Friday, Januaiy 24, 1986^The Battalion/Page 7
Xouncil more active in coordinating fraternities
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By JEANNE ISENBERG
Staff Writer
The Intefraternity Council is seeking
c anges in coordination, cooperation and
ibility in the 19 Greek fraternities at
Tfcxas A&M, Ronald Schultz, the group’s
p esident, says.
^^1‘The IFC is beginning to take on a big-
etr - h g i role coordinating the fraternities than
“lias in the past,” Schultz says. “We’ve
;en the lead as far as recruiting and ad-
tising to let interested students know,
®actly what will go on with rush and in
n fraternities.
‘The IFC also is distributing a schedule
the rush parties this semester, and
re working to set an air of cooperation
ong the fraternities so that people will
te icc we really are coming onto campus.”
(■The IFC is responsible for the govern-
'® r ofthe fraternities. The council consists
representatives from each IFC frater-
lv as well as elected officers,
ichultz, a member of the Phi Gamma
Ita fraternity, says the IFC meets bi
ddy to discuss a variety of issues affect-
the fraternities but soon will begin
etingon a weekly basis.
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an area
The IFC also works as an arbitrator or a
communication bridge between the differ
ent fraternities, Schultz said, or between
the fraternities and the community.
Also, philanthropic organizations such
as the Muscular Dystrophy Association,
Schultz says, can get in touch with the IFC
when they need help with projects. The
IFC then distributes the projects to frater
nities.
The IFC was one of the first Greek or-
anizations to receive recognition from the
niversity. Nineteen fraternities, each of
which must be a national fraternity, make
up the IFC, Schultz says, but only eight of
those have been officially recognized at
this time.
However, all of the fraternities will
probably be officially recognized within
two years, he says.
“A lot of them are just taking a wait-
and-see attitude right now,” Schultz says.
“No one is really sure what university rec
ognition entails.
“I don’t think that anyone questions that
the benefits of recognition are better, but
the policies are still confusing.
“The University isn’t sure about how it’ll
run things, and neither is the IFC. You can
look at all the other schools with Greek sys
tems, but so many of them have had their
systems for so long — some of them for lit
erally a century or more.
“Texas A&M has a very young Greek
system still, and it has to be an A&M Greek
system, which is unique. It has to incorpo
rate A&M traditions into the system, and
fraternities just want to see how the Uni
versity and the Greek system work to
gether, how they’ll interact. That’s going
to take some time.”
The IFC also has a few more changes on
the way for the system which, Schultz says,
should make some improvements.
Rush now has a designated beginning
and ending date, which was established by
the IFC. It began Wednesday and will last
until Feb. 9.
Rush got off the ground Wednesday at
5 p.m. with a general information session
given by all 19 of the IFC fraternities at
Rudder Tower.
Representatives from each of the frater
nities broke the ice for potential pledges by
giving out information about rush and fra
ternity life, answering any questions and
just talking and meeting interested people.
“Rush in the spring is usually really
light,” Schultz says, “but I think this is one
of the most successful ones we’ve ever had.
“This used to be done off campus at the
Aggieland (Inn) and the turn-out was OK,
but now with University recognition, hav
ing it on campus spread the word.
“Also, a lot of effort was put into rush
this year and this may be one of the largest
rushes we’ve seen.”
Another possible change for A&M fra
ternities could be an alcohol-less rush,
Schultz says. He says the possible change is
not due to the attorney general’s interpre
tation of the liquor law but to a decision of
the IFC itself.
In November the state re-interpreted
existing liquor laws as saying organizations
using membership dues or activity fees to
buy alcohol were “selling” liquor. The state
requires a license to sell liquor.
“There’s been a lot more emphasis lately
on the idea of a dry rush,” Schultz says. “A
dry rush would be one without any alco
hol. The national fraternities have really
been pressuring for it, and I think it’s a
good thing.
“It’s one thing to have alcohol at a social
function where everyone knows everyone,
but at a rush party, there are so many peo
ple going in and out, people you don’t
know. It’s too difficult to take responsibil
ity for all those people.
“A few of the fraternities are phasing in
dry rushes this semester, and I think that
eventually it will really take hold.”
Schultz also says that no rush parties will
be held at the same time as Silver Taps this
semester, which has created some bad feel
ings in the past. With the new scheduling
system more evenly balancing the parties
from day to day, IFC fraternities are keep
ing the first Tuesday of every month, the
night of Silver Taps ceremonies, free.
“I’ve been around the fraternity system
a long time,” Schultz says, “and I’ve seen
lots of changes.
“Once people see that fraternities and
sororities can be a real part of the school,
they’ll see that there can be such a thing as
A&M fraternities and sororities — Aggie
fraternities and sororities.
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aramedic says job not glamorous
Associated Press
d Mist HOUSTON — On television the
tims are always eager for help and
iteful to their rescuers. And the
roes are happy and fulfilled by the
[warding nature of their work. But,
lording to Houston Fire Depart-
ador? |nt paramedic John Fryer, that’s
after: uton television.
but st fUve been cussed at, spit at and
two era pt at,” says Fryer, 27. “A lot of
lies they (the victims) just don’t
gorolntyoti there; they might be drunk
compEjjfldget beat up or shot m a bar fight
Salvaoimi all they can think about is get-
our nulling even.”
