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Texas A&M
The Battalion
Vol. 88 No. 98 USPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas
WEATHER
FORECAST for SATURDAY:
Partly cloudy and significantly
warmer. Southeast winds.
HIGH:68 LOW:45
Friday, February 24,1989
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Fire guts dance hall; cause remains unknown
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BILL of FJMB
Photo by Dean Saito
By Fiona Soltes
STAFF WRITER
Photo by Frederick D. Joe
The Texas Hall of Fame, left, was gutted by flames Thursday
evening. Above, a College Station firefighter, from a unit
called in to back up the Bryan Fire Department, takes a
quick air and water break before attacking the blaze again.
The interior of the Texas Hall of
Fame, a country and western dance
hall on FM 2818, was gutted Thurs
day night by a fire that burned for
about an hour before firefighters
brought it under control. The cause
of the fire, which started near the
front of the building, is unknown.
Mike Donoho, assistant fire chief
of the Bryan Fire Department, said
the department was notified of the
fire at about 5:30 p.m. The depart
ment responded with four pumper
trucks and one ladder truck. The
College Station Fire Department
sent one ladder truck and one
pumper truck for back-up.
“Upon arriving at the scene, the
first units reported that the front
portion of the building was fully en
gulfed in flames,” Donoho said.
Donoho said the firefighters had
trouble entering the building be
cause the doors were locked, but the
worst problems came with the heat
build up within the building.
“In this type of building, the heat
generally stays inside,” he said. “It’s
very difficult for the firefighters to
work for a long period of time. They
have to come out and refresh them
selves often because the heat takes
away a lot of their energy. We had to
rotate crews pretty rapidly.”
The roof of the building was sag
ging from the flame and heat dam
age, he said. Firefighters had to cut a
hole in the roof of the building to
vent some of the heat from the inte
rior of the building.
Chuck Norman, the owner’s
brother-in-law and the last person to
be inside the building before the
fire, said he left the club at about
4:30 to run an errand. Upon return
ing at about 5:30, Norman said, he
found the building on fire.
“I started to go inside the build
ing, but I just couldn’t because of the
fire,” Norman, an employee, said.
“There wasn’t anything to see but a
solid sheet of flames.”
He saw a woman in the parking
lot who told him she called the fire
department, he said. At about that
time, he said, the door blew off the
popcorn machine inside the build
ing.
Norman said he and other em
ployees are planning to rebuild the
hall, starting the clean-up today if
possible. But Donoho said the area
would have to be investigated first.
Investigators from the city of Bryan
and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage
Commission are looking into the
cause of the fire, he said.
“It’s up to the investigators
whether or not they let people get in
there and move things around,” he
said. “They really need daylight to
get in there and see things as they
are. There’s a lot of heat damage, a
lot of smoke damage and a lot of fire
damage.”
He said the investigations will fo
cus on the area near the front of the
building, where the offices and
ticket window are located.
Paul Emola, owner of the hall,
said he has no insurance on the
building.
“Hopefully, we’ll re-open before
too long,” Emola said. “But it will
take a lot of work and lots of help
from friends.”
)
Senate committee votes
against Tower, Bush
! , WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate Armed Services Committee
voted Thursday to reject John Tow
er’s nomination as defense secretary,
splitting 11-9 along party lines as it
(landed President Bush the first ma
jor defeat of his administration.
The full Senate is expected to
make a final decision on the nomi
nation next week.
During two and one-half hours of
debate — mostly in the form of
speedres — before the vote, majority
Democrats said they felt no joy in
opposing Tower but were compelled
to do so. Some cited allegations over
the past month of excessive drinking
and of womanizing.
Republicans alleged partisanship
and suggested Tower was held to too
high a standard.
Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming
said, “The majority believes we are
confirming a defense god, not a de
fense secretary.”
In Tokyo, where Bush was attend
ing the funeral of Japanese Emperor
Hirohito, White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said the president
was sticking by Tower and “there’s
no consideration of any change.”
If the full Senate should turn
down Tower, it would be the first
time in history a newly elected presi
dent had suffered a rejection of a
nominee to his first Cabinet.
Texas, other countries pitch in for collider
WASHINGTON (AP) — Non-federal sources
can provide a “substantial” chunk of the $5.9 bil
lion bill to build the super collider. Rep. Joe,Bar
ton testified Thursday as Congress begins wres
tling with how much to budget for the giant atom
smasher.
