The Battalion
Slouch
By Jim Earle
Jogging is not what it’s cracked up to be. I tried it once last
year and look at me. ”
Old Ag asks for positive thinking
\Handicapped need aid
{during campus alarms
J Editor:
; The shock is still anesthetizing my sys-
j tem, but I have recovered enough to write
j about a potentially disastrous situation that
jtnever should have come to pass in the first
Si.. As a student worker in the reference
♦^Section of the library, I am well aware of the
♦ number of lire alarms that have been trig-
♦ gered since the advent of the fall semester.
♦ For the most part, the students exit the
» library in an orderly and well-controlled
t manner. Unfortunately, however, not all of
t our fellow students have this facility to
ambulate to the nearest stairwell and thus
■ exit' from a possible raging conflageration.
The students that I am referring to are those
among us who traverse the campus in a
wheelchair.
mained in completing her final course on
the degree plan was a few extraneous jour
nal articles that had to be procured from the
library and incorporated into the conclu
sion section of her final term paper.
During yesterday’s fire alarm at Sterling
C. Evans Library, I was chagrined and fil
led with vexed indignation upon hearing
that a wheelchair-bound young woman was
abandoned on the third floor. Could anyone
possibly imagine (or would anyone want to
imagine) what was running through that
young lady’s mind as her fellow Aggies were
§currying to the nearest exits?
Meandering her way between the stacks,
she found her required journals and headed
toward the Xerox machines to duplicate
them for reading in her home at her discre
tion and leisure. However, this young lady
never did see home again. After all her
Not only are the elevators not in use
during a fire alarm (and rightly so, because
of possible electrical shortages aiding and
abetting any fire already in progress as well
gs the pernicious effects attributed to
smoke inhalation) but exiting by the stair
wells is a virtual impossibility for a non-
ijinbulatory student as they are “sardine
packed” with exiting students.
self-ministrations at overcoming the phy
sical and moral debilities foisted upon her
by nature and society-at-large, she was the
victim of a very preventable but now too
late tragedy that bears narration.
Reconstructing her last few hours, she
was in the library when ...
I do not mean to lay the onus of responsi
bility for this incident in the library’s lap. It
applies to every building and structure on
this campus and should be of grave concern
to each and every Aggie. Let us not become
so embroiled in our subject — mayors and
daily trials and tribulations — as to neglect
the larger world of which we are a part.
Just what are the University’s procedures
for evacuating the physically handicapped
during a fire alarm? If such procedures are
in force already, are they the most effica
cious in terms of manpower, canvassing the
floors and helping the non-ambulatory out
of the building in the most harried yet safest
manner possible? And finally, have these
measures been practiced enough so that
they have become so ingrained in an em-
ployees’/studfmt’s constitution that their
implementation during a fire alarm or fire
drill is second hand in nature?
Admittedly, these provocative questions
ipay be opening up a Pandora’s box of ac-
Next time there is a fire alarm or fire drill
in a building on campus of which you are an
occupant, quickly gather your books and
belongings and prepare to head for the
nearest exit. However, in lieu of any defini
tive regulations set forth by the University,
STOP and LOOK around for the one fellow
student whose fright and helplessness is as
real and as tangible as yours, but whose
ability to extricate themselves from such a
terror-ridden situation is truncated by their
lack of physical mobility. You will be thank
ing yourself for the rest of your life.
Graduate Student in
Marc Rogers
Educational
Psychology
Warped
Editor:
Before I’m branded as an “Old Aggie”
who is looking through maroon-colored
glasses, let me point out I graduated from
Texas A&M in 1974, not that long ago. I
have kept up with Aggie activities from A to
Z and want to note a few things both good
and bad coming from Aggieland.
First, the University’s academic record
speaks for itself. More and more, I hear
about the great things Aggie-educated peo
ple are doing. But the bad part is, I don’t
hear about it from the mass media, only
from Aggie publications and friends con
nected with Texas A&M. What happened
to that public relations firm the University
hired a few years ago? We aren’t getting
enough of this good stuff to the John Q.
Public.
Second, the Texas A&M student body as
a whole is still the best-dressed, best
looking bunch of people I’ve ever seen. I
travel to many games and cities following
Aggie sports and personal business, but no
body else can boast of a better looking
group of young people than at Texas A&M.
But the bad part is so few of them, including
Corps members, say howdy to visitors or
know where anything is on campus when
asked.
Third, the Board of Regents has finally
managed to let its squabbling and power
politics spill over into the mass media in a
way nobody wants to see. They could use a
good public relations firm in the worst way.
