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.