The Battalion
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tol.89 No.85 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 1,1990
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Regent considers
finals exemptions
|low priority issue
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
A
te!
Texas A&M Regent Ross Mar
graves said he is not working with
other regents or administrators to
revive the tradition of no finals for
graduating seniors, but he said he
will look into it.
Margraves was quoted in a Hous
ton Post story last Thursday as say
ing he was working with other re
gents and A&M President William
Mobley, without the knowledge of
the faculty, to overturn the decision
that makes all students take finals.
Graduating seniors used to be
able to skip finals in their last semes
ter, a tradition dating back to when
A&M was an all-military, all-male
university. The policy was changed
under former A&M President Frank
Vandiver after a strong recommen
dation from the Faculty Senate.
Margraves, however, said he is not
working on the issue now withput
the knowledge of the faculty.
“This is not an issue,” Margraves
said Wednesday. “This is not an is
sue with President Mobley or with
Herman Saatkamp (Faculty Senate
speaker). This is way down on the
list of priorities of the A&M System.”
Saatkamp, head of the philosophy
■ department and Faculty Senate
roil p 1( B speaker, was quoted in the Post story
■ expressing shock at the regents’ ap-
1 Ci ‘“Bparent decision to overturn the pol
io i
icy he had helped implement.
Saatkamp said Monday, however,
that after talking with Margraves it is
“a bogus issue” and that graduating
seniors still will have to take finals.
“This was an issue created by a re
porter,” Saatkamp said.
Mobley was unavailable for com
ment.
Margraves said he liked the tradi
tion and would like to see it re
instated.
“I thought it was a fine tradition,”
Margraves said. “It was really
unique. It was something all of us
looked forward to.”
Margraves said he would like to
get the opinion of faculty members
and students about reviving the tra
dition before making any recom
mendations.
Saatkamp, who served in the Fac
ulty Senate during the original con
troversy, said the current policy of
everyone having to take finals has
the support of most faculty and stu
dents.
Margraves supports the tradition
because he said it gave seniors time
to look for a job, prepare to leave
school and still participate in grad
uation and the final review of the
Corps of Cadets.
Saatkamp, however, said it would
be harmful academically because se
niors often would skip the last weeks
of classes because they knew they
would not be tested on the material.
Lt. Bert Kretzschmar of the University Police Department places
an identification sticker on a student’s bike in front of the Memorial
Student Center Wednesday. The bicycle registration is part of Ag-
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
gie Watch Week sponsored by Alpha Phi Omega. Registrations
are turned over to the Department of Parking, Traffic and Transit
and will be made available to police departments nationwide.
JIlUO. I
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Easterwood’s
new terminal
opens today
Easterwood Airport’s new $4.5
million William A. McKenzie
Terminal opens today for com
mercial use.
As of today, F-asterwood’s old
terminal will be used only for pri
vate flights.
The two-level McKenzie termi
nal covers 32,000 square f eet and
is accessible from Highway 60.lt
features amenities the old termi
nal did not offer, including run
way extensions, a baggage claim
area and a restaurant.
Three commercial commuter
airlines will serve the new termi
nal. American Eagle and ASA-
Delta have daily roundtrip llights
to Dallas, while the Continental
Express flies daily to Houston.
Jury finds five A&M officials guilty
of violating prof’s free speech rights
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
Five Texas A&M officials were found liable
Friday of denying a former A&M professor his
constitutional right of free speech.
A Houston jury in federal court ruled that the
family of the late Abdel K. Ayoub, a former
A&M electrical engineering professor, should re
ceive $625,000 in damages.
The officials at once appealed the decision on
the grounds that there was no evidence to sup
port the jury’s verdict.
Ayoub, a tenured professor who came to A&M
in 1968, claimed he was the victim of pay discrim
ination because he was born in a foreign country.
Ayoub was born in Egypt and was a naturalized
American citizen.
According to court records, after Ayoub dis
covered the disparate pay scale in 1980, he raised
and continued to raise the salary complaint,
which became disruptive to the department.
In addition, Ayoub didn’t get along with the
electrical power group in which he worked and
was having arguments with other faculty mem
bers.
To resolve the bickering caused by the dispute,
the administration decided to move his office in
1985 to another building also occupied by electri
cal engineering faculty. Ayoub refused to move.
His grievance went to the Faculty Senate,
which assumed the move was punitive and said
his right to due process had been violated.
In 1987 Ayoub filed suit, claiming the motive
for the move was to chill his free speech right.
A&M officials said they never attempted to si
lence any complaints. They said that Ayoub’s of
fice move was not punitive, but an attempt to
quell interdepartmental bickering.
Assistant Secretary Attorney General D. Elliot
Branson, legal counsel to the A&M system, said
there is no evidence that the motive was to chill
Ayoub’s free speech. If officials were trying to
punish Ayoub, Branson said, they could nave
taken other action, such as dismissal. Disruptive
activity is grounds for the initiation of dismissal
procedures for tenured professors.
Ayoub died of a heart attack in February 1988.
State law permits a family to continue litigation in
civil rights actions in the event of the original
plaintiff s death.
The defendants in the case are Herbert H.
Richardson, deputy chancellor of engineering
for the A&M system; John E. Flipse, director of
the Offshore Technology Research Institute;
Carl A. Erdman, executive associate dean of en
gineering; Leroy S. Fletcher, a mechanical engi
neering professor; and Jo W. Howze, head of the
electrical engineering department.
