FyfM Texas A&M m m w #
The Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 74 GSPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
■"
Wednesday, January 13, 1988
Ibraeli troops kill
oslem, deter
.N. inspection
IgAZA CITY, Occupied Gaza
Strip (AP) — Israeli troops shot and
killed a Moslem fundamentalist in a
violent demonstration Tuesday, and
a U.N. envoy’s attempts to inspect
rei igee camps were frustrated by
sol liers and protesters.
■ Military spokesmen said the army
imposed curfews on five of the eight
Ga a Palestinian refugee camps.
Iln the Israeli parliament, Foreign
^■nister Shimon Peres appealed for
ail effort to end the violence by polit
ical means. Hawkish members ac-
Hsed him of caving in to Arab de
mands.
^■At least 32 Arabs have been killed
since violent protest began Dec. 8 in
^■e West Bank and Gaza Strip,
which Israel captured from Jordan
aid Egypt in the 1967 Middle East
^Bar. About 1.5 million Palestinians
lire in the territories.
JlMThe military command said sol
diers opened tire when their lives
were threatened by a crowd of knife-
wielding Arabs in Rafah, at the
southern end of the Gaza Strip. One
Arab died and three were wounded,
while a soldier was treated for a mi
nor stab wound, a communique said.
The army identified the dead
man as Muhammed Yusuf El Ya-
zouri, a member of the Moslem fun
damentalist Islamic Jihad group,
who was freed from prison last year
after serving three years on unspeci
fied charges.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp,
troops fired on rioters brandishing
nail-studded sticks, slightly injuring
two people, the military said. Doc
tors in Jabaliya said they treated two
people for gunshot wounds.
Soldiers barred Marrack Gould-
ing, the U.N. undersecretary gen-
See Israeli, page 11
Stone improving
following surgery
lo transplant liver
Board reports accident increase for airlines
■ Former T exas A&.-M student John
Slone remains in serious condition a
week after his second liver trans-
plunt operation, a spokesman at the
Baylor University Medical Center in
■alias said Tuesday.
■ Susan Hall, the Baylor spokes-
■an, said Tuesday evening that
Slone was still in the intensive care
■nit and that his doctors say he is im
proving slowly.
I Stone, a 1984 A&M graduate and
second-year medical student at the
■niversity of Texas Medical Branch
in Galveston, received his second
liv er transplant Jan. 5 after his first
transplanted liver became infected.
I Stone’s original liver was de
stroyed by Alpha-1 Anti-Trypsin
■leficiency, which kept his body
from controlling his digestive en
zymes and resulted in cirrhosis of
the liver.
He received his first liver trans
plant Dec. 1 after a two-month wait.
Donations from the A&M commu
nity helped to pay $45,000 of the es
timated $250,000 needed for the
first transplant. The second trans
plant will cost about the same as the
first.
Anyone wishing to contribute
money can write to the American
Transplant Association, Box
822123, Dallas, TX 75382-2123, or
to the American Transplant Associa
tion, care of the John Stone Fund,
Post Oak Branch of First State Bank
in Caldwell, P.O. Box 10130, College
Station, TX 77840.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Major
U.S. airlines in 1987 had the highest
number of accidents in 13 years and
the most deaths in five years while
commuter carriers ,had their worst
safety record of this decade, the Na
tional Transportation Safety Board
reported Tuesday.
The board said the large airlines
had 31 accidents last year, including
four crashes involving fatalities, ac
counting for 231 deaths. The com
muter airlines, which fly smaller
planes, had 35 accidents and 58
deaths in 1987, the largest number
for that segment of the industry
since 1979, when 66 people died.
The 31 accidents among the U.S.
airlines flying large jet aircraft w'as
the highest figure since 1974, when
the airlines had 42 accidents. The
231 fatalities were topped during
the past decade only by 1979, when
351 people died, and 1982 when 233
were killed, according to the board.
Airline industry officials sug
gested, Jiowever, that the total acci
dent and fatality figures are mislead-
ing.
They say the rate of accidents in
volving fatalities — 0.043 per
100,000 departures — was lower in
1987 than in most years although
significantly higher than the rate in
1986 when there was only one fatal
ity involving major U.S. air carriers.
“There were only six other years
since the beginning of safety regula
tions in 1926 that had a lower (fatal
accident) rate,” said William F.
Bolger, president of the Air Trans
port Association, which represents
the major air carriers.
Bolger said the airlines carried
more than 450 million passengers op
nearly 7 million flights during 1987
and that 17 of the 31 accidents in
volved some sort of injury. 1 he
NTSB counts ah accident whenever
there is a significant injury or air
craft damage. Heavy turbulence in
which there is a significant injury
also is classified as an accident.
During 1987, the major airline ac
cident rate — covering fatal and
non-fatal accidents — was 0.43 per
100,000 departures compared with
0.31 the previous year, the safety
board said. The accident rate foi
commuters was 1.43 per 100,000 de
partures, the highest since 1981.
Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, in an August interview with The Battalion explains the changing role of the University in its quest for world status. Battalion file photos
Vandiver’s resignation provokes mixed reactions at A&M
Conflict compromise mark presidents University career
By Karen Kroesche
and
Lee Schexnaider
By Karen Kroesche
and
Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writers
Members of the Texas A&M com-
nunity expressed varied reactions to
President Frank E. Vandiver’s sur
prise announcement last week that
le will leave his post to assume the
directorship of a new military think
Lank at A&M.
“I certainly have mixed emotions
about (Vandiver) stepping down,
primarily because I think he’s done
an exceptional job as president,” said
Dr. John B. Coleman, a member of
the Board of Regents. “I don’t think
we could have had a better president
for Texas A&M during this period
of time.”
Vandiver, 62, announced Thurs
day that he w ill resign effective Sept.
1 and will head the proposed
Mosher Institute for Defense Stud
ies. He also will hold the title of dis
tinguished university professor and
fill an endowed chair to be created
for him.
Deputy Chancellor James B.
Bond said his regret at Vandiver’s
departure after seven years as presi-
Staff Writers
President Frank Vandiver was
praised extensively by his colleagues
after he announced his resignation
last week, but his 7-year tenure at
A&M has not been immune to con
flict.
James B. Bond, deputy chancellor
for legal and external affairs, said
that Vandiver has made great strides
during his presidency. Among the
dent is countered by his sense of re
lief that Vandiver will remain in a
leadership role at A&M.
“You know that in the life of any
body they get to a point where
they’re ready to hand over the
mantle, but we’re so happy that he is
going to stay here and do what he is
so good at doing,” Bond said. “I
think that the University is going to
be a real beneficiary even though
strong points he listed were Vandiv
er’s interest in the humanities and
liberal arts and his determination to
involve the faculty.
“But I think the best thing, his
best contribution to the University is
his leadership in attracting a high-
quality faculty,” Bond said. “We have
been able to attract and retain some
of the best faculty of any university
in the country, and I think that’s a
credit to his administration and
probably the most important thing
that he’s don^ for the University.
Bond also said that there have
we’re losing a person who has been
our standard-bearer and has done it
extremely well.”
Fellow regents Douglas R. DeCl-
uitt, L. Lowry Mays and Joe H. Rey
nolds as well as Bill C. Presnal, exec
utive secretary for the Board and
vice chancellor for state affairs, also
spoke highly of Vandiver’s accom
plishments during his term of office.
The defense studies institute is
been some “rocky times” in the Van
diver presidency. But one conflict,
involving the hiring of head football
coach and Athletic Director Jackie
Sherrill, was pointed to as an accom
plishment by Dr. Richard Shumway,
speaker of the Faculty Senate.
In January 1982, the Board of Re
gents hired Sherrill without consult
ing Vandiver and then asked him to
fire Tom Wilson, head football
coach at the time.
Vandiver offered to resign twice
because of the Board’s actions, but
the matter was dropped after Van-
scheduled for formal approval at the
Jan. 25 regents’ meeting. Coleman
said it is expected to attract more
graduate students and funding to
A&M.
“It is one of our goals to increase
our graduate-level activity, and as we
increase the graduate-level activity
we also increase the research dol
lars,” Coleman said. “A&M has al
ways gotten its fair share of many re
diver received a retroactive raise that
increased his salary to $100,000 —
$5,000 more than Sherrill’s salary.
aised Vandiver’s ability to “bite
the bullet” in the situation.
“I think it was an extremely im
portant one (accomplishment), to
draw the line and say ‘that is not ac
ceptable,’ even to the point of being
willing to give up his office if nec
essary,” Shumway said.
Shumway also said conflict with
the regents has been a source of
search dollars, but we got less than
our fair share of so-called ‘federal
dollars.’ ”
Vandiver has been praised by his
contemporaries for his efforts to ex
pand A&M’s research and graduate
student programs, but Student Body
President Mason Hogan worries that
undergraduate programs might
have been sacrificed in this process.
“Right now, they’re trying to build
up the graduate students on cam
pus, and my fear is they’re going to
put so much emphasis on graduate
students and the field of research
that we’re going to just become an
other t.u.; that’s their big impact,” he
said.
“An undergraduate . student at
Texas is nothing, and at A&M he’s
everything, or at least that’s what
we’ve always been known (for),” he
said, “and I just hope we don’t get
geared so much that way that we fall
in the same category with them, to
where we don’t really care about the
undergraduate student.”
One of Vandiver’s most fre
quently cited accomplishments was
his role in the establishment of the
Faculty Senate. Dr. Richard Shum
way, current speaker of the Senate,
praised Vandiver’s efforts.
“He’s been an extremely strong
advocate of participative govern
ment,” Shumway said. “lie has
brought an attitude, a demeanor
that has greatly affected faculty mo
rale positively.”
Hogan agreed that it is definitely
See Reactions, page 11
See Career, page 11