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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
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Mike W
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Six of thi
Australian government trying
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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 <rOT A
U/ORLD TO FEED'
MU£
Whi
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Oi
Roll or Cc
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the small society
by Brickman
I o\XT
IT^
PEiPLCTIgUS
TO
THAN
e 1980 King FMIurM Syndicate. Inc. Worid fighti rysenwd.
>}-!4
The Battalion
US PS 045 360
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