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Page 12
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Vol. 80 Mo. 79 USPS 045360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, January 18, 1985
Point plan
offers new
dining idea
By REBECCA ADAIR
KcfU)! tei
For avid credit card users. 1 exas
A&M lias an ideal diuiug plan: the
Aggie Point Plan.
the point plan operates much
like the popular automata bank
teller cams. Every student already
has the necessary card to participate
in the point plan, the student 11). All
a student has to do now is hack it up
with cash.
As sophomore Amy Davis discov
ered at the beginning ot the tall se-
mester, the new point plan replaced
coupon books. I he coupon hooks
were being illegallv duplicated in
Houston, said Pom Awbrv. business
nunagei of (ood sei vices.
Besides benefiting dormitory stu
dents. Avvbrev savs he thinks the
new plan is ideal lor olf-carnpus stu
dents who are on c anipus hu lime h
“You can get a darn good meal for
$3.75," he said.
Although lie still recommends the
5-dav and 7-dav plans. Avvhrey said
he is aware ol the vrcstly diffeient
eating habits of college students.
Awbrey pointed out reasons for
choosing the point plan ,ue as di
verse as the individuals using it
Some students like the* convenience
of being able to eat at anv dmitig fa
cility while some don’t eat ofieri
enough to need a full meal plan.
Awbrey said he is interested in the
eating habits of those using the Point
I’lan. He has access to the compute
rized records of transactions, and
will often go through the previous
day s records to look lor pure basing
trends.
Duncan Dining Hall is the only ta-
cilitv where the Point Plan can’t he
used. Awbrev said the machines
placed in Duncan were removed he
cause the spare reaclei was needed at
facilities with more dining traf fic .
There are plans to inc lude Duncan
in the point plan as soon as new ma
chines are ordered and received.
1 he Point Plan has been mildly
criticized for a lack ot publicity, hut
Awbrev said the information w; s
distributed at the beginning of the
semester and also was advertised in
The Battalion.
“People just didn't make them
selves aware,” Awbrey said. “About
two or three percent don’t get the
word. Some students even scraped
off the magnetic stripe on (he- back
of their ID’s. ’
Julie Jones, a junior agiicultural
economics major, said she saw The
Battalion advertising. but she wasn't
aware of all the details of the plan.
“1 think it’s a good idea,” she said,
“especially since I won't have to
carry cash and I can use it anywhere
on campus ’’
After live years of caref ul consid
eration, the Point Plan was first in
stated at the beginning of the Fall
1984 semester.
Hie idea for the Point Plan didn’t
originate at Texas A&M. but was dis
covered at a conference, Awbrey
said The plan isn’t used at any other
majoi Texas university, he said, but
the l[diversity ol Wisconsin at Stout
uses the plan almost exclusively.
The equipmeni is hard to get. Aw
brv said.
“We use a small computei as a
separate backup, and il the system
goes down, the c omputei takes over,
holds the information, then puts it in
the system once things are back in
order." Awbrev said.
To use this system, any student or
employee of Texas A&M can go to
theSbisa Validation Center and sign
acontract. Students can sign up any
time except during validation days
for regular meal plans.
This semester, signups will begin
Monday, January 21st T he initial
minimum deposit is $150, and sub
sequent deposits can be made with a
minimum of $50
As soon as the contract is pre
pared and the student s ID number
is encoded, the point plan is immedi
ately in effect.
“We often tell students, ‘Don’t use
it for at least three minutes,”’ Aw
brey said.
See Point, page 14
This unusual artistic endeavor was found hanging from the
! ceiling of the Langford Architecture Building, The work is
composed of filled trash bags suspended by rope. Its origin is
unknown.
A&M System bracing
for budget shortfall
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen
said Wednesday Texas A&M Uni
versity System of ficials are looking at
ways to prune the System's budget
according to cuts proposed by the
Legislative Budget Board. Hansen
sain after he receives their reports,
he will submit a repor t on their find
ings to Gov. Mark White by the end
of the month.
“We re looking at the worst possi
ble scenario right now,” Hansen
said. “What’s unknown right now
are what other sources of revenue
may become available. The shortfall
is real and we will have to accept
cuts, but ultimately, the situation
won’t he as bad as it seems now .”
Hansen said he expects System
university presidents, vice presidents
and agency directors will first sug
gest cuts in “areas related to conve
nience." such as travel expenses and
phone usage He said cuts might also
be proposed in such areas as con
struction and repaii.
