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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1987)
The Battalion ,82 No. 141 GSPS 045360 16 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, April 22, 1987 eRoss Volunteers fire a volley Tuesday night in G. Rollie White Coliseum during A&M’s annual Muster ceremony. Photo by Bill Hughes nual Muster draws 8,000 at A&M eremonies around world honor memories of Aggies By Staci Finch Reporter I When friends or family mem- Jers die, they are remembered pith affection. But memories tend to fade with time — except jtdth Aggies. Every year on April ll, Aggies all over the world gather for Muster and past and present classmates remember lieir deceased friends. I About 8,GOO people, most of |iem students, attended Texas .A&M’s Muster, conducted Tues- |ay evening in G. Rollie White liseum. Many of the students came out of curiosity about the Muster ceremony. “1 wanted to see what it was all bout,” said Kellye Clifton, a |eshman. “1 think it’s really neat, id I am delinitely going to come ack.” Other students came because they believed the ceremony to be an important tradition at A&M. Melissa Wydra, a sophomore, said, “I think Muster is a part of A&M that everyone should expe rience.” Whatever their reasons, stu dents attended the A&M Muster and listened as namts were called of Aggies who had died since the last Muster. A candle was lit for each, and friends and family members answered “here” to the roll call. Cadets stood at attention and civilian students watched in silence as the Ross Volunteers paid their respects to departed Aggies with a 21-gun salute. Speaker for the A&M Muster, Dr. Robert L. Walker, said he be lieves Muster is special because of the students at A&M. “Everywhere I go,” he said, “I am asked by non-Aggies what it is that makes us so special. I tell them it all comes down to our stu dents. “Without our students, there would be no reason to have fac ulty, no former students associa tion and no one for the adminis tration to lead.” Walker said the students are the reason people who are not Aggies are impressed when they visit the A&M campus. “They like it when people on campus are friendly and want to help visitors,” he said. Walker said recruiters who visit A&M see a unique relationship between students and faculty. “Recruiters are impressed be cause our faculty seems to care about the students and wants to help them find a good job after graduation.” Walker said the main thing stu dents will remember about A&M after graduation is their class mates. “You’ll remember yell practice, the Corps of Cadets, football games, the band and intramural games,” he said. “But what you’ll remember most is the people who were in those organizations — your fellow students. Those peo ple are what A&M is all about.” Walker said that while the buildings on campus may change, the students of A&M won’t. “One thing about the students here is that they care about each other,” he said. “That’s why we have such large turnouts at class reunions. What brings people back is each other. That is what makes A&M special.” \enate committee OKs tort reform package By Frank Smith Senior Staff Writer S\ package of tort-reform proposals won ap- ■val from a Senate committee Tuesday, but a peal wmaker remains active in negotiations to ferthe recommendations before they reach the chamber’s floor. he Senate Economic Development Commit- passed the proposals, which consist of several individual bills in addition to an omnibus, or all- Klusive, tort-reform bill. pen. John Montford, D-Lubbock, is sponsor- ingthe legislation. Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan, pis the opposition, saying the state’s liability in surance crisis won’t be solved through changes in the civil justice system. The two have been nego- v jjating in the hopes of reaching a compromise, (|l([ both camps say those negotiations are Jitinuing. Montford and some other senators have blamed increased court judgments in personal- injury suits, along with soaring attorney fees, for the so-called insurance crisis. Caperton and oth ers blame insurance companies for wanting in creased profits and contend the problem can only be solved through reform of the insurance industry itself. Montford’s proposals may reach the Senate floor for debate as early as Thursday, but a Ca perton aide on Tuesday said that barring further compromise, Caperton would attempt to block such debate. Darryll Grubbs, legislative aide to Caperton, said the two camps remain sharply divided on several key provisions contained in the tort-re form package. Included among the unresolved issues are provisions that would: • Make changes in the system of comparative and joint severability in liability