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veloping.
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nalism major, but tie 1,
enough journalism c
ate on time.
And when he’s!
pro career, if he g,
wants to be sports a
Retired engineering prof busy
building and delivering clocks
* i r*n wnnrl to tree, Ransdell said. T
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clock he ever built
‘The one with all the
Staff photo by Janet Golub
By CAROL THOMAS
Campus Reporter
A healthy pink complexion, boyish
grin and a full head of white hair
reveal that life is is still going strong
for Cliff Ransdell.
The 70-year-old former assistant
dean of engineering, who has been
retired for three years, goes to the
second floor of the Zachry Engineer-
ing Building on Mondays and
Wednesdays to advise engineering
students on their courses.
And in his spare time he builds
grandfather clocks.
Ransdell said he has always been
interested in building things. “When
I was a young fellow I designed and
built houses, churches and furni
ture,” Ransdell said.
Ransdell built his first grandfather
clock, which he has in his home, ab
out 15 years ago. “I guess I d always
wanted a grandfather clock, Rans
dell said.
Since that time Ransdell has built
about 15 to 20 clocks for people.
Ransdell said his first step is to
visit the home of the people who
want the clock built. At the home he
looks over the furniture and tries to
build a clock to match. “In addition
to seeing their furniture, I find out
where they want the clock, so 111
know what kind to build, Ransdell
said.
After deciding what kind of clock
to build, Ransdell said he orders the
wood from wherever he can get it
and orders the internal parts for the
clock from Germany.
Ransdell said he uses cherry, wal
nut, mahogony and oak for his
clocks. The wood comes by the board
foot — a foot long and wide and one
inch thick. He said he always uses
more wood than he needs. You use
a lot of good wood trying to match the
grain” Ransdell said.
To build the clocks, Ransdell cuts
out the pieces, matches the grain and
then sands down the wood. He said
he likes to put tung oil on the wood to
make the grain stand out. “It seals
the wood so moisture won’t get in,
Ransdell said.
When Ransdell glues the pieces of
wood together, he also inserts screws
in the joints to ensure they hold
together. “I think you could drop a
clock off the top of a house and it
would still stand together, if it didn’t
have the works in it,” Ransdell said.
Constructing the inner parts of the
clock doesn’t take any time, Ransdell
said.
“The main thing is working accu
rately in putting the pieces of wood
together,” Ransdell said.
Ransdell said one of the main
reasons he enjoys building clocks is
his interest in wood. I appreciate
immensely pretty woods,” Ransdell
said.
Ransdell said he likes to build his
clocks out of woods that have unusual
• patterns of the annular rings in them.
“The fancy grains come from the
crotch, the burl and the base of the
tree," Ransdell said. The crotch is
the place between the limb and the
trunk; and the burl is the knot which
sticks out on the trunk.
Ransdell also said he likes to make
each clock different. “What I try to
do is to something on every clock
that’s unique,” Ransdell said.
One way he does this is to build a
painting constructed of different
woods into the clock. To construct
the picture, Ransdell uses difierent
shades of veneer, which is a very thin
piece of wood. Ransdell says he cuts
the veneer into jig-saw pieces that
will fit the picture.
For every clock, Ransdell said he
carves pieces of wood to create the
mouse running up the clock.
After finishing the clock, which
usually takes a month, Ransdell said
he delivers it himself.
For future, Ransdell said he plans
to continue building the clocks and
working for the school. I think its
important to keep being productive
while you’re alive, Ransdell said.
The Battalion
Vol. 73 No.
24 Pages in 3 Sections
Thursday, March 20, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
.G. 375°
SALE
J
change of heart
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Reversing a long-
bid position, Russian dissident Andrei
rv O /\ Kharov now says he is willing to leave the
L/OU b viet Union if permitted by the Kremlin.
-••'•'^aSEaSSl I Word of the Soviet academician’s change
! rf heart was revealed today by friends of
■j iarov in t he United States. The report
itfas confirmed by a member of the Com-
piission on Security and Cooperation in
t (Europe, a congressional-executive panel.
1 IfThere appears little likelihood, however,
A ffiet President Leonid Brezhnev soon
Kid allow “the father of the Soviet H-
ibomb” to leave his internal exile at Gorky
in the Soviet Union.
■“He has been associated with the De-
^ fense Ministry for a long time,’’ said a
spokesman for the Soviet Embassy. That
Kid be ample grounds for denying him
an exit visa. ”
clDiplomatic sources said a New York City
Hbyer currently is exploring the possibility
of persuading Soviet authorities to let
Sakharov emigrate.
pfhere does not appear to be any direct
^ J U.S. government involvement at this time.
D)
IEER
* i
iH
99
630°
79
j
There was no immediate comment State
Department sources.
