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The Battalion
ol.87 No. 173 045360 8 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, July 12, 1988
Reagan names
eplacement for
ttorney general
dee
':20
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi-
nt Reagan has chosen former
nnsylvania Gov. Richard Thorn
burgh to replace Attorney General
Mwin Meese III, a knowledgeable
Bministration source said Monday.
■ The source, who declined to be
■entified by name, said that Thorn
burgh, who once headed the Justice
Department’s criminal division, had
■cepted the offer.
■ Reagan told reporters earlier
■onday that there would soon be an
■inouncement of a successor for
■eese, who said last week that he
Bould leave the Justice Department
by early August.
■ Meese said he had been vindi-
ted by independent counsel James
BcKay’s investigation of alleged
■rongdoing during Meese’s tenure
* attorney general.
J Reagan, asked during a photo op-
Ullp prtunity about Meese’s successor,
dined to be specific about the tim-
locf iilg of an announcement.
'<151B “Anyone we know?” a reporter
ked.
"You’ve probably heard of him,”
e president replied.
15
ips
■■■11
r
IEE
64-8625
j Presidential spokesman Marlin
Itzwater declined to confirm or
yny that Reagan has settled on
hornburgh, who will turn 56 on
kturday.
Fitzwater said “it’s probably likely
lat he (Reagan) has decided, but he
ps not made an offer.”
Cable News Network reported
lat Thornburgh, who left the gov-
■•norship in 1987 after serving two
>ur-year terms, had been inter-
lewed by White House general
Counsel A.B. Gulvahouse.
III!
White House chief of staff Ken-
icth Duberstein on Monday asked
| en.John Heinz, R-Pa., for his view
f a Thornburgh nomination,
[ccording to Heinz spokesman Rich-
rd Bryers.
I “Heinz said it would be an excel
lent choice,” Bryers said.
1 Asked about the report, Fitzwater
Health improves
for coma victim
By Alan Sembera
Staff Writer
A Texas A&M professor’s
daughter is showing signs of im
provement at a Houston hospital
after being left in a coma May 30
by a car accident in Germany.
Laura Burnett, 19, the daugh
ter of marketing professor Dr.
John Burnett, was flown to Hous
ton from Germany on June 23 af
ter more than $9,000 was do
nated for her return.
Dr. Burnett said his daughter,
although still unconscious, is
showing signs of improvement.
“She has her eyes open and
she’s able to scan and focus,
which is a real good sign,” he said.
“She’s just a lot more active than
she was even a week and a half
ago.”
Laura is being treated at the
Medical Center del Oro, which
specializes in head and spinal in
juries.
The $6,540 cost of flying
Laura home was not covered by
insurance, so a fund was set up
June 9 at First RepublicBank
A&M to raise the money. The
goal was met June 17, and the ex
tra money raised will be used to
cover other expenses incurred af
ter the accident.
Laura suffered a broken leg, a
broken wrist, a broken rib and in
juries to the head and brainstem.
Dr. Burnett and Laura, who is
a junior at Texas Tech Univer
sity, were in Europe touring busi
nesses as part of a Study Abroad
program before the accident oc
curred.
A friend of the family said
Laura was struck by an auto
mobile that ran a red light while
she was crossing an intersection.
said, “You know my policy on per
sonnel matters is to neither confirm
nor deny.
“The president has not talked to
Thornburgh or anyone else.”
Elsie Hillman, head of George
Bush’s presidential campaign in
Pennsylvania and a Republican Na
tional committeewoman, said in
Harrisburg, Pa., that she was told by
Bush campaign officials that Thorn
burgh had been asked to take the
job.
Hillman also said that Thorn
burgh, who has been rumored as a
possible vice presidential running
mate for Bush, had agreed to take
the job.
Fitzwater said “you know that
names pop up, people weigh in, and
they have to go through background
checks. So, we just have to avoid
these confirmations.”
The spokesman did confirm that
Reagan aides spent much of the
weekend discussing whom to nomi
nate as Meese’s successor.
Thornburgh is no stranger to the
Department of Justice.
He was the U.S. attorney in Pitts
burgh from 1969 to 1975, then
moved to Washington as assistant at
torney general and head of the crim
inal division from 1975 to 1977.
He served as governor from 1979-
86 and now directs the Institute of
Politics at Harvard University’s Ken
nedy School of Government.
Thornburgh, born in Pittsburgh,
has an engineering degree from
Yale and a law degree, with high
honors, from the University of Pitts
burgh.
He and his wife Virginia have two
sons.
Fitzwater had said earlier that the
administration wanted to announce
the nominee before Congress ad
journs Thursday for the Democratic
National Convention.
The convention begins next Mon
day in Atlanta.
Bird watching
Emily Simmons, 5, of Houston, walks down to the end of the pier at
Bryan Municipal Lake to feed the ducks on a summer afternoon. She
Photo by Jay Janner
was visiting the lake with her sister Melissa and her grandmother Bil
lie Douthitt of Bryan.
U.S. will pay plane victims’ families
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan, calling Americans “a
compassionate people,” said Mon
day the government will compensate
the families of those who perished in
an Iranian airliner shot down by a
U.S. Navy cruiser.
