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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1984)
10 ;e S’s:"$| stren^ ascular Midterms available today at Pavilion Happy Spring Break! he seball ?“W Operation: Mop-up a big success See page 3 The Battalion Serving the Gniversity community as joinuB- ucha!!! [178 No. 112 GSPS 0453110 10 pages id kntt r" routine the wot his barlt I mversaii i the gro ig that Photo by JOHN R YAN Tribute to the Governor Oi< [The Ross Volunteers give Gov. Mark White the ‘red carpet’ treatment during his arrival at Easterwood Airport Thursday. The Governor was in town to speak at the county clerks and Jistrict attorneys conference held at the Ramada Inn. - College Station, Texas Friday, March 9, 1984 B/CS not a hot spot for the break By LEIGH FORREST Reporter Spring Break on ihe slopes. Spring break on the beach. Spring break in College Station?? If you are one of the few Aggies i spending March 9-18 in Aggieland, you might be wondering what you , can do. Here are some helpful hints on what’s happening in College Sta- < lion over Soring break. Most of Texas A&M will stay open until 5 p.m. on Tuesday and then remain closed for the rest of j the week. This includes the 'renin- rial Student Center. So you better cash your checks before then. Food services says the MSC cafe teria is the only dining establish ment that will be open during Spring Break and it will only re main open until 5 p.m. Tuesday with the rest of the MSC. Although the MSC will be closed, the post office will be open during the following hours: Monday-Tuesday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The MSC will reopen at noon Sunday, March 18. Facilities in East Kyle will also close on Tuesday at 5 p.m. and will not reopen again until the follow ing Monday. For those students who are stay ing in College Station to study, the library has set special hours for the break: Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Tuesday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. If you live off campus, you’ll have jo find your own ride to cam pus, because the shuttle service stops today at 5 p.m. If you live On campus, you’ll have to live without members of the op posite sex for a while. The Housing Office is not permitting visitation in the residence halls over the break. The Housing Office is also locking all women’s residence halls and lounge areas for security reasons. If you are stuck in College Sta tion for Spring Break, just be care ful and TRY to have fun! Computerized farms tested By DAINAH BULLARD Stall Writer With the help of a half-million dol lar grant and 30 donated computers, Texas A&M University is ushering in the age of the computerized farm. The “Year 2000 Computerized Farm,” a three-year, $1.2 million project, is being tested at the Stiles Foundation Farm, a 3,124 acre farm near Thrall in Williamson County. A building designed to house the 30 computers was completed in late February. The computers will be in stalled in March, and the first com puter training program for county extension agents, farmers and ranch ers is scheduled for June. The computerized farm project began in December, 1983, the result of a $500,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and 30 micro computers provided by Texas In struments, Inc. “It’s probably the first (compute rized farm) in the world where you an demonstrate the technology,” said Dr. James M. McGrann, director of the project. “The key is being able to bring in farmers and ranchers to a real world situation with computers. There’s a big difference in just lec turing farmers, and being able to show them a real operation using computers.” McGrann, an assistant professor of agricultural economics, said the pro ject will emphasize the use of com puters in accounting and financial management, production and per formance records, and decision mak- ing. The “Year 2000 Gomputenzed Farm” is sponsored by the Texas A&M Univerisity System, including the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. The depart ments of agricultural economics, ag ricultural engineering, animal sci ence, entomology, horticulture, meteorology, rural sociology, soil and crop sciences, veterinary medi cine, and wildlife and fisheries are also involved in the computerized farm project. “It won’t be long before a farmer goes to a bank and must provide computer information for a loan,” McGrann said. “We’re fooling our selves to think they can pul off using this stuff.” McGrann said computers are be ing used on the Stiles Farm to keep production and performance re cords for swine, cattle and catfish op erations. Computers are also being used to keep field records, he said. Computers may prove most valu able to farmers as decision-making aids. McGrann said the computers can be programmed to compare crops and evaluate investment choices, government programs and marketing alternatives. “Texas needs this system,” McGrann said. “The state is very di versified, and that makes manage ment skills more importanll” Yearly evaluation of the effective ness of the computer training pro gram will be under the direction of Dr. Howard W. Ladewig, associate professor of rural sociology. Ladewig said the yearly evaluations will serve two purposes. “The first thing we’re trying to do is determine the knowledge they (the farmers) have coming into the Stiles Farm,” Ladewig said. “Second, we’ll determine what they learned and how they applied it.” Ladewig said the program will train two types of people — the edu cators, or county extension agents, and the farmers and ranchers. The organization of farms and the control the farmer has as decision maker may make it difficult to con vince some farmers of the necessity of computers, Ladewig said. Farmers will have to be shown the value of computers, he said. “From my perspective, a computer is most helpful for making decisions over periods of time,” Ladewig said. “The computer can help intensify the management process because more information will be available to farmers.” The host of the “Year 2000 Com puterized Farm,” the Stiles Farm, was bequeathed to Texas by the late J.V. and H.A. Stiles. As requested in the brothers’ will, the Texas A&M Regents assumed trusteeship of the Stiles Foundation on Sept. 23, 1961. The Stiles Farm is a non profit, self-supporting institution. Commo dities produced on the farm include cotton, wheat, sorghum, corn, oats, hay, forages, garden vegetables, blackberries and grapes. The farm also maintains cattle, swine and catf ish operations. Since 1961, the foundation has been a demonstration farm for the Blacklands area, said Dr. O.D. Butler Jr., associate deputy chancellor for agriculture. “It’s been a demonstration farm the whole time,” Butler said. “The new grant we got from the