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The Battalion
'ol. 83 No. 91 GSPS 075360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 5, 1986
hop Around
exas A&M students talk to recruiters at booths in
;he Blocker Building Tuesday during the first day
|J)f the College of Business Administration Career -
viles of water mains to remain intact
ay
:n-
)ni
Photo by GREG BAILEY
Fair. Mike Billingsly of Foley’s tells students about
career possibilities with his company. The career
fair continues through Wednesday.
Reagan seeks to break
welfare dependence
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan told Congress on Tuesday
the breakdown of the family struc
ture among America’s welfare recip
ients has reached crisis proportions
and ordered his administration to
devise a strategy by December to
break “the spieler’s web of depen
dency.”
While proclaiming “a Great
American Comeback” from a land of
broken dreams, Reagan directed
new attention to social concerns,
pledging to work with private insur
ers to develop affordable insurance
against the costs of catastrophic ill
ness.
In a State of the Union address
delayed a week by the explosion of
the shuttle Challenger, Reagan
asked Congress to pause with him to
“mourn and honor the valor of our
seven Challenger heroes.” He then
delivered, as expected, a relatively
brief and upbeat report on a nation
that he said is “growing stronger ev
ery day.”
The president suggested few ini
tiatives in his fifth such address,
boosting again his tax reform propo
sal and extolling Congress to cut the
federal deficit by reducing spend
ing. His remarks included an em
phatic thumbs-down on tax in
creases.
Reagan also suggested that in his
proposed budget for fiscal 1987,
which he will send to Congress
Wednesday, several programs and
agencies will be pegged for sharp
funding cuts.
Saying heavy federal deficits
cloud the future, Reagan said, “We
cannot win that race held back by
horse-and-buggy programs that
waste tax dollars and squander hu
man potential.”
In laying out his hopes to reform
welfare programs, Reagan said: “In
the welfare culture, the breakdown
of the family, the most basic support
system, has reached crisis propor
tions — in female and child poverty,
child abandonment, horrible crimes
and deteriorating schools.”
The Democrats, echoing the
words of Republican Senate leaders
earlier this week, said that any pro
posals to increase taxes to reduce the
budget deficit would have to come
from Reagan.
“After hundreds of billions of dol
lars in poverty programs, the plight
of the poor grows more painful,”
Reagan said. “But the waste in dol
lars and cents pales before the most
ERA asbestos ban won’t affect B-CS
y OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK
Reporter
Bie proposed Environmental
otection Agency ban on asbestos-
mem pipe and other asbestos
roducts announced Jan. 22, will not
quire the removal of miles of as-
l|)s-cement water mains now in
>e|in the Bryan-College Station
•ea.
The proposed ban, which would
strict the production and sale of a
iber of asbestos products, is
tgely a response to health risks
Med to asbestos industry employ-
t*
V-
ees, rather than concern over asbes
tos contamination of drinking water,
says Dr. Peter Lassovzky, a drinking
water specialist at the EPA’s Wash
ington bureau.
The plan would be gradually im
plemented over as many as ten to fif
teen years, Lassovzky says.
Asbestos-cement pipe accounts
for 30 percent of Bryan’s 400 miles
of water mains, says David Simmons,
division manager of water distribu
tion and waste water collection in
Bryan.
David Pullen, an engineer for the
city, says asbestos-cement pipe has
been in use in College Station for
many years. But figures aren’t avail
able on the amount of the pipe in
use, he says.
Asbestos-cement pipes are com
monly used as water mains. And re
cently concern has arisen as to
whether, if damaged, they might ad
mit asbestos fibers into the watei^
supply and present a health risk.
Fred Albee, an offical with the
Texas Water Commission, says,
“You don’t usually test groundwater
for asbestos. I’ve never seen any sta
tistics.”
He says that asbestos is associated
mainly with respiratory diseases re
sulting from inhalation.
Asbestos is a proven carcinogen
blamed for numerous diseases, in
cluding the repiratory disease asbes-
tosis and a suffocating lung cancer,
mesolothimia.
