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The Batt/Vlion
Vol. 73 No. 96
24 Pages in 2 Sections
Thursday, February 7, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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Senators pass
night
exam
bill
By MERIL EDWARDS
Campus Staff
The Texas A&M University student sen
ate Wednesday followed up its introduc
tion of a night exam awareness bill from the
last meeting, voted to request membership
in the Bryan-College Station Chamber of
Commerce and discussed the student ser
vice fee allocation.
John Calhoun, vice president for acade
mic affairs, led the senate in passing his
night exam awareness bill. The bill sug
gests a notation be used in the class sche
dule booklet to let students know exams are
scheduled at night before registering for
class.
The senate is interested in representing
students on the city level as well as on
campus, Cheryl Swanzy, vice president for
external affairs, said. The senate will re
quest membership in the Chamber of
Commerce.
George Black, vice president for finance,
said his committee will be in student ser
vice fee allocation hearings this week and
would present a recommendation to the
senate for approval later. The finance com
mittee will recommend how the University
should distribute next year’s student ser
vice fee allocations.
In other action, Jim Barolak reported the
ideas of his basketball ticket distribution
committee. He said that since the new sys
tem took effect, he has received complaints
on the long lines as well as encouragement.
Barolak said his committee talked with
associate athletic director Wally Groff and
presented two main considerations to him.
“The first is the Plan A, Plan B plan that
divides the basketball season into two por
tions, as evenly as possible,” Barolak said.
“This would give students the option of
going to half the games. Many schools use
this system. The University of Michigan
uses it effectively and the students like it.”
The second plan involves a ticket distri
bution on a seniority basis, Barolak said.
“This could be done by class or hours,”
he said. “But Groff suggested we go by
seniority on the basis of attendance to past
basketball games. Anyway, there are all
sorts of possibilities to look at. But some
thing we need to remember that Groff
stressed is that if we’re going to change the
system, we need to get on it now in order
for it to go into effect next season.”
Another topic of discussion was the re
cent Texas A&M ambulance controversy.
Mary Elizabeth Herring, external affairs
committee member, said the story that ran
in The Battalion on Feb. 4 was inaccurate
and biased.
The story dealt with the College Station
city ordinance that prohibits the Texas
A&M health center ambulance from servic
ing off-campus students who are College
Station residents.
“I felt the story was definitely slanted
against the city,” Herring said. “There was
no bias or objectivity in reporting the facts.
The story made the University and the city
look like adversaries. It upset some city
council members.
“We had been working successfully with
the city to solve this problem and the story
set us back some. Both parties (TAMU and
College Station) are interested in giving the
best service. I don’t think the city is trying
to discriminate, and the University is
trying to give the students what they paid
for. Anyway, we ll continue to try and work
something out.”
Rep. explains part
in ‘Arab Scam’
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The band didn't play on
A College Station fireman drags out wiring for musical instruments dam
aged during a fire in the kitchen of the Texas Grubstake restaurant
Wednesday. The instruments belong to a local band, which was rehears
ing when the fire broke out just before the restaurant’s usual opening
SCONA
Annual conference
time. The fire burned through the roof above the kitchen, but damage to
the rest of the building was confined to smoke and water damage. The
restaurant is located in the University Square shopping center on South
College Road in College Station. Sta(T photo by Lee Roy Leschper .
celebrates anniversary
By CAROL HANCOCK
Campus Staff
A quarter of a decade ago, Herbert
“Bud” Ward, then vice-president of the
Texas A&M University Memorial Student
Center, had an idea to formulate a national
affairs conference on campus for students,
faculty and government officials.
The result of Ward’s efforts, the Student
Conference on National Affairs, is still
going strong and about to celebrate its sil
ver anniversary.
SCONA has a history of prominent
names and inviting topics. SCONA has
grown and changed every year, but the
basic structure and purpose has remained
fairly constant.
Texas A&M’s SCONA is somewhat of a
model of West Point’s SCUSA, the Student
Conference on United States Affairs. Ward
attended SCUSA in 1954 and returned to
study the feasibility of a similar conference
at Texas A&M.
SCONA began in December of the fol
lowing year.
On a budget of $12,000, the three-and-a-
haff day affair included two main speakers
and a five-member panel discussion.
The speakers included the former
ambassador to Thailand, Maj. Gen. Wil
liam Donovan, former Secretary of State
George McGhee and other prominent men
in government and academic circles.
More than 100 student delegates from
approximately 45 colleges and universities
throughout the United States and Mexico
attended the first conference. Eight of the
delegates were from Texas A&M.
SCONA’s first decade brought a number
of well-known politicians, diplomats, intel
lectuals and businessmen to Texas.
