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Serving the University community
76 No. 9 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, September 13, 1982
rRocket launches investors’ hopes
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■ROCKPORT — The Con-
8aylor »toga 1 performed so well in its sub-
> State,)®)bital test shot, America’s first pri-
ichter&:|»tr rocket company wants to begin
ttimecci launching commercial satellites in two
The 37-foot blue and white rocket
[eiivered a 1,000-pound dummy
yload Thursday in a performance
s owner, Houston-based Space Ser-
ces Inc., hopes will convince inves-
and clients it can launch satellites
by early 1984.
The flawless 195-mile-high, 326-
mile-long flight over the Gulf of Mex
ico by the Conestoga, named for the
covered wagons that took American
pioneers across the West, was a big
step toward a hoped-for first com
mercial satellite launch in 1984.
The 37-foot rocket roared from a
milk-stool-shaped launch stand in an
oceanside cow pasture on an inves
tor’s Matagorda Island ranch at 10:15
a.m. CDT, only 15 minutes behind
schedule for its 10.5-minute flight.
As observers cheered, applauded
and wept in an observation tent a half-
mile from the pad, the rocket accom
plished simulated satellite-orbiting
maneuvers and plunked into the Gulf
275 miles east of Mexico.
“Super, just like it was supposed to
do,” Mission Director Donald K.
“Deke” Slayton said. “The next thing
we’re going to go do is go and drink a
lot of beer. After that, we’re going to
put together an orbital launch vehi
cle. And we’ll see y’all in two years.”
“It shows a group of private indi
viduals and private investors can
band together and launch a commer
cial rocket that potentially can take
advantage of a huge market,” SSI
Chairman David Hannah Jr. said.
One potential investor Hannah
might add to his list of 47 faithful was
Houston oilman Samuel Logan: “I
was impressed. I’m going to talk to
Mr. Hannah.”
SSI, which failed in a test flight last
year, has raised about $6 million so
far, about $2.5 million of which went
for Thursday’s test launch, and needs
another $15 million for a full-scale
program.
SSI received considerable govern
ment help, notably NASA’s letting the
firm purchase a $365,000 Minute-
man I second-stage, solid-fuel engine
for the Conestoga, along with clear
ances from the Federal Aviation
Administration and other agencies.
But building the rocket around the
46,000-pound thrust engine and
launching it was SSI’s problem. They
hired experienced contractors —
Space Vector Corp. of California,
Eagle Engineering of Houston and
DFVLR of Germany — to help.
Students turn to illegal stickers
staff photo by Janet Joyce
Thomas Parsons shows some counterfeit stickers.
by Maureen Carmody
Battalion Reporter
In an effort to avoid parking
problems faced by some students,
a few people have turned to a more
creative way to beat the system —
counterfeit parking stickers.
Thomas Parsons, University di
rector of traffic and security, said
he collected 39 such parking stick
ers last year and sees no relief in
sight.
“It may be a lot more prevalent
than that,” Parsons said. “That’s
just all we’ve found, and if we find
that many, there are surely more
we don’t find.”
Most of the bogus stickers either
are made with cardboard and col
ored pens or are legitimately
issued stickers that have been
altered from one-semester stickers
to annual ones, he said.
The penalty for using such
parking stickers is primarily
monetary. If the individual is
caught, the car is towed and held
by police, Parsons said.
The individual then must pay
the price for parking that semes
ter, pay the towing fee and pay
whatever ticket violations are on
his or her record, he said.
The person then is sent to the
Department of Student Affairs,
but instances of further disciplin
ary action by that office are rare,
Parsons said.
“Occasionally we do take them
to the J.P. court,” he said. “It de
pends upon attitude primarily. We
can with all of them, but we’re not
in the business to give people re
cords.”
Parsons said the majority of
people who use counterfeit stick
ers either do so because they find it
easier to alter one they already
have than to get a new one, or try
to create a staff permit so they can
park closer to their classes.
Parsons said University officials
are continuing to work on the
parking problem.
“The master planning commit
tee at least has addressed the prob
lem,” he said, “and has, in concept,
said that we need to look into park
ing garages.”
But the cost of such an alterna
tive is a problem, he said.
Howard Vestal, vice president
for business affairs, told the mas
ter planning committee that a
1,000-space parking garage would
cost $5 million, Parsons said. And
considering insurance costs and
debt services, a garage parking
space would cost $585 a year to
rent.
He said the committee decided
not enough people would pay that
price.
As long as a parking problem
exists and as long as people feel
they can get away with using coun
terfeit parking permits, it’s going
to remain a problem, Parsons said.
Israel bombs
more targets
in Lebanon
Study credits Mexican heritage
Migrant child-abuse said ‘rare’
United Press International
Israeli warplanes today
bombed Syrian targets in the Bekaa
Valley and near Tripoli, the fourth
bombing run in five days and the first
in the Tripoli area since before
Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, security
sources said.