Pullen says he is sure there is no
asbestos in College Station’s water,
although the city doesn’t test for it.
See Engineer, page 14
tragic loss: the sinful waste of human
spirit and potential.”
At the end of his speech Reagan
saluted four “heroes of our heart”
who were in his audience in the
chamber of the House of Represen
tatives. They were: Richard Cavoli,
whose high school experiment to
make X-rays less harmful was de
stroyed aboard the Challenger; Ty
rone Ford, a gospel music singer and
pianist; Shelby Butler, who risked
her life to pull a youngster out of the
path of a schoolbus; and Trevor Fer
rell, who saw homeless people on
television and left his home to de
liver food and blankets to them in
what has become a Philadelphia cus
tom involving hundreds of volun
teers.
Saying “we can ignore this terrible
truth no longer,” Reagan ordered
his Domestic Policy Council to re-
See Reagan, page 14
Democrats denounce
Reagan’s optimism
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Democratic
Party leaders said Tuesday night
that President Reagan’s upbeat State
of the Union speech sot?ght to hide a
devastating budget deficit, a floun
dering farm economy and a sea of
foreign trade red ink.
In a nationally televised response
to the president’s address, they said
these are symptoms of serious eco
nomic troubles ahead, which
threaten the jobs and the stability of
the very American families Reagan
maintains his policies are devised to
protect.
To present the Democratic view,
the party turned to former Virginia
Gov. Charles S. Robb, and to Sen.
George Mitchell of Maine, Harriett
Woods, the lieutenant governor of
Missouri, and Reps. Tom Daschle of
South Dakota and William Gray of
Pennsylvania.
Mitchell, chairman of the Senate
Democratic Campaign Committee,
said, “We can no longer rely on rhe
toric which refuses to face the real
world — which pretends that we can
have unlimited military spending
and unrestrained tax breaks and a
balanced budget — all at the same
time.”
When Reagan says that can hap
pen, “the president is wrong. And
the American people know he’s
wrong,” said Mitchell, who served as
the program’s moderator.
Robb said that no one wants to un
dermine the nation’s military
strength. But he said that strength
depends not so much on more and
more dollars but “a clear strategy,
weapons that will actually work in
combat and troops trained to use
them.
“Strength also requires a healthy
economy, but we won’t have one
much longer if we don’t have the will
to balance our federal checkbook, "
Robb said. “What our government
desperately needs is discipline. If de
fense spending has to be reduced,
let’s reduce it. If domestic spending
has to be cut, then let’s cut it. If tax
breaks have to be stopped, then let’s
stop them.”
Daschle introduced viewers by vi
deo tape to the McBrayers, a South
Dakota farm family whom he said
face the loss of their land.
“Many policy makers are now say
ing they (farm families) are no
longer needed,” Daschle said.
See Democrats, page 14
Oil price slide prompts
2nd look at revenue
te
Associated Press
JiUSTIN — The worldwide
ilide in oil prices Tuesday
itompted the Texas comptroller
Biake another look at the state’s
Bncial position and left the
[overnor saying he doesn’t yet
seethe need to call a special bud-
[d-oitting session of the Legis-
Iture.
B)il prices on the spot market
umbled to below $18 per barrel
on Monday for the first time this
Bade, causing increased worries
for state officials.
||ome 13 percent of state gov-
Irtment revenues come from
axes on oil and gas.
Comptroller Bob Bullock said
■esday that “Mexico’s decision,
>ver the weekend to drop oil
lies to $20 a barrel may have
ten the straw that broke the
camel’s back in terms of relatively
stable prices.”
Bullock said Mexico’s oil ex
ports account for about 17 per
cent of the imported oil used in
the United States, and that fact,
alone, will have a strong influence
on the prices of Texas oil.
Bullock said he had written
White, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and
House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort
Worth, telling them of plans to
update the state’s financial posi
tion.
“Even though world oil prices
have been volatile, I’m not ready
to throw out the current revenue
estimate,” Bullock said. “But the
oil situation that has unfolded in
the past three weeks has serious
implications for Texas and its fi
nances.”
