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The Battalion
fentandj
the New
Serving the University community
75 No. 98 USPS 045360 24 Pages In 2 Sections
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 17, 1982
hinese leaders begin to
urge remaining Maoists
SDAtl
ESI
United Press International
PEKING — Vice Chairman Deng
iaoping’s allies said Tuesday they in-
nd to purge remnants of the Gang
Four, heralding a climactic political
lowdown with entrenched Mao
yalists.
Western diplomats had assumed
eng’s purge was aimed in part at
oldovers from the era of Mao Tse
ng, but the leadership had insisted
was going after only corrupt, ineffi-
ent and elderly officials.
In two separate statements, Deng’s
men made it clear they were commit
ted to attempting, once and for all, to
eliminate the “ideologically impure”
— those Maoist elements still domi
nating many middle and lower level
positions, effectively thwarting many
Deng policies.
“There are party members who
have totally departed from the party’s
correct stand are are completely un
qualified for party membership,” the
Red Flag Journal said.
“Some of them may be called re
mnants of the Gang of Four or the
gang’s cats’ paws,” the article said re
ferring to the Mao’s widow and her
radical followers who were brought to
trial by Deng in 1980.
Communist Party Chairman Hu
Yaobang, a key protege of the 77-
year-old Deng, said in a separate
statement the leadership would carry
out the work of weeding out its
ideological opponents and other
bureaucrats resolutely.
“Political, economic and adminis
trative structure should be simplified
and economic offenses punished,”
Hu told an American professor in re
marks delayed 24 hours before publi
cation. “Government institutions are
now over-staffed and inefficient.”
Hu, who replaced Mao’s handpick
ed successor Hua Guofeng last July,
said “a large number of oustanding
comrades,” presumably those whose
politics concur with Deng’s, will be
promoted to leading posts.
Western diplomats said the de
veloping internal upheaval in China
could be the most significant rectifica
tion campaign since 1945 .
ieagan says sales tied to Israel
security, U.S.-Arab influence
staff photo by Eric Mitchell
:OMPLB!
I
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United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
agan has moved to soothe Israeli
ixiety about the direction of U.S.
iddle East policy, linking future
ms sales in the region to Israel’s
curity but serving notice he wants to
enhance American influence in the
Arab world.
r Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin warned Reagan in a letter that
r ‘lling advanced weapons to Jordan
tauld pose the gravest potential
threat to Israel since its birth in 1948.
The two leaders exchanged letters
Tuesday in the tense aftermath of De
fense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s
Middle East swing during which
senior U.S. officials said the United
States could not be held hostage to
Israeli interests and was redirecting
military policy toward the Arabs.
Weinberger told King Hussein of
Jordan he would consider selling him
mobile Hawk air defense missiles but
first would have to work behind the
scenes to secure congressional sup
port, senior U.S. officials said. They
said he might consider backing a sale
of F-16 fighters to Jordan as well.
But Reagan told Begin reports ab
out arms sales to Jordan that quoted
senior U.S. officials “have presented
incorrect and exaggerated commen
tary regarding U.S. military assist
ance policies for the Middle East.”
The statement appeared to be a
sharp rebuke of Weinberger’s Penta
gon staff.
Reagan, a longtime supporter of
Israel, appeared to side both with
Weinberger and Secretary of State
Alexander Haig in his letter. Its con
tents pleased Israel’s new ambassador
to Washington, Moshe Arens, and
other Israeli officials, sources said.
“Any decision on future sales to
Jordan or any other country in the
region will be made in the context of
my administration’s firm commit
ment to Israel’s security and the need
to bring peace to the region,” Reagan
wrote.
“Israel remains America’s friend
and ally,” he wrote. “However, I be
lieve it is in the interest of both our
countries for the United States to en
hance its influence with other states in
the region.”
Just enjoying the day
Jimmy Charles, a junior marketing major from Austin,
enjoys a warm afternoon Tuesday in front of Hart Hall.