Readers
Forum
team, and tell them how proud youarel
wear the Maroon and White andfigif
lepr<-
jonal
kin^
el di
but it would be cheaper to keep their
mouths shut and let the school administra
tors do their jobs.
Especially in the athletic department!
They ran off Marvin Tate without telling
him why, and now they’re trying to wreck
the football team and Coach Tom Wilson by
spreading vicious, cutting stories about re
placing him if his team loses any more
games this year.
Mere words, even the four-letter kind,
cannot express my anger and disappoint
ment over this asinine, dangerous med
dling of theirs. They can deny it all they
want, hut we know who they are, both
those current and past regents who wish to
rule Texas A&M much as Frank Erwin and
John Connally ruled t.u. during the ‘50s
and ‘60s.
WE DON’T WANT ANOHER t.u.-ON-
THE-BRAZOS! We want Texas A&M Uni
versity, a unique University dedicated to
high ideals and fair play, not back-stabbing
and smoke-filled rooms of political football.
I urge everyone — students, faculty,
staff, taxpayers, alumni and all friends of
Aggieland — to write or call Coach Tom
Wilson, his staff and all the Aggie football
trenches for Aggies everywhere e
day. Follow up with calls and
President Frank Vandiver and memt# dent
the University Board of Regents expra irsda
the same commitment to Aggie excel
in athletics and support of our
and staff.
This team will not let itself be sak j ij c j
schc*
by outsiders, ft wants to win, to
team and pick cotton Jan. 1. But it a
survive alone. It needs you, every
you, backing them hy your letters,i
visits to coaches and players andyocn -m
sence as the 12th Man at every Aggie a 71
Don’t jump on the bandwagon afo
reach Dallas New Year’s Day. We
want that kind of support. We need
help NOW in making that trip to
Speak up for your Texas Aggies! Say 'll if V o
dy” to visitors and learn all youcaiu jpor s
Texas A&M so you can help visitoBo
the University, too. Project a positive m Co
age to the world and make em jealon : lp,yO
Aggies. Instill that positive thinking
yourselves and the Aggie football team,
we ll convince those teasippers that!
didn’t create burnt orange sunsets fori
that’s just His way of having thei|
bonfii
every evening!
Enit
Jtron
& G;
P.S. Since I live next door to two!
ton cheerleaders, I really loved
A&M-University of Houston game!
cusations and grousing as well as threaten
ing those persons sinecured in the adminis
trative hierarchy. The matter must be
broached, however, if Texas A&M is to
avoid the following harrowing scenario:
Her life was fraught with physical infir
mities but her mind and spirit never wa
vered from her goal of receiving a college'
diploma. This dedication and unflagging
spirit was soon to bear fruitation in her
bachelor’s degree in Biology. All that re-
‘Warped’ cartoon sickens reader
Editor:
This letter is in reference to the
Warped cartoon of Nov. 2. I am an
Emergency Medical Technician trainee,
and I was working with one of the Bryan
ambulance crews last weekend when an
auto-pedestrian accident occurred. The
victim suffered a possible collapsed lung,
multiple rib fractures, open compound
fractures of both legs, etc . . . (Hardly “a
clean kill ”, to quote the driver of the car in
the cartoon). The man died a few minutes
before we reached the hospital. After
watching that man die, I fail to see how the
idea of someone being hit by a car could
possibly be considered amusing. My com
pliments to Bill Brana and friends - I’m
pleased to see I’m not the only person sick
ened by Scott McCullar’s idea of humor.
Stephanie Sidoti ‘83
Box 6721, College Station
Dangers of electronics
Editor:
Concerning the article written by Scott
McCullar:
Scott, you should be more informative
on the dangers of opening the back of a
television. That small decal that says “dan
ger” is more than a decorative attachmi
There are various sections of the electroi
of a television where many electrons resi
If a person were to come into contacts
these areas, the electrons would come
and play all over their body; inorevaj
don’t think the participating body wi
enjoy, much less survive, such
counter.
Mike Kounnasi
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Angelique Copeland
Managing Editor Marcy Boyce
City Editor JaneG. Brust
Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell
Photo Editor : Dave Einsel
Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy
Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
Asst. Focus Editor Debbie Nelson
News Editors Phyllis Henderson
Bernie Fette, Belinda McCoy
Diana Sultenfuss
StaffWriters Gary Barker
Frank L. Christlieb, Randy Clements
Gaye Denley, Nancy Floeck, Tim Foarde
Colette Hutchings, Daniel Puckett
Denise Richter, Mary Jo Rummel, Rick Stolle
Nancy Weatherley, Barbie VVoelfel
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr.
Photographers Brian Tate
Daniel Sanders, Colin Valentine
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