Texas A&M
The Battalion
WEATHER
iVol. 88 No. 118 USPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
FORECAST for SATURDAY:
Partly cloudy and warm during
the day, turning mostly cloudy b\
mid
Friday, March 24,1989
One in five fail part of basic college skills test
AUSTIN (AP) — Almost one of every 5
students who took the new basic skills test
for college students failed at least one sec
tion, and the failure rate is expected to go
up, state education officials said Thursday.
Of those who took the test, 42 percent of
the blacks, 31 percent of the Hispanics and
13 percent of the whites failed at least one
section of the Texas Academic Skills Pro
gram test. It was given March 4 for the first
time.
The reading, writing and mathematics
test is required for freshmen and transfer
students entering Texas public colleges be
ginning this fall. The test also served as a
substitute for the exam formerly given only
to education majors.
One reason the failure rate is expected to
use is that 6,135 of the 7,763 students who
took the initial test are education majors
who already are in college, of ficials said.
I he remaining test-takers were high
school students who chose to take it instead
of taking an exemption. Students are
exempt from the test if they have earned at
least three semester credit hours of college-
level work before fall 1989.
Also, only 6 percent of those taking it in
dicated they plan to attend a community
college. Students must pass the test to com
plete associate degrees or certificate pro
grams that include nine or more semester
hours of general education course work.
The passing rate “is somewhat higher
than we had anticipated, and we’re pleased
\yith that,” Higher Education Commis
sioner Kenneth Ashworth said. “But it’s
higher because this group is not representa
tive of the total group that’s going to be tak
ing this test in the months ahead, and cer
tainly next year.”
Of those who took the test, 419 were
black, 1,600 Hispanic and 5,339 white.
In the fall of 1990, the full entering class
of freshmen will be taking the test, a num
ber estimated at about 100,000 students.
The test cannot be used to bar college ad
mission, but a student must pass it to take
upper-division courses.
Students who fail could need several se
mesters of non-credit remedial courses in a
particular area. The Texas Higher Educa
tion Coordinating Board requested $36 mil
lion in additional state funds for remedia
tion for the next budget period.
Ashworth and Education Commissioner
W.N. Kirby said they see no reason to
change the 70 percent passing standard on
the test, which has been criticized as too
high by the Mexican American Legal De
fense and Educational Fund.
MALDEF also does not want the test
used as the sole criteria for determining
whether students can take upper-level col
lege courses, said Norma Cantu, director
for educational programs for the group.
On the reading section, a 45 percent fail
ure rate had been predicted for all stu
dents. On the math section, a 46 failure rate
for all students had been predicted. A pre
diction had not been made of those stu
dents expected to pass the entire writing
portion of the test, because scoring for the
essay was combined with performance on
multiple-choice questions.
IRS closes 24 Hour Gyms for unpaid taxes
By Fiona Soltes
STAFF WRITER
The Internal Revenue Service
seized and closed 24 Hour Gyms of
Texas Thursday morning because of
$32,435 in unpaid employment
taxes.
Bob Branson, public affairs spe
cialist for the IRS, said a lien against
the gym had been in effect since
March 8. The gym, located at 700
University Drive East, is owned by
Kyle Myers, who was unavailable for
comment.
“Once seized, the property is
owned by the government,” Branson
said. “The (previous) owner still has
a chance to pay. But if he fails to pay,
the government has the right to sell
it."
Branson said the IRS will work
with Myers to determine the dead
line for payment.
Hector Mendoza, manager of the
gym until January, said his job in
cluded overseeing personnel and
coordinating aerobics.
Mendoza, who worked at the gym
for more than three years, said:
“When the gym first opened seve
ral years ago, it made its mark in
College Station and 1 was a positive
impact for a long time.” However,
he added, lately there have been
problems with management of
funds.
Mendoza said the previous own
ers, Dan and Laurie Coyer, were
genuinely interested in the gym and
were there from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ev
ery day.
“(Myers) was only in the office for
a few hours a day,” he said. “I was
responsible for things when he
wasn’t there, which was often. I saw
the accounting on a daily basis and
heard the bank call several times.