The warplanes struck Syrian posi
tions in the mountains overlooking
the Christian town of Zahle, 30 miles
east of Beirut in the Bekaa valley and
near the village of Dahr el Baid’r,
further west, the sources said.
Unconfirmed reports from secur
ity sources said the Israeli planes also
bombed the Palestinian refugee camp
of al Biddawi in the suburbs of the
northern Lebanese port city of Tri
poli.
The strikes came as Israeli troops
were given orders to tighten ranks
against raids by roving Palestinian
guerrillas and to prepare for a possi
ble winter war against Syrian forces in
the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Israel on Sunday had sent its war
planes over the strategic valley,
knocking out a Syrian SAM-9 missile
battery — the third put out of action
since Wednesday.
Israeli officials threatened more
strikes if Syria fails to restrain attacks
by Palestinian fighters harbored be
hind their lines.
“We will not tolerate a war of attri
tion in Lebanon,” an Israeli official
said in an announcement of the big
gest air strikes since the siege of
Beirut ended last month.
The Voice of Lebanon radio run by
the right-wing Phalangist Party said
the attacks left as many as 30 dead,
hitting a Lebanese army position and
a Catholic school as well as Syrian
military targets.
also streaked
not drop any
Israeli warplanes
over Beirut but did
bombs.
In Beirut, Lebanese leftists firing
rocket-propelled grenades ambushed
a convoy of the French peace-keeping
force Sunday, blowing up 20 tons of
ammunition and triggering the worst
outbreak of fighting since Palestinian
guerrillas were evacuated from west
Beirut.
Police said three people were killed
and 44 wounded.
UPI correspondent David Zenian,
who was in the Bekaa Valley today
during the Israeli raids, said the war
planes came in waves, hitting Syrian
military concentrations along the
main highway from Beirut.
“Our car had just pulled up at a
roadside cafe in Shtaura when the
Israeli warplanes first appeared at
7:30 a.m.,” Zenian said. “The air
strike was brief and there was no re
sponse from the Syrians in the area.
“No sooner had a black pall of
smoke covered the skies, when
another wave of Israeli warplanes
attacked the mountain road leading
up from the Bekaa Valley to the
Mdeireh hills.
“This was followed by several more
air strikes,” he said.
Israel accused Syria of aiding a
guerrilla force of up to 5,000 men to
establish a new front line in eastern
Lebanon while committing 98 cease
fire violations in seven weeks.
Israel estimates total Syrian forces
in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Leba
non, just miles from the Syrian bor
der, to number 40,000 troops, includ
ing three divisions in Lebanon and
one division just inside Syria.
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — The Mexican-
merican migrant families who fol
low the crops in the United States
have a very low incidence of child
abuse—a surprise to researchers who
thought poverty and transience
would take an emotional toll.
Fred Cervantes, a political science
professor at Corpus Christi State Uni
versity, said the results of his 1981
study to learn about migrant families’
attitudes toward child abuse and neg
lect were unexpected.
“We assumed that more abusive
tendencies would occur in this group,
being more rural, more traditional
and under more economic stress,” he
said. “Not only was this not the case,
but it was the reverse.
“The lower socio-economic class of
the migrants, the lower the educa
tional levels and the more traditional
the attitudes were, the lower was the
tolerance toward child abuse.”
Cervantes was in San Antonio last
week for the second annual confer
ence on the Prevention of Child
Abuse and Neglect.
His study was based on a question
naire that measured the incidence of
physical, sexual and emotional abuse
in migrant families and the families’
attitudes toward it.
“We asked, for example, ‘Do you
consider abusive: severely biting your
child, beating your child with a coat
hangar, putting your child in scalding
water’ all the way down to spanking
the child with your hand,” Cervantes
said.
“In relation to sexual abuse, we
asked questions pertaining to incest,
pornography, all the way down to
hugging and kissing an unrelated
child.
“Questions of emotional abuse
dealt with berating the child, insulting
the child in front of his peers, down to
reprimanding the child. Neglect
questions centered on denying the
child adequate food, down to neglect
ing religious education.”
In every area, Cervantes said, the
Mexican-American migrants indi
cated they rarely abused their chil
dren and frowned on those who did.
They did acknowledge, however,
that they sometimes were forced to
neglect their children, even though
they consider it a form of abuse.
“There are simply not sufficient re
sources to care for migrant children
in many cases,” Cervantes said. “The
migrant parent realizes that by not
providing sufficient medical care,
education, dental care or food, he is
neglecting his child.”
In general, Cervantes credited the
migrants’ strong, loving family re
lationships to their Mexican heritage.
