Page 8AThe Battalion/Thursday, January 28,1988
Students at A&M offer free energy audit
By Kathy Crawford
Reporter
Working within the Energy Anal
ysis and Diagnostic Center at Texas
A&M, a group of mechanical engi
neering students provides small in
dustries around the state with free
audits, getting first-hand experience
in the energy management field.
The energy analysis facility is the
only one of its kind in Texas.
The program, which began here
in January 1987, is funded by the
U.S. Department of Energy and
managed by the University City Sci
ence Center in Philadelphia.
Dr. Warren Heffington, associate
Small businesses in Texas benefit from management tips
professor of mechanical engineering
and head of the EADC, said they
plan to use their student staff to do
30 audits this year.
“We try to schedule two audits on
every trip,” Heffington said. “Nor
mally, a student will only be gone
five or six days a semester.”
Students audit industries by
studying flow rates, combustion effi
ciencies and process and environ
mental temperatures.
In its first year, the program
saved 15 small- and medium-sized
manufacturing plants an average of
$20,000 each.
The audits are performed at no
cost to the manufacturers.
To be eligible for the service,
plants must have gross annual sales
of $50 million or less, annual energy
consumption of $1.5 million or less,
employ not more than 500 persons
and have no in-house energy exper
tise.
The EADC staff will travel up to
150 miles from the A&M campus to
perform an audit.
The work experience to be gained
is a major incentive for students to
participate in EADC.
Graduate student LaRence Snow
den has been involved with the pro
gram since it began.
“You get first-hand experience
and learn what goes on and what to
expect,” Snowden said.
Another reason to participate in
the project is the chance to see dif
ferent types of engineering plants.
“I have the opportunity to get ex
posure to various industries in Tex
as,” Snowden said. “It’s also interest
ing to see how certain things are
made, like when we went to the ice
cream factory.”
For students planning to work in
energy management after gradua
tion, Heffington said, practical
knowledge is important.
“Some of them (students) hope to
make careers in energy manage
ment,” Heffington said. “It’s very
valuable experience for anyone who
wants to work in this Field.”
Snowden said working with
EADC has helped himi
sion as to whether he wantt
into energy management.
Matt Grubb, a graduate^
said he enjoys helpingtheii
save money.
“The best thing about t
gram is the practical esJ
working as an engineering!
tant,” Grubb said. ^It’s notji
of research and paper worll
good to help someone."
Although all positions
year are filled, mecl
neering students interested!
ticipating in EADC shouidl
Heffington.
Dallas police face criticism after officer’s deatl
DALLAS (AP) — Praised four
years ago as the best in the nation,
the Dallas Police Department has
since been scrutinized by congress
men, criticized by City Council, chas
tized by a state judge and demora
lized by the slayings of two officers.
“I don’t know of any organization
that could undergo the criticisms
that we have over the past year,
many of which are not justified, and
not feel it very deeply,” Capt. John
Holt says. >
Officers on the street say morale
hit rock bottom Saturday, when the
second officer to die in as many
weeks was gunned down in front of
a crowd by a deranged transient.
A group of three to six young
black men waiting at a bus station
egged the vagrant on as he shot offi
cer John Glenn Chase in the face
three times, despite the 25-year-old
man’s pleas for mercy, Lt. Jerald Ca-
lame said. The vagrant, Carl Dudley
Williams, was then killed after he
fired at pursuing officers.
Chase’s death brought to the sur
face simmering anger among police
officials against the department’s
most vocal critics — two minority
City Council members whose stri
dent calls for change in the deadly-
force policy brought congressional
investigators to town last year.
Police Chief Billy Prince blamed
the constant “bashing” for helping
incite the crowd Saturday. Mayor
Annette Strauss in turn blasted
Prince for saying elected officials
were partly at fault and called the
shooting an isolated incident that
had nothing to do with city politics.
But Prince refused to back down.
“The feeling and atmosphere of
ri(i | pg ,l jjweyr tgays t
Dallas police chief blames slaying incident on city officials
DALLAS (AP) — Police Chief Billy Prince’s
laying part of the blame for the slaying of a police
officer on elected officials has only increased ten
sion between the department and the commu
nity, Mayor Annette Strauss said.
Prince said the shooting death of a white offi
cer by a black transient resulted in part because
of some City Council members’ criticisms of the
Dallas Police Department.
