“X
The Battalion
xas
)l. 74 No. 148
I|12 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Monday, May 4, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
79 High
84
Low
67 Low
72
Chance of rain
20% Chance of rain. . . .
. . . 20%
raduation clearance
eadline is Thursday
NT
J
I By CAROLYN BARNES
Battalion Staff
1 Graduating students may find Thurs-
$iy that they owe Texas A&M Universi-
!| more than they bargained for.
And as a result, they may be dis-
ipointed to discover they are not
long those who have been cleared for
■aduation to be held Friday and
today.
The final list of seniors will be posted
itside Heaton Hall at 8 a. m. Thursday,
Idle the list of graduate students will
bi posted around noon. If it is raining
idents can check in the lobby of
leaton Hall.
Associate Registrar Don Carter said
is “of the utmost importance” for stu-
ents to check the list as soon as possible
ecausethe absolute deadline for clear-
nce to graduate is 5 p.m. Thursday.
This year a new procedure is being
sed. In the past a dot next to a student’s
name indicated he was cleared for gra
duation. However, this year the exact
opposite is the case.
A dot this year will mean the student
is not cleared for graduation.
If a dot appears next to a student’s
name there will be a written indication
of the reason. The problem is usually
financial or academic.
Financial problems, which are usual
ly due to unpaid parking or library fines
or returned checks, may be cleared up
in the Fiscal Office in the Coke Build
ing. The Fiscal Office may deduct un
paid fines from dorm deposit refunds.
Although a student cannot be block
ed from graduation for financial reasons,
transcripts will not be released until the
student has been cleared by the Fiscal
Office.
Drop-add credit should be resolved
with the cashier in Rudder Tower.
Academic reasons for not being
cleared for graduation include failure to
make a written request to graduate (a
degree-applicant letter) and not making
the necessary grades.
Students with these problems should
check with Assistant Registrar Don
Gardner in Heaton Hall. However, if
the student does not have at least a 2.0
grade point ratio overall and in his ma
jor, it is his responsibility to resolve the
problem with his instructors.
Final grades for graduating seniors
were turned in by 4 p.m. Friday.
Students cleared for graduation can
buy their caps and gowns at the MSC
Bookstore.
Graduation announcements are
available from the Student Finance
Center in 217 Memorial Student Cen
ter. Only a few extras are left and stu
dents will have to order name cards
from a printer.
Sands slips into coma
fter 65th day of fast
United Press International
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — IRA
linger striker Bobby Sands lay in a
ma today on the 65th day of a fast to
eath, and Britain readied emergency
Ians to prevent all out civil war be-
veen Catholics and Protestants in
lorthem Ireland.
“He’s dying. My son’s dying,” Mrs.
osaleen Sands said in tears Sunday
[mergingfrom her vigil at Maze Prison,
int at the same time she appealed “to
ie people to remain calm and have no
xcitement and to have no death or des-
iction.”
Oliver Hughes, brother of another
lunger striker, saw Sands Sunday and
said afterwards: “I thought he was dead.
His eyes are sunken, bones sticking out,
jeeth sticking out. I didn’t see a man of
27,1 saw a man of 90. ”
The H-Block Committee, supporting
lands’ protest for concessions to IRA
irisoners, said the hunger striker had
into a coma. But Britain’s
'Jorthem Ireland Office said Sands “is
asleep” and early today reported no
;e in his condition — again avoid-
use of the word coma.
At the Vatican, Pope John Paid II
asked the world to pray for Northern
Ireland’s Catholics and Protestants,
saying the two communities “live hours
of growing tension, from which it is
feared new grave acts of fratricidal vio
lence can explode.”
Sands, who is serving 14 years for
firearms possession and was elected a
member of British Parliament during
his hunger strike, began his fast March 1
to press for political status for IRA pris
oners — a demand that Britain’s Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher has turned
down.
In New York, hundreds of Sands’
backers marched up Fifth Avenue,
saying “Margaret Thatcher must go!”
and asking Britain to get out of Northern
Ireland. Britain rules Northern Ireland,
which is part of the United Kingdom,
directly from London.
In Toombridge, 30 miles west of Bel
fast, more than 4,000 people marched in
support of Sands and three other hun
ger strikers, also on a fast to death.
Catholic militant Bernadette Devlin
McAliskey appealed for calm at the
march. “We don’t want to see a single
riot, not a single stone, not a single pet
rol bomb,” she said.
On the Protestant side, Ulster De
fense Association leader Andy Tyrie
sought to ease Catholic fears, saying:
"We are not spoiling for a fight. We
realize that all-out war now would be
the ruination of Northern Ireland. ”
Despite the appeals for calm, Britain
went ahead with emergency plans to
prevent all-out fighting between the
majority Protestants and minority
Catholics in Northern Ireland’s six
counties, where more than 2,000 peo
ple have been killed in bombings and
violence since 1970.
Sir Humphrey Atkins, Britain’s top
official in Northern Ireland, met Sun
day for the second straight day with
chief constable Jack Hermon and Brit
ish army commandant Lt. Gen. Sir
Richard Lawson and officials in charge
of water, gas and electricity.
Sands’ five demands for IRA prison
ers are free association within the pris
on, a 50 percent reduction in sentences,
extra visits, permission to wear civilian
clothes and to refuse to do prison work.
Sands has turned down three appeals
by a papal envoy and a European Hu
man Rights commission to end his
strike, while Mrs. Thatcher has ruled
out concessions, saying Sands was con
victed of a common crime and not a
political act.
The H-Block Committee, named for
the area where Sands is imprisoned,
said convicted murderer Francis
Hughes, 27, was sinking fast in the 51st
day of his hunger strike. The two other
IRA men were in their 45th day without
food.
