Texas A&M - - «•
The Battalion
Jo\. 87 Mo. 80 GSPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, January 25, 1988
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Burglary suspect Larry James Foster is escorted from Lamar Savings.
Photo by Patricia Evans
Senates work
to schedule
senior finals
ifficii
did mi
de. Tlii!
Police discover burglary suspect
hiding in attic of Lamar Savings
By Karen Kroesche
Senior Staff Writer
Compromise was the order of the
day when Student Senate and Fac
ulty Senate representatives met Fri
day to attempt to hammer out a se
nior finals schedule that would be
acceptable to both parties.
The students and faculty mem
bers brought different backgrounds
and opposing viewpoints to the
meeting, but their objective was the
same — to design a senior finals
schedule that could replace the vas
tly unpopular plan already in place.
Faculty Senate officers met with
officers of the Corps of Cadets for
the same reason earlier last week.
Such events as Final Review, Boot
Dance and commissioning will be af
fected by the scheduling, and Corps
members are unhappy with the
schedule as it now stands.
The current plan was given a trial
run last semester and received unfa
vorable response across the campus.
In a Battalion story that ran in
Wednesday’s paper, Speaker of the
Faculty Senate C. Richard Shumway
said the trial run came at a pretty
high cost, to both students and to
faculty, and Student Senate Speaker
Jay Hays said a lot of students felt
they were really cramped by the
schedule.
Hays and Shumway both ex
pressed hope that they could de
velop an alternative schedule at Fri
day’s meeting that would be
acceptable to faculty and students.
“Hopefully after coming out of
that meeting, we’ll have one recom
mendation to give to each Senate for
approval,” Hays said in the Battalion
article.
After much discussion, the stu
dents and faculty came away from
the meeting with two compromises,
both deemed more acceptable than
the current schedule.
The students brought to the meet
ing a proposal that called for seniors
taking separate finals a week earlier
than the rest of the students so they
could graduate the weekend follow
ing dead week while the campus is
still full. Under the current plan, se
niors will take finals with undergrad
uate students, and then graduate
three days after everyone has left
campus.
However, the faculty representa
tives at the meeting did not respond
favorably to the students’ original
proposal based on four primary con
cerns, Shumway said.
“The primary objections,” Shum
way said after the meeting, “would
include the question of being com
pletely equitable with all students;
secondly, requiring that seniors com
plete their work a week and a half
before other students, the pressure
See Schedule^ page 7
By Drew Leder
Staff Writer
29-year-old Bryan man was taken into cus-
todv by Bryan Police Sunday after a two-and-a-
half-hour search of Lamar Savings revealed him
hiding in the attic of the financial institution, po
lice said.
^■Jeutenant Pete Willis of the Bryan Police De
partment said Larry James Foster, whose address
ts listed as 708A North Congress Street, was
charged with burglary of a building and is being
held in Brazos County Jail. Bail was scheduled to
be set at about 9 a.m. today.
Willis said two officers responded to an alarm
at Lamar Savings, 114 S. Bryan Street, at 12:50
p.m. and found evidence of an unlawful entry.
Tools were left lying around and there was some
damage to ceiling tiles, he said.
After dicovering a burglary was in progress,
about four more officers and local agents of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation were called in
and the area was cordoned off, Willis said. Police
dogs were brought in to sniff out the man inside
the building, he said, but because he was in the
attic, the canines were unsuccesful.
Willis said that when officers discovered Foster
hiding in the attic he was not armed and didn’t
put up any resistance.
Hogan will help in president search
iuaf|
29
y31
By Richard Williams
Staff Writer
^Student Body President Mason
Hogan will be included on a commit
tee searching for a new Texas A&M
president, the A&M Board of Re
gents chairman said.
HB)avid Eller, chairman of the re
gents, said the search advisory com
mittee also will include Chancellor
Perry Adkission, President Frank
Vandiver, some faculty members,
the president of the Former Stu
dents Association, a dean and a de
partment head. The chairman of the
search advisory committee has not
yet been determined, he said.
■gThe actual search committee will
make the final decision but the advi
sory committee “is not just cosme
tic, Eller said.
BHogan said he had not expected
to be named to any committee relat
ing to the search for a new presi
dent, and he described the news as
“Impressive” and “Outstanding.”
■“Students aren’t here to be a part
of the administration, but if the fac
ulty is represented on the committee
thjen the students should have some
voice also,” Hogan said.
■Eller will be sending a message to
the students by appointing a student
to| be a part of the search, Hogan
said.
■“He is saying to us ‘we care what
your concerns are,’ ” Hogan said.
■The actual search committee, to
be appointed tomorrow, will include
the chancellor and no more than
four other Board members. The
1981 search committee, which se
lected Vandiver, consisted of 22 peo
ple.
