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Thursday is no longer Focus day.
Because of The Battalion’s increased volume of advertising, Focus,
the weekly entertainment supplement, now will be published on
Fridays.
Today’s television schedule is on page 7 of The Battalion, so you
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The Battalion
Serving the University community
ol 75 No. 104 USPS 045360 20 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 25, 1982
Three-judge panel
to rule on removing
White from case
United Press International
DALLAS — A three-judge panel
charged with drafting legislative re
districting plans is considering mo
tions by the Texas governor and
House speaker to remove Attorney
General Mark White as their lawyer in
the case.
The panel is expected to make a
ruling on the motions late today.
Both Gov. Bill Clements and
Speaker Bill Clayton are named as
defendants in a redistricting suit that
was pending before the court when
the Justice Department declared the
state’s House and Senate districts in
valid.
The Justice Department said the
plans illegally diluted the voting
strengths of blacks and Mexican-
Americans.
Clements was named as a defen
dant because he is the state’s highest
political figure and Clayton because
he was a member of the five-man
panel that drew the new House and
Senate districts because of problems
with the plans passed by the Legisla
ture.
After the adverse ruling by the Jus
tice Department, the court agreed to
redraw the districts and to take sug
gestions on the configuration of the
districts from all parties involved in
the original suit.
The original lawsuit was filed by
two Republican lawmakers, several
people active in the Texas GOP and
the Mexican American Legal Defense
and Education Fund. They contend
the districts discriminated against Re
publicans, minorities and urban resi
dents.
Clayton, Clements and Secretary of
State David Dean all have been openly
critical of White’s handling of the
case, saying he has taken actions with
the court without consulting them.
White and Dean have had a parti
cularly heated exchange, with Dean
contending that White has kept state
officials in the dark about the case and
White countering that the state has
only one interest in the case and one
lawyer — himself.
The motions by Clayton and Cle
ments are both pending before U.S.
District Judge Jerry Bucnmeyer. Also
on the panel are U.S. District Judges
Carolyn Randall and Barefoot San
ders.
Senators designate sites
for upcoming elections
by Cyndy Davis
Battalion Staff
Student senators Wednesday night
designated nine polling places for up
coming spring elections after consid
erable debate about the ninth loca
tion.
Senators approved these locations
proposed by Election Commissioner
George Crowson: the Academic and
Agency Building, Zachry Engineer
ing Center, the Memorial Student
Center, Harrington Classroom Cen
ter, Sterling C. Evans Library and Sbi-
sa Dining Hall for the two-day elec
tions. The Kleberg Animal Science
Center and the Veterinary Medicine
Complex will be polling sites for one
day only.
Crowson said the commission
chose places that are accessible to the
most students, emphasizing academic
rather than living areas of campus.
An exception was made for Sbisa
since one-fifth of the student popula
tion eats there, he said.
However, those polling places
were later recalled for consideration
by Senator George Boozalis who said
a south campus polling site was
needed also.
Senator Mark Ely agreed, saying,
“The point is to get people involved,
we want people to get out and vote.”
Senators then approved the addi
tion of Heldenfels Hall to the list of
polling locations for March 30 and 31.
In other business, senators voted
down a bill calling for support of the
MSC Council’s electronic message
center. Senator Greg Hood said sena
tors need more information about the
project before they can support it.
The Department of Census and
Research Organization Bill, recom
mending formation of such a depart
ment to provide a statistically valid
method of gathering student view
points, passed unanimously.
Senators conducted campus can
vasses last fall which failed to provide
representative student responses to
survey questions.
Also approved was the Dead Week
Library Bill, a proposal that the Sterl
ing C. Evans Library stay open until 2
a.m. beginning May 1. The bill also
allocates $190 for the project.
The Parking Research Bill was in
troduced and passed, asking that an
external research group conduct stu
dies on campus parking, traffic and
pedestrian problems. The bill also
calls for recommendations to be made
to the University’s five-year master
planning committee.
“This problem has been seriously
neglected for so long,” Chris Lang
ford, student vice president, for stu
dent services said. “The time has
come to deal with it.”
Langford said research by an ex
ternal firm would have more emph
asis with the Texas A&M System
Board of Regents than would re
search conducted by the System.
Senators also appointed the fol
lowing students to senate seats: Mary
Ann French, Keith Carmichael, Mark
Jameson, Robert Ruiz and Debbie
Moy.
Judicial Board Chairman Lance
Wright announced that the College of
Liberal Arts Senior senate seat is open
and that Matt Woodruff, who was the
only original applicant for the posi
tion, will be considered. If Woodruff
is not appointed, additional applica
tions will be accepted.
Magna Carta to be on display in the MSC
Vandiver welcomes document to U.S.
= by Steven B. Larkin
Battalion Reporter
Everybody who is interested in li
berty is going to be touched by this
document,” said Texas A&M Presi
dent Frank E. Vandiver Wednesday,
as he welcomed the arrival of the
Magna Carta at Houston’s Intercon
tinental Airport.
J Vandiver was part of a University
delegation that met the Very Rev.
Oliver Finennes, dean of the Lincoln
Cathedral in England, who accompa
nied the ancient parchment on its
flight to the United States.
“Seeing a 750-year-old document
concerned about the basics of human
freedom is a great experience for any
one in the West,” Finennes said. He
has brought the document to Amer
ica on previous visits.
H The Magna Carta, carried by three
armed guards, was protected by a spe
cially designed case and was never
opened for exhibit at the press recep
tion. Information concerning the
location of the 13th century docu
ment is being kept confidential until it
arrives for display at the University
campus Sunday.
P The fragile parchment will be open
for public exhibit at the Memorial
Student Center Sunday through
Tuesday.
About 8,000 visitors are expected
to view the document during its stay
on the campus, says J. Wayne Stark,
special assistant to the University
president, specifically for cultural de
velopment. Stark has served as head
of the committee responsible for
bringing the document to the Univer
sity.
Texas A&M is the initial stop for
the 14-week nationwide tour that will
take the historical document to Mis
sissippi, Tennessee, North and South
Carolina and Virginia. This is the
fifth time the document has been on
public exhibit in the United States.
Signed and sealed by King John in
an historic meeting at Runnymede in
1215, the Magna Carta was a treaty
between the king and his barons that
guaranteed the rights of all people
and made the king subject to law.
Some of the provisions of the Magna
Carta provided that no one could be
deprived of his right to life, liberty or
property without due process.
The $14,750 needed to bring the
Magna Carta to the Unversity was
raised through private donations, a
$1,650 grant from the Texas Com
mission for Humanities and a $2,000
donation by the city of College Sta
tion.
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What’s U p
12
3
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17
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14
forecast
Today’s forecast: Overcast and
rainy with temperatures in the
mid-50s. Friday’s forecast calls for
mostly cloudy skies with cool tem
peratures and a 50 percent chance
of rain.
University president Dr. Frank E.
Vandiver greets the Very Rev. Oliver
Finennes, dean of the Lincoln Cathedral in
England, at Houston’s Intercontinental
staff photo by David Fisher
Airport Wednesday afternoon. The Rev.
Finennes accompanied the Magna Carta —
sealed in a special case due to its age and
condition — to the United States.