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Peace group bikes
for nuclear freeze
See page 3
British miners violent
as dock strike ends
See page 5
Critical crossroads
for Dallas Cowboys
Seepage?
Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, July 24, 1984
Regents discuss new
Technology college
By KARI FLUEGEL
Staff Writer
The Texas A&M Board of Re
gents discussed investigating the
possibility of creating a new College
of Technology and using Available
University Funds (AUF) for schol
arships at the board meetings Sun
day and Monday. Regents also dis
cussed building plans and proposals.
Dr. Gordon P. Eaton, provost and
vice president for academic affairs,
reported to the Regents that a com
mittee is being formed to look into
the pros and cons of establishing a
College of Technology.
The donors of three
professorships requested that the
University investigate the possibility
of a College of Technology.
System Chancellor Arthur G.
Hansen said one possibility for the
structure of the new college was of
fering a “two-plus-two” degree. In
the “two-plus-two” model a two-year
associates degree program would be
offered with the emphasis on job-re
ady students. The following optional
two years would finish the bachelor’s
degree.
One objection to the model could
come from junior colleges and com
munity colleges that usually educate
students interested in associate de
grees.
“As soon as we look into an asso
ciate’s degree, a lot of red flags are
going to go out,” Hansen said.
In other business, the regents’
Committee for Academic Campuses
established the Wayne and Ruby
Crisman Institute for Petroleum
Reservoir Management. The insti
tute will serve as a mechanism for
stimulating research and advancing
reservoir technology. The Texas
A&M institute will be the first of its
kind.
Wayne Crisman, Class of ’38, is
the former president and chairman
of the board of Falcon Seaboard. He
donated $500,000 to start the insti
tute. Institute operating funds will
come from smaller petroleum com
panies.
Action was deferred until the No
vember meeting on a motion to give
Texas A&M President Frank E.
Vandiver permission to use
$250,000 from the Available Univer
sity Fund for four-year scholarships
to outstanding high school students.
Hansen did not endorse Vandiv
er’s recommendation because it
Events center planned
would result in a continuing commit
ment of funds from the AUF.
Hansen said he was wary of mak
ing any long term commitments of
AUF money until he knows how
much money is available in the AUF.
Several regents also expressed con
cern about money availability.
“We don’t want to make any long
term commitment until we can find
out how much Available University
Funds we have,” William A. McKen
zie, board vice chairman, said.
But Royce E. Wisenbaker de
fended Vandiver, saying that in the
past, the regents had chastised Van
diver for not getting top scholars.
Then when Vandiver asks for funds,
Wisenbaker said, he is refused the
money.
Even if the regents eventually
deny Vandiver’s request, their ac
tions will not cancel his efforts.
“We won’t abandon the quest,”
Vandiver said, “we’ll just find an
other way to do it.”
Regents also were informed of
plans to dedicate the park located by
the overpass on both sides of Uni
versity Drive in front of the new Ag
riculture Engineering Laboratory
Building. The park will be dedicated
See REGENTS, page 5
Building ‘to glisten’
Labor projected to win
United Press International
TEL AVIV, Israel — The opposi
tion Labor Party was prcyected to
win more parliamentary seats than
the ruling Likud bloc in national
elections Monday, but Prime Min
ister Yitzhak Shamir predicted he
would be able to form a coalition
government despite his second-place
finish.
“The Likud has won,” Shamir de-
dared in an address to pat ty workers
who were jubilant despite the Li
kud’s second-place finish. “I am cer
tain that within a few days, we shall
form the new government.”
State-run Israel Television pro
jected Shimon Peres’ Labor Parly
would win 46 seats to 42 for the Li
kud bloc. The projection was based
on results from half the 4,589 voting
stations.
But Israel Radio’s political analyst,
Hanan Crystal, said it appeared the
Labor Party and its supporters could
account only for 56 seats, leaving it
five seats short of the 61 seats
needed for a majority in the 120-
member Parliament-
“That means the Likud, although
it trails Labor, can form a coalition
government of more than 60 seats if
it can win the support of the parties
that cooperated with it in the out
going government ... and factions
that prefer the Likud as a first op
tion,” Crystal said.
But Peres refused to concede he
had suffered his third defeat iri
seven years at the hands of the Li
kud.
Shamir, renewing his call for a
government of national unity, said
that “preliminary discussions with a
number of parties on either a na
tional unity government or a Likud-
led government have been favor
able.”
Peres, appearing before glum
supporters at Labor headquarters af
ter the projection was broadcast, said
he would try to win enough support
to form a new government.
“Labor has emerged as the biggest
party in this campaign and it is our
duty to try to form the next govern
ment that will contend with the
problems of the state,” Peres said.
In the last election in 1981, the Li
kud was led by Menachem Begin
and won 48 seats to 47 for Labor.
Begin remained in seclusion and
failed to vote in Monday’s balloting.
