ranv Texas A&M mm 1 •
The Battalion
Vol. 87 Mo. 113 GSPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, March 10,1988
Republicans realize
Bush’s role in race
From Associated Press
Republican resistance to George f
tush’s bid for the White House be-
|an crumbling Wednesday as the
ipact of his fabulous Super Tues-
lay showing sank in. Democrats Mi-
lael Dukakis, Albert Gore and
;sse Jackson savored their own suc-
:sses while aiminj*-for next week’s
howdown in Illinois.
Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis and
■en. Gore of Tennessee agreed the
Bomination struggle would last until
lie convention next summer. But
Biey quarreled long-distance over
Ihich one of them could attract the
Biost voters to the Democratic ban-
|er in a campaign against the Re-
fublicans.
Bush spent the day in Houston sa-
oring his 16-state primary sweep
Jnd the roughly 600 delegates they
Brought. The outlook for Illinois
Tasn’t bad either, as Gov. James
hompson was backing the vice
Resident and Sen. Bob Dole’s own
unpaign polls gave Bush the lead.
The vice president sounded like
1 He was trying to nudge Dole from
Hie race. He declined his rival’s chal-
Hnge to debate him in Illinois in a
Mlegram that said the time had come
mH) ‘look ahead to the issues which
[IHistinguish us from the Democrats.”
“Good luck,” he wrote.
Dole awoke to a campaign in
ambles after losing all 17 Super
uesday states and conceded, “I’ve
ot to win Illinois” to save his candi-
acy. The Kansas senator visited the
an fHospital in Chicago where he was
""H'eated 40 years ago for his crippling
World War II wounds, while his se-
Si B
Dukakis organized early,
spent big to get Texas votes
DALLAS (AP) — Michael Duka
kis organized early and spent big to
convince Texas voters that the eco
nomic program dubbed the “Massa
chusetts Miracle” could mean jobs
and tax breaks for them, analysts
said Wednesday.
Friends of Vice President George
Bush, meanwhile, said they hope
Bush’s sweep of all 111 Texas Re-
E ublican delegates will show that he
as guts as well as GOP glory.
Dukakis earned 43 delegates to
the national convention based on
near-total Super Tuesday returns in
Texas, and Jesse Jackson held tight
on runner-up with 42 delegates,
based on near-complete election re
turns for the seven Democratics.
Those seven were vying for shares
of 197 delegates: 119 awarded
through the primary, 64 through
Democratic caucuses and 14
awarded to party officials.
Dukakis “ran a good campaign,”
said George Christian, former press
secretary to Lyndon Johnson and an
Austin political consultant.
“He had the strategy of finding
his constituency and organizing it,”
Christian said. “His constituency was
the Hispanics and liberals. That was
a sufficient number to put him at the
top”
Dukakis and Jackson each could
pick up as many as 23 of the 64 dele
gates awarded through the caucus
system, according to a projection
tabulated by the Dallas Morning
News and the Houston Chronicle,
using. 202 key precincts of the 6,933
statewide.
* * »
mi
Sunny days
Senior David Fox studies on the reviewing stand at
the Simpson Drill Field before his afternoon class
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Wednesday. Fox says he studies there often to get
some sun.
Kidney treatment offers
non-surgical alternative
nior aides met to discuss wholesale
staff reductions.
Dole aside, the vice president’s ri
vals signaled they knew the game
was all but over.
Rep. Jack Kemp, humbled by the
Super Tuesday voters, scheduled a
news conference for Thursday, and
sources said he would withdraw
from the race.
The Democratic race was just be
ginning. Delegate leader Dukakis
stood only about a quarter of the way
toward the 2,082 convention votes
needed to be nominated.
Jackson was the early favorite to
win the South Carolina caucuses on
Saturday, while he and Sen. Paul Si
mon looked like favorite son front
runners for next Tuesday’s Illinois
primary.
Jackson said he was “overcome
with a sense of history and joy” after
winning primaries in Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Architects of Super Tuesday
say primaries were ‘success’
AUSTIN (AP) — Super Tuesday
vas a Texas success, its architects
aid Wednesday as they sought to
:nock down what they said were
‘myths” about their motives.
“One of the myths was that this
vas designed to elect some Neander-
hal Anglo Southerner,” said state
^en. Chet Edwards, D-Duncanville
ind Senate sponsor of the Super
Tuesday bill.
The Democratic presidential pri-
nary in Texas produced positive re
sults for Massachusetts Gov. Michael
Dukakis and Jesse Jackson, the more
liberal candidates.
