TKe Battalion
Serving the University community
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Vol 78 No. 120 CISPS 0453110 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, March 28, 1984
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onnecticut win:
Hart landslide
United Press International
Lowy said,
lournamei
m membeuBHARTFORD, Conn. — Sen. Gary
of togetheimrt got back, on the victory trail
lost in diMiesday, winning the Connecticut
i the standiBimary by a landslide over Walter
go up thJondale and gaining momentum
oeat, but it Bing into next week’s battle for dele-
Ble-rich New York State.
■With 79 percent of Connecticut’s
n consists® precincts reporting. Hart had
aallclasses B,779 or 55 percent, Mondale
■,680 or 30 percent and civil rights
gnition fotBivist Jesse Jackson had 15,284 or 9
d- peicent.
Bln the battle for the 52 delegates at
Bke in Connecticut, a preliminary
IBfBBuntgave Hart 34 and Mondale 18.
VV | Bin Mondale still kept a big lead in
1 ytht battle for the 1,967 delegates
’■eded to win the nomination,
told themB^ e * alesl nationwide UPI dele-
heirhei count including Connecticut
sers.” showed Mondale had 698, Hart 429
ners C ou an(! J ac hs°n 87.
feeling t|»B^ onnec ^ ct was a lopsided victory
whoL ^ 01 l * ie Colorado Senator, but not
ill of Fan 111 x P ecte< ^ s *nce he had cam-
nl intninJigned heavily in the state where he
spent six years studying religion and
that I * av at ^ a i e while Mondale had vir-
)w ” S 2 K j jMy ignored Connecticut.
Corb«S^ e viclor y K ave Hart a sweep of
th^ so Be caucuses and primaries iti all six
|Ni v England States this year, and his
W'ho si fintprimary victory in two weeks,
ad coadiB^ arL svve P l parts of Connecti-
v wipe Igh scoring heavily in the suburbs.
the now
ct.
so many
h we coni
’ Meyer
Mondale had his best showing in the
cities of the state, but still lost them to
Hart. Jackson was strongest in the
cities, with a 22 percent vote in Hart
ford in the early count. In Bridge
port, the state’s largest city, Jackson
was running ahead of Mondale with
only one precinct left to report.
put
gether the same coalition that has
brought him victory in earlier battles
— the young, affluent, well edu
cated, suburban and independent
voters.
CBS reported that Hart carried a
majority of both the labor and Jewish
vote — probably Mondale’s two
strongest constituencies in his earlier
victories.
“We’re going to lose and lose
badly,” Gov. William O’Neill, Mon
dale’s strongest supporter in the
state, said less than a half hour after
the polls dosed at 8 p.m. EST. Con
necticut, with one of the fastest com
puterized voting counting systems in
the nation, had nearly all its votes
counted within the first hour.
A light turnout was reported
across the state despite perfect sunny
spring weather. Party officials esti
mated a third of the state’s 660,000
Democrats would cast ballots.
Nearly all the state’s Democratic
leadership had backed Mondale ex
cept Sen. Christopher Dodd, whose
early endorsement of Hart sparked
instant speculation in the state that
he was among the senator’s vice pres
idential possibilities.
Hart needed the Connecticut vic
tory to overcome the perception that
his campaign might be slumping af
ter its dramatic early victories. After
Mondale won the season opening
Iowa caucuses as expected, Hart
scored one of the major upsets of po
litical history by winning the New
Hampshire primary with ease.
That startled the slumbering Mon
dale political machine, but it was slow
to make a comeback as Hart followed
with victories in the Maine caucuses
and Vermont’s beauty contest pri
mary the next week.
Then two weeks later,Mondale got
back in the race, winning in Alabama
and Georgia while Hart scored big in
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Florida.
In the most important contest to
date, Mondale scored a big victory
last week in Illinois, setting the stage
for the big showdown next week in
New York and again the week after
in Pennsylvania where 172 delegates
3re at stake.
{Rate plan criticized
hat would I
i the aisles B
ByTRICIA PARKER
Staff Writer
■ The Texas A&M System Board of
Rt ents voted Tuesday to increase
£ ithi rent rates for married student
f fV ^ ous ' n g 10 a l eve l so high that it will
be cheaper to live off campus, claims
Ithe president of the married student
: on third housing organization,
ir, senditlt'B “The only way you will be able to
!iv( here cheaper (than off campus)
doubled is not to live here,” says Chuck Mc-
ake it l-UCullough, president of the organiza-
owed witklbu. “The only people who will save
3-0 leadoumoney living here are the ones who
my Stewarijgo home every weekend or who don’t
ter Frank run their air-conditioners.”
first six iniB Jerry Smith, associate director of
its and stifusiness services says the proposal
^rsTomHipill raise rent in the fall of 1984 by
id Dave ip percent.
oies ont" 11 * “The increase is due to a state
jy, mandate to raise salaries of the crews
and simply to maintain the apart
ments,” Smith says.
e 1 1 Rent for married student apart-
l ments now runs from a low of $160 a
month for a one-bedroom unit up to
K52 for a two-bedroom, the average
is about $230 per month. The 3.2
percent increase would add five to
seven dollars to the bill. McCullough
says if he adds in the electric bills he
; 4'ght as well be living in a regular
1 japartment.
