The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Vol. 74 No. 188 Thursday, August 13, 1981 DSPS 045 360
Gret 14 Pages College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611
ilOtfS —
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Today
The Weather
Tomorrow
High
98
High
.... 98
Low
75
Low
.... 75
Chance of rain.
.... 20%
Chance of rain. . .
. . 20%
%
m
Jackie Mackney, owner of Action Outdoor
Advertising, puts the finishing touches on a bill
board located on Wellborn Road. Mackney has
owned the billboard business for five years, hav
ing bought it from an 87-year-old woman and her
brother. Mackney said she often hires Texas
A&M University students, but that hanging pap
er in 90 plus degree weather and trying to main
tain a difficult balance on a scaffold 20 feet in the
air creates a high turnover rate.
oyi
KEiAlarm system may contribute
to large number of fire calls
By BERNIE FETTE
Battalion Staff
More than 90 percent of the fire calls
on the Texas A&M campus since Jan. 1
have been false alarms, and College Sta
tion Fire Marshall Harry L. Davis Sr.
said he expects the problem to get
worse before it gets better.
“I would say that close to 95 percent
of the calls we respond to (on the cam
pus) are false alarms,” Davis said. “And
it’s going to get worse as College Station
I gets bigger.”
Most of the buildings on the campus
employ the Hawkeye alarm system
which Davis said is both very sophisti-
.pited and very expensive, but it is those
| If ^buildings which have the greatest fre-
*|\\quency of unexplained false alarms.
■Davis said that of 112 fire calls on the
campus between Jan. 1 and July 31,
>ur there was only one building fire.
[ | “We don’t know what the problem
iCt6|is,” Davis said. “And they (University
officials) don’t seem to know either.”
But alarm system malfunctions are
not the only type of false alarms that
College Station firemen respond to.
Thirty-one of the false alarms during
the six-month period were caused by
alarm malfunctions and the rest were
either prank phone calls or phone calls
from people who thought they smelled
smoke in a building.
Davis said he doesn’t know how the
Hawkeye system works or what is
wrong with it but that it has been used
here for at least three years and, “it
seems that that would be enough time
to work the bugs out of it.”
He said the city of College Station has
more than twic6 as many fire alarms as
the University but, while the Universi
ty^ false alarm rate is almost 95 percent,
the city’s is less than 5 percent.
One way to remedy the problem is to
replace the Hawkeye systems with
more efficient sprinkler systems, Davis
said.
“A sprinkler system is almost fool
proof,” Davis said. “They malfunction
less than 1 percent of the time. ”
He said the problem was helped par
tially by University Police officers who
would respond to fire calls and then call
city firemen if there was actually a fire.
But that practice carried the potential of
greater fire losses due to the firemen
arriving late, he said.
Davis said the worst part of the prob
lem is that when the department re
sponds to a University call, all available
trucks are usually sent, causing the
potential for a considerable delay if fire
men must respond to a call in College
Station. But if calls from the city and the
University are received at almost the
same time, the University will have to
wait, he said.
“It’s the city first, the University
second; that’s our standard operating
procedure,” Davis said. “College Sta
tion residents pay taxes to pay for fire
protection but, the University doesn’t
pay for anything. ”
Medicare recipients may get option
_ United Press International
Si WASHINGTON — The Reagan
administration said Wednesday it is
considering a major change in Medicare
that would allow the 29 million reci
pients to drop out of the program and
fall S et vouchers instead to buy private
health insurance.
|;| Such a change — which officials
emphasized is only one of a number of
health care policy options being consi
dered — would not force recipients off
the rolls, but would instead give them a
choice.
Backers of the move argue that the
fight among private insurers for such
^business would help keep down health
lS care costs. Another major problem is
that the Medicate trust fund faces se
vere financing problems in about 10
years.
The Washington Post reported
Wednesday the government vouchers
would be worth about $1,700, but
spokesman Dick McGowan said that fi
gure was “speculation.” The Post ar
rived at its figure by dividing the $48
billion cost of Medicare by the 29 mil
lion Medicare beneficiaries — all but 3
million of whom are elderly. The other 3
million recipients are disabled.
“The concept of going to the
vouchers is just one of a number of op
tions under consideration,” said McGo
wan. The administration has promised a
comprehensive health care legislation
package later this year with the emph
asis being on competition.
The voucher idea reflects the Reagan
administration’s basic preference for re
ducing the federal role.
Another idea reportedly under study
would restructure the program to have
the government negotiate fixed-fee
agreements with those providing health
services to Medicare beneficiaries.
Under the present program, the gov
ernment reimburses doctors and hos
pitals for what it defines as reasonable
charges for services rendered. Backers
of change in the system argue there is
now no incentive for health care profes
sionals and vendors to hold costs down.
Graduation day Saturday
for summer school Aggies
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
The widow of a Texas A&M student
who was killed in an oilfield accident
will receive his posthumous degree dur
ing graduation ceremonies Saturday.
Wilham Overman, 23, a senior
mechanical engineering major from
Andrews, was killed instantly when he
was struck by a hydrosub swivel. The
accident occurred in Burleson County
on June 12.
Pita Overman said her husband lack
ed six hours of credit for his undergra
duate degree. He had planned to com
plete the courses during the current
summer session and return to Andrews
to work for Exxon, she said.
In its summer meeting held Aug. 5,
the University Academic Council de
cided to grant Overman a posthumous
degree.
Dean of Faculties Dr. Clinton A.
Phillips said it’s not unusual for the Uni
versity to award posthumous degrees in
such cases.
