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Getting easy credit
Students opening charge accounts
Page 3
Texas gets revenge
Horns sweep first-place from Ags
Page 9
The Battalion
Vol._80 No. 142 GSPS 045360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, April 29, 1985
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Bentsen sets
review of
roposal to
urn wastes
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Texas Sen.
Lloyd Bentsen has scheduled a June
hearing on a proposal to allow spe-
ially designed incinerator ships to
burn hazardous waste chemicals
tohile anchored in the Gull of Mex-
Bentsen threatened to “bring (the
burnings) to a halt” if the hearings
don’t satify him that the Environ-
jnental Protection Agency has ex-
iored and weighed every potential
azard.
EPA drew lire when it published
proposed regulations for ocean bur
ling last February, before finishing
environmental impact studies.
Environmental groups oppose the
burnings as potentially dangerous to
■narine and coastal life.
K Proponents say the alternative is
|to continue burying the chemicals on
■and.
Bentsen, ranking minority mem
ber on the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, said in a
release to television stations over the
weekend that he has not set a date
Jorthe Washington hearing yet, but
anticipates that it will be in early
June.
I The period for public comment
on EPA’s proposed regulations ex
pires at the end of June.
| “You want to be sure that those
companies that are hauling that
:4vaste by ship offshore, that they
lave adequate insurance to protect
eople in case that you do have
omething occur,” said Bentsen.
“We’re going to be looking over
he shoulder of EPA in these hear
ings and try to be certain that they’ve
given a full consideration to the
tfange of things that might occur,” he
said.
V "And unless we’re satisfied that
Ehey’ve done that,” Bentsen added,
lj then we’ll take proceedings to bring
[ this to a halt.”
K Jack Ravan, assistant EPA admin
istrator for water programs, said the
Ilinal regulations Could he approved
I bv November.
Germans give
Reagan advice
on Bitburg visit
Imprisoned or Protected?
Photo by WAYNEL. GRABEIN
From inside the Soil and Crop Sciences-En-
tomology Center on the west side of campus,
‘people watchers’ can get the feeling of be
ing trapped behind bars. This unusual view
takes in many landmarks on campus and
puts them in a puzzle-like perspective.
Associated Press
BONN, West Germany — Bavarian
Gov. Franz Josef Strauss proposed
Sunday that President Reagan lay a
wreath at a soldier’s monument in
Munich instead of making his con
troversial visit to a German military
cemetery at Bitburg.
Stuttgart Mayor Manfred Rom
mel, son of World War II Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel, said he
would understand if West German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Rea
gan canceled next week’s Bitburg
visit.
“I don’t think this would be a loss
of face for Kohl,” Rommel said.
Strauss said of Reagan’s May 1-6
visit to West Germany, “The prepa
ration was awkward and the result is
embarrassing.”
Reagan and Kohl must decide
themselves whether they want to
cancel their plans to visit the Bitburg
cemetery May 5, Strauss said.
“It would not be advisable, how
ever, to strike the entire program be
cause it would contribute to poison
ing the atmosphere between the two
allies,” he added.
Even Margaret Thatcher, Brit
ain’s prime minister and Reagan’s
staunchest European ally, expressed
“considerable sympathy” Thursday
with those who want him to cancel.
The mayor of Bitburg said Friday
that the town’s citizens are “scanda
lized and dismayed” by furor over
President Reagan’s plan to visit their
soldiers’ cemetery, and might cancel
the visit themselves.
“Our people find unbearable the
gushing forth of abuse and slander
on our city, and especially on the sol
diers lying in the cemetery,” Mayor
Theo Hallet said.
“If it continues like this, then it
would be better if we would cancel
ourselves the visit of the American
president and our chancellor,” he
said.
Hallet’s words were doubly bitter
because of his euphoria when the
Bitburg visit was announced. He has
written twice in the past two weeks to
U.S. Ambassador Arthur Burns
urging that it not be canceled.
