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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1995)
X A s e syste stuc rats, ile welc happen; can’t ai : cert! lar tiiri£;' o l > 101, No. 176 (6 pages) Westell i—2 g0 thr" - lent, -Beutel reduces ni r i The cuts are the re- ult of low demand md lack of funds for !4-hour campus med- cal service. y Javier Hinojosa he[ Battalion A. P. Beutel Health Center is re- ^ucing its previous 24-hour night nd weekend urgent care services s a result of fiscal constraints and low demand for services. Dr. Ken- eth R. Dirks said. Beginning Aug. 5, the new hours f operation will be Monday tirough Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 .m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to p.m. The urgent care center will be closed on Sunday. “We do not have the facilities, re sources or staff to handle big med ical emergencies, so most of those students would have had to be turned over to local facilities any way,” Dirks, health center director, said. “This isn’t anything new. “All we are asking is [during non service hours] if the students develop medical conditions that do not re quire immediate care, that they hold off until the next morning.” The Emergency Medical Service and ambulance will continue oper ating 24 hours a day. Chris Gideon, a senior wildlife ecology major and assistant chief of the EMS, said the change will most likely bring an increase in transports to Bryan-College Station hospitals handling emergencies during the health center’s non-service hours. Dr. Donald Freeman, a staff &c XJT 1ST R Y Established in 1893 Thursday • July 20, 1995 ght, weekend operating hours physician at Beutel, said that only 2 percent of the students seen dur ing the night and weekend hours would be classified as urgent cases. “I don’t think it is going to affect students significantly,” he said. Amy East, a junior English ma jor, said the decrease in operational hours is not fair to students. “That’s why we pay fees,” she said. “Now we are going to be re sponsible to pay for services at hos pitals when we are paying for the same services at Beutel.” Freeman said Beutel was one of a few college health facilities open 24 hours. “The [most similar university health center], that I know of, opens 24 hours from Monday to Fri day only,” Freeman said, “and their health center fee is three times more than ours.” Dirks said that if students with no insurance are injured during the health center’s non-operational hours, they will have to make arrangements at the hospital on their own. He said he does not an ticipate that being a problem. Freeman said 80 percent of A&M students are covered under their parents’ insurance, and many oth ers have their own insurance. The new schedule will be effec tive through Aug. 12 and will re sume Aug. 28-31. Between Aug. 12 and Aug. 28, the clinic’s hours will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the clinic will be closed on weekends. Dirks said it is not known whether Beutel will continue offer ing 24-hour service after Sept. 1. “There is a task force looking at that right now,” he said. “They will be making their recommendations in the near future.” Stew Milne, The Battalion An ambulance is parked at the emergency care entrance of A.P. Beutel Health Center. Although emergency hours will be cut back, the ambulance will continue to operate 24 hours a day. Tommy Huynh, Tut Battalion Finishing Touches Tony Rogers and Ronald Greenlaw work to retile the exterior of Walton Hall on Wednesday afternoon. Survey: A&M students more likely to drive after drinking DRINKING BEHAVIO 5 45% Texas A&M □ Large Public Colleges H 140 Colleges □ The survey compared the alcohol and drug habits of A&M students to those of other col lege students. By Jill Saunders The Battalion More than 87.6 percent of Texas A&M students surveyed said they drank alcohol, and many said they drove after drink ing, according to the 1994 College Alcohol Study from the Harvard School of Fkiblic Health. The study compared the alcohol and drug habits of A&M students to those of 17,592 students from 140 colleges nationwide. Dr. Dennis Reardon, coordina tor of A&M’s Center for Drug Prevention and Education, said CDPE is concerned with statistics showing that A&M students drink more and have more alco hol-related problems. “A&M students have lower drug use than many universi ties,” Reardon said, “but A&M students have at least as much alcohol abuse as other students from other universities.” The reason A&M has fewer instances of drug abuse than other universities because A&M has many conservative students, he said. See Editorial, Page 5 The study showed that A&M students also had fewer encoun ters with some alcohol-related problems than students at other large public universities. These included missing class (27.4 percent compared to 30.9 percent), doing something they re gretted (31 percent compared to 35 percent), getting hurt or injured (4.4 percent compared to 10 per cent) and requiring medical treat ment for alcohol overdose (0 per cent compared to 0.2 percent). However, other statistics showed that A&M students were more likely to drink and drive. Forty-one percent of A&M stu dents had driven after drinking, compared to 30.3 percent of stu dents at other large public uni versities. In addition, A&M students were almost twice as likely (20.9 percent compared to 11 percent) to drive after having five or more drinks than students at other large public universities. Lt. Bert Kretzschmar, head of the University Police Depart ment crime prevention unit, said UPD reported 642 alcohol viola tions from September 1993 to August 1994. Kretzschmar said UPD officers are not out to get students — but