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
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[PC
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