MM V Texas A&M M m « •
The Battalion
every,
'■'ybody
Vol. 82 No. 162 GSPS 045360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, June 16, 1987
■:T
egents favor
or computers
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Slut I Writer
Buulents will pay a computer ac
cess lee beginning Sept. I lobe used
' to upgrade and maintain Texas
*' r . AjcM’s computer iacililies, the
'Ik;is Board of Regents de-
ptk'd Monday at its regular meeting,
lie University will charge slu-
i'.JijS' denis for each semesier credit
hotu (luring the Tall and spring se-
iiiesiers aiul $ 1.50 Tor each semester
? credit hour during the summer
/ijii terms. Students who register in ab-
'■'iiSi senu.i ot for a course to be taken oil
S campus are exempt I rom the charge.
^^Ihe proceeds Irom the lee will lie
^ fit: used “exclusively to provide students
iSAf?; wit It access to computing and com-
piling set vices Tor instructional pur-
Vr.. ? poses,” according to a report issued
by A&M President Frank K. Van-
diver.
gr Hitudenl use ol computing lacili-
^ ■ doubled during the 198. r )-Ht)
Hool year, another repot t to the
Bond states, causing an increase ol
$1 S million in total costs to provide
the services.
Hn a study by the University of
Washington, 52 universities nation
wide were surveyed on their practice
Harding student computing lees.
01 the d5 universities which re-
^■tnded to the survey, l2ofthesur-
^/yeyed universities, including A&M,
or28 percent, said they were consid-
Hig or planning to implement a
lee Fifteen, or 55 percent, already
impose a fee and 10, or 57 percent,
don’t plan to charge students a com
puting fee.
y\l the end of the meeting, A&M
i'Chancellor Perry L. Adkisson told
repents that a broader-based sup-
.||, port for appro|)riate education
iiiidihg must be generated before
the Texas Legislature convenes its
Plfl special session Monday. The 70th
Legislature ended without agreeing
on an appropriations bill for the
next biennium.
HSince 1985, biennial operating
general revenue appropriations to
higher education have been reduced
/ by $f)45 million, a reduction of $77
million for A&M, he said. These cuts
have caused the nation’s academic
and economic communities to (pies-
tion Texas’ commitment to educa
tion, Adkisson said.
y “Recruiting of top scholars today
ADS,
leiwtai
is more difficult than in 1985,” Ad
kisson said. “Retention of our bright
and mobile young faculty is less cer
tain. It is clear that the morale of our
faculties is declining. Unless the per
ception of abiding and sustained
commitment to education is clearly
resurrected by the special session of
the Legislature, the momentum gen
erated during the past 25 years will
be lost.”
'Inadequately fund higher educa
tion, Adkisson said, the state must
increase its revenue base, most likely
by raising taxes.
In other business, the Board:
• Awarded a $1().2 million con
tract for a live-story biochemistry
and biophysics facility. The building,
the first dedicated almost exclusively
• to biotechnology studies, will include
(it) specialized laboritories, growth
rooms, environmental chambers and
two lecture halls.
At the same time, the regents au
thorized the issuance of $25 million
in taxable Permanant University
Fund bonds to build a companion
building in the Texas Medical Cen
ter in Houston. The measure marks
the first issuance of taxable bonds by
a public Texas university. The build
ing will be used by the Institute of
Biosciences and Technology, which
A&M recently established.
• Authorized the development of
a plan to tear down the Southside
Apartment complex south of Kyle
Field. The 15 wood-frame buildings,
built in the late 1950s, house mar
ried students and graduate students.
• Appointed Dr. Michael Martin
McCarthy as dean of the College of
Architecture and Environmental
Design, effective Jan. I. He cur
rently is the Elisabeth Murdoch Pro
fessor of Landscape Architecture
and associate dean of architecture
and planning at the University of
Melbourne in Australia.
• Appointed Dr. A. Benton Coca-
nougher as dean of the College of
Business Administration, effective
July 1. Cocanougher currently is
provost and senior vice president at
the University of Houston.
• Renamed the Meat Science and
‘ Technology Center the E.M. Rosen
thal Meat Science and Technology
Center. Rosenthal, (Mass of’42, is the
president of Standard Meat Com
pany in Fort Worth.
Let The Good Times Roll
With rain out of sight for a while, some students are capitalizing on
the opportunity to get out in the sunshine and ride around on two
wheels. This student rides his motorcycle through the University cam-
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
pus near the Fermier Building. Monday’s high was 9(i degrees. Fair
skies are expected to continue through the end of the week, with
chances for evening showers.
