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
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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
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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