Texas ASM m m m •
The Battalion
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World (
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College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 3, 1988
skating
arage to house
tudents, faculty
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By Richard Williams
Senior Staff Writer
Ever since the Texas A&M Board
o! Regents approved the construc-
ttion of a $9 million parking garage
■ January 1987, students have been
■king if they are going to be allowed
T> park in the six-story structure.
Bob Wiatt, A&M director of secu-
Itvand traffic, said he plans to allow
Hudents and faculty to buy permits
liat will allow them to park in the
ilOOO-space garage.
■ The permits, the cost of which are
^determined, will be sold to faculty
K id students at the same cost; how-
'er, students would be able to pur-
lase permits based on a nine-
K ionth school rate, Wiatt said. This
ould mean students not attending
Jimmer school wouldn’t have to
trchase a year-round permit.
Unlike the regular student park-
glots, the garage will not be over
bid, Wiatt said. The parking garage
ill have a limited number of per
ks available for purchase, he said.
There are more permits sold for
Indent parking lots than the num-
“In actuality, when you
buy a permit for student
parking you are buying a
hunting license that allows
you to hunt for a space.
We will not do that with
the parking garage.”
— Bob Wiatt
AScM director of security
and traffic
ber of spaces available each year be
cause A&M must sell permits to any
student who wants one, Wiatt said.
“In actuality, when you buy a per
mit for student parking you are buy
ing a hunting license that allows you
to hunt for a space,” Wiatt said. “We
will not do that with the parking ga
rage.”
A survey is underway to deter
mine how many faculty spaces are
needed, he said. After the survey is
completed, the number of student
permits to be sold will be deter
mined, he said.
Out of the approximate 2,000
available spaces, only 1,500 permits
will be sold, Wiatt said. The students
who buy permits for the garage will
only be buying the right to park in
the garage if space is available, Wiatt
said. If the garage is full, those stu
dents with garage permits will prob
ably be allowed to park in certain
random lots around campus, he
said.
Spaces will be available to those
who wish to pay cash each time they
park in the garage, Wiatt said. While
the cost per day has not yet been set,
Wiatt said it probably would be ei
ther $ 1 or $2 per day.
Those using the cash parking sys
tem could park in the garage for 30
minutes or the whole day; however,
those who paid cash and then left
the garage would have to pay again
to re-enter that day.
Before the garage is finished, the
State Department of Highways
hopes to have University Drive from
See Parking, page 7
Drag out the coats
Cold weather hit the Texas A&M campus Tues
day, forcing students like Ken Buchanan, Bart
Photo by David Eller
Lowry, Denise Walker, Lisa Spies and Liz Paulus
to drag out their coats again.
Probe not always
properly directed,’
Sessions claims
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WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI
[Director William Sessions said
[Tuesday that the bureau’s investi
gation of a group opposing the
I Reagan administration's Central
America policy was “not properly
|directed” in all instances.
Sessions, in his first in-depth
[discussion of the probe, denied
that the FBI had expanded its in
vestigation into the Committee in
Solidaritv with the People of El
Salvador, or CISPES, to include
[other organizations.
He said that since members of
[CISPES were in contact with peo-
[ple from other organizations, a
"limited investigation was con-
[ducted to follow up information
lat was not complete. The focus
remained on CISPE'S, not the
other organizations, and was to
round out or develop informa
tion on the scope ol activities and
inlluence off TSPES.”
But the New York-based Cen
ter lot Constitutional Rights,
which last week released some of
the FBI documents it obtained
through the Freedom of Infor
mation .Act. contended that the
investigation "covered hundreds
of groups and individuals who
were engaged in activities pro
tected and encouraged bv the
U.S. Constitution.”
The center also released other
FBI documents that it said show
the probe was broader than Ses
sions has ackncm ledged.
New program begins to bring
more research money to Texas
By Todd Riemenschneider
Staff Writer
A new program designed to bring
more federal research money into
the state will begin today at the Bal-
cones Research Center in Austin.
The Texas Research Seminars are
being fully sponsored by the Texas
Office of State and Federal Rela
tions, which is located in Washing
ton, D.C.
The event is being hosted by the
University of Texas and Texas A&M
University Systems. This is the first
year for the seminars to be spon
sored .
Activities at A&M will begin at 8
a.m. Thursday with a working
breakfast at the Clayton Williams
Alumni Center.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., tours will
be conducted at Texas A&M’s Cyclo
tron Institute. Others will be held at
the Wisenbaker Engineering Re
search Center and the Texas Agri
cultural Experiment Station’s Bru
cellosis Research Program.
