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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1979)
/ol. 72 No. 146 2 Pages Battalion Tuesday, May 1, 1979 News Dept. 845-2611 College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611 Shooting — guns and rapids Texas A&M University will offer several two-hour, outdoor oriented PE courses next fall, including classes in canoeing and shooting sports. See page 5. Foreign Ags ask for no tuition hike By MERIL EDWARDS Battalion Staff Five international students from Texas A&M University presented a petition against raising foreign student tuition in state universities to the House Committee on Higher Education in Austin Monday. More than 900 Texas A&M students signed the petition, which has been cir culating for several weeks. Despite the petition, the House Com mittee passed the bill, which would re quire foreign students to pay the same $40-per-semester-hour tuition that out- of-state students pay. Students from cer tain countries have only been required to pay $14 an hour since 1977. Texas resi dents pay $4 an hour. Before passing the bill to the House floor, the Committee added an amend ment which addressed the issue of foreign students already here. One of the students who went to the Committee hearing, Ahdi Al-Radhi, pres ident of Texas A&M’s Arab students or ganization, said the amendment limited the amount of money for tuition and living expenses a student can receive based on his home country. “The amendment said that not more than 1.5 percent of the total student enrollment for a specific institution could receive financial aid,” Al-Radhi Shid. “The amendment was highly ambigu ous, nobody seemed to know or care how it will work,” Al-Radhi continued. Nancy Simmang, president of the International Students Association, said the Texas A&M students were particularly upset by the omission of a grandfather clause, which would protect the students already enrolled in state universities. “The students currently enrolled didn’t know of these hikes when they came,” Simmang said. “They have invested years in their education here. So they are faced with a dilemma: they can’t afford to leave and they can’t afford to stay. And because of immigration law, international students aren’t supposed to work, so where will this supplementary income come from?” She said the tuition increase will have a serious impact on the living standards of international students. Al-Radhi said the 11 committee mem bers did not look at the petitions much, but just pushed them aside. “The whole discussion on the amend ment lasted only three or four minutes,” Al-Radhi said. “We tried to talk to the Committee representatives before the hearing, but could only get their secre taries. “When we told one secretary that we were there to talk about the tuition raise for foreign students, she said that’s the way it should be, those internationals col laborate and cheat. That’s the way they make the honor roll. ” Al-Radhi and Simmang said the general attitude of most of the representatives they talked with was against foreign stu dents^ “They seemed to favor the increase,” Simmang said, “because of the Iranian student protests. We tried to reason that Iranians are only a small percentage of international students, and why should all others suffer.” The ISA got little help from the Texas A&M administration. Simmang and Al- Radhi said they were told to sit back and not to protest, to let the bill take its own way. The bill is scheduled to come before the House floor within 10 days. Simmang and Al-Radhi said their only hope was to find someone in the House to sponsor a grand father clause, “but given the present sen timent, I doubt it,” Al-Radhi said. Senator calls aide cheat Stars in his eyes David Crisp, graduate student in physics, gazes into the sky with a telescope he built. Crisp made the telescope with odds and ends he found around the physics department. The telescope is used to help astronomy students study the constellations. Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco Vo physical reason found or fiesta sniper’s actions United Press International |AN ANTONIO — A medical examiner pally ruled Monday that a man who Ined fire on a fiesta crowd, killing two [sons and injuring 55 others, committed bide by firing a .38-caliber bullet into f brain from a pistol found beside the Py Medical examiner Dr. Ruben Santos B he found nothing physical that would e caused Ira Attebery, 64, to go ber- k, saying the man’s problems were chological. To my knowledge there was no brain ion or tumor found,” Santos said after jbducting an autopsy. He said physically lebery appeared in “great shape. Attebery parked his motor home at the ting point of the Battle of Flowers ade at Broadway and Grayson Streets, (few open the door and began firing a tgun and automatic rifle at a group of en policemen standing at the head of parade. And a former Bexar County Jail ychiatrist said Monday that Attebery obably just couldn’t tolerate other people enjoying themselves.” Psychiatrist Dr. Neville