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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1983)
Rhodes scholarship nominee surprised see page 4 A&M defense ranked 3rd against the pass see page 11 Texas A&M Battalion Serving the University community ii, working;Vol 78 No. 37 USPS 0453110 18 pages in 1wo sections manager,- ■■ ■ man andaij itmentti day baskeik ew in Miami i go bad not: m is playing i is coachioj ry I'll be litr!; io play this 1 .ockeis fare h more and not a § wanted to:r| ‘ by Stephanie M. Ross atned atfe Battalion Staff it. :Thc Texas state highway system is a new looksMaging, and engineers and mana- givesusanf.ilwithin the system need to be in- >d Rocketstfiffitive and creative in order to meet y as well fotMhallenge of the changes, the state tst me," htsBteer and director of the highway d fiveseasonBrtment said Tuesday. averaging Rate engineer M. G. Goode out- 1-81 onateirB the recent changes that are caus- the Nationil problems for the state highway iation rhmiKrtment and offered possible series, andKons at the general session of the 1-82. Wt Annual Highway and Transpor- iheRockets!® 11 Short Course being held at ring camp,lulls A&M. irofaRodt'ifihe theme for the course this year dd havepatilhe State Highway and Public Isportation System in Transi- m. Hie short course is sponsored by M ’feTexas Transportation 1 nstit ute — [Hesearch arm of the Texas A&M Hm, and is attended by slate high ly department engineers and con- ^lUBoode outlined the changes that ■occurred within the highway de- lient within the past year. veryhardlis TI ' :ma j° r c,ian g e ‘ s that the high- .otballm:!ypy slem ‘ s going from primarily Akers “Soiiii 111 ? a state-tunded operation to a ■resting, defense is« ago,” he i even mort College Station, Texas Wednesday, October 19,1983 onvention considers lighway challenges federally funded one. One year ago the department was not faced with problems, and was looking forward to a possible state tax increase that would raise the needed funds for road repair and construc tion, Goode said. If the tax increase was not passed by the stale legislature, the depart ment would not be worried, because the state comptroller had said there was excess money for the department for the coming year, 1983. Then, a major change occurred. On the last day of the regular congres sional session, the United States gov ernment passed the five cent per gal lon gas tax. The president signed the bill in January 1983, and the tax be came law. The new tax was both good and bad for the state, Goode said. “The good news was that it did give us new lederal aid dollars,” Goode said. “The bad news was that the peo ple perceived that the problem (of the highway department) had been solved by the new federal dollars.” Federal aid dollars are beneficial to the state, Goode said, but like all fed eral funds, are given in categories and the state must match the federal funds with stale dollars. The federal aid money will cover all of the needed repairs and con struction of the federal highway sys tem, but will cover only 45 percent of the work needed on the U.S. highway system and only 10 to 15 percent of the state highway system, Goode said. In order to match all of the federal funds needed for current repairs and construction with state funds, the highway department will need to go into deficit financing, which it is not allowed to do, Goode said. Goode then offered a solution to prevent the shortage of current state First, the highway department will not spend money on equipment, ex cept in emergency cases. This will save money this year, Goode said, but will be a problem in the future when machinery will have to he replaced. Secondly, there will be a 5 percent cut in maintainence operations. Money will be saved by using all stock piled materials and reducing mowing operations and litter pick-up on high ways. Third, the state now will be reim bursed for money used in preliminary engineering work. ret asks A&M to help forgotten’ POWs, MIAs by Steve Thomas Battalion Staff lised SMU (]j Mdlhenm. e “throwing: i the past.” ly has doneni said. “Somejl the classing . „ Qsavshehasii mes Bo GnU ,s K om g a11 out lo ran is the'I-If he for g oUen Prisoners of War i ir^akiii^iMissing in Action veterans back om Vietnam. Hknd he wants Texas A&M to aid cenlt jearhead his support effort, j missed the f''j jotH know where it’s going to ih an ankle art if it doesn’t start at Texas A&M,” initely counUmirl game. Hriu said the United States never i running*'jpunted for over 2,500 soldiers who ions and liyerji to Vietnam, lan, both" : "Rut, now, it is not in the best in- J defensive ;resi of the United States to bring s, whosi! Jem back,” he said. “By damn, I gh, were! pn’i believe in living a double stan- ard.” IGritz spent four years in Vietnam lid senior living he was doing the right thing, who rushed In, he said, a general told him that uding a 5’ljnited States had no intention of camper,wasriining the war, and Gritz left Viet- yer of the "Jim the next chance he had. nance agaiMr'If they wanted to fight a political || they should have sent Congress ebacker Jeff ve) there,” he said. 115unassisted®ut the issue, Gritz said, is that ed defensiveffie are Americans still being held aptive in Vietnam. ^^^^Jlle said there are pictures of ™®MP|rtricans in POW camps and there tapnstant flow of reports from peo- ilelcoming out of that country who I seen captive Americans. He also I that the Vietnamese will neither piit nor deny that they are holding doesn’t read the mail. Some weenie in the White House ...” At that point his statement was interrupted by deafen ing whoops. “In America we’ve become a nation of spectators,” he said, adding that citizens should have more communi cation with their representatives. “Those people work for you,” he said. Gritz wants Texas A&M to raise the POW-MIA flag over the Universi ty in support of his and other efforts to get Americans out of Vietnam once and for all. Last Minute Decisions Photo by Eric Ray Junior Redpots Keith Anderson, left, and Ian Carnegie, right, make last minute preparations on the Bonfire centerpole before it goes up today at 4:03 p.m., the traditional raising time. Anderson is a building construction major from San Antonio and