d
Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
/ol, 76 No. 105 USPS 045360 30 Pages In 2 Sections
College Station, Texas
Friday, February 25, 1983
Gov. Mark White, left, and Texas A&M
(President Frank E. Vandiver chat
staff photo by John Makely
Thursday after White’s speech to a county
officials’ convention in College Station.
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problem
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lurvivors flee Indian
violence; 3,582 dead
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United Press International
GAUHATI, India — An estimated
)l1 ' , survivors of India’s worst vio-
mee in more than 35 years huddled
t|ain stations today, trying to flee
Jts in Assam state that have killed
,iou than 3,500 people, officials said.
■Twenty-eight more bodies were
uld Thursday following ethnic
phes in the Raha and Bojajigawn
teas and 300 huts were burned leav-
glnother 15,000 villagers homeless
erf tfie Sootea area of northeastern
RepaUffThe death toll compiled from sev-
al official sources rose today to
■
3,582 in the worst outbreak of ethnic
violence since India gained its inde
pendence in 1947.
The massacre was triggered Feb. 1
by elections, which unleashed long
pent up hatred of immigrants from
Bangladesh by tribal groups and na
tive Assamese.
The native Assamese and tribals
have claimed that some 4 million Ben
galis have taken over their land and
threatened their survival and should
be deported.
The 25 days of rampaging violence
mostly aimed at Bengali immigrants
has triggered a mass exodus of 28,000
slower oil prices may result
revenue losses for Texas
'ICAH United Press International
; AUSTIN — State Comptroller Boh
hillock says the state might have to
Il^tighien its belt some” if Arab oil
irices continue drop.
“Right now, that Arab price is ab-
■ as stable as the sands of the
para,” Bullock said Thursday. “Un-
the price does stabilize, we’ll just
ve to keep watching.
■ jJ’State government might have to
khten its belt some when the oil price
istf Picture gets clearer.”
a*
Because so much of the state’s re
venue is tied to lease royalties from
public lands, Texas stands to lose ab
out $40 million in revenue with each
$ 1 drop in the price of a barrel of oil.
Bullock said he would issue a re
vised revenue estimate March 8 and
continue to revise money forecasts
until oil prices begin to stabilize.
Gov. Mark White will present his
executive budget to a joint session of
the Legislature on March 9. He
vowed that even if the declining oil
prices caused severe revenue short-
'SM inside
Around Town 4
Classified 8
(jrfxK.il 3
iS^iMational 9
Police Beat 4
jS^fSports II
,j)lll hat ’ su p 10
forecast
J .'|iartly cloudy skies today with a
>j nigh of 65. Northeasterly winds of
-around 10 to 15 mph. Continued
Kiai tly cloudy tonight with the low
illrf ■ near 46. Cloudy to partly cloudy
,0 I skies on Saturday with a 50 percent
Iwiance of rain. The high will be
'jff'c about 62.
3,000 to graduate
in May ceremonies
by Michelle Powe
Battalion Reporter
Nearly 3,000 Texas A&M students
are expected to graduate in three
commencement ceremonies in May.
About 950 degrees will be granted
at each of the three ceremonies to be
held in G. Rollie White Coliseum on
May 6 and 7. The following is the
schedule of graduation dates and
times:
•2 p.m. May 6 — master’s and
doctoral candidates and undergradu
ates in agriculture, geosciences and
liberal arts.
•7:30 p.m. May 6 — undergradu
ates in architecture and engineering.
•9 a.m. May 7 — undergraduates
in business, education, science, veter
inary medicine and undergraduates
at Texas A&M University at Gal
veston.
Don Gardner, a Texas A&M assis
tant registrar, said the deadline for
paying degree fees has passed, but
Governor discusses
special fund, regents
by Robert McGlohon
Battalion Staff
Gov. Mark White expressed his
approval here Thursday of a prop
osed $75 million constitutional
amendment to establish a capital im
provement fund for state colleges not
covered by the Permanent University
Fund.
“I’m very proud that it’s being
done,” White said of the proposed
amendment. Although he supported
the original $125 million proposal,
White said the Legislature was correct
in cutting the amount.
“They (the legislators) are anti
cipating a tight budget,” he said.
“And I think they’re right.”
White was at the College Station
Ramada Inn to speak to the 25th
annual County Judges and Commis
sioners Conference.
The original proposal called for
$125 million and had an escalator
clause tied to inflation. In approving
the amendment Tuesday, the Legisla
ture cut $50 million from the annual
endowment and eliminated the esca
lator.
Bonds backed by the Permanant
University Fund now are used by the
main campuses within the Texas
A&M and University of Texas sys
tems for financing construction,
maintenance and repairs. Legislators
approved provisions in the amend
ment that will open the fund to the 25
schools within the two systems. They
also approved a provision that will set
aside $60 million for Prairie View
A&M University over the next 10
years.
Texas A&M President Frank E.
Vandiver and Texas A&M System
Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen sat at
the head table during White’s speech
to county officials and White was lav
ish in his praise of the University.
“(Texas A&M) University is a uni
versity of world class,” White said.
“And we’re not going to see it dimin
ish because of our failure to support
it.”
When asked at a press conference
later if he thought the three newly
appointed Texas A&M regents would
be approved, White said he w'as sure
that all three would receive “favorable
treatment from the Senate.”
The White appointees are Joe H.
Reynolds and Dr. John B. Coleman,
both former regents, and David G.
Eller, Class of ’59. They replace the
lame-duck appointments of former
Gov. Bill Clements — former House
Speaker Bill Clayton, geologist
Michel Halbouty and former Regent
John R. Blocker. The three men were
rejected by the Senate in January
along with 100 other lame-duck
appointments made by Clements.
