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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1985)
A&M prof develops new breeds; revolutionizes onion industry — Page 4 Architecture students excelling; graduate students win awards — Page 3 NCAA World Series final postponed; Texas to play Miami tonight for title — Page 7 Hi v Texas A&M ^ _ w a The Battalion Serving the University community ■ Vol. 79 Mo. 123 CISPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, June 11, 1985/The Battalion/Page 1 r'S. CASPU Winnie, pa t because bfi' Ted. H r the Dallaii :, spokesman H ^Vatts feacher Piano, iN'crsit}’, 1 reaching ence atsofalllg#| President to adhere to SALT II obligations; U.S. to dismantle sub ancy tests jounselors ncy Serv* local! ; Fkwy I 24 hr. Hot* S23-CARE f: *♦***§ NG SPECIE r5 i activity pan to ttifi its at the Associated Press President Reagan has notified So viet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that the United Slates intends to keep adhering to the unratified SALT II pact while urging Gorba chev to correct violations of the un- ratified accord, an administration official said Monday. The official, who demanded ano- Inymity, said the president had also [decided to decommission a Poseidon nuclear subarmine in order to keep the United States within the limits that the unratified 1979 treaty im poses on multiple-warhead nuclear missiles. The surprising decision rep resented a victory for arms control forces in the State Department and a ! defeat for Defense Secretary Caspar VV. Weinberger, who had urged Rea- i gan to abandon the 1979 accord. The president was known to be weighing several compromise op tions, including the dry-docking of the Poseidon submarine as a stop gap measure. The missiles would have been removed, hut in a way that was reversible. fnstead, Reagan chose to dis mantle the submarine when a new Trident submarine, the USS Alaska, begins sea trials in September. The Alaska’s 24 multiple-warhead missiles would have cracked the 1,200 ceiling set by the treaty. Re tiring a Poseidon will keep the United States two missiles below the established limit. The president said in a statement that despite Soviet violations he wanted to retain the treaty as part of an interim framework toward more reductions in nuclear weapons on both sides. Reagan said he was prepared “to go the extra mile” to conclude a new agreement in Geneva, Switzerland. Tnere, negotiations that began in March after a 15-month lapse ap pear to be making very little head way. While dismantling a Poseidon, the president left open the option of speeding development of the mobile Midgetman missile if the Soviets did not comply with the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and other arms control agreements. National security adviser Robert C. McFarlane said the United States may re-build and re-configure the Poseidon for use as a training vessel “or for some other purpose” — as he said the Soviets have done in at least one case. But Reagan and McFarlane also urged the Soviets to “pursue a pro ductive dialogue” with the United States in Geneva. Reagan said he had ordered the Pentagon to undertake a study of strategic programs he could accele rate “as a proportionate response” to Soviet failure to correct treaty viola-. tions. “So lar, the Soviet Union has not chosen to move in this direction,” he said. The president’s decision, taken over the weekend at his Camp David retreat, does not promise open- ended U.S. adherence to the ceilings the treaty places on intercontinental missiles based in ground silos or car ried by long-range bombers and sub marines. Faculty Senate opposes final oral exam option r».. ir a or r\r'Ta 'TTv i i i 1 ’c T-5*» f T» 'J t Cinr'** T~> ZV By KAREN BLOCH Staff Writer The Faculty Senate voted Monday against a graduate council recom mendation that called for optional final oral examinations for students working toward non-thesis master's degrees. The senators also passed a resolu tion, requesting that Texas A&M of ficials work with the state govern ment to restore sick leave benefits that were taken from some faculty members by a bill passed by the Leg islature on May 27. After nearly an hour of debate, the Senate voted against the grad uate council’s proposal which called for the decision to administer a Final comprehensive examination to be made at the discretion of each de gree program offering non-thesis master’s degrees. The graduate council’s recom mendation was based on three is sues: • The Final examinations serve a useful function for students in some, but not all non-thesis programs. • Many major institutions do not require these examinations for all students. • Performance of the students should be monitored constantly. The final exam should not be viewed as a quality control device for stu dents who are not presenting a the sis. But graduate council Chairman Dean Leo Berner stated in a memo: “I view the elimination of the final oral examination at the master’s level as a step which will weaken the quality of our graduate programs and, quite possibly, the First in a se ries of steps which will weaken them (graduate programs) even more.” He stated that since non-thesis de grees generally are practitioner de grees, it is essential that the Univer sity be sure graduates are competent. “The Final examination should identify the students who are unable to function in problem-solving situa tions in the ‘work-a-day-world,’” he stated. A resolution asking A&M ofFicials to work to restore sick leave benefits for faculty members with appoint ments of less than one year passed the Senate unanimously. The resolution was placed on the agenda as an emergency item in re sponse to recent state legislation. A rider on the state’s appropria tions bill singles out “faculty with ap pointments of less than 12 months at institutions of higher education” as the only full-time, state employees who will not receive sick leave. New University ticket policy makes accumulation costly KflpU 1 )NM CENT!