Battalion
Texas inmates still striking
A few of the inmates in cial says prison life should be
Huntsville continue their strike back to normal by next week,
against the system, but one offi- See page 5.
w,n g Piniel Vol. 72 No. 35
out 14 Pa 9 es
liever
Thursday, October 19, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
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rchitecture
onstruction
Center:
problems
Editor’s note: Some of the professors
d students quoted in this story are
onymous because they asked to he; they
t their careers would be in jeopardy if
iir names were used. This is the last
rt of a two-part series.
By MARILYN FAULKENBERRY
Battalion Staff
■e $5.9 million main building of the
ngford Architecture Center, besides
Gossagel '' n 8 acoustical problems and a ques-
Me by stnh
getting Bil
s Hunter’s
decision
ckson’s ninii
1 Oakland, 1
nable design, has been plagued with
istruction problems.
?-endingi Completed in 1977, the building leaks
Icracks are appearing where the joint of
building meet. Places where the joints
ebeen patched are visible.
Every building has leaks until it works
iclluva loti, ilfout,’said Raymond D. Reed, dean of
hitecture. “I think it’s possible to do
nobodyW fer > hut it’s normal not to.”
back to wj bulW. Stephens, acting director of the
;as A&M University System Facilities
i* than anvtfP^tmtmt, sa *d new buildings always
Jackson 1 «problems that need to be worked out
niehow
an
pal
ss Internil™
— Coai
day then
that leaking is not unusual,
owever, University Vice-President for
siness Affairs Howard L. Vestal said
the was not aware the building leaked
1 that new buildings should not leak.
I disagree with Reed and Stephens if
fs what they said and I’ll have to ask
m about this," he said.
Neville Dobie, chief project analyst
the Facilities Planning and Construc-
i Division of the State Board of Control
kustin, said, “Buildings that leak have
ects in the roof, walls or in the joints in
ween.
le said that University construction is
regulated by the Board of Control but
Conferencf the Facilities Division of the L T niversity
e a cha
queeze i
ston Cong
' teams nu
i week, i
nt Saturd
tem.
)obie said leaking is not accepted in
ilic building construction that is regu-
d by the Board and if leakage started
r acceptance, the roofer would be re-
nsible under warranty for repairs for
to five years.
feel strongVestal said buildings on campus also
e been ioMe roofer’s warranties,
ecord. ■'here is some disagreement as to the
do get tkftousness of the cracks in the building.
Ikingabonllfd said the cracks are “purely cosme-
urday, Hill
t is goingaff there was anything structurally
into tbftngwith this building I wouldn’t lx* in
he addrei
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SMU in
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will be
he said.
However, one architecture staff
member said, “This building is technically
badly put together. You can judge a build
ing by its joints a good building has
good joints. ” He said some of the cracks
are caused by inferior construction and
some are inherent in the building’s design.
The concrete panels in the building are
joined by a pliable material, and Dobie
said cracks in precast concrete construc
tion are usually caused by joints that are
too thin, not allowing enough room for ex
pansion and contraction with weather and
with the clay in the soil.
“They will grind themselves to pieces
until they create enough space to move,”
Dobie said.
“It is impossible to make a building
stout enough to withstand all the forces of
nature,” he said. “It is very costly and you
must compromise between the amount of
cracking and weathering you will tolerate
and the cost of preventative measures.”
Students say the building’s east steps
are another design problem —they say
they seldom use the steps to the building
because they are too steep. One professor
said actually the stairs are so steep that
they violate the national stair code and
that if someone slipped and hurt himself,
someone may be liable.
James Bond, General Counsel for the
University System, said it is “purely
speculative” whether or not the University
would he liable in such a case. He said the
injured party woidd have to prove negli
gence on someone’s part.
The air conditioning in the building is
another problem. It is still being control
led manually, said a mechanical engineer
ing professor who researched the system.
He said the system could be efficient if
the control system was working properly.
He researched the system for Drew
Woods, the contractor on the job, and
found it was installed acording to specifica
tions, he said.
“It’s the specifications that are in
adequate,” the professor said.
He also audited the air conditioning sys
tem in the Oceanography and Meteorol
ogy Building as part of a funded research
project and found the same condition
there, he said.
The professor, who said he once worked
in the Facilities Construction Division,
said construction problems, especially
with air conditioning systems, are “ad
ministrative” because the specifications
set down by the University are in
adequate.
“If the administration wanted to save
energy, we would save energy,” he said.
