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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1984)
ST'VATVir*: retlrinRing tradition TexasA&M « • The Battalion Vol. 80 Mo. 53 USPS 045360 14 pages Serving the University community College Station, Texas Monday, Movember 12, 1984 Veteran's Day: dedication and ceremony A&M rededicates WWI memorial By KARLA K. MARTIN Stuff Writer There weren’t as many people as expected, hut those who did at tend the Veteran’s Day ceremony at Kyle Field Sunday were not disappointed. With a crowd of about 4,500, the ceremony began with the dedication of theEli Whiteley Medal of Honor Park, a four-acre park bordering both sides of Uni versity Drive just west of the rail road tracks along Wellborn Road. Eli Whiteley is the only living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Corps of Cadets members, dressed in the original uniforms of the World War I and World War 11 Color Guards, marched across Kyle Field to the pre-re corded music of “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” An American flag that has flown over the L’.S. Capitol and the Arlington National Cemetery, as well as the Philippine island of Corregidor, where Aggies held a muster during WWII and again in 194(), and Pointe du Hoc, France, where Lt. Col. Earl Rud der led an attack, was raised dur ing the ceremony. The wife of the late Earl Rud der presented Texas A&M Presi dent Frank Vandiver with the flag, which represents the five great conflicts of the United States. The flag will hang in the Rudder Complex beside Rud der’s picture. “The record of the Texas Ag gies is a proud one,” Vandiver said as he accepted the flag. “A&M takes pride in tradi tions, especially in the tradition of service to our country. We’ve had Aggies lighting from the Span- ish-American War to Grenada and Lebanon.” Lt. Gen. Ormond Simpson led the rededication of the WWI Me morial Monument on the north west corner of the drill field. The monument was moved during the constructrion of the Albritton Lower, first to storage in the Physical Plant and then to a temporary site by the Memorial Student Center. “In WWI, as always when free dom is threatened, Aggies re sponded," Simpson said. “Fifty- five Aggies died Tn that war, but A&M didn’t forget its own. “In 1921. there were 55 memo rial trees planted around the main drill field with the names of each Aggie inscribed on each tree. “It was on this field that those men played, passed in review and drilled, and it’s entirely appropri ate that the monument be perma nently placed here.” Simpson said he hopes stu dents will come to the monument in times of reflection. “It’s not a cemetery,” Simpson said. “It’s a place for students to ponder about themselves and their challenges and how they’ll meet them. “It’s a place where they can dream impossible dreams —not being cynical enough to know these dreams are impossible —and carry them out anyway. For we have enough cynics, we have too many, and we need more dream ers.” The Ross Volunteers followed Simpson’s speech with a three- volley salute and taps. The crowd had a moment of silence and the Singing Cadets sang “My Buddy.” The Aggie Wing of the Con federate Air Force then per formed a missing-man ily over with four aircraft used in WWII and landed at Easterwood Air port, where they were on display. Military tanks were displayed beside Kyle Field and there were three military helicopters on the drill field. L t . Gen. J a m e s F . Hollingsworth, Class of ’40, said that patriotism is more than just parades and waving flags on July Fourth and Veteran’s Day. “Patriotism is the love of God, the love of country, the love of people,” Hollingsworth said. Photo by KATHY W1ESEPAPE Rededication of the World War I memorial Photo by STEPHANIE ROSS Tim Peacock from Fort Hood shows Nathan Rhey of Bryan the ALT IS Cobra, an army helicopter;. The helicopter was on the drill field as part of Veterans’ Day here. The dedication of the Eli Whiteley Medal of Honor Park highlighted the cer emonies. Whiteley is the only living recipient of the Congres sional Medal of Honor. President Reagan accepts memorial United Press International WASHINGTON — President Reagan accepted the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a national monument Sunday, telling thou sands of former servicemen gath ered beneath gray skies, “thanks f or your courage.” And, said Reagan, “thank you for being patient with your coun trymen” who, now nearly a de cade after the Vietnam war, have finally welcomed them back home. With that, Reagan signed pa pers accepting the Vietnam Vet erans Memorial, built by vets themselves with more than $7 million in private donations, as a national monument located near the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial includes a 500- foot black granite wall inscribed with the names of 58,022 Ameri cans lost in Southeast Asia, plus a statue of three servicemen rep resenting all the more than 2.7 million Americans who served in Vietnam. The president, who turned down an invitation to attend the 1982 dedicat ion of the memorial, citing security reasons, went to the Veterans Day ceremony di rectly upon his return from his post-election vacation in Califor nia. Reagan, dressed in a trench coat and accompanied by his wife Nancy, was greeted with ‘warm and sustained applause by the gathering that numbered in the several thousands and included many vets in old battle fatigues. “Let me say this to Vietnam veterans gathered here today,” Reagan said, speaking slowly and emotionally. “When you returned home, you brought solace to the loved ones of those who fell. But little solace was given to you.” He said, “Some of your coun trymen were unable to distin guish between their native dislike for war and the stainless patriot ism of those who suffered its scars. “But there has been a rethink ing there too. Now we can say to you, and say as a nation, thank you f or your courage.” Texas A&M’s library — a question of adequacy Aggie history in archives By ADA FAY WOOD Reporter If it’s the history of Texas A&M or anything related to the University you want, then the University Archives on campus probably has it. David Chapman, assistant ar chivist, encourages students to come and use this vast accumula tion