me Banal ion
Serving the University community
| Veil. 75 No. 186 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, August 12, 1982
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staff photo by Octavio Garcia
Itsa small world
in a row.
eaver, 5-
BRAVES!
), Milt )i
15-8, gave;
inning andi^ai Young an rchitectural design
graduate student from Bartlesville and
anice Frizzell, a graduate student from
louston, look like giants when standing
homer snan r Young’s proposed model of the
irried l
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moved to v
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:red their ei
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engineering-physics building. Frizzell also
designed a model. Houston engineers, as
well as the company with the contract
for the construction of the building,
evaluated the proposals.
antitrust suit
settled soon
United Press International
(VASHINGTON — A federal
ge’s suggested changes in a settle-
Jnt to break up American Tele
tone & Telegraph Co. are being
Reted with cautious optimism by
Iny — including the government
Id AT&T.
■On Wall Street, a top analyst pre-
■ted the revisions would remove
Itmths of uncertainty in the market
it AT&T holdings.
U S. District Judge Harold Greene
ounced Wednesday he will
rove the settlement reached last
uary between AT&T and the gov-
Inment, but only if both sides agree
:o his modifications.
■ Greene warned if they don’t agree
he would reject the proposed settle-
ient and order a resumption of the
Vernment’s 7-year-old antitrust suit
against the world’s largest company.
AT&T and thejustice Department
both expressed pleasure with what
they called Greene’s acceptance of the
overall concept of the proposed set
tlement and said they immediately
would begin talks to see if they, can
agree to his changes.
Their proposed consent decree
calls for AT&T to spin off 22 major
ity-owned telephone companies —
about two-thirds of its $120 billion in
assets — in exchange for dissolution
of a 1956 government ban on what
kinds of businesses it can enter, parti
cularly the lucrative markets for new
communications services.
AT&T would retain its long
distance operations and its manufac
turing and research arms, Western
Electric and Bell Laboratories.
Greene listed 10 changes he wants
to see in the agreement, most of them
having to do with giving the spun-off
companies greater freedom to enter
new businesses.
The judge also said the divested
local telephone companies must be
allowed to retain the Yellow Pages
and to sell telephones and switch
boards to customers. The original de
cree lets the parent company handle
both ventures.
Greene gave the Justice Depart
ment and AT&T 15 days to submit
the decree, with the called-for
changes, or to reject it.
Assistant Attorney General Wil
liam Baxter, the administration’s top
antitrust official, had previously
warned the government would re
start its antitrust suit if the court tried
to alter the terms of the settlement.
ew GTE policy: only 10
Free local assistance calls
I by Rebeca Zimmermann
Battalion Staff
If you use local telephone directory
sistance, you may be surprised
ten the operator asks for your
— phone number. Don’t be — there’s a
Bason she asks.
I Aug. 1, General Telephone began
1 policy of allowing each phone line
|1() free local directory assistance calls
ice, iptr month. After those 10, the cus-
Romer is charged 25 cents for each
phone number he requests.
— 1 GTE public affairs division mana
ger John Wallace said to correctly re-
lord calls to directory assistance, the
Iperator answering the information
■quest asks for the caller’s number,
rhe operator then records the re
quest on a computer card.
Wallace said the new charge for
directory assistance places the cost of
this service on the people who use it.
Before the new policy was initiated,
someone who seldom used directory
assistance paid the same amount as
someone who telephoned for assist
ance 50 times, Wallace said. The cost
was simply figured into the basic
monthly phone rates.
The 10-call limit applies to each
separate phone line, he said. If there
are two phone lines in one residence
or business office, there is a 10-
request limit for each line. But, exten
sion phones on the same line are in
cluded in the monthly limit.
Two phone numbers may be re
quested each time the customer calls
directory assistance. So, up to 20
numbers may be obtained before a
charge is assessed for requests.
Calls from pay phones or hospitals
and calls made by certified handicap
ped people who have difficulty using
the phone book are exempt from the
service charge, Wallace said.
And, callers don’t have to give their
phone numbers to operators when
calling long distance directory service
because the call is automatically re
corded by a computer, he said.
Wallace said charges are not made
.for long distance directory assistance
because the service cost is offset by the
long distance call which usually fol
lows the request.
Habib says solution
close for Israel, PLO
United Press International
U.S. envoy Philip Habib, “a couple
of days” from a peaceful solution to
the Lebanon war, took his shuttle di
plomacy back to Beirut today where
Israeli warplanes lashed Palestinian
targets and shelling rocked the
capital.
