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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1988)
The Battalion Vol. 87 No. 99 (JSPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Friday, FebruaryJ.9, 1988 andidates strive to lead debate DALLAS (AP) — Five of the six Iremaining Democratic candidates Ifaced the first big event of a three- Iweek struggle for the South Thurs- Iday night, hoping to shine in a de- [bate leading off the light for the re- jgion’s hundreds of delegates on [Super Tuesday. The presidential debate, just two [days after seven Democrats faced [Northern voters in New Hampshire, was held without Bruce Babbitt, who withdrew from the race earlier in the dav. and Paul Simon, who felt he could do more for his endangered candidacy by campaigning in the up per Midwest. Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massa chusetts, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee, Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson were hoping to distinguish themselves in the region where more than one-third of the Democratic delegates are up for grabs in the Su per Tuesday primaries March 8. The debate, at Southern Method ist University, was provided to public broadcasting stations and moder ated by PBS’ Roger Mudd. The Re publican candidates were to meet in a similar debate here Friday night. Babbitt, the former Arizona gov ernor whose dark horse campaign advocating higher taxes never got off the ground, said Thursday morning in Washington he was dropping out of the presidential race. Sen. Simon of Illinois, his presi dential hopes in jeopardy following a third-place finish in New Hamp shire, spent the day in Minnesota and South Dakota, hoping to win a victory in one or both next week to keep his campaign going into the South. Dukakis came into the debate needing to establish himself as a can didate with an appeal broader than his own New England region. He won going away in New Hampshire’s leadoff primary and immediately headed South, hoping his campaign that stresses management experi ence in 10 years as a governor will sell there, too. Gephardt, who finished second in New Hampshire after winning Io wa’s caucuses, came into the debate hoping to score points with South ern audiences after focusing on other states up to this week. He has demonstrated appeal to blue-collar, union and conservative voters in the two states where he has competed, saying that the country has begun an economic decline that' must be reversed in part through re taliation against nations that don’t trade fairly with the United States. Gore and Jackson have concen trated on the Southern campaign, al though both competed in New_ Hampshire. Jackson finished in fourth place there ahead of Gore. Hart had vowed to continue on his campaign, despite finishing be hind the leaders in the earlier con tests. Officials tell conference B-CS on recovery road ij i 4 a *1 i By Jeff Pollard Staff Writer Local businesses are on the road to recovery, a member of the Bryan- College Station Chamber of Com merce told participants in the cham ber’s Brazos Valley Economic Out look Conference on Thursday. "Times have changed and the rules for businesses have changed with them,” David Shellenberger, president-elect of the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commercesaid. "In order to prosper, business lead ers have learned to manage their time and resources to deal with in creased local competition and the economic downturn.” Shellenberger, owner of a retail clothing store, was one of many local business men and educators who outlined the economic developments of various markets in the Brazos Val ley. Shellenberger told participants that “. . . in times like these it is im portant to find your niche in the market to keep from being just an other statistic”. Shellenberger said early figures show retail sales in Brazos County up by about 2 percent ($715.4 mil lion in sales), but because the num ber of retail outlets went up from 1,621 to 1,657, individual sales re mained about the same compared to 1986. “Based on strong third and fourth quarter sales (up 8 percent and 6.6 percent respectively over last year),” Shellenberger said, “we’re project ing a 4-5 percent increase for 1988. A&M s expanding enrollment and commitment to capital expenditures will also help things in ’88.” This point was emphasized by Ed die J. Davis, deputy chancellor of fi nance and administration at A&M, speaking on the impact of A&M ac tivities on the local economic com munity. He said that for every dollar that is paid in sales tax by the com munity, nine dollars is returned to the University for local expendi tures. Davis said that in payroll alone, A&M plans to spend about $280 mil lion, which would affect about 39,000 employees and their families. This means that the A&M payroll supports in some way about 40 per cent of the population in Bryan and College Station. “A&M directly inputs over $800 million dollars into the local econ omy,” Davis said, “and after figuring in several economic factors, that comes to about $63 per second, or $2 million, that is circulating through the B-CS area that can be attributed to Texas A&M.” Davis went on to say that, when compared to receipts of corpora tions operating in Texas, A&M would rank in the top 15 among pri vate corporations