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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1980)
The Battalion /Ol. 73 No. 143 iuranceilO Pages B w policy® ther f' 3 the potJ an “the J Monday, April 21, 1980 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 Today is Aggie Muster On April 21 of each year, the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, Aggies gather together where ver they are to commemorate fellow Aggies who have died during the year. Today’s on-campus Mus ter, which begins at 5:30 p.m., will be one of400 held throughout the world. The program will be held in G. Rollie White Coliseum. lily n i5,000([( mith prepares for term as SG president New studen t body presiden t begins work for 1980-81 school year mmmm, 01 latio By CAROL HANCOCK Campus Staff Bexas A&M University’s newly elected student body president Brad Smith has already begun working with student gov ernment and structuring it to his liking. Smith does not have to present his legis- n suggestions to the legislative com- iPtees until the beginning of the fall fiester, but he has some definite ideas on t areas need attention. He has also res- tured the executive branch of the body, ing three positions to the one already ctly under him. _ushing passed legislation is one area dial Smith believes needs improvement. HThe majority of my job is taking what die senate has passed to the administration :yn|l push it through the right channels,” he yaid None of student government’s legisla tion is going to be very successful if it is not followed up to the end, he said. “I’m going to make sure we don’t stop pushing and following our legislation until all alterna tives have been tried.” Many issues Smith intends to include in his proposal are currently being dealt with in the senate. If the Q-drop policies are not standardized among colleges, student gov ernment will continue to work for it next year. Now, the college deans are not taking the idea favorably, he said. Other areas he plans to work on are keep ing the Distinguished Student qualifica tions at a GPR of 3.25 or above, adding meal plan options, providing coffee in the MSC basement, offering a tutoring system and finding alternatives for cooking in the dorms. Increasing communications between the various student organizations is also an area Smith plans to improve. .S. hopes allies ill follow Japan United Press International ASHINGTON — President Carter, encouraged by Japan’s refusal to pay higher Iranian oil prices, is closely watching the ijfopean allies to see what punitive steps ^ they will take to support the United States | fl in its fight with Iran. ■ 0 |r arter skipped a Camp David weekend remained at the White House to keep watch on foreign and domestic affairs. he European Common Market minis ters were meeting in Luxembourg today to decide whether to invoke diplomatic and economic measures in a “concerted effort with America to isolate Iran and pressure ir the release of the American hostages. JAsked Sunday if he were worried about European sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh said, “We do not want to break completely with the Europeans.” But he added, “We are deter mined to resist pressure no matter how, gen and where it comes from. ■Carter has warned the major allies that i ly mid-May the patience of the American people will be worn thin and he may have to decide on “some sort of military action” if mere is no break in the Iranian crisis. ■The Luxembourg meeting is being held following personal appeals from Carter Urging European leaders to increase press ure on Iran. Carter has said he has been disappointed” with the substance and rapidity of their reaction so far, and Euro pean leaders are getting word that Amer icans are beginning to question whether the alliance is a one-way street. J J aptive s parents allowed to visit United Press International TEHRAN, Iran — The parents of one of the 50 American hostages have en tered the beleaguered U S. embassy to visit their captive son, after receiving written permission from President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr. Barbara and Kenneth Timm of Oak Creek, Wis. are the first relatives of the hostages, now in their 170th day of cap tivity, to be allowed a visit. They entered the embassy this morn ing, ushered through a side entrance, away from reporters. The Timms’ lawyer, Carl Mcafee, told UPI in a telephone interview that the Timms went to the embassy Sunday night and “pleaded with the students to let them see their son.” The captors told them they would allow them if the Timms could produce an official authorization from either Bani-Sadr or Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh. “We have produced both,” Mcafee said. Mcafee said the experience had been “draining physically and mentally” on Mrs. Timm, who did not know what to expect when she entered the embassy. Iran’s state radio meanwhile reported the militants had been “asked to per mit” the Timms to see their hostage son. The radio said the request had been made following a meeting of the Revolu- tionary Council in a joint letter from Bani-Sadr and Ghotbzadeh to the Mos lem militants. Ghotbzadeh said Sunday there would be no new initiatives to free the 50 Americans held at the embassy. He blamed what he called the current cli mate of hostility between Washington and Tehran and he accused President Carter of playing politics with the issue. “At first he adopted the step by step approach,” Ghotbzadeh said, “but this is an election year and the issue is being used politically.” He said he was not afraid of sanctions, which could be more symbolic than effective. “If they are effective then we will use effective measures against them,” he said. Outside the Foreign Ministry where he met reporters was a huge banner proclaiming, “We will fight the U.S. until death.” The government