Sakharov’s friends have been increasing
ly concerned about the outspoken scien
tist’s well-being after he was arrested and
forced into internal exile after the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan last December.
In Gorky, a city closed, to foreigners,
Sakharov has been cut off from direct con
tacts with Western correspondents and
kept under close observation.
His friends fear exile will effectively si
lence Sakharov even though he has J 113 / 1 '
aged to maintain some contacts. The
Washington Post published an exclusive
interview with him earlier this month.
Sakharov, a member of the prestigious
Soviet Academy of Sciences, was one of the
prime scientists who worked on the Soviet
hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s.
Since the Soviet invasion of Czechoslo
vakia in 1968, Sakharov has aired his dis
senting political views publicly and incur
red the wrath of the Soviet leadership that
has tolerated him with increasing impati-
SEN Teachers to vote
^oratories
PEMCOR. INC.
on bargaining
C9945
’X9”
r5°
95
United Press International
AUSTIN, Texas — Teacher represen
tatives from across Texas convene in Fort
Worth Friday to vote on a legislative
^program that could radically alter the
politics of public education in Texas.
; ‘ Frustrated over the repeated failure of
moves to raise salaries to levels paid in
Mother states, the teachers are expected to
approve a legislative program calling for
collective bargaining rights for the first
time in the 100-year history of the Texas
State Teachers Association.
|; Before the 1,500 convention delegates
leave for home Saturday, they are also
fexpected to vote on a proposed increase
in dues from $52 to $78 a year that will
[finance a more aggressive lobbying effort
and more activist role for the organization
that represents 114,000 educators across
the state.
I “There is real frustration on the part of
fteachers,” said Cecile Russell, an Amaril
lo teacher currently serving as TSTA
president. “Over the last 10 years we ve
Ipeen our salaries erode. We’ve been cal-
||led upon to work harder for less. And
gpve’re getting a lot of public criticism —
Especially from the right.
| She said teachers are becoming more
■Assertive as a result. Although teachers
Ksed to believe that if they just saw to
§1 their classrooms, issues such as salaries
BNvould be taken care of, Russell said
■teachers now realize politicians “play a lip
iervice game” about raising teacher pay.
“Over 50 percent of our teachers are at
the poverty level of income, she said.
“It’s a disgrace. Under the 1979 legisla
tion a teacher with eight years of experi-
, ence or less makes so little her children
■qualify for a free or reduced price lunch.
| The teacher’s new militancy is re
flected in the makeup of the teacher orga
nization.
‘We used to be a company union,’ she
jsaid. “We were a rurally-dominated,
administrator-dominated organization.
TSTA rules were changed in 1974,
however, to give teachers a voice in run
ning the organization in direct proportion
to their numbers.
“Our convention last year was the first
time we had a convention where 96 per
cent of the people there were classroom
teachers,” Russell said. “That convention
voted to endorse the principle of collec
tive bargaining for teachers.”
The proposed statute to be presented
at the Fort Worth convention is part of a
four-part legislative program teacher
groups hope to push in 1981.
Teachers are seeking higher pay, job
security and state-financed hospitaliza
tion insurance in addition to right to nego
tiate with local school districts as a group.
Conservative business groups such as
the Texas Association of Taxpayers
already are decrying the teacher propos
als as a “threat of unionization and warn
ing their constituents that TSTA plans to
make collective bargaining “its top legis
lative priority.” .
“I think the collective bargaining thing
is being blown out of proportion,” Russell
said. “I really feel there’s not a teacher in
this state who would like to strike.
Teachers even discussing the possibil
ity of striking, however, is a major change
from prior years, when the educators dif
fidently asked legislators to pass laws au
thorizing “professional consultations ab
out salary and other issues between
teacher representatives and local school
boards.
Russell said collective bargaining is
essential for teachers to have a role in key
decisions that affect education of stu
dents.
“Teachers have no say in decisions ab
out class size, materials and curriculum,’
she said. “What we have right now is a
one-way system with the administrators
deciding what the students need instead
of the teacher.”
- —
Jogging buddies
Lunch hour runners jogging around Kyle Field s -h-' " ^^veTsi^f puhhc^eTevisrn
track got some extra company from these young touring ^exas AOcrvi umver / /
ladies. The youngsters were part of a group of Bryan station, KAM .
Staff photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
GOP leadership foresees
battle over oil profits tax
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans
said Wednesday they have found_ more
opposition than expected to the $227.7 bil
lion oil windfall profits tax and vowed a
tough fight as the Senate took up the mas
sive measure.
“There’s more opposition to it than I
thought,” Senate Republican leader Ho
ward Baker told reporters minutes before
the Senate began work on the bill.
