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The Dattauon
Vol. 87 No. 76 GSPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, January 19, 1988
astronauts push
for new test-firing
J SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
I— Senior astronauts are worried
| about flaws found in a solid rocket
■>oster tested last month and are
pushing for an additional manda
tory full-scale test-firing before the
I space shuttle is cleared to fly again.
'W A spokesman for Morton Thiokol
Iru , manufacturer of the rocket en
gines, confirmed Monday that “dis-
^ Cessions are under way” about add-
ing another mandatory test-firing.
■ Daniel Brandenstein, chief of the
pHtronaut office at the Johnson
Space Center, said in an interview
Friday that he and others in his of-
fu e feel that the Dec. 23 full-scale
■>cket firing, during which part of
■^■e rocket nozzle assembly came
apart, shows that more testing is
needed to assure safety.
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration planned four
full-scale rocket firings to verify a
new design for the solid-fueled
booster. One test, called DM8, was
conducted in August and was suc
cessful. It was followed by the Dec.
23 test, called DM9, in which a new
nozzle boot ring design was used.
Engineers found after the test that
the boot ring had come apart.
Navy Rear Adm. Richard H.
Truly, a former astronaut who
heads the shuttle program, an
nounced earlier this month that the
new boot ring that failed on DM9
would be replaced with the boot ring
that worked on DM8. He said it then
would be tested twice more to certify
it for flight.
But Brandenstein said he does not
think that is good enough.
“The DM9 outer boot ring test
was not a success, so that should not
count as one of our ‘get ready to fly’
tests on the nozzle,” he said. “My
feeling is that we ought to redo the
nozzle part of that” and test it three
full times again before certifying it.
The shuttle program manager an
nounced earlier this month that the
failure in the December rocket test
will require a delay in resumption of
space flights until late July or Au
gust. Flights had been scheduled to
resume in June.
party reverses vote
t>n petition decision
■ AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Re
publican Party reversed course Mon-
Hy and decided to allow all six GOP
pr sidential candidates to keep any
delegates who won in the March 8
primary.
■ Party Chairman George Strake
announced the decision, saying it
had become impossible to verify sig
natures submitted on petitions by
the various campaigns since news re
ports surfaced 11 days ago detailing
alleged forgeries on some petitions.
■ “All six candidates are men of in
tegrity,” Strake said. “It would be
grossly unfair to the candidates
themselves and especially to the vot
ers of Texas to let the misguided ac
tions of a few individuals deny the
voters’ right to make their
judgments.”
In another political development
Monday, Railroad Commission can
didate Jerry Langdon said Texas’
slide to No. 2 among oil-producing
states shows the need for a stronger
commission voice in Washington.
Langdon, a Democrat who is chal
lenging incumbent Commissioner
Jim Nugent, said he doesn’t think
the commission has done enough to
speak up for oil and gas producers
with federal regulators.
“It’s real important for a good,
balanced national energy policy to
have input from the production
side,” Langdon said. “Right now,
we’ve got a national energy policy —
if you can call it that — which is com
pletely consumption-driven.
“The Railroad Commission has
the responsibility to go in and make
those kinds of production interests
known.”
In a news conference at Republi
can Party headquarters, Strake ac
knowledged that the party had been
embarrassed by the reports that peti
tions submitted by four candidates
included signatures of dead people,
Democrats and voters who said th
supported someone else.
The party originally said any can
didate who failed to submit the
5,000 valid signatures required
would be barred from receiving del
egates.
ey
Reading between the lines
Photo by Jay Janner
Students waited in long lines at the Texas A&M
Bookstore on Monday. Many opted to wait until
the first day of the semester to buy and sell text
books.
*A&M begins search for new president
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By Karen Kroesche
Staff Writer
A nationwide search will begin
Isoon to locate a new president for
iTexas A&M, but University offi-
[cials may not have to look farther
Jthan their own backyard, Chan-
Icellor Perry Adkisson said Mon-
Iday.
“We’ll look for the best-qual
ified person wherever that may
be,” Adkisson said. “But in the
past 10 to 15 years we’ve re
cruited some really fine people to
A&M, so I think we have some
who will be considered.”
Adkisson wouldn’t speculate
on exactly who will be considered,
but said there are many qualified
people already at A&M.
“We have a number of people
in administrative positions and
deans who would make fine Uni
versity presidents,” he said.
Adkisson said the search com
mittee will leave no stone un
turned in its search for the most
qualified candidate, but that there
should be no shortage of appli
cants because of A&M’s growing
reputation.
“We’ll be looking for someone
who has demonstrated abilities in
administration and a person
who’s a proven leader and who
j has the highest academic creden
tials,” he said. “Right now Texas
; A&M University would be a
highly desirable place for a per-
I son to come.”
President Frank E. Vandiver
; announced last week that he will
• leave his job by Sept. 1 to head up
a new military think tank, or the
; Mosher Institute for Defense
I Studies..
The institute is expected to be
“And I want to see us maintain quality instruction in
the classroom. I think A&M has a good reputation
for quality instruction and the way our professors
teach, and I’d like to see that tradition continued. ”
— Chancellor Perry Adkisson
approved formally at next week’s
meeting of the Board of Regents,
and Adkisson said the search for
Vandiver’s replacement will
probably begin formally at that
point also.
“The search has not begun, but
Mr. (David) Eller has asked me to
draft up some recommendations
on the search for the consider
ation of the Board at the January
meeting,” Adkisson said. “I
would expect at the meeting that
a search advisory committee will
be established and the ground
rules and procedures for making
the search will be put in place and
it will start.”
Adkisson praised Vandiver for
his role in gaining quality faculty,
research dollars and a national
reputation for A&M, and said he
would like to see the University
continue to grow.