Kellogg Foundation just enables us to do demonstrations of a little more ad vanced nature.” Butler said management plans for the Stiles Farm are made with the co operation of county agents from the five counties near the farm (William son, Bell, Burnet, Milam and Travis counties). The Stiles Farm will have a field day June 19. Tours of the farm, with county extension agents serving as tour guides, and a speech explaining the “Year 2000 Computerized Farm” project are scheduled for the day, Butler said. chool prayer compromise pushed by backers United Press International \SMNGTON —Opponents to ini zed school prayer continued rattacks Thursday, believing that y is aiding their fight against a ititutional amendment still seve- 'otes shy of Senate passage. The longer that people have a nee to think, the better our nces are,” said the Rev. Charles gstroinof the Lutheran’Gouncil. lesaid opponents are only begin- gauempts to counter the massive, Wtindecl campaign for organized jflol prayer mounted by the reli ps right. Still short of the two-thirds vote needed for passage of a constitu tional amendment, supporters are revising the proposal to mollify un decided senators. After a couple hours of debate the Senate quit until Monday. No vote on the amendment is expected until next week and may be delayed still more. Backers have come up with a com promise that allows silent meditation in classrooms as well as vocal prayer. It permits Bible study or religious meetings on school grounds. And the newest modification says students who do not wish to pray aloud must be provided a place to go. Senate GOP leader Howard Baker defended the prayer proposal by quoting scripture, “The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” “It’s linguistic hocus-pocus,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn of the American Civil Liberties Union. He says pray ers supplied by school boards or tea chers would tend to favor the reli gion practiced by most of the community, thereby discriminating against minority faiths. To make the point, Lynn held a news conference with two mothers who objected to prayer sessions held by the Little Axe, Okla., schools their children attend. At the mandatory meetings hymns were sung, teachers prayed aloud and Bible verses were read. “Has everyone in Washington gone crazy?” asked Jo Ann Bell, who filed a 1981 lawsuit to stop the prayer sessions together with the ACLU and Lucille McCord. Their suit comes to trial next fall in federal court. Bell said she was threatened by neighbors, beaten by a school worker, her home burned down and her children were branded commu nists because of her objections. “Anyone who says, as President Reagan has said, that a little bit of prayer never hurt anyone, has never been in our situation,” said Bell, a member of the Church of the Naza- rene, a Methodist offshoot. She and McCord, who belongs to the Church of Christ, moved from Little Axe because of harassment they cited. “I resent the fact that Ronald Rea gan and Jerry Falwell are saying the Supreme Court took God out of our schools,” McCord said. “I was raised to believe that God is, and always will be, everywhere. Supporters say the decisions by the Supreme Court 20 years ago banning government-sponsored school prayer interfere with the right of Americans to practice their faith freely. Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., ob jected to the claims of some support ers that school prayer will help bring back traditional values. “I don’t think anyone’s getting into heaven ... merely because they get goose pimples up and down their back hearing Kate Smith sing God Bless America,” Hatfield saich on says it drove off Iraqi attack o stay in control of oil-rich island In Today’s Battalion Local United Press Internationa!! tan said it repulsed Iraqi forces in overnight battle Thursday to Wain control of oil-rich Majnoun 2iid, Tehran’s biggest prize in its ee-week Gulf War offensive. ILL ^ 4 The claims broadcast on Tehran lio,monitored in London, came as tin protested an Iraqi missile at- fcon a British cargo ship March 1 the third strike against a foreign pin a week. Fighting centered on Majnoun Is- in the oil-rich marshes near the iqi port of Basra for the third night day, Tehran radio said. The artificial island built to tap the s rich oil reserves is Iran’s most {tenant gain since it launched a a major offensive against Iraq Feb. 21. The island has ary untapped oil field with estimated reserves of 7 bil lion barrels. Iranian troops captured it Feb. 24. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fundamentalist fighters launched an attack Wednesday and the fighting raged for four hours, Tehran radio said. “An important part of the mech anized and armor-plated forces of the enemy was destroyed and a large number of Iraqi troops were killed or wounded,” the radio said. It gave no further details. Arab League officials polled mem ber states on Iraq's call for an urgent summit of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the Gulf War. Iraq wants the meeting to be held in Baghdad next Tuesday. Britain’s Foreign Office sum moned Iraqi Ambassador, Dr. Wahbi Al-Qaraghuli, and instructed him to deliver a message to Baghdad pro testing the Iraqi missile attack on a British cargo vessel, the 19,200-lon Charming, Foreign Office minister Richard Luce told Parliament. Damage was substantial, crew members were forced to abandon ship and the vessel was stuck on a sandbank near Bandar Khomeini at the northern end of the Gulf. The Iraqi attack was aimed at cut ting Iran’s oil export route through the Hormuz Strait. The neighboring countries have been at war since Sep tember 1980. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejected suggestions that the Strait of Hormuz be patrolled by a U.N. force. She reiterated that Brit ain was prepared to help the United States keep the shipping lane open if necessary. “I think it would be extremely dif ficult if not impossible for the U.N. to mount a maritime peace-keeping force,” Mrs. Thatcher said. U.S. contingency arrangements were “the best way to keep open these straits,” she said, alluding to the force of U.S. warships in the area to back up President Reagan’s pledge to keep Hormuz open. • 40 Texas A&M cadets will spend their spring break in their hometowns recruiting freshmen for the Corps of Cadets. See story page 3. • A Kurten man interupted two burglars in his home Thursday afternoon and shot them. They were later ap prehended at the Brazos«County Health Center. See story page 8. State • James “Cowboy” Autry has appealed for a stay from his March 14 execution. See story page 6. • The University Interscholastic Leaguehas said it will regulate junior high athletics beginning in the 1984-1985 school year. See story page?.