Vol. 69 No. 58
sMwwmei ^ - -twm |rj?Y 14
T!?I« It;? OIL
i B15f .iITS*t IT POLL , '
This weatherbeaten sign marks the spot of
the late, apparently unlamented Student
Car Service Area. The Hensel Park loca
tion, which featured a grease rack where
students could service their cars, has been
closed for several years. The sign reads
“This facility is closed because it pollutes
a public stream. The Student Senate will
open a Student Car Service Center in
another location.” So far, the promise has
remained unfulfilled.
'ampus
•clayed registration will take place Jan.
6. Classes begin ^an. 19.
early 5,000 persons attended the con
ing education programs sponsored by
isA&M University from Sept. 1 to Nov.
uring November, 1,589 people came to
i-and off-campus programs, 29 of them
e field of agriculture,
total of 4,713 participants have at-
led 117 programs since Sept. 1, logging
JOS contact hours, adds Bradley,
jember’s attendants clocked 26,315 of
hours.
nsoring programs were the Colleges
griculture, Education, Engineering,
ciences, Liberal Arts and Veterinary
icine.
tinging Cadets hit the road Saturday on a
ui-day, three-state between-semesters
be choral organization will perform in
jjs, Arkansas and Louisiana Jan. 10-16.
sregular feature of the Singing Cadets
|al performing schedules, the tour
; Saturday (Jan. 10) in Lufkin. The 58-
: all-male glee club performs Sunday in
ihall.
ie next three dates mark firsts for the
s A&M group directed by Robert L.
1 ie and accompanied by Mrs. June Bier-
I
londay will find them in Eldorado, Ark.,
ie Cadets first performance in the
They take their program featuring
sricana Jan. 13 to Alexandria, La., and
14 to New Orleans. The latter two stops
City firsts for the Singing Cadets,
ihey bus to Baton Rouge Jan. 15 for a
irh engagement and sing Friday, Jan. 16
asper. Performances are sponsored by
thers and A&M clubs.
•
! s A&M and a program on nuclear
go back on the road Jan. 12, for 87
ments.
> Atomic World,” a demonstration-
on uses of nuclear energy, will tour
ing in Southeast and South Central
The tour starts Jan. 12 at Rice High
in Altair.
i L. Ihms conducted the 40-minute
i in 73 South Texas high schools last
Atomic World” is a cooperative
of Texas A&M’s College of En
tering and Oak Ridge Associated Uni-
lities. It is coordinated here through the
ttric Power Institute of the Electrical
pneering Department. Prof. John Deni-
supervises arrangements; Prof. Col
in Loyd schedules tour stops.
&M Consolidated and Bryan High
iols are on the agenda in April, along
other area schools. Ihms will take the
ram to Sabine Pass in the far southeast
er of the state.
;oes as far north as Jasper and Grove-
len swings west to round out the tour
he Rosebud-Cameron-Taylor-Temple
m. #
r. Jack K. Williams, Texas A&M Uni
ty president, has been elected to a
consecutive term as chairman of the
mission on Colleges of the Southern
ciation of Colleges and Schools,
ie SACS commission is the accrediting
agency for 677 public and private institu
tions of higher learning. Founded in 1895
and headquartered in Atlanta, the overall
association is composed of nearly 10,000 col
leges and universities, occupational institu
tions and secondary and elementary
schools.
•
Scientists from across the nation hope to
link the sometime terrifying weather of the
Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico during a
three-day conference of Texas A&M Uni
versity beginning Jan. 14.
Eleven weather experts will instruct in
the conference concerned with the role of
the Gulf of Mexico on the climate and
weather of the United States. The meet is
supported by National Science Foundation
and sponsored by the Center for Applied
Geosciences at A&M.
The objectives of the conference are to
assess the importance of the influence on
the Gulf on the weather which occurs over
the U.S. and areas adjacent to the Gulf and
to also determine research needed to pro
vide a better understanding of the influence
of the Gulf in relation to weather forecast
ing.
•
Judges and organizers of the 1975-76
Texas A&M Arts Committee Poetry and
Fiction Contest are preparing to receive the
majority of this year’s entries after students
return to class Jan. 19.
Deadline for the second annual competi
tion is Feb. 13, rejxjrt contest directors, and
most entries will probably be submitted in
the latter part of January and early Feb
ruary.
