I
The Battalion
Serving the University community
Vol 78 No. 40 USPS 0453110 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, October 24,1983
i&M leads state, ranks in top 20 nationally in .spending
'(iitor’s note: This is the first in a
ve-pan series on research at Texas
by Michelle Powe
^1 and Wanda Winkler
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M has topped the $100
p iillion mark in research funding for
U/K first time — an increase of nearly
^lu million from the previous year.
^Bexas A&M spent about $104 mil-
pnin research during the 1982-1983
fmm year, which ended in August,
\ *nd leads the state in such expendi-
ures. Last year Texas A&M
ccounted for 41 percent of all re
search spending by Texas colleges
universities.
. The National Science Foundation
O anked Texas A&M among the top 20
nstitutions nationally in research
pending.
^1 Feenan D. Jennings, director of
j, ..he Office of University Research,
inticipates that research at Texas
i&M is going to increase a great deal
note over the next few years.
(T He says Texas A&M is still a
'youngster” in research, having only
# :oncentrated in the field for the last
DO to 15 years, but is now expanding
Breach.
He says the University is actively
recruiting people involved in re
search and trying to expand its gradu
ate college.
If Texas A&M increases its re
search, he says, it is going to need, and
is going to be able to attract, more
graduate students.
The director of the Texas En
gineering Experiment Station, Harry
Whitmore, says if anything has li
mited the growth of Texas A&M and
its research in the past it has been a
lack of graduate students.
But problems with the economy
and difficulties with finding jobs now
are causing many students to stay in
school and get graduate degrees, he
says.
To deal with the increase in re
search at Texas A&M, Jennings says
the administration has created a new
position — assistant provost for re
search — which will be filled within
the next few months.
Jennings says the position will be
the focal point for research at the Uni
versity. He says the job requirements
will include finding new sources of
research funding and convincing the
Texas Legislature that research is be
neficial and necessary for them.
“Research is an important part of
teaching, in addition to being good
for the state,” he says. “If we don’t
think enough of research to have
someone high up in the (University’s)
administration to speak for it, then we
can’t complain about it.”
Texas A&M also has new research
endeavors which the University ex
pects to bring more money and more
recognition to the school.
The University expects to receive
nearly $30 million this year from a
major deep ocean drilling research
project that is moving to Texas A&M
from California.
William Merrell, Jr., dean of geos
ciences, says Texas A&M has been
selected by the National Science
Foundation to be the principle science
operator of the Ocean Drilling
Program.
Merrell says drilling is expected to
begin in October 1984.
In addition to 10 U.S. universities,
Japan, Germany, England and
France are involved in the program,
which Merrell says probably is the
largest anywhere.
“It (the program) is going to put
A&M on as a major player in science,”
he said.
The program will be centered at
Texas A&M’s industrial park, which
will be on the University’s west cam
pus land.
Texas A&M also is trying to build a
reputation for research in fields that
traditionally have been less research-
oriented.
Last year, the College of Liberal
Arts tripled the amount of money it
spent on research the previous year,
increasing from $490,000 to nearly
$ 1.7 million. The College of Business
Administration doubled its research
spending, from about $140,000 to
nearly $280,000.
These colleges traditionally are less
established in research than Texas
A&M’s colleges of agriculture and en
gineering.
The College of Agriculture and the
Texas Agricultural Experiment Sta
tion continued to lead the way last
year accounting for nearly half of the
total research spending at Texas
A&M.
Together, the two spent nearly $51
million in research last year. The Col
lege of Engineering, the Texas En
gineering Experiment Station and the
Texas Transportation Institute com
bined were second, spending nearly
$29 million. The College of Science
was next, with $9 million.
Marines killed
by explosions
BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 146
U.S. Marines and 27 French troops
were killed Sunday by terrorists who
crashed two trucks packed with
thousands of pounds of explosives
into a Marine headquarters and a
French peace-keeping post three
miles away.
