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Vol. 88 No. 165 USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, June 30,1989
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ler Bees. Reggae. iTree re- pear
55 cover,
iman Jam. 9 p.m.
TAMU grounds maintenance worker, Curtis
Young, shovels dirt onto a 7-year-oid non-fruit-
bearing pear tree that was transplanted from
Photo by Kathy Haveman
the grassy area between the MSC and Rud
der to the walkway between the Blocker Build
ing and the Halbouty Building.
Women’s soccer coach
denounces department
Johnston claims officials won’t advance program
By Monique Threadgill
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
and
Alan Sembera
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The coach of the Texas A&M
women’s soccer team sent letters to
recruits, players and supporters of
women’s soccer earlier this month
stating, “The Athletic Department
does not plan to advance the NCAA
Women’s Soccer Program at Texas
A&M.”
Laura Johnston said in one of the
letters dated June 15 she is resigning
as head coach effective today be
cause she cannot support proposed
changes in the soccer program.
The letter did not mention spe
cific changes.
When contacted, Johnston said
she would not comment about her
resignation or the letters until next
week.
Paula Opal, assistant director of
recreational sports, said the pro
posed changes Johnston refered to
won’t have a significant impact on
the soccer team.
“The proposal was to address ad
ministrative issues of the program,”
Opal said. “It deals with who handles
submitting the budget and who han
dles the certification to make sure
the NCAA eligibility is met.”
Another of Johnston’s reasons for
resigning, as stated in the letter, was
that she was not included in the
meetings where the proposal was
written, and had no say about into
the proposed changes.
Opal said Johnston was not in
cluded in the meetings because the
agenda did not involve Johnston.
“The proposal does not address
the actual conduct, philosophy or
player selection of the team,” Opal
said. “That’s where I think a coach
needs to he involved in the devel
opment of a program.”
Opal said the changes included
“more expectations for the coaches
in terms of attending NCAA meet
ings that are required by the Athletic
Department” and assignment of a
new area for the team to lift weights.
“The proposal clarified the roles
See Soccer/Page 4
Travis supporters continue
fight to name Bryan school
By Melissa Naumann
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
In their struggle to name a new elementary school,
members of the Bryan School Board have given the
phrase “Remember the Alamo!” a new meaning.
While deciding between Mary Branch and William
Barret Travis, the members who supported Travis
stressed his heroic death at the Alamo. Those opposed
to using Travis’ name suggested that they look past this
aspect of his life.
Branch, a black educator, was born a slave and edu
cated herself, later becoming the first female college
president in Texas.
Travis was a practicing lawyer in Alabama and Texas
for five years and died at the Alamo when he was 27.
The board voted to name the school for Branch after
board member Wendy Costa pointed out a darker side
of Travis’character.
In addition to abandoning his wife and children,
Costa said, Travis ardently defended slavery.
Costa, who also is the coordinator of Project 30 (a na
tionwide project based at Texas A&M on the education
of teachers), was quoted in the June 27 issue of the
Bryan-College Station Eagle as saying that, other than
dying at the Alamo, Travis’ life “was not very exem
plary.”
Costa, who taught Texas history for 12 years at Blinn
Junior College, said the controversy has been publi
cized improperly. Branch’s name originally was pro
posed, she said, to provide more representation of mi
norities and women, not as a substitute for Travis’
name.
“We didn’t vote against Travis,” Costa said. “We
voted for Branch. That’s the whole point.”
Dr. Robert Calvert, an associate professor in the his
tory department at A&M, said the negative publicity
about Travis has overshadowed Branch’s own merit.
“We’ve lost sight of why the school was to be named
after Mary Branch,” Calvert said. “What’s happened is
that great accomplishments made in the sense of per-
serverance instead of in battle have been lost. I’m not
trying to denigrate Travis but what we need in this
See School/Page 4
(S.O.T.A.)
