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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1985)
s ‘gansakV detail ut re ducinD ' ut the ad , lear the real ' e . res er\'ed | ttions. Local groups celebrating Texas' Sesquicentennial — Page 4 A&M spikers' home court no longer an advantage — Page 12 WET PAINT did notdis- •t Shevard. Pew Soviet hti passe at -Texas A &M. -- m • The Battalion t the arms telp ensure gan-Gorba-1 •et officials I igton gues. evardnadze State De- 11 Charles y that U.S. from She- tech lues. at Moscow | w proposal esman said I had oposals al- ] h VVashing ;1 he regulatol mges “to altJ local schJ sure that W ■s “not i I instructiotl “explore wig v of removia on alternatntl Serving the University community Vol. 81 Mo. 214 GSPS 045360 16 pages College Station, Texas September 27, 1985 :ommittee I review tustin lawyer md panel Associated Press ^nancy?® we help cy tests mselors lop2E,Z3th MiSS-TJO-Wi' INS (8) MS-M C nFATTiSi r.y^X 7:18WM ir East Mall VONLVS*r.* W CE TCESOAVOW IZEN ANYTH* St'liW*'" utiW* J AUSTIN — The new Select Com- littee on Higher Education must Jake a close look at the state panel (chaired by the Austin lawyer who tas also been named chairman of the select committee, says a state law- taker. Gov. Mark White Tuesday made arry Temple chairmau of the spe- :ial committee. Temple is chairman >f the Texas College and University iystem Coordinating Board. “I hope that he can divorce his du ties as chairman of the committee from his duties as board chairman. 1 think the role of the coordinating >ard needs close examination,” said ien. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur and a member of the select committee. The coordinating board oversees operations and program offerings at state-supported universities. Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Aus- hn, also expressed concern about ^emple’s dual roles, but the senator said, “I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.” Temple said Thursday the coordi nating board would undergo full re view by the select committee. “I don’t have any proprietary in terest in the status quo in higher ed ucation. I think I know how to be ob jective as a citizen,” he said, adding he does not consider himself an “in sider” in the higher education sys tem. The 19-member committee, ap pointed by White, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and House Speaker Gib Le wis, will report to the 1987 Legis lature on possible improvements to the state’s colleges. White picked the chairman. Seve ral committee members, including Parker, were guaranteed spots on the panel because of their legislative offices. Parker is chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Barrientos said he was “disap pointed” that no students were picked for the committee. “It is very important that they lis ten to that body . . . after all, who goes to the schools?” he said. Meg Brooks, co-director of the Texas Student Lobby, said she was pleased with Temple’s selection as chairman. She said Temple’s experi ence in higher education would prove valuable. Rep. Terral Smith, R-Austin, said the committee would have to close some state colleges to strengt hen the overall system. “Frankly, some institutions should be closed,” Smith said. “But the poli tics of closing colleges is very diffi cult." Temple said the committee would consider closing schools. Photo by DEREK BERCHER Caution: Wide Load Freshmen bass players Steve Pless (front) and Kent Thomas sharpen their marching and precision skills in turning at their daily practice of the Aggie Band. The band practices on the General Ormand S. Simpson Drill Field near Underwood Hall Mon day through Thursday. Less students in agriculture By CYNTHIA GAY Staff Writer fighting of natior at Texas A&M, but because of national farm problems and the publicity sur- rounaing them, fewer undergrad uates are opting for agriculture de grees. Since 1977, undergraduate en rollment in agriculture programs across the country has dropped 21 percent, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported. Within the same time frame, A&M’s agricultu ral student population has fallen 23 percent, or down to less than 3,300 students. Dr. H.O. Kunkel, dean of the Col lege of Agriculture, said he is aware of a downward slide in the number of agriculture students. Kunkel said the promising trends of the 60s and early 70s initially were reversed be cause students’ perspectives changed. The issue of the troubled farm economy has simply accentuated the enrollment drop in the last three years, Kunkel said. “The main reason (for the change in ’77) is people decided they wanted jobs,” Kunkel said. “They didn’t want to help