Texas A&M
The Battalion
Friday, Oct. 21, 1988
College Station, Texas
USPS 045360
Pages
&M student stabbed.
eft in Lick Creek Park
By Kelly S. Brown
Staff Writer
JA Texas A&M student is listed in sta-
i;bk condition in Humana Hospital’s in-
pensive care unit this morning after being
pbbed in the neck Thursday afternoon.
/endy Gauntt, a junior accounting
Major from Austin, was found lying on
the grass at the south entrance to Lick
Ereck Park around 1:15 p.m. Thursday.
Pieces of rope were found near a wooded
|re.: in the rear portion of the park where
Jice say the assault apparently took
Ice
tollege Station police officer Corkey
Hde! said the victim may have been
|ind, but was able to free herself after
|assailant left. She then made her way
ft. to the entrance of the park where
I collapsed, he said.
Sandel said she could not have been
lying there longer than eight to ten min
utes because a deputy had driven by the
entrance ten minutes before she was
found. Due to blood test results, police
think she could have been assaulted at
least an hour prior to being found.
“She lost a lot of blood, and because
of her condition we were unable to get
much information from her,” Sandel
said. “After she got out of surgery she
was able to write down enough informa
tion for us to locate her parents in Aus
tin. Some time today we hope that she’s
in good enough condition to ask her
questions. ”
Sandel said Gauntt did not know the
suspect, who is described as a white
male in his mid-20s, of medium build
with light brown hair. Police think the
assailant fled the scene in Gauntt’s Chev-
-FW control tower fire
interrupts flight service
w
Grapevine (A?) — Flights at Dai-
Iport Worth International Airport
je suspended for an hour Thursday
tn a technician, trying to contain an
ifttrical fire at the base of the control
low :r, flipped the wrong switch and cut
the circuit that feeds the entire commu-
Ktions network.
■'he fire forced temporary evacuation
of the Federal Aviation Administration
tower at the nation’s fourth-busiest air-
Jor and affected takeoffs or landings of
fbo;: 120 Hights. FAA spokesmen said
about 15 flights were diverted to other
airports in the area.
The technician suffered minor burns.
Airline service was backed up for two
to three hours, and airline officials said it
would be late Thursday before they were
back on schedule.
“Am I upset?” asked Jim King of
Houston, who was making connections
for a flight to Boston. “Sure I’m upset.
But what are you going to do about it?
That’s why Tm sitting here drinking
beer.”
allot to include
vesting proposal
■o 05
(/)53c
•o If
8°
a «s
< 15 *
DO®#:
>2 J?!
7 St!'"
OgSCi
°4i
& i
s r
By Stephen Masters
Senior Staff Writer
constitutional amendment on the
Nov 8 ballot would allow trustees of
4jonv of the state’s investment funds to
partuipate in a new investment strategy.
If passed. Proposition 3 would allow
the Permanent University Fund, Perma-
T School Fund, Teachers’ Retirement
lem and Employee Retirement Sys
tem to redirect up to 1 percent of their
.frook values in the Texas Growth Fund,
said Michael Patrick, executive vice
president for asset management of the
Unil/ersity of Texas System.
Jphe four funds have a book value of
528L5 billion, which means that up to
$285 million could be invested in the
IGF.
Hfatrick said that the establishment of
the IGF has been proposed because the
current investment possibilities for the
fund are too restrictive. Of the more than
IjPOO securities on the exchange, he
said, the PUF is allowed to invest in only
11)0.
I Patrick estimated that the TGF could
creai. up to $75 million more per year
than possible in current investment
schemes.
“We’re not talking about unknown
companies,” he said. “We’re talking
about companies like Compaq Comput
ers — companies that people have heard
of and are successful, but aren’t avail
able for investment under the current
system. I don’t think we’re talking about
a greater risk, just greater profit poten
tial.
Interest in the TGF has been high, pri
marily because participation is volun
tary, Patrick said.
The TRS Board of Trustees said they
“concur in principle” with the amend
ment as long as the TRS’s investments
are voluntary, trustees in the TGF are
held responsible for investments made
and the fund complies with federal laws.
Gov. Bill Clements, Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby and House Speaker Gib Lewis all
have endorsed the amendment. David El
ler, chairman of the A&M Board of Re
gents has also come out in favor of the
proposal.
The proposal would create the TGF
for 10 years, he said. After that, a two-
thirds vote in the Legislature could create
Texas Growth Fund II, but money from
the first TGF could not be mixed with
TGF II, Patrick said.
rolet Suburban. The vehicle was later
found on Jersey Avenue, and Gauntt’s
purse was inside. The vehicle is being
processed by police for prints and any
other clues.
