The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Vol. 74 No. 29 Thursday, October 9, 1980 USPS 045 360
28 Pages in 2 Sections College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Yesterday
Today
High
83
High
85
Low
58
Low
60
Humidity. . .
75%
Humidity
. .. 58%
Rain
.. 0.0 inches
Chance of rain. . .
. . . none
Northgate crowding
solutions presented
By NANCY ANDERSEN
Battalion Staff
Ifenative solutions to the problem of overcrowded Northgate
■ were presented to the student senate Wednesday.
■uring peak nights, students overflow into several lanes of
He on University Drive outside the four bars. David Collins,
■president for external aflairs, reported some temporary solu-
ans until a long range one could be implemented to alleviate the
Htion.
The proposed solutions included:
| Blocking off the parking spaces in front of the bars to create
ior< standing space.
§ Adding another light on “Bottle Cap Alley” to try and draw
ion people into the alley area and away from the street.
3) Remove the motorcycle parking area between the Dixie
■ken and the Alamo.
Bese solutions have not been worked out with the businesses
volved yet, but Collins said “we can count on some cooperation
om them.” Collins said the proposals will be submitted to the
ollege Station Planning and Zoning Commision and City Mana-
:r North Bardell.
The long range solution would be to block off and resurface
jtricia Street, which runs behind the bars and the adjoining
Ring lot. This would create a mall area, he said. Lights, ben-
ies and maybe a roof would complete the conversion, he added.
“It would be a walking street — orienting all the Northgate
mnesses toward the back,” he explained.
College Station city officials are very concerned with the pedes-
ian problem and will try to float a $1 million bond for capital
Uprovements, of which an estimated $100,000 would be used for
jiconversion, Collins said.
The earliest this conversion could be implemented would be
:xt fall, he added.
Collins said that he needs student input on this problem, and
id students with ideas should come by the Student Government
Bet in 216 MSC.
In legislative action, senators hotly debated the documentation
an academic minors bill, but sent it back to committee. This bill
)uld require the Registrar’s Office to place a student’s minor, if
plicable, on the official transcript.
Computer delays action
The controversy centered around the fact that the University
does not recognize minors in any fields on transcripts.
“Minors are merely policies within your fields,” said Kevin
Pond, off-campus graduate senator.
So before such a proposal could be enacted, the University
would have to recognize minors, approve the bill and send it to the
Coordinating Board in Austin for final approval, he said.
Since minors are not looked on favorably by the board. Pond
said, the bill will run into problems getting approved in Austin.
The trend is away from specialization statewide, and currently
no state institutions have academic minors, he added.
“The chances of this passing our administration and the coordi
nating board are so slim, that we shouldn’t put pressure on our
administration, ” said Steve Crumley, business senator and acade
mic affairs committee member.
“We have to think of our reputation with the administration,”
added Kathleen Miller, vice president for academic affairs.
Phil Hannah, sponsor of the bill, disagreed.
“Since no one else has them, why can’t A&M be the first to have
an academic minor?” asked Hannah. “This is extremely important
to anyone who has a minor. Having the field stated would be more
powerful than course fistings.”
“We are here to represent the students and not impress the
administration,” said Rhonda Rhea, Ward II senator. “I have yet
to talk to a student who doesn’t support this bill. ”
However, bill opponents said the situation isn’t as simple as
adding the word “minor” on a transcript.
The way the bill is written, there would have to be a review of all
courses offered to specify which ones would be required for a
minor, Miller said.
In other action, a parking row indication bill was tabled until
the last senate meeting of the semester. This bill will recommend
that University Police put row markers in nine of the larger
parking lots. Sponsor Hannah said the $50-per-sign cost was a
little high and other solutions should be investigated.
The senate also heard and asked questions about the “Only One
Date a Semester” bill. No action will be taken on it until the next
meeting, Wednesday, Oct. 22.
As
By DEBBIE NELSON
Battalion Staff
soon as delayed parts of the new com-
terized traffic signal system arrive and
J installed in College Station, traffic
mid flow more smoothly.
istallment of 16 new lights at about
,000 has been delayed by controller
oces (which electronically time the
jitching of lights) which failed to pass
xas Department of Highways and Public
fety tests, said Roger Barnes, TDH en-
leering technician and inspector for the
&ject.
eplacements have been ordered, but
received. Barnes said the state office in
|tin will put the new controllers through
ame “severe tests” the first set of lights
mt through.
Arrival of the system’s computer has
len delayed several times, John Black,
Sr traffic engineer, said. Fourteen of the
Ev lights, or all but four of the city traffic
Jits, will be connected to the computer.
The computerized system is being
Ided by the Texas Department of High-
lys and Public Safety. The city of College
Ition will take over maintenance once the
ps are installed.
lefugee move
o Puerto Rico
lalted by judge
United Press International
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal
dge halted the transfer of 5,000 Cuban
Haitian refugees to a Puerto Rican nav-
iase in a stunning setback for President
er’s attempt to temporarily settle the
iugees on the island.
Wednesday’s injunction order was
uled as a victory for “the democratic sys-
m by Puerto Rico Gov. Romero Barcelo.
The White House announced it would
tpeal the decision ordering a halt to the
tting up of the temporary camp at Fort
(len Naval Base.
Work stopped at the Fort Allen tent city
tiding a decision on the White House
peal in the 1st District Court of Boston,
lich has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, a
•S commonwealth.
U S. District Judge Juan R. Torruella
iled President Carter had not proved a
iter would result if the Cubans were
ransferred to Puerto Rico and thus had
ight to waive local environmental laws
lanitation and crowding at the Fort
n camp.
barter’s executive order, issued Oct. 3
er a law giving him the right to waive
ironmental regulations in cases of catas-
ihes or national security, overruled a
rto Rican environmental board’s re-
ement that Fort Allen not be used as a
gee camp until an environmental im-
statement could be filed.