Murray said At tebery was possibly suffering from feelings of guilt, and was driven to violence by the festive atmosphere during the parade. “Attebery, who presumably had a deep-seated persecution and guilty com plex,” said Murray, “evidently was even more miserable during fiesta merriment, and he just couldn’t reconcile the good times with his own misery.” Police said Attebery, a retired trucker with a heart condition, was paranoid and had a dislike for police, fearing that he was being followed since his involvement in a 1953 Ohio traffic collision in which three women were killed. Murray said many persons who commit acts of violence do so because of fear. “We really don’t know all the things At tebery was afraid of, but we are certain he had the guilt complex about the accident he was involved in.” The sniper’s body was transported to a funeral home at Poplar Bluff, Mo., where funeral services were to be arranged by members of his family Monday. Meanwhile, seven of 30 persons hos pitalized with gunshot wounds were re leased from local hospitals over the weekend. The victims ranged in age from 15 months to 85 years. Killed on the sidewalk in front of the camper were Amalia Castillo, 48, mother of 13 children, and Ida Dollar, 27. About 80 minutes after Attebery began firing from an arsenal of six weapons, a police SWAT team broke into the camper and found him dead. United Press International WASHINGTON — Sen. Herman Tal- madge, D-Ga., said Monday the Senate Ethics Committee’s financial misconduct case against him is based on the word of a liar, cheat and embezzler and that only a fool would have done what he is accused of. Talmadge’s rich Georgia drawl filled the mammoth Senate hearing room as the ethics panel opened its trial-like discipli nary hearings against him that could jeopardize his 23-year Senate career. Talmadge, a lawyer, presented his own opening statement, quickly beginning the attack against Daniel Minchew, his former top aide and now chief accuser. Minchew has told the committee that he opened a secret Washington bank account in Talmadge’s name through which some $39,000 in false Senate expense claims and mostly unreported campaign contributions flowed during 1973-74. Minchew contends the money went to the benefit of Tal madge and his family. But Talmadge said Minchew set up the account, made deposits and withdrawals “by forging my signature.” He said at the time, his net worth ex ceeded $1.5 million and his annual income was between $70,000 and $80,000, but Minchew had financial obligations that ex ceeded his income by more than $40,000. “Who was motivated to steal money — Daniel Minchew or Herman Talmadge?,” the senator asked. Talmadge said it was he who initiated an audit that uncovered discrepancies in his Senate expense claims — and sub sequently repaid the Senate $37,125 — and he was the one who turned over evi dence of the false expense checks that ended up in the secret Riggs National Bank account to the ethics committee and the Justice Department. “Even my enemies don’t claim that I’m stupid,” Talmadge said. “These are steps that only a fool would take if he were aware that there was a hidden, phony bank account waiting to be found.” “If I had intended to steal the money, I would not have used an accomplice who could later implicate me,” Talmadge said, or left a “paper trail” of the account that could be easily traced by investigators. “To find me guilty of complicity in the Riggs account, you would have to accept the word of a proven liar, cheat and em bezzler — accept his word against that of a senator who held the trust of his col leagues and his constituents for 23 years, a senator who would not have jeopardized his career, betrayed his colleagues and abused the trust of his beloved state of Georgia for any reason, let alone a few dol lars. ” The senator also said he will disprove his former wife’s allegations that she took $10,000 in $100 bills from an old overcoat in the couple’s Washington apartment in January 1974. He characterized three other charges against him — failure to pay $1,070 in gift taxes on stock gifts to his former wife, Be tty, failure to report certain gifts and free travel he received to the Senate, and dis crepancies in the amount of campaign ex penses reported and reimbursements re ceived — as “minor” and “trivial.” Try to lift mortgage ceiling draws charge of collusion United Press International AUSTIN —- Texas AFL-CIO President Harry Hubbard Monday asked Attorney General Griffin Bell and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to in vestigate possible collusion between Texas utored students may do better n ‘coach-proof entrance tests United Press International WASHINGTON — The National Edu- ition Association has attempted for [onths to obtain the material behind an |released government report that con- inds students can be coached in prepara- 6n for college entrance examinations. The Federal Trade Commission has said is still compiling statistical data on its port which — according to the NEA — concludes that students who take costly