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Vol. 82 No. 149 CJSPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Monday, May 4, 1987
Freshmen members of Company I-1 take on a determined look dur- privileges. The men are preparing to jump up on the monkey bars in
ing drills conducted before they are permitted to receive sophomore Spence Park. The group later went on a picnic to celebrate.
Supercollider bill may eliminate
all but one site, legislators say
SAN ANGELO (AP) — Some West Texas leg
islators believe a bill aimed at trying to bring the
superconducting supercollider to the state con
tains language intended to eliminate all but a
Dallas-area site from consideration.
At issue is whether the wording of the propo
sal should suggest “one or more sites,” as con
tained in the Senate version, or “two or more
sites,” as in a bill offered by the House Science (
and Technology Committee.
The full House is expected to vote today on its
committee’s version. After that vote, a Senate-
House conference committee will have to thrash
out a compromise on proposals that the Texas
National Laboratory Commission may submit to
the U.S. Department of Energy to try to win the
multibillion-dollar facility.
Rep. Larry Don Shaw, D-Big Spring, has dis
tributed a “Dear Colleague” letter to all 150
House members asking them to support the “two
or more” version.
“I said in the letter that two of our competing
states — California and Arizona — already have
announced they are submitting two sites,” Shaw
said. “We submitted three for the homeport.
And DOE has said they expect more than one
site from many states.
“I reminded them that Illinois submitted two
sites (25 years ago) for the Fermilab, and the site
selected was that state’s second choice. I re
minded them that (U.S. Sen. Lloyd) Bentsen said
Texas is too big to offer just one site, and that it is
imperative we offer the federal government the
broadest examples of what the state has to offer.”
Rep. Dick Burnett, D-San Angelo, said the
Senate wording could clear the way for a single
site proposal.
“The word around the House,” Burnett said,
“is that a decision already has been made that the
TNLC will recommend a site near Dallas — pos
sibly the one near Waxahachie.”
Jim Raster, legislative liaison from the gover
nor’s office, said last week research has shown
the Dallas site best met DOE criteria.
The bill itself, relatively routine on the surface,
gives the TNLC permission to hire an outside
consultant without going through the normal,
time-consuming state bidding procedures.
Not only would the “one or more” language
eliminate a Garden City site, but also the many
other communities now spending their own pri
vate and public funds for site proposals, legis
lators said.
On Thursday, West Texas legislators, along
with several committee chairmen and other rep
resentatives from around the state met with
House Speaker Gib Lewis to ask that his appoint
ments to the Senate-House conference commit
tee represent the two-or-more faction.
The meeting was spearheaded by Burnett and
Shaw.
“The speaker assured us he doesn’t care how
many sites are forwarded to Washington,” Shaw
said Friday.
Official pushes
racial equality
with white vote
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — The chairman of South Afri
ca’s most powerful corporation said
Sunday that apartheid “has made
fools of us all” and urged whites to
vote this week for candidates com
mitted to racial equality.
Gavin Relly, chairman of the An
glo American Corp. mining and
banking conglomerate, said in a
newspaper column that the govern
ing National Party has turned away
from reform and should be defeated
in Wednesday’s elections for the
white chamber of Parliament.
“The privileged white electorate,
in my view, should support candi
dates who have the courage to move
forward to a policy of putting all
South Africans first, irrespective of
race, color or creed,” Relly wrote in
the Sunday Times, the country’s
largest-selling newspaper.
Relly was among the leaders of a
delegation of South African busi
nessmen who traveled to Zambia in
September 1985 for talks with offi
cials of the outlawed African Na
tional Congress, the guerrilla
movement fighting to end white
domination in South Africa.
In his column Sunday, Relly said
meaningful black-white negotiations
“will mean a dramatic, mind-
wrenching and courageous act of
leadership.”
Under apartheid, South Africa’s
24 million blacks have no vote in na
tional affairs, while the 5 million
whites control the economy and
maintain segregated schools and
neighborhoods.
President P.W. Botha, in a letter
to voters published in English and
Afrikaans newspapers Sunday, said
the National Party’s insistence on se
paration of races is “based on the
practical realities of our population
structure.”
“You can criticize me and my gov
ernment for our personal shortcom
ings,” he wrote. “But never for a lack
of love, or dedication to South Af
rica.”
The National Party, heavily fa
vored to retain its large majority in
Parliament’s dominant white cham
ber, has tried to present itself as a
centrist party that would enact some
reforms but resist black majority
rule.
