Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1985)
State funding cuts Caperton says he'll fight for A8cM •< ;• ; ^ s ‘ II— PV"V V Texas A&M W n % The B /ol. 80 No. 98 GSPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Monday, February 18, 1985 student insiders council seat By JERRY OSLIN Stuff Writer I A Texas A&M student said Sun- day he is “very strongly” considering running for a spot on the College Station City Council. 1 Michael Hachtman, a junior in dustrial distribution major f rom Dal las, said he is considering running Because students at A&M are not IJeally represented in the Council and that College Station needs to broaden its economic base. 8 Hachtman has been the Student 'Senate’s liason with the council for ■wo years. 8 Hachtman, 20, said three places on the council will open on April 6 but none of the incumbents will run. I “I will be the closest thing to an in cumbent in the election if I were to run,” he said. | Hachtman said he has received fa vorable feedback from people who know he is considering the job. I “After talking to me they realize . ■that I’m not some fly-by-night stu dent,” he said. “They know 1 have [ done my homework.” I Hachtman said the biggest prob lem facing the community is the need to diversify its economic base. I “The community is too dependant on A&M and on oil,” he said. “The oil glut has hurt College Station and the coming budget cuts for A&M will hurt it even more. We need to attract more business so w'e won’t be hurt as much.” Hachtman said he wants to rep resent the whole community and not just students. I “If I represented just the students of A&M, I would be alienating the rest of the community,” he said Photo by FRANK IR WIN Is It A Princess? Dr. John Koldus, vice president for student services, tried his magic at creating a princess by kissing a frog during halftime of the Texas A&M-TCU basketball game Saturday night. Koldus “won” McFadden Hall’s Kiss a Frog contest by collecting more money than any other participant. The money was donated to the American Cancer Society. Other contestants were David Alders, student body president; Kelly Joseph, head yell leader; Kevin Murray, an A&M football quarterback; and Miss Texas A&M Kim Walters. Artificial heart operation ‘routine’ third time around Associated Press ! LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Surgeons ■working with record speed gave ■ Murray P. Haydon the world’s third Jf|permanent artificial heart Sunday Hand expressed hope the 58-year-old Hretired autoworker will become the Vfirst recipient to make a full recov- ■ ery. “The heart is working perfectly ... phis vital signs are stable and every- ■ thing appears to be in great shape,” ■ said George Atkins, spokesman for ‘ Humana Heart Institute Interna- p tional. ; “He is not in danger” because i there is no sign of internal bleeding or other complication, Atkins said. But 1 he added, “You can’t say he’s out of danger” as long as he is in crit- H ical condition. At 9 pan., 9V-2 hours after the op- ■ eration finished, Atkins reported Haydon’s vital signs were stable and doctors were beginning to remove the respirator helping him breathe. “He is awake and aware and has moved all of his limbs,” Atkins said. Haydon regained consciousness around 6 p.m., said Robert Irvine, a Humana spokesman. Institute chairman Dr. Allan M. Lansing said Haydon, whose own heart was diseased and swollen, came through surgery with no sig nificant bleeding and required no blood transfusions. Surgery began at 7:47 a.m. and was completed by 11:30, when Hay don was taken from the operating room to intensive care, Atkins said. Doctors had predicted the operation would last five hours. The first artificial heart implant, in Barney Clark on Dec. 2, 1982, took 7 1 /2 hours. Schroeder was in 1st class letter mailing costs now 22 cents Associated Press WASHINGTON — The cost of mailing a letter rose this week end from 20 cents to 22 cents, the first increase in first-class postage in 3'/a years. Virtually all classes of mail were increasing in price by an amount similar to the 13 percent increase in first-class rates. Post cards rose from 13 cents to 14 cents and sending a package by parcel post increases 11.4 per cent. Overall, rates increase by about 9 percent. Postmaster General Paul Car lin has said he hopes the next rate increase will not be needed for three years or perhaps even longer. Libel suit against CBS terminated Associated Press NEW YORK — Retired Gen. Wil liam C. Westmoreland and CBS un expectedly agreed Sunday to “termi nate” his $120 million libel action against the network, a source close to the network’s case said. Citing unnamed sources close to the case, The Washington Post said lawyers for Westmoreland signed an agreement Sunday in New York to dismiss the long and complicated case. Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. ground forces in Vietmim, claimed that a 1982 CBS docu mentary libeled him by asserting he misrepresented enemy troop- strength figures to then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Post said “according to Pending budget cuts ‘trouble’ company Associated Press DALLAS — One of Texas’ biggest catches in the state’s ongoing effort to lure high-tech companies may not have taken the hook if it had known about pending cuts to university funding, the company chairman says. “Betrayal is too strong a term,” said Bobby Ray Inman, president of the new Microelectronics and Com puter Technology Corp., a consor tium of 20 corporations dedicated to a new generation of computer tech nology. “I am troubled.” When MCC decided two years ago to locate in Austin, the state’s power brokers heralded the news as the best thus far in Texas’ campaign to attract high-tech industry. But now there is some second- guessing by the company, Inman told The Dallas Morning News. Leg islative proposals to slash as much as 26 percent from spending on state universities are worrisome, he said. “If we were making the site selec tion decision for MCC in the spring of 1985 instead of the spring of 1983, I would have to think very carefully about whether I would rec ommend MCC coming to Texas,” Inman said. “There were other states — Michi gan — where a superb presentation was made by the governor and the presidents of the University of Mich igan and Michigan State,” Inman said. Unfortunately, Inman said, Mich igan’s governor also announced a major reduction in education fund ing at about the same time. Michigan “dropped off the list” of prospective sites, he said. Austin was chosen be cause of what was perceived to be the state’s unyielding commitment to higher ed ucation, Inman said. Legislators have been wrestling with a 1985-1987 budget shortfall of more than $1 billion since January, and the Legislative Budget Board recommended cuts in higher educa tion of about 26 percent to balance the budget. Since then, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby has proposed an alternative plan that would mean cuts of only 6 per cent to 10 percent. State officials said Inman’s crit icism is premature. After a discussion with Inman earlier this month, Gov. Mark White told the Texas Bankers Association that he told Inman the proposals are recommendations, not realities. To settle in Texas, Inman said MCtb was promised that the univer sities associated with its research would receive $15 million in en dowed university chairs in engi neering and the sciences, $5 million in new equipment, $1 million in dis cretionary research and devel opment funds and $750,000 a year for 10 years in grants to graduate students. Inman claims talk of funding cuts has already chased away faculty “su perstars” who want to come to 1 exas. The signal Texas is sending the rest of the nation about its commit ment to higher education is “poten tially damaging,” he said. Instead of slashing university funding, Inman suggested reduc tions in the number of state employ ees or a tax increase, “There were years before the great increase in oil prices when state legislatures had to increase taxes every year,” he said. Burger wants new court to ease case overload surgery for 6'/a hours. “This was a much more routine operation,” Lansing said. Haydon suffered from cardio myopathy, a progressive deteriora tion and swelling of the heart that left him unable to get out of bed and unable to leave the hospital for the past three weeks. Lansing said. The Jarvik 7 artificial heart, a metal and plastic assembly weighing two-thirds of a pound, is powered by a $40,000 external air compressor the size of a small refrigerator. For the rest of his life, Haydon must remain tethered to that drive system or to a smaller, battery-pow ered compressor the size of a camera bag that can allow him to live a rela tively normal life. Associated Press WASHINGTON — Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on Sunday urged Congress to create a new national court to help the Supreme Court cope with its “avalanche of cases.” “Years ago we passed any sensible limit on what the Supreme Court should be asked to do,” said Burger, the nation’s highest-ranking judge and one of nine Supreme Court members. Although aiming his message squarely at Congress, Burger trav eled to Detroit and used an Ameri can Bar Association convention as his forum. The text of his speech to the ABA was released here. Noting he has tried to obtain va rious forms of relief from Congress for more than a decade, Burger asked the ABA: “Why is it so diffi cult to grasp the reality that, just as we need more police and more courts to deal with automobile traffic than we did 75 years ago when there were very few automobiles, we need something more to