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Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Thursday, June 16, 1983
l second
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other recotll
aton cites reasons
not top school
by Scott Griffin
Battalion Staff
life it ranks sixth in the nation in
umber of National Merit Scholars
nrolled, Texas A&M University has
rme major problems to correct be-
■ it can be considered a “world
■ university” says an academic
Bial here.
|[T)r Gordon Eaton, provost and
ce-president of academic affairs,
uesday said Texas A&M cannot be
nsidered a “world university” and
cited five major problems that
the school from attaining that
ie first of the problems, Eaton said,
money.
■Today’s education involves more
■ just the students and profes-
)rs,” Eaton said. “Studios, laborator-
pind equipment are now a necessi-
Plan for
ty, and equipment is becoming ex
ceedingly expensive.
Eaton pointed out that the money
shortage can’t be blamed on the
school. “The state has done a very
poor job of funding this school in
terms of equipment,” he said, “and
there’s not a department or college at
this university which couldn’t use
some more equipment.”
Engineering alone asked for about
$27 million,” he said, “and they’re
going to wind up with only about $1
million.”
Eaton said another major problem is
the University’s lack of computers.
“This University is just emerging
from the dark ages as far as comput
ing facilities and computer literacy is
concerned on the part of both the
students and faculty,” he said.
A third problem area, which Eaton
said is undergoing change, concerns
entrance standards.
“We will continue to raise com
bined SAT scores for admission,”
Eaton said. “You can raise the acade
mic performance level to one of grea
ter excellence by making it harder to
get in, thereby drawing better stu
dents.”
Another problem, and one which
may be considerably more difficult to
correct, is rampant growth.
“One thing this school must do in
order to provide a quality education is
to reduce class size,” he said. “When
you’re sitting in a classroom with 300
other people, you’re not getting a
quality education.”
See EATON page 9
desegregation
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United Press International
AlpSTIN — A plan to desegregate
s colleges and universities,
ed “wholly inadequate” by
lOrity groups but praised as “a
ark for the state” by Gov. Mark
ite, has been accepted by federal
ials.
the U.S. Department of Educa-
announced its acceptance of the
( Wednesday, saying it “adequate-
tforms” with Title VI of the Civil
Its Act of 1964, which prohibits
imination on the basis of race,
or national origin in federally-
jted education programs,
i his is the first (time) any state
Jhas ever been approved without
piion,” White said at a news con-
jhce Wednesday. “I think it’s a
nark for the state of Texas.”
However, the NAACP Legal De
fense and Educational Fund earlier
said the 170-page document was
“wholly inadequate to eliminate the
vestiges of the state’s racially dual
system.”
The Education Department’s
acceptance of the plan hinged on ade
quate funding of provisions calling
for the state to spend more than $200
million to improve programs and
teaching staffs at mostly black Prairie
View A&M and Texas Southern uni
versities.
The plan also required the state to
appropriate $101 million for schools
with a high percentage of His panics,
including the University of Texas-El
Paso, UT-San Antonio, Pan Amer
ican University, Texas A&I Universi
ty and Corpus Christi State Univer
sity.
Texas Secretary of State John
Fainter, who represented the state in
final negotiations, said many of the
plan’s requirements already had been
implemented.
White filed the document in re
sponse to a federal court order in
March that gave Texas 45 days to de
velop a plan that met the U.S. Educa
tion Department’s approval.
The order from a Washington,
D.C. federal judge was obtained by
civil rights activists unhappy with the
pace of desegregation in the college
system of Texas and 12 other states.
The Texas system includes 105
colleges and universities and more
than 667,000 students. Federal aid to
higher education in Texas is esti
mated at $300 million a year.
upremc Court quashes
estrictions on abortion
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
ourt, in its most sweeping ruling
Kfc the 1973 legalization of abor-
|n, pulled the rug out from under
ates that had placed restrictions on a
Oman’s right to end her pregnancy.
Wednesday’s ruling provoked out-
Iged cries from opponents of abor-
on who denounced the court for
Knitting “abortion on demand”
ravowed to redouble their efforts to
rewrite the Constitution to ban the
procedure.
Holding that states may not freely
regulate access to abortions, the na
tion’s highest court struck down some
state restrictions that required man
datory hospitalization, mandatory
waiting periods and “informed con
sent” from women who sought abor
tions after their first three months of
pregnancy.
The court’s first woman justice,
Sandra Day O’Connor, sided with the
dissenters in the 6-3 decision on the
state rules and agreed with the major
ity on the few restrictions allowed for
minors.
Her vote was carefully watched by
both advocates and foes of abortion.
