Battalion
Monday, February 27, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Monday
Stereophonograph collecting is pro
fessor’s hobby, p. 3.
Fulfilling careers require joy-on-
the-job, p. 6.
Aggies lose to Texas Tech 85-78, p.
9.
Inflation worsens,
buying power down
Day s end
fit was a warm weekend, and boating enthusiasts took full advantage of the weather at Lake Somerville.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The inflation rate
doubled from 0.4 percent in December to
0.8 percent in January, while workers’
spendable income took the biggest drop in
years, the Labor Department said today.
Reporting on January retail prices, the
department said inflation for urban con
sumers increased at an annual rate of 3.6 to
4.8 percent between July and December.
But the 0.8 percent January rise pushed
the annual rate to 9.6 percent due to higher
prices for food, housing, medical care and
transportation.
While inflation worsened, the average
worker’s buying power was cut 3 percent
for the worst drop since record-keeping
began 14 years ago. The previous low was a
decline of 6 percent in August 1973.
The department said real spendable
earnings were cut by inflation and the big
increase in social security taxes that took
effect Jan. 1 when both the base rose —
$1,200 to $1,700 — and the rate increased.
The department also said heavy snows
east of the Rockies and flooding rains in
California contributed to the higher food
costs.
The rapid rise in prices for January
pushed the cost of living up 6.7 percent
higher than a year ago, the department
said. The Consumer Price Index stood at
187.2 in January from the 1967 base of 100.
The January price report was the first
under the department’s expanded survey
of consumer prices. The old survey was
broadened from an urban, blue-collar
worker family of four to include urban wage
earners and clerical employees. The de
partment said the new survey covers about
80 percent of the national workforce.
Food and housing got the blame for
about two-thirds of the January increase in
consumer prices. Prices rose rapidly for
meat, poultry, eggs, fresh fruit and vegeta
bles. The food sector as a whole rose 1.2
percent in January.
The cost of buying and maintaining a
home rose 1 percent in January. This re
flected higher prices and mortage interest
rates for buyers and higher costs for
maintenance, repairs and services.
Renters came out better than homeow
ners with costs rising 0.6 percent.
Charges for hospital and other medical
care services increased 0.9 percent while
there were 0.7 percent increases for drugs,
doctor and dentist fees, the department
said.
Evaluation booklet
‘useful’ to students
omen in University
mplain of crank call
Apartments
from ‘doctor’
BY ANDREA VALLS
gine a “doctor who doesn t make
calls . . . only kinky telephone calls,
e 1972, a man, referred to as the
is Doctor has been telephoning
|living in Texas A&M married hous-
inquiring about their sexual rela-
trJips said Dr. Claude Goswick, Diree-
. i- ■University Health Center.
'ojiv than 35 calls of this type have
reported to University Police since
;[said Chief O. L. Luther. All of these
■e obviously related, he said.
K k Gulledege, detective for College
Police Department, said more than
til 2:3®|ie.se phone calls have been reported
110 Mix-year period.
■of the calls follow the same pattern,
Bos wick. The man s voice is reported
|low, soft, and wavy with no notice-
Iccent. His conversation follows this
n. He will:
ive a physician’s name and will tell
ife that her husband has been to the
rsity Health Center for back prob-
the wife that the problem is related
j prostate gland.
Ask the wife if she is familiar with the
terms “communicable social disease
“veneral disease.
Ask if she has had sexual intercourse
with anyone other than her husband, and
how often.
Sometimes ask the various positions
used in intercourse.
Ask for the wife and her husband to
come to the health center for treatment
and counseling.
Call between 8 a.m.and 6 p.m.
Goswick said the man never calls twice
and al way s iden tifies himself as a physician
from the University Health Center.
Luther said the names he frequently uses
are Dr. Otis, Roberts, Dickey, Stans,
Taylor, and Johnson.
A student’s wife who received a call
from the “Bogus Doctor last November
said she answered all his trivial questions
because at the beginning of the call, his
questions were so basic. “His voice was
quiet and subdued, and 1 thought he
sounded like a professional-type person,”
she said. She said the man asked her if she
knew her husband had been to the health
center for prostate gland problems caused
Thieves provoke
fury of bystanders
United Press International
DALLAS — In the past few days
it has become rather hazardous to
be a purse snatcher in the North
Texas area.
