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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 23, 1985)
ill be up is for 7 Jgust l.To K3—BWMM——I—WS1I Company offers class to help improve athletes'grades — Page 4 Justice Department files suit against Gov. Mark White — Page 5 Gunslingers let players go before paycheck deadline — Page 6 mual Jiihjt g fol. 80 No. 176 USPS 045360 6 pages I also H sub- Texas m m V • The Battalion College Station, Texas Tuesday July 23, 1985 Guerillas say South Africa posing control Associated Press JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Plack guerrillas said Monday that a state of emergency under which the white-minority government has rounded up hundreds of people is “an open admission . . . that it is los- ingtontrol.” he African National Congress, which carries on its guerrilla cam paign from exile, said the govern ment’s “desperate actions signify the beginning of the end of the apart- heifl system.” ^ffiolice reported continued scat tered rioting, and said a patrol shot and killed two young blacks and wounded five others when a mob of about 4,000 people attacked a po- Mrnan’s home in the township of Tsakane, east of Johannesburg. An other black was killed earlier in a separate clash in nearby Thokoza, thdspokesman said. A spokesman for the Detainees Parents’ Support Committee said as many as 200 people were arrested late Sunday and early Monday —100 eacli in the Johannesburg area and the eastern Cape Province. The Eastern Province Herald said it knew of 80 to 90 detentions in the eastern Cape alone. police announced 113 other ar rests Sunday under South Africa’s first emergency decree since the spread of violence that followed the 1960 Sharpeville riots. Sixty-nine people were killed in those riots. : Police said they would have no further reports until Tuesday on de tentions under the emergency, which was declared Saturday and applies in 36 cities and towns. Nearly 500 blacks have been killed infll months of violence aimed at white-minority rule, according to private monitoring groups. Police said one man was shot to death Mon day east of Johannesburg when offi cers fired into a crowd attacking them. Cen. Johan Coetzee, the police commissioner, backed off a plan to censor articles about riot areas but appealed to newspapers to “scale down information connected to the unrest.” He said news reports had fed racial strife. Police are empowered to arrest people without warrants, detain and interrogate suspects for 14 days, seal off areas, seize property, impose curfews and control press reporting. The detainees committee issued a statement saying people in the black townships would see the emergency as “a declaration of war.” A spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said the group had identi fied about 90 of those detained over the two days, adding that police had raided offices of civic associations, student groups and other organiza tions. He said that among those known held were 53 community leaders, six clergymen, 12 students, eight trade union leaders and two well-known Asian leaders from Jo hannesburg, a lawyer and a doctor. Prices on the Johannesburg stock exchange fell sharply as foreign in vestors sold off shares in response to the emergency, dealers said. The key gold index fell from 967.3 to 914.1, a particularly steep drop. The African National Congress, the main guerrilla group fighting white rule, said President P.W. Bot ha’s emergency proclamation would spur South Africa’s blacks in the fight against white rule. “Botha’s desperate actions signify the beginning of the end of the apartheid system,” ANC Secretary- General Alfred Nzo said in Lusaka, Zambia. Botha refused an opposi tion request to reconvene Parlia ment to discuss the emergency. The president said action, not talk, was necessary to end the unrest. Over, easy? Instructors held a mock tank truck rollover dem onstration last Friday at Texas A&M’s Brayton Fireman’s Training Fiefd. The event emphasized Anthony S. Casper the extreme danger encountered in such situta- tions. High pressure air hags and a winch mounted on a rescue vehicle were used to upright the truck. Reagan to meet with Chinese president Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Reagan, in his first meeting with a foreign leader since undergoing cancer surgery, hosts Chinese Presi dent Li Xtannian today for abbre viated talks and ceremonies that could provide the setting for the for mal approval of a landmark nuclear cooperation pact. White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Reagan, who is recov ering from the major abdominal sur gery 10 days ago, planned to greet the 76-year-old Chinese leader in a South Lawn ceremony as well as host a shortened, formal state banquet Tuesday night. “The president looks forward to his meeting with President Li and to the further expansion of the high- level dialogue on major