McCull
The Battalion
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, September 9, 1986
Forces search
Chilean leftist
strongholds
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Secu
rity forces Monday arrested opposi
tion leaders and raided leftist
strongholds in slum areas to search
for the would-be assassins who am
bushed President Augusto Pino
chet’s motorcade.
Three leading dissidents and
three French activist priests were
among those said to have been ar
rested. Five news magazines were
banned.
The ruling four-man junta, domi
nated by Pinochet, decreed a 90-day
siege throughout Chile after Sun
day’s rocket and machine gun attack.
Five of Pinochet’s bodyguards were
killed and 11 wounded in the am
bush.
Pinochet, a general and the com
mander of the army, suffered only
cuts on his left hand in the ambush
tcrew
Brows fire
for escape
«0NDON (AP) — I he escape
of Pan Am’s cockpit crew at the
Birt of the 17-hour hijacking in
Histan has stirred debate over
the ancient rule that a
caltain never abandons ship
\N ( i: cUrt Tl n r\r\l \ 1
as." he said.
aid inmallvtti
led.
lid noi knon
tch confusion w h et | iei
will be foi
Huld apply to jetliner
ings.
H\n informal Assoc iated Press
invey Monday found dis-
agreement on the issue among pi-
r m If I’ a ' r ^ ne officials and the lii-
■ Rvictims themselves.
S R)pinions ranged from one sur-
■ Ivivor who called the cockpit
( Rw's action “absolutely superb”
spokesman for a competing
iC«U». 1 ir|i n e w h„ said it was “unthink-
I® a | "
Ryescaping through a hatch in
'EVERY the roof of the Boeing 747 soon
NG after terrorists hoarded the plane
MOMBM^Friilay, the three-man flight crew
I j Rctively grounded the jetliner
^ QmV afKarachi Airport.
^ Hut it left the nearly 4(H) pas-
Rgersand remaining crew with-
dui an authority figure and con-
Rnting four terrorists, who
n .i'-«»iR s ied them with grenades and
■ Recrellon 'jmadiine-gun fire, killing 18 peo-
nt will open pic.
sports COIfrRfef/garo, a leading French da-
' This cor editorialized Monday, “IfOne
j . Rers to the maritime world,
Has, sps- |i ie tradition would have
the captain of a sinking ship be
Faculty Senate backs reorganization
By Sondra Pickard
Senior Stuff Writer
A lengthv Faculty Senate debate
Monday resulted in subsequent pas
sage of a resolution suggesting that
problems with the current organiza
tional structure of the University
and System should be eliminated.
The resolution was drawn up by a
specific senate subcommittee ap
pointed to the task in 1984 and it in
cludes results of the committee’s re
search showing inadequacies in the
relationship between the organiza
tion of the University and System.
According to the report, this results
in “unnecessary burdens to faculty
as thev pursue their responsibilities
See Faculty, page 10
Vandiver concerned about cuts
Dr. Frank E. Vandiver
By Sondra Pickard
Senior Staff Writer
Texas A&M President Frank
E. Vandiver opened the first fall
semester session of the Faculty
Senate Monday by reassuring
senators of ongoing efforts being
made by the administration to
protect faculty interests in the
face of a threatening Texas Legis
lature.
Vandiver said taking away sick
leave benefits for faculty mem
bers on less than 12-month ap
pointments is “one of the most
ing
i” he
concern he had ever seen, and
that he is hopeful these benefits
will be restored in the near fu
ture.
He also expressed concern for
the primary faculty retirement
program — the Optional Retire
ment Program — which has been
in danger of elimination for some
time now, saying “voices will be
heard until the last shot has been
fired.”
Addressing the substantial hike
in faculty parking fees, Vandiver
See Vandiver, page 10
on a road in the Maipo Canyon, 18
miles southeast of the capital. He
was returning from his weekend
home.
It was the first reported attempt
on Pinochet’s life since he took
power in a military coup 13 years
ago Thursday.
Neither of the country’s two
Marxist guerrilla groups claimed re
sponsibility for the attack.
Chile’s Roman Catholic bishops
and the broad-based moderate op
position movement condemned the
assassination attempt.
Soldiers with blackened faces and
several tanks surrounded La Victo
ria and Davila slums before dawn
and security police began house-to-
house searches, witnesses said.
Both shantytowns in southwestern
Santiago have strong Marxist politi
cal organizations.
Three French Roman Catholic
priests were arrested during the
raids, a church spokeswoman told
the Associated Press.