He stressed everything possible
will be done to protect academic pro
grams and research, and the pri-
.. iiuu.} ruiwtHis uL&yiJLeui ageuaes-
“I want them to thmk not in terms
of cuts," Hansen said, “but rather in
terms of what we can do to maintain
{ nograms and quality at a lower
>ase.”
The I.BB recommended last
month higher education absorb
$676 million of an expected $900
million shortfall for the state next
year. The proposal calls for an ap
propriation of $241.5 million for the
Texas A&M University System for
each year of the 1986-87 biennium.
A&M’s stjiaie for each year is 148,2
million, a 20 percent reduction over
the University’s current year appro
priations.
Hansen said he does not think the
recommended cuts are final. Calling
White's request 1 uesday for a $26.5.2
million appropriation for the System
“a step in the right direction,’ he
said be will fight for more money
Hansen said he wants to show
state legislators that A&M is willing
to carry its portion of the proposed
cut, but he also wants them to realize
the importance of keeping research
and academic programs stable.
“I’m afraid there’s a misunder
standing about the function of aca-
demii institutions,” he said.
“They’re extremely fragile It
doesn’t take much to lose the quality
of education and research, bul it
lakes a long time to recover. I he
message we’re trying to put forth is
that we’ve come a long way and we
can’t afford to lose that."
Hansen said Tarleton State Uni
versity, Prairie View A&M and
Texas A&M University at Galveston
would be hardest-hit by the cuts be
cause “they don t have as strong a
base as A&M.
Hansen said System officials
should view the proposed cuts as a
chance to.improve A&M.
T his is a chance for the System to
become more efficient not only for
the taxpayer’s good, but for our own
discipline and productivity," he said
“That’s an exciting challenge.”
However, several A&M faculty
administrators are worried budget
cuts would affect the quality and
number of programs offered by
their departments.
Dr Dean Corrigan, dean of the
College of Education, said he is
fighting any cutbacks.
“T he cuts for education don’t
make sense right now, he said.
“We’ve got the severest teacher
shortage ever in this state. It doesn’t
make sense to cut the budgets of the
institutions training the teachers.”
Corrigan said cutting the budget
would include offering tewer class
sections and possibly a hiring freeze.
But Corrigan’s biggest worry is
damage to the College's national
reputation if the proposed cutbacks
become law.
“Oui reputation would be af
fected m terms of attracting grad
students and faculty,” he said. “We d
be losing them.”
Corrigan said tightening the bud
get might even aff ect basic programs
of the College.
If we went ahead with the pro
posed cuts. I m afraid it would be
difficult for us to maintain the pro
grains foi our state accreditation.'
he said
“The quality of education is di~
rectly affected by economic devel
opment. We’ve got to do everything
we can to get public officials to rec
ognize this link .”
Dr William Mobley, dean of the
College of Business Administration,
said faculty are “developing alterna
tive scenarios to dealing with budget
cuts as severe as those suggested by
the I BB,”
Mobley said lowering the budget
would include offering fewer class
sections and increasing the size of
sections currently offered.
“There are two problems with
this, ‘ he said. “One is that there’s a
shortage of Targe section rooms. The
other is that we re already teaching
large sections because the college has
never caught up with its rapid en
rollment growth in the past decade ’’
Mobley said fewer sections would
mean fewer part-time and visiting
faculty and no faculty recruitment
next year.
See BUDGET, page 14
The Corps: a visible, unique part of the A&M campus
Cadets believe in keeping traditions
This is the third part of a three-
part series on the Texas \&M Corps
of Cadets.
By MIKE DAVIS
Reporter
Less than 6 percent of the stu
dents at Texas A&M belong to the
Corps of Cadets, but the Corps is still
one of the most visible aspects of the
U niversity.
Attrition is a problem in the
Corps, however, because the regi
mented lifestyle of (he cadets is not
for everyone. Director of Business
Services Don Powell, Class of 56,
said attrition is a problem because
the former students themselves
make it too easy for their children to
quit the Corps.
“They send their children here
because (hey believe in Texas A&M
and they remember the Texas A&M
that they went to where everybody
was an equal, where everybody
learned character-building traits,”
he said.
Parents f orget that part of the rea
son they got so much out of the
Corps was because of the hardships
they encountered while here, Powell
said.
“Students today are given too
much,” he said. “Our students have
a lot of money, and it’s too easy to
get out of the Corps now.
