MSC president says people
important to union's success
I — Page 5
—
Aggie netters coast to wins
in home-opening matches
Page 12
Vol. 83 No. 89 GSPS 075360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, February 3, 1986
E ^oiisin’ For Daytona
::
j:
[Contestants compete in the National Collegiate Driving
[Championship for a chance to go to the finals in Daytona, Fla. The
Photo by MICHAEL SANCHEZ
local contest was held last weekend and was hosted by the Texas A&M
Sports Car Club.
Salaries still below national average
Texas paying profs 5.1 percent more
I By SONDRA PICKARD
Staff Writer
■rofessors teaching in Te
Riniversities are getting paid an
v|fage of 5.1 percent more than in
984. but probably not enough to
§ep Texas from falling behind
jjner states in recruiting and retain-
■quality educators, says a survey
|;the Texas College and University
Hem Coordinating Board.
■me survey indicates that the 1985
Hy increase rates are above the
linimum levels funded by the
|xas Legislature, but Higher Edu-
Ijon Commissioner Kenneth Ash-
prth says the figures are insignifi-
|nt in comparison to increases of
|to 6 percent across the nation.
Institution
Average Salaries
for University Faculty
1985-86
Professors
zaxxxsMricavaKSKSsar
Associate
Professors
Assistant
Professors
vasamasEzamssa:
Texas A&M
University..
$44,521
$33,588
$27,405
Texas Tech
University.
43,869
32,502
27,372
University
of Texas at
Austin 48,315
33,204
29.280
University
of Texas at
Dallas 46,628
34,023
28,947
University
University
of Houston
Park
at
47,060
34,279
28,795
Ashworth says every Texas uni- schools, including Texas A&M, have Texas is slipping from the national
versity is trying to pay its faculty as been forced to borrow money from average,” Ashworth says. “Other
much as possible with available sources not designated for salaries. c t i •
funds. But in order to do this, “The institutions realize that ^ ee l-' ow salaries, page 14
NASA officials
believe rocket
was ruptured
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
NASA officials, increasingly confi
dent they can identify the cause of
Challenger’s disaster and fly again
soon, believe a rupture in the right
rocket booster may have triggered
the explosion that destroyed the
shuttle and killed its crew.
NASA sources apparently feel so
close to a solution to Tuesday’s tra
gedy that they are talking about fly
ing again as early as June if the test
ing and correction procedures are
completed.
A flight that had been scheduled
by the shuttle Columbia for June 24
appeared to be the earliest possible.
Search teams, fighting strong At
lantic currents, continued to bring in
Challenger’s spreading debris Sun
day, including a five-ton rocket frag
ment. The search area was extended
to more than 40,000 square miles.
The apparent rupture in the
strong rocket casing — whether at a
seam or elsewhere — had the effect
of pointing a torch at the side of
Challenger’s fuel tank. The theory is
that the flame either burnt through
the tank or a “destruct package,”
causing the explosion, or raised the
tank pressure to intolerable limits
with the same result.
This theory remained just that.
NASA’s acting administrator, Wil
liam Graham, the only agency offi
cial speaking on the record, said
Sunday that the agency still is
looking for other causes for the ex
plosion.
Photographs released by NASA
show a tongue of flame apparently
lashing upward from the exhaust of
the right booster rocket into an area
that films of previous launches
showed to be clear of fire or flame.
The flame was “somewhere in this
vicinity,” Graham said as he made
the rounds of Sunday television talk
shows. He pointed to a “field joint”
— the seam between the lowest seg
ment of the right booster and the
second segment.
“We haven’t yet finished the anal
ysis and measurements on film to
identify the exact point at which the
lume (of flame) appeared,” Gra-
am said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
And on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he
said “we haven’t done the mea
surements yet to see whether it was
at the seam or near the seam..”
There has been published specu
lation, based on unidentified
sources, that the finger of flame ei
ther burned through the fuel tank
wall and ignited its huge supply of
liquid hydrogen, or that it set off the
destruction mechanism by lighting a
primer cord.
