“The Battalion
Page 5
»!” r wi Vol. 74 No. 172
a year, ari|f 8 Pages
will featufl
■asting styleij
1 abandoned!
1 slugged i!|
alule, as
e first matelj
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, July 8, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
89
High
93
Low.
73
Low
75
Chance of rain.
20%
Chance of rain. . . .
. . . 20%
Majority opposes justice nomination
•'iPSiflfe United Press International
^WASHINGTON (UPI) — President
Hagan is urging swift Senate confirma-
Hn of Arizona Judge Sandra D. O’Con-
Hr so she may take "her place in his-
Hy” as the first woman justice on the
7e diets T reme A
’m Reagan tumlied a campaign promise
e n i 0l/( ] Tuesday in announcing his decision to
" Hminateawoman to the high court. He
)W th(l described O’Connor, 51, as “a person
H all seasons" who possesses “those
Hique qualities of temperament, fair-
i . B ss ’ ' n t e ll ec l ua l capacity and devotion
calorie, to-the public good. ”
I Reagan said at a GOP fundraiser
tfl r/l(Hesday night in Chicago, "I feel cer-
' Cent
e lighted}
tain her term upon the bench will be
one of the proudest legacies of my pres
idency.”
Reagan apparently won the backing
of several key conservative Republican
senators for the nomination, paving the
way for confirmation.
But O’Connor’s perceived position
on abortion and her support of the
Equal Rights Amendment drew harsh
criticism from others, including the
Moral Majority. They vowed to fight
her confirmation as successor to Justice
Potter Stewart, who retired Friday.
Reagan told reporters he is “com
pletely satisfied” with O’Connor’s posi
tion on abortion, and deputy White
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
A
Hitching post
Steve Maze, a senior from New Braunfels checks the Hitching Post
board in the Memorial Student Center main hallway for ride pros
pects to his hometown. The board is a service sponsored by the MSC
Travel Committee for faculty, staff, and students.
Frial set in April death
if Texas A&M student
I
22-0875
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
The capital murder trial of the former
exas A&M student charged in the
ipril 22 stabbing of Frederick Axel
bungberg IV, has been set, said Dis-
rict Attorney Travis B. Bryan III.
Joel Quintans, 19, will be tried Aug.
0 in the 27th District Court in Bryan.
District Judge J. Bradley Smith has
ssued a gag order restricting the release
if information in connection with the
ase to avoid pre-trial prejudice.
Student Affairs Director Ron Blatch-
ley said his office has received a number
af inquiries from faculty, staff members
and students concerning the procedure
the University will follow in determin
ing the status of Quintans and another
student charged in a second, unrelated
stabbing.
Leighton Barry Hurst, 20, a sopho
more from San Antonio, was charged
with the May 8 stabbing death of his
roommate, freshman Joseph Lynn Dill
/fr., also from San Antonio. Hurst was
released May 9 on $50,000 bond. His
trial date has not been set.
“The University will do the same as
... anyone else in this situation — we
can’t assume guilt until it is proven,”
Blatchley said.
Whenever a Texas A&M student is
charged with a crime, the University
has the obligation to provide students
with an opportunity to respond to the
charges and prove their case, he said.
However, Quintans’ attorney has
asked the University to postpone the
on-campus hearing until the criminal
trial is completed, Blatchley said.
Both Quintans and Hurst have with
drawn from the University, he said.
“We have not suspended them or
held hearings,” Blatchley said. “All we
have done is blocked their re
enrollment.
“If they want to re-enroll, they will
have to go through the (Department of
Student Affairs) and we will have to hold
hearings on campus. If they make the
decision to return, we have to make the
decision whether we want them to re
turn.”
House press secretary Larry Speakes
later disclosed that during her July 1
interview with Reagan, O’Connor said
abortion is “personally abhorrent” to
her.
It was the Oval Office interview that
was the decisive factor in O’Connor’s
selection, he said.
O’Connor was the first of 25 potential
nominees to be interviewed. After the
interview, Reagan decided against
seeing the others.
O’Connor, a judge on the Arizona
Court of Appeals, served as co-
chairman of that state’s Nixon re-
election committee in 1972.
Her nomination was hailed as a “sig
nificant victory” by leaders of the
women’s movement, who have faulted
the administration for not naming
enough women to important posts.
The precedent-shattering appoint
ment to the lifetime post will end the
court’s 191-year tradition — dating back
to George Washington’s presidency —
as an all-male tribunal. A total of 101
black-robed “brethren” have preceded
O’Connor.
