Battalion
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Nearly unique
Effie Harrison, 82, practices a dis
appearing art: midwifery. As mid
wives disappear, the poor are turn
ing to much more expensive hospi
tal deliveries of babies. See page 10.
Battalion photo by Chip Scroggs
Jim McCotter, a national campus lecturer from Wednesday. He is one of the original founders of
Ames, Iowa, takes to the open air to present his ideas Today’s Student, a weekly newspaper distributed on
about Jesus Christ to Texas A&M University stu- the Texas A&M campus. McCotter will be speaking
dents outside of M.T. Harrington Education Center again tonight in room 601 Rudder.
Nuclear workers’
risk of cancer high
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Naturally caused
radiation accounts for most of the exposure
Americans receive, but a National
Academy of Sciences committee said Wed
nesday 30,000 nuclear power plant workers
receive six to eight times the natural dose
annually.
Cancer and birth defects are the main
adverse effects from radiation exposure.
But the panel’s long-awaited report on the
effects of low-level radiation said not
enough is known to determine whether low
doses are detrimental.
The average annual natural radiation
dose is about 100 millirems per year, or
about the equivalent of three chest X-rays.
By comparison, the theoretical maximum
dose a person standing outside the gate
around the clock would have received from
the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant
accident was slightly less than 100 mil
lirems.
Nuclear power industry workers receive
the highest doses of any Americans on a
regular basis — ranging from 600 to 800
millirem a year.
The panel, called the Committee on
Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation,
said it was clear that women and children
are more susceptible to radiation-induced
cancer than men.
Although leukemia stands out because it
is relatively rare, cancers of the breast,
thyroid and lung are the dominant forms of
malignancies caused by radiation, it said.
The committee calculated the increased
risk of developing cancer from a lifetime
exposure beginning at birth of 1 rem annu
ally — about 10 times the annual exposure
from natural background radiation — is
somewhere between 8.4 to 32.6 percent for
females and 5.2 to 17.9 percent for males.
The corresponding estimates for in
creased risk of fatal cancers is 16.9 percent
for women and 2.7 percent for males, the
committee said.
The panel said background radiation
from radioactive materials in the earth and
rays from space vary greatly by location in
the United States.
People living in the Atlantic and Gulf
coastal plain areas receive the least expo
sure from natural radiation and those living
in the Colorado plateau area the most, due
to variations in radioactive materials in the
ground.
“Although mankind has produced many
sources of radiation, natural background
remains the greatest contributor to the
radiation exposure of the U.S. population
today,” the report said.
The greatest man-made contributor to
radiation exposure comes from the medical
use of X-rays, the report said. X-rays result
in an average dose rate of about 100 mil
lirems annually.
The report estimated that 200,000
Americans who operate medical X-ray
equipment receive an average dose rate of
300 to 350 millirems a year. It said an ap
proximately equal number of people who
, operate dental X-ray equipment receive a
dose of about 50 to 125 millirems a year.
The 35,000 people exposed occupation-
ally to naval nuclear reactors receive an
average of 130 to 330 millirems a year.
The report said 100,000 people who
work in national laboratories or for Energy
Department contractors receive doses
similar to the naval workers.
The committee, updating a report in
itially issued in 1972, cautioned its risk es
timates were based on incomplete data and
“may well change as new information be
comes available.”
Saudis study special
police courses here
By LEIGH McLEROY
Battalion Reporter
Believe it or not, there are Aggies who
aren’t studying for finals this week, and
won’t next week either. They’re not sen
iors, and their CPR’s are not past the point
of no return. _
Before you get too envious, consider
this: their “semester” is 22 months long,
they attend class an average of six hours a
day and it is almost impossible for them to
get lost in the crowd and skip a class now
and then.
Forty-nine Saudi Arabian students have
been attending special police and traffic
control courses here since April 1, through
the International Training Division of the
Engineering Extension Service.
The students are split into groups and
take classes in areas such as terminology
and transportation. When they complete
the program they should be competent in
most areas of road and traffic control.
Dr. Fred Koestler, head of the training
division, said the Arabs were chosen for the
program on the basis of tests administered
by their own government, and that they
will return to their homes in about a year
and a half to teach what they have learned
here.
The costs for students enrolled in the
program is absorbed by Saudi Arabia, in
cluding a stipend for food and housing
costs.
The Arabs live in various apartment
complexes in the Bryan-College Station
area.
Koestler hopes this first class of foreign
students training under the departrrient’s
35-year-old law enforcement division will
not be the last. “We hope to establish simil-
iar programs in the future with other
OPEC nations,” he said.
He added, however, that this class was
not a “test” group, with future arrange
ments depending on its success. “Those
others we are trying to solicit will come
about because of the well established pro
gram that we have here, not because we are
‘experimenting’ on the Saudi Arabians.
Koestler did recognize the importance of
this initial class, though. “We have to act
cautiously, of course, because this is an
enormous undertaking. It’s not just a
short-term program, so we are acting as
cautiously as possible, making sure that ev
erything that is provided to the students is
correct.”
To help insure this, the Arabians studied
English for six months in Chicago before
corning to Texas A&M to begin their
schooling.
Their transportation needs are taken
care of by the extension service which has
special buses to pick the students up, bring
them to campus and take them back home
again when they are through with classes
for the day.
Koestler said he feels the Saudi Arabians
are getting expert instruction. “They have a
very favorable impression of both Bryan-
College Station and Texas A&M, ” he said.
He hopes, however, that the University
will come away with more than tuition
payments from a foreign country. “We
hope that it will cement a very long-lasting
relationship with the government of Saudi
Arabia as well as other governments.”
Senate OKs change
»f Q-drop period
By MERIL EDWARDS
i .. , Battalion Staff
HP its last meeting of the semester
Ips'A&M University student se
Bsed an honors revision resolution \
esi ay with two divisions for disting
students.
