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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1981)
Battalion i' i Vol. 75 No. 57 32 Pages in 2 Sections Serving the Texas A&M University community Thursday, November 19, 1981 College Station, Texas US PS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 The Weather 1 1 Today Tomorrow High ... .73 High . . .67 Low ... .45 Low .. .42 Chance of rain. . . . . . 10% Chance of rain . um Testimony to end today GSSO-A&M case Ted Hajovsky, staff attorney, left; Dr. John J. Koldus, vice president for student services, center; and James B. Bond, vice chancellor for legal affairs, leave the courtroom in Houston )k Photo by Janet G. Joyce Wednesday after six hours of testimony at the GSSO vs Texas A&M University trial. Koldus is expected to be called as the defense’s final witness today. Student Senate votes against Greek recognition By NANCYFLOECK Battalion Stall After two months of consideration, the Student Senate Wednesday night voted against recommending Universi ty recognition of Greek councils. This decision was made after Student Both President ken Johnson presented .icommittee report which said the In- terfraternity Council and Panhetlenic Council withdrew their requests for recognition because they felt University financial policies were not in their best interest. The Senate then decided not to take favorable action toward recogni tion until the groups are willing to com ply with student organization policies. The Senate also approved five other proposals. If Agriculturist to publish Friday Agricultural journalism students have completed their fall semester tabloid, the Agriculturist, which will supplement The Battalion Friday . The purpose of the newspaper is to serve students, faculty and staff in the College of Agriculture and the Uni versity. It will contain articles on research and activities and personalities affect ing the future of agriculture at Texas A&M University and throughout the state and nation. The Agriculturist is published once each semester and serves as a learning project for agricultural journalism stu dents and members of the Texas A&M chapter of Agricultural Communica tors of Tomorrow. The students are responsible for all aspects of the newspaper production including story writing, photography, editing, advertising, layout and pro duction work. “The theme for this semester s issue ofthe Agriculturist is ‘Agriculture and the Future,’ focusing primarily on re search projects in the College of Agri culture at Texas A&M through educa tion. tin; Texas Agricultural Extension Service and the Texas Agricultural Ex periment Station, Julie Standard, editor of the Agriculturist, said. One recommended that Aggie Mus ter he included as a University excused absence, and that the event he sched uled for 6:30 p.m. each year. Beth .Castenson, education senator and author of the proposal, said this will allow students with late classes to attend Muster without being penalized. The consistent time will help the adminis tration in finplemen ting this, she added, as well as allow the Muster Com mittee to hold a barbecue before the ceremony. The main objection to the bill was that faculty would not he* able to deter mine which students attended Muster and which used it as an excuse to skip class. After minimal debate, the Senate also approved three bills that deal with pedestrian-vehicle safety, One asks University police to in crease ticketing of illegally parked motorcycles and mopeds and encour ages impounding the motorcycles and mopeds of repeat offenders. Graduate Off-Campus Senator Fred Seals, who wrote the hill, said the prop osal does more than punish offenders; it lets students and administrators know the Senate is concerned about the safety and appearance of the campus. The Senate also approved a recom mendation that calls for continuing ex pansion of motorcycle and moped park ing areas. These new spaces are to he along streets and in parking lots, the recommendation says. The last of these hills recommends that a committee he formed to study- problems and possible solutions of in creased bicycle usage on campus. This committee should consist of students, administrators and at least one member of the Texas A&M Wheelmen Club, the bill says. Judy Marcotte, student affairs coor dinator for student services, said the committee was suggested by John Kol dus, vice president for student affairs, yvho felt students and administrators heed to address these problems together. After lengthy debate, the Senate also •approved the establishment of a com mittee made up of nine senators to over- ;see the development and administra tion of Campus Canvasses, informal stu dent surveys. Prior to this, the execu tive branch of the student senate had complete control in this area. Senate Republicans try to avert Reagan veto United Press International W ASHINGTON — Seeking to avert a veto by President Reagan, Senate Re publicans are looking for budget cuts small enough for Congress hut large enough to satisfy Reagan. They struggled with the matter Wednesday, planned to meet with all GOP senators early today and then, on the Senate floor, offer an amendment aimed at reducing a $417.4 billion spending hill that is needed to keep the government from shutting down at mid night Friday. COP leaders said Wednesday they were not sure what form the amend ment would take. The White House has made it clear that Reagan would veto the measure without further reduc tions. Staff sources said the draft contained a smaller percentage cut than Reagan requested because new calculations showed a smaller cut would achieve the By DENISE RICHTER 45 All rights to this story reserved Battalion Staff HOUSTON — Testimony in the Cay Student Service Organization vs. Texas A&M University trial is expected to end today, attorneys in the case say. Lonny F. Zwiener, assistant attorney general representing Texas A&M, said the defense plans to call Dr. John J. Koldus, vice president for student ser vices, as its final witness. In November 1976, Koldus wrote a letter to the GSSO, explaining why its request for University recognition was denied. In the letter he said it would he inappropriate for a state institution to support a student organization which is likely to incite, promote and result in illegal acts. A few months later, the GSSO filed a federal civil rights suit against the Uni versity. And after a four-year battle over a legal technicality, the ease finally land ed in federal court in Houston this year. In testimony Wednesday, Dr. Ken neth Nyberg, former faculty adviser and witness for the GSSO, said that 80 per cent of the universities granting doctor al degrees have gay groups on campus. The other 20 percent have no gay groups; however, the groups are not prohibited on any campus, he said. Nevertheless, Dr. Paul Cameron, a psychologist and witness for the de fense, said recognition of a gay group could lead to an increase in the rate of homosexual behavior. “Homosexuality is an infection with social consequences, he said. “It is an appetite which ... results in adverse so cial and personal consequences ... and appetites are acquired. “It would