Reagan: U.S.
to cut action by
needed
Soviets in gulf
WASFIINC TON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan, trying to persuade a
wary Congress that American
warships must protect oil tankers in
the Persian Cull, warned Monday
night that “if we don’t do the job, the
Soviets will.”
“Our role in the gulf is vital,” he
said in a nationally broadcast ad
dress from the Oval Office. “It is to
protect out interests and to help our
friends in the region protect theirs.”
Reagan also said allied support
has cleared the way for a major
arms-reduction agreement with the
Soviets on short- and medium-range
missiles in Europe. The next step, he
said, could be a 50-percenl cut in the
superpowers’ strategic f orces.
On the domestic front, the presi
dent also chastised Congress for f ail
ing to come up with a deficit-reduc
tion plan and called anew for a
constitutional amendment requiring
a balanced budget and legislation
permitting him to veto specific items
in comprehensive appropriations
bills.
Reagan reported to the nation on
last week’s seven-nation economic
summit in Venice, a meeting that
produced realTu illations of eco
nomic agreements but no new initia
tives. Summit partners gave the
president diplomatic support — but
no military muscle — for his policy
in the gulf and complained about
America’s huge budget deficits.
“You’ve been hearing and reading
reports that nothing was really ac
complished at the summit and the
United States in particular came
home empty-handed,” Reagan said.
However, he said, the truth was that
lie achieved “everything we had
hoped to accomplish.”
Members of Congress, including
some of the president’s fellow Re
publicans, have complained that the
administration is embarking on a
risky course in agreeing to protect
tankers owned by the tiny gulf na
tion of Kuwait by placing them un
der American flags and providing
escorts by U.S. Navy warships.
Reagan’s critics think the adminis
tration should have gotten a commit
ment f rom America’s allies in West
ern Europe, who depend far more
on gulf Oil than the United States, to
help protect the Kuwaitis.
Noting the controversy over the
reflagging of I I Kuwaiti ships as
U.S. vessels, the president declared,
“We will accept our responsibility for
these vessels in the face of threats by
Iran or anyone else.
“If we fail to do so, simply because
these ships previously flew the flag
of another country — Kuwait — we
would abdicate our role as a naval
power,” he said.
“And we would open opportuni
ties for the Soviets to move into this
chokepoint of the free world’s oil
flow.
2 admissions employees receive promotions
)ig |0i i
By Robert Morris
Stull Writer
y For over two decades the registration policies
i ol Texas A&M have been influenced by the deci
sions of two men. Earlier this month their ef forts
, were rewarded.
' Long-time A&M admissions and records em
ployees Robert Lacey and Donald Carter re
ceived promotions, after each having served the
University for more than 20 years.
Former registrar Lacey replaces Ed Cooper as
executive director of admissions and records.
Cooper now is A&M’s director of school rela
tions.
Carter, who served as associate resistrar under
Lacey, was promoted to registrar following a to
tal of 21 years of service in the office of admis
sions and records.
A new associate registrar hasn’t yet been se
lected.
“Right now it is not a vacant position; it’s just
that we have not filled it,” Carter said. “We’ve
done some reorganization here in the of fice and
it’s possible that someone will be named associate
registrar later on, but we’re not sure right now.”
Carter also said registration policies won’t be
drastically af fected under his leadership.
“I think that our registration system and our
procedures in of fice, which I have been a part of
for all the time I’ve been here, will not be affec
ted,” he said. “I don’t foresee any drastic changes
at all.”
Destiny of Fraternity Row uncertain;
financing houses may prove difficult
By Rosaline Aguirre
Reporter
Although a ribbon-cutting cer
emony Friday kicked off the
grand opening of the new Frater
nity Row, its destiny is shaky.
There was a previous devel
opment on Dartmouth Road
called Fraternity Row which dis
solved, resulting in several frater-
|nities losing their deposits.
Roliert Lane, marketing direc
tor for Area Progress Corpora
tion, said he feels the University’s
recognition of the fraternities will
cause growth which might give
the fraternities a better chance at
financing a new house.
“I would hope to have till the
lots sold within live years,” Lane
said.
“From just seeing the growth
of Texas A&M University right
now, I think that you will see
more growth in the f raternities.”
But some fraternity members
lliave mixed emotions about the
[advantages and disadvantages of
the second Fraternity Row.
i fan Kappa Epsilon President
Britt Terrell said there will be a
11 tendency for each f raternity to
lose its individuality if all the fra
ternities are together.
“But, even if the disadvantages
outweigh the advantages, you
have to go with it because it’s
going to happen,” Terrell said.
“And I know in five years there
will at least be five f raternities out
here, and they’ll be the ones gro
wing.”
