The Battalion
Serving the University community
1.76 No. 62 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, November 29, 1982
Holiday auto deaths
total at least 390
United Press International
Freezing rain and snow turned
highway travel into a nightmare in
the northern half of the nation as
people returned home from the long
Thanksgiving holiday weekend,
pushing the nation’s traffic death toll
to nearly 400.
By early today, 390 people had
been killed in traffic accidents, a UPI
count showed. The holiday began at 6
p.m. Wednesday and ended at mid
night Sunday.
California led the nation with 45
deaths. Florida reported 28 and New
York 22. Michigan had 20 traffic
deaths, Tennessee 17, and Texas 16.
Ohio, Alabama and North Caroli
na reported 15 deaths each; Louisi
ana and Massachusetts 14 apiece; Il
linois, Georgia and Pennsylvania 12,
and Indiana and Kansas 11.
The National Safety Council esti
mated between 420 and 520 people
would die in traffic accidents during
the four-day weekend. It estimated
another 18,000 to 23,000 people
would suffer disabling injuries.
The highway toll Thanksgiving
weekend one year ago was 442 people
killed and 19,200 seriously injured.
Icy road conditions were blamed
for at least nine of the deaths.
Six-year-old Heather Woods and
her 9-year-old sister Erin were deliv
ering Girl Scout Christmas candles
and calendars in Pembroke, Mass.,
Sunday when a car driven by a 17-
year-old youth, allegedly drunk at the
time, veered off the road and struck
both girls.
Heather died in the crash and Erin
remained in critical but stable condi
tion Sunday night at Jordan Hospital
in Plymouth. The driver was charged
with operating a car under the influ
ence of alcohol.
Otis Jackson, 10, died at New
Orleans’ Charity Hospital a short time
after his bike was struck by a city
truck, officials said. Another young
bicyclist also hit by the truck was not
hurt.
In Des Allemands, La., a collision
involving two cars and a truck left one
man dead and 10 people injured, two
critically.
Harrelson to take stand
again today after recess
Blazes to ashes
staff photo by John Ryan
Rodney Beamsley, left, of Pharr, grills hot
dogs over the embers of bonfire on Sunday as
Felix Mata, from El Paso, watches. Both are
seniors studying mechanized agriculture. The
horizon seems bent and the image is circular
because the photo was shot through an extreme
wide-angle lens called a “fish-eye.”
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Government
prosecutors had a four-day holiday
to prepare their next attack on al
leged hit man Charles Harrelson,
and Harrelson had the same four
days to calm himself from last week’s
fiery exchange.
The lanky 44-year-old gambler
blew his cool as soon as Assistant U.S.
Attorney Ray Jahn began cross-
examination last Wednesday.
In a voice as patient as that of a
kindergarten teacher, Jahn insisted
repeatedly that Harrelson had con
tracted with gambler Jimmy Chagra
to kill federal Judge John H. Wood in
1979. Harrelson insisted he had not.
“You know standing right there I
did not kill thisjudge,” Harrelson said
through clenched teeth.
Harrelson praised his own accom
plishments as a card shark and said: “I
don’t have to kill anyone to make a
living. I can do damn well with what I
have on here — 10 fingers.”
Atone point, Harrelson responded
to one of Jahn’s accusations with a
cold silence and then the question;
“Did your mother dress you funny as
a child?”
Jahn ignored the remark.
Harrelson had spent three full days
trying to explain to the jury — weary
from seven weeks of testimony — that
his involvement with Jimmy Chagra
did not include the shooting death of
Wood.
Chagra faced a drug smuggling
trial in Wood’s court and had said
openly he hoped to see Wood dead,
witnesses have said.
Ambassador, ex- secretaries of state invited
SCONA to feature
U.S. ambassador
by David Tharp
Battalion Reporter
The U.S. ambassaefor to Argentina
is scheduled to be the keynote speaker
at the 28th annual Student Confer
ence on National Affairs in February.
Ambassador Harry Slaughterman
will be joined by Viron P. Vaky, asso
ciate dean of die School of Foreign
Service at Georgetown University in
Washington.
The topic of the conference will be
“Latin America: Challenges and
Alternatives.” The conference, spon
sored by. the MSC SCONA Commit
tee, begins Feb. 16 and ends Feb. 19.
JtMore than 200 delegates repre
senting colleges, universities and high
schools in the United States and other
countries are expected to attend the
conference. Delegates are selected by
the presidents of their universities for
leadership abilities and interest in
world affairs.
;! SCONA spokesman Bob Carlson
hgtl the group is primarily a confer
ence for U.S. colleges and universi
ties. But students also come from
American service,.academies — such
as West Point and the U.S. Naval
Academy — as well as from foreign
countries, such as Canada, the Domi
nican Republic, Germany, Mexico
and Guatemala.
