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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1985)
Proper landscaping key to lower energy consumption A&M cyclist to participate in '85 Race Across AMerica U.S. advisory warns travelers of conditions around the world — Page 3 — Page 6 — Page 8 ied MM Texas A&M ^ — « a The Battalion Serving the Gniversity community ,4 Vol. 80 No. 159 USPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Friday June 21, 1985 DUBLE at reaso© s, theses. Bi 3. Typingd stop. ON 1 liversify D* TREET [HOUSE 0x30 $77 DAYS JIGHTS ... 5*^. ' * - *$< ^ f & - Sai. or Sun. non U aiireMO. b»S» 268-31II- iisiaslk IwrdwiW, hi iii(:.S.urt) f r ixrtilion fortir’l us. in Hanung.“ |! “ and Amusrn^' i, lomrK'T cl employin'®^ nation and >137 i Service. 7. Beating the Heat Wesley Lewis, 2!/2, finds hot weather relief Thursday in the fountain outside the Chemistry Building. The mercury on thermometers rose Photo by GREG BAILEY to 86 degrees Thursday. Today's high is expected to be 90 degrees, with no rain in the forecast. Operating expenses slashed KAMU-TV to drop news department By JERRY OSLIN Staff Writer The news department at KAMU- V, Channel 15 in Bryan-College tation, will be terminated on Au- ust 31 due to a lack -of University unding, the department’s chief ad- inistrator said Thursdsay. Dr. Mel Chastain, director of Edu- lational Broadcasting Services at lexas A&M, said he was forced to iliminate the station’s news depart- hack pi3W ent because of a cutback in Univer- dflty departmental operating ex- nds, ^ poises. R03 i £g5 oversees the operation of the tiews department at KAMU. Chastain said he received a memo jrom University President Frank I'andiver telling him to Cut expenses ItEBS. I “I was told that departmental op erating expenses were needed else- “The students who are involved in the broadcast con centration should not panic. We will have our broadcast courses next fall and we will have someone to teach them.” — Dr. Edward Smith, head of the Texas A&M communications department where at said. the University,” Chastain He said he chose to eliminate the news department because it was a non-revenue producing part of EBS. Four full-time employees and seven to eight part-time, student em ployees will lose their EBS jobs be cause of the cutback, Chastain said. Currently, three broadcast jour nalism classes use the news depart ment’s equipment and facilities as part of a laboratory, but the loss of the news department should not drastically affect those classes, said Dr. Edward Smith, head of the com munications department. The news department’s equip ment and facilities are owned by KAMU, which is owned by A&M. If the classes lose the use of the news department’s equipment and facilities, they can use communica tions department facilities, Smith said. Hostages urge U.S. not to try military rescue Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon — Five Amer ican hijack hostages, brought to a news conference Thursday, said they feared any military rescue at tempt and beseeched the United States not to attempt one. Allyn Conwell of Houston, who acted as spokesman for the group, said he had seen all 37 Americans held at secret locations in Beirut and “can verify they are all in good health.” Reading from a handwritten statement, he said: “We as a group, most importantly, beseech President Reagan and our fellow Americans to refrain from any form of militiary or violent means as an attempt, no mat ter how noble or heroic, to secure our freedom.” The captives, most of them unsha ven, sat at a long table covered with a white cloth. Plates of cake and bot tles of water gave it the look of tea party, but the table was ringed by Shiite militiamen in camouflage fa- tiges, some armed with automatic weapons. Conwell, 39, said they were “dis appointed” that the Reagan adminis tration had not done more to secure their freedom. Also brought to the news confer ence were Peter Hill, 57, of Hof fman Estates, Ill.; Arthur Toga, 33, of St. Louis, Mo., Thomas Cullins, 42, of Burlington, Vt., and Vicente Garza, 53, of Laredo, Texas. The hostages appeared ill at ease among their captors and evaded sen sitive questions about the hijacking of Flight 847, which had 153 people aboard when it was seized. The other hostages were released at stops in Beirut and Algiers, and the hi jackers killed a U.S. Navy man. The White House said Thursday that Reagan is asking Middle East governments to use their influence. In Dallas, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called for the unconditional release for the Ameri can hostages in Beirut and said the United States cannot give into ter rorists’ demands without jeopardiz ing the lives of other Americans - abroad. Kissinger said he supported some type punishment for terrorists but did not recommend military ac tion at this point. Smith said the communications department was planning to take over the labratory responsibility from EBS and the loss of the news department is ‘just a speed up of what was already under way.” Among the full-time employees losing their EBS positions are itsnews director, Sheila Detrick, and its program director, Rodger Lewis. Detrick and Lewis still work part time teaching broadcaast journalism, but may leave A&M to find full-time work, Smith said. If they decide to leave, the communications depart ment will probably hire a full-time broadcast journalism professor, Smith said. “The students who are involved in the broadcast concentration should not panic,” he said. “We will have our broadcast courses next fall and we will have someone to teach them.” Platformed launched to seek out black hole a shuttle window, which contained a mirror to reflect the beam, to be turned toward space instead of to ward the laser on Maui. The exercise, is an attempt to see how much a laser beam diffuses on its 400-mile round trip from Maui to