je 6 TH tue: I i , I I i All stud ; for the these v\ ! the act duresf in 4 p.rr I' REQU \ Slouch By Jim Earle UooM toe bOd ‘Although he may be an outstanding leader, lean thelp but feel that he might not know where to lead us. ” Opinion Secrecy must end at A&M Doesn’t it seem strange that, at an institution that so identifies itself with American ideals, a lack of openness in student government is so blatantly practiced and so passive ly tolerated? Wednesday night’s secret session of the Texas A&M stu dent senate was a calculated attempt to strangle public debate of an issue so hot that almost no one involved would discuss it. As student senator George Pappas told Battalion editors on Wednesday, “What we re discussing could permanently damage this University. It could embarrass President Mil ler, the student senate and every member of the student body, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop that from happening. ” Today, we know what that issue was: whether to allow the administration to use the senate to construct a legal strategy — a strategy designed to fight a possible discrimination suit from HEW concerning women’s athletics. ~ The student senate chose to ignore the state open meet ings law. It barred the press and the public from its cham bers. It decided to agree to the administration’s plan, and to hide its action from its consituents. But then that attitude is to be expected. Despite its lip service to freedom, justice and the Amer ican Way, Texas A&M University has not been a place to practice libertarian ideals in recent years. From the highest level of administration to the lowest level of student govern ment, Texas A&M suffers from a fear of public scrutiny. Consider President Jarvis Miller’s handling of KAMU- FM’s budget two years ago. Or student body president Ronnie Kapavik’s groundless attempt to close a student publications board meeting last month. Consider the shen- nanigans of the past two days. This University has said time and time again to its stu dents, “This is none of your business.” We have news. It is our business, and it is time for this nonsense to stop. But it won’t until student leaders and University adminis trators are held accountable for their actions, until they are forced to conduct their business in a public forum. We’ve seen what happens when they aren’t. Aggiecon strikes back In yesterday’s Battalion, many of you may have noticed an ad for AggieCon XI. Prominently featured at the top of the ad, under the heading “Weekend Films,” and surrounded by lots of white space is the logo for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you’re going to see an advance screening of this long-awaited film — what you didn’t notice in the ad was the small type underneath the logo, the second line of which says “a special preview slide show. ” Now, there’s nothing wrong emphasizing the “Empire Strikes Back, ” but most people with ethics would not put the words “slide show” in a type size smaller than any other used in the paper. Most readers won’t even notice this microsco pic postscript to the ad, and those who do will, for the most part, assume that it is nothing more than the usual film company and distributor credits. This misconception is furthered by the fact that the first line of micro-type is a copyright notification. Only those who routinely read the small print on soup cans will even suspect that they are not going to see a not-yet-released movie. You could even inter pet the ad to mean that there will be a “special preview slide show” in addition to the showing of The Empire Strikes Back. Sorry, folks, it just ain’t so. Viewpoint C( The Battalion Texas A&M University Friday March 28, 1980 mi By MI The Coi fourth anr Saturday i Membe taking plec ince the land the me March of ] Mike W march, sa 125,000. L ited $19, O' The man the quad even mile: to an area b relay game: held. Six of thi Australian government trying to stifle drug smuggling wave The Coll tabled an or detectors te dominium: Iplexes Thui The exist jiew housin smoke det North Bard The sugg xcludes he ity, was m; e fire haz me attic cc ments, Bare A repres partments i in favor of sa expense of 1 The Bria; By JOHN SHAW International Writers Service SYDNEY — A few years ago, when the United States was fighting against an illicit drug traffic, Australians smugly assumed that it couldn’t happen here. But now Au stralia is engulfed in a wave of narcotics smuggling, and the authorities are anxious ly trying to meet the challenge. Legislation has been introduced to per mit customs officials, police and other gov ernment agents to tap the telephones of suspected dope peddlers. Laws have also been drafted to empower the courts to seize assets that may have been acquired in the narcotics trade. In a recent statement, the cabinet minis ter in charge of the drive called for tougher measure against traffickers, disclosing that