Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 1984)
Page 4AThe Battalion/Tuesday, July 10,1 Bryan employees urged to take P.R.I.D.E. in work By RENEE HARRELL Reporter What do a Bryan police officer, two children’s librarians and a city training specialist have in common? They’ve all been named “People Pleasers.” “People Pleasers” are part of a new program in Bryan called P.R.I.D.E.(Program to Recognize and Identify Deserving Employees). Bryan employees who do outstand ing work and receive a complimen tary letter from a citizen for it can be named “People Pleasers.” If the letter is sent to the city per sonnel department, the employee will recieve a certificate signed by the mayor. The employee will also get to wear a “People Pleaser” button for one week. If five commendations are received within two years the em ployee will receive a silver pin and formal recognition from the mayor and city council. Since the middle of May, 17 Bryan employees have been named “People Pleasers.” “Employee morale has gone up a lot,” says Amy Godfrey, Bryan’s citi zen information coordinator. “I’ve never seen people work as hard as they do in this city. When employees do their jobs and please customers it means the city is doing the best it can. We get cards and letters from all kinds of people.” Two Bryan children’s librarians, Glenda Duncan and Sue Sommer- feld, get many thank you letters from children. Both Duncan and Sommerfeld were named “People Pleasers.” “We get thank you’s for coming out to the school library,” Sommer feld says. “We deal directly with the public, so we have an advantage.” Bryan Police Officer Donnie Manry deals directly with the public too, but he says his letters are “few and far between.” Manry has been with the department for more than a year and a half and received letters from four citizens. ”It makes us feel good when we do get one,” Manry says. “We like making people happy.” Manry was recently named a “People Pleaser” after he helped re lease an eight and a half foot boa constrictor from a citizen’s washing machine. “I contacted the animal control of ficer and we tried to noose the sna ke,” Manry says. “After one and a half hours we finally sprayed mace on it. Rick Tobias put a noose around it and six feet of it came out but, two and a half feet were still in the machine.” The snake suddenly let go of the machine. “We went flying out into the front yard,” Manry says. “It got loose and started toward us, so we had to shoot it.” Don Mahnke, Bryan’s training specialist, was named a “People Plea ser” because he helped to solve a res idential sink hole problem. “It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” Mahnke says. When a citizen was having tremble with a mysterious sink hole, Mahnke brought it to the attention of the deputy city manager. After further investigation, the cause of the sink hole was found to be a broken sewer line. “It made me feel good because I was part of the work effort,” Mahnke says. He says its good to open communication between em ployees and management. Warped by Scott McCullo Teddy bears now providing more than bedtime comfort United Press International FARMINGTON, Conn. — A Uni versity of Connecticut researcher be lieves a “breathing” teddy bear can help premature infants develop their own regular, rhythmic breath ing patterns. Evelyn Thoman, a professor of bi- obehavioral sciences, said tests on premature infants at the University of Connecticut Health Center and Hartford Hospital show it may work. Premature babies are more likely than full-term infants to have breathing and sleeping problems, Thoman said. Her goal is “to make sure their developmental course is as uneventful as a full-term baby’s.” The soft, blue bears resemble most stuffed toys except for a pump- driven air hose that makes them seem to breathe. The pump is set to match the breathing rate of a sleep ing premature baby in the same crib. After several days, the infant'll covers” the bear, Thoman & Early evidence shows the infants: to move closer to, or to touch,1 pulsating bear. Once in contact* the bear's regular, rhythmic bra: ing, the infants begin to bren more regularly, Thoman said. “We’ve found that babies doE ways of gelling contact withthebi when they’re free to doso, M shesj “The final data will tell us wheti babies do have organismic wisdt® Democratic governors split on Southerner for VP choice United Press International WILLIAMSBURG, Va. —- Demo cratic governors from the South split Monday on whether Walter Mon dale’s choice for vice president could improve his chances this fall in the once solidly Democratic region. Texas Gov. Mark White said Mon dale, the Democrats’ apparent nomi nee, would run stronger in the South with either Texas Sen. Lloyd Bensten or House Majority Leader Jim Wright