The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 03, 1988, Image 1

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Vol. 87 Mo. 186 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, August 3, 1988
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Reagan wants
AIDS bias law
in government
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan ordered federal offi
cials Tuesday not to discriminate
against employees infected with the
AIDS virus, but he refused to em
brace a White House commission’s
call to extend that protection to all
Americans.
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The proposal for anti-discrimina
tion legislation — the cornerstone of
the report the commission submitted
June 24 — was referred to the attor
ney general for study.
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Beyond that, the commission’s
597 recommendations were
grouped into what the White House
termed a 10-point “action plan” that
was long on generalities and short
on specifics.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif.,
characterized the administration’s
response to its own commission’s
recommendations as a ref usal to act.
“Why are they stalling?” asked
Waxman, chairman of the House
Energy and Commerce health sub
committee.
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“This administration has done its
best to avoid making even a single
helpful AIDS decision in the eight
years of the Reagan presidency.
They handpick a commission, and
then don’t even have the courage to
accept its recommendations,” he
said.
“We don’t need another study,”
Waxman said. “What we, need is
leadership, and while Dr. Koop and
Admiral Watkins have given that,
once again the president is hiding.”
He was referring to Surgeon Gen
eral C. Everett Koop and James D.
Watkins, the retired Navy admiral
who headed the AIDS commission
appointed by Reagan last summer.
Dr. Donald lan Macdonald, a spe
cial presidential assistant and direc
tor of the White House Drug Abuse
Policy Office, was charged with re
viewing the commission’s report and
formulating the Reagan response.
Macdonald told reporters in ad
vance of a White House briefing that
Watkins “obviously felt more
strongly” about the need for federal
anti-discrimination legislation than
some administration officials.
Watkins was out of the country
Tuesday and could not be reached
for reaction.
Watkins has not appeared in pub
lic with Reagan since the report was
completed. The president did meet
privately with the admiral on June
27 before sending the admiral out to
face reporters alone on the White
House driveway.
Macdonald acknowledged that
some unspecified administration of
ficials opposed anti-discrimination
legislation because of their belief it
would “reward the behaviors that
cause (AIDS) infection.”
Terrence Daily, a 10-year-old from Bryan, gets ready for a pitch Fri
day at Johnson Elementary School in Bryan. Friends Roxanne and
Irene Ramirez and William Dillaney, all of Bryan, cheer him on from
behind.
Plant-closing
notification bill
to become law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan said Tuesday he will re
luctantly allow a plant-closing notifi
cation bill to become law and
accused Democrats of “political she
nanigans” that had jeopardized leg
islation aimed at curbing the huge
U.S. trade deficit.
Without relenting in his view that
requiring 60 days’ notice of plant
closings or mass layoffs was wrong,
Reagan conceded that political reali
ties rendered a veto of the bill im
practical.
“The Senate leadership refuses to
even consider important trade legis
lation until final action is taken on
the plant-closing bill,” he said.
Reagan and his chief spokesman,
Marlin Fitzwater, accused pro-labor
Democrats in Congress of exploiting
public sentiment for a plant-closing
bill to force the administration’s
hand.
“But the national interest now dic
tates that the majority in the Con
gress must be forced to stop playing
politics,” Reagan said.
“Therefore, in order to end these
political shenanigans and to get on
with the business of the nation, I
have decided to allow the plant clos
ing bill to become law — but without
my signature.”
The bill becomes law at 12:01 a.m.
EDT Thursday, but it will not be en
forced for six months, until Feb. 4,
1989
Vice President George Bush’s
staff chief, Craig Fuller, said Rea
gan’s decision “will make it more dif
ficult for the political game to be
played over the plant-closing issue”
in the November presidential elec
tron.
Bush, the certain Republican
presidential nominee, has opposed
mandatory plant-closing notices.
Democratic nominee Michael Duka
kis has repeatedly cited Bush’s posi
tion as evidence of his and Reagan’s
insensitivity to workers.
Under the bill, notices are re
quired of any employer with at least
100 full-time workers if a plant clos
ing will result in loss of jobs for 50 or
more of employees.
In case of layoffs, notices are re
quired only if one-third of a compa
ny’s employees or 500 of them —
whichever figure is lower — are in
volved.
Exemptions are provided if em
ployers can show that plant closings
or mass layoffs are caused by “not
reasonably foreseeable circum
stances” such as flood, drought or
sudden cancellation of a major con
tract, or that notices would prevent
raising enough capital to keep the
business open.
The president had vetoed an ear
lier version of the trade bill largely
because it included a plant-closing
provision, and his veto was upheld.
Core curriculum will
be instigated in fall semester
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By Janet Goode
Senior Staff Writer
After more than five years of conceptua
lization by President Emeritus Frank E.
Vandiver and the Faculty Senate, a Univer
sity core curriculum will be instigated at
Texas A&M beginning this fall.
Although all of A&M’s colleges have
gone through re-organization in prepara
tion for the new curriculum and are now
advising incoming freshmen according to
the new program, an associate dean of edu
cation said Monday that final approval of
the curriculum has not yet been met.
