—texasASMQ
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bl. 82 No. 184 GSPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, July 24, 1987
uds Mackenzie
irst year veterinary student Carl Clary scrubs a
mutt as part of a summer dog wash sponsored by
the Texas A&M chapter of the American Veteri-
Photo by Sondra Pickard
nary Medicine Association auxiliary. For just $5,
vet students and their spouses wash and dip dogs
every third Saturday at the vet school.
test for entering freshmen
won’t affect A&M students
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
A basic skills test for entering col-
egt freshmen won’t have much ef-
ect on Texas A&M students, says
Pom Matthews, associate director of
l&M’s Measurement and Testing
iervices.
Efhe test, approved by the 70th
Texas Legislature, will go into effect
n Fall 1989. It will identify students
vho need remedial work or special
)llcement in reading, writing and
tilth.
Matthews says that because about
hree-fourths of A&M students
:ome from the top quarter of their
ligh-school class, he expects to have
ew remedial students identified at
\&M.
EThe idea of having good infor-
nation about a student is a sound
)ne,” he says. “This particular test,
hough, is designed to identify stu-
lents that we don’t have a lot of at
\&M.”
i He says his office tests entering
reshmen to determine which math
:ourse they should enroll in and also
:onducts credit by examination for a
lumber of subjects.
The bill creating the basic skills
est was written by Rep. Wilhelmina
)elco, D-Austin, chairman of the
douse Committee on Higher Educa
tion. Sen. Carl A. Parker, D-Port Ar
thur, chairman of the Senate Com
mittee on Education, introduced the
bill in the Texas Senate.
While Matthews thinks A&M
doesn’t have a problem with reme
dial students, Parker thinks many
college students in Texas are not ad
equately prepared to succeed in col
lege and, therefore, do not get the
full benefit of their college courses.
“We’re graduating a lot of college
graduates who can’t read or write,”
Parker says. “It’s embarrassing. We
are letting a lot of people stumble
through college that were not ad
equately prepared when they got
there to succeed.
“With this basic skills test it will
identify the problem areas for stu
dents and mandate that various col
leges and universities address those
deficiencies so they can succeed and
they can recognize the full benefit of
the courses they take.”
Parker says the burden of instil
ling these basic skills really rests with
the secondary schools. But, he says,
“We can’t get to them.”
While high-school seniors are re
quired to pass an exit test to grad
uate, Parker says, “But that’s just a
test to see whether they function in
society more or less, not one to de
termine whether or not they’re ad
equately prepared to succeed m col
lege.”
“We finally decided without re
gard to whose responsibility it
should have been that this (the new
test) is a practical way to address the
problem.”
Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan, a
member of the Senate Committee on
Education, and Rep. Richard Smith,
R-Bryan, voted for the bill mandat
ing the test.
While it is known what skills the
exam will test, it is not yet known
how they will be tested.
The first steps toward the devel
opment of the test begin today at a
Texas College and University Sys
tem Coordinating Board meeting in
Austin.
It is expected that a liaison com
mittee between the Board and the
State Board of Education will be au
thorized to begin screening bids
from six companies competing to
develop the test.
While the committee will recom
mend which company to award the
bid to, the State Board of Education
will make the final decision, says
Janis Monger, a spokesman for the
Coordinating Board.
The chosen company will work
with college educators during the
next year to develop the test.
Reagan administration suspends
$26 million in Panamanian aid
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Reagan administra-
ion, escalating pressure on Panama to reduce military
nfluence in governing the country, has suspended a
; 26 million aid program and told American diplomats
o shun the powerful Panamanian defense chief, U.S.
fficials said Thursday.
I The moves were the latest in an effort to show U.S.
Satisfaction with the behind-the-scenes rule of Pana-
nanian Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, who has been
caused by a former high-ranking military officer of
omplicity in the murder of an opposition figure, cor-
uption and vote fraud.
