The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 01, 1985, Image 1

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The Battalion
Vol. 80 No. 87 CJSPS 045360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, February 1, 1985
Burning the Mid-night Oil
Photo by MICHAEL DA VIS
Even though the spring semester began just two weeks ago,
Sterling C. Evans Library shows activity during the week-
nights. The library is open Monday through Thursday 7:30
a.m. until midnight; Friday 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.; Satur
day 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.; and Sunday noon until mid
night.
Bryan mayor dedicates time to A&M
Blatchley decides not to run
By KIRSTEN DIETZ
Staff Writer
Bryan Mayor Ron Blatchley, who
announced Wednesday he would
not run for a second term, said
Thursday he plans to become reac
quainted with his wife and friends
and “give the University all the time
that I can since they gave so much to
me.”
Blatchley also is director of Stu
dent Affairs at T exas A&M.
“While two years doesn’t seem
very long, if you do things like I do
—full speed—then two years can be
a very long time,” he said.
Blatchley said the time was right
to step down.
“I feel very strongly that too often
people get trapped into politics by
beginning to assume that they’re in
dispensable,”, he said. “I think we get
an inflated opinion of our worth,
and then, all of a sudden, we get
caught up in that world.
“While you start out saving and
knowing you don’t want to be a poli
tician, more and more things come
down the pike, there are more and
more exceptions, and the more and
more involved you get. All of a sud
den you’re a politician, and I don’t
want to be.”
Also, he said, all of the goals he set
out to accomplish are finisned or un
derway. Blatchley believes the major
project during his term was the pas
sage of the $31 million bond pack
age passed in January 1984. He also
cited the filling of Municipal Lake,
park improvements and the wid
ening of 29th Street.
But, he said, “No single individual
does anything and certainly no
mayor does. It takes a unified effort
of a fine council and a fine city staff
to accomplish anything. I personally
have not accomplished a single
thing. We together are beginning to
make progress, though.”
Blatchley said the biggest chal
lenge that will face the new mayor
will be to build on what has been ac
complished.
“I think we’ve begun to rejuvenate
a sense of pride, community and
maybe even accomplishment,” he
said. “That’s something I felt to be
terribly lacking over the past years.”
Balancing two jobs was hard at
times, but Blatchley said he tried to
avoid conflict. He credits an under
standing and helpful staff in the stu
dent affairs department and said he
worked lots of nights and weekends.
“There are no hours to Student
Affairs,” he said. “It’s nights, week
ends, holidays and everything else.
The same is true of being mayor.
“I tried not to lose sight of the fact
that the University pays my salary. I
felt like I needed to get my job done
here first and foremost andf then do
the other.”
Student Affairs director since
1979, Blatchley said many of the
skills he learned as director have
helped him as mayor, such as orga
nizing time, dealing with people and
organizational problems and devel
oping a sense of timing.
As director, Blatchley said his big
gest challege now is preparing for
proposed budget cuts.
Weinberger blocks missile purchase
Cast estimates have more than doubled: with each mis
sile now projected to cost more than $400,000. The Air
Force and the Navy had hoped to purchase 24,000 mis-
sites. 5 '' ' V' '
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Defense Sec
retary Caspar W. Weinberger is
blocking the purchase of a new Air
Force missile system until the service
can find some way to control sky
rocketing costs soaring into the bil
lions.
Weinberger’s decision, summa
rized in a memo written earlier this
week by his top deputy, William H.
Taft IV, not only delays acqusition of
the AMRAAM missile but suggests
there is a possibility the program
might ac tually be canceled.
While the order also left open the
option of starting acquisition of the
new air-to-air missile late this sum
mer if its problems can be fixed, it
said the Air ,Force should consider
the feasibility of a more cost-effec
tive solution.
AMRAAM—the Advanced Me
dium Range Air-to-Air Missile—has
been under development since 1981
and purchases were to have begun
this year. Designed by the Hughes
Aircraft Go., it is supposed to be
come the super missile of the 1990s
for Air Force as well as Navy jet
fighters, capable of knocking enemy
fighters out of the sky at long range.
