The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 04, 1987, Image 1

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« The Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 47 GSPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, November 4,1987
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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
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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.
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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.