es
ini
1 of a: I
ie at Cf I
■ sourtr|
Jay,
Is as i
s of coj
’ no liirl
ndy »e:l
thejof
Pres
! souro
e end,:
KesdJ
a nons,:l
sourtel
Assort
re
'an
loi
The Battalion
WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Partly cloudy
HIGH: 86
LOW: 64
'wing11
i free-[
luelji-
Inter-1
Join o; I
on ii[
hisfi
tars a: I
1 to re-1
icy and I
lomoil
ites for I
enretj
to re-1
fterli
m, Aim
is Sail-1
temeiil
sell its I
‘ceivedl
itisfaej
alltkel
dinan I
in the I
icy to I
m '"Jl
Vol. 89 No.31 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, October 13,1989
House firmly passes federal ban on flag burning
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House
voted final, overwhelming approval Thurs
day for a federal ban on flag burning, just
four months after a Supreme Court deci
sion allowing destruction of an American
flag as political protest.
“This is the least we can do to protect the
sanctity of the flag,” Rep. Butler Derrick,
D—S.C., said before the House voted, 371-
43, to approve the bill.
However, President Bush and many Re
publicans say Congress must do more than
pass a mere statute, and they have been
pressing for a constitutional amendment to
outlaw nag destruction or desecration. The
Senate will take up that issue next week.
Still, 154 Republicans joined 217 Demo
crats in supporting the statutory ban on
Thursday, while only 18 Republicans and
25 Democrats opposed it. The bill passed
the Senate 91-9.
House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-
Wash., said he assumed Bush would sign
the measure into law, despite his clear pref
erence for a constitutional amendment.
Bush said last week that a new statute
would not be adequate to get around the
Supreme Court decision, which threw out
the conviction of a Te^as flag burner.
The bill on its way to Bush would revise
existing federal law and provide up to a
year in a jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone
who “knowingly mutilates, defaces, physi
cally defiles, burns, maintains on the floor
or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the
United States.”
The one-sided votes in Congress re
flected the power of the flag as a political
symbol, as demonstrated by a public outcry
following the Supreme Court decision in
June.
Derrick told the House that the court’s
decision, throwing out the conviction of
Texas flag burner Gregory Lee Johnson on
grounds tnat his right to free speech was vi
olated, hit Americans like “a slap in the
face.”
Bush joined the call for a constitutional
amendment, but Democratic leaders said
changing the Constitution would be too
drastic an action in response to an isolated
case.
“Amending the Constitution as some
would advance should be a last resort and
not a first resort,” Rep. William J. Hughes,
D-N.J., said.
Supporters of the bill approved Thurs
day said the wording had been carefully
fashioned to withstand court challenges,
banning flag defacement regardless of
whether it involved political protest.
But that idea drew scoffing from some
Republicans, who said that any bill to ban
flag burning by simple statute would be
overturned for the same reasons as the
Texas case.
Dunkin’ the Deans
U.S. ambassador escapes
as radical Korean students
storm, occupy his home
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —Radical stu
dents armed with firebombs and tear gas
briefly occupied part of U.S. Ambassador
Donald Gregg’s residence early Friday be
fore riot police dragged them out, officials
said.
A U.S. State Department spokesman in
Washington said Gregg and his wife were
not injured in the attack.
Police said six male students belonging to
an “anti-U.S. death squad” scaled the walls of
Gregg’s residential compound and hurled
tear gas at guards who tried to stop them
from rushing the home.
The students locked themselves inside
one building and held off riot police for
about 30 minutes before troops firing tear
gas smashed down a door and seized them,
police said.
“Drive out the Yankees!” the students
screamed as police hustled them away.
Gregg ana his wife, Meg, said at a news
conference they were in bed about 6:30 a.m.
when they heard a blast and a guard warned
them by telephone that intruders had en
tered the compound, which is about one
mile from the U.S. Embassy.
The Greggs said they heard the intruders
on the other side of their locked bedroom
door, but were able to escape the house by
another entrance and avoid an encounter
with the students.
The students however caused extensive
damage in the living room, smashing art
work and pottery, Gregg said.
He said though that the incident would
have no impact on U.S.-South Korean rela
tions and that the students represented a vo
cal minority.
“This was the act of six people who broke
into our house,” Gregg said.
