June 3, |:
Texas A&MW»% m m m •
The Battalion
Vol. 82 No. 158 CJSPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, June 9, 1987
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^•ENICkK, Italy (AP) — As summit
leaders arrived to the blare of trum
pets in the courtyard of the Doges’
Pal pee, President Reagan made a
goodwill trade gesture to Japan on
Monday and warned Iran that he is
noli bluffing about possible retalia
tion against missiles in the Persian
Gull. '
^Kven before leaders of the seven
major industrial democracies sat
do^ii for the first time at their 13th
annual summit, Reagan made clear
he will seek allied support for a
strong stand against Iran’s threat to
install missile batteries overlooking
the gulfs vital oil shipping lanes,
^■’he president told reporters that
U.S. warnings of retaliatory moves
against Iranian missiles are neither a
blull nor a mere threat, but are “a
statement of fact.”
jBapanese officials showed little en
thusiasm for Reagan’s announce
ment of a 17-percent cutback in tar
iffs on their country’s electronics
products, and called for removal of
all sanctions as soon as possible.
^Hut the mood was optimistic as
Reagan and the heads of state of
Britain, West Germany, France,
Italy, Canada and Japan began three
clays of political and economic talks
with a formal banquet at the 12th
century Doges’ Palace in St. Mark’s
Square.
^Reagan arrived 20- minutes late
for dinner, for reasons that were not
immediately explained, and smi
lingly brushed aside a television re
porter’s shouted comment that the
allies were worried about his gulf
policy.
■‘I don’t think anybody is wor
ried,” he said, climbing a long flight
of stairs past saluting Carabinieri po
lice. Reagan took his seat in the an
cient dining hall under a wood-
beamed ceiling and began an intense
conversation with Thatcher.
E Discussions during the S'/a-hour
dinner focused primarily on arms
control and U.S.-Soviet relations,
according to the leaders’ aides.
“The Persian Gulf did not come
up because they simply ran out of
time,” said one U.S. official who
spoke only on condition that he not
he identified.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said, “President Reagan
led a discussion of arms control that
considered the options on the table
at Geneva and the Soviet Union’s po
sition. The discussion was wide-
ranging and informal, with all lead
ers participating.”
Reagan, also the last to arrive for
welcoming ceremonies at the Doges’
Palace in St. Mark’s Square as the se
nior head of state among the allied
leaders, drew criticism from some
Venetians for using a 100-foot-long
white canopy erected by Secret Serv
ice agents to help safeguard his stroll
from dockside to the palace.
Reagan, after a private meeting
with Japanese Prime Minister Yasu-
hiro Nakasone, announced he was
lifting $51 million, or 17 percent, of
the $300 million in tariffs the United
States imposed April 17 on Japanese
electronics products in retaliation
for Japan’s dumping of unrealisti
cally low-priced computer chips on
the American market.
Calling Japan “a major economic
partner as well as a staunch friend
and ally,” Reagan said his action re
flected his commitment “to free
competition in a fair market envi
ronment.”
He said he was lifting only some
of the sanctions because Japan has
made only partial progress in com
plying with a 1986 agreement to stop
selling computer chips at below-mar-
ket prices.
Hajime Tamura, Japanese min
ister of international trade, said Rea
gan’s move was insufficient. “The
Japanese government strongly ex
pects that the U.S. side would appre
ciate properly the efforts of the Jap
anese side under (he agreement and
realize an early and total lifting of
the measures,” Tamura said.
Look, Mo! Clean Hands!
Lt. Dan Houdek, right, and Firemen from Bryan’s Cavitt Street Fire
Station No. 2 visit children attending the Kiddie Castle Children’s
Photo by Robert Rizzo
Center summer camp. Every Monday in June is set aside as a Safety
Day. The children attend kindergarten through fifth grade.
Fawn Hall testifies she shredded
documents, hid others in clothes
WASHINGTON (AP) —- Fawn
Hall, Oliver North’s former White
House secretary, told congressional
committees Monday that she helped
him shred a foot and a half stack of
documents as the Iran-Contra affair
began unraveling last fall, then
walked out of the White House with
other papers hidden in her clothing.
Hall said she took internal office
notes past White House guards in
her boots and in her clothes behind
her back on Nov. 25, the day Presi
dent Reagan fired North as a na
tional security aide.
She also described altering docu
ments at the direction of North and
hurriedly shredding so many docu
ments tbey jammed the shredding
machine in North’s office.
“I was just purely doing my job,”
Hall said.
