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. 75 No. 33
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Serving the Texas A&M University community
Friday, October 16, 1981
College Station, Texas
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Reagan gains
struggle
or A WAGS
For organization of faculty senate
Vandiver okays steering committee
United Press International
■WASHINGTON — President
Wigan lost another Capitol Hill battle
■ his Saudi arms deal, but again actual-
1 gained ground in his overall struggle
■ get the $8.5 billion package through
jongress.
As a result. Senate foes, who just a
ek ago predicted they would kill the
Je, now admit its future is in doubt.
Iiey say the number of “hard” votes
ayiinst it has fallen to 48, three short of a
i-nate majority.
The latest twist in the shifting Capitol
lillstniggle came Thursday when the
(enate Foreign Relations Committee,
a 9-8 vote, recommended that the
1 Senate kill the deal.
But perhaps more significantly, one
(d the initial sponsors of the resolution of
^position, Sen. Larry Pressler, R-
D , defected to Reagan’s growing
«•
Wednesday, the House passed a
similar resolution on a 311-101 vote
while four previously uncommitted Re
publican senators, led by Assistant Sen
ate GOP Leader Ted Stevens,
announced support of the package.
Reagan, weighing the defections with
the Senate committee and House de
feats, seemed increasingly optimistic
about the chances of getting his prop
osed sale of AWACS radar planes and
aircraft equipment through Congress.
Reagan maintains the package is vital
for Middle East security, but foes fear
the sale could actually accelerate the
Middle East arms race and ultimately
endanger the security of Israel.
Although Reagan said he was confi
dent the full Senate would approve the
sale, he again declined to rule out the
possibility of sending Saudi Arabia the
aircraft under legal emergency powers
even if the Senate rejects the sale. He
said, however, that option is not now
under consideration.
mdan
attack
threatens
Libya
on
United Press International
]AIR0, Egypt — Sudanese Presi-
;tt Jaafar Numeiry threatened today
[unleash a guerrilla campaign inside
Dya that could reach Col. Moammar
adaiy shome and U.S. AWACs sur-
illance planes patrolled Egyptian
|es to detect Libyan military buil-
|ps.
Libya called the arrival in Egypt of
sophisticated spy planes Thursday
challenge and a provocation” and de-
ihded the United States return them
their U.S. base.
Numeiry warned he could mobilize
to 10,000 guerrillas and said he
eady was training Chad exiles to
inch a guerrilla war against Libyan
ps occupying their homeland.
Earlier Sudanese foreign minister
[ohammed Mirghany Mubarak was
poted as saying his country’s patience
[d run out in the face of repeated Li-
an air raids along the border.
In Washington, state department
wkesman Dean Fischer said the Un-
ed States was concerned that “an esca-
tion of tensions and rhetoric could
cd on itself and lead to the precise
thing we are trying to avoid, an out
break of hostilities.”
But Libya’s equivalent of a foreign
ministry bitterly accused Washington of
“trying to complete the occupation of
Egypt and impose control over it in
order to turn it into a center influencing
the region.
“America knows more than others,” it
added, “that there is no danger
threatening Sudan and Egypt on the
part of Libya and that there are no Li
byan military concentrations along the
borders of these two countries.”
Libya condemned America’s “mus
cle-flexing near the Arab shores in the
Mediterranean, the concentration of its
rapid deployment force, the massing of
its forces in Egypt under the pretext of
joint maneuvers and its dispatch of
AWACS spy planes to Egypt.”
Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel-
Halim Abu-Ghazala said the two
AWACS planes would observe “our
northern, western and southern bor
ders,” indicating they will be used to
monitor Soviet naval movements as well
as Libyan aircraft.
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
The formation of a steering commit
tee to oversee the organization of a fa
culty senate been authorized by Texas
A&M President Dr. Frank E. Van
diver.
The announcement was made Thurs
day at a meeting called to discuss the
creation of a body to increase the facul
ty’s role in decisionmaking on academic
affairs at the University.
About 200 faculty members attended
the meeting co-chaired by Dr. Thomas
J. Kozik, professor of mechanical en
gineering and Dr. Robert E. Stewart,
distinguished professor emeritus of
agricultural engineering.
Stewart stressed that there were no
“deep grievances” behind the move to
increase the faculty’s role in University
governance.
