The Battalion
Colleae Station, Texas
Kremlin: U.S. soldier,
wife granted asylum
Couple sola to fear political persecution
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin
announced Thursday an American
soldier and his West German wife
had defected to the Soviet Union
and been granted asylum because
they feared political persecution.
The U.S. Army in West Germany
and the Pentagon in Washington
could not confirm the defection,
which would be the first by an Amer
ican serviceman to the Soviet Union
since the Vietnam War.
The Pentagon issued a statement,
however, saying it was investigating
an enlisted man with a name similar
to that announced by the Soviets
who had deserted in West Germany
a month ago.
The reported defection came at a
time when the U.S. Embassy in Mos
cow was trying to deal with a spy case
in which two former Marine guards
have been charged with espionage.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Gen
nady Gerasimov announced the de
fection at a regular news briefing
and said, “They have chosen the
Turkmenian S.S.R. for their honey
moon.”
He identified the soldier as Wil
liam E. Roberts of the U.S. Army,
whom he said he had been stationed
in West Germany, and his wife as P.
Neumann, a West German.
Both have been granted political
asylum because “they were afraid of
being victimized for their progres
sive views,” Gerasimov said. He said
Roberts “had been persecuted”
while stationed with the Army in
West Germany, but the Soviet
spokesman provided no details.
Army Maj. Dennis Pinkham, a
spokesman for the U.S. European
command in Stuttgart, West Ger
many, said military officials were at
tempting to verify the report.
In Washington, Pentagon, Army
and Defense Department officials
declined to even predict when con
firmation of the defector’s identity
might be available.
But the Army announced Thurs
day afternoon that it had declared a
deserter one of its soldiers assigned
to West Germany, Pvt. 2nd Class
Wade Evan Roberts. It noted the-
name differed from that released by
Moscow.
Senate overrides Reagan’s highway bill veto
gai,
r
I 'i
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate rejected
a personal, last-minute plea from President Rea-
^gan and voted Thursday to override his veto and
act into law an $88 billion highway and mass
nsit bill.
The 67-33 vote, exactly the two-thirds majority
necessary, capped two days of political struggle
! over the bill that became a high-stakes test of wills
THpween the Republican president and leaders of
the Senate’s Democratic majority.
: Democrats reclaimed one vote they had lost in
an initial test on Wednesday, but Republicans
Meic unable to switch any of the 13 GOP senators
voted to override the president’s veto the
(|ay before.
^Besides authorizing highway and mass transit
projects that the president had opposed as over-
■den with pork, the bill permits states to boost
the speed limit on rural stretches of interstate
■ghways to 65 miles per hour from the current
5p mph.
But arguments over the substance of the legis
lation were overtaken by the political fight.
Afterwards, though, the winners and losers al
ike sought to minimize the impact on the presi
dent’s influence.
Reagan issued a statement saying he was
“deeply disappointed” by the outcome but vow
ing to continue the battle against excessive fed
eral spending.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said
the defeat would help the president by demon
strating his willingness to fight in his final 21
months in office.
At issue was a measure that permits states to
raise the speed limit to 65 miles per hour on rural
stretches of interstate highways and earmarks
more than 100 highway demonstration projects
tailor-made for individual lawmakers.
Reagan vetoed the bill last week, calling it a
budget-buster that is larded with wasteful pro
jects.
Democrats maintained that the bill is under
budget, and said that sustaining the veto would
cause the loss of 800,000 jobs during the warm
weather construction season.
But beyond the legislation itself, the veto fight
became a test of Reagan’s standing and prestige
after months of political damage caused by the
Iran-Contra affair.
The Senate voted 65-35, with one vote the
spare, to sustain the president’s action on
Wednesday, but a change of heart by Democrat
Terry Sanford of North Carolina, a 69-year-old
freshman senator, left Democratic leaders confi
dent of overriding the veto on the second, recon
sideration vote Thursday,
The House voted 350-73 on Tuesday to over
ride the veto, but it takes a two-thirds vote of
both houses to enact the bill into law over a veto.
usiness college will publish results
if official A&M professor evaluations
By Susan Stubing
Reporter
iWith summer and fall registration
]oks newly distributed, students
again are quizzing their friends
Id colleagues about which basket-
laving professor is the easiest and
Vch has used the same tests since
153.
lUntil now, the only way to un-
lei such grade-boosting informa-
i was by word of mouth. But after
ending more than a year trying to
[ike teacher-evaluation forms pub-
business students can now select
professor based on official, un-
^Ised evaluations, says Allen Ar-
Hld, co-chairman and initiator of
the teacher evaluation committee in
College of Business Administra-
tion '
■‘Students have a lot to lose or
n, depending on what teacher
y get,” Arnold, a senior market-
major, says. “I feel like it would
■ a lot more effective to look at the
SSults of a bunch of evaluations
taper than just the biased opinions
ofh friend here or there.”
