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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1969)
C3CAR E. THEIS RT 1 IHORNDALE, TEX 76577 5-31-69- 3 Cbc Battalion J^WSPAP^ COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1969 Telephone 845-2226 4 Student Forum’ Creation Suggested By Civilians Students’ Mistakes Blamed For Computer Rejections x* x* | | I •S Senate Will Hear Proposal By Holt yisc CH. BUILDING BY TEARING DOWN Joorways are heaped with rubble as workmen continue ripping- out walls and adding new ones to the first floor of the YMCA. The 55-year-old building is beginning a 3- |)hase, $367,000 renovation scheduled to be completed in )ctober. (Photo by Mike Wright) (mkI Young Poets Are Few, ►anforth Lecturer Asserts 39 The youth of America are writ ing poems in volumes—although ffijMlhe quality does not equal the 7 w* Quantity, according to Theodore Zeiss, Danforth lecturer and poet, in the second University Lecture series presentation. “The good poets are few. As in lature’s law of the jungle, only hree minnows survive in a mil- ion,” Weiss said here Thursday. PM* “Poetry, on the other hand, is ■ nore prolific than it has ever been >efore,” noted Weiss. “This is an imazingly rich period of Ameri- lan literature.” Weiss termed the modem poetry ^mf today as “confessional poetry” lince the poet turns to his own nj experience in the troubled times U of today. Another facet of “confessional poetry” is the concern, the despair, jand the desparateness of the oems, as in the poems of Robert icwell and John Barryman. “The poets expose the savagery alt’s Schedule Set For January The Battalion will publish four more issues during January because of final examinations and the mid-term break. Publication dates are Jan. 14, 16, 23 and 30. in themselves when they write,” Weiss continued. “They tear off the skins of good behavior.” To change the atmosphere of the “confessional” poets, Weiss read three of his own poems with a short explanation of each. “Yes, poets are born, but no one knows when they will be born— some poets are born at 20, some at 30,” Weiss added. By TONY HUDDLESTON Battalion Staff Writer Students’ own mistakes in reg istering have been the main causes of rejections by the com puter thus far, Registrar R. A. Lacey said Thursday. Lacey said that an estimated 80 to 85 percent of the 10,500 stu dents who submitted registration packets have been processed and received their next semester’s schedule. Lacey explained that out of 436 rejections, 295 could have been prevented if the student had taken the time to make a trial schedule to make sure that at least one schedule was possible. The other 141 students were rejected because the course was already full when they registered. The computer puts out a re jection analysis schedule if there is a conflict in a student’s sched ule,' Lacey noted. The schedule goes to the stu dent’s adviser who reschedules the student. The student then submits the schedule after the conflict has been resolved back to registration headquarters. The new schedule is then fed back in to the computer which makes a new schedule and issues a new fee assessment. The drop period, at which time students may add and drop cours es from their schedule, will start Jan. 27 and end Feb. 7, Lacey noted. Parks Official To Visit Here A National Park Service of ficial will be here Monday through Wednesday to discuss a new type trainee program with students in the Recreation and Parks Depart ment. The official is Ivan Parker of Washington, D. C., personnel di rector for the National Park Serv ice. Dr. L. M. Reid, head of the A&M Recreation and Parks De partment, said Parker will des cribe the intern-like student train ee program which can lead to permanent employment in the NPS. “These are not temporary jobs,” Reid said. “Students who are selected receive career-conditional appointments and are promoted to professional positions upon grad uation.” The department head empha sized that there are 187 colleges and universities in the United States which offer recreational courses. Of these, Texas A&M is one of only 11 selected by the NPS to participate in the new trainee program. He said 48 positions have been created for the first year of the program, six of which will be filled by A&M students. “Only those students majoring in recreation and parks, who will have completed their junior year by May, 1969, and who are recom mended by the department, will be considered,” Reid said. He added that six national parks have been selected for the A&M trainee program. They are Everglades, Shenandoah, Glen Canyon, Rock Mountains, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks. “Thursday 101 students still had conflicts in their schedules and could not be registered until their schedules were worked out,” he remarked. To add or drop a course a stu dent must first pay his fees, Lacey said. After paying his as sessment, he then goes to his adviser for approval of the course Spring Moves Explained By Housing Chief Students moving to different residence halls and dormitories are required to follow a definite procedure according to Alan Madeley, housing manager. Students now living in civilian halls who will move to the Corps of Cadets for the spring semester will report to Room 105 in the Military Science Building Mon day through Wednesday. Friday students will report to the same room for the room change which shows unit assignment an^l resi dence. In order^o complete procedure, students should bring room change slips to the Housing Of fice by Jan. 24. Also, students must move to their new rooms in the Corps by 6 p.m., Jan. 25. Students now living in a Corps dormitory who will move to a civi lian residence hall may reserve rooms at the Housing Office i i a first-come, first-served bas’.