The Israeli military, accusing
Palestinian guerrillas of violating the
unofficial cease-fire, said its jets went
into action early this morning, after a
night of rocket exchanges and gun
fire.
Habib returned to Beirut Wednes
day from Jerusalem, saying he was
satisfied about talks with Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin on a com
plex plan to remove the Palestine
Liberation Organization from
Lebanon.
The envoy was meeting today with
Lebanese officials on ending the 68-
day war. “A diplomatic solution is
very close,” Lebanese television
quoted Habib as saying. “All we have
to do is work out the details.”
A senior Israeli official in Jeru
salem agreed with his optimistic
assessment, saying “there is reason to
believe we are close to reaching agree
ment. It’s a matter of a couple of
days.”
Military sources in Lebanon said
the pullout from west Beirut by the
outgunned and outnumbered PLO
guerrillas could begin by the end of
the week and be completed within 15
days.
The Israelis coupled nearly 12
hours of shelling, which intensified
late Wednesday, with 40 bombing
sorties by warplanes that covered west
Beirut with a curtain of smoke.
In an ominous comment, Israeli
Defense Minister Ariel Sharon said
Israel would not withdraw from
Lebanon until Syria removed 40,000
troops stationed since the 1975-76
Lebanese civil war in the eastern Bek-
ka Valley.
Noting Israeli artillery is located
only 16 miles from Damascus, Sharon
said, “the Syrians will have to decide
what they prefer.”
Congress main obstacle
Reagan pushes tax hike
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan took to the road to sell a $98.9
billion tax increase to the public and
now hopes to use a proved selling
pitch to win over a reluctant Con
gress.
During a three-hour visit to Mon
tana Wednesday, Reagan hammered
away at arguments that the White
House hopes will comprise a formula
for making the tax hike palatable to
lawmakers with election-year jitters.
The applause he heard in the West
seemed more a general endorsement
of his policies than for the tax bill. But
Reagan and his advisers left con
vinced they can make a formidable
case to Congress on behalf of the
package they say is necessary for eco
nomic recovery.
“You watch,” said one aide. “He’s
pulled this off before. It may look like
an uphill fight, but we’ve still got some
time and his powers of persuasion.”
Reagan arranged to use those pow
ers today on at least three more de
legations of House members —
adding to the dozens he personally
has lobbied at the White House in the
past 10 days.
The president kept up the private
pressure Wednesday even during his
visit to Montana by making phone
calls from Air Force One to congress
men as well as business groups that
might aid White House lobbying.
The administration is going to
great lengths to convey the message
Reagan already is winning over reluc
tant members of Congress.
As he boarded Air Force One
Wednesday for the flight to Montana
with Reagan, Rep. Ronald Marlenee,
R-Mont., told reporters he had strong
reservations about the tax bill and
said it would fail by a 2-to-l margin.
By the end of the flight, presiden
tial aides were parading Marlenee be
fore reporters to tell of a conversion
he had undergone during a talk with
Reagan aboard the plane.
“The president is a very convincing
man and his efforts to close tax
loopholes and reduce the deficit de
serve support,” Marlenee said. “I’m
inclined to support him.”
What of his earlier statements?
“Well,” he replied, “I changed my
mind.”
In search of more public support
and congressional converts, Reagan is
considering giving a nationally tele
vised speech on the tax package.
Building program trying
to catch up with needs
by Dawson Clark
Battalion Reporter
Enrollment at Texas A&M Univer
sity is rising faster than the buildings
are. So, despite a steady building
program, Texas A&M University
faces a recurring million-square-foot
classroom and laboratory space shor
tage.
Now the University is attempting
to balance the numbers and available
space by limiting enrollment and in
creasing construction.
Dr. Charles McCandless, interim
vice-president for academic affairs,
said his office conducts an annual
study to determine the need for clas
sroom space. He said the study indi
cates a shortage every year, and th^t
increasing enrollment makes the
balancing act difficult.
“We grow at such a rate that when
we add all of these buildings it only
accounts for the growth at that time,”
McCandless said. “So we haven’t real
ly closed the deficit. If we can stabilize
the enrollment, then our construction
will start to catch up and we can re
move the deficit.”
McCandless cited a paragraph in
the 1982-83 Texas A&M catalog
which states that the University can
limit enrollment if the quality of edu
cation is lowered because of inadequ
ate facilities (page 12, paragraph 5).
He said that’s why the minimum
admission standards were raised.
