Serving the University community
)l. 76 No. 141 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, April 25, 1983
leagan to speak
)n Central America
United Press International
VASHINGTON — President
Z igan’s address on troubled Central
lerica will stress the implications
0 : situation has for United States
urity, a presidential aide says.
The aide said Reagan, in a speech
a rare joint session of Congress
:dnesday night, will discuss the
■oad overall problem in Central
lerica and what needs to be done.”
ie speech will focus on El Salvador
l Nicaragua.
Congress will be told, the aide
Ided, that while it shares in the pow-
1 | of foreign policy making, it “also
■ liist share in the responsibilities.”
[The forum of a special joint con-
ional session has been used only
times since World War 11 — with
exception of state of the union
(dresses — and indicates the im
portance Reagan attaches to the
speech.
Reagan was prompted to speak out
on his administration’s goals in the
strife-ridden Caribbean when the
House Foreign Affairs Committee re
jected his request for an additional
$50 million in aid for El Salvador.
Reagan spent a relaxed Sunday in
the White House after traveling to
Andrews Air Force Base Saturday
evening to meet the plane carrying
the bodies of 16 Americans killed in
the Beirut embassy bombing.
Aides are aware of the high risk
involved in Reagan’s bid for congres
sional support for his Central Amer
ican policies, including bolstering the
Salvadoran government against the
insurgency and interdicting supply
lines from Nicaragua.
There were indications that he
would revive the “domino theory” for
Latin America, contending that the
Nicaraguan Sandinista government is
aiding Salvador rebels who are trying
to topple the government of El Sal
vador.
For some time, White House aides
have insisted that anyone who has re
ceived full briefings on Central
America — and particularly El Salva
dor — has supported the administra
tion’s plans in the area.
The House Appropriations sub
committee is scheduled to vote Tues
day on a request to switch $60 million
in military aid already approved for
other countries to El Salvador.
Reagan made a major speech on
March 10 tying U.S. hemispheric
security interests to the Central
America but did not have the live tele
vision coverage he wanted.
andiver warns council
mdget oudook ‘gloomy’
< Da
35 = 5
by Robert McGlohon
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M President Frank E.
Vandiver painted a gloomy picture of
ike University budget, which now is
ieing discussed by the Legislature,
iring a meeting of the Academic
[uncil on Friday,
“I want you to know that the situa-
ion in Austin is not happy,” Vandiver
id. He told the assembled adminis-
Itors, deans and department heads
at he would not encourage a view of
K iloping optimism.”
lany of the budget increases
|xas A&M has requested have been
Won a “wish list” that is likely to be
|e of the longest in the state, Van-
| r er said.
Must a few of the items that prob-
ily will be eliminated or substantially
iduced are equipment funding for
ikeCollege of Engineering, pay raises
ir faculty and staff, funding for fa-
Ity development leaves and a boost
in department operating expenses,
Vandiver said.
I “I urge you to keep a close eye on
What happens as we come down to the
wire,” he said. “All is not lost — it’s just
threatened.”
But Vandiver also had good news
to report.
Although faculty development
leaves probably have been eliminated
permanently from the Austin budget,
Vandiver said, the University, with
money from the Available Fund and
private sources, will be able to finance
19 such leaves on its own.
He praised the work of Chancellor
Arthur G. Hansen and the Associa
tion of Former Students in accom
plishing that feat. Without their
efforts, Vandiver said, Texas A&M
would have been able to finance no
more than four faculty development
leaves next year.
During the meeting of the Acade
mic Council, Dr. Charles McCandless,
associate vice president for academic
affairs, led the council through the
agenda with almost no discussion.
The two exceptions were the approv
al of candidates for graduation in
May and the approval of the addition
of new courses.
One graduation candidate — Gary
Wayne Gray — died after pre
registering for his final semester,
McCandless said. Gray was awarded a
Bachelor of Arts in English post
humously.
Dr. Helmut W. Sauer, head of the
biology department, asked that
Biochemistry 631 and Genetics 610
not be approved until the biology de
partment has had a chance to review
the two courses. Sauer’s request was
granted unanimously, as was every
motion before the council.
Some of the motions included:
— changes in curricula for the de
partments of aerospace engineering,
chemical engineering and forestry.
— changes in degree programs in
the Department of Engineering
Technology.
— redesignation of the Institute of
Statistics as the Department of Statis
tics.
— changes in the admission policy
of the Graduate College.
Senate expected to approve
pari-mutuel betting today
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United Press International
lAUSTIN — A bill to legalize pari
mutuel betting on Texas horse races
is on track, but the highest hurdle is
Still ahead.
