The Battalion
Serving the University community
ol. 76 No. 58 USPS 045360 36 Pages In 2 Sections
College Station, Texas
Friday, November 19, 1982
Israeli official knew about killings
United Press International
| An Israeli Cabinet minister
ay
Sizzling I
Fami| y HstiHed today he alerted Foreign
I ■inister Yitzhak Shamir about the
Xecl alH leirut massacre of' Palestinians the
iorning after the killings began.
Communications Minister Mor-
echai Zippori, bitterly complaining
iat the government only learned of
defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s deci-
jon to allow the Christian Phalangist
pilitiamen into the Palestinian camps
rafcftSHHS i retrospect, said an Israeli journalist
Agents
^rab files
)f arrests
ii
told him about the mass killings on
the morning of Friday, Sept, 17.
The Phalangists entered the camps
Thursday night.
“He (the journalist) said, ‘I have
reports the Phalange are committing
a slaughter,’” Zippori told the three-
member Israeli commission probing
the massacre of Sept. 16-18 at the Sab-
ra and Chatila refugee camps in
which hundreds were killed.
Zippori said he told Shamir, “I re
ceived reports that the Phalange are
carrying out a slaughter. I suggest
that you check this out through your
channels or with the people I know
are coming to you.’”
Shamir’s response: ‘“I hear you,”’
Zippori said.
Zippori said he believed the infor
mation on the massacre from Israeli
reporter Ze’ev Shiff came from Israeli
army officers serving at a military
headquarters not necessarily inside
Lebanon.
Zippori’s statement appeared to
back up earlier testimony that the
army received word of the massacre
hours before Sharon said he learned
of it, at 8 p.m. on Friday.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin
said he learned of the slaughter
Saturday afternoon from the radio.
In Rome, U.S. envoy Philip Habib
arrived en route to a new round of
shuttle negotiations on the withdraw
al of 25,000 Syrian, 30,000 Israeli and
up to 10,000 Palestinian forces from
Lebanon.
American officials said Habib was
expected to fly on to Beirut Friday.
Israel Radio said preliminary nego
tiations on troop withdrawals could
begin next week between Israel and
Lebanon, with the United States
growing increasingly “impatient”
with the pace of the three-week-old
talks.
Testifying before Israel’s official
panel of inquiry into the Beirut mas
sacre, Zippori complained bitterly of
Sharon’s order sending Phalange
militias into the Beirut camps.
He said an Israeli journalist told
him about the Sept. 16-18 atrocity on
the morning of Sept. 17. The bodies
of 328 men, women and children
were recovered in Palestinian camps
in west Beirut, the Lebanese Civil De
fense said later, and many more were
listed as missing.
United Press International
I COLDSPRING — Federal
;ents, armed with search warrants,
Sized records from the San Jacinto
juntyjail and two bail bondsmen’s
fices in the investigation of alleged
[olations of motorists’ civil rights by
e sheriffs department, officials
id.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott
Woodward said Thursday the re-
prds were seized over a period in the
Bsttwo weeks in the investigation of
fie practices of San Jacinto Sheriff
IC. Parker’s officers since last April.
J Bond records were seized from the
ffices of Jim Browder, president of
ke Bank of San Jacinto County and
torn Coldspring resident Herb
Itwood, Woodward said.
Sheriffs deputies in San Jacinto
lounty, which is primarily located in
national forest, made 1,124 drug
rrests last year. Most of those
nested by the county’s five deputies
nd 21 non-salaried reserve deputies
lad been driving along U.S. 50 North
fhen they were stopped.
The only sheriffs department in
fie state that made about the same
nount of drug arrests last year was
he Harris County Sheriff’s office,
ihich has 700 deputies.
Two months ago the American
tivil Liberities Union filed suit
[gainst Parker and his deputies by a
paytown store owner and two other
nen. The lawsuit sought a court
Irder barring the county from con-
linuing what is described in the peti-
lion as a “marijuana trap” on the
nighway. The ACLU charged that de
puties would randomly stop motorists
pd check their car for marijuana.
The jailed suspects would post
ond and paying towing charges and
[hen would be released from jail, the
luit said. However, federal officials
laid a check of courthouse records
revealed no references to the arrests,
buspects said they were never notified
ibout court appearances.
Parker said at least 61 of the people
irrested were not charged because of
a “monumental screw-up in our pap-
irwork” after a regular secretary be
came ill and later quit.
