A&M students may register
Soviets angry over charges
Aggies grab share of SWC
for classes by telephone
of withholding information
baseball title with Longhorns
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Texas A&M ^
The Battalion
Serving the University community
'ol 83 No. 148 USPS 075360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, May 5, 1986
rof says fire at A&M could have killed thousands
By Mark Taylor
Reporter
and
Scott Sutherland
Assistant (.'it} Editor
H fire that sent smoke billowing
^Htigh the Chemist i y Building on
16 could have killed thousands
Elad it ignited and exploded some
^^■mous cyanide powder stored in
Ktldjacent storeroom, said Dr. Rod
PCionnor, prolessor of chemistry.
were lucky,” he said. “It
iuti 1 have been a catastrophe of
pdajor proportions."
But Ron Carter, chemistry busi
ness office manager, said O’Connor
“was making a big deal about no
thing." He said there had not even
been a fire, just a dust fallout from
the chemical reaction of the phoso-
phorus being exposed to air.
The incident occurred when a
stock clerk dropped a jar containing
about f ive pounds of white phospho
rus sticks on concrete stairs just in
side the main entrance to the old
Chemistry Building.
O'Connor said the white phos
phorus, the same chemical used in
phosphorus grenades, came very
near to exploding a storeroom full
of explosive chemicals and poison
ous cyanide powder that could have
killed many students and faculty.
White phosphorus is “pyropho
ric," which means it ignites when it
comes in contact with air, O'Connor
said.
“As a safety measure, white phos
phorus is usually carried in a double
container so if the first container
breaks, the second one will remain
intact,” he said.
O’Connor arrived on the scene
before the phosphorus ignited, but
while waiting for someone to get a
bucket of water the sticks caught
fire, according to a report sent by
O'Connor to Dr. Donald Sawyer,
chemistry department head.
In the report, O’Connor said he
sounded the alarm, sent a stockroom
worker to notify the fire department
and began looking for an air-breath
ing apparatus so he could extinguish
the fire.
However the only available air-
breathing apparatus was on the op
posite side of the stockroom and the
smoke f rom the fire made the appa
ratus inaccessible, O’Connor said.
He said that in the stockroom
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Snakes Alive
, UPPi ■
■ Photo b\ Grot; Bui lev
(George Lewis shows Raphael, a 6-foot-long snake, at a pet show at
Bivan High School Sunday. Raphaeil took second place in the “Big
gest Pet" category in the show, which was held by Texas A&M first-
vear veterinary medicine students.
—
|CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The de-
ruction of an unmanned Delta rocket shortly
Iter liftof f could halt all U.S. rocket launches for
jjonths as investigators analyze the third disas-
ous attempt to reach space this year, officials
lid Sunday.
Richard H. Truly, NASA’s associate adminis-
ator for space flight, appointed a board to ex-
mine the loss of the three-stage, $30 million
•elta rocket and a $57.-5 million storm-tracking
ttellite aboard.
Delta had been NASA’s most used and
spendable launcher, but on Saturday the rock-
t’s main engine shut down little more than a
linlite after take-of f. The rocket w'as destroyed
om the ground after it tumbled out of control
ve| the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket’s loss came after the )an. 28 explo-
E
sion of the space shuttle Challenger and an April
18 blast that destroyed an Air Force Titan 34D
rocket.
NASA’s director of expendable vehicles,
Charles Gay, said it w'as too early to tell what im
pact Saturday’s failure would have on future
Delta flights.
The storm-tracking GOES orbiters — Geosta-
tionary Operational Environmental Satellite —
are vital to U.S. weather-monitoring capabilities
since only one is in orbit and its five-year life cy
cle is almost up, said Gerald Longanecker, man
ager of NASA’s meteorological satellite program.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad
ministration paid NASA $42.5 million to launch
the GOES-7. It was to have permanently orbited
the equator 22,300 miles dver Columbia, and
would have been used to detect storms brewing
in the Caribbean and lower Atlantic.
NASA’s Delta project manager, Bill Russell,
said the rocket’s main engine stopped operating
71 seconds after the 6:18 p.m. liftoff.
When the main engine shut down, the vehicle
began careening violently for another 12 seconds
or so, he said.
At 91 seconds, a range safety officer detonated
explosives aboard by radio command to destroy
the rocket.