B McCullough says several commer
cial apartments offer comparable
shooni- Tjts at prices ranging from $225.
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They also offer swimming pools, Ja
cuzzis, trips and prizes which mar
ried student housing does not.
“We aren’t saying we want a swim
ming pool or carpet or any of the
other amenities offered by other
apartments,” he says, “since we need
to hold costs down. But when making
a comparison, these things must be
considered.”
“Student housing is just not com
peting with the local market,” he
says. “Other apartments are offering
bonuses and their rent is actually fall
ing. But ours went up last year and
it’s going up again next year.”
Frank Nicolas, the manager of stu
dent apartments, says married stu
dent housing is not in competition
with commmercial apartment com
plexes so the fluctuations in their
rents do not affect it. Married stu
dent apartments are run on a break
even basis, he says, and rents are set
so that income just covers the cost of
their operation.
“It’s Ike apples and oranges,” Nic
olas says, “we’re not the same. These
are fine apartments but there are no
frills.”
There are five complexes located
around campus to provide low cost
housing for married students, in
cluding the Southside complex lo
cated behind the police station, and
the College Avenue, College View,
Hensel Terrace, and Avenue “A”
apartments, all located on the corner
of College and University Drive
across from Skaggs Alpha Beta.
Seven hundred and nine units are
are contained in the complexes.
Nicolas says electricity meters were
installed at the beginning of Septem
ber to reduce the costs to students
and to help cut down in the amount
of energy used. Since the meters
were installed, consumption of elec
tricity has dropped by 10 percent.
But costs to the students are another
matter, says McCullough.
“Sure, they cut the rent by $15 or
$20,” McCullough says, “but when
you add in a $50 or $60 electric bill,
it’s a pretty substantial rent increase.
The 3.2 percent proposed rate hike
for the fall of ’84 seems small, but I
fail to see the need after the whopper
last year.
McCullough says rent was cut by
about $20 in September, supposedly
the amount of the average electric
bill. But utility bills rang upward of
$50, actually increasing the rent, he
says.
Nicolas says that from figures he
has compiled, the average utility bill
is from $15 to $73, depending on the
complex. Any additional increases,
he says, are necessary to cover the ris
ing costs of labor and maintenace.
“We’re completely self-sufficient,”
he says. “We have to pinch pennies in
every fashion we can. If I have to pay
for something it has to come out of
someone’s pocket, and it’s the one of
the tenants.”
See HOUSING page 9
Photo by CHRISTINE THA YER
Up a tree
“Would you please detach your cat from my chest,’’was fire
fighter Rob Bordeau’s only comment after rescuing Maggie, a
7-month-old tabby cat from a tree. Her owner, Susan Talbot, a
senior journalism major from San Antonio, called the College
Station Fire Department after Maggie had been in the tree for
24 hours.
Parking
policies
toughen
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
In an attempt to crack down on
students, faculty and staff who re
peatedly ignore the parking regula
tions, the University Police Depart
ment has developed a new, tougher
policy for handling parking viola
tions.
According to the new policy, peo
ple with six or more tickets will not be
able to buy a parking permit for the
coming academic year until their
tickets are paid for.
“We have about 1,000 to 2,000 fac
ulty and staff with six or more tick
ets,” said Bob Wiatt, director of secu
rity and traffic for the University
Police Department. “We also have
some students who have 30 or 40
tickets and have been towed before,
but still haven’t paid for the tickets,”
he said.
A new twist to the University tow
ing procedure is any person with six
or more tickets could be towed at any
time, regardless of whether he is
parked illegally.
Such a person will not be able to
recover his car from the A-1 Wrecker
Service lot unless he presents a re
lease from the University Police De
partment. The release cannot be ob
tained without paying for the tickets.
Those unable to pay for all of their
tickets at once, such as offenders with
several hundred dollars worth of
tickets, can arrange to make weekly
payments to the University Police
Department.
These people will not be allowed
to park on campus until the pay
ments are complete and their park
ing permits will be scraped off the
rear windows of their cars.
“The bottom line is, folks, we’re all
going to be legal,” Wiatt said.