But Charles Redmond, a NASA
spokesman, said just heating the
tank would have turned the liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen to gas,
thus increasing the pressure beyond
the bursting point. Hydrogen must
be kept at minus 423 degrees Fahr
enheit and oxygen at minus 297 de
grees to stay liquid.
Graham, asked how soon shuttle
flights might resume, replied that
there was “no way to say what time
we can go forward.”
But he added, “This is a funda
mentally sound system. It’s gone
through 24 successful flights. There
was obviously an accident. There is a
problem there. But the overall con
figuration and design, we believe to
be fundamentally sound and we be
lieve it won’t take a very long time to
get this problem corrected.”
See related story, page 10
Phillipine group trying
to stop election fraud
Associated Press
■
| MANILA, Philippines — Gov-
Lernment and independent elec-
| tion officials agreed Sunday to
phare early returns from this
peek’s presidential election to
Iprevent fraud. But some opposi-
? tion leaders said pro-government
! news media could use selected re
turns to declare President Ferdi-
Inand E. Marcos an early winner.
I Officials of the Commission on
I Elections and a private watchdog
I group, the National Movement
Kor Free Elections, or NAMF-
KREL, met for more than four
[hours to negotiate a unified
|“quick count” of Friday’s election.
I Representatives of both sides
[ said they agreed to share early re-
iturns from the nation’s 90,000
I precincts, which sometimes have
Itrouble communicating with the
capital.
—
In other developments Sun
day, about 6,000 students and
workers of the militant group
Bayan (Country) marched on the
presidential palace and burned
effigies of Marcos and President
Reagan as they called for an elec
tion boycott. Rally leaders said
they expected Marcos, president
for 20 years, to rig the election.
Some Bayan leaders, however,
have resigned to back his rival,
Corazon Aquino.
NAMFREL’s role has been tac
itly endorsed by both the Roman
Catholic church and the U.S. gov
ernment, which is sending a 19-
member delegation to observe
the election.
Marcos supporters accuse
NAMFREL of favoring Aquino.
Her supporters say cheating was
widespread in past elections and
that they do not trust the the
commission.
Curfew issued in Haitan community
Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The govern
ment Sunday ordered a partial curfew in Cap
Haitien, a flashpoint of demonstrations against
President-for-Life Jean Claude Duvalier of
Haiti, and restricted foreign reporters to Port-
au-Prince.
Government-owned Radio National said Cap
Haitien’s 80,000 residents have been ordered to
keep indoors between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2
p.m. No reason for the curfew was given, and it
was not known immediately if it would be en
forced for more than one day. It was the first
curfew officially ordered in Haiti since Duvalier
declared a 30-day state of siege Friday in the im
poverished nation.
Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, is
about 125 miles north of Port-au-Prince on the
Atlantic coast.
The government communique also ordered
all owners of radio transmitters to report their
location to authorities.
Eleven people have been killed since demon
strations began a week ago in Cap Haitien.
Three people were shot to death there last Mon
day, and three people were trampled to death
Wednesday when demonstrators mobbed a
CARE warehouse. Five people died Friday in
demonstrations in Port-au-Prince.
Haiti’s Information Minister Adrien Ray
mond announced Sunday in a second commu
nique distributed by his office that all foreign
journalists had been restricted to the capital.
Guy Mayer, the ministry’s director-general,
said “We are asking journalists to register and
ask permission of this office before they try to go
to the rural areas and other cities.”
No reason was given immediately for the or
der, nor was there any indication how long it
would remain in force.
An uneasy calm settled on Port-au-Prince
Sunday. Heavily armed members of the uni
formed militia, called the Volunteers for Na
tional Service, kept patrol in small, unmarked
cars, firing at random.
Disturbances were reported in Cap Haitien
Saturday where funeral services were held for
three people killed last Monday.
The U.S. Embassy said it received reports that
security forces used tear gas and gunfire to con
trol an early morning demonstration, but there
were no reports of casualties.
Missionaries used a ham radio to report anti
government demonstrations in Gonaives, 60
miles northeast of the capital, and in St. Marc,
50 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Gonaives is
where the protests began Nov. 28,
Jackson Snyder, 55, and his wife Betty, co-di-
rectors of Mission Possible, said their missiona
ries reported protesters controlled the highway
between Gonaives and St. Marc, having erected
at least 15 roadblocks with tree trunks, debris
and burning tires.