■ The individual evaluations can be
published only with the teacher’s
consent, Arnold says, and the option
to have evaluations published must
be renewed each semester. More
than half of the business faculty are
expected to participate this semes
ter, he says.
“The faculty voted overwhelm
ingly in favor of the evaluation
change,” says Dr. Sam Gillespie, as-
around about certain teachers will be
eliminated, he says.
“Students will have a better idea
of what they’re getting into before
they sign up for a class,” says Phil
Klement, a senior marketing major
in favor of the change. Although the
current grade distribution reports
are helpful, he says, publishing the
“I feel like it would be a lot more effective to look at the
results of a bunch of evaluations rather than just the
biased opinions of a friend here or there. ”
— Allen Arnold, co-chairman and initiator of the
teacher evaluation committee
sistant dean of the business adminis
tration college. Teacher response so
far has been encouraging, he says,
and there has been a real effort to
promote participation.
Although records of professor’s
grade distributions are available on
the second floor of the YMCA
Building, they do not provide sub
jective information about the course
and teacher, he says. By publishing
the evaluations, rumors floating
evaluations will be of even greater
help in choosing a teacher.
Because the published evaluations
will be on file at a convenient loca
tion — the Sterling C. Evans Library
reserve room — students should be
encouraged to take advantage of the
evaluations, Arnold says.
“I don’t believe by any means that
everyone is going to use this,” he
says, “because only the really con
cerned students will take the time to
look at them.”
Roberts was assigned to Bravo
Battery, 3-79th Field Artillery, 42nd
Field Artillery Brigade, in Geissen,
West Germany, and was listed as
having been absent without leave
since March 2.
The Army added that Roberts was
22, listed his home of record as San
Bernadino, Calif., and according to
military records, was single.
Gerasimov said he was not sure of
the couple’s present whereabouts.
The official Tass news agency said it
would provide on Friday a photo
graph showing the couple in Turk
menia, a Central Asian Soviet repub-
lic that borders Iran and
Afghanistan.
The American Embassy in Mos
cow is trying to assess the damage
that may have been done by other
U.S. servicemen linked to a sex-and-
spy operation with the Soviets.
Three former Marine guards at
the mission have been arrested in
the United States and two of them
charged with having contacts with
Soviet women who allegedly lured
them into furnishing embassy se
crets to KGB agents.
Bradshaw, Hogan
to meet in runoff
slated for April 8
By Christ! Daugherty
Staff Writer
Mason Hogan and Miles
Bradshaw will face off in a runoff
election Wednesday for the position
of Texas A&M student body presi
dent.
More than 5,500 students voted in
Wednesday’s election, in which Ho
gan received 1,387 votes, or 27.1
percent, and Bradshaw garnered
894 votes, or 17.5 percent.
The seven other candidates di
vided the rest of the votes, with
Perry Eichor earning 764 votes, or
14.9 percent, Jody Kay Manley, with
650 votes, or 12.7 percent, Jaime
Galvan with 442, or 8.6 percent, Jos^
Castro with 361, or 7.1 percent,
Spence McClung with 337, or 6.6
percent, Richard de Castongrene
with 147, or 2.9 percent and Christo
pher R. Davis with 132 votes, or 2.6
percent.
The three senior yell leaders
elected were Doug Beall, with 3,749
votes, or 26.1 percent, John Bean
with 3,622 votes, or 25.2 percent and
Matt Sellers with 2,344 votes, or 16.3
percent.
The two junior yell leaders chosen
were Steve Keathley with 2,058
votes, or 20.2 percent, and David
Armstrong with 2,002 votes, or 19.6
percent.
Bradshaw is a junior agricultural
economics major from Nacog
doches, and Hogan is a senior ani
mal science and agricultural educa
tion major from Clyde.
