i
Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas
Thursday, December 6,1984
Death toll exceeds
1,600 in gas disaster
Photo by JOHN MAKELY
Parkway Circle Apartments on Southwest
Parkway, shows a little Aggie spirit too.
raduation this weekend
J
By SARAH OATES
ij: Staff Writer
■ An estimated 2,600 students are
Icpected to receive degrees from
Texas A&M during the fall gradua-
Son ceremonies Friday and Satur-
Tl;i\ in G. Rollie White Coliseum.
■ Rice University President Dr.
■orrnan Ackerman will speak to the
■aduating seniors at the Friday eve-
Bng ceremony, and A&M President
Fiank Vandiver will speak at the Sat-
ii'day morning commencement.
■ Fifty-six members of the Corps of
Cadets will be commissioned into the
Rnned Forces in separate ceremo
nies at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. A&M tra
ditionally commissions more military
officers each year than any other in
stitution except the military acade
mies.
Commodore Jack A- Gar row,
chief of information for the U.S.
Navy Office of Information, is the
guest speaker for the commissioning
ceremony. He is the first public af
fairs specialist chosen to wear the
one-star rank of commodore.
During the commissioning cere-
mony, the prestigious Doherty
Award will be presented. The award
is given annually to a corps members
who is receiving a military commis
sion and has proven himself an ex
ceptional student leader.
All graduate degrees will be
awarded in ceremonies Friday be
ginning at 7:30 p.m., in addition to
undergraduate degrees in the Col
leges of Business Administration,
Geosciences, Agriculture, Architec
ture and Texas A&M University at
Galveston.
Bachelor’s degrees will be
awarded at 9 a.m. Saturday in the
Colleges of Liberal Arts, Engi
neering, Science and Veterinary
Medicine.
United Press International
BHOPAL, India — The death toll
from a poison gas cloud climbed past
1,600 Wednesday amid fears of epi
demics from hundreds of decom
posing bodies and warnings of long
term health problems among the
thousands injured in the world’s
worst chemical disaster.
A preliminary investigation deter
mined that 25 tons of deadly methyl
cyanate spewed out of a U.S.-owned
K ^sticide plant and engulfed Bhopal
onday, after a “runaway chemical
reaction” caused a pressure buildup
in an underground tank.
Local government officials ac
cused the Union Carbide Corp.,
headquartered in Danbury, Conn.,
of failing to warn them of the dan
gers posed by the plant and said they
would prosecute any plant officials
found to have violated safety regula
tions.
“We are still afraid,” said Ram Na-
rain Nagar, 42, a resident who re
turned to a slum of hovels to look for
missing relatives. “We feel we have
no protection living here.”
Reports compiled by the Press
Trust of India showed more than
1,600 people were killed by the
cloud of choking, blinding fumes
that enveloped Bhopal and a 15-
square mile area.
Arjun Singh, chief minister of
Madhya Pradesh state, told report
ers the government’s official count
was 620, but acknowleged it was in
complete, saying it did not include
bodies cremated or buried by fami
lies who did not report the deaths.
The delayed effects of the gas
continued to claim more victims with
more than 1,000 people still hospi
talized with blinded or inflamed
eyes, seared lungs and vomiting.
More than 50,000 people treated
for less serious injuries have been re
leased since the cloud of white gas
mushroomed over the central In
dian city, 360 miles south of New
Delhi.
People continued to seek help at
overflowing hospitals, which had to
set up makeshift treatment centers
outside.
City streets were dotted with flam
ing funeral pyres for a second day as
Hindus cremated their dead but
corpses piled up at cremation facili
ties and the city morgue because of a
shortage of gasoline to burn them.
Officials said the collection of hu
man bodies and thousands of animal
carcasses was being hampered be
cause the lower caste people who
normally handled such tasks in India
were among the worst affected by
the accident.
Teams of volunteers searched for
bodies left in the stricken slum and
carted them away along narrow,
muddy paths as medical teams as
sessed environmental conditions arid
watched for an y outbreak of disease.
