119
■0) 115
(2-0) 19
(2-0) 18
nt with the
Coaches As-
probation k
?ible
ampionshm
- UPI
teams cut-
are
i and Mem-
The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 13
16 Pages .
Wednesday, September 19, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Deans OK proposal
rjto cut Q-drop time
ES
By ANGIE JONES
Battalion Reporter
A proposal to reduce amount of time a
tudent has to Q-drop to 25 class days was
manimously approved on Monday by the
leans that comprise the Academic Pro-
'ram Council.
Dr, John Prescott, vice president for
cademic alfairs, said “The deans and as-
ociate deans thought the students ought
o be making up their minds sooner about
whether they should stay in a course or get
nit so that they could devote more time to
heir classes.”
The deans originally proposed a 20 or 21
ay limit on Q-drops but they went along
ith the student senate’s suggestion of a
Houston reacts to storm
person
>ress
Vpitchei
i/pitcne:
12/persoi
iiiiiiiiiiiill
10
18
25 day limit, Prescott added.
The current Q-drop policy allows a stu
dent to drop a course within the first 12
class days of a semester (four class days of a
summer term) with no record of the drop
on his record. From the twelfth day
through the fifth class day following the
reporting of mid-semester grades (the end
of the third week of a summer term) the
student can drop a class and receive a
grade of “Q” on his permanent record. It
represents a drop without penalization.
Edwin Cooper, dean of admissions and
records, said the new proposal would
allow a student to drop a course without
penalty the first 12 days of a semester as
before. Following this free period, and
with the approval from the dean of the
student’s college, a student may drop a
course through the 25th class day of a
semester or the ninth day of a summer
term with a “Q.”
Cooper, who submitted the proposal to
the APC, said “it (the proposal) must now
go forward for approval to the Academic
Council which will have the final say.’ A
meeting is sheduled for Ocotber 11 and
the proposal will be on that meeting’s
agenda.
If approved by the Academic Council,
the proposal will go into effect at the be
ginning of the 1980 fall semester, Cooper
said.
It just came all at once'
United Press International
HOUSTON — A tornado, concealed by
torrential thunderstorm and offering a
y leafening roar as its only warning, slashed
hrough an affluent neighborhood Tues-
lay, damaging at least 100 homes and
ownhouses in a milesquare area.
A constable reported one person was in
ured but no one was killed by the tor-
lado, which struck the Lakeside Estates
irea of southwest Houston at about 4:30
Brick walls were pushed through
louses, trees were uprooted, roofs were
down into streets and yards and autos
vere flipped like toys.
It just came all at once,” said Belinda
:rC\ Xpaulkner who was at home with her
!-year-old granddaughter. “It was so fast.
The doors flew open. I grabbed my grand-
)aby. I’m telling you, if she had been
deeping she would have been killed.
Bricks from a wall across the side of the
louse crashed through the picture win-
low, covering the baby’s bedroom where
he child had been sleeping minutes ear-
ier. Faulkner said the storm struck so
[uickly that she didn’t react until the tor-
lado had passed.
Nearby, Kathy Winger was at home
vith her three sons.
“The noise gave me about three sec-
mds’ time (warning),” she said. “I yelled
itmy boys and told them to go to the bath-
•oom. We all four got in the shower. It
tood up (survived).”
Her home was 80 percent destroyed,
only its outer walls standing.
At its widest point, the tornado struck
seven houses across. Elsewhere it roared
down the middle of one street, plucking
the roofs off $150,000 residences, punch
ing a hole through one two-story house
from front to back.
“I was standing in the kitchen with my
daughter,” said another woman who sur
vived. “All of a sudden I heard this horri
ble noise. I ran and stood in front of the
dining room window and it was raining so
hard you couldn’t see out.
“Tben it was just like a train going over
the top of my house. I heard this noise and
what I thought was hail but it must have
been the wind taking off the shingles. I
heard a big crash and all the plate glass
from my window was blown out. I’ve got
2-by-4s scattered in my front and back
yard.”
A neighbor, Tom Parker, said he was
talking on the telephone when the twister
struck.
“It sounded like a freight train coming
through here. It was scary, he said.
Power was out to a wide area of the
Lakeside Estates subdivision and some of
the damaged homes had leaking gas.
