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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1988)
The Battalion Vol. 87 No. 135 USPS 045360 12 Pages Colleae Station. Texas Monday, April 18, 1988 [Shanty will not be rebuilt despite vandalism By Drew Leder Staff Writer On the final day of Texas A&M’s [Students Against Apartheid’s dis play of their anti-apartheid shanty, it was once again the target of.vandal ism. Two A&M seniors were appre- [hended by University Police Friday after they were seen near the shack about the time members of Students Against Apartheid found two dead pigeons on wooden crosses hanging (from its roof. A search of a dumpster where the [men had been seen dumping a bag also revealed two doves that had been shot and were attached to branches in a similar fashion, with their wings extended. Bob Wiatt, director of the Univer- |sity Police Department, said the po lice will ask the county attorney’s of fice to accept criminal mischief [charges against the two students, whose names were not released. But Wiatt said he doubts that the charges will be accepted. “I don’t see that criminal charges are going to be appropriate,” he said. “No damage was done to the shack and I don’t think this case is going to fly.” Members of A&M’s SAA organi zation, who constructed the shack, filed charges against the men Friday after initially declining to do so. The shanty, which was the target of several incidents of vandalism during the month-and-a-half it stood on the A&M campus, was dis mantled by members of SAA Friday and the group has no plans to dis play it again this semester. The third E ermit from the University Police ai ming the shack to stand on campus expired Friday and neither the anti apartheid group nor the police want to prolong the life of the shanty any longer. Vint said the group has made its point and accomplished what it set out to do — to make people aware of the situation in South Africa and get them thinking about it. And Wiatt said he would not grant another per mit this semester because the group has been given ample time to make their statement. Vint said the group may try to get a permit to build another shanty next semester. Although Wiatt says it is unlikely that misdemeanor charges will be brought against the two students who were detained Friday, he said the men may face charges brought by the state game warden for killing doves out of season. Janelle Lewis, a spokesman for the state game warden’s office in Bryan, said Friday it is likely that some kind of charges will be filed against the men for killing the game birds out of season. Lewis said the office is in the process of deciding what, if any, charges will be filed. The students involved in the inci dent also may face punitive action bv )orps leader commends Cadets for defending flag By Stephen Masters Staff Writer Three Texas A&M Corps of Ca rets members were commended Fri- lay by the Commandant of Cadets for attempting to prevent a College [Station teen from singing while [draped in the U.S. flag. Michael McPherson, a general [studies major from Bryan, Trey Hood, a business administration ma- [jor from Waco, and Marck Hopkins, [an aerospace engineering major from Riverside, Calif, all freshmen jin Company C-2, were commended by Maj. Gen. Thomas G. Darling for “standing up for what they thought [was right,” Hopkins said. \ Darling said he didn’t hear about the incident until station officials [called him. “1 called them (the cadets) in and [asked them to tell me what had hap pened,” he said. “They went over what happened and 1 told them they had done a commendable job as far as upholding the law as they saw it.” The events occurred after Mc- (Pherson heard on local radion sta- jtion KKYS-FM Thursday night that Rebecca Presley, a sophomore at [A&M Consolidated, would sing “Born in the U.S.A.” while wearing [only the U.S. flag. Presley wore the flag over her clothes at the actual event. The three cadets discussed the A&M takes I.D. pictures for 1988-89 By Kimberly Motley Reporter Texas A&M students can take pictures for their 1988-89 I.D. cards now in a service meant to eliminate long lines the week be fore the fall semester, Assistant Registrar Willis Ritchey said. Ritchey said the service, which began last week, will be con ducted on an ongoing basis from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Pictures will be taken in the open area of the Pa vilion at the former location of the Ring Office. “We’d especially like to encour age folks on campus to come by now so they don’t have to worry about coming by the week before school starts,” Ritchey said. Although he encourages on- campus students to take their pic tures now, he said everyone who is reasonably sure they will be back next fall should go ahead and get an I.D. picture taken. 1987-88 I.D. cards are good through both summer sessions, he said. “It will be a real time-saver for everyone involved,” he said, add ing that even students who are blocked from registration can come get their picture taken. “It’s not being done by classifi cation, alphabetically or any other way,” Ritchey said. “It’s just on a first-come, first-serve basis dur ing the working hours.” The I.D. cards cost $5, he said, but this cost will be included stu dents’ fall fees. “The cost will be billed to stu dents in July,” he said, “and it will by itemized on their fee slips.” matter and decided that wearing the American flag as clothing was not right, and might violate a state law against “the desecration of a venera ble object.” Presley was participating in a con test sponsored by the radio station where people called in and said the most outrageous thing they would do to win tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert in Austin Fri day. Presley could not be reached for comment Sunday. McPherson called the Bryan Po lice