Wednesday a neighborhood posse
armed with bricks and hammers
chased down a purse snatcher in
Fort Worth’s southside. Thursday a
similar incident occured in down
town Dallas.
In both cases the young thieves
were rather relieved to see the
police arrive.
In the Thursday purse snatching,
a 25-year-old man thought the
crowded street woidd work to his
advantage and knocked Virginia
Blackwell, 55, to the ground as she
left the First National Bank. He fled
with her $210.
But the thief was rather horrified
to see a number of men in close pur
suit, one of whom made a flying
tackle. When police arrived, three
men were sitting on top of the purse
snatcher.
Today he was awaiting the filing
of charges in the Dallas County jail.
In the Wednesday incident. Fort
Worth resident Patricia Thomas
chased a purse snatcher in her car,
gathering a large posse of her
neighbors as she sped along.
The residents — including one
elderly man with a claw hammer
and another man with two broken
legs — poured into the streets in
pursuit of the assailant, who had by
now thrown away the purse and was
running for his life.
The group cornered the 18-year-
old thief and forced him to return to
the place where he had thrown away
the purse.
“Now leave me alone,” he told
Thomas.
“Nothing doing, she said.
“You’re going to jail.
The thief briefly escaped, but was
soon cornered at an apartment com
plex. He gratefully surrendered to
police.
The teen-ager, identified by
police as Bobby Gene Byers, was
charged with theft and remained in
Tarrant County jail today on $1,000
bond.
“I just got tired of all the crime in
this area, said Thomas, who wit
nessed the theft from neighbor Pat
Hutcherson. “I figured if he got
away with it this time, there s no tel
ling what he might try next.
Thomas, 31, said she hadn’t
planned on being a hero but “I de
cided I wasn’t going to just sit back
and do nothing.
“If people would try to help their
neighborhood and be better citi
zens, I think the police would have a
lot better job of cutting down on
crime.
by a “communicable disease.
T felt so stupid,” she said. “If I would
have connected a communicable disease
with VD, then I would have clicked and
hung up.
Luthur said that although these calls
have occured since 1972, the information
is now being released to the public be
cause it is an embarrassing situation for
the health center, and because calls are
being reported more frequently. Six calls
have been reported to the police in the
past week, said Goswick.
“Obviously, the man is getting some
type of gratification from this, said Gos
wick. “He has to be sure that he is going to
be alone when he calls because he can t be
confronted he added. “I don’t think he s
a rapist or wants physical violence, he
said, “but this is probably his manner of
releasing his frustration. Because the
man knows names and some information
about the wives he calls, University Police
speculate he is employed on campus.
Several theories as to who the man
could be and from where he could be cal
ling have been made in the past. These
vary from the man being a mailman, build
ing inspector, or food-service-machine
supplier. He would need legitimate reason
for being in the health center, the housing
offices, departmental offices, or the rec
ords section. Such a person would go un
noticed to regular staff in these offices.
Luther said the caller probably uses a
campus directory or a telephone book to
check the names as he calls them. This
would provide the caller with the address
and the name of the husband.
Other suggestions are that the man is a
Texas A&M professor who is very familiar
with his students. Goswick said that in
some reported cases, the man knew the
husband’s middle name, his place of em
ployment, and in one case, the husband's
social security number. “This man’s mind
must be brilliant to keep all this inforam-
tion straight,” said Goswick.
Detective Gulledge said phone harrass-
ment is a class B misdemeanor carrying a
penalty of.$1,000 or 180 day in jail, or both.
But these phone calls are difficult to trace
because the man reportedly does not call
the same person more than once, he said.
Luthur said he urges women who re
ceive a call from this man to report them
immediately to the University Police.
“There’s a possibility that some student
will suspect someone of doing this and this
information would be treated as strictly
confidential by the police,” he said.
“It s got to stop soon. This is very embar
rassing for student and for the health cen
ter,’ said Luthur. “I hate to think of all the
problems this has caused between hubands
and wives who have never reported this to
the police. I imagine those husbands had to
supply a real convincing explanation to
their wives.
By PAUL BARTON
College students are constantly being
graded by their teachers, but it’s not
entirely a one-way street. Sometimes, pro
fessors are also evaluated by students, and
when they are it’s regarded as a serious
matter.
