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I 1 ticpattalion
Vol. 80 No. 96 CJSPS 045360 16 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, February 14, 1985
Report: human rights
have made progress
Associated Press
I WASHINGTON —The State De
partment said Wednesday in its an
nual report on worldwide human
rights that “real progress” was made
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
It also stated that the “most serious”
problems of political repression oc
curred in the Soviet bloc.
■ Elliott Abrams, the assistant secre
tary for human rights and humani
tarian affairs, said, “The only signifi-
cant overall trend is the trend
toward improvement in the Western
Hemisphere.”
■ Over the last five years, nine
Countries have shifted front
dictatorship to democracy in the
hemisphere while “zero countries
have gone from democracy to
dictatorship. That’s a very impres
sive trend.”
I The 1,453-page report, which is
mandated by Congress and has been
issued annually since 1977, covers
conditions in 164 countries through
the end of 1984 and, in some cases,
early 1985.
H Although the report praised the
rights records in most democratic
countries, the situation in Uganda,
one of Africa’s few parliamentary
democracies, was described as
“grave,” with tens of thousands re
ported killed as a result of insurgent
terrorism and government coun
termeasures.
Other countries singled out for
unusually harsh appraisals were Al
bania, where the situation was said to
be “exceptionally bad,” with “ex
tremely fiarsh prison conditions,”
and North Korea, described as “one
of the most highly regimented and
controlled” nations in the world.
Asserting that objectivity was a
key goal, the report said “while the
Soviet bloc presents the most serious
long-term human rights problem,
we cannot let it falsely appear that
this is our only human rights con
cern.”
According to the report, “Soviet
performance in the realm of human
rights fails to meet accepted interna
tional standards. The regime’s com
mon response to efforts to exercise
freedom of expression is to incarcer
ate those concerned in prisons, labor
camps or psychiatric hospitals.”
Abrams ^said there was a “further
crackdown” on religious activity in
the Soviet Union last year. Among
the groups targeted, he said, were
Catholics, Pentacostalists, Baptists
and Jews.
The report also found that in
Vietnam, a close Soviet ally, “perva
sive” controls are maintained over
the citizenry and Hanoi bears some
responsibility for executions and
other abuses in neighboring Cambo
dia, where more than 150,000 Viet
namese forces are stationed.
The report called democracy “the
surest, safeguard of human rights”
and said it was “encouraging” to see
“real progress” coming about in the
strengthening of democratic institu
tions, particularly in Latin America
and the Caribbean.
President Reagan has said, the re
port noted, that 90 percent of the
people of those regions live in na
tions either democratically governed
or moving in that direction.
Study says efforts to move
boor out of inner cities fail
Associated Press
I DALLAS — Over the past 11
years, Congress has appropriated
more than $223 billion on grants
and programs designed to help the
poor escape from urban ghettos into
suburban public housing.
But the inner cities have been
shored up by racial discrimination,
politics, poor program design and
inadequate enforcement of federal
regulations, the Dallas Morning
News found during a 14-month in
vestigation of federal housing poli
cies.
George Romney, who took charge
of the nation’s housing programs in
1969, said in a recent interview the
traditional residents of the inner cit
ies have found it difficult to move to
the suburbs of major American cit
ies.
Robert C. Embry Jr., who man
aged the Carter administration’s ef
forts to move the poor out of ghet
tos, said,“The neighborhoods won’t
accept it.”
The Census Bureau’s most recent
figures, based on 1980 data, indicate
that in the nation’s 100 largest cities,
41.4 percent of low-income whites
lived in poverty-dominated areas.
The figures also show that 73.8 per
cent of low-income Hispanics and
82.9 percent of low-income blacks
lived in such ghetto areas.
Photo by JOHN MAKELY
Will You Be Mine?
Sully was given a rose by some admirer late Wednesday af
ternoon in honor of Valentine’s Day. The holiday is cele
brated in memory of St. Valentine, who, in medieval times,
came to be associated with the union of lovers under duress
conditions.
Suit filed against A&M over probation dispute
By JERRY OSLIN
Stuff Writer
I Lawyers for a Texas A&M student
filed suit against the University Feb.
4 charging the school unjustly pun
ished the student for excessive park
ing tickets in retaliation for the stu
dent’s outspoken support of Gay
Student Services.
.Jg Tom Urban, vice president of
Academic Affairs in the A&M Stu
dent Senate, was quoted in the Oct. 6
issue of the Bryan-College Station
Kagle as saying, “We hope the reso
lution will make the Board (Texas
A&M’s Board of Regents) look be
yond their own bigotries and accept
GSS.” His comments came after the
Senate passed a resolution support
ing the GSS.
Urban, a senior aerospace engi
neering major from Gollege Station,
was placed on conduct probation by
the University on Nov. 27. A letter
from Brent Paterson, Judicial Af
fairs Supervisor for Student Serv
ices, informed Urban he was placed
on conduct probation for accumulat
ing “an excessive number of unpaid
parking violations” and a failure to
“register the vehicle with the U.P.D.”
Bob Wiatt, director of Security
and Traffic, said having more than
nine parking tickets is excessive.
Urban said he received 16 park
ing tickets during the fall semester
Tom Urban
but paid them on Nov. 7 and bought
a parking sticker on Nov. 14.
The suit also says Urban received
12 parking tickets during the Spring
1984 semester but paid them in
March. It also says that no discipli
nary action was taken against him.
