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The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 132 Friday, April 4,1980 USPS 045 360
10 Pages College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
Study in a foreign country— Okla.
At least two Texas A&M summer class schedules Inside, the students found class schedules for the
held a surprise for the students that opened them. University of Oklahoma. Photo by Mindy Mahaffey
By ANGELIQUE COPELAND
Campus Staff
A few students may have wondered
after checking the summer class sche
dule when Texas A&M University cre
ated a music department and moved all
the summer classes to Norman, Okla.
The truth is, they haven’t done
either. A mistake was made — the com
pany that prints the schedules stapled a
few class schedules for the University of
Oklahoma inside covers for Texas A&M.
And at least two of the misfits wound
up on the Texas A&M campus.
Robert Lacey in admission and re
cords said there had been only two re
ports of mis-matched schedules since
they came out about three weeks ago.
Lacey said that a sampling of the
25,000 summer class schedules that
were printed— but have not yet been
distributed — did not show any more
mixups, but there were several boxes
that were not opened.
Lacey asked anyone with one of the
Texas A&M-Oklahoma schedules bring
it to the registrar’s office so they can
receive a refund from the printing com
pany.
The schedules are printed by Univer
sity Communications Inc., in New
Jersey. A spokesman for the company
said this was an isolated event and prob
ably happened bacause Texas A&M and
Oklahoma universities’ class schedules
were printed one after the other.
Jeff Stark of the University of Oklaho
ma’s registrar’s office said he had not
heard of any cases where Texas A&M
schedules were found inside OU covers.
“We haven’t found any yet, but we
still have a lot packed away,’’ Stark said.
But Stark had a suggestion on how
Texas A&M should work out the diffi
culty.
“Since you’ve got our schedules,
maybe you should just go ahead and
send your students up to enroll here.”
])
jEx-editors lose scholarships
3
By RICHARD OLIVER
Staff Writer
In the past month, Jeff Barton has been
fired as editor-in-chief of Baylor Universi
ty’s student newspaper, accused of sabotag
ing that paper’s distribution, and shunned
y several classmates and faculty. Now, the
chool administration has “urged” him to
'find another school to attend.
Barton, Cindy Slovak and Barry Kolar
Were fired March 3 as editors of The Baylor
Lariat, the university’s student newspaper,
following their editorial criticism of Baylor
President Abner V. McCall.
McCall had issued a statement forbid
ding any Baylor coed from posing nude for
Playboy magazine’s upcoming “Girls of the
Southwest Conference issue under threat
of suspension from the university. McCall
/ issued the statement following notification
i that Playboy photographer David Chan
was planning to visit the campus for inter
views with coeds.
Barton said Dr. Loyal Gould, head of
Baylor’s journalism department, called
him, Slovak, and Sheri Sellmeyer, presi
dent of the Baylor chapter of the Society of
I Professional Journalists (SDX), into his
office Thursday and notified them their
scholarships had been revoked.
He said Gould also said the students
should strongly consider finding another
university to attend, and asked that the
students return their tickets to an annual
awards banquet to be held next week.
Gould was unavailable for comment.
“There was no rationale for this,” Barton
said. “I could see them start to pick on us
the past few days. They say they want this
to die, and then they turn around and do
this, when they know it will generate pub
licity.”
Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds, Baylor execu
tive vice president and chief operations
officer, said the decision had been made in
the best interest of the university.
“Each year ... we hold the annual awards
banquet,” he said. “We have a very size
able scholarship program, perhaps the
largest in the country. We give away
$50,000-60,000 in scholarships through the
journalism department.
“Yesterday, (Wednesday) President
McCall, Dr. Gould, myself and two others
sat down and discussed what position we
were going to take. Since some individuals
have been involved in this controversy, and
our resources our limited, we decided to
provide scholarships to students who hold a
more favorable view of the school. ”
Reynolds said the students obviously
held the school in “disdain,” and their
stands proved it.
“With statements like these students
have been heard to make, we felt it might
be better to give our money to students
who are favorable toward our institution
and would work better with it and in their
profession over the years,” he said.
Despite the administration’s chastise
ment, Barton said he would probably stay.
