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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1978)
Page 8 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1978 Co-ed values college education: late is much better than never By DEBBI PIGG Elizabeth Taylor, freshman gen eral studies major at Texas A&M University, is learning to start over. After 16 years, Taylor, 34 is teaching herself how to “sit down and study a book again. Taylor graduated from Lincoln High School in College Station in 1962. The faculty at Lincoln named Taylor as the outstanding senior homemaking student, and Lincoln’s chapter of Future Homemakers of America (FHA) granted her a schol arship. Taylor never used her scholarship to attend Prairie View A&M Univer sity after graduation as she had planned. For two years she helped her father pick cotton at her family’s farm in the Brazos River bottom, coining home from the fields with burning sores on her legs. A few weeks before Taylor graduated from high school, a doctor diagnosed the sores on her legs as ulcers. He said the ulcers were caused by a chemical in the insec ticide used to dust local cotton crops. Taylor had developed a strong aller gic reaction to the chemical. Four Bryan-College Station doc tors treated her. “I almost lost my leg, she said. But eventually the doctors cured her. The medical bills, however, cost Taylor her immediate college educa tion. After high school graduation, Taylor earned a living by sewing. ■T started messing around with a sewing machine when I was 15,” Taylor said. "It was natural for me to be a seamstress. 1 advertised on KTAM’s Tradeo and people called me. She also quilted, babysat, cared for bedridden invalids and cleaned private homes. In 1970 Taylor began cleaning house for an employee at the Texas A&M University Health Center. The employee told Taylor of an open ing at the center for a part-time assis tant. Taylor applied and got the job. A year later she began working as a full-time nurses assistant. She has worked at the health center for eight years. Her duties include taking the pa tients temperatures, giving them juice, cookies, food and keeping them company. Being around students encour aged Taylor to enroll at Texas A&M in the summer of 1977 as a part- time student. “I enrolled at A&M because I live close, I love the students here, I wanted to get an education and I wanted to better myself,” she said. “It was all my idea and my friends encouraged me.” Taylor lives in a trailer house in Wellborn and pays her tuition with earnings from working at the health center. This semester, she is enrolled in Math 165, the History and Nature of Mathematics. She takes only one or two classes each per semester be cause of her full-time job. How long will it take her to graduate? "At the rate I’m going it will take me 10 years," Taylor said. “I wish I had started five years ago.” Taylor has not decided what she will do when she graduates. Her problem now is learning to start over again. “I’m having to teach myself how to sit down, pick up a book and study it,,” she said. When Taylor first started attend ing classes, she felt out of place be cause she was older than most of the students. "But when I started walk ing around campus, I saw many stu dents older than me,” she said. Taylor likes working at the health center and she likes her classes. “I get a kick out of the students, ” she said. “They all have different personalities and I never can guess how they are going to act. I’m never bored. The students are always laughing in the health center, even though they are sick.” CHARISSA PACK joins "THE PRECISION HAIRCUTTERS' jflHEAlE €11 V ti 209 E. University 846-4771 (In the George Green Bldg.) Dollars, contracts increase for faculty research grants Bv TR1C1A BRUNHART The Texas A&M Research Foun dation accepted about 300 contracts for grants in its last fiscal year, amounting to about §15 million, said Dr. J.M. Lewallen, director of the foundation. In the last decade both the number of contracts and the volume of dollars have increased from 10 percent to 15 percent per year, he said. More faculty members are doing research, and competition is increas ing at Texas A&M, Lewallen said. The size of the contracts are down, but the number of them is increas ing. The research foundation is a non profit organization helping to stimu late* the* research program within the University System by identifying. GETTING MARRIED? Take the girl you LOve, for a drive in the country. Come to Bay City - 75 mi. southwest of Houston to look over our large selection of engagement rings, wedding sets or loose stones and we will give you a 25% discount on any purchase. Why? Because at Green Bros., we are all Aggies and we try to practice the tradition of helping out our fellow Ags. Green Bros. Jewelers on the square in Bay City Allen Green ’78 Gary Green ’75 Dan Shefer ’75 245-2598 Come See A&M Organizations