Tim Sweeney, associate direc
tor of student activities and inter-
fraternity council student advi
sor, said that the development
will be an advantage as well as a
disadvantage for the fraternities
who elect to move into a frater-
nity-i ow-type community.
“By being close to one another,
communication will be better be
tween fraternities, but they’ll still
be close enough to irritate one
another,” Sweeney said.
Bill Alston, a Kappa Sigma
member, said the Financing seems
to he the key issue as to the suc
cess of a development like this.
And, he said, some fraternities
just don’t have the amount of
money that it takes to finance a
new house.
Financing for the houses is dif
ficult for many of the f raternities,
and this is what will delay imme
diate construction, he said.
Although many of the f raterni
ty’s national charters will help in
the financing of a new house, the
initial money up front must be
produced by the fraternities
themselves.
The A&M fraternities could be
faced with shelling out at least
$2()0,000 per house before the
national chapters will even con
sider helping them get the rest of
the financing needed, Alston
said.
And, he added, raising the
money will be difficult.
Lane said the fraternities are
becoming stronger and more rec
ognized by their national char
ters, and this will in turn help in
the financing of their own
houses.
Also, many of the fraternities
presently own, rent or are obli
gated to long-term leases, so
building a new house isn’t their
main priority.
This brings about another
problem — that of moving to the
new development.
While some of the larger fra
ternities are interested, they must
first sell the house they now own.
Rather than building, (his
might cause the smaller fraterni
ties to buy those houses vacated
by the larger organizations be
cause they are more affordable.
For example, the Sigma Chi
house is now for sale and a
smaller fraternity has already
made a bid on it.
However, the bid was turned
down because it was too low.
Sigma Chi member Rich Meisels
said.
Two of the 18 lots available in
the new community have already
been sold. Alpha Gamma Rho
will be the first f raternity to begin
building on the 40-acre devel
opment, located at the intersec
tion of Deacon Drive and Well
born Road.
The Sigma Chi fraternity,
owner of the other lot, will begin
building as soon as it can sell its
present house.
There are two phases of the
development. Each phase is 20
acres, with lots ranging f rom 1.15
to 2.5 acres.
High court: Jurors
to ignore impact
of killing on family
WASHING. TON (AP) — In a
major setback for the victims’
rights movement, the Supreme
Court ruled Monday that the im
pact of a murder on the victim’s
family may not be considered
when a convicted killer faces a pos
sible death sentence.
By a 5-4 vote, the justices over
turned the death sentence for a
Maryland man who was convicted
of brutally killing an elderly cou
ple.
The court said the jury that sen
tenced the man to be executed
may have been inflamed by evi
dence that the couple was clearly
loved by family members who said
they were devastated by the mur
ders.
Gene Patterson, who is rep
resenting a coalition of victims’
rights groups, said the decision “is
a slap in the face to all victims of vi
olent crime.”
“It’s a major setback to our
movement because in essence the
ruling says the rights of convicted
murderers take precedence over
the rights of innocent victims,”
Patterson said.
Victims’ rights organizations ar
gued unsuccessfully that society
has a vital stake in meting out the
harshest penalties in retribution
for the harm done to families of
those killed.
Monday’s ruling applies only to
capital punishment cases.
In the case, John Booth was sen
tenced to die for robbing and kill
ing Irvin Bronstein, 78, and his
wife. Rose, 75, at their Baltimore
home on May 18, 1985.
Each victim was stabbed in the
chest 12 times and was bound and
gagged.
Police said Booth and an accom
plice were looking for money to
buy heroin.
'The jury that sentenced Booth
to die heard evidence of the im
pact the crime had on the
Bronsteins’ son, daughter, son-hT
law and granddaughter.
In two cases involving free
speech, the court:
• Unanimously declared un
constitutional a sweeping Los An
geles International Airport ban on
fi ee-speech activities aimed at pre
venting distribution of leaflets and
solicitation ol contributions inside
the terminal.
• Ruled that cities may not
make it a crime to “interrupt” po
lice officers in their work. The 8-1
decision struck down a 1956 Hous
ton ordinance.
• Agreed to hear a Reagan ad
ministration appeal aimed at mak
ing it easier for people to file
charges against employers in cases
of job-bias.
The court said it will consider
reviving a Colorado sex-discrimi
nation case dismissed because
deadlines for filing the complaint
were missed.
• Let stand a ruling that police
may require motorists suspected of
drunken driving to submit to
breath tests without first letting
the motorists consult a lawyer.
The court, without comment,
rejected the appeal of a New Jer
sey man who was not allowed to
talk to a lawyer before taking a
“breathalyzer” test to measure al
cohol in his bloodstream.