Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1984)
McDonald's tears down [site of massacre See page 3 Human error suspected in Amtrack collision Seepage? Pittsburg's Bradshaw retires from football Seepage 11 TW e ^ &M D I tic Battalion Serving the University community Vol 78 No. 126 CJSPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, July 25, 1984 Copter crashes; two die in Dallas United Press International DALLAS — A Bell helicopter tak ing off from a police substation struck a radio tower Tuesday and crashed in flames, killing the pilot and a police officer returning from a meeting on dignitary protection at next month’s Republican National Convention. It was the first such crash in the police special operations depart ment’s 14-year history, authorities said. The victims’ names were not re leased pending notification of rela tives. The civilian pilot was attached to the police department. The crash occurred just before noon at Canton and Half Streets im mediately east of downtown. “There was a civilian and one sworn officer in the helicopter,” said executive asssistant police Chief Harold Warren. “We know the pilot knew the tower was there. We don’t know why the craft veered into it. Warren said the two dead men had attended a meeting on dignitary protection in the central city com plex and were returning to their oase when they struck the 500-foot tower. The chopper came to rest in the middle of a gravel road, just adja cent to a machinery company’s equipment yard, about 500 feet east of the tower. The fire burned the tail section of the helicopter. Unburned jet fuel stood in puddles all around the heli copter and debris was scattered over a wide area. Warren said he doubted the pilot tried to navigate the craft toward an open space to avoid injuring people below. “We believe the forward momen tum carried them to where they crashed,” Warren said. “I’d say there was no control over where they went.” George Jones, an employee of a service station across street from crash site, witnessed the incident. “He (the pilot) came close to the tower and wnen he went to tilt away, the propeller hit it. The motor quit and it came straight down, nose first. It exploded about three or four sec onds after it hit,” Jones said. Framework Photoby peter rocha Terry Bryan sands the frame of an Aca- When he’s through, some of the glass will be demic Building window Tuesday morning. replaced, then the frame repainted. Regents back funding amendment By REBECA ZIMMERMANN Editor Responding to what William A. \ McKenzie, vice chancellor of the Texas A&M System Board of Re gents, termed “perhaps the most im portant thing that will come before us this year,” the board Tuesday for mally endorsed the proposed state constitutional amendment to revise higher education funding. Also at Tuesday’s meeting, re gents approved the appointments of Expanding the four-year engi neering degree plan to five or more years — a question that has been dis cussed in the Faculty Senate — is not the answer to the problem, Richard son said. “No matter what number of years you pick, it won’t be enough,” he said. “The question is can you give the engineering students enough of the basic information they need in four years.” Richardson, 53, began his engi neering career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953 and is now second in command of the in stitute’s engineering program. Regents OK ‘super dean’ By ROBIN BLACK Senior Staff Writer Dr. Herbert Richardson, newly appointed dean of engineering at Texas A&M and vice cnancellor of engineering for the Texas A&M University System, said Tuesday that he feels there is a tension between the needs of an essential education in the field of engineering and the need for a total program that in cludes elective subjects outside the technical field. , Richardson’s appointment to the new “super dean” position was made official Tuesday by the Board of Re gents. In an executive session, the Dean Herbert Richardson regents approved Richardson’s ap pointment as well as Dr. Daniel Fal lon’s appointment as dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “My own view is that it will never be possible to provide everything a person needs in just four years,” Richardson said. “Engineering is a life-long education. We must give them the information that will be a springboard or basis for what they will do and learn in their jobs.” Richardson said he intends to work with the new liberal arts dean and other college deans at the Uni versity to improve curriculum. “I will try to convince the faculty to try to modify the progress in the area of humanities curriculum,” he said. Dr. Herbert Richardson as vice chancellor and dean of engineering and Dr. Daniel Fallon as dean of lib eral arts at Texas A&M. The board also heard special re ports on Texas A&M’s library and the Faculty Senate. Dean of Faculties Clinton Pnillips presented a report comparing the Sterling C. Evans Li brary with other universities’ librar ies, and Dr. Murray H. Milford, speaker of Texas A&M’s Faculty Senate, explained the Senate’s role to the board. Regents endorsed the proposed constitutional amendment because it would allow schools in the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems — most significantly