“But unless I could have con
trolled all of the money, I couldn’t
have done anything about it.”
Mendoza said he and other, per
sonnel talked to Myers about the fi
nancial situation on several occa
sions, but it was his opinion Myers
didn’t see the problem until it was
too late.
“I think Kyle honestly thought the
facility would run itself,” Mendoza
said. “It’s not that we didn’t have the
money to pay the bills. He wasn’t
there to open his mail.”
Mendoza said another problem
was that members did not pay
monthly dues.
“In the past, we had members
paying (monthly) dues, but the sys
tem was weeded out,” he said. “The
short-term (membership) idea
worked for a while. But under the
current system, we had a clean slate
every month, with the salespeople
having to sell their quota (of mem
berships).”
Randy Lemmon, who taught aer
obics at the gym from July 1988 to
March 1989, said the employees had
felt for some time the gym was in
trouble.
“It started with little things,” Lem
mon said. “Equipment wasn’t being
repaired, bathroom tissue wasn’t be
ing replaced, and cleaning and vac-
cuuming of carpets wasn’t being do
ne.”
Some employee paychecks began
bouncing in February, he said. Pay-
checks for the month of March also
bounced, he said.
“It’s really a shame,” he said. “The
gym has many student employees
who rely on those paychecks for op
erating funds.”
Lemmon agreed that a large part
of the problem concerned the sale of
short-term memberships for quick
cash.
“There are about 3,000 members
at the gym,” he said. “Granted, only
Photo by Ronnie Montgomery
Jennifer Jones, left, a sales representative Texas Thursday. Several local gyms are
for Gold’s Gym, talks with Sara Kingsley, a trying to entice people who had mem-
senior elementary education major, out- berships at 24 Hour Gyms to workout at
side the recently closed 24 Hour Gyms of their facilitjes.
about 1,000 or 1,500 are active, but
they don’t pay monthly dues.”
Charles Gonzales, co-owner of
Gold’s Gym, said he felt more long
term memberships are necessary.
“A gym needs to have the typical
attributes of any well-run business,”
he said. “It needs to provide service
and satisfy its customers. All gyms
need to maintain a balance of long-
and short-term memberships to
have a future.”
Gonzales said in his opinion the
management is responsible for the
current situation.
“It’s a large facility at a good loca
tion, and (Myers) came in at a good
time,” he said. “But being able to
look at problems before they happen
and maintaining the system and the
facility are important.”
Lemmon said he had seen many
letters from commercial collection
agencies and heard of unpaid bills to
local businesses while working at the
gym. Equipment also has been re
moved from the gym by other com
panies, he said.
“I don’t ever expect to see my
money in any kind of paycheck from
Kyle Myers,” he said.
Other International Physical Fit
ness Association gyms are offering
transfers of membership or incen
tives.
Local gyms including Lifestyles
and Gold’s Gym are asking that
members of 24 Hour Gyms come in
for consultation. Aeroflt is offering a-
deal with no enrollment fee if the
member pays monthly dues. Jay’s
Gym is offering six months free with
a year membership.
24 Hour Gyms of Texas is an indi
vidual business and not part of a
chain or franchise.
House OKs
$4.55 wage
minimum
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House voted Thursday to raise
the hourly minimum wage from
$3.35 to $4.55 by October 1991,
rejecting a more modest increase
to $4.25 proposed by President
Bush and sending the partisan
battle to the Senate.
The House adjourned for a
week-long Easter recess after vot
ing 248-171 for a bill that in
cluded compromises long resisted
by its Democratic sponsors but
still left the Democratic congres
sional leadership and the Repub
lican president far apart on the is
sue.
Bush proposed raising the
minimum wage to $4.25 an hour
by 1992 provided newly hired
employees could be paid a submi
nimum wage for six months.
That plan was offered by Repub
licans as a substitute for the bill
supported by the House lead
ership but was defeated 218-198,
with more than 40 Democrats de
fecting to the GOP effort.
Bush has insisted his offer is
his last and says he has the
strength to sustain a veto of mini
mum-wage legislation he consid
ered unacceptable. But the
House sponsors refused to ac
commodate the president and the
showdown now shifts to the Sen
ate, where floor debate is sched
uled early next month on a pro
posal to raise the hourly
minimum wage to $4.65.
