Election commission
not enforcing rules
Running a fair and honest election was why the Student
Government Election Commission was formed. Again it appears
the commission has chosen to be a pliable pawn in the electoral
process it was formed to control.
The Battalion has learned there is evidence a number of the
candidates for student body president have spent more than the
$300 campaign limit allowed in Student Government rules.
It appears this is a fairly widespread practice, one of which
all candidates seem to be aware. There have been allegations
that past student body president candidates have exceeded the
spending limit. Unfortunately, the regulating body, in this case
the election commission, seems happy to ignore this serious
breach of ethics by the candidates.
But the regulation of candidate spending is so lax that com
pliance with the rule seems to be a moot question.
Incredibly, the election commission cannot force any candi
date to be removed from the election race. The only time the
commission — which was set up to monitor spending — can look
at the candidates’ receipts is after the election is over.
So realistically any candidate could do what he pleased and
still be elected.
What a simple way to run an election. The election commis
sion makes rules. The candidates ignore them. Nothing is done
to stop them. Everything runs smoothly.
What a laughable way to run an election.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Society also to blame
for problems in prison
We clung together
in the cool morning
air outside the gates
of the Ferguson Unit
near Madisonville,
Texas.
Brian
Pearson
“Your escort will be here in just a sec
ond,” chirped the crusty old guard at
the front gate.
We were a sleepy batch of journalism
students crazy enough to wake up early
and follow our teacher on a tour of a
men’s maximum security prison.
Coming down the road through acres
and acres of sprawling farmland, at a
distance the unit almost looked like a
university. But soon enough, the men
acing guard towers with their multiple
spotlight appendages could be seen
among the rows of barbed wire and the
high chain link fences.
The complex was a maze of red brick
buildings with barred windows. Several
inmates with stiff white uniforms were
gardening the well-kept grounds inside
The Battalion
USPS045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwestjournalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Brigid Brockman, Editor
Shelley Hoekstra, Managing Editor
Ed Cassavoy, City Editor
Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor
Michelle Powe, Editorial Page Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors
Kari Fluegel, Rhonda Snider
Assistant News Editors
Cami Brown, John Hallett, Kay Mallett
Assistant Sports Editor
Charean Williams
Entertainment Editors
Shawn Behlen, Leigh-Ellen Clark
Staff Writers Cathie Anderson,
Marcy Basile, Brandon Berry,
Dainah Bullard, Ann Cervenka,
Michael Crawford, Mary Cox,
Kirsten Dietz, Cindy Gay,
Paul Herndon, Trent Leopold,
Sarah Oates, Jerry Oslin,
Tricia Parker, Cathy Riely,
Marybeth Rohsner, Walter Smith
Copy Editors Jan Perry, Kelley Smith
Make-up Editors , Karen Bloch,
Karla Martin
Columnists Ed Cassavoy, Kevin Inda,
Loren Steffy
Editorial Cartoonist Mike Lane
Sports Cartoonist Dale Smith
Copy Writer Cathy Bennett
Photo Editor Katherine Hurt
Photographers Anthony Casper,
Wayne Grabein, Bill Hughes, Frank Irwin,
John Makely, Peter Rocha, Dean Saito
Editorial Policy
I he Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper
operated as a community service to Texas A&M and
Bryan'College Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep
resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty
or the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for
students in reporting, editing and photography classes
within the Department of Communications.
Letters Policy
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in
length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters
for stylo and length but will make every effort to maintain
the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must
include the address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday
during Texas A&M regular semesters, except tor holiday
and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are S 10.75
per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full
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Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald
Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843. Editorial staff phone number: (409) 845 2630. Ad
vertising: (409) 845-2611.
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.
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ion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843
and outside the fence. One of the
• guards told us these people had earned
a certain amount of trust and were al
lowed to work around outside the build
ings. Others, he said, were usually con
fined to their cells, which was just fine
with me.
After being identified and cleared,
we were led through the gates and taken
to a small room inside the main building
where we were briefed before the tour
began.
“We’re going to have some fun this
morning,” said Bill Doyle, education di
rector and our tour guide for the morn-
ing.
“Fun? Sure, it’s going to be a real par
ty,” I thought to myself.
Doyle told us the prisoners of the unit
had been in trouble many times before
and had “tried very hard to get into pri
son.”
“These people have some very se
rious problems,” he said.
We were met with cold stares, the
smell of ammonia and cigarette smoke
as we were led through several corridors
and into a main hall where inmates were
scattered along the walls. A pot-bellied
guard kept a close eye on an inmate
mopping near our group.
We were a fresh breeze from the out
side with our colors and our freedom.
This place was a dead end of life where
time was lost inside the maze of concrete
walls.