Strauss said that Reagan could in
stead lay a wreath at the Monument
to the Unknown Soldier in Munich’s
Hofgarten and visit a former Nazi
concentration camp at Flossenbuerg,
east of Munich.
The Munich soldier’s monument
was first erected in the 1920s, but
now serves as a monument to Ger
man soldiers who died in both world
wars.
The Flossenbuerg site was one of
several considered by a team of
White House officials before they
decided Reagan should visit Bergen-
Belsen, near Hanover in northern
Germany.
West German government
sources in Bonn, who spoke on con
dition of anonymity, said the Ameri
cans had rulea out Flossenbuerg for
security reasons, because it was too
close to the border with Communist
Czechoslovakia.
Reagan is stopping at Bitburg and
Bergen-Belsen as part of ceremonies
commemorating the 40th anniver
sary of the defeat of Nazi Germany
on May 8.
He planned to lay a wreath at the
Bitburg cemetery, where thousands
of Get man soldiers from two world
wars are buried. Two thousand of
the graves contain the bodies of sol
diers who fought in the 1944 Battle
of the Bulge, the last German offen
sive of the war, in which 19,000
Americans were killed.
There are also 49 graves of sol
diers from the Waffen SS, the elite
Nazi combat organization, local offi
cials said.
The SS guarded Nazi death
camps and helped exterminate mil
lions of Jews and others deemed
“undesirable” by the Third Reich.
The presence of SS graves at Bit
burg is a main factor in the contro
versy.
Reagan’s Bitburg plans have en
countered much criticism in the
United States, especially from veter
ans’ groups and Jews.
[Lawyer says minors’ rights are protected by law
*
I; Editor's note: This is the first arti
cle in a three-part series on the
. fights of minors.
By CATHIE ANDERSON
Staff Writer
1 While most adults can list their
constitutional rights, young people
Cannot always define where their
lights begin and where their par
ents’ rights end.
But minors have rights too, and
the state of Texas tries to protect
those rights. Minors in Texas live
under rules which both protect and
limit their freedom.
!' Martin Guggenheim, a former
staff attorney with the American
Civil Liberties Union, says Texas,
like all states in the nation, recog
nizes the child’s and parents’ recip
rocal right to live with one another.
Guggenheim, director of the Juve
nile Rights Clinic at the New York
University School of Law, has co
written a book titled “The Rights of
Young People.”
Guggenheim says states see this
right as good, but states also have
recognized that children can be hurt
because of some adult beliefs. For
this reason, he says, states attempt to
protect minors’ rights through laws.
He says states have become more
liberal in most laws dealing with mi
nors. s
The main area that states have
been less liberal is abortion, Guggen
heim says. Texas, like other states,
has not been a leader in liberalizing
abortion laws for minors. Instead, it ■
is the United States Supreme Court,
he says, that has been the leader in
this area.
Guggenheim says Texas has not
passed any laws dealing with abor
tion.
“States that don’t have abortion
laws are simply acquiescing in the
Supreme Court decisions,” he says.
“Occasionally a state attempts to
limit the basis on which minors can
have abortions. But the Supreme
Court often ends in striking these
limitations down.
“The only limitation that has
stood so far is that the doctor can re
quire a minor to notify her parents
of the abortion,” Guggenheim says.
“But attempts to make minors get
parental consent have been repeat
edly declared unconstitutional.”
Although Guggenheim says states
didn’t lead in the fight for changes
in laws about abortion, state legis
latures have become more liberal in
laws dealing with sex, marriage and
treatment for sexually-transmitted
diseases.
Minors in Texas can legally have
sexual intercourse at 17, he says, but
female minors who are non-virgins
may legally have intercourse at 14.
“Texas is one of the states, of
which there are only a few, that
makes a distinction between virgins
and non-virgins,” Guggenheim says.
Sally Miller, the director of
Planned Parenthood of Brazos
County, says conservatism is not the
only reason the state and parents are
against minors having sexual inter
course. She says it can simply be a
matter of wanting the very best for
children, and sexual intercourse is
not something parents would con
sider the best.
