' I' . ' 1 ■ M •■ |- ;■ ■ I
Texan dreams of building
The Great Wall of Texas'
— Page 7
Sherrill gives A&M outlook
on SWC Media Tour stop
— Page 18
Texas A&M m m V •
The Battalion
Vol. 81 No. 2 GSPS 045360 20 pages College Station, Texas
A New Aggie Tradition n o,o by jay bunders
The first Rush seminar for social fraternities was held in Rudder ex
hibit hall on Tuesday afternoon. The event was sponsored by the
Texas A&M Interfraternity Council, which was officially recognized
by A&M during the summer. More than 15 fraternities participated
in the Rush seminar, which marked the beginning of Fall Rusn for
1985.
Reagan ready
for serious talks
with Gorbachev
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White
House on Tuesday sidestepped So
viet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s
charge that the United States is set
ting up a confrontation at the No
vember summit, and chose instead
to welcome his pledge to propose
ways of improving superpower rela
tions.
In the administration’s first for
mal reaction to Gorbachev’s debut
interview in the Western press, pres
idential spokesman Larry Speakes
dismissed the Communist Party
chief’s claim that the United States
expects the Soviets to make all the
concessions.
President Reagan, Speakes said, is
prepared “to meet the Soviets half
way in an effort to solve problems.”
Meanwhile, a delegation of U.S.
senators who met with Gorbachev in
Moscow on Tuesday said the Soviet
leader told them he is ready to make
radical offers to reduce nuclear
weapons arsenals and may not op-
ose basic U.S. research on space-
ased military systems — the so-
called “Star Wars” program.
Speakes said the administration
has neard such talk before and chal
lenged the Soviets to put their pro
posals on the table when arms con
trol talks resume Sept. 19 in Geneva
if they are serious about negotiating
arms reductions.
“Our views of the causes of the
present U.S.-Soviet tensions are
quite different from that presented
by Mr. Gorbachev,” Speakes said in
response to the Soviet leader’s inter
view with Time magazine. But he
said, “We do not intend to enter into
a debate in the media,” preferring to
prepare for the summit through
confidential diplomatic channels.
He repeated Reagan’s challenge
to the Soviets to permit the Ameri
can president the same access to the
Soviet Union’s government-con
trolled media as Gorbachev has to
the independent Western press.
“We are pleased that Mr. Gorba
chev was able to present his views to
the American public,” Speakes said.
“If President Reagan had a compa
rable opportunity to express his
views to the Soviet people through
the Soviet media, this would doubt
less improve our dialogue and indi
cate Soviet willingness to accept it de
gree of reciprocity in an important
aspect of our relations.”
The spokesman said the United
States has received no response in
recent weeks to its latest proposal
that the U.S. and Soviet leaders ar
range exchange appearances on
each other’s nationwide television
media ds part of a broader effort to
increase mutual understanding.
Scientist says any Wiaff: abusers will be ticketed
attempt to salvage
Titanic ‘ridiculous’
Parking problems continue
“It is essential that students stay out of faculty lots. If
they don I they will keep getting ticketed and towed and
that just makes things bad for everyone. ” — Bob Wtett,
Texas A&M’s director of security and traffic.
Associated Press
BOSTON — The sunken Titanic
is remarkably intact with a hull “like
a museum piece,” but any salvage at
tempts would desecrate the gravesite
of the more than 1,500 people who
died with it, the first man to view the
wreckage said Tuesday.
Robert Ballard, chief scientist of
the joint U.S.-French venture that
found the oceanliner on Sunday and
an engineer at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute, described
to associates in Massachusetts the re
mote-control television survey he
made of the 73-year-old wreck.
“The ship was pretty intact and
upright . . . ,” said Nancy Green, a
public relations assistant at Woods
Hole.
Shelley Lauzon, public relations
director at Woods Hole, spoke with
Ballard in a ship-to-shore telephone
call to the Navy research vessel
Knorr.
She said Ballard took time off
from videotaping the 2 , /2-mile-deep
wreck Tuesday because “he’s been
working ’round the clock for three
days on just two hours sleep.”
The Titanic was the biggest, the
most luxurious and supposedly the
safest liner of its time. Its builders
had called it unsinkable because of
its double steel hull and waterproof
compartments.
But an iceberg cut a 300-foot gash
across several of the compartments
and the ship sank on the night of
April 14-15, 1912. About 700 people
managed to get to lifeboats and were
saved, but 1,513 others died.
The Knorr arrived last Wednes
day at the Titanic sinking site 500
miles' off Newfoundland, where the
scientists had spent a month in June
See Titanic, page 4
By TRENT LEOPOLD
Senior Staff Writer
The weather’s hot and so are Ag
gie tempers when it comes to the
Texas A'&M parking situation. But
Bob Wiatt, A&M’s director of secu
rity traffic, said Tuesday that tickets'
will continue falling “like snowfla
kes” as long as people abuse parking
spaces.
The latest complaints have been
from students who are used to park
ing in parking area 51, east of
Zachry Engineering Center, and fac
ulty who have been finding students
parked in their spaces.
Parking area 51, designated for
faculty with yellow parking stickers,
is entirely closed to students this
week while University Police con
duct a survey of the lot to determine
whether or not faculty would use it,
Wiatt said.
Students who have blue parking
stickers normally are able to park in
the 400 spaces behind the grassy me
dian located in the middle of park
ing area 51.
A similar survey conducted last
year showed that faculty didn’t use
the 400 spaces and the lot was re
opened to students, he said.
“We are finding that the faculty
quite obiviously isn’t using the lot
this year either,” Wiatt said. “So the
back spaces probably will be opened
up for students again on Monday.”
Wiatt also said any student who
received a ticket for parking in the
back spaces of parking area 51 yes
terday or Monday can get it dis
missed if he comes to the University
Police Station on Houston Street.