“I plan on coming back, ” he said. “If I can
get the money, I’ll be back. All of us (Bar
ton, Slovak and Sellmeyer) are paying our
own ways through school, and it’ll be har
der now.
Barton said he was especially angry over
Sellmeyer’s “punishment.”
“Cindy and I are both sort of stunned
right now,” he said. “I feel involving Sheri
in this was pure vindictiveness. She hasn’t
said anything to anyone, hasn’t caused any
problems, nothing. It’s like they’re saying
we’re going to get to SDX through their
most vulnerable position, their newly
elected president.”
Reynolds said he did not know anything
about Sellmeyer.
“They mentioned her name at the meet
ing. I’m not acquainted with her and I don’t
know the specific circumstances. In fact, I
can’t remember whether they mentioned
her name or not,” he said.
Barton said he would not protest the ac
tion.
“I see no hope for protest,” he said, “no
possible alternatives. Because you speak
up and try to provide a form of constructive
criticism, something like this happens. It
doesn’t make sense.”
S. Padre expects
weekend boom
3 Reports of ship’s death
^ greatly exaggerated
TJ Initial media reports that a Texas A&M
jp University marine research vessel had
3 been lost in the Gulf of Mexico are not true,
an A&M official said Thursday.
Dean Letzring, marine superintendent
3 ’ for the Gyre, the vessel reportedly lost at
sea, said the ship simply had a breakdown
| in communications. The ship resumed con-
' tact with the Moody Maritime Academy in
S Galveston early Thursday afternoon.
| “The whole thing has simply been a fluke
on the part of the coast guard and the
* I i media,” he said. “We called the coast guard
TJ to help us pick up the vessel on channels we
pr I don’t monitor.”
A coast guard spokesman in Galveston
*i|said the Gyre had a breakdown in its com
munications, and couldn’t contact its home
base on regular channels.
“The boat is currently on its way down
0l through the lower Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
3
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“It was having trouble with its satellite
communications system before it left the
:oast, so they were having problems before
they left. We simply went out on a com
munications search. There was no distress
’indicated.”
I The spokesman said the vessel was head
ing through the Yucatan Peninsula on its
way to the Caymen Islands, and that area is
heavily trafficked, which may have added
to the communications problems. He said
the boat is scheduled to arrive at its destina
tion on April 16.
He added a communications search is
designed to track down the location of a
vessel by monitoring radio channels for
communication from that vessel.
Letzring said until contact was resumed
at noon Thursday, the Gyre had been silent
since late Tuesday morning, approximately
42 hours.
Mistaken ID
for Candida tes
Marty Blaise and Laura Anthony
were running unopposed for Off-
Campus Aggies treasurer and secretary
respectively. Unfortunately, they were
elected to each other’s office.
A mistake in the ballot listed Blaise as
running for secretary and Anthony as
running for treasurer.
Election commissioner Bruce Russell
said the names would be placed on the
runoff ballot correctly. Runoff elections
are Tuesday, April 8.
Russell said that since the two were
running unopposed, their names on the
ballots were not checked as closely for
error as they should have been.
V '
United Press International
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — The threat
from the world’s largest oil spill has dimi
nished, and tourist officials predict that stu
dent vacationers and Holy Week visitors
from Mexico will swell the populations of
Padre Island and Port Aransas by 130,000
during the Easter weekend.
Tens of thousands of tourists and sun-
bronzed surfers began jamming south
Texas beaches Thursday.
The tourist industry of 100-mile-long
Padre Island suffered millions of dollars in
losses last August through Labor Day when
oil from the runaway Ixtoc I well in Mex
ico’s Bay of Campeche sent mushy tar balls
rolling ashore in the surf, but the well final
ly was capped March 22 and tourism offi
cials are optimistic about this season.
“After what we’ve been through the last
few months, this is a treat, believe me,”
said Ralph Thompson, head of the South
Padre Island Tourist Bureau, who pre
dicted 70,000 visitors would come to his
resort city, which has only 600 year-round
residents.
“I really believe we re out of the woods
on this oil spill,” he said. “The well being
capped lends credibility to what we’ve
been saying: come on down and enjoy your
self. Apparently people are believing us
because this week is evidence of that. ”
Lanette Nolte of the Port Aransas Cham
ber of Commerece was equally enthu
siastic.
