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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1983)
& Texas A&M 176 No. 86 USPS 045360 14 Pages jL il is nan staff photo by Octavio Garcia Let's go fly a kite The spring-like weather over the weekend prompts Diana Webber, left, a senior aerospace engineering major from Sacramento, Calif., and Marsha Ripptoe, a lab technician at the Kleberg Animal and Food Science Center, to take advantage of the sunny, warm and slightly windy weather by test-flying a kite. -Jfiny crack delays hew shuttle’s flight < n ora o I United Press International P4PE CANAVERAL — Launch d technicians found a tiny crack in e of the space shuttle Challenger’s pnb Saturday that apparently jised a hydrogen leak and forced pdelays in the shuttle’s first (light. NASA officials said they hope to spare for a launch in March after Placing the defective engine. NASA spokesman Hugh Harris d the crack was only three-quarters an inch long. rahis crack certainly is the right e (to account for the leak),” Harris d. He said the crack apparently had 'aped detection during weeks of searching because it is located on the underside of an engine manifold. “It’s very, very hard to get to,” Harris said. “You can’t see it easily.” Once a technician got to the crack, however, he was able to feel helium gas spewing out when helium was in jected into the engine under pressure. Launch technicians will continue to check Challenger for other possible leaks in a process that will be com pleted Tuesday, Harris said. He said the only replacement engine available for Challenger would be substituted for the cracked engine. “We will set a launch date after the analysis is complete,” Harris said. Congress to receive leagan’s budget today i ft I United Press International WASHINGTON — President nn may get his spending freeze ough Congress, but the cuts in his ■ budget for health care, a $30 (ion increase in defense spending ■standby taxes may run into iuble. The president will formally send 'ngress today an $848.5 billion dget for 1984 that would freeze finding for many domestic prog- ^ins, cut Medicare-Medicaid and ftnsion costs and raise defense pending by $30 billion. ^ The budget proposal is $43.3 bil- <n larger than the 1983 spending ^in, with the proposed increase in (Jfehse spending accounting for ipst of that. Written summaries of the budget Jre leaked on Capitol Hill Friday, Jortlv after budget director David ^tckman and others briefed leading jenibers of Congress on the docu ment. Republican and Democratic mem- l/!® who attended the briefings afterward that drastic action is to reduce monstrous budget tfiqits. They appeared to support extend- la six-month freeze on cost-of- ing increases for Social Security to 'rpad retirement, Supplemental ity Income, veterans compensa- land pensions, food stamps and nutrition and freezing the pay federal civilian and military em- yees for one year. The cost-of-living and pay freeze together would save $19 billion in 1984 and about $77 billion through 1988. The members also seemed to agree with Reagan’s plan to freeze most domestic spending. Under his budget, the 1984 spending for appropriated nondefense discretion ary programs would be $115 billion compared to 1983’s $116 billion. But that is about where any biparti san consensus ends. Senate Republican leader Howard Baker and others have already said they believe Reagan’s proposed $30 billion increase in defense spending could be cut by $7 billion. Democrats want even more cut from the Penta gon budget. And Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., acknowledged after his briefing it “will be difficult” to enact the admi nistration’s proposed major entitle ment changes, such as in Medicare and Medicaid. The Reagan plan would “reform” Medicare-Medicaid, cutting $60 bil lion from costs over five years by rais ing patient premiums and setting physician payments. Leading the Democratic attack, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., im mediately labeled the health care proposals in the Reagan budget “a frontal assault on the health of the American people.” Battalion Serving the University community College Station, Texas Monday, January 31, 1983 Bush leaves for Europe; trip crucial for arms talks United Press International WASHINGTON — Vice President George Bush left for Western Europe Sunday on a delicate sales trip aimed at convincing Western Europeans to stay the course in arms negotiations with the Soviets. The mission is essentially political, trying to offset a remarkably success ful barrage of ideas and proposals from the Soviet Union. But Bush can not appear to involve himself in Euro pean politics. Both the Bush trip and Soviet cam paign are keyed to West Germany, the vice president’s first stop on a seven-nation, 13-day trip. A strong vote for peace and environmental groups in elections there March 6 would give a strong unilateral dis armament flavor to the new German Analysis parliament, weakening Bonn’s staunch pro-NATO policy. The latest Soviet suggestion, to clear a 320-mile-wide swath of central Europe of tactical nuclear weapons, was rejected by the State Department Friday as “unrealistic.” Before that, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov