The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 27, 1983, Image 1

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    Texas A&M
College Station, Texas
Serving the University community
Wednesday, April 27, 1983
El Salvador to get
$30 million in aid
United Press International
WASHINGTON — One congres
sional panel is willing to give Presi
dent Reagan half of what he wants in
military aid for El Salvador, but
charges that the administration is
illegally aiding Nicaraguan rebels will
make getting any more money for the
region difficult.
A House Appropriations subcom
mittee voted 7-5 Tuesday to give
Reagan $30 million for El Salvador,
half the $60 million he wanted to shift
from other programs. A move to de
lay action for 90 days barely failed on
a 6-6 vote.
Reagan planned to address a joint
session of Congress tonight in an
effort to build support for additional
aid to the Salvadoran government in
its battle against leftist guerrillas.
Reagan’s task has been complicated
by charges the administration is illeg
ally aiding right-wing guerrillas seek
ing to overthrow the Sandinista gov
ernment of Nicaragua.
The Senate held one of its unusual
closed sessions to discuss the charges
and Reagan invited several members
of the House Intelligence Committee
to the White House to try to reassure
them about U.S. actions in Central
America.
Just to win approval of the $30 mil
lion, Reagan had to agree to a de
mand by appropriations subcommit
tee Chairman Clarence Long, D-Md.,
for the appointment of a high-level
special envoy who will try to negotiate
an agreement with all factions in El
Salvador for open elections.
Former Sen. Richard Stone, D-Fla.,
who chaired the subcommittee on
Latin American affairs and has been
closely aligned with Reagan’s policies
in the region, is considered a leading
candidate for the job.
Long told his colleagues the envoy
would be “charged with advancing
the peace process.”
Long, who returned Monday from
a two-day visit to El Salvador, also won
concessions from the Salvadoran gov
ernment. «
Included was an agreement to
open prisons and detention centers to
unannounced inspections by the Red
Cross and release of political prison
ers following early passage of an
amnesty law.
The administration also agreed to
make a “high-level review” of FBI
files on the 1980 slayings of four U.S.
churchwomen to determine if Salva
doran authorities had considered in
formation in trying to prosecute the
killers.
Long said his compromise plan is
“not a perfect solution, but it just
might work.”
The Senate Appropriations sub
committee on foreign operations
agreed last month to let Reagan shift
the full $60 million, but since the
House and Senate subcommittees
came up with different figures, the
lower amount — $30 million — is all
the administration can use.
Secretary of State George Shultz, in
a letter agreeing to Long’s conditions,
said the administration will resubmit
its request for the other $30 million.
Official says changes
in student aid possible
College Station firemen clean up water from
burst pipes with mops and vacuum cleaners
the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house
on Athens Street. The mess was created
during a fire at the house Tuesday
morning. (See related story, page 3)
indent computerizes center
Interview system changing
k
19
by Connie Edelmon
Battalion Staff
uture seniors, take note. No more
ding in line to get a job interview.
Texas A&M Placement Center is
ig computerized.
.ynn Slater, a senior computer sci-
e major with extensive computer
erience, worked all year on a sys-
i to computerize the center. Slater
I he chose to donate his time and
>rts to improve the Placement
iter, calling it a “lasting memorial”
Texas A&M.
The center, located on the 10th
ir of Rudder Tower, offers career
nseling for students, interviews
summer jobs and job interviews
graduating seniors and graduate
lents.
“Graduating seniors have long
n upset with the way the Place-
nt Center is run,” Slater said,
liors have to visit the center several
hts a week, he said, often waiting
line an hour and not getting an
irview slot.
It’s always push, push, shove,
fve,” he said. “That’s what I’m here
iliminate.”
The philosophy of the new system,
said, is that no one will have to wait
in line to sign up for an interview.
John Gudelman, associate director
of the center, said the center hopes to
have preliminary runs starting May
15. Center personnel then will work
on perfecting the system, he said.
“We should be in full force by Sep
tember,” Gudelman said.
The system will be tested during
summer graduate interviewing. If all
goes well, it will be used next fall.
Summer interviewing will be con
ducted under the current system, so if
problems occur in the computer sys
tem, interviews won’t be disturbed.
Under the new system, students
still must register with the Placement
Center to schedule interviews. Regis
tering at the beginning of the fall
semester would be wise, Slater said,
because there may be a time delay
before names are placed in the
system.
When registering, students will fill
out a schedule showing when they can
accept interviews during the week.
