The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, September 9, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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Reagan may impound
funds to meet budget
United Press International
WASHINGTON (UPI) — President
Reagan, facing a mushrooming federal
deficit, may temporarily impound funds
appropriated by Congress in an effort to
ease the financial squeeze.
Senate Republican Leader Howard
Baker of Tennessee and House GOP
Leader Robert Michel of Illinois voiced
the possibility Tuesday after holding a
private strategy session with the presi
dent.
Said Baker, “I think there’s a fair
possibility we (Congress) can adopt
some temporary impoundment or de
ferral authority for one year’s duration’’
for the president.
He said, “the president himself could
make a 10 percent reduction in any line
item” in the budget except for entitle
ment programs.
Entitlement programs are those for
which prior commitments are firm —
such as Social Security and Medicare.
Those plus other uncontrollable ex
penditures such as interest on the na
tional debt make up about 75 percent of
the nearly $700 billion 1982 budget plan
the president has submitted.
This leaves about $175 billion in
programs for which spending can be
controlled.
“I think in round numbers, what
we re talking about is trying to take
another 10 percent slice from those
items that can be cut, exclusive of enti
tlement programs,” Michel said.
Ten percent of that number, as
Michel indicated, would mean new cuts
of roughly $17.5 billion, although neith
er Michel nor Baker offered specific fi
gures.
Reagan wants to hold the projected
1982 deficit to $42.5 billion, lower it to
$24 billion in 1983, and to zero in 1984.
An upward shift in those figures could
jeopardize his economic blueprint.
In recent weeks, the projected 1982
deficit has begun to balloon, requiring
Reagan’s budget-cutting team to re
group.
“The president has not abandoned
his desire to bring it (the deficit) in as
close to $42.5 (billion) as possible,” said
White House spokesman David
Gergen.
“It’s well recognized there are some
threats,” he said. “There is a possibility
high interest rates” could foul up the
formula.
At the same time, Gergen rejected
speculation Reagan may seek an in
crease in the excise tax to boost re
venues. “Very improbable,” he said.
Reagan today was to meet with De
fense Secretary Caspar Weinberger,
budget director David Stockman and
others on proposed cuts of up to $30
billion in 1983 and 1984 military
spending.
Weinberger and Stockman, who
have been at odds over defense cuts,
have each submitted plans.
Gergen said Reagan would likely
reach a decision on defense and other
federal cuts next week.
An Aggie's joke
Staff photo by Becky Swanson
Modeling a T-shirt given to her on her birthday
Tuesday, electrical engineering major Tracie
fryor may seem to be advertising extraordinary
confidence in herself. However, the junior from
Pettus said the shirt, which bears a quotation from
a poster in her room, was given to her as a joke.
lillv Sts
Confirmation hearings begin
for Supreme Court nominee
National Urban League
director to resign post
arlier ii|
ind A’v
)ITIS Sfl United Press International
I WASHINGTON — Supreme Court
se ol nominee Sandra Day O’Connor, facing
onitor opposition from abortion and Equal
;rring Rights Amendment foes, said today she
o, andtctw.'ot now say how she would vote as
the first woman justice,
tadium, I “I do not believe that, as a nominee, I
esideal Mn tell you how I might vote on a parti-
theyii Bar issue which may come before the
nourt,” she said in a statement prepared
icher (for delivery at the opening of her confir-
1 Met! Ration hearing today,
s winks Her position seemed to be a possible
was puRckade to an expected bevy of ques-
med noBlns on how she would vote on a variety
of issues — particularly abortion and
men’s rights issues.
He a® ft was uncertain, however, if the
]oingsi$ enate Judiciary Committee would
ept her stance or press for answers,
gardless, O’Connor is expected to
)jtdiiii[' w ’ n quick and easy confirmation.
ingdiiiift'Inher statement, President Reagan’s
j n g (^nominee warned she would not “en-
’ Wrse or criticize specific Supreme
^^ipurt decisions ... which may well
KBjJpe before the court again.”
* "To do so would mean I have pre-
idged the matter or have morally com-
liitted myself to a certain position. Such
Statement by me might make it neces-
to disqualify myself’ on such cases
fore the court.
O’Connor said, “If confirmed, I face
an awesome responsibility ahead.”
O’Connor has powerful bipartisan
support from her two home-state sena
tors, Republican Barry Goldwater and
Democrat Dennis DeConcini. But con
servative groups have made it clear they
will not give in to her nomination with
out a fight.
Several groups have examined her
public record, written letters to the 18
committee members and plan a demon
stration at the building where the con
firmation hearings will be held.
In comments apparently designed to
ease some of the concerns of conserva
tives, O’Connor said her experiences as
a state court judge and state legislator
“have strengthened my view the proper
role of the judiciary is one of interpret
ing and applying the law, not making
it.”
Most of the controversy provoking
questions will center on her views on
abortion. Questions about her record
center on votes she cast while serving in
the Arizona Legislature in the early
1970s. Conservative groups claim to
have come up with four votes they feel
indicate a pro-abortion stand.
