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
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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
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