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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 1974)
Page 2 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16. 1974 Local drivers still unsold on idea of forming car pools A driver can be led to water, but apparently not into a pool. Nothing short of gasoline ra tioning or very high prices may induce drivers to pool transporta tion, even for going to and from work. Most drivers agree convenience forms the major deterrent to car pooling. And the majority is not convinced of the seriousness of the energy shortage, at least from the pump at their neighborhood service stations. Several TAMU faculty-staff in dicate they have given serious thought to car pools. Many didn’t want to talk about it. The con census is the crisis hasn’t yet reached the stage to warrant leaving the jalopy in the drive two or three days out of four. TAMU employees provide a classic example of the possibilities of car pooling. More than 5,000 employees drive to the campus from within a fairly compact geo graphical area. Most of the total miles they travel to and from work are amassed in four to six- miles-per-day round trips. Manager Don Powell. “And it’s a rule rather than the exception when I go home after 5:30 in the afternoon.” Nearly 1,400 are faculty, how ever. Their teaching schedules do not coincide well. Other TAMU staff face similar problems. Campus Briefs “There’s hardly a day I’m not here at 7:30 a.m. to unlock high security areas,” commented Me morial Student Center Facilities One staff member who lives about five miles east of the cam pus said he and two neighbors who are TAMU personnel could easily pool, have considered it but are still driving separately. “It’s just a matter of conven ience,” explained Cliff Wallstein, Photo and Visual Aids Lab man ager echoed by numerous others. “If rationing happens,” he added, “we’ll probably take turns driv ing.” Dr. Henry Alsmeyer Jr. of the library staff lives within two miles of the campus. “If gaso line is rationed. I’ll quickly be come interested in any of several ways of getting to the campus,” he said. A bicycle he got for Christmas and walking are also possible. He would join a sizeable mob of stu dents and faculty on bike paths. A working student wife admits Albright, University Information. “It’s an economic necessity for us," noted Mrs. Tucker. “I couldn’t afford the work if I had to drive every day myself. Driv ing 55 mph, we usually leave Caldwell at 7:15 a.m. and i here on time.” “The only time it’s bad," s( offered, “is when someone is dr ing a two-door car with bud seats.” University Center busy prof sees TAMU’s sparkling University Center will get a real workout during the month of January, de spite the absence of students through the first three week of the month. More than 12,000 persons are expected to attend the 75 events scheduled for the center, accord ing to Chuck Cargill manager of the sprawling complex of auditor iums, meeting rooms and eateries. Activities range from a tech nical session of the American In stitute of Aeronautics and Astro nautics, scheduled the 26th, to a wedding reception early in the month. Just about everything else in between will take place at one time or another at the center, in cluding short courses, staff con ferences and student club meet ings. The facility’s versatility shows best on the 24th when students, faculty and citizens of the area have a choice between poet Don ald Hall, Great Issues and Poli tical Forum presentations, Aggie Cinema, Student Government meeting, Texas Real Estate Re search Center Advisory Commit tee meeting and Houston Televi sion personality Marvin Zindler. January will be a month for dancing at the center, too, with a MSC student dance Jan. 26 and two performances by the National Ballet Company, Jan. 28 and 31. Cargill’s office can provide in formation on other activites sche duled. Interested persons should call 845-5216. A&M shortage worsening Teague receives plaque Aggie Club officials today pre sented Cong. Olin E. “Tiger” Teague with a plaque designating him a “Reveille” contributor to the club’s 1974 athletic scholar ship fund. Cong. Teague, a member of the Aggie Club since 1956 was pre sented the plaque in his downtown Bryan office by R. F. “Bob” Ber- nath, president of the club. “This contribution is the first step in reaching our 850-member Reveille program for 1974,” Ber- nath noted. “We feel fortunate to have members like Cong. Teague supporting our athletic scholar ship fund.” On hand to help with the pre sentation were Emory Bellard, head football coach and Athletic Director at TAMU, and John Hop kins, executive vice president of the organization. Hopkins explained that the “Reveille” contribution program is one of several membership op portunities offered to prospective Aggie Club members. The top level of membership is the “12th Man” scholarship pro gram, which constitutes a full $1,500 athletic scholarship. Next is the “Extra Point” program, representing a $750 contribution or more, then comes the “Reveille” program, $100-$750, followed by “Sustaining” membership,$50, and “Associate” membership, $25. Driving tests planned Drawing a parallel with last summer’s beef price ceiling fiasco, a TAMU professor says the much- discussed merits of holding the price of petroleum artifically low by rationing and mandatory allo cation are a lot of bull. Dr. Philip Gramm, who serves as consultant to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Canad ian government, contends that ra tioning, mandatory allocations and petroleum taxing will actual ly cause the fuel shortage to get worse due to diminished produc tion incentives. Gramm warns such measures will create expectations of higher prices when the controls end. Pro ducers both foreign and domestic will have an incentive to curtail the current supply, he notes, and wait to produce more when it is more profitable. “We need only recall frozen beef prices to visualize what could happen, and the situation could be worse with oil. Since oil can be held indefinitely, while cattle die of old age, we can expect even more hold-backs in oil than we experienced in cattle,” Gramm points out. He recently presented his views to officials of the Fed eral Energy Office in Washing ton. Dr. Gramm chides the govern ment’s track record for economic success through establishment of controls, contending, for example, that the millions of dollars spent in administering Phase I-IV failed to stop prices from rising. “Taxpayers’ money was used to, produce shortages and distortions of free markets,” he observes. A study by the Texas Trans