The Senate sponsor, Sen. Ed
ward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.,
hailed the House action and
See Wage/Page 4
Friends, relatives
express surprise
at actions of Horak
From Staff and Wire Reports
When Harry Louis Horak was ar
rested in his ex-girlfriend’s Texas
A&M dorm room after a shooting
incident, he gave police permis
sion to search his room under the
condition they waited 3-and-a-
nnlf hours to avoid waking the
quadriplegic roommate he cared
, for.
Friends, relatives and former
teachers described Horak as a
ni ce, intelligent young man who
was considering a military career.
They said they were shocked to
learn he had been arrested and
charged with two counts of at
tempted murder, two counts of
aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon, use of a prohibited
weapon, and burglary with intent
to commit aggravated assault.
Horak, 20, a sophomore nu
clear engineering student from
Uorpus Christi, remained in the
tazos County Jail Thursday in
“eu of bonds totaling $ 100,000.
U convicted on all charges, he
could face a maximum of 169
years in prison.
Bob Wiatt, director of Univer-
jatv Police, said Horak entered
ne room of his former girlfriend,
"-year old Trisha Michelle Sex-
on, of Newport, N.C., and her
foommate, Sandra Dolores Al
cala, 19, of El Paso and pulled out
w° rifles hidden under an over
coat. Horak was also carrying a
Hunting knife and more than 160
'ounds of ammunition.
he women each grabbed a ri-
e barrel and were able to disarm
orak, Wiatt said, but during the
scuffle, seven rounds were fired
from the rifles. The women suf
fered minor powder burns but
were otherwise unharmed.
The shots were fired from a
.30-06-caliber rifle and a .223-cal
iber Ruger Mini-14 semiautoma
tic rifle.
After taking the weapons, the
women fled to the hall area and
Horak went into the closet with
the hunting knife, Wiatt said,
where five UPD officers later dis
armed and removed him.
“He never got into a fight
when he was little and going to
school,” Horak’s brother, Nick
Horak, 21, told the Corpus
Christi Caller-Times.
Dr. Malon Southerland, asso
ciate vice president for student
services, said Horak is not in the
Corps and is not currently en
rolled at A&M. He declined to
comment on whether Horak had
enrolled for Spring 1989.
Horak was in Company E-2 his
freshman year.
Harry Horak has been in
volved in military-related activ
ities since the 10th grade at Rich
ard King High School in Corpus
Christi, where he was a member
of the Navy Junior ROTC pro-
gram. T .
While in high school, Horak
was a student council member for
a year, a Spanish club member
for two years, a mathematics
honor society member for three
years, a computer team member
and an NJROTC participant for
three years.
Food technologist: Pesticides get bum rap
By Denise Thompson
—— —————7—
Apples rank high in pesticide usage
By Denise Thompson
STAFF WRITER
Despite the fact that apples are a minor crop in the
United States, they rank 11th among American crops in
usage of pesticides, statistics in the Good Fruit Grower
show.
The study shows that apples have the highest use of
pesticide per acre per season than any other fruit or
vegetable. This accounts for about one percent of the
total amount of pesticides sold in the United States.
Although these figures make the apple out to be in
evitably dangerous to consumers, Dr. A1 Wagner, a ex
tension food technologist, said no case exists to show
pesticides ever have killed or seriously injured anyone.
“The only case where pesticides have ever been ques
tioned was in California,” Wagner said. “A certain pesti
cide was being used on watermelons without being ap
proved for use on watermelons, and it made some
people ill. However, the EPA identified and controlled
the situation quickly. That’s the only case, and it was a
case of a grower misusing a product — not someone be
coming ill from a product that was approved and in
use.”
Wagner said a misconception exists that growers ea
gerly use pesticides regardless of whether they’re
needed. This is refuted easily by the great cost involved,
he said.
The study in the Good Fruit Grower shows that pur
chases of pesticide average 21 percent of the total cost
of production for apple growers. However, for every
dollar spent, the value of the fruit increases by $2.80.
