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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1960)
The Battalion Volume 59 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1960 Number 51 Huge Data Processing Center Opens; Sneak Preview Precedes Ceremony New Center Visit Given for Press Approximately 25 representatives of Texas newspapers and radio and television stations were given a sneak preview Wednesday afternoon of the new .$0,250,000 Data Process Center which was officially dedicated early this afternoon. Following a luncheon in the Memorial Student Center, the members of the press were taken to the new center which employs about 50 persons including part-time personnel and graduate students, with an annual payroll of $140,000. Under the direction of Dr. Aaron Rose, head of the En gineering Experiment Station, the center contains more than $3,000,000 in equipment, including the three computers leased from the International Business Machine Corp.— the IBM- 604, the IBM 650 and the IBM-704. Grant-In-Aid Although the normal com mercial charges for the ma chines are $(!()0, $4,r>00 and $30,000, I’espectively, the Data Processing- Center receives a grant-in-aid from IBM equivalent to 20 per cent of the rental on the 004 and 00 per cent on both the 050 and 704 units. In addition to the $3,000,000 in equipment, there are $10,000 worth of furnishings in the $277,7000 building.. Robert L. Smith Jr. is head of the Data Processing center under the direction of Rose. Four Phases Rose divided the funtions of the center into four phases for the newsmen: teaching, research in data processing, service irt data processing and fiscal and regis tration work for the A&M System. Rose pointed out research work for students and faculty members of the A&M System is being done free, but use of the facilities for private concerns-sponsored re search will be charged for at regu lar rates. A rate of $265 per hour for the 704 and $80 per hour for the 650 will be in effect for the sponsored research projects as well as for some use by A&M System divisions. The only cost to people using the machines for non-spon- sored research will be for the cards and paper used, Rose said. 24 Hours Daily At the present time, said Rose, the 650 machine is being used 24 houi’s daily and he added although it took two years after installation of the 650 before it was being used 24 hours daily, seven days a week, he doesn’t expect it to take (See Center, on Page 3) l. . Wm* v' . ite I : n Special Room A. M. Muldrow . Education Chairman Aggies Aid Needy Prior to Holidays With Gifts, Parties Several cadet units and civilian dormitory councils provided Christmas sprnt for underprivi leged children of the Bryan-Col- 1ege Station area in the form of parties and gifts previous to the Christmas holidays. Thirty-two families, including 84 boys and 61 girls were given parties and gifts. .Gifts, consisted of clothing, food, toys, tooth brushes, etc. Some units also invited children to the Thanksgiving and Christ mas dinners. The- College Apartment Council held a party for all parents and children living in college apart ments. Members of the staff of the new Data Pro cessing- Center of the A&M College System work in the special room housing a giant IBM-704 high speed computer. The compu ter here take information at the rate of 250 cards per minute, can make 40,000 calcula tions a second, and store up to 32,000 words and more than 3,400,000 characters in its “memory” units. Faculty, Staff Parking Rules Now in Effect Prepares Budget, Too A&M College System Comptroller C. W. Wreeman is shown here in the IBM-704 room at the new Data Processing Cen ter with annual budgets for the four colleges and six major service organizations of the system. By BOB SLOAN Battalion Staff Writer Assigned parking areas for members of the faculty and staff are now in effect accoiding to Dean of Students James P. Han- nigan. Faculty and staff members who have paid the $7.50 parking fee have been assigned a numbered space in one of the six parking zones. Visitors and persons who have not paid the parking fee should park in the special visitor spaces or in the fringe pai’king areas, Hannigan said. The fringe areas are located behind the mili tary science shacks and behind Kyle Field adjacent to the intra mural football field. Hannigan said faculty members who find their assigned slot oc cupied should contact Campus Se curity at once. Until their space is open, they should park in one of the visitor’s slots or in one of the fringe lots—not in another numbered space. Campus Security chief John F. Hickman said tickets will be issued to anyone parking in a numbered space other than the one assigned to him. Zone administrators are turning in space assignments to Campus Security now, Hickman said. “A few administrators have not Three Issues Top Senate Meeting The Student Senate will meet tonight in the Senate Chamber of the Memorial Student Center at 7:30 p.m. Topics for new business on the agenda include the Blood Drive, a report on the Southwest Confer ence Spoi-tsmanship Committee, the annual Aggie Muster program and appointment of members to the election commission. Old business will include reports from standing committees and Senate President Jake Sekerka will preside at the meeting. turned in their lists yet,” Hick man said, “but we expect to have all the lists in by Jhe end of the week.” Zone administrators and their •respective zon»s ai’e as follows: Zone 1, Vice Chancellor E. L. An- gell; Zone 2 (North Half), Dean of Engineering Fred Benson, (South Half), Dean of Agricul ture C. W. Watkins; Zone 3, Dean of Arts and Sciences Frank Hu bert; Zone 4, Manager of Physical Search Started For Texas Prof BEAUMONT, Tex. 6P>—A search has been