Police said the intruders were armed with
firebombs, tear gas and steel bars. Yonhap,
the South Korean news agency, said the pro
testers also carried paint thinner and what it
described as a crude homemade explosive.
Police said the intruders did not use any
weapons except for one tear gas grenade.
Principal: child care facility
will decrease drop out rate
Photos by Mike C. Mulvey
Associate Dean of Engineering Dan Turner is the first candidate
in Texas Engineering Extension Service’s “Dunk the Dean Con
test at Pie Are Square Thursday. For one dollar per ball, people
could attempt to dunk a dean.
(Top) Sally Sheppard, Associate
Provost, attempts to dunk the
second candidate, her husband
Lee Blank, Assistant Dean of En-
gineering. (Bottom) Turner
comes up smiling.
DALLAS (AP) — A plan to reduce the
number of teen-age dropouts by offering a
child-care facility at a Dallas high school is
not meant to condone teen-age sex, officials
said.
Officials at Sunset High School said they
believe the program will bring to class stu
dents who might stay at home with their ba
bies.
Sunset principal Richard Marquez said he
had to convince a lot of people that a new
program was needed at his school.
“We’re not condoning teen pregnancy,”
he said. “But the reality is that if we don’t get
these children to school, their children prob
ably will suffer the same things as their,
mothers.
“The children will grow up to raise an
other generation of uneducated children,
and we lose three generations,” he said. “We
need to get these kids through school.”
Home economics teacher Linda Levine
came up with the idea for offering day care
after eight of 17 young women in her classes
became pregnant.
“I lost four of those students because they
did not have reliable child care for the baby,”
Levine said.
Officials expect to open a licensed child
care program in January at a church near
Sunset. It will be operated by day-care spe
cialists a YMCA.
The young mothers will be charged $5
weekly for the service.
ismdenfsp^kcd a&M center readies for Alcohol Awareness Week
|by Kyle Field
must move cars
By Mia B. Moody
Of The Battalion Staff
Texas A&M University students
parking in campus lots immediately
adjacent to Kyle Field must move
their vehicles by 6 p.m. Friday to ac
commodate guests for the Aggie-
University of Houston football game
Saturday.
Students still parked in Parking
Areas 46 and 48, adjoining G. Rollie
White Coliseum, the Read Building
and the Moore Communications
Center; PA 62 between Wellborn
Road and Kyle Field; or PA 60,
across from Rudder Tower, after 6
p.m. will be relocated to PA 50 off
University Drive near the Wisen-
baker Engineering Research Center.
Those parking in PAs 37, 49, 56,
63 and 69 have until 10 a.m. Satur
day to move their vehicles, which will
also be relocated if not moved by
that time, Parking, Transit and Tra
ffic officials said.
Individuals who usually park in
any of the above-mentioned lots
should use PA 50 or 51 (near the en
gineering research center and Uni
versity Drive) or park in available
spaces (other than numbered re
served spots) in any staff lot not
named above until following the
football game.
During National Collegiate Alcohol Aware
ness Week, beginning Monday, the Texas
A&M Center for Drug Prevention and Edu
cation will offer educational and fun pro
grams to encourage students to evaluate their
drinking habits.
Universities and colleges throughout the
nation use the third week of October to make
students more aware of the problems and is
sues surrounding alcohol, Ann Coombs,
CDPE assistant coordinator, said.
“We want students who go to clubs such as
the Chicken every Thursday and drink to ask
themselves why they do it,” Coombs said.
“They should ask themselves if they are doing
it out of boredom or because their friends do
it and if they are, they probably need to make
a change.”
. A competition between the University of
Texas and A&M for which school can throw
the best party will wrap up Alcohol Aware
ness Week Thursday night, Coombs said.
“Both universities’ parties will bejudged on
uniqueness, activities offered, attendance
based on school size and ability of the party to
educate and entertain,” she said.
A&M will have a mocktail mix-off between
groups on campus to judge who can create
the best drink in the time allotted, Coombs
said. The party will end with a mock funeral
for Bevo and feature a life-sized cow and cas
ket.
Coombs said A&M has been an active par
ticipant in National Collegiate Alcohol
Awareness Week since it began in 1984 and
its participation has grown from one depart
ment to more than 22.
