Vol. 72 No. 139
• 12 Pages
Battalion
Friday, April 20, 1979 News Dept. 845-2611
College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Batt to run tabloid
The Agriculturist, a tabloid pub
lished by agricultural communica
tion students, will appear in Mon
day’s edition of The Battalion. It will
focus on events in The College of
Agriculture, students and research
areas.
Families stranded
in Houston floodin
Kaleidoscope of rhythm
Battalion photo by Jeanne Graham
The Texas A&M University Dance Arts Society Theater. The presentation included a variety of ex-
presented “Kaleidoscope” Thursday in Rudder pressive dances, from jazz numbers to “Le Freak.”
Students concerned
here can we stash
he nuclear trash?
By PATTI SHOQUIST
Battalion Beporter
bncerned Texas A&M University stu
dents raised questions about th6 harmful
fccts of radioactive wastes after watching
a 1977 NBC documentary on the subject
Bursday night.
B’he film, “DANGER: Radioactive
Wstes, was presented by Beta Beta
a biology honor society. Charlene
■bel, a 1975 graduate of Texas A&M,
Bke on the opposition to the nuclear
Uptes controversy. She became involved
| n issue when she researched it for the
! a gue of Women Voters in Amherst,
uclear wastes are created when fuel
: Q in a nuclear plant’s operations is re-
B>ved from the reactor. Those wastes in-
■ide Strontium-90 which causes bone
pricer, Iodine-129, which affects the
■'roid, and Plutonium-239, another
B°ven carcinogen.
■Saying that no long-term storage or dis-
T&l system for radioactive wastes has
found, one scientist in the film com-
®nted, We are creating a nuclear waste
poster with no cage in which to keep it.
JThe current system of containing low-
nuclear wastes involves placing them
■ steel containers, then burying them in
Hdlow sand-filled trenches.
Inigher-level wastes are found in the
of nuclear reactors themselves, where
"bthin the reactor must be changed
■“ U; jUy • Most of the rods are contained at
B plant sites, since government and in-
l: tr y cannot find a different place to dis-
jP° s e of them.
■Since the potential danger to life and
B e nvironment is immeasurable, the
government has given industry
1985 to find a safe storage system for
| r °ds. However, the film revealed that
industry has set a “more realistic” deadline
for 1991.
In the documentary, some scientists ar
gued that there is no permanent safe con
tainer for fuel rods. A government
spokesman agreed that perfect contain
ment of nuclear wastes is neither a reality
nor a goal.
The film said the question facing indus
try and government remains, “How can
the growth of nuclear power plants be jus
tified if no one knows what the consequ
ences will be?”
The documentary said most citizens are
unconcerned over the issue because they
can’t sense the presence of radiation.
However, “the move for safety in the
nuclear power industry may have to come
from concerned citizens,” said Seibel.
Asked by one student if the public can
trust the goverment to handle the prob
lem, she said, “For 30 years the govern
ment has been telling us that low-level
radiation is harmless and nuclear power is
safe, and now we don’t know what to be-
lieve. yy
“Look what’s happening in the West,’
Seibel said. “For years it has been a dump
ing ground, and now all kinds of things are
going wrong. ”
She urged students to take an active
stand against nuclear growth until safer
methods of operation of plants and dis
posal of wastes are found.
Currently there are 65-70 nuclear
power plants in operation in the United
States, and the government estimates that
it would require 500 plants in order to be
independent of foreign energy sources.
There are five nuclear power plants
under construction in Texas, and two sites
in the state are being considered for nuc
lear wastes depositories. .
Despite this growth, Seibel said that
advances are being made to monitor the
development of nuclear plants. Senator
George McGovern (D-S.D.) has proposed
a bill that would give states the final veto
power in determining whether or not to
accept nuclear development.
United Press International
HOUSTON — A night-long downpour
dropped more than 7 inches of rain in a
three-hour period, virtually crippling
police, fire department and ambulance
service and stranding Houstonians city
wide late Thursday.
The southwest side of town received
5.75 inches as of 8 p.m., and more rain in
creased that to 7 inches. Volunteers in
boats were needed to evacuate movie
goers from a theater and 10 families were
stranded in their homes, waiting until re
scue boats could reach them.
