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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1978)
sit® } utand|| ittletoj est plaj, ‘d I wi| eo ple m it in i The Battalion '• try anj Jay tel, 1 at G. e time Inside Friday: Foreign languages in the elementary school, p. 5. Mrs. Olson s brew not as good as it seems, p. 8. Ags face Rice Owls, p. 6. Vol. 71 NO. 85 8 Pages Friday, January 27, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 ossible safety hazard Eaue to acid corrosion ! 185.01 ! 124,05 full SET i 159,Si ; 119,05 ES $21,05 ROM i By PAIGE BEASLEY use of acids, which is causing corro- a and outside the Oceanography and Jorology Building at Texas A&M Uni- could develop into a safety hazard, problem originated with the design building. Before construction was leted, the building was redesigned chemists discovered there were no hoods capable of handling the use of [iloric acid, a highly corrosive combi- of oxygen and chlorine. Further- , the fume hood ducts were not prop- ilaced. “A year or so after we moved into the building, it was found that the blower units put into the fume hood system were inadequate for the volumes and types of acids we were evaporating into the fume hoods,” said Dr. Bobby J. Presley, as sociate professor of oceanography. “The blowers were getting eaten up, and the fume hoods would stop working. ” When you’re designing a building with fume hoods in it, the fume hoods should run straight up to the roof and discharge, but in this building they go all over the place,” said Dr. David Schink, associate professor of oceanography. The ducting, the passageways for fumes being carried from the hoods, have right angle bends, which slow down the speed at which fumes leave the building. An improper air balance, the inside air has a slightly lower pressure than the air outside, makes it difficult to blow the air out of the fume hoods, Schink said. Earl F. Cook, Dean of Geosciences, said these conditions are causing “not only corrosion, but somewhere down the line it could cause unhealthy conditions in the laboratories. .S. confident peace talks o resume in Middle East United Press International e United States, confident that itiations between Egypt and Israel will me next week, is now trying to bring an’s King Hussein into the Middle East e process. gypt and Israel, who broke off negotia- nine days ago in a bitter exchange of iminations, predicted Thursday that p stalled military talks will resume in o next week. raeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan tone step further and said that thanks J.S. mediation Israel and Egypt are etoan accord on a “statement of princi- on a Middle East settlement. “I am hopeful that we can reach — and this is mainly due to the American con tribution — an agreement about the prin ciples that would be acceptable to the Egyptians and ourselves,” Dayan said. Such guidelines could pave the way for a resumption of the Israeli-Egyptian political talks suspended by President Anwar Sadat last week. U.S. diplomats said Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for 90 minutes Thursday, will travel to Jor dan Saturday to try to draw Hussein into the peace process. They said Atherton would meet six U.S. ambassadors in Amman and then pay a “courtesy call” on Hussein. The Hashemite monarch’s participation is considered cru cial for negotiating a settlement to the Palestinian issue. Officials in Jerusalem said Atherton will arrive in Cairo next week, probably carry ing new ideas that could prove crucial in determining the next step in the peace making effort. In a related development, the New York Times reported today that both Sadat and Begin may travel to Washington within the next month for separate meetings with President Carter. Deputy constables arrest hree for check violations By TERESA HUDDLESTON and GARY WELCH ot check writers found tliem selves in |n hotter water Thursday night when izos County deputy constables con- ted raids to round up area hot check sers. Thursday night is a good night to catch m at home,” said Constable E. W. ers. “Friday night everyone is gone.” Sayers said he mailed about 100 sum- ms to hot check passers around the nty. Some were due for payment last ;day and others for last Monday. Those who did not pay their checks by the dead line had warrants issued for their arrests. Deputies gave each hot check writer a chance to pay both the unpaid check and a fine for not answering the summons. If both accounts were not paid in cash im mediately, the person was taken to the county jail and given the option to either post bond or spend the night in jail. By 10 p.m., deputies had arrested three people who did not pay immediately. Most of those who were home paid in order to stay out of jail. A local radio station announced Thurs day that the raids would take place, driving some offenders away from home for the evening. ) But Sayers said the announcement caused a flood of telephone calls from people wanting to know if there were war rants out on them. “They really came out of the woodwork, ” Sayers said. Although the announcement allowed some offenders to elude the de puties, he said, it made people aware that hot check passers were being prosecuted. Deputies Art Dixon and Johnny Ramirez served a warrant to a local man for a $30 debt owed to