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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1982)
3 (D 2 c &) ^Picture MXM3 Arkansas still alive perfect? w in race for Cotton 5 See story, page 3 Life in theCoriK<)fGtckt*at 'ILvas A&M I a Will vanOuilxt'k See Sports, page 9 II The Battalion Serving the University community Vol. 76 No. 54 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Monday, November 15, 1982 ^Brezhnev is buried; U.S. is warned United Press International MOSCOW — President Leonid I Brezhnev was buried today in a Bolemn Red Square funeral that drew presidents, premiers and princes to lonor the man who ruled the world’s Jiost powerful communist nation for 18 years. Brezhnev’s successor, Communist Party chief Yuri Andropov, eulogized Jiim as a “true son of the party” who built up the nation’s economy and [ military power. Brezhnev’s black coffin was lo wered into a grave in a tiny cemetery reserved for the most revered Soviet statesmen behind the Lenin Mausoleum. Worked stopped around the coun try for five minutes as bells pealed and factory whistles blared, followed by a moment of silence. Brezhnev’s coffin was drawn across the soldier-lined empty square, on a gun carriage. The coffin was escorted by a military honor guard and followed by grieving family mem bers and party officials. Speaking over Brezhnev’s open casket atop Lenin’s tomb, Andropov delivered the eulogy to the man who presided over the largest military buildup in Soviet history and watched detente with the West crumble in his later years. “In a complicated international situation, where imperialism is pushing the world to the path of con frontation, our party and our govern ment will do their best to struggle to preserve the interests of our people to rebuff any of those who want war, and to strengthen our defense might,” Andropov said. Defense Minister Dmitry Usitnov echoed Andropov’s clear warning to the West, saying Brezhnev, a marshal of the Soviet Union, always showed a “fatherly concern” for the Soviet army and navy. As they spoke, foreign delegates watched from gray stone benches on either side of the marble tomb. Among them were Polish leader Gen. Wqjciech Jaruzelski, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Palestinian guerrilla chief Yasser Arafat. Vice President George Bush and Secretary of State George Schultz headed the U.S. delegation at today’s 70-minute ceremony, along with more than 100 other foreign digni taries. Bush and Shultz were expected to meet with Andropov at a Kremlin re ception after the rites. The funeral began at the House of Unions, where Brezhnev’s body hand lain for three days on a bier covered with flowers. An honor guard, carrying bayonetted rifles and goosestepping to the strain’s of Chopin’s funeral march, accompanied Brezhnev’s cof fin at the head of procession of offic ers bearing a huge portrait of the dead leader. Foreign students leave home, come to A&M <P X V 0 0) <p a Pillow precaution prevents pain Staff photo by Irene Mees Sophomores Tara Coker, left, and Nancy York prepare for the inevitable with a pillow and crash-helmet Sunday afternoon. Tara is a psychology major from Houston, and Nancy is a finance major from Lancaster. Italy’s prime minister resigns after battle over finance bill United Press International ROME— President Sandro Pertini iccepted the resignation of Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini today, bringing an end to Italy’s 42nd gov ernment since World War II. Spadolini allowed Pertini to watch Italy’s World champion soccer team lay Czechoslovakia on television, be fore going to the presidential palace to tender his resignation for the second time this week. When the 57-year-old Republican government chief submitted his res ignation to the 86-year-old Socialist resident Thursday, Pertini rejected it and told Spadolini to take the issue before Parliament. Spadolini offered his resignation after he failed to successfully mediate between the Socialists and the Christ ian Democrats over a pending finance bill, which Spadolini considered the cornerstone of his government program. Spadolini went before the legisla tive body and, after two days of de bate and a Cabinet meeting today, he issued a statement saying he had con cluded that his Cabinet’s decision “cannot be changed or modified.” As is customary, the president asked Spadolini to keep his govern ment in a caretaker capacity while the president conducted consultations to form a new government. Pertini was expected to start the consultations at 9 a.m. today. In a final speech to parliament Fri day, Spadolini spelled out the rift be tween ministers in his cabinet that he said left him no chance of repairing his 5-party coalition. After Spadolini spoke, the cham ber began its debate on whether he should resign because of a rift be tween the Socialists and the Christian Democrats — the two key parties in his five-party coalition — over a cru cial finance bill. by Kim Schmidt Battalion Reporter Rajesh Patel, like most Texas A&M students, came here to get an educa tion and improve his chances of get ting a good job. He chose a major that will enable him to earn a high salary and a uni versity that is well-known and re spected. But unlike many of his fellow stu dents, Patel is thousands of miles from his homeland dealing with a cul ture that is vastly different from his own. Patel is an international student. A junior petroleum engineering major, Patel, 26, is originally from In dia. He’s one of a growing number of international students at Texas A&M. The University has 2,182 interna tionals enrolled — an increase of almost 650 students since 1980.' That increase is proportional to the enrollment increases of the Universi ty as a whole, but it is significant be cause a growing number of foreign students will require expanded ser vices and programs to accommodate their needs, Assistant Director of Admissions Jean Ringer said. National authorities have sug gested that international students’ needs will be met more efficiently if universities keep the number of inter national students at about 5 percent of total enrollment. Texas A&M fits this standard, but does not follow the guideline strictly, Ringer said. “We will take as many international students as are eligible for admis sion,” she said. More than 100 countries are repre sented by the University’s interna tional students. Taiwan has the largest number of international stu dents with 204 enrolled this year and Mexico follows with 203 students. Overall, Latin American countries account for the largest percentage of international enrollment. Foreign students come to the Un ited States primarily to obtain an edu cation that they may not have been able to receive in their own countries, Ringer said. staff photo by John Ryan Dayan Adhihetty, a graduate student in agricultural economics from Sri Lanka, Michael Kendall, a junior