Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1982)
IME... Tl%5«r DmMmISam The Banal ion Serving the University community \lo\. 76 No. 50 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, November 9, 1982 erms of egents tudied from staff and wire reports AUSTIN — Two state senators [londay prefiled legislation that ould clarify the right of incoming lovernors to make appointments to e boards of regents of the Texas &M System, the University of Tex- System and the Texas State Uni- Jersity System. ■ The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. ■loyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Sen. ■ent Caperton, D-Bryan, would set lie terms for members of the boards If regents to expire Feb. 1 of odd- lumbered years. I Under the present law, Gov. Wil- am P. Clements, who was defeated y Mark White on Nov. 2, can make tmas paitv. he appointments. “The bill prevents lame-duck gov- Jrnors from making midnight ap- ointments to these important posts efore the incoming governor can ike the oath of office, and ensures |iat the regent appointees get re- iewed by the Senate before starting serve,” Doggett said. A nearly identical bill won over helming approval in the House and lenate in 1981, but was vetoed by llements. Caperton said: “This is a reason- ible approach regardless of which arty the lame-duck governor be- ngs. This system is prefereable be- ause it more accurately reflects the urrent will of the voters.” Under the current system, three egents are appointed every two :ars. The regents serve six-year rms. The terms of three Texas A&M egents expire January 10. H. C. “Dulie” Bell of Austin, who 'as appointed to the board in 1971, hairs the board’s Planning and uilding Committee. John R. Blocker, a Houston oil- nan, was appointed in 1977. He k hairs the Committee for Academic ■ iampuses. ■ Dr. John Coleman, a Houston ■ ihysician, was appointed to the ■ ward in 1977. He serves on the o|H'( " omm ‘ ttee for Academic Campuses md the Planning and Building Com- Inittee. ERY discussed ig Bu IT The fn on of plant RIALE.V lures will ill speak p.m. in I speak o 103SCSE at / p.nu UAL F..\ ken at 8:1 i Moss tti s operate :3(> p.m r asso-| ed in agenj dder. Also l Technid] if plannii p.m. ini - Past, Pro to attend st gened Kingwood- Rudder, iv ill be held 6 C e Adaptive formation, SS requires $75 billion United Press International WASHINGTON — The presi dent’s commission on Social Security says the system’s old-age and disabili ty funds need at least $75 billion in cuts or new taxes to pay checks on time through 1988, and they could need up to $200 billion. The staff of the National Commis sion on Social Security Reform said $75 billion is needed in taxes or cuts to pay checks on time through 1988 under moderate economic projec tions. Under the pessimistic projec tions Republicans on the commission favor, because they say they approxi mate current conditions, the need would be more than $200 billion. If Social Security’s healthier Medi care trust fund is included, the sys tem’s need drops to $44 billion through 1987 under moderate pro jections and $128 billion under pes simistic projections, the report said. The commission, bipartisan but Republican-dominated, is consider ing remedies. Among the bigger sav ings projected under various options, through 1989: • Covering all federal, state, local and nonprofit organization employ ees, now exempt from Social Securi ty, would raise at least $110 billion and trim more than half the long term deficit. • Accelerating a 1990 payroll tax hike to 1984 — raising the rate from 6.7 percent to 7.65 percent for em ployees and employers — would raise at least $133 billion in the short term. A 1 percent tax hike in 2020, a Democratic favorite, would make up more than half Social Security’s long term shortfall. • Delaying the annual July cost-of- living adjustment until October would save $23 billion or more; hold ing it down could save $66 billion to at least $103 billion in the short term and various amounts in the long •g,erm. • Adjusting the benefit calculation formula to return a lower percentage of wages would raise more than half the cash needed by the middle of next century. • Raising the retirement age to 66 in 2002 by gradual steps beginning in 1995, and adjusting it after that ac cording to Americans’ longevity would make up the entire projected long-term deficit. As the commission issued its re port, the conservative Heritage Foundation said Americans should be allowed to set up individual retire ment accounts. This plan will not win commission support, officials said. 2,700 dead near Kabul, report says Getting bigger and bigger staff photo by David Fisher. Bonfire construction is continuing and will switch into full gear this Sunday when Push starts. During Push, students concentrate on building the bonfire. Here, sophomores and freshmen push a log up onto the stack while juniors and seniors tie it on. Only juniors and seniors are allowed on the stack. United Press International NEW DELHI, India — At least 2,700 Soviet soliders and Afghan