Testifying under a grant of im
munity from prosecution. Hall re
counted the destruction and altera
tion of papers just before Attorney
General Edwin Meese III inter
viewed North during a weekend in
vestigation he conducted at Reagan’s
request. North was fired the follow
ing Tuesday.
The 27-year-old part-time model,
who was secretary to North for four
years, spoke of unquestioning loyalty
to him and said she didn’t object or
ask for an explanation when he or
dered her to alter memos.
“I believe in Col. North and I
know there must have been a good
Provost OKs nominations for Battalion, Aggieland editors
I
By Yvonne DeGraw
Stuf f Writer
)r. Donald McDonald, provost and vice
president for academic affairs, has approved
the nominees for editor of The Battalion for
summer and fall and for the 1988 Aggieland
editor.
■He said Monday that he will approve the
1987-88 video yearbook producer within a
few days.
■The Student Publications Board nomi
nated Sondra Pickard to be editor of The Bat
talion for both the summer and fall on April
14. The board also chose Joanie Pate to edit
the Aggieland and Gregory W. Keith to pro
duce the video yearbook.
Keith’s approval was held up by discussions
between the Student Publications Board and
Educational Broadcasting Services.
Dr. Douglas Starr, chairman of the Student
Publications Board and head of the journa
lism department, said the yearbook staff will
operate under the same agreement that was
used last year — renting equipment from
KAMU-TV at an estimated cost of $13,000
for the year.
The majority of the staff of the 1986-87 vi
deo yearbook resigned amid accusations that
the equipment KAMU rented to them was
consistently damaged and inappropriate for
the yearbook’s needs.
“I have been assured verbally that there is
no reason that the equipment will not work
this year,” Starr said. “Both sides are operat
ing in good faith.”
Keith, a senior theater arts major and a
cameraman for KBTX’s morning news show,
said he hasn’t been able to hire any of his staff
yet because he couldn’t finalize his budget un
til he knew whether the yearbook could buy
its own equipment or would have to rent from
the television station.
Sondra Pickard, a senior journalism major,
will be editor of The Battalion for the sum
mer and fall semesters. Pickard has worked as
staff writer, senior staff writer and assistant
city editor during the past two years.
Joanie Pate, the 1988 Aggieland editor,
worked on the past two yearbooks. Pate, a ju
nior accounting major, was assistant editor of
the classes section of the 1986 Aggieland and
editor of the classes section of the 1987 year
book, which will be available this fall.
reason why he was asking me to do
this,” Hall said. “I did as I was told.”
Hall, who testified for 2'/2 hours
and will return today, said she gave
the documents she removed to
North’s attorney at the time,
Thomas Green.
She said North had earlier emp
tied his office safe of documents
while she put “maybe a foot and a
half’ of them into the shredding ma
chine. She said when the machine
jammed, she called the White
House’s crisis management center,
and a repairman made a quick re
pair.
The shredded documents in
cluded copies of North’s telephone
logs and computerized interoffice
memos that National Security Coun
cil officials used to communicate
with one another.
She also said that at North’s order
she altered the texts of five sensitive
documents in National Security
Council files. She said she began
making copies and destroying the
originals but was interrupted to be
gin shredding.
One alteration she described con
cerned a 1985 memo from North
that referred to the possible sinking
or seizure of a ship carrying weap
ons to Nicaragua.
A&M Faculty Senate approves
new philosophy master’s plan
Final action on measure still could take two to three years
By Yvonne DeGraw
Staff Writer
In rapid succession, A&M’s
* Faculty Senate Monday ap-
aroved a series of changes to the
"niversity’s curriculum, includ
ing the addition of a new mas
ter’s degree program in philoso-
t^hy-
But the pace slowed when the
Renate discussed a resolution
| concerning implementation of
he core curriculum.
No discussion or dissension
■ccompanied senate approval of
|-the new graduate program,
tvhich will concentrate on ap-
;j plied philosophy.
I The program still faces a two-
to three-year approval process.
President Frank E. Vandiver,
he A&M Board of Regents and
the Coordinating Board, Texas
''ollege and University System
lust approve the program be-
bre the degree can be offered.
The program differs from
ost in that it offers an option
ither than the traditional thesis
nd non-thesis master’s pro
rams. The third course of study
ill include a professional in
ternship in an area related to a
tudent’s career plans.
Specializations could include
medical ethics, corporate re
sponsibility, agriculture policy or
wilderness preservation.