Edwards said that should not dis
tress Texas Democrats who believe
that only a conservative can win the
White House in November.
“One benefit of Super Tuesday is
egardless of who wins, they’ve been
forced to shape their platforms
around the concerns of Southern-
rs,” Edwards said.
But Republican Gov. Bill Clem-
1 | ents seemed pleased that the liberal
(Hwing of the Democratic Party pre-
ailed in Texas on Tuesday.
“I thought it worked beautifully,”
Clements said sarcastically.
Meanwhile, Vice President
George Bush, Clements’ candidate
for president, swept the GOP pri
mary, capturing all 111 Texas dele
gates.
Former state Sen. John Traeger,
who is credited for making Super
Tuesday happen across the South,
acknowledged that the Democrats
who did well in Texas would have
difficulty beating Bush here in No
vember.
“I would say if I had to handicap
it, with my house and lot and wife on
it, right now I’d have to say Bush
would appear to have the edge. But
I certainly wouldn’t concede it to
him,” Traeger said.
Like Edwards, Traeger denied
the Democrats’ goal was to use Super
Tuesday to help a conservative can
didate. The goal, he said, was partic
ipation and it appeared to work:
The Tuesday primary drew about
2.77 million voters, a state record.
And it drew candidates to Texas,
he said.
“They were thicker than fleas on a
dog’s back,” Traeger said.
Rep. Clint Hackney, D-Houston
and House sponsor of the Super
Tuesday bill, said the primary was “a
victory for Texas and Texans.”
Hackney and Edwards said Super
Tuesday took some of the political
thunder away from Iowa and New
Hampshire, whose early primaries
and caucuses traditionally shape the
presidential races.
They pointed out that Democrats
Rep. Ricnard Gephardt of Missouri,
Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois and Re
publican Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas
did well in those states, but are now
struggling.
“No longer can candidates spend
all of their time, money and re
sources in the snows of Iowa,” Ed
wards and Hackney said in their Su
per Tuesday analysis.
George Christian of Austin, a
longtime Democratic strategist, said
Iowa and New Hampshire will re
main important stops on the presi
dential trail.
By Mark Gee
Staff Writer
Brazos Valley residents suffering
from kidney stones now have access
to a non-surgical treatment in Col
lege Station that is less painful and
less expensive than conventional
surgery. The treatment also reduces
hospital stay and recouperation
time.
Extracorporeal shock wave litho
tripsy, known as ESWL, is a kidney
stone treatment that uses highly
pressurized impulses to pulverize
kidney stones. The first patient will
be treated at Humana HoSpital-Bra-
zos Valley the last week in March.
For the treatment, a patient is po
sitioned in a tub of warm water and
the impulses are aimed at the kidney
stone using two X-ray images. The
stone is pulverized with 10 to 15
minutes of impulses. The impulses
break up the stone into sana-sized
particles without disturbing the sur
rounding tissue. The sand-sized par
ticles then are passed naturally
through the urinary tract.
For most patients, the treatment
takes about an hour and a half and
the hospital stay is about two and a
half days with a day of recoupera
tion at home.
More than 200,000 people world
wide have been treated successfully
with ESWL. Of the 600,000 Ameri
cans who will suffer from kidney
Stones this year, 100,000 will require
surgery or ESWL.
The ESWL treatment costs about
half of what conventional surgery
costs, said Marsha Herring, director
of marketing and public relations at
Humana Hospital-Brazos Valley.
The hospital stay after ESWL
treatment is an average of 2.5 days.
After traditional surgery, the aver
age hospital stay is 10 to 14 days. Re
couperation time with ESWL is re
duced from an average of five days
to one. Patients who have under-
f one both surgery and EWSL for
idney stones say the total ESWL
treatment is less painful.
Humana Hospital-Brazos Valley
joined with four other Humana hos
pitals to offer the service to South
Texans. A $2.1 million mobile unit
rotates among the Humana Hospi
tals in College Station, Baytown,
Clear Lake, Corpus Christi and Pa
sadena.
The mobile unit will be available
on Fridays to local doctors who have
completed training in hospital pro
grams certified by the American
Urology Association.
“We feel that for relatively new,
more costly technology such as the li-
thotripter, the mobile approach is by
far the most practical alternative,”
Tom McNeill, managing director of
Humana Lithotripsy Centers, said.
He said since the unit is mobile, it
will have a higher utilization because
it will serve the five hospitals and
more than 100 cities and towns with
a population base of more than one
million.