The launch had been postponed from Thurs
day, when leaking fuel was discovered in the
rocket’s main engine. Engineers reported no sign
of this problem Saturday, and Russell said a fuel
leak was not the cause of the engine shutdown.
Clements, White face
lovember rematch
■ DALLAS (AP) — Texas pn-
nrin voters set tip a November
bout between Gov. Mark White
iiid the man he knocked out of
office, ousted an 18-year Su-
pieme Court justice and over-
tjhelmingly rejected candidates
Inikecl to political extremist Lyn
don LaRouche.
■ But nine nominations for
statewide office still must be de
cided in June 7 runoff elections.
I Former Gov. Bill Clements,
tlue to pre-election polls, gar
nered nearlv 60 percent of the
Republican vote Saturday against
rials Kent Hance and Tom
Hieffler and will gel his chance in
November to avenge his upset
llss to White four \ ears ago.
■ White had a tougher time Sat-
tfjdav, but got nearlv 54 percent
of the vote to avoid a runoff in his
bid fora second four-year term as
; the state’s chief executive.
■ Republicans face runoff elec
tions for nominations foi lieuten
ant governor, attorney general,
railroad commission and two
seats on the Supreme Court.
Democrats will compete in run
offs for nominations for the Rail
road Commission and three Su
preme Court seats.
Incumbents fared well, with
the exception of Supreme Court
Justice Sears McGee, who ran
third in the Democratic primary
and missed a runoff.
Fellow Justice Robert Camp
bell failed to win his party’s nomi
nation outright and will battle in a
runoff against appeals court jus
tice Jim Brady of Austin.
The success of LaRouche sup
porters in Illinois earlier this year
failed to spread to Texas. The
lone LaRouche candidate for
statewide office lost resoundingly
and 10 candidates for congressio
nal nominations finished last.
Two LaRouche backers had no
Democratic opposition for nomi
nations to congressional seats, but
the Houston-area districts are
considered safe for Republicans.
See Primaries, page 10
Faculty seeks to better policy
where the phosphorus is stored are
shelves upon shelves of flammable
liquids and explosive solids.
The stockroom was no more than
10 feet from the scene of the acci
dent, he said.
"Had that clerk dropped the jar
any sooner, the whole stockroom
would have gone up in flames,” he
said. “And adjacent to that stock-
room is a solvent storeroom with
huge drums of explosive chemicals.”
Even though the fire was on the
concrete stairs outside the store
room, O’Gonnor said, it might have
blown into the stockroom anyway. If
it had blown into the stockroom, he
said, “that whole side of the building
might have gone up.
“The only reason it didn’t is be
cause when I left to go watch for the
firemen I left the door in front of
the fire open. That caused it to be
sucked away from the stockroom.”
Several people inhaled the poten
tially harmful smoke generated by
the fire, O’Connor said, but no one
was injured.
“However," he said, “if that fire
had started in the stockroom itself
See Fire, page 10
Terrorism tops
priority list at
allied summit
Rocket failure may halt launches
TOKYO (AP) — President Rea
gan and six allied leaders weighed a
, summit statement today calling for
concerted action against terrorism,
but allowing for nations to take uni
lateral action when necessary. They
met as Japanese authorities investi
gated the misfiring of homemade
missiles by anti-summit saboteurs.
During their first meetings to
gether, the T2th economic summit
was dominated by non-economic
concerns — terrorism and nuclear
safety.
Aides drafted and agreed on a
terrorism statement, said Reagan
spokesman Larry Speakes. Such a
statement was no foregone conclu
sion considering the opposition
some European leaders expressed
after last month’s U.S. raid into Li
bya. Another summit statement,
concerning the Soviet handling of
the Cherbonyl nuclear accident last
week, was in the draft stage at the
Akasaka Palace.
Aides worked overnight on the
terrorism and nuclear statements as
the leaders began their first full day
of the 12th summit of western indus
trial nations.
Concerning the terrorism
statement, Speakes said, “I think the
tone would be . . . addressing the is
sue of terrorism in a very direct
manner. It would give the opportu
nity for the allies to work in a con
certed manner to combat terorrism
and at the same time it would not
preclude unilateral action to co-
mabat terrorism, so it’s a balanced
statement, it’s a good approach.
On the nuclear safety issue,
Speakes said Sunday that the leaders
agreed safety procedures should be
strengthened and accident reporting
procedures should be improved.