The jury ordered each of the defendants to
pay $50,000 compensation and $75,000 in puni
tive damages to Ayoub’s family pending the deci
sion of Judge Norman Black.
9
A&M professor mixes job, academics with politics
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
Serving as a journalism profes
sor, program director of a local
TV station and a political party
chairman seems like a conflict to
those who believe political in
volvement jeopardizes a journal
ist’s objectivity.
But to Rodger Lewis, they go
hand in hand.
Lewis is a Texas A&M journa
lism professor, program director
of KAMU-TV and Brazos
County Republican Party chair
man.
“Some people think it’s OK for
journalists to be involved in the
Boy Scouts, but not OK for them
to be politically active,” Lewis
said. “Everyone has opinions, but
fairness and honesty are not lost
when you have those opinions.”
After graduating from A&M in
1976 with a journalism degree
and minors in business, Spanish
and sociology, Lewis worked
briefly at WFAA-TV in Dallas.
He attended Wheaton College in
Illinois for his master’s degree in
communications and worked for
three Chicago television stations
while at Wheaton.
“As a journalist, the people I
worked with were the best infor
med,” Lewis said. “If there was a
rat in the courthouse, they knew
about it. For those people not to
be involved in their community
and politics would be a great
waste of talent and energy.”
In fact, because he thinks a
journalist can have an opinion
and still report both sides fairly,
Lewis said he would rather media
outlets admit their biases.
Photo by Steven M. Noreyko
Rodger Lewis, KAMU-TV program director, watches a monitor while checking the air schedule.
Before a story is assigned, Le
wis said it has already been in
fluenced by the ideas and opin
ions of the assignment desk.
Then the reporter uses or dis
cards certain information based
on his or her own perceptions
and experiences. Finally, the
story undergoes another trans
formation at the editorial level.
“It’s only been a fairly recent
development that journalists have
been trained to present the news
in an objective manner,” Lewis
said.
There are enough programs
and channels to express differing
viewpoints, Lewis said.
As a part of the baby boom
generation, Lewis said he was
drawn to broadcast journalism
because TV was an integral part
of growing up. He still considers
it the most exciting medium.
In the political arena, the Re
publican Party of Brazos County
will continue to be under Lewis’
leadership through the 1990 pri
mary, and perhaps through 1992.
He will seek reelection in the
March 13 primary.
Lewis had his sights set on the
primary race for county judge,
but instead decided he should lay
the groundwork for seeking the
judgeship next time it opens and
seek reelection as the republican
chairman.
He had requested unpaid leave
from his jobs at A&M in order to
run without causing a time con
flict. The leave was denied be
cause of a Texas A&M Board of
Regents policy which would have
required him to resign from the
University prior to announcing a
candidacy.
The filing deadline was Jan. 2,
and those elected in November
take office Jan. 1. Lewis would
have been out of work for a year.
“Even though I would be will
ing to sacrifice my job for a year,
the negative impact on other peo
ple would be too great,” Lewis
said. “My staff at KAMU-TV and
the journalism students who had
already registered for my class
would suffer.
“I felt like the people of Brazos
County deservea a candidate for
county judge who shared the phi
losophy and commitment that
these other republicans have. But
circumstances prevent me from
being that candidate in 1990.”
During his chairmanship, the
Republican Party was the major
ity party in the county. Republi
can candidates have won all but
one of the offices they have
sought.
Lewis said he credits the
growth to the party’s candidates,
organization and commitment to
traditional values.
He considers Sen. Phil Gramm,
Congressman Joe Barton and
other members of Congress to be
friends. He has met President
George Bush.
Lewis said he would like to
have the opportunity to run for a
higher office, especially the
Texas Legislature, but at the pre
sent salary, he couldn’t afford to
campaign or hold office.
“In Texas, you almost have to
be rich to be a legislator,” Lewis
said. “They are paid so little to do
so much. The average citizen
can’t serve as a legislator.”
Water supply
contamination
minimized
Officials take steps
to reduce fly larvae
By DAPHNE MILLER
Of The Battalion Staff
The fly larvae that showed up in
Texas A&M’s water supply last se
mester have been minimized, Dr.
Jim Olson, professor of entomology,
said.
No traces of fly larvae in the A&M
water supply have been reported re
cently, Olson said.
Early last semester, students re
ported seeing worms in their drink
ing water, he said. These worms
were identified as midge larvae.
“These critters are aquatic and
they like mud,” Olson said.
The larvae were traced to the wa
ter storage tanks and reservoirs that
feed the A&M water supply, he said.
The storage tanks are open water
Graphic by Tim Austin
bodies, and adult flies can lay eggs
on the surface of the water, he said.
The eggs find their way to the bot
tom of the tank to live. Larvae also
may have entered the tanks through
holes in the sides of the tanks, he
said.
“We had to drain the tanks and
put screening devices in them to fil
ter the critters out,” Olson said.
Harry Stiteler, director of safety
and health at A&M, said that even
though the tanks have been drained,
the holes have been repaired and the
screens have been enclosed, the lar
vae cannot be eliminated completely
— they only can be minimized.
Stiteler said it should be em
phasized that finding larvae in water
supplies is a common occurrence.
Olson said the larvae are not
harmful.
If larvae are swallowed, they will
pass through the digestive system
without harm, he said. No sickness
will occur other than being nau
seated by the thought, Olson said.