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fryer says that often older people
have been frequently hospital-
don’t want to make a return trip
h paramedics.
When the patient asks them to
ive they usually do, Fryer says. In
:s where there could be serious
sequences, the patient is asked to
g'> release. But, after a call to a
ppervisor, those who are in immi-
nem danger are usually' transported
myway.
‘It usually ends up that they
in n’t really even mad,” Fryer says.
They just want someone to make
h m go.”
)n a recent call to the home of an
lerly woman who had varicose
leias in her legs and large open
les, he found one of the veins had
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“A lot of times they (the
victims) just don’t want
you there. ...”
— John Fryer, a Houston
Fire Department para
medic.
ruptured and she had just lost a
great deal of blood.
“We spent 30 minutes trying to
get her to go,” he says, “and then we
decided it was in her best interest
and just took her. I think she was
glad, though.”
But the lost time it takes to cajole a
patient is an added frustration in a
job where there are frustrations
enough.
Fryer says he often hears another
ambulance being called in when he is
occupied with something relatively
minor.
“We make calls where the people
don’t need an ambulance and they
know they don’t,” Fryer says. He
says he and his partner rushed to a
man’s home at 3 a.m., not knowing
what to expect. It turned out that he
had cut his hand on a garbage can
and didn’t have anything with which
to bandage it. Since the stores were
closed he called an ambulance. Fryer
says he just gritted his teeth and gave
the man a Band Aid.
There is a $75 charge for ambu
lance service, but when no one is
transported to a hospital there is no
charge — and that means some peo
ple make unnecessary calls without
penalty. People often call for medi
cal advice, like a woman who called
an ambulance because she wanted
paramedics to inspect a two-inch cut
on her son’s foot.
“She just wanted to know if she
should take him to the doctor for
stitches,” Fryer says.
The public doesn’t understand
that those minutes spent unneces
sarily could mean the difference be-
People often call for medi
cal advice, like a woman
who called an ambulance
because she wanted para
medics to inspect a two-
inch cut on her son’s foot.
—John Fryer.
tween someone else’s life and death.
Every minute counts to the victims
of cardiac arrest, or stoppage of the
heart; if basic life support (like car
diopulmonary resuscitation) isn’t
started within four to six minutes
there will be irreversible brain dam
age. In August there were 53 cardiac
arrests out of about 5,000 responses
made by ambulances. About 45 of
the victims died. The recovery rate is
46 percent when CPR has been
started within one minute.
Fryer says he picked up one man
who had only superficial stab
wounds to the chest, but he became
so anxious about his condition that
he went into full cardiac arrest on
the way to the hospital.
Some of the most difficult calls are
wrecks, Fryer says. Many times the
driver has been impaled by the steer
ing wheel or stick shift of a car and
paramedics must carefully cut the
object from the car, leaving it intact
in the victim. Fryer says the object
can’t be pulled out because that’s
what is keeping the person from
bleeding to death.
But motorcycle wrecks tend to be
the worst, Fryer says. He says once
he went to the scene of a motorcycle
wreck in which the bike chain was
wrapped around the driver’s leg. He
says he had to hold onto the leg to
keep it from coming off when it was
freed from the chain.
Fryer, who has been a paramedic
for 14 months, has one of the busiest
in the city, making between 330 and
350 calls a month. He says on a re
cent Saturday he made 22 calls in a
24-hour period.
Legislature must find
funding for new prison
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Legislative lead
ers, with the blessings of Gov.
Mark White, approved Thursday
a compromise plan to build a new
prison unit and let the 1987 Leg
islature decide how to pay for it.
White and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby
said they would keep looking for
other ways of financing the multi-
million-dollar prison expansion
without a lease-purchase
agreement, as the Texas Depart
ment of Corrections first pro
posed.
“We have been told that it
(lease-purchase of new prison
unit) is constitutional, but we
have doubts that this was what the
authors envisioned when they
drafted the ‘pay-as-you-go’ provi
sion of the Texas constitution,”
Hobby said.
“Gov. White, Speaker (Gib) Le
wis and I will continue to work
with the prison board in hopes of
finding other ways to deal with
this dilemma.”
White said he was not against a
lease-purchase proposal but was
for building a prison as quickly
and as cheaply as possible.
At last week’s Legislative Bud
get Board meeting the attorney
f eneral’s department said state
upreme Court decisions indi
cated a new prison could be built
on a lease-purchase basis, just as
state office buildings have been
constructed for other state agen
cies.
The alternative presented by
the LBB called for the TDC to
sign a “turnkey” contract with a
private firm to build a new maxi
mum security prison unit on
prison land, plus 10 new low se
curity dormitories to relieve over
crowding. There would be no
payment for construction until
June 15, 1987.
Alfred Hughes, chairman of
the TDC board, said, “This will
allow the 1987 Legislature (which
meets in January) to decide
whether to pay for the building
or to agree to a lease-purchase
plan for the next two years.”
Last week Hughes said the
TDC board had decided to build
the new prison units on a lease-
purchase plan, signing a two-year
lease on the estimated $118 mil
lion project with an option to buy.
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5at Jan. Z5
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