“If a person is in his or her last semes
ter and would have graduated, ” he said,
“that person would be awarded a degree
with the approval of the Academic
Council.”
The Academic Council consists of
University administrators, elected fa
culty representatives and the student
body president. The council approves
major decisions concerning academic
matters, including approval of academic
courses and degree candidates.
Phillips said at least one or two post
humous degrees are awarded each year.
Silver Taps will be held in September
to honor Overman and other Texas
A&M students who have died since
Aggie Muster April 21.
Saturday’s commencement cere
mony is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in
G. Rollie White Coliseum. Dr. William
O. Trogdon, president of Tarleton State
University, will address the degree can
didates and their guests.
Commissioning cermonies will be
held in the coliseum at 1:30 p.m.
Solidarity accuses Russia
of shirking responsibility
United Press International
WARSAW, Poland (UPI) — The
head of the Roman Catholic church in
Poland Wednesday arranged a meeting
with Communist party chief Stanislaw
Kania in an apparent bid to help medi
ate a growing rift between the govern
ment and Solidarity.
That rift has been widening steadily
since last week and grew worse when
the communist party and Solidarity
approved separate hard-hitting resolu
tions, each critical of the other.
Solidarity accused the government of
shirking responsibility for Poland’s
worsening economic problems. The
government blamed Solidarity for plan
ning street demonstrations and increas
ing tensions.
Kania’s office confirmed the party
secretary had agreed to meet with
Archibishop Jozef Glemp, appointed
primate of Poland earlier this summer.
No date or place for the meeting was
announced, but Glemp apparently
asked for the appointment to discuss the
rapidly worsening situation, which
Kania said Tuesday had brought the na
tion to the brink of tragedy.
The church has become more active
in trying to help mediate the national
crisis since Pope John Paul II appointed
Glemp to replace the late primate Ste
fan Wyszynski.
Word of the meeting came as Solidar
ity leaders meeting in closed emergen
cy session for a third day approved a pair
of resolutions accusing the government
of trying to shirk responsibility for Po
lands crisis.
The charge was leveled in resolutions
approved just 10 hours after a special
session of the Communist Party Central
Committee adopted a hardhitting re
solution of its own blaming Solidarity
extremists for escalating the national
crisis.
The charges came as the Soviet Union
massed an armada of at least 62 ships
near the Polish coast for combined land-
sea military exercises.
Officials in Washington, while saying
they saw nothing to indicate the man
euvers “were directed against Poland,”
said the naval exercises were the biggest
in five years and would be joined by
Soviet “command and staff’ land exer
cises, which do not involve troop move
ments.
“The central committee declares a
very serious worsening of the situation
in the country has taken place,” the
Communist party resolution said. “New
tensions and particularly street demon
strations organized by the extremist
links of Solidarity are (to blame).”
Brochure warns swimmers
A safety brochure focusing on the
dangers encountered by bathers along
Texas beaches is being distributed in
Galveston and other coastal cities.
Produced by the Texas A&M Univer
sity Sea Grant College Program, the
leaflet, written in Spanish and English,
was developed following the release of a
report last year that rated Galveston
Beach among the most dangerous in the
nation.
Galveston Beach was given a five-star
rating in a survey conducted last year by
the United States Lifesaving Associa
tion. Five stars indicate a high risk
beach with high potential for danger
and is the association’s most dangerous
rating.
“People stay in the water longer and get
tired before they know it.
“Compared to West coast beaches,
our beaches are warm and have less
wave energy,” said James McCloy, di
rector of the Coastal Zone Laboratory at
Texas A&M University at Galveston.
More than 12,000 copies of the
brochure have been distributed in Gal
veston alone and include an insert that
describes the dangers peculiar to that
beach including illustrations of rip cur
rents, holes, sand bars, dangerous
marine animals and statistics on drown
ing accidents.
The eight-panel leaflet entitled
“Have Fun, But Know the Dangers of
the Beach,” was developed in coopera
tion with the Galveston County Medical
Society Auxiliary and is available
through the Sea Grant office at Texas
A&M.
Office hours
altered during
2-week break
During the two-week period when
summer school students leave and stu
dents start trickling back to campus for
the fall semester, most campus facilities
will operate under different hours.
Schedules are as follows:
Sterling C. Evans Library
AugustM 7:30a.m.-5 p.m.
Beginning August 17,
Monday-Friday 8a.m.-5p.m.
and Saturday and Sunday 1p.m.-5 p.m.
Creamery
Continues regular hours
Monday-Friday 8:15 a.m.-5 p.m.
MCS Main Desk
Open 24 hours a day
Check cashing:
August 14-24 8:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Beginning August 24 . 8:30 a.m.-8p.m.
MSC Bowling and Carnes
Closed August 17-23
Open Monday(August 24)-Thursday
8a.m.-ll p.m.
Friday and Saturday. . . . 8 a.m.-1p.m.
Sunday 1p.m.-11 p.m.
Intramural Department
East Kyle Field and G. Rollie White
Coliseum:
Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-midnight
Saturday and Sunday . . 8a.m.-10p.m.
Deware Fieldhouse:
Closed August 15-28
Wofford Cain Pool:
Monday-Friday 12p.m.-6p.m.
Saturday and Sunday .. . 1p.m.-6p.m.
Tennis Courts:
Courts are open all the time on a first
come-first served basis, except for re
servations.
Reservations can be made Monday
Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and
Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10
p.m.
Change of command
The members of the Chemistry Department bid farewell and good
luck to Dr. C. S. Giam (right) at a party held in his honor last week.
Giam resigned as head of the department to take on a position as
dean at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Joe Natowitz
received congratulations from Giam on being named the interim
department head.