"Dear Darling Aggies . . ."

If it had not been for its low tuition ($50 a year for state residents), John Clark, 20, of Odessa, Texas, would probably never have stayed on at Texas A. & M.* But he did not realize just how much he had disliked his 2 1/4 years there until he paid a visit to the University of Oklahoma. When he got back, Clark dashed off a letter to the undergraduate newspaper, The Battalion. It began: "Dear darling Aggies . . ."

According to Clark, the sort of mentality that goes in for hazing exists nowhere "except at A. & M. and other Dark Ages institutions . . . You are wondering why . . . your enrollment has steadily dropped, well . . . look around you and take stock of some of your so-called great traditions [such as paddling]?" At the University of Oklahoma, said Clark, students are gentlemen. "For those of you who will answer this letter by asking me why I have not gone to O.U. in the first place, I can only say that if you will pay my extra costs of going there, boys, I'll gladly go."

The letter caused an uproar among the Aggies. One night last week a group of students marched into Clark's room, packed up his books and clothes, gave him $6 for gasoline money and escorted him out to his car. "We can't force you to leave," Clark remembers someone saying, "but we'll make it so unpleasant for you around here that you'll leave of your own accord after two or three weeks.'' Then, as Clark drove off, an Aggie band struck up the Oklahoma fight song, Boomer Sooner.

President David H. Morgan promptly started an investigation but failed to tag the culprit. Nevertheless, said he: "We in no way condone the action of any group of students . . . to determine who should or should not attend this state-owned institution. John Clark is still enrolled here and . . . may return with no fear of further disruption . . ." Home in Odessa (pop. 29,500). John Clark announced that he would rather not go back.

*A land-grant college with a strong military tradition. Proudest boast: it had more graduates in commissioned ranks in two world wars than West Point.

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