The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 03, 1981, Image 1

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The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Vol. 74 No. 109
10 Pages
Tuesday, March 3, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High . . .
67 High
...68
Low. . . .
52 Low
...53
Chance of rain . . 98% Chance of rain .
. 50%>
UH board blasts
teachers’ ‘sick out’
United Press International
HOUSTON — The University of Houston
Board of Regents Monday passed a resolution con
demning the “sick out” of approximately 175
teaching assistants and said it assumed those who
do not meet their teaching assignments had sub-
(mitted their resignations.
The “sick out” Monday was the second in less
than a month for the teaching assistants, who make
$350 a month and want a salary increase to $800 a
month.
In its resolution, the board also said it would not
try to get money from any discretionary accounts
to “solve the problem.”
The resolution, which passed unanimously,
said the board: “Deplores the action of those gra
duate students who reject their part-time instruc
tion assignments and responsibilities, and ignore
the interests of their undergraduate students.”
The resolution also bars any further discussion
by the administration of the issue with those who
have abandoned their present teaching committ
ments.
While saying it continued to respect faculty
rights, the resolution also strongly critized some
faculty members, hinting that in a “political con
frontation” some faculty had “mislead their gradu
ate students and jeapordized those students’
careers.”
The board said it supports administration efforts
to get other people to teach the classes, and it
urged full-time faculty members to help meet “cri
tical educational requirements.”
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The “sick out” Monday affected nine university
departments.
Bonnie White, the university’s student body'
president, said if and when the teaching assistants:
were notified of termination, numerous other
teaching assistants would join the “sick out. ”
The sick out by teaching assistants has forced
cancellation of a number of classes at the school
— the assistants say 200 but UH officials say 68.
University spokeswoman Wendy Adair said the
college is not shutting down and is asking students
to attend their scheduled classes.
University official George Magner, who is rep
resenting the administration in negotiations with
the teaching assistants, said UH could exist with
out the assistants.
But he acknowledged “it would be hard times in
some areas, ” because the teaching assistants grade
papers, conduct discussion groups and teach basic
courses.
Magner said salaries of striking instructors will
be docked for sick time this week and they will be
terminated unless they return to work by the end
of the week. He also said the school will not return
to the negotiation table until the assistants go back
to work.
The assistants, represented by English profes
sor John McNamara, have said the sick out prob
ably would continue as long as the school refuses to
pay adequate wages.
“They are determined to stay out as long as it
takes, until the university negotiates in a specific
and satisfactory manner,” McNamara said.
Pretty kitty
Photo by Stuart Hinchey
Maxine, a four-month-old bobcat, calmly stares at her own
er, Hector Gomez, an agriculture education major from
San Juan, Texas. Gomez caught Maxine on his ranch where
she had been orphaned at the age of 2 weeks by the drought
that plagued South Texas. When she is full-grown, Maxine
will be twice her present size and weigh about 60 pounds.
Maxine was seen walking Gomez by the MSG last week.
Legislator, educator clash over Praire View bill
By DILLARD STONE
Battalion Staff
Comparing the Prairie View A&M University
president’s beliefs with those of former Alabama
governor George Wallace, a state legislator has
responded to attacks on his bill to close Prairie
View.
In a letter to Prairie View A&M President Dr.
A. I. Thomas, a copy of which was received by
The Battalion, Rep. Foster Whaley, D-Pampa,
maintains his bill, H. B. 471, has “many lucrative
benefits” for black people. Whaley was respond
ing to a letter from Thomas which vigorously
protested the bill.
H.B. 471 calls for no new admissions to the
predominantly black Prairie View A&M after
Summer 1981, with a cessation of operations on
Aug. 31, 1984. Prairie View A&M students and
faculty would be absorbed throughout the other
state colleges and universities.
The bill’s purpose, according to Section 1, is
“remedying past discrimination and eliminating
a dual system of higher education in the state.”
In a Battalion interview earlier this year, Tho
mas accused Whaley of having a “racist mental
ity” behind the bill. Now, however, it is Whaley
who has accused Thomas of bigotry.
Thomas said a predominantly black institution
is “essential to the progress of Texas. It’s essen
tial to the democratic pluralism that we want to
have.”
The Battalion also has received a copy of Tho
mas’ original letter of protest to Whaley. In the
letter, Thomas wrote, “Texas has a place for
Black-operated universities, White-operated
universities, private-operated universities and
public-operated universities.”
Whaley replied that Thomas’ references to
democratic and cultural pluralism were a throw
back to the “separate but equal” laws upheld in
the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson
decision. Those laws were in effect until the
mid-1950s.
