wmammmaam
A&.M faculty, student groups
offering tutorial services
— Page 6
A&M netters travel to Lubbock
to defend SWC Indoor title
Page 13
MM V Texas A&M m m V #
The Battalion
[0I.8I Mo. 229 USPS 075360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, October 18, 1985
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Italian leader resigns after hijacking crisis
Associated Press
■ROME — Premier Bettino Craxi
Msigned Thursday, his coalition
Battered by the way h<- handled the
■ip hijacking crisis, and he went
■wn swinging at the United States
pits “polemical tone" in the affair.
Blna statement to Parliament, the
Baalist premier accused Washing-
Bjof making statements, “which 1
■lieve derive from an incomplete
|ialuation of the facts and circum-
Jnces in which the Italian govern-
he fate of Italy’s 44th postwar
gmernment, which in another
mmith would have been the longest-
lived, was sealed Wednesday by the
Bsigiiations of Defense Minister
Giovanni Spadolini and two other
Cabinet members from his Republi
can Party.
They quit over the decision to re
lease Mohammed Abbas, a PLO offi
cial the United States accuses of di
recting the hijacking last week of the
cruise liner Achille Lauro.
The foreign policy conflict
brought down the center-left coali
tion, which included five parties, af
ter 26 months in office.
Four Palestinians hijacked the
ship Oct. 7 off Port Said, Egypt and
surrendered Oct. 9. U.S. Navy jets
from the aircraft carrier Saratoga in
tercepted an Egyptian airliner carry
ing the pirates and Abbas and forced
it to land at a NATO air base in Sicily
L
Craxi submitted his resignation to
President Francesco Cossiga after
the speech to Parliament and was
asked to stay on in a caretaker capac
ity.
Cossiga’s office said the president
would begin political consultations
Friday toward naming a new pre
mier-designate.
The dominant Christian Demo
crat Party, one of the five parties,
said it would like to see the same co
alition maintained. Cossiga could
achieve that by asking Craxi to try to
form a new government or turning
to someone else in the group.
Craxi said in his speech that the
United States had asked him to get
in touch with Yasser Arafat, chair
man of the Palestine Liberation Or
ganization, at the start of negotia
tions for release of the Achille Lauro
and those aboard.
The premier said he had lodged a~
protest with the United States gov
ernment, charging that Italian air
space had been violated. He claimed
two American warplanes followed
the Egyptian airliner, without autho
rization, when it flew from Sicily to
Ciampino military airport in Rome
last Friday night with Abbas aboard.
Defense Minister Spadolini,
whose resignation caused the coali
tion to collapse, told reporters later
that Craxi’s account of the alleged vi
olation by U.S. planes was accurate
“in every detail.”
Craxi said, “The Italian govern
ment has decided to open an investi
gation and a protest was immedi
ately filed with the Washington
government.
“The polemical tone of the first
reactions of the American govern
ment could not but provoke the
strongest and displeased surprise as
well as a feeling of bitterness for the
ignorance on the part of a friendly
government of everything that the
Italian government had done,” the
prime minister said in his 40-minute
address.
Consequences of U.S. actions viewed
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — After basking
in the triumph of the capture of the
hijackers of the Achille Lauro, the
Reagan administration now must
deal with the unfavorable conse
quences, underscored by the fall of
an Italian government long support
ive of American interests.
Particularly disturbing to some is
that a terrorist incident could have
led to the resignation of the govern
ment of Premier Bettino Craxi of
See Resignation, page 14
Cisneros asks
14 AIDS victims
to think twice
jCoteCorrp!
Students will only pay for printouts
A&M to lower cost of computer use
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — The city
health department has hand-deliv
ered letters to 14 AIDS victims warn
ing that sexual activity will result in
felony charges, and Mayor Henry
Cisneros says carriers of the disease
should “transcend their individual
rights” in deference to society.
The letters dispatched this week
also order the AIDS victims to avoid
exposing others to the disease
through sharing needles or donating
blood or plasma, and to caution phy
sicians and dentists with whom they
come into contact.
“I think most people are reasona
ble and that they will follow the last
paragraph in the letter ‘to accept this
letter in the spirit in which it was in
tended and help me in my effort to
protect the public health,’” Dr. Cou-
rand Rothe, director of the health
department, said Thursday.
Rothe said he became concerned
about the spread of acquired im
mune deficiency syndrome after a
male prostitute in Houston, who is
an AIDS victim, said he would con
tinue to engage in sexual activity.
Seventeen people are known to
have AIDS in the San Antonio area,
but letters were sent to only 14,
Rothe said. There is no concern
about the three others spreading the
get themselves treated,” the mayor
said. “They should not lighthear-
tedly slough off their obligation to
others as human beings.”
Earlier this month, Cisneros
urged health officials to publish
pamphlets on AIDS, which strips the
body of its immunity against disease,
and to hold a public forum to in
crease awareness.
Rothe said he received a report
from a physician that one of his pa
tients knew of at least three AIDS
patients in the San Antonio area who
would not limit their afctivities.
By TAMARA BELL
— h Suit! Writer
Rill J Blexas A&M’s Computer Center is
llllj/ -implementing a three-step plan that
iwill lower the cost of using Univer-
/ sity computers, the director of the
—^‘cmter says.
BVilliani Lafield says .that begin-
Bg Monday students will no longer
Knarged for computer time when
Iwlrking on class assignments. But
says students must continue to
T Alik P a ' ^ ()l t ^ ie corn P uter printouts to
ijsSSjcover the cost of buying paper. The
[cost is 3.4 cents per page, he says.
BSince the center was established in
, students have paid for use of
the computer, Lafield says. The
amount students pay depends on the
hour of day they use the computer.
