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— Page 10
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— Page 11
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Texas A&M m m -a •
The Battalion
lol 83 No. 134 GSPS 075360 16 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, April 11, 1986
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Charles J
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The
use voted overwhelmingly
■ursday to weaken the gun control
lass passed in the aftermath of the
ssinations of Robert F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King Jr., but re-
pied a ban on interstate handgun
s.
he vote came after hundreds of
■formed policemen roamed the
Ipitol as lobbyists.
■The key vote was 286-136 and the
ed ChiJmse followed with a 292-130 tally
prison( t°j formally send the legislation to
nseattoiK
lby f
ed.
mse!
the Senate.
■The Senate, which passed a bill
■(year to allow interstate handgun
_Jes and ease other controls, can ac-
nt the House bill or insist on a
House-Senate conference.
■For weeks, the legislation pro-
■ced high drama, climaxing with
Bice from 21 states arriving in uni
form. to confront the experienced
jbbbving teams from the National
Rifle Association and allied groups.
Bn the end, both sides can claim
jjjvictoryon the bill sponsored by Rep.
Harold L. Volkmer, D-Mo. — but
thjgun lobby more so.
^WRA chief lobbyist Wayne LaP-
iarepointed to the bill’s lifting of an
interstate sales ban for rifles and
Brtguns and federal guarantees
Ithaiall lawfully held weapons can be
taken — unloaded and inaccessible
lacross state lines.
■The NRA also approves, he said,
nf provisions that would make it
more difficult to prosecute uninten-
gmal gun law violations, allow deal
ers to transfer guns from inventories
to their pr ivate collections, and force
tht government to return seized
iapons after an acquittal.
jHandgun control groups and po-
■e organizations can point to the in-
Irstate sales ban, adopted 233-184
n an amendment that reversed a de
bt on the issue on Wednesday ; and
unanimously-adopted prohibition
on future possession or transfer of
■chine guns. Both measures were
Ijoposed by Rep. William J.
Hhghes, D-N.J., who championed
the gun control forces’ cause on the
House floor.
■The Volkmer bill was adopted
with 128 Democratic and 158 Re
publican votes, while 118 Democrats
and 18 Republicans were opposed.
^Hubert Williams, president of the
Jice Foundation, commented after
the vote, “The core of the Volkmer
|1 was interstate sales, and they lost
that one. There still are many de
ls. On the whole, it is bad legis
lation.”
But what does it do?
Tracy Sligar and David Mabius, senior electrical
engineering majors, demonstrate their “Atomic
Fireball Counter.” They and two friends spent
Photo by Greg Bailey
about 10 hours Wednesday night building the ma
chine, which moves jawbreakers up a PVC tube
and counts them.
Sims named
SG president
Divestment
A&M regents 'can't divest to make moral statement
JS.
imatfiiif Bllt J ohn ^ Snyder, chief lobby-
IllldlU t ^ e ci t i zens Committee for the
;ngcill! light to Keep and Bear Arms, called
^ .iic vote “an historic victory for
|0 cUlp Jperica’s tens of millions of law-
ibiding gun-owners, a smashing suc-
|s for a genuine people’s lobby.”
By Mona Palmer
Staff Writer
The Texas A&M Board of Re
gents is not in the business of mak
ing moral statements through finan
cial divestment and their job is to
maximize the University’s invest
ments, says Bill Presnal, executive
secretary for the board.
Presnal’s statement was made in
response to Board Chairman David
Eller’s Jan. 14 letter to Chancellor
Arthur G. Hansen denying Students
Against Apartheid’s request for a
meeting with the regents.
The organization filed a request
with the board Oct. 28 to discuss di
vestment of $2.9 million A&M has
invested in South African-related
companies. The group examined
the University’s investment portfolio
and totaled the funds invested by
South African-related companies to
obtain this figure.
But Presnal disagrees with the
numbers.
“That $3 million figure. . . . no
body knows where it came from,” he
says. “That’s a fictitious figure. No
body knows what the investments
are.”
The organization also requested
divestment to make a moral
statement, which is not within the
board’s purview, the letter says.
Presnal says the regents do have
the final say in University invest
ments and could order the Univer
sity investor to withdraw funds from
South African companies.