For adamant consumers who feel pesticides are a fi
nancially-based decision for growers, another study was
cited where no pesticides were sprayed on an apple
crop for two years.
The result?
No saleable fruit for any market — consumer or
processor.
STAFF WRITER
The saying used to be, “An apple
a day keeps the doctor away.” But
because of celebrities such as Meryl
Streep and television shows such as
“60 Minutes,” the saying has be
come, “An apple a day can kill you.”
Dr. A1 Wagner, Texas A&M ex
tension food technologist, said he
understands consumer concerns
about pesticides and chemicals used
on fruit crops. However, he said for
the new saying to be completely
truthful, it would have to read,
“28,000 pounds of apples a day for
20 to 30 years can cause a benign tu
mor in humans—maybe.”
While debate surrounding apple
pesticides has increased in the last
few weeks, Wagner says the contro
versy started in 1985, and the culprit
of the debate — the chemical dami-
nozide, commonly called Alar — has
been around even longer.
The purpose of Alar is two-fold.
It serves as a growth regulator to
help prevent pre-harvest drop. This
is important because apples that
drop from trees too early are
bruised and cannot be sold.
Most importantly, Alar is used to
maintain the firmness and crispness
of the fruit during storage.
Although apples are available in
grocery stores throughout the year,
apples do not grow year-round.
Therefore, they must be placed in
control-atmosphere storage. If Alar
is not placed on apples prior to stor
age, the fruit loses its firmness.
However, because of a study per
formed in 1985, the controversy
probably will cause the discontinua
tion of the helpful and safe pesti
cide, Wagner said.
“When the safety of Alar was first
questioned,” Wagner said, “a study
was done that showed when a break
down product of Alar was fed to lab
oratory animals in massive, massive
quantities — the equivalent to a per
son eating 28,000 pounds of apples a
day — tumors occurred in the blood
vessels of these animals. What recent
reports have failed to point out was
that these were not malignant tu
mors.
“That particular study was re
viewed by a scientific panel ap
pointed by Congress, who refuted
the whole study and said it was ridic
ulous because of the amounts and
levels on which the study was based.”
Despite the fact that Congress dis
missed the study, retailers and proc
essors reacted strongly to the report.
“Even though there was nothing
proven in the report, because of
public furor over sensational public
ity, several of the major retailers
would not accept apples treated with
Alar,” Wagner said. “Processed
products — apple juice, apple baby
foods, apple cider — are rarely
made with any apples that would be
exposed to Alar.
“The only way this would happen
is if a grower who wanted to go all
fresh-market or all storage with his
crop could not sell them all that way
and was forced to sell to a processor.
There’s no advantage to put Alar on
apples that are going to go into proc
essing, and no grower is going to
waste the money to put it on for no
reason.”
Although the Alar controversy
has not diminished since 1985, a re
cent report filed by the National Re
sources Defense Council is the fuel
behind the recent fire. The NRDC is
a Washington-based consumer
group which targets the safety of
consumer food.
“The study said that the Con
sumer Union picked up some exam
ples of apple juice and apple sauce
that contained residues of Alar,”
Wagner said. “What they didn’t in
clude in their report is that the resi
dues they found were way below the
accepted amount the EPA (Environ
mental Protection Agency) allows,
which is 20 parts per million.
“Another study, conducted by the
National Food Processors Associa
tion, involved analyzing more than
5,000 samples of both adult and
baby-food apple products. Of the
adult products, they found only one
that contained a trace of Alar and
none were found in the baby-food
products.”
Another allegation made by the
NRDC was that because of Alar and
other chemicals, one additional can
cer victim would be found in every
4,000 people. Wagner says the
NRDC gave only half the story in
this case, too.
“What they didn’t say when they
broadcast this in the ‘60 Minutes’ re
port is that this estimate would be
true if all pesticides approved to be
used on apples were used to the
maximum level possible and a per
son were eating a large amount of
apples a day, he might run into this
increase,” he said.
In addition to facts being miscons
trued by consumer organizations,
Wagner said additional fear has
been caused by celebrity involve
ment.
“Meryl Streep was on ‘The Phil
Donahue Show’ discussing this very
See Apples/Page 7