The Fire Department requested citi
zens not to call except in life-and-death
situations. Almost all downtown streets
Guerillas defy
orders to upset
Rhodesia voting
United Press International
SALISBURY, Rhodesia — Guerrillas
ordered to smash Rhodesia’s week-long
elections are defying their leaders and urg
ing people to vote in the nation’s first bal
loting for a black-majority government, a
black Rhodesian leader says.
The Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, head of
one of the four parties running in the elec
tion, said Wednesday that “by and large
guerrillas are assisting the election pro
cess” because the insurgents are “sick and
tired of the war.”
One villager told a reporter guerrillas
even offered to remove their land mines
from a road so that nobody would be hurt
on the way to the polls.
By mid-afternoon Wednesday on the
second day of voting, which ends Satur
day, election officials said 38 percent of the
2.8 million eligible voters had cast ballots.
The officials said there were still areas
where people were refusing to vote, either
out of opposition to the process or because
they had been intimidated.
But hold-out areas were diminishing in
number each day, the officials said. They
said two villages sent runners asking the
army to send troops with a mobile polling
booth so they could vote.
Black and white Rhodesians are being
asked to pick 72 black members for a 100-
seat Parliament. The other 28 seats were
reserved for the whites.
Guerrillas of the Patriotic Front alliance
making isolated attacks have been quickly
dealt with by 100,000 army troops and re
servists mobilized under the martial law
ordered by Prime Minister Ian Smith.
were so severely flooded that emergency
vehicles were virtually useless and people
were being evacuated by boat.
Freeways were turned into parking lots
by motorists unable to exit through high
water. Water was reported coming into
homes in an inner-city neighborhood and
power was knocked out on the northside.
“We’re just having a helluva time of it
here,” said Civil Defense spokesman John
Caswell. “We’ve got about eight boats
working in the city and are using three
underwater vehicles that are equipped
with waterproof engines.
“There’s reports of water in the lower
level of an apartment project and we’ve
got water over the tops of cars.
“This is the worst flood situation we’ve
had in some time.”
About 50 Houston Independent School
District employees were stranded in the
administration building by the heavy rains
and the basement was flooded, as was the
basement of St. Luke’s Hospital.
HISD Superintendant Billy Reagan said
many schools suffered major damage.
In addition to the flooding, there also
were reports of tornadoes damaging
homes and a shopping center.
Conroe, four miles north of Houston,
also was threatened. Civil Defense au
thorities in Montgomery County hoped
their rain-saturated area would receive no
significant rainfall late Thursday. Flood-
waters accumulated during two stormy
days pushed down the San Jacinto River,
filling Lake Houston to a record level and
setting up reaction flooding for the
weekend.
City and rural residents alike also had to
worry about the presence of hundreds of
snakes displaced from the surrounding
piney woods and river bottoms.
“You’re mighty right, there is a bushel
load of snakes out there,” said Civil De
fense Director Bert Bratcher who coordi
nated the evacuation of an estimated 1,000
Montgomery County residents. “We had
one snake bite reported in Conroe.
Most of those sought shelter at homes of
friends and relatives but about 350 of the
homeless spent the night at schools,
churches and VFW halls designated as
shelters by the Red Cross. About 150
school children were forced to sleep at
schools inaccessible to buses.
Only minor injuries were directly re
lated to the flooding although about seven
flood victims suffered heart attacks.
Students take part
in A&M decisions
“Boy, the parking situation is really
lousy. I wouldn’t drive, but you can’t de
pend on the shuttle buses. I could make
some suggestions to improve things, but
the administration doesn’t listen to the
students.”
Those are common comments on the
Texas A&M University campus, except
students do have a chance to make sugges
tions, and the administration will listen.
There are 67 committees at Texas A&M
that decide how services to the students
should be run. From the shuttle bus ser
vice to food services, these committees
make the decisions that affect all students,
and on at least half of them students can be
voting members, said Dr. Carolyn Adair,
director of student affairs.
The committees are made up of faculty,
staff and students, and all receive an equal
vote, Adair said.
A student can go by the Student Ac
tivities Office, Room 221 of the Memorial
Student Center, and apply for a commit
tee position beginning Monday until May
2, Adair said.
Requirements include a 2.0 grade point
ratio and good standing in the University.
Adair said there can be from one to five
students on a committee, depending on its
size.