Firefighters and police searched from
house to house to make sure no one was
trapped.
One child, Won Ohm, daughter of Dr.
Ki Ohm, suffered a cut foot as a result of
flying glass. She was taken to a hospital for
treatment.
Police said more persons could have
been injured if the tornado had hit an hour
later. It occurred during the beginning of
the rush hour before most persons had
time to drive home. About 5:30 p.m., al
most an hour after the twister struck, high
winds damaged several mobile homes on
the north side of town but there were not
reports of injuries. Floodwaters from day
long rains inundated streets across the
city.
Rain phantom
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Slicker-shrouded spectres swarmed over the Texas
A&M campus Tuesday as students both afoot and on
bicycles tried to fend of early fall showers which
drenched College Station.
No cause found yet for DC-9 accident
wmmmm
iiiniiiiiiii
>.m.
mm
rilitl&N
m
United Press International
BOSTON — The National Transporta
tion Safety Board Tuesday tried to deter
mine how a DC-9 Air Canada jetliner tail
cone fell into the Atlantic Ocean at 25,000
feet, leaving a gaping hole in the plane’s
fuselage.
The accident, reminiscent of a scene in
the movie “Airport,” forced an emergency
landing. One minor injury was reported to
the 43 people aboard.
Flight 680 took off from Logan Interna
tional Airport about 12:20 p.m. Monday.
It was about 60 miles toward its Yarmouth
and Halifax, Nova Scotia destination when
the incident occurred, said Mike Cic-
carelli, a Federal Aviation Administration
spokesman.
“It was a miracle no one was sucked
out,” Ciccarelli said. The tail cone fell off
and an emergency escape door in the bul
khead blew out, leaving a door-size hole in
the rear fuselage, he said.
“Flight attendants had to hold on tight
and thank goodness nobody was near
there. A liquor cart which was in the area
was blown out of the airplane,” Ciccarelli
said. “The cockpit door was bent off its
hinges.”
Cabin pressure dropped within seconds
and passengers were told to use their oxy
gen masks.
Robert Babineau, 31, of Barre, Mass.,
said, “We heard a big bang. Part of the
plane was missing. I was in the 16th row,
and I could see all the blue sky you want. ”
“It sounded like a bomb,” said Berty
Martin of Syracuse, N.Y.. “There was a
hole where the tail column was supposed
to be.”
“After we heard the bang, everything
started blowing around, said Ellen John,
25, of Taunton, Mass. “The food just flew
in every direction. I was scared.”
The pilot was directed by the FAA radar
center at Nashua, N.H., to make a 180-
degree turn back to Logan, where he
made a safe landing at 12:54 p.m.
One flight attendant suffered a bump on
the head when she fell during the acci
dent. The plane carried 38 passengers and
five crew members.
One unidentified passenger said,
“Lunch was being served when it hap
pened. There was a loud noise and the
oxygen masks dropped down. We looked
back and saw the hole and some luggage
flying by.”
The cone on DC-9’s is 10 to 12 feet long
and forms the tail end of the fuselage. In
side it is a bulkhead that forms the rear of
the airplane, and set inside the bulkhead is
the emergency escape door which was
torn out.
Ciccarelli said it had already been de
termined no explosives were involved in
the accident.
“Offhand I can’t recall having this mal
function happen before,” said Ray Deffry,
a spokesman for McDonnell Douglas
Corp., which manufactured the aircraft.
“But it’s almost impossible to make any
analysis with the limited information we
have so far about the incident.”
Food wholesalers, good location needed
Grocery co-op program feasible here
Ifjglp
■ '
By CAROL HANCOCK
Battalion Reporter
The research has been done and the
plans have been drawn up. The only
things keeping Texas A&M University
from starting a food co-op is the lack of
food wholesalers and a good location.
A food co-op enables its members to buy
groceries directly from a wholesaler. By
eliminating overhead, a co-op can sell food
for 5 to 40 percent less than grocery stores.
Since 1971, Texas A&M student gov
ernment has been looking into the food
co-op idea.
After much inquiry into other university
food co-ops. Brad Smith, student govern
ment vice president for student services,
said a co-op at Texas A&M would be pat
terned after the co-op at Texas Tech Uni
versity. Texas A&M’s co-op would be a
pre-order system, Smith said, which
would cut down storage costs and chance
of spoilage.