India has already agreed to put $50 million
into the high-energy physics project, Texas has
committed $1 billion, and officials of Japan, Tai
wan, Korea and several Western European na
tions have held preliminary cost-sharing dis
cussions with U.S. officials. Barton told the
House subcommittee on energy research and de
velopment.
President Bush has endorsed the supercon
ducting super collider and recommended $250
million be appropriated in next year’s budget to
ward initial construction of what would be the
largest scientific instrument ever built.
The Department of Energy has chosen a site in
Ellis County for the 53-mile underground tun
nel, but Congress last year agreed only to spend
$100 million on the project and decreed none of
the money could be used for. construction.
Robert O. Hunter Jr., director of the office of
energy research at the Energy Department, said
“several hundred million” is a minimum estimate
of the foreign contributions to the project, but
the exact sum won’t be known for another year
or two.
The project is expected to face tough funding
challenges this year as Congress grapples with
budget cuts to a host of programs as well as fund
ing requests from other high-energy physics and
basic research projects.
Burton Richter, director of the Stanford Lin
ear Accelerator Center, the world’s highest en
ergy electron accelerator, said there is a “real di
lemma” in juggling funds between existing high-
energy projects and construction of the super
collider.
If those programs are not supported in the in
terim, by the time the SSC is built there won’t, be
the scientists around to run it, Richter said.
Leon M, Lederman, director of the Fermi Na
tional Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, also
urged the panel not to abandon other high-en-
ergy projects during construction of the SSC.
Barton, a Republican whose district includes
the SSC site, argued the project is vital to the
country’s world leadership in high energy phys
ics.
“If we ultimately lose our leadership position
in high-energy physics, we will lose our leading
edge in world economics,” Barton testified. He
said he had seen estimates that show with con
struction of the SSC, superconductivity projects
would generate a market of more than $10 bil
lion annually by the year 2000.
“Currently, fully one-third of the production
making up our gross national product is based on
knowledge of the atom,” Barton testified.
Senate OKs Ramirez
for UT regent board
with unanimous vote
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AUSTIN (AP) — The Senate on
Thursday confirmed Dr. Mario
Ramirez, a Starr County physician,
asa University of Texas regent. The
vote was 30-0.
Ramirez is the only non-Anglo on
the nine-member board, and re
placed Chester Upham Jr., Mineral
Wells, who withdrew shortly after
being nominated by Gov. Bill Clem
ents.
Upham, a former state Republi
can chairman, withdrew two weeks
ago after black and Hispanic sen
ators complained that Clements’ ap
pointment of Upham and two other
Anglo males had ignored women
and minorities.
Critics of the appointments said
they had the votes to block all three
nominees if a change was not made.
Ramirez, a former member of the
college coordinating hoard, had no
opposition and received the rare
tribute of seven senators rising
Thursday to say he was an excellent
choice for regent.
Sen. Chet Edwards, chairman of
the committee that reviewed Ram
irez’s appointnment, said, “I think
the fight was worth fighting. I can
think of no principle more impor
tant than that of all citizens of this
state ought to have a right to the
governing of our major institutions
within Texas.”
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“I think perhaps the governor
saved his best appointment for last,”
Edwards, D-Duncanville, said.
Black Sen. Eddie Bernice John
son, D-Dallas, said, “I’m convinced, I
think, that we have made an impact
with our messsage.”
She said 71 percent of Texas’ pop
ulation is made up of females, blacks
and Hispanics, and added, “I believe
we will see a great deal more sensitiv
ity” on appointments.
Sen. Judith Zaltinm, U-Laredo,
said Ramirez’s five children include
two physicians, two lawyers — one a
state district judge — and a teacher.
“Dr. Ramirez will serve as a role
model for all of our children to show
our children no matter who you are,
or how poor, or where you are born,
that you will have the opportunity to
rise to the highest levels,” she said.
Sen. Hector Uribe, D-Brownsville,
said Ramirez “is already a legend in
his own lifetime in Starr County and
in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Other nominees confirmed 30-0
Thursday included:
Texas Board on Aging — Dr. Carl
Westbrook, Smith,
Public Safety Commission — Al
bert Alkek, Victoria.
State Bar of Texas Directors —Dr.
Joseph Beneke, Harris; Earl Chap
man, Travis.
Texas Motor Vehicle Commission
— William Collins Jr., Tarrant; Nor
man Jones, Harris.