In 1956, Lyndon B. Johnson, a U.S.
senator at the time, was a major speaker at
the conference. The following year, Sen.
Hubert H. Humphrey and Maj. Gen. John
P. Daley gave their views on world affairs.
Before the first decade was over, SCO
NA had attracted such figures as Lt. Gov.
William Hobby, U.S. Congressman Olin
“Tiger ” Teague and Maj. Gen. Charles B.
Westover.
In the past ten years, Texas A&M has
been visited by Senators Birch Bayh, Wal
ter Mondale and John Tower, consumer
advocate Ralph Nader, Gov. Bill Cle
ments, economist Milton Friedman, Con
gressmen Morris Udall and Bob Krueger,
geologist Michel T. Halbouty and col
umnist Lynn Ashby.
Teague and two other men, John Lind
sey and J. Wayne Stark, have been in
strumental in keeping SCONA going.
Teague, through fiis influential position
in Congress and his space program con
tacts, has been helpful in obtaining promin
ent speakers for the SCONA committee.
Teague is a 1932 graduate of Texas A&M.
Lindsey, a 1944 graduate and member of
many civic groups and education commit
tees, has contributed to all areas of the
conference.
Soviet official calls
boycott ‘crude’
United Press International
MEXICO CITY — A Soviet Olympics
official branded the Carter administration’s
call for a boycott of the Moscow games a
“crude” violation of the Olympic charter
that could backfire in the face of its propo
nents.
“The idea of a boycott is condemned by
the international Olympic movement,”
Valery Smirnoff, a member of the Moscow
Olympics Organizing Committee, said
during a news conference Wednesday.
“The rules of the Olympic movement
prohibit countries from not participating
for religious, political, economic or social
reasons,” he said. “I repudiate totally the
idea,” he said.
Smirnoff, also a vice president of the In
ternational Olympic Committee, branded
the Carter boycott proposal a “very crude
violation” of the Olympic spirit and said it
could backfire in the administration’s face.
Quoting Clause 23 of the IOC charter,
Smirnoff said the IOC had “final authority
on all questions, including matters of disci
pline” against member nations.
After the lengthy news conference,
Smirnoff left for Lake Placid, N.Y., site of
the IOC meetings which begin Friday.
The Russian said he was in Mexico City
to arrange discount airfares for athletes
from 60 poor countries in Asia, Africa and
Latin America so they can attend the Mos«-
cow games.
The Soviet airline Aeroflot has budgeted
$2.8 million for the special flights and will
offer discounts of either 50 or 100 percent,
depending on the athletes’ needs, Smirnoff
said.
After two days of meetings in Mexico
City, the Association of National Olympic
Committees executive committee Tuesday
adopted a resolution urging members to
“resist and avoid external influences” to
boycott the games.
The ANOC, an umbrella organization
whose primary role is to foment the Olym
pic movement among its 141 member na
tions, has no binding authority over the
IOC, although some of its members belong
to it.
The IOC will act on Feb. 10 on a U.S.
Olympic committee proposal to move, can
cel or postpone the Moscow games.
Stark, director for the MSC for the pa
30 years, took an active role in SCONA
creation. The class of ’39 Aggie has sup
ported and participated in all past
SCONAs.
SCONA has grown during the 25 years of
its existence.
Contributions from former students,
businessmen and corporations finance the
SCONA conferences. The budget for SCO
NA 25, however, is four times that of the
first conference.
The number of student delegates has in
creased to almost 200, round table sessions
have grown from four to eight and the num
ber of main speakers has increased to six.
The number of schools invited now totals
more than 80, and Canadian college stu
dents and U.S. high school students have
joined the roster.
While the earlier conferences concen
trated mainly on foreign policy, later SCO
NA topics branched out to include interna
tional affairs and anything from the space
age to student responsibilities in the ’70s.
The first few conferences had various
topics to fit each speaker. In 1961, the sub
ject was narrowed down to one topic.
Another change was made in 1970 — the
conference was moved to February.
While SCONA has continued to grow in
many aspects, some elements have re
mained constant over the years.
The conference is still a three-and-a-half
day affair, and social activities are inters
persed throughout it. SCONA 25 activities
include a home-cooked meal, a perform
ance by the Texas A&M Singing Cadets, a
night of country-western dancing, a Corps
of Cadets review and a barbeque. The acti
vities are intended to show the delegates
the varied lifestyles of their peers.
The intent of SCONA has also stayed the
same. SCONA aims to stimulate interest in
current issues and create an awareness to
deal with the matters in a broder perspec
tive.
