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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1983)
""' v :ai Texas A&.M ■SI Battalion Serving the University community P>76 No. 135 USPS 045360 36 Pages In 2 Sections College Station, Texas Friday, April 15, 1983 earn to evalute A&M self-study l)lcte re nor IS of the I Tniv^r^itv (\r\ cictc ^f TO i c* * i, i , . * isket H Maureen Carmody |U:B: Battalion Staff v m xas is in its 59th year of c^Mitation, but to maintain that tlgious recognition, the Universi- mst conduct a self-study every 10 ars Hie Southern Association of (,ol- GiiHand Schools — one of six accre- inglkipon associations in the United tiieiates —is responsible for evaluating e)|sA&M’s programs to determine [> - thevmeet the requirements for re- j :*(litation. ^Members of the association will and investigate the campus and Tuesday and will com plete reports of the University on VVednesday. Dr. R. William Barzak, editor of the overall self-study report, said Texas A&M lias been hard at work to ensure that it will be re-accredited. He said he feels the University is in no danger of losing accreditation, but said a lot of work had to be done to prove that it is a competent educa tional institution. The comprehensive .study, which takes about two years, is conducted on three levels. The first stage consists of reports from the 88 departments at Texas A&M. The second stage con sists of reports from the 10 colleges. In the third stage, 12 University-wide committees issue reports. About 110 reports are generated at those levels and then submitted to Barzak and Dr. R.J.Q. Adams, coor dinator of the program. Barzac, who has worked on two previous accredi tation studies, said the information has been condensed into a 300-page report and submitted to the associa tion. The visitation team that will be here next week is a 31 -member group consisting of university professors, staff members and administrators fct space shuttle “Challenger,” atop a mod- Hk-d Boeing 747, landed for refuelling Thurs day at 11:30 a.m. at Kelly Air Force Base in San photo by Howard Kirk Gibbs Antonio. The shuttle is scheduled to leave for Cape Canaveral in Florida today. eather forces shuttle stay in San Antonio United Press International SAN ANIONIC) — The space Hltle Challenger, which circled the irth in 90 minutes when it was in rbii was f orced to spend the night at ellv Air Force Base on its return to orida on the back of a Boeing 747 ad weather farther east Thurs- ay prevented the 747’s four-man reu from making the ferry flight om its Edwards Air Force Base, alii., landing base to the Kennedy aace Center launch base in one day. B'he 747 and its billion-dollar pig- pack cargo originally landed in San tonio to refuel. Several thousand pie watched the black and white pship and its converted jetliner y plane land. Regents to meet he Texas A&M Board of Regents dl hold a special meeting Saturday flifiscuss the purchase of two tracts of md in Brazos County, near the lerinary Medicine Complex. BThe meeting will begin at 11:30 m in the regents’ annex in the 'lemorial Student Center. | A System spokesman said only one igenda item is scheduled for the n< :ting and adjournment is ex- ted before noon. The next regular meeting of the bo rd will be May 22 through May 24. inside Around Town 4 Bassified . . g Lpcal 3 Opinions 2 Sports 17 tote 7 N’kdonal 12 flice Beat 4 What’s up 13 forecast dear skies and mild temperatures today with a high of 68. Northeas- Ittiy winds of around 10 mph. Jlear and cool tonight with a low near 43. Sunny skies Saturday with a high near 74. Fitzhugh Fulton, pilot of the 747, said the plane flew at 1 1,000 feet rather than the normal 13,000 to 15,000 feet Thursday because of cold temperatures at the higher altitudes, which might have damaged the shut tle’s heat shield tiles. Once the takeof f was delayed, the ungainly combination was put on dis play at the air base. Challenger landed at Edwards April 9 and is scheduled to be pre parer! for launch again from Cape Canaveral in record time. It is tenta tively set for blastoff on June 9. For its second mission, the ship will carry a record crew of live, including the first American woman to go into orbit, Sally Ride. The mission will last six days and includes the launching of two communications satellites and a test satellite that will later be retrieved by the ship’s 50-footlong mechanical The flight is scheduled to end June 15 with an unprecedented landing at the new 15,000-foot runway at the Kennedy Space Center. That will eli minate the need for the ferry flight from California and speed up the “turnaround” for Challenger’s third flight in early August. A space agency spokesman in Washington said the weather wait was called because of a frontal system in Mississippi. Because the shuttle weighs more than 75 tons, the 747 is limited to flying at about 15,000 feet and often cannot fly over bad weather. NASA engineers do not want the ship flying through thunderstorms because of the possibility of hail damage to the fragile insulation tiles, and because the tiles would absorb water from Texaco executive freed by guerrillas United Press International MIAMI — Texaco executive Ken neth Bishop, looking thin and tired, said his 38-day ordeal at the hands of Colombian guerrillas who got a $1 million ransom for his safe release was “ugly, real ugly.” “I’m glad to be back,” said Bishop, 57, who walked with a slight limp and had to be helped out of the private jet hired to fly him and his Colombian- born wife, Bertha Cuellar Bishop, to Miami Thursday. Reunited shortly after his release at 7 a.m. Thursday, the two left El Dorado Airport in Colombia aboard the jet at noon and arrived in Miami four hours later. Bishop still wore the full beard and long hair he grew during his impris onment. He said the guerrillas treated him “ugly, real ugly” during his captivity. He said he was “damn’ glad” to be free, but would not discuss his abduc tion further. Bishop was whisked through U.S. Customs by five officials who met him at the airport. He jumped into a car and quickly left. Bishop, who began working for Texaco in Colombia as a geologist in 1956, was kidnapped by a band of armed guerrillas March 7 on his way to work. His two bodyguards were killed. Colombian national police of ficials said a $1 jnillion ransom was paid to the People’s Revolutionary Organiza tion, a previously obscure guerrilla group, for his release. Police refused to disclose the exact location in Bogo ta Bishop had been released. Texaco officials in New York and Bogota refused to comment on the ransom, but issued a statement on the release from New York saying the firm was happy Bishop had been reunited with his family. The guerrilla group had planned to “execute” Bishop March 29 if an undetermined ransom was not paid. 1 he deadline was extended and the two parties continued negotiations despite the company’s policy against paying ransoms for kidnapped em ployees. “ The family of Kenneth Bishop, who was held captive for 38 days, con firms he has been released and is in excellent condition. The family wishes to express its gratitude to all those who helped during the ordeal,” the company statement said. from throughout the South, Barzak said. The team is made up of members from universities in Alabama, Arkan sas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North .Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Gordon W. Sweet, a SACS staff repre sentative, also will be present. The group will report on 12 major standards, Barzak said. These consist of purpose, organization and admi nistration, education program, finan cial resources, faculty, library, stu dent development services, physical resources, special activities, graduate program, research and computer re sources. Barzak said the University is already one step ahead of itself in im pressing the members. “We are already taking steps to make changes,” he said. “It (the self- study) is a critical and advisory study of where we’ll he going within the next 10 years. It makes us look good if we can tell the committee — and we will — that we have already begun making changes. “We have already taken progres sive steps in the computer depart ment. However, finances are always a problem, especially (since Texas A&M) is a state-supported school.” The University is requested to sub mit a first-year report, a fifth-year re port and a midpoint report, which is essentially only a summary of such statistics as the number of students enrolled, (he number of professors, the number of computer terminals, and so on, he said. Barzak said the information that has been collected about the Universi ty is open to all who wish to see it. A copy can be obtained in (he reserve reading room of Sterling C. Evans Library. Solidarity calls for May Day protests United Press International WARSAW, Boland — Former Pol ish union leader Lech Walesa said he was not “distancing” himself from appeals from the banned Solidarity underground for anti-government demonstrations on May Day. Gdansk police interrogated Danu ta Walesa, the former Solidarity lead er’s wife, Thursday about her hus band’s secret rendezvous with fugi tive underground leaders, hut after ward she said she refused to answer any questions. Walesa also refused to answer police questions about his meetings in the same type of interrogation on Wednesday- But a bulletin issued Thursday by Solidarity fugitives defiantly con firmed they held talks with Walesa at (he beginning of the week and called on Poles to show their opposition to the government’s “apparatus of ter ror” on May Day. I he appeal lot protests, similar to previous underground declarations on the same issue, urged “all organs of the union and all who are true to the struggle for social justice to orga nize independent celebrations on May 1.” The hand-typed circular said the time^ and place of anti-government rallies and marches would lie circu lated Liter, but asked Solidarity sup porters to start preparing protest pla cards for the demonstrations. The communique, made available to Western reporters Thursday, said members of the banned union’s ” I emporary Coordinating Commis sion" agreed on “a joint attitude” with Walesa in their meetings hist weekend. But Walesa, who took a cautious line after his five-hour session with police interrogators Wednesday, had little to say about the bulletin, signed by the live-man committee in charge of the outlawed union’s clandestine activities. Pre-registration blocked for over 2000 students by Melissa Adair Battalion Staff More than 2,()()() students have been blocked from pre-registration because of unpaid debts, Texas A&M officials say. Pre-registration for the fall semes ter begins Monday. Officials from the fiscal office. University Police and the Student Financial Aid Of f ice say students can be stopped from pre-registering if they have not cleared their financial records. Mary Smith, a clerk in the fiscal office, said students can be blocked from pre-registration if they owe money for loans, library fines, hous ing or classes that were added late. Smith said students who will be blocked should have received a notice in the mail. “We mail notices out on all billings, hut many times students don’t get them because they don’t keep us up dated on their current address,” she said. Smith estimated that the fiscal office has blocked 1,500 students from pre-registering next week. Students can clear their records with the fiscal office by paying their hills. Nancy Kent, circulation supervise!' at the University library, said the lib rary will block students through the fiscal office if they have grossly over due books. “We don’t like to block students at all because it’s time-consuming for us, for them and for the fiscal office,” she said. “But they have plenty of oppor tunity to clear their records. All we want is our books back so that others can use them.” Deborah Garrity, with the Univer sity Police, said the department will block students from pre-registration if they have six or more tickets and have cars registered with the police department. However, she said, they also can block students who do not have cars registered with the University Police. When students who do not have parking stickers have their cars towed, she said, the University Police can obtain their student identification numbers and block them from pre- registration. Garrity estimated that the Univer sity Police has blocked 500 students from pre-registration. When students pay for the tickets they have accumulated, she said, they will be allowed to register. The Student Financial Aid Office can block students who have failed to pay overdue loans from pre registration, Students can he kept from re-enrolling if they received a scholarship, but quit school and never returned the scholarship money. Lori Harvell, a secretary with the Student Financial Aid Office, said that if students pay part of their loans, they usually are given extra time to pay off the rest. The Student Financial Aid Office estimated that it blocked 200 students from pre-registration. Burying the dead staff photo by Irene Mees A group of students who believe art is dead at Texas A&M lead a processional past the library to Rudder Fountain to hold a short eulogy Thursday. The coffin was empty.