Texas A&M m ^ V #
e Battalion
Vol. 89 No.17 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Partly cloudy and cool
HIGH: 76 LOW: 50
Monday, September 25,1989
> time:
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Si 24“
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aker schedules
ummit in U.S.,
igns six accords
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. (AP) —
ecretary of State James A. Baker
jll said Sunday that the success of
is meeting with the Soviet foreign
inister should silence congressio-
al critics and dampen their appetite
|or unilateral arms cuts.
Despite progress on talks to cut
trategic, conventional and chemical
capons and the signing of six
ccords Saturday, Baker said the So-
iet Union still was “a military
lireat.”
“I think it would be quite naive for
iie United States to talk about uni-
iteral reductions of its strategic ar-
enal,” Baker said on the CBS-TV
rogram “Face the Nation.”
The Bush administration, he said,
emains committed to the Strategic
lefense Initiative and deploying
ew classes of long-range bombers
nd mobile missiles.
Slocum continues
‘chalk talk’ luncheons
glfor students, players
':-V
Df The Battalion Staff
1
I
Baker’s four-day session with So
viet Foreign Minister Eduard A.
Shevardnadze yielded an agreement
to hold a summit in the United
States next spring or summer.
It will be the First meeting be
tween President Bush and Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev since
Bush took office, although the two
met in New York between’s Bush’s
election and his inauguration.
In the course of the Baker-She-
vardnadze talks, the Soviets also said
they would withdraw a demand that
the United States agree to curb work
on “Star Wars” before conclusion of
a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
(START).
Baker told a news conference Sat
urday the Soviet decision could
speed conclusion of START, which
See Summit/Page 12
fy Julie Myers
Head football coach R. C. Slocum
vill hold his third football “chalk
alk” Wednesday at noon in Sbisa in
in effort to improve relations with
he student body.
Before every football home game,
ilocum invites assistant coaches and
me player to accompany him to the
nformal luncheon from noon to
2:30 p.m. Slocum then gives a short
peech, followed by an open ques-
lon and answer session. The buffet
unch is $4.25.
“I want to have the chance to meet
he students, have them meet us and
Iso get to know their football team
m a first name basis,” Slocum said.
It’s also a good opportunity to meet
vith the students and from my
tandpoint to say that we do care
bout you.”
Because the football team and the
)rogram is all a part of college life at
(&M, Slocum said, the players
hould feel a part of that also.
“I’m really doing everything I can
to keep at a minimum the isolation
hey have as athletes,” Slocum said.
I want them to be able to mix and
ningle and enjoy being a college stu-
lent at A&M. That’s why I sent the
reshmen to Fish Camp.”
Although Slocum said he wasn’t
aware of any program like chalk talk
t other schools, he admitted that
nany football programs did have an
image problem with students.
“As freshmen, players start prac
tice before anything else on cam-
ms,” he said. “Then their schedules
tnd time demands prohibit them
from participating in a lot of student
ictivities.”
Consequently, Slocum said, stu
dents perceive them to be aloof or to
have their own clique.
“If you’re not careful a separation
grows between the student body and
the athletic team,” he said. “It
doesn’t have to be that way.”
“In most cases, these boundaries
are not real boundaries anyway, but
because of their schedules and the
way their life is arranged that’s what
happens,” Slocum said. “I’m trying
to take steps to cross those bounda-
During chalk talk, students can di
rect questions to anyone on the
panel. He said he will answer any
question from any student as long as
it does not embarrass anyone. In
fact, John Lauletta, sophomore po
litical science major and 12th Man
Foundation spokesman, said Slocum
hasn’t declined to comment on any
question since chalk talk began.
“R.C. Slocum is a truly candid
man,” Lauletta said.
Slocum said he encourages sug
gestions for future plays as well as
questions.
“Everybody’s got great plays they
always want to try,” Slocum said. “I
won’t promise to run them, but I do
promise to look at them.”
In addition, Slocum said he hopes
the tradition of active student partic
ipation will benefit both the team
and its fans.
“Our guys are good guys and our
students are good students,” he said.
“If you mix them up then there will
be some natural friendships devel
oped. (This is) a healthy thing —
what I envision college athletics
being.”
Scott Weaver, 6, feeds hay to a donkey Sunday at the petting part of the Brazos Folk Festival held Friday, Saturday and Sun-
zoo in Central Park. He and his sister Julie, 10, were trying to day at Central Park and was sponsored by the Bryan chapter of
catch a glimpse of the donkey’s teeth. The petting zoo was a the Future Farmers of America.
Hugo leaves thousands without water, electricity
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Victims of Hur
ricane Hugo scrambled to meet life’s basic needs
Sunday, fretting over shortages of food, fresh
water, cash and electricity. Unable to cook or boil
water, people stood for blocks waiting for hot
meals.
“There’s no bread, there’s no meat,” said Har
old Washington, 21, at a supermarket that had
doughnuts and peanut butter but lacked staples.
“You can’t survive like that. Things just aren’t
working fast enough.”
Washington, who lives with his mother and
four siblings, said the family was burning candles
at night and washing clothes by hand. They wor
ried that the water they were using to brush their
teeth was contaminated.
National Guardsmen with M-16 rifles pa
trolled the streets of the battered city of 65,000
people, guarding against looters and keeping or
der at locations where residents lugged coolers
and plasticjugs to get fresh water.
An emergency law enacted Saturday night
sought to keep profiteers from charging $10 for
a bag of ice and $600 for a chain saw. Tempers
flared at one location where people sought ice to
keep their food fresh.
“People were . . . begging for ice,” said Staff
Sgt. Bill Petty of the South Carolina National
Guard. “There were fistfights in the line. They
were down-on-the ground fights — men and
women.”
