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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1982)
Battalion Serving the University community 1.76 No. 39 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Monday, October 25, 1982 Reagan, O’Neill duel Reveille enge un the f rs by 2 lor by -I by 2 United Press International SHINGTON —President n and House Speaker Thomas II dueled over unemployment id the economy Saturday in stern jtlpnal radio speeches that launched eiinal phase of the 1982 political .mpaign. Ke t Virginia by i ie physicist s by 1 by 5 (tv by l sol bv eagan, leader of a Republican artv trying to defend its congres- Tal and gubernatorial seats, urged listeners to ignore “political fairy I,’’look at improved inflation and terest rates statistics and stick with -S program for economic recovery. |Stay the course?” O’Neill asked iletorically, repeating Reagan’s favo- t|(:ampaign slogan. “That is unfair, "p-ica needs a change.” phe Reagan program is not work ing because the program is not fair — and, just as important, because the people themselves know it is not fair,” the top-ranking congressional Demo crat said. Reagan makes a five-minute radio address each Saturday, but it was the first time O’Neill delivered the Demo cratic rebuttal. O’Neill one-upped the president by releasing his “response” three hours before Reagan spoke. But a White House spokesman said Reagan did not listen to his adversary. The speeches — Reagan’s live from the Camp David presidential retreat and O’Neill’s taped in Boston Friday night — turned out to be as heavily partisan as expected, with election day only 10 days distant. The president accused his critics of trying to “obscure the issues and ex ploit them for political gain,” and he attacked “the doom-peddling argu ment that there is no end in sight for this bitter recession.” “We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re getting there,” said Reagan, proudly citing reductions in inflation and interest rates, record activity in the stock market and growth in hous ing and car sales. “It’s been a long, hard fight, going on for much longer than the last two years, and it isn’t over yet. But thanks to your faith and courage and your ability to see the truth behind the poli tical fairy tales, America is on the road to lasting recovery.” O’Neill attacked the unemploy ment situation and said the economy “is not only stalled; it is starting to slide backwards. Instead of 13 million new jobs, there are 13 million jobless — and more and more are joining the jobless rolls each week.” “Do these officials who speak so easily about risingjobless figures real ize the horror that lies behind those figures? Do they understand the un happiness they are causing, the loss of self-respect they are inflicting?” asked the Democratic leader. “For the good of our country, we need to find out what is wrong with current economic policies and we need to set those poli cies right.” by 1 MO Ski Appait] Rental icket oungstown’s steeling itself or more economic troubles United Press International YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — It once a thriving factory town, its |>nomy as solid as the steel rolling J of the mills that poured fire anti imoke into the gentle hills of north- “asiern Ohio. gput in the last half-decade, almost II of the mills have closed and 'oungstown has plunged toward bot- om. Many of those who have watched be slide fear the worst is still ahead, atest government figures showed , in August, 51,600 workers were mployed in the two-county region ounding Youngstown — a jobless of 20.9 percent, highest of the on’s 80 metropolitan areas. I'he people on the street knew it all along. “When I first came here in 1950, this was a bustling town,” said Dr. Robert Parry, a physician who per forms physicals on jobless workers who come to a local plasma center to sell their blood. “But in the last two to three years, since the steel companies have gone down ...” he said, his sentence trailing off. “You could spend a whole day shopping here at one time,” he said. “But there arejust so many businesses that have closed down — service stores, specialty shops. The whole downtown has lost a lot of good busi ness.” It’s about to lose more. The down town branch of Higbee’s — one of the city’s two main department stores — will close Oct. 27, eliminating the jobs of some 115 clerks, managers, jani tors and stock people. “People in this area are used to bad cycles,” said Dr. Anthony Stocks, chairman of the economics depart ment at Youngstown State University. “But I’ve been here 12 years and this is the worst I’ve seen.” Things might even be worse than they appear. The official jobless fi gures understate the actual number of unemployed by as much as 10 per cent, said Dr. John Russo, director of Youngstown State University’s Labor Studies Program. Considering the number of work ers who have left the area, as well