a local merchant. The man produced a money order receipt for the same amount, and Dixon said he would check today to see if the debt had actually been paid. The deputies also collected a $74.50 fine for the man’s failure to answer the sum mons. Dixon and Ramirez served another war rant in the Pinfeather Acres trailer park, but found the person had moved. They checked with a neighbor and found the per son had left in November and moved into an apartment in Bryan. “I’ll have to do some tracking down to morrow,” Dixon said. By checking with local utility and cable companies, he said, deputies should be able to find correct ad dresses on some outstanding warrants. “We’ll do a lot of cross checking,” he said. “We ll get ’em.” Sayers said that many warrants could not be served because the people had moved, but deputies were able to find out where most of them could be found. “Although we didn’t collect them all,” he said, “we found out where we can get them.” Cash limits reduced “Before the later happens, we’ve got to get the problem corrected, and it’s a dif ficult and expensive thing to do because we don’t know what it involves,” Cook said. Acid fumes can burn the eyes and skin and cause lung deterioration, said Pete Rodriquez, administrative services officer and chemist. Nevertheless, Cook said, chemical oceanographers must conclude research on time, ‘without endangering our people. “They are using the fume hoods until they come to the point where the situation is really dangerous, and they have to cut it (research) down, and try to patch them.” The acids we are using are not unusual,” Presley said. “Laboratories all over the world use these kinds of acids. Laboratories all over the world have fume hoods that work. The question is, why don’t the fume hoods work in Aggieland?” Schink said that along with faulty ventilation, there is a shortage of hoods for the lab work. Researchers are forced to use acids outside of the hoods, which in turn causes corrosion inside the laboratories. Corrosion is also taking place outside the building. “The building is faced with limestone which is soluble in acid, so when the acid fumes go out the ducts and they touch the walls of the building, they dissolve it,” Schink said. “The fume hood exhausts are not prop erly placed so the fumes are hitting the windows up there in the observatory,” he said. “We use hydroflouric acid which etches glass so we are etching the win dows. ” Paul Stevens of the Texas A&M physical plant said there are three possible options to decrease problems in the building: to redesign the ventilation system, to in crease the speed at which the fumes leave the building, or to provide a means of re plenishing the fresh air in the laboratories. Presently contractors are working on plans and prices. Until presentation by contractors and approval by the Univer sity, research will continue at half speed because of the inadequate fume hood sys tem. Tom McCall Students’ battle needed in combat By DEBBIE GOLLA Students in Texas must combat big oil and business companies to preserve the state’s environment, said Tom McCall, leading environmentalist in a speech at Texas A&M University Thursday night. McCall’s talk was presented by the Great Issues committee. McCall, former governor of Ore gon, talked about “The Future of Man’s Environments: Earth, Space, and Seas." Environmental control is not a one-time effort, but a continuing struggle in small areas as well as large, he said. “There is such a tiny percentage of the total population of Texas that are environmentalists that it is al most an endangered species,” he said. McCall quoted such environmentalists as Herman Conn, the “eternal optimist, as McCall re ferred to him, and Earl Cooke. McCall cited the wholesale killing of eagles, the increasing sale of flood lands, and the country’s polluted rivers as only a few of today’s environmental problems. “We all have to come down to earth, no matter how far we sail into space,” McCall said, referring to to day’s space travel. He said it is im portant to “take care of what we have before we look for anything else.” McCall’s accomplishments in clude the titles of Encompassed Conservationalist of the Year, Environmental Educator of the Year, and Education’s Citizen of the Year. He is recipient of the Audu bon Society Medal. Extension of hours ready for approval By PAUL BARTON Closing hours at the Memorial Student Center will be extended from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, if a propo sal passed by the MSC council is approved by the University Center Board of Direc tors. The new hours are the result of university-wide survey that showed stu dents would prefer to have the MSC open later for studying purposes, said Sha ron Taulman, vice-president for adminis tration on the council. The council approved an overall budget request of $540,094.05 for 1978-79, an in crease of $45,113.05 over this year’s budget. Of the total, $173,617.05 will come from student service fees, an in crease of $14,685.05 over 1977-78. These budget requests must now be approved by the Student Service Fee allocations Com mittee during its hearings Jan. 31-Feb. 2. The money will be used to support 20 MSC committees ranging from Aggie Cinema to Political Forum and Town Hall. Opera and Performing Arts, Town Hall and the