Jical Storm CW
d as one of
•hit the Unit^g
o nnmediateKjJ
44 inci^j
July 26.
'drainageplfc
’ lth >n Harris
anysome extrjJ
)n in other cclu
0ne of th73
not have that jj
f the world has,]
iv that if we (
uldn t have f
ith that.’
The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 146
22 Pages in 2 Sections
Thursday, April 24, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Athletic admissions follow SWC trend
Conference grade regulations used instead of the University's
By TIM SAGER
Battalion Staff
University, like most other
dj Conference schools, regularly
Ejolarship athletes who fail to meet
Verity’s published admissions re-
^Collegiate Athletic Association
tons require that all student athletes
*tted in accordance with the regu-
• hed entrance requirements of the
i/same t j m e, Texas A&M turns
Aer 1,000 other applicants each fall
lure to meet those same standards,
f University of Texas, the University
of Houston, Baylor, and Southern Method
ist University also use special admissions
policies for athletes. Texas Tech, Arkansas,
Rice, and Texas Christian University are
the only SWC schools with uniform admis
sion requirements for all students.
“The admissions office makes all admis
sions decisions,” said Marvin Tate, A&M’s
athletic director. “We don’t put any press
ure on them, I can tell you that.”
But Edwin H. Cooper, dean of admis
sions for the University, said Tate and the
Athletic Department contribute to the
admissions process of athletes directly.
“The Athletic Department provides us
with a list of people they are offering scho
larships to, and we use Southwest Confer
ence standards for their admissions,”
Cooper said. “We have to do this in order to
remain competitive with other schools.”
Admissions officials at the University of
Texas, the University of Houston, South
ern Methodist University, and Baylor all
echoed Cooper’s statement: rather than fol
lowing normal admissions requirements for
athletes, they employ the SWC minimum
requirements.
All the SWC requires is that a student
graduate from an accredited high school
with a 2.0 grade point average. Rice and
TCU both consider athletic ability when
admitting students, but neither school has
well-defined admissson requirements.
“I follow the rules and regulations of the
NCAA and the SWC, just like any other
school in the country," said Tate when
asked if SWC and NCAA eligibility re
quirements took precedence over A&M’s
rules and regulations.
Last fall 1,327 applicants were denied
admission to A&M for failing to meet the
minimum Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
scores, or because they lacked certain re
quired high school courses, said Dr. Billy
Lay, director of admissions and records.
A regular applicant to Texas A&M Uni
versity must score at least 1,000 on the SAT
09
>9
IS
Hi
Jl
- „
uthem Pacific conductor Mike Gummelt stands on the steps of the Southern Pacific caboose which derailed near the Texas A&M University campus
Staff photos by Lee Roy Lesehper Jr.
Caboose derails near Kyle Field
By DEBBIE NELSON
. „ , City Staff
A southern Pacific railroad caboose
^*jled on the tracks across from Kyle
Wednesday morning, halting rail
'on the line until early afternoon.
Conductor Mike Grommelt said the
®*knt occurred during the execution
n 311 easy railroad move.” Only an en-
|p* and caboose were involved in the
attempt at a running drop —
switching the caboose to the opposite
end of the engine.
A crane truck was sent from Houston
to put the car back on the track.
In the move, crewmen were sup
posed to run the engine down the main
line, pull the pin connecting the cars
and swatch the caboose to a side track.
The engine could then pull ahead and
drop in behind the caboose so the train
could switch directions and still have
the engine before the caboose.
After the engine had passed the
switch point and the car connecting-pin
was pulled, the switch to the side track
wouldn’t work. Grommelt said there
was time to put the switch back to the
main track, but this was not done and
the caboose derailed.
Grommelt stressed that “human
error,” not faulty switches or rails,
caused the derailment. He also said he
assumed full responsibility for the inci
dent.
Grommelt, who was in the caboose at
the time of the derailment, said in the
eight years he has worked on the rail
road, he has never seen a similar acci
dent.
Five crewmen, including a conduc
tor, engineer, two brakemen and a fire
man, were on the train. No one was
injured.