No one party has ever won an abso
lute parliamentary majority in Is
raeli history.
Israel Television said the balance
of power rested with the National
Religious Party.
A leader of that party, Yehuda
Ben-Meir, said the NRP would press
for a government of national unity
Under Israeli law, the president
asks the candidate he believes has
the best chances of gaining a parlia
mentary majority to form a govern
ment.
By KARI FLUEGEL
Staff Writer
“It will seem to glisten out there on
the prairie.” V
That’s the description architect
Ralph Anderson of Crain/Anderson,
Inc. of Houston, gives for his con
cept of Texas A&M’s special events
center. The center is just that — a
concept. It is in the preliminary
stages of design.
But William McKenzie, vice chair
man of the Texas A&M Board of
Regents, said the design, presented
to the board Sunday, is an
“outstanding concept.”
The proposed $46.9 million spe
cial events center will be located on
the corner of Joe Routt and Beef
Gattle Road.
“It represents the most advanced
thinking for this type of building
anywhere in the world today,” An
derson said.
The plan calls for creating a 15-
foot rise to build on. The architects
have planned a metallic finish for
the structure — hence the glistening
on the prairie.
The reason? Ralph Anderson,
spokesman for the firm, said a spe
cial events center has elements of
show business to it and should be
built accordingly.
Photo by ERIC EVAN LEE
A model of the Texas A&M Special Events Center — minus
the roof to allow a glimpse of seating arrangements.
“It’s not a classroom building, but
has an element of show biz about it,”
Anderson said.
The oval-shaped facility will seat
17,000 on two levels — up from the
15,000 originally envisioned. It also
will have 12 escalators and three el
evators.
“Any indoor concert could be
handled in this building,” said Don
Powell, director of business services.
“A circus, ice shows, rock concerts
as loud as they want to.”
Basketball games and concerts
aren’t the only events the University
hopes to attract to the center. Powell
said the facility also could be used
for ice shows and circuses. The lofty,
airy lobby could be used for recep
tions and banquets, fleeting rooms
also will be in the facility.
Crain/Anderson, Inc. is the same
firm that designed the Frank Erwin
Special Events Center at the Univer
sity of Texas. The firm also designed
the Astrodome.
Dean designate: writing epidemic to decline
In Today’s Battalion
By ROBIN BLACK
Senior Staff Writer
Deteriorating writing skills, a
problem that has become wide
spread, is a trend that should begin
to fade in the next five to seven
years, Daniel Fallon, dean designate
of the College of Liberal Arts, said
Monday.
Fallon talked with reporters Mon
day before appearing at an executive
session of the Texas A&M Board of
Regents. The Regents’ closed meet
ing was called to discuss and approve
the two nominations for the posi
tions of the liberal arts dean and the
engineering dean and vice chan
cellor of engineering. Final approval
is expected today at the Board of Re
gents’ meeting.
Fallon, who will replace Dr. Keith
Bryant in the liberal arts college, said
there has been great concern over
the last 10 years about the decline of
writing skills.
Dean designate Daniel Fallon
In the last decade, Fallon said,
universities have offered for the first
time degrees — including doctorate
degrees — in writing.
Writing is now being taught by
specially trained teachers as a way of
learning and thinking, he said, and
this new-found sensitivity should
help alleviate the trend.
“What you see in the schools often
reflects what people value,” he saidy
“and there has been a human cry all
over the land for concern about edu
cation, and writing skills in partic
ular.”
But writing skills are only part of
the essential core curriculum, Fallon
said.
There is a need for people to
carry with them a basic understand
ing of civilization, he sajd.
“A university must give the tools
that a student needs in order to cope
in the modern world,” he said, “in
cluding history, literature and phi
losophy.”
That, Fallon said, is the real na
ture of the debate on core curric
ulum — or what it means to be an
educated person.
The core curriculum issue has
been hotly debated in the Faculty
Senate, and Fallon said he hopes to
give considerable input on the sub
ject when he assumes his position as
the new liberal arts dean.
Fallon pointed out that although
there has been extensive discussion
on a basic curriculum at Texas
A&M, the University is not the only
institution in this situation.
“Civilizing the student through
this kind of service curriculum is
something that is concerning many
colleges right now,” he said.
Fallon — who was picked from
about 100 applicants — is currently a
professor of psychology at the Uni
versity of Colorado at Denver, and if
the Regents approve his nomination,
he will assume responsibilities as
dean Sept. 1.
Local
• Thirteen-year-old boy tells University Police he as
saulted women on Texas A&M campus because of bore
dom. See story page 4.
State
• The Texas Safety Association will start a children’s car
seat loan program in August. See story page 6.
National
• Vanessa Williams gives up her title as Miss America after
some ‘‘sexually explicit” photos of her appeared in Pent
house magazine. See story page 8.