Dr. John J. McDermott, disting
uished professor of philosophy, who
also spoke at the meeting, said, “The
real issue is that this faculty doesn’t
function together as a faculty. It is ex
tremely clear and extremely obvious
that we want... to speak, we want to be
heard, we want to be taken seriously on
those matters that affect our lives, the
lives of our students and the future of
this great University.”
A 21-member ad hoc committee has
worked for more than a year to establish
such a group. Vandiver said the newly
created steering committee will be able
to take up where the ad hoc committee
left off.
The following four guidelines, set up
by the ad hoc committee, will be pre
sented to the steering committee:
— The faculty body that is estab
lished should have a broad consti
tuency.
“We don’t want to exclude anyone,”
Kozik said. “A faculty senate should
represent all people who are concerned
with programs, with well-being of the
students, the faculty and the Univer
sity."
This would include all tenured and
non-tenured faculty members and the
staff of the various experiment stations
and agencies under the Texas A&M
System.
— Members of the senate should be
elected by the faculty members.
— The faculty group and the Acade
mic Council will comprise a bicameral
senate.
The Academic Council, the major
University-wide body dealing with
academic matters, is “primarily a busi
ness operation,” Kozik said.
“Because of their very tight sche
dule, the Academic Council rarely has
time to debate (general) issues,” he
said.
But, he said, a faculty senate would
be able to debate these general issues
that deal with academic programs at
Texas A&M. Kozik said issues the facul
ty senate would consider are the currh
culum, faculty welfare, the implications
of growth on academic standards,
admission standards and the size of an
instructor’s teaching load.
Kozik emphasized that the faculty
senate would work with the Academic
Council and would not be an adversary
group.
— The organization, structure, form
and constitution of the group will be
handled by the steering committee.
Members of the steering committee
will be appointed by Vandiver.
“We’re going to recommend faculty
members from the ad hoc committee
because these are the people who are
interested,” Kozik said. “We’re trying
to get people from all of the colleges.
“We hope that the University-
appointed committee, working in con
junction with the various colleges ...
will be able to come up with an organi
zation that is compatible with the Uni
versity and compatible with the goals
and desires of the faculty of the Univer
sity.”
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
Dr. John J. McDermott, distinguished professor of philosophy,
addresses faculty members at Thursday’s faculty senate meeting.
Student Academic Council established
By PHYLLIS HENDERSON
Battalion Staff
Student Government has organized a
Student Academic Council, which it
hopes will generate a flow of communi
cation from students to the administra
tive Academic Council.
The Academic Council is presently
the primary University-wide body
which deals with academic affairs. Of
the more than 160 University adminis
trators, deans, department heads and
faculty members on the council. Stu
dent Body President Ken Johnson is the
only student representative.
“They (other members of the council)
never see him or talk to him before the
meetings,” Nancy Nelson, coordinator
of the Student Academic Council, said.
“They don’t really have any idea what
the students want.”
Consequently, Nelson said, the
council was created to develop a good
relationship with members of the admi
nistrative Academic Council and to pro
vide these members with some idea of
May run for second senate term
Caperton prizes local support
Texas Senator Kent Caperton spoke to a crowd of
more than 300 supporters last night at a $50-per-
Staff photo by Brian Tate
couple fund-raising reception held at the College
Station Ramada Inn.
By NANCY WEATHERLEY
Battalion Staff
State Senator Kent Caperton of
Bryan thanked his supporters Thursday
night at a reception held in his honor
and said he “might try to run for a
second term.”
Caperton said he has tried to live up
to promises he made when he started
out two years ago and has always invited
public scrutiny in his duties as 5th Dis
trict senator serving Brazos County.
“I am convinced the founding fathers
wanted us to work up front, looking out
for the public’s interests,” Caperton
said before some 300 people at the drop-
in affair held at College Station Ramada
Inn.
Caperton said he has worked hard to
be open to the public and has tried to
understand all issues before the Senate
so he can best serve his district.
“I consider my job to be (a) service for
the public who has a stake in politics,”
he said.
Brazos County Judge Dick Holm-
green, who introduced Caperton, said
that even though he did not campaign in
support of Caperton for the Senate seat,
he has gained respect for the man be
cause of his performance in the Legisla
ture.
“Caperton has fulfilled his promise to
bring the wishes of Brazos County to
Austin and has helped maintain and en
hance Brazos County’s interest there,”
Holmgreen said.
