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Christians 3, Reprobates 0 But Dawkins is philosophical: “I’m hurt as badly as I’ve been hurt in my life. I know, though, that if they really wanted to make an example of me that it could have been a lot worse. This is a private school, and sometimes people in the background, who supply the money and a lot of the influence, make decisions. And some of them feel very strongly about the rules here. “One thing I forgot, and one thing a lot of people here forget, is when I enrolled here four years ago, I agreed to adhere to the policies of Abilene Christian University. I might not agree with all of them, but I signed a piece of paper saying I would abide by them. I feel regret, and I’ve got to learn by it.” Richard Justice Lubbock Score one more knockout punch for the Baptists over the boozers in their fifth annual bout at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The occasion was a vote taken by Tech regents Feb. 3 on a call to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol on campus. The teetotalers uncorked more than enough clout to beat the proposalit went down seven to one. Regent J. Fred Bucy, who doubles as president of Texas Instruments, told the assembled regents that by allowing Tech students the right to a campus snort the board would be leading the school “down the road to liberalism and the socialism that goes with it.” “I think Tech is in a unique position,” he said. \(The. school is the only state-supported university where students must leave campus for anything the last strongholds of conservatism,” Bucy continued. “If the kids want to go to a school where they can get a drink on campus, there are plenty of them. But there is only one place they can’t.” Bucy and his fellow regents, with the lone exception of Lubbock supermarket and cafeteria heir Roy K. Furr, made sure of that. The issuewhich some undergraduates insist does not concern drinking at all, but the right of adult students to be treated as adults by the university’s governing councilhas transformed much of the student body into an angry political bloc overnight. Students are talking about making their anger known at the polls here on May 6. Regent Don Workman is running for Lubbock’s state senate seat being vacated by Kent Hance. \(Hance is a candidate for the congressional seat opened by the retirement of 78-year-old the drinking issue wasn’t the only thing he did to irk students. They’re also angry that he reportedly was whispering and joking with another regent as students presented their case to the board. Students have made it clear, too, that they recall which governor from Uvalde appointed all the current Texas Tech regents and that his name will also appear on a ballot this spring. But observers discount the effect students are likely to have on present or future regent policy on campus drinking unless they can somehow nullify a powerful and resolute religious lobby. The latest campus liquor drive spurred the youth minister of the city’s largest congregation \(which is, of the-scenes letter-writing campaign. The effort, students say, provoked a number of parents to write or phone regents, with threats of reprisals should the students triumph. , Regent board chairman Judson Williams, an El Paso physician, criticized the attempt to “turn this into a moral-religious campaign,” while another regent, Hereford radio station owner Clint Formby, termed the phone calls and letters from the anti-liquor faction “intimidating.” Although he had sided with the wets on an earlier vote, he yielded to the pressure and voted dry this time. Meanwhile, Tech’s drinkers will continue to show their IDs and plunk down their change at off-campus saloons. And few here expect local barkeepers to be caught crying in their beer over the prospect. Sylvia Teague Waco Gays have learned that they are not welcome at Waco’s Baylor University, the Baptist-affiliated institution of higher learning better known locally as “Jerusalem on the Brazos.” Recently, university president Abner McCall aborted an attempt to have representatives of the Dallas Gay Political Caucus speak on campus. McCall, who must approve all outside speakers, said, “We’re not going to furnish a forum for them [homosexuals].” Baylor has no responsibility to provide a forum for gays, McCall rationalized, since “homosexuality is condemned uniformly throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.” Permitting the Dallas Gay Political Caucus to speak on campus “would be at variance with what Baylor University stands for,” the educator said. McCall safely assumed that Baptists agreed with his position. The Baptist General Convention, which annually contributes a substantial amount to Baylor, officially took a stand against homosexuality during its annual conference last summer. Meanwhile, Steve Wilkins, president of the Dallas Gay Political Caucus, explained that his group has made presentations at Texas Christian and Southern Methodist universities. “Baylor was the first door closed to us,” Wilkins said. “Why we were refused is not our concern,” said Floyd Baker, a member of the gay caucus. “That’s an affair of the university. The fact that we were refused at all is the sad thing.” Sharon Grisby, editor of the student newspaper, The Baylor Lariat, said letters to the editor supported McCall’s decision by a two-to-one margin. Still, a Lariat editorial written by Stacey Robertson, the paper’s news editor, criticized McCall’s action, saying that by banning the gays, Baylor was trading away its duty as a university to be socially aware in exchange for the security of its large subsidies from the BGC. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7