certainly appear that hav ing a place for gays ... on campus for social events and recruiting activities would increase homosexual activities on campus. “As one legitimizes a particular form of sexual behavior, one opens the door for people who otherwise wouldn t countenance seeing (homosexuality) as a possibility.” Dr. Charles Webb, a physician with the Texas Department of Public Health and a witness for the defense, raised another argument against recognition of the organization, saying that male homosexuals are more susceptible to venereal diseases. The University is seeking to prove that, because the rate of venereal dis eases such as infectious syphilis and gonorrhea is much greater among homosexuals than among the rest of the population, condoning homosexuality would contribute to a spread of the dis eases. Webb said of the 3,896 males who contracted infectious syphilis in 1980, 1,704, or 44 percent, were homosex uals. This figure is disproportionate to the number of homosexual males in the population, he said. However, he said the incidence rate of venereal disease in female homosex uals is extremely low. “We don t direct our attention to female homosexuals be cause they’re not a health problem,” he said. Despite testimony addressing the possible effects of GSSO recognition, U.S. District Judge Ross N. Sterling said Wednesday that the only question the court will deal with is whether the Constitution requires recognition of a group whose members have not been deprived of individual rights. Patrick Wiseman, attorney for the CSSO, said the plaintiffs will base their case on the First Amendment guarantee of free speech and assembly: “All the plaintiffs have to show is that their rights were violated and then the burden (of proof) shifts to the government.” The government must then show that the denial of University recognition was not a violation of the First Amendment or that there was compelling reason to override the First Amendment, he said. Zwiener said: “With the background of extremes to which the First Amend ment has been taken (as a defense), it s very difficult to ever restrain anything if you can put a First Amendment gloss on it. If (the GSSO vs. Texas A&M ease) is a First Amendment ease, we have trouble.” However, Texas A&.M will try to use the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause as a defense, he said. The 14th Amendment says that no state will he allowed to make or enforce any law abridging the privileges of Un ited States citizens; deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without clue process of law, nor deny any person the* equal protection of the law. in 'exas A&M is permitted to use the 14th Amendment as a defense, it will only have to show that there was a ra tional basis for denying the CSSO rec ognition, Zwiener said. Using the amendment, the University can argue that recognition of thp CSSO will threaten heterosexuals rights to ecpial protection of the law. The University is prepared to do this, Zwiener said. Academic policy changes take effect in engineering By TIM FOARDE Battalion Staff Changes in the academic policy of the College of Engineering went into effect this week with preregistration for the spring semester. However, confusion between policy changes made by the College of En gineering and a separate statement of changes effected by the Board of Re gents has left some engineering stu dents wondering which changes apply to whom. Dr. Stan H. Lowy, assistant clean of the College of Engineering, said the changes that affect students already in the college include new probation re quirements and admittance standards for junior and senior level engineering courses. Overcrowded classes and a demand for specific courses, Lowy said, have caused the College of Engineering to raise its academic standards. With the exception of freshmen stu dents, probation terms will he granted only to those students whose grade point deficiencies are not more than nine points below a 2.0 GPR, Lowy said. Students whose grades point defi ciency is 10 or more points below a 2.0 GPR will not be admitted to the Univer sity the following semester. Students on academic probation who do not meet the terms of their probation will also he dropped, he said. More than 1,000 students in the Col lege of Engineering, (about 12 percent), have been blocked from preregistration for next semester pending the outcome of this semester s final grades. Those dropped may be readmitted if they show evidence of “improved potential for academic suncess and can reduce their grade point deficiency to nine grade points below a 2.0 their first semester hack, Lowy said. Satisfactory improved academic potential might include successful com pletion of engineering courses at another institution or engineering work experience, he said. The College of Engineering will also enforce a new standard for admittance to junior and senior level engineering courses. Students may not take junior en gineering courses if their overall GPR is below 2.0. And senior engineering courses may he taken onlv if the student’s overall GPR is at least 2.0 and their GPR in their engineering courses is at least 2.0. The College of Engineering also made changes in the admittance re quirements for fall 1982 incoming fresh men, transfer and out-of-state students, that will he printed in next fall s student handbook, Lowy said. Changes also were made by the Board of Regents in the engineering portion of the Regent’s Enrollment Management Statement. These changes raise the standard for taking junior and senior level engineer ing courses, Lowy said, hut these new requirements apply only to students en tering Texas A&M in the fall of 1982 and thereafter. A minimum cumulative GPR of 2.25 will he required to take junior level en gineering courses. Senior level engineering courses will require an overall GPR of 2.25 and a cumulative GPR of 2.25 in all engineer ing courses. These higher standards will not apply to anyone enrolled in the College of Engineering prior to fall of ‘82, Lowy said. same reduction in dollars that Reagan is seeking. The proposal developed during a day of frantic negotiations that began after Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker found there was inadequate sup port for a 5 percent reduction. Reagan had requested the 5 percent across-the-board cut, saying that would he half of what he originally asked from Congress in September — a 12 percent across-the-board reduction in domestic spending. But Baker and Sen. Paul Laxalt, R- Nev., were expected to press Reagan to accept a 3.5 percent compromise at a blacktie dinner the president hosted for Republican senators Wednesday night. They also hoped to sell him on including defense spending, a sticking point for some senators. Staff aides said the 3.5 percent figure being discussed would not he across the hoard. It s those Hushed job-offer blues Photo by Dong Hamakcr These graduating senior engineers seem to be Villarreal, left, examines his most recent feeling blue after looking over “flush” letters negative response. Ken Crowe, center, and rejecting them from possible jobs. Mike Mike Perez search the want-ads for jobs. V f"