Harold Bryant, a Blue Cross 8c
Blue Shield representative, said,
“This type of technology enables
hospitals to deliver a high level of
care while at the same time reducing
cost to the patient. It’s what the
health care industry needs to hold
down costs.”
The self-contained unit is housed
in a 48-foot by 8-foot trailer that is
linked with each hospital’s facility.
Dr. Richard Morgan, a nephro
logist in Bryan, said he is glad to see
lithotripsy offered locally because it
rapidly is becoming the treatment of
choice. He said lithotripsy is usually
successful and is less traumatic than
surgery.
Two years ago, he sent an A&M
student to Houston for the litho
tripsy treatment.
“She suffered from terrible epi
sodes when she passed stones,” Mor
gan said. “It was a recurring prob
lem. The treatment in Houston
really cleaned up her kidneys and
she has made very good progress
since.”
Since the kidney is not damaged
by the treatment, the procedure can
be repeated for those who suffer
from recurring renal stones.
Dr. Michael Hermans, a urologist
at the Scott & White multi-specialty
clinic, said that even though ESWL is
a major breakthrough in the treat
ment of kidney stones, it will not be
Army crews work
to retrieve bodies
following collision
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP)
— Army crews worked Wednes-
ie *» day to retrieve the last eight bod- 1
ies of 17 soldiers killed when two
helicopters on a night training
mission collided, then plunged
250 feet to the ground and
caught fire.
The UH-60 Blackhawk heli
copters from Fort Campbell
spewed wreckage for hundreds
of yards and charred the partially
wooded, gently rolling site six
miles from the choppers’ air field.
“One aircraft is located in the
trees,” Maj. Randy Schoel, Fort
Campbell spokesman, said. “One
aircraft is right on the edge of a
clearing.”
Four bodies remained in the
wreckage of each helicopter
Wednesday afternoon, Schoel
said. He earlier had said all the
bodies were retrieved.
The Blackhawk, one of the
newer helicopters used by the
Army, Air Force and Marine
Corps, has been grounded four
times in three years. Last summer
officials said about 40 people had
been killed in crashes of the heli
copter since 1978.
Schoel said the crash occurred
on the Kentucky-Tennessee bor-
der during a “routine night mis
sion,” and left no survivors.
“Obviously, there’s an element
of risk in everything we do,”
Schoel said. “We train up to a
standard that reduces that risk to
an absolute minimum. Yes it can
be, but it’s not necessarily, more
dangerous to fly at night.”
The helicopters were flying at
92 mph air speed and about 250
feet from the ground when they
collided, Schoel said. One of
three helicopters flying in forma
tion was hit by a fourth, William
Harralson, deputy public affairs
officer at the fort, said.
“There were three aircraft in
formation, if you want to say
ducks in a row, headed east, and
another who was flying solo, hit
one of those,” Harralson said.
“There can be 10 or 12 battalion
sized groups working at Fort
Campbell at one time.
“We have been told by the
tower that the weather was good.”
One helicopter crashed on the
Tennessee side of the border, the
other in Kentucky. Although the
soldiers were carrying personal
weapons, such as M-16 rifles, the
helicopters were not armed.
Student Senate disagrees
with test schedule changes
By Jeff Pollard
Staff Writer
The Student Senate, at its meeting
on Wednesday, unanimously passed
a resolution expressing its dissatis
faction with the changes made by the
Faculty Senate on the Senior finals
compromise.
“The proposition was radically
amended by the Faculty Senate,”
said Speaker of the Senate Jay Hays.
“There seemed to be some confu
sion. The senators thought they
were acting in conjunction with our
original proposal.”
Hays, who was one of the students
present at the meeting on Monday,
said that, in trying to express his
opinion to the contrary, he was not
recognized to speak because of poor
lighting in the room.
The Faculty proposal calls for
dead week to begin on Wednesday,
April 27 and end on Tuesday, May
3.
There would be no class on May 4
and finals would be Thursday, Fri
day, Monday and Tuesday (May
5,6,9 and 10). Graduation would
then be on the weekend of May 13
and 14.
The Student Senate said the com
promise’s purpose was to develop a
schedule that would assure the stu
dents of having a full five-day dead
week and reduce the number af days
between the last final taken by un
dergraduates and the beginning of
graduation-related events.
Hays said the Faculty proposal
would shorten dead week by two
more days and he was worried that
dead week would eventually be ig
nored altogeather. He also said that
the extra two days between the end
of finals and graduation would re
duce the number of people who
would normally attend these events
had they been on campus.
