Texas ASM •
The Battalion
,i5 ' m— —
b) Vol. 88 No. 18 GSRS 045360 12 Paqes
College Station, Texas
Wednesday 21, 1988
Tem
e; ft ‘
sew-
J u ry convicts
nts &I
■virus’ planter
'Sistii;
MiHFORT WOK 1 H (AP) — A district
,1 attorney who thinks he’s the first
pr (cutor ever to have someone
|, convicted for destroying computer
^^Bords using a computer “virus”
Tuesday the case could light the
^^Hy for similar convictions.
the past, prosecutors have
^^Hyed away from this kind of case
B^Hhtuse they’re too hard to prove,”
Tarrant County Assistant District
^^Btorney Davis McCown said. “They
also been l eluctant because the
^^Htim doesn’t want to let anyone
there has been a breach of se-
ifiBrity.”
Hhonald tiene Burleson, 40, was
**' ' convicted Monday of charges of
harmful access to a computer, a
*"HRiid-degree felony that carries up
10 years in prison and up to
**H$n,()00 in fines.
■A key to the case was the fact that
ISIllStete District Judge John Bradshaw
^Howed the computer program that
iro " I ddleted the files to be introduced
PWBo the case as evidence, McCown
-sani..
lmD P l Bit would have been difficult to get
aconviction otherwise, he said.
McCown spent most of three
^ji^Bais trying to win the conviction.
far as I know, it’s the first case
of this type in the nation. We’ve had
,^Bople stealing through computers,
BHt not this type of case,” McCown
“The basis for this offense is
I deletion.”
eatt^BBurleson planted the virus in re-
aB^Bnge for his firing from an insur-
B^Hce company, McCown said.
■^Bjurors were told during a techni-
»PBl and sometimes-complicated trial
n^^Batspanned three weeks that Burle
son deliberately planted a rogue
program in the computer system
used to store records at USPA and
IRA Co., a Fort Worth-based insur
ance and brokerage firm.
McCown said the so-called virus
was programmed like a time bomb
and was activated on Sept. 21, 1985,
two days after Burleson was fired
from his post as a computer pro
grammer, because of alleged per
sonality conflicts w ith other employ
ees.
The virus could have caused hun
dreds of thousands of dollars in
damage to the system, but was
caught and expunged after it de
stroyed a series of payroll records.
McCown said the case may offer
two precedents.
One is admittance of the “virus”
program as evidence — a strategy
other attorneys may want to follow
in similar cases, he said.
The second is found in the convic
tion itself. “It is legal precedent in
that it makes new law, but it really
won’t be strengthened until it’s
upheld by a higher court,” McCown
said.
But that may never happen.
Burleson’s lawyer, Jack Beech,
maintained Burleson is innocent and
said he is considering appeal but
might not have enough money.
Besides, Beech said, Burleson is
likely to get the minimum sentence
of two years’ probation.
McCown is hoping for a stiffer
sentence.
“I think if he got probation and
no fine, then it would be saying this
crime is alright,” he said.
»jMinority recruitment
batitrBj J
«boosts UT
(WB At7STiN (AP) — Enrollment of
||?^fcnority students at the University
mp: of Texas appears to have increased
p^^Bis semester in what may be evi-
n MiJdbnee that the school’s long-term mi-
igtheBority recruiting efforts are paying
ndc:Bff, officials said.
injkB School officials said they expect
won Biat enrollment of blacks will be up
n g sfBv about 8 percent, with Hispanics
seven:Bgher by 10 percent,
hedlfl The gains won’t be known exactly
ef jBntil after Wednesday, the 12th class
R,Bay of the fall semester,
th tut'®;;.
tthe;B“I think the work that our staff
ritinf Rts been doing over a long period of
i first time has been bearing fruit. And I
Biink the trips that (UT president
Billiam) Cunningham and others
' ^kiyc been making to high schools
ilesl have been having an impact,” said
Bonald Brown, vice president for
enrollment
student at lairs.
Cunningham visited about 50
Texas high schools last year to ad
vertise the university and recruit mi
nority students and others.
Brown also said total university
enrollment for the fall is expected to
be higher than an early estimate of a
record 49,500.
“It appears the total will be closer
to 50,000 than 49,500,” Brown said.
The previous enrollment record
at UT was 48,145. The university
has been trying since the early 1980s
to keep enrollment between 46,000
and 48,000.
Despite efforts to limit overall en
rollment, however, the university
has been trying to attract more
blacks and Hispanics.
The number of minority students
has been rising since the late 1970s.