Calvin R. Guest, who served as chair
man for the event, said the turnout was
extremely good and will help retire
Caperton’s campaign debt.
“We wanted to hold this event to con
gratulate Kent on the outstanding job
he did during his first session in the
Legislature,” Guest said.
Tickets for the event cost $50 a cou
ple. Any money left over after paying off
the campaign debt will go towards a new
campaign fund for his re-election,
Guest said.
student preferences on policy issues.
“We re not trying to put pressure on
them,” Kathy Bartholomew, student
vice president for academic affairs, said.
“We just want them to know how we
feel.”
Nelson said: “For about three years.
Student Government has been working
to try to implement this program.”
The final organizational meeting of
the council was held Tuesday and it will
begin its work in two weeks.
Its first goal is to get the program
established as a viable force at Texas
A&M University, Johnson said.
Johnson said several issues, such as
the Q-drop policy, night exams and
changing curricula, would be important
priorities for the council.
“It’s high time we finally firm up
decisions on these perennial tug-of-war
issues,” he said. “There can be some big
changes made. It’s going to help the
administration do its job. ”
Bartholomew said she doesn’t expect
problems in getting the faculty to accept
the council.
The council is made up of members
of Lambda'Sigma — the sophomore
honor society — and the junior honor
society. Two members will form a con
tact pair, and each contact pair will be
responsible for meeting with the Acade
mic Council member from their depart
ment once a month to discuss policy
issues.
Lamda Sigma and the junior honor
society were chosen as council repre
sentatives because they are good stu
dents and because they are eager to
become involved in the program. Nel
son said.
Student senators were not consi
dered for positions on the Student
Academic Council.
“The senators’ responsibilities are to
their constituents,” Bartholomew said.
“We re (Student Government) already
demanding a lot of their time. We need
people that are really excited (about the
project).”
Student senators will have input into
the council, but primarily through their
efforts on the Student Government
campus canvass.
Degree plan, check
procedures modified
By ELI JONES
Battalion Reporter
While Texas A&M seniors have be
gun preparations for graduation, many
have discovered that the degree plan
and degree check system has been
changed.
Students now are told to consult with
their advisers who will initiate the de
gree plan which is then sent to the col
lege’s dean’s office for approval. One
copy of the plan is given to the student,
one to the adviser and the dean’s office
keeps a copy.
But to ensure that the degree plan
does not become out-dated, no copy is
sent to the registrar’s office until one or
two semesters before the student plans
to graduate.
In the past, students have been dis
appointed with the way the registrar’s
office handles degree checks, Assistant
Registrar Don Gardner said. At times, it
would take a semester for a degree
check to be completed. Unnecessary
paperwork was involved, and occasion
ally, degree plans were outdated.
“Students would raise Cain when
their degree checks weren’t ready,”
Gardner said. “That’s not good because
we are supposed to provide a timely
service.”
Originally, the appropriate dean
made four copies of a student’s degree
plan: one copy was kept in the depart
mental file, one was given to the stu
dent, one was sent to the registrar’s
office in Heaton Hall and the original
copy was kept in the dean’s office.
Students who had completed 60 to 90
credit hours went to the registrar’s
office and applied for a degree check.
Registrars then checked whether re
quirements were fulfilled according to
their copy of the degree plan. But,
sometimes their copy was out-dated.
“Because some students would come
to the dean’s office to petition out of
courses, we would change their degree
plan, but the registrar’s office still kept
the original ... the now out-dated one,”
said Mary Robertson, an undergraduate
adviser in the College of Liberal Arts.
“This led to a lot of confusion.”
Overwhelming amounts of paper
were involved in one degree check, Dr.
Candida Lutes, associate dean in the
College of Liberal Arts, said. “Our new
er system is faster, more economical,
and more efficient,” she said.
The semester before a student gradu
ates, a copy of the degree plan now is
sent to the registrar’s office, and it auto
matically means a student is applying
for a degree check.
“That is when we warn students to go
by Heaton Hall and pick up their degree
check,” Robertson said.
Lutes said, “We also ask students
when they register if they are graduat
ing that particular semester.
“This enables us to catch graduating
seniors to update their degree plans. It’s
a little more work for advisers and secre
taries, but if it makes it easier for stu
dents, it’s worth the extra work. ”