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Vol. 87 No. 36 CJSPS 045360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 20, 1987
Stock market plunge
rivals 1929 plummet
passage in
tes a church
the husband 3
said it wasckiil
massage refers is|
/omen minister |
Hear ye, hear ye
[Armed with a cross and a Bible, Michael Peter
[Woroniecki preaches to A&M students Monday at
I Rudder Fountain. Woroniecki said he feels con-
[formity and hypocrisy are corrupting modern so-
Photo by Kristi Outler
ciety. His religious views, including beliefs in the
phoniness of all Christian denominations, the use
lessness of a college education and male
dominance, were presented in a pamphlet.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock
market plunged out of control Mon
day in a selling panic that rivaled the
Great Crash of 1929, pushing the
Dow Jones average down more than
500 points, draining more than $500
billion from the value of stocks and
sending shock waves around the
world.
“Whether today was a financial
meltdown or not... I wouldn’t want
to be around for one worse than
this,” said John Phelan, chairman of
the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow’s plunge to 1,738.74 left
it 22.6 percent below Friday’s level, a
one-day loss far larger than the 12.8
percent drop on Oct. 28, 1929,
known as Black Monday, or Oct. 29,
1929, when it fell an additional 11.7
percent.
The Dow average’s worst percent
age decline ever was on Dec. 12,
1914, early in World War I, when it
lost 24.4 percent of its value.
The market fed on itself in wave
after wave of selling in the busiest
trading day ever on the New York
Stock Exchange.
The Dow industrials fell 508.00
points to 1,738.74, a loss of nearly
1,000 points since the market’s peak
Aug. 25.
The latest decline left the Dow in
dustrial average about 36 percent
below its peak of 2,722.42 on Aug.
25 and at its lowest point since April
1986.
The collapse of prices caused
long-term damage to the health of
stock exchanges and probably de
stroyed some of the confidence that
underpins the growth of the world
economy, analysts said.
“We’re having extreme panic in
the marketplace,” said Alfred E.
Goldman, director of market analy
sis for A.G. Edwards & Sons in St.
Louis.
“It’s like Armageddon,” he said.
Analysts were reluctant to com
pare Monday’s plunge with the stock
market crash that helped set off the
Depression of the 1930s, but they
said there were fears in the market
that a possible recession in the
United States could snowball into a
worldwide downturn.
“In a nutshell, this thing could go
further,” said Leonard Grimaldi, ex
ecutive vice president of Amivest
Corp. in New York. “There’s a dom
ino effect here.”
“This is a dangerous day to say the
least, and we are not alarmists here,”
Grimaldi said.
Professors at A&M soy
several factors caused
record market drop
By Elisa Hutchins
Staff Writer
Most records are made to be
broken but the Dow Jones indus
trials average plunge from
2,247.06 on Friday to 1,738.74 on
Monday, a difference of more
than 508 points, was not a statistic
that anyone wanted to see.
The one-day record loss, 22.6
percent of the stocks listed in the
Dow index, was larger percentage
wise than the Oct. 28, 1929 Black
Monday crash of 12.8 percent.
“We feel like this is a panic situa
tion,” said Marty Thompson, an
employee of Dean Witter Rey
nolds Inc. in College Station.
“I don’t know how to gauge the
amount of activity, but we’re
busier than we have ever been,” he
said.
The Dow is an index of 30
stocks that are fairly stable and has
acted as an economic indicator
since 1884. Some stocks listed in
the index include Sears, Exxon
Corp., General Motors and
AT&T.
Last year on Oct. 20, the Dow
stood at 1,837.04.
Arthur James, Texas A&M visit
ing economics instructor, said the
Dow is a good indicator but the
point gains or drops do not accu
rately reflect the market.
“If the Dow drops you have to
look at the volume of trading,” he
said.
“It (Dow) can drop by a lot of
points but if trading was light,
there is not much of a problem,”
James said. “But if the volume is
high — it matters.”
More than 546 million shares
were traded Monday, compared
with Friday’s 263.2 million shares.
See Stocks, page 5
'.S. ships attack Iranian platforms in Persian Gulf
M |■ ANAMA - Bahrain (AP) — U.S.
■warships destroyed two Iranian oil plat-
CD0n3l'f°mis in the Persian Gulf on Monday and
Navy commandos raided a third.
l«Jran said the Americans had begun a
KFAST EVEEI [Tull-fledged war” to which it promised “a
40RMNC crus l>ing response.”
President Reagan called the 85-minute
ick “a prudent yet restrained response”
to Friday’s missile strike on a U.S.-flagged
iriQC knlaer off Kuwait.