they included many “highly sophisticated businessmen with the best possible legal advice.” Corrupt cops and other law en forcement officers are known to have been implicated in drug dealings. These moves have been criticized by li berals here, who argue that civil rights are being threatened. But the public seems to favor a vigorous offensive against the traffic, especially since the nature of the narcotics involved has changed. Australians were formerly tolerant of marijuana, whose use here was widespread among young people. Within the past cou ple of years, however, heroin has come onto the Australian drug scene, and its appearance has alarmed citizens. Statistics tell part of the story. There were some 20,000 drug offenses reported last year, a tenfold increase over 1970. But the number of marijuana cases dropped sharply, while those connected with heroin jumped 40 percent in 1978 over the previous 900 in 1975 to more than 3000 last year. This partly reflects less concern about marijuana. It also underlines the fact, however, that heroin addiction has become more common. Even so, officials admit that they are able to detect only a small fraction of the trade in hard drugs. One of the difficulties in cracking down on the traffic is that Australia is a vast and underpopulated continent, with a 12,000- mile coastline that is impossible to monitor effectively. As a consequence, tracking covert air and ship movements is beyond the government’s capacities. Another problem is that Australia is within relatively easy range of the so-called Golden Triangle, the border areas of Thai land, Burma and Laos, where opium is grown and refined into heroin. Estimated to be worth $100 million, the drug trade is so lucrative that organized syndicates have taken it over. These groups are believed to be linked with the Mafia in the United States in a curious kind of two- way traffic. Acting on information supplied by a Mafia figure in California, the police here not long ago discovered a network that flew heroin and cannabis to remote spots in Au stralia, and picked up rare tropical birds to be flown to the United States, where they were sold for prices reaching up to $3500 per pair. Attempts to block the narcotics trade are complicated, meanwhile, by the fact that cops and customs officials often either cooperate with smugglers or are smugglers themselves. For example, a customs official was one of the four Australians arrested in the case involving the tropical birds. A senior narco tics bureau agent recently received a 12- year sentence for bringing cannabis in from Thailand. The government is also conducting an investigation at the moment into charges that federal intelligence officials, who store information on drug suspects in computers, are leaking that data to criminal gangs in exchange for payments of$25,000oi still j One of the sharpest observers oflli I T , cotics issue here is Alfred McCf L J. e American now teaching in Sydney,I ra ,! c a I lc thor of “The Politics ofHeroininSoiii on . 1 ! 1 f s /, Asia, ’’ one of the first books todescri [)ns ! c ’ r , c . .' drug traffic in the Far East, he wan corruption may be the biggest oW • , j . . .i .n i t j for student se stopping the illegal trade. K j • • 7/ o u • i ^ Pon admini McGoy, who is completing a nei! ^ ^ on crime in Australia, alsopointsmi stricter penalties may not worktoif aiU m 1 a . C ,. t ' roposal is smuggling. r Under a new law, a life sentenceiii datory for anyone caught smuggliif kilograms of cannabis. But, says Md this will simply prompt traffickers to a uu . j” gle smaller amounts more frequently ° us saK ' sides, he submits, they will also eiy juveniles who cannot be subjected to punishment. The consensus here is that ment should have probably awoken to the danagers of the narcotics bos Stronger investigative and punitive will certainly help in the presentcais; against drugs, but nobody aced on the [deration by ‘Theoretic mtrol the si oesn t act a: id the incre; number of vi ‘It seems t id. The panel’s jext year’s fe< :om $5 to $. oving violat stamping out the traffic will be easy (Shaw, an Australian newspaper umnist, writes on current affairs it stralia.) roposal. The Texas oted Wedne Thotz By Doug Cm, R0. LOFOS, YOU -STARTED A RIOT M CLASS TODAY. VxlE CAtTT Tolerate that kiwd of Behaviour, THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE is NOT A POUT CAL ACT\OH Group, vje don't CHAMbE POLITICS; WE CHANGE THE human condition. Tl ARE YOU WITH US, TOY? DO YOU WAKlT Tfl 5EE THE END OF STARTING CHILD REM? T GET YOUR ACT TDGETTER, WORK AND STUDY' WE'VE }-!4 The Battalion US PS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY Letter to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor. The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Ser vices, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. 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