The police report states a white me
dium-size vehicle with blue trim, possi
bly a Suburban, a Blazer or a pick-up
truck with a camper, was seen leaving
the scene traveling north on Rock Prairie
Road.
Sandel said helicopters and police tra
cking dogs were used in an attempt to lo
cate the suspect.
The incident is currently under investi
gation by the criminal investigations di
vision of the College Station Police De
partment.
Any one with information about the
incident is asked to contact the College
Station police at 764-3600.
ulani stresses need for loss by Dukakis
Norm Scroggins, FAA tower manager
at the airport, said service was disrupted
for about 30 minutes before controllers
were able to implement a backup com
munications network. He added that con
trollers, with assistance from an auxil
iary FAA tower near the airport, lost
contact with pilots for less than five sec
onds.
Scroggins said one plane attempting to
land was forced to circle the airport, but
that it was a routine maneuver.
“In so far as passenger and airline
safety, that was not compromised,”
Scroggins said. “We had emergency
transmitter-receiver capability to talk to
those crews and minimize the impact and
certainly not affect the safety of the sys
tem at all. ”
Service to Love Field in Dallas and the
U.S. Naval Base in Grand Prairie, both
served by the control tower, also was
disrupted.
The technician, who was working for
a contractor, was listed in stable condi
tion with minor burns at Harris Method
ist HEB Hospital in Hurst, Jane McKin
ney, assistant head nurse at HEB, said.
Airport officials said the fire alarm in
the control tower sounded at 11:27 a.m.
CDT, and the tower gave the order to
stop traffic at 11:29 a.m.
John Clark, an FAA spokesman, said
the technician was working near the elec
trical panel when he noticed smoke bil
lowing from it. The technician reached
to turn off a transformer unit that was ad
jacent to the electrical panel, thinking it
was feeding the fire. Instead, he was cut
ting off power to the main communica
tions network and its backup.
Clark, who estimated damage at
$1,500, said he was still trying to deter
mine how the fire in electrical panel
started. He said the panel serviced mon
itoring equipment that was not critical to
the tower’s operations.
Scroggins said that by noon the con
trol tower was operating at about 25 per
cent of its capability, adding that as a
precaution controllers used a 15-mile
trail between planes instead of the usual
three-mile spacing. He said that opera
tions in the tower returned to normal
about one hour after the outage.
Musical Minute
Sara Wall, a senior speech communication major
from Amarillo, performs a piece by Mozart during a
Photo by Jay Janner
SPEX, spontaneous exposure, sponsored by OPAS.
The program was in front of the fountain Thursday.
Board lets KAMU finish
Aggievision production
By Stephen Masters
Senior Staff Writer
The Texas A&M Student Publications
Board unanimously voted Wednesday to
ask KAMU-TV to finish production of
the troubled 1987-88 video yearbook,
Aggievision.
The video yearbook, under student
producer Greg Keith, was plagued by
problems with its budget and staff from
the start of the project, and no final copy
has been produced after more than 14
months of work.
Current problems, according to the
Board, involve the excessive length of
the 113-minute video and Keith’s use of
unreleased copyrighted music on the
tape.
The Board voted to ask KAMU per
sonnel to dub out the unreleased music,
and cut the tape to 90 minutes or less.
Keith, who presented the current ver
sion of the tape to the Board earlier, was
told at the Sept. 20 Board meeting to get
copyrights for the music and to shorten
the video. He was given an Oct. 11 dead
line, and a spending limit on that work of
$2,400.
Bob Rogers, chairman of the Board,
said Keith is now at his home in Beau
mont and no longer is working on the vi
deo.
Rogers said that much of the trouble
exists in editing out the music, but he felt
the cost of the editing would be “mini
mal.”
“Cutting 20 minutes out of this (the
tape) is no problem,” he said. “But some
of the parts that need the most editing are
the parts that have released music on
them.
“Of a list of 30 released songs, (which
Greg had received during the tape’s
propduction) Greg chose two and then
randomly chose (copyrighted) popular
music (for the rest).”
Keith told the Board for the first time
at its Sept. 20 meeting that he had not
obtained permission to use several songs
included in the video, although he said
he had written several letters to copyright
owners asking such permission.
Keith said he had asked for the rights
free of charge. An official of a firm in
volved in obtaining copyright permission
for just such projects said he talked with
Keith some months ago and told him that
few if any currently popular music copy
rights are made available regardless of
price.
Rogers said problems may occur in
i by Eric H. Roalson
r. Lenora Fulani, Progressive Independent Party candidate.