Sharing problems with the administration
Atlantic storm
brewing again
Groups, Koldus have lunch
e
ier
by Cheryl Maynard
and Cyndy Davis
Battalion Reporter
“Excuse me, are yml here for Dr.
oldus’ luncheon?” asked a tall young
II lan as he entered the Serpentine
■ounge of the Memorial Student
enter. His question seemed to relax
te five students nervously bunched
i the corner.
The group assembled was waiting
o attend one of the weekly luncheons
eld with Dr. John J. Koldus III, vice
resident of student services.
The luncheon program started 15
ears ago, creating an informal way to
hare problems and concerns among
iaculty and students, Koldus said.
The get-togethers are held on
Tuesdays, and a different group is
nvited each week — one week upper-
lassmen and faculty members attend
nd the next week’s luncheon is li
nked to freshmen.
Koldus greeted each student as he
titered 205 MSC for “light lunch and
teady conversation.”
Lunch consisted of soup, triple-
lecker club sandwiches, potato salad,
leviled eggs and cherry cobbler a la
node. Conversation consisted of such
opics as shuttle buses, study habits
nd campus life.
Carl Cox, a freshman biomedical
cience major from Houston, com-
nented on studying: “You think
ou’re doing well here at A&M for the
Dr. John Koldus, vice president for
student services, left, discusses student
motivation with Denise Seaman, a senior
practicum student in student services fron>
photo by Laura Larson
Iowa State University and Dr. Roger
McNees, engineering research associate of
the Texas Transportation Institute, at an
informal luncheon given by Koldus.
first two weeks, and then everything
hits you at once by the third week.”
Michelle McManus, a freshman
psychology major from Temple, said
she felt school had turned out to be
more time-consuming than she ex
pected. Other freshmen agreed.
Koldus advised the students to be
realistic about the amount of time
they allot for studying.
“I don't think that it’s good for you
to try to study all the time,” he said.
Students must adjust to their pro
fessor’s objectives in order to benefit
from their classes, he said. He further
recommended that students get to
know their professors.
When Koldus asked the students
how they felt about the faculty,
McManus said faculty members were
down to earth, “not on a pedestal as I
thought they would be.”
Not all students agreed.
Cox said he had noticed a few
teachers were disinterested with their
subject matter. Another student com
mented that she had trouble under
standing the lectures of some of her
foreign instructors.
Students were chosen from among
responses to a notice in The Battalion
which promoted interest in the lun
cheon series.
About 30 invitations are sent out
weekly and Koldus said about 20 peo
ple attend each week.
United Press International
ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland —
Oilmen and sailors braced today
against another major storm gaining
fury near the North Atlantic oilfields
where towering seas have already sent
117 men to icy deaths this week.
Gathering winds and driving snow
forced searchers to call an early end to
efforts Tuesday to recover the bodies
of 84 men who went down Monday
with the oil rig Ocean Ranger and
another 33 lost in the Tuesday sink
ing of the Soviet freighter Mekhanik
Tarasov.
Only five men were rescued from
the 4,262-ton container vessel when
the captain refused to abandon ship
while a Danish fishing vessel stood by.
The crew had no time to launch life
boats when giant waves sank the ship
hours later.
Two more oil rigs and about 15
ships were in the area 175 nautical
miles southeast of St. John’s today,
with officials warning of 60-to-70-
knot winds and waves that again
could approach the 50-foot swells that
toppled the Ocean Ranger.
“By the time those northwesterly
winds get at those waves they could
become a lot worse. Right now they’re
pretty high — at about 20 feet,” said
Bill Davidson of the Rescue Coordi
nation Center in Halifax.
A center official said neither of the
two remaining rigs, both contracted
to Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., appeared in
danger. “We leave any decision on
evacuation of the rigs up to the com
pany,” he said.
The five Soviet sailors pulled from
the frigid water by the Danish fishing
boat Sigurfari were transferred to the
Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir
Humphrey Gilbert late Tuesday and
will be interviewed about the latest
disaster when they reach shore.