“Now, 27 years later, Dr. Alvin Thomas and
certain other black leaders are saying ‘There is a
place for white universities and black universi
ties and let’s keep them separate but make them
equal, ” Whaley wrote.
“Governor George Wallace would have been
very elated if you could have been on camera
with him making these pluralistic statements
when he stood in the doorway of the Alabama
University in 1956 in his effort to block the entry
of Autherine Lucy,” Whaley continued.
Thomas’ letter said, “Integration and desegre
gation does not mean eliminating black people,
black churches ... Or black universities.
“It means the free access and entry into black,
white or brown, public or private ... universities
by anyone without regard to race, religion, sex
and personal handicap,” the letter continued.
The Prairie View bill was met with immediate
opposition from the Coordinating Board, Educa
tion Commissioner Kenneth Ashworth and Gov.
Bill Clements.
That opposition doesn’t deter Whaley, who
claims to have many supporters for the bill.
“You would not believe the favorable re
sponse,” Whaley said last week. Many of his
fellow legislators support the bill, he said,
though he admitted they might be reluctant to
support it publicly now.
Those feelings may change should Texas lose
its bout with the federal Education Department
over racial integration in Texas public colleges
and universities.
The state has been found in provisional com
pliance with the federal government’s Title VI
desegregation requirements. Gov. Clements
has until June 15 to submit an entirely accept
able plan to Washington. The penalty for non-
compliance is partial or total loss of some $300
million in federal funding to state schools.
Whaley views his bill as one with enough
advantages to merit passage on its own.
But he’s also very aware of the bill’s chances as
a contingency measure, to be used if a letter of
noncompliance is issued.
“If they say we haven’t got any trouble with
the civil rights, my bill won’t pass,” he said. “If
the courts say ‘You will do this, or else,’ my bill
will sail, because there’s never been a desegre
gation bill.”
Whaley’s bill specifically calls for:
— Cessation of operations in August 1984,
with no new students permitted to enroll after
Summer 1981.
— Transfer of enrolled Prairie View students
and faculty members to schools other than Texas
Southern University, the state’s other primarily
black school.
— A $1,000 grant to each school recruiting and
receiving a transferring student, and a grant of
$5,000 to each school recruiting and receiving a
transferring faculty member.
— Use of the funds accrued from the sale of
the university’s land and facilities in a special
grant fund to be used solely for Negro students.
While some think Whaley is a “kook” and
others say he’s a racist, Whaley, who is a Class of
’49 former student, says he feels he’s doing
something to help Texas.
“I don’t give a damn if I get defeated if I feel
like I’m doing the right thing,” he said.
B-CS has a taste of the Orient
Grocery is truly ‘Universal’
Council to decide
commi ttees ’ fu tures
By BETH GIBSON
Battalion Reporter
Pungent, spicy scents of Oriental
foods drift out as the door opens.
Strains of clicking Chinese conversa
tions tickle the ears of customers mun
ching on eggrolls, fried wonton and
sweet and sour pork.
Sound like a typical Chinese food
market in the middle of Hong Kong?
The scene might seem like Hong
Kong, but it’s College Station and the
customers are mostly Texas A&M Uni
versity students, studying as they
snack at the Universal Grocery Store
and Snack Bar at the comer of Univer
sity Drive and Nagle Street.
The small grocery store, looking
much like a rennovated U-Tote-Em
sporting Chinese symbols on the out
side wall, is owned by Helen Liu.
Liu and her husband Nelson came
from their native Taiwan to College
Station in 1978. Her husband is study
ing political science at Texas A&M.
“The store opened about two years
ago. I needed the business to help my
husband and family,” she said.
Liu, a short, plump woman with
shining black hair and a constant
smile, shifts easily from conversations
in her native Chinese to a smooth
“May I help you?” for an American
customer.
She said she longs for a few more
Chinese conversations, though.
“About 80 percent of my customers
are Americans,” she said. “There are
just a few Chinese people who shop
here.”
This fact is evident in looking over
the wares offered in the store. Distinc
tly American products are nonchalant
ly mixed in with the more exotic
Oriental groceries.
Sitting around the store next to the
cases of Pepsi Light are boxes of for
tune cookies, instant Osuimuna and
Tempura batter mix.
For anyone with a sweet tooth, the
yellow rock sugar, sesame seed candy
and preserved plums are found right
beneath the Tang and Folger’s Instant
Coffee.
Beside the ice cream freezer sit 25-
pound bags of rice with mysterious
Chinese writing on the cloth bags
(even though the rice is produced in
San Francisco, California and
Beaumont, Texas).
