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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1985)
Page 4/The Battalion/Monday, December 9,1985 Lawyer claims new prisons not needed Associated Press HOUSTON — The Texas De partment of'Corrections may be fac ing its own execution if it doesn’t start building new prison facilities in line with guidelines imposed by a federal court, an attorney for in mates says. TDC of ficials aren’t panicking but acknowledge that the situation is se rious because the state has failed twice to sell about 3,700 acres of land in the Houston area. The proceeds were earmarked by the Texas Legis lature to finance prison construc tion. The Texas prison system, the na tion’s second largest, needs $125 million. Odds are, the state will be taking an alternate route — lease- purchase construction or swapping land for construction, if the latter is legal. But, William Bennett Turner, at torney f or inmates who won a case in which prison reforms were man dated a decade ago, doesn’t think new prison facilities are necessary. “We hope that no prison is ever built,” he said. “It’s just fine with us if they’re not able to sell the land and if they’re not able to build any new institutions.” He contends about half of the 37,500 Texas inmates in the TDC are non-violent of f enders. He said the state could release prisoners and achieve a 25 percent to 40 percent reduction in popula tion without touching more serious offenders. Turner said he will oppose any move the state makes to extend court deadlines for new prison con struction. TDC board chairman Alfred Hughes of Austin said enough time exists to construct a $60 million prison at Palestine for more than 2,200 inmates and trusty camps for another 2,000 prisoners, he said. TSSA committee seeking role as education advisory panel By FRANK SMITH Si nit Writer A Texas State Student Associa tion coalition might receive recog nition as the official student advi sory committee to Gov. Mark White’s Select Committee on Higher Education, TSSA Presi dent John Hatch said Friday. Hatch, a senior political science major at Texas A&M, said select committee member Bill Parsley of Lubbock contacted Texas lech student government officer Alli son Bennett about two weeks ago concerning the possibility of an of ficial role for the TSSA committee. Bennett relayed the message to Hatch. “He (Parsley) said he knew that we’d been at each meeting (of the select committee) so far and that he wanted to see us possibly take on the role of being the official student advisory committee,” Hatch said. The TSSA committee is trying to get back in contact with Parsley, he said, to see if he will nominate the group for the advisory role at the select committee’s Dec. 19 meeting or if he thinks the action should wait. “I think it’s a matter of getting us on the agenda or getting some one to make the motion,” Hatch said. The TSSA committee, called the Student Coalition on Higher Education, was formed in Novem ber. Coalition Co-Chairman Jay McCullough said the intent of the group was to show that student leaders of Texas are concerned about the future of higher educa tion. McCullough said he hopes any recommendations the coalition might have would be received as proof of their seriousness and commitment to keep Texas in the forefront of higher education. Hatch said tne number of issues researched will necessarily have to be somewhat limited. “I’m trying to give (Mary Jo Pe terman, chairwoman of the coali tion) more or less free rein about w hat she wants to do,” Hatch said. “(But) I have given her some spe cific guidelines as to where I’d like her to limit her resources, namely on the issues of financial aid, tu ition and core curriculum. “The select committee will meet every two weeks — they can study everything they want to study. But we’re going to try to limit ourselves to the things we feel are more im portant to us and make recom mendations based on that.” Following the planned addition of two more members, the coali tion will be comprised of 13 mem bers, each from a different mem ber school of the TSSA. Serving on the committee from A&M will be Chris Gavras of the Legislative Study Group. Peterman, of Texas Woman’s University, and McCullough, of North Texas State University, at tended the select committee’s first public hearing, conducted Nov. 16 at Richland Community College in Dallas. “Introducing them to us and hopefully getting a good response from them about us —that was our main objective,” McCullough said. “We did get to introduce ourselves to Larry Temple (chairman of both the select committee and the Coordinating Board, Texas Col lege and University System), and we did get to introduce ourselves to the committee and to the public that was there, and we got a very good response.” The coalition conducted its first meeting Nov. 23 at TWU. At that time the members discussed the role and scope of the coalition. The TSSA still will be an infor mation network rather than a lob bying group, even if the coalition is granted tne advisory role, Hatch said. “A lobbyist is someone who goes and tries to get different things done — it’s more like an external deal,” Hatch said. “Well, this (the coalition, should it be granted the advisory role) is where we’re actu ally part of the process. “It’ll be a part of TSSA, but it won’t be the official feeling of TSSA because we can’t take an of ficial position ... I think the thing I would like to see us do is utilize our ability to be on the inside so that we can spread the informa tion to all these schools about what’s going on so that if they want to make some recommendations they can go through us to make the recommendations. Hatch said even if the coalition doesn’t receive official advisory recognition, it will still pursue its original objectives. ‘ vVe’ve already decided that ev ery time the select committee meets we want to be at each mee ting,” he said. “Now' that was be fore we were approached about being the advisory panel — so I’m sure we’ll try to be at every meet ing anyway whether we’re there as an advisory panel or just there to observe and then to relay the