The Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 57 GSPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, November 18, 1987
Happy feet
Jay Cranford, left, Eli/abeth Ward and Jimmy Bushin recline against
a couch at the end of “Good Mornin’,” one of the song and dance
numbers in “Singin’ in the Rain” Tuesday night. Cranford played
Photo by Sam B. Myers
Don Lockwood, the Gene Kelly character in the movie. Ward played
Kathy Seldin and Bushin played Cosmo Brown. The performance
was sponsored by MSG OPAS.
Republicans
dismiss report
of arms sales
Clements tours areas damaged
jby storms to assess need for aid
PALESTINE (AP) — Damage es
timates from the violent storms that
lashed East Texas will be consol
idated in efforts to obtain federal di
saster aid, Gov. Bill Clements said
Tuesday.
“It’s an unusual set of circum
stances that we have here,” Clements
said at a news conference in front of
Radio club aids tornado victims
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
congressional Iran-Contra report
paints a picture of a Reagan admin
istration at odds with the law and the
Constitution, but minority Republi
cans dismissed it Tuesday as a parti
san indictment of the president that
ignores foreign policy questions
raised by the affair.
The report says President Reagan
flirted with constitutional crisis by
creating a White House atmosphere
that encouraged evasion of legal re
quirements and flouting of proper
procedures for reaching foreign pol
icy goals.
It also says the administration vio
lated the Constitution by going to
third countries to solicit donations
for Nicaragua’s Contra rebels at a
time when Congress barred even in
direct military aid to them.
It is sharply critical of Attorney
General Edwin Meese III, question
ing why he delayed launching a
criminal investigation of the affair
when it became public a year ago.
The voluminous document, re
viewing in detail the story of how ad
ministration officials sold arms to
Iran in hopes of freeing Americans
held hostage in Lebanon, then diver
ted some $4 million of the profits to
the Contras, is due to be released to
day.
But glimpses of its findings were
gleaned Tuesday from a report of
minority Republicans on the House
and Senate investigating panels and
from committee sources.
“Clearly, what went on here was
not what the founding fathers envi
sioned,” said a source familiar with
the report, who spoke only on condi
tion of anonymity. “It paints a pic
ture of a government out of con
trol.”
In its broadest criticism of the
president, the Democratic-directed
report said Reagan failed in his con
stitutional duty to “take care that the
laws be faithfully executed.”
In the introduction to their ver
sion of the report, the GOP dissent
ers contended that it also attempts,
“almost as an overarching thesis, to
portray the administration as if it
were behaving with wanton disre
gard for the law.”
But the minority dissent found
that conclusion, as well as many oth
ers in the document, based on selec
tive use of testimony and dubious in
terpretation of the law.
The document was signed by all
six Republicans on the House com
mittee — Reps. Dick Cheney of
Wyoming, William Broomfield of
Michigan, Henry Hyde of Illinois,
Jim Courier of New Jersey, Bill Mc
Collum of Florida and Michael De-
Wine of Ohio — and two Senate Re
publicans, Orrin Hatch of Utah and
James McClure of Idaho.
The GOP members did find nu
merous mistakes, most of them er
rors of political judgment, including
an 11-month delay in notifying Con
gress of the Iran arms initiative.
However, they wrote, “We em
phatically reject the idea that
through these mistakes, the exec
utive branch subverted the law, un
dermined the Constitution or threat
ened democracy.
“On some issues — particularly
the ones involving the statutes in
volving covert operations — we be
lieve the law to be clearly on the ad
ministration’s side.”
Even where the administration
did run into legal gray areas, the Re
publicans asserted the problems do
not affect the fundamental policy
decisions that the administration
pursued in the Middle East and in
Central America.
The minority contended that the
report seeks to treat policy debates
as though they were legal or criminal
concerns, and tries to give to Con
gress a greater role in policymaking
than it should properly assume.
See related story, Page 4
a devastated elementary school in
Palestine before traveling to Jack
sonville, 25 miles away.
The two towns were among the
hardest hit after a swarm of torna
dos buffeted Texas Sunday and
Monday.
The storms killed 10 people and
injured more than 160 others.
The tornadoes also caused mil
lions of dollars in damage.
Clements said he would make a
state disaster-area declaration after
all the paperwork was processed.
