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WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
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HIGH: 68 LOW: 58
meantc? Vol.89 No.118 USPS 045360 10 Pages
scowcor IJ ™
College Station, Texas
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Photo by Fredrick D. Joe
James Sexton,23, braves Monday’s mid-50 degree weather to Cain Pool is open from 12-6:30 p.m. seven days a week. The
swim in Cain Pool. Sexton is a Blinn student studying English. swim fee is one dollar with a Texas A&M ID and two dollars with-
Sexton says he likes to swim because “It gets you in shape fast.” out one. Cain Pool, of course, is heated.
Fee"
550/51
Library expands to west campus
455/47:
10/11
32/35
45/55
35/4i
10/12
10/12
Officials say plan will relieve overcrowding, noise
By PAM MOOMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The Sterling C. Evans library is
moving on — to the west side of
campus, that is.
The library expansion, which
opened March 19, is on the first
floor of the Biochemistry Building.
Hours are: 8 a.m. to 1 1 p.m. Mon
day to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 P-m. Saturday
and 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.
Evelyn Aldred, head of the re
serve department, said most reserve
material in the library expansion will
come from departments on the west
side of campus.
“Students who spend most of
their time on the west side of campus
will use this room,” she said.
John Barer, head of the circula
tion division, said the expansion will
provide study space and reserve
material for west campus students.
However, anyone is free to use the
new library facility.
Barer said the Evans library was
pressed for space. In the evenings
and on weekends it was crowded and
noisy, he said.
Attempts to relieve this pressure
were made by opening snack bars
for late-night studiers, he said, but
he was not sure this has relieved li
brary crowding.
Tne expansion will relieve pres
sure from the main library because it
has materials that students on west
campus need.
Students Can study in the new fa
cility and a snack bar is right around
the corner if hunger pangs arise
while engaging in academic pursuits.
As the A&M campus grows, it is
expanding west, Barer said. Many
buildings are being constructed, and
a large number of classes are there.
So the Evans library is expanding
along with the University.
“This is an attempt to provide li
brary services closer to their locale,”
he said.
There also is better parking on
the west side of campus, Barer said,
so the expansion will be more conve
nient in that way, too.
The same policies of borrowing
materials at the main library will ap
ply at the new facility.
University and library officials
saw the benefits of relieving the
pressure on the main library by pro
viding the west campus facility, he
said.
Barer believes this new service-
oriented policy will continue.
“We saw a need for more library
services there,” Barer said. “And
this is only the beginning.”
Tuesday, March 27,1990
Construction forces
cadets out of Quad
Members may move into ramp
of non-reg Hart Hall in fall
By NADJA SABAWALA
Of The Battalion Staff
Home is where the heart is, but
for some residents of Hart Hall,
home may mean sharing their dor-
m itory with the Corps of Cadets.
Sixteen rooms in Hart Hall have
been allocated to the corps for use
this fall because of increasing de
mands made by the prospective size
of the incoming class and the lack of
corps housing, said Tom Murray, as
sistant director of Student Affairs.
Murray said the decision is the re
sult of an effort between Student Af
fairs, Student Services and the corps
commandant’s office.
“The decision was made after the
commandant’s office investigated
that they will need the space,” Mur
ray said. “They said they are expect
ing between 2,300 and 2,400 mem
bers.”
The University is beginning the
rennovation of two corridor-style
halls in the Quadrangle, leaving only
10 halls available. These 12 dorms
house approximatly 2,500 to 2,600
students and with the increase in
numbers, more space could be
needed.
The 16 rooms the corps may take
over in Hart presently house 32 resi
dents who will have to be relocated
elsewhere and will have priority in
housing preferance.
The plan is not definite, he said,
but if the corps needs the room, ac
cess will be available. If there is no
demand, those students who are re
located will have the priority to re
turn, Murray said.
Hart Hall is built with “ramps,”
meaning each section is separate and
the only way to get from one ramp to
another is through an outside en
trance. Murray said the area re
served for the corps is J-ramp, which
has some of the larger rooms in the
hall.
Murray said the ramp was chosen
because of its proximity to the Quad
rangle, because it was done in 1981
with good results and because the
style of the hall would allow the resi
dents to be separated.
John McKinnie, a senior electrical
engineering major and president oF
Hart Hall in the fall of 1988, said he
understood the corps will try to keep
everything as separate as possible.
“It’s my understanding that we
won’t be responsible for them,” Mc
Kinnie said. “It’s like it’s not even
going to be a part of Hart Hall.”