They have also criticized her for posi
tions she took in favor of ERA while a
state legislator.
In a letter to Judiciary Committee
Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.,
the judicial review committee of the
American Bar Association said O’Con
nor meets the “highest standards of
judicial temperament and integrity.
But, the panel added, “Her profes
sional experience to date has not been as
extensive or challenging as that of some
other persons who might be available
for appointment to the Supreme
Court.”
United Press International
ATLANTA — Vernon Jordan, re
portedly still suffering from the sniper’s
wound that almost killed him last year,
will resign as director of the National
Urban League, a source within the civil
rights organization says.
The Urban League scheduled a news
conference for today in New York, but
would not disclose the subject.
The source, who asked not to be
identified, gave no indication of why
Jordan, 46, is resigning. But there are
reports he has never satisfactorily reco
vered from the wound he received from
a sniper’s rifle in Fort Wayne, Ind., last
year, and his wife, Shirley, also is in
poor health.
The Dallas Morning News reported
in today’s editions Jordan will become a
partner in the Dallas-based law firm of
Robert Strauss, former national Demo
cratic chairman and President Jimmy
Carter’s special trade ambassador.
Jordan has been head of the Urban
League since 1972.
A native of Atlanta who entered the
civil rights movement in 1962 with a
boycott of Augusta, Ga. stores refusing
to hire blacks, Jordan has been the most
regular and articulate black critic of
Reagan administration policies.
His shooting, the first attack on a
prominent civil rights leader since the
1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., came a few hours after a
speech decrying what he perceived as a
national shift to the political right.
A . 30-06 bullet tore a hole the size of a
man’s fist in his back as he walked
through a motel parking lot early in the
morning of May 29, 1980, and doctors
subsequently had to remove part of his
intestines.
Jordan has ardently pursued the non
violent path to social change. In his Fort
Wayne speech, he said the anger that
led to rioting in Miami earlier that
month was “everywhere,” but
cautioned “it would be irresponsible to
glibly talk of a long, hot summmer, or to
excuse senseless violence that ultimate
ly solves nothing.”
Jordan was appointed director of the
Urban League in 1972 after the drown
ing of Whitney Young.
Israel contests Saudi-U.S. deal
Begin, Reagan to discuss arms sale
rof forecasts Ryman
to be next Miss America
n
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
If a professor maintains his record of
:urately predicting pageant winners,
|i Aggie will be crowned Miss America
iturday.
Sheri Ryman, reigning Miss Texas
d former Miss Texas A&M Universi-
ty , has been picked to win the 1981 Miss
merica Pageant with odds of 6 to 1 by a
irofessor at Northern Illinois Universi-
in DeKalb, Ill.
George Miller, a professor of busi-
ess systems and analysis at NIU for 15
pars, has accurately predicted the win-
|erof the Miss America Pageant for the
last two years using his own computer
iodel.
“I wasn’t planning to predict the con
test this year, but so many people
emed to be disappointed, I decided to
|oahead and make my prediction,” Mil-
r said in a telephone interview from
eKalb.
| Miller makes two predictions con
cerning the pageant. The first is made
the week before the pageant and the
Second is made after the preliminary
Competition ends.
I “My preliminary prediction has been
fight one year out of the two years I’ve
«n predicting the contest,” Miller
id. “The last prediction is like an up-
ted weather forecast — it’s been right
'th years.”
The updated prediction will be made
■riday evening, Miller said.
I Miller makes his predictions with the
Pjcl ofNIU’s Amdahl 750V7A computer,
j He programs each contestant’s charac
teristics — including academic major,
lent, age, hair and eye color, height,
easurements and academic classifica-
on — into the computer along with the
same type of data about previous Miss
America Pageant winners.
The contestant whose characterists
most closely match the characteristics of
previous winners is given the best odds
in the contest.
Millers’s computer profile calls for
this year’s winner to be 22 or 23, 5 foot 7
inches tall, to weigh 110 to 115 pounds
and to be a college music major with
green eyes and brown hair.
Although Ryman doesn’t fill Miller’s
entire bill, she matches the data more
closely than any of the other contes
tants. The industrial distribution major
from Texas City is 20 years old, 5 foot
6Va inches tall and weighs 118 pounds.
She has blonde hair and green eyes.
Miller doesn’t stop after predicting
the winner — he predicts the top 10
finalists as well.
Miller has placed Miss Mas
sachusetts second with 8 to 1 odds fol
lowed by Miss Georgia with 9 to 1 odds
and Misses Minnesota and Alabama
both with 11 to 1 odds.
The remaining top 10 contestants
and their odds are Miss Hawaii at 13 to
1; Miss Mississippi at 14 to 1; Miss Ore
gon at 15 to 1; Miss New York at.21 to 1
and Miss Arkansas at 26 to 1.
Miller said he doesn’t think his pre
dictions will affect the outcome of the
contest. Even if the judges read his pre
dictions, “they have more background
information than I do and should be able
to make a better decision than I can
anyway,” he said.