civilians died of suffocation in a mountain tunnel in Afghanistan when two trucks collided and ex ploded, Western diplomats , said today. The diplomats said reports of the mass deaths last week were based on various rumors and could not be verified independently. The incident occurred in the late afternoon of eithe Nov. 2 or Nov. 3. A Soviet convoy was rumbling south through the 1.7-mile-long Salong tunnel, which slices through the Hin- dukush Mountains at an altitude of 11,000 feet, 60 miles north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, the reports said. Officials said the most accurate ac counts agree that the lead vehicle of a Soviet convoy collided head-on with an Afghan commercial truck inside the tunnel, triggering an explosion and fife. The fire filled the tunnel with smoke and consumed the oxygen in the tunnel. University winning fight against barriers A&M helping handicapped students by Shelley Hoekstra Battalion Reporter ijgggijif When Janey Ducote enrolled in I* Texas A&M University in 1972 she started a revolution — one that con- * ’ tinues today. Ducote was the first handicapped person to live on campus at Texas A&M. At first, everywhere she went she encountered obstacles. University officials had agreed to cut four ramps before she arrived so she could go from her room in Krue ger Hall to the Sterling G. Evans Li- hrary, but that was only the begin ning. Today Texas A&M has 300 handi capped students and the number rises each year. The University, in accordance with federal law, is mod ifying dorms and buildings to accom modate the students. Section 504 of federal law requires institutions that receive federal funds to provide services to physically handicapped students that are equal to those provided to non handicapped students. In addition, the law requires that vision 11111 any new building constructed on a 7 2 III 1 the All did this I" )y MuM 6 21-9. * i-0), w by beaW ants (mS ititlf college campus must be built with modifications to accommodate hand icapped students. Any old buildings, when they are remodeled, must be made accessible by building ramps or installing chair lifts. Several modifications have made buildings and classrooms more ac cessible to handicapped students. Ramps, curb cuts, handicapped parking, accessible telephones and water fountains, lowered elevator buttons, braille signs, accessible bath rooms and dorms are changes that have been made at the University. Programs and activities are pro vided to all handicapped students at Texas A&M by the coordinator of health and veterans services. The coordinator’s main objectives are to provide support for the handicapped student and to aid the handicapped student while he or she attended Texas A&M. Coordinator Charles W. Powell visits with handicapped students, lis tens to them and helps them with problems. Some problems Powell sol ves include fixing broken wheel chairs, contacting tutors and rear ranging class schedules. “If a student has a class in a build ing that is not accessible to him — by that I mean he cannot get inside a building to sit at a desk and listen to lecture — we can do two things,” Powell said. “One, we can transfer the class to another building, or two, we can modify the building to make it ac- ible to handicapped students. health and veterans services. I he ves include fixing broken wheel- another building, or two, w ips, curb cuts, handicapped coordinator’s main objectives are to chairs, contacting tutors and rear- modify the building to make Reading and writing made clear for dyslexic students By Dawson Clark manage without help from us. We only help about to them, explained to them and their ai Battalion Reporter 10 dvxlexic students.” written bv someone else.” JBES 'S TUBES R FOXES Class ATI0NS' By Dawson Clark Battalion Reporter Although hundreds of Texas A&M students have such learning disabilities as dyslexia, or such handicaps as blindness and deafness, only a few are involved in assistance programs offered by Texas A&M University. This may be because some handicapped stu dents handle their problems well enough to avoid detection. That is especially true of dyslexics, whose disabilities come in varying degrees. “There are hundreds of students at A&M who suffer from dyslexia to one degree or another,” said Dr. Charles Powell, coordinator of Handi capped Services. “But each case of dyslexia is dif ferent and many are so minor that the student can manage without help from us. We only help about 10 dyxlexic students.” Dyslexia is the inability to grasp the meaning of what is read. Often the impression of dyslexics is that they don’t care or don’t try. But dyslexics usually do as well as other students when given the extra time needed to comprehend what they read. Handicapped Services provides a testing service for dyslexics and other students who need assist ance when taking tests, so that the students can have their exams administered under special con ditions. “What we do is determine the individual’s need and then meet it,” Powell said. “Some only need more time on