Six winners will be chosen from the con
testants in each category with the top three
receiving cash prizes during an awards
ceremony later in the spring.
All graduate students enrolled for nine
hours or more and all undergraduates carry
ing at least 12 hours are eligible to submit
original works forjudging, although no pre
vious winners may be re-entered.
•
Industry’s battle against air pollution
continues at Texas A&M University when
representatives gather from across the state
for the Stack Sampling Short Course on Pol
lution Control, Jan. 12-16.
The featured lecturer will be William F.
Harris who is in charge of engineering pro
grams of the Technical Program Division,
Texas Air Pollution Control Services. The
course is sponsored by the Chemical En
gineering Department and is headed by Dr.
W. B. Harris.
The short course is designed to train in
dustrial personnel to comply with the Texas
Air Control Board provisions which state
that stacks in Texas which emit pollutants
must be sampled upon request and the re
sults submitted to the TACB.
Library
expecting
millionth
volume
The library’s millionth book could be on
the shelf by Spring, its associate director,
Dr. Henry Alsmeyer, Jr., said yesterday.
The recently dedicated Sterling C. Evans
Library now holds 926,882 volumes.
A sharp increase in state and university
allocations for library support is helping the
library reach its goal. The library s new
budget of $2,867,741 is more than $800,000
higher than the previous year’s figure.
Library funding includes state appropria
tions set by the Legislative Budget Board,
special University allocations made by Uni
versity President Jack Williams and Vice
President John Calhoun, gifts from Friends
of the Texas A&M University Library, fed
eral grants and other sources.
A 65 per cent increase in the allocation for
library materials provides $1.3 million for
the ordering of new books during 1976.
Books are requested for library acquisi
tion by faculty representatives appointed by
department heads.
Students may make requests for books
dealing with non-academic subjects (recre
ational activities, science fiction, etc.) by
leaving the request in the box opposite the
circulation desk on the library’s first floor.
Student requests for academically
oriented books should be channeled
through the departmental representative.
Although there is no definite date for the
appearance of the millionth addition,
Alsmeyer was confident it will appear some
time during 1976, during A&M’s Centen
nial celebration.
A new computerized cataloging system
now in operation at the library should speed
the acquisition, Alsmeyer said.
The system, using cathode ray terminals,
instantly provides librarians with cataloging
data from a central bibliographic base in
Ohio. The Southwestern cooperative is
known as AMIGOS Bibliographic Network
and is part of a larger cooperative also ser
vicing New England and the Southeast.
The database is located in the Ohio Col
lege Library Center.
Race OK await >
speedway sale
By ROD SPEER
After two years of inactivity two 1976 auto
races have tentatively scheduled for the
Texas World Speedway.
Confirmation of the races awaits the offi
cial sale of the speedway fron the current
owner, the Holloway Sand & Gravel Co., to
an unnamed Eastern racing syndicate, ac
cording to Jack Martin, director of public
affairs for the United States Auto Club
(USAC).
Dan Holloway Sr., owner of the sand and
gravel company, would not comment on the
sale. His local agent for the speedway,
County Judge Bill Vance, acknowledged se
rious negotiations are underway for the sale
of the five-year-old track, which lies eight
miles south of College Station on State
Highway 6.
Martin said USAC plans to sponsor a rac
ing double-header on April 4 at the track. A
150-mile stock car race will be paired with a
150-mile championship (Indianapolis-type)
car race. He estimated the purse to be about
$75,000.
The same kind of doubleheader is set for
Oct. 17, he said, only the distance of the
races will be increased to 200 miles.
National Association for Stock Car Auto
Racing (NASCAR) officials have not been
approached concerning races at Texas
World Speedway since the track closed in
1973 and were unaware of the impending
sale of the track. NASCAR has sponsored
several races at the speedway, including the
“Texas 500,” once the annual finale of the
Winston Cup stock car circuit.
The $6.25 million speedway opened
under the name Texas International
Speedway in November 1969, but, after
only two racing slates were held, was closed
because of poor weatber and inadequate
financing.
The Holloway company, which held the
largest mechanic’s lien against the property
for work it did preparing the track, forec
losed on the speedway in December 1970.
Holloway then bought the speedway after a
federal judge ordered it sold in a public
auction in the fall of 1971.
