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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1985)
A&M gets gift of coal Village of Hope appreciates help Page8 mr Ag cagers at home TCU comes calling Saturday night Page 11 Mn«TexasA&M m m W • The Battalion Vol. 80 No. 97 USP$ 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Friday, February 15, 1985 White denies accusation he ‘sells seats’ Gov. Mark White Associated Press AUSTIN — Gov. Mark White, al ready under fire from some Demo cratic: senators over appointments to key boards and commissions, angrily denied Thursday that political con tributors get any special consider ation. “None,” White said when asked what part campaign contributions play in appointments. Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan, this week complained White first led him to believe a candidate Caperton favored for the Texas A&M Board of Regents would be appointed, then passed him over. During his weekly news confer ence, White, a Democrat, said he never misled Caperton and was ‘ very dismayed” by a speech in which Caperton told White he could find someone else to push his fa vored legislation. At that point. White was asked whether political contributions had any impact on his decisions. Then reporter Carole Kneeland of Dallas’ WFAA-TV, asked: “What about the accusation that you sell seats ...” White interrupted, demanding, “Who said that? Who’s ever said that?” “Some reporters in my shop in Dallas,” Kneeland replied. “Well they’re damn wrong,” White said. “They’re absolutely wrong. I don’t know what contribu tions any of those people gave me.” Earlier Thursday, the Senate voted 28-0 to confirm three White nominees as University of Texas sys tem regents. The three were Austin lawyer Shannon Ratliff, who has been trea surer of White’s 1982 gubernatorial campaign committee; Houston oil company executive Jack Blanton and oilman W.F. Roden of Midland. On Monday, Caperton, whose Senate district includes A&M, charged that White and his staff mis led the lawmaker into believing Ca- perton’s former law partner, Don Mauro of Bryan, would be one of DC overcrowding not bad, but sti 11 there, attorney says Associated Press HUN1SV1I.UF — An attorney [lor the Texas Department of Cor- lections said prison overcrowding is ■no longer “that dramatic,’ but an at torney for the inmates said FIX Inis Jhad plenty of time to correct the ■problem. 1 A report outlining overcrowding [was prepared b\ special master V in ■rent Nathan, who was appointed by IF.S. District Judge William Wa/m [Justice to monitor prison reforms [ Justice,- wiro ordered the ma&Krve Ichanges, has told prison offln. is to ■provide at least 40 square feet of liv ling space for each ol the state’s [37,000 inmates. William Bennett Turner, an attor ney representing the inmates, said there “should not have been any vio lations” of Justice’s order. However, according to Nathan’s report, 88 inmates living in the Go- ree Unit in Huntsville had only 29 t square feet of space for each inmate. Some units had 57 square feet of space, but were considered over crowded because they require more space to make them habitable. A dormitory at the Ellis Unit in Him' s-vifie bad ,96 inmates, one above the capacity level. Steve Martin, chief attorney for the prison system, said Nathan found 26 dormitories in seven" prison units “exceeded the TDC maximum capacity,” but some facili ties had more than the required 40- square-foot space. “Given the number of dorms and the number of inmates, there w'ere nor that many non-compliance in stances,” Martin said. “ And those are not dramatic instances of non-com pliance. Just a few beds over the number.” Martin said the: instances of tri/er crowding “may also be a case of poor reporting by us or temporary in stances of having one or two inmates too many.” ’Big KKYS' raises over $10,000; |morethan 2,400 participate By DAINAH BULLARD Stuff Writer It was Midnight Yell Practice at [Kyle Field last night, complete with a [band, Reveille V, Aggie yells and lots ol kissing. But the “practice" started [at 9:50 p.m., the band was Four [Hants on Rye, and the kissing was for the Muscular Dystrophy Assooia Ition. More than 2,400 people paid leach to participate in “The IKKYS,” an MDA fund raising pi sponsored by KKYS Radio, $5 Big Texas A&M University Student Government, Resident Hall Associa tion and Corps of Cadets Squadrons 5, 6, 14 and 17, When the gates opened at 8:30 p.m. the line stretched from, the north end of Kyle Field to Joe Routt Boulevard and snaked around the Aggie Club, a nearby parking lot, G. Rollie White Coliseum and East Kyle. One hour and fifteen minutes later, the “line” had formed a heart shape 56 yards wade on Kyle Field. The goal of the Kyle Field kissers was to beat the 1981 record for kiss mg set by Oregon State University in 1981 when 1,100 couples kissed f< r three minutes. Vaughn Bryant head of the De partment of Anthropology, advised the crowd on the art of kissing be fore the three minute count began. Bryant, told participants how to posi tion their mouths, what to do with their tongues and how to avoid back- See Big, page 4 those the governor named an A&M regent. When Mauro wasn’t appointed Caperton said, “Not only did this governor choose to ignore my ad vice, but I had no input or consulta tion with regard to the two appoin tees who ultimately were named.” Criticism also came from Sens Chet Edwards, D-Duncanville and Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Ausdn. The governor said he has sought to be “very careful to make top-qual ity appointments.” Journalist free after 11 months in captivity Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria — American journalist Jeremy Levin, kidnapped 11 months ago in Beirut, escaped Thursday in apparent good health and will be turned over to the TJ.S. ambassador, the Syrian government said. The official Syrian News Agency reported late Thursday that Foreign Minister. Farouk ai-Sharaa sum moned U.S Ambassador William Eagleton and told him Levin had managed to escape from his captors in'Lebanon and would be turned over to the ambassador Friday morning at the Foreign Ministry in Damascus. The official report said