Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1981)
IE l/ol. 74 No. 157 ■12 Pages Battalion Serving the Texas A&M University community Wednesday, June 3, 1981 USPS 045 360 College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611 The Weather Today Tomorrow High 94 High 96 Low 72 Low 75 Chance of rain 30% Chance of rain. . . . . . . 30% / \ / i V I Just an 'Ordinary 7 bike! Awbrey Lee, a sophomore from Houston has a unique way of getting around campus; on his 1885 Rudge Roads ter. The big wheel bicycle, called an Ordinary (opposed to the modern two-wheel Safety bikes) was built in Eng land. Lee said he paid $1100 for the bike. {International conferences offered Two conferences dealing with topics lof international interest will be spon- [sored at Texas A&M University in the [coming week. ★' International Women in Transi- [tion,” will be sponsored June 7-9 by the [International Programs Office at Texas I A&M. The conference will feature presen- Itations by guest speakers from four dif- Iferent countries who will discuss cultu ral issues affecting developing nations and the global society. Registration is now in progress and will continue until the beginning of the conference. Registration forms should be sent to the conference center on the second floor of Rudder Tower. ★“International Agriculture Within the U.S. Universities’ will be the sub ject of the 17th Annual Association of U.S. University Directors of Interna tional Agricultural Programs Confer ence to be held June 9-11 on the Texas A&M campus. Professors from several universities across the nation will present speeches at the conference. Anyone wishing to attend may regis ter by contacting the International Programs Office at Texas A&M for further information. Aerobics track is popular By BETTY ANN REID Battalion Reporter At almost anytime of the day or night [you will find men, women and yes, even [dogs jogging around the aerobics track [at Texas A&M University. Most are [working on conditioning their bodies [into top physical shape. Although the reasons for jogging vary - [from appearance to enjoyment, people [ofall ages are placing emphasis on phy- [sical fitness. “Four or five years ago the majority [(ofwomen) expressed concern relative to appearance and figure — they never thought about fitness, said Judy Rych- [lik, manager of a health spa in Bryan. “More people are concerned about I fitness, stamina, energy and aging, , Rychlik said. According to Collier’s Encyclopedia, there were 6.5 million joggers in the United States in 1978, more than 10 times as many as there were a decade before. Although the aerobics track draws the largest number of exercisers, the tennis courts, racquetball courts and the weight room also draw crowds. Students jog on the track because “a lot of times it relieves frustrations and tensions,” said Karen Joiner, a health and physical education major. “I enjoy it, it helps you get in shape and its something you can do easily,” she said. “All you have to do is put on your sweats and running shoes and you re ready. “The social aspect of it is also strong, ” Joiner said. “It’s something you can do with your friends. ^ “Being in physical shape helps people cope with problems better,” she said. Whether the problem involves school or other things, jogging provides time for relaxation and a chance to clear one’s head. Being able to cope with problems re lates to the emotional aspect of fitness. Diane Wholey, a health and physical education major, said, “If you are phy sically fit, ;t helps your emotional fit ness.” “Students are more aware of their physical well-being because of all of the medical advances,” Joiner said. Students are involved in all aspects of physical fitness, but “there is no magic way to get into shape, you have to ex pend the energy, Rychlik said. Although students jog to lose weight, to get in shape or to relieve the tensions and pressures of school, perhaps the most important reason for jogging is to gain a sense of well-being from being physically fit. , Students jog and exercise because of the “innner feeling that comes from achievement when you can say, Look what I, did, ” Wholey said. “When I finish running that mile under my own steam with nobody help ing me,” Joiner siad, “that really gives me a good sense of achievement. a ^ ‘Insurance’ included in By BERNIE FETTE Battalion Staff Members of the Texas Senate Finance Committee and representatives of Texas A&M University recently reached a compromise in the amount of money sought as compensation for fire losses to University buildings in the last two years. The University will receive $500,000 instead of the $812,000 which was requested initially in a bill carried in the senate by Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan. The appropriation was passed as a part of the entire budget under the area of building maintenance instead of a separate appropriation as it was originally introduced. Robert G. Cherry, secretary to the Board of Regents and assistant chancellor, said merging the bill into tbe budget was the simpler and more expedient way to take care of it. “We got good appropriations and we were generally pleased with the session,” Cherry said. The bill passed with little opposition in the House of Representatives late in March and was stalled in the senate because questions were raised on how the figures were determined. High financial risks offset oil profits A study published by a Texas A&M energy research group has found little evidence that major oil companies have earned windfall profits since the 1974 Arab oil embargo when gasoline prices first began to soar. The financial risks in the oil industry seem to be increasing instead, spurred by heavier use of debt financing and the search for oil and gas in more remote parts of the world, according to the re searcher’s findings. The study, conducted for Texas A&M’s Center for Energy and Mineral Resources by finance professor Peter Rose and Kenneth D. Reiner, fprmerly of Texas A&M and now at Concordia University in Montreal, suggests that the rate of return on investment in the oil industry has kept pace with the risks in exploration ancf development. “Although petroleum’s capital out lays have reached all-time highs since the embargo,” Rose said, “industry dol lar profits have fluctuated more widely and inflation-adjusted profitability appears to have declined.” The 46-page study points out the pet roleum investment climate has become more uncertain since the embargo be cause of both political and financial risk factors. The future of natural gas price dereg ulation, transporting crude oil and gas, environmental constraints, the applica tion of antitrust laws to the industry and petroleum-based synthetic fuels contri bute to the political risks, the report concludes. “Because oil and natural gas have become more difficult to find and more costly to extract, the standard measures of financial and operating risks have dis played an upward trend in petroleum,” Rose said. While the majority of funds available for investment by petroleum companies comes from retained earnings and de preciation, the industry has become in creasingly dependent upon