Dr. Bryan Cole, said until final approval,
University officials don’t want to list any in
formation on what the core curriculum will
consist of because it might serve to further
confuse students. Details of the curriculum
will be reported early this fall.
“We are having enough problems right
now on a one-to-one basis in trying to com
municate these changes to the students,”
Cole said.
He said students who have just finished
their freshman year and are coming back as
sophomores will face the decision of
whether to continue in their current pro
gram or to change to the new curriculum.
If they want to stay in their present pro
gram — they must make sure they finish by
Sept. 1 of 1991.
If they don’t, they will have to change, at
that point, into the new program and could
lose as much as two years. Cole said.
University officials agree the hardest hit
colleges will be engineering and business
administration — or colleges in which the
focus is on training in a specific area.
For example, the College of Engineering
will be required to add six hours of cultural
heritage and six hours of social sciences to
their already demanding degree plan.
Dr. Robert Chenoweth, assistant dean of
engineering, said the new curriculum will
definitely add more hours to the engi
neering degrees which, as they exist, can’t
be completed by students in four years.
Chenoweth said engineering students
must take a certain number of technical
courses so the college can retain its accredi-
dation, plus courses to fulfill University re
quirements. In addition, Chenoweth said all
engineering students are required to take
about 15 hours in mathematics.
Cole said some curriculums, especially
liberal arts, will not change greatly since a
broad base of education has always been
one of their major components.
“For a degree to be a true undergraduate
degree, it needs to be focused on education
as opposed to training,” he said. “A degree
that trains you, limits you, in that it focuses
you into a very narrow area. And if that
area becomes obselete, then you have a lot
fewer options and less ability to transition to
another field.”
Cole said engineering problems usually
deal with how they relate to form or func
tion in a mathematical way.
“Making sure that this pipe opens cor
rectly is fine — you need that — but four or
five years out of school, you start dealing
with: What are the environmental impacts
of that kind of thing? What are the human
problems with it? What are the economic
problems? The issues become much
broader than just opening and closing that
valve.
“That’s why we’re seeing such a resur
gence of the liberal arts today.”
Cole said training in engineering and
business lack the communicative parts.
“They can’t communicate their ideas effec
tively,” he said.
Many liberal arts programs also will
change, he said, because they are lacking in
the area of mathematics and technology.
Chenoweth said these people need not to
ignore the technical world in which they
live.
Chenoweth said although the University
core curriculum will be addressing these
problems, whether it will cure them or not
— remains to be seen.
“The question remains — how much can
you shove into a four-year curriculum?” he
said. “We’re not going to be able to create
Renaissance-type people in four years.”
Besides trying to create a program that
will facilitate well-rounded and well-conver
sant individuals, Chenoweth said the engi
neering program is taking a step beyond.
When engineering students sign up for cul
tural heritage and social science courses,
they will not be able to just take “survey”
type classes.
“If a student takes one underdivision
course in an area, the second course must
be at a higher level in the same area.” But
Chenoweth said it’s important to realize
that a student can’t learn everything in an
undergraduate degree.
“Hopefully, what we are doing here is
preparing them (students) for a life-long
learning,” he said. “In a bachelor’s degree,
a student should get some of everything.
He should become a jack-of-a-lot-of-trades’
and not be a ‘master’ of anything —except
the ability to learn.”
Dallas officer slain in ambush
Mother’s fear became reality
DALLAS (AP) — The fear of danger that Eliza
James Williams always kept hidden from the nephew
she had raised as an orphan finally became reality on
Tuesday.
Walter Leon Williams, 47, was shot in the forehead at
a West Oak Cliff apartment complex Monday night,
and at 8:06 a.m. Tuesday became the fourth Dallas po
lice officer to die of gunshot wounds this year.
A determined man who loved his work, he had be
come distinguished as the oldest rookie ever on the Dal
las police force, department officials said.
“I was always worried, but I didn’t tell him,” said Mrs.
Williams, 85, of Midwest City, Okla., who kept Walter
Williams for 10 years after his mother died in childbirth
and father died in a house fire.
“I was afraid asking him would upset him and then
he would question whether he wanted to be a police of
ficer or not. And I knew he was old enough to make
that decision for himself,” she said.
But it is unlikely that anyone could have talked the
strong-valued, family-oriented Williams out of a law en
forcement career, said a cousin, Joe Ray Williams of
Hennipen, Okla. Relatives said they accepted the fact
that Walter Williams saw his work as his duty-
“We can’t choose a man’s lifestyle,” Joe Ray Williams
said. “A man has a destiny, and when he’s run his des
tiny, it’s finished.”
Williams was born on June 6, 1941, in Elmore City,
Okla., an oil and ranching community of about 1,090
people some 65 miles south of Oklahoma City.
He was a model child, according to his aunt, who
read, fished or played sports in grade school and junior
high in Tatum, Okla.
He continued to play football and basketball when he
left to live with his grandparents near Davis, Okla.,
where he attended the now-defunct Woodland High
School.