“We’ll try to consolidate all these
different counties and damaged
areas into a regional concept and get
relief on a regional basis,” Clements
said.
The governor took a 20-minute
tour of Palestine, where a tornado
killed one person Sunday, injured
several and damaged at least 86 busi
nesses and 200 homes.
In Jacksonville, two people were
killed and 75 injured in a tornado
By Marissa Wallace
Reporter
Sunday’s tornadoes left Palestine
without long-distance phone service,
but the Texas A&M Amateur Radio
Club was ready with short-wave ra
dios to restore communication for
town residents.
“In a natural disaster where the
long distance service is cut off, we
come into action,” said Kraig
Kreymer, club director of operations
and a freshman electrical engi
neering major. “The whole purpose
of the radio club is to help out when
needed.”
Kreymer said club members
started providing communications
for the town about 11:30 a.m. Mon
day.
“We weren’t that busy, but we
passed three messages and we’ve
passed two this morning (Tuesday),”
he said.
Kreymer explained how the club
does its work:
“They (relatives or other inter
ested parties) tell us who they need
to check on, and we in turn will get
in touch with our contact in Pales
tine. He in turn will go find the per
son in Palestine and check on their
welfare. We then call the relatives.”
Members of the club travel to the
tornado-devastated areas where they
act as contacts between club mem
bers in College Station and people
who live in those areas.
Kreymer said they still are send
ing information to Palestine, but
there are not that many people who
have relatives there.
The radio club also has a field
team in Caldwell working with the
Red Cross to help victims of the tor
nadoes that killed two and injured
several others in the town.
More than 200 miles of East
Texas were ravaged by the violent
storms Sunday, killing 10 people
and injuring more than 160.
Kreymer said the radio club will
offer its services to Palestine and
other areas until the telephone lines
are repaired.
He said the amateur radio club
has been active at A&M since the
1920s and is a non-profit organiza
tion providing service free for any
one in need.
T he club’s radios are able to reach
all over the world, he said.
“Even though we’re amateurs, we
have the club to better the spirit and
better the activity of A&M,” said
Kreymer. “We learn from it and in
turn we are providing a service for
the people.
“It’s humanitarian, but I person
ally get a kick out of it.”
The radio club offers its services
regularly to public organizations and
also provides communication at bon-,
fire cutting sites in case of emer-.
gency.
“If people ask us to help them out
if they need long-distance commul
nications, we can normally accom_
modate them,” Kreymer said.
UT police won’t file
charges against
four A&M students
that destroyed eight homes, 27 mo
bile homes and a Veterans of For
eign Wars hall.
Anderson County Judge Jack
Rogers said he gave the governor a
report of damage in Palestine that
ranged between $12 million and $15
million.
“In order for us to get federal re
lief the damage has to be greater
than our capacity to, respond,” Rog
ers said.
At the news conference, Clements
said he could not compare this disas
ter with others.
“When you start talking about hu
man suffering, damages to homes
and business, schools — you just
can’t compare one disaster with an
other,” he said.
The University of Texas assistant
police chief said that no charges will
be filed against four A&M students
who were found on the UT campus
early Sunday morning, including
one who was handcuffed to a post.
Harry Eastman, assistant chief of
police at UT, said that there were no
damages done to UT property by
the A&M students, but a report of
the incident will be given to A&M of
ficials today.
George Russell Pulliam, a senior
journalism major and member of
the Corps of Cadets, was found by
UT police early Sunday morning
handcuffed and tied to a post.
Three other people, identified by
UT police as A&M students, were at
the scene and were taken to police
headquarters before being released.
Director of A&M Police Bob Wiatt
said his department will take no ac
tion unless Pulliam files charges say
ing he was kidnapped or assaulted
on the A&M campus.
Wiatt said he can take no action
unless Pulliam files charges.
Wiatt said the report from UT will
be given to the Department of Stu
dent Affairs as well as to the office of
Commadant of the Corps.
Both offices have reported that
action may be taken after they see
the report.
Because this may have been a
hazing incident, Wiatt said, it will be
taken very seriously.
Despite repeated efforts to reach
Pulliam by phone, he has not been
available for comment.
Planned ERA policy to penalize cities not meeting clean air goals
WASHINGTON (AP) — The En
vironmental Protection Agency said
Tuesday that some cities probably
will have to enact new auto restric
tions under its planned new policy
calling for eventual penalties against
areas that can’t quickly meet clean air
goals.
