The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Cathie Anderson, Editor Kirsten Dietz, Managing Editor Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Frank Smith, City Editor Sue Krenek, News Editor Ken Sury, Sports Editor newspaper oper- ryan-College Sta- Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supportin; ated as a community service to Texas A&M and tion. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily represent 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 Depart ment of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re quest. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTTR: Send address changes to The Batudion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843. Technical difficulties X>0U'B».^ STAMOACb* ItJ AC-T""""" ffO COR iVAce P(R06,|CAH yevv-c, om ook s©,©oo ProPte De’-SPITf' HtU-tcUi OF HlC6i TKAvete-b, TkeeF hAvb CA/cy TF'N cAsuAt-Tlft. Members of the student-run video yearbook submitted their res ignations Friday, citing ongoing conflicts with Educational Broad casting Services. The yearbook, one of the first of its kind in the na tion, was to be produced by students for students. But, unfortunately for A&M, that’s not the way it worked out. The staffs troubles began when approval was given by the presi dent’s office for two video yearbooks — one produced by EBS, the broadcasting arm of Texas A&M, and one produced by Student Publications. At that office’s direction a compromise was reached this summer to resolve the dual yearbook problem. According to the agreement, the student staff would produce the yearbook with equipment rented from EBS. But mini-camera rental costs $30 per hour. And on local shoots, the wages of an EBS student technician also had to be paid. This meant that the Video Aggieland project would not break even opera tionally for four or five years instead of the two years that had origi nally been projected — an expensive compromise. To add insult to compromise, EBS Director Dr. Mel Chastain said he was unsure whether the equipment or the students were to blame for the taping problems, which resulted in the loss of tapes of Fish Camp and All-University Night. But a look at the experience of the video yearbook staff shows the students are more than competent. Ricky Telg, the former pro ducer, has worked at KBTX-TV, Channel 3, for almost three years, and Andy Richardson, the former associate producer, has worked there for two. Both have used mini-cameras extensively. The video yearbook staff also had a training session at KAMU- TV, Channel 15, prior to any taping for the yearbook. In addition, several other staff members took classes at Channel 15 and used sim ilar equipment before the news department was dropped in Summer 1985. This, makes it unlikely that the students were unfamiliar with the equipment. The video yearbook staff resigned because it felt it could not pro duce a quality product for the students with the equipment provided by EBS. It doesn’t matter if the root of the Video Aggieland’s problems was a planning error, poor equipment, lack of cooperation or a com bination of all three. What does matter is that A&M students — for mer and present — may be denied a chance to have a video yearbook produced b/students for students. wupm ford STH