“I was very proud of him,” Mrs. Williams said. “He
was obedient, and when he came back to Elmore City
last September, we were all in the Mt. Zion Baptist
Church and he made a nice talk about himself and his
family, then he put $20 in the offering.”
After graduating from high school, Williams join the
Army in 1960. There he learned law enforcement, fi
nally retiring in 1980.
Williams also took time to study criminal justice at at
Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Mo.,
and Park College in Parkville, Mo., receiving a bache
lor’s degree from Park in criminal justice in 1976 as a
senior staff sergeant from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said
Bill Tipton, Park’s director of annual funds.
After leaving the military, Williams came to Dallas,
where he hoped to become a police officer. His applica-
:ion was rejected, but he was offered a job as a security
Dfficer for the city, where he worked in 1980 and 1981.
Fair-housing bill
passed by Senate
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas police
ut strips of black tape over their
adge numbers Tuesday as word
spread that a fellow officer was
dead from the ambush that
ended when his suspected assail
ant was killed by other officers.
Walter Leon Williams, 47, who
died about 10 hours after being
shot once in the head, was the the
fourth Dallas police officer to be
killed this year.
“It’s a senseless, tragic happen
ing,” said Dr. Richard Dicker-
man, who was on the trauma
team that attended Williams from
the time he was admitted to
Methodist Medical Center at
about 10:30 Monday night.
Williams died at 8:06 a.m.
Tuesday while his wife sat at his
side.
Officials with the Dallas Police
Department said they know how
the shooting happened but have
not discovered a motive.
Williams was allegedly am
bushed by Joseph Charles How
ard Jr., 31, shortly after 10 p.m.
in the parking lot of an apart
ment complex as he investigated
the wounding of a 17-year-old
woman, Capt. John Holt said.
Williams and his partner, offi
cer Terry Caldwell, had gone to
apartment 206 where a man pre
viously had complained of people
“messing with” his cars, Holt said.
While there, the officers heard
gunshots and started back down
stairs to investigate. On the way,
they encountered a wounded
woman.
Williams “continued down
stairs to investigate the gunshots”
while Caldwell “took the
wounded woman and placed her
in apartment 206 . . . and he fol
lowed his partner downstairs,”
Holt said.
As Caldwell went downstairs,
he heard more gunshots. Holt
said.
“As he got downstairs and
rounded the corner, he saw his
partner on the ground,” the cap
tain said.
Caldwell didn’t see a suspect
and radioed for more assistance
and an ambulance rather than
looking for him.
Waldrip said numerous offi
cers responded to the report of
the downed officer, and as one
walked toward his car to make
sure an ambulance was on the
way, someone fired at him.
“That man then charged the
officers, trying to get into the car
where the officer was going to get
on the radio. The officers re
turned fire — a total of five offi
cers returned fire. He was shot
numerous times,” Holt said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate voted 94-3 Tuesday to ex
pand the protection of the nation’s
fair-housing law to the disabled and
families with children and empower
the government to seek stiff fines for
property owners found guilty of
bias.
Senate passage virtually assured
that the measure will become law be
cause the House approved a similar
bill, 376-23, last June. The House
can accept Senate changes or try to
seek a compromise between the two
versions. President Reagan has en
dorsed the Senate approach.
Three of the Senate’s most con
servative Republicans voted against
the bill: Jesse Helms of North Caro
lina, Steve Symms of Idaho and Gor
don Humphrey of New Hampshire.
Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Dale
Bumpers, D-Ark., and Harry Reid,
D-Nev., did not vote.
The Senate language was the
product of behind-the-scenes nego
tiations that eventually yielded
agreement among civil rights
groups, realtors, homebuilders, or
ganized labor and the Reagan ad
ministration.
Staff members of Vice President
George Bush, the certain GOP presi
dential nominee, were instrumental
in working out the Senate language.
Democratic presidential nominee
Michael Dukakis has endorsed the
bill.
Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Samuel Pierce, who
helped put the measure together,
called it “a meaningful expansion of
our nation’s fair housing laws.”
Ralph Neas, executive director of
the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, called the bipartisan bill “the
most dramatic and significant im
provement in civil rights law since
1965.”
The original bill outlawed dis
crimination based on race. Bias
based on gender was prohibited in
1974. The new legislation would ex
pand the coverage in two ways.
It would prohibit discrimination
against families with children under
age 18, although children could be
barred from housing intended for
the elderly. The bill has several pro
visions spelling out which types of el
derly housing would be exempted.
The measure would not only bar
discrimination against the disabled
or handicapped, but require that
new multi-unit residences be con
structed so they would be accessible
to such persons. This provision
would take effect 30 months after
enactment.
Before the final Senate vote, chief
sponsors Edward M. Kennedy, D-
Mass., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., en
gineered the defeat of two amend
ments designed to change the acces
sibility requirements.
The changes were proposed by
Humphrey, who argued the provi
sions would make housing less affor
dable. The amendments were ta
bled, and thus killed, by votes of 88-
7 and 84-12.
The bill would permit the Depart
ment of Housing and Urban Devel
opment to go to court if voluntary
efforts fail to resolve discrimination
complaints.