The Battalion
Wednesday, June 21, 1978
College Station, Texas
IS SI
ggie wo!
yn Smiffl
will con
lext year,
; of Fort"
ile relay ti
Sparkling summer sun
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
The sun has been out all week making the days
uncomfortably warm for Texas A&M students and
residents of the area. Today is officially the first
day of summer, and continuing in its usual fashion
the sun beams brightly through the limbs of the
Texas A&M Century Tree.
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Wednesday
• A tribute to the late Chief O. L.
Luther - p. 2.
• School administrators say ‘Three
R’s are dead’ - p. 3.
• Arkansas leaving the SWC?-p. 7.
Governor may call
tax special session
United Press International
AUSTIN — Gov. Dolph Briscoe is se
riously considering calling a special session
of the Legislature to consider tax relief and
a ceiling on government spending.
Speaker Bill Clayton said Tuesday.
Clayton, Rep. Jim Nugent, D-Kerrville,
and several aides met with Briscoe for
more than two hours Tuesday afternoon
discussing proposals for consideration by
lawmakers and possible dates for a special
session.
Briscoe was slated to meet with Lt.
Gov. Bill Hobby early today to discuss the
matter.
The governor did not talk with re
porters. His press secretary. Bob Bain,
said, “He’s always had an open mind on
special sessions. He’s made no decision at
this time.
“I think he’s taking it under very serious
consideration,” Clayton said. “This is an
issue he’s weighing very carefully.’’
Clayton said he initiated Tuesday’s
meeting to present to the governor a pro
posal he has for imposing a ceiling on
spending and taxation by state and local
governments.
“The governor is weighing in his own
mind tax relief for the people and limiting
government spending,’’ Clayton said. “I
know he feels if some money could be
provided in the form of tax relief it should
Clayton said he has been working on
proposals for limiting government spend
ing for nearly a decade and thinks the op
portunities for adopting such a limit are
better now than ever before.
“In the eight terms that I’ve served in
the Legislature I know of no more oppor
tune time than today,’’ Clayton said. “We
have a surplus accumulating in the treas
ury. We have a hue and cry from the
people that tax burdens are becoming un
bearable. ”
In addition to a spending and tax ceil
ing, Clayton said he and the governor dis
cussed proposals for repealing the sales tax
on utility bills, abolishing the state prop
erty tax used to finance college building,
and adopting a constitutional amendment
to require a two-thirds vote of the Legisla
ture to impose new taxes.
Clayton said he told the governor the
House can be ready whenever he wants to
call a special session, but indicated he
would favor a mid-July date.
Secretary of State Stephen Oaks said
any constitutional amendment would need
to be passed by Aug. 18 to allow time for
required publication before the Nov. 7
general election.
Council evaluates plan
identifying flood plain
By MARK WILLIS
Battalion City Editor
The College Station City Council at
tempted to get a better understanding of
the city’s flood plain situaton in a special
meeting Tuesday night.
City Manager North B. Bardell and City
Engineer Elroy Ash explained flood plain
hydrology to the council. The general idea
was to inform the members as to how a
flood plain is determined, its effects, and
how the present zoning practices of Col
lege Station relate.
It was hoped that with this knowledge
the members might better understand any
new zoning proposals brought before the
council. The effectiveness of the presenta
tion was questionable, as Mayor Larry
Bravenec asked after the presentation,
“What does all this have to do with city
council action?’’
Councilman James (Jim) Dozier went
one step further in questioning the validity
of the report as a whole, which is based on
the United States Corps of Engineers hy
drology studies of the area. Dozier, quot
ing Planning Commissioner Chris Mathis
Swine flu victims collect benefits
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of
Americans temporarily paralyzed by swine
flu shots in 1976 need not prove govern
ment negligence to collect millions of dol
lars in damages, HEW Secretary Joseph
Califano announced Tuesday.
Americans were not warned that they
might get polio-like Guillain-Barre syn
drome as a side effect of the flu shots,
Califano said.