But, he says, they must do it for fi
nancial, not moral, reasons. Presnal
says divestment for moral reasons is
a matter of public policy and should
be addressed by the Texas Legis
lature.
“It’s the board’s responsibility to
maximize its investments,” he says.
“It’s not their responsibility to disre
gard the legislative policy and start
making exceptions.
“Also, their investments should be
prudent. I believe that’s the law.”
Under the “prudent man” ride,
the board is not allowed to invest in
highly speculative investments.
“No one has ever . . . said an in
vestment in a company that does a
small percentage of business in
ice to *
Southland Carp, ends
magazine sales
Deregulotion said to save money
By Frank Smith
Staff Writer
Mike Sims was declared winner of
the runoff election for 1986-87
Texas A&M student body president
Thursday, a result he called “a vic
tory for the students.”
Sims, a junior agricultural educa
tion major, defeated Mike Hacht-
man, a senior industrial distribution
major, by 187 votes.
Of the 1,505 ballots cast in the
Wednesday election, Sims received
813 votes, or 56.4 percent, to Hacht-
man’s 626, or 43.4 percent. The re
maining 0.2 percent didn’t vote for a
presidential candidate.
Sims said he thought the results
reflected voters’ interest in his “Ag
gie Plan ’86” platform, adding that
his name was painted no more than
five inches high on any of his cam
paign signs.
“I think the students responded to
something more than a pretty face
and vague ideas,” he said.
Sims added that he thought it was
a “smooth, clean campaign. Every
body stayed aboveboard.”
Hachtman said he tried to run a
campaign stressing his own
strengths rather than focusing a
negative campaign at Sims, a strat
egy he said he didn’t think Sims
stuck with.
“I felt he gave up campaigning for
himself and started campaigning
against me,” Hachtman said.
Following the announcement of
the results, which were made at the
Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue, Sims
and several supporters asked how
many members of the Corps of Ca
dets had voted.
“That was one of our biggest
stresses,” Sims said. “We felt I was
strongest in the Corps.”
A total of 362 cadets voted.
Chris Gavras, election co-commis
sioner, said he thought voter turn
out was comparable to that of last
year’s runoff election.
He said the rainy weather didn’t
help the turnout, especially at the
Sterling C. Evans nighttime polling
site.
“But overall we’re pretty happy,”
he said.
In other runoff results, Scott Wil
liams defeated Jared Hurta for the
Class of ’89 presidency. Williams
captured 64 percent of the vote to
Hurta’s 35.7 percent.
Ten Student Senate seats also
were filled in the runoff election.
Newly-elected Ward II senators
are Doug Baumann, Kelly Crowell,
Rudy Montoya and Virginia Stand-
efer.
The other senators chosen were:
Randall Kolb, geosciences under
graduate at-large; James Johnson,
graduate agriculture; Hai On, ar
chitecture undergraduate at-large;
Amy Lovett, science undergraduate
at-large; and John Bryant and Greg
Parnell, geoscience, science and ar
chitecture graduates at-large.
South Africa violates the prudent
man rule,” he adds.
“The question is whether or not
they’re acting properly. I’m not talk
ing about legally. Yes, they could di
rect Milton Thompson (investment
analyst) to not make certain invest
ments . . . but I’m not sure they’d be
following the intent or the letter of
thte law.”
Norman Muraya, president of
Students Against Apartheid, says the
organization will go to the legislature
if it has to, but the board is the more
immediate source.
He adds, “I still do not believe that
they could not divest if they wanted
to.
“We’re more interested in a moral
reaction to the situation than a moral
statement on apartheid,” he says.
Sam Aletan, the organization’s
vice president, says, “We should be
able to'decide on our own morality,
and we can’t let money rule our lives
all of the time.
“We want our money out of South
Africa and we are not going to settle
for anything else.”
Parents’ Weekend
The following is the Parents’
Weekend schedule for Saturday
and Sunday:
Saturday
Vet Class ’89 Open Horse Show
Freeman Arena
8 a.m.
Presentation of Business Simulation
Results by the College of Business
Administration Fellows
105 Blocker
8 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Federation of Aggie Mothers’ Club
Boutique
Rudder Exhibit Hall
8:30 a.m.
Association of Former Students and
Class of ’86 Coffee and Class Gift
Presentation
206 MSC
9 a.m.