The main purpose of SCONA is to
create an intelligent interest in the
problems and policies of the United
States, Carlson said. The conference
will offer possible solutions and not
ready-made answers to the students,
he said.
“Another purpose is to help de
velop responsible leaders by promot
ing free expression and exchange of
ideas among students,” Carlson said.
Discussions led by visiting profes
sors offer an excellent opportunity
for exchanging ideas, he said. In
round-table discussions, delegates are
encouraged to debate U.S. policies
and opinions voiced by conference
speakers.
SCONA is funded by Texas A&M
former students, businessmen, in
dustrial leaders and corporations.
The money is used to provide trans
portation, meals and housing for con
ference speakers and guests.
Former SCONA speakers include
President Lyndon B. Johnson and
Nobel Prize-winning economist Mil-
ton Friedman. The topic of last year’s
conference was “Perspectives on
Soviet Foreign Policy"; former Na
tional Security Adviser Richard Allen
was a featured speaker.
Wayne Keating, left, an electrical engineering
major from DeSoto, greets Greg Lengyel, an
engineering technology major from San
Antonio, at the Student Conference on Nation-
staff photo by David Fisher
al Affairs table in the Memorial Student Cen
ter. Both are sophomore members of the MSC
SCONA Committee.
Group asks
4 diplomats
to talk here
A Memorial Student Center com
mittee may bring four former U.S.
secretaries of state together on stage
for the first time — if former Secret
ary of State Henry Kissinger agrees to
participate.
The first program of the MSC En
dowed Lecture Series Committee
hopes to bring former secretaries of
state Alexander Haig, Dean Rusk and
Edmund Muskie, in addition to Kis
singer.
Haig, Rusk and Muskie verbally
have agreed to participate in the April
6 forum, on the condition that Kissin
ger agrees to participate. If Kissinger
does not join the forum, it will be can
celled.
The MSC fund-raising board is
responsible for raising $80,000 for
the program, which has been titled
“Perspectives in U.S. Foreign Policy.”
No fund-raising efforts will begin un
til the MSC Endowed Lecture Series
Committee receives formal commit
ments from all four former secretar
ies and ABC newsman Ted Koppel,
who has agreed to moderate the
forum.
If the forum does take place, it may
be broadcast live as ABC’s “Nightline”
program. Koppel is negotiating with
ABC regarding the broadcast.
High-school exposure credited
in computer literacy
7 to invite
’84 Demo
convention
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Houston,
New York, Detroit, Chicago,
Miami Beach, New Orleans and
San Francisco are expected to
make formal bids next month for
the 1984 Democratic National
Convention.
I The party sent a long list of re
quirements last week to those cities,
which have shown the most interest
in attracting the convention. The
deadline for bids is Dec. 15.
I No city was seen as having an
gidge now. Party spokesmen said
the city that has the best facilities
jand makes the highest bid will get
the convention.
for rise
by Jaime Bramer
Battalion Reporter
Because many efementary and
secondary schools, including those
in Bryan and College Station, now
use computers in their curriculum,
the computer literacy ofjhe aver
age college student is increasing.
Dr. John Dinkel, head of the
Texas A&M Department of Busi
ness Analysis and Research, says
that during the past three years, he
has seen increasing familiarity with
computers among incoming fresh
men. And he attributes the consis
tent increase in computer literacy
to early exposure in high school.
“During the next five years, I
feel it will be difficult to find a col
lege student without some previous
computer experience,” he said.
Both the Bryan and College Sta
tion school districts begin exposing
students to basic computer skills in
elementary school. In high school,
pupils are offered courses in com
puter programming and data pro
cessing.
Advances in computer technol
ogy have made computers relative
ly inexpensive, with some home
models selling for as little as $100.
Bryan and College Station schools
use microcomputers manufac
tured by the Apple Computer Cor
poration. One terminal costs
approximately $1,700.
Suanne Lambert, who heads the
computer program for Bryan
schools, said teachers are enthu
siastic about using computers in
classrooms.
“After 3 years, we have 105 mic
rocomputers,” she said. “Our goal
at this point is to have every student
computer-literate by the seventh
grade.”
More than 100 teachers in Bryan
have been shown how to integrate
the microcomputers into their les
sons by using the available disks or
developing their own.
Computer exposure begins in
the fourth grade in Bryan schools.
At Bonham, Bowie, Crockett and
Johnson elementary schools, the
computer program is offered to
gifted children.
“We’re finding the younger the
students, the higher the aptitude
for picking up computer skills,”
Lambert said. “The keyboard is the
biggest problem to the younger
students.”
Once a week, students from the
four schools attend a special
see COMPUTERS page 8
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Local 3
National 9
Opinions 2
Sports 11
State 4
What’s up 9
forecast
Today’s Forecast: Clear skies to
day. High in the lower 60s, with
tonight’s low in the upper 30s.