of historical information. “It’s a great place to do a re search paper, we’ve got so much material," he said. The archives consists of three units: University Archives, His- See ARCHIVES, page 13 Editor’s note: this is the first part of a three part series on the library. By DONN FRIEDMAN Stuff Writer Administrators, faculty and grad uate students use the same word to describe Texas A&M University’s Sterling C. Evans Library: inade quate. On the surface, the library ap pears quite adequate. It houses more than 1.5 million books, 2.2 million microfiche and microfilm and 67,()()() maps. In 1979 the library building was expanded to six floors and now easily houses the collection. In fact, the library’s collection will have to grow by almost one-third be fore the available space is filled. As a teaching library, it has few problems. The library staff and ad ministration have good relations w'ith students, faculty and staff, the 1982 Institutional Self-Study of the library says. The library’s budget has increased tit ;t 13.9 percent annual rate for the past 10 years. With these resources, why do ad ministrators, faculty and graduate students still call the library inade quate? Though 1.5 million may seem like large number of books, the library here is at least 600,000 volumes short, according to the Clapp-Jor- dan formula for evaluating univer sity and research libraries. In other words, the library’s collection con tains only 66.7 percent of the vol umes it should. With about 40 volumes per stu dent, Texas A&M ranks 25th among leading land-grant institutions. As a comparison, No. 1 Illinois has five times as many (166 volumes per stu dent), No. 8 Missouri has twice as many (77) and No. 16 Oklahoma State University has one and a half times as many (55). Another school inevitably used for comparison is the University of Texas. The difference between the two libraries is about like the record on the football field where UT has won 63 of 90 match-ups. In the li brary rankings, Texas is No. 8 in the country with almost five million vol umes, 90 per student. A&M is 72 places back, at No. 80, with fewer than 1.5 million volumes. But the measure of the adequacy of a library doesn’t depend solely on its rankings. A survey conducted as part of the self study says under graduates are satisfied with the col lection. “However, as students mature, their level of satisfaction with all as pects of the library collection de creases, and only about 60 percent of graduate students think the book and journal collection is adequate, ” the self-study says. “It may be con- d ided that, although 1 exas A&M’s library is a relatively good under graduate library, it is less than totally satisfactory as a graduate library. Only a little over half the responding faculty expressed approval of the adequacy of the book and journal holdings ... ” University President Frank F. Vandiver expresses dismay over the collection. In his 1982 state of the University address he said the li brary needed a minimum of four million volumes to meet the Univer sity’s needs. See BOOKS, page 13 Israel refuses to free militia officials United Press International JERUSALEM — Israel Sunday rejected Lebanon’s demand that it free four Lebanese Moslem militia leaders, casting a shadow over the future of talks on the withdrawal of an estimated 1 (),()()() Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. Lebanese newspaper reports said the future of the stalled talks rested on U.S. efforts to persuade Israel to free the four. They said Lebanon was willing to resume the negotia tions Wednesday if the United States was successful. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department in Washington said he had no information on the reports and no independent confirmation was avail; ble. The four detainees are officials of the Shiite Moslem Amal movement, which has been fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, and were among 11 people arrested by Israeli troops Thursday in the city of Sidon. The arrests came a day after Leb anon and Israel held the first round of their military-level talks on a pull out of Israeli, troops who invaded Lebanon in June 1982 to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organiza tion. Israel rejected the demand in a military communique, which called on Amal to halt attacks on Israeli troops during the negotiations. Israel Radio said the government had contacted U.S. Assistant Secre tary of State Richard Murphy, now on a Middle East shuttle mission, and Gen. William Callaghan, head of a U.N. peace-keeping force in southern Lebanon, on the possibility of resuming the talks. Berri. under pressure from Mos lem fundamentalists opposed to the Lebanese-Israeli talks, Friday said attacks on Israeli troops would con tinue. He also called for a general strike Monday in southern Lebanon to protest the at t est of the Amal ol 1 i- cials. T he four include Mahmoud Fa- kih, head of Amal operations in southern Lebanon, whom the Israe lis suspect of planning guerrilla at tacks. Israel has lost 601 troops since its 1982 invasion, many of them victims of almost daily attacks by Shiite Mos lem guerrillas. A military spokesman in Tel Aviv said a soldier was crit- icallv wounded in an attack early Sunday on an Israeli patrol south of Sidon. Free shuttle bus service to be provided for bonfire Just as it is for the football games, concerts and other special events at Texas A&M, finding a place to park at bonfire is an im possible mission. This year, however, the Uni versity Police Department is try ing to improve the situation by providing f ree shuttle bus service Nov. 29 during bonfire. That night, from 6:30 to 9:30, six shuttle buses will run contin uously from Olsen Field to the bus stop on Throckmorton Street. People are encouraged to park in Parking Annex 60, across from Olsen Field. “Traffic is going to be a prob lem at bonfire,” said Bob Wiatt, director of security and traffic for the University Police Depart ment. “We hope this service will help anyone who has to drive,” Wiatt said.“ This is our contribution to having a fun-filled evening with out the hassle of traffic.” Wiatt said Parking Annex 60 can hold about 600 cars. Any overflow, he said, will be put in ei ther Parking Annex 56 or 61.