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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1983)
£ A Three top contenders in House race express views before Feb. 12 election See pages 4, 5 and 6 mei rsfortlj rks,50i| nner, l'i| 1:03.|| roke, 1 freesui 1,0 )’Neal, ndSco :56i The Battalion Serving the University community s,;-,/ol 76 No. 83 USPS 045360 16 Pages 200fJ 1,1 College Station, Texas Wednesday, January 26, 1983 It isn’t a gang; it’s a display of motorcycles belonging to members of the Texas Aggie Motorcycle Club. The display at Rudder fountain publicized the club’s activities, which include a trip to the Houston Motorcycle Expo, a “treasure hunt” on motorcycles, guest speakers and safety meetings, and its meeting today. A&M conference examines research on Soviet military by David Marchand Battalion Reporter Dr. Richard E. Thomas, director of he Center for Strategic Technology, (aid Tuesday that researchers must ‘think Soviet” to more accurately pre- iict Soviet selection of military sys tems. glrhomas and other military experts discussed new methods of research Factors that influence Soviet military decisions during a two-day closed ttonference held on the Texas A&M ttampus this week. Erickson, a visiting professor at Texas A&M and an authority on the Soviet military establishment, said at a noon press conference Tuesday that this review of research methods should produce short- and long-term effects on U.S. arms negotiations. Gen. Russell E. Dougherty, former commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command, said: “We have got to learn how these (Soviets) think.” This research “transcends” the Reagan administration, he said. It is a review of methodology aimed at not increasing risks to this country, he said. “The administration is committed to reaching an agreement,” he said. This, Dougherty said, is what strate gic technology is all about. When asked if deployment of the MX missile would be a positive step towards arms negotiations, Dougher ty said deployment is the “most credi ble” move available now, considering that the missile represents only about 1.5 percent of the national budget. Although Erickson said that he be lieves w'ar is inevitable, Col. Lynn Hansen, an Air Force expert serving on the Arms Control and Disarma ment Agency, said that this adminis tration and the Soviets don’t feel war is inevitable. Erickson called this research “pret ty viable,” and Dr. Roger Beaumont, professor of history here, also ex pressed his hope for success for this new study of the Soviet “mind set.” But when asked if he thought this research would be effective at the bar gaining table, Beaumont said, “I wouldn’t bet on it.” Reagan: U.S. needs medicine’ ‘strong United Press International WASHINGTON — President Reagan says the U.S. economy is “on the mend” but still dangerously ill. His prescription is the “strong medi cine” of a freeze on non-military spending and partisan politics, and, as a last resort, higher taxes. The president, beset by soaring deficits and unemployment and fall ing approval ratings in the polls, offered his cure Tuesday night in his second State of the Union address. Reagan spoke on national televi sion to a joint session of Congress in the packed House chamber. The Cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Pen tagon high command and the diplo matic corps joined the House and Senate to listen to the constitutionally mandated report on the national con dition — an annual ceremony of American government. The speech was heavily weighted toward domestic problems, with emphasis on the federal deficits pro jected to reach or pass $200 billion this year and unemployment, which hit a four-decade high of 12 million while inflation was dropping during his first two years in office. He also sketched new steps to im prove education, health care, law en forcement, foreign trade and state- federal relations and pledged to con tinue the search for arms reduction and peace abroad. The rising tide of red ink and the lengthening rolls of the jobless de ficits were on his mind. He called the deficits “a clear and present danger to the basic health of the republic” and unemployment “an ordeal” govern ment must bend every effort to end. The speech also was an appeal for help from the same Democrats and the few Republicans Reagan fought, no quarter asked or given, during 1981-82. The president appealed for bipar tisanship at least half a dozen times, praising Democratic House Speaker Thomas O’Neill by name for his part in the recent Social Security financing compromise agreement. “Let us, in these next two years — men and women of both parties and every political shade — concentrate on the long-range, bipartisan respon sibilities of government, not the short-term temptations of partisan politics.” But the president in no way retre ated from his insistence the supply side economic programs he brought to Washington two years ago were working. “We have a long way to go, but thanks to the courage, patience and strength of our people, America is on the mend,” Reagan said. He made clear, too, he would fight any effort to repeal the 10 percent tax cut and anti- inllation indexing reform due to take effect this year and offered job prop osals, but came nowhere near the big^ governmentfinanced programs fa vored by the Democrats. Board appoints officials; Bright again chairman by Angel Stokes Battalion Staff During reorganization of the Texas A&M Board of Regents on Tuesday, H.R. “Bum” Bright unanimously was re-elected chairman W’illiam A. McKenzie, also was elected vice chairman. Calling Bright the man “who has led us to greatness in the last two yers,” Regent Joe C. Richardson Jr. nominated Bright for his second two- year term as board chairman. Following his re-election, Bright named chairmen for the board’s standing committees. Richardson will head the