The two said they have been
friends for some time, having served
together as senators, then working
together this year while Bradshaw
was speaker of the Student Senate
and Hogan was speaker pro-tem-
pore.
Hogan was one of six presidential
candidates who filed charges of
overspending against Bradshaw
during the campaign.
“Although Mason was one of the
candidates who filed against me, I
don’t think that will matter, now that
See Runoff, page 12
Bradshaw
cleared
of charges
By Christi Daugherty
Staff Writer
Student body presidential candi
date Miles Bradshaw was cleared by
the Election Commission Thursday
of charges of campaign overspend
ing.
Election commissioners Brit
Thomas and Derek Blakeley an
nounced that they had concluded
their investigation into the com
plaint and had found no basis for
the charges.
Six of the nine presidential candi
dates filed a complaint with the Elec
tion Commission Monday, charging
Bradshaw with going over the $300
campaign limit.
Bradshaw had denied the
charges.
The commissioners required all
nine candidates to submit prelimi
nary spending reports to prove they
were under the limit, but Blakely
said Thursday the commissioners
would not investigate any candidates
other than Hogan and Bradshaw.
When no complaints are filed, only
the election winner has to account
for his spending.
The commissioners contacted the
companies listed on the receipts,
Thomas said, checking on almost ev
erything Bradshaw used. After the
investigation they decided that, con
sidering the unused material he sub
mitted, Bradshaw remained below
the limit.
Thomas emphasized that if the
candidate who won overspent dur-
See Complaint, page 12
Although the benefits of pub
lishing the evaluations may not be as
obvious to the teachers as they are to
the students, Arnold says the new
format can be used to the teacher’s
advantage.
“Teachers will get more accurate
and more thorough evaluations,” he
says, “so they can get a better idea of
how they’re really doing.”
Professors are strongly encour
aged to participate, Arnold says, but
there are some valid reasons for not
consenting to publication.
“New teachers or those teaching a
new course will probably want a
while to get the course organized be
fore their evaluations are published,”
he says.
“Once the teachers find out that it
is really no big deal to have their
evaluations published,” he says, “I
think the teacher involvement will
increase.”
The only difference in the new
evaluation is in the process, Arnold
says.
“Instead of only having the deans
see the reports, now the students get
to see what they have seen all along,”
he says.
Lamar student dies
during ‘hazing ritual’
NEWARK, NJ. (AP) — Police
at a Texas university are investi
gating the death of a 25-year-old
student who collapsed while run
ning laps during what his family
in New Jersey called a fraternity
hazing ritual.
Harold A. Thomas, a junior at
Lamar University in Beaumont,
died of a cardiac hemorrhage Fri
day evening after he jogged
about four miles in 75-degree
heat on the school’s track, univer
sity spokesman J. Earl Brickhouse
said Thursday.
His sister, Brenda Thomas, of
Neptune, N.J., said Thursday her
brother was forced to run as part
of a hazing ritual for the Omega
Psi Phi fraternity.
Brickhouse said the investiga
tion of Thomas’ death had not
determined whether it involved
hazing, which is prohibited by
university policy and is a misde
meanor under Texas law.
He said toxicological studies,
which would determine if
Thomas had taken any drugs or
consumed alcohol prior to his
death, would not be complete for
at least a week.
An attorney for Omega Psi Phi
said Thursday that Thomas was
not an official pledge of the six-
member fraternity. Melvin C.
Zeno, a New Orleans lawyer who
is legal counsel for the fraternity,
said Thomas’ application to the
fraternity had been rejected, but
would not say when or why.
However, Brenda Thomas and
her mother, Bertha, said they be
lieve Thomas was actively pledg
ing at the fraternity. The Thom
ases said he had paid $264 in
“pledge dues” and possessed a
small necklace charm that identi
fied him as a fraternity pledge.
Zeno said the money Thomas
paid to the fraternity was an ap
plication fee and not membership
dues or pledge dues.
“He was not an official
pledge,” Zeno said. “All appli
cants are required to pay a fee.”
The charm may have been
given to Thomas when he ap
plied, but did not mean he was an
official pledge, Zeno said.
“It may be he got it when he
signed up, but he would not be al
lowed to wear it until he was in
ducted,” Zeno said.