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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1981)
The Battalion The Weather Serving the Texas A&M University community Yesterday Today High 66 High 75 Low 52 Low 27 Rain .... 0.07 Chance of rain . . . ...17% Vol. 74 No. 94 12 Pages Tuesday, February 10, 1981 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 sy Fire: multi-story hassle nferencet, ft Texas ft rsity, UI: ‘stfield)( his is the second in a two-part series on ffexas A&M’s compliance with city build- raeed l '8 c °ties and the potential hazards of fires a campus buildings. i ready for e cantajj iur main rciament! By DENISE RICHTER Battalion Reporter The Nov. 21 fire in Las Vegas’ MGM rand Hotel and Casino that left 85 people ead has brought about a heightened in- e meethi 6rest * n ^' re precautions for high-rise withasc® uildin g s - thellooiii although Texas A&M University has 8.9andif iree high-rise buildings, Harrington Tow- r, the O&M Building and Rudder Tower, lie University is a state agency and is not squired by law to conform to city fire and lilding codes. Each ofTexas A&M’s high-rise buildings as fire plans, evacuation procedures and (airways equipped with fire walls and fire o&rs able to withstand fire for IVh hours. However, the ability of local firefighters effect a rescue from the higher floors is pen to some question. Third-floor and beyond Because of a lack of the necessary evacua- ion equipment, such as ladders, the Col- :ge Station Fire Department is unable to escue people above the third floor of any uilding, College Station Fire Marshal larry L. Davis Sr., said. Davis said the department would be ble to handle a large fire “if it was strictly tructure involved, with no life loss.” If ecessary, the Bryan Fire Department ould provide additional assistance. “If they could get to the stairwells, we /ould assist them out, but that’s pretty luch the extent of it,” Davis said. All but one ofTexas A&M’s 35 dormitor- :s have four above-ground floors; Legett has three above-ground floors. In ddition, most other campus buildings lave at least four floors. High-rise precautions Jake Canglose, fire marshal for the O&M [uilding, said the building has at least two tre proctors on each floor, a reporting sys- :m located on the first and 12th floors and seven-step emergency plan devised by a uilding committee made up of the dean ddepartment heads within the building. This emergency plan is posted by each PYR-jA-UARM /x FIRE AND SMOKE DETECTION. / ,ALARM SYSTEM © CONTROL UNIT TYPE C-B . S. A. 46556 CANADIAN I 5X3643. V rotronics A Division of Baker Industries, Inc. Cedar Knolls, New Jersey elevator along with a map giving the loca tion of fire extinguishers on that particular floor. Rudder Tower’s second, eighth, ninth, tenth and 11th floors are designated as office floors. People working on these floors Stairways in the tower are equipped with battery- powered lights on each landing; they did not function during the recent power failure. are informed of the evacuation plan and each office floor has a designated proctor who is responsible for seeing that the floor is evacuated in the event of fire. The conference floors (the third through the seventh floors) have no posted evacua tion plan. However, Sodolak said Services Supervisor Jerry Nucker is working on the plan and it should soon be ready. The evacuation plan posted on the office floors warns building occupants to take the stairs instead of the elevators. Stairways in the tower are equipped with battery- powered lights on each landing; but be cause they did not function during the re cent power failure, Sodolak said new bat tery packs are on order and should arrive soon. Elevators are especially dangerous be cause a fire could melt the control panel and call the car to the floor where the fire has been reported, Sodolak said. Because of this, tower foremen and all facilities su pervisors carry keys that enable them to manually call the elevators to the first floor and lock them. The dorms and Hawkeye Texas A&M dormitories are connected to the Hawkeye fire reporting system. When an alarm goes off, a light flashes on a central reporting panel in the head resi dent’s room. A two- to three-minute delay before the general alarm sounds enables the head resident or resident adviser to check the floor where the fire has been reported and determine whether it is a fire or a false alarm. Each head resident and resident adviser is equipped with a chemical fire exting uisher; if the fire is one they feel they can handle, they are advised to put it out them selves. However, in the case of a large fire, the College Station Fire Department is notified and responds. The Corps-style and modular dormitor ies are equipped with smoke detectors and pull stations on each floor, while the Com mons dorms have built-in fire protection systems. Fire- and smoke-detection equipment in balcony-style dormitories presents a problem, however. Stiteler said the balcony-style dormitor ies are equipped with duct detectors. Under this system, smoke from a room has to travel down the building’s return air sys tem before it triggers the detector. The smoke is usually so diluted by the time it reaches the detector, it will not set off the detector. Stiteler added that the University Office of Safety and Health is studying a plan that calls for smoke detector