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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1984)
Restore Liberty, says statue's keeper See story page 3 Garage sale hailed as World's Largesf See story page 8 Ag spikers singing swan's song in '84 See column page 9 Texas A&M A The Battalion Serving the University community Vol. 82 No. 52 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, November 9, 1984 State board alters reform United Press International ■ AUSTIN —The Legislative Edu- fcaiion Board gave new life Thursday i| a controversial proposal that al- ters education reforms to allow a stu dent with a failing grade to continue if) extracurricular activities. ■ The LEB, which was formed to (lersee the implementation of steeping . educational reforms ■tssed during a special session of the Hgislature, told state Board of Edu- ■tion member Jack Strong to con- tine developing the proposal. ■ Strong’s plan received a chilly wel come when first proposed to the new ■ate school board, which was re- ■ntly appointed by Gov. Mark While. ■ New board member Charles Dun- |<aii said in October that Strong’s proposal “defeats the purpose” of the education reform bill by weak ening academic standards. Under Strong’s proposal, a stu dent with a failing grade during a six-week period could have that grade withheld until a passing grade was achieved during the next six- week grading period. While the grade is withheld, the student could participate in sports or other extracurricular activities. In contrast, the law enacted by the Legislature last summer had a strict provision that required students to receive an average grade of 70 in each class before participating in ex tracurricular activities. Strong said the Legislature’s pro vision would bar a student with live grades of 91 and a single 68 from See EDUCATION, page 5 Nicaraguans fear U.S. attack November sunbathing Photo by PETER ROCHA United Press International ■ MANAGUA, Nicaragua — A sus- piried U.S. spy plane broke the sound barrier over live Nicaraguan (lies Thursday, sending panicked residents into the streets amid fears ■ a U.S. strike to destroy a Soviet Irgo that possibly included MiG ti eK I In Mexico City, Czechoslovak ■ime Minister Lubomir Strougal, on a state visit, said four helicopters, Hot MiGs as Washington feared, were unloaded Wednesday from the Soviet freighter in a Nicaraguan port. ■ He warned that the world would face “very grave consequences” if the United States attacked Nicaragua. ■ The Pentagon in Washington de clined to confirm or deny whether spy planes flew' over Nicaragua, say- ihg it does not discuss reconnais sance flights. But defense sources did not rule out the possibility that SR-71 Blackbird spy planes have flown near or within Nicaraguan air ■race. ■ Witnesses said at least one jet Caused “loud explosions” over Ma nagua, the port of Corinto, Masaya, Ocotal and Rivas. The overflight came amid a warn ing by Sen. Daniel Moynihan, D- N.Y., that the United States would not rule out the use of force if a So viet freighter that docked in Corinto was carrying a cargo of Soviet MiG- 21s. Nicaragua flatly denied the freighter Bakuriani was carrying the high-performance Soviet lighters, but insisted on its right to buy jets to protect itself. The Defense Ministry refused to identify the cargo. The Soviet Union in Moscow de clined to respond directly to reports the freighter was possibly carrying crates of unassembled MiGs. Instead, the official Tass news agency published the Sandinista government’s statement accusing the United States of making the allega tions to set the stage for an invasion of Nicaragua. Strougal told reporters the freighter unloaded only helicopters. He did not say what types of heli copters were unloaded. “If the United States attacks Nica ragua, there would be very grave consequences for all the world, and the United States would lose pres tige,” he said. See NICARAGUA, page 5 Scott Pajeski, an architecture major from Shreveport, and Dana Rumore, a wildlife and fisheries science major from Houston, enjoy the sunshine outside the Chemistry Building Thursday afternoon. With temperatures in the eighties, more people will be seeking outdoor recreation and relaxation. The high temperature for the day was 84. Discovery to salvage satellites United Press International CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery streaked into, orbit in pursuit of two wayward satellites Thursday, setting the stage for next week’s salvage job when two spacewalkers will try to snare the craft with lance-like grapples. Astronauts Frederick Hauck, Da vid Walker, Joseph Allen, Anna Fisher and Dale Gardner also car ried aloft two new communications satellites. One will be launched today and the second Saturday. Discovery, NASA’s third and new est shuttle, blasted away from Earth for the second time after a flawless countdown and soared smoothly into an orbit ranging from 174 to 185 miles high. It was the 14th shut tle flight. “That, was a tremendous ascent,” said Gardner, who marked his 36th birthday Thursday. “I hope the whole Gardner family enjoyed that birthday celebration for Dale,” Hauck said. “We sure did.” The two satellites that are the as tronauts’ prey — Indonesia’s Palapa B-2 and Western Union Westar 6 — are in higher paths that take longer to complete one orbit, so Discovery was gaining slowly on them. Palapa was 17,()()0 miles ahead and Westar 17,700 miles ahead when Discovery reached orbit. Palapa and Westar were launched successfully from the shuttle Chal lenger last February. But then iden tical rockets in both satellites failed, leaving the twin relay stations stranded in useless orbits. Vance Brand, who commanded the February flight, watched Discov ery blast off on its dual space chase and said successful retrieval and re turn of the two satellites to Earth will make a good ending to the story. T he insurance underwriters who paid IPBO million when the two sa tellites were lost are paying NASA $5.5 million to attempt to retrieve them. In addition, Hughes Aircraft Co., which built the satellites, was paid $5 million for their role in pre paring for the salvage mission. The two satellites cost about $35 million when new. Once returned to Earth, they will be refurbished and sold for launch again to help the un derwriters recoup part of their loss. Palapa is to be retrieved first, dur ing a spacewalk by Allen and Gard ner on Monday. After Hauck and Walker fly Discovery to within 35 feet of the drum-shaped satellite, Al len will use a jet-propelled backpack to fly over to it and snag it with the lance-like structure designed to lock onto the nozzle of a spent rocket on the satellite. Fisher will then use Discovery’s