Students will be assigned a Place
ment Center identification number to
avoid violation of federal privacy
laws.
Every senior will be allotted a num
ber of points to bid on interviews, Sla
ter said. The number hasn’t been de
cided, he said, but fall graduates
probably will be given more points
than spring graduates because fewer
companies interview before fall gra
duation.
A certain number of points will be
allotted for each semester and cannot
be saved from one semester to the
next. When all points have been used,
students still may sign up for inter
views, but will have lowest priority in
the system. Companies will not be told
how many points a student bid.
For the system’s format, notices of
interview dates will be posted in the
center and across campus one month
before interview dates. The notices
will give the name of the company
and majors that they seek.
After checking notices, students
can fill out a card giving their center
identification number, the name of
the company and the number of
points they want to bid for the inter
view. The schedule given at registra
tion can be overridden by writing in a
special schedule for that week only on
the bid card.
See INTERVIEWS page 10
by Melissa Adair
Battalion Staff
Qualifications for student financial
aid won’t change much next year, but
Congress is looking at proposals that
would make it much tougher to
obtain financial aid during the follow
ing year.
Students applying for financial aid
for the 1984-85 school year may find
some programs eliminated and
others reduced, but Alvin P. Bor-
mann, assistant director of student
financial aid at Texas A&M, says he is
not discouraged by those proposals.
“Changes constantly occur here in
financial aid,” Bormann said. “What
is proposed today may nibver even
take effect.”
Congress has proposed that all
guaranteed student loans be awarded
strictly on a need basis. Currently, any
student whose family income is less
than $30,000 a year automatically is
eligible for a guaranteed student
loan. If the proposal passes, students
would have to prove a need for the
loan regardless of family income.
That proposal would cause prob
lems for students here, Bormann
said.
“A large part of our students are
from middle-class families,” he said.
“If this proposal passes, many of them
will be eliminated even though they
may need a grant.”
In addition, banks probably would
guarantee fewer loans under this type
of program, he said.
“Incentives have to be built into the
program to get the banks to lend,” he
said. “Most students who would qual
ify for grants under this new program
will have a hard time getting the
banks to lend money to them because
their families haven’t built a good re
lationship with the banks.”
Bormann said the proposal also
makes it harder for students to get
loans of the size they now are getting.
Virginia Rayburn, coordinator of the
long-term loan program, said the
proposal to award smaller loans will
cause difficulty in borrowing money
from the banks.
“Lenders prefer to mi.ke large
loans because they get a better return
on large loans,” Rayburn said. “This
proposal will make it harder to get
more (money) so students may not be
able to get banks to lend to them.”
But, Bormann said, Texas 'A&M
has several advantages over many
other schools. The cost of going to
school here is relatively low compared
to private schools, he said.
“We also have the Southeast Texas
Higher Education Authority in the
area that is basically a secondary mar
ket for guaranteed student loans,” he
said.
Rayburn said the education au
thority creates an incentive for the
banks to lend.
“They buy the loan immediately
from the bank that has guaranteed it
to the student,” she said. “Because of
this, banks tend to lend more money
because they get an immediate return
on their loan.”
Bormann said former students
have a reputation for paying back
their loans on time, which helps
Texas A&M with financial aid.
This year, more than $2 billion was
allocated for national student finan
cial aid, he said. Universities whose
students pay back their loans, will re
ceive “their fair share of this money,”
he said.
Another proposal by Congress tot
ally would eliminate two major grant
programs in 1984-85.
The Supplemental Educational
Opportunity Grants and the State
Student Incentive Grants would be
cut to zero funding by the govern
ment— eliminating them completely.
More than $350,000 was given to
students at Texas A&M through the
SEOG and the SSIG this school year.
One change, however, is expected
to take effect July 1.
Unless the effective date is
changed, a new law that deprives
draft non-registrants of all federally
funded financial aid will be enforced
by Student Financial Aid.
The law requires students to sign a
statement of compliance with draft
registration laws before they can re
ceive loans or grants. Even women
would have to sign the statement
although they are not required to re
gister with the Selective Service.
Men required to register would
have to show an acknowledgement
letter from the Selective Service or
some other proof of registration.
Bormann said he is opposed to the
law.
“I’m concerned because I don’t
think we should be given this respon
sibility,” he said. “We don’t work for
the Selective Service.”
He also said the law would monitor
only the students who apply for finan
cial aid.
“We feel it penalizes the student
who really needs financial aid,” he
said. “If the Selective Service wants to
check up on college students, they
should check up on all college stu
dents.”
nre found
n Bolton
College Station firemen re-
•onded to a call on campus at about
a.m. today.
