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The Battalion
Serving the University community
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Vol 78 No. 65 USPS 0453110 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, December 2,1983
Hope E. Paascb, Battalion staff
Si
The thrill of Christmas
Aaron Shead, son of Jill and Red Shead in Bryan, gazes
in awe at the lights on the second annual Community
Christmas Tree during the lighting ceremony Thursday
night. The 40-foot tree, on the corner of University
Drive and Texas Avenue, is a money-raising effort for
the Brazos Valley Rehabilitation Center. For each $10
donation, one light on the tree will be named in honor
of someone. The names of those honored by lights will
be printed in the Christmas Day edition of the
Bryan-College Station Eagle newspaper.
Shuttle may
orbit earth
an extra day
eenage rebellion never
nly ways of expression
Hope E. Paascb, Battalion staff
by Steve Thomas
Battalion Staff
f or more than ten years teenagers
oded the highways of America
iking for any place but home. Their
ng hair, love beads and ragged do
ing were icons, pagan challenges to
e “establishment” they shunned.
;ht and wrong were mere abstrac-
ns to be questioned, rules to be
)ken. “Normal” was a dirty word.
The sixties was a decade of obvious
)ellion. Young people fought tradi-
na! values with methods from vio-
nce to self-destruction. They
Bled to “do their own thing,” to be
lependent and to express them-
Bjes freely.
They wanted to be different, but
|y weren’t.
Tve been teaching since 1950,”
Lora Powell, a counselor at A&M
ttsolidated High School in College
lion. “People keep trying to say
have changed, but they haven’t.
Their appearances have changed
, but the inside — the heart — is
ime.”
'sychologists and education pro
fessionals agree that teenagers have
always been, and will continue to be,
similar in terms of their reasons for
rebellion. It is their methods and the
extent of that rebellion which differs
from generation to generation.
Tom Edwards, a psychologist and
family counselor in Bryan, said rebel
lion is part of adolescence — a natural
stage in which children test their pa
rents’ teachings.
“Kids learn what their parents
teach them early in life,” he said.
“They’re going to rebel against that,
but generally, after the adolescent
years, kids do settle back and take on
similar values to their parents.”
Yet it is apparent that today’s socie
ty is not subjected to the kind of rebel
lious melee characteristic of the six
ties.
“We just don’t seem to be in a
generation right now that is making
major changes in norms and mores,”
says Beth Roe, a marriage and family
counselor in Bryan. “The form of
how kids are rebelling is much less
noticeable now than in the sixties.”
Bryan High School principal Perry
Pope said teenagers are more sensi
tive to the importance of conforming
to educational and social norms when
the economy is bad, because they
know they’re going to have to com
pete for jobs. He said when the eco
nomy is good, they don’t care about
good jobs.
“They’re more interested in poetry
— in change,” he said.
Teenage opinions on rebellion cor
relate closely with the analyses of
Pope and the other professionals.
Eight students of various back
grounds, cultures and social levels
from A&M Consolidated High School
were assembled by counselors to dis
cuss rebellious behavior.
The students all intend to go to col
lege, and said most of their friends do.
A particularly assertive girl ex
pressed her feelings about college:
“We say when we’re younger that
we don’t want college, but now that we
realize we are going to have to start
buying our own toothpaste and toilet
paper....”
A wave of nods and affirmative
murmurs went through the group.
Later, a football player said personal
independence is important, so he
wants to set goals and to find a career
— not just a job. The students’ atti
tudes showed an awareness of present
economic difficulties and how they
must be overcome.
The students were generally reluc
tant to classify themselves as rebel
lious, but they did admit to frequently
“disagreeing” with some of their pa
rents’ various guidelines. Also, the
students said they don’t tell their pa
rents about some of their activities.
They don’t lie. They just don’t tell.
And, although the students gener
ally agree with their parents’ values
and philosophies, several of the
group members openly admitted tak
ing on values other than their parents’
without giving specific reasons for the
change.
This obscure attitude of noncon
formity is explained more articulately
in John C. Coleman’s essay “Current
see KIDS page 6
United Press Internationa]
SPACE CENTER, Houston — The
Spacelab astronauts lit the night sky
with electron beam firings Thursday
and said they would welcome an extra
day in orbit that project officials were
considering giving them.
