The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, December 16, 1981, Image 1

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    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%
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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.
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* 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.