NCAAW Events:
• Monday — A forum on alcohol use, mis
use and abuse at 7 p.m. in Rudder Theater. A
panel of counselors will speak about sub
stance abuse and transition from college to
the workplace. This event is sponsored by
Greenleaf Hospital, Alpha Phi Omega and
Student Counseling Services.
• Tuesday — mash lent” from 1 to 3
p.m. The Corps will set up a tent in the
Southside Quad in a make-believe swamp and
serve “mocktails” — non-alchoholic drinks.
From 4 to 5 P-m. Hall-y-Wood Squares in the
Davis-Gary Quad will test the knowledge of
campus celebrities on alcohol use and abuse.
• Wednesday — “Anatomy of a Court Ca
se” at 7:30 p.m. in 201 MSC will feature a re
enactment of a court case involving an alco
hol-related death at a fraternity party.
• Thursday — A prevention and treat
ment seminar from noon to 1 p.m. at the Col
lege of Medicine. Speakers will discuss cur
rent alcohol and other drug abuse prevention
and treatments. From 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. the
“t.u. Challenge Party” at the Grove.
Veterinarians receive computer help
By Selina Gonzalez
Of The Battalion Staff
Correction
The organization in the page
one photograph Thursday was
incorrectly identified. The group
of hall residents was from Schu
macher Hall. The Battalion re
grets the error
Veterinary medicine has logged
on to the computer age.
The Associate system, a package
of computer software to help diag
nose diseases, has been developed at
Texas A&M University’s Texas Vet
erinary Medical Diagnostic Labo
ratory (TVMDL) by veterinarians
Dr. Craig Carter and Dr. Brent Mel-
loy.
Associate will allow veterinarians
to draw on diagnostic expertise to
treat cases that are ambiguous or
limited, said Carter, head of
TVMDL epidemiology and infor
matics and former computer
software engineer.
Carter said the Associate system
was developed because of the explo
sion of medical knowledge in various
professions.
Medical knowledge doubles every
20 months and medical literature ex
pands 40 percent each year, he said.
“When I was going through vet
school, I wanted to organize all the
data,” Carter said.
He said human hospital studies
found that physicians do a good job
of diagnosis and treatment with the
information they do have.
“Where they lack is when they
don’t consider something that
should be considered,” Carter said.
He said the program is designed
to include all possible diagnoses to
eliminate these “errors of omission.”
“Clinicians want a complete elec
tronic reference,” Carter said.
The latest treatments for differ
ent diseases also are included in As-
Carter said he hopes the system
will be updated quarterly by a panel
of board-certified veterinary special
ists in Dallas.
The Associate, which contains in
formation from textbooks and pro
fessional journals, is being reviewed
by the expert panel in Dallas, Carter
said.
Carter said there will be different
Associate systems for different spe
cies.
Canine Associate will be available
in March 1990 and Feline Associate
will follow three months later. By the
end of the year. Carter plans to re
lease Zoonotic Associate, focusing on
approximately 300 diseases that are
common to both humans and ani
mals.
Zoonotic Associate is necessary be
cause these diseases are in a “gray
area,” he said.
“Vets don’t claim them and physi
cians don’t either,” Carter said.
Eventually, he said, Carter-Melloy
f ilans to develop an Associate system
or large animals.
Carter said Associate allows clini
cians to:
• Enter the animal’s signs, symp
toms, medical change or behavioral
change and a list of possible diag
noses will appear.
• Eliminate some of the possible
diagnoses based on other factors of
the individual case.
• Draw more information about
each possible diagosis, such as how a
certain disease develops in an ani
mal.
• Draw information about which
tests to conduct for proper diagno
sis.
• Consider all new developments
in treatment for each case.
Carter said Associate is not the
first of its kind. A few similar pro
grams exist but they are not as com
prehensive as Associate, he said.
“They have taken one small aspect
of a species and developed a pro
gram to help diagnosis that one par
ticular problem,” he said.
“We want them (physicians) to be
able to ask any question about any
disease.”
The Associate system will be avail
able to everyone in the health pro
fession, Carter said.
Carter said he sees Associate and
similar programs refining the way
medicine is practiced.
“Before, clinicians may have been
diagnosing and treating animals 90
to 95 percent accurately; maybe
now, the percentage will increase to
100 percent,” he said.
Carter said, “When we go to the
doctor, we want them to consider ev
ery possibility, and I think the ani
mals deserve the same consider
ation.”