As proposed, a fighter pilot could
use the radar on his plane to detect
enemy aircraft at long distances. He
w'ould then “fire and forget” the
AMRAAM toward the enemy plane,
with the missile using its own small
radar to home in on the enemy
plane.
The program has been plagued
by development problems and con
tract overruns. Cost estimates have
more than doubled, with each mis
sile now projected to cost more than
$400,000. The Air Force and Navy
together hope to acquire roughly
24,000 of the missiles at a cost pro
jected to exceed $10 billion.
Weinberger’s decision, as summa
rized in Taft’s memo, directed the
Air Force to establish a committee
“to define and evaluate the feasibil
ity of alternative methods for reduc
ing AMRAAM production costs.”
In the meantime, all purchases
“will be deferred until the Air Force
can show that AMRAAM produc
tion costs have been contained,” the
memo concluded.
Scott Rayburn, a spokesman for
Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles, said
company officials had not seen the
Taft memo or been contacted by the
Air Force on the matter.
Cuadra gets
guilty verdict
for tampering
By DAINAH BULLARD
Staff Writer
A six-woman jury Thursday deliv
ered a verdict of guilty of tampering
with evidence to Gabriel Cuadra, a
former Texas A&M cadet.
The jury also decided on a $500
fine and a jail term to be decided by
the court at a later date, with proba
tion recommended for both punish
ments.
The verdict ended a two-day trial
in which Cuadra was charged with
tampering with evidence in connec
tion with the Aug. 30 death of Bruce
Dean Goodrich.
Cuadra testified that on the morn
ing of Aug. 31 he tore up a roster
that listed the exercises required
during the exercise session con
ducted for Goodrich and John Mc
Intosh. Both cadets were “frogs” —
new sophomore members of Com
pany F-l. The session was conducted
by three junior members of F-1.
Cuadra said the list contained
Corps terms that would be misun
derstood by people not in the Corps,
so he destroyed the list to protect nis
outfit and the Corps from further
bad publicity.
“I wantea to protect F-l and the
Corps of Cadets from any other
abuse by the media,” Cuadra said.
Cuadra said he told University Po
lice about the list in a voluntary
statement given the morning of
Aug. 30. About 8 a.m. on Aug. 31,
he was awakened by Will Scott, a de
tective from University Police, who
requested the list, Cuadra said. He
told Scott he didn’t have the list, but
would find it. Then in the next hour,
he read several incorrect newspaper
reports on the incident, he said.
“I went the first time, and did not
find it (the list),” Cuadra said.
“I went back to my room and read
the newspaper articles. I read seve
ral articles about the incident, and
they were all mistaken.
“All these people were running
around with papers, saying Took
what this paper printed, look what
that paper printed, can you believe
what’s in this?’”
Cuadra said he didn’t find the list
until John Havel, former com
mander of F-l, returned from class.
When Havel gave him the list, he
tore it up, Cuadra said.
When Scott called back about 9
a.m., Cuadra told him the list had
been destroyed. He told Havel to tell
the Tricon he (Cuadra) had de
stroyed the list, he said.
Cuadra said he instructed An
thony D’Alessandro, who wrote the
original list, to reconstruct the list af
ter the Trigon requested a duplicate.
Cuadra later presented the recons
tructed list at the conclusion of the
Sept. 28 grand jury investigation.
“They (Trigon officials) under
stood completely why I had thrown
it (the list) away,” Cuadra said.
“They said it’d be of asset- to them
to have a copy.”
Cuadra said he never intended to
keep evidence from the University
Police.
“My intent was to keep those
words out of the newspapers,” he
said. “I in no way wantea to hide the
list from the police. It never entered
my mind.”
The jury also listened to
statements from Cuadra recorded
during the grand jury investigation.
On the tape, Cuadra said he be
lieved that Goodrich, a champion
tennis player, was in excellent physi
cal condition. The exercises listed
for Goodrich and McIntyre to per
form were the same exercises rou
tinely performed by other cadets, he
said on tape.
“In my opinion, what happened
that night is not severe m any way,”
Cuadra said on the tape . “We could
not routinely conceive of anything
happening to anybody.”