portation Institute utilizing vol unteer drivers from the Bryan- College Station area will start in a week or two, project director Gordon Hayes said Tuesday. More than 100 residents in the Brazos Valley volunteered to take part in the project, and the appli cants have been screened to 32 primary test drivers and a like number of back-up drivers. The research program is funded by the Department of Transporta tion’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Purpose of the study is to de termine to what extent drivers use the built-in handling ability of different automobiles and to evaluate how cars perform when a driver has control compared to laboratory control devices. “We have performed prelimi nary tests on all the applicants,” Hayes noted, “and have a good cross-section of all those who ap plied. We also have 32 back-up drivers with scores identical to those of the primary drivers, in the event that one of the drivers drop out of the program.” “We will get the project rolling just as soon as we notify all our primary and back-up drivers,” Hayes said. “The project will run for about four months, with tests being conducted on and off until all drivers have completed their tasks.” All driving tests will be made at TAMU’s Research Annex. Driv ers will use one of four different standard production automobiles in special maneuvers to determine driver-vehicle relationships. “The energy crisis itself is lar gely a product of government price ceilings on oil and natural gas that produced falling profits, falling investment and liquida tion of American oil and gas re serves,” Gramm says. “The Arabs have us at their mercy not be cause of America’s inability to produce but because of the bu reaucratic constraints which have disrupted the American oil and gas industry.” “It is just plain common sense that if government controls and price ceilings caused the energy crisis they are not likely to solve it,” he adds. “We must in this period of crisis rely on the sys tem which has made America the greatest agricultural and indus trial nation in the world. Only free enterprise can solve our com- G %Sgg£lc' !& ^ •WrjaiKtt Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is ,, J., . , ... . , . published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, the editor or of the writer of the article and are not Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, September through necessarily those of the University administration or May, and once a week during summer school. the Board of Directors. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a MEMBER University and Community newspaper. The Associated Press, Texas Press Association LETTERS POLICY Le,urs to the editor should not exceed 300 words 'AS' £*5% and are subject to being cut to that length or less if sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address: longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit Sxaf rTsisf 11 ’ RO ° m 217 ’ Services Buildintr ’ ColleKe Station, such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed and show the address . . . , „ . .... , . , . ... The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for of tne writer. reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it or not Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous Room 217, Scrwos Building, College Station, Texas ^erefn^^Vese^. ° f reproduction ° f ail other 77843. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. Members of the Student Publications Board are: Jim tmTTT'T}tat C'nrr'Tnn Lindsey, chairman; Dr. Tom Adair, Dr. R. A. Albanese, Dr. inj 1 Xbxvljyi JtiiJIlUK. bPEEK H. E. Hierth, W. C. Harrison, Randy Ross, T. Chet Edwards, Managing Editor Greg Moses and jan Faber. News Editor T. C. Gallucci Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Sports Editor ....— Kevin Coffey Services. Inc, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Ass t. Sports Editor Ted Boriskie plex production and distribution problems.” “With old production cost in the Middle East at 25 cents a bar rel, 285 billion barrels of oil in place on current domestic wells, vast continental shelf deposits, vast shale deposits, with solar and nuclear energy developing rapid ly, and possessing the greatest coal deposits in the world we do not face a long-term energy ‘crisis’,’’Gramm emphasizes. “The real shortage, which is of crisis proportions, is a shortage in our government of imagination and common sense.” walking from College View is pleasant, in the right kind of weather. Car transportation is vital otherwise, she said. TAMU’s resident experts on cycling to work are Doyle Gou- gler. Agricultural Communica tions Department, and Howard Eilers, Journalism Department. One student is interested in the feasibility of burning methyl al cohol in his car. He wants to know more about it. If the rationing switch is thrown that will apparently trig ger car pooling, a large source of experience about the process is available to TAMU employees. Caldwell residents who work here have been pooling for years. A casual survey shows there are at least 20 traveling in five cars. Veterans are Ben Trcalek and Bob Piwonka, Fiscal Office; Ed ward Schulz, Research and In strumentation Shop; Nita Tucker, Photo and Visual Aids, and Patsy -A + + + + ■* i< -kit Friday and Saturday January 18 and 19 KING SIZE WAUET CREATIVE COLOR PORTRAITS FOR ONLY mm 14 x conditii Nine end tal Beau Germai Phone Men' brand. 7938. * Brim Colleg lege lendab ind pr: THE OPERA AND PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY presents THE NATIONAL BALLET OF WASHINGTON Frederic Franklin & Ben Stevenson, Directors in ‘‘THE SLEEPING BEAUTY” 8 P. M. JANUARY 31, 1974 RUDDER CENTER AUDITORIUM Tickets: Regular, $6, $5, $4 Students, $4.80, $4.00, $3.20 At Rudder Center Box Office Hours: Mon. - Fri., 9 a. m. - 4 p. m. Tel. 845-2916 The National Ballet managed by Columbia Artists, Inc., New York OPAS is a functioning committee of the Town Hall committee of Texas A&M University. Comp Think of what just one company can do to stop pollution. On stu ro< r We have. WHAT INDUSTRY IS DOING TO STOP POLLUTION Keep America Beautiful, Inc. 99 Park Avenue New York, New York 10016 Please send me a free copy of “What industry is doing to stop pollution.’ Name Street. City. State. ■ / Twenty years ago some farsighted businessmen had an idea. To establish an organization to combat littering. They called it Keep America Beautiful, Inc. Since then, KAB, Inc. has led a national movement to stop not just littering. But pollution as well. A movement that involves almost 70 million Americans. 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