Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 1981)
Serving the Texas A&M University community Vol. 75 No. 74 10 Pages Wednesday, December 16, 1981 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 The Weather Today Tomorrow High 68 High . . 70 Low 40 Low . . 42 Chance of rain 0% Chance of rain . 0% Soviets send id to Poland o quell strikes byDaityl avf ity Texas .111 Jin $ lajorint najor c theBieEj ■ast, Ay Athletic ceamsinl A. i, presidfi ‘The! would hi ieientnia a viaUt' terms d ports isi latweai nrcnoi United Press International Soviet transport planes landed in Po nd today and Polish army tanks ushed into the Solidarity stronghold of dansk to root out defiant union strik- rs, reports from Warsaw said. The report came a day after a Soviet ifficial said the Kremlin was ready to lend troops to Poland to help restore rder, but it was unclear whether the Soviet aircraft carried soldiers. Poland’s new military rulers moved assive troop contingents during the night in possible preparation for harsher Iction against defiant Solidarity activists Still on strike in the fourth day of emergency rule. The military-controlled mass media (escribed the country as calm but idmitted “it was depressing to learn hat there already has been a necessity repressive regulations of martial ; There was no further explanation, tut the military decrees prescribe a maximum sentence of death for Poles treaking the military regime’s ban on Jtrikes. Travelers coming to Warsaw Tues day said tanks, howitzers and armored personnel carriers were deployed thick ly around the countryside and that en campments of tents could be seen. There was very little private traffic in the countryside or the city since gaso line sales have been banned. Reports reaching Warsaw from the northern port of Gdansk said the sit-in that began Sunday at the Lenin ship yards had been ended, but this could not be confirmed. Other travelers said many places in Gdansk were on strike and there were tanks in the street. Reports from workers in Warsaw said Polish soldiers firing tear gas in the air had broken three of the biggest strikes by diehard Solidarity workers — two in Warsaw and one at Gdansk. There were conflicting reports on the number of arrests, since the military government imposed martial law Sun day and began rounding up leaders of the 9.5-million-member labor group. British Broadcasting Corp., report ing a mood of intense anxiety in War saw, said 5,000 union leaders had been arrested. A pamphlet passed out by a regrouped Solidarity in Gdansk said 49,000 people had been arrested across the nation, but other sources said only 6,000 had been taken into custody. before jwever, would ® rminiif AAhasJ iitract« ndingini Congress headed for adjournment Colors® pafalb Id Wef i a mover * United Press International port is 4 f WASHINGTON — The 97th Con /ouldjoii |ress headed for the final adjournment of its first session today, with Social Security legislation, a new farm prog ram, a foreign aid bill, and a black lung benefits measure comprising the last major items on the agenda. I Although the remaining legislation as of major importance, the ending emed dull in comparison to the bat es of the federal budget and tax legisla- Jon — all won by Reagan. As the House and Senate prepared r what was to be their final day — arring some unforeseen complications here were the major issues: —Social Security: The House was xpected to approve a Senate-passed f Social Security bill continuing the $122- ‘ a-month minimum benefit for those ho now have it, but denying it to those ho reach retirement age after Jan. 1. Black lung benefits: The Senate as to vote on a House-approved bill intended to salvage a fund that pays ! benefits to coal miners disabled by black lung disease. It would double to $1 per icr u •It ton the special tax on coal sold by pro ducers assessed to finance the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. —Farm: The only legislation in ma jor trouble is an $11 billion compromise farm package passed by the Senate last week. The House was to consider the bill as one of its last items, but even its backers were unenthusiastic after nego tiations to make -it acceptable to the White House. The four-year bill maintains sugar price supports and the controversial peanut program that limits the number of farmers allowed to grow the crop. It also sets price floors for major grains. —Foreign aid: The two-year $11.4 billion foreign aid program, which gave President Reagan most 'of what he wanted for his foreign policy toward the developing nations, was scheduled for House action after it passed the Senate 55-42. The largest recipients are Israel and Egypt and the measure would lift prohibitions on military aid to Chile, Argentina and Pakistan. The long road to studying Photo by Beth Gibson Scott Pritchard, a freshman petroleum engineering major, studies for his first set of final exams in the Sterling C. Evans library on campus. The library will be open 24 hours a day during finals week, and seems to be the new night spot for Aggies. Soviets say: keep hands off Poland United Press International MOSCOW — The Soviet Union charges the U.S. cutoff of food aid to Poland is an attempt to use economic pressure on the Warsaw Pact and says America should keep its hands off the Kremlin’s crisis-ridden Communist neighbor. The Soviet news agency Tass also accused the United States of mounting a propaganda campaign to encourage open rebellion against Poland’s new military rulers. Tass disclosed for the first time Tues day that the harsh new martial-law rules in Poland were arousing outspoken and sometimes violent opposition from Pol ish workers. It did not specifically blame the Un ited States for the outbreaks, but said: “Washington is trying to do everything in its power to encourage an atmos phere of anarchy in Poland. ” The Soviet report contended the U.S. government was using “subver sive” Radio Free Europe and Radio Li berty to encourage Polish citizens to oppose, sometimes with force, the mea sures taken by the military council. The Tass charges followed an official statement that the Soviet government would not interfere in Poland’s affairs. But Soviet sources said Tuesday that Soviet military intervention was still an option that could be employed by Po land’s military regime. Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced Monday the United States had suspended its aid program to Po land, including about $100 million in emergency food credits while Washing ton assessed events in Poland. Despite that suspension, a Soviet source said the Kremlin would do what ever is necessary to back up Gen. Wo- jciech Jaruzelski’s tough stand. In light of the Soviets’ own severe food problems this year, sending mas sive new shipments of food to Poland could be a troublesome domestic prob lem. The Soviet source said such assist ance would be extended without public ity at home. Tass said the U.S. stand on aid to Poland was a new instance of economic pressure. In the Soviet view, Poland slid $27 billion into debt with the West during the past decade as a result of capitalist manipulations intended to gain influence over the Communist state’s policies. Syria calls special UN session United Press International Israel sent tanks and planes to the occupied Golan Heights to guard against Syrian attack but Damascus fought Israel’s annexation of the region at an urgent U.N. Security Council ses sion called today. In Washington, Reagan administra tion officials said the United States would join in a Security Council conde mnation of Monday’s unilateral Israeli action if it was not “too shrill” or did not call for sanctions against the Jewish state. The Syrian parliament, called into emergency session to discuss the Israel annexation legislation, denounced Monday by Damascus as a declaration of sea’ tudy says setting influence^ test scores Environment helps memory recall By STEPHEN M. WARD Battalion Reporter While students endure final examina- ions this week, they may not realize iheir performance can depend on where :hey take their tests. At least two or three different studies iave shown that if a student takes an 3xarn in a different room from his regu lar classroom, he’ll do worse then if he liad taken the exam in regular room, said Steve Smith, an experimental psychologist at Texas A&M University. Smith has been conducting experi ments dealing with effects of the en vironment on recall and recognition to find ways of overcoming the problems of being tested in a new environment. The psychologist said students will have to overcome this problem when they apply knowledge obtained in col lege to the business world. Results of experiments have shown the environment serves as a memory reminder, Smith said. For example, all students tested in the room where they learned the material did better than stu dents who were tested in a different room. A separate group of students, tested in a different room other than where they were taught, were asked to im agine or visualize the room in which they originally heard the material. Those students performed just as well as those students who took the test in the regular room, he said. “Thus,” Smith said, “if we are able to remember the environment, we’ll be able to better remember what we’ve learned. ” war that had broken the 1973 cease-fire between the two countries. Syrian Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas threatened to use “the edge of the sword” against Israel for applying its “law, jurisdiction and administration” to the 450-square-mile strategic plateau taken from Syria in the 1967 war. “We will confront this offensive and the United States will not frighten us,” Tlas was quoted by the Syrian news agency Sana as telling Syrian officers Tuesday in Damascus. Arab states have said the annexation move resulted from the recent signing of a strategic cooperation agreement be tween the United States and Israel. “What they’ve done now, I think, clearly is a violation of the United Na tions resolutions (on the Middle East) and therefore the Camp David agree ment,” Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said Tuesday in a television interview. But Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir told Israel Radio, “There is no connection between the establishment of Israeli law on the Golan Heights and the Camp David peace process.” Israeli officials contended the legisla tion, rammed in just six hours through the parliament by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was not outright annexation because it stopped short of applying Israeli sovereignty to the Golan. On the Golan Heights, Israeli armored personnel carriers and tanks on flatbed trucks rolled northward. Israeli settlers in the 31 Jewish settle ments on the Golan cleaned out their bomb shelters to prepare for possible Syrian attack. Israel Radio reported an increase in Syrian troop movements but officials and military sources said there was no evidence Damascus was planning a strike. Campus quiz file seeks donations of old tests In another study, Smith has found that students who study in more than one room do much better than students who study in a single room when being tested in a room they’ve never been in before. “Which means, it’s not just that more environments will help your memory, but, that it your re going to be tested in a new room, it could be to your advantage to have learned that material in a num ber of different places, ” Smith said. In multi-room learning it is possible that memory may not be dependent on one environment in order to recall in formation, he said. His specific research interests con cern how general situations affect mem ory. Smith hopes to define how human memory performs in everyday situa tions and what can be done to overcome certain problems. Students will have access to a cam- pus-wide quiz file in January if they will donate their old tests to Student Gov ernment now. Kathy Bartholomew, student vice president of academic affairs, said a cen tral quiz file will consolidate the many files already established on campus, giv ing everyone the same access to old tests and quizzes. The file will be card-catalogued and bound and will be available to students in the reserve section of Sterling C. Evans Library during regular library i* hours. Students will be able to check out tests and quizzes for two hours at a time. However, student government needs tests and quizzes from the last two years to make this central file possi ble. The file will be ready for use in January if quizzes are brought by Thurs day to the Student Government office in the Student Programs Office, 216 Memorial Student Center, or to the lib rary reserve room. The appropriate course name and number should be marked on each test. Bartholomew encourages all resi dence halls and other student groups with their own quiz files to donate or photocopy their tests for the new cen tral file. Publication ends for fall semester With today’s issue The Battalion will cease publication for the fall semester. The student newspaper will be pub lished again Jan. 13, during the week of registration for spring semester classes. Classes will begin Jan. 18. The Battalion will resume its Mon day through Friday publication sche dule beginning Jan. 18.