mechanical arm to place the satellite in a special mount in Discovery’s cargo bay. Hauck and Walker, Discovery’s pilots, were scheduled to perform about 120 different rocket firings to carry out their double-duty launch and retrieve mission. That is about 20 more maneuvers than the record during the seventh shuttle tliglu last year. “This is the most challenging flight we’ve flown,” said flight direc tor Jay Greene. “T he thing that’s tricky here is there’s not much room to stub your toe.” Once they reached orbit, the as tronauts checked their ship and found no evidence of any damage to its fragile insulation tiles. The robot arm was successfully tested six hours after launch, com pleting the astronauts’ last big job of the day. Discovery is scheduled to return to the Kennedy Space Center Nov. 16. It also will make the next flight, in late January. A&M to host Veteran's Day celebration, dedicate park By KARLA K. MARTIN Staff Writer It’s a dedication, a memorial, a celebration, and the largest Vet eran’s Day gathering in the area since World War II. Sunday, Nov. 11, at 10:30 a.m., Texas A&M will host a commu nity-wide Veteran’s Day cere mony at Kyle Field. Don Simons, a Korean War veteran and assistant director for administration at KAMU-TV at A&M, said he and 13 local gener als started putting this ceremony together last year because of one person. “There was this 91-year-old World War 1 nurse who came up to me and told me what a hard time she’d had finding a Veter an’s Day celebration to pay re spect to her old buddies,” Simons said. “Well, I went up to Whiteley and told him it was a shame not to have a ceremony ... he said ‘Fine. You’re chairman.’ ” Eli Whiteley is a 1941 A&M graduate and the only living re cipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest mili tary award in the United States. The dedication of the Eli Whiteley Medal of Honor Park will open Sunday’s ceremony. The 4-acre park borders both sides of University Drive just west of the railroad tracks along Well born Road. In between music breaks by the Singing Cadets and the Bryan and A&M Consolidated High School Bands, the ceremony the A&M war monument will be re dedicated. The monument, which was moved for construction of the Al britton Bell Tower, will be placed at the northwest corner of the main drill field. Simons, who has received sup port from the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of For eign Wars, the American GI Fo rum, the Retired Officers Asso ciation and the Reserve Officers Association said he hopes for a crowd of at least 20,000. The honored guests include 37 Aggie generals with the oldest be ing Gen. George Beverley, Class of ’19. The main address will be presented by Gen. Bernard Shriever, Class of ’31. Shriever is the only living Aggie four-star general. During the course of the cere mony, a special American flag will be raised. This flag was given to A&M by Senator Phil Gramm. T he flag has flown over the U.S. Capitol; the Arlington National Cemetery; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and the Meuse-Ar- gonne Cemetery, which is the largest cemetery for Americans killed in World War I. The flag also has flown over Pointe du Hoc, in France, where Lt. Col. Earl Rudder led his rang ers ashore to secure the foothold for the invasion; the Manila American Cemetery; and the Philippine island Corregidor, where an Aggie muster was held in April 1942 and again in 1946 after World War II was over. “The flag represents each one of the five great conflicts,” Simon said. “It’s important for us and our country. There’s a special sense of patriotism here with the Aggies because they can see a connection to their fathers and grandfathers.” Faculty advisers harried by registration process By SARAH OATES Staff Writer Consider an example of a typical problem with academic advising during pre-registration at Texas A&M.' In the College of Business Admin istration, one of the University’s largest colleges, there are 11 aca demic advisers for an estimated 5,500 students. That’s about one ad viser for every 500 students. Faculty advisers often counsel stu dents not only on their academic schedules, but on other subjects such as career decisions and goals. The advisers understandably feel harried during pre-registration when they must deal with a large volume of stu dent traffic and still try to devote in dividual attention to each student. In the past, students have com plained of being rushed in and out of an adviser’s office. “These are natural problems dur ing pre-registration,” said Lynn Zim merman, assistant to the dean of the business college. “If it takes an hour to solve one person’s problem, folks will just have to wait in line. Students also sometimes wait until the last minute to be advised, which creates a rush of business.” Zimmerman said he thinks the ad vising system for the business college is good, but that hiring more advis ers might improve it. He also thinks computerized registration would help. “The system was adequate for a school of 10,000. Now that there’s 36,000, I think it’s time to go to an on-line interactive computing system for registration,” he said. Dr. Candida Lutes, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said she doesn’t think there is a problem with the academic advising system. “But no system is foolproof, ’ she said. “I think it should periodically be reviewed. ” A Faculty Senate planning sub committee is studying ways to im prove student advising at A&M. The subcommittee on academic advising was formed in response to a letter from President Frank Van diver requesting “a sound, thorough and objective study of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing across-the-boards state of the aca demic advising system.” The nine-member subcommittee consists of representatives from each college, and one student representa- tive. Dr. Mark Busby, co-chairman of the subcommittee, described it as “a mixture of researchers and deans who wea k with advisers.” Busby said the group’s first task will be to see how advising varies from college to college. The second task, he said, is to study other schools’ advising sys tems. Busby said a Student Senate random sample questionnaire sent out in October to 1,000 students contained a question asking students for their opinions on the advising system. The answers will be com piled by Nov. 16. he said. He said he is concerned about the advisers' opinions of the system. The subcommittee plans to develop a questionnaire for the advisers. “I don’t know for sure if this is the case,” Busby said, “but, for example, some advisers may feel that they are , not getting enough of a reward for it, in terms of course relief or salary See ADVISOR, page 5