RHA Parents’ Day Coffee
701 Rudder
9 a.m.
Federation of Aggie Mothers’ Club
Meeting
Rudder Theater
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
MSC Hospitality Information and Tours
of Campus
(Every Half Hour)
1st Floor MSC
10 a.m. - noon
Sale of Litmus, the Student Literary
Magazine
1st Floor MSC
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
MSC Camera Print Sale
1st Floor MSC
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
College of Business Reception
2nd Floor Blocker
11 a.m. - noon
Company D-2 Barbecue
Sons of Herman Lodge
11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Waco Hometown Club Picnic
Hensel Park #1
11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Neeley Hall Potluck Picnic
Location TBA
Noon - 2 p.m.
Commons Parents’ Day Barbecue
Commons Area
Noon - 3 p.m.
See Parents’, page 15
Natural gas decontrol sought
ALLAS (AP) — Southland
Corp.’s sudden reversal Thursday of
longtime policy of selling adult
|gazines in its 7-Eleven stores an-
ed officials with Penthouse and
Ivboy magazines, pleased the Rev.
jtrv Falwell and caught analysts by
surprise.
Balvvell claimed the action would
“put the pornography business on its
§l es -’:
president Jere W. Thompson said
|a written statement, after the May
issues of Playboy, Penthouse and Fo-
are sold, the magazines no
ager will be available in South
’s nationwide 4,500 company-
ted 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Southland also will encourage the
7-Elevens operated by fran
chise to adopt the same policy, he
said.
Testimony during the special
hearings conducted by the U.S. At
torney General’s Commission on
Pornography prompted the deci
sion, Thompson said.
“The testimony before that com
mission indicates a growing public
awareness and concern over a possi
ble connection between adult mag
azines and crime, violence and child
abuse,” his statement said. “South
land is very sensitive to our position
as a leadership company and re
sponsible corporate citizen.”
In Chicago, Playboy spokesman
David Salyers expressed disappoint-
See Southland, page 15
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Reagan admin
istration sought to remove the only lingering
controls on natural gas prices Thursday as Texas
Gov. Mark White said the administration “is lead
ing us down the road to the devastation of our
national security” by not imposing a tariff on im
ported oil.
Energy Secretary John Herrington told the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the ad
ministration’s decontrol proposal, which he said
would pump $22 billion into the economy,
“would promote competition, increase produc
tion of old (currently controlled) gas, eliminate
market distortions and lower prices.”
White, in town to testify in favor of the admin
istration’s natural gas deregulation proposal, told
a news conference that the United States is
“weak” when it sends its vice president to the
Middle East “on bended knee, bowing to Mecca,”
to discuss stability of the world oil market.
Herrington’s appearance coincided with the
administration’s request to Congress to, in effect,
eliminate the energy regulatory commission’s
price-controlling authority by decontrolling,
through legislation, the roughly 40 percent of
natural gas still sold at controlled prices.
The administration said its program could
save consumers up to $45 a heating season by
fostering competition.
“Some of the gas, obviously, that is regulated
now is not being sold because the price is too
low,” Herrington said. “If you let the price rise
on that gas, which is substantial, you will end up
with people wanting to sell that gas. Since there is
more available, you will also bring down the sales
price of higher-priced gas that is being sold
now.”
Herrington led off two days of hearings by the
commission on the proposal that FERC raise the
several categories of controlled prices to the
highest category — $2.56 per thousand cubic feet
— well above the spot market price for uncon
trolled gas.
The proposed price ceiling changes would
mean that costs to consumers would fall an aver
age of about 20 cents per thousand cubic feet
each year for the next decade. The average resi
dential price for natural gas is now an average
$5.72 per thousand cubic feet.
The proposal also would make available about
33 trillion cubic feet of low-cost reserves that
would never be produced under current regula
tions, he said.
Freeing price-controlled gas would lower costs
because producers, to raise prices, would have to
negotiate with their customers, the secretary said.
But Herrington predicted that customers would
be unwilling to pay more than the market price
and would put strong pressure on other sup
pliers of uncontrolled gas, thus bringing average
prices down, Herrington said.
The predictions were challenged by represen
tatives of state regulatory bodies in New York,
California and the District of Columbia.