Without admitting legal liability
for the loss of 290 lives when Iran
Air Flight 655 was downed July 3,
Reagan said the payments should be
made on behalf of “the innocent
people who were the victims.”
There was no immediate indica
tion how much money would be in
volved.
In Congress, whose approval ap
parently would be required, House
Speaker Jim Wright said lawmakers
are likely to be sympathetic to Rea
gan’s request, but some members
called the request premature be
cause of still-unanswered questions
about the incident. Some said com
pensation should be paid only after
Americans held hostage in Lebanon
are freed.
In its announcement, the White
House said there would be no lower
ing of the U.S. military profile in the
Persian Gulf. And Reagan stressed
that “there’s certainly going to be no
compensation” for the Iranian gov
ernment.
On the eve of a scheduled United
Nations Security Council debate on
the incident, the administration said
ultimate responsibility rests with
“those who refuse to end” the Iran-
Iraq war, especially Iran “which has
refused for almost a year to accept
and implement Security Council
Resolution 598, while it continues
unprovoked attacks on innocent
neutral shipping and crews in the in
ternational waters of the gulf.”
“We will not countenance any im
pression that this is a payment to the
government or an admission of lia
bility or is in response to any other
external pressure or external inter
national political condition between
our two countries,” White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
At the Iranian mission to the U.N.
in New York, spokesman Amir Za-
mani declined comment on the
White House statement. He noted
that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-
Akbar Velayati will address the Se
curity Council meeting Tuesday af
ternoon and is expected to comment
on compensation.
Amid conflicting reports about
whether Iran recovered the flight
recorder from the downed A300
Airbus, the White House said anew
that Capt. Will C. Rogers III, com
mander of the USS Vincennes, took
“justifiable defensive actions” to pro
tect himself against feared attack by
an Iranian F-14 warplane.
Fitzwater also said he wasn’t sure
whether the administration would
have to ask Congress to appropriate
the compensation payments but that
it would not hesitate to do so.
Reagan, asked whether giving
compensation might send a bad sig
nal, said, “I don’t ever find compas
sion a bad precedent.”
On Capitol Hill, Wright, D-Texas,
said, “If the president is satisfied
(that payments are warranted), I
would imagine the Congress would
be satisfied.”
But House Democratic Whip
Tony Coelho of California, the par
ty’s chief vote-counter, said he be
lieved the request would “have some
problems” and said he was person
ally opposed to it.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a for
mer prisoner of war in Vietnam, said
that as long as Americans remain
hostage in Lebanon by pro-Iranian
elements, “there will be resentment
to any payment, to any Iranian, un
der any circumstances.”
Fitzwater made clear that the
money would be channeled through
some third-party organization or in
termediary, such as the Red Cres
cent, an arm of the Red Cross, and
not the Iranian government.
He acknowledged that the U.S.
government had not yet addressed
the question of how, and with whom,
to verify the identities of the dead or
survivors who will likely make claims
for compensation.
All but 38 of the Iran Air passen
gers were from Iran.
Soviet official announces military plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The So
viet Union’s military chief of staff
announced Monday an agreement
designed to ease superpower friction
through creation of a “military-to-
military working group,” but said
the Red Army plans no unilateral
withdrawal from Central Europe.
Ending a week-long tour of the
United States, Marshal Sergei Akh-
romeyev met with President Reagan
at the White House before unveiling
the agreement at the Pentagon with
the chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Adm. William
Crowe.
Along with creation of the joint
working group, designed to head off
brushfire incidents between the two
sides, the two officials also an
nounced future tour exchanges
among top commanders and several
other steps designed to enhance mu
tual understanding, including port
visits by warships.
Akhromeyev and Crowe, flanked
by their national flags, were in a jo
vial mood, and gingerly handled
questions that each might have ex
ploited to stress their disagreements.
“We do have some differences,”
Crowe acknowledged. “Obviously,
we did not try to paper those over.
“But I also think that we clarified
our perspectives. We probably
cleared up some misunderstandings,
and I think we formed the basis for
further exploration,” said the Amer
ican admiral.
Akhromeyev generously thanked
Crowe for taking him on the U.S.
tour, unprecedented for such a
high-ranking official of the Soviet
Defense Ministry, where he is No. 2
man next to Defense Minister Dmitri
Yazov. The visit included a cruise
aboard an aircraft carrier at sea, a
peek inside a B-l bomber, a visit to a
missile training facility, a rodeo, a
barbeque, the gift of an Indian head
dress, and a trip to Crowe’s alma
mater, the University of Oklahoma.
At the news conference, the two
announced agreement to form a
joint “military to military working
group ... to explore the issue of
dangerous military activity in
greater detail and make recommen
dations.”
Examples of the sort of friction
the group will attempt to resolve in
the future include the fatal shooting
by Soviet soldiers of U.S. Maj. Ar
thur Nicholson in East Germany in
1985, and the bumping incident in
volving U.S. and Soviet ships in the
Black Sea last Feb. 12.
To stimulate long-range contact,
Crowe and Akhromeyev also laid
out a two-year exchange program
beginning this fall with a meeting be
tween senior U.S. and Soviet com
manders in Central Europe.
