Vol. 74 No. 140
16 Pages
Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, April 22, 1981 USPS 045 360
College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
join in solemn remembrance
The Weather
Tomorrow
'Today
High
80 High
79
Low
07 Low
65
Chance of rain.
30% Chance of rain. . . .
. . . 30%
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
MOT ^ A 21-gun salute by the Ross Volunteers honored the 27 Texas A&M
MOv students and 23 former students from Brazos Country who died during
the past year.
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
Aggie Muster “distills all Aggie tradi
tions into one single ceremony which
emphasizes the very best of Aggie spir
it,” said Fred McClure, Class of’75, at
the 78th annual Muster ceremony.
More than 8,000 people gathered in
G. Rollie White Coliseum Tuesday
night to honor Texas A&M University
students and former students who died
during the past year.
Muster Chairman Tad Jarrett made
the welcoming remarks. Dr. Charles
Samson, acting president ofTexas A&M
University, James S. Moore, president
of the Association of Former Students
and Brad Smith, 1980-81 student body
president, welcomed guests to the Uni
versity.
After McClure’s speech, the lights in
the coliseum were dimmed for the roll
call of the absent. As the names of the
deceased were called out and answered
with “here” by a fellow Aggie, a candle
was lit.
Fifty candles were lit, representing
the 27 Texas A&M students and 23 for
mer students from Brazos County who
died during the year.
A 21-gun salute by the Ross Volun
teers and the playing of Silver Taps fol
lowed the candlelight ceremony.
The 1981 Muster “means more to me
than any Aggie Muster I’ve ever had the
opportunity to attend,” McClure said.
He asked that another name, that of his
father, be added to the list of those hon
ored by the ceremony.
His father died just a few weeks after
McClure agreed to speak at the 1981
Muster.
When McClure first told his father
that he was going to speak at Muster, his
father asked if he was going to speak on
“Signs of the Times,” a topic he used in
the first 15 speeches he made, McClure
said.
But, when he spoke with his father
two weeks later, his father said he
wasn’t joking, that the topic was approp
riate because it focused on the future
and on our roles, collectively and indi
vidually, in that future, McClure said.
That conversation with his father was
one of the last times he ever spoke with
him, McClure said. His father died
three days later.
“For the first time I can understand
and I can sympathize with the grief and
suffering that accompanies the loss of a
loved one or a friend,” McClure said.
Quoting a passage from Charles Dick
ens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” McClure
said it aptly describes the present:
“It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times; it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness; it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of in
credulity ... we had everything but we
had nothing.”
Our brilliance as a nation and as a
people seems to prove that these are the
best of times, McClure said, citing the
successful flight of the space shuttle
Columbia.
But, man’s very existence creates
problems, McClure said.
“We’ve learned how to control so
much knowledge and solved so many
mysteries but we’ve not yet learned
how to control ourselves,” he said. “We
see Americans plagued by grief, racial
tensions, crime, inflation, and indi
viduals who are not willing to accept the
responsibilities of being Americans.”
McClure then asked the audience to
picture America in 10 or 20 years.
“While there are those who say
America has no hope, I say that there is
hope for those of us who want it badly
enough,” McClure said. “While there
are those who say that the American
dream will never become a reality, I say
we have not failed to reach that dream
until we have stopped trying.”
The only sacrifice that is required to
day is for each person to give the best
that he can, McClure said.
“We are able to do whatever we want
to do yet we must make sure that we are
the best at it that we can be,” he said.
McClure, Class of ’75, is a senior at
Baylor University’s School of Law. He
graduated summa cum laude from
Texas A&M with a bachelor’s degree in
agricultural economics. While at Texas
A&M, he served as student body presi
dent.
Muster was first held on June 26,
1883. In the early 1900s, it was agreed
that April 21 would be a time to honor
all students and former students who
had died during the year.
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
Fred McClure, Class of ’75, spoke for the 1981 Aggie Muster. Over
8,000 people attended Tuesday’s ceremony held in G. Rollie White
Coliseum.
SC
3RD.
Computing at A&M ‘severely underdeveloped’
IGH
Committee reviews computer system changes
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By BERNIE FETTE
Battalion Staff
Changes proposed in the Texas A&M comput-
ig system are presently being scrutinized by a
r-member committee.
Creation of the System’s Information Man-
gement and Computing Policy Committee fol-
owed a report from the Ad Hoc Computer
iteering Committee that computing at Texas
l&M is “severely underdeveloped” compared
vith several other major universities in the Un
ted States.
Early last fall the ad hoc committee, com-
»sed of University faculty and officials, made 13
ecommendations for updating the system.
\ Studying the possibility of implementing those
ecommendations is the mission of the current
ystem’s committee.
Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Dr. Robert
erg said he did not know how many of his
committee’s suggestions would actually be im
plemented. Berg is also the director of research
management at Texas A&M.
