soneti
when the Texas Tub.
muled: the rockabil
Hams on Rye, tht
blues band High Chi
ba rd rock band Oil,
;he musicians are ablt
r musical roots into the
mat. “We’ve matured,'
'e’re good enough thj
. 1 guess it’s seasoning
veil seasoned.”
c fame,
band
one wants to learn u
own, however, and tea-
/ailable Uxally for stn-
ost any instrument. Sa-
if Bryan teaches piano
a student on voice, vio
dost ot her students att
id.
the burgeoning tnusi'
d, is not something sht
■r stucients, she said. 1
o make people practict
lon’t want to,” she said,
me of her students re-
ing, she tried toencour-
tange his mind,
t work,” she said. *)
>ire him to practice, it
d work theory papers-
o make a great accost-
ty. So I said, ‘Do you
ould help me set up a
r you? Could you set
rks?’ ”
i was a complete practict
itten by the young stu.
esented to Watts at tht
4IVTED:
rprising
Starters
usiness starts
g it's time to
»out expanding
eration. Adver-
the Classifieds
’ight person to
job not only
£ood sense, it
ills!
t you have
sm to sell, a
lage to get
s, a product
y, a service
vertise...en-
ising people
>ur Classi-
» for fast,
Dmical and
ive results!
:all
5-2611
Battalion
Texas A&M
The Battalion
WEATHER
FORECAST for SATURDAY:
Mostly cloudy in the morning with
a partly cloudy and hot afternoon.
Temperatures will be 5-10 de
grees above normal.
HIGH:88 LOW:65
Vol. 88 No. 138 USPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, April 21,1989
Navy continues
looking for cause
of Iowa explosion
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
bodies of 47 sailors killed in the gun
explosion on the Iowa arrived in the
United States on Thursday as the
Navy tried to figure out what caused
the battleship’s turret to blow up.
None of the guns in the no. 2 tur
ret had been fired before the explo
sion killed the seamen, Navy officials
said. They discarded a theory that
the blast had been sparked by red-
hot debris left in the gun’s breech by
earlier rounds.
The Navy organized a board of
inquiry and placed a moratorium on
firing 16-inch guns, found only on
the Iowa and its three sister battle
ships, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin
and the Missouri.
The Iowa was headed back to its
home port at Norfolk, Va., while the
bodies of the dead were flown to the
military mortuary at Dover Air
Force Base in Delaware and families
of the battleship’s 1,600 crewmen
learned whether their relatives were
among the dead.
At the White House, chief of staff
]ohn Sununu announced President
Bush will attend a memorial service
Monday for the victims in Norf olk.
The blast occurred Wednesday
morning northeast of Puerto Rico as
the Iowa took part in firing exercises
that were part of naval training.
A spokesman for the Atlantic
Fleet and the ship’s former captain
both said the explosion in the No. 2
turret could have been triggered by
red-hot debris from earlier firings in
the three-gun turret.
But Cmdr. Mark Baker, chief of
the Navy’s Pentagon press office,
said later that none of the turret’s
three guns had been fired.
Only four rounds of 22 scheduled
tube fired as part of a training exer-
dsehad been fired, he said, and all
had been from the No. 1 turret, for
ward of the one that exploded.
No eyewitnesses survived
Wednesday’s explosion behind one
of the 16-inch guns on the Iowa, one
of the largest warships ever.
Pentagon officials declined to
speculate publicly about the exact
cause of the disaster, the worst to
strike a Navy ship since 1977, but
two officers — Capt. Paul Hanley, a
fleet spokesman, and Capt. Larry
Seaquist, the ship’s former captain —
said a possible explanation was that
red-hot debris from a previous
round ignited new charges.
But Seaquist stressed, “We simply
do not know what caused that pow
der to go.”
Baker said no guns in the No. 2
turret had been fired and the order
had just been given to the No. 2 tur
ret crew to load and prepare the cen
ter gun when the explosion oc
curred.
“We have no eyewitnesses to what
actually transpired,” Defense Secre
tary Dick Cheney told reporters as
he headed back to Washington from
a NATO meeting in Brussels.
The Iowa sailed to Roosevelt
Roads Navy Base in Puerto Rico to
unload the bodies, which were then
flown to Delaware. Navy investiga
tors boarded the ship as it left for
Norfolk, where it is expected to ar
rive Sunday or Monday.
Navy Secretary William Ball at
tended a memorial service at the
Delaware base, home of the armed
services’ largest mortuary. The flag-
draped coffins were carried off a
plane by Navy honor guards.
Around the United States, Navy
officers and chaplains broke the bad
news to the dead men’s next of kin.
The job began just before mid
night Wednesday, when officials in
Norfolk received the list of the dead.
The commander of the U.S. 2nd
Fleet, Adm. Jerome Johnson, who
was on board the Iowa, told report
ers in Puerto Rico, “The fire and ex
plosion was instantaneous.”