offered to cut the existing Soviet missile force by two-thirds, matching the size of British and French nuclear arsenals, if the United States would forego deployment of 572 Pershing II and ground- launched cruise missiles. That, too, was rejected by the United States and West Germany. The United States, negotiating with the Soviets in Geneva for the rest of the alliance on reductions in inter mediate-range missiles, has stuck to its opening position: The United States will move ahead on the deploy ment of its missiles in December un less the Soviets agree to remove all their estimated 600 medium-range missiles. Bush, as sort of a traveling arms control evangelist, said he will argue that Western policy “is a strong moral position, banishing a whole new generation of intermediate nuclear forces from the face of the earth.” But there are Europeans who sus pect the U.S. insistence on Reagan’s “zero option” of eliminating missiles on both sides altogether is really a device to avoid any arms control agreement at all. They believe it was thought up by hawks in the Pentagon who seek to move ahead on their rearmament program to try to intimidate the Soviets or even engage them in a pre ventive war. Bush’s job will be to try to remove that impression. New Prairie View A&M official says ‘drastic change’ possible by Patrice Koranek Battalion Staff The newly appointed president o( Prairie View A&M says he thinks con ditions at Prairie View are right to make it an excellent national univer sity. Dr. Percy A. Pierre, former dean of engineering at Howard University, said Friday that he had offers from other universities, but chose Prairie View because of the “opportunity to do something that hasn’t happened in the country in the last five years ... and that is to make a drastic change in the stature of this university.” Pierre was named president of Prairie View on Friday by System Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen. The position opened when Dr. Alvin Tho mas requested reassignment after 16 years as the head of the Waller Coun ty school. Prairie View needs to receive part of the state’s Permanent University Fund to achieve national prominen ce, Pierre said. System officials from Texas A&M and the University of Texas already have agreed to share the PUF with Prairie View; however, final approval rests with Texas legis lators and voters. The PUF is composed of income from oil produced on land set aside by the Legislature. Hansen said that funds from the PUF probably will be used for equip ment, salary increases and construc tion at Prairie View. The Board of Regents also wants to work toward making Prairie View a university that will be nationally recognized, he said. Pierre, who begins his duties today, said he will review the personnel at Prairie View for the next few weeks. He said he expects to bring in some new people to fill administrative and faculty positions, but said no major changes are in order. Pierre, who is a former assistant secretary of the Army for research, development and acquisition, said he thinks all parts of the Texas A&M System can help provide the country with the research necessary for the country’s future prosperity. He said he would like to see more emphasis given to science and technology and would like to increase enrollment. Hansen also announced that Dr. Ivory Nelson, who was acting presi dent at Prairie View, will join Pierre’s staff on Tuesday as an executive assis tant. Hansen commended Nelson for “his significant contributions” to Prairie View. Dr. Percy A. Pierre, new Prairie View A&M president “He came in at a difficult time and began to vyork at once at building on Prairie View’s strengths,” Hansen said. “Through his efforts, improve ments have been initiated in the phy sical plant, financial stability has been improved and new academic prog rams developed.” Nelson said he is happy to take advantage of opportunities that come along and said he feels good about becoming the first black administra tor in the Texas A&M System. Pierre was formally offered the president’s job on Wednesday and signed a letter of intent that sets his salary at $78,000 a year. He will be given a car, a house and other be nefits. The house probably will be lo cated between Prairie View and Houston and will be leased by the uni versity. Pierre has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in electrical en gineering from the University of Notre Dame and a doctoral degree, also in electrical engineering, from Johns Hopkins University. He did one year of post-doctoral study in electronic communications theory at the University of Michigan. He was selected dean of engineer ing at Howard University in 1971 and served as assistant secretary of the Army from 1977 to 1981. In 1981, Pierre formed a private consulting firm, Percy A. Pierre and Associates, based in Washington, D.C. Guatemalan troops cause Mexican refugees to flee United Press International LAS DELIGIAS, Mexico — Hun dreds of refugees have fled from camps on Mexico’s southern border, where Guatemalan soldiers allegedly shot to death three men, beheaded a fourth and kidnapped another, relief workers said. Paul Hartling, head of the United Nation’s High Commission