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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1978)
The Battalion Vol. 72 No. 53 Tuesday, November 14, 1978 News Dept. 845-2611 12 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611 Hogs, Aggies to be televised ABC Television announced Monday that the Texas A&M- Arkansas football game Saturday will be regionally televised. The original kickoff time of 7:30 p.m. has been changed to 11:50 a.m. Pre-game ac tivities will air at 11:30. Hill, Krueger seek 39-county recount United Press International AUSTIN — Democrats John Hill and lob Krueger Monday began the process of eeking vote recounts in 39 of the state’s irgest counties to determine if any errors ere made in tabulations which gave Re- mblicans victories in the gubernatorial ndU.S. Senate races. Hill lost to Republican Bill Clements by 1,437 votes, and Krueger lost to Sen. ohn Tower, R-Texas, by slightly more ban 14,902 votes. John Rogers, Hill’s campaign manager, lid petitions seeking the recounts were :nt to local campaign organizations in 39 ounties which used either voting lachines or punch card ballots in Tues- ay’s election. Local campaign workers began present- ig the recount requests to county com missioners courts Monday, filing the first ones in Bexar, Cameron, Nueces and Webb counties, all areas carried by Hill. Rogers said the recount requests were being made Monday because that was the deadline for filing such petitions, accord ing to Secretary of State Steve Oaks. Re quests for recounts in areas using paper ballots may be filed later, Robers said. “I’m sure Steve’s thought was that there is a provision in the law that voting machines can be cleared 10 days after the election,” Rogers said. “We just wanted to be sure all the votes were counted before the machines were cleared.” Rogers said the Hill and Krueger cam paigns have had reports of some votes not being counted when voters voted a straight party ticket, then went back and Results challenged Brazos County m Two petitions filed Monday in 85th District Court challenge the re sults of the governor’s and U.S. sen ator’s election in Brazos County. Kent Caperton, John Hill’s cam paign manager for the county, filed the petitons at 8 a.m. Monday with Judge W.T. McDonald Jr. The petitions prevent the election results from being canvassed (cer tified) until the votes can be re counted. Caperton said that Hill, the Democratic candidate for governor in the Nov. 7 election, and Bob Krueger, the Democratic candidate for U.S. senator, decided Friday to challenge the results in Brazos and 40 other “key” counties. The counties in which the re counts will take place were chosen with regard to population and voting irregularities, Caperton said. Texas has 254 counties. “I only anticipate a one or two vote change,” Caperton said, adding that he had already checked the votes informally. Bill Clements defeated Hill by 18,437 votes, becoming the first Republican governor in Texas in 105 years. Incumbent John Tower defeated Democrat Bob Krueger by 14,902 votes. Caperton said he would talk to of- ficals at the Texas Data Center Monday night or today to decide when to recount the votes. He said he hopes it can be done Wednesday or Friday. attempted to vote for one candidate from another party. “All we’re doing is just making sure for our own peace of mind and we have an obligation to the people who voted for John Hill to make sure their votes were counted.” Rogers said petitions for recounts were sent to Bexar, Smith, Bell, Dallas, Galves ton, Gregg, Harrison, Midland, San Pat ricio, Victoria, Cameron, Harris, Hidalgo, Nueces, Rusk, Tarrant, Angelina, Aransas, Bee, Bowie, Brazoria, Brazos, Chambers, Collin, Ector, El Paso, Howard, Jefferson, Lubbock, Montgomery, Potter, Randall, Tom Green, Travis, Webb, Fort Bend, Pecos, Scurry, Nacogdoches and Taylor counties. He said, however, he was not sure the recount requests would be filed in all of those counties. Rogers said those counties account for a sizable portion of the 2.3 million votes cast in the election, but said Hill’s campaign workers have not attempted to determine exactly how many votes could be affected. “The only method we used to pick these counties was that they used punch cards or voting machines. That’s the only criteria we used,” he said. Standing in line is all part of preregistration, espe cially on Monday, the first day. However, the line moved along well with students only waiting about 20 minutes in the Rudder Complex. Preregistration ‘Registration 101’ will continue through Friday of this week. Students must have their departmental advisers approve course selection before going to stand in line. Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco Mismatch of_ interests and abilities Aggies face ‘major’ dilemmas Editor’s note: This article is the second of a two-part series on students who run into academic difficulty and want to change majors. This article explores why students tend to pick the wrong major in the first place, and why they are reluctant to change. By LIZ NEWLIN Battalion Staff Bill didn’t know what to do. He had wanted to be a doctor since he was 5. The miniature stethoscopes and pill bottles were presents from early birthdays. says no stalemate; hears from Carter United Press International Prime Minister Menachem Begin said Monday there is no stalemate in the Egyptian-Israeli peace talks and that his cabinet will decide this week on steps to reach agreement on a treaty. “There are problems, but the public in terest demands that I do not detail them until after the cabinet meeting,” he said at Tel Aviv on his return from a 12-day visit to the United States and Canada. “For the time being, there is no stalemate.” The Israeli cabinet, which rejected new Egyptian demands Sunday, was to go into special session today to hear Begin s report and again Thursday with the participation ofForeign Minister Moshe Dayan and De fense Minister Ezer Weizman. As Begin returned, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat met with his top aides at the Suez Canal city of Ismailia to examine a telephone message from President Carter on the progress of the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on a peace treaty, govern ment officials said. The influential Cairo newspaper Al Ahram said Egypt, backed by the United States, wants a partial Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai desert to run parallel with the establishment of Arab autonomy in the Jordan West Bank and Gaza Strip. Both would be completed nine months after the peace pact is concluded, the newspaper said. Officials did not disclose the content of Carter’s message, which was relayed to Sadat in a long-distance telephone conver sation Sunday night. The Middle East News Agency merely said it dealt with the “conduct of the Washington negotiations.” Sadat immediately summoned Vice President Hosni Mobarak and Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil to a meeting at Ismailia, which began in the early after noon to study the message, officials said. The peace talks in Washington also re sumed Monday. Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who head Israel’s negotiating team, were expected to fly back to Israel today for a special cabinet meeting. The main outstanding disagreement be tween the two sides is to what extent the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty should be linked to future negotiations on the Pales tinians and the occupied territories. Egypt wants a definite and direct link in the document, while Israel does not. The Israelis charge that recent statements by Sadat insisting on this linkage represent a change in the Egyptian position. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram said Washington wants a partial Israeli with drawal from Egypt’s Sinai desert to run parallel with the establishment of Arab au tonomy in the Jordan West Bank and Gaza Strip. Everybody in his family and hometown knew he was going to be a doctor and prac tice there. But Bill was a failure. He hated Chemistry 101 at Texas Ais-M University and made an “F” on his first test, even though he studied. About the same was true of his biology and pre-calculus courses. Only in English and history did he make “A’s” and enjoy himself But he had to be a doctor. Freshman Bill didn’t know what to do. An obvious option exists for Bill and other students like him — changing majors — but many students are reluctant to take it. Dr. Lannes Hope, a professor in educa tional psychology, says national estimates are that 50 percent of students change majors at least once. At Texas A&M, a tentative study by the Academic Counseling Center found a higher proportion than that changed majors. OF THE CLASS that entered in 1976, about 25 percent were in the same major after three semesters at Texas A&M. The other 75 percent had left school or changed majors. Some students shift to closely allied fields or within the same col lege. Dr. Arthur Tollefson, director of the center, said many students choose a major the first time for the wrong reasons: job opportunities, money, glamor, prestige or family pressures. He and Hope say students often mis match interests and abilities, with disas trous results. “Oftentimes,” Hope says, “students are failing because they ought to change their major.” ALTHOUGH A LARGE percentage do change majors, some are reluctant to switch; they continue to work in a field not suited to their talents. Senator blasts SALT II negotiation By DILLARD STONE Battalion Staff “To call SALT II an arms control agreement is an insult to our intelli gence,” Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, told a Texas A&M University audi ence Monday. Gam, a member of the Senate Arms Control Subcommittee, told a Political Forum gathering that the SALT talks have brought the Soviet Union from a state of nuclear in