The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Vol. 75 No. 71
12 Pages
Friday, December 11, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
72
High
.. .72
Low
48
Low
.. .54
Chance of rain. . .
. . . 10%
Chance of rain
. 20%
Staff photo by Greg Watermann
Look, Ma, no feet!
Jerry Beaver, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from
Miami, takes a break by riding his skateboard outside Dunn Hall.
By SHERYLON JENKINS
Battalion Reporter
Even though most students complain
they never receive any mail, those little
lost office boxes can become full in a
nonth’s time. To avoid this problem,
tudents should forward their mail by
illing out a change of address card.
And, C.L. Mateck, postmaster of the
College Station Post Office, says it is
important to do so immediately.
I He said many students fill the form
tout but wait until the last day of finals to
do it, putting an added burden on the
post office personnel.
' “When you have 30,000 students and
they all leave at the same time and turn
in their address change cards at the
iame time, it’s hard on everyone,” he
laid.
Mateck said after they receive the
brm, it has to be processed at the Bryan
Post Office and then sent back to Col
lege Station.
Prescott reminisces before
Postmaster says to send
address cards in soon
Threats increase; Americans leave Libya
The form should be filled out and
taken to the post office in enough time
so that when the student leaves, there
won’t be any delay in receiving mail, he
said.
Mateck said although they will for
ward mail if requested, not all mail will
be forwarded automatically.
“We will not forward second class
mail,” Mateck said. Second class mail
includes magazines and newspapers.
He said this is because the forwarding
charge is often more expensive than the
item being forwarded. The post office
will also not forward hometown news
papers unless it is requested by the stu
dent, he said.
The temporary address change forms
may be obtained in the lobby of the post
office and at the post office in the
Memorial Student Center.
No postage is required if the form is
put into one of the campus mail boxes,
Mateck said.
stepping down from position
By NANCY FLOECK
Battalion Staff
Vice President for Academic Affairs
J.M. “Mac” Prescott is exchanging his
administrative office for a laboratory in
less than a month, but his concern for
Texas A&M University’s academic fu
ture is not leaving with him.
Prescott will spend six months to a
year doing research at Harvard Medical
School before beginning his job as dire
ctor of Texas A&M’s Institute of Occu
pational and Environmental Medicine.
Recently, he took a few moments to
reflect on the changes he has seen in his
30 years at the University and to predict
the challenges he believes his successor
will face.
The growth of the University in the
past few years has been unimaginable,
he said, more than quadrupling since
1952, when he came here as assistant
professor in the Department of Bioche
mistry and Nutrition.
This growth is taxing the resources of
the University, Prescott said.
Yearly state subsidies are based on
enrollment figures from previous school
years, he saici, and with such rapid en
rollment increases, this means the Uni
versity is responsible for educating ab
out 35,000 students this year with re
sources allocated for about 30,000.
30,000.
Coping with this while maintaining
educational quality should be the high
est priority of the new vice president for
academic affairs, Prescott said, and it
J. M. “Mac Prescott
may be the most difficult task.
“I think it will be a continued chal
lenge to keep moving up in quality as
A&M has done over the years,” he said.
“Overall, we are a much better univer
sity than we ever were and will continue
to move up in quality.
“This should be, in my opinion, the
number one goal of the new vice presi
dent for academic affairs. It’s the thing
to which I devoted virtually all my
attention. . . I’ve (also) been trying to
get better faculty, better students, bet
ter facilities — and I hope the new vice
president will address himself to these
issues.”
Another issue that Prescott hopes his
successor will pursue is the expansion of
Texas A&M’s academic programs.
Prescott said he hopes the Coordinat
ing Board, Texas State Colleges and
University System will recommend ex
panding the University’s programs,
espcially in the humanities. A master’s
program in journalism, a bachelor of
fine arts and a doctorate in psychology
are the programs he said he hopes will
be reconsidered and approved by the
board.
“I wouldn’t want to see us shift our
emphasis a great deal at Texas A&M
University,” Prescott said. But, “There
are some things we should be doing that
we’re not.