of Texas as his vice pres idential running mate. “The question is that some of those selections would make it easier for Mr. Mondale to carry Texas,” said White, who also recommended San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros. But Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who has publicly predicted his state will again back President Reagan, challenged the need for regional bal ance in picking a running mate. “I think that’s old thinking in poli tics,” Graham said during a break at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Southern Governors’ Association. “Our society is so mobile that re gional identifications fall down the list of how people think of them selves.” South Carolina Gov. Dick Riley agreed, saying regional balance is “overstated in importance.” “I think it’s a simple consideration that’s easily comprehended and un derstood, but I think the real consid erations are going to have to be much more complex.” Graham and Gov. Charles Robb of Virginia, the outgoing SGA chair man, urged Mondale to select a woman. Joing the call was Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins, who was interviewed by Mondale. Graham said a woman would let the Democrats capitalize on the “gender gap” — Reagan’s perceived weakness among women voters. Women voters are expected to out number men this year by 6 million, according to estimates by womens’ groups. “I believe that women have a spe cial understanding for individual and family economics,” said Gra ham. “Part of the reason for the gen der gap relates to that.” He recommended Rep. Lindy Boggs of Louisiana or Patricia Sch- roeder of Colorado, among others. Riley said Democrats have an “ex cellent opportunity” to put a woman on the ticket. But he said a woman should only be chosen “because of her capacity” and not gender. Riley said his first choice for vice president was South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings, who droppdi early from the presidential race. Collins said she believed iheti mer vice president was looking the South for a running mate.0 lins will chair the Democratic 1 tional Convention that opens Si day in San Francisco. "1 would ecourage him (Mondi to choose a woman, but it’s) choice," said Collins. Robb said if Mondale choose woman “she needs to be somw recognized for hei expertise.” Reagan: Jackson didn’t break law United Press International WASHINGTON — President Rea gan said Monday Jesse Jackson did not break the law in getting Ameri can prisoners released from Syria and Cuba and said he is grateful to Jackson for doing “something I couldn’t have done officially.” But, he added, “I think it would be very dangerous if this became a political ploy for candidates in the future.” In an interview last week, Reagan left the impression that the Demo cratic presidential candidate might have violated the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from rep resenting the United States in deal ings with foreign countries. But in a question and answer ses sion with Mid-Atlantic and Midwes tern editors and broadcasters at a White House luncheon Monday he said, “I don’t think there is any evi dence” of the 18th century law being broken by Jackson. “Anyone who wants to go simply as a citizen, a private citizen, and try to do a humanitarian thing as he suc cessfully did in Syria,” Reagan said, “I’m grateful to him for it because I know it is something I couldn’t have done officially.” “I’m grateful that those people were released in Cuban prisons,” he added. “But it is a thin line that has to be walked and I would hope that it would not become a general prac tice,” he said. With a smile, he added, “I could have done without some of the crit icisms of American policy that were made while he was in those foreign countries.” As a result of talks with Syria’s Ha fez Assad last January, Jackson won the release of Navy Lt. James Good man, whose plane was shot down during U.S. operations in the Leb anon conflict. Late last month, Jackson met with Fidel Castro and won the release of 48 prisoners from Cuban jails. Responding to other questions, Reagan labeled his environmental and civil rights records two of the “better-kept secrets” of his adminis tration. He predicted blacks would vote Republican if made aware of what his policies have done. In a voice tinged with emotion, he said: “If we can find a way for those people to know what we’ve done, I think that they would choose our policies, rather than the policies of President Ronald Reagan the past .... Those policies sentenced too many people to the bondage of welfarism rather than opening up jobs and opportunities.” He acknowledged the historic po litical bonds between blacks and the Democratic Party but said he is “not counting them out or simply ignor