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— Page 12
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T exas A&tA
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/4L. 82 No. 70 CISPS 075360 12 pages
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College Station. Texas
Tuesday, December 10,1985
—
M officials: Errors in
TRAVIS TINGLE
Sports Editor
Texiut A&M Athletic Depart
ment issued a news release Monday
Mach said the Dsdlas Times Hcradd s
investigative series on possible viola
tions of NCAA rules in the Aggie
football program contained numer
ous errors’* and that the sources
used had “axes to grind and could be
^,i«,o,h ep a P «r-. q u« t »'g«
i | Jackie Sherrill. A AM's athletic di-
Hiector and head football coach, had
. qplanned a news conference todav at
1 p :S0 c. m. to give what a news release
Called “one alhencompassing media
response’* to the allegations of the
Times Herald.
But late Monday evening The
Battalion received word from Lane
Stephenson, director of AAM's Of
fice of Public Information, that the
news conference had been canceled.
Stephenson brought The Battalion a
typed statement from A&M Athletic
Department officials which read:
,f We have reconsidered and de
cided to refrain from dignifying, by
further discussion, the allegations of
the Dallht Times Herald Looking
back over comments contained in
the story that we released earlier to
day (Monday's media release), we
have concluded that nothing more
needs to be said pubhefv and that
continuation of a verbal battle with
lent of the media is coun-
luctivc.
_ will now address all of our
energies in this matter tcCpCesenting
the Darts to the National Collegiate
Athletic Association and the South
west Conference.''
Monday’s news release quoted
Sherrill as saying, “Numerous errors
have been found throughout the
five Times Herald stories published
Saturday through Monday, and sev
eral of tne errors were quite signifi
cant. In delving into the voluminous
material we have found not only un
questionable errors, but also in
stances of various shades of the
truth.** /
THetfd mes Herald, in a copyright
kies, reported more than
40 former A&M football players as
saying they received large amounts
of eftth, special car deals, weekly al
lowances. performance payments,
signing incentives and bonuses from
A&tf coaches and boosters.
All the Times Herald’s allegations
acawe A&M of NCAA rule viola
tion*.
University officials responded to
the newspaper s use of sources in
this w|rr:
’*• *» Ail of the former A&M foot
ball pfeyars who alleged that they re
ceived money — other than for some
instances of selling tickets — were
dismissed from the team for various
reasons or left under clouded condi
tions ..." »
A&M officials attributed that ob
servation to Arno W. Krebs Jr., a
Houston attorney representing the
University’s legal interests. They
said Krebs conducted interviews and
did investigative work as a result of
the paper’s allegations.
Laury Tarieton, acting editor of
the Times Herald told the Asso
ciated Press the newspaper stands
behind the integrity of its stones and
See Ag officials, page 12
Jackie Sherrill
^REr,
mdlelight Vigil
of MADD and other B
regate at the College Station
ryan-Coliege
Community <
Station area residents
center to participate in
Photo by JON P. KARP
a candle lighting ceremony. The vigil was held to remember the inno
cent victims of intoxicated drivers.
OPEC to combat
outside efforts,
prices may drop
GENEVA — OPEC vowed Mon
day to fight Britain and other inde
pendent oil producers for a “fair
share” of world oil sales, opening the
way for freer competition that ana
lysts said trill mean V)wer prices.
The 13 ministers from the Or*
stef
ming i
of trying to keep prices
lowing their production to 1
But sources said they had reached
an understanding that, with prices
likely to fall anyway ; their best alter
native was to use price competition
to stop the costly decline m tf
share of world oil sales.
Countries
abandon! n
down a dollar from Friday s close.
The price rebounded briefly, then
slipped to $27.57 in early afternoon.
