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The Battalion
Vol. 83 No. 7 GSPS 045360 16 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, September 9,1987
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Volunteers start search
for mudslide survivors
:
Dirty work
Construction workers strive to meet the comple
tion date for A&M’s new parking garage. The ga-
Photo by Sarah Cowan
rage will be located at the corner of University and
Ireland streets.
MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) —
Civilian volunteers joined troops
and civil defense units Tuesday in
the search for survivors of a 10-foot-
deep tide of mud that swept hun
dreds of cars off a mountain road.
No official casualty figures have
been released. Unofficial reports
said there were 150 known dead in
the mudslide and floods, 250 miss
ing, 1,000 people injured and
20,000 homeless.
The mudslide roared down the
mountain Sunday after torrential
rains, wiping out three miles of the
road.
Col. Hector Vargas, who was in
volved with the army rescue effort,
pointed into the mountains in the di
rection of the road and said: “It is a
very ugly disaster. There must be
plenty of dead still up there.”
Army helicopters carried food
and medical supplies to the area.
Families were caught returning
home from outings when tons of
mud, boulders and uprooted trees
swept across the highway that runs
through the mountains between
Maracay and the beach resort of Oc-
umare de la Costa on Venezuela’s
central coast.
Luis Mora, a survivor, said a
crowded bus was swept over the
edge as people tried to squirm
through its windows and a woman
he was trying to save was torn from
his grasp.
“1 saw arms sticking out of the
mud from some of the buried cars,”
he said. An estimated 200 cars and
several buses were buried or trapped
by the mudslide.
Giuseppe Morelda said: “Trees
started falling and you could see the
mud arriving. I saw dead people all
over.”
Carlos Tablante, who is a member
of the national congress and sur-
viveTthe'slide. said long fines of ve
hicles had been created by the col
lapse of a bridge.
During heavy rain at about 4 p.m.,
he said, the earth shook and “a slide
of clay and rocks rushed down from
the top of the mountain and crashed
against the cars in the highway.”
Another survivor said: “A tree
flattened my car. My family and I
left quickly and found ourselves with
hundreds of people trying to escape
the highway. It was like a pilgrimage
through hell.”
Many survivors said about 3,000
people were at the scene of the land
slide. They estimated that 1,000
were rescued. Others reached high
ground and were being rescued by
helicopters, officials saia.
President Jaime Lusinchi visited
El Limon and El Progreso, two dev
astated neighborhoods of Maracay,
and ordered an immediate relief ef
fort.
Torrential weekend rains pushed
several rivers over their banks in the
central Venezuelan state of Argaua.
The Limon River’s rise was four
times greater than normal for the
rainy season.
Survey says enrollment
for Texas universities
up despite economy
(AP) — If the downturn in the oil
economy has had an effect on col
lege enrollments in Texas, it gener
ally has been to boost the number of
students, some university officials
say.
In an informal survey Tuesday of
major Texas universities, Texas
A&M, Pan American and Tarleton
State universities showed the largest
enrollment increases.
Southern Methodist University
posted a 3 percent decline that offi
cials attributed to a deliberate effort
to reduce the size of freshman
classes.
Preliminary figures show that en
rollment at Pan Am jumped about 8
percent, from 9,984 last fall to
10,791 this year, David Zuniga, reg
istrar and admissions director, said.
He attributed the rise to population
growth in the Rio Grande valley, site
of the Edinburg campus.
A&M’s increase of almost 7 per-'
cent is due mostly to the quality of
the academic program, registrar
Donald Carter said.
“We’re an excellent school,” he
’’"said. “Kids want to come here. We’re
just the ‘in’ school right now.”
Preliminary enrollment figures
show that 39,092 students have en
rolled at the College Station campus,
compared to 36,561 last fall, spokes
man Lane Stephenson said.
At SMU, preliminary enrollment
is 8,728 students, compared to 9,019
last year, but officials said they ex
pect this year’s final count to be a
little higher.
Negative publicity from SMU’s
pay-for-play football scandal played
a role in an 11 percent drop this fall
in the number of applications, ad
missions director Andrew Bryant
said.
But a larger-than-usual percent
age of applicants enrolled, he said.
The sour economy has helped
boost enrollment at Tarleton State a
whopping 15 percent, said John
Whiting, registrar and dean of ad
missions at the school in Stephen-
ville, 60 miles southwest of Fort
Worth.