feriority to one of parity with the United States. He added that SALT II negotiations currently underway will give the Soviets nuclear superiority by the mid-l980’s. Gam spent the major part of his presentation outlining the dete rioration of the strategic triad. This combination of land-based intercon tinental missiles, manned bombers and submarine-launched missiles was the basis for the U.S. policy of deterrence, which dominated strategic thought through the 1960’s. The senator described the in teraction between the theory of de terrence and the triad: “Even if they would be able to knock out two legs of the triad, we would still have suf ficient retaliatory capability so that the price of an attack would be too great for them to pay.” Deterrence, he said, was a good national policy. However, he said, Soviet military spending on de velopment and deployment of new weapons systems now exceeds that of the United States by a two to one ratio. Gam began his examination of the triad’s weaknesses by comparing U.S.-Soviet strategic bomber strength. The United States relies on a fleet of 20-year-old B-52s, while the Soviets have deployed more than 100 advanced Backfire bombers and are producing more each month. In SALT negotiations, the United States has contended that the Back fire counts as a strategic bomber be cause it can reach the United States if it refuels in mid-air. The Soviets have claimed the Backfire does not possess that capability. Gam, an Air Force Reserve pilot, said he has seen pictures of the Backfire bomber which clearly demonstrate its mid-air refueling ability. The Backfire has not been subject to limitations in either the SALT I treaty or the SALT II negotiations. Gam criticized the aging fleet of B-52s, claiming that more modem alternatives exist. “It won’t make any difference how much money you spend beef ing up the wings or re-engining it, you can’t turn the B-52 into a B-l,” he said. The B-l, a low-level, supersonic proposed replacement for the B-52, was scrapped by President Carter earlier this year. Carter favored modifications to the B-52s which would have made them more effec tive in modem warfare. Gam also criticized the unilateral decision to scrap the B-l. “The B-l should have at least been used as a bargaining chip with the Soviets,” he said. He explained that the United States could have offered to give up the B-l if the Soviets halted production of the Backfire. This, he said, was not done. The triad’s second branch, the Poseidon-Polaris submarines, will be outdated by the 1980’s. In addi tion, he said, they will be phased out quicker than their replace ments, the Tridents, can be put into service. Garn also stated that the sub marines present the problem of target inaccuracy, since their missiles are launched from moving undersea bases. The third branch of the triad, in tercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), were criticized by Gam as being aging and defective. “In another unilateral decision, in 1967, we decided not to deploy more than our present 1,054 ICBMs,” he said. “Most of these, the Min- uteman IIs, are aging and have cracked motors.” There are no replacements avail able for the aging missiles, Gam said. The Soviets on the other hand have nine new missiles, some flight tested, some mobile. Soviet missiles have the ability to deliver up to seven times more explosives than U.S. missiles. Gam said. The United States maintains an advantage currently, he said, be cause its missiles are so much more accurate that we don’t need to match Soviet explosive power. “But by the mid-l980’s, the Soviets will surpass us in accuracy, ” Gam said. “The Soviets are continu ing to advance in ICBMs while we do nothing. We closed down the only ICBM production plant in the free world this year, while the Soviets continue to operate at least four.” Gam said that the tremendous Soviet expansion is permissible under the terms of the SALT I treaty, as well as the SALT II agreement now being negotiated. He blamed State Department negotiators for the concessions that are making the United States an in ferior power. “The State Department has a bunch of loyal, dedicated people,” he said. “But they have to have an agreement to be successful. “That’s the reason they make concessions—they must have an agreement or they feel they’ve failed.” Tollefson says they tend to think weak ness is revealed if they change a major. “They don’t know what to tell their par ents or friends,” he says. Some don’t change when they should. “Many of them simply can’t disengage from their original objective fast enough,” Tollefson said, “and have made psycholog ical commitments to it.” Both counselors suggested students seek help if their major is intolerable or impossible for them. “THE MAIN POINT to be made is that the worst thing that can happen to a per son who finds himself making poor prog ress is to sit and do nothing,” Tollefson said. Associate deans in each college begin