He said too few of the architects’ designs
submitted are actually questioned by
Facilities for inefficiency; in that way,
some inefficient designs are simply passed
by.
Vice President Vestal said when a new
building is begun, the Physical Plant
writes a program of requirements in keep
ing with University policies. A project
coordinator who knows the basic require
ments for the building advises the Physical
Plant staff, he said.
He said this program of requirements is
taken to the Board of Regents for approval
or disapproval.
When approved, Stephens prepares a
list of potential architects, usually three,
Vestal said. Then the Board of Regents’
Planning and Building Committee either
selects one of Stephen’s choices or selects
one of its own. Vestal said, “They usually
go with one of Stephen’s choices.”
The architect is given the University’s
program of requirements and he then
submits a preliminary design to the board
for approval or disapproval. Vestal said.
He said that in the last step, the Board
of Regents takes bids on the job and
awards the contract.
Stephens said the Facilities Construc
tion Division is responsible for quality
control in new buildings. It employs in
spectors who are responsible for seeing
that specifications are met.
He said he does not think construction
problems on campus are caused by “negli
gence or willfulness” on anyone’s part.
He said air conditioning problems are
“inherent in the business of construction.”
Major reworking will have to be done on
the air conditioning systems in the
Oceanography and Meteorology Building ,
Rudder Tower, Zachry Engineering
Center and the new Soil and Crop Sci
ences and Entomology Building, said
Gerald Scott, manager of engineering and
design for Facilities.
Dobie said larger buildings require
more complex air conditioning systems.
"Problems can arise if.they don’t pay
enough for competent people to maintain
those complicated systems,” he said. “The
more large buildings you have, the more
likely you are to have problems.”
This is the interior of the Langford Architecture
Center.The Texas A&M chapter of the Association
of Student Chapters of the American Institute is
sponsoring a “Beautification of Spaces” design con
test for remodeling of spaces within the buildings,
says David Applebaum, secretary for the organiza
tion. He says the contest is open to anyone. Entries
can include use of paintings, culptures and tapes
tries - “anything that will make the spaces in the
building more appealing.” Entries will be judged by
a jury of faculty. University staff and students. The
winning designs will be submitted to the Board of
Regents in hope that some of the ideas will be ap
proved and implemented, he says. “That’s the
tricky part,” Applebaum says.
Battalion photo by Ed Cunnius
Tower says campaign
embarrasses Krueger
Compromise in Brazos County
eapportionment plan lawsuit
By SCOTT PENDLETON
Battalion StafT
estion, «
e motto
jut I thin
be a link]!
ho lasts!
ence this Plaintiffs and defendants in a suit seek-
be though t to prevent the Nov. 7 Brazos County
otball te heral election reached a compromise in
leral court in Houston Wednesday.
ic election will proceed as scheduled.
It the votes for Precincts 3 and 4 Com-
Issioners Court and for Precinct 4, Place
lustice of the Peace won’t be canvassed,
nd those elections won’t he certified until
|b suit is settled.
[The suit challenges the validity of a
Apportionment plan for Brazos County’s
sense. Kir Commissioners Court precincts,
ctory ovdlThe suit was filed in August by three
boost tltlKal Mexican-Americans. They charged
o the topat the reapportionment plan diluted the
vote of the minority population.
The suit named the Commissioners
Court and other county officials as defen
dants and sought to bar the November
election.
In the agreement “both sides come out
winning,” Joaquin Avila, the plaintiffs’
lawyer, said at a Wednesaday press con
ference in Bryan.
Avila, who works for the Mexican-
American Legal Defense and Education
Fund (MALDEF), said the agreement is
typical of those arrived at in similar law
suits.
The ultimate goal of the plaintiffs is a
redistricting of Brazos County to create a
precinct that is predominantly minority,
meaning black and Mexican-American,
Avila said.
In order to achieve this, Avila said, the
minority and university populations would
have to be in separate precincts.
Avila brought a possible re-districting
plan to Bryan to show his plaintiffs. After
getting their opinions, he will draw up a
final plan to present to the Commissioners
Court.
Avila said if the county is willing to
negotiate, the litigation could be finished
within six months. If not, Avila said, it
could go on for one or two years.
“Our organization is committed to this
lawsuit,” Avila said, referring to MAL
DEF. The organization has the resources
and experience to stick with the suit, he
said.
If the plaintiffs win their suit, the elec
tions must be held again.
