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aid's
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The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 114
10 Pages
Tuesday, March 4, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Parasite killing hundreds
of catfish in CSPD pond
By LAURA CORTEZ
City Staff
Many of the fish in the pond on the
grounds of the College Station Police De
partment are dying because of a parasite
which gets under their skin and, in effect,
suffocates them.
Lt. Bernard Kapellaof the police depart
ment said several hundred catfish have
died from the whitespot disease, or Ich,
since about November.
College Station police cleared out the
area around the pond, which had been co
vered with weeds, and stocked the pond
with fish last September so that area chil
dren (12-years-old and younger) could fish
in it.
But soon after the pond was closed for
the winter, police officers noticed that
many of the fish were dying, and called in
Dr. S.K. Johnson, fish disease specialtist
for the Texas Agricultural Extension Ser
vice at Texas A&M University, to figure out
what the problem was.
Johnson said he knew immediately that
the fish had Ich, which upsets their water
balance and causes their gills to swell.
last few days, the Bryan-College Station area has
shivered from the effects of a cold spell. The area
forecast says rain will fall for most of today, perhaps
clearing in the late afternoon. Photo by David Einsel
ennedy. Bush trying
o keep campaigns alive
Ffice.
tents
United Press International
BOSTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy and
Irge Bush put their once-promising but
ow shaky presidential campaigns on the
ne in two New England primaries today,
plcar skies and temperatures in the 30s
id 40s, relative spring for the region,
ieeted voters in Massachusetts and Ver-
_ ', ont Election officials looked for heavy
•ina mainr dihiti B outs > as many as 1.5 million in Mas-
n . . , chusetts and 100,000 in Vermont. Polls
dl-UmversityclaS |e at 7 p m ESX in Vermont; 8 p.m. in
y pick up his MtTassachusetts.
The stakes were high in Massachusetts
dth the leaders among the three Demo-
iatic and seven major Republican candi-
ites to share 111 Democratic and 42 GOP
glegates.
|The Vermont vote was a “beauty con
est designed to show voter preference
rith no delegates at stake on the Demo-
> , lc e v ' oislcl m’ side. The Vermont GOP primary also
David Hurst. fiered no delegates, although state party
Mers said they would turn over 10 of
ieir 19 delegates to any candidate who got
P percent of the primary vote.
K|o one needed victories more than Ken-
Sly, the Massachusetts Democratic sena-
————irtaho has lost political tests to President
arter three times in the last six weeks, and
|sh, the transplanted Texan whose boom-
iglcampaign was punctured last week in
lew Hampshire by Ronald Reagan.
IThe latest Massachusetts poll gave Ken-
I Hy 52 percent and Carter 37 percent as of
I K Thursday, but said it found “signifi-
irt” erosion in the Kennedy lead as the
Wednesday, M<f ar y aPP roa T ched - California Gov.
... , , ,1 JfainuncI Brown Jr. was a distant third.
* ] ' u - The poll called the Republican contest
Wednesday, M*i, ually dead even » with Bush at 36 per _
ent, Reagan 33 percent. Rep. John Ander-
on of Illinois 17 percent, Sen. Howard
lake r 6 percent and Rep. Philip Crane,
.Bn Connally and Sen. Bob Dole all with
Thurday, M^Jsj than 5 percent combined.
DeWare Fiei(fr' Publication of the Boston Globe poll re-
/ealed Bush’s Massachusetts stock had
Thursday. M'Dlumineted; a month ago he had led the
■finer California governor by a 3 to 1
margin.
Losing in Massachusetts was inconceiv
able to Kennedy, whose family has domin
ated the state s politics for two decades. But
apparently concerned a narrow victory
would be perceived as a defeat, Kennedy
returned from campaigning in the South
and Midwest to blitz the Boston area dur
ing the weekend.
Repeatedly asked by reporters Monday
if he expected to win, Kennedy said, “Yes.”
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill pre
dicted a Kennedy win by 8 to 18 points.
Bush, who was born in Massachusetts
and reared in Connecticut before he moved
to Texas after World War II, needed vic-
urnament
Consol board plans
gifted kids’ program
By KATHLEEN HARTNEY
City Staff
The A&M Consolidated Independent
School District is trying to establish a
program for gifted students in grades
5-12.
In the bi-monthly school board meet
ing Monday night, the board discussed
the need for such a program and a draft
of some of the goals to be accomplished
with this program were established.
Assistant Superintendent H.R. Bur
nett said they began developing and im
plementing a program for the gifted
children of the district at the elementary
level in 1978.
The program currently includes chil
dren in kindergarten through fourth
grade. One goal the school district
would like to reach is to expand the
program for gifted students in grades
5-12, Burnett said.
By gifted, Burnett is referring to chil
dren and youth whose abilities, talents
and potentials for accomplishment are
so outstanding that they require special
provisions to meet their educational
needs.
