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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1983)
The Battalion Serving the University community Vol 78 No. 20 USPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, September 28, 1983 Board of Regents approves $19 million building design photo by Charles P. Dimpi ivalry’s booth, Jjce Hast, an > achieve parity Is al commodities, »oil prices and increial advise governmi m agriculture work for imports tin American farmen, msas organization i : east-west lines, Mot' estern half has leanti aid the militant a» ris said. “Theeasta pretty much stave n that.” Cress of Cod in., has written Natiti- tairman Tommy Vi isville, Tenm, form another KaiK up, he said. by Karen Schrimsher Battalion Staff The Texas A&M Board of Regents ompleted their three-day meeting Tuesday with the approval of the de sign of a new $ 19 million chemistry iuilding. The building, which will be built on the corner of Ross and Spence itreets, will house all undergraduate kmistry laboratories with the ex- :eption of the large freshman chemis- ry program. The six-level building will add 116,000 square feet of laboratory, classroom and office space to the ex isting chemistry facilities. The building will feature a study room inside a courtyard area between the new building and chemistry labor atory building. Pierce Goodwin Alexander of Houston, an engineering firm, will legin to draw detailed sketches of the nterior of the building for the appov- M alof the board. Once the sketches are approved, bids for construction will be solicited. Bids were accepted for the fol lowing: • Approximately $2 million worth of modifications on the Veterinary Medicine Complex. Three laborator ies are to be renovated, and additional laboratory furniture and equipment will be purchased. • An agricultural engineering re search laboratory to be built to re- E lace the metal shop which burned in ec. 1982 • Renovations of the dining hall at Tarleton State University. • The physical plant and transpor tation center complex at Prairie View A&M University. In other business, the board voted to approve the purchase of $ 1 million worth of malpractice insurance for the faculty, staff and students of the College of Veterinary Medicine at a cost of $25,000 per year. The title of Professor Emeritus was granted Professor Albert John Druce of the Department of Electrical En gineering. The board approved the establish ment of a $200,000 Benz Chair in Floral Design in the Department of Horticultural Sciences, named after the late M. “Buddy” Benz. Benz, a member of the Class of ’32, left the University the Benz School of Floral Design, his collection of antique sil ver, the copyrights of his publications, a fine arts collection and the proceeds from the sale of his Houston home. The board also approved a propos al to establish a quasi-endowment fund in the name of late James M. and Ada S. Forsyth to support the gradu ate fellowship program in the College of Engineering. The funds for the endowment will come from a $200,000 pooled-life income fund which Forsyth established in 1971. James Forsyth, a graduate of the College of Engineering, expressed an interest in enhancing enirineerine education. The highlight of the meetings was Monday’s presentation of a proposal to built a bell tower—a gift from Ford D. Albritton, Class of ’43. Albritton and his wife Martha plan for the tow er to be completed by September 1984. Albritton, a former regent, is the founder of Albritton Development of Dallas. He said he gave a great amount of consideration to the gift, and decided that a bell tower would stand as a constant reminder of the academic excellence at Texas A&M. The tower will be located of the Academic Building between the YMCA and Coke buildings. A 10-foot diameter clock will be set in each of the four sides of the struc ture. The tower will house 35 electro nically controlled bells which will play traditional and seasonal music. The planning and building com mittee will meet again on Oct. 13 to discuss the traffic-flow study. >rs ce it become a ad mini® tmare.” nanac ■diets ly snow ted Press Intemationil .IN, N.H. - Hied i Almanac, thenali# .'ominously publS il, says you’d to your wood stove i liter is going tostH 1 “with a bite.” evitable as fall foli? r Abe Weatherwis bis annual prediclid <1 to be 80 percentaffi vhich some New til ikees prefer over ( ■-minute, rad* 1 weathermen onteif' 1 t hink Old Abe hard g around the 92 years, it si accurately forecast^ 1 n il blizzard that of v England a few ft* 5 usual rhyming this winter will ceU king colder than » i: it “normal”amoui# 1 or “Snuggle up to# )up.” any November will! 1 ut with a bite”ail' 1 es in, says the nato 'ecaster. Ponds wl ! •n by Christmas res “skater’s waltz” $ Iter be “cruisin fo )y mid-February. governor ^hter ed Press Intemationil 1EIM, Calif. - On- kept state secrets Dosed — Gov. ft 1 ban’s Last cutting classes today staff photo by John Makely The final bonfire cutting classes will be held today at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Grove. Jim Cline, a Civil Engineering senior from Richardson, and Karl Joeirs, an Environmental Design junior from San Antonio are shown demonstrating safety techniques on Tuesday. Company C-l is in charge of cutting classes. Reported syphilis cases increase 