Ryman, who represented Texas
A&M University, was named Miss
Texas at the conclusion of the Miss
Texas Pageant July 11. She is currently
attending North Texas State University
in Denton.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin will have a busy first
meeting on a bevy of topics — a few of which may
trigger heated debate.
The proposed sale of sophisticated radar aircraft to
Saudia Arabia — opposed by Israel — and a possible
U. S. -Israel “strategic alliance” — pushed by the Jew
ish state — are expected to highlight the two-day
session which was to begin today.
The encounter follows by one month Reagan’s first
meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
As was the case with Sadat, Reagan also is expected
to discuss the Camp David peace accord between
Egypt and Israel that was negotiated with the help of
President Carter.
Israel has moved ahead on the annexation of parts of
the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, in keeping
with Begin s view the Bible gives Israel historic title to
the territories militarily occupied by Israel since 1967.
The United States and Sadat believe Begin pledged
at Camp David to negotiate the return of those lands to
the Palestinians as part of a lengthy autonomy process.
Begin arrived in Washington Tuesday and had a day
of rest, except for one brief preliminary meeting with
Secretary of State Alexander Haig and a series of meet
ings with Israeli officials in the Begin party.
The Begin visit will have several similarities to
Sadat’s; including a state dinner, public appearances
and a courtesy call on Carter in the former president’s
home of Plains, Ga.
While there was only one major disagreement in
the Reagan-Sadat visit — over Sadat’s belief the Un
ited States should deal directly with the Palestine
Liberation Organization — several are expected in the
Begin-Reagan talks.
One of the biggest may be Begin s opposition to
Reagan’s proposed $8.5 billion arms sale to Saudia
Arabia which includes five AW ACS radar planes.
Reagan maintains the package would bolster secur
ity in the Middle East against possible Soviet en
croachment. But Begin says the planes would allow
Saudia Arabia to steal its military secrets and threaten
Israeli security.
Israeli officials say they expect the United States to
offer Israel intelligence information from U.S. recon
naissance to offset the possible danger posed by the
Saudi AWACS.
One U.S. official says, “It is clear we are not going to
offer Israel its own satellite, but I would not rule out a
discussion about sharing information.”
Begin has said he would be prepared to enter into a
formal defense alliance with the United States.
The State Department, edging away from such a
legal tie, says, “The president has made it clear that we
regard Israel as an ally. While we do not have a formal,
military alliance with Israel, we consider a strong
Israel and the maintenance of the regional balance of
forces to be in our strategic interest.”
The Israelis are expected to offer the United States
the use of some bases in Israel to preposition supplies
for the America’s new Rapid Deployment Force.
Sadat made a similar offer last month.
Center offers procrastinators a refuge
By STEPHEN M. WARD
Battalion Reporter
After a week and a half of school, if
you still aren’t motivated or are already
procrastinating studying, it may be to
your advantage to seek help at the
Academic Counseling Center before it’s
too late.
The Academic Counseling Center is
a free service offered by Texas A&M
University to help-students cope with
problems they encounter in their edu
cational and career development.
A common reason students don’t get
motivated is they think studying should
be fun, although that isn’t always the
case. Dr. Fred Dorn, counselor at the
Academic Counseling Center, said.
Students sometimes forget they are
here to go to get an education, he said,
and they defeat themselves by thinking
everything should be enjoyable.
Dorn said many students try to get by
on skills they acquired in high school
although the University expects more of
them.
“Ninety percent of succeeding in col
lege is your attitude and how you man
age your time,” he said.
Many people develop the attitude
that they are dumb, when in fact they
merely don’t study enough or don’t plan
their time well. Preparation to become
aware of what needs to be done is most
important, instead of waiting till the
last minute to get started, he said.
Of the 168 hours in a week Dorn
recommended that the average student
study at least two hours for every hour of
class time. Discipline is the name of the
game, he said.
“Students have to follow the same
schedule for 16 weeks. I’m not saying
you can’t have a good time, but you have
to decide whether two hours at the (Di
xie) Chicken is worth being six hours
behind in school work,” Dorn said.
The academic counselor said stu
dents rightfully should reward them
selves when they deserve it — but not
before. He said he supports the reward
system wholeheartedly. But the reward
system is not running to Northgate on
Monday evenings after telling yourself
you’ll do homework later when later
never comes, he said.
No doubt most students are accom
plished procrastinators. But, Dorn said
sometimes other factors in their lives
can also be demotivating. Depression,
poor grades, confusion about career
opportunities, stress are a few problems
which can distress students, he said.
The Academic Counseling Center,
107 Academic Building, is available to
help any student troubled by such prob
lems. The center operates on an intake
system which usually permits students
to see a counselor upon walking in the
door. Students can also make an
appointment by calling 845-1651.
The Academic Counseling Center
also offers the CounseLine Self-Help
Tape Program at 845-2958 which offers
information on a variety of topics.