During testimony, defense attor
ney Henry Paine pointed to four ca
dets in the courtroom and asked
Cuadra how he felt about them.
“I love them with all my heart,”
Cuadra said.
Paine then asked Cuadra if he
loved Texas A&M.
“With all my heart,” he replied.
But during final arguments,
County Attorney Jim Kuboviak said
loyalty was not a defense for destroy
ing the list.
“When you look at the law, no way
does it say that it is a defense to do it
(break the law) for your friends, for
love,” Kuboviak said.
The jury deliberated for two
hours before returning the guilty
verdict. After the veredict was an
nounced, both Kuboviak and Paine
asked the jury to recommend proba
tion.
“Any punishment you decide on
will not outweigh what Gabe has al
ready gone through,” Paine said.
Kuboviak agreed with Paine’s
statement.
“I believe what Mr. Paine said,
that we do have a salvageable young
man, with a future ahead of him,”
Kuboviak said. “I’ve searched my
soul, and I think that probation is
the best option for this young man.”
Cuadra still faces a charge of
hazing in connection with Good
rich’s death. D’Alessandro, Jason
Miles and Louis Fancher III (former
junior members of F I) also face
charges of hazing and criminally
negligent homicide.
Yippie/Yuppie ideas collide in debate at A&M
Abbie Hoffman
By ANN CERVENKA
Staff Writer
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin,
two radical activists of the 1960s, de
bated in Rudder Theater Thursday
on the extreme differences between
the Youth International Party (Yip-
pies) of the 60s and the Young Ur
ban Professionals (Yuppies) of the
80s.
The two men, co-founders of YIP,
were famous in the 1960s for their
radical tactics protesting American
political policy and the Vietnam
War.
However, in 1982, Rubin joined
the “establishment” that he had op
posed for many years.
As an entrepreneur, Rubin em
phasizes the importance of capital
ism with a social conscious. He said
our challenge is to use capitalism to
form a positive society by eliminat
ing social problems.
“Why stay around in the sandbox
of the 60s when you can be in the
White House of the 80s,” Rubin said.
“I have evolved; I am an entrepre
neur.”
However, Ronald Reagan rep
resents the 19th century, Rubin said.
“He is not a friend of the entrepre
neur.”
He predicts that the Yuppies will
be the dominant electoral force in
1988.
“The Yuppies will elect the presi
dent of the United States in 1988,”
he said.
Too much emphasis is placed on
Yuppies as consumers, he said. “I
see tnem as achievers. There’s noth
ing wrong with enjoying life,” Rubin
said.
“Our future is going to be greater
than our past. Abbie Hoffman is still
living in the past. I respect him as an
activist, however his message to this
generation and to you is a message
in the past.”
Hoffman, in his introduction, said
“I want to thank Texas A&M for
doing to the Longhorns what I plan
to do to my opponent tonight.”
Hoffman began his attack on Ru
bin by saying “not all of us have em
braced that materialistic consumer
world with the gusto of Jerry Ru
bin.”
Hoffman has changed as well. He
used to be famous for his statement
of not trusting anyone over 30.
“It’s people under 30 I don’t trust
these days,” he said. “The campuses
of America have turned into great
hotbeds of social rest. The life at
Texas A&M is about as exciting as
hospital food.”
Hoffman said he is not against
entrepreneurship, but not everyone
has the “recipe” for it. Many people
are becoming wealthy, out the
United States still faces social prob
lems, he said.
Hoffman said the Yuppies are a
myth. “Only a small percent of the
baby-boom generation are actually
young urban professionals,” he said.
“As a society of 250 million people,
we are not going to make it one by
one. We are going to have to work
collectively.”
Hoffman encouraged people to
think about social problems such as
world hunger, but to work on a local
level. His emphasis is on the “we”
generation, instead of the “me” gen
eration.
At the end of the debate, audience
members asked questions of the two
men, resulting in shouts from stu
dents and arguments between Hof
fman and Rubin.
About 1,500 people attended the
debate.
Jerry Rubin