The Battalion
Vol. 74 No. 112
12 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Friday, March 6, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High ....
67
High '. . .
.. .60
Low
52
Low
. ..47
Chance of raifi . . 20%
Chance of rain .
. . 50%
Mid-term grades
ue in Monday
By KITTY FRALEY
Battalion Reporter
All Texas A&M departments have been notified that mid-
jpterm grade reports are due Monday, rather than Friday, as an
arlier Registrar’s Office memo said.
“It was just a small internal mistake that has been cor-
vreeled,” Harold Pace, assistant registrar in the Office of
liAdmissions and Records, said.
t‘ Texas A&M is one of the few schools in Texas that sends out
[mid-semester grades to undergraduate students.
I “The main reason we do this is so the students may have the
opportunity to see where they stand in their classes,” Pace
[ said. “They need to have some official feedback from their
Instructors as to where they stand at this point in time.”
||i “It would certainly be easier for our office not to send
: mid-terms out, but this is something we do for the students,”
ho said.
H Mid-terms are sent to the student’s local address that is
[recorded at the Registrar’s Office. If no local address is listed
or the student has moved and not notified the office, he will
! not receive the grades.
If a student is claimed as a dependent on his parent’s federal
income tax report, either the student or his parents may
request the parents receive a copy of the student’s mid-term
grades.
“Students don’t always know that their parents have re
quested copies of their grades,” Pace said.
A copy of the mid-term grades also goes to the student’s
college and department.
Many students don’t know how official mid-terms are, he
said.
Mid-terms are not averaged in with the overall grade point
ratio or recorded on any permanent records.
If a student fails to get a copy of his or her mid-term grades,
they will be available, free of charge, on March 23 in 112
Heaton Hall.
As a tentative schedule for mid-term grades, they will be
turned into the Registrar’s Office Monday, March 9, proces
sed Monday night and returned to the office Tuesday, March
10 and mailed to students Wednesday, March II.
“That is, if there are no computer problems,” Pace said.
ommittee will hear
ousingpolicy appeals
By TERRY DURAN
Battalion Staff
| ; Opposition to a Housing Office policy
that will exclude most fifth-year and gra
duate students from on-campus housing
in the fall has generated about 70
appeals.
h The appeal deadline for the Fall 1981
semester was Monday.
' A committee, chaired by Associate
Student Affairs Director Ron Sasse, will
finish reviewing the appeals before
spring break begins March 14.
The committee of six students and
two University officials was called for in
the policy, which was finalized in mid-
February.
Other members of the committee are
Scott Hall, a sophomore student senator
appointed by Student Government
President Brad Smith; Betsy Dungan, a
sophomore management major; Carol
Casey, a senior animal science major;
Bill Way, an industrial engineering
senior; Charlie Jumper, a senior indust
rial distribution major; northside area
coordinator Tom Murray; and manage
ment graduate student Earl Tipton from
Port Arthur, who is also the head resi
dent at Mclnnis Hall.
Sasse said the committee was trying
to “be flexible,” adding that some late
appeals had been accepted.
Committee member Hall said most of
the appeals were based on financial
hardships that would be incurred by
moving off-campus; he said the commit
tee will check for proof to be sure the
hardship “will be more than just an in
convenience.”
Sasse said review of the appeals was
taking longer than originally antici
pated, but both he and Hall were confi
dent all appeals would be reviewed by
spring break.
Stores sign in new mall
The Dixie Chicken and this woman who refused to
give her name were the center of attraction as the
crew of NBC’s Today Show visited the College
Station bar to film a segment for “Cross Country,”
one of the show’s features. The show’s producer
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
said the feature will center around those who use
smokeless tobacco, or, “dippers and chewers.” Op
erating the camera is Scott Bremmer of Houston
(left). Conducting the interview is NBC Corres
pondent Mike Leonard.
By BELINDA McCOY
Battalion Staff
! When College Station’s new Post Oak Mall opens next
year, area residents and students at Texas A&M University
will no longer have to drive to Houston to do “major” shop-
jping.