closed all universi ties Sunday after rioting between Mos lem and leftist students, which left one dead, hundreds injured and widespread damage. Angry student crowd's continued to collect outside the university but guardsmen prevented new battles. The rioting began after the govern ment Friday ordered all political groups to get out of the universities and Islamic groups called for “corrupt American in fluences” to be ousted from the cam puses. Beginning next fall, Smith said he plans to set up an advisory council consisting of some of the top student leaders. The coun cil will meet regularly to discuss related issues. He said, through the council, the student body will be able to air their views and work better as a whole. The advisory council has been defunct for two years. In setting up the executive branch of student government, Smith will have a communications director, a Board of Re gents liaison, an executive assistant and an executive vice president directly under him. The public relations division under the communications director, Cheryl Swanzy, is divided into three subordinate areas: the survival kit coordinator, the public rela tions chairman and the special projects chairman. The survival kit is currently being handled in the student services com mittee of the senate but will be moved to the executive branch after the fall kit comes out. Smith said by expanding the public rela tions area, students will become aware of what student government does, what it can do, and how they can get involved. “We re not patting ourselves on the back,” he said. “We want the students to know who they can get in touch with if they have questions or want to gripe a com plaint. If students know what can be accom plished through student government, the organization will be more effective in serv ing its purpose.” The public relations division was pre viously one division under the executive vice president. Smith said the newly created office of executive assistant is intended to take some of the workload off of the legislative com mittees. Under the assistant, 15 staff aides will be what Smith calls a manpower tool for researching current senate issues. Call ing other schools to find out what and how issues are being dealt with will be one of their duties. He has not named anyone for the position yet. The Board of Regents liaison is a new idea Smith hopes will be effective. The only communication student government has had with the Board in the past has been at the Board’s regular meetings, which hasn’t been very effective, he said. With a liaison, a student government member will be able to give the Board members student input without trying to tell them what to do. “I don’t intend the liaison to talk strictly issue-related. Letting the Board members know where the student’s opinions are coming from is what I m after, ” Smith said. He does not have a definite person in that position but said Debbie Walker is a possi bility. The executive vice president^ who was previously the only division directly under the president, will be over the election commissioner, the freshman programs coordinator, the comptroller, the Universi ty committees coordinator and the con tinuing programs coordinator. Smith has named Greg Dew for that office. Under that branch, the structure re mains the same with the exception of the comptroller. The comptroller position has been branched out with an assistant com ptroller and a campus chest coordinator and refrigerator manager under that. Smith has named Jerry Fox as the comptroller and Chris May as assistant comptroller. The positions remaining open will be de cided when Smith discusses them with Dew, Swanzy and the respective possibili ties. Japan, Iran’s biggest oil customer, announced Sunday it will refuse to pay the higher price Iranians have demanded for their oil. It could lead to a cutoff of supplies for Japan. The United States is exploring ways to make up the shortfall that Japan may suffer. “We appreciate the support of Japan for what they have done and are trying to do,” said deputy White House press secretary Rex Granum. “We will be consulting to see what steps can be taken.” Carter spent a relaxed Sunday in the family quarters as thousands of visitors toured the gardens. As he emerged into the bright sunlight from the First Baptist Church after morning worship services, re porters fired questions about Iran at him. In response he smiled and said only, “Have a nice day.” Carter also was keeping tabs on Tues day’s Pennsylvania primary that pollsters say will be close between him and Sen. Edward Kennedy. Several interviews Carter gave to Penn sylvania newspaper correspondents and broadcasters over the weekend indicated a growing bitterness between the two Democratic contenders. Asked to comment on Kennedy’s charge he is “trying to out-Republican the Repub lican Party,” and the Massachusetts sena tor’s claim Ronald Reagan could beat Car ter in November, Carter said: “The Democrats disagree with what Kennedy has said — looking at the delegate total makes that obvious.” . mm ■ * | J I *- * . * 4 * ** . r , Jill M I ’v L ft Mf*V & > * * m Photo by Patrick Cox The past and the future Photo by Pat O’Malley Texas A&M senior Curtis Dickey (left) hams it up for the camera before running the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay at the Baylor Invitation in Waco this weekend. The Aggies won that race easily, and Dickey later won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.4. Dickey, one of the nation’s leading pro football prospects, is Texas A&M’s all-time leading rusher. The Aggies held their first Maroon and White game without Dickey in four years, with several tailbacks competing for his old job. The top contender is Johnny Hector (right). The maroon team won the scrim mage, 27-0, with Hector gaining 78 yards on seven carries. For more sports, see page 9. L. A. still to host 1984 Olympics United Press International LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Inter national Olympic Committee will support holding the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles whatever the outcome of the U. S.