* 6-3196 eN TRALEXPyi By BRIAN PEARSON Staff Writer Students with three or more un paid tickets will not be allowed to register in September. The new policy will not affect stu dents who have preregistered for the fall session and received their schedules, but it will affect students who register late, says Linda Lively, assistant director ofTexas A&M Uni versity Police. The old policy allowed students who had less than six unpaid tickets to register. “We have seen that those students who have three tickets have no com punction about getting six, 10 or 15, so we’re trying, before things get too serious, to get their attention while they only have three,” says Bob Wiatt, director of trafFic and secu rity. The department does not allow anyone with unpaid tickets to pur chase an A&M parking sticker. Wiatt says the department has a 30-page list of vehicles that have six or more tickets. Wiatt says the new policy would increase the accountability of stu dents who receive tickets on campus. “The main thing we want is to make sure that they understand what they have to do right,” he says. See Tickets, page 6 % - ' - - -•■x - o t \ , ^ ' ‘r \ IB ■MMi ■lllfcjx r ^ r ~ ' X Reflections Older buildings on campus are becoming reflet- older section of the Michael T. Halbouty building tions in the face of new architecture. Here, the can be seen in the windows of its newer addition. Photo by GREG BAILEY Final approval expected GSS files for recognition By RHONDA RUBIN Reporter The Gay Student Service has Filed an application for official recogni tion at Texas A&M and expects it to be approved by the middle of the week, said GSS president, Marco Roberts. Roberts said he filed the papers last Wednesday and was told that it would be about a week until final ap proval would be given. The organization was denied offi cial University recognition on April 1, 1976 and a lengthy court battle followed. This year on April 1, exac tly nine years later, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the GSS, and said the University must recognize the group. Though there may only be a quiet celebration when the papers are Fin ished, Roberts said the group has big plans for the summer. On June 30, members will march in the Gay Pride Week Parade in Houston. They will show their Aggie spirit by giving their annual rendi tions of school songs on kazoos, Rob erts said. Summer plans also include fund raisers to cover the costs of the law yers hired for the court case. “We’ve been talking to bars about a benefit show here and in Hous ton,” Roberts said, “We don’t have exact dates yet, but we’ve been think ing about the end of July for College Station and late August in Houston.” Roberts said now that thoGSS will be officially recognized and the or ganization doesn’t have to worry about the court case, it can more fully achieve its goals, which are pri marily to provide services for gays on campus and in the community. Even though the GSS provides its services to gays, Roberts said it would be “more than happy to have heterosexuals in the group” to give their points-of-view during public speaking engagements. Roberts said he believes that the recent anti-gay sentiment expressed by some people on campus may help the group in the long run, because it gave GSS members a chance to give information about their lifestyle through discussion. “We encourage discussion so peo ple can see for themselves exactly what the arguements are — if they’re logical or not.” Roberts said he believes both the recent publicity and larger aclvertise- ments in The Battalion will double current membership, which now stands at 40-50 members. “This may take a couple of years but would make us one of the largest gay serv ice groups in Texas,” he said. GSS members are looking for ward to coming on campus, Roberts said, and are optimistic about the group’s future. “We’ll integrate very nicely with the campus community and we’ll all be the better for it,” he said. Prof designs system to aid people trapped in high-rise fire 4TES,‘ By JERRY OSLIN Staff Writer People caught in a high-rise build ing during a Fire may be safer re maining in their rooms than trying to evacuate, a Texas A&M building construction professor said Friday. Dr. Larry Grosse said: “The ma jority of Fire-related deaths are caused by toxic gases, and a lot of these people die while trying to evac uate the building. We see this and maybe, just maybe, it’s not best to evacuate the building in case of Fire.” According to statistics from the National Fire Protection Association, Dr. Larry Grosse 6,000 to 8,000 people per year are killed in Fire-related accidents. And almost 80 percent of these deaths are caused by toxic gases given off by burning materials, Grosse said. Toxic gas deaths are becoming more common in fires because builders are using more plastics and petroleum-based materials in build ing construction. “When burned, these newer materials give off deadly gases such as hydrogen cyanide and hydrochlo ric acid fumes,” he said. “Some of these materials will give off as much as 500 times more carbon monoxide than wood.” Grosse said these three gases are the major cause of fire-related deaths. “These gases attack your nervous system,” he said. “After three breaths, you’re incoherent and then you’re dead fairly quick.” During a fire in a high-rise build ing, the toxic gases rise to the floors above the floor where the actual fire is and accumulate in hallways and corridors, Grosse said. And a large number of deaths occur in these gas- filled corridors, he said. “After the MGM Grand Hotel fire a few years back, we found a large number of people dead in the corri dors,” Grosse said. “They were killed by toxic gas while trying to get out. “We are finding that people try ing to get from their rooms to the stairwell are not making it. They are being overcome by gas in the corri dor.” To prevent people from being killed while evacuating the building, Grosse has developed a plan that would allow people to remain in their rooms during a fire. All local building codes require hotel bathrooms to have an exhaust vent, Grosse said. These vents allow a large fan on the hotel roof to draw air out of the bathroom through an air duct and expel it through an opening on the roof. Grosse’s plan calls for a large manifold to connect all the roof openings. The manifold would have several openings where fresh air could be taken in. A large fan would draw fresh air through the openings and pump it through the existing air ducts and into the bathrooms. The system would be activated during a fire and pump fresh air into the bathrooms. It would create a positive pressure area in each bath room, and the fresh air being pumped in would prevent toxic gases from entering the bathroom. See Smoke, page 6