“I think that we need to keep the
whole (academic) program under con
stant review so that we stay up to date
with the needs of the University, so that
we meet the needs of the students and
the people of Texas.”
In return, Prescott said, Texas A&M
is attracting top students and gaining a
nation-wide reputation for excellence.
The quality of these students has
steadily improved, he said, with more
than 70 percent of Texas A&M students
having graduated in the top quarter of
their high school class, as opposed to
less than one-third in the early 1960s.
But the University is also striving for
better qualified instructors to lead these
students, he added.
“It’s much easier to recruit faculty
members than it was 20 years ago be
cause we re now nationality known as a
university.
“Our reputation is based on three
things,” he continued. “In the first
place we re perceived as an institution
with high standards — it’s not easy to
get through A&M and people appreci
ate that.
“Second, it’s a place where the faculty
takes, by and large, its teaching respon
sibilities seriously.
“Third, our research is (in) large mea
sure responsible for our reputation, be
cause beyond the bounds ot this region
and of this state, we are not known for
our teaching, but we are known for what
we do in scholarly production and in
discoveries.
“I’m dismayed at debate about
teaching versus research because it
can’t be that way — it’s got to be
teaching and research. ”
Those involved in academia under
stand the importance of research and
want to produce scholarly works, as well
as teach — it’s students who don’t
understand the academic process, Pre
scott said.
“The students don’t, by large, know
what a university is,” he said. “A univer
sity is different from a college ... a uni
versity is where discovery takes place as
well as the transmission of knowledge,
so a university is charged with the re
sponsibility of creating knowledge, as
well as transmitting knowledge.”
While at Harvard, Prescott, a
biochemist who has maintained a re
search laboratory while serving as vice
president for academic affairs, will be
practicing what he preaches — resear
ching at the medical school there, then
transmitting that knowledge to the In
stitute of Occupational and Environ
mental Medicine.
Displaced cadets rejoin flock
Squadron 12 returns to Corps area
By GRETCHEN RATLIFF
Battalion Reporter
After one semester in Hart Hall,
Squadron 12 cadets are packing up and
heading back to the Corps dorms for the
spring semester.
Because of overcrowding on the
Corps Quadrangle earlier this semes
ter, the 74-member outfit was assigned
to live in Hart Hall, a civilian dormitory
located in the central housing area.
An agreement was made with the
Housing Office that Squadron 12 would
be permitted to occupy ramps A and C
of Hart if an effort was made to move
them back to the Corps Acea in the
spring, explained Corps Commandant
James R. Woodall.
While the outfit is moving to Dorm 8,
disturbing students is a big concern be
cause other students besides those be
longing to Squadron 12 will have to be
reassigned, Woodall said.
“We want to get a move that will
involve the fewest number of people
having to move,” said Nolen Mears,
Corps Area coordinator.
Company C-l will be the only other
outfit that will have to move complete
ly. Those cadets will move into Dorm 5.
Over the course of the semester,
enough members have dropped out of
the Corps to make the move possible,
but with 2,275 cadets, it will still be a
tight fit, Mears said.
“Obviously, it is better for us to be
living with the Corps,” said Jonathan
Weinbaum, commanding officer of
Squadron 12.
Weinbaum said he and the resident
advisers of Hart Hall worked well
together to ease tension between the
civilians and the cadets.
“We had to go into it with a positive
attitude, or else there would have been
problems,” he said.
Steve Werner, head resident of Hart,
said the civilian students and the cadets
have had a good relationship.
“It was a good experience for every
body ... we learned a lot about each
other,” he said.
Many of the students displaced from
Hart are freshmen who were offered
other spaces on campus. In the spring,
the hall will accommodate some fresh
men, but mostly upperclassmen, Mears
said.
I ■
i I
i
Cadets to take over Spence
Hall after membership growth
By GAYE DENLEY
Battalion Stall
Starting next fall, Spence Hall, a civi
lian women’s dormitory on the north
corner of the Corps Quadrangle, will
once again house male cadets.