as the “underemployed” — those work ing only part-time — the real jobless rate could be as high as 30 percent, Russo estimated. How much higher could the num bers go? Russo doesn’t like to specu late. “The entire economy is in a long term crisis,” Russo said. “This could be our generation’s Depression.” During the Great Depression, at least one person in four couldn’t find work and he notes: “I think we’re fair ly close to that now.” He said he expects the economy in Youngstown “to keep going down un til we finally find equilibrium at a very low level.” slaff photo by David Fisher New friends Matthew Swick gives Jackie Sherrill a smile as he learns how to “Gig ’em”. Matthew is the poster child for the Spina Bifida Association in the Bryan-College Station area, and is the son of Leslie and Debbie Swick of Bryan. Matthew will have surgery Wednesday to correct the congenital birth defect. Senate constitution vote on Tuesday Agency suggests traffic death toll rop due to economy’s current state United Press International WASHINGTON — The recession ft all bad news: the highway death so far for 1982 is down more than 12 percent from last year and govern- teiitanalysts suggest the drop is due |the sagging economy. Preliminary figures gathered by Transportation Department’s Na- jnal Highway Traffic Safety Admi- Itration show 28,872 people killed in the first eight months of 1982 com- |red with 32,860 deaths during the same period last year. "The period of January through August. 1982 shows a larger than ex pected reduction, an average of 12.1 percent,” the agency staff reported in a memorandum to NHTSA Adminis trator Ray Peck. “The reductions in recent months from the corresponding 1981 figures are most likely due to the changes in driving patterns brought about by the current state of the economy.” The preliminary estimate for the month of August was 4,165 traffic deaths, 15.3 percent lower than the same month last year. The total of 45,299 killed during the past 12 months reflected an overall decrease of 9.8 percent over the preceding September-August period. “Our analysis people are still work ing on why,” said agency spokesman Hal Paris. “There are a number of factors involved, but one of them is probably the economy.” One 'explanation offered for the continued decline in fatalities is that people are driving less because of tight finances. The fatality rate per vehicle miles of travel also dropped, from about 3.8 per 100 million miles traveled in Au gust 1981 to 3.4 per 100 million traveled this past August. Regional trends, based on monthly reports from the states, appeared to bear out a relationship between areas where the recession has hit hardest and greater reductions in traffic deaths. The farm belt had the sharpest re duction in traffic fatalities during the past 12 months — 20.7 percent. That was followed closely by a 19.5 percent reduction in New England. The South from Louisiana to New Mexico showed the smallest reduc tion, 0.7 percent, followed by the Southeast with a 4.5 percent decrease during the 12-month period ended in August. by David Johnson Battalion Staff Texas A&M faculty members will have a chance to discuss the proposed constitution for a faculty senate dur ing the steering committee’s open meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Rudder Auditorium. The committee will answer ques tions from faculty members about the constitution at the meeting. An election will be held Nov. 9 to ratify the constitution by the faculty. Ratification of the constitution is the first step in establishing a faculty sen ate here. A majority of the voting faculty members must vote for ratification. In addition, the constitution must be ratified by the University President Frank E. Vandiver, System Chancel lor Arthur G. Hansen and the Board of Regents. Absentee voting for the constitu tion will be November 2 through November 5 in 204C Sterling C. Evans Library. Faculty identification is required. For the regular election, polling places will be in the Academic and Agency Building, Langford Architec ture Center, East Kyle, Harrington Education Center, Kleberg Animal and Food Science Center, Sterling C. Evans Library, Veterinary Medicine Complex and Zachry Engineering Center. The proposed constitution will establish a unicameral body com posed of of faculty members, retired faculty members who teach on the campus and full-time lecturers and instructors. Under the proposed con stitution, the senate will be an advis ory body for all policies dealing with academic curriculum, instruction, standards, as well as policies gov erning the hiring and retention of academic personnel. Senators would be limited to two three-year terms in a nine-year period. One-third of the senate will be elected each year. Like the student senate, faculty senators will be elected by a place system and must receive a majority vote. The University presi dent will be an ex officio