The speedway’s first race under its new
owner and current name was the NASCAR
“Texas 500” in December of that year.
Holloway’s races fared little better than ;
his predecessor’s.
Rain postponed several races and turned j
the earthen parking lot into a mud pit. j
Summer racing fans once had to contend !
with 100-degree temperatures and a blaring j
sun, because only 6(X) of the tracks’ 26,000
seats are under cover.
The track closed in October 1973 with the
management’s citing the energy crisis as the j
major factor.
Since that time the track has been used
only to host Willie Nelson’s (1974) Fourth of
July Picnic.
A&M economic impact
sets record in 1975
Texas A&M University’s economic im
pact on the Bryan-College Station area to
taled a record $136,600,000 for 1975.
The 1975 total represents an 18.6 per
cent increase over 1974.
The sharp increase is attributed to the
university’s enrollment gains and expanded
research activities. Texas A&M’s 3,784-
student increase for the 1975 fall semester
was the largest ever and pushed total en
rollment past 25,000 for the first time —
25,247. The university’s volume of research
also continued to rise, totaling $39.3 million
for fiscal year 1974-75 and currently run
ning about $4.2 million ahead of last year’s
pace.
Lex as A&M s 1975 economic impact fig
ures include a payroll of $86.2 million for
the more than 6,200 permanent Texas A&M
University System employes residing in
Bryan-College Station. This represents a
gain of approximately $10.7 million over the
previous year.
Some 600 additional staff, research and
support personnel joined the institution
during 1975, for a payroll equivalent of two
or three medium-size businesses for the
community.
Federal judge removed,
but claims good intentions
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge or
dered removed from the nation s biggest
antipollution case for taking sides says he
did his best “to provide for the maximum
protection of the public health.
U.S. District Court Judge Miles W. Lord
acknowledged Tuesday’s order from the
U. S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals lifting his
jurisdiction over the Reserve Mining Co.
case, but no more.
Lord, the appeals court said from St.
Louis, “seems to have shed the robe of the
judge and assumed the mantle of the advo
cate” in the lengthy pollution case.
“I have done my best to provide for the
maximum protection of the public health
consistent with due process to all con
cerned,” the judge said in a brief statement
issued by aides.
“As of today, I can do no more. I am
hopeful that the next judge will be given the
power and support necessary to protect the
public health of the people in Minnesota
and the environment in which we live.
“That’s all I’ll say today,” the smiling,
55-year-old judge told reporters who
gathered in his chambers here.
Reserve Mining, which discharges
67,000 tons of waste rock daily into Lake
Superior from its Silver Bay, Minn., taco-
nite plant, complained to the appeals court
last month that Lord was no longer acting
impartially in the case.
The complaint came after Lord, once
Minnesota’s attorney general, ordered Re
serve to pay $100,000 to continue filtration
of the minicipal water supply at Duluth,
Minn., and other communities along the
North Shore of Lake Superior.
The 16-page appeals court ruling referred
to “obvious impropriety in Lord s order
requiring Reserve to deposit the money
“without proper notice and hearing. The
court said it was dissolving the district court
order and returning the $100,000 deposit to
Reserve.
Don Wright, Reserve’s director of com
munications, declined comment on the ap
peal court’s decision.
“We haven’t seen it and we won t com
ment until we’ve seen it, ” he said. It would
be very inappropriate to say anything until
we see the judges’ order.”
The appeals' court directed the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to adequately
filter drinking water and furnish safe drink
ing water for the relevant communities on
the North Shore of Minnesota and asked
the district court to determine what
amounts Reserve must pay for the costs of
pollution abatement.
Because of Lord’s actions, the appeals
court said, the district court “thus becomes
lawyer, witness and judge in the same pro
ceeding, and abandons the greatest virtue
of a fair and conscientious judge " impar
tiality. ”
The dispute over the Silver Bay plant has
been in the courts for four years. After a
nine-month trial in 1973-74, Lord ordered
the plant closed. He found a health hazard
resulted from asbestos fibers some witnes
ses said came into the lake with the taconite
tailings dumped by Reserve.
Two more countries
may aid Angola faction
Texas
Nacogdoches and the surrounding
smaller East Texas communities will have
the chance to benefit from a new program
developed by Texas A&M University ac
counting researchers.