\ The Texas Senate was expected to
Jutinely give final approval to the
ill today and send it to an uncertain
tte in the House, which is apparently
Stacked against the proposal.
Meanwhile, the Flouse and Senate
nance committees will put the
finishing touches this week on their
^versions of a $29 million budget.
1 A teachers’ union planned a march
and mock funeral at the state Capitol
tonight to protest the deletion of
geacher merit pay raises from the two
appropriation bills.
■ The Texas Federation of Teachers
[has billed its demonstration as a
Enarch to mourn the demise of edu
cational excellence for the kids of
Texas.”
I After the two-block march, the
teachers will conduct a rally, a funeral
oration and candlelight vigil.
The horseracing bill was tentatively
approved by the Senate last Thursday
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ike Harris,
R-Dallas, is predicting House approv
al, but the lower chamber rejected a
similar bill last year and has shown no
inclination to change its mind this
year.
Much of the bill’s fate depends on
which committee Speaker Gib Lewis
assigns it to.
A House measure similar to Harris’
has been lodged in the House Urban
Affairs Committee since January.
Eight of the 15 members have said
they oppose any horseracing mea
sure.
But Harris and House Speaker Pro
Tern Hugo Berlanga, D-Corpus
Christi, House sponsor of the bill,
have said they may try to have the
Senate bill sent to a another com
mittee.
But Lewis, who has been criticized
for having business links to the racing
Just call me Bruce
staff photo by Irene Mees
A judo tournament for 6-year-olds and older
was held at G Rollie White Coliseum
Saturday, fighting like a little Bruce Lee is
Joel Dixon, on bottom, who has been
learning judo for one month, and Troy
Neuman, the winner of this clash, from
Houston, who has been learning for one and
one-half years.
Defense research costly
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon
plans to spend more than $7 billion in
the next Five years on research into
futuristic “Star Wars” weapons and
another $1 billion on ways to counter
chemical and biological warfare.
The proposed allocations for these
defense systems is outlined in the
Pentagon’s budget for research and
development in the Fiscal years 1984
through 1988, a 53-page document
classified confidential. The total pro
jected spending for Research and de
velopment over the period is $ 167 bil
lion.
The substantial amounts proposed
for these programs underscores the
Pentagon’s concern about Soviet in
tentions on the battlefield of the fu
ture.
The document, which sets forth
spending goals for everything from
MX missiles to undersea warfare sys
tems, was made available to United
Press International by sources famil
iar with defense issues.
The proposal, with a covering
memorandum dated Jan. 25, was
drawn up before President Reagan’s
directive March 23 for a crash prog
ram to develop space age weapons
that could shield the United States
from a missile attack.
Senior Pentagon officials have de
scribed the new generation of
weapons as directed energy weapons
— using lasers, particle beams or high
power microwaves — that conceivably
would not become operational until
the turn of the century.
Pioneer leaves solar system
lobby, said earlier he planned on
sending the Senate bill to the same
unfriendly committee.
House leaders have predicted even
if the wagering bill reaches the House
floor, it would be rejected by a 3-1
margin.
Also this week, a House committee
is expected to approve a watered-
down version of a controversial elec
tronic surveillance bill.
Meanwhile, Rep. Terral Smith, R-
Austin, says he will cast a key vote
Tuesday to report from committee a
Senate-passed bill to regulate pen re
gisters — a device to tap telephones
and secretly record numbers dialed.
Smith’s support of the bill has
drawn fire from the Texas Civil
Liberties Union, which says the mea
sure would actually encourage the use
of pen registers, which are not reg
ulated now.
“This bill appears to do one thing
but really does something else,” said
John Duncan, director of the TCLU.
United Press International
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The
Pioneer 10 spaceship launched 11
years ago headed past the orbit of the
planet Pluto today, hurtling out of the
solar system on a journey that could
last a million years into galaxies un
known to man.
“The things we’re learning will be
seen 100 years from now in about the
same way we view the early American
covered wagon voyages to the West,”
said Richard Fimmel, Pioneer 10 pro
ject manager. “It’s a time of explora
tion and new discovery.”
The. American spaceship, travel
ing 30,000 mph, will be too far from
Pluto to take photographs as it passes,
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration spokesman Peter
Waller said.
Should the spaceship reach and be
found by other life forms in another
galaxy, they will Find a plaque de
signed by astronomer Carl Sagan,
identifying earthlings as the creators
of the ship.
The accomplishments of the 570-
pound spacecraft, which is shaped
like a dish with compartments on the
back and a boom sticking out, sur
prised even the NASA scientists who
planned it primarily for a trip to the
space around Jupiter, which it visited
nine years ago.
“Nobody knew whether it would
survive beyond that,” Fimmel said.
