MMIT exas A&M mm « •
The Battalion
Vol.87 No. 61 GSPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, November 24, 1987
uake shakes California with 6.0 reading
WESTMORLAND, Calif. (AP) — An
brthquake more powerful than the one
that caused heavy damage near Los An
geles Oct. 1 jolted Southern California on
Monday, cracking windows and knocking
Items off shelves, authorities said.
There were no immediate reports of in-
luries or serious damage.
The earthquake struck at 5:54 p.m. and
kgistered a preliminary 6.0 on the Richter
scale, U.S. Geological Survey spokesman
Don Finley said in Washington. It was cen
tered near Westmorland, about 90 miles
east of San Diego, he said.
The Oct. 1 quake that caused heavy dam
age in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier
registered 5.9.
Early reports said the earthquake was felt
over a wide area, including Los Angeles,
San Diego and Palm Springs, Calif.; Yuma
and Parker in Arizona, and Las Vegas, 330
miles to the north, said Finley.
“It was shaking like crazy up here,” Mike
Baker, the maitre d’ at the Sunset Room on
the 27th floor of the Landmark Hotel in
Las Vegas, said.“There was a big giant rock
ing motion. Our biggest chandelier in the
dining room swayed for two to three min
utes. The customers were sitting down, they
didn’t notice much. But anyone on their
feet could feel the place rocking like a big
boat.”
The quake knocked out traffic lights,
cracked windows and rattled items off
shelves in stores and homes in the desert
community of Westmorland, with a popula
tion of about 1,500.
George Thomas was working in a conve
nience store in Westmorland when the
quake hit. “A couple things fell off shelves
and broke,” he said. “A window cracked a
little bit. Other than that, not too bad.”
Police Chief Robert Taylor, who com
mands four officers, said: “The only dam
age that has been reported is some mer
chandise falling off shelves — canned
goods, bottles — and one resident whose
light fixtures fell of the ceiling.”
What goes up
Steve Lawton, a senior mechanical engineering major from Houston,
left; Scott Chapman, a senior animal science major from Kingwood,
and J.D. Steward, a senior agricultural economics major from Veri-
Photo by Sam B. Myers
best, “relax” on stack Thursday afternoon. “Push,” the week immedi
ately before bonfire burns during which Aggies haul logs to the pe
rimeter to be pushed onto stack, began Thursday night.
U.S. offers deal
to get Cubans
to stop rioting
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
United States offered Monday to im
pose a moratorium on the return of
Cubans who came here illegally dur
ing the 1980 boatlift if Cuban in
mates end their rioting at two fed
eral prisons and free all hostages.
Attorney General Edwin Meese
III said the offer was being made in
See related stories, Pages 3,8
expectation that all hostages seized
by the inmates “will be safely re
leased without delay.”
Meese said that the moratorium
would be in effect until each depor
tation case could be reviewed in a
“full, fair and equitable” manner and
included “all such Cubans detained
in the United States.”
There was no immediate word on
the inmates’ reaction to the offer.
The Cubans’ cases would have
been reviewed individually, regard
less of the moratorium.
But Meese said that “there has
been a great deal of apprehension,
concern and tension about fair treat
ment . . . The clear statement we’ve
made today ... is to alleviate those
concerns and let all of them know
they will receive fair treatment.”
Associate Attorney General Ste
phen Trott declined to say whether
the government would loosen re
quirements to allow some of the Cu
bans to remain in this country. But
Trott did say that “not everybody” in
the two institutions “is going back (to
Cuba).” By continuing the uprisings,
“they’re only hurting their opportu
nities of getting what they want,” he
said.
“The exact criteria . . . will have to
be looked at,” Alan Nelson, director
of the U.S. Immigration and Natu
ralization Service said.
Officials look
for refugees
after escape
LAREDO (AP) — Authorities
scoured the brush country Monday
with the aid of airplanes and a heli
copter for Cuban refugees who <
caped from a detention center, bu L
officials said the escapees may have
left the area.
Six Cubans still missing were
among 17 who broke out of a mini
mum security detention center early
Sunday.
Apparently they broke out be
cause of fear they would be returned
to Cuba, Oscar Garza, assistant chief
patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s
Laredo Sector said.
Garza said the Cubans who es
caped from the Webb County De
tention Center 12 miles east of La
redo probably would not have been
among the 2,500 — mostly criminals
or mentally ill — that Cuba agreed to
take back, according to a State De
partment announcement Friday.
A&M to permit times
for exams to be reset
HEim
Because Texas A&M’s final exam
ination schedule for this semester
has exam times set for both a Friday
and a Saturday evening, some stu
dents may find that scheduled reli
gious activities conflict with their
posted exam times.
In such cases, exams that are
scheduled for the same times as reli
gious functions will yield to the activ
ities and be rescheduled, according
to a memorandum from University
President Frank E. Vandiver.
The scheduled final examinations
this semester begin Friday, Dec. 16,
and follow on Saturday, the next
Monday and Tuesday.
Jerry Gaston, associate provost,
said state law requires universities to
excuse students from exams when
religious events are scheduled at the
same time.
The University doesn’t have a pol
icy outlining which excuses will be
deemed acceptable for rescheduling
examinations and which won’t, Gas
ton said.
The decision of whether an ex
cuse is acceptable will be made on an
individual basis, he said.
The president’s memo also states
that faculty members who wish to at
tend religious functions that conflict
with scheduled exams may have
proctors administer their examina
tions to the students.
Gaston said this semester’s exami
nation schedule is a trial run to allow
students and faculty members to be
come familiar with the schedule
adopted along with senior finals at
A&M.
