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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1977)
The Battalion Vol. 71 No. 13 8 Pages Monday, September 19, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Policy change may cost Health Center $90,000 playa i the I lilingfc ? only] mtest he silei ectedi Teehii off is i game i Camping out — again! Battalion photo by Michael Fred Aggies take to camping out in front of G. Rollie White Colesium again. These students are await ing tickets for the Texas A&M-Texas Tech football game that will be played Saturday, Sepl. 24 in Lubbock. The line started forming Saturday, Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. By GLENNA WHITLEY Battalion Staff A policy change being considered by the personnel department of the Texas A&M University system could cost the Beutel Health Center approximately $90,000 in revenue per year. The center presently receives $15 per physical examination from the personnel department. The physicals are performed for prospective employes within the sys tem as required by an act passed by the Texas state legislattire in 1948. The act es tablished Texas A&M’s own insurance program for workmen’s compensation. But the state legislature recently passed legislation giving the Texas A&M Board of Regents the power to change the require ments in the compensation program. Be cause of the high cost of the physicals each year, they may be discontinued. The purpose of physicals was originally to protect individuals, and employes they work with, and to protect the compensa tion program against fraud. “It (the physical) is principally to detect any pre-existing physical problems with an individual. They may not even know they have them. Then again they may,” Pat Lackey , administrative assistant for Be- utal, said. John Honea, associate director of per sonnel, said the physicals had uncovered some medical problems people didn’t know they had. But sometimes employes are hired when they know about an injury, then claim to have been injured on the job in order to collect medical benefits. These instances, however, are very rare. “It’s awful hard to prove,” Honea said. The possibility of discontinuing the physical examinations brings mixed reac tions from officials at the Health Center. "It’s a mixed blessing. Obviously a loss of that much money would hurt. Without some additional sources of revenue to offset that, we would naturally prefer to put up with the inconvenience and loss of time,” Lackey said. “If we weren’t doing workmen’s com pensation physicals we could see more students faster,” he said. The physicals do take up the tine of nurses, lab technicians and doctors. Each person is given a hearing and vision test, a blood test, an urinalysis, a blood pressure and pulse check, a tuberculosis test, a check for hernias and similar problems. In 1976-77, the Health Center received $86,355 from the personnel department for physicals performed. The total budget for that year was $840,491. Other revenue came from military and private physicals, and the Side of items such as splints and bandages. This year’s budget is $1.2 million. Ap proximately $90,000 of that is expected to come from workmen’s compensation phys icals. If the physicals are stopped, where will the money come from? “It’s hard to say,” said Lackey. "'We’re still studying that. We’re exploring all the possibilities.” One possibility is the increase of student health fees. Presently, each student pays a compulsory $14 per semester for use of the Health Center. The state legislature has set a maximum possible fee of $15, so this one-dollar increase at Texas A&M is pres ent enrollment would only net an additional $30,000. Dr. Claude Goswick, director of the Health Center, suggests a user fee which would be paid by those who use certain facilities. “It’s long over-due. We re about the only school that doesn’t do it this way he said. X-rays, medications, lab work, and non-emergency after-hours care could be charged to the user. Currently, these serv ices are performed free of charge. Coni encoi ts Ki as ini ; Lonj is its Hi | avello Fi\i |i Itt- Activities increasing Lighting for sports complex ‘in-the-waiting’ Sat. By LARRY PARKER 'e years have passed since the first isal to light the Texas A&M sports ilex, located across the railroad tracks ■to the new baseball fields. And use of laeilities by intramurals participants itinues to increase. (year, sports activities on the corn- mounted to about 150,000 participa- said Dennis Corrington, director of urals, in an interview last week, [football in 1977 had 307 teams with ames to be played; this year there are jeams and 1,017 games on the docket, pitch softball in 1976 had 320 teams. 77 there were 430 teams and in 1978 umber may exceed 500. ieause games must be played before lown, sports schedules are often ex- Jed so that all teams can use the fields. Is bad all right,” said Bill Baine, a softball player. “It causes the season to be drugout and we end up studying for or taking finals and trying to finish softball.’ “We may have a week or more in be tween games,” said Rick Thompson, a softball player. “Then end up playing on a weekend.” In 1971, plans for the complex originally called for lights and a storage structure, Corrington said. The cost estimate by the Physical Plant was $500,000 however, it was turned down by the Board of Regents. Student Government pushed the pro posal for the complex through but had to settle for a no-lighting no-structure esti mate, said Corrington. The proposed cost was $400,000 but the approved bid was $220,000. Construction began in 1974. Howard Vestal, vice president for busi ness affairs, said that the estimate couldn’t have been off that far. "The estimate must have included lights and then they were cut out,” he said. But Corrington said the proposal did not include lights. Corrington said he submitted lighting proposals several times to Dr. Carl Land- iss, head of the physical education de partment. Proposals must go through the Physical Education department after leav ing the intramural office. * “Money is the problem,” said Landiss, “and everyone is in a facility crunch. When asked if 150,000 participation last year should warrant any attention, he said that it should. He also said that power lines installed across the tracks should help keep down the costs. He said he was optimistic about the situation because of the power addition. Some students,have complained that construction of the new baseball field began two years after the original propo sal, while the sports facilities still lack lights. Landiss said this was connected with athletics and he couldn’t comment. Landiss also said that the addition to the football stadium had top priority right now and indicated that nothing else would be considered until this was settled. Landiss did mention that there is a proposal to light one quadrant of the sports facilities. Lights currently on the "astrotruf practice field will be moved to the complex. This quadrant will become a softball field — and the Texas A&M women’s softball team will have first priority in scheduling games on that field. The old baseball field located behind Kyle Field, will be replaced with a parking lot. The proposal was sent from Landiss’ of fice to Dr. Frank Hubert, dean of the col lege of education, then to Dr. John Cal houn, vice-president for academic affairs. From there it must go to the President’s office, then to the chancellor and to the Board of Regents. On October 20, 1975, then President Jack Williams sent Corrington a letter say ing the lighting was a good idea and that Williams would ask the Physical Plant de partment to begin the project. Currently, nothing has been done. When asked last week about the proposal, Williams said that he was ill and that strong energy con servation measures were in effect at that time. “Are the intramural activities re quired?” asked Williams. “I have all the respect in the world for intramurals,” he said, "but whether they warrant this, I don’t know.” President Jarvis Miller said there seems to be a definite need for lighting on the sports complex and said he would look into the matter. He also indicated that the in tramural program should fall under the jurisdiction of Student Services. Robert Harvey, Student Government President, said Friday that the Student Senate would recommend that student services fees go toward lighting the com plex. “Before I recommend this I want to know what Corrington is going to do with his increased budget,” Harvey added. Corrington, when contacted Friday, produced a copy of his budget and ex plained that increased funds would pay of ficials and other workers needed to handle the expected increase in intramural ac tivity. The addition of lights would end all weekend games, said Corrington. Light ing will allow about 40 softball games to be scheduled each day. Presently, only 16 games are played daily. Amoco drills deepest well near here By MARVIN ISAACKS moco Production Company, searching [/land gas reserves that may be buried bra Texas A&M research farm, is now ling what will be the deepest well in (part of Texas. >n ;li e well,located about eight miles Jll Ihvvest of College Station, will be iOOfeet deep when completed. It is an hg Joration well, drilled to test the pos- ilities of finding petroleum deposits in ’Ul | iousl y unexplored deep formations. HI |Vith all the sophisticated equipment liable today, there is still only one way Cl btermine where deposits of oil and gas lally are: that is to drill a well,” said pco public affairs adviser Wayne Tiller. “After this well passes 13,000 feet, it will be a "rank wildcat’. That is, nobody knows what is down there,” said Walter Miller, Amoco drilling, foreman. Amoco Production Company is drilling this exploratory well known “Texas A&M A 1.” The $5 million project is being par tially funded by Getty Oil Company. The rig, which belongs to Sharp Drilling Com pany of Midland, was designed to drill gas wells as deep as 30,000 feet. “Any time a well is drilled to this depth precautions are taken in the event sour gas (hydrogen