He said that “most people on cam
pus obey the parking regulations, but
we have a small minority of flagrant
violators.”
“This is not a punitive measure,”
he said. “It’s the only way to gain
some semblance of sanity in parking
on this campus. We want to em
phasize that the parking regulations
are in effect 24 hours a day and ap
ply to everyone, regardless of pos
ition.”
Ballot crisis corrected
By ROBIN BLACK
Staff Writer
Voter turnout for the student
body elections has been good so far
despite a near catastrophe — a short
age of the correct computer forms
fewer than 24 hours before the elec
tions were to begin.
But, thanks to some fast talking
and a lot of phone calls on the part of
Student Government election com
missioners, the worst did not hap-
pen.
“Monday 7 morning we received
12,000 ballots — computer forms, ac
tually — from IBM in Houston,” Pat
Wood, election commissioner, said.
“We were sent red forms, though.
and our computer program needed
the green form.
“So we started calling every de
partment on campus, checking to see
if they had any of the green forms we
needed. Those forms are the same
kind that are used in teacher evalua
tions, so we managed to scrape up
about 10,000 of them by Monday af
ternoon.”
If they had not been able to get
enough ballots, Wood said, they
would have had to drive to the IBM
office in Houston Monday night to
get the computer forms.
Now that they had the ballots, all
they needed were the voters. No
problems there either, Wood said.
“Just guessing from the stack of
ballots we have from Tuesday’s elec
tions,” he said, “I’d say about 4,500
people voted. We are shooting for
about 9,000 to turn out overall, so
we’re hoping that as many people
show up to vote today.”
About 6,700 students voted last
year.
With the exception of the ballot
crisis, things seem to have gone “very
smoothly,” he said.
“The ballot is correct this year,
we’ve had lots of outside help in
keeping the voting lines short,” he
said. He also said there have not been
any complaints about the limited
number of polling locations.
In Today’s Battalion
Local
• Texas A&M has begun a program to improve
the management skills of construction managers. See
story page 3.
State
• A 62-year-old employee with American Airlines
is suing the company for age discrimination. See story
page 11.
National
• A recent, widely-publicized Massachusetts gang
rape may be made into a TV dramatization. See story
page 9.
Regents pass proposed fee increases
during Board’s final day of meetings
By STEPHANIE M. ROSS
Staff Writer
Twenty-seven agenda items, in
cluding the proposed fee increases,
were passed without further dis
cussion at the final day of the Board
of Regents meetings Tuesday.
Seventeen fee increases, eight of
which affect the main campus, were
passed. Those fee increases include
increases in dormitory and married
student housing rates, parking per
mit rates, board plan rates, shuttle
bus rates, student service rates and
fines for parking in handicapped
spaces.
Resident hall increases will be 6
percent, or about $35, and the in
crease in married student apart
ments will be 3.2 percent. The in-
rease is attributed to operating costs
— electricity and phone service.
The rise in parking permits is the
most noticeable rate increase, with
red permits going from $36 to $78
and blue and green permits going
from $36 to $60. Faculty reserved
numbered permits will go from $72
to $114 and faculty reserved lot per
mits will go from $48 to $78. Ran
dom street permits will go from $36
to $60 and basement garage permits
will go from $96 to $ 150.
Before the increase was passed,
Vice Chairman William McKenzie
said that he approved of the in
creases, but that in the future the
Board should try to find ways to de
crease the fees, because they were al
ways being raised.
Planning for the new special
events center soon will be underway.
Regents authorized the chancellor to
negotiate for the preparation of the
center’s design. The Crane Ander
son Company was selected for the ar
chitectural engineering of the center.
The Board also gave the official
go-ahead for fundraising to begin
for construction of 48 suites at the
north end of Kyle Field.
Regents OK’d the creation of a De
partment of Speech Communication
and Theatre Arts and a bachelor of
arts in speech communication. The
department and the degree must be
approved by the state Coordinating
Board for colleges and universities.
Funds also were appropriated to
complete the Texas Plan for minority
recruitment at Texas A&M. The
plan includes recruitment .of mi
nority faculty, undergraduate and
graduate students. $987,270 was ap
propriated to the plan.
Four plaques were presented to re
gents donating money to the Sul Ross
scholarship fund by Corps Comman
dant Col. Donald L. Burton. They
were presented to Chairman H. R.
Bright, Royce E. Wisenbaker, David
G. Eller and Joe C. Richardson.
In lighter business, a resolution
was presented to Bright in apprecia
tion of his recently acquiring the Dal
las Cowboys football team.
The regent who presented the res
olution told Bright that he expects to
have the January meeting at the Su
per Bowl.
“After we’ve been to the Cotton
Bowl,” Bright replied.