- inspired boycott of the Moscow Olympics, IOC President Lord Killanin says. Killanin Sunday downplayed speculation that the U.S. withdrawal from the Moscow Olympics on President Carter’s orders would lead the IOC to suspend the U.S. Olympic Committee for bowing to political pressure. Such a suspension would auto matically invalidate the contract for the 1984 Games. Several members of the Moscow Orga nizing Committee have said in recent weeks that Los Angeles risked losing the Games because of the U.S. boycott drive. But Killanin, who met privately in Gene va Sunday with Peter V. Ueberroth, man aging director of the Los Angeles Organiz ing Committee, said the IOC “had every confidence” in the committee and there was no question of removing the games from the West Coast city. Killanin’s strong support for the U.S. committee was the only positive news to emerge from the gathering of Olympic leaders at IOC headquarters over the weekend. As the leaders gathered again today, there was deep pessimism that they could stave off the ever-widening boycott of the Moscow Games. The fate of the boycott will become clearer after three meetings today. In the first, the IOC’s nine-man Execu tive Board presided over by Killanin meets with the presidents of the Western Euro pean national Olympic committees, who now hold the key to the success or failure of a boycott. In the second meeting, the 26 interna tional sports federations that make up the Olympic Games will discuss their attitude toward the Moscow Games. The federa tions have steadfastly backed the IOC’s stand to go ahead with the Games until now. The third is a private meeting between Ignati Novikov, president of the Moscow Organizing Committee, and Willi Daume, president of the West German National Olympic Committee, in which the Rus sians were expected to do everything they could to make sure the West Germans go to Moscow. The consensus of many Olympic leaders was that a major political move by the Soviet Union oyer Afghanistan could stop a widespread Western boycott of the Games. “The Moscow Olympics are caught up in East-West politics,” said an IOC Executive Board source. “There is nothing we can do really to solve the problem here in the next three days.” The IOC was expected to discuss the possibilities of banning national flags and anthems at the Moscow Olympics in a bid to persuade Western governments that it was removing politics from the Games. But several IOC members said that even if such a ban on flags and anthems was approved, it would be too late to avoid the widespread boycott whose momentum appeared to be gathering daily. Mild recession predicted for U.S. United Press International WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary G. William Miller forecasts a modest reces sion for the United States and an improving rate of inflation for 1980 that will decline from 18 percent to 12% percent toward year’s end. “By the end of the year, inflation should be at a considerably lower rate, ” Miller said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report. “The official forecast is that the consumer price index will rise 12% percent from the fourth quarter of 1979 to the fourth quarter of 1980.” “While 12% percent inflation is terrible, it’s better than 18 percent,” the projected annual rate for the first two months of 1980, Miller said. And, he said, the reduced rate would mean considerable improvement to ward the end of the year when he also expected interest rates to go down. “I was wrong,” Miller admitted, when asked about his statement last year that the United States was hallway through a reces sion. “So were many other people.” Miller said he was fooled by a downturn in the second quarter of 1979 and he was being cautious about his predictions now. “The reason we probably will have a re cession this time is that we now have had a sustained period of softness in various sec tors of the economy,” he said, namely in automobiles, retail sales and housing. “I expect a modest recession, Miller said, in the neighborhood of a one-half per cent decline, adjusting for inflation, in the Gross National Product from the fourth quarter of 1979 to the fourth quarter of 1980. Miller ruled out any sudden steps to meet the recession. “A recession on the order of magnitude that we are projecting can be self-healing and would not require special action. Peo ple and business would go through an ad justment and then return to normal. ” Miller said helping to cushion the slow down was that businesses have been very cautious with inventories, and the absence of real estate speculation and overbuilding. “Finally, the high prices for oil and ener gy, painful as they are, have created a mar ket situation that will encourage invest ment in the energy sector, ” Miller said. “So we’ll see a stimulative effect there. “Right now, for instance, all the oil drilling rigs in the country are at work. They’re not likely to stop working, would be a tax cut even though this ar and that oil prices should rise more moderately in the future. He said the curbs on credit were tempor ary measures. “As soon as the problem of rapid expansion in consumer borrowing is taken care of, I hope they can be phased out.” A report released by the International Monetary Fund Sunday showed a worl dwide surge in consumer prices in 1979, with the developing countries of Latin America leading the way with an unenvi able 46.9 percent rise in prices. Consumer prices on a global basis rose 12.1 percent in 1979, compared to 9.6 per cent in 1978. The United States figures were 7.5 percent in 1978 and 11.3 percent last year.