3
Senators break silence on closed session
$100,000 will go to women’s athletics, but where's it coming from?
By DILLARD STONE,
ANDY WILLIAMS,
and LOUIE ARTHUR
■ Battalion StafF
During a closed session Wednesday
^ night, Texas A&M University’s student
lenate passed a bill that recommended giv-
^king the women’s athletic program
1100,000. University officials and senators
_ |ay the money will be paid into a certain
iocount, but won’t say who is paying it.
^ iTexas A&M President Jarvis E. Miller
fid Thursday night that the money would
in be allotted from the student service
jcount. That account’s funds are ordinari-
J (t
s
3
(i
ly generated by a $33.50 fee that all stu
dents are required to pay.
However, when asked whether the stu
dent service fee will be the source of the
$100,000, Miller said, “I’m not prepared to
answer that.”
But one student senator was.
“All we did was OK the transfer of this
money. The administration will come up
with the money,” the senator said.
“President Miller is going to deposit the
money in the student services account.
We, in turn, will allocate that same amount
to the Athletic Department.
“I don’t agree with it. I didn’t vote for it.
I’m sorry that the senate had to have any
thing to do with it.”
Several other senators confirmed the in
formation.
George Black, student vice president for
finance, said Tuesday the Athletic Depart-
See related editorial, page 2
ment originally approached Miller with a
$150,000 deficit — a deficit caused by the
cost of implementing Title IX guidelines.
Title IX sets the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare’s anti-sex discrimi
nation rules for educational institutions.
The department was told to find $50,000
on its own, and that “other sources” would
make up the rest, Black said.
Black was asked to initiate student senate
legislation to remedy the situation.
“I introduced that bill at the request of
Dr. Miller,” he said. “It was not a request
of the Athletic Department. ”
Black’s initial proposal, first read March
5, recommended a student service fee in
crease of 50 cents.
The senate rejected that bill.
In the closed session Wednesday, Black
moved to amend the original bill. The re
vised version allocated $100,000 to the
Athletic Department. One senator said this
proposal “would not cost students a cent. ”
The money is being channeled through
the student service account as a tactic “to
maintain some political leverage” with
HEW, Miller said. The move is being
made in case HEW decides the University
is not abiding by its requirements regard
ing funding of women’s athletic programs.
University officials hope using money
from this account will broaden the base of
responsibility in the event of HEW action.
“This will make it a little easier, knowing
that 30,000 students and their parents are
involved as opposed to one administra
tion,” Miller said.
“Our interpretation is that we are in
compliance with Title IX,” Miller said.
“We’re trying to keep our options open in
dealing with a problem that may or may not
arise in the future.
“Those guidelines are vague, they are
unclear, and there’s no way an institution
can tell if it’s in compliance,” he said.
He said many institutions have been
paying for their women’s athletic programs
through student service funds.
Dr. John Koldus, vice president for stu
dent services, must approve the bill. It will
be presented to him Monday.
The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 127
10 Pages
Friday, March 28, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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5SG is immune
Jo meetings law,
^attorney says
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By RUSTY CAWLEY
— > StafF Writer
| Texas A&M’s student senate apparently
Ifree to close its meetings to the public at
p, the chairman of the state attorney gen
’s opinion committee said Thursday.
[ Bob Heath, chairman of the committee,
aid he knows of no attorney general ’s opin-
ons that require a student government to
hide by the state’s open meetings law.
“You would have to prove that the stu-
mt senate is a board or commission within
executive or legislative branch of the
e government,” Heath said. “I think
would have a difficult time doing that. ”
he student senate closed a session
Wednesday night while senators debated a
iposal to give the athletic department
ey from the student service account,
move is intended to help prepare the
iversity’s defense in the event of possi-
federal anti-sex discrimination action,
efore the closed session began, speaker
Van Winkle rushed a bill through the
te allowing the members to close any
iion if two-thirds of the senate voted to.
Winkle and student body president
nie Kapavik signed the measure im-
iately after it was passed,
he Texas Open Meeting Law requires
governmental bodies to debate all issues
la public forum unless the issue involves
ding litigation, land purchase, or per-
nel.
e law also requires the body to publish
ice of a closed session in the meeting
nda and to state specifically why the
ly must discuss the issue out of public
iw, The student senate ignored both of
ise requirements.
enators argued with Battalion reporters
rthe legality of situation. They held that
le senate, since it has no final authority, is
pt covered by the open meetings law.
Heath agrees.
I really doubt that they are covered,”
Heath said. “If they were, they would have
to file an agenda with the secretary of state
and publish it in the Texas Register. To my
knowledge, no student government does
that. ”
Hath said Chancellor Frank Hubert may
request an attorney general’s opinion on
the matter, or The Battalion may request
one through the office of Brazos County
district attorney Travis Bryan HI.
Battalion editor Roy Bragg said Thursday
that the paper intends to pursue the issue.
The Battalion will ask both the chancellor
and the district attorney to request an attor
ney general’s opinion, he said.
