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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1988)
Texas A&MW^ m * « • e Battalion Vol. 88 Mo. 14 GSPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, September 15, 1988 Inside College choices officials prepare for Gilbert By Richard Tijerina Sind Writer As Hurricane Gilbert roars across [he Gulf of Mexico and nears the Texas coast, Texas A&M and Brazos pounty ollicials are making plans to prepare for the storm. See related stories Brazos County Civil Defense and ted Cross organizations are ready ing lists of possible storm shelters for residents of other counties who may pre evacuating f rom coastal areas. University of ficials also are trying lo coordinate on-campus shelters for Toastal evacuees and are working on keeping food facilities open beyond pormal working hours to serve the jublic if necessary. Assistant vice president for fi nance and administration Wesley E. Donaldson is coordinating all cam- bus efforts for storm preparation. He said the Universit) is doing ev erything it can to help find shelter. “We’re exploring whether we can Identify some spaces (on campus) for shelter and whether we can locate Tome spare mattresses or roll away eds that we can use for housing,” Donaldson said. "Our dormitories ire all filled up right now, but we’ve een looking for alternate sources Jor housing.” The Deware Field House and the lead Building are possibilites for al- lernate housing, Donaldson said. However, he said that use of G. lollie White Coliseum as shelter was unlikely because classes are being field there. Focal Red Cross authorities said that they have been busy planning storm shelters, and thev may have more space than thev originally thought because not as mam people from Brazoria County have evac uated as thev anticipated. "We've had a long standing agreement for three or four years with Brazoria County,” Brazos Count\ Red Cross director Emily Stiteler said. “The agreement was that we would open shelters for all the people who were evacuating from there, since they don’t have very strong shelter facilities, but they told us that they’re not having the kind of large evacuation numbers that they’d hoped for.” Stiteler said that four shelters have been set up for the storm lo- cailv. and that as soon as people come in, they are to report to the command post at the Brazos Center, located at 3232 Briarcrest Dr., for further instructions on where to go. The four shelters include: • First Baptist Church in Bryan (500 capacity) • A&M Methodist Church in Col lege Station (500 to 000 capacity) • Alder’s Gate Methodist Church in College Station (150 capacity) • St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Bryan (100 to 150 capacity) Stiteler said that she felt only four shelters would be necessary, but that more could be opened in needed. These include the A&M Church of Hurricane should not affect class Hurricane Gilbert b not ex pected to cause Texas A&M offi cials to cancel Friday classes. Officials from A&M have said the hurricane should not cause cancellation of classes unless it hits the coast earlier then pre dicted. The hurricane is not ex pected to reach landfall until late Friday at the earliest. President William H. Mobley said he wall evaluating the skua- lion as it develops. Athletic officials may cancel game Christ, the Boy’s Club and the old Humana Hospital in Bryan. Spaces at both local airports, Fas-, terwood in College Station and Coulter Field in Bryan, are being taken up quickly. Limited parking space for light aircraft and helicopters is available at Easterwood, but all hangar space had been allocated as of noon Wednesday. Don Griffith, chief of airport ramp operations at Coulter Field, said all Coulter Field spaces are filled. “We’re asking all owners to come out and make sure their airplanes are all tied down,” Griffith said. By Hal L. Hammons Sports Editor Texas A&M Athletic Department officials are meet ing today to decide if Saturday’s football game between Texas A&M and the University of Alabama should be cancelled because of Hurricane Gilbert. Assistant Athletic Director Alan Cannon said the pos sibility for postponement definitely exists. “With the hurricane out there, right now you have to consider the chance,” he said. “You can’t play a ball- game with 70 mile-per-hour winds and rain. “We’d be risking our fans, we’d be risking a lot of liv es.” Cannon said a decision may not come out of today’s meeting, and a final decision might not be made until Friday morning, when the Alabama football team is scheduled to begin their flight to College Station. Wally Groff, A&M’s assistant athletic director in charge of finance, said the chance of a final decision coming today depends on the forecast. “If this thing turns west and is going into Mexico, it won’t affect us at all, and we’ll play the game,” Goff said.