Also on the agenda are a return
visit to the Soviet Union by Crowe in
the summer of 1989, port visits by
warships, and tour exchanges of
doctors, historians, the commanders
of the services, and a marksmanship
competition.
Despite the comraderie, Akhro
meyev apparently made little pro
gress convincing Crowe the heavily
publicized Soviet “doctrine of de
fensive sufficiency” has reduced the
threat posed by Warsaw Pact forces.
tudy may prompt plan for A&M day care
3N
By Susan B. Erb
Reporter
H Fifteen Texas universities — including the
University of Texas, Baylor University and
the University of Houston — provide day
care services for children of students, faculty
and staff. Texas A&M does not.
I Proponents who are part of a 10-year cru-
»de for campus day care hope the findings
If a recent need-assessment committee will
lelp make University day care a reality at
A&M.
H The Child Care Facility Study Committee,
formed at the request of Chancellor Perry
dkisson, conducted a two-month study on
child-care services available in the Bryan-Col-
lCge Station area and assessed child-care
jeeds of Texas A&M University System staff
[nd students, committee chairman Patricia
hapman said.
I The committee submitted the study results
to Dr. Eddie J. Davis, deputy chancellor for
Binance and Administraton, on July 1. After
reviewing the report, Davis will send it, with
■is recommendations, to Adkisson.
| Results of the study are not yet public.
Rachel Kennedy, founder of Students with
Children, a Texas A&M group designed to
lend support to students facing the stress of
raising a family while going to school, said the
campus child-care problem is not insurmoun
table.
“It is inevitable that there will be day care at
A&M,” she said. “It’s just a matter of time.
These other universities have found a way.
We just haven’t found a way yet.”
The University Child & Family Lab at the
University of Texas provides part-time day
care for children of students, faculty and staff
and for children in the Austin community
while UT child-behavior students earn aca
demic credit by working at the facility.
Johanna Huggans, director of the UT pro
gram, said the lab operates as a classroom in
the Home Economics Department, allowing
for low staff-child ratios and an environment
conducive to new ideas.
“We probably have a better staff-child ratio
than commercial facilities because we have
students in the classroom,” Huggans said.
“Our ratio is 3-to-15. Most local ratios are 1-
to-15. And being in a university setting stimu
lates new ideas from both students and fac
ulty-member consultants.”
Sylvia DeVoge, Texas A&M Research
Foundation vice president for Special Centers
and administrator of the Ocean Drilling Pro
gram, said the possibility of a campus day
care pilot project — to be competitively con
tracted with a child-care service outside the
University and housed in the Research Park
on the west side of campus —is still being ex
plored, but has run into obstacles from build
ing restrictions and lack of physical space.
Linda Busby, a member of the Committee
on the Status of Women in the University and
past president of the Bryan-College Station
branch of the American Association of Uni
versity Women, said she believes several
obstacles have kept A&M campus day care
from becoming a reality.
“Day care is extremely expensive,” Busby
said. “And there has been concern about
competition with commercial child care in the
area. Space is also a problem — finding an ac
tual, physical place to house the facilities.
“I think the topic is being discussed by all
levels of the University and by all levels of the
system —students, faculty, staff, administra
tors. This is encouraging in itseli.
The ever-increasing need for university
day care results from both changing college-
student demographics and changing gender
roles.
U.S. Department of Education figures
show that, since 1970, the number of college
students over 25 has increased 114 percent,
with 42 percent of the nation’s 12.2 million
college students over 25. This trend results in
more students with children and more de
mand for day care.
The Census Bureau reports that 51 per
cent of mothers with children under 1 year
old are in the work force. These women may
be working because of financial necessity, or
they may be part of a growing number of
women over 30 who are having babies and
don’t want to give up well-established careers.
The result is skyrocketing day-care demands.
And day care is not cheap or easy to find.
One week (40 to 50 hours) of day care in
the Bryan-College Station area ranges from
$45 to $65, depending on the age of the child
and services provided. And other obstacles
arise: Some facilities don’t accept infants, and
many have waiting lists for fall.
A&M Senate
tables motion
for GRE plans
The Texas A&M Faculty Senate
Monday, in a typical short and
breezy summer session, tabled a rec
ommendation from the graduate
council requesting replacement of
the GRE with the MCAT test for all
applicants for doctor of medicine or
doctoral degree in the College of
Medicine.
Concern was raised about the cor
relational relationship between the
two tests and whether this would
constitute a precedent.
Dr. George Chiou, associate dean
for graduate studies and research
who was invited to the meeting to ex
plain the request, did not attend.
Because of lack of information,
the motion was tabled.
During open discussion at the
conclusion of the faculty senate,
problems with the status and noise
level of Sterling C. Evans Library
were recognized.
It was noted that a committee is al
ready looking into the problem and
making suggestions.
It was suggested that the possibil
ity of extending hours for some of
the larger campus food services
might help alleviate the problem.
Also recognized was the problem
of an inefficient cataloging system
that, along with other factors, con
tributes to the “slipping” status of
Texas A&M’s library.