“We believe it is the responsibility of a
free press to demand openness of govern
ment, at whatever level,” Bragg said.
“Since there are apparently no legal prece
dents for this, we intend to see that one is
established.”
Bragg also said that The Battalion will
request all information relevant to the
closed session, under the Texas Open Re
cords Law. That law appears to apply more
strictly to student government than does
the open meetings law, he said.
Payroll cuts
behind goal,
— Clements
Ready for anything
Students who braved thundershowers to attend classes at
Texas A&M University Thursday took along every conceiv
able fashion of rain protection. This young lady, entering the
university’s chemistry building, should be virtually water
proof with her parka, umbrella and rubber boots.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Lone Ranger
may ride again
I United Press International
0)
■5
o
o
HOLLYWOOD — Clayton Moore,
the TV Lone Ranger unmasked by court
Order, can reclaim his old mask if he will
I lelp make, perform in, or promote a
iovie version of Kemo Sabe’s adven-
a
3
The producers of “The Legend of the
Lone Ranger” made the offer Thursday
F shortly after they announced the
ovie roles of the Lone Ranger and
|onto had gone to two unknowns with
ttle acting experience, Klinton Spils-
ury and Michael Horse.
Moore was at a rodeo in Nacog-
oches, Texas, apparently unaware of
he offer. His manager, Arthur Dorn,
said Moore had received no “concrete”
iffer, but would be happy to discuss it.
“Clayton’s out on the road in his sung-
asses and he wants his mask back. But
le’s been deeply hurt, and I can’t say
hat he’d agree to. If they have condi-
ions I’d like to discuss them,” Dorn
aid.
The 64-year-old actor, who. played
the masked rider of the plains in a TV
Ties filmed between 1949 and 1956,
ias been involved in a running legal
lattle with producer Jack Wrather, who
•ought the rights to the character.
Wrather won court orders forbidding
Moore to make public appearances as
he ranger or to appear “in a Lone Ran
ker mask or any mask substantially simi-
ir.”
Moore, who prides himself on main-
aining the mystique of the masked
aan, has appeared since in large, very
jbrk sunglasses as “Clayton Moore who
ortrayed the Lone Ranger.”
Groups of angry Moore fans around
[he country announced plans to boycott
Ihe film. Now comes the offer from
'''rather.
United Press International
AUSTIN — Gov. Bill Clements said he
never expected it would be easy to reach
his Aug. 31 goal of cutting the state em
ployee payroll by 5,000.
And he conceded Thursday the reduc
tion plan is behind schedule and will be
hard pressed to meet the deadline.
“I admit I have set a tough goal. I see no
point in setting an easy goal then beating
your breast when you reach it, ” he said. “If
we fall a little bit short, we fall a little bit
short, but we have set ourselves a difficult
course. This is a real hurdle. ”
Clements said he would have liked to be
able to show a reduction of 3,000 to 4,000
state workers at this point, but he told re
porters Thursday, “We have a net reduc
tion at this point of something less than
1,000 full-time equivalents.
“We’re still making progress, but I have
to admit we re not making the progress I
would have liked and I told the agencies
so.”
Clements said he met earlier in the week
with the heads of the 12 largest state agen
cies and he was encouraged by their
attitudes toward his government effec
tiveness program.
He also reminded reporters that while
the actual reduction in the number of work
ers at this point is less than he had hoped,
his program has broken the cycle of con
tinuing growth in the size of state agencies
each year.
“The remarkable thing is that by all this
talk and everything there has been no
growth whatsoever this year, and that
breaks a 10-year cycle, ” the governor said.
On other topics, Clements said:
—He has written Texas congressmen
soliciting their help in retaining funding for
the Law Enforcement Assistance Adminis
tration. President Carter proposed to halt
the federal anti-crime aid to states as part of
his budget cutting plan, and Clements said
the move was evidence of indecisiveness on
the part of the president.
“In January he was saying let’s increase
this by $87 million. Now he’s saying let’s
cut out a $500 million program. This is
another one of those crazy zig-zag decisions
of his. You can’t be right both times. ”
—The U.S. Census Bureau should count
illegal aliens in Texas during the 1980 cen
sus, but the illegal aliens should not be
counted by the 1981 Legislature when it
begins redrawing the state’s legislative and
congressional districts according to popula
tion.
Texas beaches
but not for the
ready for people,
creatures of the sea
United Press International
Since the announcement in Mexico City
this week of the capping of Ixtoc I, the
runaway Gulf of Mexico well that produced
history’s worst oilspill, people hoping for a
surfside vacation may have wondered if
south Texas beaches will be free from oil
this spring and summer.
Up and down the coast, tourists are
being invited to come on in, the water’s fine
— give or take a few football field-sized tar
reefs and an occasional washup of footstain-
ing tar balls.
The word from the Coast Guard’s chief
oilspill battler, from the government’s
leading oilspill scientist and from an area
tourism director is that water and beaches
should He fine for people.
