Battaijon
Friday, Marbh 9, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Access road called inaccessible
A tenant of the Varsity 1 apart
ments complained to the College
Station City Council Thursday night
that the only road leading into the
complex is in such bad shape it is
unsafe. But the city says it isn’t sure
whether or not it owns the road. See
page 6.
Carter pessimistic
on arrival in Egypt
United Press International
CAIRO — President Carter arrived
Thursday in Cairo to a tumultuous wel
come and began what he called “crucial”
talks with Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat. But a high U.S. official traveling on
Air Force One said Carter was “not partic
ularly optimistic” about achieving an
Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
“We have been so close so often,” the
official said and Carter “realized it was
much easier for things to go wrong than to
go right.”
Indications of the difficulties Carter may
face in his talks with Sadat and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin surfaced
almost immediately. Sadat said in an open
ing statement that “we are determined to
enable our Palestinian brothers to realize
their national rights and regain their free
dom” — emphasizing the differences with
Israel on that problem.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil
told reporters shortly before Carter ar
rived that Egypt had prepared counter
proposals. He also made it clear Egypt
would permit no American air bases in the
Israeli-occupied Sinai as suggested by Is
rael.
Almost at the same time Begin was re
turning to Israel from his Washington talks
with Carter. He told reporters in Tel Aviv
that if Carter brings “unacceptable coun
terproposals” from Egypt “we shall not ac
cept them.” But he did say he felt chances
for a treaty were more promising.
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians
lined the flag-decked streets from the air
port to greet Carter and Sadat who stood
in an open limousine smiling and waving.
Carter occasionally blew kisses to the
crowds which hailed both presidents as
champions of peace.
Hundreds of doves of peace were re
leased at the airport when Carter arrived.
Women threw flowers in the path of the
procession as it moved past huge pictures
of Sadat and Carter and some fainted from
the excitement. One group of young men
held up a Pepsi-Cola banner in what might
have been a gesture of U.S.-Egyptian
friendship.
The crowd — perhaps a million — ap
peared to be slightly smaller than the
crowds that greeted President Richard
Nixon in 1974 when he became the first
American president to visit Egypt after re
storation of U.S.-Egyptian relations, but
the welcome appeared fully as warm.
White House officials said they were
pleased with the turnout and noted that
Thursday was a holiday and many Egyp
tians had left the city.
The holiday also marked the 16th an
niversary of Syria’s Ba’ath party seizing
power, and Syrian President Hafez Assad
used the occasion in Damascus to con
demn any treaty arranged between Israel
and Egypt as “not worth the paper it is
written on. ” The Palestinians and even the
relatively moderate Saudi Arabians ex
pressed skepticism at the Carter mission.
Carter and Sadat began their talks at
11:30 a.m. EST at Al-Tahra Palace.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and
Khalil, Sadat’s chief negotiator, held a pre
liminary round of talks an hour earlier to
discuss the new American ideas for break
ing the deadlock in the peace negotiations,
ideas Carter put forth last Sunday in talks
with the Israelis.
Texas bill would put
student among regents
Terri Cole has been jumping with the Sport
Parachute Club here for over 100 jumps. Cole, a
Battalion photo by Robin Linn
junior pre-nursing major, completed another jump
Wednesday on the Drill Field.
By KEITH TAYLOR
Battalion StafF
A bill before a subcommittee in the
Texas House of Representatives could
place a student on the University of Texas
Board of Regents, and the president of the
Texas Student Association would like to
see a similar bill that would apply to all
state universities.
Joe Beall, vice president for external af
fairs here and president of TSA, said the
bill, introduced by Rep. Mary Jane Bode
of Austin, is a model for further legislation
to place students on the board of regents of
other universities.
TSA is an organization with representa
tives of student governments from across
the state. It represents 14 universities, in
cluding all schools in the University of
mproving tracks also being considered
Texas System, except the University of
Texas. UT voted to abolish its student
government last fall.
Lena Guerrero, legislative assistant on
higher education to Bode, said the bill was
introduced to give students a voice in their
educational systems.
The Bode bill is in a subcommittee of
the Higher Education committee.