Department to ask what action to take and was told to call at the time of the incident. When he did, police were dispatched to the radio station in Manor East Mall. Hood said the police at the scene interpreted the law differently than the cadets and no action was taken. As of Sunday, no report on the in cident had been filed with the Bryan Police Department. A spokesman answering the phone at KKYS said only general manager James Reeder could offi cially comment on the matter. Reeder could not be reached for comment Sunday. An anonymous caller identifying himself as a representative of KKYS later told The Battalion that he felt the entire story had been blown out of proportion. Israeli sources say own agents killed leading PLO official JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli sources said Sunday that Israeli agents had assassinated PLO official Khalil al-Wazir, the No. 2 man in the organization who headed the upris ing in the occupied territories. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declined comment. The sources said the operation was carried out jointly by the Mossad intelligence service, the Israeli navy and an elite commando unit. They spoke on condition of anonymity. They said it had been postponed several times before Saturday. Al-Wazir, who was in charge of the PLO’s military operations against Israel, was shot to death Sat urday at his home in the Tunis sub urb of La Marsa by an eight-member squad. Palestine Liberation Organization officials blamed Israel, saying the killing was designed to demoralize Palestinians and end PLO-directed protests in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. “I’m not ready to relate to these matters,” Shamir told the Associated Press at his office in Jerusalem when asked about reports Israel was be hind the operation. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, co-leader of the coalition govern ment, said in an interview on Israel radio that he hoped al-Wazir’s assas sination would not affect peace ef forts. Peres added, “We have to uproot violence as a . . . factor that delays a political development. People who use violence will in the end see the limits of violence. It leads nowhere.” The issue came up only briefly in Israel’s regular Cabinet meeting Sunday. Israel radio said that when Shamir was asked what happened, he said he had heard the details on the radio. Former intelligence officials and Israeli newspapers compared the as sassination to Israel’s 1973 raid on PLO offices in Beirut in which three top PLO officials were killed. the Department of Student Affairs, which is investigating the matter. Friday’s incident was one one of several acts of vandalism perpetu ated against the shanty since its orig inal construction Feb. 22. The shanty has been vandalized several times and two weeks ago a make shift bomb made out of a paper towel role and gunpowder was at tached to the shanty. The bomb ex ploded while no one was near the shack. No damage was done to the structure. To guard the shack from vandal- ists, members of SAA began keeping watch on the shack around the clock. Early Friday morning, six of the watchers told police that, from the steps of the Academic Building, they spotted the two white men near the shanty. The members said they ap proached the shanty to see what the men wanted, at which time the men began walking northward. When the SAA members went in side the shanty, they discovered the pigeons hanging from the roof and a sign attached to the side of the shanty which read, “There will be no peace until all niggers are dead.” The pigeons had been stapled to wooden branches, giving the ap pearance of having been crucified, Wiatt said. The group members told police they followed the two men to the Northgate area and reported the in cident to a College Station police of ficer who was in the area. The police officer took custody of the men and notified the University Police of the incident. The men were brought to the University Police Station and one of the men was then released. It was discovered the other man had some outstanding traffic warrants from the University and he was taken to the College Station Police Depart ment. Wiatt said both of the men live off campus. Wiatt said one of the men ad mitted to having participated in the incident while the other man denied any involvement. He said the man who admitted to the act of vandalism wouldn’t give an explanation as to why it was done. According to an article that ap peared in the Bryan-College Station Eagle Sunday, one of the men in volved in the incident called the Ea gle and explained why he had placed the pigeons and the sign on the shack. The story quotes the man as saying, “The reason I did it, person ally, is because of a break-in at my house and it involved black people, and we have a lot of problems with them around where I live.” The arti cle states the man said he and his friend had no particular interest in Students Against Apartheid. Susan Vint, president of SAA, af ter hearing of the man’s statement, responded, “(For him) to be so igno rant is frightening. It would have been better if he had some kind of basis for what he did.” said the their purpost was to uphold the principle of the law prohibiting disrespect for the flag. “Our point was not to get some one arrested but to have an author ity figure inform the girl that what she was doing (with the flag) was wrong,” Hopkins said. Hood said they wanted to prevent the scene. “I don’t think it should have been allowed to happen at all,” he said. “People just don’t consider these things to be wrong. “The police told us that since she wasn’t desecrating the flag they couldn’t do anything. I think they’re just interpreting the law too loosely,” When the three cadets returned to their dorms, they were informed that Darling wanted to see them, Hopkins