Monday, September 17, 1984/The Battalion/Page 3
Accident victim’s family
discusses life after DWI
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
For the Wooten family, the night
of March 19 started out like any
other. Cathy Wooten, 19, was on a
date, but called home at 10:30 p.m.
to tell her mom she’d be going some
where else with a friend.
Ann Wooten, Cathy’s mother, re
ceived another phone call at 11:15.
It was a phone call every parent
dreads. The call was from St. Joseph
Hospital, where Cathy had been
taken after an automobile accident
on 29th Street in Bryan.
Ann rushed to the hospital, where
she learned that Cathy had suffered
numerous injuries including a frac
tured pelvis, a broken leg and a bro
ken ankle. But the worst news was
that Cathy’s brain had been dam
aged.
She was moved to Houston’s Her
mann Hospital, where she could re
ceive more sophisticated care. Her
father, Steve Wooten, who had been
out of town, joined his wife there.
“They didn’t know if she would
live the next 48 hours, but Cathy did
live,” Mrs. Wooten told reporters
Friday afternoon at a press confer
ence in her home on Jones Road.
Cathy was hospitalized in Hous
ton for three months.
"It was destroying our family, so I
decided it was time to bring her ho
me,” Wooten said.
Ten weeks after the accident, the
Wooten’s insurance company cut off
benefits because Cathy, a 1983 grad
uate of Bryan High School, was not a
student and was over 19. The deci
sion devastated the Wootens, who
now face more than a quarter of a
million dollars in bills.
A fund has been established at Re
public Bank of A&M to help pay
medical expenses.
The press conference was ar
ranged by Kirk Brown, president of
the Brazos County chapter of Moth
ers Against Drunk Driving. Before
the press conference, he told The
Battalion that the driver of the car in
which Cathy was a passenger re
ceived a sentence that was too light.
“She never even lost her driver’s
license,” he said. “She didn’t spend
any time in jail, as far as we know.”
Mrs. Wooten would not discuss
the accident. But in an article in the
Bryan-College Station Eagle, Assis
tant County Attorney Jack Pharris
said that before the one-car accident,
Cathy and the driver, Rebecca Mar
tinez McWilliams, “had participated
in the same activities.”
The county didn’t have a strong
enough case for driving while intoxi
cated, Pharris said. He said the in
vestigating officer couldn’t establish
positively who was driving the car.
Pharris said that at the Aug. 17
trial McWilliams “was in an ad
vanced state of pregnancy.” She
pleaded guilty to first offense DWI,
was fined $350 plus $70 in court
costs and sentenced to 90 days in jail.
The jail time was probated except
for 30 days and McWilliams was re
quired to pay $2,000 restitution.
McWilliams has visited Cathy once
since the accident.
Mrs. Wooten said Cathy has im
proved in the three months she has
been home. Her 17- and 14-year-old
brothers and 10-year-old sister have
helped in giving her 24-hour care.
“When we brought her home she
wouldn’t even follow us with her
eyes,” she said.
“Now she can give a hug, wipe her
own mouth ana squeeze with her
right hand. That’s it. She doesn’t
communicate with us. We don’t
know how far she’ll go.
“A lot of people think we should
be angry, but I’m hurt. It’s not like
when your kids are little and you can
put a band-aid on the scratch and
tell them it’s okay. You can’t put a
band-aid on something this big,” she
said.
“It makes it hard to think of any
thing else.”
Change in name only, not service
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
The name vs new, but the services
offered by the former Texas A&M
Data Processing Center — now the
Computing Services Center — are
the same.
‘“Data processing' dates clear back
to the 50s,” director William Lafield
says. “The new name is more accu
rately descriptive of the Center.”
The name change is part of a
long-range plan to change the orga
nization of computing at Texas
A&M. A task force assembled by
Chancellor Arthur Hansen devel
oped the plan in 1983.
Under the plan, two new positions
have been created: director of ad
ministrative information systems
and director of academic comput
ing.
Lafield, who is the interim direc
tor of administrative computing,
said he doesn’t know who the new
directors will be.
“The new positions were created
to help the planning and coordinat
ing of computing on campus,” he
said. “Computing has grown in an
explosive way.”
The plan divides administrative
and academic computing into sepa
rate groups. The Center and a sepa
rate administrative applications
group will handle administrative
computing. Both will report to the
director of administrative informa
tion systems under the vice presi
dent for fiscal affairs.
Lafield said the administrative ap
plications support group will pick up
software consulting and mainte
nance for all administrative comput
ing. Formerly, the Data Processing
Center handled all computer serv
ices.
The Center currently has three
mainframe computers, including a
recently installed Amdahl 5850.
Lafield said that “within the near
future,” one of the mainframes will
be used for a new interactive com
puting system.,
“The user can respond better with
the new interactive system,” he said.
A campus-wide network of termi
nals are connected to the mainf
rames at the Center. The Remote
Computing Center is located in the
basement of the old Cushman Li
brary. Academic computing is lo
cated in the Blocker Building. Ter
minals also are located in the
Kleberg, Zachry and Teague build
ings.