Most of the Oriental goods are dis
played on the insides of the two rows of
groceries in the store. A walk down
this center aisle reveals more culinary
mysteries for American eaters.
Natural black fungus from Taiwan
sells for $2.89 for a four-ounce pack
age. Itowakome and Kombu, two
varieties of dried seaweed, are priced
at $1.79 for two ounces.
Adventurous Americans may buy a
12-ounce can of fresh lotus root for
$1.19, six ounces of pickled leeks for
79 cents or a 19-ounce can of sliced
sour bamboo shoots for 99 cents.
Consumers must beware, however
— most of the cooking and serving
directions are in Chinese.
Some of the products do have direc
tions in Enghsh.
The label on a can of grass jelly says
to serve the jelly diced and covered
with syrup.
A box of Tomoshiraga Somen —
Oriental noodles — says to cook the
noodles in water and to serve with
sauce.
While the inside rows of foods dis
play the Oriental groceries, the out
sides of the rows hold products more
familiar to American shoppers — cat
sup, popcorn, barbecue sauce,
Campbell’s soups.
The snack bar, a collection of bor-
dering-on-rickety folding tables, is set
up beside one of these American rows
and some of the patrons have never
seen the Oriental goods.
Karen Williams, a Texas A&M stu
dent, says she comes to the Universal
Grocery once a week to study and
snack, though she said she never knew
about the unusual groceries.
“I come for the eggrolls,” she said.
“The food is good, and Mrs. Liu is
really a nice lady. I never knew about
any natural black fungus, though.”
Williams said the store is usually not
crowded and is quiet for studying, re
laxation and snacking.
Patrons of the snack bar can eat
eggrolls, fried rice with chicken or
fried wonton with sweet and sour
pork. Then, to keep in touch with Col
lege Station, they can wash it down
with their favorite domestic beer or
cola.
1 I
By KATHY O’CONNELL
Battalion Staff
The MSC Council heard a progress
report from the Program Study Com
mittee concerning the effectiveness of
four directorate committees Monday
night.
Recommendations from future Prog
ram Study Committee meetings will be
presented to the Council at the March
30 meeting.
The four committees involved are
Arts Committee, Black Awareness
Committee, Committee for the Aware
ness of Mexican-American Culture and
Recreation Committee.
Vice President of Programs Sara
Morse said members of the four com
mittees met with the Program Study
Committee last week to discuss the
problems of each committee.
Morse said the study committee will
recommend that CAM AC remain as it is
now, with an elected chairman and con
trol of its budget. The only stipulation is
that the committee prepare a program-
by-program budget, which is subject to
approval by the vice president of prog
rams and the adviser.
Morse said these recommendations
were unanimously approved by the
three CAM AC members.
She said CAMAC agreed to do four
things:
— “define goals of the committee so
the members would understand
them”.
— set criteria for membership.
— define job descriptions for officers.
— devise a system of active program
planning and a formal communication
system within the committee for prog
ram “idea generation” and program
approval.
It will be recommended that the Arts
Committee’s budget be placed under
administration of the Council; however,
there will be a committee chairman. A
program-by-program budget approval
will have to be submitted to the Coun
cil, since they have direct control of
funds.
Morse said the main problem with
the Arts Committee is a lack of member
ship.
The questions surrounding the Re
creation Committee are in the area of
programming, Morse said.
Recreation Committee is comprised
of several “special interest” activities,
such as billiards, chess and bowling.
She said these sub-groups were more
interested in special activities rather
than programming as a group.
Morse said a major restructuring of
the committee’s officers will be recom
mended. The number of officers will be
expanded and they will be responsible
for coordinating activities between the
different interest groups.
A member of Black Awareness Com
mittee said, “They needed to bring the
situation to the attention of the other
committee members, so that they can
provide input to help the Program
Study Committee make informed re
commendations about the future of
BAG.”
Filing for Spring ’80
elections starts today
Photo by Beth Gibson
Helen Liu, owner of the Universal Grocery Store, arranges fresh
eggrolls to take to the customers at the store’s snack bar.
Effing for Student Government and
organization positions opens today in
the S.G. office, 216A MSC.
Offices to be filled include: student
senators and student body officers; yell
leaders; class councils and the graduate
student council; Off-Campus Aggies
and the Residence Halls Association.
Filing will run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.,
Tuesday through Monday.
Students wishing to run for a Student
Government position must turn in a
petition of signatures from their consti
tuency by 5:30 p.m. on the last day of
filing.
Candidates for student body presi
dent must have an overall grade point
ratio of 2.5, while student senate vice
presidents and college and living area
senators must have a 2.25 overall.
Election dates are March 31 and April
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