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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1977)
The Battalion Vol. 70 No. 123 8 Pages Monday, June 6, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Area summer job outlook not good, may improve Battalion staff photo Richard Petty in a Datsun?? No, this No. 43 does not belong to the darling of Darlington, Richard Petty, stock car driving great. The car was one of three used at Texas World Speedway yesterday in a special race for members of the media. The car driven by Martin Sebastian of KBTX-TV, Bryan, was the win ner of the special race. The media race preceded the main event, the Texas 500. (See related story on page 6) By JULIE SPEIGHTS Battalion Staff Local summer part-time jobs are not abundant, but if a position becomes avail able, an Aggie stands a good chance of get ting the job. R.M. Logan, financial aid director at Texas A&M University says the summer job outlook for students is not good. Their are fewer summer jobs this year than last year, he said. He said more jobs may become avail able soon, because many on-campus em ployers have held positions open for stu dents returning for summer school. The financial aid office in the YMCA building keeps a bulletin board listing job openings, Logan said. John Dillard of the Texas Employment Commission (TEC) says there is a chance some jobs will be available this week. Most of the jobs deal with food services and pay the minimum wage ($2.30 per hour), Dillard said. He said that if a student files a job appli cation with TEC and a position is not available then, TEC will find a job by con tacting prospective employers. “We can in many cases find jobs for stu dents,” Dillard said. With increased expansion lately in the Bryan-College Station area more jobs should become available, he added. The unemployment rate in Brazos County is two per cent according to a TEC report for June. That unemployment figure does not in clude students who have never held a job locally. VASA making plans for 1984 roving exploration of Mars Dillard said TEC expects to have numerous openings in August for the fall semester. A spokesman for another local employ ment agency said jobs dealing with clerical work and food services are available, most paying minimum wage. The Battalion interviewed several mer chants in Bryan-College Station and found few openings for summer employment. Of 11 restaurant owners and managers interviewed, four had job openings. Most said they pay the minimum wage. Ken Martin, owner of several area res taurants said he nearly always has a job for someone who sincerely wants to work. Seven of the restaurant owners and managers said they definitely prefer to hire Texas A6cM students instead of high school students. Most said that A&M students show more maturity in their work. The students show more desire to work and are more dependable and educated. There were no job openings in the four department stores surveyed. Two mentioned problems with student employes demanding holidays off and quitting without notice. Only one department store representa tive said he preferred to hire A&M stu dents, explaining that college students are more mature, reliable and can arrange their schedules to the employer’s advan tage. A local representative from a conven ience store chain said he has no job open ings. He said he prefers to hire A&M stu dents because they are usually more ma ture. Part-time workers are paid more than minimum wage, he said. No jobs were available in three grocery stores surveyed. Two of the grocery store managers said they liked to hire students because of their maturity and schedule flexibility. One manager complained that students leave the job without advance notice. United Press International WASHINGTON — The space agency is eloping a planetary exploration plan bt proposes a 1984 launch of two roving prs vehicles, a possible robot landing on pcury, and flights to Venus, Jupiter, him, Halley’s Comet and four asteroids. The plan also envisions a 1990 launch of automated ships to land on Mars, collect samples of rocks and soil, and return them to Earth. “These are possible candidates for the future — high priority mission oppor tunities,” said A. Thomas Young, head of Teamsters attack 3 Dallas journalists United Press International DALLAS — Three newsmen attempt- g to cover a Teamsters meeting were eaten yesterday outside the Local 745 Bees, and several thousand dollars worth television equipment was smashed. Cameraman Jack Weber of KDFW-TV [as sent to the union hall to help cover the kurn of two dissident union members [ho for two years have been challenging penditures by officers of the local. Weber said as he and KDFW reporter Ireg Lefevre attempted to cover the re- im of Weed and Hall several persons in parking lot attacked him and smashed ps camera. Shortly after the attack, WFAA news- an Byron Harris and cameraman Mike oscia arrived at the hall to cover the me story and find out why Weber was eaten. I asked a bunch of guys standing ound what had happened,” Harris said. They told me to leave. Well, I said, just lime what happened.’ “Then one guy took a poke at me, and en two other guys hit me. Coscia was in e car filming the incident and they pul led him out of car. One guy grabbed the camera, held it above his head, and slam med it into concrete.” All three newsmen had to be treated at a local hospital for facial wounds. planetary and lunar programs, in an inter view following a series of presentations to a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last week. In addition to the Mars expeditions, the plan includes: V A spaccraft for launch in 1986 at the earliest to orbit Mercury and possibly land a simple exploratory robot on the surface of the planet nearest the sun: V A satellite to set out in 1983 to orbit Venus and map its cloud-shrouded surface with advanced imaging radar; V A spacecraft to be launched in early 1982 to orbit Jupiter and send an in strumented probe deep into its dense, hot atmosphere; ^ A spacecraft for launch in 1985 to orbit Saturn and launch two probes, one to study the planet’s atmosphere and one to examine the atmosphere of the Saturn moon, Titan; V A spacecraft to set out in 1982 to ren dezvous with and examine Halley’s comet; V A probe for launch in 1985 to survey the 240-mile thick asteroid Vesta and three smaller asteroids. Young emphasized only one of those missions is currently approved by the Na tional Aeronautics and Space Administra tion management and the White House. It is the $285 million Jupiter orbiter-probe mission and it has run into budgetary trouble in Congress. As it now stands, NASA has two plane tary exploration projects in the works. One is the launch of two Voyager spacecraft this summer from Cape Canaveral, Fla,, to explore Jupiter, Saturn and possibly Uranus. The other is a flight of a Pioneer spacecraft and an atmospheric probe to Venus next year. Part-time employment available for students By SARAH E. WHITE Battalion Staff Part-time jobs on campus are avail able for students that want them this summer. Any student enrolled in Texas A&M University is eligible for these jobs, R.M. Logan, director of finincial aid, said. There are no grade or hour load require ments, he said. Job calls are listed on clipboards in the financial aid office. The office itself does not take applications, said C.E. Fink, counseling and employment adminis trator. There are part-time jobs available if students look for them, Fink said. He suggested that job-seekers ask department heads and library and dining hall heads for jobs. Man in wheelchair attempts hijack; is overpowered by commandos United Press International KUWAIT — A young man carried aboard a Middle East Airlines jet in a wheelchair yesterday hijacked the plane from Lebanon to Kuwait and demanded a $1.5 million ransom for his 110 hostages. He was overpowered by army commandos at Kuwait airport and all the passengers were freed unharmed. An official at Kuwait airport said no shots were fired when the commandos entered the Boeing 707, which had been bn a flight from Beirut to Baghdad. He said it was not certain how the commandos managed to get inside the jet, which had been parked on the tarmac while the hijacker negotiated the ransom with Kuwaiti authorities. Kuwait had at first agreed to pay the money, but only if the hijacker left the plane to collect it, official sources in Beirut said. The gunman reportedly refused. Beirut authorities said the hijacker — believed to be a 27-year-old Lebanese named Nasser Mohammed Khaled — boarded the plane in Beirut in a wheel chair. They said he apparently had con cealed some kind of weapon in the wheel chair. He demanded the $1.5 million ransom from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and asked that a negotiating panel be set up comprised of the ambassadors to Kuwait from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with a Kuwaiti rep resentative. Kuwait’s Al Seyassah newspaper said the government had guaranteed the gun man safe passage out of the country but there was no official confirmation . There was no indication whether the pi racy was politically motivated. It began late yesterday, the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the Six-Day Arab-Israel war. Logan recommended that students check bulletin boards across campus for job openings and interview personally for jobs. When a student is hired on campus his employer will send him to the financial aid office to be processed, he said. Pro cessing includes filling out routine forms, taking a physical examination, and signing for workmen’s compensation, Logan ex plained. Students eligible for the student work- study program have some offers open to them, Logan said. To be eligible for work-study the stu dent must have a financial need of at least $200, he said. “Because we do not get all of the work- study money that we ask for, the moneys are allocated