P'he first division is the “Presid
Bhor Roll, which will consist of ur
■tluates who complete a minimum '
prs while posting at least a 3.5 g
fe! rat '° with no grade less than “(
nil” 6 S( r c ; on d division is the ‘Dean’s H
which will include undergradi
o complete a minimum of 15 hours \
^ ln ga3.25 to 3.49 grade point ratio
grade less than “C.”
L* , e aca demic council approves th
l s on °rs resolution, the system w
0 effect in the fall,
a ot ier action, the senate passed a j
It a a University-wide pi
PV, i u , nt m ay drop a class as late a
C f s day of the semester without
L 11 U P to the 25th class day wit!
ixc C 4 0n 35 to t ^ le student’s status ir
K ’, symbol of “Q” will be give
uK 6 r ro P without penalty, and
° P enn * ss *hle Q-drops will m
llac Sent polic y ahows a student to Q-<
iitipu t0 , lve class days after i
er grades are posted,
senate also passed a recomme
iaH mi dcd by the Residence Hall
a twn and Student Government Vi
t pv „ mmittec to extend visitation h
Thp S residence halls.
i r ],, Pmposal called for hours to beg
a< 11 a m. on weekdays and en
'onlrt P i ,m ‘ ?, unc lay through Thurs
, a so allow 24-hour visitatioi
'• starting at 10 a.m. Friday
™gat H p.m. Sunday.
°t er bill passed was the final
aid practices investigation act which sets up
an ad hoc committee to investigate the
Texas A&M financial aids program.
Brad Smith, vice president for student
services, said the committee will start next
foil looking into the quality of information
received on aid recipients, the availability
of that information, the quality of counsel
ing and the quality of administrative serv
ices.
Smith reported that his committee is
checking into the possiblity of a campus
escort service. He said they looked at the
escort service at the University of Texas at
Austin.
“We’re going to try to work out the de
tails this summer,” Smith said. “The serv
ice would begin around 8 p.m. each eve
ning. We’re hoping to get vans that would
carry about 12 passengers, and run two
routes.”
During the open session, John Calhoun,
vice president for academic affairs, gave
senators a hand-out on a new suggested
grading system. He said the system was
worked up by J. A. McIntyre, a Texas
A&M physics professor.
Calhoun received mainly negative feed
back from the senators. He admitted the
system needed some more work, and said
he would be in touch with McIntyre over
the summer.
In other business, newly elected speaker
of the senate Robert Van Winkle appointed
Becky Haynes as the new recording secre
tary.
Student body president Ronnie Kapavik
also made appointments. The senate ap
proved these students appointments by
Kapavik to student government positions:
William Altman, judicial board chairman;
Jerry Fox, comptroller; Cheri Leavitt, di
rector of information; Debbie Walker,
executive vice president and Danny Wein-
baum, refrigerator manager.
Grad designs ‘powerless’ hospital
By DIANE BLAKE
Battalion Staff
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, will be to design a functional
medical clinic to be built in an area with no electricity for lighting or ventilation. You
will make two trips to the area — a jungle infested with sand flies and malarial
mosquitoes — and will spend 200 hours in three weeks slaving over a model of the
clinic. And you will do it for free.
Curtis Haynes, a grad student in architecture, accepted this assignment last
semester as part of his master’s thesis. The clinic he designed will be built in Las
Cruces in the jungles of northern Guatemala.
Haynes has been working since October on the project funded hy Health Talents
International, a medical missionary organization based in Birmingham, Ala. and
affiliated with the Church of Christ.
Though the research grant covers all Haynes’ expenses, including travel, the grad
student from Baton Rouge is laboring por gratis because he has another job on
campus. He teaches in the building construction department.
George J. Mann, associate professor of environmental design, said this project
was different from most that students work on because it’s the real thing, not just a
hypothetical problem. “It gives Curtis a chance to rub shoulders with medical
people like he would in a job,” Mann said.
The clinic, designed to handle 150 patients per day, will have a health education
section, a labor and delivery room, a dental lab and a large laboratory. The location
is so isolated that a large inventory must be kept, hence the big lab.
The facility will house three medical doctors, two dentists and six nurses in
addition to administration personnel and lab technicians. The clinic will also
provide some jobs for the people in the area.
In overcoming the architectural problems caused by lack of electricity, Haynes
used operable jalousie windows — glass louvers opened with cranks — to provide
natural ventilation and lighting. He also had to take into consideration the area’s
culture in the design.
“The idea is to reflect the architecture of the area,” Haynes said. “You can’t put a
stainless steel building in the jungle. The people wouldn’t come.
“That’s why this building here has the pointy roof, ” he said. The waiting area is a
hut with a cone-shaped thatched roof so local people can identify with the building,
Haynes said. The clinic will be built with locally available masonry and wood.
Construction’s due to begin in early 1980, after the rainy season ends. Site work
has already started, Haynes said. Progress will be slow, though, because materials
must be brought from Guatemala City, a 20-hour drive away.
A Guatemala building company will do the work.
The architecture student said there hasn’t been much construction in the area
yet. But five years ago only 500 people lived in Las Cruces. Now there’s 10,000.
The migrants are mostly Indians from the mountains looking for more land and
fleeing the earthquakes of the southern part of the country, Haynes said.
The research group funding the project is a non-profit organization with three
purposes: medicine, evangelism and training for both medical students and local
residents.
The medical services will not be free: the people will have to pay for what they can
afford, Haynes said.
Curtis Haynes, a graduate architecture student, proudly displays the
hospital model he designed for a remote area of Guatemala which has no
access to electricity. The hospital will have natural lighting and ventila
tion. Haynes designed it as part of his master’s thesis.