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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1989)
WEATHER Texas A&M SlThe Battalion FORECAST for SATURDAY: More of the same. Cloudy and cool with a 30 percent chance of rain. HIGH:50 LCW:40 tine of those,' "sj), cided if there people who tvantd might as well selliij i mates that c e toys he sells are(d Vol. 88 No. 98 USPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Friday, February 17,1989 Senate confirms nominees for UT regent board , for sale range ( few dollars to $3l; 11 ternational tractor e for a 1987 dealers ver. The most vain, tor Oatts owns, j 30 made duringtlt cl valued at abom >r sale. AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Senate on a 30-0 vote Thursday confirmed two white males to the University of Texas Board of Regents, despite previous opposition by some senators who said minorities had been ignored. The Senate confirmed nominations of Robert Cruikshank, a Houston accountant, and Tom Loeffler, a former Texas con gressman, to the prestigious nine-member board. A third white male appointee, Chester Upham of Mineral Wells, withdrew from consideration and was replaced by Dr. Mario Ramirez of Rio Grande City. Sen. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a black woman, previously had said the appoint ments by Gov. Bill Clements ignored mi norities and women. Senate Nominations Committee Chair man Chet Edwards, D-Duncanville, had de layed a vote on confirming the nominees because, he said, some senators had a “very legitimate concern.” Before the vote Thursday, Johnson, D- Dallas, said of Loeffler’s nomination, “I am convinced that to support him would not at this point be making a mistake.” She said Loeffler assured her he would protect opportunities for minority students. Loeffler, ot Mason, an unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate, was grilled re cently by Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Corpus Christi, on his higher education votes in Congress. Truan and Sen. Craig Washington, D- Houston, who is black, said before Thurs day’s vote that they changed their views on Loeffler’s appointment after talking with him. Each said they’d had reservations about Loeffler’s congressional voting record on education. Loeffler has said that while in Congress, he’d had to balance more priorities than he would as a UT regent. He said he was “ex tremely sympathetic” with the needs of ed ucation. “I firmly believe the lead role in higher education lies in our hands here at the state level,” Loeffler said. Although Truan said he could not have supported Loeffler based on his voting re cord alone, he added that he felt Loeffler was committed to the interests of minorities in education. Calling Loeffler a “good friend,” Wash ington said he believed that Loeffler’s votes in Congress had “represented his constitu ents,” and that Loeffler would do the same as a UT regent. “If he works as diligently and votes as consistently . . . then it is my judgment that he will serve the university well on the Board of Regents,” Washington said. In comments touching on the appoint ments, former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, who is black, said that having diversity on the UT Board of Regents was “a matter of common sense.” “It would seem just a matter of good judgment ... to have representatives of a diversity of the population, just as the sys tem reflects the diversity of the popula tion,” said Jordan, who teaches at the UT Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Af fairs. it all I’m pretty ies from beinganiij ade his acting deta >f “Ozzie’s Girls” j i her TV roles Mj features with the 1! jrseman.” His greai le as the AIDS-do®* t . Elsewhere" in mercials. r-old actor is unsra lents or his selection ■.ine as “the sexiest« profession he said: at I do. It’s a job,« hat. It’s also about! amily, and I usedto disappears tomorroi II build houses," ■wwwwwww Investigators trace Pan Am explosion to radio-tape player LOCKERBIE, Scotland (AP) — A radio-cassette player held the bomb that brought down Pan Am Plight 103, but the identity of the bomber still is not known, the top investiga tor of the bombing said Thursday. Investigators believe the explosive that shattered the Boeing 747 on Dec. 21 was placed aboard the air craft in Frankfurt, West Germany, where the flight began, detective Chief Superintendant John Orr said. It apparently had been put on the aircraft as checked baggage. “New positive lines of inquiry are unfolding,” he told a news confer ence in this southwestern Scottish town where the jumbo jet crashed, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. “While there is insufficient evi dence at this stage to establish the identity of the person or group re sponsible for this dreadful crime, the progress made and the evidence obtained has been substantial,” Orr said. Asked whether the investigation would point to a specific country, Orr said, “It may.” On Feb. 8, the Jerusalem Post re ported the bomb that destroyed the jet was hidden in a radio-cassette re corder and was