“We tried to find which groups of
students had the least likelihood of
completing a degree at A&M,”
McCandless said. “And the standards
were adjusted so that those who were
least likely to get a degree were those
who were weeded out.”
Since 1977, the University has
added the Heldenfels, Kleburg, Soil
and Crop Sciences, Harrington Edu
cation and Academic and Agencies
buildings. The total cost of these
buildings was more than $44 million.
Recently, the Board of Regents
appropriated more than $10 million
to help further reduce the shortage of
laboratory and classroom space.
Included in the latest appropria
tion is $140,000 for preliminary de
sign of an engineering/physics build
ing. The new facility, which will house
18 research and teaching labs and 12
classrooms, is expected to cost about
$21.5 million. The building should be
ready for occupancy by the spring of
1986.
The regents also recently approved
the construction of a horticulture/
forest sciences building and an addi
tion to the Halbouty Geosciences
Building. The horticulture/forest sci
ences building will provide 38 re
search and teaching laboratories and
four lecture/seminar rooms. The Hal
bouty expansion will add 12 research
and teaching laboratories to the ex
isting facility.
Both projects are expected to be
completed during the summer of
1984 at a combined cost of
$10,695,000.
Paul Stephens, manager of the faci
lities planning division, said the new
buildings will create additional lab
space. Thus, crowded conditions else
where on campus will be relieved.
McCandless said all engineering
research labs will be moved to the
building under construction south of
the Zachry Engineering Center. This
change will free many laboratories for
use in undergraduate education.
Another possible solution to the
shortage of laboratory space would
involve scheduling labs from 7 to 10
p.m., McCandless said. But, he said,
that solution is one most University
administrators would rather avoid.
“Most students and faculty mem
bers aren’t particularly pleased about
having labs at night,” he said. “We
have a lot of student organizations
and a large and active intramural
program. We think all of these things
certainly contributed to the education
of the student. So, we’d like for stu
dents to have their evenings free to
participate in those activities,”
Study shows floating good for students
Wet behind the ears, but learning fast
By Hope E. Paasch
Battalion Staff
Studying while afloat in a sensory
isolation tank makes difficult con
cepts easier to grasp, according to
results of a study conducted during
the spring semester by a Texas
A&M professor.
For two years, Dr. Thomas
Taylor, a visiting assistant professor
of chemistry, has used elec
troencephalographs (EEGs) to
study the learning process. He used
EEGs, which measure brain activity,
to see how flotation affects learning.
Recent research using EEGs
shows that learning occurs on sever
al different levels.
The lowest learning level is sim
ple memorization, the next is under
standing a concept as it is presented
and the highest level is called synth
esis thinking. On this learning level,
several different concepts are com
bined to form a new' idea.
Statistics from Taylor’s study on
flotation learning show that subjects
who learned while floating per
formed much better than the con
trol group when answering ques
tions which required synthesis
thinking.
“There’s no question that the ex
perimental group learned more,”
he said, “but where they learned is
the most important point. People
who floated learned at a different
cognitive level. The results show
that the more difficult the concept,
the bigger the difference in the per
formance of the two groups.”
To eliminate as many variables as
possible, the subjects were chosen
from 453 original volunteers. After
extensive screening, 40 females
were selected. Complete statistics
were gathered for 20 of the subjects.
Only females were used in the
study because basic physiological
differences in the way men and
women think do exist, Taylor said.
During the study, the control
group and the experimental group
studied by listening to learning
tapes. The control group for the ex-
jperimenOistenedjofiie^a^esjvhile^
lying on a couch in a quiet, dark
room. The experimental group flo
ated while they listened.
“The only difference in the two
groups was that the experimental
group was floating,” Taylor said.
Floating is a method of relaxation
that consists of lying in a sensory
isolation tank, suspended in 10 in
ches of warm salt water. The com
pletely enclosed tank is 8 feet long
and 4 feet wide. Floating sessions
usually last one hour.
The study was funded by the
Float to Relax Corp. The Denver-
based corporation has set up several
Float to Relax facilities across the
UnitedStams^includin^^five^i^
Texas. John Moran is the co-owner
and manager of the College Station
facility, which opened last spring.
“We wanted someone to prove
what we already know,” Moran said.
“I don’t have a Ph.D. so I can’t tell
the world it really works. A&M has
international credibility.
“I believe we are on the frontier
of the mind. We are exploring a way
to open up to the other 90 percent
(of the brain) that we are typically
told we never use.”
Taylor said he is interested in
EEC research because he doesn’t
think exams are a suitable diagnostic
tool.
inside
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