\ \v Hf|>e Pentagon sard no Americans were
inues in the Iff
9-
/ak roll sessffl
eld on Wed.,
ir this clinic
tes. (
injured in Monday’s operations. Tehran
said the attack wounded some Iranian “ci
vilian crewmen” but did not mention fatali
ties.
The White House said gunfire wiped out
two platforms at one location and U.S. De
fense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said the
battle area was the Rostam oil platforms.
After some initial confusion, Tehran said
the two platforms hit were at the Reshadat,
or Rakhsh, field 75 miles east of Qatar and
60 miles from the Iranian coast. Rakhsh
and Rostam are about 20 miles apart.
The discrepancy between the Iranian
and U.S. reports could not be immediately
resolved. On all except very detailed maps
of the gulf, the two fields appear to be very
close.
The oil platforms, which have an under
water pipeline running to Iran’s coastal La-
van island, are among many permanent
drilling rigs in the central gulf. Iran is
known to have used some for helicopter
and armed speedboat attacks on commer
cial shipping.
Before darkness fell, salvage tugs and
other craft reported columns of smoke ris
ing from the offshore rigs. U.S. warships
were warning other craft away from the
area, shipping executives in the gulf said.
At 1:30 p.m., the four destroyers moved
to within about 6,000 yards of the two plat
forms, said Fred S. Hoffman, the Penta
gon’s chief spokesman.
Ten minutes later they broadcast a warn
ing:
“Reshadat, Reshadat. This is the U.S.
Navy. We will commence firing on your po
sition at 1400 hours. You have 20 minutes
to evacuate the platform.”
Weinberger said Iranians on the plat
forms were then seen scrambling into a
small boat and sailing away from the area.
An 85-minute barrage of 1,000 rounds
of 5-inch gunfire destroyed the platforms.
xas A&M to pump
ore than $250 million
to count/s economy
By Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writer
During the 1988 fiscal year, Texas
will pump more than a quarter
a billion dollars in wages and sala-
Into the Brazos County econ-
ew breakdown of payroll fig-
one in A&M’s Budget and Hu-
lesources office shows the pay-
M for this fiscal year beginning last
jtonth to be more than $250 million.
kKlton Lancaster, vice chancellor of
ludgtis and human resources, said
mated this is a 6 percent to 8
^Ceiii increase over last year.
^Hricia Chapman, assistant vice
^^■ellor, said this is the first time
(M has used this type of study,
diich breaks the Texas A&M Uni-
e fsit\ System’s payroll into coun-
^Hkhe study is based on last
^onth s payroll figures. In Septem-
paid $21.6 million to
employees, which include ad-
' istration, staff, faculty and stu-
e nt workers.
llhaiHellor Perry Adkisson said
'e increase in the overall payroll
'otnlast year was largely due to sal-
r y increases for A&M faculty and
ther System faculty.
Dan Parker, assistant provost, said
Kulty salaries at A&M have risen by
i average of about 10 percent.
“We gave about a 10 percent aver
se (payroll) increase to our faculty
artitig Sept. 1,” Parker said. “Of
>urse. everyone did not get a 10
sreent increase.”
Laficaster said non-faculty pay in
cases averaged 4 percent.
Parker said the main purpose for
ie increase in faculty pay is to retain
^)in Thurstk culty members A&M already em-
»oys. Pay increases may help with
iture faculty recruitment, he said,
but A&M’s budget was not approved
by the state Legislature until the end
of July, he said, so the University
didn’t have much time for faculty re
cruitment this year.
Switzer Deason, a member of the
executive committee of the
A&M-Bryan-College Station Council
and owner of Check Worthy Inc. in
Bryan, said he was glad to see the
new payroll figures. He said any in
crease in the money A&M generates
locally will help bring new businesses
into the community. ■
“I think the importance of the
University to the community needs
to be emphasized,” Deason said. “I
don’t think that anybody I know had
any idea at all what the aggregate
payroll was at the University because
we tend to think in terms of build
ings that are built and total budgets.
“Everyone knows that if a person
lives in Bryan-College Station and
receives a paycheck from the Uni
versity, a large part, if not all of the'"
money will be spent in this commu
nity.”
Lynn Stuart, vice president of eco
nomic development for the Bryan-
College Station Chamber of Com
merce and president of Bryan Con
struction, said the increases in A&M-
generated payroll money would give
a boost to the local economy.
“I guess you could say that A&M
is the backbone of the economy,”
Stuart said. “The changes that are
happening at A&M, from the Board
of Regents level down through the
System’s administration and the
University administration, they all
seem to be more aware of what is
going on in the local area.
“They are dedicated to being a
full partner in the growth of Bryan-
College Station and that is very en
couraging.”
