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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1989)
•The Battalion STATE & LOCAL 3 ^Wednesday, Decembers, 1989 &M fights education problems A&M senior creates ask force investigates school drop-out epidemic, ponsors conference to share projects with teachers computer program By James M. Love Special to The Battalion By Bill Hethcock Of The Battalion Staff Eigl ■g the elementary and secondary ■hool drop-out epidemic and other witical problems in the education system, Dr. Dean Corrigan, head of the “Commitment to Education” task force, said. There is a 30 percent drop-out rate in Texas public schools, Corri gan said. “We can’t afford to have people drop out of school and pay $35,000 A&M sends servicemen holiday greeting cards By Andrew Kehoe Of The Battalion Staff Some Texas A&M students are making Christmas a little brighter for American servicemen who might be alone or away from home. The students are participating in “Mail Call!”, a national, non profit, independent but military- related program that routes Christmas mail to members of the armed forces. Although “Mail Call!” has existed for 15 years, it has been at A&M for only two years. Kathy Hopkins, a junior bi ology major, was in charge of this See Mail/Page 4 a year to incarcerate them,” he said. “Eighty-five percent of the prisoners in Huntsville are drop-outs. “The United States work force needs people who are finishing school with basic skills needed to suc ceed.” Corrigan, who was the dean of the College of Education until August, said he feels students are dropping out because they are bored and un challenged. One of the goals of the task force, Corrigan said, is to help schools become “centers of intellec tual inquiry” where students will want to be involved. “We’ve got a lot of people drop ping out of school that are compe tent,” he said. “They can do the work, but they are not turned on by it. Engagement and involvement are the keys to creating healthy learning environments. People have to see a purpose in what they’re doing.” Good teachers are vital for an en vironment that will keep students in school, Corrigan said. “A key to a lot of this problem is to get creative teachers,” he said. “That’s another part of this project. We want to attract into teaching the most outstanding candidates for tea ching.” One of the activities the “Commit ment to Education” task force will sponsor is an annual conference called “New Directions in Educa tion,” Corrigan said. In this confer ence, the task force will share pro jects they are working on with school officials who attend. Teachers, prin cipals and superintendents also will share what they are doing in their own districts, he said. Corrigan said the task force is de signed to serve as a leadership team and a communication link between different groups. The group will recognize and support new ideas in education. “I think one of the most impor tant things a university can do through the leadership of its presi dent and an activity like this is to support the people who are willing to try out new ideas and support the search to better educate children at all levels,” he said. A Texas A&M senior recently de veloped a computer program that periodically saves the user’s data without interruption. Mechanical engineering major Scott Crawford anticipates that the program, which can be used with IBM computers, soon will be a ne cessity to most computer users. “Almost anyone who has ever used a computer has at one time or another experienced a loss of valu able data due to keyboard lock-up or power loss,” Crawford said. “My program completely eliminates this human problem of forgetting to oc casionally save your work by saving it for you.” Crawford came up with the idea while co-oping at Bechtel, an engi-. neering company. He said many workers there were consistently los ing hours of work through loss of data because they didn’t save their work periodically. Crawford said he was discouraged at first by his experienced co-work ers and the literature he found about computer clocks. All of them indicated that what he wanted to do was impossible on an IBM com puter. Nevertheless, he began working on preliminary programs. After many pitfalls he was able to get an internal clock to strike a command key on the keyboard. “I felt like I won the lottery,” Crawford said. “I had a fully func tional program that worked on any IBM compatible computer.” Crawford has since copyrighted the program and written a user manual. He said he anticipates the first 200 program sales will go to Bechtel, and he is hoping for more sales after that. He said he plans to use funds generated by program sales to purchase advertisements in computer magazines. Crawford plans to attend grad uate school to get a master’s degree in computer science. He said his goals are to learn computer-inte grated manufacturing, which will al low him to apply both his mechanical engineering degree and his com puter skills toward one career. “Some day I hope to write a com puter program that will make people ‘This ... is ; say, amazing. fe-CS organizations stress community’s environmental duties By Pam Mooman The Battalion Staff It seemed harmless. I As Michelle Chase sat near the edge of a tonnecticut cliff, she soaked in the unspoiled beauty. She noticed another sight-seer drinking a Coke. “I hope he’s not going to throw that over the edge,” Chase, a senior psychology ma- |or at Texas A&M, thought. But she did not ay anything and returned to enjoying the cene around her. Her thoughts were interrupted, how ever, as the sight-seer finished his drink |nd tossed the empty can over the cliffs dge. The can tumbled and bounced its way out of sight. The man watched, fascinated by the can’s erratic trip down the cliffs side. Chase scowled at the man but said nothing. There are so many others like him, she said, that sometimes thinking about reach ing all of them gets frustrating. Bryan-College Station environmental groups are trying to show the community that everyone is personally responsible for the environment and to teach people how to take care of it. One careless action, like throwing a can over a cliff, may seem harmless. But when multiplied by 50,000, one can becomes sig nificant. “I had always been interested, but I didn’t know I could do anything,” Chase PART 1 OF A 3-PART SERIES said. But Chase has found ways to promote conservation and raise concern for the envi ronment. At the 1988 Texas Renaissance Festival, Chase met John Kurger, a falconer. This meeting began Chase’s year-long efforts to sponsor a conservation program at A&M w ith Kurger as a speaker. On Oct. 1 1, 1989, Chase’s efforts paid off as “One Earth, One Chance — An Evening Dedicated to Conservaton” was presented at the Grove. Chase’s love of nature dates back further than 1988. Three years ago, Chase, an out door education minor, began backpacking and camping. Learning outdoor skills helped her de velop self-esteem and problem-solving abi lities, she said. Chase joined the Outdoor Recreation Club, serving first as secretary and then as president. “I kept putting more and more effort into outdoor education,” Chase said. Her enjoyment of the outdoors led her to be come concerned with the environment. “If (people) don’t take care of leisure E laces, then they w'ill have no place to have nsure,” she said. Diane Craig agrees. Craig, executive coordinator for Brazos Beautiful Inc., said the organization’s purpose is to educate the community about caring for the environ ment. “Who can be against having a clean, beautiful community?” Craig asked. “No body wants to live in trash and filth.” Craig, who has been executive coordina tor since 1983, said the litter problem doesn’t have to exist. “It’s not a natural occurrence,” she said. “We’re the people who cause it.” Michael Worsham, vice chair of the Sierra Club, agrees that people cause, and can control, environmental problems. “I guess it’s training and the way they were educated,” he said. “It was See Sierra/Page 6 ROTHER’S BOOKSTORES NOW BUYING ALL BOOKS • TAMU • BLINN • STUDY GUIDES • PAPERBACKS • Sell Your Books & Play WHEEL OF FORTUNE 340 JERSEY ACROSS FROM UNIVERSITY POUCE The Sweats With the 5-year guarantee. 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