By Richard Tijerina
Staff Writer
Independent presidential candidate
Lenora Fulani brought her campaign
to Texas A&M Thursday night, stres
sing the need for both a third political
party in America and a Michael Du
kakis loss on Nov. 8.
Fulani, who is running as a New
Alliance Party candidate, is the first
black woman to run for president and
the first Independent candidate to be
placed on the ballot in all 50 states for
the first time in history.
Fulani spoke of the pressing need
America has for another political
party to represent its needs. Under the
present system, she said, the Republi
can and Democratic parties are run
mainly by millionaires who no longer
care for mainstream America.
“I am deeply disturbed about how
the present two-party political system
works,” she said. “The Republicans
and Democrats have lost touch with
us. There is a strong and growing in
terest in the United States to build
more than two parties. There is noth-
'g special about a two-party political
system, especially when they’re both
controlled by millionaires.”
Fulani said she is a realist and har
bors no serious allusions of winning
the presidency. She is hoping to gar
ner enough votes on election day
from blacks, environmentalists, gays,
lesbians and other minorities to help
defeat Dukakis.
“One of the things I want to do on
November 8 is to beat the Democratic
Party, to dump ‘The Duke,’ ” Fulani
said. “The black vote on November 8
is the pivotal vote for the Democratic
Party. It is the vote that can put Duka
kis in the White House or keep him
out. Millions of black Americans are
outraged at how he’s treated Jesse
Jackson and how he has tried to dis-
enfranchize him.”
Fulani said she resents Dukakis for
his treatment of both Jackson and
black America, and that his campaign
is heading downhill even as her own
campaign picks up speed.
“One of the things that Dukakis
represents is one of two rich white
parties in America,” she said. “One
of the things Dukakis counted on was
the Reagan Democrats’ vote, which
has totally backfired on him. And I
think this is great because he deserves
exactly what he’s getting. Now he’s
trying to embrace the black vote.
He’s very afraid of the impact that
this (Fulani’s) campaign has on Black
America.”
Another of Fulani’s primary goals
on election day is to gather enough
support across the country to set the
foundation for a third political party
in the future that can survive against
the Republicans and Democrats.
“I think and pray we will have a
third party candidate that will se
riously challenge in 1992,” she said.
“We have to challenge the smugness,
the elitism that is so prevalent in this
country’s two-party system. There
are too many abuses of power.”
Fulani said she was encouraged by
the momentum her campaign has
generated toward reaching her goal to
form another party.
“I think we as people are far more
decent than the people we end up
electing to political offices,” she said.
“It’s been very exciting for me to
have intercepted a line in this country
that is ready for a third party. I think
we are finally ready to go for it.”
trying to separate the unreleased music
from “ambiance sounds” that are desira
ble in the video. KAMU is working to
determine the level of the mixing.
“This is not an editing job anymore —
it’s a sort of rescue mission,” Rogers
said.
Once Aggievision is completed it will
be delivered to those who already have
paid for the video, said Donald Johnson,
student publications coordinator. Tape
delivery originally had been planned si
multaneously with Aggieland, but John
son said the books are due to arrive on
campus Monday so other arrangements
will have to be made for the tapes .
The Board in its motion to complete
the project also urged that further sales
efforts be carried out, a job which Rog
ers said would fall to Johnson. The video
yearbook has been discontinued for
1988-89.
Plan will give
graduates
real diplomas
By Kelly S. Brown
Staff Writer
Texas A&M President William Mob
ley is reviewing a new final exam sched
ule that would take away a reading day
and have exams begin Dec. 9 — one
school day earlier than planned. Dr.
Jerry Gaston, the associate provost, said.
“It will take effect this semester if the
proposal passes as it is, and graduation
will be like it was in the past — grad
uates, who are obviously academically
clear, will have their official diplomas in
their tubes at graduation,” Gaston said.
An Ad Hoc Committee on Com
mencement Ceremonies issued the pro
posal to Mobley on Oct. 13.
Mobley formed this committee, made
up of students, faculty and staff, to re
view the commencement and other cere
monies that surround graduation in the
context of the current final exam sched
ule, in hopes of achieving the best possi
ble graduation events for everyone in
volved.
Mobley could not be reached Thurs
day for comment. His office referred The
Battalion to Gaston.
“Mobley has not made a desicion. but
he’s close to reaching a solution that he
hopes will please a lot of people,” Gas
ton said. “He is waiting for a recommen
dation from the Vandiver Ad Hoc Com
mittee.”
Gaston said he thinks Mobley will
move quickly in making up his mind be
cause he doesn’t want to keep anyone in
limbo on the issue.