“If they can determine with a high degree of prob ability that it’s headed straight at us, then yes, I would think we could make a final decision (to cancel the game).” Cannon said Alabama’s travel plans are another rea son the game could be cancelled. “The University of Alabama is supposed to fly through that stuff,” Cannon said. If cancelled, the game might not be played until both teams’ regular seasons are over. “Our open date may not coincide with Alabama’s,” Cannon said. “We could be looking at a ballgame in De cember.” He said as of now the game is still on for Saturday. “We can’t call a ballgame because of a threat,” he said. “We’re going at it all guns until the weather tells us to stop.” ESPN, which is contracted to televise the game, is still sending its crew and announcers to College Station to day. Mike Soltys, ESPN’s manager of programming infor mation, said, “Right now we’re assuming the game will take place.” “People have been calling from the coast and from Houston and Galves ton, hoping to find spaces to put their planes in, but we’ve been tell ing them that they’ve called a week too late. We’re all full.” Donaldson said that even though the University was planning to help people who are evacuating, the pos sibility remains that A&M could be hit by the storm. “We’re going to have the police on stand by. The Physical Plant is now- available, and food services will be open,” he said. “We’re going to be helping the storm refugees. Of course, if we lose power here at the University though, we may become victims of the storm ourselves.” If that should happen, Donaldson said that the Physical Plant would be directed to open Duncan Hall as soon as possible for food services. However, Physical Plant director Joe Estill said that decisions for the restoration of power could be made at the time of the emergency. “We’ll have to make these deci sions when they come,” he said. “We’ll make them when we have to. If we lose power, we’ll have to see w hat kind of capacity w'e have and when we can turn everything back on.” Me force. J auhea lew t toeR iucai liter, irtlc.: not tel I Staled (to ecor - work] least e.'l ipintki ding re<k| i Hisj d to T tl.sta’rl pm&j dal sfj ■ busiof y Dem ntsen net"'® icM interT er Of'! earlr Ft- Pipe works GTE employees work to repair a ruptured gas line Wednesday at the corner of Anderson and Wolf Photo by Monique Threadgill Run drives. Residents in the area and children in the local school were evacuated. Richards tenure hearing resumes after week off By Stephen Masters Senior Staff Writer The hearing contesting the dis missal of tenured Texas A&M Asso ciate Professor Dr. Katherine Rich ards continued Wednesday with challenges and objections mingled with testimony. The six-member Academic Free dom, Tenure and Responsibility Committee convened for the fourth day of testimony after a week off. Richards, from the department of modern languages, was notified by Luis Costa, Modern Languages De partment head, in a letter dated Dec. 16, 1985, that in May 1986 she would be removed from payroll. Richards protested the action. She still is on the University’s budgeted payroll because of continuing ap peals within the school. The University is attempting to dismiss Richards on the grounds of “professional incompetence, contin uing or repeated substantial neglect to professional responsibilities, men tal or physical disablement of a continuing nature adversely affect ing to a material and substantial de gree the performance of duties or in meeting the responsibilities to the in stitution, students or associates, and unprofessional conduct adversely af fecting to a material and substantial degree the performance of duties or the meeting of responsibilities to the institution, students or associates.” Richards and her legal counsel, Gaines West of West, Adams, Webb & Allbritton, have said the school has listed no actual incidents of any of the accusations. Richards has filed a civil suit with the Equal Employ ment Opportunity Commission claiming the school is discriminating against her on the basis of her hand icap, sex and age. Richards is 48 and suffered crippling poliomyelitis when she was 10. She joined A&M’s faculty in 1970 and received tenure in 1976. She was elected to the Faculty Senate and its Research Committee in Spring 1988. Wednesday’s hearing began with a challenge by West against commit tee member Mary Zey-Ferrell. West claimed there was an appearance of impropriety because Zey-Ferrell is head of the Sociology Department in the College of Liberal Arts, and works closely with Dean Daniel Fal lon of the Liberal Arts College. Fal lon testified against Richards before the committee on Sept. 5. The challenge was denied and West’s objections were noted on the record. Later in the hearing, Robin Ma lone, assistant legal counsel for the University, vigorously objected to the committee allowing a witness who would only testify about events in 1981-82. Malone argued that it was unfair to allow witnesses to dic tate what they would testily over. The committee allowed the partial testimony and noted Malone’s objec tions. Testimony began with Dr. Jerome Brown, a clinical psychologist hired by the University to put together the packet of tests for Richards’ psycho analysis. Brown said the group of tests was designed so that failure would be a strong indicator of lack of ability, but passing would not nec essarily indicate ability. This was planned to reduce the possibility of a false negative, he said. He testified that the tests given to Richards were not as rigorous or de manding as teaching a college course. Richards tested “severely defecti ve” on one of the tests, said Brown, and he concluded that “cognitive im pairment is apparent and significant enough to recommend she (Rich ards) not return to the classroom.” On one test, Brown said Richards’ response time was a sign of “cogni