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.