Grommelt said several of the crew
members may lose their jobs because of
the incident.
re-registration problems arise
^ornately 2,500 Texas A&M Uni
students who submitted pre-
^iJtwn. materials to t ^ ie registrar * n the
B®Euiibit Hall on Friday, April 18,
'• B. asked to return to complete an
^1 form to insure their registration
5 ®I1 semester.
■•etion was necessitated when pre-
* ,M,0n materials submitted Friday
were misplaced. Only those students who
turned in their packets on Friday are
affected, said Registrar R.A. Lacey.
“It was an unfortunate circumstance for
which we are very sorry, ” Lacey explained,
“but in transferring the material from the
exhibit hall to our office, the pre-
registration records for that day were lost.
We are making every effort to be certain
that those students who pre-registered on
Friday will have their records completed
before they leave for the summer."
Lacey emphasized that if this is done, the
students should expect to receive their fee
invoices on or about July 10 as previously
announced in the 1980 Fall Class Schedule.
Those students affected are asked to
come by special tables at the Rudder Ex
hibit Hall between Monday, April 28, and
Friday, May 9. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., to
complete the paper work which will assure
they are registered for the proper courses
and classes.
Lacey said the form will take only a few
minutes to complete and stressed that all of
the students whose records were lost will
have the same scheduling opportunity as
they had originally.
elp sought for farmers’ plight
« . Violrt ’"TVs• e «»rtrtnnnitt n«rvair in rural ran<rr*»«cm#»n situation wr
Pres* International
j-/**‘^CTON — Saying that inflation
enormous despair in rural
£ a group of Democratic House
""have asked President Carter to
Tj government actions to ease the
s frain on farmers.*
aukT^ 0 met more f han 30 congress-
.be White House Wednesday, re-
l hat balancing the budget and
other efforts to reduce inflation would help
the formers. , . ., , ,
"As vou also understand the No_ 1 prob
lem of formers is derived directly from the
adverse impact of inflation on our nation.
Carter said.
After the meeting. Rep. Dan Glickman.
D-Kan.. said the congressmen laid it on
the line to Carter.
There is enormous despair in rural
America,” Glickman said. As Democrats,
we re naturally concerned about the poli
tical ramifications.'
Rep. Kent Hance. D-Texas. said. 'This
is the worst it's been in agriculture in the
last 30 or 40 years.
Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland,
who also attended the meeting, told the
congressmen the situation would improve
as the inflation rate declines and prices rise.
Last month, average form prices were
down 5 percent from a year ago and form
costs were up 12 percent.
Bergland predicted that depressed hog
prices would rise $10 above a current de
pressed price of below $30 per 100 pounds
before December.
if he is in the bottom quarter of his high
school graduating class. All applicants must
also have completed a specified number of
courses in such areas as English, math,
science, and social science.
Incoming athletes are not required to
meet a minimum SAT score, and there are
no specific high school courses required for
applicants to whom the Athletic Depart
ment has offered a scholarship. Cooper
said.
The requirements at most other SWC
schools are similar. Texas Tech and Arkan
sas, however, have open admissions poli
cies for all students; and Texas Christian
University’s and Rice’s admissions require
ments are lax enough so someone meeting
SWC standards would be admitted under
the regular policy.
NCAA regulations also require that for
an athlete to maintain eligibility, he must
be “maintaining satisfactory progress to
ward a baccalaureate or equivalent degree
as determined by the regulations of that
institution. ” Texas A&M’s rules and regula
tions “Blue Book” defines an undergradu
ate as making satisfactory academic prog
ress when “his semester grade report and
his cumulative record indicates a ‘C’ aver-
Continued on page 14
Academic regulations
vary forsch ool a thle tes
Here are the satisfactory academic prog- hours in the previous two semesters com-
ress requirements of the major athletic con- bined.
fences:
Southeastern Conference: No minimum
GPA is required by the conference, but
students must pass 24 semester hours per
year.
Big Ten: Athletes must pass 24 semester
hours their freshman year and an increas
ing number every year thereafter. A gradu
ated GPA scale is used, requiring a 1.65 for
freshmen and increasing to a 1.95 for
Big Eight: A 1.6 GPA is required for
freshmen and sophomores and a 1.8 for
juniors and seniors. To maintain eligibility,
each athlete must have passed 24 semester
Pac Ten: No minimum GPA is required.
