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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1984)
Texas A&M donations for blood to rival UT See page 5 Mosquitoes persist following heavy rains See page 8 Bankers developing 'paperless societ/ See page 17 TW e ^ &M D ^4.4-^1® ^ Ttie Battalion Serving the Gniversity community Vol. 81 No. 47 GSPS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Friday, November 2, 1984 r"— Tg o m ©ffo rt phot ° by anthony casper 1 Members of Company C-l break into a sweat ful? and the work continues on bonfire — a in a valiant effort to raise the centerpole by symbol of Texas A&M’s burning desire to the traditional deadline. They were success- beat the University of Texas. Large crowd attends SWAMP MSC protest By CAMILLE BROWN Staff Writer Tension, hot tempers and a crowd of about 1,500 people were on the grounds near the Memorial Student Center Thursday at noon to see a student group called SWAMP hold a demonstration centering on A&M traditions. Students Working Against Many Problems had planned to sit on the grass surrounding the MSC to pro test that “A&M traditions no longer reflect the views of the majority of the students.” But A&M officials denied them the permit to demon strate on the grass. Hugh Stearns, a representative of SWAMP, said that the director of the University Police, Robert Wiatt, told members of the group that any one on the grass without a permit during the protest would be warned once, then arrested. With these threats in mind, SWAMP protesters chose not to sit on the grass. They set up a micro phone and speakers outside Rudder Tower to inform the massive gather ing of their reasons for demonstrat ing. University Police saturated the grounds around the MSC and Rud der Tower, and a transport van from the Brazos County Sheriffs Department waited on the street in front of the MSC. Sgt. Cameron Fillmore said the police were there to keep the peace. He said the police could arrest pro testers for disorderly conduct if they walked across the grass, and anyone arrested would be taken to the Bra zos County Jail. Rumor had it that students on campus would form a human wall to physically block SWAMP from get ting on the grass. A flier passed out to residents of Davis-Gary Hall called on “D.G. Fighters” to “meet at the MSC at 12:00 noon” to “kick some ass” because “the Corps had been told not to touch the bastards.” Phil Tuxhorn, a freshman from Davis-Gary, said, “We were going to form a human wall to keep them off the grass, but we weren’t going to have an all out fight or anything. The congressman up there told us not to touch them.” Joe Barton, the Republican candi date for the sixth district congressio nal seat, took the microphone and made his comments on the situation. “I disagree with what SWAMP is doing here, but I think we should give them support to express them selves. I hope you folks, as you try to express your freedom of speech, will remember that there are other ways to do it than picking the most hon ored tradition that we have here at Texas A&M.” The “whoop” from the crowd af ter this statement were deafening. But later several students said that they felt he should not have made a speech at the SWAMP protest. Yells of “Quad the faggots!” and “Just leave!” shot out at Stearns from the crowd, periodically interrupting his speech on freedom of express ion. Once someone unplugged Stearns’s microphone. “Let’s point out a little irony he re,” Stearns said. “In San Antonio the KKK was allowed to demon strate with police protection.” But at A&M, SWAMP’s demonstration gets no such protection, he said. Someone in the sea of people See SWAMP, page 2 Administrators say A&M has qualities for park’s success Editor’s note: This is the last of a five part series on the Texas A&M Research Park. By ROBIN BLACK Senior Staff Writer The Bryan/College Station area is growing up, and, thanks to the Texas A&M Board of Regents that growth may be speeding up in the next few years. The credit for the potential growth goes to the new Texas A&M Research Park, for which the regents Yell practice Yell practice will be held Friday night in Dallas at the Summit Mo tel off josey Lane off Highway 635.. Gandhi have appropriated funds for the first phase of construction. The $5.5 million construction contract awarded by the regents last month will install streets, bridges, lighting and utilities in the 318-acre park. Park director Mark Money says the facelift for the tract of land on the west campus should make the park more attractive to corporations and foundations that are consid ering moving to the park. The park is the 28th in the nation since the first one was opened at Stanford University in California in 1951. Only six of the first 27 parks have been successful. If A&M’s park survives the dismal odds, and A&M administrators are positive it will, the park will benefit the University’s