“I am not intending to declare a
E nce war," said Arturo Hernandez
risanti, the oil minister of Venezu
ela and newly elected chairman of
OPEC.
xbat a big..
ms®-.™*
keep prices high by al-
> rod action to fall.
their
list'll
CM! hearing to reconvene today
Tl-
Judge unsure about Texaco case
IT
HOUSTON — A state district
judge reconvenes a hearing today to
decide whether Texaco Inc. should
. . Visiting Judge
Jr., after hearing
Solomon Casseb
.two days of argu
ments last week, delayed an immedi
ate decision on whether to uphold.
today with a decision, Casseb re-
Students empty classes
with empty bomb threats
plied. “1 have no way of knowing
what I’ll do.”
A jury recommended last month
that Texaco pay $7.53 billion in ac
tual damages — the amount Pen-
nzoil claims it suffered by losing ac
cess to 1 billion barrels of Getty Oil
reserves — and another $3 billion as
AIDS
punishment for illegally enticing
Getty to break its previous merger
agreement with Pennzoil.
Texaco purchased Getty last year
for $10.1 billion, the second-largest
merger in U.S. corporate history t>e-
hma Chevron Corp.’s $13.3 billion
purchase of Gulf Corp.
The sources, who spoke on condi
tion they not be identified, said the
ministers were unwilling to openly
declare a final break witn their cur
rent policy because they feared it
would accelerate a drop in prices.
The meeting's outcome, after
three days of talks, triggered a
“great panic” in the oil markets in
early trading, said Paul McDonald,
senior oil analyst at the London of
fice of the U.S. investment firm
Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
The price on the open market for
North Sea Brent crude slumped by
95 cents a barrel to $26 shortry after
the OPEC meeting broke up, he
said. It then stabilized a» OPEC min
isters made comments to reporters
that indicated they would try to
avoid a price war.
On the New York Mercantile Ex
change. futures prices nosedived.
Contracts for January deliverv
opened trading at $27./5 a barrel.
»ible and that
(fllfej&ld study
the implications of tougher price
competition between OPtC and in
dependent producers.
Pressed to say what he considered
OPEC’s fair share of the world mar
ket, Grisanti said it should be be
tween OPEC’s widely flouted pro
duction ceiling of 16 million barrels
a day and its current actual output,
estimated to be^iboui 18 million bar
rels daily.
The official declaration issued at
the close of OPEC’s meeting made
no specific mention of either the
production ceiling, which was set in
October 1984, or the group's official
base price of $28 a barrel.
When asked if these agreements
remained in force, Grisanti said
only, “The conference reaffirmed all
its previous resolutions."
The OPEC joint statement, citing
“the persistently declining trend of
OPEC production," said the min
isters had decided to “secure and de
fend for OPEC a fair share in the
world oil market consistent with the
necessary income for member coun
tries’ development.”
A.
By BRIAN PEARSON
Senior Staff Writer
For some Texas A&M stu
dents, the telephone is becoming
a popular weapon used to fight
those ugly and unpleasant aca
demic tasks&sucti as tests,
speeches, presentations.
Some mav feel this is a worth
while crusade, but others, such as
the University Police, say they are
not pleased with the efforts be
cause the students are calling and
emptying classrooms by making
bomb threats.
Bob Wiau, director of security
and traffic at A&M, said the stu
dents make the bomb threats to
mtnipufatr scheduled classroom
: activities. * v ;
“They (students) figure this is a
good stray to rive them a tattle breath
ing room," Watt laid.
There kave been seven bomb
during the fall semester. Six
these have occqrrcd within the
There were six threats
September and December
at 1984.
W att said the number of bomb
threat incidents recently has jumped
because more students see how the
threats affect dan schedules.
He added tint the number of
threats usually increases at the end
of every semester. J
Wiau said that dthough no bombs
have exploded or been found in the
btaMgngs where the threats are
made. University Police must take
each threat serjoush.
“We treat every bomb threat as
real," Wiau said. “We still have to
send officers over to dear and
search the budding."
Wiau mid the procedure for
searching the budding is cosdy to the
department and ies up four or five
ofncer:,
t. Besides the waned time and effort
spent searching for imaginary
bombs, the threan also cause prob
lems by interrupt*^ exams, experi
ments and other aoivies going on in-
dde the building.