Such a task force, Burnett said, has
been set up to develop the program and
the school sent out questionnaires to
teachers and parents of all students in
the school district to assess the need for
the program.
He said a need was indicated by the
questionnaires and the school board
would like the program established by
the fall of 1980.
Another goal of the program, Burnett
said, would be to involve parents and
other interested individuals in the prog
ram and also to provide a measure of
compensation for teachers as extra plan
ning and program management is re
quired.
In other business, the school board
rescheduled its next regular meeting
from March 17 to March 24.
which produces breathing problems and
eventually suffocates them.
He said that Ich is a common protozoan
parasite which is passed from fish to fish.
“Ich is considered contagious where fish
are cultured. A contagious parasite not only
causes disease, but spreads readily from
one fish to another,” Johnson said.
But he said the disease is not affecting all
of the fish in the pond. Many of the catfish
have not contracted the disease, and there
are also a few bass in the pond, none of
which have been affected.
Johnson said the disease can be treated
with chemicals, by removing the fish and
draining the pond or by a “self cure”
method of high temperatures.
He said that right now is the peak killing
time of the disease because of the weather
change.
“The fish have been in cold water and
have not been able to build up resistance to
the disease, but this will change when the
temperature gets hot.”
Johnson said that the length of time Ich
spends as a parasite on a fish varies with the
temperature of the water, and in a bulletin
which he has written on the subject, he said
reproduction of the parasite ceases at 85-90
degrees F.
He said the Ich problem will decline in
the warmer months, but it would be a good
idea to drain the pond around midwinter
and treat the bottom with hydrated lime,
which serves as a disinfectant, and remove
the affected fish.
Ich has no affect on humans, Johnson
said, so even if a person was to eat a fish
with the disease there would be no
problem.
But Kapella said even though there
would be no harm to the people who catch
and eat the fish, people might not like the
idea anyway, so the police department is
considering draining the pond soon. But if
they do this the pond will not be opened to
the children in March as originally plan
ned, but sometime later.
He said he is not sure how the plan would
be financed, but said the police chief will
talk to city officials about it.
The funds to purchase the fish for the
pond are donated.
MSC council chooses
new committee chairmen
By DILLARD STONE
Copy Editor
The final Memorial Student Center
Council members, as well as chairmen for
18 MSC Directorate committees, were
chosen at Monday night’s MSC Council
meeting.
The council filled the two remaining
vacancies for the 1980-81 council:
—Doug Dedeker was named vice presi
dent of administration. Dedeker, a sopho
more from Dallas, currently serves as the
council’s comptroller.
—Mollie White, a junior from Fort
Worth, will be director of public relations.
Dedeker and White will join the seven
other previously selected council officers in
directing the programming of the 31st
MSC Council and Directorate.
Committee chairmen named by the
council include:
Aggie Cinema: Cindy Phelps
Arts: Kerri Kernan
Basement: Steve Schulte
Black Awareness: Reg Trammel
Camera: Ed Martinez
Committee for the Awareness of Mex-
ican-American Culture: Priscilla Navar-
rette
Cepheid Variable: Carole Sralla
Free University: Mary Helen Vetter
Great Issues: Kirk Kelley
Hospitality: Steve Noak
Opera and Performing Arts Society:
Cary Wilkins
Outdoor Recreation: Bryan Hall
Political Forum: Sam Gillespie
Radio: Julie Montgomery
Student Conference on Natiottdl
Affairs: Tom Beecroft
Town Hall: Mike Parkman
Travel: Debra Lanham
Video Tape: David Dinwoodie
The MSC Recreation Committee’s chair
man position remains unfilled, and is still
open to applicants.
Only six committee chairman positions
were contested: Hospitality, Outdoor Re
creation, Radio, SCONA, Town Hall and
Travel. The public relations director’s post
was also contested.
Each applicant was interviewed by three
different groups of current council mem
bers, according to Brian Gross, vice presi
dent of administration. The three groups
together comprised the nominating com
mittee. In the cases of the contested chair
manships, each group agreed on one appli
cant; the groups’ votes were then tallied.
The selection rules allowed for discussion
among nominating committee members on
any office for which the group vote was not
unanimous. In each case, Gross said, the
groups agreed on their number one
choices.
The 19 MSC committees and the council
supervise all student programming at Texas
A&M University. Next year’s MSC Coun
cil and Directorate will operate with a $1.9
million budget.
In other action, the council also
approved a Camera Committee proposal to
sponsor a presentation by glamour and
model photographers Peter and Alice Cow-
land of Santa Monica, Calif.
Rhodesia
Marxist leader Mugabe wins election
tory in one or both New England contests
to fade the image of Reagan’s New Hamp
shire upset and give him a cushion against
expected Reagan and Connally dominance
of the South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and
Alabama primaries coming up next.
Kennedy hoped to pull ahead of Carter
in the race for the 1,666 delegates needed
to win the Democratic nomination next
summer. With 111 at stake in Mas
sachusetts, Carter led Kennedy, 51 to 34.