“If I wanted to be a hardhead
about this I could say everyone will
have to pay their tickets because the
lot clearly is marked for faculty use,”
he said. “But we will only make those
students who were ticketed for park
ing in the front part of parking area
51 (the area in front of the grassy
median) pay the ticket.
“And we will be able to tell
whether the ticket came from the
front part of the lot or the back part
of the lot.”
For the remaining part of this
week, tickets will not be given to stu
dents with blue stickers who park in
the back part of parking area 51,
Wiatt said.
The red flags near parking area
50, which is across the street from
parking area 51, apparently are
serving no purpose except possibly
to students in civil engineering
courses, he said.
Faculty members’ tempers also
have been hot since students have
come back for the fall semester,
Wiatt said.
“We have faculty calling up here
right and left wanting cars towed
from their parking spaces,’’ he said.
“People are coming back to school
and some of the freshmen might not
be aware of where they are supposed
to park.”
More than 100 vehicles have been
towed from campus since Saturday.
See Parking, page 17
Texas reforming language education Public schoo| reforms
include basic skills test
By HADDON JOHNSTON
Reporter
When seven languages are being
spoken in a classroom of 30 chil
dren, teaching may seem like an im
possible task. But educators in Texas
are facing this challenge with a new
and positive outlook.
Texas’ language education is in a
period of transition, establishing a
precedent of involvement now that
the amount of federal support is
waning.
Until 1969, Texas state law pro
hibited teachers from speaking
Spanish and other languages on
school grounds, except in foreign
language courses. The state man
dated bilingual education only 12
years ago, after the federal govern
ment became more involved in edu
cation.
State activity in education was
stimulated further by increased fed
eral aid. But under the Reagan Ad
ministration, federal money is de
clining and state and local
governments are assuming almost
complete control of education pro
grams.
Elisa Gutierrez, education pro
grams specialist and chief consultant
at the Texas Education Agency, says
the states may have learned a lesson
from the attention of the federal
government.
“It seems that the state of Texas is
interested in quality education,” Gu
tierrez says. “There have been a lot
of reforms.”
Recent educational reforms in
Texas have been made possible by
an increase in state funding since
1984.
“They are creating more money
but want to see results,” Gutierrez
says. “The state of Texas is making a
huge effort to improve quality edu
cation and the special populations
will be a part of it.
The special populations include
children who are gifted and tal
ented, blind and deaf or economi
cally deprived. Children who have
limited English proficiency (LEP)
also are target populations that re
ceive specific state-appropriated
money for bilingual education pro
gram?.
Texas education officials estimate
the state has about 285,000 children
who qualify for bilingual education.
Texas law requires school districts
to offer bilingual instruction in any
grade with 20 or more LEP students,
Gutierrez says.
If a grade level has less than 20
LEP students, English as a second
language (ESL), must be provided
by the school district, regardless of
students’ citizenship.
The teaching approaches of bil
ingual education vary across the na
tion, but Texas uses the transitional
method to develop the skills that a
LEP child has in his primary lan
guage and transfers them to English,
Gutierrez says.
“Everything must be provided in
such a way as to develop a positive
self-concept in reference to a stu
dent’s cultural heritage,” Gutierrez
says.
“Bilingual education curriculum
is mandated by the state, but the tea
cher has the training in classroom
management and may be better at
deciding specific approaches as long
as two languages are used as the me
dium for instruction,” she says.
Bilingual education teachers are
becoming a scarce commodity na
tionwide. There are only about
158,000 bilingual instructors in the
country and only one for every 38
ils in Texas.
ompetition for teachers in Texas
has become fiercer since the passage
of a new state law requiring districts
to offer free bilingual classes to pre
schoolers.
The shortage exists because
fluency in another language is not
an easy skill to acquire, Gutierrez
says.
“Many certified teachers are bil
ingual natives who go into other ca
reers, and other teachers return to,
or stay in, the community they are
from,” Gutierrez says. “It is a local
matter, however.”
School districts required to have
programs must recruit teachers on
their own, and many rely on univer
sities near the Texas-Mexico border.
“Recruitment is something that is
ongoing, and some districts offer bo
nuses (up to $6,000 a year) and
other perquisites,” Gutierrez says.
Dr. Nancy Jo Dyer, modern lan
guages professor at Texas A&M, in
structed bilingual education teacher
See Languages, page 15
Associated Press
AUSTIN — The state’s oft-
praised, oft-criticized public school
reforms enter their second year this
fall with plans to test students, teach
ers and the schools themselves.
While the results of some tests
may prove embarrassing, reform
backers say tougher standards and
full disclosure of a school’s short
comings will force higher Achieve
ment in the future.
“If you don’t make demands on
people, nothing is going to happen,”
says Dr. William Kirby, the state
commissioner of education.
Beginning this year, 11th graders
must pass a basic skills test to get a
high school diploma. Teachers must
show they can read and write. And
every school campus will file reports
in November that will allow the par
ents and taxpayers to compare the
academic and fiscal performance of
each.
“If there’s anything that’s going to
create pressure and stress for educa
tors, it’s those kind of comparisons,”
Kirby said of the individual school
reports.
“We’re the only organization that
blames failure on the product (stu
dents),” Kirby said.
But he said those days are over.
Last year, under the reform law
passed by a special legislative session,
passing standards were raised to a
grade of 70. This spring, students
were required to pass all courses to
participate in extracurricular activ
ities.
That controversial “no-pass, no
play” rule could seem tame com
pared with the exit test required of
all students before grAduation, ex
perts say.
“We have not seen havoc yet until
we have parents with students who
do not graduate” because they failed
the test, said Sue McGarvey, presi-
See Reform, page 17