exams, others need their exams read to them, explained to them and their answers written by someone else.” Handicapped Services also sponsors programs for blind and deaf students. “Several volunteer groups provide reading ser vices which make tape recordings of textbooks for blind students and dyslexics,” Powell said. Powell also said he tutors students individually as his schedule permits. When he can’t find time, he said, he tries to find a tutor who can. “Any student who has a problem with a learning disability should not hesitate to contact us,” Powell said. “We’ll do everything we can to help.” The Office of Handicapped services is on the first floor of Ramp B in Hart Hall. cessible to the student.” Powell said he can make requests to University officials whenever ramps need to be built or buildings remodeled, but the actual modifica tion of buildings often is a slow process. “The money used to construct ramps or remodel buildings comes totally out of the A&M budget,” Pow ell said. “No government assistance in the way of funding is received. Sometimes the money is not available for construction, so we have to wait.” Most of the buildings here are ac cessible to handicapped students. However, Access, the guide to Texas A&M for handicapped students, re ports that 39 still are inaccessible to the 16 students in wheelchairs at Texas A&M. Most of the older dormitories are inaccessible, as well as such buildings as the Analytical Services Building, the Creamery, the floriculture greenhouses, the Military Sciences Building and the post office. “In the future all new buildings will be built to accommodate the (See HANDICAP Page 4) Pope to visit Poland in June, PAP says United Press International WARSAW, Poland — The military j regime and the Catholic church say Popejohn Paul II will visit his home land in June 1983 and both called for :ace and “social order” two days fore protests by supporters of Sol idarity. Archbishop Jozef Glemp and mili tary chief Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski met and “reviewed the current situa tion in Poland and voiced their joint concern for the preservation and strengthening of peace, social order and honest work,” the official PAP news agency said. “They also adopted guidelines concerning the preparations for the second visit to Poland by Pope John Paul next year.” The news agency said the pope would be invited to begin his visit on June 18. The pope, the former cardinal of Krakow, last visited Poland in June 1979, shortly after becoming pope in 1978. Police and army patrols were vis ible on the streets, where rallies are expected to take place Wednesday after an eight-hour nationwide strike to protest the outlawing pf Solidarity. Communist party and government newspapers warned against the pro test, which would mark the second anniversary of Solidarity’s legal regis tration as the Soviet Bloc’s first free trade union. The government paper Zycie Warszawy said the strike could step up tension, “make the stand of the authorities inflexible and therefore prolong martial law, which we are all fed up with.” Another government paper, Rzeczpospolita, calculated a four- hour strike alone would bring as much as $102 million in economic losses. The Communist Party Politburo warned citizens Saturday any pro tests would be a threat to the nation, and said the government would take any action it deemed necessary to keep the peace. “The enemies cannot expect anything from us but determination in operation,” said the Communist Party newspaper Trybuna Ludu. Sunday night, citizens grilled the government’s chief Solidarity negotiator and attacked martial law policy in a remarkably frank televi sion program apparently aired to de fuse public anger. The broadcast consisted of ex cerpts from Deputy Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Rakowski’s seven-hour meeting with about 100 citizens who were shown sharply questioning and attacking martial law policy. “Many people are waiting for (Lech) Walesa,” one elderly woman told Rakowski, referring to the bann ed Solidarity union’s interned leader. She described the outlawing of the union as a “humiliating” move that “did not meet the approval of the will of the people.” The group meeting with Rakows ki, the government’s chief negotiator with Solidarity last year, consisted of people who had written letters criti cal or favorable to him over the past months. More than half the participants in the program appeared opposed to official policy. A man in his 30s attacked the liqui dation of the union and the new grass roots political organizations that officials have set up to take its place. “Liquidation of the union was a certain political error,” he said. “The authorities deprived themselves of a partner.” A number of speakers defended matial law and one woman attacked Walesa and Solidarity as having be come “symbols of martyrdom.” inside Around town 4 Classified 8 National 6 Opinions 2 Sports 7 State 5 What’s up 14 forecast Today’s Forecast: High in the upper 70s. Low in the upper 50s. Southeasterly winds 10-15 mph.