There will be a noon luncheon in
room 225 of the Memorial Student
Center that will serve as a conclusion
to the seminar.
Jane Smith, information rep
resentative for the engineering pro
gram, said she hopes the seminar
will allow researchers to come in
contact with people who can help
them in their work.
“A researcher who may not be fa
miliar with the various agencies that
have research money available will
get to know more about the agencies
and what programs they will be
working on,” Smith said.
“This will allow researchers to
make some personal contacts with
the people who are directly involved
with the grants,” she said.
Smith is hopeful about the impact
the seminar will have on the econ
omy in Texas.
“We hope this will increase the
amount of federal research money,
and that money goes into our econ
omy,” Smith said.
Robert Goodwin, assistant deputy
chancellor for external affairs, also
hopes the seminar will bring re
searchers and federal funds to
gether.
“One of the purposes of the semi
nar is to provide exposure to some
of the administrators at the Wash
ington level who are involved in the
evaluation and administation of fed
eral grants,” Goodwin said.
“We hope by them seeing firs
thand the facilities we have in the
state and by having personal dia
logue with any of the bright re
searchers, we will have an opportu
nity to attract some research money
that might otherwise go to other in
stitutions,” he said.
Goodwin said there is a great
amount of competition for the fed
eral dollars.
“We are in direct competition with
other key research centers,” he said.
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EC: Computerized selling fueled crash
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Com-
fcuter-driven selling by large pension
find mutual funds fueled the Octo
ber stock market crash, panic ignited
|i and nervousness continues to per-
lade the market, the Securities and
Exchange Commission said Tues-
by.
The SEC staff, in a report the size
the Manhattan telephone book,
laid that computer trading strategies
Involving the futures markets were
not the sole cause of the stock mar
ket’s plummet.
Investor fears about the economy
kirobably triggered declines immedi
ately before Oct. 19, but computer
[fading by large institutions was “the
largest single direct factor responsi
ble for the initial opening declines”
on the day of the crash, the report
said.
The study was released as the Sen
ate Banking Committee opened four
days of hearings into the market
nosedive.
The leadoff witness was New
York investment banker Nicholas
Brady, a former Republican senator
from New Jersey who headed a pres
idential task force on the market
crash.
The SEC Said that during critical
trading periods on Oct. 19, when the
Dow Jones industrial average
plunged a record 508 points, pro
gram trading accounted for between
30 percent and 68 percent of New
York Stock Exchange volume in ma
jor stocks.
The computerized selling that day
was followed by panic selling over a
broad range of stocks, the report
said.
It said the very existence of com
puter strategies such as portfolio in
surance, designed to protect large
pension and mutual funds from
price falls, created an “overhang ef
fect,” fueling “negative market psy
chology.”
Trading of stock index futures al
lows an investor to speculate on the
direction of the stock market as a
whole.
It is faster and less expensive than
trading the actual stocks.
The report said “the aftershocks
of Oct. 19 continue to affect the •
markets today.”
The continued high pace of fu
tures trading and the resulting wild
price swings on the stock market
“can have long-term, profound im
pacts on the participation of individ
ual investors in the stock market,”
the study said.
That, in turn, hurts the ability of
corporations to raise money by sell
ing stock and in the long run hurts
the economy, it said.
Despite those findings, the SEC
staff said, futures markets are a valu
able hedging mechanism and
changes should be “effected with
great care.”
It did not support limits on daily
price swings in either the stock or fu
tures markets but said consideration
should be given to increasing margin
requirements in the futures market.
The SEC study did not address
one of the key recommendations of
Brady’s task force: that one regula
tor, preferably the Federal Reserve
Board, coordinate various markets.
Brady told the Senate committee
that the stock, futures and options
exchanges and federal regulatory
agencies should be given a chance to
enact suggested reforms on their
own.
But, he added, “I’m a little doubt
ful that will take place.”
He said Congress should give the
financial industry perhaps six
months to make some changes un
der the threat of “having it done for
them.”
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Siege at school ends after hostages released
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) —A
gunman was taken into custody
and 26 children and a teacher
who were held hostage in a day-
long siege at a private school were
1 released Tuesday night, police
told the children’s parents.
“It’s over,” Assistant Chief of
Police Bilh Wilkins said. He said
the kids were “all right.”
The man who said he wanted
to help the homeless held more
than 30 children and two teachers
hostage at a private school Tues
day but released others as a news
reporter heard his plea and Gov.