Miller says Planned Parenthood
counsels minors about sex, preg
nancy and abortion, and the group
does not inform parents of visits.
She says that although Planned Par
enthood encourages family involve
ment in such decisions, many minors
find it difficult to discuss sex with
their parents.
If minors become pregnant or
have contracted a sexually-trans
mitted disease, Guggenheim says,
they can be treated without parental
See Minors, page 8
Jet runs off runway
at Amarillo airport;
no reported injuries
Associated Press
AMARILTO — A Southwest
Airlines jet landing at Amarillo
International Airport ran off a
runway into mud Sunday during
stormy weather, authorities said.
The Boeing 737, coming in
from Albuquerque, N.M., suf
fered damage to its nose gear
about 9:20 p.m., said an official
with the Federal Aviation Admin
istration, who asked not to be
identifed.
The passengers were evac
uated and no injuries were re
ported, the official said.
Tom Higley, of Amarillo, a
passeneer on flight 803, said the
plane “came in and made one
hard bounce” off the runway.
“We were airborne again,”
Higley said. “He (the pilot) came
back in again, reversed the thrust,
put the spoilers up and applied
the brakes and the plane began
hydroplaning.”
After the jet slid off the run
way, “the nose wheel went into
the mud and snapped,” Higley
said.
Flight attendants dropped
emergency slides “and we all went
right down into the mud.”
The passengers walked more
than a mile to get to the terminal,
he said.
Students, professors express a variety
of attitudes toward Battalion content
Editor's note: This is the first arti
cle in a three-part series on The Bat
talion.
By CYNTHIA GAY
Staff Writer
“A writer's job is to tell the truth.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Unfolded copies of The Battalion
lie on a campus sidewalk, partially
read and thrown away.
Apparently Texas A&M’s lone
rabble-rouser fails to provoke much
response from its complacent read
ers, but certain columns of newspa
per type still linger in students’
memories. In the library snack bar,
on the steps of Rudder Fountain,
through the Memorial Student Cen
ter's main drag, the facts and opin
ions are considered.
“They pick it up, scan Page 1,
open it up and stare at Page 2,” says
Rhonda Snider, Fall editor of The
Battalion, referring to the average
student’s habitual approach to read
ing the newspaper.
A&M students may find that the
opinions in The Battalion irritating
for a variety of reasons.
“The Battalion seems to try to
spark emotion by picking on peo
ple,” says senior Steve Leung, Corps
of Cadets’ supply officer.
Former student body president
David Alders says: “I know shock va
lue gets more readers, but I’d rather
have the Wall Street Journal pub
lished on campus than the National
Enquirer.”
Kevin Brannon, president of MSC
Political Forum says, “It’s like, ‘What
can we find this week that’s wrong
with the University?’ ”
Eric Thode, former speaker pro
tern of the Student Senate says, “(At
The Battalion) there’s been an atti
tude of change for the sake of
change. (The staff writers) are not in
any way a mirror of the school.”
Denis Davis, MSC Council presi
dent for 1985-86, says, “Everyday I
ask if there’s anything good in the
newspaper, and everyday (some one
says), ‘No.’ ”
But for former editorial page edi
tor Michelle Powe, it’s all in a day’s
work.
“I’d rather have 38,000 people
here who hate me and are thinking,”
says Powe, managing editor for this
fall. “I make sure people think. I get
called a communist all the time. Our
editorial board is not even liberal.
We have four definite conservatives,
one moderate and one liberal. I
would bet my next month’s salary
that the majority of the paper is con
servative.”
Snider, former city editor, says
students at A&M often misuse the
words “liberal” and “conservative.”
“I think people on this campus
call ‘liberal’ anything that does not
conform to tradition,” Snider said.
Opinions. Those blasted opinions.
The events of the 1984-85 school
year have forced Texas A&M stu
dents to make up their minds about
hazing, the civil rights of homosex
uals, women in the Aggie Band, a
See News, page 8