substantive issues which he began . . . during his visit to China last year,” Speakes said. See China, page 4 Computer program blamed Fall semester fees fouled up By TRENT LEOPOLD Senior Staff Writer Thanks to a computer program ming error, some students were in correctly billed for their parking stickers and dormitory space when the fiscal office mailed fee slips last week. But, Bob Piwonka, manager of the student financial fiscal depart ment, said Monday supplemental bills are now being sent to those stu dents who received incorrect billing so adjustments can be made. “We have received a lot of phone calls from students who are con cerned about their fee slips,” he said. “And we are mailing the supplemen tal bills today.” The fiscal office is using a new computer system to aid in distribut ing fee slips and although it is work ing well, there have been some prob lems, Piwonka said. “We had two (computer) files for on-campus housing,” Piwonka said. “One was for practice (with the new computer) and somehow it was the program that was run.” Piwonka said some students re ceived incorrect parking sticker fees when data from the old system were converted to the new computer software. “Some of the (parking sticker) forms were keyed into the new com puter by hand and they were keyed in correctly,” Piwonka said. “But not all of the forms were hand-keyed and some people did receive incor rect billing.” To remedy the parking sticker problem Piwonka asked that stu dents simply make a change on their statement when paying their fees. Dormitory parking stickers are $63 while stickers for ofTcampus stu dents parking on campus are $45. “It would be easier for students to note the change on their statement rather than spend the money on a long-distance phone call,” he said. Piwonka said the new computer system — which was delivered in June — had to be tested in about a week. “It normally would take about a month to test the computer,” he said. “But the quick testing may or may not have nad anything to do with the (fee slip and parking sticker) problems.” Piwonka said there have been no problems with class schedules being incorrect. Overall, the new system is looking good and working well, he said. Agricultural extension service must reduce staff By JERRY OSLIN Sta ff Writer Kfiecause of a shortfall in state ap propriations, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service will be forced to cut some professional staff positions over the next 18 months, the serv ice’s director said Friday.* In a speech to about 1,000 TAEX employees, Dr. Zerle Carpenter said the service will try to reduce posi tions without terminating employ ment. ■t’When we decide what positions will be affected, we will keep those loyal and dedicated employees in mipd so we won’t have to terminate people in the process,” he said. ■1‘Other state agencies faced with a budget shortfall and who have ter minated substantial numbers of per sonnel really don’t have the people- oriented service that we have at the Texas Agricultural Extension Servi cer Carpenter told the TAEX em ployees that they will have to assume more responsibility and work harder to make up for the reductions. He also said the extension service will concentrate its resources on its more important programs. “We will also redirect our re sources to our high-priority activ ities, those which are most critical to our clientele and those which we are best at,” he said. “We need to keep our eyes clearly focused on the qual ity of our program and on retaining high quality people in our organiza tion.” Carpenter said TAEX will receive about $ 1.6 million less from the state for each of the next two fiscal years. “Add to that some additional costs to the retirement system and some salary increases, the Texas Agricul tural Extension Service is about $2 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Director Dr. Zerle Carpenter told the TAEX employees that they tissitirie- md. work ■■h&d&t. to make up for the reductiom. million short for the next year,” he said. Carpenter also commended the TAEX employees for cooperating with cost-effective programs which saved the extension service about $900,000 the past year. The extension service receives its money from several different sources. Carpenter said, but the state provides about 70 percent of the money. County and federal appro- priations along with grants and en dowments make up the remaining 30 percent, he said. The extension service’s budget for the current year is $60 million. Carpenter also said the state didn’t provide enough money for salary merit increases. “The state legislature provided funds for salary increases of up to 3 percent of the state-appropriated dollars,” he said. “We were also able to say we needed that amount at least on our federal dollars. So the state took back about three quarters of 1 percent and said ‘take that out of your hide.’ ” But because of Texas A&M Uni versity System budget guidelines al lowing merit increases, about one in five TAEX faculty and staff will re ceive an increase in salary, Car penter said. “The salaries paid to extension positions are in the top five in the country but we need to keep them high to retain quality personnel,” he said. The extension service faired well in its dealings with the Legislature during its recent session but that TAEX needed to communicate more with legislators from urban areas, Carpenter said. “We probably could have not done much better than we did dur ing the legislative session,” he said. “But I wish we had had more close association with those urban legis lators involved so they could have seen some of our programs in action — so they would not have had to question what the extension service does.” Carpenter also said the extension service was hurt because some of its employees complained to legislators about problems in TAEX. “One of our biggest mistakes dur ing the past legislative session was we had some of our own professionals who had some complaints about the organization and they took that to the clientele who took it to their leg islators or who made some off-hand remarks to the legislators themsel ves,” he said. “I doubt that would be serious in a time of expanding state budgets, but right now it is critical that we stick to gether and that if we have problems, we resolve them through normal channels. It’s important that we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.” Springsteen fans jam phones to get tickets Bilingual teachers scarce commodify Associated Press I WASHINGTON — Rock star Bruce Springsteen’s fans, seeking pickets to his first stadium concert in his country when they went on sale here Monday, flooded the telephone system in such huge numbers that nany calls to federal offices, includ- ng some to the White House, couldn’t get through. “The whole city is locked up,” said supervisor for the Chesapeake 8c Potomac Telephone Co.’s Special Services Center who identified her- elf only as Mrs. Champion. “There’s nothing we can do about it. “One guy over at the telephone company just told us the switching center is tied up about the way it was when (John F.) Kennedy was assassi nated (in 1963),” said Charles B. Overly, Jr., director of the Penta gon’s Telecommunications Center. The tickets for more than 40,000 seats in Robert F. Kennedy Memo rial Stadium Aug. 5 were sold out in about 90 minutes. During the crush of telephone calls, many Springsteen fans couldn’t contact the ticket offices. Associated Press DALLAS — Bilingual teachers are are so few in number that dis tricts across the nation are in a bid ding war for their services. About 4.5 million children nation wide speak so little English that they need bilingual education, but there are only about 158,000 bilingual in structors in the country. “We are all competing for the same scare resource,” said Ross Tay lor, head of the multilingual educa tion department for Chicago public schools. National bilingual education ex perts say the number of bilingual teachers would almost have to dou ble to reach the ideal ratio of one teacher for every 15 students. As a result, school districts are of fering bonuses of up to $6,000 a year and other perquisites to biling ual teachers, the Dallas Times Herald reported Monday. Taylor said that the bonuses of fered by some schools in Texas, which is second only to California in the number of pupils who speak little English, “are going to wipe us off the map.” The vast majority of students needing bilingual education are His panic, according to the U.S. Depart ment of Education. Texas education officials estimate the state has 285,000 children who qualify for bilingual education, but only 7,500 teachers — 1 for every 38 pupils. Bonuses aren’t the only lures. Some school districts offer free col lege tuition to high school students who pursue a degree in bilingual ed ucation, According to Sarah Melendez of the National Association of Bilingual Education in Washington, the situa tion isn’t getting any better because the number of students who need bilingual teaching is growing at such a rapid clip. “And there is a very small number of bilingual teachers being pro duced,” she said. “The number is under 2,000 a year.” When Marella Ramirez, 22, of Ed- inberg, graduates from Pan Ameri can University in December, she will rare educational worried about be one of these commodities. She said she isn’t finding ajob. “I’ve gotten so many offers. I’ve lost count,” she said. “They offer good money. They say their biling ual programs are good. They say their campuses are nice. “But I haven’t really looked into any of them. I want to stay in the (Rio Grande) Valley.” The competition for bilingual tea chers in Texas has become even fiercer since the passage of a new state law requiring districts to offer free bilingual classes to preschoolers.