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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1981)
Some people don t even knowit exists THE BATTALION FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1981 Page 5 Students By NANCY FLOECK Battalion Reporter Battalion nepor It doesn’t seem like a classroom — nine stu- bnts sitting around a conference table enthu- ^ (iastically discussing the future of the Brazos Val- ey Museum of Natural Science, oney ^ now some people don’t even know the H? 1 ;* :! l razos Valley Museum exists,” David Vela, a 1 ■ ^ ijunior recreation and parks major tells the other tudents in Recreation and Parks 485 and 685. These two classes, composed of recreation and , is Teii! r ^ jiarks and wildlife and fisheries majors, are devot- , ing the spring semester to developing a five-year '•y will 6),master plan for the museum. . butitnji objective of this plan is to discover what t totiesti Bryan-College Station community needs and wants in a natural science museum and develop a coordinated plan for directing the museum’s yowth in those areas. And to find out what the public wants, the (Students are doing a phone survey. get credit forBrazos Museum plans “We’re all committed to giving a block of time to the project and getting the best possible re sults within that block of time,” Dr. John Hanna, instructor of the classes said. “We will probably develop it this term ... and then it will be the museum’s responsibility.” With the students’ help, the plan will cost $2,200 to implement. Done by professionals, it would cost over $10,000. Hanna said his students’ interest in the plan is growing. “It’s been kind of funny,” he said. “The enthu siasm has been growing — we seem to pick up momentum with each meeting.” The beauty of the plan lies not only in helping the museum, but in giving students the oppor tunity to work as a planning team and experience real-life situations in their fields, Hanna said. “And that’s what it is — a planning team,” he said. “Yes, they’re getting college credit for it, but they’re not spending time reading books and studying for exams. “It’s a very real problem in our field. How do you get programs under way? It’s training in how decisions are made.” The plan will be detailed at first, to the point of describing short-run activities, like how the director should set up a certain display, Hanna said, but it will also include long-range projec tions and recommendations for growth, funding and other vital aspects. The 20-year-old Brazos Valley Museum is lo cated in the Brazos Center and concentrates on natural science. In the museum, there’s a display of stuffed aquatic birds enclosed in a glass case, a stump with a brown pelican on top and a beaver lying on the table below. There’s three glass cases con taining snakes, an exhibit on fossil mammals of Brazos County and, against one wall, an un finished display left by a graduate student whom director Dale Bode said didn’t have the enthu siasm of the 485 and 685 students. “They’re doing an outstanding job,” Bode said of the students. “By May, I see a masterplan that I can take anywhere.” Bode said the plan will provide the recognition and direction the museum needs in order to grow and gain support. Donators like to fund some thing concrete and tangible, he said, and the plan will provide a blueprint for those funds. Donations of both artifacts and money are the mainstay of the museum. Membership and prog ram fees, gift shop and bird seed sales and grants make up the rest of the museum’s budget. Bode said one of the the museum’s biggest problems is that people don’t take it seriously. “People familiar with the museum feel it can operate on a shoe-string budget,” he said. Another misconception is that the county sup ports the museum because it is located in the Brazos Center, Bode said. The museum, which is a non-profit organization, receives no federal, state, county or city monies. In addition to displays and exhibits, the museum also offers classes in natural science. The classes are held for one and one-half hours on three consecutive Saturdays in the spring and fall. During the summer, the museum offers sum mer nature camp for children between 4 and 12. Bode said organizing the museum around the master plan will be like starting the museum from scratch. But, he said, he is confident the results will please the community and offer it more than it has in the past. He said he befieves Bryan-College Station needs and enjoys this type of museum. “After all, twenty years of existence says some thing,” he said. in class, ative pn> e class :en nomu ganizatie ent, MSC 11s Associs es, 1 Parking sticker alterations illegal By DAVID CALVERT Battalion Reporter Altering parking stickers to obtain a better parking spot is not a novelty at Texas A&M University. The people who