k
1111 uni
/licet o > a 11 i\
Texans will vote on a variety
of amendments Nov. 5
— Page 7
A&M swimmers Austin-bound
to start season at SWC Relays
— Page 9
The Battalion
Vol. 82 Mo. 45 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Friday, November 1, 1985
Shiite group
won’t free
U.S. hostages
Associated Press
; BAALBEK, Lebanon — The
eader of a radical Shiite Moslem
;roup says there’s no hope of five
imericahsand four Frenchmen kid-
K d in Lebanon being released
Kuwait frees 17 extremists con-
icted of bombings.
“I wish the demands of the kid-
lappers could be met and all the
Americans freed,” said Hussein Mu-
awi, leader of the pro-Iranian Is-
imic Amal, a splinter group of the
aain Amal movement.
But he said that Islamic Jihad, or
slamic Holy War, the group of
hiite fundamentalists believed to
old the U.S. and French hostages,
will not release them until the 17
eople held prisoner in Kuwait are
reed.”
Release of the 17, most of them
Shiites, has been Islamic Jihad’s
pin demand since it began kidnap
ping Westerners in January 1984.
I Kuwait refuses to release the men,
ftiled for bombing the U.S. and
irench embassies in December
p983.
| Islamic Jihad claimed on Oct.4
that il had killed a sixth American
Postage, U.S. diplomat William
Buckley, in revenge for Israel’s air
[strike against Palestinian guerrillas
See Hostages, page 14
Visiting
King of Tonga
No, it’s not World War I!. It's 1985 and nearly time for bonfire.
The centerpole was raised Thursday — right on schedule. The
centerpole is the first step in building the 55-foot bonfire, a sym
bol of Texas A&M’s burning desire to “beat the hell outta t.u.”
I
royalty
expresses interest in A&M
By JENS B. KOEPKE
Siufl Writer
KingTaufa’ahau Tupou IV, ruler
of the Pacific island kingdom of
Tonga, visited Texas A&M Thurs
day, saying he was “interested in see-
I ingwhat is going on.”
The king was invited to the
United States by a life-long friend,
James Windrum. Windrum served
in the British Colonial Service and
met the king on a diplomatic visit in
the early 40s. Windrum, who now
resides in Brenham, suggested that
the King visit A&M. Tne King ar
rived in Houston and plans to go to
Los Angeles before returning to
Tonga.
Asked if he were planning to at
tend the A&M-SMU football game,
the King said, “I’ll watch it on tele
vision. Those football games are so
long. . . . They take die whole af
ternoon.”
King Tupou IV has ruled since
1965 and is a descendant of King
George Tupou I who founded the
King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV
present dynasty in 1845. In 1900
Tonga came under the protection of
the British Commonwealth, but re
tained its independence and auton
omy. Then on June 4, 1970, Tonga
became a fully independent country.
Tonga is an archipelago of 169 is
lands, 36 of which are inhabited, lo
cated directly south of Western Sa
moa and about 1,000 miles from
New Zealand. The islands, which
cover 288 square miles, are divided
into three groups — Vava’u, Ha’api
and Tongatapu — and form a 500-
mile-long line. Agriculture makes up
almost half of the Tongan economy
with coconuts, vanilla beans and ba
nanas as the major cash crops. Pigs
and poultry are the major types of
livestock, while cattle development is
on the rise.
The United States has no diplo
matic offices in Tonga, but officers
of the American Embassy in Fiji con
currently are accredited to Tonga
and make visits periodically. Very
little trade exists between the Unitecf
States and Tonga.
The King said Tonga is interested
in expanding its beef and dairy cattle
production and beginning to de
velop modern seafood production.
Responding to questions from
representatives of the A&M School
of Veterinary Medicine, he said the
cattle and swine in Tonga have been
relatively free of disease because the
islands are isolated.
Reagan announces
arms restriction plan
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan announced T hursday that
lie is making a new nuclear weapons
limitation proposal to the Soviet
Union and will request that the cur
rent round of negotiations in Ge
neva he extended to consider it.
In a nationally televised
statement, Reagan said the latest So
viet offer “unfortunately fell consid
erably short” in certain areas. But,
he said, there were also positive
“seeds” for an agreement, which he
had built on with the new offer.
Significantly, he called both sides’
proposals “milestones” in the quest
or reductions of nuclear weapons.
“I believe progress is indeed possible
if the Soviet leadership is willing to
match our own commitment to abet
ter relationship,” Reagan said.