-’ between 8 a.m., Monday, Jan. 13 and 5 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 15. Students that did not pre-regis ter who live in a Corps dorm mov ing to a civilian residence hah will come between 8 a.m., Thurs day, and 5 p.m. Friday. Each student must present a room change in duplicate signed by his unit commander and h ; s Civilian Corps adviser before he will be permitted to reserve a room. Also, students moving to a civi lian hall must turn in a “Clear ance from the Corps of Cadets” form to the Housing Office b\ Feb. 7. Madeley warned that rooms can celled after Wednesday will result in a forfeit of the room deposit regardless of when the room was reserved or by what method. in question. The major advantage of com puter registration is that It cuts registration down from an aver age of four hours to 20 minutes, Dean of Admissions H. L. Heat on said. Another advantage, Heaton pointed out, was that it will give students two extra days in the semester break. Many students have complain ed that there was no choice in selections of courses and instruc tors. “The computer gives every stu dent an equal opportunity to choose instructors and times for taking courses because it is im partial in its selections,” Heaton countered. “We will explore all possibili ties to the best interest of the students, staff, and the proper use of facilities, Heaton said about the future plans of the computer registration program. “We expect more colleges and universities to go computer regis T tration in the future,” Heaton said. The University of Texas at Austin, Sam Houston State Col lege and other colleges are now studying A&M’s system of regis tration, Lacey added. By DAVID MIDDLEBROOKE Battalion Staff Writer “A student forum at A&M would be beneficial to the entire student body, and could result in a more effective student govern ment.” That was the opinion expressed Thursday night by Civilian Stu dent Vice-President Bill Holt dur ing a Council meeting. ACCORDING TO Holt, the forums could possibly take place once or twice a month with mem bers of the CSC, Corps Staff, and the Student Senate present to answer questions by students on a general topic announced before hand. Hotard Hall President Andy Walne said that the membership of the forum panel should not only be mixed, but rotated regularly. Holt agreed that this could be done, with possible objections from Senate President Bill Carter. “I think the forum itself is a great idea,” Carter said in a later interview. “I believe, though, that it should be a Senate-sponsored project. “If anyone is going to answer questions, the Senate should. It is definitely the governing body on the campus.” After hearing all opinions and suggestions from the Council, Holt In Chess Showdown Ags Challenge MIT Computer Can A&M’s Schach dethrone MIT’s Mac Hack Six as the world champion chess-playing computer program ? Will the Easterner’s tourna ment experience again carry the day against the upstart challenger gfrom the Southwest? Does this business about an irresistible force | and an immovable object have any meaning when both parties are computers ? These and other pertinent ques tions will be decided Sunday when I I the two highly trained machines squaie off at 7 a.m. (Such an en counter would best be staged at high noon. But a chess match completely dominates a com puter’s operation for approxi mately two hours as the moves are telephoned back and forth, so such engagements are usually scheduled at some ungodly hour.) SCHACH IS the brainchild of two computer science graduate students. Air Force Captains Rolf FIRST BANK & TRUST—Home of the Super C D - 5% interest compounded daily. C. Smith Jr. of Escondido, Calif., and Franklin D. Ceruti of New York City. They are studying here through the Air Force Institute of Technology and are scheduled to receive their master’s degrees Jan. 18. While programming a computer to play chess may seem like fun and games, it is serious business for the two men. Schach is roughly the equivalent of their theses. They have devoted more than 1,200 man-hours to the proj ect during the past 10 months. Their program contains approxi mately 110,000 characters and is stored on 3,000 data processing cards, giving Schach a large capacity for analyzing and mak ing moves. SMITH AND Ceruti chose the name Schach very carefully. It means chess in German. It also stands for Smith Ceruti Heuristic Algorithmic Chess. The big question, however, is not what Schach stands for, but whether it can beat Mac Hack Six. It tried two months ago and was trounced. “We’ve got lots of excuses for that,” noted Smith. He said the major difficulty was that Schach was developed on a small com puter and then had to be switched over to A&M’s powerful new third-generation IBM 360/65. “MOST OF THE problems stemmed from modifications which had not been fully checked out,” Ceruti added. “It’s the type program which will never be finished,” Smith observed. “It can always be made better.” Ceruti and Smith