Guerrero quoted Bode as saying it is
time to realize that students are people,
too, and they need full representation in
all areas of their education.
Beall said TSA voted last fall to support
bills of this type.
Rep. Bill Presnal of Bryan said he has
not introduced a similar bill for the Texas
A&M University System because he feels
it would take away from the power of the
student government.
“The student regent would be the
liaison to the board rather than the student
government president. I believe such a
bill will circumvent the democratic pro
cess of the student government,” Presnal
said.
He said the bill would place a student
appointed by the governor on the board
rather than a student elected by the stu
dent body.
“It is a bad concept — not thoroughly
thought out. The board does not work with
the students; its main duty is allocation of
funds for facilities and the budget of the
school,” he said.
Beall said the Bode bill would set up a
student-elected council. The council
would then nominate three members to
the governor for consideration to be ap
pointed to the board.
The Bode bill is a trial proposition to get
reaction from the legislature and if the re
sults are favorable, TSA will push for fur
ther legislation, Beall said.
A similar bill is being drafted for Texas
Tech University, but it has not been put
before the legislature yet, he said.
Texas A&M will probably be included in
a more general bill that will apply to all
state universities, Beall said.
Group to study relocation of railroad
By LYLE LOVETT
Battalion Staff
There must be something magic about
| railroad; it has ridden many a hobo to
and inspired countless songwrit-
S.
But the railroad doesn’t seem so magic
lieii?traffic is stacked up at a crossing or
hen a train carrying dangerous cargo de-
ils,
The railroad came to Bryan in 1867
| H the Houston and Texas Central ex-
nded its tracks from Millican. Most local
|k is now owned by Southern Pacific.
ie rest is owned by Missouri Pacific.
Both companies’ trains use the tracks.
Since a derailment in Brazos County
about 18 months ago, Texas A&M Univer
sity and the cities of Bryan and College
Station have sought to make the railroad
less of a problem.
Last summer the Texas Transportation
Institute conducted a preliminary advisory
requested by Jarvis Miller, president of
Texas A&M. It focused on the feasibility of
moving the tracks that divide the Texas
A&M campus.
“It wasn’t a study,” said C. Sadler
Bridges, division head for TTI’s economics
and planning division, “It just basically
outlined what some of the alternatives
might be.”
TTI alternatives ranged in estimated
costs from $23 to $44 million. But Bridges
said the figures were “very ballpark.”
A detailed study of the relocation ques
tion is planned by the Bryan-College Sta
tion Metropolitan Planning Organization,
made up of representatives from both
cities, the county and Texas A&M. A
$95,000 grant of federal hinds will be ad
ministered by the state Railroad Commis
sion to finance the study, due to begin
soon.
MPO representative D.D. Williamson
mexas high school students
here for engineering seminar
\,
By PHYLLIS PONDER
Battalion Reporter
Nearly 2,800 science-minded high
mol students will be here today to par-
pipate in the annual Texas State Junior
ngineering Technical Society Confer-
nee.
The conference is sponsored by the
Mas Advisory Committee for JETS in
Operation with the College of Engineer-
igofTexas A&M University. This has be-
ome an annual event at Texas A&M for all
[Mas high school students interested in a
hence-related profession, especially en-
ineering.
[Most of the students are JETS members
'thoir high school. JETS is a high school
r ganization which offers students added
Ppoitunities to learn about engineering
lr ough highly qualified speakers in the
Sneering field. The event takes place at
? xas A&M every year because it is the
fe of the Texas JETS Coordinating Of-
From 9 a m. until noon the students will
' offered competitive tests in slide rule,
pocket calculator, mathematics, physics,
chemistry, biology and engineering
graphics. The slide rule and pocket cal
culator tests examines the students’ ability
to use these instruments. Texas JETS
members who preregistered will be
granted free admission to the tests. Non
members of JETS will be charged $5 for
the testing. Students may take as many
tests as they can schedule. The tests are
made up by professors in each of these
departments at Texas A&M.
While the students are not being tested
they can view exhibits being displayed in
the Exhibit Hall area of Rudder Center.
