tic Battalion
Should athletes
receive monthly
allowances?
— Page 9
Vol.82 No.96 GSPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 11, 1987
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■ BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Mos
lem kidnappers were reported try
ing to strike a deal with Israel on
liesday that would tree 400 Arab
prisoners in exchange tor three
Americans and an Indian held in
Beirut and a captured Israeli air
man.
■ The Christian-run Voice of Leb-
an m and the Moslem-run Voice of
[the Nation radio stations quoted “re-
jlirts from Washington and other
capitals” as saying the captors might
■ working through the Red Cross
for an exchange.
■ In Geneva, the International
Committee of the Red Cross denied
involvement in any negotiations.
■ Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of
Isiael said Ids government would be
willing to consider a direct request
for negotiations, but added that no
■ch request has been made.
■ Israeli officials say Washington
"■s not asked Israel to meet de-
Pands by the kidnap group, the Is-
jBnicjihad for the Liberation of Pal
estine, to release 400 prisoners in
exchange for the lives of the four ed-
iucaiors it holds.
ejected [H White House spokesman Marlin
Ijp. Fjt/water told reporters in Washing-
er,noti»h <,n > "() ur terrorism policy remains
rmmilJe same, and I reiterate once again
d medii® 11 we vv ‘^ n 01 ransom hostages,nor
will we encourage other countries lo
do so.”
il
■A group called the Revolutionary
Justice Organization renewed a
threat Tuesday to harm hostages if
^ th< United States takes military ac
tion,
i page 111
■ it holds American hostages Jo-
the ifseph James Cicippio, 56, of Valley
sion pi forge. Pa., acting comptroller at the
American University of Beirut, and
ixecutivt 1 Edward Austin Tracy, 56, a writer
inistrali« who formerly lived in Burlington,
icil does Vt., and Jean-Louis Normandin, 35,
race thei a French television engineer,
ved. If; One hostage did gttin his freedom
in Beirut on Tuesday. Police said
ig fort JackSeikalv, 50, a wealthy Lebanese-
"Exactk American kidnapped four days ago,
was freed unharmed after his family
paid a “sizable ransom.”
Need A Light?
Pete McDonald, a senior electrical engineering
major, gets in a little practice for the MSC Variety
Photo by Doug LaRue
Show by juggling flaming torches. McDonald per
forms his act while riding a unicycle.
Probe reveals
McFarlane tried
to kill himself
WASHINGTON (AP) — An in
vestigation concluded that former
presidential adviser Robert C. Mc
Farlane attempted suicide, a police
source said Tuesday, while authori
ties said officially only that there was
no evidence of foul play in McFar-
lane’s Valium overdose.
“There’s not going to be any rul
ing that it was an attempted suicide,”
said Harry Geehreng, spokesman
for the Montgomery County Police
in suburban Maryland. “We are sat
isfied that there was no crime and
there’s no further legal action to be
taken.”
But a source close to the investiga
tion, speaking on condition of ano
nymity, said the police had deter
mined McFarlanes ingestion of 25
to 30 tablets of Valium, a tranquil
izer, was an attempt to take his own
life.
The source also confirmed that
police learned that McFarlane, Presi
dent Reagan’s former national secu
rity adviser, had written a note that
his wife Jonda carried to the hospi
tal. However, police did not know
the contents of the note, the source
said.
Geehreng said he knew nothing
of the note, and McFarlane’s attor
ney Peter Morgan declined com
ment on the matter.
T he 49-year-old McFarlane, who
associates said recently has been in
severe pain with a back ailment, was
rushed to the hospital Monday
morning, shortly before he was to
testify before the presidential com
mission set up to investigate the Na
tional Security Council’s role in the
Iran arms-sale crisis.
He was listed in good condition
Tuesday at Bethesda Naval Hospital
in suburban Maryland and was vis
ited by his wife, hospital spokesman
Lt. Russ Sanford said. He said Mc
Farlane was not receiving telephone
calls.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said Reagan had not tried
to contact his former aide, but that
the president and first lady Nancy
Reagan planned to telephone Mrs.
McFarlane. He said Reagan likely
would call McFarlane “when it is ap
propriate.”
Fitzwater said the White House
“had no inside information or medi
cal information” to comment on the
reported suicide attempt.
Mrs. McFarlane, meanwhile, is
sued a terse statement saying, “Boh
and the children and I appreciate
enormously the great love and sup
port that we are getting from friends
and strangers alike.”