The government action was the first
step toward settling $775 million in claims
against the government — $3(>5 million of
that by persons who were temporarily
struck down by Guillain-Barre.
Twenty-three died from the syndrome.
from a newspaper he did not identify,
read, “The Corps report was a farce.”
Dozier then began questioning Plan
ning and Zoning Commissioner Vergil
Stover about several of his commission’s
recommendations concerning construction
in the Bee Creek area.
This line of questioning prompted sev
eral other council members to point out
that the issue had been discussed earlier.
After some argument, Dozier concluded
that, “I want to make sure we know who’s
wearing the black hat.” Shortly thereafter
Dozier left the meeting and did not re
turn.
After comments by two members of the
audience, who are professional engineers,
the council decided to discuss the pro
posed budget for 1978-79. No action was
taken on the flood plain issue.
The council then discussed the pro
posed budget with City Manager Bardell,
clarifying some confusion in the listing of
expenditures and revenues. A more de
tailed discussion and breakdown of the
budget is slated for a later date.
national
3:50.2 ia
ord in thel
ir. Evely 1
the 440.
participai
US,
J
Laser shows
eemed threat
to music fans
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A rock n’ roll band
as run afoul of the Food and Drug Ad-
linistration with an unusual problem
FDA officials say may be widespread in
lie music business.
I The problem is the laser used for light
Ihows during concerts. In this case, FDA
ladiation experts measured the lasers used
by a band called the “Blue Oyster Cult
Euring a performance earlier this year in
Ktlanta. Officials told the band to clean up
ts act.
[ The FDA’s Bureau of Radiological
lealth, which enforces laws dealing with
adiation exposure, told the band what it
ould have to do to its laser system to
prevent possible burn injuries to concert-
■goers.
T “Many entertainment people are pretty
ar removed from food and drug laws and
adiation hazards,’ a spokesman said
onday. “They don’t really associate la-
ers with radiation, least of all with the
[FDA.
But lasers do produce potentially
azardous light radiation. Like any other
light there is a potential bum hazard,” he
added. “It’s like holding a magnifying glass
to the sunlight.”
The agency said there have been no
actual reports of injuries, although some
accidents have been reported.
“We are aware of situations where there
could be some (injury). Some of the rock
groups have laser lights which flash over
the heads of the audiences. If someone
held up a hand, for instance, and the beam
of light bounced off a watch crystal or
something it could bounce into someone’s
eye,” the spokesman said.
“It could damage the eye even before
you had time to blink away from it, and the
result be could be a temporary blind spot
in the eye. That’s most likely the most se
rious thing that would happen.
In its letter to the “Blue Oyster Cult”
the FDA asked the group to inform it what
it would do to correct the situation.
The FDA said it has no plans to issue a
regulation specifically for band-related
laser shows because existing regulations, if
properly enforced, should take care of the
situation.
It said lasers used in works erf art also
must comply with the same regulations, as
must those used in planetarium star
shows.
In addition, eight states have regu
lations governing the use of lasers, includ
ing some which require a license for
operators of the devices.
r
— - N
Completion of $12 million library addition
set for end of fall semester y director says
By FLA VIA KRONE
Battalion Campus Editor
The pile of brick, concrete and
red steel girders stacking up beside
the Sterling C. Evans Library may
not look like much now. But the
mass of stone and steel is well on its
way to becoming a completed $12
million library' addition.
The new addition is scheduled for
completion by the end of the 1978
fall semester, library director Irene
Hoadley said. However, the library
expansion project will not end with
the completion of the new addition,
she said.
“When the new addition is
finished,” Hoadley said, “every
thing in the old library will be
moved into the new library so we
can remodel the old building.” She
said the moving process should take
about two weeks.
During that time the library will
operate on a limited service basis.
Many of the stacks will be closed al
though library staff members will be
available to retrieve material on re
quest, Hoadley said. Also, the re
serve book room will be reduced to
a reserve book desk.
“It is going to be crowded and in
convenient for many people,” Hoad
ley said. “Students and faculty
members will just have to under
stand.” Hoadley stressed that lim
ited library service would last only
for the two-week moving period.