heads to be instal led in each room. Also, the office has to set priorities and provide additional protection to buildings as funds become available, Stiteler said. The fire department is informed of those areas that have less protection than others, he said. Recent fire history Seven major fires have occurred at Texas A&M within the past four years. Their dates and amounts in damages: — $203,500 damage in the MSC base ment storage area on July 8, 1977; — $21,000 damage in the Chemistry Building Annex on March 26, 1978; — $19,000 damage in the Range Science field lab on Nov. 12, 1978; — $15,000 damage in the Biological Sci ence Building on Feb. 14, 1979; — the old Board of Directors home (on the site where Hobby and Neely halls are now located) was destroyed on Feb. 27, 1979 and loss was estimated at approxi mately $500,000; — $118,000 damage in the Soil and Crop Science and Entomology Building on July 12, 1979; — and $74,000 damage in the Biological Science Building on Nov. 29, 1980. No one was injured in any of these fires. A seminar to discuss building codes will be held at Texas A&M Feb. 17. The semi nar, sponsored by the College of Architec ture and Environmental Design, will deal with life-safety regulations. in Texas and focus primarily on fire. 31 h 11 rs Service fee hearings begin tonight 51 teams :e in this iW 1 ; not yet longer. 427 eii' time on [IS ring thrtf ’s teams* st time 4 xals willk loor of f , Both l®' simultaflf Staff photo by Brian Tate By FRANK L. CHRISTLIEB Battalion Reporter The yearly student service fee allocation rocess begins tonight, as Finance Com- littee members begin reviewing 1981-82 quests. The Student Government Finance ommittee will hold hearings on four days review each 1981-82 student service fee squest. The money is divided among nine stu- ent service users who make budget re- uests each year, which vary according to nancial needs of each area. Tracy Cox, student vice president of nance, said that each year nine areas hich provide services for Texas A&M Iniversity students request different mounts of money from student service The nine areas are the Department of ntramural Athletics, A.P. Beutel Health Center, MSC Council, Personal Counsel ing Service, the shuttlebus service, De partment of Student Activities, Student Government, Students’ Legal Adviser and Student Publications. So far, five users have submitted their requests to Cox. The hearings for these five will be held tonight and Thursday night. The areas which have made requests so far, as well as the amounts they are asking for are: — Student Activities, $166,750, up 25 percent from last year’s allocation; — Student Publications, $34,000, up 6 percent from last year’s allocation; — the shuttlebus service, $169,000, up 22 percent from last year’s allocation; — the intramural-extramural depart ment, $527,042, up 28 percent from last year’s allocation; — Student Government, $40,592, up 26 percent from last year’s allocation. The other four areas, Cox said, will sub mit their requests later this week, and the hearings for these will take place Feb. 17 and 19. All four of the hearings will be at 7:00 p.m. in the Former Students Confer ence Room in the Memorial Student Center. The hearings are open to the public. At the hearings, the Finance Committee will go over each area’s budget, and will consider the needs of each area. Cox said each area will have its own reasons for mak ing the request which it makes. These may be needs for hiring new student workers, for making salary increases or for buying new equipment. He said the areas whose needs appear to be the most valid are the ones who will probably receive most of the amount they request. Cox stressed that the requests made by each area are just that — requests. Most of the time they do not receive the amount they ask for. The actual procedure of dividing the stu dent service fee money begins when stu dents are required to pay the $33.50 fee each semester. The money received in the 1980-81 school year will be allocated after the committee’s recommendation. The amount drawn in from the fees paid this year was $2,173,392, so this is the amount the committee has to work with in making the allotments. After the committee is through with the requests, they will be brought to the Stu dent Senate for approval. They will then have to gain approval of Dr. John Koldus, vice president for student services. If Koldus approves the requests, as he generally does, they will be sent to the president and the Board of Regents. Cox said the process for approval of the requests will last about three or four weeks. Unsponsored evangelist George “Jed” Smock, a self-proclaimed evangelist, preached by the Memorial Student Center again Monday afternoon. Some of his audience argued with Smock, who has been on campus since Thursday, because of his condemnation of people in the crowd as sinners. Spring enrollmen t topples previous high A record number of students is enrolled at Texas A&M University this spring. After 12 class days the official enrollment was announced to be 31,427, up 2,125 from the previous spring record of29,302 set last spring. This marks a 7.25 percent increase, which is also up from the 7 percent increase of last spring. The figures were released by the Reg istrar’s Office and will be reported to the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System as the