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Westell i—2
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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
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1ST
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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.