Dr. N.R. Bhandari, director of the
Hamidia hospital, said he feared
many of those exposed to the gas
might suffer long-term kidney prob
lems. State health director M.N.
Nagu warned that corneal ulcers
suffered by many victims could
cause permanent blindness.
The Bhopal gas leak was the worst
disaster of its kind on record.
Union Carbide Corp. President
Warren Anderson was due to arrive
in India Thursday with a team of
technical experts and medical per
sonnel from the United States.
An initial investigation showed
that “a runaway chemical reaction of
unknown origin” caused pressure in
one of three underground tanks “to
rise suddenly,” Union Carbide
spokesman Vijay Avasti said in an in
terview at the plant.
A technician with Avasti said a
safety valve failed to close and the
flow of gas had to be stopped man
ually.
“Some 25 tons of MIC (methyl iso-
cynate) were released through a
safety valve,” Avasti said, adding the
volume “ovei whelmed a scrubber
meant to neutralize the gas.”
Singh said officials were checking
for safety violations and vowed to
prosecute any LJnion Carbide offi
cials found to have circumvented
regulations. Five management offi
cials were arrested Monday on
charges of negligence.
“I don’t think we were ever
warned by the company, (of the po
tential danger),” he said, reiterating
a vow that the plant “is never going
to start functioning here — never
again.”
Singh said legal officers were ex
amining the possibilities of suing the
company to secure “compensation
commensurate with the enormity of
the tragedy.”
’TT
solve
United Press International
UiHINGTON — The;
sted money" controversy that
•d Walter Mondale’s cam-
for the Democratic presfi
ial nomination ended
campaign will pay the Trea
sury $379,640, representing do-
nations from the controversial
delegate groups, and an $18,500
In turn s the divided commis-
sion agreed to take no action.
Federal Election Commis-
,, which had lieen mvestigat-
r the use of funds from dcle-
Je committees that backed
mdale in the 1984 primaries,
lOunced the rase had been
ied by approval of a condtia-
• agreement on a 4 to 2 vote,
hr former vice presidentV
. . ,
them labor allihateti, or i ■■
ah involved in the financing ar
rangement that sparked a major
controversy in the final months of
MondiUe’s drive for the Demo
cratic nomination.
Executive, service jobs subject
of job-reiated stress programs
Editor’s note: This is the second
article in a three part series on stress.
By RENEE HARRELL
Staff Writer
“For the stress that comes wath suc-
ccess...”
That familiar advertising line con
jures up a business executive sitting
back in a chair and plopping two
Alka-Seltzers into a glass of water.
But top executives aren’t the only
people suffering from the “stress of
success” or on-the-job stress.
Dr. Barbara Clark, a College Sta
tion psychologist, said stress differs
for people in executive positions and
those in “helping professions.”
“Helping professions” or service-
oriented jobs include policemen,
firemen, psychiatrists, psychologists,
physicians, nurses, hospital workers
and ambulance drivers.
“Those in helping professions are
more susceptible to a deeper level of
stress because it’s repeated over and
over,” Clark said. “Any profession
where there is a crisis involved and
immediate action needs to be taken
of some sort, 1 consider a helping
profession. These professions are
more susceptible to burn out.”
Clark defines burn out as a combi
nation of physical, emotional and
mental exhaustion.
“It’s the result of constant or re
peated emotional arousal associated
with an intense involvement with
people over long periods of time,”
Clark said. “This would include any
one in a profession that’s required to
deal with people and their problems
over and over.”
When some people experience
burn out they may want to get out of
that job, Clark said.
“I work with them, helping them
to recognize their stress and deal
with it on a daily basis, so they won’t
have burn out,” Clark said.
Fire fighters are good examples of
high stressed individuals. Dr. Lowell
Krokoff, a Texas A&M psychologist,
did research at Station 7 in Houston
last spring. Part of his research in
volved going with firemen to put out
fires. ,
“Fire fighting is the most danger
ous job,” Krokoff said. “More people
are killed or injured in that job than
in any other each year.” He said
more than half of these injuries or
deaths are caused by heart disease.