planning and building com mittee, John R. Blocker will chair the committee for academic campuses and Norman NV. Moser will head the committee for service units. Blocker, Bill Clayton and Michel T. Halbouty, Gov. Bill Clements’ lame-duck appointments to the board, were appointed places on those committees. The board elects new officers at the first meeting after new regents are appointed. Because Blocker, Clayton and Halbouty are regents un til new appointees are sworn in, they have full power to act in all board activities until that time. On Tuesday, Gov. Mark White submitted the names of John B. Cole man, David G. Ellers and Joe H. Reynolds as Texas A&M regents. The three appointees must be approved by the Senate. Regents also named Valerie Nel son as the new secretary for th board. Nelson replaces Robert G. Cherry, who announced in November that he planned to retire sometime this year. Nelson has served as assistant secret ary to the board for the past year. Cherry, secretary to the board for the past 17 years, also is the vice chan cellor for public affairs. He will serve in that capacity until a successor is found and will continue to act as a lobbyist for Texas A&M during the current legislative session. Clayton offered to §erve as a lob byist with Cherry on behalf of T exas A&M. He said that keeping Cherry as a lobbyist in Austin is of “utmost im portance because of his contacts there and his rapport with the members of the Legislature.” In other appointments, the board appointed Dr. Perry Adkisson deputy chancellor of the Texas A&M System. Adkisson now serves as deputy chan cellor for agriculture. Adkisson will oversee both the agriculture and engineering activities of the System. In approving the appointment, Bright said the board believes Adkis son is one of the first men qualified to direct such a monumental part of the System. Dr. Willian V. Muse was appointed vice chancellor for academic prog rams. Muse, dean of the College of Business Administration for the past two years, replaced Dr. Don Hel- Iriegel, who has served as interim vice chancellor. Hellriegel will return to his previous position as a professor of management. In other action, the board: • Approved a recommendation to create a Department of Computer Science here. The computing science division now is offered through the industrial engineering department. The proposed department, which still must be approved by the Coordinat ing Board, would offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. • Named Dr. Stephen Safe as the first recipient of the Chester J. Reed Chair in Veterinary Medicine. Safe, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology, came to Texas A&M in 1981. The chair was created by funds donated by Dr. Chester J. Reed of Houston. • Approved the sale of Permanent University Fund bonds totaling $23 million. The bonds will be sold to the First National Bank of Chicago at 8.0419 percent interest. • Confirmed the promotion of 123 Texas A&M faculty members and and granted tenure to 109 indi viduals. • Approved an increase in See REGENTS, page 3 \ N it} inside Traditions ‘very important,’ poll shows Classified 10 local. 3 ^National :. 12 Opinions 2 Sports State 1 v) 6 I'hat’s up 12 forecast gPartly cloudy and substantial gusti- fcess today with a high of 56. NNW pvindsat 10 to 20 mph. Mainly clear Kind cold tonight with a low of 29. For Thursday, clear to partly :loudy with a high of 54. The survey When was it taken? Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, 1982. Who sponsored it? The fall semester Journalism 403, inter preting contemporary affairs, class. How many students were pol led? The survey results are based on 351 completed questionnaires. How was it taken? The names were randomly selected from the 1982-83 Campus Directory. Stu dents were telephoned and asked 40 questions. How accurate is it? Because we only sampled 351 out of the 32,000 undergraduate students at Texas A&M, the survey does contain a small amount of sampling error. For every percentage reported, the actual value could range 5.2 percent higher or lower. For ex ample, a percentage of 50 percent could actually be as high as 55.2 percent or as low as 44.8. Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series based on a recent survey of Texas A&M undergra duates. by Patrice Koranek Battalion Staff Traditions have been a part of Texas A&M since it was estab lished in the middle of a prairie more than a century ago. And judging by the results of a recent survey, they are likely to be around for a lot longer. Students were asked to assign ratings, ranging from very unim portant to very important, to a variety of traditions. Silver Taps and bonfire ranked as the traditions thought most im portant by the students polled. Seventy-two percent of the stu dents polled said that Silver Taps was very important. Bonfire was ranked as very important by 68 percent. Midnight yell practice was cons idered very important by 59 per cent, of those polled, while stand ing at football games was ranked as very important by 41 percent by the students. Of the five traditions ranked, elephant walk was the only tradi tion that did not receive a rank of very important by a majority. Ab out 30 percent of the students pol led felt that it was either important or of average importance. Less than 10 percent of the stu dents thought any of the traditions were unimportant. Students also were asked how they felt about having women in the Aggie Band and recognition of fraternities and sororities on campus. More than 90 percent of those polled ageed the the Corps of Cadets is an asset to the University, but there was no clear opinion on allowing women in the band. Twenty-six percent agreed and 5 percent strongly agreed that women should be in the band, but 39 percent disagreed and 28 per cent strongly disagreed with mak- See TRADITIONS, page 3