If the students use the computer
during a low priority time, after
midnight, they pay one cent per sec
ond. If they use it during the day,'
then it’s eight cents per second.
“This is a first step toward reach
ing our aim for the future,” Lafield
says. “The cost to the student has
gradually decreased since the center
was established. Sure we’ve had to
tighten our belts because of budget
cuts this year, but we’ve weathered
the cuts because we’ve preplanned
for these increases t6 the center’s ex
penses.”
The second step toward reaching
their goal involves an increase in
computer funds available to the col
leges.
“The vice president for academic
affairs provides computer funds,
guaranteed funds, for colleges to al
locate to the professors,” Lafield
says. “The professor establishes an
account with the Computer Center.
The professor gives the students
identification numbers to use the
computers.”
Funds available for allocation by
the Computer Center has increased
over previous years by 25 percent,
making $850,000 available this year,
Lafield says.
The center is in the process of al
locating the funds to every college
except the colleges of Medicine and
Veterinary Medicine, which are ap
propriated separately, he says. Allo
cation of the funds will be based on
the need and the requirements of
each college.
The third step taken to meet the
goal involves the establishment of
block grants for researchers and
graduate students.
Applications for the block grants
of low priority computer time will be
available at the end of October, he
says.
disease, he said, but declined to elab
orate.
Rothe said his agency is working
under the authority of the Texas
Communicable Disease Prevention
and Control Act, which allows con
trols on people who are health risks
to the community.
Violation of the warnings could
result in third-degree felony
charges, he said.
“Mind you, we can only do this if
there is a credible complaint from
someone,” he said.
Cisneros has not commented di
rectly on the letters, but urged AIDS
victims Wednesday to “transcend
their individual rights so they can
play roles as part of the larger so
ciety.”
“Any person who has it, first of
all, owes an obligation to all of us to
985
4958,
Proposition 2
Hon-PUF universities voice mixed reactions to recent funding changes
Kiclitor’s note: This is the third in a three-
fan series on the effects of Proposition 2 on
spaiding at Texas universities.
‘ By JENS B. KOEPKE
I Staff Writer
Btate universities not included in the Per-
paiu nt University Fund have had mixed re
actions to the changes mandated in higher ed-
kaiion funding by Proposition 2.
■The passage of Proposition 2 in November
|98l modified the function of the PUF, the
Itimaiv source of construction revenue for
the Texas A&M and University of Texas sys-
KIs.
proposition 2 established a $100 million
■ucation Assistance Fund from general rev-
flies for use by 26 state universities not in
cluded in the PUF. The money can be spent
on major repairs and renovations, new con
struction, land acquisition, equipment and li
brary books.
The PUF is an endowment of oil-rich land,
a percentage of which is used as collateral for
construction bonds for the A&M and UT sys
tems. Interest from PUF investments makeup
the Available University Fund, which finances
enrichment programs such as endowed
professorships and scholarships. The UT sys
tem gets two-thirds of the AUF while the
A&M system gets one-third.
From 1966-1978, state universities not in
cluded in the PUF funded new construction
through the state ad valorem tax, a property
tax. Other expenditures were funded by state
allocations from general revenues. In the late
70s, when the ad valorem tax became unpop
ular with land owners, the Texas Legislature
reduced the rate of taxation- to almost zero,
gutting the tax.
“What the Legislature did was to set it (the
tax) at a rate that essentially violated the spirit
and the letter of the constitution,” says Eu
gene Payne, Texas Tech University vice presi
dent for finance and administration.
Because the tax was still a part of the consti
tution, the institutions could not go to the
Legislature for general revenue appropia-
tions and were left without a dedicated source
of renovation or construction funding, Payne
says. The fiscal dilemma was addressed by the
Legislature which drafted Proposition 2, es
tablishing the $ 100 million fund.
“Proposition 2 has corrected the deficien
cies that were created when the ad valorem
tax was disbanded,” Payne says. “If we had
not had that (Proposition 2), we would have
continued to deteriorate until there was noth
ing there.”
However, Payne says, the university is dis
appointed that the Legislature, after provid
ing non-PUF schools with the assistance fund,
turned around and cut library and Depart
mental Operating Expense (DOE) appropria
tions to those schools. He says he felt it vio
lated the spirit of the proposition, which was
designed to provide funding above what al
ready was available in state appropriations.
Texas Tech also was disappointed that
non-PUF schools could not receive any inter-
See PUF effects,page 14
A&Ms
Olympics
expand
By JUNEPANG
Staff Writer
For the first time in the three-
year history of Texas A&M’s
Mini-Olympics, Americans also
will be going for the gold.
The Mini-Olympics is an an
nual athletic competition among
international students at A&M.
But this year members of Tau
Kappa, the junior honor society,
will compete for the Americans in
the games.
“We want to bring people from
every country to know each
other,” said Naynesh Desai, ISA
secretary and the organizer of
this year’s games. “By doing this,
the international students have a
chance to participate in an activity
that most people are interested
in.”
The president of Tau Kappa,
Mike Cotton, said his group is ex
cited about participating in the
games, which will be; held for the
next two weekends.
“One member of the club (Tau
Kappa) participated in the games
last year,” Cotton said. “He was
told that the international stu
dents were interested in getting
American students involved but
didn’t know how to go about it.”
So the Tau Kappa members
talked about it and agreed it
would be a good idea to compete,
Cotton said.
There are nine events in the
Mini-Olympics; badminton, has
ketball, racquetball, indoor soc
cer, swimming, tennis, table-ten
nis, track and volleyball. All
events have both men’s and wom
en’s teams, and most events have
co-ed teams.
Desai, a graduate student in
chemical engineering from India,
said the students who organized
the Mini-Olympics in the past did
not keep records of the games.
Since this made the planning dif
ficult for organizers of this year’s
See Mini, page 14