“The Faculty Senate proposal
does nothing to keep a relatively ac
tive campus for graduation,” said
Tom Black, Chairman of the Aca
demic Affairs Committee. “The
campus will be basically dead except
for the birds.”
The statement that was passed
stated that the Student Senate does
not support the amended resolution
passed by the Faculty Senate and
that they stand behind the Student-
/Faculty compromise calling for Se
niors to take final on Monday and
Tuesday of finals week while other
undergraduates take them all week.
Hays also explained to senators
that the Senior finals changes still
must be approved by Dr. Vandiver
and would only affect finals for this
semester. He said that a committee
of faculty, students and other ad
ministrators has been formed to find
a long-term solution to the problem.
The other resolution considered
by senators dealt with possible ques
able to be used for all patients. Her
mans, one of the doctors who will be
using the mobile unit, is also an asso
ciate professor of surgery at the
Texas A&M Medical School.
“ESWL is good for stones that are
positioned high in the kidney,” he
said. “But if the stone has dropped, a
more traditional method might have
to be used.”
He said the treatment is used on
both children and adults. But preg
nant women with kidney stones can
not be treated with ESWL, he said.
Hermans said the alternatives to
using ESWL include passing the
stone naturally or surgery.
Although ESWL is less painful
than traditional surgery, he said,
there is still pain involved.
“It is like getting hit in the side a
thousand times with a fist,” Her
mans said. “The first couple of times
it doesn’t hurt that much, but after
awhile it does. The patient will be
sore for a couple of days.”
But he said patients who have had
kidney stones removed using both
surgery and ESWL prefer the ESWL
treatment. Anesthesia is used during
both treatments.
Hermans said the majority of pa
tients treated with ESWL have no
side effects but researchers are
studying why some patients are de
veloping high blood pressure after
the treatment. He said a medical
journal reported that 8 percent of
patients develop high blood pres
sure.
He said it is not known if the high
blood pressure is due to the treat
ment or other circumstances. He
added that researchers speculate
that if high blood pressure develops
because of the treatment, it might be
caused by the bruising of the kidney
during treatment. He said one re
search goal is to be able to distin
guish those patients who have the
potential of developing high blood
pressure from the treatment. He
said most patients have no complica
tions.
The treatment was developed by
Dornier Medical Inc., a division of a
West German aerospace corpora
tion.
tions to be included in the cour
se/instructor evaluations that are
completed by students at the end of
every semester. The questions for
the new standardized evaluation
form will be chosen by various peo-
E le on campus. Five will be chosen
y students, five by faculty, four by
the deans and department heads of
those colleges involved and three by
the administration.
The resolution, which was intro
duced by Black, was to approve the
five questions allocated to students.
After some discussion and one failed
vote, the resolution was sent back to
the Academic Affairs committee for
changes to be made in the questions.
Debate centered around the re
dundancy of two questions that dealt
with the amount of course work in a
class.
In other matters:
• Mason Hogan, student body
president, announced that the blood
drive took in 2,951 units of blood.
He said they had hoped to raise 100
units over last fall, but they ended
up 15 units under last semester’s to
tal.
• Hogan also said that over 3,000
students completed about 125 pro
jects during Big Event on March 5.
He commended the committee for
starting out with no allocated funds
and ending with about $400 left over
for next year.
Lawmakers
ask Meese
to step down
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Eleven Democrats on the House
Judiciary Committee asked Attor
ney General Edwin Meese III on
Wednesday to step down tempo
rarily until independent counsel
investigations into his conduct are
completed.
Meese spokesman Terry
Eastland said the attorney gen
eral would not comply because,
“No one should be urged to step
down from a government posi
tion simply because that person is
under investigation.”
The lawmakers made their re
quest in a letter to Meese, and five
of them held a news conference
to elaborate on their remarks.
Rep. Barney Frank of Massa
chusetts, one of the signers, den
ied that the signers had a political
motive, saying, “Ed Meese is the
best thing to happen to the Dem
ocratic Party.”
Another signer, Rep. Bruce
Morrison of Connecticut, said the
standard Meese is setting for ethi
cal conduct is “not in the slam
mer.”
Meese has been under criminal
investigation by independent
counsel James McKay since last
May 11. McKay has been examin
ing Meese’s involvement with
scandal-plagued Wedtech Corp.,
and with a $1 billion Iraqi oil
pipeline project.