The exhibits will include calculators,
model airplanes, model cars, wind tunnels
and other objects that show the impact
that engineering has had on mankind. At
every exhibit a student sees, he will sign
his name. From the names at the exhibits,
one will be drawn to receive the door
prize, a programmable calculator from
Texas Instruments, donated by Loupot’s
Book Store. Each department in the col
lege of engineering such as aerospace en
gineering, bioengineering, civil engineer
ing, ocean engineering, or nuclear engi
neering, sets up exhibits in Rudder that
are unique in that field.
In the general assembly at 3 p.m.,
awards will be presented. There will be 43
scholarships given, 38 from Texas A&M
and 5 from other schools. The Texas A&M
scholarship begins at $500 for the student’s
freshman year. There will also be awards
given to winners of the Technical Paper
Contest, The Engineering Design Con
test, the winners of each competitive test,
the best Chapter Team and the largest
Texas JETS Chapter.
Every year Texas A&M sends two news
letters to most of the Texas high schools
informing them about the conference. The
students usually preregister with Texas
A&M by sending in their names early in
the year. The students stay one night and
usually come by bus. However, this year
some students from El Paso are flying to
Houston and renting a car to drive to Col
lege Station for the conference.
of the highway department said the study
would compare the cost of improving the
present railroad, complete with grade sep
arations at major intersections, to moving
the tracks.
“The study won’t be done in just one
step,” Williamson said. It will be done in
several and presented to the MPO and to
the public for approval after each step is
completed.
Williamson said the first step will be to
study improving the existing rail. The next
will be to study alternative routes. From
those, one route will be picked and
studied further. Williamson said the pub
lic will have the chance to voice opinions
at MPO steering committee meetings.
After the study, which Williamson said
should take from three to four months, the
MPO will have concrete proposals to take
to Washington in seeking improvement
funding.
Bridges said the best chance to acquire
funding to move the tracks would be to use
the rerouted portion as a demonstration or
test site for government railroad mainte
nance experiments.
“Now there is a federal test facility in
Pueblo, Colo.,” he said, “but it is entirely
a test facility and nothing else. This would
be a test facility on an operating railroad —
a halfway house with respect the Pueblo
facility. The next step would be to imple
ment changes in railroads in general.”
For such a facility to be constructed,
Bridges said a proposal would have to be
written into a congressional bill and
passed.
Williamson said accomplishing that
would take “clout from local politicians” in
Washington and added that such a plan
would be the most desirable way to re
route the tracks.
Batt announces
break schedule
Wednesday’s edition of the Battalion will
be the only issue during spring break. The
Battalion will resume normal publication
schedule Monday, March 19.
rate
smal inflation
ged 1 percent
dine led the way.
—’s 1.3 percent rise, the discouraging Fehr
place renewed pressure on the White
take additional anti-inflation actions to supplement its voluntary wage
guidelines.
Food was the major reason for the large advance in ’
for sale to retailers rose 1.6 percent, just slightly below the 1.8
rise. It was the fifth time “ ^ - -i. - *» * r ' 1 t --“
ist 1 percent.
rgy front, gasolim
’s 3.2 percent rise
en more at their l<
! jumped 4.7 percent,
j in vegetable prices and a 9.2 percent increase in the
its. Fish also contributed by jumped 7.2 percent, the
cotintry.
y, administration inflation fighters said food prices will continue to
March and consumers will face sharp increases in energy costs at
least until the end of June.
The Council on Wage and Price Stability said form prices have climbed at a 40
percent annual rate in the November-January period.
“Preliminary data for February indicate continued large increases,” it said,
particularly for meat, fruits and vegetables and dairy products.
Furthermore, it said, such temporary factors as bad weather cannot account for
all of the recent upward swing in food prices. “The curve in prices of beef and
dairy- products cannot be viewed as temporary and are therefore of greater con-
Overall, the council said in a periodic report, this implies “the rapid rise in
retail food prices will extend through March.”
“All forms of energy jumped sharply in January,” the council said, and the stiff
increases “can be expected to continue during the first half of 1979” and taper off
in the later half.
On a more optimistic note, the council said last year’s 11.6 percent increase in
housing costs “should be much more moderate” this year because “mortgage rates
have leveled off and the explosion of homepurchase prices seems to have abated
somewhat.” .
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