The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 15, 1983, Image 1

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    ■pi ■ Texas A&M ■ ■ ■ ■
The Battalion
Serving the University community
76 No. 97 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, February 15, 1983
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ardi Gras lifts off
ith wild festivities
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — For more than
million celebrants with painted
Ices, shimmering costumes and few
]hibitions, the countdown to mad-
ended today and the wild Mardi
Iras liftoff began.
From the raunchy French Quarter
the sedate Garden District, resi-
|nts and visitors set aside their trou-
and in some cases, their good
inse — to whoop it up in a Final Car-
yal blowout before the religious re-
aints of Lent.
. “It’s very, very different,” said Pe-
ugdoesnW Ritchie of Devon, England. “You
bedanstcrl k a complete cross-section of all
irts of different people.
“It’s one big party from start to fin-
ih, which doesn’t do well for the
bdy.”
Police said more chan a million peo-
71
tarket?’’
pie were expected to pack a few
square blocks of the city today for a
full schedule of Mardi Gras activities.
Three parades rolled through the
city and its suburbs Monday night as
some revelers stepped back to sober
up and take a deep breath before Fat
Tuesday itself.
Other merry-makers plunged
right in, packing the streets of the
French Quarter, lining up outside
temporary bars and exuding confi
dence they could make it until mid
night.
“1 love it, I love it,” shouted Larry
Finch of Meridian, Miss., his face co
vered with glitter in the official pur
ple, green and gold of Mardi Gras.
“My favorite thing to do is just walk
around and get kisses from the
beautiful ladies.”
As dictated by Carnival tradition,
Fat Tuesday began with an odd
assortment of strolling musicians, led
by jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain’s
“Half-Fast Marching Club.”
The all-black Krewe of Zulu was up
next, spoofing white man’s Mardi
Gras in its wild run through the city.
Zulu marchers wore redundant
blackface, carried toy spears and pas
sed out sequined coconuts.
Rex, the king of Carnival, was
slated to go off in midmorning, riding
in from the Garden District atop his
golden float to toast his queen at the
Boston Club on broad, bannered
Canal Street.
In the French Quarter, however,
there is nothing regal about the end
of Carnival. Police cars plow through
the rubbish-strewn streets, sirens
blaring the head-pounding arrival of
Ash Wednesday.
iPA papers controversy
ay reach compromise
A live Valentine
staff photo by Ronnie Emerson
)9
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The White
3use is attempting to defuse a snow-
lling controversy over the Fnviron-
:ntal Protection Agency by offering
provide Congress access to FPA
lies it previously refused to surren-
r, sources say.
However, the sources said Monday
parent conditions set by the admi-
tration made it unclear whether a
louse subcommittee chaired by Rep.
j |iott Levitas, D-Ga., would accept
ie offer and drop contempt of Con-
less charges against FPA chief Anne
iorsuch.
Sources say the major sticking
point in the agreement is whether the
administration will provide copies of
the documents or only open them for
congressional review at the agency’s
offices. Because of their sheer bulk,
access to the files without being able to
make copies of them would be of
almost no value, one source said.
One congressional source esti
mated between 5,000 and 10,000
documents have been withheld from
the Levitas subcommittee, which is
seeking files on the first 160 toxic-
waste sites to he declared priority sites
under the “Superfund” cleanup
program.
The Washington Post reported to
day more information on the agency’s
enforcement of toxic wastes may have
been destroyed.
The newspaper said dozens of
memorandums, notes and other re
cords related to the files sought by
Congress have been purged from a
computer memory .bank. No logs
were kept on what was detroyed.
Discovery of the purge prompted
acting agency assistant administrator
Michael Brown to issue an order
Monday forbidding “destruction,
alteration or other disposition” of re
cords “without my written authoriza
tion,” the Post said.
Janus Retterer, right, gives Lauri Mullins White Coliseum. Here, Mullins receives
a different kind of Valentine Monday in an Eastern Onion singing telegram,
the sports information office in G. Rollie See related story, page 5.
Zoning vote rejected
by Bryan City Council
sraeli ambassador accepts
lefense minister position
United Press International
JnQ(™TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s
hbassador to Washington Moshe
tens accepted the position of de-
EVER1 fense minister Monday as Ariel Shar-
NG ‘j £ ave U P t ^ ie office, saying he was
"ot leaving as a beaten man.”
Arens confirmed he accepted the
fense post in a brief telephone in-
fview from Washington. He de
fied to say what his priorities would
in running the No. 2 position in
ael’s government and did not give
lefmite date for his departure from
ashington.
"Sharon, wdio resigned Friday be-
seof the Beirut massacre commis-
n report, said goodbye to his staff,
o hugged and kissed him as he left.
Contingents from the air force,
y and the army stood at attention
Sharon entered the courtyard of
Defense Ministry for the brief
emony.
“I am not leaving as a beaten man,”
Sharon said. He will stay in the
Cabinet as minister without portfolio
despite calls by the opposition Labor
Party that he be ousted completely
from the government. The Knesset,
or parliament, was convening later to
ratify the government’s decision to re
move Sharon from the defense post.