Photo by Sam B. Myers
Looking glass
A different view of the A&M football team as they prepare for this weekend’s game against Oklahoma State.
Bush makes history by swearing in
Cavazos as Secretary of Education
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate unanimously confirmed
Lauro Cavazos as education secre
tary Tuesday and he was sworn in
just three hours later by fellow
Texan and Republican presidential
candidate George Bush.
In an East Room ceremony at the
White House, President Reagan
called Cavazos, the first Hispanic
Cabinet member in history, “a ster
ling example of the magnificent con
tributions Hispanic Americans have
made to our national life.”
Vice President Bush gave Cava-,
zos, a registered Democrat, the oath
of office as Cavazos’ wife, Peggy,
held the family bible. The couple’s
10 children also attended the cere
mony.
Cavazos, the president of Texas
Tech University and its medical
school, said Reagan’s leadership and
commitment to education had truly
helped this country make significant
gains and strides.
But, he said, we must awaken
America to renew its commitment to
education to help all citizens reach
their potential.
Earlier, senators praised Cavazos,
the son of a Texas cattleman on the
legendary King Ranch who worked
his way through college and grad
uate school to become president of
Texas Tech University, as an Ameri
can success story.
Lauro Cavazos
Hispanic leaders have questioned
the timing of President Reagan’s de
cision to nominate Cavazos in the
waning months of his administration
and suggest he was pandering to
Hispanic votes to bolster Bush’s can
didacy in Texas, one of the key bat
tleground states in the November
election.
“I think the people see it for what
it is,” said Rep. Albert Bustamante, a
San Antonio Democrat and chair
man of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus.
Bustamante said “(voters will fo
cus on) more substantial issues like
cutbacks in education that occurred
under this administration, (as well as
in) housing, health care, stipends for
higher education, grants; they’ll look
at those things and they’ll review the
record of both parties, and then
they’ll decide and then they’ll not be
for Bush and (Dan) Quayle.”
Cavazos testified before the Sen
ate Labor and Human Resources
( Committee that he had been asked if
he wanted the post eight years ago
but declined because he had just
taken over as president of Texas
Tech.
Senators voted 94-0 to confirm
Cavazos after members praised him
as an ally in the education reform
movement, an advocate of the fed
eral government’s role in education,
and a healing influence in place of
outgoing Secretary William J. Ben
nett.
“It is a great testament to Larry
Cavazos and his family that he has
risen from the son of a cowboy to be
come the first educator of America,”
said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.
“He’s committed to quality education
for all our citizens.”
“For the last seven years, mem
bers of Congress from both sides of
the aisle have worked hard to ensure
that the federal goverment will con
tinue to have a role in education. It is
apparent that Dr. Cavazos will be an
ally in these efforts in the future,”
said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-
Mass.
Cavazos, 61, is the first Hispanic
and first graduate of Texas Tech to
become the Lubbock university’s
president.
Prior to his appointment there in
1980, he was dean of the Tufts Med
ical School in Boston.
“I note that Dr. Cavazos has spent
considerable time and compiled an
excellent record in both Massachu
setts and Texas,” said Kennedy.
NASA inspector
expects charges
tudent Publication Board halts
989 video yearbook production
By Susan B. Erb
Staff Writer
B The Student Publications Board
voted Tuesday to forgo production
of a 1988-1989 Texas A&M video
fcarbook and placed legal, monetary
Bid time restrictions on the final
■ages of the 1987-1988 project.
■ The board said if the 1987-1988
video yearbook, Aggievision, is to be
Bistributed the staff must edit the
“iS-minute tape to no more than 90
irinutes and attain copyright clear
ances for background music at a cost
Bf no more than $2,400 within three
j|eeks. Aggievision will not produce
a video yearbook for the 1988-1989
school year.
Board member Dr. Manuel Da-
jenport, professor of philosophies
Ind humanites, said overall the vi-
Beo is good but needs to be con
densed.
I “If it could be edited, reorganized
Bnd cut down it would be a tape stu-
; dents would be interested in,” Da
venport said. “In its present form it’s
just too long.”
The copyright-clearance provi
sion refers to background music
Ised for which final approval is pen
ding. To go ahead with distribution
!pf the video without proper clear
ance could cause legal problems.
Aggievision editor, Greg Keith,
laid he believes the requirements can
ie met but that meeting the music
lequirement will be difficult.
“We are going to do whatever we
need to do to get it out,” Keith said.