“By putting Tom Urban on con
duct probation for parking tickets,
the University has chosen to punish
him for his outspoken support of the
Gay Student Services,” said LIrban’s
lawyer, Beatrice Mladenka-Fowler.
“The University is denying Tom his
first amendment rights.”
This is the first time an A&M stu
dent has been put on conduct proba
tion for having too many parking
tickets, Mladenka-Fowler said. She
said the University was using the
parking tickets as an excuse to get
back at Urban.
Under Article 50 of the University
regulations, a student on conduct
probation is considered “not in good
standing with the University.”
The student also is ineligible to
hold any elected or appointed office
of the University and is ineligible to
receive a University administered
scholarship. Notice of the probation
is also included in the student’s per
manent file.
Also, a student on conduct proba
tion who further violates any of the
See Suit, page 7
Women can
invite men
on dates, too
UNIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE
Put that special guy on the receiv
ing end of the hearts and flowers
this Valentine’s Day — it may not be
a bad strategy. That’s the indication
from research conducted by a Texas
A&M psychologist.
Dr. Charlene Muehlenhard, assis
tant professor of psychology, has
found women who have decided to
make the first move in dating situa
tions have nothing to lose with most
men, as long as they can face reject
ion.
Muehlenhard’s studies focus on
Woman-initiated dating, a fairly re
cent development in male-f emale re
lations and therefore relatively un
explored by researchers.
The studies have looked at a wide
range of variables in woman-ini
tiated dating, including the attitudes
of conservative vs. liberal men to
ward a woman asking them for a
date.
The study also looks at the ramifi
cations on the relationship and the
tone of the date when the woman
does the asking.
“I feel that this is new territory
I’m working in and I find that very
exciting,” Muehlenhard said.
After analyzing the results of sev
eral of her studies, Muehlenhard has
concluded a woman can ask a man
out with little risk as long as she can
take it if he says no.
“Some men commented that T’m
always the one to stick my neck out
and I’d like it if someone else would
do that for a change,’ or T’d be really
flattered,’ ” she said.
Men who tested out as conserva
tive (traditional) and those who
tested as liberal (non-traditional)
both said they would respond posi
tively to a woman who asked them
out if they liked her and wanted to
date her in the first place.
In fact, many said they would not
ask out a woman they liked and
wanted to date unless she gave them
some kind of positive signal. If they
did not want to date her, they would
not ask her out, signal or no signal.
The studies, which were con
ducted at the University of Wiscon-
sin-Madison and A&M, showed that
about half of the men wanted the
woman to ask them out and half
wanted her to give them a hint that
she would like to date them. Almost
none wanted the woman to wait for
the man to make the first move.
Only four percent of those same
men said they would ask a woman
out if she waited for them to take the
initiative.
About 66 percent said they would
respond by talking to her more often
and 30 percent said they would not
indicate any interest in a woman un
less she gave them some kind of en
couragement.
The only problem Muehlenhard
has found with a woman taking the
initiative is that some men may get
too “turned on” by it.
Parking a problem for Southwest schools
j Editor's Note: This is the first arti
cle in a two-part series on parking
'problems and solutions at Texas
A&M and other Southwest Confer
ence schools.
By TRENT LEOPOLD
Staff Writer
Traffic officials at Southwest Con
ference universities agree parking
problems exist partially because peo
ple don’t like to walk from outlying
parking lots to the inner-campus
area.
And the biggest parking problems
of all SWC schools seem to be at
Texas A&M and the University of
Texas.
Texas A&M has issued more traf
fic tickets than any other school in
the SWC during the past two years.
Texas A&M also has a lack of close-
in spaces, but recent improvements
such as the intra-campus bus route
has helped alleviate the parking
problem.
Ray James, the head of parking
and traffic at UT, says he hears com
plaints too often about the parking
there.
“One of the biggest parts of my
job is hearing all of the complaints
from everybody who isn’t satisfied
with the parking situation,” he says.
“Of course our bus system helps alle
viate much of the problem, but when
you have 45,000 students, you will
have problems.
“It’s just that people are basically
lazy and don’t want to walk very far.”
Traffic officials at Texas Tech
University in Lubbock feel they have
one of the better parking facilities in
the nation and plan to continue im
proving their current parking situa
tion.
Bob Suliigan, traffic and parking
coordinator at Texas Tech, says the
school is fortunate because all of its
parking spaces are strategically lo
cated. Texas Tech has 4,764 re
served parking spaces, 3,799 dorm
parking spaces and 5,129 commuter
parking spaces.
“It is less than a five-minute walk
for faculty and staff from anywhere
on or around campus,” Suliigan
says. “The traffic flow is pretty good,
although we do have some bottle
neck areas.”.
See Parking, page 5
Parking comparisons for Southwest Conference
A&M
Texas
Rice
Baylor
SMU
Houston
Tech
TCU
Arkansas
Student
enrollment
33,859
45,281
3,500
10,800
8,845
31,095
21,633
6,503
13,982
Number of
parking spaces
16,292
10,308
8,000
4,600
6,500
11,851
13,692
5,000
17,000
Average price
per year for
student permits
Average price
per year for
faculty/staff permits
$69
$11
free
$35
$40
$38
. $22
$10
$10
$83.40
^ $38
free
free
$40
$63
$38
$40
$60
Approximate number
of traffic tickets
issued per year
108,000
78,000
20,000
25,000
no record
91,000
45,000
55,000
54,000
Shuttle bus system
yes
yes
yes
night only
special
events only
yes
yes
no
yes