Both Ward and John Jenkins, the chair
man of SCONA 1, will be here next week to
celebrate the silver anniversary.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Rep. Richard Kelly,
R-Fla., implicated in the “Arab scam” brib
ery scandal, says he took $25,000 from
undercover FBI agents because he was
conducting his own investigation of what he
thought were shady characters.
Kelly, one of eight members of Congress
implicated in the bribery scandal, is the
first public official to admit he accepted
cash from undercover agents posing as rep
resentatives of a fictitious Arab sheik seek
ing help with immigration and business
problems.
Kelly said in an interview with NBC-TV
Wednesday night he locked the $25,000 in
the glove compartment of his car and then
used some of it for lunch money. On Sun
day, the day after the FBI operation was
revealed publicly, he turned over all but
$174 of the money to the FBI.
Kelly, 55, said he was investigating what
he believed to be shady characters when he
went to a posh Washington house with a
man named “Gino” to discuss his possible
assistance in immigration matters. The
man pulled the money out of a drawer and
offered it to Kelly, he said.
“I would have preferred not to have
taken the money but I also did not want the
investigation to die there because I didn’t
know anything more then,” Kelly said. “I
put it in the pockets of my clothing. ”
Sources said hidden FBI cameras filmed
that scene — and similar ones allegedly
involving other congressmen — on
videotape.
“I felt that I was simply being comprom
ised at this time,” Kelly said. “What was
going on in that room about the immigra
tion and all was just some sort of game.
Kelly is the only Republican among the
congressmen implicated in the scandal. As
a circuit court judge, he was impeached by
the Florida House of Representatives in
1963 for “judicial tyranny,” but the state
Senate dismissed tbe pharges.
Also Wednesday, Deputy Attorney Gen
eral Philip Heymann urged Congress to
hold off investigating the scandal for f hree
to six months.
“However fine the cooks may be, one too
many may spoil this broth,” Heymann said.
But both the Senate and House ethics
committees decided to start their own in
vestigations and go as far as they can in
developing independent evidence.
The House probe will look into the seven
House members implicated: Kelly, Reps.
John Murphy, D-N.Y., Frank Thompson,
D-N.J., John Jenrette, D-S.C., and
Raymond Lederer, Michael Myers and
John Murtha, all D-Pa.
The Senate inquiry will focus on Sen.
Harrison Williams, D-N.J., in the “Arab
scam, " as well as possible misconduct by
Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev., whose
name surfaced in a separate FBI bribery
investigation involving trucking deregula
tion legislation.
Penitentiary sends
cons to other jails
United Press International
SANTA FE, N.M. — Stripped of their
baseball bats and other weapons, more
potential troublemakers from the New
Mexico State Penitentiary were headed to
day for correctional institutions around the
country, while black prisoners were
housed separately to quell their fears of
racial violence.
Prison officials said they expected today
to release a final tabulation and accounting
of the institution’s 1,134-inmate population
and confirmed that any men not on that list
would be presumed dead.
The official death toll has remained
steady at 33 for the past two days, with 89
inmates and guards injured in the 36hour
bloodbath and inferno that left 75 percent
of the 25-year-old prison in ruins and
caused at least $45 million in damages, the
most expensive prison uprising ever in the
country.
The prison population figures have fluc
tuated since authorities regained control
Sunday afternoon, beginning at 1,136,
jumping to 1,156 and dropping to 1,134 on
Wednesday. Warden Jerry Griffin said
guard captains on duty the night of the
insurrection told him a total of 1,134 in
mates were recorded during last Friday’s
evening count.
Horror stories from inmates who said the
prison gymnasium had been used as a tor
ture chamber for scores of inmates before
being set ablaze apparently were false, offi
cials said. Only three bodies were nulled
from the gym when the fire that burned for
nearly three days finally began to cool
down.
Rodriguez reiterated previous state
ments by other officials that no inmates
escaped in the midst of the break. He said
officers were able quickly to secure the
perimeter of the institution.
Jim Baca, a spokesman for the governor,
watched through binoculars from the pris
on command post Wednesday as guards
shook down inmates being kept on a base
ball field behind the prison.
T saw baseball bats and all kinds of stuff
falling out from under their coats and
pants,” he said.
Prison officials complied with a request
by black inmates to keep them separated
from other prisoners because of fears of
racial violence. Baca said some of the black
inmates would be housed in the annex that
formerly housed women prisoners and a
few would be transferred to other state
prisons.
But corrections officials said the con
cealed weapons notwithstanding, there
was an air of calm at the prison Wednesday
—- something that was not present even
before the riot.
District Attorney Eloy Martinez said
charges to be filed in the uprising, once
crimes can be matched to specific inmates,
would include murder, kidnapping, cri
minal sexual offenses, intent to incite riot
and vandalism.