Qciv 0111 ^ Staff photo by Greg Gammon
Brian Rice, a 161-pounder senior, sends Joel the middleweight open division, won the match-
Akins to the canvas in a semi-final bout Satur
day night at “Fight Night” sponsored by the
Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Rice, fighting in
up with this knock-out punch and later went on
to defeat Roy Harris in the finals for the Mid
dleweight Open Division title.
Reveille takes highest Corps rank
Reveille and some friends finish off a chocolate cake in celebration of
tier sixth birthday Friday evening. In addition to some bones, Reveille
received some new “brass,” five diamonds to wear on her collar
representing her superior rank in the Corps.
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
Who is the highest ranking cadet
at Texas A&M University?
The Corps commander? Wrong.
Reveille? Right.
Reveille IV, the American collie
who is the University mascot, Friday
achieved her new rank at a party
given in honor of her sixth birthday.
Reveille, bom May 1, 1975, in
Golf, Kan., was donated to the Uni
versity by Dr. Thomas L. Godwin, a
veterinarian, when Reveille III
died.
In honor of her new position, Re
veille received a set of “brass,” a
leather collar with five diamonds.
She also received several packages of
beef jerky from friends in Company
E-2, the mascot company.
Wearing her new collar, she was
more interested in the chocolate
birthday cake bearing her likeness
than in the beef jerky.
“She eats like a horse, ” said Drew
Laningham, 1981-82 Mascot Cor
poral. “That’s why we won’t let her
eat any table scraps in Duncan (Di
ning Hall). If we did, she wouldn’t
eat her dog food.”
Reveille’s daily diet is a mixture of
Kal-Kan and Alpo dry.
She’s very photogenic, as her por
trait sitting on Laningham’s desk
proves. However, she was more in
terested Friday in a steak bone, a
present from Laningham, than she
was in having her picture taken.
The bone also took precedence
over being interviewed for The Bat
talion. Fortunately, Laningham was
able to speak in her place.
Reveille is extremely well be
haved, he said. She’s a graduate of
the Canine Hilton Obedience
School in Austin and has been
trained to march, catch a Frisbee
and bark whenever the yell leaders
get up to do a yell, he said.
She has plenty of opportunities to
do this, he said, because she attends
all home football, basketball and
baseball games.
Reveille also attends some road
games. She is scheduled to attend
the University of California at Ber
keley and Boston College games in
the fall.
Reveille shares a room with
Laningham, a freshman pre
dentistry major from Conroe, and
his roommate. Bob LaRue, a fresh
man environmental design major
from Lubbock.
Reveille is with a member of
Company E-2 at all times, Laning
ham said, and even attends classes.
“She goes into the classroom and
falls asleep or just sits there until it’s
time to go. She’s just like any other
student.”
Texas A&M’s mascots have not al
ways been registered collies. Reveil
le I was a stray who was accidentally
struck by a car carrying Aggies who
were returning from a football game.
They brought her back to the cam
pus and that night she slept in a dorm
in violation of military regulations.
She was named Reveille because
she yelped and barked as the bugler
played “Reveille” the next morning.
She was later named the official mas
cot of Texas A&M.
Reveille I died on Jan. 18, 1944,
and was given a formal military fun
eral in the center of Kyle Field.
Reveille II was a brown and white
Shetland shepherd donated by Au-
rther Weinert of Seguin. She made
her debut during a Corps trip to Dal
las in 1952. She died in 1966 of
arthritis.
Reveille III was the first Amer
ican collie mascot. She was bom in
Anchorage, Alaska, and donated by
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Husa of Fair
banks, Alaska. She made her debut
at a Texas A&M-Texas Tech Univer
sity football game in 1966. In 1975
She died of a pancreas disorder.
Window platforms
banned in dorms
By DIANA SULTENFUSS
Battalion Reporter
Window platforms in Texas A&M
University residence halls have been
officially banned effective June 2, the
beginning of the first summer session.
According to the new rule, no object
is to be constructed out of a dorm win
dow. The issue will be addressed in the
new fall housing guide.
After about a year of evaluation, the
Department of Student Affairs agreed
the platforms were a safety hazard and
should be banned, Ron Sasse, associate
director of student affairs, said.
“We wanted to get the warning out in
time so students don’t purchase plat
forms from other owners for the fall
semester,” he said.
The platforms have been under dis
cussion since a student fell out of a
Corps dorm window while installing a
platform during the fall semester.
Another student dropped a flower pot
off one of the platforms and almost hit
someone in the head, Sasse said.
In the past, some of the platforms
have been connected to lofts inside the
dorm rooms. Sasse said this new rule
would have no effect on loft construc
tion.
If a student is caught with a platform,
the residence hall staff will ask him to
remove it. If the student refuses, he
could either be taken before a J-board or
sent to the area coordinator.
“We’ll try to handle it at the lowest
level possible,” Sasse said.
The University had no policy on the
platforms until about three years ago,
Sasse said. “At that time, we had some
real superstructures that would sleep
six,” he said. “They were almost like a
deck outside the window.”
Sasse said University personnel be
gan to get worried and a regulation was
made to limit the size of the platforms to
two feet.
“We haven’t had a lot of adherance to
that rule,” Sasse said. “It’s hard for the
staff in the halls to enforce it. ”
“We didn’t want to be in a situation
where we had no ground to stand on (in
a lawsuit),” he said.
New fall, summer
staffs take over
The Battalion’s fall staff members
have assumed their new positions with
today’s issue.
The fall staff will publish five papers
during dead week on the regular weekly
schedule. Fall staff members will also
publish one paper during the week of
finals, May 13.
Summer staff members will assume
their positions for issues of The Batta
lion to be published May 20 and May
27.
Beginning June 2 The Battalion will
assume its regular summer schedule
with issues coming out on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays.