Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1987)
_ V Texas ASM m m W # « The Battalion Vol. 87 No. 47 GSPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, November 4,1987 televiskJ irg hadal- in a cablt igan joked 'Ugh man. :er out of job.” i week and tonth fori ceding ill- postpone- g: 1 stration's f. which 'pare as i rial, in a duce gov- ble open- re porters een given Ginsburj vmination. dewed the ; was con- dinsburg’s said, "No, — A 3- and kick- >11 beside watched after she serson in ve-organ Madison- n critical mal after Ihildren’s said hos- Lynn ;er Dr. latha was it talk be- g with a be re- s sedated ifortable, lined. d a liver, ine and nd colon at ended ours. Reagan nominates woman for Secretary of Labor post WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Reagan on Tuesday nominated former Interior Undersecretary Ann Dore McLaughlin to succeed William E. Brock as Secretary of La bor and bring a woman back into his Cabinet. Reagan called McLaughlin, who also has held senior roles in the Treasury Department and the Envi ronmental Protection Agency, a woman of “uncommon experience and competence . . . who has won my full confidence and support.” With only 15 months remaining in the administration, there appeared to be little sentiment among Demo crats and labor unions for opposing the nomination. “We’re going to take a pretty good look at her, but it doesn’t seem like she’s drawing any serious opposi tion.” said Paul Donovan, a spokes man for the Senate Labor and Hu man Resources Committee headed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D- Mass. He said the panel has not yet decided when it will hold hearings on the nomination. But if confirmed by the Senate, she can be expected to lead the ad ministration’s fight against a broad agenda of legislation being pushed in Congress by labor unions. n l thr moving through Congress are mea sures to raise the minimum wage, frozen at $3.35 an hour since 1981, to require 60 days advance notice of plant closings and large layoffs and to mandate employer-provided health insurance. Brock, 56, announced his resigna tion three weeks ago to become the campaign manager for Bob Dole. Female photographers say they were harassed by bonfire crew Hot stuff Photo by Sarah Cowan People participating in the Texas A&M Brayton Fire Training School will complete their training today. Most of the men are from Lousiana and have jobs that are in fields related to combustible materials and say that this training is essential to their jobs. By Lee Schexnaider Staff Writer Two female photographers for The Aggieland say they were ver bally and physically harassed when the bonfire center pole was raised Friday night. Marie McLeod and Jennifer Friend, both senior journalism ma jors, were among five photogra phers assigned to cover the event. They said the verbal abuse began when they approached the bonfire perimeter, or the imaginary circle bounded by posts that hold the guy ropes from the center pole. “People started yelling, ‘Females on the perimeter! Get the females off the perimeter,’ ” Friend said. “I just ignored them and went up to where they were digging the hole and starting taking pictures.” Joanie Pate, a senior accounting and political science major and edi tor of the yearbook, said she was up set that her employees were treated in such a manner. “I am infuriated that anyone on my staff had to go through that in a college-age environment,” Pate said. “Members of my staff couldn’t do the job they were sent out to do.” Graphic by Susan C. Akin William Kibler, the bonfire ad viser, said there are only two restric tions for people entering the safety perimeter around the bonfire. He said that a person must have a legitimate reason for being in the pe rimeter and that the person must have on a hard hat. “There is no restriction on whether a male versus a female can go in there (the safety perimeter),” Kibler said. “But I cannot tell you that you won’t have a student or stu dents out there that will tell you that. “That is a throwback to years ago when that was more generally ac cepted; for whatever reason women were not allowed in the safety pe rimeter. That is unfortunate and that is something that I intend to in vestigate and see who is responsi ble.” Friend said that the Corp of Ca dets was not primarily responsible for the disturbances. “It wasn’t just the Corps,” she said. Friend noted some Corps members were helpful, but no non- regs were. “I heard a lot more things yelled at me from non-regs than from the Corps,” she said. But Friend said after she was ver bally harrased she stayed to take more pictures, and that a redpot told her and McLeod to leave the pe rimeter because they were going to raise the center pole. Friend and McLoed left the pe rimeter and noticed that one of the other photographers, Eric Swell- ander, a junior finance major, was still in the perimeter and that the center pole was not being raised. They entered the perimeter again, she said, and were escorted by a member of the Corps around the outskirts of the perimeter. But Swellander was inside the area as the pole was going up, she said. Swellander said he talked to Friend and McLeod and found out the two wanted to get closer to the center pole, but were being kept out. “I did not have any problems coming out there,” he said. Swell ander also left the perimeter when he was told the center pole would be raised. “I went out to the perimeter for a couple of minutes and saw they weren’t doing anything so I just walked back in while they were rais ing it,” he said. “They never said an other word to me after that.” Scott Mallory, A&M senior redpot and agronomy major, said the red- pots were clearing everyone out of the perimeter, and that Swellander must not have been noticed. “We were kicking everbody out,” See Harrassment, page 7 More fees can be paid with installments nader mar- e totaled 2 e first timf collapse. I* [72.87 mil- -e than 5 w Stock £ x ; »9 declined By Janet Goode Staff Writer Texas A&M students who live on ampus and buy University meal plans will be able to hold onto their money a little longer than usual next semester. They will be able to pay more of their fees on an installment basis, Robert Smith, vice president for fi nance and operations at Texas A&M, said Tuesday. House Bill 1147 allows students to make installment payments on tu ition and fees. Smith said this bill has typically been interpreted as refer ring to required fees and not to op tional fees such as room and board. Until now, the fee for the required student identification card and all optional fees had to be paid in ad vance, upon enrollment. Under the new plan, students will be able to pay their room and board on the installment plan, which will allow students who live on campus to pay about 93 percent of all fees by installment. The typical student who lives on campus, uses a meal plan and takes fifteen hours previously paid close to $2,000 at registration. The new plan allows such a student to pay only $643 upon registration and defer the rest into either two or four pay ments. Although the overall cost to the student will remain the same, Smith said it will be easier for these stu dents to pay the fees if more of them can be payed in installments. “With the increasing cost of tu ition and the other costs students and their parents have to pay, we felt like we should offer some alternati ves,” Smith said. “We couldn’t re duce the costs, especially the ones such as tuition mandated by state statute, but we could make it easier to pay.” Smith formed a task force to in vestigate these options after a re quest from A&M President Frank E. Vandiver, who was “very concerned about the costs of attending Texas A&M,” Smith said. “With the increasing cost ... we felt like we should offer some alternatives. ” — Robert Smith, A&M vice president for finance and operations The force looked for ways to min imize the impact of increasing tu ition costs, he said. “Our charge to the committee was to take a look at all options which would significantly reduce the amount of money students and their parents were required to pay upon registration,” he said. The committee was made up of four officals from the finance and operations office and a student ap pointed by Dr. John Koldus. The committee also was asked to research the possible use of Visa or Mastercard credit cards for fee pay ments. After studying 10 major institu tions, Smith said the committee found that few students and parents at other universities avail themselves of the option because the typical Mastercard limit is $2,000. The report said opinions from other institutions on accepting credit cards ranged from “It’s an adminis trative headache . . . ” to . a great idea ... can’t imagine not having it.” Smith said this option hasn’t been ruled out altogether but has been set aside at this time because of practical problems and the lack of demand. The changes in fee payments don’t, however, include “use” fees, Smith said. Such fees as building use and computer access fees are established by the Texas A&M Board of Re gents, he said. “I don’t like the word ‘use’ fee be cause all someone has to do is say T don’t use this and therefore I shoudn’t have to pay for it,’ ” he said. “Well if everybody, including my self when I went here, said that, we wouldn’t have any of these build ings,” he said. Everybody has to pay something for the succeeding generation to benefit, he said. Smith also explained why the Uni versity charges a set amount for computer use rather than a “pay as you go” basis. “The computer fee is not a use fee, it’s an access fee,” he said. “Ev ery student has computers available to them. If you choose not to use them, that’s your decision — the point is they are there. “We can’t provide a resource on a consistent basis without some indica tion of how much revenue will be there to support it.” Heart failure causes death of student