The missionaries said the mob that broke into
a government warehouse Friday night at dock-
side in Saint-Marc either destroyed or looted
eight vehicles and $500,000 worth of donated
food, medicine and other supplies belonging to
Mission Possible, a Protestant charity based in
Fort Pierce, Fla.
In an address to the nation Friday, Duvalier
pledged to rectify the “unequal and shocking”
distribution of wealth among Haiti’s 6 million
people. Most Haitians have a per capital income
of less than $150 a year.
Duvalier was expected to reveal a new eco
nomic plan Monday or Tuesday, Raymond said
after the address.
\S. official expecting largest defense cut ever
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Defense Sec-
ry Caspar W. Weinberger will
k a $320 billion defense authori
zation this year but Congress likely
vill respond with the largest defense
ut in U.S. history, according to the
■irman of the House Armed Serv
er Committee.
| Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., said
Weinberger can expect to receive no
more than $260 billion for fiscal
1987 beginning Oct. 1 because of the
severe limits posed by the Gramm-
Hudman deficit reduction plan. And
aesaid cuts in defense authorization
$uld range from $60 billion to $90
Tion or more.
uts of that magnitude will force
gress to probe the foundation
es of Reagan administration de
fense and national security policy,
questioning, for example, the na
tion’s continued ability to pay for ex
tended U.S. military commitments
around the world or for the Penta
gon’s drive to build a 600-ship Navy,
Aspin said.
In an interview, Aspin, who has
headed the Armed Services Com
mittee for the last year, appeared to
relish the consequences of Gramm-
Rudman.
Referring to the defense secretary
by his nickname, “Cap,” Aspin said:
“Old Cap is up there smoking about
$320 (billion). How do you get
through to the guy? We’re going to
go down to $260 (billion). Yoo hoo
Cap, here we come.
“Can you believe where they are,”
Aspin laughed. “They just have got
themselves in an awful mess. It’s un
believable. This is going to be the
most interesting year you have ever
seen.”
“I am taking more than a perverse
delight in this,” Aspin said, respond
ing to more questions.”
Although administration sources
said President Reagan will propose a
fiscal 1987 budget calling for de
fense spending of $282 billion, As
pin contended Weinberger is seek
ing defense budget authority of
some $320 billion.
In Aspin’s analysis, large cuts will
now be made in defense this year re
gardless of whether the automatic
sequestration provisions of Gramm-
Rudman are triggered largely be-
See Congressman, page 14
U.S. Army seeking to prove tank-like taxi not a deathtrap
Associated Press
FORT HOOD — Green-faced
camouflaged soldiers scampered
through the brush, their M-16 ri
fles blazing. Tanks shrouded by
smoke advanced on a “Soviet-
controlled” hill as a line of Brad
ley fighting vehicles blasted
enemy positions and delivered in
fantrymen to the front.
The Army played out a war on
the Central Texas range last
week.
The objective: Force the re
treat of Congressional critics who
say the Bradley, a $1.5 million
tank-like troop taxi, is the Penta
gon’s latest lemon.
The tactic: let reporters kick
the treads, fire the 25 milimeter
cannon, give it a spin around the
prairie past cattle and mesquite
trees and see the controversial
weapon in action.
A made-for-television war.
The aluminium-sided Bradley,
which can travel at 40 mph, kick
up a huge cloud of dust and give
you a ride similar to a New York
subway, is likely to go to battle
again in Washington budget
hearings this spring.
Critics say it’s too vulnerable on
the modern battlefield, a weak
sided, fire-prone deathtrap for
the soldiers it is designed to carry
to the front.
But the Army, which has al
ready bought more than 2,000
Bradleys and wants a total of
6,832, says it would have to
change its tactics if Congress kills
its high-tech, high-speed baby
that fires on the move and fights
at night.
And the Pentagon has
launched an all-out offensive to
keep the Bradleys coming off the
assembly line. Last week’s rough
riding was officially called a “me
dia visit,” but the troops dubbed it
See Army, page 14