The committee’s final 184-page report which
was drafted just before the fall semester said
instructional and research computing suffer con
siderably more than administrative computing
but that both are plagued by two major prob
lems: a lack of necessary funding from the Uni
versity and inefficient organization.
The committee’s purpose was to examine the
University’s current state of computing and
make recommendations for the purpose of long-
range improvement planning.
The ad hoc committee sent questionnaires to
55 universities and colleges to determine the
scale and organization of computing at those
schools. It also sent questionnaires to the diffe
rent colleges within the Texas A&M University
Secretaries’ Week to
System to determine present perceptions and
future needs in data processing.
The committee members also visited nine
peer institutions where they interviewed system
managers as well as users. It was determined
from these visits that the two biggest advantages
other universities have over Texas A&M are
better funding and better organization, Berg
said.
At Texas A&M, the Data Processing Center
operates as a service center and provides its
services on a pay-as-you-go basis to anyone who
can pay for them.
Yet sometimes certain University academic
departments cannot pay for those services.
“The state-supported money the depart
ments receive is just not enough to pay for suffi
cient computing,” Berg said.
The committee has recommended that to
solve the problem and for the University to
achieve excellence in computing, Texas A&M
should allocate funds directly for academic com
puting. Berg said he is not sure where the money
would come from but expects it would either be
received through legislative appropriation or
from available funds. •
The committee attributed the other major
problem, a lack of appropriate organizational
structures, to the DPC being too centralized and
its inability to provide a diversity of needed
services.
“The DPC organization was a logical solution
to the computing requirements of 15 years ago,
but it is inadequate for the present and future,”
the report said.
Berg said that there is now a much greater
demand for computing and that the diversity of
needed computing has grown as well.
“Other universities have solved this problem
by having two computing centers,” Berg said.
One center is intended for the sole purpose of
administrative computing while the other is re
served for academic and research computing.
For further diversification, the committee
also proposed that the University implement a
network of mini-computers, micro computers
and other additions which would be compatible
with the present system.
F or procurement of all these needed additions
about $7.7 million would be needed annually
over the next five years, the committee re
ported.
Agreeing with several other University offi
cials who have also been researching the com
puting issue, Berg said the University will soon
find itself at a considerable disadvantage if it
does not commit itself to making the improve
ments that are necessary to keep up with advanc
ing technology.
honor office workers worldwide
1 Staff photo by Brian Tate
L
Chris Opersteny, secretary to the University president, has worked on
this campus since 1949.
By LAURA YOUNG
Battalion Reporter
For some it’s a week of lunch every
day or a special lunch at a carefully
chosen restaurant. For others it’s an ex
tra smile or an extra “thank you for a job
well done.”
Secretaries all over the world, along
with many of the 858 secretaries on
campus, will be honored this week with
special recognition, lunches, flowers,
candy, parties and maybe even a raise as
part of Professional Secretaries’ Week.
Professional Secretaries Internation
al, formerly known at the National Sec
retaries’Association (International), ori
ginated and sponsors Professional Sec
retaries’ Week held the last full week in
April. Today is Secretary Day.
“This week is to make the secretary
more aware of her position in the com
munity and stress the responsibility of
that position,” said Claudia Pollard,
CPS (Certified Professional Secretary).
Pollard is administrative assistant in the
Fire Protection Training Division of the
Texas Engineering Extension Service
and past president of the local chapter of
PSI.
The chapter sponsors events for the
week such as a luncheon and style show,
a seminar, a dinner for the members
and their bosses and speeches to area
civic groups.
Two secretaries at Texas A&M will
observe Secretary Day after more than
30 years with the University.
Chris Opersteny, secretary to the
president, has worked on campus since
1949.
“The last four years have been the
most rewarding because I have been so
involved and get to be around the stu
dents so much,” Opersteny said.
“You know the old cliche, you can’t
ask for a better boss? Well, it works with
most all of them if you enjoy your job or
what your doing. You can work with
most anybody,” she said.
Opersteny moved into the position
she now holds in August of 1977. Before
that she was personal secretary to for
mer president Dr. Jarvis Miller and
moved with him to the president’s
office.
“I guess if you work for a university,
that’s every secretary’s dream — to go
as high as she can,” Opersteny said.
Mary Ruth Patranella, executive sec
retary to the dean of agriculture since
March of 1963, began working as a sec
retary at Texas A&M in December of
1939.
“I’ve always found it interesting,
especially in the area that I’ve been in,”
said Patranella, who has worked in diffe
rent areas of agriculture.
Professional Secretaries’ Week be
gan in 1952 when it was proclaimed by
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Charles
Sawyer to recognize “the American sec
retary upon whose skills, loyalty and
efficiency the business and government
offices depend.”
Photo by Brian Tate
Mary Ruth Patranella, executive secretary to the dean of agriculture,
began working as a secretary at Texas A&M in December of 1939.