Prairie View A&M University — greater participation in the Permanent University Fund, which is the primary source of in come for the two systems. The amendment also would create a $100-million-a-year-fund to support the 26 state universities outside of the UT and Texas A&M systems. After McKenzie read the resolu tion, he summed up the feelings of many administrators: “And may God see that it passes.” The new vice chancellor and dean of engineering, Dr. Herbert H. Richardson, now associate dean of engineering at the Massachusetts In stitute of Technology, will begin his duties Oct. 1. The new dean of lib eral arts, Dr. Daniel Fallon, a profes sor of psychology at the University See REGENTS, page 7 Reagan denies ‘secret’ tax hike United Press International WASHINGTON — President Reagan Tuesday denied Walter Mondale’s charge that he secretly is planning to raise taxes next year if re-elected, and accused his Demo cratic rival of voting repeatedly to hike taxes. Trying to counter other Demo cratic attacks, a combative Reagan also rejected assertions that his pro rams have hurt the poor and said e is not “trigger happy” in Central America or elsewhere. He jokingly sidestepped questions about Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, but de fended his administration’s appoint ments of women. Dogged throughout his political career by accusations he is trying to cut Social Security, Reagan also romised to ask Congress to give the 6 million recipients a benefit in crease this year even if inflation is not high enough to trigger an auto matic hike. Accepting the Democrats’ presi dential nomination at the party con vention last week, Mondale said he would raise taxes to reduce the bal looning federal deficit. Mondale said Reagan planned to raise taxes too, but the difference is that “he won’t tell you. I just did.” In his 26th formal news confer ence, Reagan was asked if he would rule out flatly any plans for a tax in crease next year. “Yes,” Reagan replied. “I have no plans for a tax increase.” Reagan said it was his own three- year cut in individual income tax rates that helped prompt the current economic boom, and a tax cut would stifle the recovery. The president said he would con sider a tax hike only if government spending is cut to the minimum and revenues still do not meet expenses. Asked about Democratic charges he is “trigger happy,” especially in pursuing a secret war in Nicaragua, Reagan replied: “I’m not trigger happy and having known four wars in my lifetime ... the greatest require ment is to strive for peace.” No party wins Israel majority President Chaim Herzog said he would ask Labor or Likud to form a government after he assesses who has the better chance, probably by Thursday. Under Israeli law, the president calls on the party he thinks is best positioned to form a new gov ernment. Shamir, 69, jubilant after making a stronger-than-expected showing, began trying to win over small par ties to form a new government and extend the seven-year reign of Li kud, despite its loss in popular votes to Labor. Peres, 60, also began talks with potential coalition partners, includ ing former Likud Defense Minister Ezer Weizman’s Yahad Together Party and the Tami Party of Oriental Jews, traditionally Likua backers. Weizman resigned from the Li kud Cabinet in 1980 because of its opposition to partial Palestinian au tonomy in Arab territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. The settlement of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip was a key issue in the elections, along with Is rael’s troubled economy and the two-year Israeli occupation of south ern Lebanon. In Today’s Battalion Local • College Station’s school board inspects construction at local schools. See story page 3. State • President Reagan and Vice President George Bush are having an outdoor rally in Austin today. See story page 4. • Austin begins enforcing an ordinance that bans open flames in restaurants, ending candlelight dinners in that city. See story page 9. National • The Stock Market plunges to a 17-month low. See story page 4. World • Poland begins a general amnesty by releasing a senior Solidarity prisoner. See story page 6. United Press International TEL AVIV, Israel — The opposi tion Labor Party and the ruling Li kud bloc Tuesday competed for sup port among small parties to form a new government following national elections that gave neither side a parliamentary majority. With 100 percent of Monday’s votes counted, Labor won 45 seats to Likud’s 41, a much smaller margin than had been predicted by Israeli pollsters and political observers. Both failed to win the 61-seat ma jority needed in the 120-seat Knes set, or Parliament, to form a govern ment. Thirteen small political parties won the rest of the seats. American-born Rabbi Meir Ka- hane, who founded the militant Jew ish Defense League in the United States, won a seat on his fourth try. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Labor leader Shimon Peres both said they believed they could find partners among the smaller parties to form a coalition government and made informal contacts with the par ties throughout the day. Likud was given a better chance of forming a coalition because it has more allies among the smaller par-