Seniors will begin taking finals in
the spring.
Official charges student with assault
in photographers’ harassment case
By Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writer
A male A&M student has been
charged with assault in connection
with the Oct. 30 incident in which
two Aggieland female photogra
phers said they were verbally and
physically harassed at the bonfire
site, Student Affairs Judicial Super
visor Brent Paterson said.
The incident occurred while the
photographers were at the bonfire
site for the raising of centerpole.
While the pole was raised, Marie Mc
Leod, a senior journalism major,
said she was pelted with dirt while
taking pictures of the bonfire from
outside the perimeter.
According to University policy,
the student affairs office is not re
quired to release the names of stu
dents charged with or receiving Uni
versity-related disciplinary actions.
But in a telephone interview, Peter
Parker Altice, a sophomore physics
major from California, said he has
received a letter from Paterson
charging him in the dirt-throwing
incident.
Altice said he will not discuss the
incident until he consults with his at
torney.
Paterson said the disciplinary ac
tions the University can take range
from a verbal warning to expulsion.
But he said in this type of case a stu
dent is likely to be placed on conduct
probation. A student on conduct
probation is deemed “not in good
standing” with the University. A&M
University regulations state that a
student on conduct probation will
receive notice of probation in his
permanent file and be ineligible for
the following activities:
• Holding an elected or ap
pointed office with the University or
any student organization.
• Representing the University off
campus of at any University func
tion.
• Receiving a University-adminis
tered scholarship.
Bill Kibler, associate director of
student services and adviser to the
bonfire, said that conclusions from
his investigation of the incident show
that there was definitely harassment
against the female photograpers
going on at the bonfire site.
One point of disagreement,
Kibler said, is whether male year
book photograper Eric Swellander, a
junior finance major, was allowed to
return to the inside of the perimeter
when all photographers were asked
to leave. The female photographers
present were McLeod and Jennifer
Friend, a senior journalism major,
who said they were unfairly re
stricted from the perimeter.
“One of the other conclusions I
reached was that the bonfire lead
ership ... is aware of the non-dis
crimination policy that must exist,”
Kibler said.
Whether the bonfire leaders tac
itly or actually gave preferential
treatment to the male photographer
is unclear, Kibler said.
“I don’t know if that will ever be
resolved,” he said.
Handicapped students complain
of illegal use of parking spaces
By Judy Black
Reporter
Some handicapped students at
Texas A&M say handicapped park
ing spaces on the A&M campus are
misused by delivery trucks, Univer
sity employees and students — most
| of whom use the excuse, “I’ll only be
a minute.”
Seargent D.J. Dunlap of the Uni
versity Police said the campus offi
cers issued 342 tickets to vehicles ille
gally parked in handicapped spaces
from September 1986 through Au
gust 1987. Students must have a
University parking sticker as well as
a state-issued handicapped sticker to
park in a campus handicapped
space, he said.
The University’s official penalty
for parking in a handicapped space
without the correct indentification is
iv
a $50 fine and towing if possible.
The state of Texas fines violators
from $50 to $250, and also tows.
Charles Schoonover, a junior in
computer science, said he thinks
handicapped parking on the A&M
campus generally is abused.
“Myself, being in a wheelchair,
handicapped parking is the only way
that I can use my car,” Schoonover
said. “If I can’t open my door all the
way, I can’t get in or out of my car.”
The reason for handicapped
parking places, Schoonover ex
plained, is not to get handicapped
people close to the store, but to give
them enough room to park and have
access to the building.
“I don’t care where the parking
space is, so long as I can get my door
open all the way,” he said.
Schoonover indicated he doesn’t
think police officers, University em
ployees or students put a high prior
ity on following or enforcing hand
icapped parking restrictions.
“I’ve even called the police,” he
said. “I waited over 30 minutes on
one occasion trying to get a truck
See Handicapped, page 7
A&M police, TABC officers to patrol bonfire
to prevent alcohol consumption by minors
By Clark Miller
Staff Writer
Plainclothed University Police
and Texas Alcohol Beverage
Commission officers will patrol
the bonfire site Wednesday night
to stop minors from drinking,
Bob Wiatt, director of University
Police, said.
“There will be several TABC
agents, as well as our own offi
cers, who will issue citations to
any minors caught drinking or
any one giving alcohol to a min
or,” Wiatt said.
Tickets will be issued to minors
for possession of alcohol and con
sumption of alcohol by a minor,
Wiatt said. Tickets also will be is
sued to people who supply mi
nors with alcohol, he said.
Director of University Police
Bob Wiatt said that there will be
busing available from Olsen Field
to bonfire site Wednesday night.
Wiatt said the University will
rovide busing from the Olsen
ield parking lot as well as the lots
next to Olsen Field. The buses
will begin running at 6 p.m. and
will run continuously until after
11 p.m.
?
Wiatt said the citations will be
Class C misdemeanors that carry
a fine of up to $200 for first-time
offenders. Supplying alcohol to
minors could cost a person up to
$500, he addded.
Wiatt said if people 21 or older
drink at bonfire, officers won’t
bother them as long as they are
well-behaved, although alcohol
isn’t authorized at the site.
Wiatt said about three-fourths
of A&M’s students are under the
legal drinking age of 21, so offi
cers and TABC agents will have
plenty of work just concentrating
on minors.
“We need to cut out the rowdy
ism that has been here in recent
years,” he said. “The last two bon
fires turned into drunken or
gies.”
Wiatt said his office has re
ceived bonfire-related complaints
of obscene language, fights and
people running into other peo
ple.
“We want to keep bonfire as a
family event,” Wiatt said.