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Local liquor stores report sales
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— Page 4
Ag spikers use mental expert
to gear mind toward winning
— Page 7
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133
ON FUN
Texas A&Mm m I •
The Battalion
Vol. 80 No. 26 CISPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 8, 1985
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Ross Volunteers induct 2 women
A&M group breaks tradition
Palestinians hijack
Italian cruise liner
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By Tammy Kirk
Stuff Writer
■ Nancy Hedgecock, 20, of
Hamburg, Ark., and Mandy
Schubert, 19, of Houston, are the
first women in Texas A&M’s his-
tory to become members of the
Ross Volunteers.
■ Monday night these two
women, along with 70 other ju
nior cadets, received their letters
of acceptance into this elite orga-
nuation.
I “I was shocked,” Hedgecock
lliid. “But I was honored just like
the rest of the juniors chosen.”
■ Hedgecock, a member of
Squadron 14, said she hadn’t
Biought about becoming a mem-
txr of the RVs as a freshman or
Iphomore, but as a junior she
■ecided she’d apply and do the
pest she could. Hedgecock said
Jhe didn’t think the earlier admis
sion of three women into the
Texas Aggie Band influenced the
RVs’ decision to select her.
■ “They’re two totally different
tilings,” Hedgedcock said.
1 Hedgecock, a civil engineering
Riajor, is a Kai Epsilon pledge, a
liiember of the American Society
■f Civil Engineers and is on the
(fcorps public relations committee.
I Schubert, a member of Corps
Htaff, said the RVs was something
||he’s worked towards for a long
Bme and that she was honored
just as any other RV would be.
“Only 72 of us made it,” Schu
bert said, “And you know more
■ian 72 were qualified.”
Schubert believes the three
Jtomen admitted into the band
joined because they wanted to
Kin, not because of any court
Base. The court case Schubert re
ferred to is the Melanie Zentgraf
^se, a sex discrimination lawsuit
Igainst Texas A&M. A court or
der forced A&M to encourage
[(omen to join its previously all-
nale organizations.
■ Schubert said, like the women
I in the band, she applied for the
RVs because she wanted to.
“I put my name down just like
any other RV,” she said, “ And I
was chosen on my qualifications
just like any other RV.”
Whitaker said the admission of
women into the band was not a
factor in the RVs’ decision to se
lect women. Out of 143 appli
cants, he said, six were women.
“They were not treated any
better or any worse than the
other juniors who applied,” Whi
taker said.
Although women have pre
viously applied to the organiza
tion, which is the official honor
guard of the governor of Texas,
they have been turned down.
Whitaker said last spring, even
before women had been admitted
into the band, the senior RVs got
together in small groups to dis
cuss the selection of women. He
said the RVs decided that al
though the group had been an
all-male organization, it did not
mean that it would continue to be
so. And the question of whether a
woman could do the rifle drills
was not an issue because some
men can’t do the drills.
Schubert, Hedgecock and two
male cadets said they were tense
before finding out that they were
chosen. Seniors in the organiza
tion slide the letters of acceptance
under the juniors’ doors while the
applicants are at dinner.
Larry Anthis, a new inductee,
said, “You could feel the tension
in the air at dinner. And we kinda
half-walked, half-ran back to the
dorm to see if we had gotten a let
ter.”
Jim Cunningham and Anthis,
said they were elated when they
discovered the letters under their
doors.
mningl
filled i
were tilled with “Whoops!” from
the cadets who made it.
The RVs are made of seniors
and juniors who are selected
based on how they uphold the
ideals of the Corps at the Univer
sity and in the state.
Whitaker said the seniors con
sider three things during the se
lection — the cadet’s dress, bear-
Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ
George Knox, left, a new member of the Ross Volunteers, reads
his letter of acceptance as Jeff Brady, a senior RV, looks on.
Mandy Schubert, far left, became one of the first two women to
be admitted into the group in its 98-year history.
ing and conduct and how each
reflects on the University and the
Corps.
Also, a cadet must maintain a
2.3 grade-point ratio to be se
lected or to stay in as a senior, he
said.
The juniors were selected Sept.
30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 by the senior
members.
Associated Press
PORT SAID, Egypt — Palestinian
hijackers seized an Italian cruise
liner at sea Monday with more than
400 people aboard, demanded that
Israel release 50 prisoners and
threatened to blow up the ship if at
tacked. officials reported.