“We found migrants who still see
themselves as ‘Mexicano’ and those
who speak Spanish predominately
also show less tolerance for abuse,” he
said.
The evidence of his study and two
others that corroborated his findings
could be used to argue against
attempts to assimilate Mexican im
migrants into American culture, Cer
vantes said.
“Their culture may be one of the
true, viable tools they have to cope
with stress,” he said. “When these
migrants move to urban areas from
their rural homes, their culture is vul
nerable.”
Important dates
for fall semester
Graduate students and seniors can
pick up their tickets for the Texas
A&M-University of Texas at Arling
ton game today until 4 p.m. at G. Rol-
lie White Coliseum. Juniors can pick
up their tickets on Tuesday, sopho
mores on Wednesday, and freshmen
on Thursday.
Anyone can pick up tickets on
Friday.
If students miss their assigned
pick-up day, they can pick up their
tickets any day thereafter.
The ticket windows are open from
7 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The game begins Saturday at 6
p.m.; it will not be televised. Midnight
yell practice begins at midnight Fri
day in Kyle Field.
Other important dates:
•Tuesday — Last day for drop
ping courses with no record.
•Sept. 30 — Last day to order com
mencement invitations for December
graduates.
•Oct. 1 — Last day for dropping
courses with no penalty (Q-drop).
Shortage of agricultural experts seen
by Patrice Koranek
Battalion Reporter
Enrollment in colleges of agri
culture — at Texas A&M and
across the country — is declining,
causing problems for many
schools. But a more serious prob
lem may arise 10 years from now.
Signs of a shortage of agricul
ture scientists, teachers and mana
gers already are showing as profes
sionals from the post-World War
II era near retirement age.
And College of Agriculture
deans and faculty members fear
adequate replacements aren’t at
hand. They blame much of the
problem on “image” problems that
have sent bright, young people
scurrying into other fields.
The misconceptions, they said,
range from high school counselors
who see agriculture as an easy ma
jor for shallow students, to the per
ception that raising cotton and
corn is all an agriculture graduate
can do.
“A lot of people say if you can’t
do anything else, major in agricul
ture,” Associate Dean Dwayne Su-
ter said. “Too often people believe
the only career opportunities are
in farming and ranching.”
Even people reared on farms
tend to think that way.
“I know it’s more than farming,”
said one student who grew up on a
farm, “but you think of it that
way.”
Linda Holman, a senior geogra
phy major from Emory, said she
came to college looking for a
career that would allow her to live
in a big city.
Many agriculture graduates do
live in cities and they follow a varie
ty of careers: research scientist,
sales representative, magazine edi
tor, agri-business manager, food
scientist, recreation specialist,
association executive, banker, in
ternational consultant.
Few college graduates with de
grees in agricuture return to full
time production agriculture, un
less it is a family farm, Suter said.
The amount of money needed
to start a farming operation is too
much for someone just out of col
lege, he said, because agriculture
today involves a level of capitaliza
tion and sophistication of manage
ment not realized by the general
public.
By 1985, Suter predicted, there
will be a severe shortage of people
to work as plant scientists, agricul
tural engineers, media specialists
and entomologists.
Uel Stockard, state leader for
county extension programs, said
too few agriculture majors in
Texas are studying to be scientists.
He said agricultural scientists for
basic research soon will be in short
supply.
A supply-and-demand report
prepared by Allan D. Goecker,
assistant dean of agriculture at
Purdue University, supports the
predictions of Suter and Stockard
as they apply to agriculture and
food science. The report said the
demand for agriculture majors
will exceed the supply by 15 per
cent during the 1980s.
According to the report: “The
most extensive shortages are ex
pected in agricultural engineer
ing, agricultural business manage
ment, food sciences and plant sci
ences.”
The report said 6,184 agricultu
ral administrators, managers and
financial advisors will be needed
from 1980-1985, but only 4,293
graduates will be available.
In spite of the predicted shor
tages and an overall decline in
agriculture enrollment across the
nation, not all departments are ex
periencing a drop in enrollment.
For example, in Fall 1975, when
4,917 students, or 20 percent of
the University student body, were
enrolled in the College of Agricul
ture, 616 students were agricultu
ral economics majors. By Fall
1981, enrollment in that major
had jumped to 941 students.
However, total enrollment in the
College of Agriculture had de
clined to 4,887, or 14 percent of all
Texas A&M students.
Ronald Kay, associate professor
of agriculture economics and
undergraduate adviser, said many
students transfer to agriculture
see AGRICULTURE page 6
inside
Classified 6
National 5
Opinions 2
Sports 7
State 4
Whatsup 4
forecast
Today’s Forecast: High in the
low to mid 90s, low in the low 60s.
Forty percent chance of afternoon
showers.