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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1986)
Date rape panel stresses woman's right to say no — Page 5 No. 3 Aggies stick to routine, club Golden Gophers, 4-0 — Page 9 3ncen Can't 805C >re in- •** beg n 2w i) pit. a pm Texas A&MW^ m m m 0 The Battalion rrid ol. 83 No. 122 USPS 075360 12 pages College Station, Texas mort, Thursday, March 27, 1986 rt wiiii adder, YEN. r Ovb k said be for Fi for Apr! Brigadoon A national theater touring company performs “Brigadoon” Wednesday night in Rudder Audito rium. The show, sponsored by MSC Town Hal- Photo by Michael Sanchez 1/Broadway, tells the story of two backpackers who stumble upon a legendary city that rises from the Scottish mist once every 100 years. U.S. helicopters carry Hondurans to border TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — U.S. military helicopters with American crews ferried Honduran soldiers to a remote border area Wednesday where up to 1,500 Sand- inista troops were reported trying to fight their way back to Nicaragua. U.S. officials here said 14 heli copters from Palmerola air base were carrying infantry and artillery units to the “Las Vegas salient” about 120 miles east of the capital. The salient is a triangular-shaped area of Honduras that juts into Nica ragua along the irregular frontier between the two countries. It has long been the site of a major camp of the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels, called Contras, who fight the Sandi- nista government from bases in southern Honduras. Honduran military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 1,500 Sandinistas crossed the frontier last Saturday in pursuit of rebels and were trapped inside Hon duras by Contras who cut off their retreat. Other sources estimated the num ber of Nicaraguan government troops at 800 and said most probably would slip through the net because it was difficult to block all paths through the jungled mountain ter- But Frank Arana, a spokesman for the largest Contra group, the Ni caragua Democratic Front, said Wednesday, “Everything is under control. The invaders are not going to return to Nicaragua. Our troops have them surrounded.” He refused to elaborate. U.S. officials said about 100 Sand inistas and 80 Contras had been killed in four days of fighting. Accounts of fighting could not be verified independently. Honduran military sources said soldiers were ordered to keep journalists out of the area. Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista gov ernment denies any incursion and says the reports are designed to win U.S. aid for the Contras. The U.S. Senate was expected to vote by Thursday on President Rea gan’s proposal for $100 million in military and non-lethal aid to the re bels. The House of Representatives See Sources, page 12 note still debating Contra aid plan h27 nation WASHINGTON (AP) — The §te on Wednesday inched to- ard likely approval of President sagan’s $100 million aid plan for leftist rebels in Nicaragua after Democratic leader said the White otise “torpedoed” a bid to build a )ai tisan compromise. The Senate recessed until today thout taking any further action on bill. Sen. James Sasser of Tennessee, ■ has emerged as a spokesman iSenate Democrats on Central iciican policy, said genuine pro- ess had been made on forging a nited position before Adm. John HPoindexter, the national security viser, appeared in Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole’s office and inter vened. He said Poindexter vetoed an at tempt to write into the aid plan a guarantee of direct talks between Washington and Managua, with no pre-conditions. “Adm. Poindexter appeared, and he torpedoed the bilateral negotia tions,” said Sasser. He added that he believes the ad ministration felt it need not compro mise on the issue because its hand was strengthened by reports of a Ni caraguan raid into neighboring Honduras and the hostile reaction that caused in Congress. But Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Re lations Committee, blamed Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia for the failure to reach a compromise. Dole and Byrd met for more than three hours with Lugar and Sasser. Lugar said Byrd had insisted on Congress being given a second chance of blocking offensive weap ons shipments to the Contras even if the Sandinista government of Nica ragua refused to negotiate in good faith. “Poindexter did not enter at flank speed or at any speed, he just walked in,” Lugar said. “The administra tion’s thoughts are important to us, but they did not veto anything. . . . Adm. Poindexter