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Vol. 87 No. 71 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, December 10,1987
Inside
A College Station
Christmas
Powers discuss Afghanistan, nuclear arms
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Rea
gan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev
grappled with differences over Afghanistan
and cutbacks in strategic nuclear arms
Wednesday in a summit meeting that
ended “on a very optimistic note” but failed
to produce any breakthroughs, U.S. offi
cials said.
One administration source, speaking pri
vately, said it was unlikely there would be
any progress on withdrawal of Soviet forces
from Afghanistan but it was possible there
could be some movement “at the margins”
on arms control.
Gorbachev himself told Reagan at a din
ner at the Soviet Embassy Wednesday
night, “In some areas we remain far apart,”
although he said he felt “we have made
headway on a number of important issues
and this is cause for optimism.”
Reagan, in his toast at the dinner, spoke
of “differences that reach to the core values
on which our political systems are based.”
“Even so, we can make progress,” Rea
gan said, adding that “perhaps in this
Christmas season we should look at an even
deeper and more enduring realism. ... It is
the reality that binds each of us as individ
ual souls.”
Gorbachev, in his toast, as translated by
his interpreter, said, “Bombs and missiles
cannot think. . . . Those devices have nei
ther souls nor conscience and so they are
more dangerous than any madman.”
Earlier, at the conclusion of the leaders’
lone negotiating session of the day, a two-
hour meeting, presidential spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said, “This was a day of
heavy lifting.”
Secretary of State George P. Shultz told
ABC News, “We see a little progress here
and there, but they are tough issues.”
Reagan, in an interview with columnists,
noted Gorbachev has said publicly he
wanted to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
Without revealing details of the talks, Rea
gan said the two sides have people “working
on that particular question right now as to
when and how.”
\
Reagan and Gorbachev are to wind up
their discussions with an Oval Office session
and a working luncheon today. The White
House said Reagan will address the nation
at 9 p.m. EST today from the Oval Office,
just hours after Gorbachev sums up the
meetings at a Soviet Embassy news confer
ence.
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Funds marked
for cyclotron,
A&M research
By Richard Williams
Staff Writer
The Department of Energy has
earmarked more than $2 million in
1988 for operations of facilities and
research in nuclear and chemical
physics Texas A&M.
David Hendrie, director of nu
clear physics at the department’s Of
fice of Energy Research, said the de
partment has earmarked $1.34
million for research and operation
of A&M’s new superconducting cy
clotron.
The department earmarked
$700,000 for research in nuclear
physics by A&M scientists involved
in projects that will not necessarily
use the cyclotron, and $1 10,000 for
capital equipment.
A majority of the funds for capital
equipment will go toward a proton
spectrometer, which will measure
the energy and angles of protons to
some of the reactions occurring in
A&M’s cyclotron.
However, the budget is subject to
the approval of the U.S. Congress
and President Reagan.
Helmut A. Merklein, administra
tor of department’s Energy Infor
mation Administration, said these
figures are not cast in stone yet.
“The entire budget is open to
question right now,” Merklein said.
“Nothing in the budget is definite.
However, my gut feeling right now
is that this budget item is not going
to get hit.”
Hendrie said if an agreement on
the budget is not reached soon, the
budget proposal currently in front
of Congress could come under pro
visions of the Gramm-Rudman law.
Hendrie said he estimated funds to
A&M from the department would
be cut by about 8.5 percent if the
Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction
act goes into effect. That could mean
a loss of around of $180,000 in
funds to A&M from the department.
“This would be the most terrible
thing that could happen,” Hendrie
said.
The department is pleased with
the progress of the superconducting
cyclotron, one of only three in the
world, he said. The cooperation be
tween private, state and federal offi
cials it took to make the project hap
pen also pleased the department,
Hendrie said.
The cyclotron puts A&M in the
forefront of nuclear research and is
bound to attract the best people
from around the world to A&M,
Hendrie said.
“Anytime you have the best equip
ment you are going to attract the top
people,” he said.
Students complain about dorm’s use as holiday housing
By Kimberly House
Staff Writer
The Interim Housing Program at
Texas A&M is causing some Keath-
ley Hall residents’ tempers to flare.
Tom Murray, assistant director of
student affairs, said the program —
which provides housing over the
Christmas break to students who do
not have anywhere to go for the holi
days — has been opposed by resi
dents since its beginning 10 years
ago. But, he says, there have been
more complaints this year than be
fore.
“The Interim Housing Program is
nothing new, but we have PR (public
relations) problems with it every
year,” Murray said.
People who sign up and pay for
interim housing during the
Christmas break will be assigned a
room on the first floor of Keathley.
The students who live in these
rooms — most of whom were re
quired to sign a two-semester lease
or lose their $200 deposit — must ei
ther move completely out of the
room or trust the interim resident
not to steal or damage the belong
ings they leave behind.
The residents’ primary complaint
is that they were not notified at the
beginning of the semester that their
dorm would be used for the pro
gram this year.
“If I would have known earlier
that someone could be assigned to
live in my room, I would have tried
to move to another floor or a differ
ent dorm,” said Denise Thompson, a
sophomore journalism major and
first floor Keathley resident.
Murray said that because students
don’t pay to live in the room during
the holidays, the possible interim ar
rangement is not in the housing con
tract they sign upon moving in.