Speaking on condition of ano
nymity, she said the priests, Paul Du
bois, Daniel Garuette and Jaime
Lancelot, were taken to a nearby po
lice station.
She said no other details were im
mediately available.
Witnesses told reporters that at
least two of the priests were beaten
with rifle butts.
Plainclothes police without war
rants arrested Ricardo Lagos and
German Correa, leaders of branches
of the Socialist Party, in predawn
raids on their homes, relatives said.
Rafael Marroto, a public spokes
man for the Leftist Revolutionary
Movement, was reported arrested in
a similar raid.
The Revolutionary Movement
and the outlawed Communist Party
both support guerrilla groups.
2 House members will sponsor tax bills
Hball field."
/arious oW
the driving
:o the univer-
veil as to ttifi
ion comnt
ies are being
•ange and is
tn in the next
R last to leave the deck, one
could find quite cowardly the
conduct of this crew.”
■Capt. William Kianka of Hope-
well, N.J., the pilot of the jumbo
jet, was interviewed outside his
home by WABC-TV and was
|sked about the crew’s action.
■ 1 feel that the decision that we
[made as the cockpit crew, and we
^ttnade it together, was the best de-
Kon we ever made and I’m sure
Rt you can tell by the results of
[how many people were saved,” he
said.
■ferry Middleton, executive ad
ministrator of the London-based
International Federation of Air
Line Pilots Associations, which
represents 60,000 pilots in 66 na
tions, said the advantage of keep
ing a commandeered airliner
Kunded could outweigh all
Other considerations.
■A British Airways pilot, Chris
Rlebar, said he had no doubt
what he would do in the same cir-
Rnstances. “I would stay on
hoard and somehow disable the
aitnaft,” he told London’s Daily
Hit/newspaper.
HBut Shuli Naor, a captain for
the Israeli airline El Al, quoted in
[the Tel Aviv newspaper Hada-
shot, disagreed.
‘Look, if you drop the heroic
bminess of the crew being the last
to abandon ship — here it’s the
plane — when the crew abandons
the plane, the plane becomes an
unattractive object for hijacking,”
he was quoted as saying. “It’s like
you’ve hijacked a building.”
Ran Am announced Monday it
had suspended flights to Karachi
until authorities explain the air-
Jfflrt security lapses that resulted
lithe jet’s seizure.
AUSTIN (AP) — Two House
members said Monday they are
sponsoring bills that call for the tem
porary sales tax increase being
pushed by Gov. Mark White.
House Speaker Gib Lewis said he
would support a tax hike if a good
faith effort to make necessary cuts
fails to balance the budget.
But House Ways and Means
Chairman Stan Schlueter said he
sees no reason to conduct a commit
tee hearing on a tax bill.
“Why would you have a hearing
on a bill that can’t pass?” asked
Schlueter, D-Killeen.
In a Monday speech opening the
second special session on the budget
crisis, White renewed his call for in
creasing the sales tax from the cur
rent 4'/h percent to 5 l A percent
through August 1987.
Reps. Tom Uher, D-Bay City, and
Al Luna, D-Houston, said they are
convinced that’s the best plan avail
able, and both are introducing bills
that would do that.
“We took the governor’s proposal
because we thought it was the sim
plest, fairest and quickest way to get
out of here,” said Luna.
About 60 of the House’s 150
members support the tax hike, Luna
said.
“We thought it was important that
we show there is significant support
in the House for a tax bill,” Luna
White: Blame me if tax increase approved
AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Mark
White, once again urging the
Legislature to balance the budget
by raising taxes, volunteered
Monday to take the political heat
if lawmakers approve his pro
gram.
“To those who try to blame you
for what we do here, tell them we
had to do it,” White said as he
opened the second budget-bal
ancing special session. “Blame
me.”
The governor said his proposal
for a one-year, 1 '/a-cent sales tax
increase is as necessary now as
when lawmakers gathered for
their first 30-day session Aug. 6.
White said spending cuts alone
won’t erase the state budget defi
cit, which Comptroller Bob Bul
lock has estimated at more than
$3 billion.
“We must come to grips with
the numbers,” White said. “They
don’t lie and they don’t leave us
much choice. The problem re
mains before us. It hasn’t gone
away.”
He added, “There is nothing
more conservative than fiscal re
sponsibility.”
said. “I’m not saying that we have
the votes to pass it.”
Uher said he decided to file his
tax bill last week as the first special
session on the budget ended in stale
mate. He said his constituents have
voiced support for the temporary in
crease, teliing him, “You’re doing
the right thing. You get your busi
ness done and come home.”