T The level of administration ire rose considerably last
nonth when an anti-American demonstration allegedly
irranged by pro-Noriega factions caused an estimated
fl06,000 damage to the U.S. Embassy in Panama City.
Administration officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Hie aid treeze was msuiuied without
fanfare after the demonstration and was to be lifted
once Panama fulfilled promises to reimburse the
United States for the embassy damage.
The suspension stops new contracts under an aid
program worth $20 million in economic support and $6
million in military programs for Panama in the fiscal
year ending Sept. 30. The Reagan administration re
quest to Congress for the next fiscal year was $33 mil
lion, which also would be halted if the suspension con
tinues.
In a more personal move, U.S. officials have been
asked to limit participation in events at which Noriega is
a participant.
Shunning Noriega is part of the U.S. policy of regis
tering displeasure with his role. “We sometimes have to
deal with him, but we are keeping these contacts very
discreet,” a State Department official said.
Shultz says advisers
deceived president
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State George
P. Shultz testified Thursday that President Reagan was
deceived by his closest advisers about his administra
tion’s Iran-Contra activities and that “I’ve never seen
the president so mad” as when Shultz laid out some de
tails of the story.
He also said, in a day when one disclosure tumbled
over another, that he three times tried to resign his
post, including a time in August last year.
“You can’t do the job well if you want it too much,”
he said. “You have to be willing to say goodbye.”
In the August instance, he said, he perceived that
other officials thought he was out of step with the ad
ministration and he felt he had become the target of
“guertilla warfare.” He said Reagan stuck the resigna
tion letter in a drawer, said ‘You’re tired, it’s about time
to go on vacation’ (and) nothing ever happened.”
Shultz said he waged “a battle royal,” against others
who had the president’s ear, to persuade Reagan to get
the facts out last November after a Lebanese newspaper
revealed the United States had sold arms to Iran.
He said he told Reagan directly last November,
“We’ve been deceived and lied to,” and he cautioned
the president against making any more declarations
that there had been no arms-for-hostages dealing.
In Shultz’s words, Reagan reacted “like he had been
kicked in the belly” when he was told about another se
cret proposal, the barter of American hostages for the
freedom of terrorists held in Kuwait for the 1983
bombings of the U.S. and French embassies there.
“His jaw set and his eyes flashed and both of us, I
think, felt the same way about it,” the secretary said.
Shultz characterized the clandestine attempts to free
Americans held hostage in Lebanon — by making deals
with Iran — as pathetic and said the “people who were
doing this, they got taken to the cleaners.”
Shultz, who testified for seven hours and will return
for more on Friday, made clear his support for the
Contra rebels.
“But I don’t think that the desirable end justified the
means of lying, deceiving, of doing things that are out
side our constitutional process,” he said.
He defended Elliott Abrams, the assistant secretary
of state who admitted misleading Congress about some
aspects of the affair.
“He made a mistake, he knows it and he is full of re
morse about it,” Shultz said.
He told the congressional Iran-Contra committees
that he felt National Security Adviser John Poindexter
and CIA Director William Casey “had a conflict of in
terest with the president” in trying to persuade him to
hide the truth from the country and to “bail them out.”
Both Poindexter, who resigned as the affair was offi
cially disclosed on Nov. 25, and Casey, who has since
died, approved of the diversion of arms-sale money to
the Nicaraguan rebels at a time when official govern
ment aid to the Contras was banned.
Radio station airs single
by Jackson by mistake
Photo by Tracy Staton
T.J. McKay, KKYS program director, holds the new single by Mi
chael Jackson in his office at the radio station.
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
At 9:20 a.m. Monday, local radio
station KKYS played a promotional
single it thought was by Stevie Ray
Vaughan.
Instead, listeners heard Michael
Jackson singing “I Just Can’t Stop
Loving You.”
The mistake was a “Thriller” for
T.J. McKay, the station’s program
and music director.
“The thing that is neatest about
this is that we have since found out
we were the only radio station in
the world to air the song,” McKay
said.