Just before his announcement,
Reagan told four Soviet journalists
in an interview that he would accept
some of the figures proposed by So
viet leader Mikhail Goroachev, who
called last month for a reduction of
about 50 percent in missiles and
bombers carrying nuclear warheads.
Reagan said the U.S. offer calls
for “deep cuts” in offensive weap
ons, research on defensive systems
and “no cheating.” But the president
said he would divulge no further de
tails.
“It is mv hope that our new pro
posal would enable both our nations
to start moving away from ever-
larger arsenals,” the president said.
The Soviet proposal, in a letter to
Reagan from Gorbachev last month,
and the U.S. response are designed
to make headway in the slow-moving
negotiations before the two leaders
meet at the summit in the Swiss city
Nov. 19-20.
The new U.S. proposal was also
sent directly to Gorbachev and is
“part of a process of interaction that
we hope will lead somewhere,” Sec
retary of State George P. Shultz said
later at a news conference.
But he also stressed U.S. concerns
over human rights declined to place
halting the nuclear arms race at the
top of the agenda.
The Geneva negotiations deal
with two types of nuclear weapons —
long- and medium-range — as well
as space-based defense systems. So
viet strategy has been to insist on
concessions from the United States
on the “Star Wars” anti-missile de
fense program before a deal is
struck to curb offensive arms.
But Shultz, hinting at a softening
in the Soviet position, said “certain
aspects of their recent proposals”
suggest Moscow might he willing to
work out a separate deal to reduce
U.S. and Soviet missiles deployed in
Europe.
The U.S. proposal, said officials
who demanded anonymity, would
limit both sides to 6,000 strategic
warheads each.
Passenger says FBI told him
wife’s luggage held bomb
Associated Press
AUSTIN — A San Marcos man
questioned by FBI agents investigat
ing an explosion aboard an Ameri
can Airlines flight said Thursday the
agents told him a homemade bomb
had been concealed in his wife’s lug
gage.
FBI spokesman Don Baxter in
Dallas would not confirm that Aus
tin American-Statesman report,
which quoted an unidentified F’BI
official as saying authorities didn’t
know who put the device into the
bag.
The bag exploded about 8 a.in.
Wednesday as American Flight 203
arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Re
gional Airport from Austin. None of
the 147 passengers and seven crew
was injured in the blast.
Albert Thielman, who works for
Miles Pre-Cut Homes in Austin, told
the American-Statesman that FBI
agents searched his San Marcos
home, his office and his cars late
Wednesday.
Thielman’s wife, Mary, and their
three children were on the first leg
of a trip to visit relatives in Des
Moines, Iowa, when the device ex
ploded in the luggage compartment
of the Boeing 72/.
Thielman was not arrested or
charged and said he consented to
the searches conducted Wednesday.
“They w'anted to go to my house,
and that was fine,” Thielman said.
“They went through my cars and ev
erything in my office and my house.
1 hey said it (the device) was in her
stuff.”
The newspaper quoted sources as
saying the bomb was constructed in
two sections, with a 6-volt lantern-
type battery, timing device and wir
ing in a coffee can. The second part
of the device, which contained gun
powder and ball-bearings, was pack
aged in a round, olive-drab metal
canister.
Thielman said he dropped his
f amily off at the airport ana checked
their baggage with a skycap at the
curb in front of the terminal. He
said his wife and her children caught
a connecting flight to Iowa after the
explosion.
“When she came off the plane in
Iowa there were two uniforms and
an FBI agent waiting for her,” he
said.
He said he had no criminal record
except for a misdemeanor charge
when he was in college 15 years ago.
He w'ould not say if he had decided
to hire a lawyer because “I’ve never
been in this situation before.”
Byron Sage, agent-in-charge of
the FBI’s Austin office, said an Aus-
tin-area man with family on the
plane was questioned but declined to
identify him. San Marcos is about 40
miles southwest of Austin.
“No one has been arrested and at
this point I don’t anticipate any ar
rests in the near future,” Sage said.
“Everyone involved in this investiga
tion has been cooperative, no one
has been hiding from us or stone
walling.”
Sage said the possibility someone
else might have tampered with the
luggage “has not been ruled out at
all.’ s
James Singer, general manager of
the American Airlines office in Aus
tin, said FBI agents have told him
they will be questioning airline em
ployees at the airport.
Sage said his agents are widening
the investigation to identify every
one who came in contact with the
baggage containing the device.
‘‘We’ve identified who owned the
bag, and we are conducting a series
of interviews with passengers and
members of the immediate family to
backtrack and establish any associa
tion and access to the baggage area,”
the agent said.