research image as well as the students — both under graduate and graduate — and the faculty. The park also will benefit the two communities it borders by providing new jobs. Administrators believe the park will be a success for many reasons. “First,” Money says, “you’ve got to have a university that’s research oriented and interested in this sort of endeavor. A&M definitely fits that. You’ve also got to have the mechanism and the place to do it, and, thanks to the regents, A&M has that, too.” Money said these are just some of the many factors companies con sider important when they decide to locate in such a park. “I knew we had fine ingredients here build a successful park,” Money said, citing what he called the Aggie spirit and can-do attitude. If all those positive factors work to Students anxious about the future of India By ANN BRIMBERRY Reporter As the mourning continues in In dia over the death of Prime Minister |Indira Gandhi, Indian students at Texas A&M maintain a feeling of anxiety about the future of their country. “She was a very strong leader and knew how to keep the country under control. Now that she’s gone, it is al most a let’s-wait-and see situation,” Texas A&M India Student Associa tion President Nazir Khalil said. Khalil was initially surprised about the assasination. “I think ev eryone was shocked. She did not merit an assassination of this type, especially by her own bodyguards. That was a stab in the back,” he said. “The assassination was basically political,” Khalil said. “It stems back to the Hindu versus Sikh conflict over the Sikhs desire for political au tonomy. The final blow came when Gandhi ordered ahe attack on the Sikh temple at Amritsar in June.” Richard W. Stadelmann, assistant professor of philosophy and human ities at A&M, said the students here are very concerned and hope that it can be seen as an act of political vio lence and not primarily as a religious holy war. “It’s a tremendously traumatic ex perience for India and very danger ous because India is a country that has never really united emotionally, ethnically or religously.” Stadel mann said. “When you have an assa sination, it divides the people sharply and imposes a serious threat to the stability of India.” The leaders of the Sikh party were at the temple in Amritzar when the military attacked the temple, which has as much significance as at tacking the Vatican if one’s Catholic, Stadelmann said. “All the Indian professors I have talked to consider it a very bad thing to have happened,” Khalil said. “It definitely has alienated the extrem ists from the cause. It was too strong a move to make and therefore the extremists have lost some support. No one here is rejoicing her death.” Stadelmann said India will be very fortunate if they have a period of in tensive riots and then it calms down again. “The problems that led to I n- dira Gandhi’s assasination are all still there. She was unable to handle them and I don’t see them going away. The question is whether In dia’s democracy can handle this.” Indira Gandhi and her party ar gued the Sikhs were more prosper ous than they would have been with out her activities. However, the Sikhs have felt themselves very much abused and anticipated they would become an independent country when the British left, but this was not done. “She was under constant attack for not doing something about the Sikhs, but then when she did do something drastic about them, she was portrayed by her opposition as being reckless, headstrong and ad venturesome,” Stadelmann said. “It’s a no win situation.” Haroon Afzal, a member of the Pakistan student association, is, “re lieved in a way that she is gone. “She has always been hostile to our country and was responsible for one war. Now her forces are on our border. Hopefully this will change with her death and Pakistan will have better relations with India. We are a peaceful country and don’t want to fight in wars.” However, Victor Rajakulendran, a student from Sri Lanka, is very worried her death will create an im balance between the two countries. “There had been longstanding problems of riots in Sri Lanka which divided the country between the two linguistic groups. Gandhi was the motivation for them to meet and gave them advise. Now I’m very ner vous about the situation because I don’t know what will happen,” Raja kulendran said. Khalil said he does not feel she was a good leader simply because See GANDHI, page 13 the University’s advantage, the pay off will benefit all involved with the park. Money was recruited to head up the A&M park from a similar job at the University of Utah. The Utah research park, one of the six successes, was Money’s baby. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the development of a successful re search park and then used his pro posed method to develop Utah’s park. Money’s ideas worked well, so A&M hired him to use the same methods and direct the development of its park. Although the cooperation be tween the University and private firms can mean big business for A&M as far as marketing new tech nology, A&M’s Associate Provost of Research Duwayne Anderson says the University should not lose sight of the purpose of the research park. “T he whole purpose of research,” he says, “is to bring students to the forefront of knowledge in a wide va riety of fields, and the best way to do this is to bring students together with people who are knowledgeable of the forefront of their respective disciplines. “And, the best way a university can be sure it has the most knowl edgeable professors is to make it possible for them to work at the forefront of their discipline. The re search park will provide such an op portunity.” In the research park, he says, the University has entered into a part nership with business to jointly en gage in research. A&M stands to benefit from the partnership in more than one area. Graduate students and professors can benefit, because the funds are available to conduct research in their fields of expertise. The amount of money needed for research often is not available from University fund ing alone, but with corporate sup port not only funds but the facilities are available to conduct the re search. Another advantage to the Univer sity is that by cooperating with the park’s firms, the new technology that comes from work done in the park can be marketed commercially. The businesses also benefit from being located in the park. “Access to University thinking is considered to be very valuable by major companies that are involved in scientific and technological work,” See RESEARCH page 13 Student Judicial Board votes to uphold Alder's veto power By DAINAH BULLARD Staff Writer The Student Government Ju dicial Board voted unanimously Thursday evening to uphold Stu dent Body President David Ald er’s right to veto a resolution passed during the Student Sen ate’s Oct. 17 meeting. The resolution, which recom mended that Texas A&M admin istrators officially recognize Gay Student Services, was approved by only one vote at the meeting. The senate voted on the resolu tion after almost two and one-half hours of debating. The vote was tied until senate speaker Diane Baumbach cast the deciding vote. Alders said he decided to veto the resolution because of some technical problems with the reso lution, not because of his moral or religious opinions. The Judicial Board reached its decision after deliberating for more than four hours. Had the Judicial Board not upheld Alder’s decision, one stu dent group had taken steps to en sure a student body vote on the resolution by sponsoring a peti tion of complaint. A spokesman for the group, spearheaded by Karl Brock, Kelley Clark and Jeff Gustafson, said the group was formed because the student sen ate vote on the GSS issue did not represent the opinion of the ma jority of the student body. “We saw that no one eise was taking the initiative,” Brock said. “We felt that the student senate was not an accurate representa tion of students’ views. This is not a stand against GSS. It is a stand against misrepresentation in the student senate.” Under the terms of the senate’s constitution, a resolution can be brought before the student body for voting if 10 percent of the stu dent body requests the action, Brock said. The petition was cir culated for four days, and the of ficial count of signatures on the petition wais 5,458 students, he said. In addition to opposing the misrepresentation in the student senate, the group plans to work to uphold A&M traditions, Brock said. The group will work to rep resent opiftions of students on such issues as approval of GSS and w'omen membership in the Aggie Band, he said. “We’re trying to remain objec tive and support what we think is best for A&M,” he said. “We owe it to ourselves, the former stu dents and the future students.” Clark said about 50 people cir culated the petitions. Some peo ple signed the petitions because they oppose GSS, but many signed for other reasons, she said. “We had several homosexuals sign the petition, because they knew it (the student government vote) was not representative of the student body,” she said. Clark said the group financed their efforts with personal funds. The group did not receive finan cial aid from student govern ment, she said. The cost of spon soring the petitions totaled about $100, she said. • The group was advised by Brett Shine, the only student sen ate vice president who voted against the GSS resolution. “The resolution was passed against the student body,” Shine said. “I feel that the needs and thoughts of the majority are just as important as those of GSS, and they (the opinions of the major ity) weren’t paid enough atten tion to. We think this is a positive step on behalf of the student body.” See how your Senators voted, page 13.