But Search and Rescue officer Lt.
Cmdr. Douglas Caie said it would be
impossible to determine why the crew
had not abandoned ship when they
had the chance.
“It’s the master’s decision when to
have the crew stay on or risk the seas,”
he said.
The Sigurfari had stood by
through the night after the Soviet
ship, bound for Leningrad with a load
of newsprint, reported its cargo had
shifted and it was listing badly.
The Mekhanik Tarasov’s captain,
however, insisted on waiting for the
Russian ship Ivan Dvorsky, which ar
rived only in time to help pull bodies
from the sea.
The bodies of 21 sailors were reco
vered from the waters 65 miles east of
the site of the Ocean Ranger disaster
before Tuesday’s search ended. Offi
cials held out no hope for the 12 mis
sing.
1 he Canadian and Newfoundland
governments and the U.S. Coast
Guard all ordered investigations into
why the 84-man U.S.-Canada drilling
crew aboard the “unsinkable” Ocean
Ranger had perished.
Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. acknow
ledged a U.S. safety certificate for the
American registered rig expired Dec.
27 and that it had been due for in
spection Monday. Canadian officials
said the rig was deemed seaworthy in
their check two weeks ago.
Mobil, which released a full list of
victims Tuesday, said only one body
had been recovered although it had
unofficial j eports a second body was
found. It named 15 Americans, one
British national and 68 Canadians as
those killed.
Robotics come of age at Texas A&M
by Rebeca Zimmermann
Battalion Staff
The word robot usually brings to
mind scenes from “Star Wars” and
visions of science fiction creatures.
But, this isn’t always the case; in fact,
robots and robotics quickly are be
coming a part of Texas A&M Univer
sity.
A committee designed to further
the study of robotics, the investigation
of intelligent machines designed to
perform tasks more rapidly than hu
mans, recently was established by the
Texas Engineering Experiment Sta
tion, a branch of the Texas A&M
System.
This committee is a cooperative
effort between the departments of
mechanical engineering, industrial
engineering and electrical en
gineering.
Dr. Gordon R. Hopkins, commit
tee chairman and head of the mecha
nical engineering department, said a
robot is an extension of a computer.
The computer is the brain, and the
robot is the eyes, ears, arms and legs,
Hopkins said.
Dr. Robert E. Young, assistant pro
fessor of industrial em
i, said
crane in
igmeermg,
a robot’s arm resembles a cran
appearance and function. It acts as a
hydraulic hoist, but is controlled by a
computer instead of a human sitting
in the crane’s cab.
Young said robots are used primar
ily for dirty jobs in areas with high
temperature or noxious fumes, such
as spot welding and drilling rivet
holes in aircraft. Robots also are valu
able in nuclear safety work, he said.
Robots create new jobs for skilled
workers rather than eliminate jobs be
cause the higher technology of robo
tics raises a worker’s skill level, Young
said.
Companies such as Texas Instru
ments, International Business
Machines, General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler have used robots for some
time, he said.
Hopkins said the robotics program
will be housed in five 1,000-square-
foot laboratories in the new engineer
ing building currently under con
struction on the south side of the
Zachry Engineering Center. The re
search and labs are funded by TEES.
The five labs are:
• Mechanics/prime movers lab —
“mechanics” refers to the mechanical
design and parts used to make a
robot. Prime movers are the motors
which make the robot work.
• Sensors lab — will work with the
robot’s sense of touch, sight and
mechanics’ control. Mechanics con
trol involves writing computer prog
rams that tell the robot how and what
to move. )
Dr. Benjamin W. Mooring, assis
tant professor in mechanical en
gineering, will work with a computer
See ROBOTS page 12
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Local 3
National 10
Opinions 2
Sports 13
State 4
What’s Up 12
forecast
Today’s forecast: Sunny and warm
with a high in the mid-80s with the
low tonight in the low-40s. Thurs
day’s forecast calls for more clear
skies witjj a high in the low 80s.