It is being challenged by two far-
right parties which oppose any mod
ification of apartheid. Also running
is an informal alliance of liberal par
ties and independents who favor
abolition of discriminatory laws.
Said one independent, former
Ambassador to Britain Denis Wor-
rall: “South Africans are simply fed
up to the back teeth with our apart
heid image as the ‘ugly South Afri
cans’ — the racists and untouchables
of the world.”
Officials say
new law hurts
Latin region
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
prospective return of hundreds of
thousands of illegal aliens to Latin
America and the Caribbean because
of the new immigration law could
aggravate the region’s already se
rious social and economic problems,
U.S. officials say.
Of the estimated 3 million to 5
million illegal aliens in the United
States, more than 75 percent are be
lieved to come from America’s
southern neighbors, with Mexico ac
counting for more than half the to
tal.
But Mexico, because of its size, is
expected to be able to absorb its re
turnees more easily than tiny El Sal
vador, a major refugee source whose
economy is suffering from pro
longed civil war and a devastating
earthquake last October.
The administration is considering
a plea from President Jose Napoleon
Duarte to give temporary refuge in
the United States to the huge num
ber of Salvadoran aliens who would
otherwise be expected to return
home.
The presence of illegal aliens in
the United States has represented a
significant benefit to the economies
of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each alien working in the United
States means one less job to fill back
home and the dollars they send to
family members who stayed behind
often make the difference between a
measure of prosperity and penury.
But a number of U.S. officials and
diplomats said it is impossible to
gauge the degree to which the re
turn of the illegal aliens will set back
the economies of these countries.
Contra investigators
check Bush’s dealings
in supplying weapons
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran-
Contra investigators are looking into
Vice President George Bush’s con
nections to the supply of weapons to
the Nicaraguan Contras, including a
record of involvement from start to
finish by a former CIA agent who is
a top aide to the vice president.
Reporting to Congress on the pro
gress of his investigation, indepen
dent counsel Lawrence Walsh specif
ically listed the office of the vice
president as among the objects of his
ongoing criminal investigation. He
said those inquiries were “proving
fruitful.”
While there have been questions
about the vice president’s role since
last winter, only recently has the fo
cus sharpened on Bush and his
aides. The Tower commission’s re
port released in February made
scant mention of Bush’s role despite
signs of involvement in the affair by
him and his staff. But the Tower
panel interviewed only Bush and
none of his staff.
Wary that Bush’s 1988 presi
dential chances could be wrecked on
the shoals of the Iran-Contra affair,
the vice president’s political advisers
insist that they do not have a prob
lem as congressional hearings open
Tuesday.
But Donald Gregg, the CIA agent
who is Bush’s national security ad
viser, as well as two of his own aides,
bring the investigative trail into the
office of the vice president. Investi
gators have talked to former White
House staffers about Gregg’s activ
ities.
In addition, Bush, himself a for
mer CIA director, has had meetings
with key figures in both the arms
sales to Iran and the private aid net
work for supplying the Contras.
Moreover, Bush attended the da
ily intelligence briefings for Presi
dent Reagan where a number of key
decisions in the case were made, in
cluding the one at which the Iran
initiative was formally approved.
“The office is being looked at,” a
source familiar with the congressio
nal investigation said Thursday.
“There are people being talked to.”
Bush campaign manager Lee At
water said last week, “I do not see
Don Gregg as a political liability for
the vice president.”
Gregg acknowledges that in De
cember 1984 he recommended his
friend from his days in Vietnam, Cu
ban-born former CIA agent Felix
Rodriguez, as an on-the-scene ad
viser to the Salvadoran air force at
Ilopango air base in El Salvador.
Gregg refused to be interviewed
for this story. He has maintained
there is evidence fired National Se
curity Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver
North recruited Rodriguez into the
network providing support for the
Contras, and that he was unaware of
that involvement.
This was in 1985, during the two-
year period when Congress had
made it illegal for the government to
provide lethal support to the Con
tras trying to overthrow Nicaragua’s
leftist Sandinista government.
But twice when the Contra sup
port program ran into trouble, Ro
driguez took the problem directly to
the vice president’s office.
