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The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 37
10 Pages
Tuesday, October 23, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Few voters show up
to meet candidates
By ELLEN EIDELBACH
Battalion Reporter
Ninety-seven freshman candidates, who
expected to campaign among interested
freshman voters, ended up shaking hands
and passing out literature mainly to each
other in a campaign gathering Monday
night.
“Meet the Candidates Night,” spon
sored by student government, was in
tended to give freshman voters an oppor
tunity to meet their class candidates.
Election Commissioner Bruce Russell
estimated about 20 freshman voters at
tended.
Ken McCullough, an election commis
sion member in charge of the meeting,
said it was a “real informal type thing. ”
“We have 97 candidates, so any type of
plan to introduce all of them would take
too long,” he said.
Instead of an organized program, candi
dates wandered from person to person in
troducing themselves.
Fifteen minutes after the meeting
started, one senatorial candidate said he’d
List of candidates, page 6.
-met two people at the meeting who we
ren’t candidates.
Another senatorial candidate said he
met “about 15 people who weren’t candi
dates.”
“It was a good idea, but it wasn’t as suc
cessful as I’d wished it had been,” he re
ported.
Melanie May, an off-campus freshman
voter, came with a friend to find out what
the candidates were like.
“I thought it would be more organized
and they (the candidates) would get up and
say their platforms,” she said.
May said the informal meeting wasn’t as
effective as having candidates give
speeches.
Many candidates complained there was
not enough publicity about the meeting.
“We put some fliers out and these
people (the candidates) were supposed to
tell others about it,” Russell said.
An article in Monday’s Battalion men
tioned the meeting, and most of the voters
present said they had found out about the
meeting through that story.
Candidates posted their goals and qual
ifications on papers hung in the room.
Russell said this was the first year a
meeting of this type has been held.
No cause determined yet
in fair tramway accident
‘Eel fishing 9
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Jason Crawford, 8, says he’s fishing for “electric
eels” in Texas A&M University’s north mall foun
tain. Whether or not Jason is having any success.
Aaron Parks, 2, seems to be enj’oying the show.
Aaron’s father, Clarence, is a doctoral student in
sociology at Texas A&M.
United Press International
DALLAS — Investigators converged
Monday on the nearly deserted grounds of
the State Fair of Texas, scene of an aerial
tramway accident that killed one man and
injured 15 others Sunday just hours before
the scheduled end of the nation’s largest
state fair.
Fair officials said they had not yet de
termined the cause of the “Swiss Skyride”
accident Sunday afternoon which occurred
nearly 100 feet above a crowd of 100,000,
but some fair-goers blamed the high winds
that before the accident had caused the
multicolored gondolas to sway back and
forth along the half-mile route.
.Witnesses said one.gondola, swaying in
the high winds, became jammed as it
passed over a supporting post and three
other cars slammed into it, causing two of
the cars to plunge to the ground. One car
ds
®
Budget problem prevents printing
Magazine to go unpublished this fall
landed on the roof of a concession stand
while the other ripped through the canvas
roof of another stand, scattering debris
into the crowd.
“There was too much wind for them to
have that ride running. The cars were
banging against other cars,” said Venancio
Rosales, who was in one of the gondolas
that hit the stalled car.
Sharon Dell, who was in the stalled car,
said, “One (car) hit us and then another.
We thought they’d stop the ride, but they
didn’t. And then, all of a sudden, people
were falling through the air.”
State Fair officials, however, said they
had not determined the high winds had
caused the accident,
“The investigation continued Monday as
to the reasons for the tragic Swiss Skyride
accident Sunday on the closing day of the
State Fair of Texas,” said a statement is
sued by fair director Wayne Gallagher.
Witnesses said the gondola cars
sounded “like a big bass drum” when they
fell into the crowded midway area.
“People were screaming and running,”
said David McGee, an employee at a
nearby booth, “It all happened in a split
second. One car got stuck and the rest
banged into it.”