He said the ramp will probably
have its own exterior door locks with
a different key cut from the rest of
the hall.
Murray said the cadets will con
tinue to fall under the government
of the corps, they will just be living
outside of the corps area.
Current Hart Hall President
Bryan Reilly, a senior accounting
major, said his major concern with
corps members moving in is that the
dorm has had problems with some
cadets before and he disapproves of
them moving into the dorm itself.
“We’ve had problems with them
running by in the morning and
knocking on windows and being
really loud,” Reilly said.
“The major thing is that they can
have the run of campus,” he said. “It
feels like the corps can just take over
whatever they like.”
McKinnie said he believed that
quite a few Hart Hall residents were
members of the corps and got out
for some of the same reasons that
make residents apprehensive of hav
ing members move in.
McKinnie said that if he were
given the preference, he would
rather have seniors in the ramp.
“We would rather have it the up
perclassmen,” McKinnie said.
“There’s not going to be a lot of stuff
like what goes on between the soph
omores and freshmen and the noise
level wouldn’t be as bad.”
McKinnie said he wasn’t aware of
any communication between hall
representatives and the corps and
there are still some minor questions
that are unanswered.
Murray said the situation is still
being worked out and compromises
will nave to be made by both the
corps and the dorm.
Majority of college students pass TASP test
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FORT WORTH (AP) — Texas educators were
surprised to hear that three-fourths of the first
group of college students to take a state-man
dated academic skills test passed it.
Some had predicted dismal failure rates — as
high as 46 percent — in last year’s Texas Aca
demic Skills Program testing, which assesses
reading, writing and math levels, the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram reported Monday.
The TASP test was given five times in 1989 to
a total of 56,781 students, and 76 percent passed
all three sections, the newspaper said.
The passing rate statewide for reading was 92
percent; for math, 85 percent; and for writing,
85 percent.
“On the tryout, it was much more ominous,”
said Joan Matthews, who coordinates the skills
test for the Texas Higher Education Coordinat
ing Board. “The passing rates are higher than
originally anticipated, but you have to qualify
that because it still is not a representative group.”
The test became a requirement last year for
•Black, Hispanic enrollment rises /Page 3
first-time college students in state institutions
and students planning to become teachers.
One reason for the higher-than-expected
scores is that teacher education students made up
a greater than normal percentage of the pool,
Matthews said. The education students did well
on the test because they already have had at least
two years of college, she said.
This year, college students with nine hours of
courses will be required to take the test. Many
were exempted under a grandfather clause that
excluded students with at least three hours of col
lege credit. Others also took a pre-test that ex
cluded them from the mandatory exam until
they had 15 hours of college credit.
“I think it will be sometime next year before
we have a representative group of people,” tak
ing the test, Matthews said.
While not a consideration for college admis
sion, the test was implemented to ensure that stu
dents entering college have sufficient basic skills
to succeed. The purpose is to identify those who
need remedial courses.
Between 120,000 and 180,000 students are ex
pected to take the test each year.
More black and Hispanic students failed the
test than did Anglo students, the newspaper said.
Only 52 percent of the black students ana 65 per
cent of the Hispanic students passed all three sec
tions, compared with the 83 percent of the Anglo
students who passed all three sections.
However, once those students are placed in re
mediation programs, they quickly are brought up
to par with their Anglo counterparts, Matthews
said.
The Texas Education Agency plans to distrib
ute the TASP scores to the 1,600 high schools
statewide so they will know how their graduates
performed.
Crews continue cleanup of30,000gallons
Intracoastal Waterway reopens after oil spill
FREEPORT (AP) — Cleanup
crews Monday continued mopping
up more than 30,000 gallons of
crude oil from a barge rupture that
forced officials to close the Intra
coastal Waterway.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr.
Frank Whipple said officials re
opened the waterway to one-way tra
ffic about 11:30 a.m. Monday after
shutting it down for 16 hours be
cause of the spill.
“We’re allowing one-way traffic —
eastbound and westbound, but only
one at a time,” Whipple said Monday
afternoon.
“The cleanup is still going on,”
Whipple said.
“We had to bring the booms (used
to contain the spill) down that
crossed the Intracoastal Waterway to
reopen it.
“But we still have some booms
leading into marina and boat slips.”
He said owners, LeBeouf Broth
ers Towing Co. of Huoma, La.,
planned to complete the oil cleanup
efforts by Monday night.