Levin “es caped and arrived at a Syrian army position .in Lebanon,” but diet not elaborate. Earlier, the Syrian government had said it won Levin’s release through negotiations, but Levin — the Beirut bureau chief for Cable News Network — was quoted as say ing he fled from his captors and walked for two hours. He looks beautiful, Levin’s wife, Lucille, said in Washington after she was shown a news photograph of her husband with a beard, rumpled hair and a bewildered look on his lace. T he Syrian ambassador in Wash- mgton, Rafic Jouejati, said the re porter had been examined at a med ical center in Damascus and found to be well “1 fled toward midnight from the two-story villa where I was being held,” Levin was quoted. ‘I walked for two hours before hearing a clog and human voices. chools working to alleviate parking problems Photo by WA YNE L. GRABEIN Some students choose to gamble, parking illegally, rather than search for spots elsewhere as campus lots fill. By TRENT LEOPOLD Staff Writer Officials in charge of parking at Southwest Conference schools agree parking problems exist and are working on solutions to help alle viate those problems. Bob Wiatt, director of traffic and security at Texas A&M. says parking has improved and that money from traffic and parking tickets is being put in a reserve fund for f urther im provements. The money is used for parking lots, signs, busses and other traf f ic-related maintenance. ‘The new infra campus bus routes have helped ease the parking situation ” Wiatt says. We bought 12 extra busses last summer and started four new routes from outly ing parking areas into the main cam pus area.” Wiatt says a new' parkipg lot near the Meat Science and Technology Center will be completed this sum mer at a cost of $750,000. The lot will contain 7 i 8 parking spaces. Wiatt says although the average cost of parking here is higher than any other school in the Southv/est Conference the price is realistic. “If you want something you have to pay for it,” he says. ‘You can get cheaper parking in remote areas. If you w'ant to be conveniently parked it is a luxury item.” The 10-terminal computer system at A&M also has helped campus po lice keep track of students and fac ulty who have an excessive number of tickets. “Our computer system has helped our enforcement and increased rev “ If you Wcint something, you have to par fork. You can get. cheaper parking in remote areas, it vou want to be conveniently parked k is a luxury item." — Boh Wiatt, director ol traffic and security at A&M enue,’ he says, “at the same time we have been able to increase our reve nue without handing out an increas ing number of tickets.” Bob Sulligan. traffic and parking coordinator at Texas Tech Univer sity, says Texas Tech, officials re cently concluded a study addressing areas they feel have parking needs. An additional 436 parking spaces will be built this summer. “Oui biggest problem is near one resident hail where a lot of people want to park,’ he says. “Females liv ing in Horn. Knapp, Doak and Weeks dorms now have 345 parking spaces, and several students w'ho want permits to park there are on a waiting list.” A new lot to be built this summer will provide 100 new parking spaces for students in those dorms, Sulligan says. Also. 330 spaces in three com muter lots will be built this summer. Sulligan says a new' computer sys tem recently installed at the campus police station communicates with a computer in the registrar's office and helps police handle vehicle in formation more efficiently. “When a student gets a ticket and doesn’t pay it within 20 days, the computer automatically sends a mes sage to the registrar’s office,” he says “The registrar’s office then blocks the student from registering. The computer system also makes it easier for faculty to renew their parking permits — allowing them to mail money for the their permit to the station rather than standing in lint, he says. “Generailv the computer will help us tremendously in cutting down on the number of tickets po lice officers have to handle and the number of man-hours spent proc essing those tickets,” he says. “We haven t had any Haws in the system yet and we think it is working so well. We plan to install three more termi nals to extend its use. Revenue from traf fic and parking tickets at Texas Lech has increased by $32,000 since the system was in stalled, Sulligan says. Beck Beneze, the assistant dean of students at Texas Christian Univer sity, says no immediate solutions cur rently are being proposed for the parking situation there. “Our biggest problem is that the parking is so far from the main cam pus area," he says. “It isn’t that there is a lack of spaces, but just a lack of spaces close to the campus.” Beneze says he thinks if a shuttle bus ran from the parking area to the main campus it might help alleviate some of the problems but no plans currently are underway for such a system. Rice and Baylor University offi cials also fee! their biggest problems are with the distance people nave to walk to get to their on campus desti nations. E.B. Myre, director of the Depart ment of Public Safety at Baylor, and Mary Voswinkel, chief of the Rice LIniversity Police, both agree that enough parking spaces exist at the tw'o schools. But, they say students don’t like to walk the two blocks from their parking space to the cam pus. Joel Romo, of the University of Houston campus police, says if more people would car pool then the parking situation would ease. “We have a lot of people here that do car pool, but more people are needing to do the same thing,” Romo says. “If four people ride in the same cars instead of four sepa rate cars that would mean traffic on campus would decrease by about one-fourth.” Romo also feels the towing situa tion at UH can he improved. “W r e have a lot of people who complain because they get their cars towed to a holding tot severai miles from here, he says. “Wheel locks would solve that problem.” Southern Methodist University Police Lt. Richard Abshire says ef forts now are being made to provide handicapped students and faculty with adequate spaces, and to keep those spaces open. “Right now the SMU police are See PARKING, page 6