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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1989)
tie Battalion WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Partly sunny HIGH: 68 LOW: 47 Vo!. 89 No.34 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, October 18,1989 Earthquake rocks California I FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS A catastrophic earthquake rocked North- I era California on Tuesday, killing at least 200 people and injuring 400, caving in a section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, igniting fires and causing wide spread damage to buildings. | Quake postpones World Series / Page 7 Ann Richards survives disaster / Page 10 Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy said at least 40 people had been killed in a highway col lapse in Oakland. Six people were crushed to death in their cars when part of an old four-story brick building toppled onto the vehicles on Blux- ome Street in San Francisco, said Police Lt. Jerry Kilroy. One person died of a heart attack and four people were injured in San Jose, 50 miles south of San Francisco, according to Willis Jacobs of the National Earthquake In formation Center in Golden, Colo. Three hours after the 5:04 p.m. PDT quake, the magnitude of the disaster began to emerge as reports came in of widespread death and destruction. McCarthy said a section of Interstate 880 in Oakland had caved in, killing at least 40 people who were in their cars. “The rubble is so bad that they still don’t have an accurate count of the fatalities,” McCarthy said. The California Highway Patrol said six were killed in the collapse of part of the City Garden Mall in Santa Cruz. No major injuries were reported at Can dlestick, where Game Three of the World Series was canceled and about 60,000 fans were evacuated. The quake, which registered 6.9 on the Richter scale, apparently was centered about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz and about 65 miles south of San Francisco. Mayor Art Agnos’ press secretary, Eileen Mahoney, said as many as 20 people had been injured at a fire in the Marina section. Another fire was blazing near downtown Berkeley. Greg Higgins, of Watsonville, described the earthquake scene as total pandemo nium. “It looked like bombs had gone off ... it looked like pictures I had seen of Beruit.” Tom Mullins, a spokesman for the Cali fornia Office of Emergency Services in Sac ramento, said, “The thing struck just as ev eryone was going home. We’ve got reports coming in from San Benito and Santa Clara counties of heavy damage.” Hundreds of people fled Bay Area Rapid Transit subway and elevated stations in San Francisco and East Bay suburbs. The sys tem was shut down. Two hours after the quake struck, thou sands of commuters who reside in the East See Quake/Page 10 PIlOB 115/845-81 845-i:: i61/845-lii 845-11! 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'I •4’’'I 8454-1 M! | 845-i8- 645’- | 645-/'’ I 5454 ' I .45--i 645-5 I 1 .1 4 .45*1 >45-8' 1455-' .45 1 5 45-'I 45'!-’' f 45-);"| 4”.| 455-, * fr\ 10* BmSm »1 Hooray for Hall-Y-Wood Residents of Haas Hall celebrate after winning the semi-final round of “Hall-Y-Wood” Squares. Photo by Scott D. Weaver The event, sponsored by RHA to promote Alco hol Awareness Week, took place Tuesday night. Campus free-speech area moved for construction By Holly Becka Of The Battalion Staff As a state institution, Texas A&M is required to pro tect free speech rights guaranteed in the First Amend ment to the U.S. Constitution. The University obliges with a free speech area near Rudder Fountain and the MSC. The Rudder area will be closed in the future because of plans underway for the MSC expansion. Dennis Bush, assistant manager of the University Center, which approves solicitation on campus and manages the free speech area, said the area will relocate between the A.P. Beutel Health Center and Sbisa Din ing Hall, along Military Walk. Jan Paterson, student activities adviser, said the Uni versity controls the time and place of the officially des ignated free speech area. “Court cases have allowed for universities to control time and place (of free speech), in order that it does not disrupt the educational process,” Paterson said. “It is not acceptable that someone can just stand up in a class room and start talking about any topic. We may control that. (We) also may restrict someone so they don’t stand out in front of a building and scream so that it affects the goings on in the classroom, or play loud music so someone can’t teach.” Bush agreed. “It’s really a legal right rather than a ‘free spot’ per se,” he said. “Free speech is allowed; the institution can control the time, place and manner, but cannot restrict it. “By designating an area, that’s our attempt to control it, but there’s really not a question whether one exists or not because the court says one exists.” Paterson said court precedents have clearly stated that students wishing to exercise free speech cannot be designated to some obscure place on campus where they will not be heard. The free speech area had to be in a high-traffic area where the learning process would not be disrupted, so the Rudder location was chosen. Bush said the new location during the MSC expan See Speech/Page 6 Research shows dialects affect teachers’ attitudes By Andrea Warrenburg Of The Battalion Staff Students who speak with cultural and regional dialects may be treated differently in the classroom than stu dents who speak the standard En glish dialect, according to research conducted by a Texas A&M grad uate student. Since the summer of 1987, Bev erly Kerr-Mattox has surveyed 132 teachers enrolled in A&M graduate courses and 244 A&M education majors to study the attitudes teach ers and prospective teachers have to ward students who do not speak standard English. “There are a number of different dialects in the U.S.,” said Kerr-Mat tox, who also teaches freshman En glish at A&M. “Standard English is the accepted form, and if you do not speak it, you’re viewed as unedu- Study suggests oxygen relieves migraines By Pam Mooman Of The Battalion Staff The severe pain of migraine headaches can be relieved by breathing pure oxygen. Texas A&M is conducting a study of 26 mi graine sufferers in which participants breathe hyperbaric, or pure, oxygen. Relief for most pa tients comes within 30 minutes, but some patients feel relief in as few as 