The barge was carrying a light
grade of crude oil called condensate,
which is extracted from natural gas
wells.
“We were really lucky,” Whipple
said.
“It was a real light condensate and
it evaporates quickly and it hap
pened in a place where the access is
very good.
“There are many areas of the In
tercoastal Canal where this cleanup
would have been impossible.”
The 190-foot barge, MB 2, was en
route from Mobile, Ala., to Corpus
Christi loaded with crude for Koch
Fuel Oil when it struck a sunken ves
sel about 6:15 p.m. Sunday.
Whipple said the abandoned ves
sel “is not submerged — you can see
it.”
But he said the tugboat pilot “in
making that turn, his tow swung
wide and clipped the corners of the
abandoned vessel.”
The vessel spewed 830 barrels, or
34,869 gallons of light crude into the
waterway, by 10 p.m., when work
crews were able to stop the leak, said
Coast Guard Lt. Mike Debetten-
court.
“It’s not as bad as we might have
feared,” Debettencourt said.
“It seems to be not too bad, con
sidering.”
Most of the damaged barge’s
cargo was safely stored within its
hull, and later was pumped into an
empty barge, Debettencourt said.
The leaking barge was located
about one-tjuarter mile west of the
Surfside Bridge in Freeport, a town
of about 12,000 people 40 miles
south of Houston.
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
parallels the Texas coast for 432
miles from Sabine Pass to
Brownsville.
A marina and industrial area are
located near the barge accident, as
are environmentally sensitive wet
land and marshland areas.
We were really lucky. It was a real light condensate
and it evaporates quickly and it happened in a place
where the access is very good. There are many areas of
the Intercoastal Canal where this cleanup would have
been impossible.”
— Frank Whipple,
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr.
A&M officials form
informative panel
By PAM MOOMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The 1990 spring Graduate Stu
dent Conference will FOCIS on
issues important to all Texas
A&M students.
Panel members will discuss
their jobs and answer questions
wur main objective is
to see what everybody’s
working on and see if we
can’t collect those up and
work together.”
—Dan Vrudny,
Graduate Student
Council president
before invited guests from 7 to 9
p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
“(We’ll) see if we can’t find
some common ground,” Dan
Vrudny, president of the Grad
uate Student Council, said.
“(We’ll) see if we can’t work to
gether on some things.”
The Graduate Student Council
is co-sponsoring FOCIS, Forum
On Campus Issues, with Student
Government.
The first conference was last
year, and Vrudny said the partici
pants wanted it to be twice this
year, once in the fall and once in
the spring.
“The reception last year went
really well,” Vrudny said. How
ever, a fall program was unable to
be organized. But Vrudny said
the Graduate Student Council
plans to use a committee to plan
future conferences, keep better
records and have two conferences
next year.
Vrudny said panel members
will give a five-minute presenta
tion on what they do for Texas
A&M students. Participants were
invited because they represent
many different issues that are im
portant to all Aggies, he said.
A moderator will be present to
keep the informal discussion
from becoming a debate.
Invited panel members are:
A&M President William H. Mob
ley; William Stout, deputy
speaker of the Faculty Senate;
John Koldus, vice president of
Student Services; Dean Gage, act
ing provost; Bob Wiatt, director
of the University Police Depart
ment; Jim Jeter, associate exec
utive director of the Association
of Former Students; Raul Fer
nandez of the Board of Regents;
and Kenneth Dirks, director of
the A.P. Beutel Health Center.
Student leaders who also will
form a panel are: Kevin Buch-
man, student body president; Ty
Clevenger, speaker of the Stu
dent Senate; Diana Galindo, pres
ident of the International Stu
dent Association; Leah Hanselka,
RHA president; Scot Walker, edi
tor of The Battalion; Keith Pow
ell of OCA; Matthew Poling,
Corps Commander; Jason Wil
cox, president of the MSC Stu
dent Council; and Vrudny.
“Our main objective is to see
what everybody’s working on and
see if we can’t collect those up and
“I
If we have four or five
organizations working on
the same issue, we won’t
get anything done.”
— Dan Vrudny,
Graduate Student
Councilpresident
work together,” Vrudny said. “If
we have four or five organiza
tions working on the same issue,
we won’t get anything done.”
Invited participants represent
variotis campus groups that focus
on general issues, he said.
“Our intentions are just to get
the ideas flowing,” Vrudny said.
“We’re really excited about get
ting this off the ground.”