MMV Texas A&MW^ mm M +
The Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 145 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, May 2,1988
Down and dirty
Richard Bowling, a junior electrical engineering major, tries to inter- game of football they played in the new mud — courtesy of the rainy
cept an incomplete pass before his opponent can retrieve the ball in a weather — outside Hart Hall on Friday.
IRA terrorists kill
British soldiers
in Netherlands
NIEUWBERGEN, Netherlands
(AP) — Three British soldiers were
killed Sunday and three were in
jured when Irish Republican Army
terrorists sprayed one car with ma
chine-gun fire and blew up another
in separate attacks.
The IRA claimed responsibility
for both attacks in a statement deliv
ered to media in Belfast, Northern
Ireland.
“We have a simple message for
(Prime Minister Margaret) Thatcher
— disengage from Ireland and there
will be peace,” it said. “If not, there
will be no haven for your military
personnel and you will regularly be
at airports awaiting your dead.”
The car bomb tore apart a vehicle
as it left the parking lot of a discothe
que frequented by British troops in
Nieuwbergen, a country town on the
West German-Dutch border.
Two of the three Royal Air Force
men inside were killed immediately.
The third was admitted to the in
tensive-care ward of a local hospital.
His condition was not known.
“It was like a plane going through
the sound barrier,” said Piet Hub-
bers, who heard the blast from his
home five miles away.
Another witness said, “The car
was already on fire. Twenty yards
away, a boy (soldier) was lying all
covered in blood.”
Police spokesman Louis Steens
said, “The bodies were in such con
dition that they could not immedi
ately be identified.”
District Prosecutor Rolph Gon
salves told reporters that an hour
earlier, in the border community of
Roermond about 30 miles away,
gunmen opened fire on three Brit
ish air force men who had just got
ten into their car after leaving a cafe.
They were fired on from close
range, probably with automatic
weapons, he said.
Senior Aircraftsman Ian Shinner,
20, died at the scene.
Another was in serious condition
at a local hospital and a third was
treated for minor shoulder injuries.
The injured were not identified.
They were the first IRA attacks in
nearly 10 years in the Netherlands.
Authorities have attributed the lack
of violence to the nation’s apparent
reputation as a haven for activists.
British security forces are the
main targets of the IRA, the mainly
Roman Catholic guerrilla group
fighting to end British rule in North
ern Ireland and unite the predomi
nantly Protestant province with the
overwhelmingly Catholic Republic
of Ireland.
1 dead, 1 injured as WWII plane crashes after air show
CONROE (AP) — One man was killed
and a second critically injured when a sin
gle-engine plane crashed at Montgomery
County Airport and burst into uncontrolla
ble flames shortly after an air show took
place at the field.
The World War II vintage plane crashed
about 5 p.m. Saturday, after the air show
had ended. Fire trucks and other emer
gency vehicles had left the airport only mo
ments earlier, assuming that all planes were
safely grounded.
“If they would have been here a little
longer, they might have been able to save
them,” said Christopher Nemia, a member
of the Confederate Air Force that took part
in the air show.
The dead man was identified as Carl
Pickering, 28, of Conroe, a spokesman for
Medical Hospital in Conroe said.
Chad Dorsey, 23, the other occupant of
the plane, was taken by Life Flight heli
copter to Hermann Hospital in Houston,
where he remained in critical condition
Sunday with second- and third-degree
burns, a hospital spokesman said.
Witnesses said the men were both flight
instructors at the airport. The two men
were making a low-level pass over the air
port when the left wing of the plane dipped
and caused them to lose control of the
plane.
“The belly of the plane hit the runway
and it kind of skidded to a stop,” Nemia
said.
Rescuers managed to pull the two men
from the plane and attempted to extinguish
the roaring blazes with fire extinguishers.
Montgomery County Sheriffs Depart
ment spokesman Bob Morrison said Picker
ing had flown the plane during the air show
and was on a pleasure flight with Dorsey
when it crashed.
Federal Aviation Administration officials
were investigating the crash in an attempt
to determine what had happened.
26 killed on bus in Sri Lanka
as rebels set off explosives
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) —
A bus crowded with shoppers was
blown apart Sunday, and at least
26 passengers were killed when
Tamil rebels detonated explo
sives buried in the ground, mili
tary officials said.
Thirty people were injured
and 15 of them were in critical
condition at local hospitals, the
officials said. It was the second
Tamil attack on a passenger bus
in two days.
The blast threw bodies into the
dense jungle beside the road near
the village of Sittaru, 25 miles
southwest of the eastern port of
Trincomalee. About 75 passen
gers were aboard the bus and of
ficials were searching for more
victims.
Most of the victims were Sinha
lese, the majority ethnic group on
the island, said the officials, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The dead included two little boys,
they said.
On Saturday, Tamil militants
ambushed a bus in the northern
Vavuniya District, killing six Sri
Lankan soldiers and five others.
May Day marks ‘day of protest’ in Polish cities
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Police
dashed with demonstrators Sunday
in at least 15 cities as thousands of
people heeded Solidarity’s call for a
national “day of protest” on May
Day.
Authorities detained at least 200
people nationwide, according to
Zbigniew Romaszewski, a spokes
man for the outlawed Solidarity
union. The violent protests came at
the end of a week of strikes and the
worst labor unrest in Poland since
the communist government sus
pended Solidarity in December 1981
and later declared it illegal.
There were scattered reports of
injuries but figures were not avail
able.
Government spokesman Jerzy Ur
ban confirmed 90 detentions and
said at least 12,000 people took part
in illegal demonstrations nation
wide. Reports from witnesses and
opposition spokesmen put the num
ber at more than 30,000.
The state-run news agency PAP
said more than 9 million people at
tended official May Day ceremonies
throughout the country and at
tempts to boycott the May Day dem
onstrations ended up yet again in a
complete fiasco.