But shellfish, birds, turtles and other
creatures dependent on a clean, stable
ecology may want to reconsider.
Scientist John Robinson says the Com
merce Department spent $1.5 million to
examine the effects of 130 million gallons of
unwelcome oil, only to “fold up our tent
and go home” before the answers were
known. Capping the well after nine months
did not signal an “all clear” for marine life,
he said from his Boulder, Colo., National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
office.
“I don’t think those things (tar reefs) pose
any real problem for a tourist,” Robinson
said. “They can be avoided and a lot of the
time they’re covered up. They extend from
14 miles north of Port Aransas all the way
down to the border.
“They’re alternately covered and unco
vered (by sand) and don’t represent all that
great a threat of contamination, which is
not to say animals should not be worried
about them. I think they represent a sub
stantial source of continued contamination
of the water at low levels and that is enough
to cause strange things to happen.
“With low concentrations of oil you get
sub-lethal effects, not a bunch of fish drop
ping dead, but changes in behavior, in re
productive processes, feeding habits, and
those changes begin to cause more serious
things to occur. If a fish is not behaving the
way it normally does, then it upsets the
predator-prey relationship.
“Very low levels are enough to alter the
way animals behave. Then that magnifies
up the system and you get huge numbers
not doing what they’re supposed to do, like
reproducing themselves.”
Robinson stressed that the effects of oil
on the marine environment should not be
judged by clean beaches.
“There were 3 million gallons of oil on
Texas beaches that we were able to see, ” he
said. “How much came in as dissolved oil in
water or subsurface particles of oil, we’ll
never know. We could see and touch 3
million gallons.
“What have we got beyond the tar reefs,
which are something we can find? We’d
like to get out and see what the bottom
looks like 10 miles out. But we don’t have a
ship.”
No ship, no more money and no answers,
all of which South Padre Island tourism
director Ralph Thompson deems appropri
ate.
“Robinson made some selfserving state
ments about longterm effects, ” Thompson
said. “He’s obviously disappointed that
they have not gotten the appropriations
they hoped for to assess the problems.
Some statements NOAA made were a bit
alarmist for their own purposes.
“I don’t see any evidence to indicate any
thing as significant as he described. It’s a
matter of who to believe and what their
motives are.”
Thompson said South Padre Island, the
city and the once pristine barrier island,
have taken enough undeserved lumps.
“I can speak for myself and the business
community when I say the effects of the
spill were minimal compared to the dam
age from media coverage, much of which
regrettably was exaggerated. The publicity
hurt us far more than the oilspill itself,” he
said.
The local hurt totaled $20 million,
Thompson figures, based on comparative
sales tax revenues for the previous year.
“For a city the size of South Padre Island,
that’s pretty substantial,” he said.
He said national publicity about the cap
ping of the well would give his community a
timely boost and lend credibility to adver
tising that the beaches are as good as ever.
Coast Guard Capt. Gerald Hinson
directed the federal effort at minimizing
the spill. When the well was plugged, he
sent the last federal scientist home in com
pliance with the Coast Guard’s role and
funding authority.
Probably more than anyone, Hinson had
to balance the cries for attention from the
tourist industry and scientific community.
Judge looks a t schools
for illegal alien kids
United Press International
HOUSTON — Texas’ refusal to pro
vide public school funds for illegal aliens
is subjecting Hispanic children to the
same injustices blacks historically en
dured in the South, a lawyer said in final
arguments of a landmark civil rights
case.
Peter Schey, speaking Thursday for
plaintiffs challenging the constitutional
ity of a 1975 Texas law, said the statute
perpetuates willful discrimination.
He dismissed claims by officials of the
Texas Education Agency and assistant
state attorneys general that overturning
it would create fiscal or logistical prob
lems.
U.S. District Judge Woodrow Seals,
who heard six weeks of testimony with
out a jury, said he would try to reach a
decision in three months.
Allowing school districts to charge
illegal alien children tuition, Schey said,
puts them in a situation comparable to
that of blacks “in the South some years
ago when they were taxed and their chil
dren were not educated. ”
The result, he said, was “a windfall for
the education of Anglo children. ”
Schey said even if the highest esti
mated number of undocumented chil
dren — 120,000 — entered Texas
schools, the state “would still be left
with a (budget) surplus of $228 million. ”
California educates its illegal alien
children and Texas’ refusal to do so
“perhaps ranks (it) No. 1 in its exploita
tion and utilization of foreign labor,”
Schey said, adding that the state ranks
“fifth in wealth and 42nd in education. ”
An opposing lawyer for the state
argued illegal aliens have no constitu
tional right to free education.
“Education is not a fundamental right
unless it is absolutely denied,” said
Susan Dasher, an assistant state’s attor
ney general.
She ridiculed the Justice Depart
ment’s intervention in favor of the plain
tiffs.
“I get hot when I consider the federal
government’s participation in this
case,” she said. “I remember that the
federal government failed to prosecute a
border guard for fatally shooting an
illegal alien. Why? Because he didn’t
exist. ”