A spokesman said someone re
nted smelling smoke in Bolton
all.
“When we got here we found
lined paper in a box,” Lt. Fred
ipczyk said. He said he is uncer-
in whether the fire was arson.
The cardboard box was found in
e office of Associate Professor of
alitical Science Kenneth R.
ladenka’s office. Also in the room
ere scattered papers and over-
irned books.
inside
Wound Town. . . 4
Classified 10
-ocal . . 3
Opinions 2
iports 11
State 5
National 13
3 olice Beat 4
that’s up 14
jfl#
forecast
Mostly cloudy skies today with a
high of 82 and a 20 percent chance
af showers. Becoming partly
cloudy in the evening with a low
near 61. Clear to partly cloudy
Thursday with a high near 84.
Anniversary of admitting
women today
by Mary Jo Rummel
Battalion Reporter
When Dot Hedges came to the
A&M College of Texas in 1960, the
campus was smaller, the Corps of
Cadets was mandatory and the stu
dent body was almost all male.
However, 20 years ago today the
Board of Directors of A&M College
voted to allow “qualified women” to
attend the school on a limited basis.
According to the University Arc
hives: “The ruling provided that
Texas A&M would admit qualified
women students on a day-student
basis to all graduate programs and
to the School of Veterinary Medi
cine. A&M would also admit to
undergraduate programs qualified
women who were either A&M staff
members or the wives or daughters
of students and college employees.”
In 1965, Texas Attorney General
Waggoner Carr ruled that the li
mited enrollment of women in the
school was unconstitutional, so the
directors opened the doors to all
women.
In fall 1963, 150 women officially
enrolled at Texas A&M and the
female enrollment has been increas
ing each semester since that time.
T oday, 13,697 women — 38 per
cent of the total enrollment — are
enrolled at Texas A&M. And enter
ing classes have higher percentages.
Hedges, now a lecturer in the che
mistry department, attended classes
before the official admission of
women.
“It wasn’t official — the profes
sors said they just wouldn’t see you
in the classrooms,” she said. Hedges
continued her graduate work after
1965 and completed her doctorate
in 1975.
“A&M changed so much all at
once —- the compulsory Corps was
eliminated, black students and
women students were admitted all
about the same time,” Hedges said.
All things considered, the transi
tion was remarkably smooth.
“I didn’t experience any real
opposition to my being in the clas
srooms, though I was usually the
only woman,” Hedges said.
“Initially they (men) didn’t think
the women could do anything, but
the ones that did enroll in the early
times were serious about school and
worked hard. I think it surprised
them.”
On the other hand, a 1963 Batta
lion survey indicated that 60 percent
of the Texas A&M students were
against the ruling when 1,875 out of
2,462 cadets signed a petition
against the admission of women to
the University.
But the ruling stood.
The fight to allow women into
Texas A&M has risen several times
since the early life of the University.
The first record of women
attending Texas A&M is in the 1895
yearbook, the Olio, which names
Ethel Hutson, daughter of a Texas
A&M professor, an honorary mem
ber of the Class of 1895. She re
ceived a certificate, not a degree.
Daughters of faculty members
attended the college off and on until
1925 when the campus was closed to
all women. Special cases again were
allowed in the early 1930s when the
depression hurt the enrollment of
male students. It was opened again
in the 1940s to female veterans or
wives of students and faculty for
special extension classes.
During the 1950s, the coeduca
tion question faced more opposi
tion. One news story published in
the Bryan Daily Eagle in 1958
quotes a former student as sayihg
that admitting women in the college
was a football recruitment ploy be
cause “the opportunity to stroll
hand in hand across campus with a
blonde in a sweater makes for a bet
ter adjusted football player.”
Others felt that admitting women
would be detrimental to the school’s
military tradition — women would
distract male students and female
students couldn’t handle the work,
according to other articles filed in
the University Archives.
“The attitudes about the women
have changed,” Hedges said.
“Women at Texas A&M are
accepted as a matter of course, in
stead of exception. But there is still
much work to be done.”
With the admission of women as
students, women faculty have been
hired, but not at the rate the Univer
sity has grown.
According to fall 1982 data from
the Office of Planning and Institu
tional Analysis, 11 percent of the
faculty — including instructors and
lecturers — are women. About 3
percent of the faculty holding posi
tions of professor or associate pro
fessor are women.
See WOMEN page 14
I