O’Connor, wife of a Phoenix lawyer
and mother of three sons, would be the
youngest member of the court if
approved by two-thirds of the Senate.
As an associate justice, she would re
ceive $88,700 a year.
Texas’ migratory
need legal means
Undocumented Mexican workers are
a necessary component of the Texas
labor force and there should be a struc
tured way to bring them into the state
legally, says a Texas A&M professor.
Dr. W.G. Roeseler, head of Texas
A&M’s urban and regional planning de
partment, is comparing the problems of
a migrating labor force in Texas with the
way the issue is handled in Bavaria,
West Germany. He began the study
about two years ago when his depart
ment received several inquiries from
border towns such as El Paso concern
ing the issues relating to migratory
labor.
Several areas of the Texas economy
are dependent on undocumented Mex
ican laborers, Roeseler said.
“They are the people who are abso
lutely essential for the construction in
dustry,” he said. About 30 percent of
construction workers in Houston are
Mexicans, he said, and perhaps one-
third of the mechanics are Mexican,
most of them undocumented.
Roeseler said he looked for a similar
country with similar patterns of migrat
ing workers. He found it in the auton
omous state of Bavaria where Turks are
the people most likely to fill the void in
the labor force.
As a state in a Common Market coun
try, Bavaria has a formal plan for bring
ing workers into the country under a
contract that specifies where they will
work and how long they will be able to
stay in that state.
For example, Roeseler said, if a Bava
rian plant needs 5,000 workers, recrui
ters are sent to countries that have an
agreement with the state to sign up
workers.
“The idea being that with limited
space in Bavaria they are very aware of
the necessity to avoid permanent im
migration,” he said.
The guest worker program seems like
an ideal solution, Roeseler said, until
authorities have to deal with individual
cases like a Turkish man who wants to
stay in the country with his German
wife after his contract expires.
The guest program works as long as
you’re dealing with impersonal case
loads, he said.
Ducking substantive questions that
may arise during Senate hearings,
O’Connor told reporters in Phoenix, “I
am extremely happy and honored to
have been nominated.
“If confirmed, I will do my best to
serve the court and this nation in a man
ner that will bring credit to the presi
dent, to my family and to all the people
of this great nation.”
While women’s groups hailed the
choice as a significant victory, the Rev.
Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Major
ity, blasted the nomination.
“Either the president did not have
sufficient information about Judge
O’Connor’s background in social issues
workers
of entry
“The enforcement of these contrac
tual agreements, which are based on
treaties between the host countries and
the sending countries, is a very complex
thing that is not easily carried out, ” he
said.
Even so, Roeseler said the West Ger
man solution is preferable to the situa
tion in Texas.
“They have control over the number
of people that come into their country,”
he said. “They do not necessarily con
trol the return. In the United States we
have neither.”
Roeseler said the Reagan administra
tion is beginning to look at the possibil
ity of starting a guest worker program in
this country.
A special problem that comes with
undocumented workers is that they be
come a subculture that is deprived of
very basic rights and left without ties to
American life, he said.
Roeseler plans to travel to West Ger
many this month to talk with national
officials including Secretary of Labor
Joesph Stingle about the migratory
labor situation.
or he chose to ignore that information, ”
he said.
“Her record indicates she is not an
opponent of abortion on demand and is
opposed to attempts to curb this biolo
gical holocaust.”
Cal Thompson, vice president of the
Moral Majority, said Reagan tele
phoned Falwell Tuesday afternoon and
assured him “he was convinced she
(O’Connor) is a strong pro-life person.”
Registration
process starts
Thursday
As soon as today’s final examina
tions are out of the way, Texas A&M
students can begin to think about the
second summer session.
Students moving into the resi
dence halls for the second session
may check in with the head resident
beginning at 6 tonight.
Registration for the second sum
mer session will be held Thursday.
Students are to obtain their registra
tion card packets in DeWare Field-
house according to the following
schedule:
S through Z: 7 a.m. — 8:15 a.m.
A through D: 8:15 a.m. — 9:30
a.m.
E through K: 9:30 a.m. — 10:45
a.m.
L through R: 10:45 a.m. — noon.
Students should then report to
their department head or the desig
nated representative in G. Rollie
White Coliseum for approval of
courses and to get class cards.
Next, students should report to
their dean in the coliseum for
approval of their schedules and go on
to the fee assessors stationed in 212
and 224 MSC.
