The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 01, 1985, Image 1
■ ■ Space research ft# JJf: A8cM to work with NASA industry Pag©3 Sports events ■ Oorftuotiohto be Pill : : 11 - . S '"' ^ ' > ."V-" - ‘ t lifM Wl <?. 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