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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1979)
Battalion USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 Last day to q-drop classes Today is the last day students may drop classes with no penalty. A stu dent’s record will show a “Q” for classes dropped through today. Stu dents who drop a class later will re ceive an “F” unless unusual circum stances exist. GTE trying to fix campus telephones Saturday. For more on the game, see pages 12 and 13. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. By PAMELA RIMOLDI Battalion Reporter Officials say they are trying to solve problems with Texas A&M University’s telephone system, particularly the diffi culty in dialing off campus numbers at rush hours. “You cannot get a phone call through to off-campus until maybe the third or fourth time you try dialing nine,” said Sonia Jerez, a senior engineering technology major. “At the beginning of the semester, I would pick up the phone and it would be completely dead.” “We are aware of the problem and we are working on it,” said Bill Erwin, divi sion manager of General Telephone. He said that for every 100 telephone numbers there are 17 switches on which phone calls come in and go out. If in a group of 100 numbers there are many heavy telephone users, they will have trouble getting calls through. A phone-traffic study completed by GTE two weeks ago shows where the heavy calling is. Adjustments are being made to spread out heavy users among light users, Erwin said. The phone com pany continually makes these adjust ments, he said. At the beginning of the semester the phone company does not know where the heavy users are, Erwin said. So phone problems are most acute then. The phone company may also add switches to the present system so there would be more than 17 per 100 phones, Erwin said. The ratio of switches to telephones was established when the campus phone sys tem was installed in 1968; that number was sufficient to meet demands then. “We are evaluating our studies right now to determine how many switches are needed,” Erwin said. “If our plans indi cate that we need additional switches, they will be added. ” If GTE decides to add switches, it would take about 60 days to order equip ment and install it. The heaviest phone-usage period at Texas A&M is between 8 p.m. and mid night, Erwin said. Another cause of the phone problem on campus is the addition of two new dorms and the addition of telephones to Legett Hall, Erwin said. He said the rapid growth of Texas A&M naturally contributes to increased use of the phone. The phone company is now working with the University on an entirely new electronic telephone system which will take two to five years to complete, he said, Instead of taking traffic studies and re wiring switches by hand, as is done now, Erwin said the adjustment of heavy and light telephone users will be done by computer. “By the addition of switches to the pres ent system, I think service will be im proved. But as far as the long term is con cerned, the eletronic system is definitely the way to go,” he said. Eddie Davis, assistant vice president for business with the University, said the University began 18 months ago on plans for the new electronic system. He says he expects the system to be completed by fall of 1981. The University foresaw that the present phone system was not going to meet future needs, Davis said, and so a special com munications committee was set up to de termine what those future needs would be. Committee members report what kind of phone service they want, such as push button phones or phone lines which ring directly to an individual office rather than to a secretary first, Davis said. After the kind of services the University needs is determined, a cost estimate must be made. “At this time plans are so uncertain that I cannot say how much it will cost, ” Davis said. Eugene Oates, residence hall safety and maintenance supervisor, said it will cost millions of dollars for a new system and a proposal will have to be made to GTE. The Board of Regents would have to ap prove any plans. Starting Wednesday, students having specific problems with their phones can call Debbie Pigg of the Student Govern ment External Affairs Committee to make a complaint. She will take complaints from on-campus students straight to Erwin. The number is 693-9446. If the problem requires rearrangement of switching loads or checking equipment to make sure it is functioning properly, it will be looked into, he said. Next week the External Affairs Commit tee will publish a list of what problems students have with the phone company and who they can talk to about the prob lems. ersonal feud touches off killing of president United Press International SEOUL, South Korea — The assassina- ion of President Park Chung-hee by south Korea’s CIA chief who feared dis missal was touched off by a bitter personal feud between him and Park’s chief body- Iprd, a government report says. An interim report Sunday by a martial aw investigating team probing the Friday night massacre said the director of the Ko rean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu, premeditated the killings of Park, the pfesident’s top bodyguard, Cha Ji- chul, and four other presidential security men. Acting President Choi Kyuhah met with key Cabinet members and top military commanders for two hours this morning to review the situation since the assassina tion. Government officials said today the top U.S. military commander in the country assured them his troops Will defend South Korea in case of attack from North Korea. At a scheduled Firday dinner meeting, Kim and Cha got into a “vehement argu ment” and Kim pulled a .38-caliber pistol from his waistband and from close range, shot two rounds at Park and Cha, the re port said. Hearing the shots, three KCIA men, two armed with revolvers and one toting an M-16 rifle, stormed into the ad jacent kitchen and killed two presidential security men. Two other KCIA men charged into a waiting room and mowed down the other two bodyguards. The report spoke of the hatred between Cha and Kim, each an adviser to Park. Cha often intercepted Kim’s recommendations and Park and Cha were disturbed by the intelligence chiefs failure to control dissi dents. The president had reprimanded Kim several times and “in view of a rumored plan to reorganize key government posts, Kim came to fear that he would be forced to take responsibilty and would be dis missed,” the report said. Since the assassination, there has been a virtual halt to all public politics in the country ruled by the authoritarian Park for 18 years. Park’s body lay in state at the presiden