The Central Area Coordinator’s
office notified all campus residents
about the program in a Nov. 19
memo stating that the interested stu
dents would stay in Keathley Hall.
The particular dorm used in the in
terim housing program is rotated ev
ery three years among the balcony-
style halls, Murray said. Those halls
include Hughes, Keathley, Fowler,
Mclnnis and Schuhmacher.
All interim residents are put on
the first floor of one dorm, he said.
Some rooms already will be vacated
because their residents are graduat
ing, withdrawing from the Univer
sity or leaving to co-op — the only
exceptions to the two-semester con
tract requirement. If not enough
rooms are vacant, fall residents’
rooms must be used to house stu
dents during the interim.
Keathley residents were notified
in a Nov. 23 memo that students will
live in the first-floor rooms.
“It has never been apparent to us
that we need to communicate to the
residents earlier about the pro
gram,” Murray said.
He said the program usually
houses fewer than 10 students dur
ing the holidays. But many residents
who signed nine-month contracts
were unhappy about the situation.
“We pay all this money to live he
re,” asked Cindy Larson, a freshman
speech communications major and
first floor Keathley resident. “Why
should we have to move out between
semesters?”
Although residents now are re
quired to sign a nine-month resi
dence hall contract, Murray said stu
dents are not paying for their room
over the Christmas break. He said
See Residents, page 7
Faculty Senate: Senior finals
will further A&M excellence
By Kimberly House
Staff Writer
For the first time in Texas A&M’s
history — May 1988 — graduating
seniors will take final exams.
method of trying to further aca
demic excellence,” said Tom Black,
academic affairs chairman of the
Student Senate and senior engi
neering major.
“Besides, it is in the best interest
of Texas A&M if we are to become a
world-class university,” he said.
The Student Senate has been
fighting the Faculty Senate and the
Texas A&M administration for al
most three years on the issue of se
nior finals. Now, Black said the stu
dent organization has accepted the
fact of senior finals but is opposed to
the schedule.
Today some members of the Stu
dent Senate will present a resolution
to a few members of the Faculty Sen
ate in an informal meeting. The res
olution passed by the Student Senate
proposes a new schedule that sets
graduating seniors’ finals on Thurs
day and Friday of the week preced
ing dead week and on Monday and
Tuesday of dead week. This proba
bly would require faculty members
to make two exams if a class included
both graduating seniors and under
classmen.
Black said with the now existing
finals schedule — exams on Friday,
Saturday, Monday and Tuesday —
the tradition of having graduation
the Friday and Saturday of dead
week with a full campus will suffer.
“You want your parents to see
A&M the way you have seen it for
the last four years; an empty school
doesn’t convey the same warmth and
friendliness as does one full of life,”
See Finals, page 7
“Instituting finals at A&M was a
Finals Schedule
Dec. 11 (Friday)
Classes meeting MWF 8 a.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 1 p.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 8 a.m. will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 9 a.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Dec. 12 (Saturday)
Classes meeting MWF 2 p.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 9:30 a.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF noon will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 10 a.m. will have final 5 p.m. -7 p.m.
Dec. 14 (Monday)
Classes meeting MWF 3 p.m. and MW 3 p.m. will have final
8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 11 will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 3:30 p.m. will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 11 a.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Dec. 15 (Tuesday)
Classes meeting TR 2 p.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Classes meeting TR 12:30 p.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 5 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. will have
final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 4 p.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Classes meeting MW 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and
5:30 p.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Fish Camp site hit by tornadoes;
$2 million in damages reported
By Todd Riemenschneider
Staff Writer
The site of Texas A&M’s Student Y Fish Camp
was not spared the brunt of Mother Nature’s wrath
on Nov. 15, when tornadoes ripped through central
Texas, said Jo Hudson, Student Activities Office ad
viser.
Lakeview Conference Center in Palestine —where
Fish Camp is held each year — suffered at least $2
million of damage, she said.
“Seventy-five percent of the buildings had some
damage,” Hudson said. “Some was minor, but some
of the buildings had significant damage.”
Hudson, who visited the site a few weeks ago, said
there was a definite path that at least one of the tor
nadoes took.
“It looks as if it started on one side of the lake and
went across into the cabin area,” she said.
By the way the area looked, Hudson said, she be-
lives there must have been more than one tornado.
“I imagine there were several, because one of the
maintenance people said one touched down behind
the cafeteria and completely destroyed one of the
classrooms,” Hudson said.
However, the buildings are not the only things
that were damaged.
Mother Nature also took some of her own cre
ations with the high winds; large numbers of trees
were destroyed in the rampant sweep of the area.
“The real damage is to the trees,” Hudson said.
“Huge trees, completely uprooted. There is tree
rubble everywhere. There is one area where none of
the trees have tops.”
Hudson said the foresty service is trying to help in
the area by salvaging any trees it can.
Melvin G. Brinkley, a campus minister with the
Wesley Foundation at A&M, hopes to gather groups
This is one of many buildings hit by tornadoes.
that use the site into a team to help with the cleaning.
“There are three groups that use the site — Lake-
view, Fish Camp and the Wesley Foundation — and
we are trying to coordinate a date when we can all go
and aid in the clean-up process,” Brinkley said.
See Fish Camp, page 7