Viewpoint L The Battalion Texas A&M University Monday February 16, 1981 i Slouch By Jim Earle Early birds to set the nominations ^ ass By CLAY F. RICHARDS United Press International WASHINGTON — For those who have lost track of time, the 1984 New Hampshire presidential primary is just three years away. While many are still sick and tired of the 1980 campaign, the next battle has already begun in at least three camps where there is a strong political belief you can’t start too early. Political supporters of former Vice Presi dent Walter Mondale have filed with the Federal Election Commission for a commit tee to explore a possible presidential cam paign. Sen. Edward Kennedy is poised to take the same action. The technical action of filing would allow Mondale and Kennedy to raise funds to sup port their political activities. It also allows them to raise funds to make contributions to Democratic candidates — and in the pro cess pile up political debts to be collected in 1984. At the same time Kennedy and Mondale are forming skeleton campaign organiza tions. Mondale has taken up residence in a Washington law firm and more than a dozen of his former top aides are staying around the nation’s capital to prepare for what is an almost certain bid for the White House. When Republicans gained control of the Senate, Kennedy slipped to minority status and had to give up most of the 100-member- plus Judiciary Committee staff that was quickly converted into a campaign organi zation in the 1980 race. Another hint of preparation for 1984 comes from no less a source than the man in the White House — Ronald Reagan. At the recent Washington Press Club “Salute to Congress” dinner, Reagan had some advice for a freshman congressman Warped Non voters in a stormy C At the same time the MSC Council was questioning the lack of participation by some nonvoting members, it approved unanimously to add another nonvoting rep resentative — from the Married Students Apartments Council. Perhaps the voting council members don’t see the apparent contradiction in their action, but, having been a nonvoting mem ber for two years, the situation is highly ironic to me. Sidebars By Dillard Stone The council consists of 19 voting mem bers, and nonvoting representatives from the Corps, Residence Halls Association, Off-Campus Aggies, Graduate Student Council, the class councils and The Batta lion. The nonvoting members are on the council supposedly to reflect the opinions 'of their organization’s members. After all, the programs of the MSC affect and are of interest to most students on campus; the nonvoting members are there in order for as many students as possible to be repre sented in the programming decision. Unfortunately, that input isn’t there, for most nonvoting council members simply don’t show up. The apparent uselessness of the nonvoting members is what keeps them away; they feel that their time is wasted at council meetings, and council members do nothing to make them feel like viable mem bers of the organization. The representatives from the graduate council and class councils haven’t shown up yet this year, and representatives from the other groups have missed more meetings than they’ve attended. At most two of the nonvoting members have shown up at meetings this semester, and even then they lack the degree of consistency in attendance that is needed. Why? To begin with, the nonvoting status auto matically connotes an air of inferiority to those who have it. Without a vote, a mem ber can do nothing more than listen to and digest the massive quantities of verbiage, offering an occasional opinion. And that opinion is often uninformed. If I’m going to intelligently discuss the prop osals at a council meeting, I would at least like to know what’s on the agenda: but even that is difficult when agendas consistently arrive on the day of the meeting. There’s no time for those on the fringes of council con sider these matters before the meeting. (I suggest the council adopt a resolution agreeing to abide in principle — since coun cil doesn’t meet the legal definition of a governmental body — by the Texas Ops Meetings Law. Among other things,4 law requires posting and distributionotj 1 agenda 72 hours before a meeting.) i To describe the insulting chain ofevetj leading up to the recent reorganization^ cision would occupy more space tin! have. But the gist of my criticism is| absolute waste of eight hours spreada® two nights — to do nothing more thantj roborate a set of decisions which hadb predetermined in a meeting of voting its 1 dent members, a meeting to which nonef, the nonvoting student members werer vited. That meeting was held on theSuaii night prior to the meeting where reorgft zation was finally approved. It’s easy to see why nonvoting memla are apathetic and lose