Senate ‘Iona overdue’
Editor's note: In this, the first of a
three-part series on Texas A&M’s
Faculty Senate, the senate's history
and accomplishments are explored.
By Sondra Pickard
Stall Writer
In 1957 when Texas A&M faculty
members took the idea of a Faculty
Senate to University President Earl
Rudder, he vetoed the idea, saying
he received orders from the A&M
Board of Regents and the faculty
would receive orders from him.
In May 1983 the Faculty Senate
held its first meeting, 25 years after
it was first envisioned.
In his first address to the newly
created group, Dr. Gordon Eaton,
provost and vice president for aca
demic affairs, and an ex-officio
member of the senate, admitted the
senate was long overdue.
"Given the University's 107 years
of existence, you’re late — we're all
late," Eaton said. “I would judge we
are at least an entire generation late,
and probably more than that.”
The senate was set up to recom
mend policy — not to make it.
Its official functions encompass
three major areas: policy, advisory
and rhetorical. It’s empowered to
suggest all policies dealing with cur
ricula and teaching, academic stan
dards, scholarships, honors, hiring,
tenure, promotion and faculty eval
uation.
The senate mav give advice on
subjects ranging from overall educa
tional policy and planning to the ap
pointment of administrators.
Although still in its infancy, the
senate’s last three years have proven
that the body is clearly a benefit to
any major university.
The senate's first year was spent
creating the eight major committees
and numerous subcommittees that
now exist.
But that wasn't all that was done
in the senate’s initial year.
As a result of senate action, stu
dents can now receive a degree in
speech communication. It also
helped establish the Department of
Speech Communication and
Theatre Arts.
A committee was set up to review
University-wide curriculum require
ments — a committee subsequently
named the Core Curriculum Com
mittee and one which recently com
pleted action on a proposal which
will broaden the education of A&M
undergraduate students.
Once the administration gives fi
nal approval to the core curriculum,
all students will have to take courses
in computer science, a foreign lan
guage, speech and writing, math or
philosophy, science, cultural heri
tage, social science, and technology
and renewable resources before they
can graduate from A&M.
Beginning in Spring 1988, all stu
dents will take a 51-hour mandatory
core of courses including the state
required core of history, political sci
ence and physical education.
The development of a core curric
ulum is the most significant senate
accomplishment yet.
See Faculty, page 10
Several hours before Reagan
gathered for dinner with the other
leaders Sunday, several projectiles
were launched in the direction of the
State Guest House.
Police said five missiles were fired
from an apartment building about
1 'A miles north of the guest house.
Fragments of the projectiles were
found around the Ganadian Em
bassy, about 700 yards south of the
palace building where Nakasone
welcomed Reagan and other West
ern leaders.
Asked if he w'as upset by the inci
dent, Reagan replied, “No, they
missed.”
Waldheim
in June runoff
for Austrian
presidency
VIENNA, Austria (AP) —Kurt
Waldheim, the former U.N. sec
retary general who has been
dogged by claims he hid his Nazi
past, received the most vot6s Sun
day but fell just short of the abso
lute majority necessary to win
Austria’s presidency.
A runoff election will be held
June 8 between Waldheim, 67,
the candidate of the conservative
People’s Party, and Kurt Steyrer,
the candidate of the socialists w'ho
head the governing coalition.
Interior Minister Karl Blecha
announced the results, which
were based on 100 percent of the
voting districts reporting but de
scribed as unoff icial.
Waldheim received 2,343,387
votes, or 49.64 percent, and
Steyrer had 2,061,162 votes, or
43.7 percent. Two other candi
dates won 6.7 percent of the vote.
After the results were an
nounced, Waldheim said he ex
pected the controversy over his
Nazi past to die down during the
next five weeks, although at
tempts would probably be made
to interfere in the election cam-
paign.
“But do not forget these inter
ventions have come from private
organizations and not from gov
ernments,” Waldheim said, ap
parently referring to allegations
made against him in recent weeks
by the World Jewish Gongress.
The World Jewish Gongress
had accused Waldheim of hiding
his membership in Nazi youth
groups before World War II and
of concealing his wartime service
in a German unit that committed
atrocities in the Balkans.
Waldheim said he served in the
unit, but has continually denied
that he was a Nazi or took part in
massacres of partisans or civil
ians.