“My major commitment is to
quality, and I would like to see us
continue to add to the quality of
the faculty that we already have
here,” he said. “I’d like to see us
get more people recognized for
their achievements and elected to
the national academies of science
and engineering. I would like to
see us advance in our research
rankings nationally. I would like
to see us gain one or two national
research centers, like the ad
vanced ocean drilling project.
“And I want to see us maintain
quality instruction in the class
room. I think A&M has a good
reputation for quality instruction
and the way our professors teach,
and I’d like to see that tradition
continued.”
In a Battalion story last week,
Student Body President Mason
Hogan voiced concerns that
A&M administrators would lose
sight of the undergraduate stu
dents in their persuit of graduate
students and research funds.
Adkisson said Hogan ex
pressed a legitimate concern but
said the problem is not inevitable.
“I know that (losing sight of the
undergraduate student) is always
a fear, and I share his concerns,”
Adkisson said. “But I also believe
that good research people also
make good teachers and that
they’re not incompatible.”
Adkisson said a new president
inevitably will bring new ideas to
the administration of A&M, but
he said he doesn’t anticipate any
problems in the turnover process.
“Every person has his or her
own vision of what they want to
accomplish in life, and I would
suspect that the new president
would have some different vi
sions than the old one,” he said.
“Our aim is to have a new presi
dent in by September, and I don’t
anticipate that there’ll be any dif
ficulties in the transition between
Dr. Vandiver and the new presi
dent.”
Adkisson said he will miss he
and Vandiver’s solid working
relationship.
Faculty wants role in finding new president
U.S. pays homage
to King’s ‘dream’
of racial harmony
By Karen Kroesche
Staff Writer
; Texas A&M faculty — and possibly A&M
students — should be involved in the search
for a new University president, Faculty Senate
' Speaker C. Richard Shumway said Monday.
| In his opening remarks at the year’s first
Faculty Senate meeting, Shumway said that he
has requested that the faculty be part of the
replacement process, and that he has received
positive response.
“Provost McDonald and I have jointly spo
ken with Mr. David Eller, chairman of the
Board of Regents,” Shumway said, “and rec
ommended that the faculty be formally in
volved in the search process for a new Univer
sity president.
“We’ve received no commitments, but a
very receptive response from the administra
tion. He has apparently received that recom
mendation from other sources, including the
chancellor (Perry Adkisson).”
After the meeting, Shumway said he hopes
the faculty participation would take the form
of Senate inclusion in the nomination process.
“I think it would be likely that the Faculty
Senate — at least the speaker — would be
asked to nominate someone — possibly,” he
said.
A decision regarding who will participate in
the selection of a new president will probably
be made at next week’s Board of Regents
meeting, Shumway said.
(AP) — Arizona marchers called
for restoring the Martin Luther
King Day holiday, and Philadel
phia’s mayor set churchbells pealing
with a tap on the Liberty Bell as
Americans paid homage Monday to
King’s still-unrealized dream of ra
cial harmony.
In Atlanta, Coretta Scott King and
her children laid a wreath at the
slain civil rights leader’s tomb on the
third national holiday in his honor.
See reiated story, Page 4
The graveside ceremony was fol
lowed by the now-traditional ecu
menical service at Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where King served as co
pastor.
“The disease (of racism) ... is still
among us, and it has global implica
tions,” said the church’s pastor, the
Rev. Joseph Roberts, before a gath
ering that included Sen. Sam Nunn,
D-Ga., and Atlanta Mayor Andrew
Young.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, presi
dent of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, urged the
audience to remember the ideals
that King stood for.
“The holiday honors an individ
ual, but also a struggle,” he said.
Some 5,000 marchers braved a
downpour in Phoenix to rally at the
state Capitol to make Martin Luther
King Day a state holiday despite op
position from that state’s embattled
governor, Evan Mecham.
“It is time to stop having the rest
of the country think of us as the site
of a three-ring circus,” Phoenix
Mayor Terry Goddard said.
State House Minority Leader Art
Hamilton, D-Phoenix, told the
crowd, “There is never enough rain
in Arizona to quench the fire that is
in us. We will not rest until we have
been successful.”
Shortly after noon, Philadelphia
Mayor W. Wilson Goode, the grand
son of a slave, tapped the Liberty
Bell with his fist to symbolically start
the nation’s bells ringing in King’s
honor.
Over 1,000 people rallying at the
state Capitol in Oklahoma City
heard former state Sen. E. Melvin
Porter urge a continued fight
against racism.
One of the most dramatic mo
ments in King’s life was to be re
called Monday night in Selma, Ala.,
where a candlelight march was
planned to commemorate “Bloody
Sunday,” the 1965 demonstration
when state troopers confronted civil
rights marchers.
King was assassinated in Mem
phis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. The
Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s birth
day was Friday.
Students at at least two New Jer
sey high schools that stayed open
walked out of their classes in pro
test.
Black woman
claims bank
racially biased
FORT WORTH (AP) —Bank
teller Clara Watson says she tried to
endure racial slurs and customers
saying they didn’t want a black per
son counting their money.
But when she was passed over
four times for promotion, she
started a legal battle that has reached
the nation’s highest court and, she
says, has badly damaged her health
along the way.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments Wednesday in what
could prove to be a landmark civil
rights case and change the way em
ployers nationwide hire and pro
mote employees, attorneys said.
Watson, however, only wanted a
promotion to supervisor at the Fort
Worth bank where she had worked
for eight years when she asked attor
ney Art Brender in 1981 to take her
case.
In the seven years since, Brender
has put together a four-year statisti
cal study he claims proves Fort
Worth Bank & Trust discriminated
against blacks and used subjective
hiring and promotion criteria to
thwart their progress.