McFarlane, who stands alone in
his public insistence that Reagan
gave prior approval to sending arms
to Iran, was to testily behind closed
doors Monday before the three-
member presidential commission
headed by former Sen. John Tower
of Texas, said the panel’s spokes
man, Herbert E. Hetu.
Texas officials: Prisons
face another closure
has highest reported theft rate in SWC
or the f
By Doug Driskell
Reporter
n tneeuH^ reported 834 thefts in the 1985-
eiiitanf ^6 school year- gave Texas A&M an-
to be a ol her record — the highest number
)neofil °E thefts in the Southwest Gonfer-
astnui en< c ’ sa '<l Bob Wiatt, director of se
curity and traffic for A&M.
fhe biggest criminal offense that
j §| vve have here at A&M, and that
leads all other universities and
^colleges in the state of Texas in, is
misdemeanor thefts,” Wiatt said.
(■Wiatt said dorm-room thefts
mainly occur because students will
itiot lock their rooms.
■“This (theft) is due to the fact that
' kpeople on this campus do not believe
is part of the planet Earth,” Wiatt
Y 'said.
r ^ ■“They do not take care of their
■operty; they think that everything
I2-8p.P i S l‘Alice in Wonderland;’ they are to-
l.-Bp'lfi'§ta|ly naive in being responsible.”
IMfl I ^'- R °y Horner of the University
iccv “Police Department said items stolen
Hwy.JOSh include hooks, backpacks, purses,
iouthV* jewlery and bicycles.
oitOak ■LTh e m()((o () j j s ‘Aggies do
LJ-T noi lie, cheat or steal’ and the stu-
dints honestly believe that that is
i hlw the campus is supposed to be,”
fitl Horner said. “Unfortunately, most
olthe people on campus are not Ag-
So, the students make it easier
Br the thief to come in and steal
their property.”
iff
I 1 ■Books are the most common
■ , property stolen, he said, but police
QlQl nave found that many of the people
stealing hooks are not students, hut
.■former students.
■ While at A&M, they discovered
how easy it is to steal students’ prop-
e|ty, he said.
(j(lKtudents leave their hooks on a li
brary table, get up and walk around
[ only to come hack to find their be
longings have been stolen by an “ex-
sliident,” Horner explained.
■The thief then will post a notice
around campus advertising the sto
len property for half the original
JwAft; pHce, he said.
JVvl 1 ■Most ol the dorm thieves are stu-
. r ni dents and A&M employees, Wiatt
45'/°! s|d.
^^■Hornet agrees, “A lot of people
(thieves) are stall members such as
custodial workers and such.”
However, Texas A&M Custodial
Superintendent James E. Jones said,
“There has never been anyone taken
off the custodial account because of
theft.”
The number of people on campus
makes catching thieves a difficult
task, Horner said. Texas A&M has
more than 35,000 students,, hut on
any given day there are more than
65,000 people on campus, and many
of the thieves look like students, he
said.
The inaccessibility to the center of
campus by patrol cars also is a prob
lem, Horner said. The center of
campus has a large mall area that is
inaccessible to patrol cars, and for
officers to catch the thieves, they
must leave their patrol cars. By that
time, the thieves have gotten away,
he says.
Different techniques are con
stantly being used to foil the crimi
nals, Horner said.
In one technique the department
is using, he said, electronic sensors
are put in decoy backpacks around
campus and when the backpack is
taken, the sensor sends a signal to an
officer monitoring a receiver, who
can then arrest the thief .
See Thefts, page 12
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — The
Texas prison system reopened Tues
day after the inmate population sank
below a state-mandated limit, but of
ficials warned that new arrivals this
week could force another closure.
About 393 new inmates had been
accepted by mid-afternoon as the
system received convicts for the first
time in six days, said David Nunne-
lee, a spokesman for the Texas De
partment of Corrections.
At the same time, about 125 pris
oners were released, the Nunnelee
said.
But too many new admissions
could push the population pass the
95-percent ceiling once again, offi
cials said.
The Texas prison system, the na
tion’s second-largest behind Califor
nia, closed last Wednesday for the
second time in a month because the
population had surpassed the 95-
percent mark.
The capacity is mandated by a
state law passed af ter a federal judge
ordered the state to reduce prison
overcrowding.
As of midnight Monday, the in
mate population totaled 38,158, or
94.47 percent of capacity. That
number was 215 inmates short of the
95-percent cap.
