Page 4/The Battalion/Thursday, March 21, 1985
Solicitors bothersome to students
Beware of magazine salesmen
By CATHIE ANDERSON
Staff Writer
If you’re waiting for magazines
ordered from a door-to-door
salesman on campus, you could be
waiting a long time.
Bob Wiatt, director of security
and traffic at Texas A&M, says that
while magazine salesmen often come
to sell their wares, it’s not often that
they produce the product. Salesmen
have been appearing on campus at
three-month intervals for several
years.
The salesmen are in violation of
A&M regulations since only Univer
sity-recognized organizations are al
lowed to sell on campus.
At rimes they’ll say they have a
permit to sell their magazines on
campus, Wiatt says. That permit is
usually only good for use in Bryan-
College Station though.
Wiatt says most salesmen don’t
have a permit from Bryan or College
Station and that off-campus students
wanting to know if a salesman is “on
the level” should ask to see a permit.
Dave Bergen, student activities
coordinator, says A&M officials have
warned both the salesmen and the
companies they work for about the
violations against University policy,
but with no success in stopping the
solicitation.
The salesmen, mostly young peo
ple, say they’re under pressure to
sell a lot of magazines, Bergen savs.
If they do, the salesmen say they get
good meals and better living acco
modations.
Their supervisors will tell them
not to cooperate with anyone and
not to identify themselves, he says.
“They don’t have identification,”
Bergen says, “but usually they’ll
show you a standard company card
where they write their names in.
They’ll say they won’t go back to the
dorms when we let them go, but
they’ll walk out the door and go
right over to a dorm and start selling
again.”
Wiatt says that the salesmen
usually travel in teams and use high-
pressure tactics to sell their mag
azines. Their tactics can be both in
sistent and intimidating.
“Many are tough guys recruited
from all over the country,” he says.
“They’re vanned into other areas of
the country.”
The University Police receive
about two reports per month on
magazine salesmen, Wiatt says. But
by the time the officers arrive at the
area the solicitor is gone.
They’re more often found in the
women’s dormitories or in married-
student housing, he says.
“If a sale is not consummated,”
Wiatt says, “ they become more and
more belligerent.”
He says that most of the students
who buy magazines do so to get rid
of the salesmen.
Associattxl Press
AUSTIN — Texas need
March presidential primary to
give both Democrats and Repub
licans an earlier — and therefore
more effective — voice in electing
the next president, state Demo
cratic Chairman Bob Slagle said
Wednesday.
But Slagle’s Republican coun
terpart, George Strake, coun
tered that “the system we have
now has been working well" and
told the House Elections Commit
tee that “il it ain't broke, don’t fix
it.”
After almost three hours of tes
timony, the measure for a presi
dential primary that would also
bind voters to a party for the rest
of the year was left as pending
business.
Rep. Clint Hackney, D Hom
ton and committee chairman
said a vote on the measure
bly would be taken next week.
Texas Republicans have beei
holding a presidential pritnati
for several years at thesametim
as the May party elections (o
state and local officials.
Democrats have a say inselett
ing the presidential nomine®
through delegates chosen for
party’s national convention.
"We want it flexible so the Re-
publicans can do what theywai
to do and we can do whatwewai
to do," Slagle said in describit
the proposal that arose froml
Democratic study committee al
ter widespread criticism of tie
party’s caucus system last suit
mer.
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