plan to cor respond and continue working on Schach when they leave A&M. Ceruti is going to Vietnam and Smith to Thailand. They are confident they have removed several of the “bugs” since the drubbing by MIT’s PDP- 6, a second-generation computer which has been playing chess since 1966. Mac Hack Six holds an honorary membership in the American Chess Federation and won a trophy in its first tourna ment. “WE HAVEN’T had a really big win yet,” Smith confessed. Schach has a 5-14-1 record, but the two graduate students pointed out most wins came at the expense of relatively inexperienced players (human type). Ceruti played Schach to a draw and Smith came out on top in three of four matches. Both men have been playing chess about 20 years. Schach received its sternest tests when it took on Dr. Dusan Djuric, an A&M meteorology pro fessor generally considered to be the best chess player on campus and of high tournament caliber. Schach has lost all the matches, but in the last encounter Djuric said Schach played well—right up until the time it bit the dust. As they continue the de-bugging and refining process, Smith and Ceruti express guarded optimism Schach may now have what it takes to unseat old Mac Hack Six. Bryan Building & Loan Association. Your Sav ings Center, since 1919. —Adv. MEADOWLARK LEMON Ticket Sales Begin Monday For Globetrotters Show B B &L Tickets for the famed Harlem Globetrotters’ Feb. 4 romp at G. Rollie White Coliseum will go on sale Monday, Town Hall Chair man Louis Adams announced The Globetrotters, who’ve play ed here to packed houses in past seasons, will take on the Wash ington Generals in the 8 p. m. performance. Known as the “Magicians of Basketball,” the razzle dazzle Trotters will provide only part of the night’s top bill of entertain ment however. Backing up Abe Saperstein’s court wizards will be pre-game and between-halves acrobatic, baton twirling, equili brist and juggling acts that have appeared around the world in leading cabarets, circuses and television shows. Adams said tickets for the Town Hall Special Attraction will be available at the Student Pro grams Office in the Memorial Student Center, most Bryan-Col- lege Station banks and by mail. Reserved seat ducats are $2.50 and $3 each, general admission $2 and Texas A&M student, date or wife, $1.50. Adams pointed out that all patrons must have special attrac tion tickets for the Harlem Globe trotters performance. said that he would take the idea before the Senate at its next meeting. PRESIDENT David Wilks told the Council that they had an op portunity to send representatives to two conferences on residence hall programs. The first of these, he said, would be at Texas Tech during the week end following final exams. The second one, the National Associa tion of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) would take place in Long Beach, Cali fornia, the weekend of Feb. 7. “This would be a great chance for us to get some new ideas, both for individual halls and for the Council itself,” Wilks told the group. WILKS NEXT told the Council that a retreat had been planned for the weekend of Feb. 15. The retreat will take place at Camp Hudson, a Boy Scout camp in Houston. “The weekend will give us a chance to get away from the campus and look at what we’ve done so far,” Wilks told the Coun cil, “and talk about what we want to do in the coming months. RALEIGH LANE, Moses Hall president, asked about rumors among students that next fall the semester will be arranged to fa cilitate completion of finals by Christmas. Ed Cooper, civilian student acti vities director, said that the Um versity Executive Committee had considered the idea, but felt thic too many complications existed to begin next semester. THIS DOES not rule out the possibility, Cooper noted, that the plan will not become reality in the near future. Freshman Representative Dud ley Vickers reported to the cour- cilmen that a Freshman Council had been formed, with one rep resentative for every 50 fresn- (See Forum, Page 2) Veterinary Clinic For Small Animals Nearly Completed If the old saying, “The world is going to the dogs,” is true, then many people might prefer to be dogs—at Texas A&M, any way. A walk through the nearly completed surgical area of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s small animal clinic is most im pressive ! Animals were moved into the new area last month, according to clinic head Dr. E. W. Ellett. The animals will really “live it up,” as another old saying goes, in a world all their own. Pens, referred to as inside runs, come complete with a “soft” floor which “both insulates and cush ions,” Ellett pointed out. The new facilities will provide clinic personnel with six new of fices for surgeons and three sur gery rooms. Two of the rooms will contain single surgical units with the third and larger room containing dual surgical units. Facilities also include prepar ation and treatment areas. An intensive care unit and food prep aration room will come later. Two wards provide the inside runs. Ellett noted the increased fa cilities will “raise the number of animals we can house at one time from about 168 to 200.” WEATHER Saturday—Cloudy, intermitten light rain afternoon. Wind East- eril 10 to 15 mph. High 48, low 37. Sunday — Cloudy, occasional light rain. Wind Easterly 10 to 15 mph. High 53, low 41. University National Rank “On the side of Texas A&M. Adv.