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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1986)
Fin m Texas A&M ^ ^ V • The Battalion Vol. 82 No. 46 GSFS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Monday, November 3, 1986 American hostage released in Lebanon BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Shiite Moslem kidnappers freed American hospital administrator David Jacob sen on Sunday after holding him for 17 months and said recent U.S. moves might lead to release of other American captives in Lebanon. Jacobsen, 55, of Huntington Beach, Calif, was turned over to U.S. officials on a street in Moslem west Beirut. A U.S. Embassy official, who insisted on anonymity, said Ja cobsen was in good health and was at the embassy compound in Christian east Beirut. Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite flew in from Cyprus, met with Jacobsen, and then told the Asso ciated Press in a telephone interview, “David is well. He and I had a con versation together for some hours. He is looking forward to seeing his family and friends.” Waite, an emissary of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, re portedly has been shuttling among See related story, page 9 Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus since Thursday in an effort to free foreign hostages in Lebanon. It was not clear what role, if any, he had in Jacob sen’s release. Waite was seen Sunday boarding a U.S. military helicopter in Larnaca, Cyprus, in his first public appear ance since Friday. Islamic Jihad, the underground extremist group that held Jacobsen, still holds two other Americans, journalist Terry A. Anderson and educator Thomas Sutherland. It said last year that it killed U.S. diplo mat William Buckley, but no body was found. Three other Americans were kid napped — Frank Herbert Reed, Jo seph James Cicippio and Edward Austin Tracy — and other groups claimed to be holding them. Chris tian radio stations and television re ported over the previous two days that six kidnapped Americans and two of eight French hostages would be let go. But in Washington, a State Department source said U.S. offi cials expected only one hostage to be released. The source spoke on con dition of anonymity. Islamic Jihad said in a statement issued after Jacobsen’s release, “We hold the American government fully responsible for the consequences of any failure to take advantage of this opportunity and proceed with cur rent approaches that could lead, if continued, to a solution of the hos tages.” The typed statement, written in Arabic and delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut, did not say what approaches the United States had made. It said if they were not continued, “we shall take a totally different attitude.” In Santa Barbara, Calif., Presi dent Reagan said he could not di vulge details of what led to the re lease, but that “we have been working through a number of sensi tive channels for a long time.” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said in Santa Barbara there was no change in the U.S. policy against “giving in to the demands of terrorists.” He said Jacobsen appeared to be in good health but would be taken to the U.S. military hospital in Wiesba den, West Germany, for an exten sive medical examination. Asked about the remaining Amer ican hostages, Speakes said it was difficult to make predictions but “we remain hopeful.” In Paris, a Foreign Ministry offi cial, speaking on condition of ano nymity, said “no new element” had emerged in efforts to free the French hostages. Jacobsen’s sister, Doris Fisher, in Glendora, Calif., said, “It’s ... all too ood to be true. I’m just dying to see im, to see how he is.” Jacobsen was the third American hostage released by Islamic Jihad, or Islamic Holy War. A&M phone registration to replace waiting lines t i —_ Get Horse, Aggies Junior yell leader Doug Beall leads the A&M-SMU football game. The Aggies 39-35 Twelfth Man in a yell during Saturday’s win was their first on SMU turf since 1978. TAMUS counsel calls lawsuit simple bill collection matter By Bob Grube Staff Writer The associate general counsel for he Texas A&M University System laid Friday that his countersuit igainst a former System chancellor s simply a matter of trying to collect )n a legal bill. Jerry Cain said in a telephone in terview Friday that he filed suit against former Chancellor Arthur G, Hansen in response to a suit Han sen filed Oct. 13. Cain filed a coun tersuit Oct. 14. Both suits were filed in Brazos County District Court. Hansen was contacted by phone Friday in his hometown of Zions- ville, Ind., but declined comment on the cases. Hansen’s attorney, Ste phen Rodgers, and Cain’s attorney, Steve Haley, cited ethical consider ations