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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1979)
he Battalion Vol. 72 No. 127 16 Pages Wednesday, /y>ril 4, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Reds, Giants open regular season Cincinnati and San Francisco will play the first National League baseball game of the season at 1:30 p.m. today, but several familiar elements are expected to be miss ing: major league umpires, 41- year-old San Francisco first base- man Willie McCovey, former Red Pete Rose, and former Reds Man ager Sparky Anderson. The umpires are on strike, McCovey appears to have struck the end (he’s finally been beaten out by 26-year-old Mike Ivie), Rose has struck gold in Philadelphia, and An derson is striking out on a new career as a broadcaster. See page 15. tudent programs get $1.4 million fltobvl.! club. By DILLARD STONE Battalion Staff finance committee’s proposed allo- ' cation of 1979-80 student services fees tops ^Bist of items to be considered at to night’s Texas A&M University student se nate meeting. _Hmost $1.4 million will be earmarked fowpecific student programs, as the se nate will recommend to University admin istrators how the fees should be allocated. ^Hexl year’s projected allocation is an 18.5 percent increase over last year’s $1.16 [million and is dependent upon a student myermnent proposal to raise the student ly&iee fee ceiling from $20 to $23. [ Student service fees are currently as- pessi at the rate of $1.67 per credit hour, ||ation’s auction raises $13,546 I" ^^^MU-TV’s auction ended at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday after raising $13,546 to- ^■s the operation of Texas A&M Uni- ^■ty’s public broadcasting station. The station reported that it received mor< than 3,500 calls during the three days the auction was broadcast. Bout $7,000 worth of merchandise and -TOlieces of art were donated to the auc tion, as well as several thousand dollars worth of supportive goods and services. up to the $20 maximum. “The quality of the programs would suf fer without the increase,” Wayne Morrison, vice president for finance, said. “We felt the students wouldn’t want that. “When we cut everyone to the level where we felt they would be satisfied with the programming, we saw we needed a $3 increase.” Most programs received increases, some to keep pace with inflation and wages, others to expand their programs See a complete breakdown of the finance committee’s recommended student service fee allocation on page 11. further. In general, most programs aver aged about a 10 percent increase, hoped to be enough to stay even with inflation. Morrison said inflation, supplies, wages and Battalion advertising were the main factors affecting rising costs of operation. Two programs received decreases in their allocations from last year. The stu dent publications department requested and received a $6,000 cut in its allocation, from $76,000 to $70,000. The Memorial Student Center’s Town Hall committee had requested its alloca tion be maintained at the $65,000 it had received this year. The finance commit tee’s recommendation cuts the Town Hall allocation by 31.5 percent to $44,500. Morrison said Town Hall was one of the few programs that could be cut without significantly affecting its quality. Programs receiving larger than average increases included MSC Programs, Shut tle Bus, and Student Government. MSC Programs received only a nominal increase last year, so Morrison said, the committee decided to “greatly increase the quality of some of the programs,’’ by budgeting for more staff personnel and equipment. “The Shuttle Bus didn’t ask for any thing,” Morrison said, but the contract for the buses jumped 50 percent, from $10 to $15 per hour. Part of the cost will be taken care of by increasing the cost of a shuttle bus pass from $20 to $30. The remainder will come from the student service fee. Student government’s budget was in creased because it had been significantly underbudgeted this year, Morrison said. All fee users who requested allocation increases had their proposed increases cut. Intramurals was the hardest hit; its 63.4 percent requested increase was cut to 8 percent. The finance committee’s proposed allo cation, if approved by the senate, will pass on to University administrators in the form of recommendation. Generally, the Uni versity administration approves the se nate’s allocation of the student service fee. liver hi the dav Xituation improved ii nuclear accident litsdura as ansffi ying to United Press International RRISBURG, Pa. — Freed from the of a catastrophic hydrogen explo sion, engineers today prepared a cautious shutdown of the crippled Three Mile Is land nuclear furnace which should end the crisis that has disruped thousands of lives, have to heave a collective sigh of ningofi relief,” said Gov. Dick Thornburgh, d to j#l Blthough civil defense authorities kept precautionary evacuation plans on a stitodby status, Thornburgh indicated he dribitioi thought such a mass exodus would no 14-10-1 longer be necessary. 10-12. glad we didn’t have to test it out,” the governor said in an interview. TRnfe in most towns around Three Mile Island gradually was returning to normal with some of the estimated 200,000 people ed fo truck ip oneD -If tout inii :sar Mondi! who fled the area starting to trickle back : to a the III 24 home, despite continuing leaks of radia tion. (The task engineers now face is to reduce temperatures in the reactor from 280 de grees Fahrenheit to below the 212-degree boiling point and to simultaneously lower rector pressures without further damag- n JoseO ing the reactor’s fuel or causing new radia tion leaks. Borne estimates of how long the process might take were up to two years, although there was no comment from the power company, which is required to do the job. arold Denton, heading the Nuclear Regulatory Commission emergency team at the Susquehanna River plant site, said Tuesday he hoped to rapidly bring the na tion’s worst atomic power crisis to a con clusion. But he said no move would be made “before...we’ve taken every precau tion against (radiation) leaks.” Thornburgh, smiling broadly, told re porters Tuesday night: “The news this evening is better. I think we all can hold to a reasonable opinion that the prospects for a catastrophic event have lessened.” Still, Thornburgh advised pregnant women and preschool children to stay out of the area within five miles of the plant and ordered schools in that radius to re main closed today. Denton reported Tuesday the hydrogen bubble which late last week filled the top of the reactor core had dissipated “as a re sult of our actions and a little bit of seren dipity, a little bit of luck and a