Sharon repeated his rejection of
the massacre commission’s conclusion
that Israel bore indirect responsibility
for the Beirut slaughter, saying the
report will be “a mark of Cain on
Israel for generations.”
The massacre commission report
issued Feb. 8 blamed Sharon,
architect of the Lebanon war, for not
foreseeing the danger of a slaughter
when he ordered Lebanese Christian
militiamen into two Beirut refugee
camps Sept. 16 to remove remaining
Palestinian guerrillas.
The massacre commission said
Sharon should resign or be fired, and
the Cabinet voted unanimously — ex
cept for Sharon — to accept the re
commendations. On Friday he
agreed to give up the defense post.
The Cabinet Sunday said Sharon’s
removal fulfilled the commission’s re
commendations, but the opposition
Labor Party and other government
critics demanded Sharon be ousted
completely from the government.
Sharon’s spokesman Uri Dan said
Sunday night, “whoever did not want
him as defense minister, will have him
as prime minister” one day.
Arens, 57, has served a year as
ambassador to the United States.
Born in Lithuania, he was educated in
the United States as an engineer and
graduated from the Massacusetts In
stitute of Technology.
During World War II, he served in
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
reaching the grade of sergeant. He
emigrated to Israel in 1957 and later
served as vice president of Israeli Air
craft Industries.
by Kelley Smith
Battalion Staff
The Bryan City Council, by a 5-2
vote, said it would not include zoning
on the April ballot, but instead would
take other measures to help solve city
planning .problems.
At its meeting Monday, the council
decided to strengthen present city
ordinances as an alternative to zoning
regulations.
The council also decided to look at
deed restrictions to see if those could
be used to help with the city’s plan
ning problems.
“We decided to look at the alterna
tives and decide what are the major
concerns of the citizenry in land-use
planning,” Councilman Ron Blatch-
ley said.
Blatchley, who voted to keep zon
ing off the ballot, said that a zoning
ordinance would be considerably
more expensive thairalterrtative mea
sures decided on at the meeting.
Alternative measures should be tried
first because they would be less of a
hassle, he said.
If citizens are not satisfied with the
measures the council voted on Mon
day, zoning most likely will become a
council issue again, Blatchley said.
Zoning has been rejected by Bryan
residents in three previous referen-
dums. In the last election, held in
1969, the zoning issue was defeated
4,225 to 1,075.
A committee made up of council
members and Wolfgang Roeseler, a
professor of urban and regional plan
ning at Texas A&M, said that deed
restrictions are a private matter and
that the city should not try to get in
volved in enforcing them. It also said
that there are conflicts in some ex
isting city ordinances and recom
mended a comprehensive code re
view.
Results from the study will be used
to update the city’s comprehensive
planning code, which has not been
updated in 13 years.
New technology renewing
economy, jobs, Reagan says
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan, declaring the start of “a new
economic era,” called on business and
industry Monday to exploit high tech
nology to revitalize the economy and
create new jobs.
Reagan, in remarks prepared for
delivery via satellite to a conference of
business executives in Arizona, said
the government and business must
work together to help Americans
cope with a changing economic base.
The president attributed current
economic problems to years of “big
spending, big taxing and over
regulation,” as well as to the transfor
mation from an industrial society to a
service and information society.
“We are stepping into a new econo
mic era and one of the most challeng
ing and exciting decades in our his
tory,” Reagan said. “High technology
is revolutionizing our industries, re
newing our economy and promising
new hope and opportunity in the
years ahead.”
Reagan said traditional, basic in
dustries should not be abandoned,
but leaders of business and govern
ment also cannot ignore fundamental
changes stemming from “this tech
nology phenomenon.”
Reagan said continued growth re
quires retooling factories and retrain
ing workers, the latter to be addressed
in long range job training and incen
tive legislation he intends to submit
shortly to Congress.
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forecast
Mostly cloudy today with a 70 per-
|ent chance of rain and thunder-
ihowers. Northerly winds at 10 to
0 mph, and a high around 60.
’artly cloudy to clear skies for
onight with a decreasing chance of
ain. Tonight’s low will be near 40.
31ear to partly cloudy on W’ednes-
tlufHay with a high of 61.
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latson,fflV United Press International
1968OW ? Today is Tuesday, Feb. 15, the
Seahawb 1 46th day of 1983 with 319 to follow.
Born on this date: Italian astro
nomer and physicist Galileo Galilei
ri 1564, feminist pioneer Susan B.
ithqny in 1820, philosopher and
liathematician Alfred North
Whitehead in 1861 and actor John
anymore in 1882.
On this date in history:
In 1898, the U.S. battleship
iMaine” exploded in Havana har-
«r, killing 260 crewmen and lead-
thg to a U.S. declaration of war
Against Spain.
ey,
Yell Le#
Waggoner.