traced to Frankfurt. That report quoted unidentified investigators as saying the device was similar, but not identical, to one | found earlier in the possession of I members of Ahmed JsbvU’s extrem- I * st P°P u l ar Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The group has denied involvement. Orr said the brand name of the radio-cassette player had not been established and would not say whether it was a pocket-sized device or a larger model. Nor did he say | whether investigators had located the detonator. Anti-terrorist experts have said nrs&Z* ‘.zf.' m&f Ilf v the explosive most likely used was Semtex, an odorless, highly mallea ble substance made in Czechoslova kia and known to be used by terror ist organizations. Orr said he was “aware of some aspects of the explosive that was used” but declined to elaborate. The discovery of the bomb’s hid ing place followed painstaking re construction of a baggage container from pieces — some no larger than a table knife — strewn over 40 miles of Scottish countryside. “The reconstruction of the bag gage container suggests that the ex plosive device may have been among the baggage from the Frankfurt flight,” Orr said. “The particular bag which con tained the device has not been iden tified at this stage, but there is the most detailed work under way with forensic assistance to achieve this identification,” lie said. “I believe this can be done.” Orr said the belief that Frankfurt was the origin of the bomb was based on “a balance of probabilities.” Most of the 1,500 pounds of baggage in the container in which the bomb was located was checked in at Frankfurt, and the rest was “interline” baggage from other points. Flight 103 originated in Frankfurt on a Boeing 727. At London’s Heat hrow Airport, the New York-bound flight was changed to a Boeing 747. A spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office, which is coordi nating the West German investiga tion into the crash, said of Orr’s statement on the Frankfurt connec tion, “We have no knowledge about that.” Spokesman Jochen Schroers said such suppositions as the statement that the bomb probably came on board in Frankfurt “don’t help us at all.” Mobley: Regent board should have minority matter wfiai u’ve go to say sell, our Class!- ds can help you the big job, pY ADS, BUT REAL eavyweighis /HEN RESULIS lEALLY COUNI :talion ssified 5-2611 By Stephen Masters SENIOR STAFF WRITER The president of Texas A&M said he believes a minority should be appointed to the A&M Board of Regents. “Let’s not beat around the bush,” University President Wil liam Mobley said. “I think there should be a minority on the Board.” Although he is not in favor of a 3 uota system, Mobley said Mon- ay he thinks a diverse Board can better serve A&M and the state. But not all regions of the state can be served by just nine regent posi tions, he said. A&M regents approved a merger with the University Sys tem of South Texas in November and are awaiting approval from the Texas Legislature. All three of the member schools are lo cated in areas with large Hispanic populations — Corpus Christi, Kingsville and Laredo. The A&M Board was left with out any minority representation when the term of Dr. John Cole man, who is black, expired Feb. 1. Gov. Bill Clements was crit icized in January for his appoint ment of three white males to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. One nominee, Chester Upham Jr., withdrew his name from consideration and was replaced with Mario Ramirez. The UT System recently ap proved a merger with the Pan American University System, also in South Texas. Critics charged Battalion File Photo William H. Mobley that an all Anglo male Board would not effectively represent the rights of minorities and women. Mobley said the charge is an over-generalization, citing A&M’s minority recruitment efforts in the Rio Grande Valley without any Hispanic representation on the A&M Board. Other pressure has come from area officials who are urging Clements to appoint someone from the Bryan-College Station area to the Board. Mobley said this would be the same mistake as blindly nominating a minority. Academic in-sight Photo by Kathy Haveman Kerry Essary, a freshman English and philosophy major from brary while she does some afternoon studying for her history Plano, takes a window seat Thursday in Sterling C. Evans Li- class. Bomb threat leads to evacuation; search of Blocker comes up empty By Fiona Soltes STAFF WRITER A bomb threat called in to the Centrex radio room at the Physical Plant about 9 a.m. Thursday prompted the evacuation of Blocker Building, but no evidence of a bomb was found. Bob Wiatt, director of security and University Police, said he hadn’t expected to find any explosives in Blocker, but one never can oe loo safe. “We get about 12 to 20 calls of this type every year,” Wiatt said. “We have never found a device or had an instance of explosion after a call.” Wiatt said the calls usually come during mid-term or final exam time. “We’ve caught several individuals through phone traces and other in vestigations,” he said. “In