little bit of forethought.” While the bubble was there, engineers had to delay cool-down opera tions and focus instead on avoiding a pos sibly catastrophic explosion. Robert Bernaro of the NRC estimated it might cost $40 million to clean up after the accident. Denton said it could take 25 days for radiation levels to decay enough to let workers enter the containment building around the reactor, and one or two years to return the reactor to operating condi tion. American Nuclear Insurers in Far mington, Conn., reported it paid out $127,000 in claims for emergency travel, housing and other costs for evacuees. For those who fled and those who re mained behind Sen. John Heinz, D-Pa., sent a plea to the Internal Revenue Serv ice to stay, by 60 days, the scheduled April 15 deadline for income tax filing. “The people in the Harrisburg area have endured great anxiety and hardship,” Heinz said. “I believe an exten sion. ..would be a mark of the federal gov ernment’s understanding and willingness to help in times of trouble.” Shelves, shelves and more shelves A Texas A&M student worker installs bookshelves in the new 6-story wing of the University’s Sterling C. Evans Library. Library officials have started moving books into the new library space as fast as construction is completed. Battalion photo by Robert Cook CS electricity to see price drop By KEVIN HIGGINBOTHAM Battalion Reporter With prices rising on nearly everything. College Station residents will be relieved to know they can expect a 2 percent de crease in their overall electricity bills. The decrease is due to College Station completing the final stage of phasing out of Bryan Utilities in favor of Gulf States Utilities. This process took 18 month's and has involved an overall decrease of 10 per cent in utility costs. “A citizen can normally expect his bill to be 6 percent less per kilowatt (kwh) hour than last year,” says College Station City Manager North Bardell, “provided that the Gulf States’ fuel adjustment does not escalate.” Utility rates in Bryan will remain fairly stable, said Gailord White, Electrical Utilities director for Bryan. “Over the long term, five to 10 years, let’s say, our rates will probably increase less than the inflation rate,” White said. Bardell is quick to point out the com plexities of determining energy costs, Afrough. Sometimes, he said, looking back to where you’ve been sheds light on where you are and where you are going in the future. College Station has purchased its utilities from the City of Bryan since 1940. In 1973, the year before the existing con tract was to run out, Bryan offerred Col lege Station a new five-year agreement. The new contract gave Bryan the right to adjust the price of utilities according to the cost it took to produce the power, but also said that Bryan would furnish College Station with all the electrical energy it needed. According to Bardell, the contract had three key points as far College Station was concerned: —The contract would last five years. —It provided Bryan with an escalation clause. —It did not bind College Station to supplying all of its utility needs from Bryan. In the spring of 1975, Bryan asked for a rate increase. The difference was to equal Bryan’s retail rate increase. College Station objected because it bought utilities on a wholesale rather than retail basis and didn’t feel an equal rate increase would be fair. Bryan was asked to supply a specific cost of production break down in order to justify the increase. The breakdown showed that surplus money from Bryan’s electrical revenues was used to help finance its schools and government expenses, Bardell said. At that time, Bardell was told to seek other energy suppliers. Gulf States Utilities Company and Texas Power and Light Company were judged to be the two most feasible suppliers. Of the^two, Gulf States was found to be the most economical to use, since it al ready had lines running near the city. The switch to Gulf States has cost College Sta tion nearly $6 million to change lines and construct a transformer necessary to adapt the energy for use in the city. “The idea was to sell bonds for the money and then drop Bryan as we finished the facilities to phase in Gulf States,” Bar dell said. A 20-year contract was signed with Gulf. States in July of 1976 after College Station residents held a bond election approving the switch. Bryan’s fuel costs are greater than those charged by Gulf States for several reasons, Bardell said. —Bryan relies more on spot purchases, while Gulf States has long-term contracts. —Bryan’s fuel adjustment is much higher. —Bryan buys its energy intrastate while Gulf States is an interstate company. This allows the company to purchase energy for one to one-and-a-half cents less per kwh than Bryan. Student senate bills oppose night exams, baseball seats Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Sbisa Dining Hall. The “Meet the Candidates” per formance will be repeated tonight at the Commons Dining Area. By DILLARD STONE Battalion Staff Although student service fee allocations are the main items of business at tonight’s Texas A&M University student senate meeting, several other items will come up in the 1978-79 senate’s last meeting. The next senate meeting will involve only next year’s student government per sonnel. Bills to be considered deal with: —A recommendation that the Resi dence Hall Association explain to students that programmed dormitory fees are op tional, not mandatory, as is stated in the University Housing Guide. —A suggestion that the senate express its opposition to examinations given out side of regularly scheduled class time, par ticularly night exams. Exceptions would be made if 100 percent of the class agreed to the night exam, or if the vice president for academic affairs approved it. Copies of the measure would be sent to Dr. J.M. Prescott, vice president for academic af fairs, and the Academic Council. A recommendation that the final exam ination in all undergraduate courses count no more than 30 percent of the final grade. —A request that President Jarvis Miller appoint the student government vice pres ident for student services to the Five-Year Planning Committee. The committee de cides construction priorities for Texas A&M. —A request to the Athletic Department to arrange for block seating at away foot ball games which aren’t sold out. —A request for more and better seating for Texas A&M students at home baseball games. —A request to the University Commit tee on Committees for the establishment of a University Committee to supervise all student body elections beginning in the fall of 1979. Currently, student govern ment supervises its own elections and the other campus-wide elections as well.