Carnegie is an engineering technology major from Spring. James “Bo” Gritz Americans because of closed diplo matic relations with the United States. But Gritz blames the United States to a large extent. “I don’t care about the politician and his problems, all I care about is my comrades,” Gritz said. “I want to see those people back here.” And he wants Texas A&M to help. Gritz told Aggies they should write their congressmen. The congressman is more responsive to voters because of his short time in office, he said. “Don’t write your senator,” he said, “and don’t write the president. He Village of Hope drive continues 30 student organizations to participate in raising funds inside round town 7 lassified 7 cal 3 htional 5 pinions 2 [orts 1] file 3 hat’s up (j able, dessef forecast artly cloudy skies, highs in the bid eighties. Midnight yell practice for the Texas A&M-Rice game will be held Friday at the Cattleguard Res taurant, 2800 Milam in downtown Houston. Mid-term grade reports will be distributed to students in the Pavi lion Wednesday through Oct. 28. Students must have picture identifi cation to receive a report. The deadline to turn in applica tions for Who’s Who Among Amer ican Colleges and Universities is Friday. Applications may be picked up at the office of the vice president for student services, the student activi ties office, the deans’ offices or the Memorial Student Center. They may be returned to any of these loca tions. by Ronnie Crocker Battalion Staff More than 30 student organiza tions, including dorms, professional societies and fraternities and soror ities, are joining in the effort to raise $25,000 for the Texas A&M Village of Hope project. The project calls for the sponsor ing of 120 underprivileged children in Colombia, South America. A pledge has been made to raise the money by Dec. 15. So far, about $4,000 has been raised and $6,000 has been pledged. The project recently was made part of the external affairs committee of Student Government. Vice Presi dent for External Affairs Jay Holland says his committee was given charge of the project because the effort needed an organization that was link ed to various other student groups on campus. Charitable functions fall under the heading of external affairs. The committee currently is meet ing with heads of groups that plan to donate money and develop fund raising ideas. Holland says the depart ment will combine organizations that are too small to do anything on their own. Groups are actively involved in clude Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the Catholic Student Association, the En gineering Technology Society and Schuhmacher Hall. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is asking for donations from its members and from other athletes. The group’s goal is $250. Briggs Hall, a women’s dorm, plans to sell soft drinks at the Texas A&M- Southern Methodist University foot ball game Oct. 29. All proceeds will go to the project. Schuhmacher resident Tony Cuel lar says that $362 was collected from his dorm. Schuhmacher also spon sored a car wash with Keathley Hall. The money collected at the car wash was donated to United Way and to the Village of Hope. The Engineering Technology Soci ety will sell Tyler Roses the week be fore the SMU game. President Lowell Brooks says about one-third of the proceeds will go to the project. Delta Delta Delta sorority went door-to-door in College Station neighborhoods and raised more than $550 in donations on Oct. 7. Aggie Cowboys President Mark Cone says the fraternity is sponsoring a Bourbon Street Bash and hopes to raise between $8,000 and $12,000. The money will be split between the Village of Hope, Spindletop Farms and the American Heart Association, with most of the money going to the AHA. The Omega Phi Alpha service sorority has a table in the Blocker Building this week for donations. In addition to these projects, five women are planning to run for 24 hours around the Kyle Field track starting at 10 a.m. Saturday. They will be sponsored by the mile or by straight donations. The Marketing Society and Underwood Hall will gather sponsors for the run. Students also can meet at the Block er Building every Saturday morning at 9:30 and be assigned a neighbor hood section of the Bryan-College Station area to go door-to-door asking for donations. The Village of Hope project is coordinated through the Christian Children’s Fund, a charity organiza tion that aids starving children around the world. The $25,000 pledge was made last spring when CCF national chairper son Sally Struthers came to Texas A&M to thank the Corps of Cadets for sponsoring five underprivileged chil dren. Five students to attempt a 24-hour marathon for CCF by Ronnie Crocker Battalion Staff Five students will attempt to run 24 consecutive hours this weekend to raise money for the Texas A&M Christian Children’s Fund’s Village of Hope project. Peggy Benham, Selina Mendieta, Kendall Graham, Stacie Reich and Jennifer Hartzell will begin the run at 10 a.m. Saturday. Each runner will run one mile and hand off a baton to the next. The run will be non-stop and if one of the women drops out, the remaining will continue. Four of the women participated in the run last year. That group set a world record by running within a few yards of 190 miles, only to have their feat disqualified because of inaccu rate measuring. The record is 186 miles, 262 yards. Last year, the run began on the aerobics track and was transferred to the Kyle Field track following a Corps of Cadets function and marathon race that simultaneously were being held there. The location switch was re sponsible for the inaccurate measure ments. Several student groups are spon soring the runners and collecting donations for them. Among them are Underwood Hall, United Campus Ministries, Aston Hall, Omega Phi Alpha, Chi Omega and the Marketing Society. Rother’s Bookstore is donating t- shirts to the women for the run. Benham, an animal science major from Virginia, says the runners aren’t concentrating on the setting a world record because of the uncerlainity of the weather. They mainly are in terested in just raising money for the Village of Hope, she says. She says she hopes people will come to the run because “it’s going to be hard.”