Near the end of a semester, many profes
sor hand out some sort of teaching evalua
tion form to their students. The forms are
designed to indicate how students view
their instructor’s teaching ability, and they
contain questions such as “How organized
was this course?” or “How prepared was
the instructor for class meetings?”
Although professors are not required to
release the results to anyone, some deans
request to see them when decisions regard
ing pay raises or tenure are made.
Student government also has a teacher
evaluation form which all professors except
those in the College of Liberal Arts are
asked to give to their students. For Liberal
Arts professors, the organization gathers
information from the form used by that col
lege.
If the professor consents, the informa
tion is published in a professor information
booklet that comes out in April before pre
registration.
The booklet is designed to serve as a
guide for students when they are deciding
which courses to take. “All indications are
that substantial numbers of students use
this,” says Mike Humphrey, student body
president.
However, Humphrey says, only 30 to 40
percent of professors agree to hand out the
student government form in their classes.
He attributes the low response rate to two
factors. He says some professors don’t want
(See Standard, page 4)
Battalion photo by Malcolm Moore
Are you sure you know what you re doing?
Bill Jentsch (left) gets his ‘disguise’ from Curtis
Blair during Friday’s All Night Fair at the Memo
rial Student Center. Blair painted faces for the
Opera and Performing Arts Society booth.
‘So much to do, so many things to see’
Fair draws large crowd
By CHERYL HICKMAN
Friday’s All Night Fair at the MSG
should be hailed as one of the the biggest
social events of the year.
Simply everyone attended. There were
about four dozen creatures from a galaxy
far, far away, three guys jamming on
guitars in the basement, two walking
grapes, “and a partridge in a pear tree.”
The newest fashions were on display.
One gentleman came dressed a la punk
rock complete with a safety pin through
his nose.
Another man came in drag. But the tiny
flowers on his light blue dress clashed with
his red head scarf. And his black spit-
shined shoes and hairy legs added nothing
to the costume.
Many of the women s fashions were big
hits at this gala affair. In fact a woman
dressed as a jawa from “Star Wars ’ won
the Best Costume Award. Second place
went to the two walking grapes, who were
also female, and third was awarded to two
look alikes of Hugh Hefner s ever popular
Playboy bunnies.
So much to do, so many things to see.
One of the most popular shows at the
fair was the Saddle and Sirloin Club’s
“Billy Buckoff,’’ a bucking bronco
simulator. It was fun to watch friends,
enemies and total strangers mount this
black and blue contraption and promptly
dismount with some lack of grace when
Billy started doing his thing.
The award for the best barkers must go
to the men of Moses Hall. They lured un
suspecting passers-by into their massage
parlor with such lines as “Want to warm
your date up for the evening? Bring him
here and let our girls do it.”
And to entice the ladies it was “Look at
the smile on this girl’s face. She’s happy.
She s satisfied.”
Mclnnis Hall s barkers deserve some
recognition too.
“How many times have you had a door
smashed on your thumb? Well this is the
time to get back.” That’s a pretty good line
to attract people to smash up a car. Any
one who could break off a part of this junk
yard reject with a sledge hammer got to
keep that part. The Mclnnis men would
even monogram the trophy with white
spray paint.
For those in the crowd with more brains
than brawn there were other games.
Free University made up some tricky
questions and put on a Match Game.
“Frigid Fran was so frigid that on her
first date at a drive-in she wore a blank
instead of a bra.” The contestant said, “A
hot water bottle.”
For the the true intellectual an assort
ment of computer games was offered by
the Micro-Computer Club.
Have you ever tried playing Hangman’s
Noose or Chess against a computer? It’s
more difficult than you may think since the
computer knows all and tells nothing.
The highlight of this extraordinary eve
ning was the Gong Show. This weird pro
gram featured an odd assortment of "tal
ent, four judges and, of course, a gong.
There were
singers, actors, a living
bowling ball, comediennes, an Indian, and
Elvis impressionist. You name it and
someone probably made a spectacle out of
himself doing it.
The winner turned out to be a har
monica player. But this harmonica had a
gimmick: he played the instrument with
his nose.
Overall, the All Night Fair was a com
plete success. For all you poor souls who
missed it. don t worry. There s always next
vear.