tive impairment.” Brown said the tests do not nec essarily point to causes, only condi tions. “We can only know something is Continued on Page 8 i ie Republicans show support Senator inspires students at kickoff rally am d KeT lengf J atrol 'A c fre^i •3 By Jeff Pollard Staff Writer Aggie Republicans gathered on mpus Wednesday night for the kickoff meeting of their “Victory ’88” campaign. Sen. John Tower was on hand at the meeting as a show of support for the efforts of Texas A&M Republicans and to update them on the progress of the George Bush/Dan Quayle candidacy. I Tower, who served as the chair man of the Senate’s Defense Com mittee until he retired in 1985, told members that it should be an easy choice between Bush and Dukakis. I “Regardless of the opposition, there are many reasons to vote for jeorge Bush,” Tower said. “Given the fact that the opposition is Mike Dukakis, George Bush becomes a jmdidate you can really support.” Tower said a Bush Presidency will Hjold American traditional values at heart while the liberal ideas of Duka kis will only serve to return the na tion to the problems of the past. ■ “Don’t vote for Dukakis unless ypu want to go back to high taxes, M|gh unemployment and high infla- Hon,” Tower said. “Dukakis prom- / ises to try the same old things that have not worked in the past and will Hot work now. Anyone who beleives they will work should not be presi dent of the United States.” One of these promises, Tower said, is to reduce the size of the mili tary by eliminating the MX missle system and the Strategic Defense Initiative. Tower, who served for 14 months as an arms negotiator in Ge neva, Switzerland, countered by say ing if it were not for the moderniza tion of strategic forces and the development of SDI, the Soviets would not have come back to the ne gotiating table. This, he said, is why Dukakis has been characterized as “viscerally anti-defense.” “This means his belief comes from the gut,” Tower said, “but to me it seems to be a rather gutless notion.” Tower said America needs to as sert itself as a leader in defense and security. He said the U.S. needs to create a world where all countries can aspire to self-determination. The Bush/Quayle ticket has this long-term vision for the future, he said, and they know this national ob jective will be based on realism, dia logue and national strength. Speaking about the other half of the ticket, Tower said the Dan Quayle problem was an invention of the media. He said that, while the press beat Quayle over his military record, the Democrats didn’t say Bentsen’s wife meets supporters during B-CS stop Senator John Tower anything because they did not want their own records made public. “I appointed him to chair a sub committee within the Senate’s De fense Committee because he was most authoritative on the subject of national defense,” Tower said. “At the same time, he very activly sup ported the industrial and agricultu ral interests of his constituents. These are the same interests that many Texans have also.” Tower concluded his speech by telling students how important it is to get qualified voters registered and to the polling places. While he said Republicans had a good lead in Texas, polls don’t always reflect the result of an election. “If we don’t register our people and get them out to vote,” Tower said, “we could still lose the election even if public sentiment is in our fa vor. This makes voter registration one of the most important things that you can do.” By Alan Sembera Staff Writer The wife of Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen made a stop in Bryan-College Station Wednesday to meet supporters of her husband’s vice presidential campaign and to tour a local prenatal clinic. At the crowded headquarters of the local Democratic Party, Bentsen defended against Republican attacks on Democratic presidential candi date Michael Dukakis. The Republican attacks accuse Dukakis of supporting gun control and opposing the Pledge of Alle giance and prayers in school. “Those are not the issues because Republicans and Democrats do not disagree on those things,” she said. “Those are things of patriotic belief for all of us. . . They haven’t been attacking things that are important, they’ve been appealing to the emotions of the voters. It’s incredible that they aren’t discussing the issues — the things that are really important.” The senator’s wife said the Duka- kis-Bentsen campaign would focus on what it considers the most impor tant issues in the weeks remaining before the election, including de . , It’s incredible that they (the candidates) aren’t discussing the issues — the things that are really important. ” — Mrs. Loyd Bentsen fense, the U.S. trade imbalance and the deficit. “They’re just going to have to ex plain why we have this great indebt edness and how we’re going to get jobs back to America,” she said. Bentsen emphasized the impor tance of Texas in the Democrats’ campaign strategy. She said Texas and California would decide the out come of the election, and encour aged the supporters who filled the small campaign headquarters to bring out the vote on election day. Bentsen also toured the Brazos Maternal and Child Health Care Clinic. The non-profit clinic pro vides prenatal care to local women. During the tour, she emphasized the Democratic party’s support of improved health care and child care policies.