At North Texas State, whose Den
ton campus is about an hour’s drive
from both Fort Worth and Dallas,
preliminary fall enrollment is
22,500, almost a 6 percent increase
over last fall’s 21,200, provost David
Golden said.
A greater number of Mexican stu
dents accounts for much of the in
crease at Texas-El Paso, spokesman
Marilyn McClure said.
Enrollment is expected to pass
14,000 this semester, about 3 per
cent higher than last fall’s 13,739,
she said.
At Texas’ largest university, UT-
Austin, enrollment has increased
about 1,500, to 47,500, spokesman
Joyce Pole said.
Texas Tech, with about 23,400
students, and Rice, with 3,890 stu
dents, reported enrollment increases
of around 1 percent.
Elmer Rode, dean of records at
Lamar, said the Beaumont campus
has suffered from the same prob
lems the University of Houston has
gone through.
Enrollment at Lamar fell from
11,592 last fall to a preliminary
number of 11,346 this year, he said
— a drop of about 2 percent.
Schultz: Talks of emigration changes begun
■ WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States
and the Soviet Union are discussing an overhaul
T of Soviet emigration rules to make them “less ar-
; b|trary,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz said
Tuesday.
■ “We’re looking to see if there aren’t some pro-
Mdures that could be worked through that
Weald make this process work better, be more
i humane and understandable,” Shultz said in an
; imerview.
H He and other State Department officials wel
comed reports from Moscow that mathematician
j libsif I. Begun and a handful of other Jewish dis
sidents would be granted exit visas.
S| Referring to a possible U.S.-Soviet summit,
| Shultz said “people all ascribe it to the imminence
of a meeting of some kind. But,” he said, “that’s
not a good way to handle these things.”
I Shultz made these additional points as he
talked for 20 minutes with two reporters from
the Associated Press and United Press Interna
tional after a four-week vacation:
• The United States is insisting the Soviets re
duce their intermediate-range nuclear missiles at
a faster clip as part of a treaty banning the
weapon.
• Still, Shultz said, the treaty “is undoubtedly
the strongest of any arms control agreement
we’ve ever had” because of the verification proce
dures being drafted to insure the missiles are dis
mantled.
• The United States is prepared to respond to
a request from Vietnam for artificial limbs and
other assistance for war victims.
• American inspection of Soviet military ma
neuvers last month under a Stockholm
agreement to reduce tensions in Europe “went
off very smoothly.”
Shultz was generally upbeat on the state of the
superpower relationship as he began prepara
tions for his talks Sept. 15-17 with Shevardnadze.
“There certainly is a great contrast between
now and what I observed wjhen I became secre
tary of state in July 1982,” Shultz said.
He said the Soviets continued to insist that 72
U.S. warheads atop West German Pershing 1-A
missiles be included in the treaty to ban U.S. and
Soviet intermediate-range weapons.
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl of
fered last month to dismantle the missiles after
the treaty is implemented.
“So far as I can see there shouldn’t be a prob
lem,” Shultz said. “The Soviets are acting as
though there is still a problem. I don’t know what
it is.”
parking tickets create unfair blocks
in registration, A&M students claim
By Alan Sembera
Reporter
i In an effort to collect money for
unpaid parking tickets, the Univer
sity Police Department blocks about
3,000 students from class registra
tion every semester, but many stu
dents complain that they have been
blocked for tickets they didn’t re
ceive.
H This situation often is blamed on
the department’s practice of using
Texas vehicle registrations as a basis
for identifying alleged violators who
don’t register their cars with the
University.
I But Bob Wiatt, director of secu
rity and traffic, said it’s the only way
to make people pay their parking
tickets.
■ Wiatt said that any time a car gets
■tree or more unpaid parking tick-
glts and the University Police doesn’t
know who the car belongs to, the
cat ’s license number is run through
the Department of Motor Vehicles
in Austin to find the name of the car
owner.
Wiatt said the computer then
checks the last names of everyone af
filiated with the University to see if
any are the same as the last name of
the vehicle’s owner.
If there is a match, the computer
then checks to see if the addresses
are identical, he said. If the ad
dresses match, or are close enough
to make a connection, that person is
blocked from registration.
This method, although effective
in making students pay tickets,
sometimes causes the wrong persons
to be blocked.
In one case, Michael Barton, a
freshman business major from Ar
lington, was blocked during his
freshman orientation because his sis
ter had gotten several tickets on Bar
ton’s moped. He had never even at
tended A&M before, he said.
