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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1984)
Reagan withdraws Hussein's request See page 3 | Aggies sweep series P 12th Man coach | : from Minnesota I resigned yesterday H See page 15 See page 15 Vol 78 No. 116 GSPS 0453110 16 pages Battalion Serving the University community College Station, Texas Thursday, March 22, 1984 Senate acking ee hike By ED ALANIS Stall Writer After heavy debate, the Student lenate voted in its last meeting of the lear to support the referenaum to jicrease die student center complex ■eebySK) per semester over a three |ear period. I fterstarting the meeting late due to leiack of a voting quorum, the sen- e voted 23-13 in favor of support- ■tgoption 1-bof the referendum. s ■hisoption would raise the fee to the jBiaximuin ceiling set by the Texas legislature and establish a special re- Terve fund to be controlled by, stu- fhe referendum will be put to a vote ithe upcoming student elections. It ill be the first time students at iexas A&M have been given the op- jnity to vote directly on a fee in crease. bludents will vote on one of three op- lions: • Increase the student center lomplex fee by $b per semester over ithree year period. • Increase the student center Bomplex fee by $10 per semester jiver a three year period, and estab lish a special reserve fund. • Leave the student center com- llex fee at the current $10 per se- piester. The University Center currently of fers services such as check cashing, bowling and games, food services,, a okslore, meeting rooms, print and bpy facilities and a craft center. The jUniversity Center is also currently fcperating with a deficit of nearly ll()0,000. It has been drawing Inoney from a reserve fund, but that fund will be depleted by September. a fee increase is not passed, a de crease in services and an increase in the individual charges for them will be the only alternative left for the center, says Eric Conner, executive vice president for administration and student coordinator of the referen dum. Photo by KA THERINE HUR T Asleep at the wheel Vernon Hartsfield, a Texas A&M heavy equipment operator naps Wednesday afternoon on his bulldozer near the civil en gineering building. District attorney drops charges against Geter United Press International DALLAS — Armed robbery charges against Lenell Geter, who claimed his conviction was the result of a racist judicial system, were dropped Wednesday by the district attorney, who said he had another suspect in the case. Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade announced the charges against Geter, who was sentenced to life in prison in an earlier trial, had been dropped and a suspect from Harris Gounty had been brought to Dallas for questioning. Geter, 26, was convicted and sen tenced to life in 1982. He claimed he was the victim of “shoddy” police work and a racist judicial system. The black engineer spent more than a year in prison before winning a re trial in December. The trial had been scheduled to begin April 9. Reached at his office in Greenville Geter said the decision came as a shock. “I wasn’t expecting it. It’s wonder ful,” he said. He said he had already called his mother in South Carolina. Wade said in the past 10 days, new information had developed on an other suspect. He said Curtis Eugene Mason, who was being held in Houston on robbery charges, had been identified in a lineup by witnesses and had been in the Dallas area in August 1982, when the robbery for which Geter was tried was committed. Wade said it was not likely Mason would be tried in the case because the trial involving Geter had tainted wit ness testimony and because evidence in the case had been tampered with. The information linking Mason to the Dallas robbery came from a con fidential informant, Wade said. George Hairston, an attorney with the NAACP who led Geter’s defense and efforts for a new trial, had hoped all along the case would be dismissed. But Wednesday, he said he was. surprised at the suddenness of the announcement. Norm Kinney, the lead prosecutor in the case, said despite the criticism that had been leveled against the dis trict attorney’s office for its handling of Geter’s case, “I feel that personally we’re the only ones that have done anything for him. So if he should thank anybody, it should be us.” Edwin Sigel, Geter’s attorney in the first trial, said he would not quar rel with prosecutors “since they’ve exonerated Lenell.” “I think basically what they did wrong was that they were just too hard headed. We had plenty of alibi witnesses. We asked for one week so we could research it, but they shoved it to trial and railroaded the man. “All I can say is it took a lot of law yers a lot of time to undo what they did over there