Despite his stated intention to “stick to
the issues”, incumbent Senatorial candi
date John Tower spent a good portion of
his brief Brazos County campaign stop at
Easterwood Airport Wednesday explain
ing recent non-issue confrontations with
' opponent Bob Krueger.
During a 20-minute press conference.
Tower was asked to comment on the
Senatorial race that has become one of the
hottest mud-slinging campaigns in the
elections.
Bob Krueger is “obviously embarrassed
by having attention called to the fact that
he is conducting a scurrilous personal
campaign,” Tower said.
He referred specifically to a Houston
Press Club luncheon Tuesday where he
and Krueger were speakers.
A newsman at the luncheon questioned
Krueger about a letter mailed by his cam
paign workers that suggested Tower was a
womanizer and liked to drink.
Krueger said he had no way to prove the
allegations were true, but when ques
tioned again, he said, “Let’s move on to
the next question.”
Tower told the small gathering of local
Republicans present that Krueger “refuses
to talk about the issues and that his cam
paign is largely based on. personal attack
and the use of deception and misrepresen
tation.”
Tower has canceled four television de
bates between the two candidates, saying
that Krueger has lowered the tenor of the
entire campaign and that he would not
help him spread his “gutter politics”.
Senator John Tower
When asked if the debates would have
been just the tool needed to define issues
instead of personalities. Tower said “it
would have depended on how the debates
were structured.”
A favorable note for Tower’s campaign
came Monday when a report issued by the
committee investigating the Koreagate in
cident said Tower is free of any entangle
ments with Korean businessman Tohgsun
Park. The report probably “impacted
favorably’ on his campaign, Tower said,
“because the committee also said that I
had been very cooperative.
Park, an unregistered agent of the Ko
rean government, had testified that Tower
or someone acting in his behalf had re
quested a contribution for the senator’s
1972 campaign.
Although the committee found that Park-
had visited Tower’s office on seven diffe
rent occasions, no evidence was found
linking them to an illegal contribution.
The legislative efforts of the 95th Con
gress were not as fruitful as he would have
liked. Tower said. "We left a lot of things
undone. ”
Among the things he said he was not
pleased with was the recently passed
energy bill.
“We passed bad energy legislation that
will impact adversely on Texas in my
view,” he said. “I hope the authorities in
this state will follow through with the suit
to determine the constitutionality of in
trastate regulation extending the allocation
authority to state resources.”
Tower said he was also unhappy with
the Panama Canal treaties “which resulted
in giving that (the canal) away.
“I don’t think there was much legisla
tion of merit passed in the last Congress
except the tax relief. I think that was long
overdue.”
The last Congress did not pass a tuition
tax relief bill favored by Tower which
would have provided a tax credit for pa
rents of college students.
“I think that’s something that’s sorely
needed. Tower said. “But it has to he
meaningful tuition tax credit because the
costs of education are high even in state-
supported schools. ”
Tower continued on his campaign tour
Wednesday with stops in Temple and Dal
las. He is schedvded to be in Lubbock to
day.
>ach M 11
i re SMH
dgingb'l
e tackle!
d MitcM
ampus-wide recycling effort wasted
r-out qui
iaturdayl
By DIANE BLAKE
Battalion Staff
chell, Wasted days and wasted nights seem to
and bas ic the only result of efforts to begin a
son. impus-wide waste recycling program.
;oman sfllom Brosnan, head of the Texas A&M
terestia-Bnergy conservation and awareness com-
a kid Wfcttee, said the group included a few
” for theBergy tips in the Off-Campus Students
□’t outrtoBsociation newsletter last year, but never
worl |1 (got a recycling program off the ground.
■n hasp’* “The student government never showed
_jinst 8 -Much response or support,” Brosnan said,
roman *t was toward the end of the year and
^ebeen* ey weren’t very interested in getting a
f Texa* Icycling program started then.”
2.5poi |lli Brosnan said he called a meeting to
-nes, diJ (gin a program, but no one came.
Although there is no organized recycl-
fensepk [g effort campus-wide, there are a few
g. I do* altered efforts to reuse waste in the
=l yed lil* ryan-College Station area.
-jies. Tl 1 ' 1 The Oceanographic Graduate Student
-all lUOBmncil recycles computer paper from the
ndzom Brious computer centers on campus.