I caught many of the inmates gawk
ing at the women in our group as we
were taken down the clean-slick hallway
and into a cell area. Most of the tiny cells
were decorated with kinky centerfold
pictures.
Occasionally, I accidentally locked
eyes with an inmate and engaged in a
stare-down battle which I always lost.
Seeing the uniformed prisoners
standing in lines it was hard to remem
ber each one had a story. Doyle was
asking us to be understanding, but it
was hard to be sympathetic while imagi
ning the violence and crime these young
men had caused in our society.
The prisoners all around us were
strangely quiet. There were no obscene
remarks, no whistles and no attempts to
harass the outsiders. I imagined Billy-
bob Badass the Guard speaking to the
inmates shortly before our arrival.
“Step out a line boys and I’ll stick yer
head in the toilet and flush ya to the
Gulf,” he said. Maybe they were told
they would receive an extra helping of
banana-slop pudding at dinner for good
behavior.
In any case, something was said to
subdue these wild men and our tour was
completed without an incident.
Why the prisons are packed to the
brim is puzzling and is an indication of
some fault within our society. The in
mates in Ferguson with their petrified
lifestyles will probably never be changed
or “cured,” as Doyle put it. The only so
lution is to design a system that keeps
these vicious criminals out of our hair
and prevents them from killing each
other.
Good luck.
20 512K
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By Jeff
Staff
A 20-terminal
student use is noA
mons.
1 For the first tin
complete com pi
vided by Texas t
king to the library
A Colorado i
:( tin, working thr
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5] 2K Macintosh
Macs, in a study i
the snack bar.
The lab held
Wednesday for si
MX argument similar to geome
ByJUN
Staff
WASHING-
TON — Some
thing that is an in
teresting concept
in geometry is a
depressing com-
monplace in
Washington. In
geometry, a line
can have length
without breadth.
In Washington,
George
Will
the argument about the MX missile is
like that.
with an MX that others wanted for rea
sons related to arms control. Arms con
trollers are not actually hostile to strate
gic rationality, if rationality is
compatible with arms agreements. But
first things — agreements — first. Arms
controllers know that the way to get
agreements is to agree to limit things
that are easy to count. So SALT I lim
ited the number of launchers. Result?
Bigger launchers packed with more
warheads—more eggs in more vulnera
ble baskets, like MX.
Most MX opponents are ardent for
the arms-control “process,” one sour
fruit of which is . . . the MX. In 1972 the
misbegotten ABM treaty banned de
fense of ICBMs, thereby making a ne
cessity of what many analysts, then as
now, considered a virtue: deterrence
based on mutual vulnerability. SALT I,
signed simultaneously, was permissive
and porous. (For example, it limited but
neglected to define “heavy” missiles.) So
the Soviet buildup, unconstrained by
SALT I but legitimized by it, soon made
U.S. land-based ICBMs vulnerable to a
disarming first strike.
MX will survive in Congress this year
and by next year will have become a jobs
program and probably will be invulne
rable (to Congress, not Soviet missiles).
It will survive this year thanks to only
one thing — the arms control “process,”
in which MX is, the administration says,
a “bargaining chip.” Actually, it is a bar
gaining chip between the administration
and Congress, which supports it lest
U.S. negotiators be weakened.
The MX was supposed to cure the
vulnerability of Minutemen ICBMs in
fixed silos. But after a decade spent con
sidering 34 basing modes, the Pentagon
now proposes to put MX in “improved”
silos. The Reagan administration could
candidly admit that this might create a
“ use-’em-or-lose-’ em” hair-trigger situa
tion in crisis, and could plausibly argue
that his might deter Soviets from pro
voking a crisis. Instead, the administra
tion lamely argues that improved “har
dening” makes silos invulnerable after
all.
The President says the MX vote is “a
vote on Geneva.” By “Geneva” he means
the arms-control “process,” during
which, since SALT I, the number of nu
clear warheads has quadrupled and the
Soviets have deployed 21 new nuclear
weapons systems. So, although it is fit
ting that Congress supports a new mis
sile in order to sustain the arms-control
“process,” it is dismal that, to sell this
misbegotten missile, Reagan has become
a zealous worshipper at the barren altar
of arms control.
Texas A&M sti
chance to visit m<
, . ... . ftriesaround the v
Nicaragua s, or its rifles to overthroiG air f are> no SU]
that regime, or even its dollars adequtjttary. j us t go to
tely to support Nicaraguan freedoj dent Center,
fighters, cannot show relevant “resolvt'i The “visit” is I
by buying high-tech hardwart. Mat lexas A&M at
West is losing the Third World Wan*jural displays, a f
small wars, not bis missile corapaii«i‘™ d s ^ n ^
Perhaps the President means iMtional Students A
Moscow considers the MX vote a testt:|gin Monday.