The growing membership of the
Corps of Cadets has made it necessary
to convert Spence back to a male dormi
tory after it has housed women for five
years. Corps Area Coordinator Nolen
Mears said.
A September membership of 2,400
cadets crowded the Corps dormitories,
leaving about 100 cadets without rooms,
Mears said. As a temporary’ solution,
the 74 members of Squadron 12 were-
moved to Hart Hall, a civilian dormitory
on the central campus, and the rest
were tripled up in Corps halls.
An estimated membership of 2,500
for next fall prompted Mears and Dire
ctor of Student Affairs Ron Blatchley to
recommend converting Spence to a
men’s hall, Mears said. Texas A&M
President Frank E. Vandiver approved
the change late in October.
Mears attributes the continuing in
crease in Corps enrollment to the over
all growth of the Texas A&M student
body and the fading out of post-Vietnam
anti-military sentiment. This year a re
cord enrollment of more than 35,000
students was recorded.
“People are returning to looking for
careers in the military,” he said. Col
lege ROTC programs all over the nation
are growing and will gather even more
strength if the draft is reinstated, Mears
said.
The conversion of Spence came as no
surprise to its residents, said Tracy
Moy, RHA director of facilities and
operations.
“They (the residents) knew that one
of the two dorms (Spence or Briggs,
another women’s hall) would be phased
out,” Moy said. “They figured that’s
what would happen because of Squad
ron 12.”
Spence Hall President Jane Black
said the initial anger of most residents
has subsided since they will have first
priority for the next two semesters in
choosing halls if they remain on
campus.
“At the first of the semester, people
were saying, ‘Over my dead body are
we going to move out of this hall, ’” Black
said. Tempers cooled, however, as the
residents began making plans to move
to other dorms, she said.
Mears said the first priority policy
doesn’t guarantee that Spence residents
will receive a room in the hall they want
but they will have first shot at any open
ings in that hall.
Although the women will be moving
out, Spence could still be partially civi
lian, he said. Any of the 112 rooms not
filled by cadets will be turned over to
the Housing Office for civilian students.
“We re not sure how much room in
Spence we’ll need,” he said. “If the
Corps can’t fill it, we’ll operate it like we
do Briggs (with both female cadets and
female civilians). If we’re going to have
them, it’s better to have civilians on the
corner of the Quad.”
United Press Internationa]
WASHINGTON — Americans be-
igan withdrawing from Libya today
while the White House contemplated
its next move against Moammar Kha-
dafy. Along U.S. borders, guards
watched for members of alleged Libyan
death squads.
The Reagan administration, trying to
avert another Iranian-type hostage cri
sis, Thursday urged the 1,500 Amer
icans in Libya to leave as soon as possi
ble. It also invalidated U.S. passports
for travel there.
In announcing the action, Acting
Secretary of State William Clark cited
what he termed dangers to Americans
in Libya and efforts by Khadafy to
undermine U.S. interests and Kha-
dafy’s support for international ter
rorism.
No mention was made of the hit
teams officials believe have been dis
patched by Khadafy to assassinate Presi
dent Reagan and other U.S. officials.
But there was plenty of concern along
U.S. borders about the suspected
squads.
An Immigration and Naturalization
Service notice posted in California
warned that a sixman team headed by
international terrorist “Carlos the Jack
al” may be attempting to penetrate the
United States from Mexico, and a
second may be trying to enter from
Canada.
The notice, tacked to a bulletin board
in an INS lunchroom at the San Ysidro,
Calif., Mexican border crossing, said
“Carlos” is traveling on a Lebanese
passport with an assumed name and is
extremely dangerous.
Khadafy, who denies formulating any
death plots, Thursday scoffed at Reagan
and vowed to attack the U.S. Sixth Fleet
in the Mediterranean if the United
Staff photo by Dave Einsel
States
shore.
conducts maneuvers near his
Junior Leslie Diaz talks to sophomores Steve Bigalow and Cliff Brown
outside Ramp A of Hart Hall prior to the Corps formation Thursday.