in refusing to comment on the cases. The men are disputing whether Cain represented Hansen in a law suit against the University of Texas System. Hansen had a hernia opera tion at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Cancer Institute, a part of the UT System, in November 1984. During the operation, a nerve leading to his right leg was damaged. No lawsuit was filed, but an out-of-court set tlement was negotiated with UT law yers for $350,000. Cain’s suit says that he negotiated that settlement for the former chan cellor, but Hansen’s says he did not. Cain is suing Hansen for legal fees and what he claims is “a reasonable, usual and customary fee for his serv ices.” The amount is one-third of the settlement, $116,666.67. In a telephone interview Friday, Cain said Hansen received and cashed the check in early July. Cain said that after several unsuccessful attempts to work out a payment with Hansen, the check was put into es crow in early August. Hansen’s lawsuit says that Cain never represented Hansen, “. . . en tered into a course of conduct that was deceptive,” and violated the De ceptive Trade Practices Act. The suit does not specify how the act was vio lated. Cain said he violated no such law and that he filed the countersuit against Hansen in response to Han sen’s suit. Cain said he didn’t want to See Lawsuit, page 18 By Mike Sullivan Staff Writer Waiting lines have been replaced with telephone lines by the regis trar’s office, and pre-registration for the spring semester will simply be a phone call away, says Don Carter, as sociate registrar. The new phone registration sys tem will be in full gear Nov. 10, and graduate students and seniors will get to make the first calls, Carter says. He says students can call from their dorm rooms, the Dixie Chicken or just about anywhere in the United States if they have access to a touch- tone phone. “Students will be able to call up from any touch-tone phone in the country and register,” Carter says. By following the step-by-step pro cedure that will be included in the spring class schedule and distributed around campus this week, students will be able to call the Student Infor mation Management System (SIMS) and set up their schedules the way they want them, Carter says. And, he says, students will be able to call at just about any time they Fires damage CS store, nightclub By Jo Ann Able Staff Writer A nightclub and a store on Harvey Road in College Station were dam aged in two separate fires Saturday morning. Fari Estakhri, owner of MC2, 815 Harvey Road, said he received a phone call saying the club was on fire at about 6:45 a.m. He said he went to the club and was there for a few minutes when he heard that The Christmas Store, 504 Harvey Road, was on fire as well. Estakhri estimated the cost of the damages to MC2 to be between $50,000 and $60,000. He said be cause the fire department was fight ing the MC2 fire, it caught The Christmas Store fire so quickly that only the outside was damaged. Estakhri said Sunday that he be lieves the cause of the fires was ar son. He said he thinks someone put gasoline or kerosene under the floor of the club to start the fire. “I don’t understand why people ... do things like that,” he said. “It sur prises me.” Estakhri said the damage to the building was too extensive to open the club Saturday night, but the club will reopen Wednesday at its old lo cation, 109 Walton Drive. Estakhri’s present nightclub at this location, Eastgate Live, temporarily will be closed until the fire damage is re paired at the Harvey Road club. Estakhri said these repairs should take a month or two, so he also plans to remodel before reopening the building in January. An article in Sunday’s Eagle said M.L. “Red” Cashion, owner of The Christmas Store, said Fire Marshall Harry Davis reported the fire at the store when he spotted smoke there while driving from the site of the first fire. He said Davis put the fire out with a water hose before trucks arrived, and there was no serious damage. Cashion said it looked like the fire was started by someone throwing something that was burning at the store. College Station fire officials were not available Sunday to comment on the causes of the fires. want. The 32 phone lines will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon days through Thursdays and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and Satur days. Convenient and efficient registra tion is the goal of the new system, but to reach that goal, students should be aware of the procedure changes that will come along with the new system, Carter says. The phone system will allow stu dents who are not blocked from reg istering to completely bypass the ad vising stage, he says. “Academic advising is going to be