)n for Aggies
everal social
Supreme
DALLAS (AP) — Advocates from
both sides agreed Thursday that the
Supreme Court’s delay of a potential
landmark decision is good news for
^bortion opponents.
| “To me, it’s just abortion foes (on
the court) just trying to find how far
to go in weakening Roe v. Wade,”
said Bill Price, president of Texans
United for Life, an pro-life group.
| The Supreme Court announced
Ihursday it will wait until Monday
to announce whether it has come to
Chinese
ents:
Court delays abortion rights decision
a decision in Reproductive Health
Services v. Webster, a Missouri case
that could be used to restrict the
1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legal
ized abortion nationwide.
Activists on both sides of the issue
have been nervously awaiting a deci
sion for weeks. Thursday was to be
the last day before the court’s three-
month summer recess, but Chief
Justice William Rehnquist said from
the bench, “On Monday, July 3, the
court will announce all the remain
ing opinions during this term of the
court.”
The court either could announce
a decision or could ask for further
arguments in the term beginning in
October, meaning a decision in the
case would come sometime next
year.
“This is agony to keep putting it
off and putting it off,” said Phyllis
Dunham, director of the Texas
Abortion Rights Action League.
Price said he was nervous, too, but
excited that the goal abortion oppo
nents have worked toward so long is
finally at hand — a restricting of a
woman’s right to abortion.
“I don’t think it’s one of the con
servatives sitting down with the pro
abortion advocates on the court,
quibbling over the majority decision,
that’s causing the delay,” Price said.
“I think it’s the conservatives sitting
around trying to find a way to dis
mantle (Roe v. Wade),”
While abortion foes like Price are
optimistic that the Supreme Court is
poised to restrict the rights granted
in Roe v. Wade, Dunham is nervous.
“Anything the court says besides
‘We shouldn’t have taken this case’ is
good for their side,” she said.
“My biggest fear is they’ll come
out with a decision restricting Roe
Monday and the headline the next
day will read ‘Court takes moderate
stance.’ That won’t be the case. It will
be taking the issue out of the hands
of individuals and into those of poli
ticians.”
premier says suppression was legal
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1989
BEIJING (AP) — Premier Li Peng on
Thursday dismissed international criticism
hat China’s crackdown on the pro-democ
racy movement violated human rights, and
ie said the suppression was carried out le
gally.
The government also denounced the Euro
pean Economic Community for condemning
(he crackdown on the student-led movement.
E The steering committee of China’s legis-
Bpure, meanwhile, held a special meeting to
■endorse the Communist Party’s suppression
R)f dissent as “legal, correct and necessary.”
1 Li said many nations had shown under-
lltanding for China’s tough stance.
K “At the same time, China also has noticed
Kan anti-China adverse current. Under the
banner of human rights, these people have
made unwarranted accusations of China tor
its quelling of the counterrevolutionary rebel
lion and punishment of criminals according
to law.”
The official Xinhua News Agency said Li
made the comments in a meeting with For
eign Minister Carlos Da Graca of Sao Tome
and Principe, a tiny island nation off the west
coast of Africa.
“Your visit is a support for China,” Li told
Da Graca, the highest-level foreign dignitary
to visit China since soldiers marched on Beij
ing the night of June 3-4 and crushed the
movement for a freer society.
The troops, backed by tanks, fired on un
armed civilians and drove thousands of pro
testers from Tiananmen Square. The govern
ment says 200 to 300 people, most of them
soldiers, were killed in the confrontation.
Chinese witnesses and Western intelligence
reports say that most of the dead were civil
ians and that the toll was as high as 3,000.
Authorities since have arrested more than
1,800 people and executed 27, and China has
become increasingly isolated from the inter
national community.
The 12-nation EEC on Tuesday con
demned the “brutal repression taking place in,
China” and called for an embargo on arms
sales. It also urged the World Bank to post
pone new loans to Beijing.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Li Jinhua said
the EEC had made “presumptuous accusa
tions against China and unilaterally adopted
decisions jeopardizing the bilateral relations.
“The Chinese government cannot but ex
press deep regret over this unreasonable act
of the European Council,” she said.
Wan Li, chairman of the Standing Com
mittee of the National People’s Congress,
opened the committee meeting by praising
the party and government for taking “reso
lute measures to quell the counterrevolutio
nary rebellion.”