Polish leader Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski took a tough line on wage
demands during ceremonies in War
saw.
A strike was in its sixth day at the
Lenin steel mill in Nowa Huta out
side Krakow. About 800 strikers
gathered for a Mass around a make
shift altar with a homemade cross in
the pressing department.
Thirty to 50 people outside the
gates were detained when they tried
to stage a sympathy march to the
plant, which was ringed with pla
toons of riot police.
Earlier, about 3,000 people
marched a half-mile from a Roman
Catholic church in Nowa Huta to
ward the steel mill but followed po
lice orders to disperse.
Organizers said about 16,000
workers are on strike at the plant,
demanding recognition of their
union rights and an immediate 50
percent raise on the average salary
of $105 a month.
Police withdrew from around the
mill in the afternoon. About 120
strikers and 50 family members and
friends then had an emotional meet
ing at the plant gates.
Strike leader Andrzej Szewczuwa-
niec, brushing back tears, vowed the
strike will continue.
“We will not disappoint our wives,
our sons, our mothers,” he said.
In the evening in Nowa Huta,
5,000 people rallied at a church and
taunted police, saying: “So long until
the third.”
Anti-government demonstrations
occur every May 3, Poland’s pre-war
Constitution Day.
A&M group health insurance premiums
to increase about 30 percent next year
By Ashley A. Bailey
Staff Writer
Premiums for the Texas A&M
University System’s group health in
surance program will increase about
\ 30 percent in the next academic
year, said Mary Jo Hurley, associate
director of the Benefits Programs
Administration.
Last year, expenses exceeded in
come from premiums by about 10
percent, Hurley said, and with ex
pected increases in medical costs,
higher premiums are necessary.
The actual percentage increase,
however, will depend on the plan
chosen and the number of depen
dents insured.
Previously, employees and re
tirees could participate in either a
health maintenance organization or
in the group health program, which
includes separate medical and dental
coverage.
During the 1988-89 academic
year, policy holders will have the
same choices, but with minor altera
tions in both the plans’ benefits and
in the HMO design.
With the new premium rates, em
ployees or retirees insuring only
themselves will pay $112.03 per
month in Plan I, a 19.72 percent in
crease, and $77.04 in Plan II, a 27.74
percent increase.
Individuals insuring themselves
and one dependent will pay $245.67
in Plan I, a 19.72 percent increase,
or $164.22 in Plan II, a 27.67 per
cent increase.
Individuals insuring themselves
and two or more dependents will
pay $331.39 in Plan I, a 19.76 per
cent increase, and $221.37 in Plan
II, a 27.53 percent increase.
The rates do not reflect the dis
tinction between retirees over or un
der age 65 that the 1987-88 plans
did, she said.
The premiums for those over 65
will increase up to 30 percent more
than the premiums for insurers un
der 65 because claim costs for those
over 65 exceeded their premiums by
40 percent.
The group as a whole experi
enced a 10 percent shortfall.
“With the inflation factor in
cluded, the premium for the retirees
over 65 would increase about 70 per
cent, but rather than set their premi
ums at the actual level — and price
some retirees right out of the plans
— it was decided by SEBAC to set
premiums based on the entire
group,” Hurley said.
In addition to the rate changes,
Hurley also announced the follow
ing changes in plan policies:
• Plan I no longer will pay 100
percent hospital benefits. All
charges will be subject to a $200 de
ductible and insurance will continue
to pay 80 percent of all eligible
charges up to $4,000 and 100 per
cent of eligible charges of more than
$4,000.
Policy holders will save money,
Hurley said, because only one $200
deductible is required for hospital
expenses. Previously, $100 upon ad
mission and $200 for an extended
stay were charged.
• Plan IPs deductible will in
crease from $200 to $400 for all
charges. Insurance will continue to
pay 80 percent of all eligible charges
up to $6,000 and 100 percent of eli
gible charges of more than $6,000.
Previously, insurance paid full bene
fits after $4,000.
Hurley said that if the SBA has
calculated premiums and expected
expenses properly, the group will
break even next year.
“Our crystal balls aren’t always as
accurate as we’d like them to be,”
Hurley said. “We’d like to break
even all the time, but sometimes we
do and sometimes we don’t.”
In another effort to save policy
holders money, the BPA has created
the TAMUS Tax Saver Plan, BPA
associate director Steve Hassel said.
The plan will allow participants to
have certain tax-deductible expenses
subtracted from their paychecks be
fore taxes instead of after them.
Beginning in September, A&M
employees can establish health and
dependent-care spending accounts
that will pay eligible charges in each
of these areas on a pre-tax basis,
Hassel said.
An enrollment packet with full
details on the insurance rates and
options, plan designs and the Tax
Saver Plan will be mailed to employ
ees’ home addresses in early June.
The actual enrollment period begins
June 6 and ends July 15.
Registration
for summer
begins today
Preregistration begins today
for the first summer term and the
10-week summer term.
Students registering for sum
mer school must go to the Pavil
ion to get their schedules and fee
slips. Schedules and fee slips will
not be mailed.
The registration schedule by
classification is as follows:
• Seniors preregister today.
• Juniors preregister Tues
day.
• Sophomores preregister
Wednesday.
• Freshmen preregister
Thursday.
• Open preregistration begins
Friday.
June 6 will be the first day of
classes for the first summer term
and the 10-week summer term.
Registration for the second sum
mer session will begin on June 27.
Students planning to graduate
this summer must fill out degree
plans. The filing deadline for the
first term is June 17 and the
deadline for the second term is
July 15, according to the Summer
1988 class schedule.
Students who file after June 17
may not receive their diplomas on
graduation day because of the
length of time needed for print
ing, according to the schedule.