Tuesday, February 10, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
fficial: Faulty design not to blame
or students’ falls from dorm windows
By Jennifer Friend
Reporter
A cadet recently became the fifth
Texas A&M student to fall from a
jorm room window within the past
ieven years.
Four cadets have fallen from
lorps-style dorms while one student
las fallen from a ramp-style dorm.
In the falls, one student died, two
tudents were hospitalized and two
scaped injury.
How far should the University go
ned protect students from injuring
I . hemselves? Should dorm windows
zt#" je redesigned to prevent accidents?
John T. White, housing services
supervisor, doesn’t think so.
‘The people who have fallen have
ingont!*
he cor®.
Febrnr.
ouldusf
Hives st-
’s infatm
fantasie
Soviets
Howi
oisrasirt
Aslonga
is
immie-L.
n hopefi
Another student died from mas
sive internal and head injuries after
he fell from his fourth floor window
in Walton Hall. No one witnessed
the fall.
A fifth incident occurred Feb. 2
when a cadet reportedly fell from his
backward through the windows.
During renovations, the air condi
tioner will be moved away from the
window.
Because there is no air condition
ing, the ramp-style dorms have
screened windows, but the screens
“Realistically, we can’t hand-hold everybody. It’s like,
‘Don’t run down these steps because you might fall.’ I
know that may sound heartless, but in my opinion
we’re dealing with adults who know what is dangerous
and what is not dangerous. ”
—John T. White, housing services supervisor
a ’ " [Ij. done something on their own to fall
>ut the window,” he said. “I don’t
hink it’s a defect in the design of the
vindow.”
One cadet fell while climbing
down a rope he had made by tying
jedsheets together. He was not in
ured, nor was an intoxicated cadet
ivho fell when he leaned out of his
indow to vomit. A third cadet fell
'oughk vhile hanging a platform outside his
vindow. He underwent surgery for
ruptured spleen and recovered.
fourth floor window in Dorm 12. Po
lice are investigating the cause of the
accident.
Dorms 10 and 12 will be the first
of 16 Corps-style dorms to be reno
vated, White said, although the ren
ovation plans do not include a
change in window design.
But a change will be made that
could prevent accidents.
In Corps-style dorms, many stu
dents sit on the air conditioners in
front of the windows and risk falling
provide little protection from falls.
White said.
“Really, it’s too late now to build in
any additional, substantial changes,”
he said. “Plus, all the dorms have
had new windows put in within the
last five years.”
In the past, the housing depart
ment has changed its policies to pre
vent accidents, White said. For ex
ample, until the cadet fell while
hanging on one, students were able
to mount platforms outside dorm
windows.
“It was something that we didn’t
really like, but the students kept in
sisting that they needed it,” he said.
“The platforms used to get really
elaborate. They would put plants on
them and sit outside on them.
“When he fell, it confirmed our
fears. We decided that we didn’t
want these any longer because of the
danger, so we abolished them.”
White doesn’t believe the Univer
sity should change the window de
sign to make falling impossible, nor
does he believe students want a
change.
“Realistically, we can’t hand-hold
everybody,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Don’t
run down these steps because you
might fall.’ I know that may sound
heartless, but in my opinion we’re
dealing with adults who know what
is dangerous and what is not danger
ous.
“When you start changing the
windows, you change a lot of the
freedom that the students like to
have. I think that everyone likes the
windows that you can open up all the
way and get a good breeze.”
Economic conference to be held in CS
The annual Brazos Valley Eco
nomic Outlook Conference,
sponsored by the Bryan-College
Station Chamber of Commerce,
will be held Thursday in the am
phitheater of the Hilton Hotel.
The one-day seminar features
Texas A&M specialists in a vari
ety of areas including real estate,
energy, university research, agri
culture and tourism. The 23
speakers will focus on the effect
of current economic trends on
the local market, says coordinator
Dr. William Mobley, deputy
chancellor of the A&M University
system.
Featured speakers include:
• Jim Adams, president of the
Texas Division, Southwestern
Bell Telephone and chairman of
Gov. Clement’s Business Devel
opment and Jobs Creation Task
Force.
• Dr. Duwayne M. Anderson,
A&M associate provost for re
search.
• Larry G. Gresham, associate
director for the A&M Center for
Retailing Studies.
• Gary Maler, senior opera
tions director, Texas Real Estate
Research Center.
• Mark Money, vice chancellor
for the A&M Research Park and
Corporate Relatons.
A limited number of openings
are still available. Those inter
ested need to contact Beverly
Barron at the Chamber of Com
merce by 8:30 Wednesday morn
ing. The registration fee is $45.
Federal witness in drug trial
killed; handgun to be tested
EDINBURG (AP) — Ballistics
tests were pending Monday on a gun
that may have been used to kill a
government witness who testified in
a drug trial, investigators said.
ences
never is t
Russia
unocaif.-|
st confrc:!