12 minutes. Dr. William Fife, director of A&M’s Hyper baric Research Laboratories, has been giving hy perbaric treatments and studying the results for 12 years. Last month, he and his daughter wrote an article for the “Journal of Hyperbaric Medici ne,” reporting on the research at A&M. Fife said study participants must have a doc tor’s prescription verifying that they suffer from migraines. “The person has to have been medically exam ined to determine there is no other problem,” Fife said. Then participants are cleared through Dr. John Moore, medical director of A&M’s hy perbaric program, he said. The exact cause of migraines is unknown. Cer tain foods and certain spices, such as monoso dium glutomate, found in some Chinese foods. See migraine/Page 6 cated or ignorant.” A dialect is the way a person pro nounces and uses words, including slang, intonation and use of verbs. Kerr-Mattox made recordings of 12 speakers: three Caucasian boys, three black boys, three Caucasian girls and three black girls, all chosen at random. The children were 13 years old, with identical socioeco- nomical and educational back grounds. Next, teachers and students lis tened to the recordings and an swered questionnaires asking them to rate the speech of each speaker on a 7-point scale, ranging from bad to good. Then, they chose the most suitable occupation for the speaker from a list of careers on the survey. The results of the survey showed that the participants tended to rank black females as factory workers and black males as cashiers and factory workers, while tending to rank Cau casian females as teachers and poli ticians and Caucasian males as poli ticians and television personalities. Information about the survey par ticipants showed that their age, eth nic background, where they were from and their school course work did not affect how they ranked the speakers. Kerr-Mattox said the findings show that judgements about people can be made solely on how they speak. This, in turn, may affect how they are treated in the classroom. Students may be labeled as unable to K rform in class, teachers may spend >s ' may even affect the child’s future, Kerr-Mattox said. “The self-fulfilling prophecy says that students live up to expectations placed upon them,” Kerr-Mattox said. “And if the students are made to feel inferior, that may be what they turn out to be.” She said teachers may be unaware Otandard English is the accepted form, and if you do not speak it, you’re viewed as uneducated or ignorant.” — Beverly Kerr-Mattox, Texas A&M graduate student they are treating students with di alects differently. “Being a teacher myself, I didn’t want to make it sound like teachers were all at fault,” she said. “I want them to take this research as some thing they’re doing in class they are not aware of, but can change.” The students also can be taught that there is not one superior dialect, but that they need to learn when to use their dialect and when to use standard English. “For example, people use a differ ent dialect when they job interview than they normally use,” Kerr-Mat tox said. “Students need to be taught that their dialect is not unacceptable, but when to use it and when not to less time with the students and it use it.’ A&M prof fights for Mongolian grassland By Kelly S. Brown Of The Battalion Staff xjLs a marine fighting for his country, Dennis Sheehy had a mission in Vietnam. Despite his vocation, he made a promise to come back one day on different terms in a constructive sense. Twenty years after leaving the ruins and devastation, he re turned to keep that promise. But this time his mission didn’t involve guns — his struggle was to help preserve the Mongolian grasslands, which slowly are dete riorating because of overgrazing. The ammunition strung around Sheehy’s belt was his vast experience and credentials. The soft-spoken Oregon native, who is now a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M, has bachelor’s degrees in Asian studies and Mandarin Chinese, and a Ph.D. in range- land management. In 1985 Sheehy was hired by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to work and live for three years where no foreigners have before in Yihenoer sumu, a commune 400 miles northeast of Beijing. There, the Sheeny family spent six to eight months each year living under primitive con ditions. The transition from living on an Oregon ranch to surviving in a mud hut was made not with consternation but with eagerness, Sheehy said. But the cadre was not as quick with its en thusiasm. “Sometimes it felt like their attitude was — okay, this guy is here for three years, let’s go along with whatever he says and when he leaves we’ll go back to doing what we want,” Sheehy said. “It was a go-along, get-along type thing.” Having to prove himself over and over again to the herders, Sheehy became a part of their culture. “I am not just professionally involved,” he said. “I am personally involved.” After careful study of the vegetation and land, it became evident to Sheehy that to sal vage the grasslands and prevent further ero sion, they would have to either reduce the size of the livestock herds or grow more food for the animals. The October issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education states that Mongolian herders take great pride in their livestock, and their reputations are tied to the sizes of their herds, so like many of Sheehy’s propo sals, however good, this one was slammed down by the Chinese authorities. After it was squelched, Sheehy’s next at tempt was to get the herders to grow more fodder. “To be honest (my work) was not very suc cessful as far as short-term results,” Sheehy said. “Their problems are severe and deep- rooted. I predict within one or two genera tions if they continue to do what they’re doing — which is increasing animal numbers while continuing to utilize a marginal environment that is not ecologically or economically effi cient — they will deplete all their resources. I see destruction with this system.” Sheehy said the bottom line of the problem is that there are too many people living off too little land, and the pieople are reacting to things rather than acting to the situation. “In all fairness to them, they’re dealing with 1.1 billion p>eople,” he said. “Their con cerns are dealing with today. Their agricul ture decisions are relative to short term — ‘to See Sheehy/Page 6 Photo by Mike C. Mulvey Dr. Dennis Sheehy