Guv Hunt sent a taped message.
"There are people on the street
who don’t have a place to sleep or
anything to eat,” the slightly built,
gray-bearded gunman said as he
held a rifle in a hallway of West
End Christian School. “I’m doing
this for them. This is a political
act, not a criminal act.”
The gunman, who did not give
his name, made his comments to
Associated Press reporter Hoyt
Harwell several hours after in
vading the school’s elementary di
vision building and taking about
80 children hostage along with
four teachers and an assistant.
The gunman sent a request for
the AP staffer to enter the school
building and hear his case to help
“get my message out.” Nine chil
dren were released by the gun
man after Harwell entered the
building and heard the man’s
statements.
Earlier, the gunman had freed
about 40 of the initial hostages,
with the freed children walking
across a street in intermittent
heavy rain to safety. Those taking
part in discussions with the gun
man included a television re
porter as the gunman sought tele
vision coverage of his actions.
The remaining hostages in
cluded teachers Judy Dunn, who
is pregnant, and Mary Alice Blan
ton. The teachers and children
could not be seen by Harwell,
who was in a hallway while the
gunman, with the rifle pointing
above Harwell’s head, stood in a
doorway of one of the classrooms
holding hostages. The childen
were quiet as the gunman spoke.
The governor sent the gunman
a taped message, but its contents
were not disclosed, Hunt spokes
man Terry Abbott said.
“It’s a real critical situation,
and the less we say, the better,"
Abbott said.
The gunman said, “All I want
is proof the governor will do
something. They’re wasting my
time. The kids want out and I
want out.”
The gunman, who appeared to
be in his 40s, said at another point
that he wanted “immunity and a
pardon.”
Police said two men wearing ski
masks and carrying at least one ri
fle invaded West End Christian
School about 8:40 a.m., shortly
after classes began. Police Lt. Da
vid Hartin said about four hours
after the school siege started, one
of the two men surrendered to
police, who did not release the
names of the two.
The gunman told Harwell,
“My name is not important. My
message is important. Maybe I
can wake people up.”
Before meeting with the AP
staffer, the gunman released chil
dren in batches — two girls at
first, three other pupils next,
then a group of 10 or more.
Hartin said children in grades
one, three, four and five were
trapped in the building when it
was invaded by the gunmen.
Alan Goodwin, director of the
nearby Indian Rivers Mental
Health Center, described the re
maining gunman as a Vietnam
War veteran who has “a general
ized concern with the govern
ment. He felt he had not been
treated fairly (and that) the gov
ernment is corrupt.”
“The more that the agencies in
Washington can appreciate what we
have to work with in Texas, the
more likely we are to bring in some
of those research dollars which in
turn will spawn more research fund
ing in Texas,” Goodwin said.
“By seeing some of our people
face to face and our facilites first
hand, it will allow us to attract a
higher percentage of those research
dollars,” he said.
Problems
with prisons
escalating
AUSTIN (AP) — Prison crowding
problems are continuing, authorities
say, with Travis County billing the
state more than $300,000 for hous
ing prisoners and the Board of Par
dons and Paroles running out . of
short-term, non-violent offenders to
release.
Travis County Sheriff Doyne Bai
ley has sent the state prison director
a $384,750 bill for prisoners housed
in the county jail because there
wasn’t room for them in the prison
system.
Travis County joined several
other counties that are trying to get
the state to pay the bills for convicted
inmates who spend months in
county jails because they can’t be
transferred to the Texas Depart
ment of Corrections.
Inmates sentenced to the Texas
prison system are backed up in jails
across the state because of a quota
system that limits the number of
prisoners that can be sent by each
county to the prison, officials say.
More than 5,000 inmates are
awaiting transfers to prison, officials
say.
In a letter to TDC Director James
Lynaugh, Bailey said 225 inmates
who could have been sent to state
prisons spent a total of 8,550 days in
the local jails from Sept. 4 through
Jan. 8. The county figured the costs
at $45 per inmate per day.
The panel also is considering
other measures, including possible
release of more convicts directly
from county jails, an increase in elec
tronic monitoring of risky parolees,
an increase in the number of facili
ties for inmates w r ho are within six
months of release and an expansion
of the number of halfw ay houses for
parolees, officials say.
State officials devised a plan that
limits admissions to Texas prisons to
150 inmates per day and requires the
parole board to release the same
number daily.
This allows the prisons to stay
within court-ordered population
guidelines and avoid repeated clos
ings of the prison system to new ad
missions.