Friday last day to apply for diplomas
By Brian Pearson
Senior Staff Writer
Friday is the last day graduating students can
apply to receive diplomas during May gradua
tion ceremonies, a representative of the Regis
trar’s Office said.
Don Gardner, assistant registrar, said stu
dents who have paid the $15 diploma fee must
go to 105 Heaton Hall and fill out to two grad
uation application cards by Friday if they hope
to walk away from graduation ceremonies with a
diploma.
“This is actually applying for the diploma and
graduation,” Gardner said.
“They (students) are not official degree candi
dates until they do that,” he said.
Students can pay the diploma fee in the Coke
Building, Gardner said.
Students must show the diploma fee receipt
or show the fee was paid on spring semester fee
slip in order to fill out the application cards.
“Everyone that has applied for graduation in
the spring is already a degree candidate as far as
the (computer) system is concerned,” Gardner
said.
He said the student is put on a finals exemp
tion list and his diploma is ordered soon after
the cards are filled out.
Students applying late can still receive diplo
mas, but they will have to be mailed after the
ceremony, Gardner said.
Gardner said students can still apply for grad
uation after Friday’s diploma deadline, but the
absolute deadline will occur when grade sheets
for degree candidates go out.
“When those grade sheets are generated, then
anybody that comes in after that, they won’t be
able to graduate until the next semester,” Gard
ner said.
“Anybody that comes in after April 24 is nbt
going to graduate for sure,” he said.
Gardner said each graduation candidate will
be notified by a letter sent out April 1 of any aca
demic needs — such as grade points, courses,
grade changes and petitions — that the student
must take care of or straighten out with the Reg
istrar’s Office before graduation.
Graduating students must sign the letter and
return it to the office, Gardner said.
“That way we know they got the word,” he
said.
Gardner said the students have about a
month to clear all academic and fiscal problems.
On May 7 at 8 a.m., a clear list will be posted
outside of Heaton Hall.
On that clear list, graduation candidates that
still have academic or fiscal problems will have a
dot by their names, Gardner said.
If there is no dot by the name, the student is
cleared for graduation.
“All the undergraduates need to check that
clear list and they’ve got until noon Thursday
(May 8) to get everything cleared up,” Gardner
said.
“If they’re not cleared for graduation by then,
then there won’t be a graduation for them,” he
said.
Gardner said rough figures indicate that
about 3,000 undergraduate students and about
500 graduate students will receive their diplo
mas in May.
VASA-1 booster may have been found
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
jehers may have found one of
lallenger’s two rocket boosters
ii|sday, which could be “a very
Jable piece of evidence” in the in-
, ligation of the space shuttle’s ex-
losion, NASA said.
Bonar soundings indicate a solid
rocket booster may have been lo
cated,” a NASA statement said.
There was no information on the
precise location.
There also was no indication
whether it was the right booster,
which is the chief suspect in the lift
off explosion that destroyed the
shuttle and killed its seven astro
nauts Jan. 28.
Challenger had two such boosters
to help propel it into space.
“It would be a miracle if we could
find the right hand segment we saw
in the films and everybody has a hy
pothesis about,” Jim Mizell, a space
agency spokesman, said. “There are
many things you could tell engi
neering-wise if you recovered that
data.”
CBS, meanwhile, reported that
“at least a portion” of the shuttle’s
main crew compartment has been lo
cated and that some of the personal
effects of the astronauts floated to
the ocean surface.
NBC said some of the human re
mains brought to shore in recent
days have been identified as belong
ing to the seven astronauts.
NASA spokeswoman Sarah Kee
gan denied “categorically” that the
cabin has been found and said she
See NASA, page 14
Correction
The Battalion incorrectly re
ported Monday the dates of a
workshop sponsored by the
Landscape Architecture Society.
The workshop will be held this
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Also, Lane Marshall is the de
partment head of Landscape Ar
chitecture.
The Battalion regrets the er
ror. • -