to the most needy students, ” Logan said. Financial aid will receive $225,000 this year for the program, Logan estimated. Work-study jobs for this summer have al ready been offered to eligible students, he said. A student’s financial need is determined by a financial analysis based on the Par ents’ Confidential Statement (PCS) which all work-study applicants must complete. Beginning this semester a student must have a 2.0 grade ratio to be eligible for the work-study program, Logan said. “I have offered work-study jobs to about 15 per cent more students than we actu ally have money for,” he said. “We know some students will not take the offers.” No more than six students have come in this week to look at the jobs offered in work-study, Fink said. Most of the stu dents in this program who want jobs al ready have them, he added, and many who have been offered jobs have not yet signed up for them. Wild Animals International opens By MARY BECKER Battalion StafT The carpenters were still driving nails. The ticket booth did not have a roof. The sign pointing to Chimp Island was propped against the fence. But nothing stop ped the opening of Wild Animals International (WAI) Saturday morning . . . not even a hippo roaming loose the night before. The new park, zoo and exotic animal breeding farm opened its gates on schedule even though the gates themselves were not hung until half an hour before the park opened. Richard LaBlue, owner and manager of Wild Animals International was at another part of the 110 acre park moving tigers. The ribbon cutting ceremony was de layed while he greeted visitors and gave last minute in structions on ticket selling and balloon vending. LaBlue and John Anderson, vice-president for WAI were lined up with the other dignitaries as LaBlue cut the red ribbon with the gold-sprayed scissors. The “Compound” is W2 miles from Bryan along FM 2818. A sign off to the left marks the turnoff along Leonard Road. A smaller sign detours zoo visitors on a dirt road which passes in front of the entrance gate to the picnic area. A Mexican-American watered the white gravel with a garden hose to keep down the dust as cars parked under the trees and lined up along the front gate. LaBlue admitted that Bryan was picked by chance for the site. He had been looking for a place with room for expansion, low-cost land and a subtropical climate. “The people who owned the 14 acres around the lakes said they would be willing to sell,” LaBlue said. “I called them on the phone and asked them because I was mainly concerned with the atmosphere to do something like this. I did not want a flat piece of land in the desert like West Texas.” “I called them and asked them Do you have trees there in Bryan?’ I had no idea what we were talking about, I had never been to Bryan,” LaBlue said. LaBlue did not think he would like the location but he was flying through Houston and decided to see for him self. “When I got to Conroe and saw how green and pretty it was, I took one look and. . .” “Called me,” Anderson broke in,” and said get out here and a few hours later I was out here to look at it. I could not believe it myself. I thought Texas was nothing but sagebrush.” Construction on the Compound began the first week of January but LaBlue and Anderson came to Bryan in September as the animals began coming in. The animals were kept in holding pens and then moved into the per manent cages when they were built. LaBlue and Anderson are both from Montana. LaBlue moved to California six years ago where he set up a zooligical park similar to the one now in Bryan. Starting out with one acre of birds, it built up to 14 acre, zoo and park. Zoological parks supplied 70-80 per cent of the ani mals at the Compound. “We trade, buy or sell back and forth,” LaBlue said. Private individuals who raise the animals for a hobby provide 10-15 per cent. Only about 5 per cent of the animals are captured wild. The park has celebrities behind its bars. Pattycake, a female bengal tiger, and a cerval cat from the petting zoo were in a movie called “Monroe’s Island.” “They (the film company) call you and say Hey look, we are going to film this and we need a tame this or this,” La Blue said. The park’s animals are also used by Texas A&M’s vet school for veterinarian studies. Texas A&M vets have been able to study exotic animal nutrition and ostrich egg fertility. They even had a chance to put a metal rod in a kangeroo’s broken arm. In return the park is able to obtain veterinarian serv ices at a lower cost. A pet store is planned for the future. Birds such as cockatoos and parrots, and some smaller animals will be offered for sale. LaBlue hopes to sell T-shirts, animal art and plants at the store. LaBlue said he does not like to sell the larger cats to individuals. The price on a lion cub is $600 but the ani- (See ANIMALS, Page 4) Battalion Photo by Mary Becker These swans are two of the many different animals tfuft are at the new Wild Animals International.