sulfide) is encountered,” said Miller. “We do not anticipate it, but it is impossible to tell,” he said. Because of the danger in dealing with hydrogen sulfide, extensive safety mea sures were taken to protect personnel and equipment. Miller explained that $300,000 to $500,000 has already been spent at this point for safety equipment alone. A contingency plan has been prepared and submitted to ruling government au thorities and necessary law enforcement kagencies. All people living and working within a 3,000-foot radius of the rig have been notified of the possibilities of sour ’gas. A guard is stationed at the entrance of the rig area 24 hours a day. This makes it possible to account for everyone in the vicinity in case of evacuation. All parameters rff the rig are monitored Drill we must! Battalion photo by Jim Crawley Roughnecks work on the floor of Rig. No. 60 as the pipe is being brought out of the hole. Tongs are used to break lose drill pipe connections. The rig is located on an A&M research farm. by two machines: one unmanned and another manned 24 hours a day. A com puter system is used to keep a constant check on all phases of drilling activity. This system is capable of making predictions concerning drilling situations. The proximity of the drilling location to Texas A&M’s experimental orchards caused Amoco to take extra care in build ing mud reserve pits for the project. The pits, which hold drill cuttings, excess drill ing fluids and water, were lined with heavy-duty neoprene plastic and sealed water-tight. This was done to keep the fluid from traveling underground to the orchards, although studies by a soil re search team found that it would take the fluid two and a half years to reach the or chards. "There is nothing in these pits to dam age the orchards, but these fluids could affect the growth rate of the trees,” said Miller. "Because of the critical research A&M is doing, what we are actually pro tecting against is increasing the growth rate and productivity of these trees,” he said. Amoco is considering using the pits as fish tanks after the well has been com pleted, Miller added. Besides the safeguards for the orchards, other measures were taken to protect the environment. A three and a half-foot ring levee was built around the seven-acre lo cation to prevent spills from getting away. Casing (pipe to seal off the wall of the hole) was set more than 5,800 feet deep. One reason for this is to prevent drilling fluids from entering water formations if pressure is encountered in the drilling process. Unstable soil conditions at the location of the Brazos River drilling site caused site preparation costs to exceed $500,000 be fore the $4 million rig was moved onto the location. While there is less than a ten per cent chance of the well paying for itself, cost of operation for the drilling project exceeds $10,000 daily. However, even if the well is not productive economically, there will be a quality of useful information obtained for future drilling operations. Miller said. “All the information gathered from drill ing this well is stored in Amoco s computer bank in Tulsa, Okla. Drilling is expected to be completed in nine months to one year. Battalion photo by Ken Herrera Bike-A-Thon cyclists earn $1,000 for MS By CLAY COCKRILL A few hours of bicycling around the Bryan-College Station coun tryside Saturday morning earned $1,000 for cyclists participating in the Multiple Sclerosis Bike-A-Thon. Three of the seven bikers completed the entire 30-mile trip. The trip was organized by Circle K, a Texas A&M service organiza tion, in order to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis National Society. Multiple Sclerosis is disease of the nervous system which results in a gradual degeneration of body functions such as speech and mobility. “We wanted more riders,” said Craig Clark, president of the club, “but there is a safety problem when you get too many people on a road with a lot of traffic. ” Clark is a junior in mechanical engineering. The number of bikers wasn’t too important, since the money was raised through sponsors who prom ised to donate so much per mile of the trip completed. A single biker could represent any number of sponsors, and sponsors could also make a flat donation. A big inspiration for the project came when Dr. Carlton Stolle, the club’s sponsor, said he would match from his own pocket every dollar the members collected. Stolle limited himself to a $500 donation, which was the amount the members were able to collect. The seven bikers were Clark, Mike Dragutsky, Tommy Smith, Davey Miner, Donna Hagler, Craig Gargotta, and Harlan Harris. At about 9:40 a.m., the bikers headed south on Highway 6 from Briarcrest, and then north on F.M. 2818 until it crossed Hwy. 6 on the north side of Bryan. They returned to their starting point, Bryan High School, about 1 p.m. The bikers looked surprisingly well at the finish, although they of fered a few complaints about aches in the posterior. And Harris, who was just getting over a virus, finished an hour ahead of the rest.