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Texas A&M - - TM •
The Battalion
Serving the Gniversity community
Vol. 80 No. 67 USPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, December 4, 1984
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FaculfySenate to considerchanges
Curriculum worries students
I Editor’s note: This is the second
BT/cVe in a two part series on the
question of core curriculum at Texas
A&M.
By BARBARA BROWN
Reporter
■ The core curriculum issue at
Texas A&M ha|s student leaders
worried about the way the Faculty
Senate will arrive at its decision as
Well as what that decision will be.
I Sean Royall, student government
representative to the Faculty Senate
core curriculum committee, said stu
dent government is taking a carrypus
survey on several issues — one of
which is the core curriculum.
■ “My position on the committee is
to relay information and voice stu
dent concerns,” Royall said. “It’s not
me that's making the decisions F>ut
mv opinions should be representa
tive of the students as a whole.”
i Royall said the idea of a core cur-
rkulum is not limited to Texas
A&M.
■ “It’s a national movement about
what the baccalaureate degree
should be," he said. “The liberal arts
■eople aren’t getting enough techni
cal background and vice-versa. Most
ol the people I’ve talked to are pro
core curriculum. I was surprised
that a number of engineering stu
dents I’ve talked to thought they
needed a broader education. But
pit doesn’t necessarily represent
the opinion of the entire College of
Engineering.
“There are students who say,
SVho are you to tell me what I need
to take?’ but the University is offer
ing something to the students and if
they don’t like it then they can go
elsewhere. So the University does
have a say.”
But Royall said he is concerned
that the Faculty Senate will press to
get the final proposal through by
February, which is the University-
deadline for changing policies.
“That’s what happened with the
issue of seniors taking finals,” he
said. “They rushed through with it.
“The main concern I’ve voiced
with them (the committee members)
is that I’m leery of adding hours,
and that is what they’re talking
about. In theory, most people, in
cluding me, would be in favor of a
core curriculum, but in practice, I
just don’t know. If they (the commit
tee members) in any way disenfran
chise the students then it won’t
work.”
Charles Stegernoeller, president
of the Student Engineering Council,
said. “The initial opinion is that the
preliminary proposals seem to be -
more lenient for liberal arts and
more rigid for engineering and sci
ence.”
Stegernoeller said engineering de
grees already average 130 to 136
hours and the drafts he has seen
would add several hours, pushing
the total number of hours close to
150. Stegernoeller said that if this
happens, the number and quality of
students will drop.
“What the Senate decides will se
riously affect students in the future,”
Stegernoeller said. “And it’s impor
tant that it is given more consider
ation than the location of a bell
tower (the recently completed Al
britton carillion), or the pettiness of
the colleges fighting over whose cur
riculum is the best.”
Although the core curriculum will
affect only those students entering
the University after the proposal
takes effect, Stegernoeller said that
it’s important to use the student so
ciety’s position to influence the fu
ture and not let important issues
drown in bureaucracy.
“There are lots of good points
about a core curriculum,” Stege-
moeller said. “It would bring every
one (in the University) up to the
same level. But nothing has been de
cided yet so we are holding off until
il has.”
Perry Cortese, a member of the
Student Agriculture Council, said
the College of Agriculture has al
ways been progressive and compet
itive and that it has a curriculum to
match.
“We have to in order to be mar
ketable,” Cortese said. “I have to
have a basis in agriculture. I need
economics and math, but I need it to
relate to my field. I go over and take
classes in business but I do this be
cause I know 1 need to. However,
nothing’s good when it’s mandato-
ry.”
Dr. Donald McDonald, former in
terim dean of the College of Engi
neering, said he recently gathered
opinions from former civil engi
neering students about the needs of
undergraduates.
renada has first election in 8 years
United Press International
|ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — Gre
nadians elected a new Parliament
Monday in the island’s first elections
in eight years, held 13 months after
a U.S. invasion toppled a radical
Marxist government.
■ Voters were standing in lines at
Bany of the 197 polling stations
when they opened at 7 a.m. local
time, despite a downpour that mud
died dirt paths throughout the lush.
133-square mile island. The polls
closed at 5 p.m.
A light but steady late turnout was
reported in rural areas.
The island’s residents chose 15
representatives to Parliament who
will replace an interim governing
council that has ruled since the over
throw of the Marxists.
Sir Paul Scoon, the island’s gover
nor-general, will ask the winning
party to form a government.
There were 48,000 people regis
tered to vote. Grenadians were al
lowed by law to take time off from
work to vote.
Some 200 police and troops f rom
neighboring Caribbean states en
forced security throughout the is
land, maintaining a low profile with
intermittantjeep patrols.
The major contenders were the
New National Party, a moderate co
alition led by former Chief Minister
Herbert Blaize, 66, and the right-
wing Grenada United Labor Party
led by Sir Edward Gairy, the island’s
last prime minister.
Both major parties have called for
a continued U.S. presence, but
Blaize has said the 250 U.S. support
troops who remained on the island
after the invasion should stay only
until Grenada can take care of its
own security.
Indian plant
leaks poison
over 20,000
The opinions were generally di
vided into three areas. The recent
graduates recommended more tech
nical courses. The people who had
been out several years said more
management courses were needed.
McDonald said this is probably be
cause they were at a stage in their ca
reers when they were moving into
management positions. Former stu
dents who were close to retirement
age recommended more liberal arts,
science and free electives.
An article, “The High-Tech Pay
off,” from the March 1984 issue of
Newsweek — On Campus, said:
“The best bet for success in a com
puter career is a technical person
with fine communications skills. The
now and f uture kings of the job mar
ket will probably be those who un
derstand both science and art: engi
neers who can write, writers who can
program.”