“A lot of us are concerned about what was
dropped out in conference. We are going to
talk a lot about it,” Baker said.
He referred to the billions of dollars in
business energy tax credits that were cut by
House and Senate negotiators who shaped
the current compromise from the different
windfall bills passed earlier by the two
chambers.
“If you are asking if there is going to be a
filibuster, I don t know, Baker said. But if
you are asking if this is going to pass in a day
or two, certainly not.
Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla., was ex
pected to spearhead the Republican oppo
sition to the bill, along with Democrats
from oil producing states.
But Senate Democratic leader Robert
Byrd, D-W. Va., said he was unaware of any
growing opposition to the windfall profits
bill, and said its final passage was only a
matter of time.
Byrd said he was trying “to reach a time
agreement on the windfall profits tax so we
can set a date for a vote. I’m working toward
that end.”
Earlier this week Byrd said, I hope we
can finish it this week or set a date for a
vote.”
Republicans were expected to make se
rious efforts to get the oil tax killed. But the
bill, which makes available $136 billion for
future tax cuts and is considered the center-
piece of President Carter’s energy prog
ram, is expected to pass eventually.
It was passed 302-107 in the House last
week with substantial Republican support.
The bill also earmarks about $57 billion
to help poor people pay their fuel bills.
Only $34 billion would be used for energy
and transportation programs.
It also provides small savers a $4.3 billion
tax break by exempting from the federal
income tax $200 in combined interest and
dividends for individuals and $400 for mar
ried couples filing jointly.
An aide to Bellmon, who wants more tax
breaks for independent producers, said it
“might be a little too harsh” to say Bellmon
planned a filibuster. But he said critics “will
have a lot to say about the bill. There won t
be an effort to cut anybody off very early. ”
Bellmon wants at least the first 1,000
barrels of oil sold each day by independent
oil producers exempted from the tax. He
would prefer a total exemption.
Carter asked Congress last April to enact
a windfall profits tax to capture for public
use some of the $1 trillion Treasury officials
estimate oil companies will make this de
cade from Carter s decision to let the price
of domestic oil gradually rise to world levels
by phasing out federal controls.
But he wanted the revenues used entire
ly for energy-related purposes, including
development of alternative fuel sources,
construction of urban mass transit systems,
and help for poor people hit by rising fuel
bills.
Sadat, Begin
to meet with
Carter again
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
will meet separately with Israeli and Egyp
tian leaders next month to prod them on
the sensitive issue of Palestinian self-rule
and work toward “a comprehensive peace
for the Middle East.”
U.S. Middle East mediator Sol Linowitz
will fly to Middle East this weekend to
work out the exact dates for visits by Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin and
Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and take part in Pales
tinian autonomy talks.
In late April or early May, a White
House official said. King Hussein of Jordan
who did not accept the Camp David
accords, also will visit Washington.
A White House statement said, “The
purpose of the (Sadat-Begin) meetings will
be to review the progress and pace of auto-
mony negotiations for the West Bank and
Gaza,” but one top aide said the meetings
are even “more ambitious.
“We want to see how we can go beyond
autonomy to a comprehensive peace,’ he
said.
Officials said the only progress in the
talks so far has been to identify the main
issues still to be resolved, including the
rights of Arabs in Jerusalem to vote in the
elections; the election process and the pow
ers and responsibilities that will be handed
over to Palestinians by the Israelis.
Budget cuts
may wound
job program
United Press International .
WASHINGTON — Operators of CE3A
public service job programs throughout the
country would have to cut nearly 46,000
jobs by October under new budget-cutting
proposals suggested on Capitol Hill
Wednesday.
Among at least $2 billion in cuts prop
osed by House Budget Committee Chair
man Robert Giaimo, beyond those Presi
dent Carter already wants to make, was a
$500 million cut in Title 6 of the Compre
hensive Employment and Training Act
(GETA) job program.
This would reduce the level of jobs dur
ing fiscal year 1981, which begins Oct. 1,
from 200,000 — the present authorized
level, which Carter had proposed to con
tinue— to 150,000.
Congressional staff sources said this
could be done by limiting new applicants,
so that the number of job holders would
decline as individuals finish their periods of
employment.
This was the biggest cut in the area ot
employment proposed by Giaimo. Others
were:
— Delay in starting the administration s
single largest initiative in its January
budget, a $2 billion, two-year addition to
existing youth training programs that
would concentrate on job training and basic-
education in local schools for disadvantaged
youth. The saving is only $150 million in
the 1981 budget, since most of the program
would not have begun by then anyway. A
major start is expected in the school year
beginning in the fall of 1982.
— A saving of $240 million by eliminat
ing the Young Adult Conservation Corps, a
small existing program, in which about
60,000 youngsters a year — not limited to
needy ones — receive job experience on
public lands.