Without electricity for a third day, residents
were unable to cook, boil water for drinking or
get cash from bank machines. At stores that man
aged to reopen Saturday, people waited in lines
for up to four hours.
The Red Cross dished out hot meals from
lunch wagons. At the Citadel Square Baptist
Church, the line stretched for three blocks,
spokesman Brian Ruberry said.
Officials said six branches of the South Caro
lina National Bank would reopen Monday to ease
a money shortage. The city also planned to re
sume trash pickup Monday, officials said.
As a cold rain fell Sunday morning, church
bells pealed above the hum of generators and the
buzz of chain saws.
“We have no roof and we’ve got three feet of
water in the living room,” said Jimmy Bailey, a
state lawmaker who attended services. “But we all
have what we were born with and that’s good
health. . . . Anything else is just gravy.”
Hugo clobbered Charleston for six hours late
Thursday and early Friday with 135 mph winds
and a storm surge of 17 feet of water.
The death toll from Hugo’s six-day rampage
stood at 51 — at least 27 people in the Caribbean
and 24 in the Carolinas, Virginia and New York.
A South Carolina woman and her two children
died Sunday when their rural wood-frame house
caught fire from candles, officials said.
Damage estimates were in the billions of dol
lars.
In the three-county area around Charleston,
75,000 people were still out of their homes,
Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said. Schools are closed
until further notice, and a dusk-to-dawn curfew
remains in effect.
“It’s scary out there,” said National Guard
Staff Sgt. James Shugart after coming off night
patrol. “You don’t know what to expect. There
are no lights. You don’t see anything open.”
At least 775,000 people in the Carolinas re
See Hugo/Page 12
Mobley dedicates program’s first tree
President William Mobley has dedicated the first tree
in the University’s new commemorative tree-planting
program, honoring the first dean of business adminis
tration Dr. John E. Pearson.
Pearson, who died in 1984, came to Texas A&M in
1963 as head of the School of Business Administration.
Five years later, the school became a college, and Pear
son served as dean for 10 years.
Pearson left A&M to become senior vice president
and chief financial officer for 3D/International and, at
the time of his death, was vice president of Gulf Re
search and Development Co. in Houston.
Mobley, dean of the College of Business Administra
tion from 1983 to 1986, said Pearson’s early work had a
lot to do with the college’s recent growth and program
enhancement.
The tree that will bear Pearson’s name will be planted
near the Blocker Building, where the College of Busi
ness Administration is located.
The commemorative tree-planting program was in
stituted earlier this month to honor A&M students, for
mer students and past and present faculty, staff and
friends. Donors can give from $1,000 to $125,000 to
plant new trees on campus, attach names to existing
trees and establish endowments for the maintenance of
fiower beds and other planted areas.
Bonfire cutting classes
held this week at Grove
Students who wish to partici
pate in cutting down trees for this
year’s Bonfire must attend one of
the three mandatory cutting
classes scheduled for Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday.
The classes are held from 5:15
to 6:15 p.m. at the Grove. Stu
dents should bring their I.D.
cards.
At the end of each class a cut
ting card will be issued.
Messages from home
Radio club gathers information on Hugo’s victims
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
trsi
Brian Maves, a meteorology graduate stu
dent and HAM radio operator from Dixon, Il
linois, attempts to reach Puerto Rico so
fie:
Maria Morales (right), a special education
major from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico can
communicate with relatives there
By Julie Myers
Of The Battalion Staff
W hen Hurricane Hugo slammed into
the Caribbean and knocked out all phone com
phone communication, HAM radio operators world
wide filled the information gap by sending and receiv
ing information about stranded friends and relatives.
The all-volunteer Texas A&M Amateur Radio Club
sent more than 40 messages to the Caribbean from Col
lege Station area residents and students.
Jeff Maca, freshman applied mathematics major and
radio club trustee, said that from the time the Carib
bean was hit, the club was transmitting messages 24
hours a day to Montserrat, U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Puerto Rico.
Most of the calls, Maca said, were “health and welfa
re” requests from people who wanted to know if their
family and friends were all right.
“Luckily, we didn’t have to send anything bad back —
like deaths,” Maca said. “I don’t know if ‘family’s OK,
house destroyed’ is good; I guess it’s good in the sense
that they’re alive.”
Maca said that although some messages were trans
mitted and received in less than an hour, most took
about a day.
Maria Morales, a junior special education major, said
she was relieved to find out that her mother, who re
sides in Puerto Rico, was fine.
“There was no other way to find out since all the
phone lines weie uown, sne said. '* 1 ne area wnere my
mother lives didn’t receive too much damage, but the
island as a whole was beat up.”
Anytime a disaster hits an area, making normal
routes of communication useless, the radio club will
probably be sending messages. Maca said they usually
transmit following tornadoes and hurricanes, with the
most recent being Hurricane Gilbert last fall.
When someone calls and requests information about
a disaster, they are asked for the name, address and
phone number of the party being contacted, as well as
their own phone number. The radio operator then con
tacts another radio operator in that location and asks
them to find out the condition of that person. When
and if the radio operator is able to find the necessary in
formation they call back and the radio operator at A&M
contacts the original person placing the request.
The A&M HAM radio station operates one of the
largest stations in the state and is capable of contacting
any country in the world. In fact, Maca said that the sta
tion, using mostly used equipment donated by former
club members, has contacted all but seven countries.
The Amateur Radio Club’s office is located on the third
floor of the MSC, down the hall from the Metzger-
Sanders Gun Collection.
Although Maca said that being a HAM radio opera
tor is addicting in some ways, the primary reason he was
involved in helping those caught up in hurricane Hugo
was the satisfaction he received from helping others
“If you ever talk to someone on the telephone and
tell them that their mother is OK, that’s a good feeling,”
he said.