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!
'75/845-IIJ
845-I1J
845-55!
845-:(
845-tel
545-5:1
845-811
^i||m
845-54
845«
845-!5'
845-jirl
845-14li[
845-50i'l
845-1!!: I
845-;i!:|
845-14 1
845-Hill
845-il!|
8454481
845-:«: : |
845-fiJl
12 845-;' I
845-S|
845-;5 : l
845-l!![
845-881
I S45-f J ' [
845481
845-181
845-15-1
845-555'
8 4 5-5531
845-fSf
845-5)1
845-5!i'|
1 845*j
I'845441
845-S f
1 845-« I
845-!)! I
845-#|
8454WI
845-11'!
84541)51
845-45''I
845-8)4 [
845-5)1
845-545*1
! 845-54)81
84 5-551
84545!: f
845-5«!
845-55181
845-i!-" I
845-111! I
845-1IS-!
845-11)-'|
845-H-l
845-Hl
845-« : l
845-fi' I
8454)* I
845-5I11I
845-iil
845-i!-’-1
MS-* I
845-«;'|
845-ill
845-jjJI
845-!!'l
•4-*: I
845-/‘-i
845-S! I
845-))8 1
f4i;'" I
845-- : I
845488 T
8451! 1
84i!- ; |
•4!tJ
845-)) 1
64.5-’' I
845-:!T
8454 1
845- : J
845-i4 I
84!-! '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