Athletes must pass 24 semester hours per
year.
Western Athletic Conference: Athletes
must maintain a GPA that ranges from a 1.6
as a second semester freshman to a 1.92 for
seniors. They must also pass 24 semester
hours per year.
Southwest Conference: No minimum
GPA is required, and athletes must pass 20
semester hours their freshman year and an
increasing number of hours per year after
that. The number of hours required per
year never exceeds 26.
Moore reneges
on offer to quit
By LAURA CORTEZ
City Staff
Efforts to disassociate themselves with
organized labor have put state senatorial
challenger Kent Caperton and incumbent
Sen. Bill Moore at each other’s throats.
At a question-and-answer session spon
sored by the Texas Farm Bureau Tuesday
in Bryan, Moore accused Caperton of being
the labor union candidate. He said a cam
paign publication was printed for Caperton
by Futura Press in Austin, which, Moore
said is owned and operated by the AFL-
CIO for the purpose of getting its candi
dates elected.
Caperton said he does not know who
owns Futura Press, but added that he pays
them “an awfid lot of money for printing.
Caperton also said the union bug, which
signifies that the material was printed in a
union shop, appears on some of Moore’s
original campaign material.
Moore was quick to state that Caperton’s
remark was not true, but Caperton stood by
his statement.
In front of the crowd of about 100, Moore
said, “All my printing is done here at New
man Printing. If you’ll show it (campaign
material with the union bug on it) to me I’ll
get out of the race and urge everyone to
vote for you.”
But some of Moore’s bumper stickers
and campaign buttons do in fact carry the
union bug.
In an interview Wednesday, Moore’s
spokesman, Jack Bowen explained: “The
senator was sincere in what he said. Like
any candidate, he does not mess with de
tails of the campaign. He did not order
those bumper stickers and buttons, and we
had not told him about it.”
Bowen said that printing for the Moore
campaign is normally done by Newman
printing, but when the supply of buttons
and stickers ran low, a rush order had to be
put in with a local firm, which had the
materials printed at a union shop.
Bowen referred to the situation as “a
tempest in a teapot.”
VVffien asked by The Bryan-College Sta
tion Eagle about his offer to withdraw from
the race, Moore said, "I wouldn’t do that to
the people of the 5th District. Sometimes
you say things in the heat of battle..."
State money set
to improve roads
By BECKY SWANSON
City Staff
There will be six miles of smoother high
way driving here in the next two years,
thanks to locally-allocated state fonding.
Almost three quarters of a million dollars
has been designated for state road improve
ment in the Bryan-College Station area in
1980 and 1981.
The $733,000 allocated for repaving in
the area constitutes 1.3 percent of the $58.7
million to be spent by the state of Texas to
improve almost 2,000 miles of state high
ways.
The funds will be spent on three pro
jects, according to the Department of
Highways and Public Transportation.
The following improvements will be
made:
— FM 2154 (Wellborn Road) will be re
surfaced from FM 60 (University Drive) to
Jersey Street. This one-mile section is esti
mated to cost $155,000
— FM 1179 (Bnarcrest extension) will be
resurfaced from State Highway 6 East to
FM 158 (Boonville Road), a distance of 0.7
mile. This work is estimated to cost
$93,000
— FM 2154 will be reconditioned and
resurfaced from FM 2818 to Wellborn, a
distance of 4.2 miles. The estimated cost of
this project is $485,000.
The Briarcrest extension and the College
Station segment of Wellborn Road may be
under construction by foil of this year,
according to John Blasienz, district con
struction engineer.
These projects involve the use of asphalt
hot mix, a type of asphalt concrete which is
pre-mixed at the plant and laid over the
present surface, Blasienz said.
There will be little interference with traf
fic from the first two projects, Blasienz said,
because once the hot mix is laid, the surface
is ready for travel and can be reopened after
each day’s work.
The third project, which will not be
started until the summer of 1981. will cause
some traffic problems because weak sec
tions of the road (where water has seeped
into the roadbed) will have to be tom up
and replaced before a new surface can be
applied.
"We re going to have to block off one or
more lanes of the road and put out barri
cades and flagmen when we work on that
section of road." he said.
it