for Re fugees, Sunday said he had traveled to Mexico for urgent talks with local officials about reports of two incur sions by Guatemalan troops last week. Relief workers said the camp of La Hamaca, 50 yards from Mexico’s southern border, was attacked last Thursday by some 200 combined Guatemalan civilian patrol and army soldiers who shot to death two men and decapitated a third. In a separate attack, refugee work ers said another Guatemalan force Wednesday crossed the clearly marked border at Santiago, intd Mex ico’s Lagunas de Montebello National Park about a quarter mile inside Mex ican territory. They said the soldiers captured a refugee whose bullet-riddled body la ter was found on the Mexican side of the border near Santiago. The slain refugee’s mother told four foreign correspondants that another man was taken away by the Guatemalan soldiers and dragged naked across the border. She said she feared he had been killed. “Here we are not safe any more. Here there is a lot of danger,” said a camp leader, sitting with his 500 Mayan Indian refugees on a hill over looking their former home in La Hamaca. The camp leader, who asked to re main unidentified for fear of Guate malan troop reprisals, said the group left the camp because of the threat of another attack. Independent truckers prepare to strike over gasoline tax hike United Press International Independent truckers, risking financial ruin and confrontations with other drivers, parked their rigs today to protest the Reagan adminis tration’s 5-cent gasoline tax, but a spokesman said the strike was “jell ing” slowly. An early determination of how many truckers joined the protest was impossible, but a strike leader said 100,000 were expected. Many drivers said they would join to avoid the violence that marked a 1979 strike and authorities in some areas increased highway patrols to prevent attacks on non-striking drivers. “Most of the drivers that I know are definitely parking their trucks,” said a woman at Jerry’s Truck Stop, in Delaware, N.J. “It’s hot worth having their own vehicles shot up, and they have their beliefs in what they’re doing.” Many truckers were waiting to see if the strike gains momentum or if a legislative remedy can be found. “I’ll stop if everybody else does,” said Jim Danekas Jr., a driver from Ackley, Iowa, while resting at a truck stop near Dallas. “I’ve seen a few trucks rolling by tonight. I have a de livery to make in Dallas at 4 a.m. I plan to go ahead with it. I’m justing to see what happens or doesn’t happen.” Independent truckers, already hard-hit by the recession, are caught between trying to make a living and staving off an estimated $5,000 in ex penses they will incur under the Sur face Transportation Act of 1982, in cluding the gas and road-use taxes. “I can’t afford to shut down but at the same time you can’t afford to keep running,” said Dale Baker, president of the Indiana Independent Truck ers Association. “I have to strike and Congress is putting me out of business,” said Charles Ebberly, 45, a trucker from Sioux City, Iowa. “Right now I’m an independent. If I don’t strike I’ll be a dependent — a dependent on wel fare.” The early affects of the strike were subtle with a sampling of truck stops saying business was normal or only slightly slower than usual but ITA na tional president Mike Parkhurst said he had reports of drivers heading home right after the midnight EST starting time. “A lot of guys have started,” Par khurst said from Washington, D.C. “It’s not going to be jelling right away. Normally it takes a couple of days to jell while everybody finishes their fin al run.” Ralph Raymond, spokesman for the New York ITA, said 90 percent of the state’s independent drivers would join the protest. In Pennsylvania, where state police beefed up patrols and an ITA spokes woman said the association has asked members to “take their trucks home and park them” for the duration of the strike, but some violence is ex pected. almanac United Press International Today is Monday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 1983 with 334 to follow. Austrian composer Franz Schubert was born Jan. 31, 1797. Also born on this date were West ern novelist Zane Grey, in 1872, and Norman Mailer, in 1923. On this date in history: In 1929, the Soviet Union expel led Leon Trotsky. He went into ex ile and was later assassinated in Mexico. In 1950, President Harry Tru man announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1958, Explorer 1, the first U.S. earth satellite, was launched from the Cape Canaveral missile test center. A thought for the day: In a 1945 message to Congress on atomic energy, President Truman said, “The release of atomic energy con stitutes a new force too revolution ary to consider in the framework of old ideas.” inside Classified 8 Local 3 National 8 Opinions 2 Sports 11 State 5 What’s up 9 forecast Excessive cloudiness today with a 60 percent chance of showers and rain. Winter thunderstorms are possible. The high will be about 64. Southeast winds at 10 to 15 mph, and becoming stronger near thun derstorms. Continued cloudy tonight with a 70 percent chance of rain. The low will be near 40. Cloudy on Tuesday with a high of 51 and a 40 percent chance of showers.