he Battalion
TATE & LOCAL
3
Tuesday, November 28,1989
The Battalion
(Campus bomb searches done
ithout students’ knowledge
|y Michael Kellett
and Juliette Rizzo
The Battalion Staff
nit;
A recent bomb threat in Blocker Building
lidn’t create a panic, because occupants of the
iuilding remained unaware throughout a police
earch of the building. Students were surprised
3 learn after-the-fact that a bomb threat had
l , ^leen made.
Bob Wiatt, director of the UPD, said withhold
ing of such information from building occupants
^standard procedure at A&M, meant to prevent
potentially dangerous panic situations.
He said these incidents are not made open
tiowledge because the publicity only would
serve to incite an undue panic among the stu
dents, needlessly disrupt classes and prompt
ther individuals to make similar threats.
Wiatt said the informing of the occupants and
Jvacuation of the building during such an event
is left to the discretion of the building proctor
who, in this case, decided to avoid a panic and al
low the police to conduct a subdued search of the
building.
I After the police report the threat to the proc
tor, Wiatt said that at any time the proctor can
decide for himself whether or not to pull the
alarm and pass the word.
However, he said that if any sort of suspicious
device is found in the search, the building will be
evacuated immediately.
“Hoaxes occur repeatedly numbering from 10
to 30 times in a year, mostly during mid-term
and final exam periods,” Wiatt said. “We have a
plethora of threats with as many as five in a given
week. But if we have reason to believe it is a bona-
fide threat we can override the proctor and tell
him to evacuate the building.”
Wiatt said the UPD has a detailed procedure
under which threat calls are evaluated. The type
of threat, certain wording and the time the threat
is made, during an exam for example, are taken
into consideration when the decision is made
how to treat a given incident.
Wiatt said he has noticed that actual terrorists
set the bomb first and deliver the message later.
“Back in the 60s it was policy that we evacuated
buildings every time a bomb threat was called in,”
Wiatt said. “This spawned the rapidity of reoc
currences and as a result the University analyzed
the calls.
“The findings showed none of the threats to
be legitimate. To report a bomb threat seemed to
be a means of getting attention.”
Chris Panichi, a senior management major
from Laguna Beach, Calif., said the re-evaluation
of today’s policy should be given rapid attention.
He and others were angered that they were not
informed about the bomb threat in Blocker.
“I think their withholding of information is in
excusable,” he said. Panichi said that he and
other students in the building should have been
informed of the situation and allowed to make
their own choices whether to evacuate or not.
Wiatt said that to lessen the number of repeat
incidents occupants are not informed every time.
“Students and those making the threats need
to realize buildings aren’t always going to be
evacuated and tests will go on,” he said.
Making a bomb threat is classified as a Class A
misdemeanor and carries a maximum penalty of
up to one year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.
Two individuals have already been caught
making such calls and were charged with making
terroristic threats, Wiatt said.
“We have methods to catch these people and
they will be vigorously prosecuted,” he said.
Defense Department
offers fellowships
for graduate students
The U.S. Department of De
fense is offering graduate
fellowships for students seeking
doctoral degrees in science and
engineering.
The Department of Defense
will award nearly 120 three-year
National Defense Science and En
gineering Graduate Fellowships
in April 1990. The fellowship will
cover full tuition, required fees
and provide an annual stipend.
The stipend is $15,000 for
1990-91, $16,000 for 1991-92,
and $17,000 for 1992-93. In ad
dition, $2,000 per year will be
awarded to the graduate aca
demic department for each fel
low.
Applicants must be a U.S. citi
zen, be near the beginning of
their graduate study, and pursu
ing degrees relating to specific
fields.
The following is a list of the
fields: aeronautical/astronautical
engineering; biosciences; chemi
cal engineering; chemistry; cog
nitive, neural, and behavioral sci-
ences; computer science;
electrical engineering; geosci
ences; manufacturing sciences
and engineering; materials sci
ence; mathematics; mechanical
engineering; naval architecture
and ocean engineering; oceanog
raphy; and physics.
Recipients are not obligated
for any military or other govern
ment service, and the 1990 recipi
ents must receive their bachelor’s
degree before the beginning of
the fall 1990 semester.
Application information is
available from Dr. George Out-
terson of Battalle at (919) 549-
8505. Applications are due by
Jan. 17, 1990.
PUC considers
rate proposal by
phone company
AUSTIN (AP) — A Southwes-
indt! tern Bell official said Monday the
(012 Public Utility Commission has an
, option between “choosing growth
" and progress — or choosing stag-
Ifl nation” in setting rates for the
telephone company.
“The $400-$V00 million in pro
posed revenue reductions still
carry the banner of traditional ra
temaking — and they don’t con
sider the competitive nature of
telecommunications,” said Paul
Roth, Texas division president
for Southwestern Bell.
The telephone company has
presented a “Texas First” propo
sal to the PUC, calling for a five-
year freeze in basic local tele
phone rates, coupled with a mul
timillion dollar modernization
program for the Southwestern
Bell system.
Consumer representatives
have called for a rate decrease for
Southwestern Bell. The PUC
staff also has recommended a
$392 million annual revenue re
duction for the company, saying
it has been earning more than the
s,w: commission authorized in the
company’s last rate case.
