The Battalion
Vol. 76 No. 19 USPS 045360 12 Pages
Board to
vote
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas , Monday, September 27, 1982
on teller proposal
by Denise Richter
Battalion Staff
MPACT and PULSE machines may
be only as far away as the University
Center if a proposal approved Sun
day by a committee of the Texas A&M
System Board of Regents is approved
by the full Board on Tuesday.
The Board will meet at 8:30 a.m. in
the regents annex of the Memorial
Student Center.
The proposal calls for the on-
ampus installation of automatic tel
ler machines. Two MPACT and two
PULSE tellers would be located be
tween the MSC and Rudder Tower.
Several local banks have expressed
interest in installing the tellers, which
would be installed at the expense of
the banks, Vice President for Busi
ness Affairs Howard Vestal said.
Local banks that have reviewed the
contract have agreed to pay the Uni
versity eight cents when a transfer of
funds or a balance inquiry is made
and 15 cents when a deposit or with
drawal is made, Vestal said.
If the proposal is approved and a
contract with local banks can be nego
tiated, the tellers could be installed by
[anuary, he said.
On-campus teller machines first
were proposed almost a year ago. At
the time, 11 different machines
would have been needed to serve all
the banking networks that existed.
Because of advances in banking
technology, only two types of
aachines now are needed. All local
anks offering automatic teller ser-
dce are connected to the MPACT or
PULSE system, Vestal said.
Currently, students and staff may
ash checks at the Coke Building, the
V1SC and Rudder Tower.
The main cashier facilities at the
Coke Building will be kept open if
on-campus banking is approved, Ves
Dr. Arthur Hansen, left, and H. R. “Bum” Bright at Sunday’s meeting.
tal said, but no decisions have been
made about the other check-cashing
facilities.
A discussion on whether to open
bidding for electricity meters on the
562 apartment units at the Hensel,
College View and College Avenue
complexes sparked a lengthy debate
during the Planning and Building
Committee meeting.
A flat fee for electricity now is in
cluded in the monthly rental charge.
If individual meters were installed,
each apartment would be billed for
the amount of electricity used.
Metering each apartment would
encourage occupants to conserve
electricity, Vestal said.
Committee Chairman H.C. Bell
agreed: “We’ve been subsidizing mar
ried students for years and years and
years, and we’ve been subsidizing
their electric bills, too. If students
were paying their own bills, when
they walk out of the apartment to go
to class, they would turn the lights
off.”
Board Chairman H.R. “Bum”
Bright expressed concern that install
ing individual meters would result in
a rent increase.
“You would have 562 readings, 562
buildings and 562 computations of
what they owe,” he said. “Don’t tell me
that isn’t going to cost extra money
that you’re going to stick (students)
with.”
Vestal said installing individual
meters would not cause a rent in
crease. After additional discussion,
committee members finally agreed to
seek bids for the meters.
In other business, members of the
Committee for Academic Campuses
approved a proposal calling for the
Department of Sociology and
Anthropology to be divided into sepa
rate departments.
Texas A&M President Frank E.
Vandiver said dividing the depart
ments “is the kind of move that will
enable one large department to
emerge into two strong depart
ments.”
Regents will meet as a committee of
the whole today. Items scheduled for
discussion include:
• The appointment of Charles R.
Cargill, associate vice president for
business affairs, as vice president for
operations — a position created by
Vandiver as part of the reorganiza
tion of University administration.
According to this plan, the vice
president for operations and the vice
president for fiscal affairs will share
duties now handled by the vice presi
dent for business affairs.
• The appointment of a dean for
the College of Science. This position
has been vacant since Dr. Thomas
Sugihara resigned in 1980.
• A $250,000 appropriation from
the University Available Fund for the
establishment of a research incentive
fund for the liberal arts, science and
business. This fund, which would be
administered by the University presi
dent, would be used for research that
holds promise for additional outside
funding.
• A request to the Legislature to
allow the University to lease 3.24
acres of land at Jersey and Houston
streets for an Association of Former
Students headquarters. Special legis
lation is required because state law
forbids the leasing of a portion of the
main campus.
Meningitis case confirmed;
Goswick reassures students
by Jennifer Carr
Battalion Staff
No new cases of meningoccocal
meningitis, a highly infectious strain
bacterial meningitis, have been re
ported here since Friday, when a
diagnosis was confirmed in a Texas
A&M student. Health officials are
urging anyone who had close contact
with Michael C. Wheeler to report to
A.P. Beutel Health Center for treat
ment.
Wheeler, 22, a senior finance ma
jor from Texarkana, was admitted to
the health center Wednesday when
he complained of headaches, fever,
chills, stiff neck and a sore throat. He
was transferred to St. Joseph Hospital
in Bryan on Thursday after doctors
suspected meningitis.
Wheeler’s girlfriend, roommate
and the person he shared a room with
in the health center all were contacted
Saturday, Dr. Claude Goswick, dire
ctor of the health center, said.
Employees at the Texas Real Estate
Research Center where Wheeler, of
301 Krenek Tap Road, worked
already have come to the health cen
ter to be treated. Students who may
have come in close contact with
Wheeler in these classes should go to
the health center for treatment.
— FIN 347, sec. 502, meets MWF at
1:30.
— MGMT 405, sec. 466, meets
MWF at 3.
— ENGL 301, sec. 513, meets
MWF at 4.
— BANA 364, sec. 509, meets TTh
at 2.
— ACCT 329, sec. 507, meets TTh
at 3:30.
Anyone exhibiting symptoms and
who may have had casual contact with
Wheeler also should report.