Italian Defense Minister Giovanni
Spadolini placed the nation’s armed
forces on alert.
An Italian Foreign Ministry re
port said 72 Americans were listed as
passengers aboard the Achille
Lauro._
Hours later, Patrizia Terese, a
duty officer at the Foreign Ministry,
told The Associated Press that 72
Americans and 20 Britons were
among 600 passengers who left the
ship in Alexandria for a day-long
land tour. That would mean that all
of the Americans and Britons listed
in the previous ministry report had
disembarked; but Terese em
phasized that the figures were pre
liminary, and there could still have
been Americans aboard the ship
when it was hijacked.
In Washington, State Department
spokesman Mike Austrian said the
U.S. Embassy in Cairo was trying to
locate the cruise organizers to find
out how many Americans left the
ship to visit Cairo and the nearby
pyramids.
Egyptian officials said the Achille
Lauro had left Alexandria and was
about 30 miles west of Port Said, its
next destination, when it was com
mandeered by an undetermined
number of hijackers and headed far
ther out into the Mediterranean, its
destination unknown.
Word of the takeover came in a
ship-to-shore radio report by the hi
jackers’ leader to Port Said at about
9:30 p.m. — 4:20 p.m. EDT. The
guerrilla said the hijackers were
members of the Palestine Liberation
Front, a dissident faction of the Pal
estine Liberation Organizaion.
Many of the passengers who left
the Achille Lauro in Alexandria had
been scheduled to rejoin the cruise
at Port Said, the northern entrance
to the Suez Canal and 150 miles east
of Alexandria.
A Palestinian named Samir Ko-
naiterry headed the list of prisoners
the hijackers said were being held in
Israel and whose freedom was de
manded in exchange for the ship
and passengers, the officials re
ported.
In Tel Aviv, a spokesman said the
Foreign Ministry was in close contact
with Italian officials and the Israeli
Cabinet was being summoned for a
meeting this morning.
It was not known how the hijack
ers took control of the ship, which
had been scheduled to dock in Port
Said at 9 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT).
Italian news agencies quoted the
Foreign Ministry as saying the hi
jackers were armed and had a large
supply of explosives with which to
blow up the ship.
An Italian official involved in the
crisis command said there were 340
crew members and “about 60 to 80
passengers aboard the ship.”
“The passengers seem to be
treated well on the basis of what
we’ve learned from Egyptian au
thorities” who were in radio contact
with the ship, the official added.
In Rome, PLO representative
Fuad Al-Bittar issued a statement
saying the PLO had been informed
by the Foreign Minister of the hi
jacking “and we have expressed our
full readiness to offer all our collabo
ration to shed light on this episode
which, above all, has hit the PLO.”
The Italian AGI news agency said -
PLO chief Yasser Arafat, in a tele
phone conversation with Italian For
eign Minister Giulio Andreotti, con
demned the hijacking.
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Local animal shelter helping pets find homes
By LORA BEST
Reporter
Kvlhere are old and young ones
and big and little ones. There are
cats and dogs and puppies and kit
tens. But they all have one thing in
common — they are all living at the
Brazos Animal Shelter.
!:0Some are strays, some have been
surrendered by their owners, some
were abandoned and some were
were brought in by animal control
workers.
A limited number of these ani
mals are actually available for adop
tion. Many cannot be adopted for
health or behavioral reasons.
“We work very hard to keep ani
mals that are adoptable in the shel
ter,” says Kathy Ricker, the shelter’s
executive director.
In fact, the Brazos Animal Shel
ter’s adoption and claim rate is three
times higher than the national rate,
she says.
Ninety percent of the animals that
are wearing tags when found will re
turn to their homes, Ricker says. An
adoptable animal also has a chance
to go to a new home.
Ricker says the staff tries very
hard to get an animal back to its
owner or into a new home. But she
says that keeping a high rate of
adoption is not what is most impor
tant at the shelter.
“All that is important is how the
animal will be cared for and incorpo
rated into the home,” Ricker says.
The shelter has an adoption proc
ess every applicant must go through
before a pet can be adopted.
An application must be filled out
by all prospective owners, Ricker
says. The application is reviewed by
the shelter’s adoption committee
See Brazos, page 12
jctieefJf E
Kidnappers threaten
U.S. and Soviet Union
Aggies fare well in national stats
GOP's Ha nee
running for
governor
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Kent Hance came
to Austin Monday to announce
what’s been obvious during his
several months on the early sea
son campaign trial — he’s run
ning for governor.