cannot be blamed for torpedoing anything.” Sasser said he believes the admin istration felt it need not compromise on the issue because hostile congres sional reaction to reports of a Sandi nista raid into Honduras means the president is “holding more cards than yesterday.” Sasser said Poindexter insisted that talks between the United States and Nicaragua were possible only if Nicaragua first opened negotiations with the Contra guerrillas, a step Ni caragua’s Sandinista government has refused to take. Responding to questions, Sasser said he believes there was an attempt See Senate, page 12 U.S-Libya conflict reaches stalemate WASHINGTON (AP) — The military confrontation between the United States and Libya in the Gulf of Sidra settled into an un easy standoff Wednesday with the U.S. 6th Fleet primed for ac tion against an enemy who did not appear. The Pentagon said ships and planes from the U.S. naval battle group continued to operate be low Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Khadafy’s “line of death” in the gulf, but no Libyan planes or patrol boats had ven tured farther than 12 miles from the North African coastline since early Tuesday morning. Navy jets and a missile cruiser attacked four Libyan ships after they ventured into the gulf or Mediterranean Sea on Monday and early Tuesday. The Penta gon has said three apparently were sunk and one was hit but managed to return to Libyan wa ters. Late Wednesday, however. Vice Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the commander of the 6th Fleet, indi cated to a small group of report ers allowed on the carrier Sara toga that there had been five naval engagements. Kelso also said he was not yet prepared to claim that any Libyan boat actu ally sank. “There were two definitely se verely damaged patrol boats and we are continuing to evaluate the others,” Kelso said. Pentagon and White House of ficials had said Tuesday they had received preliminary reports of a fifth engagement with a Libyan boat but that there was insuffi cient information to confirm it. U.S. attack planes have con ducted two assaults on a radar- guided missile facility near the Li byan town of Sirte. All of the mili tary strikes were prompted by the firing of at least six surface-to-air missiles against U.S. planes as they flew over the gulf on Mon day, officials said. At the State Department, meantime, spokesman Charles Redman said Libyan agents have U.S. installations around the world under surveillance and may have targeted Americans for terrorist attack in retaliation for the gulf confrontation. Robert Sims, the Defense De partment’s chief spokesman, said the American force continued to operate Wednesday under orders See U.S., Libyan, page 12 Government suing General Dynamics ■13ji E PG-13 SI WASHINGTON (AP) — The ustice Department filed suit dnesday alleging that General amics Corp. mischarged the |ernment on a contract for the oduction of the DIVAD anti raft gun system. he civil suit, filed in U.S. Dis- :t Court in Los Angeles, sought undetermined amount of ney from General Dynamics, i Defense Secretary Caspar W. inberger said the gun per- onned poorly in tests and iceled the weapon system last ugust. From 1978 to 1980, General amics mischarged costs of fulfilling a contract for the pro- tion of DIVAD prototypes to certain overhead accounts, the lawsuit said. The complaint says the com pany mischarged costs of fulfil ling the fixed-price DIVAD pro totype contract to independent research and development, bid and proposal, and general and administrative overhead ac counts. The government pays a con tractor a proportion of the costs charged to these accounts in addi tion to what it pays under specific contracts. The result, the suit said, was that the company obtained over payments to which it was not enti tled. See Government, page 12 Preregistration at A&M Students can pre-schedule tali first summer session classes By Brian Pearson Senior Staff Writer The Registrar’s Office is trying something a little different for Texas A&M preregistration starting April 7. Students can then register in the Pavilion for fall, and first session and 10-week summer classes at the same time. Students can’t register for sec ond session classes until July 9. Don Carter, associate registrar, said summer fee statements will be issued the day of preregistration and must be paid before May 30. He said fall fee statements will be mailed in July- Academic advising for students will begin Monday. Students should check the advising schedule within their department. The schedule for preregistration is as follows: • April 7 — and