Four senators denounced EPA
Administrator Lee M. Thomas for
not announcing penalties as of Jan.
1. Anything else, they said, is an ille
gal extension of deadlines only Con
gress can set.
Thomas said their interpretation
of the law was wrong. He said he had
been trying “ad nauseam” to get
Congress to change the Clean Air
Act to postpone deadlines for com
pliance with pollution standards,
currently Dec. 31.
“I’d like Congress to lay out what
should be done,” Thomas said.
The deadline — originally set for
1977, and twice postponed — will
find about 62 cities and rural coun
ties out of compliance for ozone, the
smog constituent that makes breath
ing difficult, and 65 violating the
standard for carbon monoxide,
which lessens the blood’s oxygen
carrying capacity.
Twenty-three cities are on both
lists. The 26 largest metropolitan
areas are on one or the other.
Thomas said “a handful, maybe
10” cities, including New York,
Denver and Los Angeles, probably
would have to restrict auto use to
meet the standards.
That could be done, he suggested,
“by measures like ride-sharing and
car pools and mass transit.”
Thomas’ policy, announced for
public comment before adoption
early next year, calls for all states to
submit new pollution control plans
for non-complianqe areas in the next
two years. EPA then would take up
to a year to examine the plans.
Areas that could show compliance
in three to five years from approval
would escape penalty. Other areas
would be barred from construction
of large new pollution sources, and
would have to reduce emissions of
carbon monoxide or the chemicals
that form ozone by 3 percent per
year above what results from federal
programs or face withholding of
federal highway and sewer aid.
That 3 percent would have to be
achieved on fop of federal measures
that are making the air cleaner ev
erywhere, such as EPA’s planned re
strictions on the volatility of gaso
line, a principal precursor of ozone.
Sen. John Chafee, R-R.L, said
Thomas’ policy “takes the heat off
He was joined by other colleagues
on the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, Robert
Stafford, R-Vt., and Democrats Dan
iel Patrick Moynihan of New York
and Frank Lautenberg of New
Jersey.
The committee has approved a
major revamping of the Clean Air
Act that sets compliance deadlines
three, five and 10 years away, but
also includes acid rain measures the
Reagan administration opposes.
Official: A&M unhappy with low number of women in engineering
By Doug Driskell
Staff Writer
Although Texas A&M leads the
nation in engineering bachelor de
grees issued to women — 302 in
1986 — it still is not enough, an of
ficial in the Texas Engineering Ex
periment Station said
“We are really unhappy with
how few women we have,” Jeanne
Rierson, administration assistant
at TEES, said.
“There is no strong recruitment
of women — as we do for minori
ties — at this time,” Rierson said.
What recruitment there is for
women is offered by the Society of
Women Engineers, she said.
Each year SWE sponsers a con
ference in January, which male
and female students are invited to
attend.
The purpose of the conference
is to show female high school stu
dents that women can be success
ful engineers.
In 1986, A&M led the nation in
bachelor degrees issued with
1,730, 5.4 percent of the nation’s
total, according to a special report
from the American Society for En
gineering Education.
A&M is second in the nation in
producing Hispanic engineering
graduates, with 93 representing
4.2 percent of the nation’s total
Hispanic engineering graduates,
according to the report.
Where A&M did not fare well in
the report is in the number of
blacks issued bachelor’s degrees in
engineering.
The number of blacks who
earned bachelor’s degrees in engi
neering at A&M was only 1 per
cent of all the blacks who received
degrees in 1986, the report said.
Rierson attributes the high
number of Hispanic engineers in
comparison to the low number of
black student engineers to the de
mographics of Texas.
In 1986, Prairie View A&M was
second in the nation in black engi
neering bachelor degrees, accord
ing to the report.
A&M’s School Relations Office
offers a special scholarship called
the Presidential Achievement
Award to bring the most outstand
ing minorities from their high
schools, she said. This, along with
150 industry-supported schol
arships offered within the college,
is the extent of aid offered to mi
norities in the engineering depart
ment.
Rierson said the department
also promotes graduate school to
all engineering undergraduate
students, especially monorities.
She said there is a lack of engi
neer graduates going to graduate
school and last week a program
was given by the engineering de
partment to promote graduate
school to minorities.