“The state health department has
been notified,” Goswick said. “With
only one confirmed case, they are in
terested but not alarmed. At this
point we want to find anyone else who
might have been infected and stop it
before it spreads.”
There were 327 cases of meningitis
in Texas in 1981. Of those, 34 were
fatal. Texas normally has only about
150 cases a year, but a large outbreak
in Houston caused the higher num
bers in 1981.
Meningitis is an airborne disease
transmitted when the infected person
coughs or sneezes. Meningococcal
meningitis inflames the membranes
of both the brain and spinal cords.
Symptoms include high fever, severe
headache, vomiting and pronounced
neck and back rigidity.
Leftist rebels free 32 captives, fly
to Panama with Honduras diplomat
United Press International
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -
A dozen leftist rebels freed 32 Hon
duran captives Saturday and flew tt
Panama “empty-handed,” ending at
8-day hostage crisis. The guerrilla:
were to be flown to Cuba Sunday.
The Honduran government saic
the “Cinchonero” guerrillas “did not
achieve a single one of their de
mands,” including the release of 55
leftist prisoners and the expulsion ol
American military advisers from
Honduras.
The 12 guerrillas shot their way
into the San Pedro Sula Chamber ol
Commerce Sept. 17 and seized 105
people attending a business conven
tion. By Saturday, 73 of their hostages
— including two wounded business
men — had been freed or escaped.
“The group of bandits left the
country empty-handed,” the govern
ment said in a statement issued after a
Panamanian air force plane carrying
the rebels lifted off from the San Ped
ro Sula airport.
The guerrillas, wearing white
hoods, arrived at Panama City’s Toco-
men military airfield at sundown and
were immediately taken to a nearby
national guard base outside the
capital.
They were accompanied to Pana
ma by the country’s ambassador to
Honduras, Salvador Iglesias. All 12
rebels were unarmed when they
climbed out of the plane, apparently
leaving their rifles inside the aircraft.
Officials said the rebels would leave
within 24 hours in an airplane that
was to be flown to Panama City from
Havana.
When they fled Honduras, the re
bels hustled through a human tunnel
of hostages lined up on both sides of
the boarding ramp to climb aboard
the twin-prop Panamanian Air Force
plane, witnesses said.
staff photo by David Fisher
Hero worshippers
Following A&M’s victory over Louisiana Tech Saturday
night, many of the football players were besieged by
autograph seekers. Billy Cannon signs an autograph for
a young fan and her father. See related stories on page 9.
Marijuana: The Ozarks’ new cash crop
Pot growers are replacing moonshiners
United Press International
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forecast
High in the mid- to upper-80s, low
in the lower 60s tonight. Clear
skies.
Marijuana farmers are replacing
the moonshiners of 50 years ago as
the producers of illegal intoxicants in
the Ozarks.
Favorable growing conditions in
the Midwest, the government’s crack
down on South American smugglers
and prices of up to $1,200 a pound
for prime-quality “sinsemilla” are fac
tors in making marijuana a major
cash crop in Missouri and Arkansas.
In addition, the dense woods and
narrow hollows that concealed moun
tain folk from “revenooers” two
generations ago still provide protec
tion from the prying eyes of lawmen.
“I think one of the reasons so much
marijuana is grown in this area is that
there are so many remote areas,” said
Sgt. Joe Wilson of the Missouri High
way Patrol’s regional office in the
foothills town of Rolla, Ark. “People
can really get out in the boonies and
get hid.”
Sophisticated growers use a cultiva
tion technique that produces seedless,
resinous sinsemilla buds. The male
marijuana plants are pulled, allowing
the female plants to grow unpollin
ated and thus producing higher levels
of THC, the active ingredient that re
sults in the marijuana “high.”
Missouri marijuana grown without
any special cultivation method sells
for about $300 a pound, authorities
said. The same pot cultivated by the
sinsemilla method can produce mari
juana worth $1,200 a pound because
of its greater potency.
“People are finding out how lucra
tive it can be,” said a representative of
the federal Drug Enforcement Admi
nistration in St. Louis. “It’ll be the
biggest year we’ve ever had.”
“As to how much it’s going to be
worth, you just have to let your imagi
nation fly,” the agent added. “Figure
it like this: With one marijuana plant
for each square yard, that’s 4,800
pounds an acre. You’ve got more
money there than a drug agent or a
reporter makes in a lifetime.”
U.S. Forest Service officials esti
mate the value of the yearly crop
grown on national forest lands in
Arkansas approaches $200 million.
The total far exceeds the value of tim
ber harvested on federal land in that
state.
Ozarks growers wary of poachers
have resorted to protecting their
crops with dogs, shotgun-toting
guards in camouflage suits, trip wires
and booby traps.
On Sept. 17, a 23-year-old man was
shot to death on a farm near Edgar
Springs, Mo. Authorities said Mark
Holt was killed while guarding his
marijuana crop from other men who
were trying to harvest it.
Five men were charged with
second-degree murder in the slaying.
Authorities said the crop was worth at
least $500,000.
Horticulturist Steve Horwine of
the Missouri Botanical Garden in St.
Louis said the weather conditions this
year were ideal for growing mari
juana.
“It is a very easy plant to grow,” he
said. “I would think it would be doing
very well. It’s a tropical plant like
tomatoes and peppers that do well
with steady moisture and bright days.
We’ve had both.”
Frowine said improved strains in
troduced into Ozark marijuana crops
have made them much more potent.
“It used to be that domestically
grown marijuana wasn’t worth
bothering with,” he said.