46 percent in Brazos County e summer wi ad as one of S } ' even dwarfs, was one of the si |! said a spokesma ement park.Butl^ vernor’s office not ngdom wanted to Leslie Deukmef ; 4o one will even ’arf she played. , who turns 1^ one of three Den^ ren. She recentl)' ner job to go If by Mary E. Macan Battalion Reporter The number of reported syphilis cases in Brazos County has increased 46 percent from 1982 — an additional 25 cases, but health department officials are unsure of the reasons. “We really just don’t know,” Bart Jennings, public health representative, says. “We have some maybes but we don’t have any hard data.” However, he did cite some possible reasons. Better com munication between doctors and the health department may be causing more cases to be re ported and investigated, he said. Doctors are required by law to report all cases of venereal dis ease to the health department. In addition, Jennings’ prede cessor left last September and Jennings began working in January leaving about four months in which there were no follow-ups on cases. The rapid growth of Bryan- College Station also may be a factor, he said. And syphilis isn’t choosy, he said. It can afflict professors, whites, men, professionals, blacks and women. Venereal disease also is increasing among students, he said. “Venereal disease is usually found when a person has a pre marital blood test or a check up,” he said. “Ninety percent of all women who have gonorrhea don’t even know they nave it un til they take one of these tests.” A muted strain of gonorrhea, penicillinase-producing neisse- rial gonorrhea, has been diag nosed in Brazos County, Jen nings said. PPNG is resistant to penicil lin, but can be killed with the use of another drug, he said. “It’s very important for a per son who is sexually active to get check-ups and if they are found to have venereal disease they should be frank with their doc tor so that people they may have infected can be contacted. “Then, once a person has been treated he or she should receive a test of cure, or recheck, to make sure the disease has been killed,” he said. As of Friday, 70 cases of venereal disease have been in vestigated this year, he said. Jennings said he is trying to stimulate public awareness of syphilis and gonorrhea by giving speeches and appearing on radio and television programs. Santa Fe, Southern Pacific to merge United Press International CHICAGO — Santa Fe Industries Inc. and Southern Pacific Co. Tues day announced an agreement to merge, bringing together two rail roads that virtually built the South west. The deal is the sixth in a line of “mega-mergers” that one expert said typifies a “new golden age of rail roads." Under the agreement, the two companies will become subsidiaries of a newly formed holding company, Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. The Southern Pacific is the direct descendent of the Central Pacific rail road, one of the two joining the east ern and western United States at the driving of the “Golden Spike” at Promentory Point, Utah, in May 1869. Established in 1865 to build a rail line from San Francisco to San Diego, Calif., the Southern Pacific was even tually the first railroad to cross the Southwest. Santa Fe Industries is the parent company of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, made famous in the 1940s song of the same name — a favorite of Glenn Miller and his orchestra. The Santa Fe began as a trunk line between Kansas and Chicago in 1888 and quickly expanded to challenge the Southern Pacific for rail business in the West. The merger, announced by John J. Schmidt, chairman and chief execu tive officer of Santa Fe Industries, and B.F. Biaggini, chairman and chief executive officer of Southern Pacific, is the latest in a list of rail mergers that began with the junction ot New York Central and the Pennsyl vania Railroad in 1969. At a news conference at his com pany’s headquarters in San Francisco, Biaggini said the “merger of equals” will produce “one of the world’s largest and strongest companies.” “It is good for the stockholders, good for the employees and good for the public we serve in many ways,” Biaggini said. Upon consummation of the mer ger, each outstanding share of South- Dean retires after 34 years by Karen Schrimsher Battalion Staff Although Dr. George W. Kunze is looking forward to his Aug. 31 retire ment, he speaks with pride of the many changes that have taken place in Texas A&M graduate programs since he became dean of the Graduate College in 1968. “In 1957, there were 500 graduate students, and in 1967 when I became associate dean, there were 2,265,” he says. “This fall, there are about 6,200.” Eighty percent of all Texas A&M doctoral degrees have been awarded during the 16 years Kunze has served as dean. The 1,000th doctoral degree was awarded in 1968, and now the college is approaching the 4,500 mark for degrees awarded. Kunze began working at the Uni versity 34 years ago as a graduate re search assistant in the agronomy de partment. He worked his way up to professor in the agronomy depart ment in 1952 and in the soil and crop sciences department in 1960. He was asked to assume the posi tion of associate dean in September of 1967 and was named dean in 1968. “I set myself the goal to get 40 years toward my retirement,” Kunze said. “I felt after 40 