member of the faculty senate. ilr ^ ^ ^ ip ; i junip i fc IT r i JJr T ^ EftyA I tnt. ’■ n if i XjBf. flU a t %A Mothers not always the best parent, study shows inside erger is eds top ssion of ), you’ll on-site sttrain- provid- dees to illenge. ties we asspod warn staff photo by David Fisher Falling in defeat The Rice owl, Brad Borg, plays dead in front of the crowd at Kyle Field Saturday as his team fell in defeat to the Aggies 49-7. by Alison Cope Battalion Reporter Since the beginning of the 20th century, mothers have been given custody of children because courts assumed mothers were better suited by nature to care for children. But Texas A&M professor William S. Rholes says children of single parent families generally are better off with their same-sex parent. Rholes, an assistant professor of psychology, said children raised by the same-sex parent generally have less anxiety than those raised by a pa rent of the opposite sex. In a study on father custody done by researchers John W. Santrock and Richard A. Warshak of the University of Texas at Dallas, boys from father-custody families show more competent social behavior than girls in father-custody homes. Girls in mother-custody homes are more socially competent than boys in the same type situation, the study said. Like the research done by Santrock and Warshak, Rholes expected to find that same-sex parenting is gener ally better for the child in his re search. But he said it was hard to make predictions. “It was hard to form expectations initially because there hadn’t been a lot of research,” he said. “The one piece of research that had been done (by Santrock and Warshak) was done with younger children. It suggested that social emotional adjustment, in general, is better when male children are placed with the father and females are placed with the mother. One of our expectations was that we would find that same-sex parenting would lessen problems.” Rholes decided to research father parenting. He studied 120 people, mostly from Texas A&M. Participants were put in one of three equal-sized groups: those raised by their father; those raised by their mother; and those raised by both parents. One person from each group matched characteristics — sex, age they were left with one parent, etc. — with a person from the each of the other two groups. “We located college-age people who at some point in their lives lived with a single father,” Rholes said. “We matched them with students who had lived with their mother and found another group that matched who had lived with both parents. Then we gave them psychological tests to to see if there might be any effects, especially lasting effects.” Rholes said he found anxiety was the main problem in subjects who lived in opposite-sex families. “Characteristic anxiety in people varies considerably in how anxious they are,” he said. “Our findings were that children in opposite-sex homes were somewhat more anxious than other childern. That was especially true for girls reared by fathers.” Several things could explain added anxiety in females, Rholes said. “We tend to think that when a girl loses her mother she loses her prim ary caretaker and a role model,” he said. “A boy loses his role model if his father dies, but he does’t lose his primary caretaker.” Research on the benefits of father rearing has had little impact on the frequency mothers receive custody of children, but some states have equal opportunity custody laws that give the father a better chance of keeping his children. In Texas, it is almost impossible for a father to gain custody of his chil dren, Rholes said. A mother must be proven incapable of caring for the children before the father is granted custody. With more research, fathers may have greater opportunities in the fu ture to gain custody, but it won’t hap pen fast, Rholes said. “Custody decisions should never be made in a lock-step fashion,” he said. “We are talking about cases where both parents want custody and are capable of caring for the children. In many cases the father or mother doesn’t want custody. In that case, same-sex parenting would not be a determinant.” Around town 4 Classified 6 National 8 Opinions 2 Sports 9 State *. 5 What’s up 8 forecast Today’s Forecast: High in the low 70s, lo\V in the high 40s. almanac Today is Monday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 1982 with 67 to follow. The moon is in its first quarter. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars and Jupiter. Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. American polar explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd was born Oct. 25, 1888. On this date in history: In 1854, in the “Charge of the Light Brigade,” some 670 British cavalrymen fighting in the Cri mean War attacked a heavily forti fied Russian position and were wiped out. In 1971, the United Nations admitted Communist China to membership and ousted National ist China.