ing them” in his bid for re-election. Reagan said his environmental re cord is “the other best-kept secret of our administration.” He said his administration has added millions of acres of wilderness land, embarked on the biggest cleanup ever of the national park system and has begun acquiring new land. Conservatism aids trendy Experts say ‘virginal is OK United Press International A husband and wife team of sex experts at Yale University say stu dents no longer panic at the idea of being virginal — “not the way it did up to the mid-1970s.” “We used to have students coming in a panic, saying, ‘I am still a vir gin,’ ” said Dr. Phillip M. Sarrel, an associate professor of obstetrics, gy necology and psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Males and females were among those upset about being in a virginal state, he said. His wife, Lorna J. Sarrel, assistant clinical professor of social work in psychiatry, obstetrics and gyneco logy, agreed. The Sarrels said they think word that “virginal is OK” got around campus as the result of the demysti fication of sex, a process that took on importance as the women’s health movement and sex education grew. It also developed with a swing to conservatism on many college cam puses. While the trend they describe is based on studies at Yale, the Sarrels said reports from other college cam puses indicate their conclusions to be true of campuses generally these days. The Sarrels are co-directors of the Yale Sex Counseling Service, a pro gram pioneered by them and copied by many colleges and universities. Much of the information they col lect about sexual mores on campus comes through counseling and treat ment in a sex therapy setting and from confidential questionnaires filled out each year by up to 300 stu dents in a Human Sexuality course they teach at the school in New Ha ven, Conn. They could not quantify the per centage of students comfortable with being virginal. But they said it is clear that a virginal state now is con sidered “very normal and nothing to be ashamed of.” Growing popularity of masturba tion among female students is an other significant change in sexual behavior on campus, the Sarrels said. “In 1969 and the early 1970s, the data we collected on the sexual knowledge, attitudes and behavior of women students showed that about one-third of them mastur bated — a statistic that exactly agreed with the Kinsey findings for this age group. “Starting in 1973, there was a sud den and steep rise in the number of women students who said they mas turbated. To some degree, it change may simply have reflected greater willingness to admit to mi turbadng, but there has undouli edly been a marked change in youn women’s actual behavior. “From 1976 on, the statistic In been f airly consistent and nowata 70 to 80 percent of college wonw say they are masturbating. “More college women today at cept the idea that masturbationi healthy. In 1970,66 percentofthe agreed with the statement, ‘MasM bation is acceptable when theobjd live is simply the attainment of set sory enjoyment.’ “By the 1980’s, more than82|tf cent agreed.” Contraceptive practices, genic herpes and AIDS (acquired immu# | deficiency syndrome) also accouH t for changes in the love styles ofsn f dents, the Sarrels said. They said: | • The threat of AIDS has mac : homosexuals more discriminatingi selecting a partner. • The threat of genital herpi makes it far from rare for a pent going to bed with another for d first to ask: “Do you have herpes? • Males often ask females wk kind of contraceptive they use, any. condominium for you. Select from hundreds of condos on the market today in just one stop. Green & Browne Realty has sold more condominiums than anyone in the area. Since we doni own the condos offered, we can show you the condominium fhafs right for you. No high pressure salesman, just hundreds of condos to select from ... all in one stop at The Condo Marl. AGGIE CLEANERS Thursday Special RIllO loanc- Launderedor DIUC dCrdllo DryCleaned $1.50 846-4116 - Northgate- 111 College Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30 Sat. 8-3 pm SPECIAL NOTICE 2nd SUMMER SESSION OPTIONAL BOARD PLAN Students, on campus, off campus, and graduate, may dine on a meal plan during the 2ncl Summer Session at TAMU. Students selecting the 7-day plan may dine three meals each day, except Sunday evening: Those selecting the 5-day plan may dine three meals each day, Monday through Friday. Meals will be served in Commons. Fees are payable to the Controller of Accounts, Fiscal Office, Coke Building. Notice dates: Commons will be open for cash business on Registration day, July 12. Meal plans will begin on the first day of class, July 13. Fees for each plan are as follows: 7 Day $215.00 5 day $188.00 Battalion Classified 845-2611