Lewis, D-Fort Worth, expressed
frustration over what he called a
misperception about his stand on
taxes. The speaker was viewed dur
ing the first special session as the
prime opponent to higher taxes.
“I’m not for a tax today because
we haven’t got there yet. Once we
get there, if we’re short, I’ll be for a
tax,” he told reporters.
Program delayed by shuttle disaster
NASA plans space station by 4994
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of
a four-part series examining the impact of the ex
plosion of the space shuttle Challenger on the
space industry. Part two examines the future
space station and the recent questions concerning
its safety.
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) — America’s
space station exists only in volumes of drawings,
miles of computer tape and the minds of engi
neers who still disagree over it.
But by 1994, NASA plans to have a structure
as long as one and two-thirds football fields orbit
ing 280 miles above the Earth, and housing eight
crew members for up to 90 days. The goal is to
have astronauts in a spac£ outpost for science ev
ery day of the year.
The cost: about $10 billion, 80 percent from
the United States, the rest from Canada, Japan
and the European Space Agency.
As with nearly every plan in the American
space program, the space station has been sent
back to the drawing board by the Challenger ex
plosion. The loss of one of the nation’s four shut
tles has crippled plans to launch, supply and
maintain the space station.
And the accident gave new clout to internal
critics of the safety of the station’s design just
when the space agency was ready to draft final
plans.
In 1984, President Reagan set a national goal
of opening a permanent space station by 1994.
Since then, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration defined uses for the station and
spent a year refining its design. Final design and
construction remain to be done.
The current design calls for two 361-foot verti
cal booms connected by two 146-foot booms to
form a rectangle. A transverse boom through the
middle of the rectangle and extending out on ei
ther side would measure 503 feet.
Attached to the center of the transverse boom
would be two 44-foot-long modules, each 13 feet
in diameter. These modules, connected by tun
nels, would house crew quarters and a laboratory.
A 24-foot supply craft would be docked to the
station and exchanged every 90 days.
The shuttle could dock at either of two ports.
Other spacecraft and platforms would link up at
five locations on the booms. Robot arms would
manuever payloads.
NASA’s plans call for space-walking astronauts
working as orbiting steeplejacks to build the lat
ticework of booms from components delivered by
the shuttle. It was thought 15 shuttle flights
would be needed to lift the parts into orbit.
When Challenger exploded, these plans
started unraveling.
In June, astronaut Gordon Fullerton com
pleted a report outlining serious safety flaws. He
pointed out the station had no “life boat” — a
crew would be stranded there if the shuttles were
grounded again.
Fullerton said it would take 672 hours of
space-walking to assemble the station, and 391
space-walking hours each year to maintain it. No
other project has required so much of this very
risky activity.
Fullerton noted that design changes resulting
from the Challenger accident will reduce the
weight the shuttle can lift. This will force NASA
to use five more flights to assemble the station.
It was time to return to the drawing board, so
there are 55 NASA experts huddled at the Lang
ley center reviewing the project.
Andrew J. Stofan, recently appointed space
station chief, said the review is concentrating on
reducing the space-walking and on launching the
parts with the reduced shuttle payload.
A final report is expected next month.
The project had been distributed to four
NASA centers, with Johnson Space Center near
Houston to manage the program and do 42 per
cent of the work.
But the presidential Challenger commission
criticized NASA’s division of responsibility be
tween field centers for diluting headquarters au
thority.
Retired Air Force Gen. Samuel Phillips recom
mended shifting station management to Wash
ington headquarters.
Fletcher announced the revisions June 30, but
Congressmen from Texas, already reeling from
bad times in the oil industry, complained the
changes would cost Houston 1,000 potential jobs.
Vandiver
gives report
to NCAA
From staff and wire reports
Texas A&M University has
turned over a 10-volume report
dealing with newspaper allega
tions about the school’s football
program to the National Colle
giate Athletic Association, Presi
dent Frank E. Vandiver said
Monday.
Vandiver told the University’s
Faculty Senate he headed a dele
gation that last week personally
delivered to the NCAA the report
answering the Dallas Times
Herald allegations made last year
about A&M’s football program.
The investigation on which the
report is based was conducted by
personnel outside of the Univer
sity’s administrative and athletic
structures, with some 300 persons
interviewed, he said.
“The final report was some
2,000 pages contained in 10 vol
umes, and I believe it was the best
and most complete report that
could have been assembled,”
Vandiver said.
Vandiver said he w'ould make
no further public comment on
See Report, page 10