and the top 50 among public corporations. To re place A&M, he said, it would take bringing in all of the operations (the offices, stores and headquarters) of Luby’s cafeterias, Pizza Inn, the La Quinta Inns hotel chain and Pier 1 Imports. Further impact is shown in the area of University research. Du- wayne M. Anderson, associate pror vost of research studies, said that re search funds continue to expand and is expected to exceed the $200 See Economy, page 5 I sought the law.. Senior Rich Sanden, an industrial education ma jor, inquires about “Operation I.D., a security seminar held in the Memorial Student Center. Pa- Photo by Mike C. Mulvey trol Officer Betty Lemay explains the seminar’s purpose, which was to help students learn prevent ative security. NASA astronaut helps A&M celebrate Black History Month through promoting involvement in Air Force ROTC activities CARE Week ends on topic of understanding safe sex By Pam Mooman Reporter Col. Guion S. Bluford, a NASA astronaut, came to Texas A&M Monday to participate in activities celebrating Black History Month. Bluford, who has been up in space twice, said he is proud to be part of the astronaut program at NASA. “I’m proud of being a part of that team,” Bluford said. The United States Air Force ROTC brought Bluford to A&M to | try to promote the Air Force to all students, notjust minorities. “Our overall enrollment (of mi norities) in the Air Force ROTC is about 11 percent,” Captain Kevin Gamache, assistant professor of aerospace studies at A&M, said. He said the Air Force ROTC usually mirrors enrollment in the Corps of Cadets. “We’re trying to increase the awareness of opportunities in the Air Force for any college graduate, notjust minorities,” Gamache said. Bluford has won numerous awards, including four for outstand ing service as a fighter pilot in Viet nam. He has also been included in Who’s Who Among Black Ameri cans and Who’s Who in America. Bluford received a bachelor of sci- Col. Guion S. Bluford ence degree in aerospace engi neering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964 and went on to get a doctorate in aerospace engi neering with a minor in laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978. Bluford has also written several scientific papers. “My goal was to be an aerospace engineer,” he said. “I’ve always had an interest in aerospace.” He said opportunities for being an astronaut have improved since 1977, and that is why he became one. He was the mission specialist and the first black man in space on the third flight of the space shuttle Chal lenger in August, 1983. This was the first flight with a night launch and landing. Bluford next served as a mission specialist on Challenger in 1985 when payload control was givin to Germany, the first time a foreign power had been given control dur ing a U.S. mission. Bluford said it has taken NASA a while to determine its directions, but now it has a clear idea of what it wants to accomplish. He said NASA is building a stronger, safer and bet ter program that will have spacecraft flying in late summer. “We have two years to catch up on,” he said. “We need to pick up where we left off.” Bluford said the United States has given the world an opportunity to see it perform flight operations. Now the country must prepare to fly again, he said. Bluford said there will be a major change in the overall space program. Shuttles and expendable booster rockets will be used for launches. Space program lacks minorities By Carol Goswick Reporter The space program is in great demand of minorities in the sci ence and engineerings fields, NASA Astronaut Col. Guion S. Bluford said Thursday to about 50 people in the Memorial Stu dent Center in accordance with Black History Month. Bluford, who has a master’s de gree in aerospace engineering, said he works with few minorities in his field and wants to encour age people to plan early for a ca reer in the space program. “When I was a child I was al ways interested in airplanes so I feel very fortunate to have com bined engineering, flying air planes and space missions all in one career,” he said. The colonel stressed the im portance of students starting in high school to prepare them selves for the higher levels of sci ence and math. His advice to col lege students already involved in the curriculum was to, “Hang tough at Texas A&M because the program itself is tough.” In the course of his career as a jet pilot and instructor, Bluford has logged over 4,200 hours in flight. His presentation, “Minor ity Opportunities in the Space Program,” concentrated more on his experience as a black astro naut participating in two shuttle missions aboard the Challenger. The colonel showed a slide show of his missions including one launched on Oct. 30, 1985, which was the first dedicated Spacelab mission under direction of the German Aerospace Re search Establishment. Bluford said that he was part of the largest crew to fly in space with eight members. He de scribed the launch of this shuttle from zero to three times the speed of sound as a very rough ride. “It was somewhat like that of a cobblestone road,” he explained. Success of the mission included experiments on treating motion sickness, making pharmaceutical products, life sciences, astronomy and growing crystals for universi ties in Europe, he said. “The fun