Eller said the search committee
will begin advertising the postion
next week and accepting names for a
sixty day period. After the sixty day
period no more names will be ac
cepted for consideration, he said.
Eller said a new president should
be selected by Sept. 1, the date when
Vandiver officially steps down.
The search committee will release
the names of those being consid
ered, Eller said. During the last
search by the board, A&M refused
to release the names, resulting in a
lawsuit. The Texas Supreme Court
then ruled that public institutions,
including A&M, must release the
names of candidates for the presi
dency.
During the regents’ Sunday meet
ing the Planning and Building Com
mittee gave their approval on the
awarding of a $10,877,051 contract
for resident hall modules for a new
dormitory complex at A&M. If ap
proved by the Board during today’s
meeting the contract will be awarded
to H. B. Zachry Company of San An
tonio.
The plan calls for four halls to be
built in the commons area and for
another hall to be built by Haas and
McFadden halls. Originally it was
thought that only four new halls
would be built. According to plans
presented at the meeting the new
halls in the commons area will house
1,000 residents, and the new hall by
Haas and McFadden will house 202
residents.
During discussion about the new
halls several board members ex
pressed concern about the parking
situation in the area. It was brought
up by one regent that 300 spaces
would be lost by the construction in
addition to the 1,000 new residents
who would move in.
Wesley E. Peel, vice chancellor for
Facilities Planning and Construc
tion, said several alternatives are
currently being discussed. One op
tion being discussed is a parking ga
rage, Peel said.
In other business the Planning
and Building Committee:
• Approved the replacement of
the built-up roof of Zachry Engi
neering Center with a foamed in
place urethane roof system. The es
timated cost of this project is
$250,000.
• Approved the replacement of
the steel casement windows and ren
ovation of the exterior of Scoates
Hall in two seperated actions. The
total cost of these projects is esti
mated at $330,000.
• Approved the cleaning, re
caulking of joints and treatment of
the exterior of Rudder Center with
water repellant. The estimated cost
is $225,000.
• Appropriation of $175,000 for
preliminary design for the satellite
utility plant. The total cost of this
project is estimated as being
$7,800,000. Two possible sites were
discussed for the proposed plant.
One was in an area on the east side
of Houston street between the Clay
ton Williams Alumni Center and Mt.
Aggie. The other area discussed was
Duncan Field.
• Recommended a contract for
the renovation of Crocker, Moore,
Davis-Gary and Moses halls be
awarded. The committee recom
mended the contract be awarded to
Hill Constructiors, Inc. of Houston
for the amount of $7,392,000.
With the approval of the commit
tee the items will be forwarded to the
entire Board today.
The Board also granted Jackie
Sherrill the title of Professor of Ath
letics with tenure.
How proposals would affect Soring 1988 finals:
Sun. Mon. Tu«. W*d. Thu. Frl. Sat.
April
May
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2
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5
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1 1
12
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Senior finals
Undergraduate
finals
Commencement
Plan 1 : Current schedule
May 6-7, 9-1C
May 6-7, 9-1C
May 13-14
Plan 2: Faculty proposal *
May 9-13
May 9-13
May 13-14
Plan 3: Faculty compromise**
May 9-13
May 9-13
May 13-14
Plan 4: Student proposal 1
April 28-29,
May 2-3
May 9-13
May 6-7
Plan 5: Student proposal 2 +
May 2-4
May 9-13
May 6-7
Plan 6 : Student compromise ++
May 7, 9-11
May 9-13
May 13-14
* Seniors would not receive diplomas at commencement.
** Eligible students could be certified for graduation by faculty prior to completion of
finals so that a majority of students could receive diplomas at commencement.
+ May 2-6 would be a true dead week with no classes meeting.
++ Finals scheduling would be weighted so that finals for most upper-division classes
would be scheduled May 9-11.
Graphic by Susan C. Akin
Senates’ meeting may bring
better relations for members
Health center director scheduled
to undergo heart bypass surgery
By Robbyn L. Lister
News Editor
jpDr. Claude B. Goswick Jr., direc-
toi of A&M’s A.P. Beutel Health
■fenter, was scheduled to undergo
b|pass surgery this morning at St.
Joseph Hospital and Health Center.
!' Dr. Gordon Mitchell, Class of 'll
, and a Bryan cardiologist, said Sun-
> Ul day that the surgery, a type of open-
(idM heart surgery, would include from
o three to five bypasses, depending on
what the surgeons find.
|| Mitchell said Goswick is having
the surgery now because of the
problems he has had with hard arte
ries.
Goswick was taken to St. Joseph
Hospital after he suffered a dizzy
spell at 3:45 Wednesday afternoon
at the University health center. The
Texas A&M Emergency Care Team,
which Goswick directs, attended him
at the scene and then took him to the
hospital.
Mitchell said that although the
surgery is elective, Goswick needs to
have it done.
