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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1982)
> omen find 14 work success in local area See page 4 rrl ^ See who’s who at A&M in the ‘Bad Bull’ awards See Focus Texas A&M Battalion Serving the University community College Station, Texas Thursday, February 4, 1982 ewer parking tickets issued in fall 1981 r by Sandra Kay Gary Battalion Staff Last semester University Police issued 537 fewer parking tickets than ^vere issued during the fall 1980 emester, which could be attributed to n increase in fines or a decrease in he number of police officers. Last semester 40,343 parking tick ets were issued, as compared to 0,880 issued during the same period in 1980. University Police Chief J. Russ McDonald said: “We wrote fewer tick ets this year, but I don’t know if that’s due to the increase in the cost of park ing tickets or if it’s because of the shortage of officers that patrol the parking areas. “1 don’t think the increased price has had much impact on the number of parking violations.” The price of parking tickets was raised from $5 a ticket to $10 a ticket at the beginning of the 1980-81 academic year. This increase was in stituted by the Traffic Panel to dis courage students from parking illeg ally. Another possible reason for the de crease in parking tickets is the fact that the police department has been understaffed. “Generally, last semester we ran 10 to 12 officers short of what we nor mally run, which means a third fewer officers to patrol the parking areas,” McDonald said. More officers have been hired, but they’re in training school and won’t be available for full duty until March, he said. University Police records show 16,226 parking tickets issued in Sep tember; 9,883 in October; 11,198 in November; and 3,036 in December. During this period, $153,210 was col lected for parking violations. But, not all students who receive tickets pay their fines, and the Uni versity Police has a way of dealing with them. “Students who don’t pay their parking tickets can be blocked from registration,” McDonald said. “They can also be referred to academic affairs as chronic violators,” he said. “And after a student has re ceived at least three tickets, his car can be towed from campus.” “We tow anywhere from 60 to 100 cars a semester.” If a car is towed from campus, however, students aren’t forced to pay their tickets, but they do have to pay the towing fee, McDonald said. See related editorial page 2 “We have some students whose cars are towed from campus, and they go down and pay the $25 to get it out,” he said. “Then they bring it right back and park in a no parking zone, and we tow it off again.” Money collected from parking tick et fines goes into a parking facilities account which is used to build and maintain parking facilities because state funds don’t cover such projects, McDonald said. There are 18,100 parking spaces on campus, he said. Of these, 3,200 ate marked specifically for staff, ab out 10,000 spaces are reserved for students and about 4,000 spaces are for joint usage. Thomas R. Parsons, director of security and traffic, said 25,750 park ing permits have been issued to stu dents and staff this year. Union resumes negotiations, proposals called‘interesting’ United Press International DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. says- the United Auto Workers should accept its proposal to freeze cost-of- living allowances and eliminate paid personal holidays so a third of its work force — now laid off— can be gin returning to work. United Auto Workers and com pany bargainers planned to return to the main bar gaining table today as the pace of early contract negotiations at the No. 2 automaker picked up. Earlier in the week the two sides planned merely to hold subcommit tee sessions on specific issues but now are concentrating efforts in full meet ings. Ford officials confirmed Wednes day they have a contract proposal that calls for a freeze on the cost-of-living allowance for its union workers and elimination of paid time off. In ex change, they said, veteran workers would get at least 50 percent of their base pay until retirement. Finals Chief union negotiator Donald Ephlin admitted the union found portions of the proposal “interesting” but he said the union has “no inten tion” of accepting Ford’s offer with out substantial modifications. Peter Pestillo, Ford’s vice president for labor relations, called the plan “defensible” despite the concessions requested by the company. “Ifs not the kind of plan our em ployees have become accustomed to, but then we are not accustomed to having one-third of our work force on the streets,” he said. In another sign ot the auto indus try’s gloomy state, carmakers said Wednesday the January car sales rate was the worst in 21 years with com bined monthly domestic sales of 368,138 — down 18.5 percent on a daily rate basis from the 469,832 cars sold in 1981. Ford’s sales dropped 6.1 percent last year and the company is expected to lose $1.1 billion when 1981 books are closed. Pestillo said even the com pany’s concessions proposal will not make it competitive with General Motors Corp. “It’s designed to begin to meet our competitive problems,” Pestillo said. “It’s a major start but we’re realistic. We can’t get all the way back at one time.” The Ford proposal calls for a 2'/2- year contract that includes a 15- month freeze on cost-ofliving allo wances; workers now receive $2.03 an hour on top of base wages. Paid personal holidays — now ab out nine per year — would be elimin ated and vacation time would be cut by a week. Some senior workers now get five weeks a year. The company also wants workers to put in five years service before re ceiving full wages and cost-of-living benefits; new workers would be hired in at slightly