Video Tape committee among organizations requesting were the largest budget increases. OPAS’ $4,075 increase and Town Hall’s $15,300 increase were due largely to in- tflation and the new federal copyright law, said Lynn A. Gibson, president of the MSC Council. According to Sarah Ferry, OPAS com mittee chairman, royalties have to be paid to composers and copyright companies whenever their works are performed be fore audiences. Ferry says the group hir ing the performer must pay the royalties. The video tape committee requested an increase of $7,655. John Hancock, chair man of the committee, said the money will be used to purchase a portable video tape camera and recorder. In other action, Ray Daniels, Town Hall committee chairman, announced that his organization is negotiating with comedian Steve Martin for a Texas A&M appearance later this spring. Jury finds Yarbrough guilty in prejury charge United Press International AUSTIN — Former Supreme Court As sociate Justice Donald B. Yarbrough was found guilty Thursday of aggravated per jury by a five-man, six-woman jury. Merchants alter check policy Battalion photo by Susan Webb Chester Price, deputy constable of Brazos County, knocks to serve a summons for writing hot checks. A “raid” was conducted last night, requiring persons to pay for the bad checks, and a fine, or go to jail for the night. By JANICE STRIPLING More and more businesses in College Station are refusing to accept checks be cause of losses from bad checks. Although businessmen have accepted inconveniences in dealing with checks, they now protect their interests by im plementing check cashing policy changes. Due to excessive losses, businesses in Col lege Station are now accepting checks on a limited basis. Bobby Bosquez, Piggly Wiggly assistant manager said, “Students assume we are a bank and that’s not true.” The $5 cash limit is a convenience and it shouldn’t be taken for granted, he said. Six months ago Piggly Wiggly set a $10 limit for cash. That policy was changed re cently to a $5 limit. “Seventy-five percent out of 100 bad checks are from students,” Bosquez said. Students closing their accounts at banks for the summer is Piggly Wiggly’s largest problem said Bosquez. Piggly Wiggly has to put a lot of time, effort and money into locating violators. Piggly Wiggly used a collection agency called Continental Collection Bureau of Houston, said Bosquez. “I don’t know how the collection agency handles the cases, but we get results,” he said. Restaurants as well as grocery stores are having problems collecting on bad checks. “We only take checks from our trustworthy customers,” said Sambo’s manager, Calvin Littlejohn. Trustworthy customers are local resi dents that haven’t written bad checks at Sambo’s. Sambo’s does not accept any checks from students. The restaurant originally accepted checks under a liberal basis. Be cause of excessive losses this policy was changed after Christmas. Littlejohn didn’t know exactly how much they lost. Sambo’s had problems with bad checks before implementing the new policy, Littlejohn said. The three problems areas were checks involving endorsement, insuf ficient funds and closed accounts. The average insufficient check at Sam bo’s is for $4. “It’s not worth my time, effort and money to track down the per son,” said Littlejohn. The older account is usually a stable one Littlejohn said. New checking accounts where the check number ranges from 101 to 301 are checks that most frequently bounce. Littlejohn admits that turning custom ers away has hurt business a little. He adds that now they have only 10 percent of the checks returned. “The time, effort and money that was saved, was worth losing a few customers,” said Littlejohn. “Because I stopped taking checks liberally International House of Pancakes (IHOP) received my check busi ness.” Because of the overflow of bad checks, IHOP has stopped taking them, he said. (See Checks, page 3) The jury deliberated only 15 minutes be fore announcing it had determined Yar brough lied to a Travis County jury on June 28, 1977, about a meeting with a former business associate. Yarbrough stood solemnly with his hands folded in front of him as District Judge Mace B. Thurman read the verdict, he showed no signs of emotion. The jury will resume deliberations today to consider the sentencing for the 36-year-old former justice, Just before the jury received the case, Travis County District Attorney Carol Vance gave the final argument for the state, saying the jury had to find Yar brough guilty. “I submit to you we have proven this case not only beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond any doubt, Vance said. Yarbrough was accused of lying to the Travis County grand jury which was inves tigating allegations he had participated in the forgery of an automobile title. Yarbrough told the grand jury he had not met his former business associate John W. Rothkopf between Christmas of 1976 and June 10 of 1977. Evidence presented at the trial, includ ing testimony of Rothkopf and tape rec ordings of a conversation between the two, showed Yarbrough met Rothkopf at an Austin motel May 16 and supervised the forging of the automobile registration. Testimony ended early Thursday with no evidence presented in Yarbrough s de fense. i !' vcxtwnnn — fCOfifi ... KENWOOD — SANSUI