The suicide attacks by two drivers
wounded at least 69 other Marines
and 12 French peacekeepers. It was
the heaviest loss of life in a single inci
dent involving U.S. servicemen since
the Vietnam War.
A previously unknown group call
ing itself the Free Islamic Revolution
Movement claimed responsibility for
the simultaneous pre-dawn attacks in
a telephone call to the Beirut office of
the Agence France Presse news
agency.
Massive explosions a minute apart
destroyed both buildings, crushing
hundreds of sleeping Marines and
French paratroopers beneath tons of
burning rubble.
Maj. Robert Jordan, Marines
spokesman in Beirut, said between
200 and 300 people were trapped in
side the wreckage when the bomb ex
ploded.
“I have not seen carnage like this
since Vietnam,” said Jordan, a veter
an of the Southeast Asia conflict.
In Washington, President Reagan
denounced the bombing as “a despic
able act” and said the U.S. peacekeep
ing force would not be driven out of
Lebanon. He summoned an
emergency meeting of his security
advisers.
“This kind of thing just hardens
our resolve, and we will continue to do
what we came here to do, and that is
provide assistance for a free and inde
pendent Lebanon,” Marine Com
mander in Beirut Col. Timothy
Geraghty said.
There are 1,600 Marines based in
Lebanon along with French, Italian
and British troops as part of a multi
national peacekeeping force.
Minority graduate
enrollment rises
by Bonnie Langford
Battalion Staff
Minority enrollment in Texas
A&M’s Graduate College rose
by 26.3 percent this fall, com
pared to an overall graduate stu
dent increase of 8 percent.
Minorities account for 360 —
5.98 percent — of the 6,212 gra
duate students.
Jack Ivin, who is in charge of
recruiting for the Graduate Col
lege, says this increase is due to
active recruiting by Texas A&M.
One of the reasons Texas
A&M is so interested in recruit
ing minorities is because the
Texas Education Plan has set a
steadily increasing quota for the
number of minority students in
college.
Ivin says that having to admit
a required number of minority
students has caused no prob
lems for Texas A&M — it has
helped instead. The need for
more minority students was a
factor in obtaining the money
needed to offer the Minority
Merit Fellowship, he says.
“The fellowship was offered
for the first time last fall and we
had 15 recipients,” Ivin says.
“We hope to have 18 recipients
this year.”
All of the minority fellows
had Graduate Record Exam
scores that were higher than av
erage, he says.
Ivin says recruiting here has
improved. Texas A&M has had
only a centralized point to re
cruit from for the last four years.
Though each separate school in
the Graduate College may still
do its own recruiting, most re
cruiting is done at the University
level by Ivin.
Ivin says that Texas A&M is
the only school in Texas to re
cruit at 30 other colleges.
“The faculty team visits
schools in Texas, Arkansas and
Louisiana,” he says. “Though
the schedule is not planned for
all minority schools, we do visit
many that are predominately
minority, such as Prairie View,
Texas A&I, Southern Universi
ty, Wiley College and Xavier.”
The Graduate College also
uses the Minority Locating Ser
vice to help find interested stu
dents. Texas A&M receives a list
of college students in 15 south
ern slates who have indicated
they would like to attend gradu
ate school, he says. These stu
dents are sent letters from the
Graduate College and also from
the individual colleges in which
they are interested, he says.
One of the colleges here that
actively recruits is the College of
Business Administration.
Dr. Ronald Johnson, who is
in charge of recruiting for the
college, says that it does campus
recruiting with the Graduate
College and also on its own.
Representatives from the
business college attend the na
tional Master of Business Admi
nistration forums. Five forums
are held in major cities during
the fall.
“It’s like a career fair,” says
Johnson. “MBA programs from
110 schools are there. Last year
approximately 20 percent of the
8,000 students there were
minorities.”
The business college also is a
member of the Minority Admis
sions Recruiting Network, John
son says.
“Schools like Yale, Purdue,
Dartmouth and Georgia Tech
also belong to MARN,” he says.
