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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1986)
mmm wmmummmmKmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMammMmMmmmammmimmmmmmmKmmmnimmmmtmmammmKmmmm SHHO ke operands e machiris es on lit d 87 pent ) machiais ay in Kam :e center, les manaji none ofti embers * * m had fe ;ory pen raintenarc I doing pet ven't ' College Station teachers say test less than challenging — Page 5 Eaton assures Faculty Senate A&M not planning layoffs — Page 3 Hiring freeze leaves A8cM volleyball program up in air — Page 11 mmm wmmmmmmmmmmmmmmamaBmmmKmmmmmmamnmmm Texas A&M — M.M !• Tne Battalion 83 No. 115 USPS 075360 14 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, March 11, 1986 t Reagan the prt- iroject- bbed the :ould fly .Vashing- s. that the e. From it, Gen. ho over- the Air id, says fer “the in inter- die and lilityofa 88, the red that .•gin set- nt of its hnology forecast oologies re: 1 robots ir other s. The moved om the ng com- diligence it possi- et fight- icuvera- s % 5 are ieen 3 PM 7 PM 3 Mid ,RCH jy your Avenue e Cler- injured crash stable condition By MIKE SULLIVAN Stall Writer Tlvo Texas A&M students re- ained in stable condition Monday ^e intensive care unit of Bryan’s seph’s Hospital after being crit- | injured Sunday in an auto- pile accident, in which four stu nts were killed. Bryan police Lieutenant John , mid said an 18-wheeler struck the r Its the driver was attempting to akt a U-turn after missing the FM ilp exit into College Station. Dr. Robert L. Walker, A&M vice ■dent for development, said his m, Richard N. Walker, a junior |m Bryan, hasn’t regained con- iousness since the accident. He id the biggest obstacles to his re- jyeiY are a crushed pelvis and ven broken ribs. ■alker said his son’s lungs are so bruised, making it difficult for unto breathe. Walker said Glenn M. Buttefly, nl also survived the accident, is re- tveiing from surgery performed londay night to repair a ruptured iaphragm. He said Butterly also r(|ered a broken pelvis and ribs but citing well. Funeral services for the four stu ms killed in the accident will be Id Wednesday. Services will he tld for: • David R. Hedegard at 10:00 m. at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in ■tball. Mitchell Smith wick at 2:00 p.m. rst Baptist Church in Allen. Arthur J. Strom at 1:00 p.m. at morial Chapel in Dallas. • John L. Thornton at 2:30 p.m. &M United Methodist in College ion. imille Bunting, associate profes- lin the health and physical educa- department, said the six stu- ts were in her outdoor education lass and were returning from En- hauted Rock State Park- Photo by CYNDI LALJER Time Through A Sundial The floral test gardens can be seen through the sundial on the south side of Texas A&M. Sources say crew remains being studied Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Pathologists on Monday examined remains of Challenger’s crew, sources reported, while rough seas prevented divers from retrieving any additional body parts or debris that might provide cluesjto the shut tle disaster. Some remains and crew cabin wreckage were brought ashore se cretly Saturday night by the Navy salvage ship USS Preserver, which entered port without running lights, reported reliable sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In announcing Sunday that cabin debris and remains had been found on the ocean floor, NASA did not say whether anything had been re covered. The agency said it would respect family wishes and not com ment again until the operation was completed. The Navy, which is conducting the search, said the 213-foot Pre server was at the scene Monday where the cabin debris was found but had to return to port in late af ternoon because of weather, with 20 mph winds whipping up eight foot waves. The sources said the ship’s divers were unable to drop to the ocean floor and nothing additional was re covered. The weather outlook was even worse for Tuesday, so it is uncertain when the recovery effort will re sume. Private boats were barred from an area two miles around the search site and private planes were kept five miles away. Sections of the cabin were found about 18 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral at a depth of 100 feet. Data tapes that were in the cabin could shed light on the cause of the explosion, but it was not known how well the tapes survived. The sources did not know if re- See NASA, page 10 Town Hall losses are estimated at $61,400 7% reduction won’t cut MSC budget By JEANNE ISENBERG Staff Writer The 1986-87 budget of the Me morial Student Center Council will not be reduced despite the 7 percent budget cut approved Wednesday by the Texas A&M Board