mes sage of what happened back to the schools... “We just want to be able to be there and help research the issues and offer the students’ view —be cause that’s what we do best.” Expansion of A&M health clini to begin in 1986 By TAMARA BELL Suit Writer Renovation and enlargement of | rgt the A.P. Beutel Health Center will begin in January, says Dr. Claude Goswick, director of the center. When health services moved into the center in October 1973, the space was just barely adequate for its needs, Goswick says. The center ac commodates 20,000 students which was adequate when that was the en rollment. But the enrollment has nearly doubled while the center’s space has stayed the same, Goswick says. He says it’s obvious that the center needs to be expanded. The health center got the go ahead by the Board of Regents to ex pand in September 1983, he says. Joe Williams, project manager for Facilities Planning and Construc tion, says 16,208 square feet will be added to the center. He says con struction cost is more than $1.6 mil lion. The contractor, Holley Brothers Enterprise, Inc. of Pasadena, should finish the job by Fall 1987, he says. Financing for the center will come from the building use fee which is earmarked for this purpose. The center will stay open during construction, Goswick says. The au dition to the center will be built first. Then, during the renovation of the current building, the center will op erate from the annex, he says. Williams says the construction will be in two stages. The annex will match the existing two stories and basement of the health center. It w ill fill in the L-shaped area on the southeast side of the building. In the basement of the existing building, an x-ray unit, a lab waiting room and an emeigencyw will be added, Goswick says. | “On the first floor there*;! arger orthopedic clinic,” ki "Tnere also will be mores® record storage because we & cords coming out of our eye Goswick says the secondl lx- an enlargement of the i non and treatment area. In the basement of the; there will be a new hyper gen treatment area, umit He says one use for thistte to help diabetics, who ha\e; healing, recover from lesions "The treatment was first, treat the bends some when diving," he says, is in a chamber and theaitt increases. He breaths oxygen. The oxygen dissohoil liquid blood which is gooiiirl chronic lesions that wontheil Goswick says Dr. lessor emeritus of biolc experiments with a cii tow n. Fife is donating a i the center. On the first floor of thti there will lx 1 new exam increased waiting areas, says. He says the waitint throughout the center the department the patient! f jo to and not in a central!' ike the existing waitingrm “This will help because! there could be someonewb wart removed in the same area w ith someone whohaiarJ blood," he says.1l MSC HOSF Christ ma Holiday semed hs USCINTE have a pc porutnee £HI THE! . at 7:30 } I booth). ITUDENT pan. in 1 lEAUMOI be giviiH !AMU SNi Show at i the time, the person infoniil removal will faint. Then deal with that on (opoftlK| genes. This arrangement' make things more smooth' Hughes said the prison popula tion must be reduced to about 34,()()() in existing facilities by Sep tember 1989, with about half of that accomplished by September 1987 Records show, inmates are being released at a rapid rate — 3,000 be tween Oct.28 and Dec. 1. Most are on parole and mandatory supervi sion; the others are on conditional pardon, discharge or shock proba tion, according to T DC officials. New hazardous waste storage facility to be built at A&M )-QP SI to work thetr co rington assign n throng! MSC HO* Christn MSC HOJ lies in F FRESHM lions a DecT2. WSC HOS ym of i Lounge ITXAS A' 7 p.m. i JNTRAM in 1591 Msc HOS narios a pAMU H in Dick Driving Wmmc. will me speak <: ‘AGGIE D I’ELLOW p.m. cn l&MERIC STUD! Bldg. S RHA FRi By CRAIG RENFRO Stuff Writer The construction of a new hazard ous waste storage facility will begin at the first of the year, said Harry Stiteler, Texas A&M safety and health of ficer. T'he construction site for the $102,000 project, scheduled to be completed by March 1986, will be lo cated one block north of the Agron omy road and F&B intersection, Sti teler said. The facility will be divided into two areas, Stiteler said. Part of the building will store 55- gallon drums and another section will hold small containers of chemi cals gathered from campus laborato ries. A refrigerated section will be added to contain heat sensitive chemicals, he said. . up From the labs,” he said. “Once we pick them up they have to be stored per chemical specific requirements.” Ben Woods, director of the physi cal plant, said Rhodes Building Sys tems, f rom Somerville, wall construct the 25-by-50 building which will house the waste. Rhodes will be responsible for meeting safety requirements cov ered under the Toxic Waste Act, Woods said. Stiteler said currently the waste is being stored at the Purchasing and Storage building on Agronomy road. “It (Purchasing and Storage) suf fices for what we need now, but it just doesn’t have much space,” he said. The waste cannot be stored for more than 90 days, he said. I Every 10 to 12 weeksi J ) IU (i.il mi \ k i iiiinp.im uknfcHL lull _ to authorized disposal for teler said. Ml 216 Rt “This is a serious prop have here," he said. "Evenfc to lx- tagged and stored prop; The costs for waste di^' becoming expensive, SfdP “List year we spent JP. 1 the costs keep going up,Its S' Higi -extr Juniors, Seniors, Yets Asst LUFKIN - pace travel, it |al colon ie ealitv While scien 5 tave found w travitv and oti lomena, a gi ichool studen nother aspec how to rnair Meds and Grads In the class nent teacher titutions fro uch as “New Republic,” am dorn the wal ution, they pi dative branch [overmnent. But these c en by a hand lents, many tno|gb to vot "W e think he most in iathy Moore he constitut because we i nent to have The grou] heir preside oteand sen Your last chance to have your Yearbook photos taken is Dead Week (Dec. 9-13). Photos will be taken at Yearbook Associate's studio located above Campus Photo Center at Northgate. Olllce hours are 8:30*12 and 1-4:30. Ju M ta 6 S1 PI