Prison doors will remain open to
day because Monday’s figures were
below the limit, Nunnelee said.
Tuesday’s population figures will
not be available until this afternoon.
Monday’s count of prisoners —
taken at midnight Friday — showed
the system at 94.80 percent of capac
ity, or 81 inmates under the limit,
Sarah Dunn, a prison spokesman,
said.
Koidus: A&M may ask Republican party to pay
costs of controversial Political Forum program
By Amy Couvillon
Stuff Writer
Texas A&M may consider
asking the Texas Republican
party to pay for a Nov. 3 MSC Po
litical Forum program that has
been called a one-sided political
rally, said Dr. John Koidus, vice
president for student services.
The program, “A Panorama of
Republican Perspectives on the
Slate of Texas,” was held the day
before gubernatorial elections
last fall. Speakers at the program
were then-gubernatorial candi
date Bill Clements, Vice Presi
dent George Bush, Sen. Phil
Gramm and Rep. Joe Barton.
Former Gov. Mark White and
other Democrats were invited
several times to speak at the pro
gram, but declined, said Ann
Levy, chairman of the Political
Forum Committee.
Despite urging from Dr. Ches
ter Dunning, who initiated com
plaints about the program with
the help of the f aculty Senate,
Koidus said he does not intend to
approach the Republican party
with a formal request. Instead, he
will try to talk informally to some
one in the party.
Dunning, an associate profes
sor of history, has voiced com
plaints since last fall, saying the
students on the Political Forum
Committee were manipulated,
and that the program was inap
propriately partisian and should
be paid for — as a political rally
— by the Republican party.
Koidus shared some of Dun
ning’s concerns, but felt the mat
ter was not especially urgent.
“Some of the things were inap
propriate,” Koidus said. “I think
the intent was appropriate, at the
beginning, but I think that il went
off in some different directions
that maybe it shouldn’t have.”
Levy said Political Forum does
not want the Republican party to
pay for the program, which she
said cost about $ 1,300.
“It was our program; we put it
on,” she said. “The Democrats
didn’t even let us know for sure
that they were not coming until
the week before the program, so
there wasn’t much we could do.
“You have to understand the
goals of our committee. We are a
nonpartisian committee, but we
present partisian programs. ... I
see no reason to say no to (the Re
publicans) just because the other
side said no.”
Jim Reynolds, MSC student
programs director, agreed.
“We issue the invitations and
hope that everyone will accept,”
Reynolds said. “We work really
hard to get everyone to accept,
because that’s an important part
of the responsibility for the Politi
cal Forum. But for whatever rea
son, (former) Gov. White decided
not to come.
“There was consideration that
this would raise eyebrows in other
political camps, but ... we can’t
make our decisions on the basis of
who doesn’t want to come.”
Dunning said faculty advising
for Political Forum should he in
creased. There was no faculty ad
viser for the committee last se
mester, only staff advisers.
“I have spoken to former fac
ulty advisers who assured me that
if an adviser had been in place, no
such program would have been
allowed,” he said. “It makes sense
to go back to strong faculty advi
sing.”
He has recommended that
three faculty advisers be installed
on a staggered-term basis, “as a
way to maintain continuity in ad
visement and a balance of politi
cal perspectives among the fac
ulty representatives as well.”
Reynolds agreed that balance
in advising is important, but said
that the faculty advisers do not
play a decision-making role.
“The faculty members serve as
a source of input to MSC commit
tees,” Reynolds said, “but they
fdL
m
* /x
piTjp
Photo by Greg Bailey
Joe Barton, left, George Bush, Bill Clements and Phil Gramm.
don’t — as 1 think has been al
leged — have any real authority
or responsibility other than the
sharing of information, and per
haps their persuasive abilities.”
Dunning and the Faculty Sen
ate’s executive committee met
with Koidus to discuss how to
prevent these kinds of conflicts.
“At this point, all we have done
is to make some recommenda
tions,” Dunning said, “and my
sense of it is that ihe vice presi
dent shares our perspective and
our concern, and wants to do
something about it.”
Reynolds said that if Koidus
were to formally approach the
Republican party about the pro
gram, it would he unusual.
“It was an MSC Political Forum
program,” he said, “and if there
was going to be any effort made
to ask them to pay for it, that ef
fort should come out of the Politi
cal Forum Committee.”