official spring en rollment. A breakdown of the figures into classes will not be ready until about the end of the week, a spokesman for the Registrar’s Office said. Three new regents discuss Texas A&M’s priorities iced table. Till' ih; ir for $1® By JANE G. BRUST Battalion Staff While the three new members of the Texas A&M n! FeM University System Board of Regents say they have riuch to learn about the Board’s business, they agree at compliance with Title VI is a top priority. The three new regents — H. R. “Bum” Bright and iVilliam A. McKenzie, both of Dallas, and Joe C. lichardson Jr. of Amarillo — began their first six- fear terms with the Board meeting Friday. They we appointed in January by Gov. Bill Clements. They succeed Alfred I. Davies of Dallas, Joe H. Reynolds of Houston and Ross C. Watkins of Uvalde. The three new regents all are graduates of Texas McM. Bright, 60, and McKenzie, 57, agr eed that the Board’s number one priority is compliance with Title Hof the Civil Rights Act which calls for desegrega tion of state institutions of higher learning. T think our Board of Regents will give considera- Bon to policies adopted in the past, and this will be a s P aUgh >itical thing,” Bright said. “Were going to do what the law says,” McKenzie said. Richardson, 53, said Attorney General Mark White called him two weeks ago and complimented the System’s plan for recruitment of minority stu dents. That policy, adopted in December, calls for five-year goals to he set in the recruiting of minorities it Texas A&M, and for more white students to Prairie Hew A&M University. He said we led the entire nation with our plan,” Bichardson said. The strides we are making here are what they ire looking for. ” Bright and Richardson said they think the System ■s in compliance with Title VI at present. We re as near as can be possible at this point, ” Bichardson said. “Until it’s 100 percent all right with ihe Supreme Court, we won’t really know.” Richardson pointed out that another challenge fac- on this f sho"' enough )nly, ai ed theB h Pabsh Joe Richardson ing the System concerns the Permanent University Fund. The PUF is the constitutionally mandated and protected endowment of 2.1 million acres in West Texas that contains oil and gas. Money from the PUF is invested, and the return on that investment is known as the Available University Fund. Two-thirds of the AUF goes to the University of Texas System, and one-third goes to the Texas A&M System. Now other state-supported schools want a share of those funds. “One of our biggest challenges is holding on to our H.R. “Bum” Bright share of the PUF,” Richardson said. For the next two years Bright will serve as chair man of the Board, succeeding Clyde Wells of Gran- bury who completed his sixth consecutive two-year term as chairman. Bright admitted Clements favored his election to the position even before his appointment to the Board. He said he was not at all surprised by the Governor’s appointment — they have been friends since 1934. Bright said Clements had previously dis- William McKenzie cussed the appointment with him. The new chairman would not specify any changes in Board action now that he has assumed the posi tion. “As presiding officer I will move in the direction the regents expect to go,” he said. Bright said he expects to spend more time working as chairman than he would spend if he were not chairman, but he said, “not so much time that I can’t handle.” Bright is a senior partner of Bright & Company, an oil and gas producing firm. Richardson, an independent oil operator, said hei was surprised with his appointment to the Board. “I was in Hawaii at the time, and I nearly jumpedl through the ceiling,” he said. “I had hoped I’d get it. — I’ve never been so honored.” } Unlike Bright, Richardson has known Clements?' only a few years. e r “He’s more interested in A&M than any other’ 1 governor in my lifetime,” he said. McKenzie, a senior partner in the law firm ol McKenzie and Baer, said he too was “surprised and j delighted’’ with his appointment. He has known Cle ments 20 years. Not one of the new Board members said he has had^ adequate time to review the reorganization of the?’ System that was implemented a year ago. The cur- s > rent plan transferred authority over the research 01 ” stations and extension services from the University 01 " president to the chancellor. The president is now 01 " responsible for the University alone. ln Bright said he has only a “general awareness” ol °* the controversial reorganization. ^ “I know what the chart looks like,” he said. “As tc ia ^ the merits of it, I’ve not had enough time to see how^T effective it is. The effectiveness depends on the peo ple in the slots. j n “Whatever the Board’s position is will be my posi-he tion. It is the present status, it is the Board’s position,on it is my position.” iar With their first Board meeting behind them, the^® 5 three regents said they were favorably impressed 311 ’ with their new positions. “We re in an awe-inspiring situation with the mag-led nitude of the physical plant and the budget,’the McKenzie said. “I’m impressed with the manner andor- the method in which the meetings are conducted, ur- Richardson agreed. “The board is very profession- gas al in conducting its business,” he said. “We had oui by agenda a week and a half ago — it’s the most profes-the sional board I’ve ever been on.”