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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1989)
The Battalion TATE & LOCAL 3 Friday, February 10,1989 The Battalion Page3 ^7 esidents continue to vandalize dorms despite renovations Soviet technology, U.S. marketing Texas company signs agreement to market Soviet space program s m 3y Sherri Roberts TAFF WRITER Although waging B.B. gun rars, instigating water fights and etting trash cans ablaze may be aditional forms of entertain- nent for many residence hall res- dents at Texas A&M, these thrills ire hardly cheap. Within the last two years, resi- lents of Walton and Davis-Gary alls have been evicted because of he damage to the halls as a result if horseplay. Tom Murray, assistant director if Student Affairs, said residents if Davis-Gary caused more than ,000 in damage to the hall in Spring 1987, the semester they vere evicted. Residents of K- amp in Walton Hall caused more ;han $800 in one year to their amp, leading to their eviction in Spring 1988. Murray said residents were icted not only as a last resort be- :ause nothing else would work, iut because the safety of other ■esidents was being threatened. The decision to bill or evict res- dents is made only after a com- nittee of residence-hall advisors ind directors, as well as various epresentatives from the Depart- nent of Student Affairs, has in- estigated the situation. Committee members try to de termine patterns of vandalism, ; -ags—hose responsible, and the action ournahsm depan h a t should be taken, Murray t is exactly whauBaid. Administrators use revenues rom the Coke Fund — money enerated from campus vending tat FheUaBnachine receipts — to pay for iall damages. However, if the ate universities it unc ^ ’ s depleted and there is a 1 "altern of vandalism within the iall, residents may be forced to Jivide and pay the cost of dam- ire representatuBges. ^ Residents suspected of vandal- sm are given a series of warnings nforming them of the possibility hey will be billed or evicted un- ke a coinmC iBess the acts cease or t he individu- t have “ownen'fi we mustans|fl . and consider f reedom we again as join 'helming. I.aswi s, understand lit ability placed t; e are the only one joes in the paper idsight we real lone things dift vas misinterpreir ittett poor/yia blished. )ast and all wee nd trying to full provide the Tes. h news and edii •tubers sometn advice from boose whethtrit □rial control by nt or any A&Mt ate is forbidder n control of net als responsible come forward, Murray said. Dan Mizer, student devel opment specialist in Student Af fairs, said before residents of W 7 alton Hall’s K-ramp were evicted, residents were given Five warnings informing them of the actions which would be taken un less the vandalism ceased. In many cases it is difficult to determine who is responsible for damage and whether or not it was intentional. “The unfortunate thing with eviction and group billing is you’re punishing the innocent be cause you can’t Find the guilty,” Murray said. He speculated that alcohol is a primary factor in the vandaliza- tion of halls. A former resident of E-ramp in Walton Hall, who asked to re main anonymous, said alcohol was a major factor affecting the behavior of hall vandals. Resi dents of the ramp were evicted in Spring 1987, after repeatedly vandalizing the ramp. “The only f actor causing it was getting drunk,” he said. “People tend to get more wild. I never saw anybody do anything when they weren’t drunk.” Murray said that although van dalism is not concentrated in one particular hall, a majority of it oc curs in men’s halls. Moore and Crocker halls, two newly renovated dorms which re opened in Spring 1989, already have been vandalized. Murray said renovations, which include new lighting, paint and floor cov erings, cost more than $1 million for each dorm. Mizer said that within the first week the halls were reopened, a $400 marble partition was bro ken. In addition, floor tiles have been melted and windows broken within the halls. Murray said Student Affair’s Damage Assessment Committee would like to work with hall coun cils to find possible causes. AUSTIN (AP) — A fledgling Houston company, whose founder and half of its stockholders live in the Texas Hill Country, has signed a landmark agreement to market vir tually all civilian and scientiFic serv ices, hardware and data from the So viet Union’s space program. “This is a red-letter day for Texas,” said Bill Rubey of Wimber- ley. “We convinced them the future is here in Texas.” Rubey, heir to the Maxwell House Coffee fortune, is the founder of Space Commerce Corp. of Houston. A handful of wealthy, old-line Tex ans own stock in the company, in cluding Jeff Bronfman, also of Wim- berley, and heir to the House of Seagram Inc. fortune. Space Commerce executives in clude Houston lawyers Art Dula and Merrill Shields. Dula is the year-old Firm’s president. Rubey said the joint-venture agreement, which could be worth millions of dollars, was signed in late 1988 by Dula and Alexander Dy- nayev, who heads Glavcosmos, the Soviet civilian space agency. Rubey said the agreement gives the Texas company exclusive worldwide mar keting rights, except Western Eu rope. “So all the stockholders are going to get filthy rich,” Rubey said.. The Soviets hope the venture will make them competitive with U.S. and European commercial space en deavors, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. Rubey said the Soviet decision to contract with the Texas Firm was based on a variety of factors includ ing the participation of astronomer Harlan Smith in the Menafee Foun dation, which promotes joint space ventures between the United States and the Soviet Union. Rubey is chairman of the foundation, which owns his stock in Space Commerce. Smith, the director of the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas, is a foundation adviser. “My role is not as a stockholder (in Space Commerce),” Smith said, “but as a catalyst to bring the people to gether at the right time. If this works out it will be very important.” Rubey said the Soviets apparently also were influenced by President elect George Bush’s ties to Texas. Rubey said Payload Systems Inc. of is a senior jount r of The Battalioi imes i.R. LADIES & LORDS 5th ANNIVERSARY SALE! 15 to 50 Percent Off! □ Bridal Gowns and