years would be a good time to stop off if I’m going to do it at all.” As dean of the graduate college, Kunze is responsible for all the gradu ate programs and policies. His office monitors the admission of applicants by checking Graduate Record Exami nation scores and grade- point ratios for past two years of study. “The quality of our programs has increased significantly over the years, along with the quality of our students and our faculty,” he said. There’s a direct relationship be tween the improvements, he said, be cause the faculty is what makes the programs work. There has been a significant in crease in out of state applicants large ly due to recognition of the excellence of Texas A&M graduate programs, he said. Still a large number of students remain at Texas A&M for their gra duate studies. Kunze said 35 to 40 percent of the graduate students re ceived their undergraduate degrees from Texas A&M. Almost every University depart ment has a graduate program, and proposals for doctoral programs in political science, anthropology and medicine are being evaluated now. see Dean, pageI2 Advisory board joins students and officials by Karen Schrimsher Battalion Staff The newly formed Chancellor’s System Student Advisory Board met for the first time this week to attend the Texas A&M Board of Regents Meeting. The purpose of the board, estab lished last spring, is to encourage ac tive participation of students in sys- tetn-wide concerns, and to further cooperation between students and administrators. The representatives will meet reg ularly with Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen to represent student views and positions on system-wide issues. Representatives ideally will have the opportunity to present student in put on issues to the Regents at their meetings. The student body presidents of each university within tne system will be included as board members. The remaining members are selected by a panel consisting of two student repre sentatives chosen by the university president and confirmed by the stu dent government, plus a representa tive of the administration and a repre sentative of the faculty. Board members will represent the student bodies of the System’s univer sities in recognizing, researching and presenting issues relating to students. Representatives from Texas A&M University are: • Fred Billings, chairman of the board. Billings is a senior agricultural economics major from Houston. • David R. Alders, a junior agricul tural economics major from Nacog doches. • Teresa Brashear, a junior bioche mistry major from Desoto. • Student Body President Joe Jor dan, a senior physics major from Beaumont. • Madelon Yanta, a sophomore fi nance major from San Antonio. Texas A&M University at Galves ton is represented by Skeeter Braun and Ed O’Donnell. Tarleton State University is repre sented by Mark Kaiser, Scott Gole- mon and Todd Searcy. The members from Prairie View A&M are Jerald Wright, Willie Mae Roaches, and Donna Shanks. ern Pacific will be exchanged for 1.543 shares of common stock in the new holding company. Each share of Santa Fe stock will be exchanged for 1.203 shares of the new holding com pany. Schmidt will be the company’s chairman, and R.D. Krebs, president of Southern Pacific, will be chief oper ating officer after the merger, which should be completed by the end of the year — and which should create more jobs. The merger will allow both com panies to consolidate considerable holdings in timber, farm and indust rial acreage. Regents deny students’ query by Karen Schrimsher Battalion Staff As the Texas A&M Board of Re gents meeting was drawing to a close Tuesday, three students requested permission to speak to the board concerning impending changes in the Texas A&M first year chemistry program. Chairman of the Board H. R. “Bum” Bright denied permission and told Becky Bailes, Kathleen Macchio and Joe Calao that they would have to go through the prop er channels to address the regents “just as anyone else has to.” Bailes, a sophomore electrical en gineering major and spokesperson for the group, said she was repre senting 5,000 students who signed a petition in May 1983 to support the first year chemistry program as it was at that time under the direction of Dr. Rod O’Connor. O’Connor resigned from the di rectorship last May after a disagree ment with review committee recom mendations. “We support the goals of the program as it was presented to the students,” Bailes told reporters after the regents adjourned. “It seems to us that the program has been rail roaded. The good points of the program were automatically dropped.” Bailes said she was concerned with changes in the application deadline for the directorship. Bailes said she believed the deadline was moved from May 1984 to January 1984 and finally to Friday, Sept. 30, 1983. Dr. George Natowitz, head of the Department of Chemistry, said the only deadline ever set for applica tions was Sept. 30. Under O’Connor, Chemistry 101 and 102 were taught in a centralized manner — tests were standardized and students were allowed to attend any professor’s lecture at any sche duled course time. see O’Connor, page 12 inside Classifieds 8 Local 3 Opinions 2 Sports 9 State 5 What’s up 6 forecast Partly cloudy skies with a chance of rain. Highs in the mid 80s with a low tonight of 68.