every in stance, the person had an exam, wasn’t prepared for it and wanted to buy some time. I’m not certain that was the circumstance this time, but someone in Blocker probably had a test today.” Several University police officers were dispatched to the scene and searched the area with employees. The building was evacuated just af ter 10 a.m. and remained empty un til about 10:45 a.m., while the search took place. The caller had said the bomb would detonate at 10:30 a.m. “Based on the tenor of the call we guessed it was a hoax,” Wiatt said. “It was the proctor of the building’s decision to activate the fire alarm and evacuate, and he has the power to do so.” Wiatt said he has no leads on the anonymous caller. A bomb threat is a Class A misde meanor. Those charged with terror istic threat, or making any call that causes disruption or evacuation, face up to one year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine, Wiatt said. Drug use prompts dorm-room searches “They were both under suspicion Room searches are an example of from last semester, but the searches students’ eroding rights, said Joe were made because of new com- Cook, Dallas chapter president of plaints,” Stride said. the American Civil Liberties Union. She said the cases were referred to “Student rights have not fared campus police and the dean of stu- well in the last 10, 14 years,” said dents, but no criminal charges were Cook, referring to the searches, brought against any suspended stu- “Students at state institutions have dents last fall at the campus about 40 less rights than prisoners at federal miles north of Dallas. institutions.” Bush rejects Afghan arms embargo DENTON (AP) — Dorm workers at the University of North Texas are searching rooms for evidence of nar cotics under a new, hard-line policy against drug use on campus. Suspension of six students in the fall semester amid drug accusations prompted housing officials to begin inspecting rooms immediately after narcotics use is suspected instead of waiting for UNI police. “We have zero tolerance” of drug use, Greg Sawyer, assistant dean of siuciems, loiu me Port Worth Star- Telegram on Thursday. The university’s student conduct code requires about 4,000 residents of the eight UNT dorms to comply with the policy. Residents face sus pension from school for the semes ter if caught with illegal drugs or brought before officials on two strong cases of suspicion of drug use. In a recent search, housing offi cials found no evidence of drugs in the dorm room of students Martin Blair and Greg Harvey. “I don’t think it’s fair,” Harvey said. “If they wanted to catch people, they should use police.” State law and Supreme Court precedent allow school officials to le gally search rooms without warrants, said Cindy Stride, associate director of housing. She said drug use in dorms is on the rise. “We’re trying to support the non drug users’ rights,” Stride said. “We’ve had so many students contact us out of concern — more use, but also many more reports of sellers and serious drug activity.” Two students have been caught with evidence of drug use this se mester after tips from residents, she said. WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Bush said Thursday he hopes the final pullout of Soviet armed forces from Afghanistan ensures “no more bloodbaths” in the war- torn nation. While applauding the troop with drawal as “a new chapter in the his tory of Afghanistan,” Bush rejected a Kremlin call for an immediate cease-fire and arms embargo. Answering questions from a group of reporters in the Oval Of fice, he said he was afraid rebels op posing the Soviet-backed Kabul gov ernment would be left in a disadvantageous position if U.S. as sistance stopped. Just hours before Bush talked to reporters, the second-ranking offi cial at the Soviet Embassy in Wash ington had reiterated the Kremlin’s call for a cease-fire. Minister-Counselor Yevgeny Ku- tovoy said that a comprehensive set tlement of the strife in Afghanistan depends for the most part on “a broadly based government with the participation of all warring parties and without outside interference.” Bush demanded the Soviets stay out of Afghan affairs. “The Soviet Union has nothing to fear from the establishment of an in dependent, non-aligned Afghani stan,” he said in a written statement. “At the same time, the U.S.S.R. bears a special responsibility for healing the wounds of this war, and we call upon it to support generously international efforts to rebuild Af ghanistan.” Bush’s comments came a day after the final pullout of Red army forces from Afghanistan after a nine-year occupation. Bush said he could not endorse the cease-fire and arms embargo proposal because he was concerned Soviet forces may have stockpiled weapons for the Marxist govern ment in Kabul. “It would not be fair to have a tre mendous amount of lethal supplies left behind and then cut off support for the resistance and thus leave an unacceptable imbalance,” he said. State Department spokesman Charles Redman said there has been massive stockpiling by the Soviets in recent months.