p Monday, February 10, 1986/The Battalion/Page 5 Resign approved for championship ring il , ByDARYN DeZENGOTITA Reporter The Texas A&M Athletic Depart- R has approved the design for v !e Southwest Conference football lampionship ring and is taking the am’s sizes this week, in H rocnnHsociate Athletic Director for Fi- afM-.ince Wally Groff said the order has ttganiKjen placed with the Balfour com- criteiijnl m Houston. Balfour makes all 'd pr,»e Aggie rings. yjjli*: issaii Grot! expects the rings to be com- Red in time for presentation at the nm Mjg Football Banquet in April. 132 k “The coaches and the team work Jinpir ththe ring people on the design,” hotvjoff said. “We started talking to iders.H (Balfour) in December and we mil« id a preliminary design approved ifore the holidays.” iecut One side of the ring will display tive clscore of the victory over Auburn ipaip “ rn alt: lumbc d. it V' ■ "V and a stylized picture of the Cotton Bowl stadium. The other side will be individualized with the players name and jersey number. “We wanted to put the big ‘50th’ on the ring because it was a very spe cial Cotton Bowl,” Groff said. “It’s going to be a super ring.” The amount of money the athletic department can spend on the ring is set forth in the rules of the NCAA and the Southwest Conference, Groff said. “The contract award is not a bid situation; it’s more of a proposal,” Groff said. “We say, ‘Here’s how much money we can spend. What can you do for us’. “Obviously, we’re not going to scrimp on a conference champion. We do the same for all the sports.” The ring is made of gold and the top is shaped like a stadium with the outer edges raised. The Diamonique stone in the center will actually be square rather than round as shown in the diagram. The Balfour company has already started on the 6-week process of forming the special dies required to make the ring. Once the team’s indi vidual sizes have been submitted, the manufacturing process will start. Offensive lineman Louis Cheek, a 6-6, 280-pound sophomore, has the largest ring size submitted with a 15. That’s also the largest sizer Balfour gave the team to use. The smallest ring size belongs to Twelfth Man member Ashley Ed dington, a size 8. On the regular squad, both kicker Eric Franklin and wide receiver Tony Thompson checked in with an 8.5 measurement. Groff said everyone is wondering what Marshall Land’s size is. The 365-pound offensive lineman mea sured a 14.5. Education official predicts teacher shortage Associated Press AUSTIN — Texas school districts begin looking in their com ities for replacements for up to 0 teachers who could be lost by mber, says Education Commis- .N. Kirby. [estate now has 175,000 teach- in public school classrooms. The 9 i Ippung teacher competency test i Bbinedf with attrition will create a onage, Kirby told the State Board fj^JEducation on Saturday. I I vvfr re aware °f t ^ ie problem of ■school dropouts in this state but s lalso have a tremendous problem in terms of people dropping out of the education profession,” he said. About 10,000 teachers are ex pected to flunk the upcoming com petency test. Teachers who fail will lose their licenses. Another 5,000 will voluntarily leave for various rea sons, Kirby predicted. The mandatory teacher test will be given in March, with a re-test in June. Teachers who do not pass will be barred from teaching. Kirby said school districts might be able to lure some ex-teachers back to work. Some who left for jobs in private industry might now be looking for work because of the eco nomic slowdown across Texas, he said. State education officials are talk ing to West German officials about a possible exchange program. West Germany has a teacher surplus, Kirby said. Under the plan, Texas teachers would go to West Germany for summer training programs and English-speaking West German tea chers would help in Texas schools. Kirby said the shortage is due, in part, to fewer people choosing tea ching as a career. A Texas Education Agency report issued Friday showed only 59 per cent of the college students who took the basic skills test for prospective teachers passed it in November. Nolan Wood, director of teacher assessment, said officials expected higher scores. Wood said he thought more than 60 percent of the students would pass all three segments of the test — reading, writing and mathematics. The pass rate has never topped 61 percent since the state began giving the test to teacher training candi dates in March 1984. But Wood said he had higher ex pectations because 2,000 fewer peo ple took the test last fall and test re sults are usually better when fewer take an exam. Only 16 percent of the blacks and 31 percent of the Hispanics taking the test passed all three parts. An glos had a 67 percent rate of passing. a lO-ycl a the fail outh. i.j t ukei'l t him '-'I ring pi the age : ofjaffi Thund/' two mile exastow ?d to tin inday jty Valt# nents at x turn lit of He ich cou!:H senile c#P n release! Dedal ti the Eai ihool of! the hat he r. )lace afo- er Herd louse to f mdfatltf the fta« g with a' ither ofi 1 ir-old) f :1 shod' 1 t or pro® Yer," P 0 * derali- .renth r foundP' 1 ivered id. suspect t ;rate o 111 * •ted Frii 1 Id stud'- 'd shot P (i youth I J|(I Before you make long distance commitment make sure you know what you’re getting into. $15 $15 Center If Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh had known what being stuck in the same boat would mean, chances are neither would have set foot aboard. And if you’re stuck in the same boat with a long distance company that doesn’t give you all the services you need, it’s easy to harbor mutinous thoughts. 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Utility buys Texas town, ends conflict Associated Press MONTICELLO — Texas Uti lities has settled a long-running dispute with the people of this tiny Northeast Texas community by buying the entire town — lock, stock and liquor store. The utility took the action to end years of hostilities with Mayor Harold Smith, his family and neighbors over air pollution and blocked roads resulting from a lignite mining operation used to fuel an electric generating plant. “They got the whole town,” said Smith, who owned most of the businesses in the town of 50 people. “Everything in the town is gone — the liquor store, the shops, the concret plant, the ga- ra 55 - • •” Texas Utilities also is getting several houses and a Church of Christ. The purchase was made by Texas Utilities Mining Co., which produces lignite for the electric company’s 1,900-megawatt gen erating plant just across Lake Monticello from the town. Company officials and Smith said they believe it’s the first time a corporation has bought an en tire town. “We researched it, and we can’t find one time in the United States where a company bought a com plete, operating town,” Smith said. {USfflS ilNYADS. BUT REAL heavyweights WHEN RESULTS REALLY count. ) 0 matter what •you've go 10 saY or sell, our Classi fieds can help you (jo the big j°h- iALL: The Battalion 845-2611