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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1985)
. ■: |l| '''■'s'',' Ipl^uclget cuts- needed 10 ts -ceive tedl i distri ;:: : ;4<,.: ^^ (0M t'$ ' ':<wi j ^m| A&M edges by Tech Ags win first SWC game at home , : .i Page 9 - ( 11 said, ml e ordettjl • butonl)! am viobj The Dattalion ntorc 80 No. 83 US PS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, January 24, 1985 Reagan waiting for Soviet response to start arms talks is Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Reagan said Wednesday he is wait ing For the Kremlin to reply to a U.S. proposal to meet in Geneva in early arch for a new round of nuclear arms talks, but he added he doesn’t believe the Soviets are dragging their feet. “We have only recently settled on a date that we thought would be sat isfactory to us,” Reagan told The As sociated Press in the first interview of his new term. Asked why something seemingly so simple should take weeks to re solve, Reagan said, “We just haven’t had an answer yet.... “Obviously if there is some reason that’s not satisfactory to them, we’ll continue trying to find a date.” Two weeks ago, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign The president said "there just is no way of knowing" whether the uncertainty about Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko's heahh will affect the outcome of the talks. Minister Andrei A. Gromyko met in Geneva and agreed the two nations would resume discussions on reduc ing intermediate and long-range nu clear weapons and would begin talks on how to prevent an arms race in space. But tne date and place for the three-point talks were to be deter mined later, hopefully within a month. The president said “there just is no way of knowing” whether the un certainty about Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko’s health will affect the outcome of the talks. But observing that there have been as many Soviet presidents since he took office as there were in the preceding 48 years, Reagan said, “The long periods of ill health and so forth obviously had to have an ef fect” on Kremlin decision-making during his first term. In the wide-ranging, 25-minute discussion in the Oval Office, Rea gan also said: • He has been “discussing ways of capping” the fees doctors and hospi tals charge Medicare patients in an effort to hold down the rising costs of the Medicare program for the el derly and disabled. He said doctors would be free to stop serving Medi care patients if they wish, adding that government social programs have discouraged physicians from providing free medical care to the poor on their own initiative. • He believes the nation’s farm ers should return to a free-market system uncontrolled by federal sub sidy programs. But he said the ad ministration’s plan to phase out farm price supports will be done in incre ments so as not to “instantly pull that rug out” from under them. • There would be “great difficul ties” in openly aiding Nicaraguan re bels, because that would constitute an act of war under international law. May graduates start work now One worker takes the high beam and the other takes the low as they assemble safety railing along high walkways of the Engineering/Physics Building. By SARAH OATES Staff Writer Spring commencement is four months away, but seniors must turn in their applications for graduation by 5 p.m. Feb. 1. Assistant registrar Don Gardner said the early deadline gives the admissions office time to order diplomas and check them. “We have to order so many diplo mas,” Gardner said. “Then we can start checking them. That’s why we have an early deadline.” Gardner said he could not esti mate how many students will apply for spring graduation. He said the degree check office will begin con tacting students about problems with applications “around April 1.” “Transfer work and grade changes within the system are the most common problems,” he said. Students may be blocked for un- ' paid parking tickets or if they owe money to Student Financial Aid or the fiscal office. Gardner said the clear list for graduating seniors will be posted outside Heaton Hall at 8 a.m. May 1. Students have until noon the following day to clear up any problems. A red dot next to a senior’s name means he has a fiscal or academic block that must be cleared. If the block is fiscal, the transcript office will not mail out a student’s tran script. If the block is academic, he may not be allowed to graduate. Mary Smith, of the fiscal office, said letters informing seniors of blocks are sent out “as soon as possi ble after we get the list of who’s graduating.” “Sometimes it’s two weeks before graduation, sometimes it’s only 10 days,” she said. Undergraduate applications for graduation are available in 105 Heaton. Graduate students can ap ply at 125 Teague Research Center. Photo by ANTHONY S. CASPER Lisa Combest orders graduation announcements. Seniors must pay a $15 diploma fee before they apply. Gardner said , seniors who did not pay the fee when they preregistered can do so at possible, the fiscal office. Marjorie Patke, acting supervisor for the MSC Student Financial Center, located in 217 Memorial Student Center, suggested that students or der their announcements as soon as “We need to see a paid fee slip or a receipt from the fiscal office when they come in to apply,” he said. The deadline for ordering grad uation announcements is Feb. 7. “Orders are coming in steadily,” she said. “Students shouldn't wait until the last day because they have to decide what kind of announce ments they want and how many to order.” Charles Gentry, assistant