“I have to hope he made those comments at an
emotional time,” Strauss said, describing the
shooting as an isolated incident with nothing to
do with politics. “Chief Prince knows we have
done all we can to make things better.”
But Prince won’t back down from his com
ments.
“For somone who was on the edge, that type of
atmosphere at City Hall could have pushed so
mone over the edge to attack a police officer,”
Prince said.
Officer John Chase was shot to death on a
downtown street Saturday by Carl Dudley Wil
liams, who had a history of mental problems, au
thorities said.
The Dallas department has been attacked by
elected officials and representatives of die city’s
minority community for a series of fatal shoot
ings by police. Most of the shooting victims were
black.
Prince said Chase’s shooting has galvanized a
“silent majority” of people who support him and
his embattled police department.
Council member Diane Ragsdale, a frequent
critic of the Dallas Police, also was critical of
Prince’s remarks.
“I regret that Chief Prince has made those re
marks,” the black council member said. “They
only serve to heighten conflict.”
Poll: Police receive favorable ratings from Dallas residents
DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Police Depart
ment got favorable ratings from most respon
dents in a survey, although differing opinions,
closely follow racial lines.
The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday re
ported the results of its survey conducted after
the second slaying of a police officer in as many
weeks. Nearly three-quarters of those polled said
the killings probably will make public opinion
more favorable toward police.
The opinions came from a telephone survey of
357 Dallas residents Monday night. Researchers
contacted at least 100 residents selected from
each of three categories — white, black or His
panic.
The racial division was reflected most clearly
in responses to questions concerning the City
Council’s involvement in police affairs.
More than two-thirds of the survey’s white re
spondents said they think the council has gone
too far in its supervision of the police depart
ment. But more than half of the blacks and
nearly half of the Hispanics surveyed said the
council has done just enough or needs to do
more.
Also, more than three-fourths of blacks and
Hispanics surveyed said the department lacks
enough minority officers, while 57 percent of
whites agreed more minorities are needed.
Overall, more than 80 percent of those sur
veyed said police do a good or excellent job, and
nearly two thirds said the department has a posi
tive reputation.
About 70 percent of all racial groups said they
would be willing to pay higher taxes for in
creased police protection.
The margin of error for opinions expressed by
individual ethnic groups was plus or minus 9.3
percent, while the margin of error for the total
results was 5.3 percent, the newspaper said.
controversy and criticism that per
meated this past year . . . you take
someone a little mentally deranged,
and the circumstances are just right
and they’re on the edge, it makes
them just bold enough to attack an
officer,” he said.
Black council members Diane
Ragsdale and A1 Lipscomb — who
refused to return repeated calls
from the Associated Press — have
long lobbied against the predomi
nantly white police department and
accused it of racism in hiring, pro
motions and the use of deadly force.
Their criticism hit a fevered pitch
when 70-year-old Etta Collins, a
black woman, was shot to death at
her home by police investigating a
burglary in October 1986. A grand
jury declined to indict the officer.
Ragsdale and Lipscomb helped
bring members of a House subcom
mittee to Dallas in May for a day
long congressional hearing led by
Rep. John Conyers of Detroit.
Days later, an 81-year-old black
crime watch volunteer, David Hor
ton, was shot to death bi
called to his high-rise ret
complex after he allegedly
gun at officers.
Problems continued toi
department throughout 1}']
the year ended with seven I
fired for misconduct and
lined $93,250 and cited i
tempt of court by a statejucj
accused it of being obstructs:
Raymond Hawkins, i
of the southeast substations
the Republican Convent [
198-1) we were touted as (Iki
the country. This is in facttl
police department. Wit
changed is some keyindividia
tudes and some rather u
instances.”
Mistakes that tattered t
ment’s image were widely]
in November and Decemh
the internal affairs divisid
eluded several investigations:
suited in disciplinary'action
• One officer was dismiss
another disciplined after i|
cuffed prisoner was
abused.
• Two officers were dismaj
allegedly urging motoristsf
for driving while intoxicaidj
take an Intoxilyzer test
ring them to a specificattort
• An officer on probi
fired for physically a
oner at the city jail.
• A cocaine-intoxicated d
after officers tried to restra
with a neck hold and a 61
man was fatally shot at
when he allegedly pointed!
officers serving a search wam
bootlegging.
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