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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 1982)
— xx i: The Battalion Serving the University community iad fim Vol. 76 No. 40 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, October 26, 1982 xcedrin tainted, DA investigates Aggie rifle team:] in the Sam i'national, Mifi iville. TexasAillJ W j [xiints io fa sas, which loiaWj i Park, Todd Wot dun and CaroiH 'i* ./ or DENVER — Poison experts today i , am ' <l identified a deadly mercury com- (b points, “““f L’l wonth f ® Texas A&Mil United Press International mercury Bnund as the substance that critically injured a man who took poisoned Ex- Kdrin capsules — the third case of product tampering in Colorado in 24 hours. emeswUlF J In Grand Junction, health officials T I ■( ^ oncla > f° unc ‘ ,;it poison in Palbottle of Maximum Strength Ana- 01 1 ( ) Ul f„«n, and local supermarkets removed 1 " l ar ', tr ',-„ Hfo/en pies after finding one that con- 7 , t K, i»ined a tranquilizer capsule. EM shoots 1 A .1^ D.Jb., \a five an in'i 121 he internali® on the knet Hal of 387. logics will p 3 ™! Officials of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center and U.S. Food and exas A&M all team " r College 1. in Kvle Fie« Drug Administration said William Sinkovic, 33, of Aurora developed se vere intestinal pain and nausea Mon day morning after taking three Extra Strength Excedrin pills. He was hos pitalized in “very critical” condition early today. RMPC Director Dr. Barry Rumack at first thought the substance found in the pain reliever was arsenic, but further tests showed it was mercuric chloride — a widely available, ex tremely dangerous substance. He said FDA investigators were re moving bottles of Excedrin from stores in the Denver metropolitan area and X-raying the bottles to see if any more contain mercuric chloride. The tainted Excedrin and Anacin capsules, coming SVs weeks after seven people died from cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol, were not im mediately linked. In Grand Junction, a city of 26,000 about 250 miles west of Denver where hydrochloric acid was discovered re cently in a bottle of Visine eye drops, four supermarket chains removed boxes of frozen Johnston pies after a chocolate pie containing a tranquiliz er capsule was found Sunday night. mployers still recruit ies despite recession by David Johnson Battalion Staff I:; Recruiting at Texas A&M’s Place- | jnent Center is down 20 percent this [ year, but the University still is faring Better than the rest of the country, since recruiting is down 50 percent nationwide. | John Gudelman, associate director f the Placement Center, said Texas &M students get a high-quality edu- ation and this helps them in the job arket. According to the latest statistics ompiled by the center for the spring land summer of 1982, 559 different Itmployers — ranging from giant oil Companies to the Central Intelligence ‘ gency — recruited here. The center is on the 10th floor of (Rudder Tower and has 33 rooms here interviews go on almost con- inuously. The center’s reception irea, which is filled with slick recruit ing brochures, bustles with well- idressed recruiters and apprehensive • students. More than 2,000 students regis tered with the center and took part in almost 15,000 interviews with pros pective employers this year. Agricul ture, computer science, business and engineering majors are the most heavily recruited. Technical and defense-related in dustries, as well as many large agricul tural companies, are doing well de spite the economy, and are hiring more students now than they have in the past, Gudelman said. But many petroleum engineering majors have not been as lucky; there has been a drop in a demand for them from oil field supply firms. Nancy Craig, a former Texas A&M student who graduated last spring, said she got her job with Arthur Anderson Co., an accounting firm, through the placement center after interviewing with eight different companies during one semester. Craig now works as a greeter to students interviewing with Arthur Anderson. Interviewers generally look for students who have a grade- point ratio around 3.0, she said and added that any extra-curricular acti vities listed on a student’s resume are helpful. Cooperative education also helps students find jobs. Co-op students alternate working at cooperating companies with going to school. Students with more than 40 credit hours must have a 2.5 GPR and students with between 30 and 40 cre dit hours must have a 3.0 GPR to en ter the program. Co-op students gen erally take four and a half years, in cluding summer school, to graduate. “In the past, we had more jobs than students,” said Karen Anders, assis tant director of Cooperative Educa tion. But due to the increasing student interest in the program, Anders said, the jobs are now being filled on a one- to-one basis. Fifteen percent more students have entered the program this year than last year. Co-op students from the College of Business Administration, along with electrical engineering majors, indust rial engineering majors and compu ter science students, have not suf fered the decline in job offers that other engineering students have had. Anders said that because of the scarcity of jobs, many graduates are now keeping jobs offered to them through the co-op program they would have turned down a few years ago. Giving so others can live Gatlen Sisk, a management sophomore from Mount Pleasant, gives blood to the Aggie Blood Drive Monday. The drive ends Thursday; donors can give blood at bloodmobiles near Sbisa and the Academic and Agency Building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Between noon and 9 p.m., donations are taken on the second floor of the Memorial Student Center and in Lounge A of the Quad. Schmidt refuses to run United Press International BONN, West Germany — Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, brushing off efforts by party officials to convince him to run, re portedly feels too old to be a candi date in elections scheduled for next March. “It is time for younger men to have a go,” West German television Mon day quoted Schmidt, 64, as saying be fore entering a crucial meeting of leaders of his Social Democratic Party in which he outlined his future plans. The party has unanimously re quested the