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.”