at that courthouse,” he said. The district attorney’s office joined a defense request for a new trial last December after an interview with Geter was televised on “60 Min utes,” the CBS news magazine. In that story and other media stories, co-workers placed Geter at E-Sys- terns close to the time the robbery was committed. Other witnesses at the restaurant, who did not testify in Geter’s trial, said that he was not the person who committed the robbery, though five state witnesses identified him as the robber. Geter’s case for a new trial was also enhanced by the acquittal last fall of his former roommate, Anthony Wil liams, on similar robbery charges. No apparent damage to either ship U.S. aircraft carrier, Soviet sub collide United Press International WASHINGTON — The US. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and a nuclear-powered Soviet attack sub marine collided in darkness in the southern Sea of Japan Wednesday but neither ship suffered apparent damage, officials said. Reports from the conventionally powered 80,000-ton carrier said none of the 5,000 personnel aboard were injured in the collision with the 5,2()0-ton submarine and there was no damage to its hull. Officials said the massive U.S. ship “shuddered” as it came in con tact with the sub, which sources identified as a Victor-1 Class attack craft that carries a crew of 90 and 18 torpedoes. There was “no apparent dam age” to the submarine, a Pentagon statement said. A Pentagon official said the Kitty Hawk, whose home port is San Diego, Calif., stood by “to render any assistance it can to the sub." The collision occurred at 8:07 a.m. EST — 10:07 p.m. local time — as the carrier steamed at 15 knots toward the Yellow Sea 150 miles east of South Korea, the Pen tagon and military sources said. President Reagan was informed of the incident and ‘‘has what details are available from the carrier,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said. It was not known whether the car rier hit the sub or vice versa, but the sources said the “burden is on the submarine” concerning the right of way on the high seas. One source said he thought the sub hit the car rier as it was surfacing. In a formal statement, the Penta gon said, “Following a noticeable shudder which was felt throughout the ship, observers on the starboard (right) side of Kitty Hawk saw the outline of the sail (conning tower) of a submarine resembling that of a Soviet Victor Class moving away from the ship.” The statement did not identify the sub specifically. After the collision, the submarine moved away slowly in a northerly direction under its own power and was joined by a Soviet Kara Class cruiser, the Petropavlovsk, the sources said. A Soviet submarine was known to be shadowing the carrier, which was participating in “Team Spirit 84” joint exercises with South Ko rean navy units. The carrier was not conducting flight operations at the time of the collision, the sources said. “The submarine is on the.surface,” the Pentagon statement said, add ing that a visual sighting of the boat by one of the carrier’s SH-3H heli copters “indicated no apparent damage. Ships of the battle group are remaining in the area to render assistance if required.” Another Pentagon official said, “The Soviets never accept any help from us.” That was the case Nov. 2 when a later model of the Victor Class, a Victor-3, surfaced in distress in the Atlantic Ocean about 470 miles east of Bermuda. It eventually was towed to Cuba for repairs. Repairs delayed for Southwest Parkway Brian Hay, a graduate senator for the College of Agriculture led the opposition for the resolution. “The students are going to vole no on this,” Hay said, “and if Student Government supports it we are going to look silly.” Hay said he favored increasing the price of individual services, letting the students who use them pay for them on an individual basis. Other members of the senate opposi tion questioned whether or not stu dents would actually have control over the reserve fund, which will amount to $1 million in just four years. By KAREN WALLACE Stall Writer Even the best drivers may find en tering Southwest Parkway from Wellborn Road a hazardous experi ence but an end to the danger may be in sight. Dodging construction equipment while two-way traffic drives down one side of the street isn’t the most convenient way to travel. But Alfred Miller, director of pub lic service for College Station, said there is just one element to blame for the delayed construction on the road — the weather. “We were hoping to finish over Christmas, but we had the worst win ter in 40 years,” Miller said. “The weather keeps getting in the way.” Miller said the repairs on South west Parkway should be completed up to Welch Avenue within the next 45 