the shuttle and down again. It is the first use of the shuttle for an experi ment associated with President Rea gan’s missile defense research, pop ularly known as Star Wars. Scientists believe black holes are created when a massive star or gal axy exhausts its nuclear fuel and suddenly collapses. The Milky Way includes the sun, Earth and the rest of our solar system. A black hole sucks in nearby stars, gas and dust rapidly with a gravita tional pull so strong that not even light escapes. The galactic material swirling into the hole forms a huge disc that heats up and begins radiat ing energy, much of it in the form of X-rays. Discovery is to end its weeklong flight Monday at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Dis covery’s crew Thursday launched a science platform to search our Milky Way for a black hole with an insatia ble appetite for stars, as an embar rassed space agency rescheduled the “Star Wars” shuttle experiment it botched one day earlier. For nearly two days, until it is re trieved on Saturday, Spartan will trail the shuttle and its crew of seven as it studies a point 180 trillion miles into space. The platform’s instruments will be scanning the heavens for sources of X-rays and the hot gas in a large cluster of galaxies in the constella tion Perseus and in the center of the Milky Way. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the Air Force will make another attempt to day to measure the reflection from a laser beam that will be aimed at the shuttle from the Hawaiian island of Maui. The first attempt failed Thursday because a mathematical error caused Aggie leads spending for open House seat Associated Press WASHINGTON — Republi can Ed Hargett had spent twice as much as his nearest Democratic challenger for Congress, accord ing to campaign finance reports on file with the House Clerk as of Thursday afternoon. Hargett, an engineer from Lin den and a former quarterback at Texas A&M, reported spending $387,675 as of June 9, the end of the reporting period, compared with $191,795 reported by Demo cratic State Rep. Sam Russell. The bulk of Russell’s camp chest — $145,000 — was to his teport said. Hargett said he had $78,740 in his coffers by the end of the re porting period. Russell’s cam paign was $8,768 in the hole, according to his report. Warren G. Harding, the for mer Texas state treasurer, filed late for the seat and had not filed ign cans. any documents with the House Clerk or the Federal Election Commission. Eight candidates have filed for the seat, vacated when incumbent Democrat Sam B. Hall Jr. was ap pointed federal judge. The elec tion to fill the seat is June 29. Of the other candidates who did have reports on file as of Thursday: Billy Flanagan of Mount Pleasant had spent and raised $20,893; Jim Chapman of Sulphur Springs reported raising and spencling S 13,762; and Billy McWilliams said he had raised and spent $7,626. Hargett reported receiving $58,157 from special-interest po litical action committees, mostly related to energy and banking businesses. Russell reported raising $7,500 from PACs. The other candidates reported no PAC contributions. Career ladder stirs Texas teachers By KAREN BLOCH Reporter The four-level career ladder, a part of the education reform act passed by the Legislature last sum mer, is causing unrest among many Texas teachers, says Dr. John Mor ris, professor for curriculum and in struction at Texas A&M. He says the teachers resent the in consistency in the implementation of the program. “The career ladder is not being implemented the same everywhere,” Morris says. “With House Bill 72, the legislature provided for a career lad der with four levels, but the details were left open for interpretation. “For example, Bryan and College Station are handling it very differ ently.” The Bryan Independent School District implemented the program a year ago, immediately after the legis lation was passed, says C.B. McGown, director of personnel for BISD. Tommy Attaway, director of per sonnel for College Station Indepen dent School District, said CISD waited for clarification of the poli cies before making level two assign ments last month. Presently, there are no teachers in the state that have advanced beyond level two because the program has been in effect for one year, and a minimum of four years must be spent at level two before a teacher is eligible for advancement. Texas teachers are eligible for promotion to higher levels on the ca reer ladder if they meet criteria out lined by the state. The requirements for promotion to level two on the ca reer ladder include: • B.A. or B.S. degree. • Satisfactory performance rat- ing. • Nine semester hours of higher education coursework or 135 hours of advanced academic training or equivalent combination so that one semester hour of higher education coursework is equivalent to 15 hours of advanced training. • Or, M.A. or M.S. degree in the subject taught and two years teach ing experience. • Satisfactory score on a compre hensive examination. The career ladder was imple mented last June, Morris says, but a committee to clarify the policies was not formed until November. The state committee has not yet developed the comprehensive exam ination, Morris says, so the different school districts are basing decisions on different criteria. The standardized state exam is scheduled to be administered in March and again in June 1986, he says. “Teachers who don’t pass the exam the first time may repeat it, but if they fail again, they may lose their teaching certification,” Morris says. He says he is skeptical about how fairly the essay portion of the test can be graded and he also wonders if enough time has been left for scor ing the tests between exam dates. Also, Morris says he thinks the Legislature has made a mistake by not being able to provide adequate funding to promote all qualified tea ching. See CAREER, page 5