Vandiver: Distribution of PAC form letter a ‘clerical error’
By Amy Couvillon
Staff Writer
I A form letter soliciting contributions for
the Higher Education PAC and bearing Pres
ident Frank E. Vandiver’s signature — which
n pdotBas sent out to Texas A&M faculty members
over the weekend — was due to a “clerical er
ror,” the president said Monday.
| In a Monday letter read at the Faculty Sen
ate meeting by Speaker Sam Black, Vandiver
apologized for the error, saying he had in
tended to leave the matter of soliciting A&M
faculty support up to the Faculty Senate.
I “This letter was not intended to be sent to
the faculty,” Vandiver wrote. “That it did in
fact go to the faculty is an administrative er
ror, and one that I greatly deplore. This letter
as intended to be sent to administrators.”
'UK
PJfW
The letter, paid for by the Higher Educa
tion Legislative Political Action Committee
and sent to about 2,500 A&M faculty mem
bers, called for “wholly voluntary” contribu
tions to the PAC, suggesting amounts of $100
to $1,000.
The Faculty Senate at its Jan. 19 meeting
had received an almost identical sample letter
from Vandiver. The Senate then decided to
put off sending that letter to A&M faculty be
cause it lacked information about the newly
formed PAC.
The Senate executive committee was au
thorized to research the PAC and send out a
letter to faculty members before the February
meeting. But because unanswered questions
remained, no letter was sent, Senate Secretary
Richard Shumway said last week.
Dr. William Mobley, deputy chancellor for
academic and resource development, came
Monday to the Faculty Senate meeting to an
swer questions about the political action com
mittee and its purposes.
Mobley listed many of the members of the
PAC, which include corporate spokesmen for
higher education as well as regents from
A&M, the University of Texas, the University
of Houston and other Texas universities.
Several senators raised questions about the
PAC’s intention to support certain political
candidates. Others asked how the faculty’s
wishes would be brought to the PAC.
In response to questions, Mobley acknowl
edged that since the PAC is so new, support
of it is a matter of “faith in the quality of the
people on the PAC board.”
Next year, he said, there will be a clear re
cord of the committee’s actions, and its bud
get will be subject to audit.
All letters sent to former students, faculty,
staff and corporate individuals, Mobley said,
have been paid for by the PAC, not with state
funds.
After Mobley spoke, the Senate voted to
endorse Vandiver’s letter, although several
senators suggested that the executive commit
tee of the Senate meet with Board of Regents
Chairman David Eller to discuss the Faculty
Senate’s relationship with the PAC.
Vandiver said he was greatly concerned
about the reaction of the Faculty Senate, and
said he hoped that a trust had not been vio
lated. He reiterated support of the PAC.
“I would hope that a clerical error does not
tarnish the intent of this group,” Vandiver
said.
Antonio Espinosa, 39, of Edin
burg, died Sunday afternoon after
he was shot once in the head with a
.38-caliber handgun while driving
with his wife and 6-month-old
daughter, said Hidalgo County sher
iffs investigator Capt. Albert Garcia.
John Bott, a spokesman for the
Drug Enforcement Administration
in Houston, said Espinosa was a de
fendant who turned government
witness in the so-called “Cash Crop”
trials in San Antonio last summer.
The case involved a drug ring that
authorities believe smuggled metha-
qualone and marijuana from Mexico
into the United States.
Espinosa was killed by a shot that
was fired from a late-model pickup
truck that pulled up next to the vic
tim’s car, Garcia said.
“The passenger in the pickup
truck rolled down the window,
aimed a handgun at the victim, shot
him one time,” Garcia said.
Investigators have only Espinosa’s
wife, Rosa, as a witness, Garcia said.
A weapon was recovered from a
pickup truck fitting the description
later Sunday, Garcia said.
It’s eleven p.m.
Do you know where your paper is?
the hell
But fo r
ovedoflf'
,t. To
disai
•ainsstifl
a
aw fly> n S
ave
r theh
leetoi 1
•ieve?
nswer. AlI l
ng
a prof -
down 1
ito
rains 10
jnd an'l
irial
Let’s be real. Compare the equipment she’s using to yours. If
you were both trying to tunnel through a mountain, she’d have a
bulldozer and you’d have a shrimp fork.
Don’t despair. Your problem is already half-solved. For a lim
ited time, you can buy an Apple® Macintosh" Plus or a Macintosh
512K Enhanced computer with Microsoft Works—for less money
Which is wonderful.
You get a Macintosh, with its speed, ease of use, and graphics
capability. Plus, you get a software program that lets you use all this
Macintosh power in all your subjects.
Microsoft Works is not just one program, it’s four integrated
programs: word processing, data-base management, spreadsheet
with charting, and communications.
Meaning you can put charts in your history essays. Spread
sheets in your economics papers. Call Dowjones News/Retrieval
at 2:00 a.m. to get the facts for your journalism story due at 8:00 a.m.
So if you’re taking more than one subject this semester, you
should check out Macintosh and Microsoft Works.
But don’t wait till the eleventh hour. This offer will end soon.
And your paper might stay out all night.
Macintosh and Microsoft Works
Micro
Center
845-4081
MSC
Apple and the Apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer. Inc.
Dow Jones News/Retrieval is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company. Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.