“It’s very dnnpdve and that’s
why if we catch someone, we’re
going to throw the book at him,"
Wiau said
Experts: Virus paranoia unfounded most times
ig||
By SCOTT SUTHERI AND
Staff Writer
A New York City woman recently
wrote to Ann Landers saying that
her husband was about to retire and
they were going to move to another
state. She wasn’t t Tightened of the
crowded city and its high crime rate,
she was frightened of AIDS.
The woman wanted Landers to
11 publish the list of states and the
^✓number of AIDS cases in each one.
Jl It was clear that she didn’t want any
advice.
“And please don’t tell me not to
get hysterical,” She wrote. “Just
prim the information.”
But despite what people may have
heard about AIDS, the disease can
not be contracted easily, says Chuck
Fowlers, a spokesman for the Center
for Disease Control in Atlanta. Re
searchers there have discovered no
evidence proving AIDS can be
spread through tears, saliva or cas
ual contact as some have claimed,
Fowless says. ' Tjjfe
Christy Reed, epidemiologist with
the Texas Health Department, say
early reports about AIDS left
guessing and scared.
When this thing first hit, the me
dia wasn't telling people how AIDS
is spread," Reed said. '’People began
conjuring up these ideas that A IDS
was a respiratory-transmitted dis
ease. They had images of whole
towns being wiped out
Marco Roberts, president of Gay
Student Services at Texas A&M, says
although gays stand a higher risk of
infection, heterosexuals are at risk
too.
Dr. Henry Masur from the Na
tional Institute of Health agrees with
Roberts.
“People have to be aware of the
fact that anv single sexual encounter
could result in the transmission of
AIDS,” Masur said in an interview in
Modern Science Magazine.
Because of that, Roberts says he is
witn a!
. .1 pol
iticians will use the AIDS issue to
curry favor with voters. He cites
Houston mavoral candidate Louie
Wrfch', platform as a prime exam-
pie.
Welch wanted a city ordinance
prohibiting seropositive*, people
who have been tested and found to
have been in contact with the AIDS
antibody, from working in health- or
food-related services. And he called
for a registration system to keep
track of seropositives.
Roberts says, “There is not one
shred of evidence that says AIDS can
enter the body by anv other means
than through die blood stream.
Physical contact has not been estab
lished as a mode of transmission."
Meanwhile insurance companies
also are cracking down on seroposi-
dves. Roberts says some insurance
companies are dropping policy hold
ers that have tested positive on the
HTLV-I11 test, the test which identi
fies AIDS antibodies in the bloods
tream.
“Most of those people will never
even get sick," Roberts says.
In tact, 15 percent of those who
test positive on the HTLV-III test
may develop AIDS themselves and
25 percent of them will suffer some
effects of AIDS, according to Mod
ern Medicine Magazine.
Other means also have been taken
up in attempt to curb the activity of
scro positives i
• School districts have begun bar-
i the c
ring AIDS victims from
room.
See AIDS, page 8
cla^s-
Students
admit link
to threat
University Police identified
Monday three additional suspects
connected with a Friday bomb
threat in Bolton Hall, a spokes
man for the department said.
Bob Wiatt, director of security
and traffic at Texas A&M. said
three students admitted to asking
James Andrew Drapeia to make
the bomb threat so a Friday politi
cal science test would be canceled.
After University Police were
given a description of a man by a
witness who had seen the alleged
bomb threat caller, Drapeia was
identified and arrested by offi
cers as he was evacuating the
class.
Wiatt said Drapeia told police
five other classmates had urged
him to the call.
He said the two others con
nected with the case will be identi
fied by Wednesday.
Wiatt said all suspects in the
case will be referred to the De
partment of Student Affairs for
further action.
Drapeia was charged with ter
roristic threat Friday. Terroristic
threat is a Class A Misdemeanor
carrying a maximum penalty of
one year in prison, a $2,000 fine
or both.
mil