the financial markets for investment capital since the 1950s. If the rates of return don’t com pare with those in the marketplace, rais ing new capital would become both more difficult and more costly, Rose said. “Higher prices could result in a loss of productivity, ” Rose said, “and it con tributes to decreasing incentives to in vest, which leads to heavier reliance upon imported oil.” Decreases in domestic production re flect upon falling output from existing fields, which now exceeds the addition al output generated from newly disco vered fields. Rose said. The researchers said that coal and lignite production will play an impor tant role in reducing fuel costs . money budget Roger Miller, a legislative assistant on Caperton’s staff, said the reason for the decrease in the appropriation was that some of the losses were over-estimated. “I think Texas A&M is very happy with the agreement and we were very happy to be of assistance, Miller said. The losses came as a result of fire damage to buildings which had no fire insurance. The buildings were not injured because the state has had a policy of self-insurance in the past. For a building to be self-insured means the state consid ers it more economical to pay for losses due to fires than to pay the premiums for fire insurance. According to a press release from state Rep. Bill Presnal, D-Bryan, that practice should be continued. “I feel we need to continue the policy of the state being self-insured, ” said Presnal, who is also the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “Overall, our losses to state-owned buildings and proper ty have been much less year in and year out than fire insur ance would have cost us to cover those same facilities.” Social Security gets $560 million cut to meet budget United Press International WASHINGTON — A House committee Tuesday approved $560 million in additional Social Security cuts for next year in an effort to stay within budget targets already approved by Congress. The Ways and Means Committee agreed to three changes in Social Security benefits for fiscal 1982 to make up for a $411 million shortfall in the total amount of targeted spending cuts under its jurisdiction. The panel oversees several health, welfare and employment compensa tion programs. The panel agreed by voice vote to keep the retirement exemption age at 72, rather than lowering it to 70 on Jan. 1 as scheduled, to save $170 million next fiscal year. The exemp tion allows a person 72 years or older to earn any amount of money and still receive Social Security retire ment benefits. After considerable debate, the committee voted 11-6 to eliminate the $255 lump sum death benefit if there are no surviving beneficiaries. Elimination of the benefit, normally used for burial fees, would save $200 million in fiscal 1982. The Senate Finance Committee also recently approved elimination of the death benefit, and the admi nistration supports scrapping it. The panel also agreed by voice vote to save $190 million in fiscal 1982 by delaying recipients’ first checks by one month unless they be come eligible on the first of the month. Monday, administration officials and Senate leaders discussed possi ble elements of a compromise for long-term Social Security finahcing, which includes limiting cost-of- living increases. Trainees use Texas A&M reactor By KATHY O’CONNELL Battalion Staff Several employees from a Louisiana nuclear reactor plant are attending training sessions at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center. Bill Asher, manager of reactor opera tions, said the trainees are prospective operators of the nuclear reactor that is currently under construction in St. Francisville, La. Asher said the trainees are being sent to the Texas A&M center by Gulf States Utilities, which owns the nuclear plant. The training sessions are organized into three six-member classes for two weeks at a time. The sessions include instruction in plant staff discipline, rules.afvd regulations and communica tion within the various levels of a typical power plant organization. Asher said the trainees are also taught safety operations and how to con duct “start ups” on the one megawatt nuclear reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Asher said, requires prospec tive nuclear reactor operators to con duct ten start ups before they can actually begin working with the reac tors. The other training is conducted on a simulated computer system. Asher said the Texas A&M Center has also trained health physics techni cians from Westinghouse and the Texas State Technical Institute at Waco. These technicians are totally different from the nuclear reactor operators, he said. The technicians conduct environ mental testing as it relates to nuclear activity. For instance, he said, the technicians test contamination levels in water where there is a nuclear power plant. As far as training nuclear operators, Asher said this is the first time the cen ter has offered training sessions in this area. “This is our maiden voyage so far, ” he said. Asher said the sessions, which are expected to end June 19, have been very successful. Water helps more than salt tablets Salt tablets and hot summer days don’t go together, says a physical fitness expert at Texas A&M University. While many who work or exercise in the broiling sun generally believe summer temperatures require extra salt to make up for losses from sweating, it just isn’t so, says Dr. George Jessup, head of Texas A&M’s Human Performance Laboratory. What is important for people in hot climates, Jessup said, is water intake. A person can rarely get too much water, he said. “Salt intake isn’t very important and, in fact, may be negative,” he said. “People taste salt on their skin after they’ve been sweating and assume they’re losing a lot of it. But what has happened is that the water in that sweat has been evaporated away and the salt content isn’t representa tive.” Jessup said the naturally occurring salt content in many water supplies is high enough that very few people need extra salt to meet their body’s requirement. National surveys show that more than 40 percent of the population drinks water containing in excess of the optimum level of 20 milligrams per liter of sodium recommended by the American Heart Association. “If a person who is not acclimated to the hot, humid weather is going to be in the heat for a long period of time, he or she might want to salt their food, but that’s all,” he said. Dr. Elvin Smith, associate dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, said people who routinely work in hot, outdoor temperatures get acclimated to high sweat rates. He, too, recommends no increased salt, but instead, adequate water. Normally, the kidneys will get rid of extra salt. Smith said. But if a person has developed a tendency towards hyperten sion or high blood pressure, additional salt intake can accel erate those problems. “We don’t know yet if heavy salt intake in itself causes high blood pressure. But the American Heart Association be lieves there is enough evidence to recommend moderation,” Smith said. “One thing for sure is that reduction of salt intake will do no damage.