business major from Dallas, Wahid Slieman a senior mechanical engineering major from Palestine, Dalia Sayed, an agricultural economics major from Egypt and Amer Ben-Ali, a pre-med major from Libya sit in the International Students Association booth in the Student Programs Office. Political unrest in some countries has led to the closing of universities and has created an atmosphere so un favorable that students seek refuge and education abroad, she said. Other students are forced to go abroad because their own countries are not fully developed and do not have sufficient high-quality universi ties, Ringer said. Whatever their reasons for com ing, most students agree that the higher quality education they will re ceive in the United States gives them an edge in the competitive job mar kets of their home countries. Texas universities rank third among the states chosen by interan- tional students, with 23,415 interna tional students in 1981. California has 52,289 students and New York 26,059 students. Texas’ favorable climate and its proximity to Latin America make it a popular choice for international stu dents. And the reasons many of those stu dents choose Texas A&M are varied. Tina Watkins, international stu dent advisor, said: “I had one student tell me that he chose to come here because he didn’t know there was another university except Texas A&M.” The University may welcome the reputation of being the only universi ty in Texas, but most students choose Texas A&M for its academics, Wat kins said. Many students especially are attracted to the University because of its reputation in such areas of study as engineering, business and agriculture — the areas most chosen by interna tional students. International students usually do well in these subjects because the courses involved in these fields are math-oriented, she said. These stu dents, who may have trouble with En glish, are able to understand these courses more easily than others be cause they use symbols and equations rather than readings and lectures. But those students’ high school backgrounds also may help them in See STUDENTS, page 8 Science is for dreamers, Bockris says by Robert McGlohon Battalion Staff Dr. John Bockris — electrochemist, director of the Texas A&M Hyd rogen Research Team and director- designate of the Texas A&M Hyd rogen Research Center — calls him self a dreamer. In fact, Bockris says, dreaming is a prime prerequisite of research. “I think it is terribly important Ur have pools during the day where one can sit and sort of say ‘Um’,” Bockris said. “That’s very, very vital. You have to use what I call the ‘as if’ pose. You have to say, ‘well it’s ... as if.’ You have to just dream on away.” Sometimes ideas will come to a sci entist just like “switching on a light,” Bockris said, if he’ll just allow himself to dream. “You have to be a little crazy,” he said. “I would like to stress that. You have to be a little irrational. A purely rational scientist is a rotten scientist. Purely rational people will never get anywhere because new science is on the border line of the irrational.” Quantum mechanics is one of the tvierdest theories ever to come along, Dr. John Bokris Bockris said. Yet it was an idea that altered the shape of modern science. “It was realized in 1923 or ’24 that along with every particle, there was an associated wave,” Bockris said. “What a strange idea! What an eerie idea! What a creepy idea! But it is the cen ter of modern physics. “Idea-getting is a great art. You get ideas by nothing else than fantasy. In fact, there is often little difference be tween science fiction and original sci ence.” Bockris is head of a research team whose discpvery was called science fic tion. The research team announced in early October that it had found a more efficient method of extracting hydrogen from water. Although some scientists criticized the way the discovery was announced, the discov ery led to speculations of hydrogen- based economies and a pollution-free society. “Many scientific ideas were science fiction at first,” Bockris said. “They aren’t science when they’re ideas. You make them science by your research work. “I have concepts there which ex tend far past the engineering and eco nomics of it. Because I think that we could see a world ... in which all coun tries are connected up by hydrogen- containing pipelines.” A hydrogen-based economy is in evitable; the only question is one of time, Bockris said. “If cheap hydrogen existed, there is actually no doubt that everybody would go to it and use it and that it would be a much better fuel than any thing else,” he said. “I don’t think any one could dispute that. “If I leave out time, then I can make the following statements with confidence: we are bound to run out of fossil fuels ... and at the time we run out of fossil fuels — which, of course, will be a gradual process indicated by rising prices — then there are essen tially only two large sources which we’ll be able to use. These are the atomic source and the solar source.” But those sources produce energy by heat, which is difficult to store and transfer, Bockris said. That problem is overcome by using the heat to produce electricity. But electricity is hard to transfer efficient ly and is expensive to store, he said. “Universally admitted, the best storage and transfer medium is hyrogen,” Bockris said. “You must not involve carbon. Because if you in volve carbon, you end up with carbon dioxide. And carbon dioxide is the great no-no of tomorrow. “That great no-no comes about be cause of the effect on the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide. Carbon diox ide in the atmosphere, which is now 0.3 to 0.4 percent, as it mounts up to past 0.5 and 0.6 percent, will make the climate warmer. At first that might seem to be good but it won’t be good when it melts the polar ice and the seas rise and flooding of the coastal regions begins. “We must stop carbon dioxide from increasing in the atmosphere. And we know of no way to do that whilst we use fossil fuel.” Bockris said he hopes to see the spread of hydrogen gas lines around 2010 or 2020. “I see hydrogen pipelines spread ing just as we have natural gas pipe lines now,” Bockris said. “I think we’ll have all this hydrogen being pushed all over the country from atomic plants and also from solar plants.” He said he hopes solar power will be the predominate power source. “My own hope is that it will be more from solar plants than atomic plants,” Bockris said. “I’m not one of those individuals who is dead scared of nuc lear energy. I do think they (atomic plants) are not too good. inside Around town 4 Classified 8 Local . 3 National 7 Opinions 2 Sports 9 State 5 What’s up 6 forecast Today’s Forecast: Clear skies to day with cool temperatures, warm ing slightly on Tuesday. High in the upper 50s, with tonight’s low in the mid-30s. Winds from the the northeast at 10-15 mph.