Texas Commission on Alcohol
and Drug Abuse — J. Coley Cow-
den, Midland; Jerry Deere, Brazo
ria; Randall Schmidt, Tarrant.
Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Au
thority — Dr. Charles Ladoulis, Har
ris; Kathleen Vaughn, Chambers;
Philip Werner, Galveston.
Texas Housing Agency Directors
— Margie Bingham, Fort Bend; Ed
mund Carrera, El Paso.
State Property Tax Board —
George Bobbitt, Harris; Marvin
Jones, Hutchinson; Arthur White,
Dallas.
Texas Water Commission — Buck
Wynne III, Dallas.
Prof, urges education leaders
to prepare for world of future
Photo by Kathy Haveman
By Alan Sembera
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Education leaders must change
their ways of thinking to meet the
changing needs of a growing
population, Texas A&M architec
ture professor George J. Mann
said Thursday night at the 1989
Faculty Lecture.
“We’re going to have to be
come more aware of global is
sues,” Mann said. “The world’s
not going to get bigger to accom
modate the 9 billion people we’re
expecting by the year 2040.”
This rapid increase from the
present population of about 5 bil
lion people means research and
education programs must focus
more attention on population
planning, Mann said.
The increasing population will
put enormous burdens on natu
ral resources such as water, air,
energy and food, he said, and
these pressures will pose a threat
to peace and security around the
world.
Instead of spending enormous
amounts of money on nuclear
and chemical weapons, he said,
governments should direct ef
forts towards solving people
problems.
Educators and researchers
must work in multi-disciplinary
teams if they want to be effective
in solving global problems, the
professor said.
The faculty at A&M has a wide
scope of available information,
Mann said, because the campus
contains experts in a wide variety
of fields.
He said his field of architecture
will play a large role in planning
for the growth of the Earth’s pop
ulation in the 21 st Century.
Architects must think in wider
George J. Mann
terms of environment, beauty,
people and solving world prob
lems, Mann said.
“As (Henry David) Thoreau
said, ‘What is the use of a house if
you haven’t got a habitable planet
to put it on’ ” Mann said.
“Urban planning, architecture,
landscaping architecture and
construction science have to work
together if we’re going to be ef
fective in a global setting,” he
said.
One example of a trend in ar
chitecture that must change,
Mann said, is the construction of
complex buildings that have un-
openable windows and can’t be
naturally ventilated.
“When our grandchildren ulti
mately run out of fuel as a re
source, they’ll be stuck with a lot
of buildings that won’t be opera
ble or inhabitable,” he said.
Another change that architec
ture must adapt to is the increas
ing percentage of elderly people,
Mann said.
Most architecture currently
emphasizes isolating old people,
he said, but in the future it will
need to stress interaction of all
ages.
In addition to teaching, Mann
is a practicing architect and has
undertaken numerous research,
technical assistance and consult
ing projects throughout the
United States and in numerous
other countries.
Bush, Baker
use Japan trip
to pursue peace
TOKYO (AP) — President Bush
used the occasion of Friday’s impe
rial Japanese funeral to pursue a
Middle East peace, while his secre
tary of state challenged the Soviet
Union to pitch in with deeds instead
of “simply rhetorical exercises.”
On the eve of the services for the
late Emperor Hirohito, Bush en
gaged in a round of fast-paced diplo
macy, meeting with a succession of
world leaders including Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli
President Chaim Herzog and Jor
dan’s King Hussein.
After Bush’s round of meetings
on Thursday, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III suggested the So
viets should contribute to the peace
process in a “concrete way” by estab
lishing full diplomatic relations with
Israel, using its influence in Syria
and denouncing “radical countries”
such as Libya.
Baker said a “new dynamic” for
peace existed in the area and that
Bush hoped to nurture it. The presi
dent’s sessions with Mideast leaders
provided a counterpoint to Soviet
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevard
nadze’s 10-day tour through the re
gion, where he attempted to advance
Moscow’s role.
A cold drizzle fell Friday as Bush
and other leaders from 163 nations
prepared to pay their final respect to
Hirohito. An estimated 10,000 offi
cial guests were to fill two large tents
at the funeral site and hundreds of
thousands more to line the streets to
witness the funeral procession.
i he 13-hour funeral began in the
early morning with a private cere
mony at the Imperial palace, to be
followed later by a solemn ceremony
in two giant, open-sided tents at To
kyo’s Shinjuku Imperial Gardens.
The park in downtown Tokyo once
served as the garden for the imperial
household.