launched for a 47-year-old Texas college profes sor and his wife who failed to return from a Christmas trip to Florida. Dr. Benham M. Ingersoll, math ematics professor at Lamar Tech College, and his wife failed to re turn to Beaumont for the resump tion of classes at the college Mon day. They told other members on the faculty that they were going to the Isle of Pines off the south coast of Cuba. Mrs. Ingersoll’s father received a card from the couple, mailed in Tampa, but nothing has been heard from them since that time. Colleagues say the Ingersolls may have sailed with some friends in a private boat for the island. Dr. Ingersoll was described as being an outdoors enthusiast. Immigration authorities in Mi ami and the State Department of fice in New Orleans were called by college officials. Dr. Ingersoll had been on the Lamar faculty since 1958. He holds degrees from Columbia and Syra cuse Universities and has taught at San Diego State College in Cal ifornia, Stevens Institute of Tech nology, Hoboken, N. J., City Col lege of New York and the U. S. Military Academy. Plants Howard Badgett; Zone 5, Dean of the College John B. Page; Zone 6, Director of the Memorial Student Center j. Wayne Stark. A map of the six zones showing the buildings included in each one, along with the parking regulations for faculty and staff may be picked up in the Campus Security office. The assignment of parking places grew out of recent action by the Texas Legislature which stated that no state money may be used for construction of park ing lots at state-supported colleges and universities. The money paid as registration fees ai’e used to pay for parking facilities and their maintenance. The $7.50 fee entitles a member of the faculty or staff to the right to park in a permanently assigned space in one of the six zones from Sept.l-Aug. 1. Cai’s registered as late as Feb. 1 or after must pay only $4.00 for the remainder of the year. A&M Consolidated Sets Teen Canteen “Come one, come all” is the cry for Saturday night as the junior class of A&M Consolidated High School is undertaking a bigger and better project in the form of a Teen Canteen. Festivities begin at 8 p.m. and will last until midnight Saturday at the Bar-B-Q Pit in Ridgecrest Village. Prices are 50 cents stag or drag with refreshments avail able. Proceeds of the community af fair will go to the Junior-Senior Banquet March 19. Mary Ann Franklin, chairman of the Junior-Senior affair, urged “Everyone in the communities of Bryan and College Station are to be at the Bar-B-Q Pit Saturday night for the time of your lives. The emphasis is on bigness and everyone, everywhere is invited.” The public is invited to attend. $,? Million Plant Ribbon Snapped Chancellor M. T. Harrington officially opened A&M’s $3,250,000 Data Processing Center early this afternoon when he cut a piece of magnetic tape (the (type used in the IBM computers) stretched across the entrance to the center. On hand for the occasion were representatives from colleges and universities in the South and Southwest, Inter national Business Machines Corp., the state government in Austin and the A&M College System. Prior to the dedication of the center this afternoon, a luncheon was hold in the Memorial Student Center when Chancellor Harrington; T. V. Learson, vice president and group executive for IBM; and A. M. Muldrow, chairman of the Texas Commission on higher Education; spoke of the importance and function of the cent^p. Vw FebrtVary Course Chancellor Harrington an nounced the first short course in the operation of the machines in the center would be held Feb. 1-3. The announcement of the short course was in line with the state- ment by Chancellor Harrington that “this facility has been estab- I? lisbed on a regional basis and is KggHHp|^ being offered to all of the colleges and universities of the South, f without cost, for non-sponsored academic research. It will also be available for sponsored research on a reasonable fee basis, making it possible for you to handle major research problems at home which heretofore were sent either to the East or West Coast for solution.” ‘Extensive, Valuable’ Muldrow told the assembled group this afternoon in the MSC, “The service of this institution and its allied units to agriculture is extensive and valuable indeed. Service to agriculture, however, is but one among a number of func tions. I have also observed at first hand, in my capacity as chairman of the Texas Commission on Higher Education, the many and valuable contributions of the Texas A&M College System in other important areas, such as those in engineer ing, oceanography and meteorolo gy, the sciences, veterinary medi cine and general liberal arts. The human and physicial resources which have been brought together in this institution are among our finest educational assets and we in Texas have every reason to be proud of theme. This is the finest (See Dedication, on Page 6) T. V. Learson . IBM Vice President TWU Dormitory Schedules Denton Dance Saturday Austin Hall, freshman dormitory at Texas Woman’s University, is sponsoring an informal dance in Denton Saturday at 8 p.m. The dance will be held in the living room of the dorm and any Aggies interested in attending should contact Austin Hall by mail. Authorities at TWU said they would like to have 25-30 Aggies as guests. Those attending should report to Austin Hall upon arrival to be informed of housing arrangements for the weekend. Weather Analysis Rain and snow, turning colder, may be the prediction Dr. William H. Clayton of the Department of Oceanography and Metorology is preparing. Clayton is analyzing a weather map and utilizing information received from data processed on the IBM-704 electronic data processing ma chine in the background.