checking for misplaced majors when mid semester grades appear. If a student’s grade point ratio is below a 2.0 on the 4.0 scale, the dean usually mails him an invita tion for a conference and may withhold pre-registration privileges. The deans say they suggest a student change major if it appears he has talent in another area. They agreed that students sometimes pick tbeir first major for the wrong rea sons. Most of them said the first two years of college should be a time of exploration anyway. ABOUT 1 OF 10 freshmen is in a grow ing University program designed to give a broad overview of the 77 departments that make up Texas A&M — the General Studies Program. In September about 900 students of all classifications were in the program, up from 600 students in 1977, said Dr. Ed Guthrie, acting director. Besides undeclared majors, some stu dents “between majors” are also in the program — those working to raise their grades until they can transfer into another college. One dean, however, said students in academic trouble should not be sent to General Studies because the advisers in that program cannot know all they need to know about the University. Departmental advice is better, the dean said. BUT GUTHRIE AND Hope sav the student’s adviser in his original college loses interest in the case when a student fails in the adviser’s chosen field. Hope says the student needs and, in most cases. gets an informal adviser in the college he is thinking of entering. The problem with advisers, Guthrie said, is that the student’s first adviser may misinform him and cause him problems. “I’m sad to find out there are some lousy advisers on this campus,” Guthrie said. “They’re screwing up a lot of kids’ lives.” Advisers in General Studies verily what they tell students, he said. Its main pur pose is to advise students in selecting a major and help them choose courses that apply to many different majors. HOPE, WHO NOW teaches students how to be counselors, says many freshmen aren’t psychologically prepared to select a major. “We really place an impossible burden on the freshmen because we say now is the time to choose — and affect the rest of your life,” he said. Investigators into the psychology of choosing have found that one-third to one-half of people develop interest pat terns only when they reach 19-20 years of age. “In reality, they’re not ready to choose,” he said. Texas A&M, because it is a technical school, encourages early choice of major. “That’s neither good nor bad,” Hope says, “that’s just the way things are at a highly technical school.” DR. DIANE STROMMER, associate dean of liberal arts, and other deans said freshmen shouldn’t be penalized for hav ing a disastrous semester or choosing the wrong major. She also noted that students often fail to see that their low grades are serious and think they can handle the in tense competition for grades. “Students tend to err on the side of op timism,” she said. “And their choice of major is often less than perfect.” Dr. Charles McCandles, who was as sociate dean of liberal arts several years before becoming director of academic planning, echoed Strom mer when he said students convince themselves that just one more semester will be enough to raise their grades. “I’VE NEVER MET a student yet who intended to foul up a semester,” he said, but “things happen” and they do anyway. “But they will say they’ve learned their lesson.” Powell moved still tube-fed; to mental hospital United Press International RUSK, Texas — Officials at the Rusk state mental hospital are planning psychiatric treatment for convicted mur derer David Lee Powell, who has been kept alive by force-feedings since begin ning a hunger strike more than a month ago. Powell was brought to the hospital Saturday from his Death Row cell at the Texas Department of Corrections unit at Huntsville. The former University of Texas honors student, convicted of killing an Austin policeman in September with a Russian-made machine gun, has said he wants to kill himself by starvation. His conviction is on appeal. More than a month ago, however, Pow ell, 27, went on a hunger strike and prison officials had been force-feeding him to keep him alive. Officials now say that further forcefeeding could rupture Pow ell’s esophagus. Powell arrived at the minimum security unit at Rusk Saturday for psychiatric treatment and hospital officials said there would be an announcement today on hi; condition. State District Judge James Warren Saturday ordered Powell’s transfer and a greed with arguments that Powell needec special medical attention. The prisonei was moved only a few hours after the deci sion. At the hearing, a prison psychiatrist tes tified Powell was determined to die. “David Lee Powell wants to die and ht wants to die by being killed. And he want] it to involve as many people as possible! He wants us (TDC) to lx? a party to tin ritual,” said Dr. Terrance C. Feir, chief o mental services for the TDC.