White also told the county officials
that, as he promised during his cam
paign, he had appointed a housewife
to the Public Utilities Commission.
After the resignations Tuesday of
PUC members George Cowden and
Tommie Gene Smith, White
appointed Houston public relations
executive A1 Erwin and El Paso
housewife Peggy Rosson to the com
mission.
White said that power companies
are entitled to a fair rate of return, but
not excessive profits. He added: “If
they don’t get (a fair rate of return),
they can go to court to get it.”
White also said that the PUC
should abolish the fuel adjustment
charge.
But that won’t directly lower utility
costs to homeowners and businesses,
he said. But he said he hopes to see
the lower fuel costs of utility com
panies passed on to consumers.
White said he asked both Erwin
and Rosson to be honest and fair in
their decisions and did not ask them
to promise to do away with the fuel
adjustment cost.
“But I hope they will,” he said.
Soviet arrested in Italy
survivors to bordering states of Aru-
nachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and West
Bengal, officials said.
Some 50,000 homeless villagers
were reported at train stations
throughout the state, huddled
together on platforms in hopes of get
ting a ride to West Bengal, said the
Times of India newspaper, quoting
official sources.
Thousands of army troops mar
ched in Silaparthar, 1,050 miles
northeast of New Delhi, in the wake
of a massacre by anti-immigrant
Assamese on Monday that left at least
52 people dead.
United Press International
ROME — A Soviet export-import
specialist, arrested in Italy on espion
age charges, faced questioning today
about alleged involvement in an inter
national spy ring.
The arrest Thursday of Viktor
Konaiev, 38, deputy commercial dire
ctor of an import-export company,
brought the number of people sus
pected of belonging to a political and
military espionage ring to three.
Konaiev, an employee of the Nafta
Italia company that specializes in im
ports and exports of petroleum pro
ducts between the Soviet Union and
Italy, was arrested at dawn at his
home in Rome. He has been in Italy
for about a year.
Domenico Sica, the Rome magis
trate who heads the investigation of
alleged Soviet espionage in Italy,
issued an arrest warrant for Konaiev
and planned to interrogate him to
day. On Feb. 14, police arrested Vik
tor Pronin, 46, deputy director of the
Rome office of the Soviet airline
Aeroflot and Azeglio Negrino, dire
ctor of a northern Italian microfilm
reproducing company.
Negrino and Pronin were
apprehended by the Italian secret ser
vices in Rome as Negrino gave Pronin
microfilm and documents that
allegedly included classified military
data.
Italian news reports said that
among the microfilm material were
designs of the new Tornado military
planes being built for NATO by a
consortium of Italian, British and
West German companies.
Condemned man provoked
courtroom shot, friend says
United Press International
AMARILLO — A death
row inmate, critically wounded by a
federal marshal he tried to attack in
court, was “getting the job done” by
trying to force the officer to kill him,
says the convict’s closest friend.
Charles Rumbaugh, 25, was in cri
tical but stable condition Thursday at
Northwest Texas Hospital, where he
underwent surgery Thursday to re
move part of his left lung and the
bullet lodged in it.
D.J. Day Stubben, who co-wrote
Rumbaugh’s life story, “Number 555
falls, his pet budget projects — in
cluding a 24 percent pay raise for the
state’s teachers — would not be
affected.
“We’ll just tighten up in a whole
host (of other areas),” he said.
Other alternatives to outright tax
increases could make up for the de
creased oil revenues, said White, who
refused to specify what the alterna
tives might entail. White consistently
has promised to fight efforts to raise
taxes.
— Death Row,” said Rumbaugh was
conducting his own execution when
he lunged at the marshal in the
second day of his competency
hearing.
She said Rumbaugh deeply re
sented the competency proceedings,
called after he asked last year to be
executed without further appeals.
His parents asked the American Civil
Liberties Union to intercede on the
grounds that Rumbaugh is unable to
decide what is best for himself.
On the stand Thursday, Rum
baugh pulled out a crude pick-like
weapon made from a 6-inch piece of
thick wire and walked toward U.S.
Marshal Ray McLendon.
He raised the weapon and McLen
don fired once from a distance of ab
out 2 feet, striking Rumbaugh in the
left chest.
Law officials said McLendon
reacted properly because Rumbaugh
appeared intent on stabbing him.
Rumbaugh was sentenced to death
in 1976 for killing Amarillo jeweler
Michael Fiorillo, 58, during a robbery
in April 1975.
seniors must bring their paid receipts
to the Office of Admissions and Re
cords in Heaton Hall to be eligible to
participate in graduation.
Seniors also should receive a letter
the second week of April that either
clears them for graduation or informs
them they are ineligible for gradua
tion, he said. This letter also must be
brought to Heaton Hall.
A “clear list” will be posted May 4.
The deadline to be cleared for gra
duation is May 5 by 5 p.m. If a senior
is blocked for academic reasons,
Gardner said, the student should go
to Heaton Hall to find out how to
become eligible for graduation. If stu
dents are blocked for financial
reasons, the list will indicate where
students can go to clear their names
for graduation.
He said after 5 p.m. May 5, anyone
not cleared with Heaton Hall should
plan to file for August graduation.
An uphill battle
photo by David Johnson
Kevin Smith, a junior political science
major from Plano, fights a way under some
barbed wire at the Navy/Marine ROTC
stamina course near Easterwood Airport.
Smith, artillery band sergeant major, is
one of about 40 Marine Corps-option
juniors who practice regularly to prepare
for summer training camp at Quantico, Va.