are there for the students’ safety. “Our patrol officers don’t just go out and say we’re going to bust people tonight,” he said. The study showed that in a one- year period, 6.2 percent of A&M students and 4.5 percent of stu dents at other large public univer sities were in trouble with the po lice as a result of drinking. As a result of drinking alcohol, A&M students also had more prob lems with getting behind in school work (23.9 percent compared to 22.7 percent), forgetting where they were or what they did (35.4 percent compared to 27.4 percent) and engaging in unplanned sexual activity (29.5 percent compared to 20.4 percent). Reardon advised A&M students who drink alcohol to be responsible when drinking. “Students should not drink more than one drink per hour, three per setting, and they should not drink on consecutive days,” he said. ""‘A&M exhausts Fall ’95 a* , financial aid resources ^Officials announced — , 0 1 lYlS hat all the grants and scholarships controlled the University are , ^^iwarded each year. ■ ^ Katherine Arnold w The Battalion V, 1 Despite a National Academic •binding Administration announce- ryyOinent that $6 billion in financial aid /j/j^ tmds go uncollected each year, Uni- ersity officials said this is not the ase for the Texas A&M. The funding administration last veek released information that grants often go unclaimed because ueople do not apply for them. How- wer, all the grants and scholarships controlled by the University are awarded each year. JV ' Jack Falks, assistant director of * ^ Student Financial Aid, said that about 70 percent of A&M students are finan- £ cor j lc - dally assisted by the University. 1 e ^This figure includes students re- upons. iatti’S' ceiving loans, grants, scholarships, those on work-study programs and student workers. Robert Lawson, assistant direc tor of Student Financial Aid, said all grants are need-based, and many are awarded on a first-come first-served basis. “If a student applied right now for financial aid in the fall and had absolutely no family-contribution funds, we would not be able to give them anything,” Lawson said. “All our funds for fall have already been distributed.” The total amount of the grants awarded at A&M is $8 million for Pell Grants and $10 million for all other grants, Lawson said. The maximum amount of a grant is $2,500 a year. Bobbie Meyer, student financial aid administrator, said that 5,400 Pell Grants are awarded each year. The scholarships awarded by the Department of Student Financial Aid total $2-3 million. This amount does not include scholarships See AID, Page 6 Artwork diversity plans face funding shortage □ MSC Council execu tives suggested a $1 increase in the student services fee to fund the University Center recommendations. By Michael Simmons The Battalion Efforts by the MSC Council to modernize and diversify the artwork in the University Cen ter have been stifled by a lack of funds. Jimmy Chamey, MSC Coun cil executive vice president of fi nance and administration, said finding the funds to update the artwork would modernize the MSC, Rudder Tower and Rud der Theater Complex. “The center offers an excel lent opportunity to show the di versity, traditions and history of Texas A&M by expanding and updating the current hold ings,” Chamey said. “The only obstacle slowing the implemen tation of the recommendations is finding the money to hand the Council’s recommendations.” Patrick Conway, MSC Coun cil president, said the recom mendations were well-re searched and represent a cross section of the student body. The Council, concerned about the physical environment of the center, created an Appro priate Representations , Facilities task force to review the current art work and make recom mendations. Conway said A&M has many interna tional students, and the center should be all-inclusive have at Texas A&M,” he said. The recommendations the Council and the task force sug gested included murals depict ing student activities and tra ditions, artwork representing campus diversity and informa tion in the east entrance of the center that would tell the his tory of the MSC. “We have come up with a lot of good proposals,” Conway said. "The MSC should represent the diversity, student activi ties and traditions ... " - Jimmy Chamey MSC Council executive vice president of finance and administration an re flection of the entire student body. Chamey said that since the MSC is a student center, it should emphasize student life at A&M. ‘“The MSC should represent the diversity, student activi ties and traditions, like Bon fire and Silver Taps, that we “but the center has to find the funds to make them a reality.” Raising the student services fee by $1 per student would provide the funds to carry out the recommendations, Council executives said. “An increase in the student services fee is different than an increase in the general use fee, because the students would have a voice in the in crease,” Chamey said. Juanita Walker, University Center assistant director, said the center is responsible for al locating space in the center for artwork, but not for the fund ing of new pieces of art. "We don’t have a budget for artwork in the center,” she said. “Other groups can give us artwork, which is then placed somewhere in the center.” Tim Novak, a member of the President’s Advisory Com mittee on Art Policy, said the introduction of new art on campus is dependent upon fundraising efforts. “The development stage of an art project includes discus sions about funding and the historical significance of the artwork,” he said. Included in the recommen dations is a statue of Matthew Gaines, an African- American who helped found A&M and a former U.S. sena tor from Brenham.