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University
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Adviser makes transition
easier for foreign students
by Melissa Adair
Battalion Staff
When you walk into Tina Wat
kins’ office, the first thing you
notice is a display of foreign souve
nirs. The shelves and walls are co
vered with relics from Mexico,
Africa, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, In
dia ... and the list goes on.
The souvenirs might not hold
any special significance for most
people. But Watkins, who has
served as Texas A&M’s interna
tional student adviser for the past
four years, can tell you immediate
ly where they came from and the
names of the students who gave
them to her — no easy feat for a
person with more than 2,000 inter
national students to advise.
“I’ve always had good rapport
with international people,” she
said. “And when I saw the adver
tisement for an international stu
dent adviser, I knew I was the right
person for the job. I had all the
right qualifications and I wanted
this job more than anything.”
Watkins’ official duties include
writing certification letters to
document the students’ good
standing with the University and
preparing expense statements for
the governments of the students’
home countries.
But that’s only the beginning of
what Watkins does for internation
al students. She listens to their
problems and helps them with
landlord conflicts. In general, she
tries to make their transition to the
United States easier.
Watkins said most international
students don’t have major prob
lems adjusting to the culture
change but many times they never
are fully accepted by American
students.
“Unfortunately many students
form a stereotyped opinion (about
the international students) before
they ever get to know them,” she
said. “And although the interna
tional students tell me they don’t
feel rejected by the students here, I
know they find it hard to become
close friends with Americans.”
Watkins’ job usually requires
more than 40 hours of work a
w'eek. She attends an average of
five functions a week for various
international student organiza
tions, advises the International
Student Association and usually
has at least one speaking engage
ment a week. But Watkins said she
doesn’t mind because she wants
the students to know she’s as in
terested in them when she leaves
the office as when she sits behind
her desk.
Last year during the celebration
of Chinese New Year, Watkins
attended three Chinese dinners on
one night because she didn’t want
any group to feel left out. She ate
more than enough Chinese food,
she said.
But the long hours and tedious
problem-solving sessions are
worth it, Watkins said.
“The best part about my job is
being able to help these students,”
she said. “Getting a new program
is fun, but nothing compares to the
elated feeling I get when I can help
a student.”
Watkins said she wants interna
tional students to leave with a posi
tive attitude about Texas A&M
and the United States.
The way international students
are treated here influences how
they will talk about the United
States when they go home, Wat
kins said.
“I know it may sound trite, but I
think we are influencing world
affairs by the way we treat our in
ternational students,” she said.
Watkins said she wants interna
tional students to get involved at
Texas A&M so they can take
advantage of the character of the
University in addition to learning
academics.
Fresh U.S. troops
arrive in Lebanon
United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fresh Amer
ican troops arrived by helicopter at
the international airport and landed
on Beirut beachheads Monday to re
place 1,200 U.S. Marines peace--
keepers.
In another Western move to
strengthen President Amin
Gemayel’s attempt to restore
Lebanese sovereignty, 160 French
reinforcements were sent in to make
the total peacekeeping force 2,000
Frenchmen, 1,400 Italians, 1,200
Marines and 100 Englishmen.
U.S. envoy Philip Habib met with
Gemayel to discuss the bogged-down
troop withdrawal talks between
Israeli, Lebanese and U.S. officials.
Negotiators met in suburban Khalde
Monday for their 15 th round of nego
tiations since the talks began Dec. 28.
Quoting government leaks and
newspaper reports, official Beirut
radio said Habib had no new plan for
a withdrawal of the 30,000 Israeli,
40,000 Syria and 10 Palestinian
troops in Lebanon, but rather “ideas
and visions.”
The radio said Habib would move
on to Israel later in the day after sepa
rate meetings with Foreign Minister
Elie Salem and Christian Phalange
party chief Pierre Gemayel, the presi
dent’s father.
Habib’s return to Israel came with
in hours of Israeli Ambassador to
Washington Moshe Arens publicly 1
accepted the office of defense minis-;
ter to replace Ariel Sharon.
The talks at the Lebanon Beach
hotel in Khalde, 8 miles south of!
Beirut, were not expected to produce!
any concrete progress, politicial con- *
ference sources said.
The independent Beirut daily An -
Nahar said Lebanon was willing to!
accept a phased withdrawal of troops,'
if precise dates were fixed for the •
separate stages.
The rotation of the 1,200 U.S:!
Marines peacekeepers in Beirut be- ;
gan just after dawn with troops landT
ing by helicopter at the international
airport and tanks, trucks and jeeps
ashore at Ouzai, Beirut’s southern
exit.
The French troops — 160 men
from the 9th Marine Infantry Divi
sion based at Vannes — arrived iir
Beirut early Monday with 60 light
tanks.
A first group of 160 French rein
forcements, all Marines, arrived in
Beirut Feb. 4, the day after a shooting
attack that wounded two French sol
diers jogging along the seafront.
The reinforcement was taken in
consultation with the United States,
French diplomats said, and showed
determination to strengthen Presi
dent Amin Gemayel’s efforts to re
store Lebanese sovereignty to his
country.