When a student contacts
MARN about information, he
says, that student’s name is sent
to all the member schools so they
can send him information about
their program.
inside
Around town 7
Classified 10
I Local 3
National 9
Opinions 2
Sports
State
What’s up
forecast
Sunny and warm with a high in the
80s.
Voting today
for freshman
class officers
Freshman senator and class offic
er elections will be held today.
Voting is in the Pavilion and the
main lounge of the Memorial Stu
dent Center.
Pat Wood, election co
commissioner, said freshmen
should bring their Texas A&M I.D.
cards when they come to vote.
“Their card will be punched at
the first desk and they will be given
back their card and a ballot,” Wood
said. “There will be tables they can
sit at and vote and when they are
finished, they will drop the ballot in
a ballot box.”
Wood said he would like to see the
freshmen get involved with activities
that involve their class officers and
Student Senate.
“The most important thing to re
member is that this is the whole cam
pus’ elections and not just some cer
tain groups,” Wood said.
Story of rescue attempt was fake
Polygraph catches cadet’s lie
by Wanda Winkler
Battalion Staff
Membership in the Corps of Cadets
has become shaky for a junior, Clar
ence “Buddy” Brown, who recently
broke the Aggie code of honor —
“Aggies do not lie, cheat or steal or
tolerate those who do.”
Brown, after taking a polygraph
test Friday, admitted to University
Police that he fabricated a story about
saving a woman from being attacked
by three men, Bob Wiatt, director of
security and traffic, saidl
Brown said Sunday that “chances
are really good that I (he) will leave
the Corps voluntarily.” He said he
also may leave Texas A&M.
Brown, a health and physical edu
cation major, said it would be unfair
for people to stereotype the Corps by
his actions.
“There wouldn’t be a Corps if you
had a hand full of them (caoets) like
me.”
Cadets who lie are usually kicked
out of the Corps, Preston Abbott,
Corps Commander, said. The acting
Commandant of Cadets, Col. Henry
Hill, will decide what action to take in
Brown’s case, Abbott said Sunday.
Brown’s actions went from making
the Corps look good to making it look
bad, he said.
“That’s the major thing we try to
combat all year,” Abbott said. “If he
(Brown) lied, to me he should be
shot.”
Wiatt said the polygraph test
“showed great areas of deception”
and provided the missing pieces to a
five-day police investigation of
Brown’s Oct. 16 report of being
assaulted with a weapon in the stu
dent parking lot west of Wellborn
Road.
Brown originally told police and
the press that he heard a woman
scream and saw that one of the three
men had the woman pinned up
against a parked car. He said the
woman escaped during the five-
minute fight, and the three men fled.
“I honestly thought she (the
woman) was in trouble,” Brown said
Sunday. But he realized he had inter
rupted a boyfriend-girlfriend argu
ment when two of the men knocked
and pinned him to the ground.
“'I was trying to help, but I was ob
viously at the wrong place at the
wrong time,” he said. “I tried to cover
up (with a story) because I was totally
embarrassed about the whole thing.”
University Police Chief Elmer E.
Schneider Jr. said the polygraph was
used to clarify variations in Brown’s
description of the reported crime
scene.
Schneider said police found a layer
of dust on the car where Brown said a
man had pinned the woman. Univer
sity Police said they could not under
stand why the woman (from Brown’s
report) had not come forward.
Wiatt said the reported knife or
razor cuts on Brown’s face and fore
arm probably were made by a long
fingernail, before the four walked
away from the scene.
Brown said the “five or six nicks”
on his stomach were made from
“rocks (on the ground) and a few
blows that one guy landed on me.”
Brown, a Guardian Angel trainee,
said he resigned Friday night from
the Bryan-College Station chapter of
the crime-fighting organization.
University Police will not press cri
minal charges against Brown, Wiatt
said. Brown could have been charged
with giving a false report to a police
officer — a Class A misdemeanor with
punishment up to a year in prison and
a $2,000 fine, he said.
“I guess he (Brown) wanted to be a
hero,” Wiatt said. “He didn’t quite
pull it off.”