University Tower will provide
benefits unavailable in dorms
By Richard Tijerina
STAFF WRITER
Living at University Tower
1 may be more expensive than on-
campus housing, but leasing
agent Jamie Sandel said Texas
A&M students will be willing to
i pay a little more for better quality.
“I think they’ll want to pay
more for better facilities,” Sandel
said. “I know I would. The serv
ices we have to offer are just tre
mendous compared to a regular
dorm. The way our general man
ager looks at a dorm is that it
should be just like home.”
Hotel officials announced
Wednesday that the 17-story Uni
versity Hotel in College Station
will change its name to University
l Tower and become a private, co
educational dormitory in Fall
1989.
The 304-room hotel will house
about 700 students, Sandel said,
and it will provide numerous ben
efits on-campus dormitories
don’t, including a swimming
pool, weight room, computer
room, sundeck, game room, TV
room and a sports court.
The rooms will also have re
frigerators, telephones and tele
visions.
However, the cost of a room
and meal plan at the hotel will be
significantly higher than foron-
campus housing. For example,
the most expensive housing and
meal plan on campus is about
$3,500 a semester.
The cost of a housing and meal
plan at the University Tower will
be between $3,600 and $7,600 for
nine months, depending on the
type of the room and the number
of occupants in it.
Tom Murray, assistant director
of Student Affairs; said he was in
terested in seeing how students
react to the costs of the hotel com
pared to the advantages it pro
vides.
“The cost of what they’re pro
viding is more than what we pro
vide,” Murray said. “They cer
tainly are providing more services
than we are.
“It’ll be interesting to see how
that weighs against the things stu
dents like about on-campus hous
ing —convenience, cost, the dif
ferent styles available and now
the availablity of coed dorms.”
Murray said the University
Tower has no connection to the
University and has not contacted
Student Affairs about student re
ferrals or publicity. He said the
hotel is direct competition to his
office.
He said the hotel is opening at
a bad time because on-campus
housing has six new dormitories
and has offered new housing con
tracts to everyone who’s applied.
“We don’t even have waiting
lists anymore,” he said. “The pool
they might have been able to
draw from in the past isn’t going
to be the same this year. That’s
not to say a lot of our students
won’t cancel and see it’s a golden
opportunity — that may hap
pen.”
He said students who already
have signed a contract for on-
campus housing will lose part or
all of their $200 security deposit
if they break their contract, de
pending on how late in the semes
ter they break it.
The first cancellation deadline
for breaking a contract was April
15 —before that date students
could receive their entire $200
deposit back. If they break their
contract by May 30, they will re
ceive $150 of it. If they break
See Tower/Page 9
Photo by Jay Janner
University Inn will become University Tower and provide
dorm space in the fall.
Kick back
Kirby Fry, a senior forestry major from Hous- the stands at Simpson Drill Field Thursday,
ton, relaxes in the sun and reads a book on Fry is a member of Squadron 4.
Football passes will be coded
on student I.D. cards in fall
By Kelly S. Brown
STAFF WRITER
Remember when it was mandatory to bring an all-
sports pass and a student LD. card to pick up tickets for
games? Long lines, sweltering heat and grumpy people.
Well, no more.
Or at least that’s what the Athletic Department is
hoping.
Beginning this fall, students who have purchased a
football coupon book or an all-sports pass will have the
option placed into coding on their identification cards.
Cards can be read for this option like LD. cards are
read for meal plans in dining halls.
Penny King, business manager for the Athletic De
partment, said the plan has been on the drawing table
for three years. The department expects the plan to be
faster and more efficient.
Two potential problems with the new system kept
cropping up that had to be panned out, King said. The
problems were that students who ride the bus and stu
dents who eat at the dining halls in the past often gave
friends their ticket book to pick up their tickets.
Under the new plan, the student would give the
triend an I.D. card to get tickets, so they might not have
their I.D. card to get on the bus or to get into the dining
hall.
The problem with the bus passes has been solved.
Doug Williams, director of bus operations, said start
ing in the fall bus passes will be separated from the LD.
card. Instead of putting a sticker on the I.D. card, he
said, “some other form of bus pass will be issued.”
Wally Groff, associate athletic director, said problems
are inevitable, but it’s a workable system and it will elim
inate hassle for the students.
As for the problem with the dining halls, Groff said
the department is working with food services and will
have some sort of plan by September.
King said both the Athletic Deparment and the stu
dents will benefit greatly from the change.
“In the long run money will be saved, because the
cost of printing coupon books won’t be there,” King
said. “Also, it will allow us to keep better accounting fig
ures.”
The student LD. card will be better protected under
this new system, she said.
“If a student reports a lost LD. card, that will go into
the computer and if someone tries to use it —they’ll be
caught,” King said. “Also, the name of who is drawing
tickets for anyone else will remain in the computer.”
Another benefit the system will give the students,
King said, is if a student’s credit hours rise in the sum
mer, putting him in a higher classification, then the
computer will pick this up as soon as the paper work is
processed in Heaton Hall. This hasn’t been possible in
the past.