When she was nominated to re
place Justice Potter Stewart, abortion
foes criticized her stand on the issue
during her service in the Arizona leg
islature.
OFfope heads for Polish homeland
United Press International
VATICAN CITY — Pope John
nl II prayed his sensitive pilgrim-
to Poland today would bring
edom and justice” but admitted it
[coming at a difficult time for his
ve land.
The special Alitalia 727 jet car-
ag the pope, his entourage and 60
brters was scheduled to leave
tie’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport at
:40 a.m. today for the two-hour, 20-
aute flight to Warsaw. The eight-
ay trip is his second to Poland since
mning pope in October 1978.
On the eve of the trip, the pope
limented on the journey’s sensitive
tre, saying Wednesday it was tak
ing place “in this both sublime and
difficult moment for my homeland.”
“I pray to you so that this pilgrim
age may serve truth and love, free
dom and justice. That it may serve
reconciliation and peace,” the pope
told some 35,000 people gathered in
St. Peter’s Square to hear his weekly
general address. “May the good
shepherd of our souls permit all of us
to join together in prayer and hope.”
The journey — his first to Poland
since 1979 — is a gamble for the Vati
can, the Polish authorities and church
and the opposition. But all sides
seemed to agree it could not be put off
any longer.
The trip was delayed for 10 months
because of the December 1981 mar
tial law crackdown that eventually
crushed the Solidarity trade union.
In Warsaw, there was intense spe
culation on whether a meeting be
tween John Paul and former Solidar
ity leader Lech Walesa — who have
met twice before in private audience
— will be able to take place.
Walesa said two plainclothes secur
ity policemen entered his Gdansk
apartment Wednesday night and
made it clear the military authorities
did not want the former Solidarity
leader to leave his Gdansk home.
He said the officers told him to re
main at home “for my own safety.”
staff photo by Peter Rocha
The Academic Building was the first and one of less than thirty buildings on
major building to be erected here with a campus at the time. Restoration of the
structural frame of reinforced concrete, landmark will begin in August.
Academic Building
to receive facelift
by Robert McGlohon
Battalion Staff
The Academic Building, beauti
ful but old landmark that it is, will
get a face-lift beginning in August,
but it won’t spoil its regal look.
It would be easier to simply re
juvenate the building Tim
Donathen, the Texas A&M System
architect in charge of the restora
tion, said, but that wouldn’t be in
keeping with its character.
“I have more of an appreciation
in preserving the original form,”
Donathen said. “It’s going to take a
year to achieve it, but it is a very
worthwhile project.”
Unfortunately, the original form
of the Academic Building, without
repairs and alterations, dates back to
1912, to the time when Old Main,
Texas A&M’s first building, burned
down and the Academic Building
was built in its place.
It was the first major building to
be erected here with a structural
frame of reinforced concrete, and
one of less than thirty buildings on
campus at the time.
Former head of the architecture
department Dr. Ernest Langford, in
his book on Texas A&M buildings
“Here We’ll Build The College,”
writes of an amusing problem that
arose with the relatively new techni
que used in the construction of the
Academic Building.
“In the mid-thirties drinking
fountains were being (installed) in
the building and in order to run
pipes and drains to the various
floors, it was necessary to cut holes
in the concrete slabs,” Langford
writes. “In cutting these holes work
men exposed a veritable mesh of
steel reinforcing bars — so many in
fact that the only way they could be
removed was to burn them out with
a torch.
“Professor F.E. Giesecke had
done the structural design, and
when this mesh of bars was called to
his attention he said in a joking sort
of way: T knew a whole lot less about
reinforced concrete than I do now.
So I just figured out the amount of
steel which I thought was necessary
and doubled it!”’
Barring natural disaster,
Donathen, Class of ’74, said, “that
building will be around for an aw
fully long time.”
The restoration of the Academic
Building will not involve structual
repairs, Donathen said. Nor, at pre
sent, will it involve interior work, he
added, because the classrooms are
too important to the registrar’s
office.
The project consists entirely of
exterior work. Some of thejobs to be
done include: replacement and re
pair of small portions of the exterior
brick and cast stone; installation of a
new urethane foam roof; repair of
See ACADEMIC page 9
Chilean labor boss snatched
United Press International
SANTIAGO, Chile — Armed men
Wednesday kidnapped a Chilean
labor leader who organized anti
government protests that erupted
into the worst street violence in the
10-year military regime of Gen. Au
gust© Pinochet.
Two were reported killed and at
least 350 arrested in Tuesday’s de
monstrations broken up by police
armed with submachine guns. Police
used tear gas, water cannons and
attack dogs to disperse thousands of
protesters demanding a return to civi
lian rule.