The 1,700 terminals, which in
clude those owned by departments
and those at the remote sites, are
used by “just about every depart
ment,” Lafield said.
The Center is open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. The comput
ers are taken down for maintenance
from 7 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sun
day, and from 10 p.m. Sunday to 8
a.m. Monday.
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United Way campaign prepared
to kick off 1984 area fundraising
By CAMILLE BROWN
Staff Writer
It’s time again for the United
Way fund drive in Aggieland.
From Sept. 24 to Nov. 16, Texas
A&M students, faculty and staff
will have the chance to give
money and service to the Brazos
County United Way.
A goal of $ 110,000 has been set
for the Texas A&M System,
which is divided into three sec
tions. The system agencies and
the colleges of agriculture and
engineering have a goal of
$45,000, Texas A&M Universi-
tyhas a goal of $55,000 and the
Texas A&M student body has a
goal of $10,000.
The University will kick off its
campaign with a breakfast on Fri
day and the University system
and colleges of engineering and
agriculture will officially begin at
a breakfast on Sept. 28.
In charge of system agencies
and the colleges of engineering
and agriculture is Ivory Nelson,
executive assistant to the chan
cellor. Heading the University
fund drive effort is Charles R.
Cargill, vice president for opera
tions, and coordinating the stu
dent part of the campaign is
John-Mark Stephenson.
The campaign sponsored by
the three areas of the Texas A&M
System is part of a county-wide
fund drive to raise $425,000 for
the Brazos County United Way.
The money raised goes to sup
port human service agencies m
Brazos County.
“The goal set for the Texas
A&M University System makes
up 25.8 percent of the county’s
goal,” said Bob Fleischer, exec
utive director of the Brazos
County United Way. “So you can
see how important Texas A&M is
to the fund drive.”
Shark attacks, kills snorkler
in water near San Francisco
United Press International
PESCADERO, Calif. — A 15-foot
shark surfaced in shallow water
among a group of shellfish divers,
grabbed one and dragged him un
der before surfacing again with the
dying man in its jaws, sheriffs dep
uties said Sunday.
Swimmers and divers were
warned to stay out of the ocean 30
miles south of San Francisco where
the attack occurred, but dozens of
surfers were reported still riding the
waves.
The shark, believed to be a great
white, entered water 15 feet deep
where abalone divers were snorkling
Saturday and attacked Omar Con
ger, 29, of San Jose, Calif., sheriffs
deputies said. He died moments
later.
Conger’s diving partner, Chris
Rehm, 33, said the shark struck
twice. Its white-headed body rose
out of the water with Conger locked
in its jaws, then dragged Conger un
der before returning to the surface
to release him, Rehm said.
“The head of the shark and whole
body came out of the water,” said
Rehm, who pulled Conger, bleeding
profusely, onto an inflated raft and
hauled him to shore.
Two divers within 100 feet of
Conger said they were unaware of
the attack until they heard Rhem yell
from shore.
“We were pretty scared and swam
in,” Steve Guzzetta said. “He said his
friend had been bitten by a 15-foot
great white shark. Sure enough, he
was there.”
Rehm “had dragged his friend in
from about 200 feet offshore and he
was dead when he got to the beach,”
Guzzetta said.
“He was breathing when I pulled
him on the raft, but I think he was
dead by the time we got in,” Rehm
said.
Sheriffs deputies said Conger
died on the beach from massive
wounds to his buttocks and legs.
Great white sharks have been
sighted in waters off the Golden
Gate several times in recent weeks.
The hugh predators are attracted to
the area by the presence of a large
numbers of elephant seals five miles
south of Pigeon Point, Price said.
Israel's cabinet devaluates shekel
United Press International
JERUSALEM — Israel’s new
unity Cabinet, meeting for the first
time and under pressure from
Washington to curb a soaring for
eign debt and inflation, announced
Sunday a $1 billion budget cut and a
9 percent devaluation of the shekel.
Yitzhak Modai, the new finance
minister, said Prime Minister Shi
mon Peres will present an Israeli
austerity plan to President Reagan
during a trip to the United States in
the next few weeks. The plan in
volves all ministries cutting their
budgets.
The government, in an announce
ment on state-owned television just
before midnight, said it was devalu
ing the Israeli shekel immediately by
9 percent in a move aimed at pre
venting a run on the dollar by Israe
lis nervous over reports of an im
pending devaluation.
At the same time, the government
announced that the price of gasoline
would rise by 9 percent and prices of
basic food stuffs subsidized by the
government would increase soon.
Israelis, apparently fearing such a
move was imminent, jammed gaso
line stations before the announce
ment was made to fill up before
prices rise.
After the devluation, a person try
ing to sell a dollar in an Israeli bank
would get 397 shekels. Before the
devaluation,’’ 1 the exchange rate was
364 shekels to the dollar.
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