King said the policy for drawing tickets will remain
the same — only the method will change.
“The Athletic Department is asking for patience and
cooperation from the students,” she said. “Arrange
ments can be made on the students’ parts, and they’ll
see it will be more adventageous in the long run.”
North’s fate now injury’s hands;
judge denies motion for mistrial
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
jury in Oliver North’s Iran-Contra
trial was dispatched Thursday to de
cide the guilt or innocence of the
former White House aide with the
judge’s admonition that no one, in
cluding the president, had “the legal
authority to order anyone to violate
the law.”
North has said he had authority
from superiors including, he be
lieved, President Reagan, for many
of his actions in behalf of the Nicara
guan rebels at a time when official
U.S. aid was banned.
Because of the lateness of the
hour, jurors were sent to the nearby
hotel where they will be sequestered,
and ordered to begin deliberations
on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Gerhard Ge-
sell told them "your job is to decide
the facts” in the first trial stemming
from the mid-1980s affair in which
profits from arms sales to Iran were
diverted to aid the Nicaraguan re
bels.
The judge was specific in his in
struction about North’s contention
that he acted under orders from top
White House officials and, he as
sumed, with Reagan’s approval.
“Neither the president nor any of
the defendant’s superiors had the le
gal authority to order anyone to vio
late the law,” Gesell said.
Neither the president
nor any of the defendant’s
superiors had the legal
authority to order anyone
to violate the law.”
— Gerhard Gesell,
U.S. District Judge
“Our country is governed by the
rule of law. You have heard testi
mony indicating that other govern
ment officials may in some respects
have concealed facts known to them,
and some ranking above or below
the defendant may have engaged in
conduct similar to that charged
against the defendant on trial.”
But, he said, the conduct of others
was no justification for North’s con
duct and “you are not to judge the
defendant’s guilt or innocence based
solely on the actions of others.”
The judge’s charge was delayed
for a half day by a problem involving
jurors who may have given mislead
ing answers in pre-trial questioning.
When he convened court in the af
ternoon, Gesell said he had denied a
North motion for a mistrial, filed on
grounds that “the jury had been in
fected by publicity about some of its
members.”
The five alternates were dismissed
after Gesell gave the instructions
and were driven home.
Aggie Muster will honor
deceased in 400 locations
By Fiona Soltes
STAFF WRITER
Aggie Muster, the final roll call
for those Aggies who have died
within the last year, will be to
night at 7 in G. Rollie White Col
iseum. The ceremony also will be
performed in 400 loca
tions worldwide and
televised by sa
tellite.
During the
ceremony, names
the deceased are
read aloud. Friends
and family answer,
“Here,” to represent
the deceased in spirit.
On the A&M campus,
roll will be called for Bra
zos Valley residents, stu
dents who have died since
the last Muster, names by
special request and de
ceased from the Class of
’39, who will be special guests for
their 50th reunion year.
The speaker for this year’s cer
emony on campus is Texas Sen.
Chet Edwards, D-Duncanville, a
1974 graduate of A&M. Follow
ing a final farewell to the de
ceased, the Ross Volunteers will
give a 21-gun salute and “Taps”
will be played. The Singing Ca
dets also will perform.
Alison Westmoreland, a Mus
ter committee member, said the
first Muster was in 1903 to honor
the men who died during the
struggle for Texas independence.
Muster is held on San Jacinto
Day, the anniversary of the 1836
defeat of the Mexican army un
der Gen. Santa Anna by Sam
Houston’s forces.
She said the ceremony gained
national recognition in 1942
when performed by men under
Gen. Moore, Class of ’08, while
under fire on the island of Corre-
gidor in the Philippines during
World War II. Fifteen days later,
the island fell to the Japanese.
Since then. Muster has been per
formed around the world, West
moreland said.
An Aggie Muster Endowment
Fund has been established for fu
ture Musters with the sale of com
memorative nickel, bronze, silver
ar *d gold coins.
Hooded gunmen
kill U.S. officer
in Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (AP) —
Hooded gunmen killed an American
military officer Friday as he was
driving to work at the Joint U.S. Mil
itary Advisory Group headquarters,
U.S. and Filipino officials said,
j U.S. Embassy spokesman Jerry
I Huchel said Army Lt. Col. James N.
: Rowe was pronounced dead on arri-
! val at a Philippine military hospital
and his body was flown to Clark Air
! Base, 50 miles north pf Manila.
Col. Victor Tiangco of the Phil
ippine military’s Capital Region
j Command said Rowe was chief of
1 the army division at the Joint U.S.
Military Advisory Group. He said
Rowe’s chauffeur was wounded in
the shooting and was in serious con
dition.
Tiangco said the assailants
opened fire with M-16 rifles as the
victim’s car approached the group
compound in suburban Quezon City
about 7:10 a.m. Tiangco said 21 bul
lets struck the car.
He said the assailants sped away.
Witnesses said the victim’s car was
able to reach the compound, about
two blocks from the shooting.