The remodeling of the old build
ing is expected to take about six
months. The entire expansion and
renovation of the library will be
completed by next summer, Hoad
ley said.
The new library will be more cen
tralized and better organized, she
added.
“Our goal is to get all the services
on the first and second floors and
the collections on the third through
sixth floors,” Hoadley said.
First floor services will include
circulation, current periodicals,
card catalogues, reference and re
serve reading. The two reference
desks currently operating in the li
brary will be centralized into a
single service. Also, the reserve
reading room will be expanded from
a 100 to 200 person capacity and will
have longer operating hours.
“The reserve reading room will
have an outside door so we will be
able to keep it open around the
clock during exams, Hoadley said.
Maps, microtexts, documents,
special collections and interlibrary
services will occupy the second floor
of the new library. The remote
computing center, which currently
is located on the second floor, will
be moved to the basement of the
building.
Science and engineering material
will dominate the third floor, with
humanities and social sciences oc
cupying the upper floors.
“The new library will be a more
attractive, warmer, more pleasant
place for students to use,” Hoadley
said. The renovated library will be
completely carpeted.
The six-story, 500,000-square-
foot addition also will provide space
to increase the library’s collections
from 1.2 million volumes to 2 million
volumes. The library collection size
Handicapped students confined
to wheelchairs will not be able to
use some areas of the new library
addition because many of the aisles
will be too narrow to allow passage
of a wheelchair.
The stacks in the new addition
will be spaced 24 inches apart, said
Irene Hoadley, director of the Sterl
ing C. Evans Library. The standard
wheelchair is 25 inches wide, ac
cording to Texas Senate Bill No.
Ill, which governs access by the
handicapped to public buildings.
“The decision to go with a 24-inch
aisle was made strictly on the basis
of the need to house an additional 1
million volumes,” Hoadley said.
“The lights, the carpet patterns and
the building columns are all lined
up with a 24 inch aisle. To change it
would mean redesigning the entire
building,” she said. The stacks in
the old library are spaced 30 inches
apart, and will not be moved, Hoad-
currently ranks 85th when com
pared to 105 research libraries
nation-wide, Hoadley said. About
100,000 volumes are added to collec
tions each year, ranking the library
about 35th out of 105 in terms of
growth.
However, the number of volumes
is not as important as the quality of
material and library services, Hoad
ley said.
Dr. J.M. Prescott, vice president
for academic affairs, agreed with
Hoadley.
“I regard the library as absolutely
central to the academic commu
nity,” Prescott said. “The library is
something around which the Uni
versity must be built. It’s the quality
of the collection and not the quan
tity that is important.”
Prescott said that the quantity of
library materials accumulated over
the years presents a storage prob
lem.
“The library grows infinitely but
our facility cannot,” Prescott said.
ley said.
Hoadley said that the library staff
will retrieve any materials that
handicapped persons can not reach
on their own.
About 30 students on campus are
confined to wheelchairs or some
type of brace that would make
negotiation of a 24-inch aisle dif
ficult to impossible, said Ted Elliot,
director of the Texas A&M office of
the Texas Rehabilitation Commis
sion.
The aisle arrangement in the new
library addition would not violate
any of the federal or state laws gov
erning access by the handicapped to
public buildings, Randy Scott of the
central office of the Texas Rehabili
tation Commission in Austin said.
“There does not have to be direct
access as long as there are provisions
for retrieving material not accessible
to the handicapped person,” Scott
said.
“There remains the question of what
to do in the future when we run out
of space. ”
Prescott said plans currently are
underway to convert the old Bryan
Air Force Base in west Bryan into a
remote storage area for library ma
terials that are used infrequently.
Materials in storage then could be
retrieved on a request basis.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Construction crews working on the addition to the Sterling C. Evans
Library use a crane to lower concrete tiles to the fifth floor of the building.
The tiles will be used in constructing the outer wall of the addition. The
new addition will be finished in December.
Some aisles in addition
too close for wheelchairs