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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1978)
Auto puff JCars have more than wheels, |ors and a radio. But many )ple, especially women, don’t (now much about the other ts of an auto. Free University fers a course that explains. See 5. The Battalion Vol. 72 No. 18 14 Pages Tuesday, September 26, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Few survive In the mad world of magazine publishing, less than half survive long enough to make good pro fits. But potential publishers keep trying. More than 10,000 titles are currently on the mar ket. See page 8. Worst air disaster eaves 150 dead United Press International iAN DIEGO — A Pacific Southwest [lines Boeing 727 with 136 persons lard collided in flight with a small Isna Monday and plunged into a resi- Jitial neighborhood in the worst air acci- it in U.S. history. iveryone aboard the jet as well as a stu- it pilot and his instructor aboard the psna and at least one person on the und were reported killed. Several ers on the ground were rushed to hos- ils. "he death toll of 139 was the worst for airplane collision in U.S. history. In cember 1960 two commercial planes lided over New York City, killing 128 aboard the planes and six others on the ground. The worst air disaster in history occur red March 27, 1977, at Tenerife in the Ca nary Islands, when two jumbo jets collided on a runway, killing 582 persons. The PSA plane, Flight 182 from Sac ramento and Los Angeles, was on its land ing approach when it collided with a two- seat Cessna 150 at an altitude of3,000 feet, the Federal Aviation Administration said. “I saw the jet plane. It was smoking on the right side,’ said Phil Hopkins, a wit ness. “The right inboard engine was burn ing and it exploded into a fireball, and spiraled to the ground.” The 727 smashed into a row of houses ryan will get new tax scheme By LYLE LOVETT Battalion Reporter lie Bryan City Council did away with current four-quadrant tax assessment gram, opting for a three-section prog- a six to one vote Monday, lie new property tax program will di- ; the city into three sections, revaluing section per year and updating tax val- on all three sections the fourth year. Jnder the current program, one quad- t is revalued each year and all quad- Its updated at the end of the fourth k (en ■| IMayor Richard Smith said the three- i| C program will be more fair than the ■ padrant program because taxes will be fl pdated sooner after revaluation. IfThe only fair way is to revalue every- ► ■ 1 ifeody mstantaneously,” Smith said, “but r I ■meantdo that.” ■ ■ The tax assessor’s office said it would Bpfe two years of full-time work to revalue • it ill the property in Bryan. 11* I The council voted to keep the current I kxassessment — 62 cents per $100 valua- pn at 80 percent appraised value. ! In discussion, Councilman John Mobley piterated his suggestion of two weeks ago |liat the property tax question be put off "r one year. The council also voted to subsidize jlid-Tex Ambulance Service for losses [om its uncollected bills. Smith proposed that rather than sub- |dize a private company, Bryan might join lollege Station and Brazos County in irming a public ambulance service. But added that such a plan could not be enacted immediately and Mid-Tex would have to be subsidized if the city is to con tinue to be provided with ambulance ser vice. Mid-Tex will be reimbursed monthly, receiving money only for those debts it proves cannot be collected. The council voted to budget a maximum $2,000 per month for the subsidy. Also, the council told Billy Hodge, pres ident of Downtown Merchants Associa tion, that a foot patrolman would be pro vided in downtown Bryan when the cur rent police officer shortage is alleviated. Acting City Manager Hubert Nelson said four men will be added to the police force in two or three weeks. Smith said the city is currently five to seven policemen short. Hodge also was told the 30 burned out lights in the downtown area would be re placed. The council held a public hearing on the proposed $32,883,853 budget for fiscal year 1978-79. There was no comment from the handful of residents present. Last year’s budget was $29,163,287. In other discussion, Councilman Henry Seale suggested the runway at Coulter Field be widened. This proposal will be discussed at the next meeting, Nelson said. Seale also said the council needs to ad dress the problem of burglary and theft in Bryan. He suggested posting rewards for information leading to arrest and convic tion on any type of burglary or theft. Seale said if the city could “make it worthwhile for one crook to tell on another,” theft might be curbed in Bryan. along Dwight Street in the North Park dis trict, about five miles from the city airport, Lindbergh Field. As it careened along the street wreckage was spewed across a wide area, injuring several persons. At least six homes were set afire. “There were bodies lying everywhere,” said Barry Fitzsimmons, a photographer for the San Diego Evening Tribune, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene. “A block of homes was on fire. It was hor rible. The only thing you could see of the plane was a PSA engine. All the other wreckage appeared to level the whole block.” Residents of the neighborhood were said to be mostly elderly persons. Lynn Durling, a reporter for radio sta tion KSDO, said the 727 crashed with a sound “like a sonic boom.” The station is in a high-rise building only a few blocks from the crash site, and in the plane’s flight pattern. “I looked out the window and saw people dodging the wreckage,” Durling said. PSA said the plane was its Flight 182, which left Sacramento at 7:20 a.m. and made a stop in Los Angeles. It had 129 passengers and a crew of seven aboard and possibly more. The airliine said there pos sibly were more individuals on board be cause there were 11 seats available for employees. Among the passengers, it was known there were 19 PSA employees. ‘Tickets, anyone?’ It’s football season again, the first home game is Saturday and the lines in front of (and around) G. Rollie White Coliseum are still long. One ticket dis tributor said that a student had waited two-and-a- half hours. This year only six tickets may be picked up by one student, instead of last year’s 10. But the comments are still the same—“I’ve waited three years to be able to get decent tickets, and I still get them in the horseshoe!” Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Regents OK dorm planning The planning and building committee of the Texas A&M University System’s hoard of regents recommended approval of vari- Bakke attends class while protesters yell United Press International DAVIS, Calif. — Allan P. Bakke, win ner of a historic “reverse discrimination” suit settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, enrolled Monday at the University of California Medical School during a noisy but orderly protest. “I’m glad to be here,” the balding, blond 38-year-old engineer who wants to be a doctor remarked as he was hustled into a lecture hall guarded by university police in street clothes. About 100 chanting demonstrators marched in a picket line. However, the racially mixed protesters did not attempt to block his entrance to the first day of medical school classes. Bakke, a Vietnam War veteran, was re jected by the medical school in 1972 and 1973 in favor of a fixed quota of 16 minority candidates out of 100 students accepted. He sued on grounds that he was the victim of “reverse discrimination and last June was ordered admitted by the Supreme Court. In the wake of the court’s historic deci sion in favor of Bakke, the university went back to the drawing boards to try to devise a constitutionally acceptable admissions policy. Race will continue to be a factor in admissions, the university has said. Six years after he first applied, the U.S. Supreme Court held on June 28, 1978, that Bakke must be admitted to the school, but also upheld in its complex decision the right of schools to take into account ethnic background in consideration in future ad missions. ous stages of planning for three dor mitories in a meeting Monday. Final decisions on the committee action will be made today at a regents’ meeting at Prairie View A&M University. Recommendations of approval were made for appropriations to pay for detailed plans of a four-story, 500-bed dormitory. The committee also favored funding feasi bility studies for a second 500-bed dorm and a 1,000-bed project with a commons area. If approved, the second 500-bed dorm may be built near Sbisa dining hall. Uni versity president Jarvis E. Miller said that Sbisa is the only University food service facility not operating near capacity, and that building a new dorm in another area of the campus would also necessitate con struction of a dining hall. “We have virtually unlimited dining capacity in Sbisa and We want to make use of that space, ” Miller said. Committee chairman H.C. Bell re commended that University planners con sider locating the proposed 1,000-bed dormitory near Duncan dining hall. The band practice field would be the best loca tion, he said. Bids for construction of the first 500-bed dorm will be accepted until Oct. 31, said Paul Stephens, University facilities plan ning manager. The board is expected to select a contractor at a special meeting Nov. 2. A scheduled meeting of the committee for academic campuses was cancelled when the executive committee meeting held a three-and-one-half hour closed ses sion after meeting openly for about 15 mi nutes. The executive committee opened its meeting at 1:30 p.m. The academic cam puses group was scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. The planning and building committee recommended approval of a $20,000 ap propriation to study the building of a dam in an East Texas nursery run by the Texas Forest Service. Committee head H.C. Bell opposed ap proval of the project, saying that the land the planned reservoir would cover proba bly contains Indian artifacts. Several In dian burial mounds are in the area. The committee also approved a $94,500 appropriation for preliminary design of 88 new married student apartments, slated to be built near the College View apartments on University Drive. Plans call for the new apartments, intended to replace barracks- type married student housing, to be com pleted in March of 1979. Consol board votes to appeal tax report By STEVE LEE Battalion Reporter The A&M Consolidated Board of Edu cation voted Monday to appeal the state s report of taxable property in the district. The School Tax Assessment Practices Board (STAPB) report for the 1978-79 school year showed values for all taxable property to be in excess of $600 million, an increase of 126 percent over a 1976-78 re port. Superintendent Fred A. Hopson said several other school districts are planning similar ation against the STAPB. Hopson conferred with representatives from other districts this weekend at a meeting in San Antonio. The board decided unanimously to go “through the proper channels” to appeal the assessment, possibly taking the issue to state district court. The board questions several categories of property in the re port, but was unprepared to identify which specific categories it would chal lenge. The questionable items are mostly, but one limited to, intangible items — items the board termed ambiguous or difficult to assess. An example cited by the board was an “intangible personal” category, which reported a value of more than $180 mill ion. There was no value for the category in the previous report. Trustee Lambert Wilkes questioned the “vacant lots” category, which the hoard considered a tangible item, as possibly being in error. The figure, in excess of $40 million, is up 250 percent over the previ ous total. Also in the meeting, Trustee Rodney C. Hill said action would be taken on a bond issue pending findings of a “needs assess ment” report requested by the Long Range Planning Committee. The bond is sue, tentatively planned for next April, would include construction of a new elementary school. The needs assessment, which includes enrollment projections and current optimum enrollment figures at each campus, is due Friday. In other business, the board accepted Consol’s Board of Equalization assessed value of the district at $288,316,213. The board also approved the 1978 tax assess ment at $1.27 per $100 assessed value. Expert says cook shellfish to lessen risk of cholera ‘En Garde!’ Members of the Texas A&M University Fencing Club exhibited their skills Monday at the Rudder Complex fountain. The club is challenging anyone who can, to beat them. The challenger may choose the weapons, either foils or sabers. The club members will be at the fountain today until 3 p.m. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. United Press International BATON ROUGE, La. — Health inves tigators who traced five cholera infections to crabs taken in a 75-mile coastal stretch of southwest Louisiana say shellfish in the area are safe to eat if thoroughly cooked. “The risk is very low,” Paul Blake, a medical epidemiologist with the National Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, said at a news conference Monday. “We have seen just a few isolated cases.” Blake told a news conference the per sons who became ill with cholera or showed signs of infection all had eaten crabs caught from an area south of Pecan Island or from Mud Lake. He said a 19-year-old Abbeville woman was the fourth case of cholera reported in coastal Vermilion Parish since mid- August. A fifth person, the 15-year-old daughter of one of the confirmed cases, showed traces of cholera in stool tests hut did not have clinical symptoms of the dis ease. Until the first reported case in mid- August there had been only three re ported cases of cholera in the United States since a Gulf Coast outbreak in 1911 that killed dozens of persons.