The philosophy department
says the particular hue of this
program will be complemented
by A&M’s strength in applied
disciplines.
“Whereas other graduate phi
losophy programs only hint at
the practical applications of their
courses of study, the program
we will offer arises out of the
need to address practical philo
sophical questions,” the program
proposal says.
The philosophy department
says that no additional faculty
members will be needed to teach
the graduate students.
In addition to attracting stu
dents whose career opportuni
ties would be enhanced by the
internship plan, the graduate
program also will serve philoso
phy teachers at community col
leges, graduate students in other
departments, and those who
teach military ethics at the Army
and Air Force academies.
The Senate also approved a
plan for a Bachelor of Arts de
gree in sociology. Currently, the
sociology department offers
only a Bachelor of Science de
gree.
A survey of 29 leading re
search universities showed that
Texas A&M was the only one of
fering a B.S. alone.
The B.A. degree plan requires
14 hours of foreign language
credit and reduces the number
of science hours needed.
Other approved course
changes include the addition of
an electrical engineering course,
a geography course, two under
graduate philosophy courses
and several graduate courses.
After the curriculum modifi
cations were approved, Dr. J.
Benton Storey, horticulture sci
ences professor, introduced a
resolution to clarify part of the
core curriculum plan.
Individual departments and
colleges are currently working
on “individual program audits”
— documents designed to assess
changes that will be needed to
bring degree plans in line with
the core curriculum.
Storey said some department
heads and curriculum commit
tees do not know they can pro
pose other courses to fulfill re
quirements in parts of the core
curriculum that allow broad cat
egories.
His resolution would have
asked the Core Curriculum Im
plementation Committee, ap
pointed by Provost Donald Mc
Donald, to evaluate and
recommend courses in these
broad categories before depart
ments finish the program audits.
After several ammendments,
the resolution would have asked
the speaker of the Senate, Dr.
Richard Shumway, to inform
academic departments that
courses other than the ones the
core curriculum lists may be pro
posed to satisfy science require
ments. Science is the only area in
which the requirements are not
either very general or very spe
cific.
Because the senate requires a
three-quarters majority to pass
such a resolution, the 37-18 vote
was not enough for it to pass.
But Dr. Manuel Davenport,
professor of philosophy, said the
resolution’s defeat did not mean
departments could not propose
other science courses to satisfy
the requirements.
Professor protests
Secord's invitation
to address lawyers
AUSTIN (AP) — A University of
Texas law professor said Monday
the invitation for retired Maj. Gen.
Richard Secord to appear before the
State Bar of Texas convention vio
lates decency and common sense.
Roberto Soto spoke Monday at a
demonstration protesting Secord’s
scheduled appearance Friday in
Corpus Christi. Approximately 25-
30 persons, some of whom identified
themselves as attorneys or law stu
dents, held placards outside State
Bar headquarters.
Soto, who also said he is a vice
president of the National Lawyers
Guild, stated that the purpose of the
demonstration was to urge State Bar
leaders to withdraw their invitation
and $7,500 fee for Secord to appear.
State Bar president Bill White
hurst said there were no plans to
withdraw the invitation.
Secord testified at an ongoing
congressional hearing into the secret
sale of United States arms to Iran
and a private supply network for the
Contras in Nicaragua.
“He (Secord) may be able to draw
some people to the meeting, but we
think Willie Nelson would have done
a much better job and we wouldn’t
have to be embarrassed by associat
ing with someone of Secord’s charac
ter,” Soto said.
“He really is a symbol of how
crime does pay,” the professor said.
“I think it’s outrageous for us to pay
him to come tell us and to wrap him
self around the flag — claiming to be
a patriot when all indications are
otherwise.”
Whitehurst said he did not think
the protest represented a major
problem, but he added, “I think they
have a legitimate question as to
whether anyone like Secord ought to
be given any kind of platform.”
“He’s being portrayed as a
speaker — what we’re doing is we’re
having a forum on national affairs,
international affairs,” Whitehurst
said. “I’ve invited Secord to come be
cause he is clearly the one who is in
the spotlight right now on interna
tional affairs.”
“By doing this, we by no means
sanction anything he’s done. We’re
not bringing (him) here to honor
Richard Secord in any way, that’s not
our purpose. Our purpose is simply
to bring him and let him answer
questions by the Texas lawyers.
“It’s obvious from looking at the
congressional hearings that Con
gress missed a few things when they
questioned him. I’m hopeful that
some of our Texas lawyers can
maybe fill in the gaps.”
i