One former White House official
familiar with the NSC operations
said that Gregg was more closely re-
See Bush, page 12
A&M-Galveston still facing pressure
from Legislature to close operations
By Lee Schexnaider
Reporter
On April 13 a bill was in the
Texas House of Representatives
that would have cost Texas A&M
at Galveston the freshman and
sophomore portions of its under
graduate program. Those provi
sions were taken out of the bill,
but it was another close call.
“During the. last couple of
years there has been pressure to
close the school,” said William
Mobley, deputy -chancellor for
academic and resource devel
opment for the Texas A&M Uni
versity System.
The university, located on Gal
veston Island and Pelican Island,
has been threatened with closure
twice in the past two years. The
actions mostly were the result of
the strain that the drop in oil
prices have caused on the Texas
economy.
Bill Presnal, executive secre
tary for the A&M Board of Re
gents and vice chancellor for state
affairs, said A&M-Galveston has
become a lightning rod for con
troversy.
Dr. Stephen Curley, associate
professor of general academics at
A&M-Galveston said the threat
ened closures have made people
anxious.
“It’s almost become standard
procedure to be threatened by
the Legislature,” Curley said.
“We’ve been something like a po
litical football that people have
been kicking around. It is uncom
fortable to be a football.”
A proposed institute for ma
rine-related research, similiar to
Woods Hole Oceanographic Insi-
tution in Massachusetts or
Scripps Institute of Oceanogra
phy in California, has been rec
ommended by the board. The in
stitute will be a joint project
between A&M and the University
of Texas.
Dr. James Kanz, associate pro
fessor of marine biology at A&M-
Galveston, said this institute
could help stabilize the university.
“A research institute here
would really take off,” Kanz said.
He also said that part of the
problem the university is facing is
its limited scope. It is restricted by
law to marine related areas. The
degree programs include marine
engineering, marine biology, ma
rine fisheries, marine sciences,
marine transportation, marine
administration and marine sys
tems engineering.
The final decision on the fate
of A&M-Galveston lies with three
groups — the Texas Legislature,
the Coordinating Board for
Texas College and University
Systems, and a joint task force of
faculty and administrators from
Texas A&M University and
A&M-Galveston.
Presnal said House bill 2181
was found to have too much re
strictive language in reference to
A&M-Galveston. The bill, spon
sored by House Speaker Gib Le
wis, was taken from the recom
mendations by the House Select
Committee on Higher Education.
“The speaker has indicated his
support and priority for the bill,”
Presnal said. “It is unusual be
cause a speaker may only sponsor
a bill every eight or 10 years.”
He said the bill would deter
mine what the instructional mis
sion of the university will be. It
also included admissions policy
recommendations.
“They tried to make it too nar
row,” he said.
Presnal said all statements ref
erring to roles and admissions of
universities were removed from
the bill.
“The intent is that all refer
ences to role and admissions now
transfer to the Coordinating
Board,” he said.
The Texas Senate has similar
legislation pending, but it is di
vided into several different bills,
Mobley said.
“We don’t want to argue in the
Legislature for a free-standing
university in Galveston because
the political mood is now against
such things,” he said. “There is
excess capacity in higher educa
tion in Texas, but not in our sys
tem.”
Mobley said A&M is trying to
bide its time until the report from
the joint committee comes in
May. Mobley said they would like
to keep the issues out of the Leg
islature and deal with the Coordi
nating Board.
Rick Ritter, a junior marine en
gineering major and editor of the
A&M-Galveston student newspa
per, the Nautilus, said students
are not sure what to think about
the survival of the university any
more:
“Most of the students don’t
know what is going on,” he said.
“We are just sitting around and
waiting.”
Kanz said students who have
attended the university for seve
ral years have lived under this
cloud for a while and haven’t seen
it close; they also have heard a
fair number of positive things
told to them by the administra
tion.
“I’m sure the students are say
ing, ‘Well, there is not too much I
can do about it at this stage, and I
am just going to go ahead with
my school work, get my degree
and go on,’ ” he said.
Curley said the problems affect
future students more than cur
rent students.
“It is difficult to recruit new
students to a place that has been
threatened by the Legislature,”
he said. “People are reluctant to
commit themselves to something
that makes front page news.”
John Merritt, A&M-Galveston
public information officer, said
there has been a good side to the
publicity. More people now know
about the university and that, he
said, is expected to help enroll
ment.
Curley said students have not
let present troubles with the uni
versity get them down.
“The single most encouraging
expression of what is happening
See A&M-Galveston, page 12