the students’ responsibility,” Carter says. “If students aren’t blocked, then they won’t have to go to their department before registering.” But, he says all first-semester freshmen, first-semester transfer students and first-semester interna tional students will have to see an ad viser before they can register. Students may be blocked from registering if they are on scholastic probation or have outstanding park ing tickets, among other reasons, Carter says. Deans also will be able to block students from registering if they feel students need advising, Carter says. He says students should plan their schedules carefully and sensibly be cause students still will be held ac countable for meeting their curric ulum requirements. “If you take classes out of se- S uence, you could get kicked out of ass,” he says. “But you can’t come up four years down the road and say ‘Hey, nobody told me I couldn’t do this.’ ” The phone system will not be able to check whether a student has taken a prerequisite course when he regis ters for a course requiring one, Car ter says. But, he says, professors will be able to scan their enrollment sheets and find out if students have met the prerequisites or not. If students have not taken the necessary courses or don’t have enough nours to be in a course, the professors will be able to drop the students from class. Carter says. He says the class schedule will in clude a disclaimer warning students See Registration, page 18 Polling sites listed for general election The following are the names and locations of the polling pre cincts in Brazos County for Tues day’s general election. In bold are some of the precincts most heav ily populated with students. Voters’ precinct numbers can be found on their voter registra tion cards. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The League of Women Voters will answer ques tions on election day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 846-4014. 1. Millican Community Center: downtown Millican. 2. Wellborn Community Cen ter: FM 2154 (Wellborn Road) first road past the post office. Greens Prairie Road. 3. S.PJ.S.T. Hall of Smetana: Silver Hill Road, about six miles west of Bryan on the left side of Highway 21. 4. Carver School: West Martin Luther King Street. 5. Fellowship Hall (East): FM 974 (Tabor Road), about a quar ter-mile north of East Bypass. 6. Edge Community Center: Edge. 7. Steep Hollow Community Center: Cnurch at FM 1179 and Steep Hollow Road. 8. South Knoll School: South west Parkway between Langford and Lawyer streets. 9. College Station Community Center: 1300 Jersey St., College Station. 10. College Station Police Sta tion: Texas Avenue South, across from K-Mart, behind Informa tion Center. 11. Crockett School: Sulphur Springs Road and Cavitt. 12. Sul Ross School: Villa Maria Road and Parkway Ter race. 13. Henderson School: Sharon Drive and Matous Street. 14. Ben Milam School: Palasota Drive and Beck Street. 15. Fannin School: 501 S. Baker and 29th Street. 16. Bowie School: West 26th Street, five blocks west of Texas. 17. Travis School: East 25th and Pierce streets, three blocks east of Texas. 18. Bryan Central Fire Station: 19th and Bryan streets. 19. Arena Hall: Old Hearne Road. 20. Texas A&M University: Memorial Student Center. 21. Hensel Park Apartments Portable Building: Avenue A, off University Drive. 22. Army Reserve Center on Carson: Carson Street, two blocks west of College Avenue. 23. Brazos Center (east end): 3232 Briarcrest, Bryan. 24. College Hills Elementary School: Francis and St. James Street, College Station. 25. G.W. Williams Tabernacle: Waco Street, Bryan. 26. Brazos Center (west end): 3232 Briarcrest, Bryan. 27. Bright Light Baptist Church: Highway 30, about one mile past intersection of FM 158 and Highway 30 on right. 28. Peach Creek Community Center: Rock Prairie Road, about six miles east of Highway 6 South. 29. Brushy Community Cen ter: west on Highway 60, right on Vincent Road. 30. Fellowship Hall (Portable Building): FM 974 (Tabor Road) about a quarter-mile north of East Bypass. 31. A&M Consolidated High School: FM 2818 on north side of road. 32. College Station Fire Sta tion #2: FM 2818 on south side of road. 33. College Station Lincoln Center: Holleman Street, corner of Eleanor and Holleman. 34. College Station Central Fire Station: Texas Avenue South, east side of road. 35. A&M Presbyterian Church: Church Street, one block east of Wellborn Road. 36. First Freewill Baptist Church: Villa Maria Road, 1228 West Villa Maria. 37. College Heights Assembly of God: 4100 Old College Road. 38. Castle Heights Baptist Church: Highway 21 East, across from Gooseneck Trailer Co. 39. Southwood Athletic Com plex: Rock Prairie Road. 40. Aldersgate Methodist Church: 6501 East Highway 6 Bypass.