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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.