manager of the MSC Bookstore, said caps and gowns will go on sale early in April. They can be purchased up to the day of graduation, he said. Preparing for graduation makes their last semester a hectic time for many seniors. However, there is one thing this year’s graduates do not have to worry about: seniors are exempt from final exams until Spring 1988. xand bar 985 CAST" IVE snd- her-oT Special ind odeled iages tDEM Pit rEii Women should be encouraged to join band Student Senate passes resolution By JERRY OSLIN Staff Writer After debating for more than an hour Wednesday night, the Texas A&M Student Senate passed a reso lution recommending women should not be discouraged to join the Texas Aggie Band “There shouldn’t be any discrimi nation against women at tnis univer sity,” Senator Brian Hay said. “It’s a continuing struggle against discrimination for women at this university. Women have proved they can handle being in the Corps so they should be allowed in the band.” Mike Cook, vice president of Rules and Regulations differed with Hay. “The student government hasn’t worked with the Corps of Cadets or the student body on this issue and if we pass this resolution we will not be looking out for the best interest of the students,” Cook said. “We should be looking out for students’ best interest and not try to show how liberal and open-minded we are.” Eric T'hode, speaker pro tempore of the senate, said student govern ment is supposed to represent the students at Texas A&M and the ma jority of students are overwhelm ingly against having women in the band. Sen. James Cleary disagreed with T'hode. “I don’t think we should represent the majority when the majority acts with prejudice and fear,” Cleary said. “We should follow our con science and do what we think is right.” In other business, student body President David Alders said the Uni versity is becoming more research oriented and student government should be committed to making sure that the student’s education is the university’s main concern “The quality of students will even tually tell people what kind of uni versity Texas A&M is,” Alders said. Shuttle readied for delayed launch Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The Florida deep freeze that grounded space shuttle Discovery for 24 hours ended Wednesday and crews read ied the ship with its intriguing mili tary cargo for launching at an unan- nouncecl time Thursday afternoon. “No freezing temperatures are ex pected locally tonight,” a National Aeronautics and Space Administra tion statement said. “The weather outlook for tomorrow is favorable.” The Kennedy Space Center was closed to the public even though the launch was still a day away. NASA spokesmen, under orders to say nothing that might remotely violate security rules, issued a statement late Wednesday saying only that activities leading to the launch “are proceeding normally.” As the daytime temperature climbed into the 50s, a small band of protesters stood outside the center with signs reading “Weaponizing outer space is irresponsible,” and “Keep the heavens undefiled.” On the launch tower, plumbers replaced leaking nozzles and burst valves in the firefighting equipment. If everything continues to go well, Discovery will be launched on its se cret mission between 1:15 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. today with a crew of five, all military men. The temperature is forecast to be between 58 degrees and 64 degrees after an overnight low of 36 degrees. Officials said the postponement, ordered shortly before midnight Tuesday, proved to be a wise pre caution. “As the night progressed, our concerns were borne out,” said spokesman Jim Ball. “Although the temperature only went down to 30 degrees, the humidity was much higher than expected. The consen sus of experts is that we would have had an ice problem had we contin ued on to propellant loading.” Rollins: Corps has pulled together By KIRSTEN DIETZ Staff Writer In a report to the Board of Re gents’ Corps of Cadets Enhance ment Committee Wednesday, Corps of Cadets Commander Chuck Rollins recommended no action be taken to restructure or discipline the Corps. Rollins said he thought the Corps had pulled together to iron out problems re sulting from the Aug. 30 death of cadet Bruce Goodrich. Goodrich died following an off-hours exercise session. Rollins’ report dealt with the steps the Corps leadership has taken since Goodrich’s death. After Goodrich’s death, Rollins said he sent out a Committee of 12 officers to talk to cadets and de termine their feelings on Corps matters. The committee found that the biggest problem was the lack of enforcement of existing Corps policies, Rollins said. He also said written policies had been reviewed. A few that Rollins said could be construed as acts of hazing, such as quadding, were dropped. He said Corps commandant Col. Donald L. Burton has em phasized he will not tolerate any hazing or the abuse of authority under the penalty of dismissal from the University. Burton also made sure the cadets were in formed of the rights they have if they are hazed. “I think he did a very good job of getting the point across,” Roll ins said.” At the end of the fall semester, the 12 committee members again met with Rollins and Burton. “Without a doubt we have no ticed the policies being followed and enforced,” Rollins said. Burton agreed and reiterated that the Corps chain of command should not be restructured. Texas A&M University Presi dent Frank E. Vandiver said, “At the time I believe that the Corps is more mature than it was before the Goodrich incident and feel it will continue to go that way.”