former chancellor to run again for office in elections scheduled by Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s new conservative-liberal coalition govern ment for March 6. The former chancellor was ex pected to make an official announce ment of his decision today. Since he was ousted from of fice in a parliamentary vote of no confidence Oct. 1 and replaced by Kohl, Schmidt has told close aides that after eight years as chancellor he is too old to run again. Schmidt was fitted with a heart pacemaker last year. Sources dose to Schmidt say he will not run again because he fears a further leftward drift in his party, now considering closer links with the anti-nuclear “Greens” Party that opposes new nuclear missiles in West Germany. Schmidt has consistently backed a NATO decision to deploy U.S. cruise and Pershing 2 missiles if current Geneva arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union fail. The former Chancellor is still West Germany’s most popular politician, according to opinion polls, and his party has made intensive efforts to persuade him to stand for election to make use of his vote-winning ability. A&M always luring faculty, he says Vandiver slams prof publicity From staff and wire reports Texas A&M President Frank Van diver says he is “a bit peeved” about the publicity received over the Uni versity’s offer to hire a Harvard Nobel Prize winner. In an article on the opinion page of Monday’s Houston Chronicle, Van diver wrote that Texas A&M was offering high-paying packages to professors long before it approached Dr. Sheldon Glashow, a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in 1979. “We are a bit peeved that the fact that we are talking to him should be so startling,” Vandiver wrote. “The fact is, we are continually talking to pre eminent faculty around the country and trying to attract them. “What apparently made the case of Dr. Glashow different was a (media) reference to a ‘Jackie Sherrill pack age’ having been informally offered.” Glashow was quoted in the Har vard Crimson as saying: “In informal discussions (Texas A&M officials) in dicated they would probably match those arrangements (made with Sher rill).” In an interview with The Battalion, however, Glashow said he was mis quoted and has not been offered a package on par with Sherrill’s. “There have been a lot of nonsen sical statements made,” Glashow said. However, he did say he has been in contact with Texas A&M officials. “There have been discussions at a very general level about a permanent assignment,” he said. The attempt to attract Glashow to Texas A&M is part of an effort to lure outstanding faculty members to the University. Board of Regents Chairman H.R. “Bum” Bright has said Texas A&M is looking for faculty “superstars” — especially professors who have won the Nobel Prize. “We have no Nobel Prize winners now,” Bright said. “The University of Texas has two and Harvard has eight. We are trying to get one right now.’’ On campus Pre-registration starts Nov. 15 Pre-registration for spring semester classes will be Nov. 15 through Nov. 19. Procedures for pre-registration will be the same as the last several semesters. Assistant Registrar Donald D. Carter said about 25,000 to 27,000 students will pre-register. He said students eligible to pre-register should register in November rather than wait until January. Students should check with their college or depart ment for pre-registration procedures because each de partment uses a different procedure, Carter said. Before attempting to pre-register, students should take care of any debts to the University, Carter said, or their registration could be blocked. Before signing up for classes, students also should discuss what courses they plan to take with an adviser from their department, he said. Adviser approval of a course schedule is necessary to pre-register. Spring class schedule books will be distributed in front of Heaton Hall and Rudder Tower the week before pre registration. Heaton smokes; no fire found Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Or is there? A secretary arrived at Heaton Hall at 7:10 a.m. Mon day and found the upper hallway filled with smoke. A room at the end of the hallway also was filled with smoke. A fire alarm was sounded, and two College Station fire trucks and an ambulance responded. The building was evacuated and when it finally opened at 9 a.m., the smokey odor still was strong. Texas A&M electrical and mechanical inspectors sear ched for several hours but couldn’t find the source of the smoke. Associate Registrar Donald D. Carter said: “They (the Physical Plant Department) cannot determine the source of the smoke. We have no idea what’s causing it. There was no flame.” Standing tall st4ff photo by Robert Snider The bonfire center pole went up Friday afternoon. The pole is about 90 feet tall and extends 10 feet underground. An outhouse will top the center pole when bonfire construction is complete. Faculty senate voting arranged Faculty members who will be out of town during absentee and general voting on ratification of the prop osed faculty senate constitution may contact their col leges’ faculty senate committee members for information on special voting arrangements. Gwen Elissalde, faculty senate steering committee member, said some faculty members who will be absent during voting times have asked about special voting arrangements. Provisions for faculty members who will be absent for all voting times will be discussed today at 3 p.m. in the Faculty Senate Steering Committee’s open meeting in Rudder Auditorium. Absentee voting will be Nov. 2 through 5 in 204CA Sterling C. Evans Library. General voting wall be Nov. 9. inside Around town 4 Classified 6 National 8 Opinions 2 Sports 9 State 5 What’s up 8. forecast Continued clear and dry through the weekend. High 70, low tonight in mid 50s. almanac Today is Tuesday, Oct. 26, the 299th day of 1982 with 66 to follow. American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was born Oct. 26, 1912. On this date in history: In 1825, the Erie Canal, Amer ica’s first man-made waterway, was opened for traffic between Buffalo and Albany, N.Y. In 1942, the American aircraft carrier “Hornet” was sunk by Japanese warships in a fierce naval engagement off the Solomon Is lands in the Pacific Theater of World War II.