deal with the av alanche of cases coming to the Su preme Court?” What Burger wants — and what Congress is considering — is cre ation of a so-called “intercircuit panel” that would field cases sent to it by the Supreme Court. As envisioned by Burger, the new court would be a five-year experi ment. It would sit in Washington four weeks a year, and have nine members — selected from the na tion’s 226 federal appeals court judges. Burger envisions the Supreme Court appointing one appeals judge from each of the 13 federal circuits — nine to sit on the new court and four as reserves. “Cases would continue to come from the courts of appeals to the Su preme Court, but the Supreme Court would have the option to refer cases involving circuit conflicts and interpretation of federal statutes to the intercircuit panel,” Burger said. He added that one-third of the 151 cases fully decided by the Su preme Court in each of its last two terms involved conflicting decisions among the 13 federal appeals or cir cuit courts. Of the 5,100 cases to reach the Su preme Court in its 1983-84 term, only 151 were chosen for lull study and signed decision. “If the panel took 30 to 50 cases off the Supreme Court calendar, that would obviously be of help,” he said. Blacks celebrate heritage Regaining religious zeal sources close to the case, some of Westmoreland’s friends, attorneys and financial backers suggested that he drop the case” following testi mony last week from retired Army Col. Gains B. Hawkins, who was the chief of the Order of Battle, a roster of enemy troop estimates in Viet nam. Hawkins testified that in 1967, Westmoreland had called higher enemy troop estimates “politically unacceptable.” According to The Post, “West moreland’s decision to withdraw, which CBS is expected to claim as a major victory, reportedly involves no apology by CBS concerning the broadcast and no agreement that the network pay settlement costs or at torneys fees.” By CATHIE ANDERSON Staff Writer “We’ve (black people have) come a mighty, mighty long way,” Bernice Hill, a member of the Galilee Bap-, tist Church, said Saturday night. Hill welcomed a crowd of about 150 people to “I Have a Dream,” a black heritage celebration that bene fited the Memorial Student Center Black Awareness Committee. The Voices of Praise, the gospel choir for Black Awareness, participated in the program at New Jerusa lem Baptist Church. “First we were ‘niggers,’ then we were ‘colored,’ then it was ‘Negro,’ then we were ‘black,’” Hill said. “And in case you clidn’t know that’s where we are today; we’re black. “Our people have done some great things. I think about when they (slaves) had to chop and pick cotton, and they couldn’t call the Lord’s name.” But now black people can do that, Hill said. They can serve, praise and sing about God. Hill said blacks have lost some of their religious fer vor. They need the “old” church again; they need to serve God, to thank him. That “old” church, which includes rituals and song, is an integral part of black heritage, Hill said. “My uncle is always telling us about how they went to church on Friday evening, Saturday evening and all day Sunday,” Deierdre Jimerson, a choir member, said. When older blacks talk about the “old” church, they mean more thanjust the condition of the building. ' The “old” church was a religious feast. People came to the church from miles around to lis ten to Bible reading and sing hymnals. They came on Friday and Saturday evenings, not for one hour but for several hours. People flowed out of the building, and windows were opened not only to let the air in but also to allow people outside to hear, Hill said. Church used to be the place to be, older relatives have said. The faith that brought black people to this point is the only thing that will take them further, Hill said. Many of the hymns black people sing today, she said, originated while slaves worked to pick and chop cotton. Their faith carried them through the day. Hill said. The “I Have a Dream” program also commemorated the religious faith of Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights leader of the 1960s. King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washing ton D.C., was re-read by Bishop D.C. Moore of the Church of the Living God. “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and ev ery city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are f ree at last!’ ” Moore read. The Voices of Praise also participated in a “Musical Extragavanza” the same evening at New Jerusalem Baptist Church. They sang with four other groups, in cluding the Spiritualettes, the Voices of Joy, and the Annointed Gospelaires. Money from both programs will help sponsor the Voices of Praise in a trip to Atlanta, Ga. for the Baptist Student Union retreat where the group will participate in a gospel music contest.