I joske’s, Dillard’s, Wilson’s, Bealls, and Sears department
stores have all signed contracts to lease space in the 1.02-
ihillion-square-foot building area, announced Bucky Wol
ford, executive vice president of CBL & Associates Inc.,
owner and developer of the mall.
At a luncheon and groundbreaking ceremony hosted
Thursday by the Tennessee-based company, Wolford said
Site-grading and installation of site utilities have already be
gun on the 100-acre site at the southwest comer of Highway
30 and Highway 6 Bypass, across from Plantation Oaks Apart
ments.
The developers are also expecting the delivery of building
pads for the Sears and Dillard’s stores in the near future,
Wolford said.
“So far, we’ve received commitment for 60 percent of the
mall,” Wolford said at the luncheon.
The firm is still negotiating with local merchants and some
out-of-town chains to lease space, he said.
When completed, the mall will house approximately 130
stores. It will feature a fountain, overhead skylights, enter
tainment and seating areas, and a food court area, said Wol
ford.
The building is on schedule at the present, and Wolford
said his firm plans to open the mall Feb. 17, 1982.
“We re not behind. We’re right on time,” said Wolford.
“We will make it. Just have faith.”
NBC makes the Chicken
a spittin ’image for ‘Today’
By BERNIE FETTE
Battalion Staff
Many of the pool shooters, domino
players and beer drinkers in the Dixie
Chicken were probably expecting a
routine break Thursday afternoon in the
Crickets described as ‘popcorn-like’
Student serves meal of bees, worms
By TERRI ZAWACKI
Battalion Reporter
The candle-lit table is set for a meal. On the table, a
late is filled with helpings of vegetables and fried
Crickets, bees and mealworms. Another plate contains
a pizza topped with cheese and bees.
J Wayne Moore, an entomology graduate student at
|Texas A&M University, wants to give people a reason
to utilize insects as an important food source.
Moore used the unusual table setting for pictures to
; accompany an article he wrote for Mother Earth News
[called “Bugs in My Soup,” which tells of his first
experiences in eating insects.
Although the meal wasn’t eaten, Moore and two
entomology graduate students, John Mirenda and
Ann Sorenson, fried and baked other crickets, bees
and mealworms for consumption. Moore said that
about 15 people were willing to sample the insects.
“Once we decorated them up and told people they
(the insects) were good, they weren’t shy about eating
them,” he said.
Only one person was displeased after he tasted
them, Moore said.
He said the crickets were described as tasting like
popcorn, the mealworms like shoe-string potatoes, but
the bees having a slightly bitter taste.
Serafin Fernandez, an entomology graduate stu
dent who sampled the insects, said:
“I don’t think much about eating insects. After all,
people eat snails. They just call them escargot.”
Moore said the fried insects were appealing to him
because they were crunchy like snacks.
“We all eat insects more than we think we do,”
Moore said.
Fruits and vegetables sometimes contain various
insects. Tomatoes contain fruit fly eggs and moth lar
vae, raisins contain fly eggs, canned mushrooms con
tain mites and fly larvae and peanut butter contains
insect fragments.
But, insects may be even more nutritious than other
more common edibles.
Spending cuts to bring fight
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The administra
tion says it wants a bigger defense
budget even if Congress doesn’t cut
other programs enough to pay for it, and
some Democrats are making it clear
[ they will fight some proposed reduc
tions.
Budget Director David Stockman
testified Thursday before the House
Banking Committee which has jurisdic
tion over nearly half of President
Reagan’s approximately $45 billion in
proposed spending cuts.
He said even if Congress approves
only about half the suggested cuts,
Reagan’s proposal to increase defense
spending by about 16 percent next year,
to $184.8 billion, is essential.
Stockman said the proposed in
creases “are basic to national security
and must be funded.”
Meantime, House budget writers
went after the “waste, fraud and abuse”
they said were not mentioned in
Reagan’s budget message last month.
Reagan made a campaign pledge last
fall to cut 2 percent from the federal
budget by eliminating that triple threat
to government efficiency, but Budget
Committee Chairman James Jones, D-
Okla., said Reagan’s early proposal lack
ed the promised assault on mismanage
ment.