The ride was immediately shut down
but it took another three hours for Fire
Department personnel using a “cherry
picker” apparatus to rescue 84 people
stranded in the other gondolas along the
route. Officials closed the fair early for the
first time in history and the grounds were
deserted Monday except for inspectors
and concession operators removing their
booths.
“There’s unusually light traffic at the
fairgrounds today,” said Police Capt. John
D. Squier Monday. “There’s just a lot of
thankfulness. Considering all the options,
we could have had a much worse situation
out here.”
Gallagher said local and federal gov
ernment inspectors, insurance adjusters,
fair officials and representatives of Van
Roll Co. — also manufacturers of a gon
dola ride that crashed to the ground and
killed three people in July 1978 in St.
Louis — had completed a visual and pho
tographic inspection of the ride by
Monday afternoon.
He said the next step would be to re
move all of the cars and inspect them, a
process he expected to be completed by
today, but said no conclusive results were
expected for several days.
By LOUIE ARTHUR
Battalion Staff
loebius, the Texas A&M University
literary magazine, will not be published
'this fall due to financial problems
pikountered by last year’s staff.
ue to staff changes, there has been
fusion among committee members and
"concerning two major questions: why
1’t the 1978-79 Moebius published,
what happened to the funds budgeted
that magazine?
he magazine, a part of the Memorial
ident Center Arts Committee, is fi-
ced through committee funds and
nsor contributions.
loebius is usually published in the fall,
[esult of the work done by the staff dur-
the previous school year,
indsey Scoggin, acting chairman of
S Arts, said “because they didn’t watch
5 budget,” it was the committee’s fault
the magazine didn’t come out.
“The ’78-’79 Arts Program spent too
much,” Scoggin said. “The whole commit
tee wasted the money in the print fund by
buying Battalion ads that were too large
and printing too many posters. There were
not enough contributions to cover the
printing of Moebius. ”
The print fund, Scoggin explained, is
not used solely for the printing of the
magazine. Money from this fund is spent
for all printing done for the Arts Commit
tee.
Karen Penny, staff adviser for the
1978-79 Moebius, said the main problem
was a lack of contributions.
“From the very beginning, there was
not enough money to print,” Penny said.
“Unless the students earn the money
through contributions there is no
magazine.
Contributions from sponsors that would
have been used for the 1979 Moebius
“probably went back into the budget,”
said Bart Block, 1979-80 Moebius staff ad
viser.
“It was the obligation of the committee
members to solicit support from the com
munity,” he said. “They just didn’t come
up with the money.”
Block said another reason for the lack of
funds was poor attendance of some Arts
Committee programs.
“Income that was supposed to be gener
ated from these programs just didn’t come
in,” he said.
Jada Thacker, Moebius’ 1979-80 editor,
said an edition will be published in the
spring of 1980. She said it will not be a late
printing of the fall 1979 magazine, but an
early publication of the fall 1980 issue.
“We re not using am' money from last
year’s Moebius for this year’s magazine,”
Thacker said, “but we will be using some
of the (literary) contributions.
“From now on,” Thacker said,
“Moebius will be put out in the spring.”
Penny said that proofs made last spring
for the fall 1979 magazine are still at the
Printing Center.
The proofs were early in the semester.
Penny said, “before they (the Moebius
staff) realized there wouldn’t be enough
money to go to print. They just didn’t an
ticipate it.
Penny said the estimated cost of the
proofs at the time of submission was $700,
which was unpaid as of Sept. 1.
Block said there is $850 earmarked in
last year’s budget for the proofs.
Thacker said the Moebius staff is taking
great pains to be sure it doesn’t make the
same mistakes as last year’s staff.