part of the mission is walking in space,” Bluford said. He described the latest device used to enable astronauts to move more freely away from the shuttle called a “man-maneuvering unit.” “Our main goal at NASA for the 1990s is the construction of a space station where we can have American astronauts in orbit all of the time,” Bluford said. By Laura White Reporter Approximately 50 A&M students and a panel of four experts dis cussed the importance of commu nication between men and women, the dangers of stereotyping and date rape, and responsible birth control last night in the fourth presentation of CARE Week. Creating Attitudes for a Rape- Free Environment Week, sponsored by Mosher hall, achieved its goal last night to have a “frank and honest talk about sex and sexual attitudes,” Charles Goodman, Greek Advisor for the Department of Student Ac tivities, said. Male and female students, sitting on opposite sides of the room, were given questions to discuss among themselves and then to discuss with the other group and the panel. Both groups agreed that the biggest prob lem dealing with sexual attitudes was a lack of communication and the problem of stereotypes. “Don’t ask for our phone num bers if you have no intention of call ing,” was the main argument from the females. The men responded by explaining that while males may have good intentions, the night-club atmosphere was not condusive to conversation and sometimes men do not feel like they know a woman well enough by the end of the evening to call her. Jo Hudson of the department of Student Activities, explained the reasons for this lack of communica tion. “Women communicate more liter ally than men,” she said. “When a man says TT1 call you,’ he may just be saying, ‘Goodbye, see you later.’ When a woman says ‘I’ll call you,’ she means that she will telephone you sometime in the near future.” The discussion cleared the air about stereotypes. “The truth is that women aren’t impressed by the ma cho-man stud image,” one female said. “What’s wrong with a little sin cerity and genuineness once in awhile?” she asked. The women in the group agreed on the fact that this particular stereotype had gone too far. The men dealt with the stereotype that women have about them: sex is all they think about. “That generali zation is so unfair,” one male student said. “Men are just as interested in finding a meaningful relationship as Illustration by Carol Wells women are. Not all men are looking for a commitment, granted, but then again, neither are all women.” “The typical Spring Break on the beach includes a lot of drinking, par tying, and dancing,” Goodman said. The combination of these factors may lead to a situation where sex is involved, he said. “Current statistics indicate that over 30 percent of college students are carriers of some kind of sexually transmitted disease,” Dr. Mark Montgomery, a gynecologist in the College Station area, said. “Respons ible sex means not only birth control, but also protection from these dis eases,” he said. The groups broke up into a dis cussion on whose responsibility it was to initiate the conversation of sexual protection and reached the conclusion that both partners are re sponsible for making sure that the experience is a pleasurable but safe Oxygen chamber aids in healing By Tom Eikel Reporter A new treatment facility that uses pure oxygen in a pressurized cham ber is operating in the basement of the A.P. Beutel Health Center. Dr. Bill Fife, the facility’s director, said the new muiltiplace hyperbaric oxygen chamber can be used to acce lerate and enhance the healing proc ess of patients. “The only things left to be done are mostly clean-up,” Fife said, “We could start treating right now, but we’ll probably wait and have an open house during spring break.” Fife said he wants to wait for E)r. Claude B. Goswick, who is responsi ble for the medical part of the pro gram, to return. Health Center Di rector Goswick is recovering from quadruple bypass surgery. Hyperbaric medicine is a growing field, and Texas A&M is now one of no more than four universities in the United States that has this type of equipment, Fife said. The hyperbaric chamber will be used in the treatment and research of various diseases and conditions. During treatment, the chamber is pressurized with air and the patients are fed pure oxygen through a hel met-like breathing device which is tightened around the patient’s neck, Fife said. Len Aaron, who designed and built the chamber, said administer-' ing the oxygen this way instead of filling the entire chamber with oxy gen is necessary to prevent the possi bility of a fire. “With a chamber this size full of pure oxygen you’d have a good size fire hazard, primarily from static electricity,” he said. There are two types of hyperbaric chambers; monoplace and multi place. A monoplace chamber is usually an acrylic tube about 6 feet long and 25 inches in diameter with a door at one end. The patient lies prone in the tube, which is then pressurized with pure oxygen. Texas A&M already has several of these chambers, under Fife’s direc tion. A&M’s new chamber is multi place, which basically means it is able to accommodate more than one pa tient at a time. “There must be about 200 or 300 chambers total in the U.S., and of those, maybe less than 50 or 60 are See Oxygen, page 5