crash courses to prepare for supposedly “coach-proof college entrance tests do better than students who do not study for them. The FTC has yet to Release the report or discuss its contents. The agency also has not decided whether to make the report public or even to approve or reject the report or modify it. This has led to an accusation by NEA House OKs legislation to push gasohol in Texas United Press International AUSTIN — Saying his legislation could dp ease the nation’s dependence on reign oil plus put idled acreage to good se, a Rockdale lawmaker successfully srsuaded his House colleagues to ap- ove legislation promoting the fuel mix illed “gasohol.” Rep. Dan Kubiak, D-Rockdale, said his isohol bills would allow farmers to utilize eir idle acreage to produce crops used in mixture with gasoline to make fuel for leir tractors while at the same time, ssen the United States’ dependence on iporting foreign oil. “This provides the fuel for the consumer iat is desperately needed,” Kubiak said. “We have 66 million acres of land in this country that is idle, and if we plant those acres in fuel crops we could pick up one- third more protein to feed the hungry world, and increase our supplies of fuel. ” After hearing Kubiak’s statements Monday, the House rewrote a Prohibition era ban on distilling alcohol in Texas and approved legislation authorizing the pro duction of fuel alcohol, which can be made from grain, potatoes, watermelons, sugar cane or virtually any other agricultural crop. When the alcohol is produced, the byproduct is a high protein food product which can be used as food for humans or animals. Executive Director Terry Herndon the FTC is watering down its findings. The NEA said it learned of the report from “reliable sources” and it seems to confirm the tests “are less consistent in their ability to predict potential” than the testing industry and others have claimed. The Standard Aptitude Test, or SAT, is administered by the College Entrance Ex amination Board which opposes the use of outside tutors. The board contends a two-week crash course won’t help the stu dent do any better on the exam. But the NEA disagrees. It contends the crash courses give an unfair advantage to students who can af ford them: “People who can afford the cost of such schools thus have an unfair advan tage at important transition points — from high school to college, from college to graduate, law, or business school, from school to job, and in some instances from one job to another.” The NEA, which represents 1.8 million teachers, called for a “thorough gov ernmental and media investigation of the entire powerful but unchecked testing in dustry.” The FTC earlier this month refused a Freedom of Information Act request by the NEA to obtain its data on the report. Spearheading the NEA effort is former FTC attorney Arthur E. Levine who says the federal courts may be the next step for the education group. lenders and the Federal National Mortg age Association to force the state Legisla ture to increase the ceiling on home mortgage loans. “We think it’s very obvious there is col lusion at this particular time,” Hubbard told a news conference. He said FNMA President Oakley Hunter had testified Feb. 12 in support of a bill raising the Texas ceiling on home mortgage loans from 10 to 12 percent interest, and said when the legislation appeared in jeopardy Hunter announced FNMA would sharply restrict its purchase of mortgages in Texas, in effect taking away FHA and VA financ ing for homes. “We do not have an eyewitness to collu sion between the Federal National Mortg age Association and the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association, but we have strong circumstantial evidence, Hubbard said. “And strong circumstantial evidence has convinced a lot of juries. ” Hubbard said Hunter had predicted housing starts would sharply decline be cause of Texas’ 10 percent interest ceiling, but said that has not occurred. “Therefore, they made it come down by arbitrarily announcing no mortgage loans would be made in Texas. And look at the timing, just a little over a month to go in the legislative session. “Would a reasonable and prudent per son, using plain old common sense, sus pect they did this by design just to get the usury ceiling up? I say that is a reasonable conclusion. “They say there is no other way to get this bill out of the Legislature, and we think under investigation we can find col lusion between Mr. Hunter and the lend ing insitutions.” Hubbard questioned whether FNMA’s restrictions on the purchase of VA and FHA mortgages from Texas had been applied to other states with similar interest ceilings. His letter requesting an investigation was sent to the attorney general and to Patricia Harris, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the agency which supervizes operations of FNMA. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper, Jr. Predator and prey? Stray dogs like this pup may subsist on pickings from garbage cans and bags. For a look at the local stray animal problem, see page 3.