The applications will be sent to the stu
dent body president, who will appoint a
committee to decide who will fill the posi
tions, Adair said. If a large number of ap
plications are received, the committee
may conduct interviews with the applic
ants, she said.
Interested students can find out which
committees have open positions and get
information on the committees by going
by the Student Affairs Office.
New committee members will take of
fice Sept. 1.
ack Williams to speak
t Moody convocation
■ , ^dy College in Galveston, a marine
P Maritime branch of Texas A&M Uni-
> will conduct its annual convoca-
L n ‘ 0r graduating students on May 4 in
P college’s new $2.4 million classroom
JIIl a Moratory building. The event will be
<r*V e public showing of the 29,205-
* u n a re-foot facility.
If-pt' l3 c k K. Williams, former chancellor
I ® Texas A&M University System, will
e me convocation address. Ceremonies
gm at 9 a.m.
William Clayton, Moody College presi
dent reports more than 105 May, August
and December graduates are expected to
attend the convocation address, the pre
sentation of awards and the licensing of
graduates of the Texas Maritime Academy,
a part of Moody College.
The next day, 56 of the graduating stu
dents will receive diplomas during com
mencement ceremonies at Texas A&M
University.
Parking: no more lots just for women
By STANTON RAY
Battalion Reporter
The administration at Texas A&M
University has approved recommenda
tions made by the University Traffic
Panel and Thomas Parsons, director of
security and traffic, for changes in the
parking system at Texas A&M.
Dr. John Koldus, vice president of
student services said the changes will
serve a two-fold purpose: better use of
parking space and better protection for
female students.
One of the major changes will be the
elimination of gray-sticker parking
areas for females only. Instead, red
parking stickers will be issued to all
students with 60 or more semester
hours credit who drive on campus, and
the gray sticker areas will become red
sticker areas for male and female stu
dents.
Koldus said that doing this will
create no obvious female-only areas,
decreasing assault target areas. Also, it
will allow male students to park in
spaces that otherwise might be left vac
ant by female students.
Female-only lots are located near
women’s dormitories. They were estab
lished to make the distance women had
to walk between their cars and dorms
shorter, lessening the chances of as
sault.
The lots that will be affected are
Parking Area 24, behind the Commons;
PA 30, in the Northgate area; and PA
49, behind Cain Hall. PA 49 will be
redesignated as part of PA 30.
Day students with 60 or more hours
will also benefit from the changes as
more spaces on campus streets and in
campus lots will be open to them. The
west campus spaces on the street that
are now reserved for staff will be
opened to day students with blue park
ing stickers.
The blue stickers will allow for park
ing on the side of the street away from
the buildings. PA 40, between Lewis
and Jersey Streets, will be open to blue
as well as red permits.
The new policy, which will be in
itiated in the fall semester, will also af
fect PA 60 across from Rudder Center.
The lot, now used for visitor and ran
dom staff parking, will be used for vis
itor parking and student parking.
The number of spaces that will be
available on a given day will be deter
mined by Bill Hensel, manager of the
University Center, according to his
count of spaces needed for conferences
held at the center on that day. A guard
will be on duty at the entrance to regu
late parking in the lot.
Parking areas 56, 61 and 63 will be
open to parking for any vehicle with a
valid permit.
“The idea of all this is to shift males
with less than 60 hours to across the
tracks, ” Koldus said. He said there may
be a shuttle bus running between the
parking areas across the railroad tracks
and the main campus, and that campus
police patrol will be increased, espe
cially during night hours.
Parsons said that the parking permits
will be placed back on the windshields
rather that the bumpers of vehicles. He
emphasized that vehicles with altered
permits will be impounded and their
owners will be blocked from class re
gistration until the matter is cleared
with University Police.
Parsons said that vehicles without
valid parking registration will be given
two tickets for parking violations, one
for the violation and one for invalid re
gistration. This will result in a fine of
$10 — $20 if paid late.
“More than 1,400 class registration
blocks were entered due to unpaid vio
lations this semester, a more will be
entered next semester because of im
provements in record keeping,” Par
sons said.
He added that these changes are
necessary because the University has
lost 1,120 parking spaces in the last two
years to construction. There are plans
to construct new parking facilities on
the campus as soon as possible.
You won’t be seeing parking stickers like this on bumpers next year.
Parking lots will no longer be designated as female only, and the stickers
will once again be displayed in car windows. Battalion photo by clay Cockrill