“The expenditure control has been
tightened,” he said. “We have started
periodical internal audits to keep a check
on ourselves.”
chool teaches police to drive fast, safely
By CHERYL CESSNA
Battalion Reporter
Tires were squealing, my heart was
|unding and the word “fishtail” was tak-
on a new significance. I was being
pwn first-hand the maneuvers a car is
through in the High Performance
liver Training course at the Texas A&M
during
, Gary
fief
Car crash
kills student
By NANCY ANDERSEN
Battalion StafT
A 19-year-old Texas A&M Univer
ity student was killed early Saturday
loming in a car accident on Uni ver
ity and Fed Mart drives.
Stuart R. Black, a freshman gen-
ral studies major from Corpus Chris-
i, apparently lost control of his con
vertible, causing it to overturn, ac-
xirding to a fire department report.
Black was pronounced dead on the
>cene, but his passenger was taken to
it. Joseph Hospital and treated for
icratches on his arms.
Funeral services were held Monday
n Corpus Christi.
Black in the fourth student fatality
his academic year. Silver Taps will be
it 10:30 p.m. Nov. 1.
University Research Annex.
Rob Winkler, driving instructor and
graduate student in traffic safety, was be
hind the wheel. He described the track as
he drove. It was all I could do to hang onto
my notebook.
The ride ended with a long skid and a
blown tire.
“We go through a set of steel-belted
radials about once a week,” Winkler said.
Bruce Bramlett, training coordinator,
said the school, a division of the Texas
Transportation Institute, was started in
1975 under a grant from the governor’s of
fice of traffic safety.
Its purpose, he said, was to provide re
search statistics on how to lower accident
rates of police forces in the state.
“The law enforcement bodies in the
state of Texas are really given no formal
driver training other than what they’re
hired with. They get a lot with weapons,
law, procedure and those sorts of things,
but no advanced driver training. And yet
we ask them to do a type of driving we
don’t ask anyone else in the country to
do,” he said.
“We wanted to do something to prove
that the high accident rate involving these
people could be reduced, and that what
we were doing could be cost effective.”
Bramlett said the research phase of the
program has ended and that a final report
is expected this summer. But, he said, the
school is continuing to provide training to
police officers and ambulance drivers. And
a one-week course, costing $350, may be
See Driver’s ed, page 3
Jarvis Miller to speak on personal safety
at crime prevention program this week
By ROSEMARIE ROSE
Battalion Reporter
Off-Campus Aggies will present a spe
cial program on crime prevention and per
sonal safety for Texas A&M University
students Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. at Rud
der Fountain.
President Jarvis Miller and investigator
Ken Nicolas of the University Police will
speak on personal safety awareness and
methods of crime prevention.
The program, entitled “Crime — Are
You Next?” was planned after a Texas
A&M student was stabbed to death, said
Scott Terry of OCA.
OCA has planned several other
projects.
An “Apartment Manager Happy Hour”
is scheduled for next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
at Jose’s Restaurant. OCA President De
bbie May said one of OCA’s goals is to
familiarize the apartment managers with
the OCA organization and representa
tives.
Community Relations Chairman Carlo
Corso attended a meeting of the Texas
Apartment Association where he ex
plained the goals and purposes of OCA.
The apartment managers reacted posi
tively to. the idea that OCA wanted to
promote cooperation between managers
and student tenants. May said.
Plans are also being made for off-campus
students to host members of the Associa
tion of Former Students when they visit
College Station on Nov. 2 and 3 for their
annual conference. May said the
additional housing space is needed be
cause the conference is on the same
weekend as the A&M-SMU football game.
Students who volunteer their apart
ments will be visited by a board of OCA
officers and staff members from the As
sociation of Former Students to make sure
the students have adequate accommoda
tions for the visiting former students. In
return for OCA’s cooperation. May said,
the former students will set up an available
cash fund to help operate OCA.
May said if the project is a success it
may be continued for football \veekends.
Waterworks
Battalion photo by Cary Rodgers
Otto Atherton is using “high-pressure tactics” on the Texas A&M Uni
versity’s Halbouty Geosciences Building. Atherton, an employee of Mid
Continental Waterproofing Co., is cleaning the building’s brick with
water under high pressure before renovations begin on the structure.