people.” He added that students were no longer as interested in solving such problems as world hunger. “The dreams and heroes all died in 1977,” he said. The Placement Center reports that it placed one-fourth less agricul ture majors in 1985 than in the pre- ceeding year. On the national scale the results are bleaker. A survey by the College Place ment Council states that compared to 1980, 66 percent fewer jobs were offered this year. But Kunkel said the jobs are out there, students just need to keep looking. “Those that want to be placed are placed,” he said, but many don’t want to leave home, and conse quently come up empty handed. Also, agriculture majors usually start trying to find jobs later in their aca demic careers than those students “well-tuned to the corporate world,” he said. A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture not only backs up Kunkel’s belief that jobs in agricul ture are plentiful, but predicts a shortage of students to fill those jobs. Agriculture schools will be able to supply only 65 percent of the 59,000 people yearly needed in agriculture employment, the study reports. Kunkel said the College of Agri culture has no more than 10 percent of its majors in agriculture produc tion management, such as farming, ranching, feed lots and poultry sci ence, and this is where the student decrease has hit hardest. tural biochemistry are on the Kunkel said, adding that not enough students consider food sciences or entocr&flogy. He said the curriculum for agri culture students has been gradually updated to meet today’s technical need. “The vast majority of our students do take some computer courses,” Kunkel said, adding that a one-hour computer introductory course is re quired for freshmen. Calculus is also a staple now for agriculture majors. With regard to recruiting students for A&M’s agriculture programs, Kunkel said, “I’m not sure we’re very successful.” Houston Livestock Show 8c Rodeo provides one of the University’s largest endowments. See Agriculture, page 16 Agricultural engineering, agricul- il economics, animal science and upswing, it enoutrh Gloria More than 100,000 flee homes to escape hurricane's wrath Associated Press MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. —Hur ricane Gloria raced toward shore Thursday, menacing every coastal hamlet and big city along a 750-mile swath from the Carolinas to New York and New England with 130 mph winds, pounding surf and tor rential rain. More than 100,000 people fled their homes in the face of Gloria, ) one of the most powerful Atlantic storms this century, vacating resort bungalows in North Carolina’s bar rier islands and high-rise condomi niums in Ocean City, Md. In New York City, authorities closed down the twin 110-story tow ers of the World Trade Center, gam bling was halted Thursday night at casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., and flights were canceled at Newark, N.J., International Airport. Hurricane warnings flew from Little River Inlet, S.C., on the North Carolina border, northward to Plymouth, Mass. The center of the 300-mile-wide storm, which awed forecasters with its size and gale- force winds extending 200 miles north from its center, was due to hit land early Friday. By Thursday night, the surge from the hurricane battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks with 59 mph gusts at Cape Hatteras, while high tides washed waves over Route 12, the main road along the islands. Waves 8 to 12 feet in height were breaking against the 3,000-pound sandbags surrounding the 114-year- old Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. One tornado touched down in Beaufort County, N.C., said Joe Dean, state secretary of crime con trol and public safety, but no injuries were reported. Authorities did not know if the twister caused any dam age because no law enforcement personnel were in the area. At least 30,000 people had been evacuated on the North Carolina coast from Carolina Beach to the Virginia border, said Chrystal Stowe, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Division. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on U.S. 74 west of Wilmington. ,Y0FTHESU“ fc DS azy"<m septs. lion Texas schools to get new AIDS guidelines Associated Press AUSTIN — Guidelines being developed by state health and ed ucation officials will tell school districts there is no reason to ban AIDS victims from classrooms. “It would be based on the knowledge that casual contact does not spread the disease,” said Dr. Robert Bernstein, state health commissioner. Bernstein and Texas Educa tion Commissioner W.N. Kirby met privately Wednesday to dis cuss the guidelines. When com pleted, the guidelines will be sent to school districts as recommen dations and information only. “I don’t think we have the au thority tojust go out and set rules on this thing, unless it becomes a serious problem,” Bernstein said. State health officials are un aware of any AIDS victims in Texas public schools, according to the commissioner. “I am unaware of any prob lems, but I don’t think we should wait for problems,” he said. Children stricken with AIDS have caused dilemmas in several states. Thousands of New York City parents kept their children at home after it was disclosed that, somewhere in the city, an elemen tary school student with AIDS was attending classes. In Indiana, Kokomo school of ficials barred an AIDS victim from classes. AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome — breaks down the body’s ability to fend off disease. The illness is usually fatal, and no cure has been found. Bernstein said parents in other states have over-reacted to AIDS victims in the schools. “We should get the word out to districts and,parents and the pub- See AIDS, page 16 Group to review Corps’ adminstration By TAMMY KIRK Staff Writer A select committee has been cho sen to meet with Texas A&M Presi dent Frank E. Vandiver to discuss restructuring the administration of the Corps of Cadets. “In order to understand what the committee will be looking at in terms of the Corps, you’ve got to under stand that we’re (the administration) working through two channels,” says Col. Donald Burton, commandant of the Corps of Cadets and a mem ber of the select committee. The administration deals sepa rately with the Reserve Officers Training Corps program, which represents the academics of the Corps, and with the Corps as a stu dent organization, says Dr. John J. Koldus, vice president for . student services. The reason for the different channels is that not all cadets are in volved in the Corps ROTC program. As freshmen and sophomores, ca dets must be involved^ with the ROTC, which includes taking mili tary science classes. But when cadets become juniors, they have the option of deciding whether they will take ROTC contracts or stay with the Corps as the student organization. There are three departments of the school of military science, Bur ton says. The departments are air science, headed by Col. Joe Byrd; naval science, headed by Col. Rich ard McPherson; and military sci ence, or army, headed by Burton. “As instructors, we are all equal,” Burton says. “We’re all officers on active duty. Anything we do with the Corps (student service-wise) is in our spare time.” Koldus says that these officers are not employed by the University, but by their respective military branches. As far as the academic administra tion is concerned, Burton, Byrd and McPherson report to Howard Perry, associate vice president of student services and acting head of the school of military science. But as far as the non-ROTC ad ministration is concerned, Koldus says Burton reports to him, and Byrd and McPherson are deputy commandants under Burton. Bur ton says he is responsible for “Corps life,” which includes providing hous ing, clothing and food for the cadets. His job also includes administering corps activities and programs through the Corps Staff. When Lt. Gen. Ormond Simpson was employed by the University as assistant vice president of student services, he was both the head of the military science program and the Corps student services program. So, whether it was academics or non- ROTC, the Corps administration re ported through Simpson to Koldus. But Simpson announced his retire ment at the end of August and the position has not been filled. “The nice thing about Simpson’s position was that it tied it (both aca demic and student services) all toge ther,” Burton says. The committee is set up to discuss certain things, Burton says. First, the committee will examine the Corps administration’s relationship to the University. Fqr example, what is the status of the commandant and the staff? Does the University need to expand the staff, for example, re placing Simpson’S position? Does it want to employ a payroll comman dant? And the committee will dis cuss any other matters concerning ROTC and non-ROTC programs. The other five members of the se lect committee are • Edward Aldridge, undersecre tary of the Air Force. • Rear Admiral George M. Fur long, Jr.; U.S. Navy; Deputy Chief, Naval Education and Training Com mand. • Gen. P.X. Kelley; Comman dant, U.S. Marine Corps. • Mr. Fred McClure; Special As sistant to the President for Senate Liaison. • Mr. James H. Webb, Jr.; Assis tant Secretary of Defense for Re serve Affairs. • Brigadier Gen. Myrna William son; U.S. Army; Commanding Gen eral, 3rd United States Army ROTC Region.