Flight director Chuck Lewis said a
decision would be made this weekend
on extending the flight from nine
days to 10 to squeeze as much as possi
ble from the world’s most ambitious
international space science expedi
tion.
Scientists at mission control were
wowed by the display produced by the
firing of streams of electrons into
space to learn more about the magne
tic forces and electrically charged
gases around Earth. The show, re
layed to the ground by live television,
looked like a celestial fireworks dis-
play.
“Wow, that looks stupendous,” said
one scientist in the control room.
The four research astronauts
working in the $1 billion lab in the
cargo bay of the shuttle Columbia
were being pushed hard by scientists
on the ground directing dozens of ex
periments and the fliers’ resulting
annoyance showed.
“You guys need to recognize there
are two people up here trying to get
all your stuff done,” Robert Parker
told Wubbo Ockels in the science con
trol center as he and Ulf Merbold
worked on a qouple of tasks during
the “red” shift.
“I think you might be quiet until we
got one or the other one of them
done,” he barked.
Despite the testiness, Parker, Mer
bold, Owen Garriott and Byron Lich-
tenberg were obviously pleased with
their mission, and so were the scien
tists directing the operation of 72 dif
ferent experiments.
“I think we’re pretty ecstatic about
the whole experience up here,” said
Lichtenberg. “I think Spacelab has
lived up to all its expectations so far.”
“The excitement continues and
Spacelab is still the best show in town,”
said mission scientist Charles Chap
pell, reviewing operations of the first
three days of flight.
The four scientist-astronauts parti
cipated in a televised “news confer
ence” with six reporters at the John
son Space Center, but a communuca-
tions foulup prevented direct repor-
ter-to-astronaut questioning. Pilots
John Young and Brewster Shaw did
not take part in the conference.
Garriott, who spent 59 days in orbit
aboard the old Skylab, was asked what
he thought of the opportunity to
spend a 10th day in space in the
shuttle.
“That sounds like good news to
me,” he said. “If we can do that, I
think that will ease things some and
I’m sure we could find plenty of
things to do in an extra day.”
Lewis said a one-day extension to
what already was the longest planned
shuttle mission is made possible by the
lower-than-expected power drain
from Spacelab. The shuttle’s three
fuel cells generate the electricity and
they are fed by oxygen and hydrogen.
Because less power has been used,
less oxygen and hydrogen has been
consumed, making a 10th day of
flight possible with two additional
days available for any emergencies
that might arise.
Garriott said the crew had already
accomplished more than one-third of
the mission’s life sciences experiments
“and for the most part everything has
gone quite well.”
However, he said they had not per
formed as many physical science ex
periments “as we would like.”
Andropov to appear at
government meeting
United Press International
MOSCOW — The Supreme Soviet
will convene Dec. 28 in a session that
may clear up the mystery surround
ing the health of President Yuri
Andropov who has not been seen
publicly since August.
Western diplomats said it would be
inconceivable that Andropov not
appear at the meeting if he was ex
ercising leadership.
If Andropov does not appear, it
was considere.d possible that the gov
ernment would announce he was un
able to perform his duties or name an
interim or new leader.
A well-informed Western official
said that Andropov was a “very sick
person” and “not able to perform his
official functions.”
The official would not specify the
nature of Andropov’s illness but said
the Communist Party chief “may well
recover.”
Andropov, 69, who is officially suf
fering from a cold, was last seen at a
meeting Aug. 18, he missed the Nov.
7 military review commemorating the
Bolshevik Revolution, the most im
portant holiday on the Soviet
calendar.
Even paper planes
to fly at airshow
by Kellie Dworaczyk
Battalion Reporter
Aerial contests, balloon rides,
elicopter rides and a paper air-
lane contest will be part of the air
low activities at Bryan’s Coulter
ield Saturday and Sunday.
erial contests for local pilots be-
n about 9 a.m. both days and will
iclude a flour-bomb dropping con-
; sj and a spot landing contest. In
je flour-bomb dropping contest, a
lot and a “bombardier” will fly
^er a circle marked on the ground
nd try to drop a sack of flour on the
lark/
In the spot landing contest, pilots
" be graded on their ability to fly a
"ic pattern and land their planes
to a line. The pilots will be
;ed on their accuracy and fines-
says Steve Hughes, airport mana-
|at Coulter Field.
helicopter, airplane and balloon
ties for the public will be given in
ejafternoon and will cost about $8
ch, Hughes said.