The students’ academic future is
now in the hands of the Texas A&M
Faculty Senate.
Whether a core curriculum is nec
essary does not seem to be the stu
dents’ major worry. They seem more
worried about the amount of fore
thought, care and wisdom that the
Faculty Senate will put into the final
decision than the issue itself.
Royall stressed that his position is
not to pacify or to alarm students —
just to let them see how it will affect
them or future students at Texas
A&M. “I’m not here to make policy
changes,” he said, “but to encourage
student interest in a very serious is
sue.”
United Press International
NEW DELHI, India — A cloud of
poisonous gas spewed from a U.S.-
owned pesticide plant and enve
loped the sleeping city of Bhopal
Monday, killing at least 375 people
and injuring more than 20,000 oth
ers in one of the worst industrial ac
cidents in Indian history.
Authorities said they feared the
death toll would rise because 2,000
of the injured were in serious condi
tion. Officials said most of the dead
were children and old men.
The furiies of methyl isocyanate
descended on the city of 628,000
about 2:30 a.m., sparking mass panic
as sleeping residents jolted awake
and fled their homes to escape the
blinding, choking gas.
“Women with babies in their arms
and children clinging to their saris
were seen moving out of the city by
all modes of transport,” one witness
said.
The gas escaped from a pesticide
plant owned by the Danbury, Conn,
based Union Carbide Co. on the
outskirts of Bhopal, the capital of
Madhya Pradesh state, 360 miles
southwest of New Delhi, the Press
Trust of India said.
The corpses of sacred cows and
other animals littered streets around
the plant, which Union Carbide said
has been in operation for five years.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Arjun Singh and other state and city
officials put the death toll at 375.
They sain it was one of the worst in
dustrial accidents in the history of
independent India.
Singh closed the facility, called for
a judicial inquiry and ordered the ar
rest of five officers of Union Car
bide, India Ltd., the U.S. firm’s In
dian subsidiary. The five, all
believed to be Indian citizens, were
charged with causing death by neg
ligence and placed under house ar
rest, officials said.
Most of the dead were taken to
Hamidia government hospital and
Jayaprakash hospitals. Seven bodies
were counted at Kaju Hospital and
20 more bodies were found in the
railway station area, officials said.
Hospitals, able to admit only
2,000 of the most seriously injured,
set up makeshift treatment centers
on their grounds to treat some
18,000 others'suffering from eye in
flammations, vomiting and breath
ing difficulties.
Doctors from the police, military
and nearby towns were rushed in to
help the injured.
Rumors of a new gas leak during
the day triggered a mass panic and
“a number of women and children
were hart in a stampede” that fol
lowed, the United News of India re
ported.
Singh appealed in a radio broad
cast for people to remain calm.
“I am shocked and deeply grieved
at the terrible tragedy in Bhopal,”
said Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,
faced by the first major industrial
mishap since succeeding his mother,
Indira Gandhi, who was assasinated
Oct. 31 by Sikh members of her
bodyguard. “The huge toll that it
lias taken is horrifying.”
The government pledged $500 to
the f amilies of each person killed by
the gas leak and $100 to each of the
injured.
Plant officials said the methyl iso
cyanate leaked from an under
ground storage tank containing 45
tons of the gas and was stopped
within minutes. No plant employees
were injured.
S. Kumaraswamy, regional man
ager of Union Carbide India Ltd.,
said the leak occurred when pres
sure suddenly rose inside the storage
tank and a valve ruptured.
He said a safety system designed
to neutralize the gas with caustic
soda failed to operate properly be
cause of the huge pressure buildup.
A statement released by Union
Carbide in Danbury called the acci
dent “unprecedented,” pointing out
the firm has manufactured the same
gas at a plant in Institute. W.Va., for
more than. 25 years without mishap.
Future of health
shown in models
By DAINAH BULLARD
Staff Writer
Environmental design students
at Texas A&M are presenting
their versions of futuristic health
care with a display of 33 models
depicting the Health Facility of
the Future: The Year 2000.
The models will be displayed
tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
in the second floor gallery of the
Langford Architecture Center.
More than 100 professionals
from architecture and health care
fields will attend the display and
discuss the projects with the 33
students who designed the mod
els. The display is open to the
public.
Among the models which will
be displayed are an eye hospital
aboard a DC-10, a medic-space
unit, a birthing development cen
ter, a hospice and a retirement
complex.
The models are the result of a ,
semester-long project assigned to
students enrolled in Environmen
tal Design 403, Architectural De
sign V. The students developed
their designs after interpreting
ideas presented in a day-long
brainstorming session with rep
resentatives of health care facili
ties from across the United States.
“What we did was to present a
problem that’s relevant to the en
tire United States,” said George
Mann, a professor of environ
mental design and of architecture
and director of the project.
“Then we let the students use
their imagination and creativity
to solve it (the problem).”
Besides constructing scale
models of their projects, the stu
dents had to prepare posters with
photographs or drawings and a
program which explains the idea
behing their projects. Each stu
dent’s project represents a differ
ent concept of health care in the
year 2000.
Keith Fleming, creator of the
Alief Emergency Clinic/Diagnos
tic Center, designed his project
with the premise that health care
will become more specialized in
the future.
“In the future, as medical tech
nology increases, the general hos
pital isn’t going to be able to take
care of the patients as well,”
Fleming said. “The clinic/diag
nostic center will be the first place
anyone who’s sick or has an acci
dent will go. They’ll be treated,
stabilized and have diagnostic
tests. Then they’ll be taken to spe
cialized facilities, like burn cen
ters.”
Other students concentrated
on specialized facilities, such as
See HEALTH, page 7