suits. • Place caps on the amounts of punitive dam ages juries can award. • Establish an eight-year statute of limitations for all personal-injury cases. • Eliminate pre-judgment interest for cases not involving contract actions. Grubbs said that under the current system of joint severability, co-defendants’ liability in per sonal-injury suits can be quantified. For instance, if a truck driver hit a pedestrian and the pedes trian named both the driver and the trucking company as defendants in a civil suit, the jury can rule what percentage of the settlement each de- See Reform, page 13 Research benefits companies, students INS considers testing for AIDS in immigrants DALLAS (AP) — The Immigra tion and Naturalization Service wants illegal aliens screened for AIDS when they apply for legaliza tion and those who test positive bar red from the country, an INS official said Tuesday. Aliens who apply for legalization under the new immigration law’s amnesty provisions must submit to a blood test for sexually transmitted diseases, but an AIDS test is not now part of those regulations, said Wil liam Zimmer, director of the INS re gional processing center in Dallas. He said the INS wants federal public health authorities to declare AIDS a loathsome, contagious and dangerous disease so those who ap ply for legalization could be tested for the incurable disease and banned if they have it. The issue is under consideration at INS headquarters in Washington and is being discussed with the De partment of Health and Human Services, Zimmer said. His Dallas of fice is one of four INS regional proc essing centers in the country. “We feel in the INS that AIDS should be part of the dangerous and contagious diseases, but we’re hav ing difficulty with the help of the surgeon general’s office in designat ing it as a dangerous disease,” Zim mer said. “The surgeon general has to make that call,” he said. Federal regulations exclude aliens from entering the United States on seven grounds, five of them involv ing health, a spokesman for the U.S. Public Health Service said Tuesday. AIDS, or acquired immune defi ciency syndrome, is not now on that list, but changes are being consid ered in that area, said the spokes man, Ellen Casselberry. INS spokesman Duke Austin in Washington said the INS as an agency won’t take a position on the testing requirements for AIDS until the Public Health Service rules on whether it is an inadmissable disease. “It’s not our responsibility to make that decision,” he said. “They’re the ones evaluating it. It’s their provision of the law. We cer tainly don’t want to legalize people with AIDS.” As many as 3.9 million aliens na tionwide are expected to seek legali zation under provisions of a sweep ing immigration reform act that became law last year, said Stephen Martin, commissioner of the INS southern regional office based in Dallas. The year-long amnesty period be gins May 5. Clements denounces Legislature in speech to local businessmen By Robert Morris Staff Writer Gov. Bill Clements berated the Texas Legislature for its continual reluctance to freeze the state’s ever- expanding budget in a speech to about 150 Brazos County business leaders Tuesday morning at the Hil ton. Clements, who is on a 17-city tour in support of his budget proposals, which have garnered sharp criticism from legislators, said the battle lines are drawn between the fiscal conser vatives on one side and budget bus ters in the Legislature on the other. The governor’s current budget proposal for the next biennium is $36.9 billion, an increase of $766 million from this year’s budget. The House committee has approved a $38.4 billion budget, and the full Senate approved a $39.9 billion pro posal. ag to the growth of the bud- the past four years, Clem- Pointin^ get over ents said state government spending and taxes increased three times fas ter than inflation and over five times as much as the population during the previous administration. That practice is being carried on by the “big-spender” legislators, he said. Drug studies offer way to earn money By Amy Couvillon Reporter llncentive: $40,” the ad read, lulie Dominguez folded the news- pet over and looked more closely [he small print of Fhe Battalion's ■ssified advertisements. [‘Wanted: Individuals 18 years of or over to participate in our ‘At- ^me Cold Study’ with an over-the- ■mtercold preparation.” JAs Dominguez considered her al- to'si nonexistent checkbook balance linii the bills piling up on her desk, fl ,, was a whole lot of incentive. ■ I might as well check it out; I ta'e a cold anyway,” she thought as fpi reached for the phone. ■Dominguez, a junior accounting ■yor at Texas A&M, is one of about ■5()() students who have access to |p<‘ Battalion and have the chance to be a human guinea prig for one of lihe pharmacy research companies in tb Bryan-College Station area. ■There are two primary off-cam- Ipiis research companies that run ads offering to pay volunteers to partici pate in drug studies. Pauli Research International in Bryan, which ran the ad mentioned above, is operated by Dr. Barry Pauli and three associates. Pauli is an al lergist, and his practice is located in sure and coughs. The firm has per formed studies for several European drug companies, including firms in Italy and Switzerland. The project started as a way to make money. Pauli and an associate were doing re search at A&M’s medical school. uaTs" 18 v yeaf ^)f age or over to participate in pur “At-Home Cold Study” wit] Ian over-then ncentive the same office complex as Pauli Re search. In fact, many volunteers are sent to Pauli’s office for medical ex aminations needed in some studies. Incorporated since 1983, the firm has researched drugs that treat aller gies, asthma, colds, fever, sore throats, headaches, high blood pres- “We were doing fire-ant allergy research,” Pauli says, “and we started doing these (pharmacy) stud ies to fund our research at the Uni versity. Now we’ve gone on to do it full-time.” Another pharmacy research com pany that originated as a result of re search at A&M is G&S Studies Inc. on Wellborn Road in College Sta tion. Dr. Claude B. Goswick, president of G&S Studies, is also director of A&M’s A.P. Beutel Health Center. The research firm, however, is unre lated to the University. G&S Studies does pharmacy re search on evenings and weekends, studying drugs to treat mild athletic injuries, colds, fever blisters and di arrhea. “We will do any appropriate study that we feel we can handle,” Goswick says. Before G&S incorported in 1985, Goswick says the studies were con ducted mainly at A&M. “We did this same thing at the health center for many years,” he says. “We didn’t have our ads in The Batt— it was strictly a sign posted in the health center — and we still had a good turnout. “But we took much longer to com plete the studies, and it was some what of a hassle over there. So we just broke away from that.” Both companies look mainly to A&M students for volunteers. Pauli Research advertises in both the Bryan-College Station Eagle and in The Battalion. “We have had a lot of students,” Pauli says, “but we have done studies that are specifically designed for a certain group of symptoms: chil dren’s studies and high blood pres sure studies. The high blood pres sure study was all adults 35-55 years old. But for the majority of the stud ies that we do, just about all the peo ple come from the University; we get both students and faculty.” Pauli says many students volun teer just to help out, or to get treat ment for illnesses they have. But money can be a big factor. One sore-throat study Pauli Re search is conducting offers an incen tive of $100. Dominguez said the advertised See Studies, page 13 Gov. Bill Clements “The big spenders are saying they want the largest tax bill in the history of any state in the United States — $5.8 billion,” Clements said. “They want a 16-percent increase above current state spending. “I will veto any attempt to raise $5.8 billion in additional taxes. Despite charges by legislators that his budget proposal will reduce funding for education and human services, Clements said he is in no way cutting state spending. “The truth is my budget increases spending $766 million from its cur rent level of $36.2 billion — a 2-per cent increase,” he said. Holding spending at 2 percent over its current level also would help the small businessman, a move which would stimulate the Texas economy in general, Clements said. “70 percent of our new jobs come from small business,” he said. “Small-business people are strug gling, and a big tax increase would sink many of them. “The best thing we can do for those out of work, for those in need and for our schools is to get our Texas economy moving again so we can create jobs and have the in creased revenues of a growing econ omy.” One possible solution to the prob lem is across-the-board tax reform, he said. “My preference is for a tax reform measure that broadens the sales tax base, lowers the rate and continues the current revenue level,” Clements said. The reform process already has begun, and a task force is in the de velopment stages. “My nominees are already in Gib Lewis’ hands,” Clements said. “The task force will probably be an nounced next week and will start to work and will have about 18 months to do its work. “In the next legislative session that will start in January 1989, I am con fident that you will see before the Legislature a broad-based tax re form.”