said, “The Commandant called us in and told us that he was glad to see people stand up for what they thought was right,” he said. “He commended us for our actions and for doing what was right.” Hood said the three have gotten a positive reaction from other Corps of Cadets members. “We haven’t gotten in any kind of trouble — actually it’s been just the opposite,” he said. “All the upper classmen have been congratulating us and saying what a good job we’ve done.” From left to right. Missy Houston, Scott Jackson, Steve Heldenfels, Shelley Hoge, John Muschalik Photo by David Elmer and Jeanie Sinclair turn each others’ rings at Ring Dance Saturday night in the MSC. Bash, banquet, ball provide seniors chance to celebrate By Deborah L. West Staff Writer Texas A&M seniors said good bye to friends and celebrated their impending graduation this weekend at a bash, a banquet and a ball. Andrea Beshara, the Class of ’88 president, said Senior Week end went well. “Everything was a a success,” she said. Roni Hermes, a senior special events chairman, said about $1,900 was raised at Senior Bash, which was held at the Hall of Fame Friday night. The money — collected from the sale of about 800 Senior Bash tickets at the MSC Box Office — went to the Class of’88, she said. Melissa Prescott and her band, who were scheduled to play at the bash, canceled because of a con tract dispute, so another band was hired, Hermes said. Gina Sandoval, a Senior Ban quet chairman, said about 400 people ate dinner and listened to Gene Stallings, the coach of the Phoenix Cardinals, at the Senior Banquet Saturday night at the College Station Hilton. Rachel Hill, a Ring Dance chairman, said people did not want to leave Saturday night’s dance when it ended at 1 a.m. be cause they were having too much fun. “The bands quit playing, but no one wanted to leave,” she said. The Ed Gurlack Orchestra and Michael Michael & the Max filled up both dance floors, she said. The orchestra played music from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s in Rud der Exhibit Hall and the rock ’n’ roll band played in the MSC ball room. Souvenir table centerpieces provided at the dance — which were Messina Hoff champange bottles with the Aggie ring crest and the first verse of “The Spirit of Aggieland” on their labels — disappeared in the first ten min utes of the dance, Hill said. “People must have liked them, because they didn’t stay on the ta bles very long,” Hill said. “They were nice souvenirs.” Lines for senior formal pic tures — in which the couple stands inside a large replica of an Aggie ring — were the shortest they have ever been, she said. “Thirty-eight minutes was the longest anyone had to wait to get their picture taken,” she said. “That’s a record. Last year some people waited two and a half hours in line.” Seniors were al lowed to prepay and to make ap pointments for portraits this year, she added. Benson, the class gift chairman for the Class of ’89, said people got angry because they had to show their dance tickets when ever they changed rooms. “They didn’t understand we were just trying to keep people who hadn’t paid $35 for a ticket from getting in,” she said. About 2,000 seniors attended the dance, Benson said. Prairie View naval ROTC program honored By Stan Golaboff Reporter Prairie View A&M’s naval ROTC unit was honored Thursday as the oldest naval ROTC at a predominantly black college. “Thursday was the celebration of our program turning 20 years old,” said Lt. Mark Morris, the public affairs officer for Prairie View A&M’s na val unit. The midshipmen performed a review in honor of the unit’s birthday, Morris said. The re viewing officer was Vice Adm. Leon Edney, dep uty chief of naval operations. Edney is a former commandant of the Naval Academy, a former commander of the aircraft carrier Constellation and he is chief of personnel of the Navy, Morris said. The significance of Prairie View’s program is that in its 20 years, it has produced more black naval officers than all the other colleges in the South combined, Morris said. “One hundred and eighty black naval officers have graduated from Prarie View in the last 20 years,” Morris said. “This includes both the Navy and the Marines. The 180 officers include 132 male Navy officers, 32 male Marine officers, nine female Navy officers and one female Marine offi cer.” Currently, Prairie View is one of the nation’s largest producer of black naval officers, Morris said. “We have 62 cadets enrolled in our program now, and we look forward to almost doubling our size in the fall,” Morris said. “We estimate that we will have 50 freshmen cadets joining our unit.” One reason for this large influx of cadets is a scholarship offered by Prairie View’s president that will pay room and board of any freshmen who enrolls in the naval unit, Morris said. “We are very fortunate because our president has a deep feeling of commitment to our pro gram and with this new scholarship we should be able to attract a lot of new recruits,” Morris said. Another reason for the large influx can be at tributed to the success of Prairie View’s grad uates in the military, Morris said. “For the 1987 fiscal year, we had 12 Navy graduates,” Morris said. “One of our three fe male graduates is currently training as one of the four female naval flight officers in the country. When she finishes her training she will be the first black female flight officer in the Navy.” Other examples of the success of Prairie View’s officers is the high number of cadets that get surface warship training slots, Morris said. “We placed seven of our twelve graduates in surface warship training slots last year,” Morris said. “You could say that Prairie View is an excel lent place for a black officer to receive his train ing and that the training he receives here is some of the best he can get in the nation.”