-wn thtoBThe organization gets about a ton of
now. iBaper a week and stores it until about
ot tk 000 pounds accumulate. The Golden
■e, setfpiangle Paper Co. in Beaumont picks it
Bro" li |>and pays $2 for 100 pounds of computer
dido" 1 tperand $3.25 for 100 pounds of compu-
3 r Dan® 1 r cards.
The council makes about $200 every six
eeks, said Tony O’Brien, the club’s trea-
rer.
The profits are used to finance OGC
ut se'8 udents’ travel to conferences, some re-
proba" arch and parties, said club member Sue
ion to c diauffler.
rlier.
Dr. C.R. Benedict, professor of plant
physiology, is also involved in a recycling
program. He has been recycling cotton gin
waste to produce hydrogen.
Benedict uses photosynthetic bacteria
and prefers this method over other cotton
waste recycling programs.
“Other people burn the waste to pro
duce electricity, but I think this method is
more efficient,” he said.
Another teacher on campus recycles a
different way. Carlson Yost, an English in
structor, takes a plastic bag when he walks
with his family and picks up cans.
He and his two sons pick up the cans to
clean up the area and to finance the boys’
book purchases and bowling. They were
also curious about what kinds and how
many cans were thrown down. Yost said
Dr. Pepper cans were most frequently
found on campus.
The most they picked up in one trip,
two big bags, was when the Aggies were
waiting for tickets to the Houston football
game. “They were throwing cans all over
the place,” he said.
Yost had a warning for others who might
want to start picking up cans.
muck
Tiesaif
p moi^
nere. 8'
Some of these newspapers could be recycled, but there is no recycling
facility in the Bryan-College Station area. Attempts to start a campus
wide recycling program at Texas A&M University have been unsuccess
ful. However, other universities have made some progress. Please turn
to page 7 for more information of Rice and the University of Houston’s
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
“Ants are murder sometimes,” he said.
“The ants’ll really get you.”
The Twin City Mission Inc. in Bryan
recycles corrugated and mixed paper.
Mixed paper is office and typing paper —
anything but newsprint.
The Rev. Warren Barnes, director of
the mission, said it stopped accepting
newsprint last January because the price
dropped so low that it wasn’t profitable.
The mission sells about 240 tons of cor
rugated and mixed paper every six weeks,
sending it on boxcars to two recylcing
plants in Oklahoma.
Twin City Mission gets $30 a ton for
both corrugated and mixed paper.
It also collects about 20 tons of rags
every seven weeks, Barnes said. United
Waste Material in Dallas pays it 4 cents a
pound for the rags.
The mission has several drop boxes in
supermarket and church parking lots in
the area where citizens can deposit paper
or rags.
Mission workers also pick up paper from
local furniture stores and supermarkets,
Barnes said.
“We recycle clothing, too,” the director
said. “People donate clothes and we give
them to families whose houses have
burned or who cannot afford to buy clo
thing.
“We sell some of the clothes at our
store. The clothes are very inexpensive,
like 30 cents,” he said.
(Please turn to page 7.)
Weekend...
Baylor tickets still available
Baylor University has returned 1,500 tickets to Texas A&M Univer
sity for Saturday’s game between the two schools. The tickets went on
sale at 8 a.m. today for non-student seating only. If any are left, they
are available at Ticket Window 7 of G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Kevin Patterson, student senate vice-president for student ser
vices, made the announcement at Wednesday’s senate meeting.
Senators also learned that Texas A&M’s football games with South
ern Methodist University and the University of Arkansas will be
televised.
No ‘Star Wars’ at Aggie Cinema
The farce, not the force, will be with Aggie Cinema this weekend,
despite advertisements to the contrary.
Much to the surprise of Aggie Cinema members, unauthorized ads
appeared all over campus Wednesday advertising that Aggie Cinema
will show “Star Wars’ this Saturday.
Don Rohel, the adviser to Aggie Cinema, said the signs were appa
rently someone’s idea of a joke.
Rohel has no idea who’s behind the hoax. He said the signs were
apparently reproduced on a photocopying machine.
Aggie Cinema will be presenting “The Return of the Pink Panther”
and “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” Saturday as scheduled.
Atlanta Rhythm Section coming
The Atlanta Rhythm Section is still coming Friday, says James
Randolph, student program coordinator and adviser for the Town
Hall Committee.
The group had canceled performances in Waco, Houston and
Wichita Falls because the drummer is sick and has been in the hospi
tal.
But they will still perform in Aggieland, so hang on to tickets; the
concert is sold out.
The performance will begin at 8 p.m. Friday in G. Rollie White
Coliseum.