of Regents, the MSC vice president of finance told the MSC Council Monday night. Perry Eichor said any cuts passed on to the MSC shouldn’t affect the current operating budget because it has about $127,000 in reserve funds that should cover any cuts the union must make. The only problem fac ing the Council, he said, will be de ciding what part of the reserves should be used. The Council also heard reports on the financial losses that MSC Town Hall has sustained this semester. Sharon Gibson, vice president of entertainment programs, said Town Hall has seen losses on two of its big concerts this semester. The Lee Greenwood concert Feb. 9 lost about $20,000, she said. And on Feb. 20 the American Music Tour lost about $30,000. Both concerts featured top country-western stars. MSG Director Jim Reynolds said these major losses, added to the smaller deficits accumulated by Town Hall’s other programs this year, brings the committee’s total losses to an estimated $61,400 for 1985-86. Town Hall accounts for about half the total losses of the student cen ter’s programming, Reynolds said. To cover these losses, he said the MSC again will have to turn to the MSC committees’ reserve funds. About 25 of these funds are set up in the MSC. The larger committees, such as Town Hall/OPAS, Political Forum and the Student Conference on National Affairs, have individual funds, he said, and the other com mittees are grouped into one large reserve fund. Reynolds suggested some of the losses can be attributed to a failure of the committees to know their tar get audiences. Several committees, including Town Hall, are designed to be a campus services, not purely money making groups, he said. He added that if the committees better eval uate the audiences’ preferences, they could at least break even. And those preferences are chang ing. As an example, Reynolds said a country-western program easily would have sold 5,000 or 6,000 tick ets six years ago. See MSC budget, page 10 Texas' U.S. legislators have cash-on-hand Associated Press WASHINGTON — All of exas’ 26 congressional incum- nts seeking re-election have Ish in their campaign coffers, urging from $191 for Democrat Henry B. Gonzalez of San Anto nio to $455,502 for Dallas Repub- |an Steve Bartlett. The state’s 27th member of ICongress, Republican Tom Deffler of Hunt, is resigning to ■tin for governor. Six Republicans and four Dem- tratsare seeking to replace him. Gonzalez and Bartlett are ‘unopposed this year. § The second-highest balance, cording to campaign finance reports for 1985 filed with the Federal Election Commission, be longed to J.J. “Jake” Pickle, D- .ustin. Pickle, who has been in Con- ess for 23 years, reported cash- on-hand of $344,604 as of Dec. 31, 1985, but reported raising only $175 of it during the pre vious year. Pickle has drawn three oppo nents, including former Demo cratic Austin Mayor Carole Mc Clellan Rylander, who switched to the COP to run against him. Another Democrat facing a Re publican challenge, John Bryant of Dallas, was third, reporting $334,052, with $150,000 coming from loans. Republicans are hoping to pick up Bryant’s East Dallas district, which includes growing suburbs and increasing numbers of GOP voters. Marvin Leath, an unopposed Democrat from Marlin, listed a balance of $333,302. None of the incumbents re ported campaign debts, including See Representatives, page 10 FAA defends air traffic safety record Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration acknowl edged Monday that more fully trained air traffic controllers are needed, but insisted its existing workforce is keeping the skies safe. FAA Administrator Donald Engen was to appear before a Senate air safety task force to respond to a critical report by the General Ac counting Office. The study suggests there are not enough controllers for peak traffic loads in some parts of the country — and flights should be curtailed. The congressional report released last week has renewed lawmakers’ concern about air safety. The Senate task force, part of the Republican Conference, includes a number of senators involved in avi ation issues. Meanwhile, a House investiga tions subcommittee on aviation has scheduled a hearing next week, on the GAO’s findings. “Limiting air traffic before conditions worsen seems to be the prudent choice. ” — A General Accounting Office study. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the investigations sub committee of the House Public Works and Transportation Commit tee, said the GAO report “. . . shows clearly that there are serious stresses on the nation’s air traffic control sys tem.” An FAA spokesman conceded that controllers still are working too much overtime at some busy control centers and FAA planners know they don’t have enough controllers, including enough full performance level controllers. But spokesman Bob Buckhorn said Monday, “They do have a cam paign program to remedy that.” Buckhorn said in the meantime, air traffic is being regulated through flow control techniques designed to keep controllers from being over burdened. The GAO study, however, sug gests those flow control measures should be examined to determine whether they are adequate. Buckhorn said, “The track record of air traffic control is excellent.” He cited statistics that show a 3 percent increase in air traffic in 1985, but an 18 percent decline in flight delays and a 26 percent drop in operational errors, instances where controllers allow planes to come closer to one another than reg ulations permit. The GAO report urges the FAA to impose restrictions on air traffic until the agency gets as many fully trained controllers into the work force as it wants, and overtime is re duced. “Limiting air traffic before condi tions worsen seems to be the prudent choice,” the study said. It was based largely on question naires sent to more than 5,500 con trollers and supervisors, as well as in terviews with the respondents. The study also said, “Controllers at many major facilities are being stretched too thin and, over time, the situation could impair their abil ity to continue to maintain the proper margin of safety.” The FAA says it has just under 14,000 controllers, with 8,673 of them considered full performance controllers who are allowed to work all traffic control assignments. Before the 1981 controllers strike that saw 11,400 controllers fired, the FAA had 16,200 controllers, 13,200 of them at full performance level. tudy: U.S. police not trained for toxic accidents Associated Press [WASHINGTON — Three-fourths of nation’s police and firemen are inade- lately trained to respond to accidents in- living transportation of hazardous materi- I, a new congressional study says. And even if a trained team reaches the ne of a ruptured tank truck, improper eling of the vehicle’s contents can pro ice a wrong, dangerous response, the Of- e of Technology Assessment said in a idy released Monday. OTA quoted state officials as saying that )m25 percent to 50 percent of the identi- ation placards required on hazardous tterial shipments are incorrect and that shipping documents “are sometimes incom plete or inaccessible.” “Emergency crews must assess the risks of the hazardous material and make deci sions on how to respond based on informa tion that may or may not be accurate,” said OTA, a nonpartisan congressional agency. “The wrong response to a hazardous material endangers both emergency per sonnel and the neighboring communities,” said the study, which urged adoption of federal training and response standards to replace a mishmash of state requirements. Asked why so many placards are incor rect, Edith Page, who directed the study, said: “In some cases it’s ignorance. In some cases it’s carelessness.” OTA said the most pressing need is to develop better ways of training safety per sonnel to handle accidents involving the 500,000 daily shipments of hazardous materials on U.S. highways, rail lines and waterways. “Three-quarters of the first responders are not adequately trained to deal with haz ardous substances,” Page told a news brief ing. She said that a joke among response per sonnel is that you bring tennis shoes and binoculars to a toxic or nuclear material spill — using the shoes to quickly get a safe distance away and the binoculars to read the placard., “Then you call for expert help,” Page said. “This is often said in jest, but there’s a strong element of truth in it.” OTA said that while some states and met ropolitan areas have good response pro grams, “most first responders in smaller ur ban and rural areas have not been trained to deal with hazardous materials, despite many existing training programs.” Although it did not specifically urge more federal spending, OTA said contin ued support for state enforcement pro grams “is important, since federal inspec tion forces are shrinking due to budget constraints.” OTA recommended better training and a national license for operators of vehicles carrying hazardous substances in an effort to reduce the average of 11,462 accidens the Transportation Department says oc curred yearly between 1973 and 1983. In most states, Page said, a truck driver needs no special license for hazardous car goes. “The nephew or son of the owner can drive a gasoline truck,” she said. Ms. Page said OTA doesn’t trust Trans portation Department figures indicating that the incidence of accidents involving hazardous materials is decreasing.