Fees may be paid at the cashier’s
desk in the coliseum beginning at 8
a.m. Friday.
Classes for the second summer
session begin Friday.
Playing guessing games hazardous
Traffic signs may cause confusion
A highway sign shows a silhouette of
a man holding a horizontal staff from
which hangs a triangular pennant. What
should a driver expect and what should
he do?
The diamond-shaped orange signs
mean there are flagmen ahead. A driver
seeing it should reduce speed and be
prepared to stop.
If you missed the meaning of the
sign, you’re not alone. Research shows
that 40 percent of Texans in a controlled
sample cannot correctly identify traffic
signs.
“It means there is a large potential for
accidents,” said Dr. Patricia Guseman,
research sociologist with the Texas
Transportation Institute at Texas A&M
University. She said 10 highway con
struction workers were killed in traffic
accidents a little more than a year ago in
Houston.
Poor driver understanding of safety
markings and signs combined with pro
liferation of the devices pose serious
consequences for personal and property
safety.
“There are as many as 30 signals,
signs and markings at any one intersec
tion,” said Guseman, whose research
for the Texas Department of Highways
and Public Transportation is designed
to find ways to improve public under
standing of traffic control devices.
The TTI project includes devising,
implementing and testing countermea
sures. The researchers are testing driv
er education strategies such as a film
strip cassette and public service
announcements on radio and television.
“Drivers want a sense of security
with the environment,” said Guseman.
“They want to understand their world.
If they lack a proper definition for a
warning or information sign, they supp
ly their own.”
An example from the tests depicts an
end view of a car with “S” marks extend
ing from the tires. The yellow,
diamond-shaped sign is usually accom
panied by a yellow rectangular sign be
low which says, “Slippery When Wet.”
The researcher said, “Many unin
formed drivers said this means there are
curves ahead.”
Guseman’s pet peeves are advance
and on-site school crossing signs. The
former depicts two children walking to
school. The latter, also on a pentagon
shaped yellow sign, has smaller figures
between parallel lines indicating a
crosswalk.
“It is possible a driver could see the
advance sign, pass it and think the dan
ger is over and speed up. In this case the
Signs such as these on Texas Highways are being
studied by Dr. Patricia Guseman, research
sociologist with the Texas Transportation Institute.
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
Research has shown the signs, which may number
as many as 30 at intersection, are easily misunder
stood and might be a safety hazard.
symbolic sign by itself becomes a
problem.”
Guseman believes part of the difficul
ties are within the traffic controls them
selves. “We have many incentives to
provide more signs, marking and con
trols because of tort claims possibilities.
“A city is liable in a loss at an improp
erly marked danger point.”
Excessive signs, markings and con
trols may confuse drivers or cause them
to ignore the devices altogether.
“The problem is that there is no in
centive to take signs down or remove
markings if they are no longer needed, ”
Guseman said.
She noted that drivers must frequent
ly separate a highway sign or signal from
background clutter of advertising signs
that often flicker and flash to attract
attention.
“In some cities and states, ordinances
have been adopted that rule out blink
ing or flashing advertising lights that
interfere,” she said.
In addition to city ordinances, driver
education may be of some benefit. “We
found driver education to be a signifi
cant predictor of a better level of under
standing,” Guseman said.
She said any driver over 40 in Texas
has been through four sets of changes in
highway markings.
“What’s more, most drivers over 40
have never had formal driver training,”
the TTI research sociologist said. “The
driving environment is becoming more
complex every day, and controls on traf
fic must become more complex. On top
of that, an increasing proportion of the
driving population is older.”
The project revealed a significant dif
ference by age in correctly identifying
signals, signs and markings. Overall,
the best understood is the two-way traf
fic sign, side-by-side opposite pointing
arrows on a yellow diamond sign.
Among the least understood are the
hexagonal red stop sign without “Stop”
on it and yellow and white lines, be
cause people don’t understand color
meanings, Guseman said.
Dashed line markings in yellow, the
warning color of highway markings,
may be crossed with care for passing,
while a solid yellow line next to dashed
yellow or solid yellow double lines indi
cates no passing. Dashed or solid white
lines regulate lanes of one-way traffic.
“Many drivers believe double yellow
lines cannot be crossed,” Guseman
said, “but they can if the driver is turn
ing into a business or drive.”
> a com-
mybody
» (redis-
:>on and
tomor-
as the
day we
e, or at
If!