The staff recommendation is
the largest revenue reduction it
o tk|[ever has recommended for a util
ity, PUC Counsel Bob Rima said.
The proposal includes a $344
million investment by the com
pany.
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Center honors A&M students for volunteer efforts
By Julie Myers
Of The Battalion Staff
Eleven Texas A&M students were honored
Monday night at the Sandstone Center for
their volunteer efforts to combat drug and al
cohol abuse in Brazos County.
With three full-time paid employees and
one part-time position, the Brazos Valley
Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse re
lies on more than 40 volunteer workers.
Rose Kuehler, a lecturer in the kinesiology
department and Straight Talk crisis hotline
volunteer, was named Volunteer of the Year.
“The first day I worked the phones I could
feel the need (in the community),” Kuehler,
who has been with the council since its incep
tion, said.
“The most rewarding part of my job is
when someone says, ‘Thank you for listening;
I feel so much better,’ ” she said.
BVCASA began in 1985 with a $12,000
grant from the Texas Commission on Alcohol
and Drug Abuse.
Three years later. Straight Talk was added
using a community development block grant.
Straight Talk is financed by local funds and
services six counties. The hotline volunteers
receive about 500 calls each month.
Working for Straight Talk has given junior
agricultural business major Lee Denena a
new view of life.
“The real world is a lot harder place than
the one I live in,” Denena said.
In addition to the certificates and t-shirts
BVCASA presented to its volunteers, the
council named Brazos County Sheriff Ron
Miller and A&M Associate Professor of Ur
ban and Regional Planning Donald A. Swee
ney as the top two members of the board of
directors.
For those who want to volunteer there are
many things to be done, Mary Mattingly, ex
ecutive director of BVCASA, said. In fact, she
said there are many programs she would like
to implement but a lack of money and volun
teers prevent her from maintaining them.
BVCASA tried to provide drug-free activ
ities for area youth, but Mattingly said these
programs are on the back burner for now.
Because there are not enough volunteers,
those that do work at Straight Talk have to
work 12 hour shifts. Mattingly said burnout is
high.
BVCASA needs people to staff a speakers’
bureau and booths at various health fairs
throughout the year.
A speakers’ bureau would provide experts
on various subjects, as well as recovering
chemical abusers. Volunteers must attend a
training session to work at BVCASA.
“Alcohol and drug abuse is a disease; that’s
the way we treat it,” Mattingly said. “We need
to make sure everybody is sending the same-
message.”
Task force members say Legislature must solve education woes
AUSTIN (AP) — The newest task
force on Texas public schools began
work Monday with several members
saying they hoped that this time, ed
ucation problems finally will be
solved.
“I’ve been through a number of
school reform movements,’ said
Austin lawyer Camilla Bordie, for
mer longtime aide to Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby. “I hope this time we get it
right.”
Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur,
said he has seen “seven or eight or
10 reports from prior select commit
tees on education” during his legis
lative career.
“We made some major departures
. . . with House Bill 72 (in 1984),”
said Parker, who chairs the Senate
Education Committee.“And had we
had the grit to follow through with
them, we wouldn’t be here today in
this mess.”
Since 1983, two select committees
have studied public education.
The one that met Monday,
chaired by Houston businessman
Charles Miller, was created by Gov.
Bill Clements to recommend ways of
meeting the Texas Supreme Court
ruling that the current finance sys
tem discriminates against property-
poor school districts.
The court gave the Legislature
until May 1 to act. Proposals for
meeting the court’s order range in
cost from $1 billion to more than
$ 10 billion over five years.
Clements has said he will call the
Legislature into session this spring to
deal with the problem.
Miller said he hoped the commit
tee’s final recommendations could
be sent to the governor and Legis
lature by March 1. He said he favors
an early March special legislative ses
sion to enact reforms before the
court-ordered deadline.
Committee member Larry Jen
kins, who chaired a 1988 study of
public education, said school reform
is the most crucial issue facing Texas
today and that significant changes
are needed.
“We can’t keep on doing things
the way we’ve always done, or we can
anticipate getting the things we’ve al
ways gotten — which is declining
scores, lower international compet
itive nature and certainly much
lower knowledge development in
our kids,” Jenkins said.
An overhaul, he said, is needed to
“change the existing system to one
that promises considerably more
than what we’ve been able to achieve
simply by trying to Band-Aid the
order to the task fojf^said spending
more money without significant re
form in the system’s “structure”
won’t work.
But Parker said more money al
most certainly will be needed.
“Invariably, every committee that
66
Invariably, every committee that looks at education
turns to structure because that’s where you can go in
and tinker with the system. That’s where an amateur
educator can go in and really wreak havoc.”
— Sen. Carl Parker.
current one.”
Clements has said “no new taxes”
for school finance reform, and his
looks at education turns to structure
because that’s where you can go in
and tinker with the system,” he said.
fttfT
‘Presents...
1989
Christmas Craft ‘festival
Nov. 28th & 29th
9am-5pm
Rudder Fountain Mall
Quality handcrafted items at affordable prices !
Jewelry
Pottery
Woodworks
Novelties
T-Shirts
Creative Clothing
N eedleworks
and much more..