“Last year, two weeks before the oil ever
did hit, the island was just ruined,” she
said. “It really hurt us bad. It takes a while
after something like that. To some people
it’s been a short winter, but to Port Aransas
it’s been a long one.”
Nolte predicted 60,000 Easter tourists
would visit the the north end of the island
this weekend, following tens of thousands
of students who came to the beach during
their spring breaks from March 8-23.
“Our beaches are in real good shape,”
she said. “Better than in a long time. They
were a little messed up after spring break,
but they’ve been cleaned up. It’ll be mostly
family groups this time. ”
Thousands of students are expected to go
to South Padre Island, where an annual
Easter surfing bash takes place and miles of
tents and makeshift camps rise overnight
on the sand dunes.
South Padre police chief Art Garcia said
most of the young people “just get drunk,
raise hell, smoke a little pot or have sex in
the sand dunes” and he said police usually
leave them alone unless they endanger
themselves or someone else.
He said a lot of problems with open mari
juana smoking and public sex in the tent
city at Isla Blanca Park diminished in re
cent years with the movement of the public
camping area to Andy Bowie Park, a beach
located away from the main tourist hotels.
“It seems the trend is going back to
booze instead of narcotics,” Garcia said.
“We find a little bit of dope, but not much.
Last year we found a hell of a lot of narco
tics, but this year, no. They’re out on the
beach raising hell and having a good time.
That’s what they come here for.
“That tent city no longer is there. We got
rid of that.”
Thompson said religious holiday visitors
from Mexico apparently are returning in
large numbers for the first time since Mex
ico devalued the peso in 1976.
“They’re returning in great numbers,
particularly during the Holy Week which
traditionally is a big vacation time for
them,” he said. “It’s probably safe to say
one out of four license plates is from Mexico
right now.”
Committee OK’s
balanced budget
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget
Committee has agreed on a balanced
budget for 1981, but its $612.9 billion
spending plan bears little resemblance to
the budget proposed by President Carter
only four days ago.
The committee voted, 11-7, Thursday on
figures that correspond with Carter’s, but it
raised military spending and made drastic
cuts in domestic programs to pay for the
higher defense budget.
When Carter announced his revised
budget on Monday, he spoke highly of the
“extraordinary way” he and congressional
leaders had worked together “to reach gen
eral understandings in advance on reduc
tion proposals.”
The understanding held up throughout
meetings of the House Budget Committee,
which approved a budget that looked
almost exactly like Carter’s. But it fell apart
during the Senate panel’s weeklong ses-
Volcano ‘rushes’
United Press International
VANCOUVER, Wash. —With volcanic
Mount St. Helens apparently on the verge
of a major eruption, a state of emergency
was in effect today in the state of
Washington.
“The possibility of a major eruption or
mudflow is real,” Gov. Dixy Ray said late
Thursday in issuing a formal emergency
declaration from her office in Olympia.
“The volcanic activity at Mount St.
sion, in which conservatives won victory
after victory.
Liberal Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-
Ohio, who issued consistent and passionate
pleas for social programs throughout the
session, told his colleagues, “We have done
a very evil job as far as the American people
are concerned.
“It may be a victory today, but I think it’s
a hollow victory, and I think we will pay the
price in the future,” he said.
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said
the proposals include “ruthless reductions”
in programs for the poor.
“We do not oppose a balanced budget
per se and certainly not when America has a
balanced economy,” Kirkland said at a
news conference. “We do oppose adminis
tration and congressional proposals that
place the burden of the battle against infla
tion on those least able to cope with the
problems of our society.”
toward eruption
Helens has created conditions that may
threaten life or cause widespread damage
to property.”
The governor directed state agencies to
activate disaster preparedness plans and
warned tourists and sightseers to stay away
from the mountain and its surrounding
highways.
“Mount St. Helens seems to be in a rush
to reach a major eruption stage,” said Dave
Endicott of the University of Washington.
View from the top
Four construction workers employed on the Texas A&M campus use their lunch
break to view the passing “scenery” from the top of the Mechanical Engineering
shops. Staff photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.