The former Democratic con
gressman from Lubbock joined
U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler and for
mer Gov. Bill Clements as the ma
jor GOP contenders in the May
primary.
At a Capitol news conference,
Hance appealed to Republicans’
desire to unseat Democratic Gov.
Mark White. The possibility of
beating White could emerge as
the major issue in the Hance-
Loeffler-Clements scramble.
“I’ve served as an elected offi
cial in Washington and Austin,”
Hance said. “I have the experi
ence. . . . it’s a pretty well-known
fact that I’m the one that can beat
Mark White and will beat Mark
White.”
Associated Press
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7,7^
BEIRUT, Lebanon —' A caller
iming to represent the captors of
three Soviet Embassy employees
said Monday they will be held until
the United States and Soviet Union
join forces to end Lebanon’s 10-
year-old civil war.
■ He also threatened the abduc
tions of more Soviet and American
tizens as a means of putting pres-
Jlire on the superpowers. The au
thenticity of the call could not be
termined.
An anonymous caller who said
he represented a fundamentalist
Sunni Moslem group named the Is
lamic Liberation Organization
daimed responsibility for the kid-
[ nap of four Soviet Embassy staff
members a week ago. One of them
was killed and his body dumped in
a vacant lot.
■ The group demanded that Mos
cow force Syria, its main Middle
East ally, to call off leftist militias
that were besieging fundamentalist
Sunni fighters in the northern port
■ty of Tripoli.
The body of Cultural attache Ar
kady Katkov, 32, was found
Wednesday, and the Syrians de
clared a cease-fire in Tripoli on
Thursday, ending 19 days of fight
ing in which more than 500 people
had been killed.
The man who telephoned a
Western news agency Monday
called the truce in Tripoli move
that does not necessarily mean the
conspiracy against the Moslems is
over.
“The heretics think they can in
vest this truce to deceive us into re
leasing the (Soviet) hostages,” he
said.
“We emphasize that this (kidnap)
operation will not end that easily
and it will not be the last. We shall
not release the hostages.”
The statement said no Soviet
hostages would be freed unless
President Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev agree at their
summit next month in Geneva to
“terminate the Lebanese tragedy
and the sufferings of the Lebanese
people.”
A&M grads hired, paid more
By SCOTT SUTHERLAND
Staff Writer
A comparison between national
employment statistics and those for
Texas A&M graduates reveals that
Aggies are hired more and paid
more. University deans say they aim
to keep it that way.
Lynn Zimmerman, associate dean
of business administration, says his
department encourages students to
get involved in activities on campus.
“Employers want students to shew
that they will be contributors, not
only to tne company but to the com
munity they'll be living in as well,”
Zimmerman said.
Bart Childs, professor of com
puter science at A&M, says his de-
E artment is encouraging students to
roaden their fields of study if they
want to increase their chances of get
ting the best jobs.
“Students with good grades, who
are open minded, have a reasonable
way with politics, and who contrib
ute to their school . . . will land the
best jobs,” Childs said.
He said students especially should
t
Comparison of National ■ and TAMU ED
Average Monthly Salaries for 1985
]
3
u
$2,369
hech. E.
Pet. E.
CQmcL-Sc.
Chemistry
$2,396
$2,283
$2,310
$2,259
$2,245
I $2,583
I$1,4 74
$1,419
$2,082
•HD $2,163
$1 ,897
$1,919
Average Monthly Salary
Data from CPC Salary Survoy and T AMU Salary Survey
consider improving writing and those areas.
speaking skills by taking courses in In computer science, govern
ments are predicting growth in em
ployment for the next 13 years.
Childs says his department is
thrilled about government predic
tions, but that it is not complacent.
In the past, A&M has been able to
place computer science majors at sal
aries above the national average.
According to the College Place
ment Council survey, A&M com
puter science majors reported aver
age salaries this year at $1,000 per
year above the national average.
Other departments also acknowl
edge the importance of a balanced
education.
According to the council survey,
A&M graduates fit this description.
A&M accounting graduates re
ported average salaries of $1,882
per month, outpacing the national
average by more than $100 per
month.
A&M business analysis graduates
reported salaries of $1,908 per
month, $173 per month above the
national average.
Childs says the reason for higher
See Job, page 12