less than 80 percent of the full wage. In return for the givebacks. Ford offered to guarantee workers with 15 years seniority at least 50 percent of their base pay until retirement. Work ers with more seniority would receive a greater pay guarantee. Ephlin called the so-called “guaranteed wage stream” plan “one of the more interesting features.” He said the plan could help many of the 55,100 Ford workers on indefinite layoff and 25,325 on temporary layoffs. Other parts of the Ford plan call for improvements in the union’s pen sion program that will encourage em ployees to remain on the job beyond 30 years service, when they are eligi ble for full benfits. The proposal also calls for a one- year moratorium on plant closings not yet announced and preferential hiring for workers displaced by the previous shutdowns. Policy authorizes exam for grads by Hope E. Paasch Battalion Reporter Confusion still surrounds the poli cy regarding finals for graduating seniors at Texas A&M University, de spite a revision in that policy last year. Current policy authorizes an end- of-semester exam exclusively for gra duating seniors, said Associate Regis trar Donald D. Carter, hut several re strictions limit the exam procedure. University regulations specify that an end-of-semester exam: — must be scheduled to comply with the registrar’s schedule for sub mission of graduating seniors’ grades — must be given during a regular class period, and should not be a di rect substitution for the final exam. (Content of the test should include material covered since the last major exam.) — must be announced by the in structor at the beginning of the semester. A graduating senior’s average, without a final exam, counts as that student’s final grade. If a student’s grades do not meet graduation re quirements, he can take the regularly scheduled final exam in any course in which he wants to improve his grade. if the grade on the final exam meets graduation requirements, he will receive his degree the next time degrees are granted. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor of his intention to take the final exam. Dr. Bryan R. Cole, associate dean of the College of Education, said many faculty members consider the policy revision a minimal comprom ise. A non-comprehensive exam fails to properly assess a student’s progress in many courses, Cole said, especially in professional courses. A solution to the problem of [ er assessment, Cole suggested, would be to give the instructor the option of giving a comprehensive final to gra duating seniors. The exam would be administered the week before dead week in order to comply with the re gistrar’s schedule, he said. Samuel M. Gillespie, assistant dean of the College of Business Adminis tration, said the current policy also places excessive pressure on the regis trar’s office, the instructor and the marginal student. See FINALS page 16 Vandiver receives retroactive raise staff photo by Eileen Manton ... Sheri Hope, a sophomore physical therapy major from Austin, joined him to listen in. by Daniel Puckett Battalion Staff Texas A&M President Frank E. Vandiver received a $ 10,000-a-year raise retroactive to Jan. 1 at th^ last meeting of the Texas A&M LJniversi- ty System Board of Regents. This raises Vandiver’s salary from $90,000 a year to $ 100,000 a year. He now receives $5,000 a year more from the University than new Head Coach and Athletic Director Jackie Sherrill. Sherrill, hired last month from the University of Pittsburgh, receives a base salary of $95,000. However, other benefits promised in his con tract reportedly will raise his income from this position to more than $200,000 a year. During the same meeting, the sal ary of System Chancellor Frank W.R. Hubert was raised from $100,000 a year to $135,000 a year. Hubert announced at the meeting that he will retire in August. When asked whether the pay raise was meant to induce Vandiver to withdraw his resignation, which he offered to the board last month, Re gent Royce E. Wisenbaker of Tyler refused to comment. Other regents either could not be reached for com ment or refused to answer questions concerning the pay raise. Vandiver originally offered to res ign Jan. 18 after regents decided to hire Sherrill and instructed Vandiver to fire Head Coach Tom Wilson. Vandiver offered his resignation again Friday during a closed meeting of the Academic Council. However, the Council gave Vandiver an infor mal vote of confidence. Vandiver, who is in the Dominican Republic, could not be reached for comment. He is attending an international conference on higher education which opened Wednesday in Santo Domingo. Also attending the confer ence is Dr. Terrence R. Greathouse, vice president for international affairs. The two left Monday for a meeting of CAMESA, which translates to Ajijic Center for the Improvement of High er Education in America. The organization of North and South American universities is dedi cated to advancing higher education in the Western Hemisphere, said Dr. Donald M. Boucher, director of inter national services. Boucher said the trip was arranged to allow Vandiver and Greathouse to attend the CAMESA meeting and to inspect University projects in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The University is providing assistance to the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture on soil conservation. Vandiver and Greathouse will re turn from their trip Sunday evening. inside Classified. page 8 Etc page 16 Local page 3 National. . page 10 Opinions . page 2 Sports.... page 13 State page 7 What’s Up page 16 forecast Thursday’s forecast: partly cloudy and cold with the high near 40 and the low in the mid-30s. There is a 30 percent chance of rain. Friday’s forecast calls for cold temperatures again and a 40 percent chance of rain.