days — weather permitting. “We’re working, but everytime we get going the weather slows us clown,” Miller said. The damage to Southwest Park way was thought to be from the heavy shuttle bus traffic, but that was not the main cause. Miller said. “The age of the street and how it’s built caused it to deteriorate,” he said. Daniel Mendoza, who lives in the Oakwood Apartments on Southwest Parkway, said another inconvenience is the changed shuttle bus route. “The shuttle bus takes too long to arrive now,” Mendoza said. Doug Williams, assistant director of the shuttle bus service, said the route was changed for safety reasons. “You would run out of room with two buses going down the same road,” Williams said. The old route ran from Wellborn Road down Southwest Parkway, then back up Southwest Parkway again. The new route runs from Wellborn Road down Holleman Drive, through various back streets, then back up Souhwest Parkway. “We changed the route to decrease the danger of accidents caused by construction equipment,” Williams said. Williams said there were a few complaints at first about the changed route, but nothing could be done by the shuttle bus service. Gris Thompson, who works at the Texaco Station on the corner of Southwest Parkway and Welch Ave nue, said the construction hasn’t hin dered the station’s business. “It hasn’t affected the amount of work that’s been coming in to us, but it’s made the traffic a lot worse,” Thompson said. Texas A&M freshman befriends killer, speaks out on capital punishment By CHRISTINE MALLON Stall Writer A Texas A&M student who has corresponded and visited with death row inmate “Candyman” Ronald Clark O’Bryan said if O'Bryan is exe cuted as scheduled on March 31, it | will be a waste of a human life and a loss to the human race. Kim Manganaro, a freshman jour nalism major from Houston, told The Battalion that O'Bryan began writing to her last fall after he read [an anti-capital punishment editorial [she wrote to the Houston Post’s | Sound-Off column. Manganaro said she had never | heard of O’Bryan and at first | thought his letter must have been a | joke. After some research into his | case, however, she decided to write to I him. The first lime she visited him in prison, she said she was nervous hut began to feel comfortable with him. “It especially struck me how hu man he was,” she said. “He is very in telligent and speaks four languages. He seems concerned about me — about my studies and my activities.” Manganaro said when she began corresponding with O’Bryan, she never thought the execution would actually take place. “I’m preparing to deal with his death as if I were dealing with the death of a close friend,” she said. She said O’Bryan has asked her to be there when he is executed next week. “If my presence in anyway can help Ron deal with it all, I will be there,” she said. Manganaro said her parents and friends were skeptical at first about her relationship with O’Bryan. Lisa Hollabaugh, a friend of Man- ganaro’s, said she was wary at first about her friend’s correspondences with a prisoner, hut she said she is now very understanding about the whole thing and has grown to admire and respect Manganaro because of it. Manganaro said, although she feels strongly against the death pen alty, she doubts she would ever put herself through something like this again. “But I definitely don’t regret it,” she added. O’Bryan, 39, is scheduled to die by a lethal drug injection after 12:01 a.m. Marcli 31 for giving his son Timothy, 8, a Giant Pixy Stix laced with cyanide on Halloween night 1974. Prosecutors said the former Deer Park optician planned to collect more than $60,000 in insurance money by feeding the granular cahdy to his son, his daughter Lane and three neighbor kids. Only Timothy ate the candy. Manganaro said she has never told anyone whether she believes he is in nocent or guilty. “We’ve become such a judgmental society. We say it’s wrong to kill, yet we kill others as punishment,” she said. She said O’Bryan has sent her handmade gifts on holidays, and he is a very artistic person.“If his execu tion goes through, it will be a loss,” she said. “If he’s innocent, look what we’ve done,” she said. In Today’s Battalion Local • Student debaters voted last night to close the University’s campus to through traffic. See story page 3. • Women history professors here discuss the changes that women are facing at A&M. See story page 5. • A GSS speaker lectures about the problems par ents face upon finding out that their child is gay. See story page 7. State • A San Antonio youth was arrested for the shoot ing death of his mother. See story page 5. • Panhandle residents are criticizing energy offi cials for ignoring farmer’s needs when planning nu clear waste dump sites. See story page 4.