On the GOP side, Reagan and Bush were
dead even with 22 delegates. Baker had six,
Anderson two and Connally one in the
search for 998 delegates needed to nomin
ate.
United Press International
SALISBURY, Rhodesia— Marxist guer
rilla leader Robert Mugabe today won a
stunning absolute majority in elections
here to lead the new country of Zimbabwe.
Lord Soames, Rhodesia’s British interim
governor, immediately summoned
Mugabe, who had not been expected to win
an absolute majority, for a meeting to form
a new government.
Britain will follow the formation of a gov
ernment by granting the country formal
independence.
Large crowds of blacks gathered in the
streets, cheering and imitating roosters —
Mugabe’s symbol for the two-month elec
tion campaign.
Army helicopters circled over the center
of Salisbury, and army and police staged a
massive show of force throughout the capit
al in an effort to enforce calm after
Mugabe’s victory was announced.
The election triumph gave Mugabe 57 of
the 100 seats in the independence Parlia
ment. His victory was all the more remark
able since nine parties contested the 80
seats reserved for blacks.
Official results gave Mugabe’s Zim
babwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front Party 62.9 percent of the vote, Reg
istrar General Eric PopeSimmonds said.
Mugabe’s one-time guerrilla co-leader,
Joshua Nkomo, came in second with 24.1
percent of the vote and 20 seats and former
Prime Minister Bishop Abel Muzorewa
polled a poor third with 8.2 percent of the
vote and three seats.
The other 20 seats reserved for whites in
the independence Parliament were won in
an earlier election by former Prime Minis
ter Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front Party.
A spokesman for Nkomo, who reportedly
broke down in tears when he heard of his
party’s defeat, said he was open to
Mugabe’s offer to take part in a government
that would give Mugabe’s party a constitu
tional majority.
Pope-Simmonds said said final tallies for
the parties gave 1,668,992 votes to
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, 638,879 to Nkomo’s
Patriotic Front, and 219,307 to Muzorewa’s
United African National Council.
None of the six other black parties won
enough votes to gain a seat in the legislative
body.
Both Nkomo and Muzorewa were strong
enough in their own electoral districts to
win seats for themselves in the Parliament.
If the two men combined forces, they
would hold the two-thirds majority needed
to pass constitutional amendments without
the support of the white minority in Parlia
ment.
Rhodesians got their first indication the
urbane and bespectacled Mugabe had
emerged the victor Monday night when he
was the only black politician to go on state-
run radio and television to appeal for calm
and reconciliation.
“We must now all work for unity whether
we have won the elections or lost them and
this so whether we are black or white,” he
said.
“Our main concern should be to join
hands in building our country so that we
can create a new Zimbabwe with a new
national faith, a new national love, binding
all its people, a new sense of national
togetherness based on a new way of life.”
Baylor fires 3 editors;
newspaper staff quits
United Press International
WACO — As an indirect result of
Playboy magazine’s efforts to photo
graph female students at Baylor Univer
sity, the campus newspaper is without
its top three editors and many staff
members.
The editor-in-chief of The Lariat, Jeff
Barton, was escorted from his news
room, where he had been holding a
news conference, by campus security
guards Monday shortly before the
school’s board of publications
announced the three firings.
The board’s action was prompted by a
controversy over an editorial saying
female students should be allowed to
decide for themselves whether to pose
for the nude photographs.
Several staff members submitted
sympathetic resignations, closing down
the newspapers until after spring break,
which begins Friday.
The board, made up of five faculty
members and six students, announced
the firings after a one-hour executive
session that followed an open meeting
where two of the editors and several of
the 150 students present spoke against
the expected terminations.
“The board of publications of Baylor
University has voted unanimously to
terminate the three senior editors of
The Lariat,” the board said in a state
ment read by chairman Dr. Loyal
Gould, head of the school’s journalism
faculty.
The controversy began last month
when the men’s magazine announced it
planned a photo series on “Girls of the
Southwest Conference” and school
President Abner V. McCall said any
Baylor student posing for a frontal nude
shot and “representing Baylor Universi
ty” probably would face disciplinary ac
tion. He said posing for the magazine
would be a violation of Baptist tenets.
That prompted the student editors to
editorialize that women should have a
choice. McCall objected to the resulting
series of editorials and news stories,
saying Friday the editors would either
have to change their stance or resign.
The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, city
editor and news editor threatened to
quit their $2.63-per-hour positions, but
then decided to await the board’s deci
sion.
In the meantime, journalism faculty
member Don Williams quit and mem
bers of the newspaper staff met Sunday
and voted 17-7 to resign, with eight staff
members not present.
“I expressed sympathy with the stu
dents,” Williams said. “I thought the
method of enforcing the publication
policies were inhuman and insensitive.
I never voiced any disagreement with
the policies, though.”
The firings, along with the sympathe
tic resignations of several staff mem
bers, closed down The Lariat until after
spring break, which begins Friday.
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