interest in count proceedings — why bother to come such a major decision will be madewii your input? The argument can be advanced tlial4i non voting members accept a council if 1 sponsibility when they accept their stak leader positions, and that they should® enough about representing their organ tions that they’ll show up at all meeting! But if their presence isn’t going toll felt, and if it’s in fact actually discourage! why bother? Welcome to the fold of representali married students — I hope your initial thusiasm is not diminished by theburas racy you’re about to enter into. lt ain't doin'ya. anygzd unless it hurts-. who had complained the inaugural balls were so crowded that he had not been able to use the tickets he had paid for. “Congressman, hold on to them,” Reagan quipped. “They’ll be good in four years.” A little more explicit view of Reagan’s plans came from his political alter ego, Lyn Nofziger, currently the White House poli tical adviser. “We’ll be back in three years with the same guy,” Nofziger said. “If anybody has any doubts about Ronald Reagan not thinking down the road three to four years from now and are thinking ‘oh boy I’ll run for president in 1984,’ you’d better change your party.” The fact that Reagan will be almost 74 by the time of the next campaign doesn’t bother Nofziger. “This man who just celebrated his 70th birthday doesn’t look like it, sound like it or act like it,” he said. A review of recent political history shows that the road to the White House often begins four or even eight years earlier. Richard Nixon started right after his 1960 loss to collect the political lOUs around the nation that made him unbeatable when Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller challenged him for the GOP nomination in 1968. Jimmy Carter’s term as governor of Georgia ended in 1974, giving him two full years to run for president unencumbered by a full-time job. After losing the 1976 nomination to Gerald Ford, Reagan organized “Citizens for the Republic,” the political committee that financed him as he spent the next four years on the chicken dinner circuit to se cure the 1980 nomination. So while it’s still a long way down the road to 1984, Reagan and Mondale know the benefit of being the first on the track. ecor Uni' ity, Age he argil doni ihoi nze )Ut said It’s your turn Apartment-dweller sings the blues Editor: I’ve been a resident of apartment 4M/ Scandia since Aug. 25, 1980. I was the first to move into the apartment at that time. I just want to mention that we’ve had prob lems here ever since that first day, and I really feel that these problems should have been corrected before anyone moved in. I know that the deposit you charge us is for this purpose, and that you automatically deduct a cleaning fee. You know, we’ve learned to go directly to maintenance to get anything done around here. But even that’s not working anymore; and when there’s no hot water in the mornings, the time has come to complain! Let me give you a sum mary of our troubles: (1) The first day in the apartment, the following problems were encountered: a. ) the refrigerator was inoperative. We got a new one the next day. b. ) Three stove burners were inopera tive. We got three new coils the next day. c. ) The kitchen floor was cracked and warped. A few months later that was fixed; the concrete slab under the kitchen/living- room floor was taken out and a new one set in. The refrigerator was put in one bed room. The furniture was out on the porch. We enjoyed eating out for a few nights. d. ) The bedroom door was off the hinge and someone had punched a hole in it. e. ) The bedroom window pane was too small for the window. We had another one aid put in. f. ) Someone had built a fire in the bath tub. None of the drains worked properly. g. ) The place was generally dirty and trashy. (2) The following week, we noticed a few more problems: a.) The ceiling above the bedroom closet was cracking and pieces were falling do® imp Elsewhere, places were cracking, espeSl B ly after a rain. b.) The closet door was warped, » te P' came off the track every time we decided move it. (3) We got everything pretty muchfe up now, except for one thing: no hotf Wl in the mornings (or afternoons). I feel that you should take careofd) apartments you have now before you together new ones. I also feel that thept* pie you inconvienced by taking their 8^ out should be reimbursed for their iff bles. Thank you very much. Sharon Sul' 1 By Scott McCullar CBS TELEVISION ANNOUNCED TODAY THAT IT HAS CHANGED ITS AAIND ABOUT ITS REPLACEMENT FOR WALTER CR0NKITE WHEN HE RETIRES MARCH . .. INSTEAD OF DAN RATHER, AS originally scheduled TO REPLACE CRONKITE, C35 HAS MADE A SURPRISE MOVE AND DECIDED ON CAPTAIN KANGAROO, FROM THE CBS CHILDREN'S PROGRAM. THE NETWORK SAID,