seniors with ning H-O. • April 8 — and seniors with ning P-Z. • April 9 — and seniors with ning A-G. • April 10 — names beginning graduate students last names begin- graduate students last names begin- graduate students last names begin- juniors with last E-K. • April 11 — juniors with last names beginning L-R. • April 14 — juniors with last names beginning S-Z. • April 15 — juniors with last names beginning A-D. • April 16 — sophomores with last names beginning H-O. • April 17 — sophomores with last names beginning P-Z. • April 18 — sophomores with last names beginning A-G. • April 22 — freshmen with last names beginning E-K. • April 23 — freshmen with last names beginning L-R. • April 24 — freshmen with last names beginning S-Z. • April 25 — freshmen with last names beginning A-D. • May 5-16 — open preregistra tion for all students. It’s only 43 more days until grad uation ceremonies begin. The Registrar’s Office says 3,135 undergraduates and 745 graduate students have applied for diplomas. Students who will graduate May 9 at 2 p.m. include graduate students (all masters and doctoral candidates) and undergraduates in the colleges of agriculture, architecture and edu cation. Undergraduates in the colleges of engineering and geosciences will graduate at 7:30 p.m. May 9. Undergraduates in the colleges of business, liberal arts, science and vet erinary medicine will graduate May 10 at 9 a.m. 'andiver OKs creation of video yearbook at A&M By Rodney Rather Staff Writer ? i! tpcas A&M President Frank E. Van- ver has authorized the creation of a video jlbook, and Dr. Don Tomlinson, the Ect’s adviser, says it is a pioneering ef- 1$ Tfie student-run project will be com- jfll from June 1 - May 31, 1987 and ICEPMo uld be available to the public by Sep- ^j-mber or October of 1987, Tomlinson TUfl£%s. e yearbook will be a two-hour tape bging such activities as Fish Camp and Mfctic events, but the entire scope the pe may encompass is unknown because jfeo yearbooks are so new, he says. [“We don’t know exactly what it’s going to have in it,” he says. “We’re going to have to decide that as we go.” Although the concept of the video year book is different from that of The Aggie- land, A&M’s print yearbook, Tomlinson says the two publications should comple ment one another. “I think they will be complementary to one another, and I think they will be at the same time very different,” he says. “I think you will get out your print year book in years to come to look at it for the very same reasons you bought it in the first place,” Tomlinson says. “And I think the video version will be something that people will also want to get out and look at in years to come for the same reason they buy a movie on videotape that they want to keep — because they want to see it again at some later point,” he says. Before the project was authorized Tom linson, Dr. Ed Smith, head of the journa lism department, and Don Johnson, coor dinator of student publications, discussed the idea several times and looked for places that already had a video yearbook, Tomlin son says. Abilene Christian University produced a video yearbook last year, but Tomlinson says it’s not comparable to what A&M will produce because ACU does not have as many resources. He says he views A&M as pioneering the field. Because the video yearbook is new, esti mating the number of people who will buy it is difficult, Tomlinson says. But, he says, 5,000 to 10,000 video yearbooks would be an excellent number to sell in the first year. He says former students also are tar geted as potential yearbook buyers. “Former students at Texas A&M, or anywhere else, buy very few print year books,” he says. “We believe that former students, especially Texas A&M former students, will buy a lot of these (video) yearbooks.” He says students probably will be able to buy the video yearbook the same way they can buy The Aggieland — through the check-off system at registration. The cost would be included on the fee slip, Tomlin son says. The video yearbook will sell for $45, Tomlinson says, but a student may pur chase the video yearbook and The Aggie land for $50. The Aggieland costs $20 if purchased separately. A student video producer will supervise the project’s staff, Tomlinson says. The producer will hire a chief cameraperson, other camera operators and production as sistants, he says. Applications for the producer position are available in 230 Reed McDonald. Dead line is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Qualifications for the position are an overall 2.0 grade point-ratio at the time of selection and during the term of office.