Many students in situations simi
lar to his argue with the student
workers at the police department
and hold up an often long line.
Wiatt said when someone has such
a complaint, the department con
ducts an investigation on the spot.
“There’s a possibility that you
have a brother and sister, and one
has been here for a couple of years
and graduated and the other one’s
been here for some time,” Wiatt
said.
“We don’t know who got it,” he
said. “The sister has graduated, she’s
gone. But the brother is still here.
We’ve got to get an explanation, so
we block him.”
If students explain the situation,
he said, the department will go
ahead and lift the block so they can
register, but it will re-block them for
the next semester unless they pay
their tickets.
Faculty and staff are not immune
to this policy and will not be able to
purchase a new parking permit if
they have three or more unpaid tick
ets, he said.
In addition to blocking students
from registration, the police also will
tow any car with six or more tickets,
he said.
If students wish to find out if they
are blocked, they can come to the
police station or call next week after
the rush for parking permits is over,
he said.
“It became necessary to institute
this policy in the spring of 1984 be
cause students would not pay their
tickets,” Wiatt said. “The depart
ment spent $10,000 a year in post
age trying to collect for tickets be
fore the new policy took effect —
with few results.”
For the past two years, the depart
ment has given over 100,000 park
ing tickets per year, he said. These
tickets have generated over $1 mil
lion in fines each year.
Wiatt said much of this money will
be used for the new parking garage.
He also said $400,000 of this money
is used for the intra-campus bus sys
tem that shuttles students between
campus and distant parking lots.
The money also funds a night van
service for women to help prevent
rape, a van service for handicapped
students and faculty and repairs for
the parking lots.
Rule raises requirements
for students to get A&M ring
By Drew Leder
Staff Writer
Aggies who have survived 92
hours of classes and are ready to
reap the fruits of their labor by
ordering a senior ring may have
to wait another semester.
New requirements stipulate
that students must have com
pleted 95 hours before they can
order rings.
The ring office of the Associa
tion of Former Students raised
the completed and passed hours
minimum from 92 to 95 in the
summer. To be classified as a se
nior at A&M, a student must have
95 hours, but until this semester,
students could order Aggie rings
even if they technically weren’t
seniors.
Students who have completed
92 total hours, but less than 95
before or during the last summer
term, are eligible to order a ring
if they place their orders before
October 2. To receive a ring by
December, orders must be in by
September 11.
The change was made, accord
ing to an alumni association offi
cial, in order to match the hour
requirements needed for a ring
with those necessary to enjoy
other senior privileges.
There have been arguments by
some students in the past who
contend that since they can order
rings with 92 hours, they also
should be entitled to other senior
privileges, such as the privilege to
get football tickets earlier than
other students.
Another University policy
change, the elimination of mid
term grade reports for everyone
but freshmen, means orders from
students who complete enough
hours by the end of a semester to
be classified as seniors no longer
will be sent to the manufacturer,
the L.G. Balfour Company, until
final,grades are posted. Past pol
icy allowed orders to be sent if
students had enough credit hours
on their midterm grade reports
to classify them as seniors for the
following semester.
Under the new policy, those
who are enrolled in enough
classes to bring their hour total to
95 or more by the following se
mester may place their orders
early, but the orders won’t be sent
until the students are verifiable
seniors.
Director of the ring office Car
olyn Swanzy said this will cut
down on the bulk of the orders
usually placed at midterm.
This year the office will take
orders from potential next-se
mester seniors beginning October
22.
Other requirements which
must be met to qualify for a senior
ring" include: at least 30 hours
passed and completed at A&M,
no outstanding financial debts to
the University and a minimum
grade-point ratio of 2.0. Students
also can’t be on probation, sus
pension, dismissal or expulsion.
The current cost of a ring is
$297 for a man’s and $143 for a
woman’s. The price may change
from month to month, depend
ing on the price of gold. The cost
of a ring probably will rise in the
near future due to an expected
increase in the price of gold,
Swanzy said.
The price is set by the man
ufacturer each month and isn’t
subject to change until the follow
ing month, she said.
The highest price paid for a se
nior ring at A&M in the past 10
years was about $350 and the low
est was about $80, she said.
The ring office moved into the
Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Cen
ter on August 1 from its former
location in the MSG and in
creased the size of its staff. The
move was prompted by a need for
more office space, a need to ac
commodate the increasing num
ber of students at A&M and the
desire to bring the office within
the walls of the association of
which it is a part, the alumni asso
ciation official said.