have felt the gay issue
would not win them friends in those cru
cial states and Brown is the first to test that
assumption.
Homosexual activists, who are trying to
get gay rights planks in the Republican
and Democratic platforms next year, say
studies show about 10 percent of the popu
lation is gay.
They dispute the stereotype that?
are more liberal politically becauseofS
sexual preference and say homosexual'
gister with the political parties in ak
the same manner as the general pop
tion.
Republican stategists apparently i
believe that, however. While thet
Vote-USA fund-raiser at the dii
tracted Carter and Kennedy aides, if
was no GOP candidate or represent
to be seen.
Although Brown says both Kennedy!
Carter have come out for gay rights, k!
gone further on the issue, pledgingtoi
point gays to federal jobs, issue an«« 1
tive order banning discriminational !
homosexuals in federal jobs and worn
passage of national gay rights le
Letters
Freshman says Taps vote indicates
his class is not being represented
Editor:
This letter is written primarily for the
Class of ’83 and for the five freshman
senators who voted in favor of the Silver
Taps resolution.
From my understanding, it is the duty
of elected officials to express, as best they
can, the views of their constituency.
We’ve given our senators the responsibil
ity of representing our views and I see
them as failures.
There can be no valid reason for the
manner in which they voted. In Monday’s
Battalion Chris May, a freshman Senator,
admitted that evidence was presented that
showed our class was against the resolu
tion, but the freshman senators voted five
to two in favor of its passage.
Our seven senators should reevaluate
their roles in a representative govern
ment. Regardless of the pressures on an
individual involved in a role-call vote to
“follow the crow, ” it was not their call to
follow the upperclassmen.
I’m not against the passage of the bill;
that is not the issue. The issue is whether
we are being represented.
The role-call vote is posted in the Stu
dent Government office and I will make
use of it for the next election. I hope you
will to.
— Rodney Paris, ’83
Send cards to Iran
Editor:
Last Friday night on the Channel 3
(ABC/Houston) 10 p.m. newcast, the an
chor man, Dave Ward, made a commen
tary on the hostages in Iran. He called on
all Americans to give our hostages a
Christmas by sending a card, letter, or
package to them.
Mr. Ward gave the address:
An American Hostage
U.S. Embassy
Tehran, Iran
It takes a 31-cent international airmail
stamp, but what better way to show our
hostages in Iran that we care than to bring
Christmas to them by way of a card or
something.
I called the ABC Television Network in
New York and they plan to run a similar
commentary on national network tek*
sion. There are also announcements!)
made over radio.
I would like to challenge all Aggiej
take a moment and send a card orleW
The true spirit of Christmas is thatofcl
ing — let’s give our hostages a Christi
and show the people of Iran what
is all alxmt.
— Bill Way
Thotz
By Doug Grabs
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