Krokoff said that if the fireman is
sleeping when he is called out to a
.fire it can be a great strain on the
heart.
Another one of Krokoffs specu
lations is that some firemen are
more susceptible to stress than oth
ers because of their perception of
the job.
“The way the firefighter perceives
the job is an important prediction of
See STRESS, page 14
Building costs delay alumni center
By LYNN RAE POVEC
Staff Writer
Construction on the new head
quarters for Texas A&M alumni has
peen delayed until the spring of
j)1985 because cost estimates were
higher than expected, the alumni or
ganization’s director said Wednes-
y-
Randy Matson, executive director
f the Association of Former Stu-
lents, said cost estimates on the
wilding exceeded the organization’s
•riginal estimate of $5 million to $6
lillion.
“In a building that size there’s just
a little here and a little there, and it
Starts adding up,” Matson said.
I Although the group had hoped to
part construction this fall on the
lUayton Williams Jr. Center, putting
construction on hold isn’t a cause for
Concern, Matson said. Delays are not
auiusual in the construction indus-
|ry.
The association’s offices currently
re located in the Memorial Student
Center, but Matson, in his fifth year
is director, said the group has al-
lost outgrown its space.
The organization moved into the
4SC in 1973 when its membership
numbered 60,000. Now, about
120,000 alumni are in the associa
tion.
The new 30,000-square-foot
headquarters, to be erected on cam
pus at Jersey and Houston streets,
will include office space for the
group as well as meeting rooms,
smaller board rooms and an office
where students will order and pick
up their senior rings.
It was named for Midland oilman
Clayton Williams Jr. after he do
nated $2.5 million for its construc
tion. The rest of the center’s cost will
be met by private funds from former
students, said Matson, Class of’67.
Besides building materials, the ad
dition of a basement and the build
ing’s semi-circular shape have con
tributed to the higher-than-
estimated cost.
“It’s hard to know how much
money (the building’s shape) adds,”
Matson said.
Scaling down construction costs
means redesigning the building, he
said, but changes won’t leave the
structure visibly different from the
one depicted in artist’s drawings, re
leased earlier this year.
“Most of (the changes) are ones
that you wouldn’t even notice if you
look at the building,” Matson said.
There are various grades of car
pet, wall coverings and doors, and
the association could save $25 to $30
a door by simply choosing a differ
ent grade, he said.
Although he narned no specific
part of the structure as a target for
cost cuts, Matson said lowering the
structure’s ceiling is another of the
association’s options.
Dropping the ceiling six feet
could save $400,000, including glass
expenses of about $75,000, he said.
Another cost the former students
are facing is that of relocating the
part of the jogging track, south of
the floral test gardens, that runs
through the building’s site. The as
sociation is cooperating with the in
tramural department in redesigning
it.
Association officials originally
planned not to disturb the track,
Matson said, but later realized that
the track would cross curb cuts for
the center’s parking lot.
Cars coming out of the 75 to 100-
space lot could be a hazard to jog
gers, he said.
Matson, who uses the track about
three times a week, said the associa
tion hopes to keep the track the
same length.
The track would be shortened
only if keeping it a mile long would
require too many twists, he said. Jog
gers who run several miles at a six or
seven-minute pace might be ham
pered by too many turns.
“If you put a lot of twists and
turns in it, it may slow you down,”
Matson said.”
However if the track is rede
signed, it will lose the long, straight
stretch along Jersey Street.
The association hopes to have the
modified designs for its headquar
ters approved next month by its
committee of former students, and
working drawings may be ready by
April.
Matson estimates construction
time at about a year. Since there is
no deadline for completion, the as
sociation wants the time to do the job
right.
Because of the building’s semi-cir
cular shape, adding a wing is impos
sible, he said, and the association
wants to anticipate as many of its fu
ture needs as it can.
“It’s going to be here a long time,
and we’ve been here a long time
without it,” Matson said. “We don’t
want to get in a hurry and make mis
takes.”
Illustration of the proposed Texas A&M Alumni Center.