A paper airplane flying contest
ien to everyone will be at 4:30 p.m.
ach day. Children 13 years and
ounger must pay a 25 cent entrance
fee to compete in one division. Chil
dren 14 years and older, must pay a
50 cent entrance fee to compete in
another.
First, second, and third place
prizes will be awarded in each divi
sion. Paper airplanes entered in the
contest must be made of eight and
one half by 11 inch paper. No tape,
glue, staples or weights will be
allowed on the planes.
Other activities include an aero
batics demonstration by John Hess,
a local pilot who will fly a T-6 air
plane. The demonstration will in
clude rolling and spinning stunts.
Antique and military aircraft will
be on display during the air show,
and the Brazos Valley Radio Control
Modelers will give a remote control
airplane demonstration in the after
noon on both days.
Coulter Field, is on Highway 21
East two miles from the Highway 6
bypass, is a community airport for
private pilots and corporate air
planes.
EPA official convicted
for lying to Congress
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A federal jury
Thursday convicted EPA official Rita
Lavelle of peijury for lying to Con
gress and obstructing an investigation
into her handling of the $1.6 billion
Superfund toxic waste cleanup
program.
The 10-woman, two-man jury
found Lavelle guilty on four of the
five felony counts against her, involv
ing her statments under oath to Sen
ate and House panels last Feb. 23 and
24.
Lavelle could be sentenced to up to
20 years in prison and $19,000 in
fines for the conviction.
The peijury charges on which she
was convicted stem from her testi
mony to Congress and a sworn writ
ten statement that she was unaware
before June 17, 1982, that her former
employer, Aerojet-General Corp. of
California, was involved in a controv
ersial toxic waste enforcement case,
the Stringfellow Acid Pits near Glen
Avon, Calif.
The jury, after deliberating for ab
out seven hours over two days, found
Lavelle, 35, innocent bn one count,
which accused her of lying to Con
gress about using the Superfund toxic
waste cleanup program to help Re
publican politicians.
The blonde, heavy-set Lavelle
stood quietly as jury foreman James
Stanfield, of Washington, D.C.,
announced the verdict.
Chief defense counsel James Bier-
bower is expected to appeal the con
viction.
The jury reached its decision after
sifting through six days of volumi
nous testimony from some 30 witnes
ses, including 5 V2 hours of testimony
from Lavelle on Monday and
Tuesday.
Lavelle, 35, of San Diego, empha
tically denied on the witness stand
that she ever perjured herself in con
gressional testimony, used the Super
fund toxic waste cleanup program for
political purposes or was involved in a
conflict of interest with Aerojet-
General.
But her testimony conflicted with
that of 13 prosecution witnesses —
many of them present or former EPA
officials — as well as a top Senate aide
and a vice president of Aerojet-
General.
Fired by President Reagan last Feb.
7, Lavelle is the only EPA official in
dicted as a result of the scandal over
mismanagement of toxic waste
cleanup that engulfed the agency this
year and resulted in the firings or res
ignations of 21 top officials.
This was Lavelle’s second trial. She
was acquitted July 22 of misdemeanor
contempt of Congress charges for re
fusing to obey a subpeona to testify
before a House energy subcommittee
last March.
Justice Department prosecutor
William Hendricks closed his case
Wednesday with a dramatic oration in
which he described Lavelle’s testi
mony as “patently ridiculous,” and
“not worthy of belief.”
He argued that she lied to Congress
about her dealings with Aerojet-
General while she was at the EPA be
cause “she didn’t want to jeopardize
her relationship with the big meal
ticket in California.”
Bierbower contended his client
“didn’t try to deceive anybody.” He
acknowledged, however, she may
have “made a mistake” in her testi
mony to Congress.
'iV 'T r Vf t • f c
Battalion editor
named for spring
Rebeca Zimmermann was
nominated Wednesday by the
Student Publications Board to
serve as editor of The Battalion
for the spring semester.
Zimmermann, a senior jour
nalism major from College Sta
tion, has been a Battalion staff
member since January 1982.
She is currently entertainment
editor and has served as a repor
ter and a news editor.
Zimmermann’s nomination
must be approved by Provost
Gordon P. Eaton.
inside
Around town 9
Classified 12
Local 3
National 12
Opinions 2
Sports 13
State 5
What’s up 10