Regents
Computerized registration system
could be timely move for AScM
by Denise Richter
Battalion Staff
Students have been singing the registration blues for
years, but now it looks as if a new verse finally might be
added to that melancholy melody.
Next week, Texas A&M regents will consider a request
to appropriate $360,000 for the purchase and installation
of computer software for an on-line registration system, a
move designed to “bring registration into the 20th cen
tury.”
Texas A&M administrators agree the University out
grew its computerized registration system several years
ago. The registration program was purchased from Pur
due University in 1968, when 14,000 students were enrol
led. Today the system, operating with basically the same
software, must contend with the registration of more than
36,000 students.
On-line registration would eliminate multiple adds and
drops, said Dr. V. Thomas Rhyne, coordinator of com
puting for the University.
“The software is comparable to airline ticketing,” he
said. “You go to a terminal and ask for a seat in Chemistry
105. If the seat is there, you get it. This isn’t a case where
you read a print-out produced at 8 last night to see if
there’s a seat, then put your card in a stack to try to get
that seat.”
The computer terminals could be located in each de
partment, Rhyne said.
“Instead of dealing with a folder and out-of-date infor
mation, (advisers) will be able to find out what’s still open
and work with what (students) wants to do,” he said.
“What this represents to students is a commitment on
Frank Vandiver’s part to put money... and staff to work at
improving the registration system.”
The cost of a new registration system has been esti
mated at $1 million.
If regents approve the appropriation, a planning com
mittee would be appointed at the first of the year, Rhyne
said. Members of this committee, which would include
the registrar and advisers from each department, would
draw up specifications for the new system and seek bids
from vendors.
A second type of computer system — one that will
provide interactive computing — also will be discussed.
An appropriation of $500,000 has been requested for the
new system.
Interactive computing allows user input during the
execution of computer programs. This service is not now
available to Texas A&M students, either through the Data
Processing Center or through campus computing facili
ties.
The planning and building committee will meet at 1:30
p.m. Sunday in the regents’ annex of the Memorial Stu
dent Center.
The committee will consider a contract for a 40,000-
square-foot expansion of the Halbouty Geosciences
Building. The $7 million expansion, which is expected to
be completed by summer 1984, will provide office and
laboratory space for the geology and geophysics depart
ment.
Proposals to establish a Center for Engineering Geosci
ences and a Center for Retailing Studies will be discussed
during a 4 p.m. meeting of the committee for academic
campuses.
The Center for Engineering Geosciences will be estab
lished under the Earth Resources Institute in the College
of Geosciences. The Center for Retailing Studies will be
established in the College of Marketing in the College of
Business Administration.
Smile and say peanuts
at ’83 Elephant Walk
staff photo by Ronnie Emerson
Trimming the stack
One of the redpots wishes bon voyage to a piece of a
log that was trimmed off the rather uneven stack at
bonfire. The logs are trimmed to the same height to
make working and walking around on the stack easier.
by Elaine Engstrom
Battalion Staff
Elephant Walk, which will begin at
noon Monday in front of the Acade
mic Building by the statue of Lawr
ence Sullivan Ross, will include a new
attraction — two live elephants.
The elephants will be on the para
de grounds near the Memorial Stu
dent Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In
case of rain, the elephants will be
moved to the Grove.
Class of ’83 Vice President Hank
Roraback said seniors can ride the
elephants or pose for pictures with
them. Rides are $1 and a 5-by-7 pic
ture is $3.
A photographer will take pictures
of people riding the elephants. The
4-by-5 pictures will be available for $2
in the MSC beginning Dec. 6.
While freshmen and sophomores
are not supposed to participate in the
walk, Roraback said everyone is in
vited to see the live elephants and
have pictures taken. To avoid over
crowding, underclassmen will be
allowed to have pictures taken with
the elephants only from noon to 2
p.m.
The two elephants, which cost
$800 to bring to Elephant Walk,
usually can be seen at the Texas Re
naissance Festival.
Elephant Walk tradition says that
after bonfire, seniors are like dead
elephants — waiting to graduate and
of no use to the University. During
the walk, seniors are led by the yell
leaders in a wandering journey
around campus for one final look.
During the walk, members of the
Class of ’84 hunt down the
“elephants” and chase them around
campus.
Elephant Walk ends with a yell
practice at the bonfire site behind
Duncan dining hall.