“It would be unfair to focus any
specific blame because we have not
identified anyone with the device or
how it came to be in that baggage,”
Sage said.
American Airlines officials at
DFW airport said the airline does
not believe the bombing was carried
out by a terrorist group.
Company spokesman John Ho-
tard said, “American Airlines re
ceived no calls or threats prior to the
incident, or anyone claiming respon
sibility for it after the incident.”
Academic life less stressful for students in Spain
Editor's note: This is the third in a
three-part series on Spain.
By JUNE PANG
Staff Writer
When 39 Texas A&M students
took classes at a Spanish university
this summer, they found they didn’t
have to worry about quizzes, tests
and homework. At Spanish universi
ties, students feel virtually no pres
sure until the end of the school year.
The A&M students traveled to
Spain with Dr. Bart Lewis and Dr.
Antonio Martinez, professors from
the modern languages department,
as part of the six-week-long “Aggies
in Spain" program.
While on the trip, they noticed
some differences between American
and Spanish universities.
According to Martinez, who at
tended school in Spain while grow
ing up, the greatest difference be
tween the universities here and in
Spain is that American students are
ressured to study more than their
panish counterparts.
“(The Spanish university)
is more, in a way, a free
university. It puts the re
sponsibility on students
themselves. ”
— Dr. Antonio Martinez,
A&M professor of mod
ern languages.
An academic year in Spain runs
from October through June. There
is no semester system.
During the academic year, there
are only about two or three exams.
Quizzes, tests and homework assign
ments are rarely given.
One reason for this is the large
class size. Martinez says. A class of
150 to 200 students is the average
size of an undergraduate class.
In classes this size, “there is no
wav you can have the individual care
(as in American universities),” says
Martinez, who has taught at both
American and Spanish universities.
Another drawback of Spanish
universities is that course selections
are very limited.
There are very few selective
courses in colleges of science as well
as liberal arts, Martinez says.
At the begining of a school year,
students are given a program of the
courses for the year.
The program tells the students
what they are supposed to learn in
the course.
Professors give lectures and guide
the class through the material. To
ward the end of the year, exams are
given to test how much students
have learned from the class.
“It’s more, in a way, a free univer
sity,” Martinez says.
“It puts the responsibility on stu
dents themselves,” he says.
William Grimes, a senior history
major, says he enjoyed the relaxed,
learning atmosphere in Spain.
“Personally, I think this is more
effective, because I was not pres
sured to learn,” Grimes says. “I
learned because 1 wanted to learn.”
“If I learn because I have to take
the test, 1 tend to forget what I’ve
learned after the test.”
Martinez says he thinks American
universities give students more care
and less general responsibility.
“Here, students told me in the
exam ‘You didn’t cover the
material,’ ” he says. “I said ‘It’s in
the textbook. You have to he respon
sible.’
“They said ‘It’s not fair.’ I said,
‘Life is not fair. If you are in an
earthquake, and you don’t know
how to cope, you die.’
Martinez says Spanish students
generally have received a very good
secondary school education.
By the time thev go to college,
they already know how to study by
themselves, he says.
But, he adds, “of course, there are
many students who don’t learn any
thing from October to June.”
In general, universities in other
European countries are more like
those in Spain, Martinez says.
For instance, in Germany, stu-_
“Students here are pres
sured by concrete exams,
which is good but also de
structive. In many ways,
that narrows the capacity
of learning. ”
— Dr. Antonio Martinez,
professor of modern lan
guages.
dents are given a big exam at the end
of the semester, he says.
Students have to know every
thing, he says, and that includes
“what a professor has said and what
he has not said.
“Students here are given quizzes
and tests every two weeks,” Martinez
says.
“In Europe,” he says, “students
follow their own interests, they have
time to talk to different people and
learn different things.
“Students here are pressured by
concrete exams, which is good but
also destructive.”
“In many ways, that narrow's the
capacity of learning. But they may
know certain subjects very well.
“In Europe, students are more in
terested in general things. Here,
they’re more (concerned) about
their degrees.”
Martinez says that when he was a
student of history and literature in
Spain, he went to listen to a profes
sor of medicine because that profes
sor gave good lectures.
In Spain, there is a bachelor of
arts degree. High school graduates
go to colleges from five to seven
years to get a degree equivalent to a
master’s here, he says.
In colleges of science, they offer
different levels of degrees equiva
lent to bachelor, master of science
and Ph.D.