CS fire marshal says city doesn’t get
cooperation needed from University
By Richard Williams
Reporter
College Station firefighters are
fighting the fires at Texas A&M,
but the city of College Station is
not getting the help from A&M it
should, College Station Fire
Marshal Harry Davis said.
“The firefighters are putting
their lives on the line and A&M
doesn’t seem to want to help,”
Davis said.
But A&M Safety and Health
Officer Harry Stiteler said the
Fire safety at Texas A&M
Part two of a two-part series
College Station Fire Department
and A&M have a good working
relationship.
“The College Station Fire De
partment has been super in work
ing with us,” Stiteler said.
Davis has said A&M is not pro
viding enough fire protection in
its buildings, while Stiteler be
lieves A&M is “providing ad
equate life safety” and complies
with the codes as much as possi
ble.
State Fire Marshal Ernest
Emerson said that because A&M
is a state agency, it does not have
to follow College Station building
codes, and since there are no
state-mandated building safety
codes, A&M is free to adopt its
own codes.
Wesley E. Peel, A&M vice
chancellor for Facilities Planning
and Construction, said A&M is
building all new buildings to meet
the Southern Building Congress
Codes and the National Fire Pro
tection Association Life Safety
Codes. These codes are being
used as guidelines. Peel said, not
as absolute rules.
Davis said College Station’s
main complaint is that it does not
have significant input in the con
struction process on campus.
“The biggest problem is that
we are unable to control what is
built on campus,” Davis said. “We
provide the fire protection, so we
think we ought to have some say
as to how a building is built.”
However, both Paul W. Ste
phens, manager of the A&M Sys
tem Facilities Planning Division,
and Stiller said the CSFD does
have some input into what is built
on campus. Both said A&M
shows the fire department plans
for new buildings and asks for
suggestions.
But Stiteler said just because
the fire department makes sug
gestions on now to increase safety
factors, that doesn’t necessarily
mean a building is unsafe.
However, Davis said A&M
used to call him when planning a
new building, but that practice
has since been stopped.
“The last time we got called on
was, maybe, five or six years ago,”
Davis said. “We would go over
there and tell them what we
wanted and they just said they
were not going to change the
plans. They don’t call anymore.”
Peel said he agrees with Davis
that College Station officials are
no longer notified.
He said A&M has at least four
meetings each time a new build
ing is built to review the construc
tion plans. Peel said the meetings
are public meetings and “there is
nothing to keep them (College
Station officials) out.”
“We are not going to issue a
special invitation to them,” he
said.
Davis said attending review
meetings yields no results for the
city.
Graphic by Richard Williams
“We have gone to those meet
ings before,” Davis said. “We
have brought up stuff that needs
to be done and they don’t do it.”
Peel said he doesn’t under
stand why city officials are con
cerned that the University meets
SBC Codes. Davis said the CSFD
is concerned because it has to
fight fires at A&M.
But the situation probably
won’t change anytime soon.
“I think they realize they’re
(the CSFD) going to have to live
with it,” Stiteler said.
Although some think the situa
tion is hopeless, Emerson said a
few other states have enacted
state building codes.
The sad part of the story, he
said, is those codes are usually a
reaction to a disaster.
“The codes are . . . traditionally
not enacted until there has been a
major fire ... in which a lot of
people lose their lives,” Emerson
said.
Davis said he can’t do much
about the situation because he has
no authority over the University.
But, he said, he wishes the Uni-
“I’m the one who is going to
have to explain to some kid’s par
ents why their kid died,” Davis
said.
Installation of sprinkler sys
tems in buildings is one area
where the building codes A&M
uses as guidelines might not be
met, Stiteler said.
Without sprinkler systems
there is no added danger, Stiteler
said, but A&M would be better
protected if they were installed.
Stiteler also would like to see
A&M use more sprinklers on
campus, but he said there are
some areas sprinklers can’t be
used.
“We can’t put water in the
dorms,” he said. “The students
would just ruin them.”
Fire hoses that used to be in
residence halls already have been
removed because of vandalism,
he said.
“If we could get a little better
cooperation from the students,
we would be better off,” Stiteler
said. “Not all of the students are
hell raisers. In fact, very few stu
dents cause problems.’ 1
Many students set off fire
alarms by accident, he said. Saw
ing boards in a dorm room, for
example, could cause a smoke de
tector to go off because of the
dust particles it throws into the
air, Stiteler said.
One problem between A&M
and College Station has been
A&M’s high percentage of false
alarms, or alarms for which there
was no actual fire.
Although the actual number of
false alarms at A&M has in
creased over the past year, Davis
said, A&M has done a good job in
cutting down on the number of
See Fire safety, page 5