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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1984)
>1 The Battalion e adminis- [horization larent.” linistration nedicineat medicines nefits, they . Undesira- and might g, nausea, ny allergic ds, such as tss. he-counter prescribed /anted side n f oods to dicine that ks milk or n adminis- 1c. For ex es a day" md night? e adminis- neals, after Wednesday, August 29, 1984 sewter and dlow, black, ►ol or of the :nd and in suit. Look h ear flaps, its, helmets, toque. Ear popular. tyles for the icy can get iwed cross- ving sport, 1981. Two 1 and cross- nvestors lose as coin-op computers crash United Press International TULSA, Okla. — It had all the el ements of a booming business — high tech, low cost, functional pur pose. But the big plans of Collegiate Products Inc. to place coin-operated computers in college dormitories fizzled like a wet firecracker. 'Tm embarrassed,” said John Johnson, CPI’s vice president of sales. “You expect something like that to really fly. Itdidn’t.” A year ago, CPI tried out the coin op computer idea in residence halls it Oklahoma State University. Dis appointed in the turnout, they moved them to the University of Tulsa and equipped them with video games. That captured students’ at tention only momentarily. The idea came from New Hamp shire, where coin-operated comput ers were becoming popular in librar ies. The program was launched at Oklahoma State with strong support from university officials and Apple Computer, Johnson said. It seems the only group not excited about the program was the students. “The students would come and they would look at that computer but we couldn’t get them to sit down and do anything with it,” Johnson said. The idea was to give students easy access to computers that could be used with word processing packages for writing term papers or with software packages for specific sub jects. “I think, quite frankly, they were “The most use was by foreign stu dents,” he said. “The rest of them, the attitude was ‘If I’m not assigned that in class I’m not going to worry Tm embarrassed. You expect something like that to really fly. It didn’t’—John Johnson CPI’s vice president of sales about it.”’ Tulsa-based CPI leased the com puter, memory, screen and printer to the universities for three years at a scared,” he said. “They would punch a couple of buttons on it and it was like the thing was going to explode on them. “You could make your lease pay ment fairly easy if you had the proper usage,” Johnson said, cost of $723 each six months. CPI provided the word processing software, a security device so the ma chines could not be stolen, and all The machines needed 65 percent usage to make a profit, he said. CPI lost $15,000 to $20,000 on the venture, Johnson said. “That’s minimal compared to what the potential (for profit) was,” he said. The vending devices have been removed from the computers that were purchased for the program and the equipment has been leased to university departments. CPI won’t suffer too much be cause of the failure, Johnson said. The company’s base business is suc cessfully renting compact refrigera tors to college students. CPI also provides activity buses and is devel oping a long-distance telephone service for college students. Experimentation is nothing new at CPI. President T.O. Allan and Johnson have come up with ideas that sold, and others that didn’t. “There was the strong box (for personal belongings),” Johnson said. “That one never went either. “We used to be big in Fussball ta bles,” he said. “That’s not big any more. either. “I think we could make a lot of money doing other things,” he said. “We just have a lot of fun with this.” Allan, who purchased the com pany four years ago after a dozen years with CPI, is willing to take the risks to try new ideas, Johnson said. “If companies don’t take risks like this then you don’t really get any new products,” he said. “I know T.O. looks at it like if we try this and it crashes it won’t destroy the com pany. “We don’t do anything that puts us in terminal risk,” he said. Johnson said CPI has not given up on the coin-op computer idea, but the program will stay on the back burner for awhile, perhaps until to day’s high-tech oriented high school students become tomorrow’s college students. “It might be three or four years,” Johnson said, “before we bring it back out again and it will go. “It was a good product,” he said. “But we were a little ahead of our time.” Texas students face changes in new school year United Press International An estimated 2.7 millioji students returned to classes in Texas public schools Monday to face tougher aca demic standards and curriculum re forms imposed by the Legislature and state school board. "1 don’t think we have ever had a year, in my experience, where so many drastic changes had to be ma- de,” said Linus Wright, superinten dent of the Dallas Independent School District. Some of the state’s 1,100 school districts, such as Houston, began classes last week, hut most schools opened Monday. Houston and Dallas boasted the state’s largest enrollments. Houston’s 234 schools enrolled about 179,000 a week ago, hut that figure was expected to reach about 190,000 after Labor Day. In Dallas, an estimated 127,000 students reported for classes Mon day. Austin reported an enrollment of roughly 58,000. The Texas Education Agency in Austin reported no problems on the opening day for schools. But some black leaders in Hous ton called for black students to boy cott school Monday to protest what they call rampant racism in the But some black leaders in Houston called for black students to boycott school Monday to protest what they call rampant racism in the schools. schools. However, HISD spokeswo man Jeri Konisberg said schools re ported “very few” absences. About 30 people, including a few students, marched outside the fed eral courthouse to call attention to the boycott, which was planned to 2.7 million students bock in Texas public schools coincide with a hearing on a motion to dismiss a 28-year-old desegrega tion lawsuit. HISD has asked U.S. District Judge Robert O’Conor to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming it is fully inte grated. However, the National Associa tion for the Advancement of Col ored People and the Mexican Amer ican Legal Defense and Education Fund, claim the district still discrimi nates against minorities. Texas teachers also returned to school Monday with a raise of at least $1,700 a year, with first-year teach ers earning no less than $15,200 a year. A new four-level career ladder also will provide additional yearly bonuses of $2,000, $4,000 and $6,000 to teachers who complete certain educational and perfor mance requirements. But all teachers and administra tors must pass a competency exami nation before June 30, 1986, to re tain their jobs. The changes in curriculum, aca demic standards and teacher pay scales were approved by the Texas Legislature during a 30-day special session that ended July 4, and by earlier actions by the state Board of Education. In anticipation of the confusion at the start of the school year, the Dal las ISD spent the summer mailing thousands of information packets to parents, answering a hot line to ex plain the legislative changes and opening their offices three weeks early to students looking for guidance before school started. One of the major changes this fall was the requirement that ninth grad ers select one of two “tracks” to fol low toward graduation from high school. The choice was either a gen eral-vocational program requiring 21 credits or an advanced academic plan that requires 22. Other changes mandated for the new school year included: • School districts are required to provide tutors to students failing in one or more subjects. • High school students must pass a basic skills test to receive a di ploma. Students will be given oppor tunities to pass the test in the elev enth and twelfth grades and also will be offered remedial help. • Students must maintain a grade average of at least 70 to be promoted from one grade to the next. • Elementary students may ad vance a grade level by earning a grade of 90 or above on an exam de veloped by the state board. Second ary students can earn credit for courses by earning at least 90 on sub ject exams. • Students cannot receive credit for a course if they have more than five unexcused absences per semes ter. No student is exempt from final examinations. • Students cannot voluntarily leave school before the end of the school year in which they reach their 16th birthdays. • Students who fail to maintain grades of 70 or above in all subjects, except advanced or honors classes, are prohibited from participating in extracurricular activities. • No extracurricular activities or E radices can be offered in the weeks efore or during final exams. • Pupil-teacher ratios cannot ex ceed 22:1 in kindergarten, first and second grades. CALL-AMERICA Get st FREE PHONE! And Save Up To 50% On Every Long Distance Call. For a limited time Call-America will give you a free Styleline desk top or wall tone telephone ($79.95 retail value) w-hen you sign up for Call-America long distance service. Just pay our $20 initial fee for residential service and get your free phone. Call-America is the lower priced, higher quality long distance company in Bryan-College Station. 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