“Well, it’s not emergency, or else it
would have been done Friday, but
it’s something that needs to be done,
and it’s better to do it now than
wait,” he said.
Mitrhell said he doesn’t believe
Goswick will have any problems with
the surgery.
“There’s no reason to believe that
he should have any problems,” he
said. “In other words, he doesn’t
have any undue risk that sometimes
we get a little concerned about. . . .
He doesn’t have any other problems
that would make us worry about him
being a high risk.”
Mitchell said it would take be
tween six weeks and two months for
Goswick to recover from the sur
gery.
Dr. John M. Moore, a health cen
ter physician, will serve as director of
the facility in Goswick’s absence.
By Karen Kroesche
Senior Staff Writer
Friday’s meeting between Faculty
Senate and Student Senate rep
resentatives could signal the begin
ning of a new trend on campus — a
movement toward better relations
between faculty and student leaders.
The students and faculty mem
bers met to discuss the scheduling of
senior finals. That issue has been a
sore subject for students since last se
mester, but this was the first time
their opinion was formally tapped by
the Faculty Senate.
“Their (the Faculty Senate’s)
openness and their willingness to
work (together) is unprecedented,”
said Jay Hays, speaker of the Stu
dent Senate. “We have never had
this cooperation in the past.”
Tom Black, chairman of the Stu
dent’s Senate’s Academic Affairs
Committee, added, “When the fac
ulty come and talk to you, and they
see that we’re reasonable and we see
that they’re reasonable, it’s got to
open doors. It just has to. The sin
cerity and the honesty is there, and
we certainly appreciate that.
“I never met the speaker before
yesterday. And now I know him . . .
And he’ll know that as students
we’re not wild and crazy. He’s real
ized that we’re not quite so militant
as we may have sounded through
the papers, or we may have sounded
through inter-office memos or
through hearsay. And they’re not as
militant as we thought they were,
based on what (the resolution to
implement senior finals) they had
passed.”
At last Monday’s Faculty Senate
meeting. Speaker C. Richard Shum
way addressed President Frank E.
Vandiver’s announcement that he
will resign, praising Vandiver for his
accomplishments but also comment
ing on recent student criticism of the
president.
“He’s been criticized for allegedly
not listening as carefully to student
discretions as to faculty concerns,”
Shumway said in his opening re
marks. “If that problem is true, it
can be laid at least partially at our
doorstep for not always involving
students in the early stages of the
scheduling on items of joint con
cern.”
Later, Shumway said the presi
dent encouraged dialogue between
the faculty and the students over the
senior finals issue.
“He’s attempted real hard to get
us to work together to resolve the
differences,” he said. “I shouldn’t
say he’s tried to get us together, but
he’s been very concerned that the
faculty and the students both have a
fair hearing, and that their opinions
be considered.
“It’s probably fair to say that we’ve
taken the initiative to get the two
groups together to talk about it.
There certainly has been no external
pressure on us to do that, but I think
the administration is certainly sup
portive of us doing that.”
Hays said students have felt like
their concerns have been neglected
in the past and he said the cooper
ation between the groups is a wel
come change.
“Until the end of last semester
and the beginning of this semester,
the students, the Student Senate in
particular, have felt that the faculty
kind of have a cavalier attitude to
wards the student concerns,” he
said. “I think it stems from their
honest efforts to make the Univer
sity better. But in doing that, some
how we feel like they overlooked
things that were important to us.”
Black echoed Hays’ opinion that
the Faculty Senate’s motives were
good in instigating senior finals and
suggested that they didn’t anticipate
the problems that would result.
“On an academic plain what they
did was very good. They decided
that seniors are not different from
anyone else, they ought to take fi
nals. This idea of letting them off
the hook — no other great university
does that, so why should we? And if
we want to be of world class status
then we should do that too.
“On an acaderrjic plain, that’s
what they were thinking. However,
when it came down to Texas A&M in
particular, with our great traditions,
it just didn’t work right. Recently it
became apparent how bad it really
was.”
Shumway, too, said the Faculty
Senate was caught off guard.
“The thing with the senior finals,
to be perfectly honest, we got caught
flat-footed. We just did not realize
how sensitive some of the issues asso
ciated with scheduling were going to
be,” he said. “The issue that was ad
dressed by the Faculty Senate was
‘do you test graduating seniors or
don’t you?’
“It seemed to be a very simple
question, that has become really very
complicated.”
Shumway said by developing bet
ter relations with the students, he
hopes to be able to pick up on poten
tial problem areas early on rather
than getting it late, like he did on the
senior finals issue.
To that end, Shumway said the
Faculty Senate has student represen
tation on about six Faculty Senate
committees, and it has invited nomi
nation for two more.
In addition, Shumway said both
groups agreed at Friday’s meeting to
set up regular meetings between
See Relations, page 8