Because it has lasted this long, Fim
mel said there is no reason to believe it
will not keep flying into into deep
space for millions of years.
“There is no wind, no moisture, no
pollution, nothing to mess things up,”
he said. “It’s very unlikely the ship will
ever collide with a star. The only limit
ing factor is the gradual aging of its
components.”
Priest stops violence with sermon
United Press International
SAN ANGELO — The violence-
wracked neighborhood served by St.
Mary’s Catholic Church has had an
unusually calm seven weeks since its
priest, heartbroken at burying the
Fifth parishioner in a year, issued a
call to turn in private handguns and
other weapons.
Police in the city of 73,000 are not
particularly optimistic that the Rev.
Joseph Uecker’s campaign will work,
although police Capt. Ralph Englert
called it a good idea.
The priest, 41, started his crusade
in early March when yet another
young man in his poor neighborhood
in this west Texas city died in a park
shooting incident spawned by family
feuds and rivalries.
The result was a stirring sermon
that called on the 400-member con
gregation to turn over its weapons.
He also urged them to cut down on
their drinking, which had been a fac
tor in some of the violence, and per
suaded the parish council to stop
allowing the church gym to be used
for public dances, because those
sometimes attracted a rowdy crowd.
“The rest of the city of San Angelo
looks at us and sees a violent people, a
people who settle everything right on
the spot with a knife or a gun,” he said
in that March sermon.
“And yet they see us as a people
who settle absolutely nothing because
one killing leads to another and to
another,” he said.
Since then, Uecker has heard of no
shootings in his parish. It has been a
seven-week period of unusual calm.
I !
Hi o
CH
Jordan
stresses communication
Editor’s note: This is the first of a
two-part series on 1983-84 Stu
dent Body President Joe Jordan
and his goals for Student Govern
ment.
by Kelley Smith
Battalion Staff
Student Government has a
problem communicating with
Texas A&M students and repre
senting them as well as it should,
says Joe Jordan, 1983-84 student
body president.
But Jordan said he is optimistic
about the coming year and hopes
the problems can be corrected.
“My major concern is opening
communication,” he said.
Jordan said he will try to solve
the communication problem by
being more visible to the student
body and by working through stu
dent organizations. He said he will
keep an open-door policy at his
Student Government office and
hopes that students will feel free to
go there and talk with him.
Student Government will try to
work through the housing office to
distribute minutes of Senate meet
ings, copies of proposed and
approved bills and notices of up
coming Senate issues and Student
Government activities, Jordan
said.
“The Residence Hall Associa
tion has very good contact with the
people they’re living with and it’s
been pretty obvious in the last cou
ple of years that Student Govern
ment representatives have not al
ways had those kind of ties,” Jor
dan said.
Representatives should attend
meetings of their constituents to
find out their concerns, Jordan
said. In that way, senators can rep
resent the students fairly and hon
estly, he said.
“I don’t think it’s done real
often,” he said. “A lot of that is our
attitude.”
Although this year’s Senate is
young and inexperienced, it is en
thusiastic and can work well for
students, he said.
“We’re here to represent the
students that elected us and
accepting that responsibility re
quires that you realize you’re
going to have to give up some of
your time to do the job,” he said. “I
truly believe if people have
enough faith in us to elect us, we
should hold up our end of the bar
gain and do the job they intended
us to do.”
That job is to bring student’s
problems and views on important
issues that might otherwise be
overlooked to the administration,
Jordan said.
“I don’t think the administra-
see JORDAN page 8
Sally Struthers
to speak tonight
Sally Struthers will speak about
her work with the Christian Chil
dren’s Fund at 8 tonight in Rudder
Auditorium.
Struthers arrived in College
Station Sunday evening, will spend
the day on campus participating in
various activities and will remain
here until Tuesday.
Struthers came to Texas A&M
to thank the Corps of Cadets for its
work in raising money to sponsor
children through the Christian
Children’s Fund.
Activities scheduled for
Struthers’ visit include interviews
with KAMU-FM and KAMU-TV,
a luncheon with MSC Great Issues
members, a press conference at 2
p.m. in the Memorial Student Cen
ter and attendance at a Corps for
mation in the evening on Monday.
Struthers is scheduled to tour
the Veterinary Medicine Complex
before she returns to Los Angeles
on Tuesday.
inside
Around Town 4
Classified 8
Local 3
Opinions 2
Sports 11
State 6
National 9
Police Beat 4
What’s up 14
i (femwM—I
forecast
Clear skies today with a high of 81.
Southeasterly winds of around 10
mph. Clear tonight with a low near
56. Mainly sunny skies Tuesday
with a high near 83.