do it, however, niakesS :|lsua ^y not realize the seriousness of their actions. Campus Police Chief John R. McDonald said people have been altering parking stickers for several years. He said the most common i infraction is to buy a sticker for the fall semester for $15, and cut a hole tfre permit so it looks like the permit is legal after it expires, t foracak A legal sticker will have only one shield-shaped hole along the right te, atUei edge, according to how much the sticker cost. A sticker for the entire y, assiste school year costs $27. ary to tk “We have caught 15 offenders so far this semester,” McDonald said, d Howti flMost of these people have altered their permits to include the spring crbusins and the summer.” McDonald said one student made his own permit in 1979. He said lie student made a copy of a staff permit and placed it on the bumper of iis car. F Another infraction is to steal a permit from the rear window of mother car, or to place a lost permit on another car. [ “Many people will tape the permit on the window of their car rithout removing the sticker from its plastic wrapping,” McDonald aid. “If they leave the car unlocked, someone can steal the sticker and n to youe use it on another car.” icgin real McDonald said altering a parking sticker constitutes theft of service, all over tk is covered by sub-section 31.04 of the Texas Penal Code. The offense is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of no more than $1,000. Investigator William Scott said the offense could technically be tried as a Class B misdemeanor, but the charge is usually reduced if the thepeop.'boffender cooperates. McDonald said students aren’t the only group of people guilty of any other Jterin g permits. ’....j “We get just as many cases of staff offenses as we do student ed But«!r“ enses ’ saic '- rouldco* McDonald said an infraction committed by staff members is to buy a Ameriffl u P'* cate P erm ft an d sell it to someone else. Duplicate staff permits are ill we k ^ witb the stipulation that both cars displaying the sticker not be on ^mpus at the same time. McDonald said a vehicle is towed when an altered permit is found situation: 1 m it. He said charges are usually not pressed against persons who alter pray. I® lieir permits as long as they agree to buy the correct permit and pay e had to ll heir ticket. The offender is also responsible for paying the tow charge, e felt tkj McDonald said, however, charges are usually pressed against those , That who sell duplicate staff permits and those who use a stolen or lost h other ttexinit from another car. “People don’t seem to realize this is a crime,” he said. “With towing barges as high as they are (A-l Wrecker Service charges $25), it’s just ot worth it. ” ven kno» ow muct i,” he sail nl’dew wasn't uld l> a( ' •rested he foui* las* eye )efo re1 e •arance® r educ^ Day or Night . . . her image is cooly feminine. For a special luncheon or for evening cocktails she has that sophisticated allure. Soft yet reserved. Sensual, yet restrained. When night falls, she wears her womanhood sweetly. Her night look mirrors the loveliness of yesteryear, with a touch of poetry. Whether you*re a man or a woman, let That Place create a new hairstyle especially for you, to compliment your individuality. 696-6933 Across from A&M 707 Shopping Village 693-0607 In Culpepper Plaza Texas Avenue We’re tooting our own horn . , Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611 Here’s the difference between a bank's interest-bearing checking account and ours: Ours has a $300 minimum balance. Theirs requires more (in some cases, much more). MoneyStore was the first interest-bearing checking account in the Brazos Valley. And it’s still the best. Look at these features: • $300 Minimum Balance (not $500, $600, $700, $1,000 or $1,200). You pay no service charges at Brazos Savings if you maintain only a $300 minimum balance. • Maximum Interest—Regardless of Balance. MoneyStore pays you 5 1 /4% interest, compounded continuously, on your balance (an effective annual yield of 5.47%). Even' if your balance drops below $300, you earn maximum interest on your funds. • Telephone Bill Paying at No Extra Cost. With your authorization, MoneyStore will pay some of your bills direct. Just call us, tell us who to pay, how much and when. Keep your funds earning interest until you need to pay your bills. (On telephone bill paying, we pay the postage. If we miss a due date through our error, we pay the late fee.) • Overdraft Protection. Brazos Savings has automatic overdraft pro tection for qualifying MoneyStore customers. And it costs you nothing — until you use it. It’s easy to open a MoneyStore checking account. And we’ll pay you to use it. BRAZOS Savings COLLEGE STATION: Texas Ave. at Southwest Parkway/696-2800 Main Office: 2800 Texas Avenue/Bryan/779-2800