“This decision was in line with the funda
mental interests of people of all nationalities
in China, and thus was legal, correct and nec
essary,” Xinhua quoted him as telling the 133
members present.
assacre eyewitnesses
will show slides Sunday
Four eyewitnesses to the June 3
Beijing massacre will present
slides and videotapes of the inci
dent at 9 p.m. Sunday in Room
201 MSC.
Writer Chang Lang-lang and
journalist Yau Suk-yi are touring
the United States with Cheng So
dium, a student of the University
of Hong Kong, and Yam Shim-
shing, a student of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
Xun Ge, an executive member
of the China Club, said the stu
dents are members of the Hong
Kong Citizens’ Association to
Support the Patriotic Pro-democ
racy Movement, which was re
sponsible for bringing supplies to
the student protesters in Tianan
men Square.
“They were moved by these
students and they became invol
ved," Xun said. “Now, we are
eager to provide our students at
A&M with the opportunity to
learn the truth from them and
see pictures of what it was like.”
The four speakers are touring
various cities in Texas and across
the nation. The presentation will
be given in Mandarin Chinese,
but Xun said translators will be
available.
The event is sponsored by the
China Club, the Chinese Student
Association and the Hong Kong
Student Association.
House ignores Bush objections,
adopts sanctions against China
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday
unanimously adopted new sanctions against China in
response to the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators, ignoring Bush administration objec
tions.
President Bush already has condemned the violence
in China, halted all military aid and banned exchanges
of military officials and high-level visits.
The House package endorsed those moves and went
a step farther, adding suspension of trade and devel
opment programs, a ban on the sale of police equip
ment and a limit on transfer of high-technology and
nuclear materials or components.
“The Chinese leadership should be aware there is a
very deep-seated revulsion in Congress about the bar
barian tactics they have employed,” said Rep. William
Broomfield, R-Mich., who helped draft the sanctions.
He said the move, on a vote of 418-0, “does send a
very strong message to China: America is not going to
give you all kinds of economic benefits as long as you
are slaughtering your young.”
The sanctions were adopted as part of a two-year,
$22.8 billion foreign aid bill that provides military, eco
nomic and development assistance for friendly nations
in fiscal years 1990 and 1991.
House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.,
noted that the administration opposed the sanctions as
robbing it of flexibility and an infringement on presi
dential foreign policy prerogatives.
But he added, “I think someone in this government
— and today it’s the House — has to speak clearly on
behalf of the American people and take more forceful
action than the president and the secretary of state have
been to date willing to take.”
Bush revives
Congress pay
raise issue
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Bush, reviving a topic bur
ied by public outcry four months
ago, promised Thursday to work
with Congress to get members a
pay raise. He didn’t say how big
the raise should be.
In a speech focused on another
prickly issue — campaign finance
reform — the president men
tioned the pay-hike question only
briefly.
He said he would send Con
gress legislation in a few days
seeking to ban the outside income
senators and representatives earn
from speaking engagements, a
restriction many have said they
would accept only if accompanied
by higher salaries.
Bush said he would “work with
Congress on the development of
details for increasing the pay of
those in Congress as well as other
senior employees of the executive
branch.”
He already has endorsed a 25
percent pay increase for judges,
and the legislation he sends to Ca
pitol Hill on outside income will
include a specific increase
amount for senior officials, White
House counsel Boyden Gray said.
He refused to disclose the
amount.
Bush described his campaign
finance package — which in
cludes provisions to abolish most
political action committees — as
an effort to cut special interest in
fluence in politics and make cam
paigns more fair by decreasing
the significant advantages of in
cumbents.
Since a majority of incumbents
are Democratic, however, the
proposals have the effect of help
ing the Republican Party’s
chances to improve its standing.
“We need reforms that curtail
special interest influence, en
hance the role of the individual
and strengthen the parties,” Bush
said to an audience of congressio
nal interns. “We must do more to
truly clean up the system.”
His proposals also include cur
tailing congressional franking
privileges, which he said “pay for
mass mailings that amount to po
litical advertising.”