“When you were a freshman and
a sophomore before, back in the ’50s
and earlier, if you didn’t like the
Corps or for some reason you didn’t
want to be here, your only choice
was to leave school,” Powell said.
“You couldn’t, become a civilian stu
dent.”
Cen. Ormand R. Simpson, assis
tant vice president for student serv
ices, said all students should be in
the Corps because of what it has to
offer.
“I know what the Corps does for
eople who spend four years in it,”
impson, Class of ’36, said, “what it
teaches them in terms of maturity, a
sense of responsibility.”
Powell saief the Corps and its
produc ts are what keeps tradition al
ive at A&M.
Corps members are “the keepers
of the traditions” because of the
Corps’ strong belief in those tradi
tions, Powell said. A&M students are
for the most part conservative, patri
otic people who believe in traditional
American values, he said
“I think the Corps is part of that,”
Powell said. “We never had any riots
against the military or burning of
ROT C buildings or anything like
that here because our student body,
by and large, supports the Corps.”
T hough the Corps has strong sup
port, the reduced size of the Corps
and the diversity of A&M students
has hindered the close family feeling
on campus, Powell said.
"Back in the olden days, students
at Texas A&M had a lot more in
comnldn,” Powell said. “They were
generally from middle class or lower
middle class families. They were
from small towns or rural areas, and
everybody dressed alike in a Corps
uniform.
“You never knew whether any
body had any money or didn’t have
any money. Everybody went
through the same experienc e. All of
your buddies throughout the whole
school had the same thing in com
mon — they were all treated like dirt
when they were freshmen.”
Pow'ell said the biggest loss to the
University is that not everyone expe
riences the same hardships that
strengthens a person’s character.
Powell attributes the success of many
former students to the hardships
they encountered while in the
Corps.
“T hey (former students) have
been very successful because they
learned at Texas A&M what it. is like
to put up with adverse conditions,
pool conditions where you’ve been
treated badly,” he said.
Powell said one speaker at Aggie
Muster who had been a prisoner of
war in Vietnam gave an example of
See Corps, page 14
Senator to be crewmember
on February shuttle mission
Associated Press
SPACE CENTER, Houston —
Jake Gain, who has spent 10 years in
the U S. Senate approving funds for
the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, will see first hand
how the money is spent on Feb. 20,
the day he’ll be launched into orbit
aboard the space shuttle.
NASA announced Thursday that
Gain, a 52-year-old Utah Republi
can, will he one of seven crewmemb
ers, including a Frenchman, on
space shuttle Challenger for the
four-day mission in February. Garn
will participate in an experiment
that may require him to throw up.
It was announced last year that
Garn would fly on the shuttle as part
of his “oversight" responsibilities in
the Senate. He is a member of a sub
committee that monitors NASA ex
penditures.
The senator started pre-mission
training last week, but insisted as late
as Tuesday he didn’t know when he
would fly into space.
The prime mission of the shuttle
flight is to launch a Tracking and
Data Relay Satellite and a Canadian
communications satellite, the Telesat
1.
Other crewmembers on the flight
are Karol J. Bobko, commander;
Donald E. Williams, pilot: and mis
sion specialists Rhea Seddon, S. Da
vid Griggs and Jef f rey A. Hoffman.
T he Frenchman on the crew is Pat
rick Baudry.
Both Garn and Baudry carry the
mission position of payload special
ists. They wall have no responsibili
ties in operation of the craft itself,
but will take part in experiments.
Gai n said he was prepared to take
part in a medical experiment on
space sickness, a motion ailment that
affects about half of all space fliers.
Garn said part of the experiment
may require him to move his head
rapidly in a w'ay that may cause him
to become ill and vomit.
The Battalion makes
switch to AP news wire
By switching to The Associated
Press ware service from United
Press International. The Battal
ion will benefit from better writ
ten and more comprehensive sto
ries, Don Johnson student
publications coordinator, said
Thursday.
The Battalion began running
the Associated Press stories }an.
15.
Johnson said the newspaper
switched wire services because
student editors and professors
feel the AP is much better than
UPI They wanted to change in
the past, but waited until a re
duced rate became available to
student newspapers, he said.
Even with the discount the new
service is about $240 dollars a
week, three times as expensive as
UPI
L’PI’s financial problems were
not a reason for the change.
Johnson said, although it was dis
cussed when the decision was be
ing made.
“Actually we felt a little bad
(changing) because we knew los
ing customers would hurt them,”
he said.