Members would order and pay for food
on a Thursday, a week in advance. One
full time manager would then put in the
orders and pick them up the following
week, and have them ready for member
pick-up within the next few days.
The manager’s other jobs would be up
dating computer price print-outs, separat
ing orders and paying vouchers and re
ceipts. Texas Tech’s manager receives
about $75 a month, Smith said.
The charge for membership would be
about $3 per semester, plus three hours of
work, he said. Membership would proba
bly have to be limited to Texas A&M stu
dents, faculty and their families.
The types of food the co-op would offer
would depend on what the members want,
Smith said. Everything from vegetables to
canned goods could be offered, he said,
with the exception of dairy products.
Wholesalers already have been found
for some items. Finding distributors for
chips and natural foods wouldn’t be too
difficult. Smith said.
During the spring and summer the
co-op could possibly get its fruits and veg
etables from the University agriculture
department for good prices, he said.
Getting wholesalers for the other items
remains a problem. “Most wholesalers
only distribute to large stores,” he said.
It’s possible, however, to order through
a small convenience store owner, paying 5
percent over wholesale price to the store
owner to cover ordering and short-term
storage expenses, Smith said.
If a location for the co-op is found, more
would be done in looking for distributers,
Smith said.
A place on campus with a parking lot
close by would be ideal, he said, but A&M
has no spare buildings currently available.
The main prospect now is the area around
the married student housing.
The food co-op idea is worth more effort
than what has been put forth in the past,
he said.
“It may be a lot more trouble to buy
food through a co-op, but it’s much
cheaper,” he said. “Cheaper prices add
up.”
Smith couldn’t say when the co-op
might get under way but he is hoping by
the spring semester the co-op will be set
up.
The cost to establish a pre-order co-op is
around $3,000.
Bootline survives,
but under strict rules
Waterbed gas smuggler
surrenders to authorities
Image in the past
Modern figures are reflected in the glass of an antique picture inside the
old Eloia Theatre in Calvert. See this week’s Focus, in Thursday’s Battal
ion, for more pictures of Calvert, a town which seems suspended in the
past. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
United Press International
EL PASO — A former deputy sheriff
accused of smuggling cheap diesel fuel
from Mexico to Texas — sometimes trans
porting it in water beds — has surrendered
to authorities.
Dale Drake was jailed Tuesday on a
charge of selling diesel fuel without a per
mit.
Authorities described Drake as the head
of a ring that allegedly smuggled millions
of gallons of diesel fuel from Mexico into
Texas in everything from waterbeds to
grain trucks.
The diesel allegedly was purchased in
Mexico at prices ranging from 10 to 15
cents a gallon, then being resold to truck
stops or truckers in the United States for
55 to 60 cents a gallon — well below the
market price.
Drake and three other men were in
dicted earlier this month by the Travis
County grand jury in Austin and his attor
ney said a possible plea bargain may be
worked whereby Drake would agree to
pay alleged back taxes.
By EILEEN WALL
Battalion Reporter
Listen up, Ags!
There will be a bootline at the
University of Houston football
game, according to Head Yell
Leader Pete Greaves. There had
been rumors that the line might be
abolished.
Greaves said there have problems
with the line at the past few games,
but the tradition of greetig the
players after halftime is to continue.
Bootlines will, however, be more
organized and will operate under
some stricter rules.
First, bootline will be held only at
home games. Past policy dictated it
be held at all home games and at
away games when the host team and
coach agree to the line.
Second, Greaves said, bootline is
a senior privilege. Only members of
the class of ’80 should be on the
field. Non-senior dates, he said,
should remain in the stands.
Third, children will not be al
lowed to participate, he said, and
added that this has been a big prob
lem in the past.
Finally, he said, announcements
will be made at the University of
Houston game on how the seniors
are to line up. They aren’t going to
zig-zag all over the field, he said.
The bootline rules are going to
have to be self-enforced by the stu
dents, he said. “We’re going to
strictly enforce the no-children pol
icy, but for the most part, we can’t
tell who are seniors.
“Bootline is something seniors
have waited three years to be in,”
Greaves said. “Underclassmen
should respect this and stay in the
stands. I’m sure that’s the way
they’ll want it when they’re
seniors.”