University becoming metropolitan mecca
City slickers reflect new A&M image
by Carol Smith
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M University is no longer
the agricultural, country-boy college
that it once was.
Enrollment figures for the fall
semester indicate that Texas A&M is
attracting more students from Texas’
urban areas and fewer from the
state’s smaller, more agricultural
cities and towns.
Of the 36,127 students enrolled,
37 percent are from the state’s three
major metropolitan areas.
Harris County leads the state with
7,354 students — 20 percent of the
total enrollment. Dallas and Tarrant
counties follow with 3,994 students —
11 percent of the total enrollment.
And Bexar County (San Antonio) has
6 percent — 2,139 students.
“The agriculture college is no lon
ger our largest college,” said Donald
Carter, associate registrar of admis
sions and records. “It’s declining in
enrollment and our engineering and
business colleges are growing and
attracting more students.”
Director of Admissions Billy Lay
said several factors explain the in
crease in the number of students
from metropolitan areas.
One is the major population
growth in those urban areas, he said.
“Houston has been our biggest
feeder for the past five to 10 years,
mainly because it’s only 100 miles
from here,” he said.
Another reason behind the Uni
versity’s growth is that Texas A&M
has changed from a predominantly
agricultural college to a university
with a wide variety of areas for study,
Lay said.
“The broader education and curri
culum opportunities are attracting
more students,” he said.
Carter agreed the growth is a com
bination of things — the expansion of
University curricula and Texas’
growth as an industrial state.
“Most of the major oil companies
have their offices in Houston,” he
said. “Both Houston and Dallas are
financial and trade giants.”
And the state’s population is tied to
the University’s growth, he said.
“Texas is one of the Sunbelt states
and it has one of the strongest econo
mies in the nation,” he said. “There
fore, there are more kids and there
are more of them going to college.”
Because Texas A&M is a state-
supported school, it isn’t surprising
that 84 percent of its students are
from Texas. But out-of-state students
account for 9.6 percent of total enroll
ment and foreign students — from 90
countries — account for 6.5 percent.
California, Louisiana and New
York contribute the greatest number
of students to the University.
inside
Classified
.. 8
Local
.. 3
National
. 10
Opinions
.. 2
Sports
. 17
State
.. 6
What’s up
. 16
forecast
Today’s forecast: Cloudy
and
warmer with a chance of showers
through Friday.
Pulsar may aid gravity wave detection
United Press International
BERKELEY, Calif. — A newly
discovered rotating pulsar could
lead to the detection of “gravity
waves" in space theorized by Albert
Einstein.
The pulsar — also known as a
neutron star — found by University
of California astronomers after a
three-year investigation and
announced Thursday by head resear
cher Donald C. Backer, is approxi
mately 3 miles across and rotates 642
times a second.
It is believed to have a mass that
could equal two or three suns and
could be putting out 10 million to 100
million times as much energy as the
sun, scientists say.
The discovery was made with the
world’s largest radio telescope, an in
strument 1,000 feet wide at Arecibo
Observatory, Puerto Rico. The pul
sar’s extraordinary rotation speed
was calculated Nov. 7.
“The astronomical community is
very excited about this object because
it represents such an extreme case of a
pulsar, so close to rotational break
up,” said Carl E. Heiles, professor of
astronomy at Berkeley and part of the
team headed by Backer.
The new discovery could lead to
the first detection of gravity waves
whose existence was theorized by Ein
stein.
Gravity waves are undulations in
the fabric of space produced by catac
lysmic events. The gravity ripples
would be extremely faint, however,
and so far the most sensitive instru
ments have not observed them.
Backer’s 1979 investigation sug
gested an unusual energy source on a
radio map completed 20 years ago
might be a pulsar. The source was
identified as “4C21.53.”
In the past 15 years astronomers
have identified about 400 pulsars, but
none like 4C21.53. The most studied
pulsar exists in the center of the Crab
Nebula, the apparent remnant of a
supernova explosion first observed by
Chinese astronomers in A.D. 1054.
Baffling questions were raised by
the new pulsar, which is thousands of
light years away. Although its energy
output could be 100 million times
greater than the sun, Backer can’t ex
plain where this energy goes.
Nor does he know why the pulsar
doesn’t either fly apart or collapse
into itself to become a “black hole.”
In theory, pulsars are formed in
supernova explosions. Tremendous
pressures breaking atomic structures
pack neutrons at enormous density.
As the cinder of the star becomes ever
more compact, it spins faster and
faster.