Bridesmaid Dresses □ Formals and Party Dresses from $39.95 □ Tuxedos from $99.95* • Tie/Cumberbund Sets from $15.95 • Tuxedo Shirts from $15.95 HURRY! - Sale Ends February 28th Group Rates Available We Guarantee to Beat the Competition's Prices on Identical Merchandise! *Pre-rented Garments ’Where looking good is stylishly affordable’ 707 TEXAS AVEUE - COLLEGE STATION 764-8289 Next to Taco Cabana on’s result malt Gorbachev a A t gambit of motivated byi breign visitors’ ti Chancellor Hi ench Preside 1 Traveling abr® visited with Prif Ihi of India, a 1 d George Bin home, becoitf urately predict! lev. What is clci ■vity and lasting' in a very volat ve to be dealt« ssors. Adam Lb > Russian Reseat t nation clearly: irrow, it would >ika.” a senior polm a guest colu0 EVENING WITH ROCKWELL AN “EVENING WITH ROCKWELL” HAS BEEN SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13,1989 COLLEGE STATION HILTON & CONFERENCE CENTER 5:30-8:30 PM ONLY THOSE STUDENTS SIGNED UP FOR ROCKWELL AEROSPACE OR ELECTRONIC BUSINESSES’ INTERVIEW SCHEDULES FEBRUARY 14 & 15 ARE INVITED TO ATTEND. THE PROGRAM WILL FAMILIARIZE THESE STUDENTS WITH ROCKWELL AEROSPACE & ELECTRONIC BUSINESSES AND ALLOW ONE-ON-ONE DIS CUSSIONS WITH RECRUITERS AND TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT. RE FRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED AND DOOR PRIZES AWARDED. REMEMBER....THERE IS ONE COMPANY THAT’S LOOKING FOR ENGI NEERS WHOSE MOTIVATION MATCHES THEIRS. ROCKWELL INTERNA TIONAL....WHERE SCIENCE GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS. Boston, Mass., was Space Com merce’s main competitor for the marketing contract. “If (Gov. Michael) Dukakis had been elected,” Rubey said, “the Sovi ets would have annointed the Boston company. They selected us because they wanted ties into the Texas es tablishment and the state where the next president is from.” That may be so, Smith indicated, because there still is some question whether the U.S. State Department will give the approval required for American companies to launch satel lites on Soviet rockets. Space Commerce officials, how ever, were invited to the State De partment shortly after the presi dential election to brief them on why they should let U.S. satellites fly on he Soviet agreement with the Hous ton Firm still gives Space Commerce the ability to market Soviet hardware and softweirp elsewhere, notablv fo the developing world. Rubey said Space Commerce re cently began marketing in Mexico, where impending de-nationalization of the Fishing industry has prompted Mexican ofFicials to seek current in formation on offshore fishing grounds from remote-sensing satel lites. The Soviets have such data for sale, Rubey said. “We’re not sure yet what all it means we can do,” he said. “Dula says it’s better than having the Mac Donald’s franchise for the whole world. Apparently, we even have rights to sell scale models of the Mir and to take tourists to Baikonur.” The Baikonur Cosmodrome is the Soviet equivalent of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Rubey said the agreement appar ently gives the Houston Firm broad ability to market even items only pe ripherally related to the Soviet space program. If all goes well, Rubey said, some of the Menafee Foundation’s profits from the venture will be turned over to the University of Texas at Austin. “The foundation will be devoting one third of the income we receive from Space Commerce to UT-Aus tin through Harlan Smith,” Rubey said. “We’ll also be applying to the State Department for a license this spring for a Proton launch,” Rubey said.“But we don’t need a license to get (experiments) on the Mir.” The Proton is the Soviet’s chief expenda ble rocket for putting satellites into Earth orbit. Mir is the name of the Soviet space station. Dallas lawyers petition court to pull Hampton from bench DALLAS (AP) — Thirteen lawyers have signed a pe tition to the Texas Supreme Court that calls for the re moval of a state district judge who said he gave a killer a lighter sentence in part because the victims were “queers.” The petition for impeachment of District Judge Jack Hampton was filed Thursday with District Judge Ron Chapman, who also serves as the state’s presiding judge of the First Administrative Judicial Region. Hampton came under fire following an article in De cember in the Dallas Times Herald in which he said: “I put prostitutes and gays at about the same level. If these boys had picked up two prostitutes and taken them to the woods and killed them, I’d consider that a similar case.” Hampton also called the two homosexual victims “queers” and said voters would forget about his com ments by the time he is up for re-election in 1990. “Completing this action today represents a bold and courageous step on the part of these participants — many of whom earn their living by practicing law in Judge Hampton’s courtroom,” said William Waybourn, president of the Dallas Cay Alliance, who is a lawyer himself. “Rightful-thinking people everywhere must do ev erything in their power to prevent something like jthis from every happening again,” Waybourn said at a news conference. “We cannot allow any more Judge Hamp tons. We must make it as difficult as possible for him to remain in office.” Judge Hampton could not be reached for comment when called by The Associated Press. His court clerk, who would identify herself only as Marcia, said, “He is in ajury trial.” Waybourn said members of the Dallas Gay Alliance and others feel Hampton’s continued service on the bench would only serve to “further the ignorance, prej udice and violence tha!t accompanied Richard Bednarski on his trip to Oak Lawn that night, when he murdered Tommy Lee Trimble and John Lloyd Grif fin.” According to the state constitution, impeachment proceedings may be begun by submission of a petition from 10 lawyers who practice in the court of the tar geted judge. The impeachment article stipulates that “Causes of this kind shall have precedence and be tried as soon as practicable.” Hampton issued an apology about the newspaper ar ticle, but Waybourn said it wasn’t a direct apology to those his comments addressed. i, “Judge, Hampton did not apologise to the gay com munity,” he said. “He only apologized to eight ministers in the Oak Lawn area. 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