The Jackson single was supposed
to be released at 8 a.m. CST
Wednesday. The record played by
KKYS disc jockey Ken Casey had
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s name on it
and was for promotional use. By ac
cidently playing the mismarked re
cord, KKYS got a two-day jump on
all other radio stations.
“It’s very important when a ma
jor hit comes out, like this is proba
bly going to be, that all the radio
stations in the country get it at the
same time,” McKay said.
He said the station cannot legally
get in trouble for airing the song
ahead of its scheduled release.
“We had every reason to (play
the record) because they loan them
to us for promotional use,” McKay
said. “If we are mailed a record, we
have a right to air it.”
“If they’d have sent us one that
said Michael Jackson and a warn
ing, then we couldn’t have played it.
But since it had something else on it
and it was for promotional use, we
played it.”
Bob Altshuler, a spokesman for
CBS-owned Epic records in New
York, said the company is trying to
determine how the mistake was
made. If an honest mistake was
made, no one can be sued, he said.
But what has drawn nationwide
attention is not just that KK.Y3 first
aired the song, but that the station
now has a rare item — the mis
marked record.
McKay said Epic records has
called “about 1,000 times” asking
him to return the station’s copy of
the single. McKay said he is not
going to return it right now, even
though he said the record does le
gally belong to the company. He
also said MTV is interested in an in
terview, and New York radio sta
tion WHTZ, the most listened-to
station in the country, has shown an
interest in flying McKay and disc
jockey Lauren St. James to New
York to see the record and do some
on-the-air promotions.
After the station realized it had
the Jackson single, copies of the sin
gle were sent to some Austin and
Houston stations so they also could
play it early.
“We have friends in radio there,”
McKay said.
He said the station heard such
immediately favorable response
from listeners that the record was
played every 1 '/a hours Monday.
Soviets: Superpowers con reach
agreement on banning missiles
MOSCOW (AP) — Soviet officials
said Thursday that the superpowers
can reach a quick accord to ban me
dium- and shorter-range nuclear
missiles but that the United States
must yield on four points they say
have stymied agreement.
One obstacle in the way of the
agreement — and a potential sum
mit meeting between Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev and President
Reagan — is the Soviet insistence
that U.S.-controlled warheads on
Pershing 1-A missiles in West Ger
many be scrapped.
In remarks made public Wednes
day night, Gorbachev offered to
eliminate Soviet medium-range nu
clear missiles in Asia if the United
States does not insist on keeping 100
medium-range warheads outside
Europe.
The Soviet leader also said his
country would scrap its shorter-
range SS-12 and Sb-23 rockets east
of the Urals, which the United States
has regarded as a threat to China
andJapan.
The superpowers have been ne
gotiating a ban on medium- and
shorter-range rockets in Europe
since Gorbachev announced Feb. 28
that the Soviet Union would no
longer insist an accord also encom
pass strategic and space weapons.
Like Gorbachev’s February offer,
the Soviet proposal for banning the
missiles in Asia as well as Europe
seemed designed to put pressure on
the United States by removing a
point of contention the Americans
had said was frustrating progress in
negotiations.
Observers also have said Gorba
chev wants an arms control
agreement in order to divert re
sources from the military to the
country’s social and economic needs
cuid iw further cement civilian con
trol over the Soviet military estab
lishment.
Since he became Communist
Party chief in March 1985, Gorba
chev repeatedly has stressed the
Kremlin’s desire for a total end to
nuclear weapons, and accused the
United States of frustrating progress
toward disarmament.
Yuli M. Vorontsov, the chief
Kremlin arms negotiator, told a
news conference called to explain
Gorbachev’s latest proposal, “We
hope for a new impulse to the arms
talks. We’re looking now for a politi
cal decision from the American
side.”
Vorontsov, the first deputy for
eign minister, said two months
should be sufficient to reach
agreement. He indicated an accord
could lead to a summit meeting be
tween Gorbachev and Reagan be
fore the end of the year.