“There is waste, fraud and abuse and
this committee intends to eliminate that
before valuable programs are des
troyed,” Jones said at a committee hear
ing. He later said the effort would
accompany program cuts, rather than
precede them.
“The fraud, waste and abuse effort we
are going to make is not at all intended
to avoid efforts to reduce program
spending,” he told United Press Inter
national. He said the administration
failed to address those issues in its haste
to produce a package of budget and tax
cuts.
If the House budget panel succeeds
in ferreting out waste, it could compen
sate for program cuts some Democrats
vigorously oppose.
But if defense spending is increased
to the proposed level without cuts in
other areas, the fiscal 1982 deficit would
grow well beyond the $45 billion
already anticipated.
Banking Committee Chairman Fer
nand St. Germain, D-R.I., said the
budget cuts represent “a substantive
shift of priorities and a major downgrad
ing of our commitment to urban com
munities.”
And Rep. Parren Mitchell, D-Md., a
black who represents Baltimore, drew
Stockman into a philosophical discus
sion of racial injustice and the govern
ment’s role in redressing it.
Stockman agreed racial problems still
exist and said the government should
fight them by enforcing civil rights laws.
But he seemed to take personal offense
at Mitchell’s comments and shouted, “I
refuse to admit the test of compassion is
how many (public service) jobs you sup
port. ”
Jones has predicted the House might
approve $30 billion in spending cuts,
but eager Senate Republican budget
writers are hoping to reduce the budget
by as much as $55 billion.
rustic College Station bar. That is, until
an NBC news crew entered and the
usual casual atmosphere was broken by
flood lights, microphones and a movie
camera.
The crew made the visit to film a
segment for the Cross Country series of
NBC’s Today Show.
Stuart Dan, the show’s producer,
compared the Cross Country series to
Charles Kuralt’s “On The Road,” and
said the Dixie Chicken segment would
be part of a feature on “dippers and
chewers,’’ or users of smokeless
tobacco.
The segment is tentatively scheduled
to be aired Wednesday from 7:45 to 8
a.m. if no problems arise, Mike
Leonard, an NBC Chicago correspon
dent said.
“Dipping got its start in the South
west,” Dan said. “And now it’s achiev
ing a great deal of popularity in urban
areas.”
Dan said the group came to College
Station about two months ago. They de
cided then that the Dixie Chicken had
the atmosphere they wanted. “We were
looking for the type of place where a lot
of people came to enjoy themselves, and
I think that’s just what we have here,”
he said.
“They were looking for an authentic
Texas bar, ” said Don Canter, one of the
bar’s two owners.
“I think they wanted to show people
in other places that places like this
actually do exist, not just in paperback
books,” said Donnie Anz, who is the
bar’s other owner. “They thought the
place was really unique.”
The first filming took place near one
of the pool tables which, understand
ably, was surrounded by a larger than
usual crowd.
Soon, shouts from the producer such
as “I want more people outside,” made
the festivities shift to the front porch.
There the crew concentrated on the
theme of the feature by interviewing a
“dipper,” in this case, a female dipper.
The woman, who declined to give her
name because “this is too local,” said,
“It’s really relaxing after you get used to
it, ” as her hands trembled while trying
to open the Skoal can with one of her
long, freshly painted fingernails. “I
don’t want y’all to watch me put it in my
mouth.”
She tried not to let anyone see her
dipping, she said, “but the ones who do
know about it just laugh.
T only do it when I’m studying, be
cause it’s really relaxing,” she said.
“Do you spit?” the interviewer
asked.
“You have to'spit,” the woman said.
“Some people don’t, but I do. ”
Many of the Dixie Chicken’s patrons
seemed enthralled by NBC’s presence.
The feeling was obvious from the wide
eyes amid whoops and shouts of “Hey,
we want to be on TV!”
But then there were, of course, those
who were much more interested in the
domino games, pool games, music and
beer.
“Man, I can’t believe NBC’s really
here!” one customer said.
T really don’t give a damn, ” another
said. “I’m just gonna sit here and drink
my beer.”
Election filing closes
Tuesday is the final day for student
election candidates to file appheations.
Apphcations may be picked up and filed
in 216A Memorial Student Center.
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.
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. Tuesday.
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
1.