Angela Michelle McKee, an 18- year-old Texas A&M freshman from Kaufman, died Saturday af ternoon of an apparent heart fail ure. McKee, an elementary educa tion major who lived at 1301 Har vey Road in College Station, died at a friend’s house in Bryan, Bryan police officer Chris Farris said Tuesday. Officials at St. Joseph hospital indicated that McKee had a his tory of heart problems, Farris said. Farris also said there was no suspicion of foul play and there is no investigation by Bryan police in McKee’s death. Funeral services for McKee are scheduled at 2 p.m. today in Kaufman at the Anderson-Clay- ton Bros. Funeral Home. UR IfllS IR ,PM a log Pari-mutuel betting backers obtain victory in early election returns AUSTIN (AP) — The proposal to legal ize pari-mutuel gambling in Texas for the first time in a half century was winning fa vor from voters in early election returns Tuesday. With 25 percent of the precincts report ing statewide, the referendum had received 213,050 favorable votes, or 55 percent, to 174,690 votes, or 45 percent, against. Horsemen across the state were anx iously awaiting the voters’ decision. Bill Breese, track manager at Manor Downs east of Austin, said he was optimistic that pari-mutuel gambling would be legal ized. The proposal to legalize gambling on horse and dog races was pushed as a needed economic expansion in a state hard- hit by the oil price bust. Gov. Bill Clements said earlier in the day that he voted in favor of legalizing gam bling because it would keep tourism money in Texas, as opposed to losing the funds to other states that have betting. If the statewide referendum is approved, horse-race gambling would be legal again for the first time since 1937. Greyhound racing could begin in three Gulf Coast counties. Under the plan, voters in a county would have to give their approval for racing. Ma jor tracks could be established near Hous ton, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. Smaller tracks could be established else where and would have shorter racing sea sons. Greyhound tracks would be limited to Cameron, Nueces and Galveston counties, pending local approval. Bipartisan Senate predicts confirmation for replacement of defense secretary >/87 (AP) — Senators of both parties predicted Tuesday that Frank C. Carlucci, President Reagan’s na tional security adviser, would be easily confirmed as secretary of defense if nominated as expected to replace Caspar Weinberger. Weinberger’s resignation and Carlucci’s selection are likely to be announced later this week, according to administration and congressional sources speaking on condition of anonymity. Officially, neither the White House nor the Pentagon con firmed the reports and both Weinberger and Carlucci de clined comment. Sources said Carlucci would be replaced as director of the Na tional Security Council staff by Army Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, who is currently Carlucci’s deputy. Powell would be the first black to hold that position and would be the sixth national security ad viser in Reagan’s presidency. Weinberger, 70, plans to leave because his wife Jane is in poor health, suffering from cancer and severe arthritis, the sources said. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., predicted that Car lucci, a former deputy defense secretary under Weinberger and veteran of other top government posts, “will be well received the Senate. by Sen. Alan Dixon, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “1 shouldn’t think Carlucci would have a problem being confirmed. He’s a pretty solid person.” A&M police to start impounding bicycles in undesignated areas Students who park their bicycles near doorways or chain them to rails can expect them to be removed by University Police starting next Wednesday, Bob Wiatt, director of the UPD, said Monday. Police will attach warnings to bicy cles that are illegally parked for the rest of this week, Wiatt said. Students who continue to park in these areas after Tuesday could have their bicycles taken by police, he said. To get their bicycles back, stu dents will have to go to the police sta tion, describe their bikes and report the time and place they were im pounded. They then will have to register their bicycles with the UPD, he said, a process that costs nothing. He also said if a chain or cable has to be cut to impound a bike, it’s the student’s responsibility to replace it. Officers will concentrate their bi cycle sweep at the MSC, the Zachry Engineering Center and Sterling C. Evans Library. These locations ap pear to be the places where most problems arise with bicycles blocking necessary activities close to the build ings. Wiatt said numerous complaints about illegally parked bicycles prompted this action. “You have to be an Olympic hurdler to get over bicycles and get into buildings,” he said. But the only “fine” students will be charged is the inconvenience of having to claim and register their bi cycles, he said.