Labor leader Hernan Mery said
armed men arrived at his Santiago
home at 2 a.m. and kidnapped Rober
to Seguel, head of Chile’s copper
workers union and organizer of the
protests.
The demonstations included a
nationwide job and school boycott
and street protests that included the
banging of pots and pans and the
honking of car horns in Santiago
neighborhoods — scenes reminiscent
of the days preceding the overthrow
of President Salvador Allende.
Radio reports today said two
youths were killed in the street battles
and more than 350 people were
arrested across the nation — at least
175 in Santiago.
It was the second day of mass pro
tests in just over a month against the
government of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet, who is facing mounting
opposition sparked by Chile’s deepest
economic crisis in 50 years.
Parents kept their children from
school and workers stayed home as
part of the boycott called to demand
an end to the state of emergency, ear
ly elections, the return of political ex
ile and an end to censorship.
Organizing the protest was the Na
tional Workers Command, set up af
ter a May 11 demonstration in which
two people died in clashes with police
and more than 300 were arrested.
Copper mine leader Rodolfo
Seguel called the protest a success and
said “discontent is mounting in the
country.”
Pinochet, 67, blamed the riots on
the outlawed Communist Party and
warned he will prevent further dis
turbances “at any cost.”
Pinochet, who left Santiago early
Tuesday accompanied by eight
cabinet ministers, warned of harsher
measures to prevent further out
breaks.
In a speech in the northern mining
town of Copiapo, Pinochet said he will
not give in to demands to reform the
1980 Constitution, which extends his
rule until 1989.
“To the politicians, I say from here
little by little we are going to send
them to their caves to put an end to
this problem,” Pinochet said.
In working class neighborhoods of
Santiago, protesters erected flaming
barricades with car tires and in the
neighborhood of La Granja, some
150 unemployed youths rampaged
when police arrived to disperse them
with tear gas. In middle class neigh
borhoods, families went to their bal
conies and banged empty pots and
pans while others honked car horns
along the main avenues of the city.
In downtown Santiago, riot police
used water cannons and attack dogs
to break up crowds of people milling
around after work.
Earlier in the day, outside the Uni
versity of Chile library, 1,000 students
burned effigies of Pinochet.
Tolice said 296 people were
arrested around the country, 175 in
Santiago.
T1
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m
A&M researchers trying to find
answer to shuttle ice formation
uwvERSirr
* I
8§§
by Joe Tindel Jr.
r • jrim
4
^ ill
\
Battalion Staff
The infamous tiles that protect
the space shuttle from the extreme
heat encountered during re-entry
into the earth’s atmosphere have
been a source of worry since the
maiden voyage of Columbia.
And for about a year, Texas
A&M has been involved in the
■ search for a solution to one of the
• several problems concerning those
lit .***$
1 tiles — the formation of ice on the
shuttle’s central fuel tank.
Dr. Jose Porteiro, working
the placement of a probe
model of the space shuttle.
staff photo by Barry Papke
wind tunnel, checks
a practice run of a
Texas A&M’s Wind Tunnel
Facility is the site of the testing. The
goal of the testing is to discover a
way to prevent ice from forming on
the tank. During lift off, the ice
breaks loose from the tank striking
the tile area and damaging some of
the tiles, said Dr. Jose Porteiro, assis
tant professor of aerospace en
gineering.
Porteiro, along with Dr. Thomas
Pollock, associate professor of en
gineering design graphics, coordin
ates the testing using a mock-up of
the Cape Kennedy launch complex
and a 1/50 scale mock-up of the
attached center tank, solid rocket
boosters and orbiter, Porteiro said.
Results of the testing are reported
to the Johnson Space Center, he
said.
The professors currently are
working on a possible solution that
would prevent the ice from forming
before launch. Porteiro said the idea
involves placing a number of vertic-
aljets on the launch pad between the
tank and the orbiter. These jets
would blow heated air up the side of
the tank and hopefully prevent the
ice formation on part of the tank.
To prevent ice at the upper levels
of the tank, including the topmost
part, or ojive, fans would be
attached to the launch tower at dif
ferent heights along the upper part
of the tank. The fans also would
blow air onto the tank.
Success of the project depends on
the improvement of a mathematical
value called the heat transfer coeffi
cient, Porteiro said. If the heat
transfer coefficient is raised to a
high enough value, the ice will not
form.
inside
Classified 4
Local 3
Opinions 2
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State 4
National 8
forecast
Partly cloudy today with a 20 per
cent chance of isolated thunder
showers and a high of 89. The low
tonight near 70. For Friday, partly
cloudy with a 20 percent chance of
afternoon thundershowers and a
high of 91.