Beginning Jan. 7, a five-day workshop
will be held for “anyone with accounting
and finance responsibilities in an area city. ”
The classes will be held in the Nacogdoches
Holiday Inn.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence
sources predict two more Western Hemi
sphere countries will soon come out in sup
port of the Soviet-backed faction in the An
gola civil war.
Intelligence sources said they have re
ceived strong indications that the govern
ments of Jamaica in the Caribbean and
Guyana in South America will formally rec
ognize the Popular Movement for the Lib
eration of Angola (M PLA), an action already
taken by Brazil.
These sources forecast that such action
will follow expected recognition of the
MPLA by tbe Organization of African Unity
OAU, which convenes later this week in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
U.S. intelligence sources also have been
watching the movement of a Soviet
guided-missile destroyer down the west
coast of Africa in recent days for any indic
ations it may sail toward Angola. At last
report, the destroyer was steaming west of
Guinea.
The Russians have stationed an amphibi
ous tank-landing ship some 300 miles off the
northern Angolan coast for some time in
what is regarded by some U.S. analysts as a
further demonstration of Soviet interest in
that area of Africa and its adjoining waters.
The Soviets have moved destroyers and
tank-landing ships in and out of Conakry,
Guinea, for several years. Analysts say that
even if the destroyer meets with the tank
landing ship at sea off Angola, it would be
more a symbolic, show-the-flag gesture
than a significant military show of force.
3 A&M engineers
on ‘rotten mission’
A trio of Texas A&M University engineers are attempting to stop the
slow deterioration of San Antonio’s San Jose Mission.
The 198-year-old mission is falling victim to deterioration due to
water, pollution, and possibly fungus. Even Rosa’s Window, considered
one of the finest pieces of Spanish colonial ornamentation sculptured in our
country, is being weathered away.
The National Park Service, through the Texas Department of Commun
ity Affairs and the Texas State Building Materials and Testing Laboratory,
is funding the project and passed it on to Drs. Al Meyer, a materials re
searcher; Kirk Brown, a soils physicist; and Bob Lytton, a soils engineer
with the Civil Engineering Department.
“We were approached with the job of determining what is causing the
deterioration of the missions in San Antonio,” Dr. Meyer explained. “Aud
what we learn here we hope will be applicable to other national shrines-
“During the Christmas holidays we took samples of the walls in part of
the mission,” he said. “We will establish a weather station there to record
climatological data at the mission. This will coordinate thermal gradients
with temperature (to see if it causes condensation of water in the walls) and
compare rainfall with the movement of water in the extremely thick walls
of the structures.
“The mission was founded in 1720, by 1749 it was the leading mission on
the northern frontier, and in 1777 the present church was nearing compl e ’
tion, ” Meyer said. “Part of the structure collapsed in the 1920’s and v*'®*
restored in the 1930’s. Our task now is to preserve particularly the original
portion which is in jeopardy. >
“Some of the simple solutions that involve modern technology can’t b e
easily used because of the desire to retain the original looks of the San Juj>®
Mission, ” he said. “Epoxy’s and sealers that would eliminate the water woul
also ruin the looks.
“The walls are four to five feet thick supporting ceilings that are 12 to
14 inches thick, ” Meyer said. “They are natural stone and mortar constric
tion covered with plaster. We want to find out if the water is coming frd in
the ground up, the ceiling down, or from the inside out through condensati 011
caused by the thermal gradient.
"The foundation can be sealed if it is coming from the ground, the rooi
can be fixed if it’s coming from the ceiling, and if fungi is pulling the water
up, it can be killed and regrowth prevented,” he said. “We can determi ne
the protection if we can determine the direction the water is moving. ,
“This is extremely fascinating work, trying to preserve the original
and effort that went into these buildings,” he said.
) Students contributed almost $39 million
to the local economy, up more than $5 mil
lion. Food and housing account for the
major expenditures, along with clothing,
school supplies and recreation.
The university spent about $6 million
locally for utilities, services and supplies.
Expenditures in this category rose about
$1.2 million.
Visitors attending athletic events, con
ferences and short courses at the university
accounted for approximately $5.5 million,
an increase of about $900,000. Most expen
ditures in this category were for food, lodg
ing and entertainment.