Each individual controller box will be
programmed to decide how long a light
stays green, Black said. The boxes are ab
out the size of a refrigerator and will sit on
concrete slabs at the intersections.
But adding the computer can change the
lights’ timing for light and heavy traffic
periods.
“Basically, when you plug it into the
computer, the computer will override what
all the little controller boxes are doing,” he
said.
Barnes said there are three weeks left on
the construction contract, but because of
equipment delays, construction will run
overtime a little.
Black said he expects complete installa
tion to be delayed from 60 to 90 days, and
said he would hate to estimate when the
computer would arrive.
A cable will connect all the lights to the
computer in Black’s office in city hall. A
large lighted map will display the city traffic
lights.
Black said the new system will work simi
larly to the two lights on Wellborn Road at
Jersey and W. Main.
Timings are set for each signal head.
Metal detectors in the road hold a green
light on Wellborn until a car comes off of
the campus or across the railroad tracks.
The new system will contain about 150
metal detectors at various places around
the city, counting the number of cars pas
sing over them at certain times, Black said.
The computer will use that information
to determine when individually program
med signals should be overidden.
The present traffic system has been up
dated several times, but contains “some
antiquated equipment,” Barnes said.
Only four city signals will not be con
nected to the computer: Agronomy Road
and University, Tarrow and University (by
Fed Mart), Rosemary and Texas (to be
taken over by Bryan) and Southwest Park
way and Texas.
The city itself will install a controller box
at the Southwest Parkway-Texas intersec
tion. But the box it will use is presently
being used at Jersey and Wellborn Road,
which has not received its new controller
box yet.
“We’re waiting on the state, and the state
is waiting on the contractors, and the con
tractors are waiting on the manufacturer
and supplier,” Barnes said.
Fish Tarzan
StafT photo by Pat O’Malley
Stevan Perez, a company M-l freshman, goes through
the motions on the obstacle course behind Mount Aggie.
The outfit placed 35th at the Texas Tech march-in, so
freshmen were “paying for it” Wednesday afternoon.
Lithuanian wins Nobel prize
United Press International
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — In a surprise decision, Lithuanian
author Czeslaw Milosz today was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
Milosz is the first Lithuanian to win the coveted prize, worth
$215,000 this year.
He won over a star-studded field that included Norman Mailer,
Britain’s Graham Greene and Trinidad-bom author V. S. Naipaul.
The award to Milosz, a 69-year-old poet who comes from a tiny
Soviet-ruled Baltic state of3.4 million population, was in line with
a recent tradition of awarding the prize to lesser known literary
personalities from smaller countries.
Last year’s prize also went to a poet, Odysseus Elytis, a Greek
wartime resistance fighter.
In awarding the prize to Milosz the Swedish Academy cited his
family background of ancient lineage “in which primitive folk
traditions lived on together with a complex historical heritage. ”
Since 1960, Milosz has been a guest lecturer in Slavonic lan
guages at the University of California in Berkeley.
Milosz grew up in the Polish town of Vilna.
The academy adso said that during his youth, industrialization
had not made itself felt in earnest.
Ships wait out war
Oil tankers stranded
Rally ’round
Staff photo by Pat O’Malley
A rally for the Democratic presidential ticket and local
candidates was held Wednesday afternoon in Culpepper
Plaza parking lot. From left to right are Kent Caperton,
candidate for state senator; Geech Cook, (‘66), an actor,
formerly of CBS’ Carter Country; and Jerry Webster, a
musician from Austin who performed in the show. About
50 people showed up for the rally.
United Press International
MUSCAT, Oman — Almost 40 huge oil
tankers rode at anchor near the mouth of
the Persian Gulf today—stranded at sea by
a war that has made the oil shipping lanes
dangerous and prohibitively expensive.
The harbor master at Mina Qaboos, near
Oman’s capital of Muscat, said 38 empty oil
tankers were sitting off the Omani coastline
in the Arabian Sea awaiting instructions
from their nervous owners.
Looking out to sea from Mina Qaboos,
the huge oil tankers filled the horizon. The
ships’ owners were reluctant to send them
through the 24-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz
into the Persian Gulf because of the recent
300 percent increase in war-risk premiums
imposed by insurance brokers on the re
gion after the onset of the Iran-Iraq War.
Harbor officials said all the tankers were
headed for Iraqi and Iranian oil export ter
minals or other ports “close to the war
zone.”
There are normally only two or three
tankers anchored off Mina Qaboos, and
Omani officials have begun to charge the
shipowners per ton for every week’s stay in
their protected waters.
Shipping sources said they could not
gauge how long the tankers would wait out
side the Persian Gulf, but they noted there
was no great demand for tanker tonnage
now and it was cheaper for the owners to
keep their ships in the area.
The owners apparently are hoping for a
quick end to the conflict and an equally
rapid reduction in the war-risk premiums
before they allow their tankers near Iran or
Iraq.
In a related development, the Qatari
news agency reported from the United
Arab Emirates port of Dubai, inside the
Persian Gulf, that Dubai has concluded an
agreement with Iraq to accept shipments
destined for Iraqi ports until the hostilities
end.
Shipments for Iraq can now be unloaded
at Dubai so captains don’t have to enter the
As the war continued today, Iranian war
planes set huge fires in Baghdad and attack
ed the oil center of Kirkuk. Iran claimed its
airborne forces destroyed 35 Iraqi tanks
and killed more than 100 enemy troops
along the northern border.
Fighting was reported on several fronts
along the Iraq-Iran border as the war en
tered its 19th day today, with each side still
claiming the tide of battle was in its favor.