“The only thing I'm really worried
about is the music. Music is really ex
pensive. It’s the only thing I don’t
think they really set a reasonable
deadline on.”
Bob Rogers, chairman of the Stu
dent Publications Board and head of
the Department of Journalism, ad
vised that Aggievision not produce a
1988-1989 video yearbook and take
the time to rethink the project orga
nization and budgeting.
“Lots of developments lead us to
believe it can be done differentlv,”
Graphic by Carol Wells
Rogers said. “We need to take time
to study this.”
If issued, the 1987-1988 Aggievi
sion will be the first video yearbook
at A&M.
Donald C. Johnson, coordinator
of Student Publications and associate
professor of journalism, said the
idea of a video yearbook was origi
nally proposed in 1984.
The Video Aggieland, the 1986-
1987 video yearbook, was launched
in 1986 with the Student Publica
tions Board’s approval of a $50,000
budget for the 1986-1987 school
year and a tentative $50,000 budget
for the following year with the stip
ulation that if the project operated at
a loss during its first year of opera
tion the budget would be resub
mitted for the board’s appt oval.
Johnson said a complete project
proposal, including the purchase of
video equipment to be used by the
Video Aggieland staff and for
broadcast journalism classes, was ap
proved by former A&M President
Frank E. Vandiver.
“The day before interviews for
editor were to start,” Johnson said,
“w'e got a sudden call f rom the pro
vost’s office saying there was a prob
lem. We asked if we should go ahead
with the interviewing and they said
yes.”
Johnson said the provost’s office
didn’t say what the problem was. It
.wasn’t until after they had picked an
editor, he said, that they learned of
Vandiver’s approval of a KAMU-
proposed video yearbook that was
part of a package of proposed pro
jects.
The outcome, following a sum
mer of negotiations, was that a video
yearbook could be implemented,
and staffed by A&M students, if they
rented their video equipment from
KAMU.
Out-of-pocket expenses for the
1987-1988 video totaled about
$75,000, Johnson said, with about
$40,000 going to KAMU.
WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA’s
inspector general said Tuesday he
expects more indictments charging
aerospace manufacturers with certi
fying falsely that bolts used on the
space shuttles had been properly
tested.
Bill Colvin said he had been as
sured by engineers that there are no
defective bolts in critical areas on the
shuttle Discovery, which is to be
launched Sept. 29 from the Ken
nedy Space Center in Florida.
“We are looking at false certifica
tion,” he said. “That does not nec
essarily mean they are defective.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted
Darrell Lee, president of Lee Aero
space Products of Simi Valley, Calif.,
as saying his company is one of many
under investigation.
Colvin said it would not be appro
priate for him to discuss Lee Aero
space. No charges have been filed
against the firm.
“At this point in time our interest
is in fasteners,” Colvin said. “I would
expect more indictments.”
Ron Bledsoe, chief of the quality
engineering division at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala., said the false certifications were
uncovered during an audit in Feb
ruary and March.
“There are some of Lee Aero
space’s bolts on the shuttle, we know
that,” he said. “We’ve actually gone
in and evaluated where these bolts
were and in any critical application,
we conducted extensive stress analy
sis and determined there was no
safety issue.”
Bledsoe said the shuttle’s right
booster contains 614 Lee bolts and
the left booster has 595 and that Lee
bolts account for 60 percent of the
2,000 bolts inside the rockets.
“Even with those bolts that were in
there, I couldn’t say we would have a
problem with them,” Bledsoe said.
Arthur O. Sammons of Canoga
Park, Calif., was indicted Sept. 9 by a
federal grand jury in Birmingham,
Ala., on 26 counts of making false
statements to NASA and 17 counts
of mail fraud involving shuttle bolts
made by Lawrence Engineering and
Supply of Burbank, Calif.
Texas’ scores
rise on SAT,
still below par
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas students’
scores on two major national college
entrance examinations rose slightly
from 1987 to 1988, while the num
ber of pupils taking the tests rose
substantially, state officials reported
Tuesday.
Although Texas students still
scored below the national averages
on the Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT) and the American College
Testing Program (ACT) exam, the
Texas Education Agency said it ap
pears that public school reforms in
stituted in 1984 are beginning to
show results.
“While I’m not satisfied with
where we are, which is below the na
tional average, I do believe that im
plementation of education reforms
has caused continued progress,” Ed
ucation Commissioner William
Kirby said.
The mean score for Texas stu
dents on the verbal section of the
SAT was 417, up from 416 in 1987.
The mean SAT math score was 462,
up from 459 the previous year, the
education agency reported.