U.S. “resolve” to spend for defense.Bj
Moscow would be distraught wereCoci, ntv-six coui
gress to spend the MX dollars on rfq J re(| for the s cul
and ships we might actually use, andojgL^ anc j j t j s esI
aid for freedom fighters in Nicarapaj 1,000 costumes w
Cambodia, Vietnam and Afghanisiai fashion show. Th
Congress could use the small change dude foods from .
buy better radio transmitters tooverriiH ^ ^ ^ .
Soviet jamming that violates the H®co Ura ge%he
sinki accords which, speakingot local community
the administration lacks the resolvetMith foreign stud
repudiate as dead letters. pez. the president
But there is the rub, and the reasoiB
why it is sensible to hold your nose,piF
your teeth and support MX. IfCongresI
kills MX, it will use the dollars to solvef
different vulnerability crisis — the vull
nerability of Congress to constituent!
angered by domestic spendingcuts. I
The current round of arms controrj
ling in Geneva may last a generation.ft
perhaps now that the kills have seizet
control of the Kremlin, the paced
quicken, in which case the two sides®
reach a deadlock quickly. Theonlyce
tainty is that the “process” will havepro
duced MX, a missile conceived as art
The Reagan administration is stuck
He says Moscow cot\s\devs \he MX
vote a test of U.S. “resolve.” But a nation
driven from Lebanon by a truck bomb
cannot restore its reputation by buying a
missile for which three administrations
have failed to find an adequate basing
mode. A nation that lacks the resolve to
use its ships to quarantine a regime like
sub of SAVA \, ^esvaied dutm^km
VI aud bom u\ v\\e \\o\se of
Actually, the MX argument resenM
not geometry, which is reasonable, tal
modern art — say, abstract expressij
nism, which is the work of the confused I
sold to the earnest.
George Will is a
Washington Post.
columnist
LETTERS:
SG not only group
that deserves credit
EDITOR:
In the Tuesday, March 5 edition of
I he Battalion, headlines read, “S.G. to
review A&M blood collection policy.”
Throughout Trent Leopold’s article on
the upcoming evaluation of which blood
collection agency should be allowed on
campus, there was implication that Stu
dent Government and only Student
Government had anything to do with
the Aggie Blood Drive.
consistently neglected to recognize APO
and OPA for their work on the Aggie
Blood Drive while giving an overabun
dant amount of attention to Student
Government for work which, was done
by others. I do not know if this lack of
recognition is intentional or merely ig
norance on the part of The Battalion
staff, but it is high time that it stop. Each
semester APO has in excess of 100 of its
members working alongside the Wadley
staff. This is compared to the 3 to 5 Stu
dent Government workers.
In reality, the Aggie Blood Drive is
organized and ran by a Blood Drive
committee consisting of members from
two other organizations as well. These
organizations are: Alpha Phi Omega
(APO) and Omega Phi Alpha (OPA), a
National Service Fraternity and Na
tional Service Sorority respectively.
These same committee members make
up the Blood Drive Review Board.
These Review Board members decide
which blood collecting agency will be al
lowed on campus. Not Student Govern
ment, as Leopold’s article would imply.
This letter is not written to discredit
any group for work they have done. Ev
eryone has done the part in which they
were assigned. This letter is only written
so that due credit may be given to those
who have worked so hard to make the
Aggie Blood Drive what it is today. APO
and OPA, you definitely are due that
credit.
paign signs for junior and senior p I
leaders. We realize that there are so# |
people who feel that certain peoplfl
should not be yell leader, but to revef
to pranks such as vandalism is notonM
childish, but also immature. OneoftM
most important things to remembt 1
when we vote for yell leader is tM
whether he wears a uniform or blm
jeans is not the issue. The issue shouH
be the person in the clothes and howlq
represents the University. Yes, congrai
ulations for your maturity and forbeiif
such a “good Ag.”
Mary Rucker, ’86
Scott Palmer, ’86
Com
Fraternity’s help,
time appreciated
EDITOR:
C,
Cripple i
James Fairfield, ’85
Blood Drive Review Board
Defacing signs
childish vandalism
The Boys Club of Brazos CouD?
staff, Board of Directors and member
would like to thank Sigma Nu fraten#
for their help during our 1985 Bask 1
ball season.
EDITOR:
Brian Pearson is a senior journalism
major.
This is not the first time The Battal
ion has listed Student Government as
the sole sponsor of the Aggie Blood
Drive. Over the years The Battalion has
We would really like to congratulate
the person or group of people who
thought it necessary to deface the cam-
Sigma Nu fraternity members ca#|
to the Boys Club four evenings e
week and volunteered their time to 1
referee and supervise our basketball
program. Thanks for helping makeou 1
program a success!
Boys Club of Brazos County
9 <Hlj n
iversi