Box in The 2nd Annual Sigma Phi Epsilon FIGHT NIGHT Admission $ 1 00 W/ID $ 1 50 Non Student March 1 & 2 National Guard Armory Fighting Starts 7:00 P.M Food & Beer Available acquiring, and administering re search contracts and grants, Lewal len said. A potential sponsor for research will make two types of proposals: un solicited and solicited he said. Un solicited proposals set no rigid re quirements so the money can be used for any type of research project. The solicited proposals are made toward a particular subject so the money can be used for a specific purpose only. Normally contracts and grants are given to institutions, not individuals, be added. Sometimes sponsors want to have sole access to the research they pay for. In these circumstances the re search foundation is reluctant to ac cept the proposal unless conducting the research will be of value through learning to the University, said Lewallen. The sponsors of research programs include state government and its agencies, the federal government, private persons and organizations, profit and non-profit organizations. and local and regional governments. Of the $55 million a year for re search funding for the University, 40 percent comes from the state, 40 percent comes from the federal gov ernment, and 20 percent comes from other sources, Lewallen said. The research foundation does not accept any state contracts, because these go directly to the University, he said. The foundation mainly hand les federal contracts and private in dustry contracts. Faculty members are the ones who apply for grants, although some times they apply for graduate stu dents whose work they support, Lewallen said. Approximately 55 percent of the proposals made in a vear become funded, be added. For research projects, one might not know right away if it is a success or not, he said. Most of the projects at Texas A&M will lav out certain objectiv es and see that they are met. Sponsors will often retain a part of the funds, until the project objec tives are met, he added. Battalion photo by Pat 0^ Ithdt t ‘One, two, three...' |i^ Janet Nufer, graduate student in geology, and Fred Wilson, graduate in meteorology, dance an Asian step called the‘aim nc j ^ kcume” during Tuesday’s meeting of the Texas A&M Interna [ as t T tional Folkdancers. The group meets every Tuesday at7:1 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center. For more information F ()rl call president Rob McGeachin at 846-3495. ®ati' 1 Campus Activities wrado i Wednesday Marshall-IIari'isun Counts Hometown Club, 7:30 p.m.. 147 Knddev Tower Bridge Club. 7:15 p.m.. MSC MSC Hospitality Committee, Fashion seminar, 7:30 p.m., 601 Rudder Pentagon Area Hometown Club. 8 p.m., 301 Rudder Aggie Players, “A Streetcar Named De sire," 8 p.m.. Rudder Forum Aggie Cinema. "Fong Days Jouriiev Into Night, 8 p.m. and "Little Women, 10:30 p.m.. Rudder Theater p.m.. 206 MSC El Paso Hometown Club. 7:30 jt 203 MSC Snow Ski Club, 7:30 p.m.. 701 Mi Dance Arts Society, modem jazi'i | p. m.. 266 G. Rollie Modern Languages, Bamiiiuul ceil. " 8 p.m.. Rudder Theater A|o(ie Players, "A Streetcar Namuj 1 sire," 8 p.m.. Rudder Forum Thursday CAMAC, Leonel Castillo, director of U.S. Immigration N Naturalization.7:30 Friday Baseball, Houston vs. Texas AMU p.m.. Travis Park Aggie Players, A Streetcar W Desire. 8 p.m.. Rudder Forum 1AKE THIS AD TO DINNER More than fifty percent of the wory is starving. Another twenty percent, just plain hungry. And yot, in the face of starvation, they have hope. Hope that the rains will return to the African £lain. Hope that the Asian rice orop will be bigger this year. Hopo that someone, anyoft e > with anything to offer wi^ come to help them fight battle for life. 5ornoon e in th^ Peace CofP s - They’d like to stand up f 0 r themselves, the se P^soner^ of fate* put tb e y re just too weak to stand u p. Bpt with the Peace Corps a fiain e begins to flicker. Thoy ve seen others fike y° u before. Seen 0 e changes you can prin&‘ thousand Well 5 on the parched earth ^ Seen how their jdiowledge helped reduce the losses. Who are they? They’re people pretty much like you. People with commitment and skills who’ve assessed their lives and decided there must be more than just having a job. They looked into themselves and knew it was time for the talk to end and the work to begin. They’re very special people, these people. Totally prepared to give everything they’ve got. And getting back even more than they give. That’s the beauty of the Peace Corps. The work is hard and the pay is lousy, and the progress comes a drop at a time. But the rewards are infinite. Join the Peace Corps and then take a good long look in the mirror. You’ll never look the same to yourself again. The Peace Corps is alive and well. Call toll free: 800-424-8580. Or write: The Peace Corps, Box A, Washington, D.C. 20525 [PC A Public Service of This Newspaper & The Advertising Council i4i