tial mansion. National mourning has been declared, culminating in the funeral serv ices Saturday. Under the constitution, a new election must be held within 90 days. ist says fingerprints verified Oswald’s identity United Press International NEW YORK — The pathologist who lerformed the autopsy on presidential as sassin Lee Harvey Oswald says he documented the identity of the body through fingerprints. I And the chief counsel to the House Select Committee on Assassinations said fingerprints of the man arrested in Dallas fallowing the fatal shooting of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, per fectly matched those of Oswald taken when he joined the Marine Corps in 1956. The counsel, Robert Blakey of Cornell University, said speculation that the man apprehended as Kennedy’s assassin was not Oswald but a Russian impersonator is an unfounded “sideshow” that casts doubt on legitimate questions surrounding Ken nedy’s death. Earlier this month, Dallas County Med ical Examiner Charles Petty requested exhumation of the body in Oswald’s grave to answer discrepancies reported between Oswald’s military record and the autopsy report compiled after the assassin’s mur der by Jack Ruby. But Dr. Earl Rose, who performed the autopsy, offered possible explanations for the reported discrepancies in an interview with UPI. His explanations were sup ported by other pathologists. The discrepancies include differences in height and weight between the autopsy report and Oswald’s service record and the lack of notation on the autopsy report of a small mastoidectomy scar behind Oswald’s left ear. Rose, who now teaches at the Univer sity of Iowa, said he documented the corp se’s identity by taking its fingerprints. He said he then concentrated on establishing the path of the fatal bullet and whether Oswald had suffered from police brutality. “I took X-rays and I took fingerprints,” he said. “I was primarily looking for in juries and the bullet.” Measurements of the length of a corpse lying flat oij an autopsy table often differ from height measurements taken before death, Rose said. “We did not weigh the body because we did not have a proper scale. And measur ing the body on the morgue table, we could have had inaccuracies as well,” he said. This was supported by other pathologists, including Dr. Michael Baden of New York City, who was a consultant to the House Select Committee. About the mastoidectomy. Rose said, “It’s possible I could have overlooked some remote scar. A pathologist seldom records every scar he sees if there’s been other means of identification. ” Mst week’s decision changed iHotard to stay open next term By CAROL HANCOCK Battalion Reporter lotard Hall residents may be feeling s playing cards being shuffled in a deck, flexas A&M University President Jarvis Miller had given the Department of Stu dent Affairs the go-ahead earlier last week to close the dorm for the spring semester, but residents were told Thursday that raotard will stay open. ■Student affairs thought Hotard should be closed because of inconveniences that will be caused by construction of two idorms nearby, said Ron Sasse, associate Birector of student affairs. The possibility wfhaving to move residents out for renova tions was another factor, he said, i Although no formal proposal to renovate {lotard has been submitted to the Board of bgents, the board has discussed the idea tod has generally decided some sort of re novations will be done. Dr. John Koldus, vice president for stu dent services, said the decision to keep the dorm open came after Hotard residents expressed concern about having to move out. “The students know about and under stand all the inconveniences and still want to remain in Hotard,” Koldus said. With this in mind, Koldus, along with Howard Vestal, vice president for business services, and Ron Blatchley, director of student affairs, decided any renovations could be done during two consecutive summers. Some proposed exterior renovations, roofing and water proofing can be done during the spring semester with little in convenience to the residents, Koldus said. Proposed interior renovations — among them new windows, showers, carpeting and repainted rooms — can be done dur ing the summer. Addition of air condition ing will be put off until the following summer, he said. David Bergen, Hotard head resident, said residents will have first priority to any vacancies in other dorms if they choose to move, as previously planned. They will also have first priority if they want to move back into Hotard after nearby construction is completed in fall 1980. Overall, the Hotard residents are will ing to put up with the constructiona and inconvenience, Bergen said. So far, he said, he hasn’t had many requests for transfers. Every effort will be made to minimize the inconveniences, Bergen said. Any empty rooms facing north, away from con struction, will be filled first or used for study rooms, he said. epuhlican heads for runoff Louisiana governor s race United Press International Ej NEW ORLEANS — Rep. Dave Treen, B-La., won Louisiana’s first open primary election for governor and headed into an Rjparent runoff with Lt. Gov. James Bitzmorris, complete but unofficial re- pirns showed Sunday. B Public Service Commission Chairman ijUmis Lambert, however, was not ready to P)ncede the runoff spot against Treen and JpEontinued campaigning pending an official tabulation. H The two top vote-getters will face each other in a general election runoff Dec. 8. The disputed runoff position could cause a costly bloodletting for the Demo crats. “It is so close, we had a transition team set up to move the campaign into the runoff phase,” Lambert said, “and that transition is in motion. ” Lambert said the race was one “our an cestors would be talking about. ” “We have a team of lawyers working to see we have a network of people present when the machines are opened, ” he said. “I’m willing to wager there will be changes in the final results.” Fitzmorris, who once lost a race for mayor of New Orleans by 200, said he could understand Lambert’s disappoint ment. But he said a check and recheck of the tabulations would not show any sub stantial difference. Treen, who led all polls on the race for nearly a year, is considered the best Re publican chance to win the Louisiana gov ernor’s mansion since Henry Clay War- moth did it in 1868. Ride Axi Aggie cowboy busts out of the chute atop a buck ing bronc during the All-Aggie Rodeo this weekend in Snook. The contest was open only to Texas A&M em University students and alumni. The rodeo will be featured in Thursday’s Focus magazine supplement to The Battalion. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.