Texas A&M
The Battalion
l-i-n
Vol.89 No.76 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
WEATHER
WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
It1 i \\\v\
Sunny and mild
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HIGH: 59 LOW: 41
Monday, January 22,1990
East German Communist Party expels Krenz
WEST BERLIN (AP) — East Germany’s
|Communist Party on Sunday expelled Egon
; Krenz, the ousted leader who opened the
Berlin Wall, and lost its popular No. 2 offi-
ikial in a resignation that could cripple the
already hobbled party.
The Communists offered the opposition
j “co-responsibility” in the government until
I May elections, abolished their clasped-
! hands emblem and offered to change their
party’s name.
Also Sunday, the government threw for
mer Parliament speaker Horst Sindermann
into prison along with two other former
members of the now-disgraced leadership,
and it opened a criminal probe of the Com
munist finance minister on charges of graft.
Wolfgang Berghofer, a reformer who
was the Communist Party’s deputy chair
man, resigned along with 39 other promi
nent members in his home city of Dresden,
the official news agency ADN said.
Berghofer, the 46-year-old mayor of
Dresden, is credited with helping to head
off a potential massacre of pro-democracy
demonstrators in October. He became the
first East German leader to urge adoption
of a free-market economy.
Berghofer said he will support “social
democratic” principles. He is widely re
ported to be joining the opposition Social
Democratic party, although Sunday’s an
nouncement made no mention of such a
step.
Berghofer’s move put the Communist
Party’s future in “extreme danger,” East
German state television said.
His desertion is expected to spark a fur
ther mass exodus from the party, whose
membership has plunged from nearly 2.3
million in 1987 to 1.2 million today.
In Bonn, West German Chancellor Hel
mut Kohl’s government pronounced the
Communists “guilty” of dragging East Ger
many into its current crisis.
In a marathon meeting, the East German
Communists:
• Rejected demands that it disband, but
promised “radical reform and consolida
tion.”
• Rehabilitated 47 East Germans pun
ished for speaking out against former hard
line Communist leaders.
• Expelled Krenz and 13 members and
non-voting members of the ousted Polit
buro.
Krenz immediately appealed his expul
sion, becoming the first former top leader
to fight back publicly. A dozen former lead
ers were kicked out in December, and nine
&M officials
icet with Bush,
liscuss library
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Mum's the word about a meeting
[Thursday in Washington D.C.
J among three Texas A&M officials
I and President Bush concerning the
i location of his presidential library.
I A&M Chancellor Perry Adkisson,
Board of Regents Chairman William
McKenzie and Mike Halbouty,
chairman of a committee working to
bring the presidential library to
j A&M, met with the first family
1 Thursday evening.
The officials went to present
A&M’s proposal for building the
| presidential library here rather than
at the University of Houston or Rice
University, the two other universities
actively competing for the land
mark.
But none of the people involved
in the meeting are saying anything
about how it went or who the front
runner might be.
McKenzie said he had ho com
ment about the outcome of the
meeting. A&M President William
Mobley also declined to comment.
“I’m not trying to be evasive,”
Mobley said. “This is an important
| and delicate issue and I think any
answer to your question will have to
come from Washington.”
The White House press office said
Friday, however, it did not even
know that A&M officials met with
Bush.
Officials from UH and Rice met
with the Bushes last week to make a
joint proposal that the library be
built in Houston’s Hermann Park
near Rice. Each school has met with
Bush privately to campaign for the
library.
The Houston Chronicle said
I Wednesday that sources close to the
'president have said A&M is the
likely site for the library. The same
story, however, quoted another un
named source who said Bush is still
undecided.
Dr. Daniel Fallon, dean of the
College of Liberal Arts and chair
man of the Bush Presidential Li
brary Academic Planning Commit
tee, said he expects the president to
make a decision about the library
within a month.
All aboard!
A small celebration was held Saturday morning at the College
Station Amtrak Terminal announcing daily departures to Dallas
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
and Houston on Amtrak. The program featured College Station
Mayor Larry Ringer as a guest speaker.
A&M athletes arrested for assault
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Three Texas A&M athletes and a Prairie View
A&M student were arrested early Sunday morn
ing following'a series of fights at a dance spon
sored by the Texas A&M chapter of Alpha Phi
Alpha fraternity, said director of security and
University Police Bob Wiatt.
Anthony Williams, Dennis Lee Ransom and
Derrick Ware of Texas A&M and Kevin Lee
Dingle of Prairie View A&M were arrested by
University Police and charged with assault, Wiatt
said.
According to Wiatt, the melee erupted at ap
proximately 12:15 a.m. Sunday.
The dance at the Memorial Student Center
followed the 1990 Miss Black and Gold Schol
arship Pageant, which also was sponsored by Al
pha Phi Alpha.
Wiatt said the fights apparently were a result
of a skit done during the pageant that might have
been viewed as derogatory toward student ath
letes.
Wiatt said several residents of Cain Hall, the
athletic dormitory, heard about the skit and went
to the dance.
“Words were exchanged between some people
and then words led to pushing,” Wiatt said.
“Fights broke out all over the place. There was
general melee for a while.”
Williams, a sophomore linebacker on the foot
ball team, was charged by University Police with
two counts of assault.
Ransom, a junior defensive end for the foot
ball team, was charged with two counts of assault.
Ransom also was charged for having $800 in out
standing tickets from the Department of Public
Safety.
Ware and Dingle both were charged with one
count of assault.
Wiatt said University Police were looking for a
former A&M athlete who fled the scene. Wiatt
was unable to release the man’s name before his
arrest on charges of assault.
No serious injuries were reported, but Wiatt
said several of the people involved suffered cuts
and bruises.
are in prison awaiting corruption trials.
The official announcement did not spec
ify a reason for Sunday’s purge. However,
the Communists are moving to rid them
selves of the last of the top officials asso
ciated with Erich Honecker, the hard-liner
replaced by Krenz on Oct. 18 after 18 years
in power.
Honecker was kicked out of the party in
December and now faces an indictment for
high treason.
In an interview with the Bild newspaper
of Hamburg after his expulsion from the
party, Krenz was quoted as saying: “Finding
another job is difficult. I will probably be
come a writer.”
Barrels buried
at Riverside
under scrutiny
By TODD L. CONNELLEY
Of The Battalion Staff
It’s amazing to think all of this be
gan with a phone call.
Last month, Texas A&M Presi
dent William Mobley received an
anonymous tip from a caller who
said hazardous chemicals were bur
ied illegally at A&M’s Riverside
Campus.
After eight feet of digging, A&M
officials discovered three barrels
containing paint thinner and possi
bly PCB, a highly carcinogenic com
pound.
Mobley wasted no time organizing
his troops.
He placed Robert Smith, vice
president for finance and opera
tions, in charge of the inquiry, and
brought in Jones and Neuse, an Aus
tin-based environmental engi
neering firm, to begin a detailed
analysis of what exactly was in the
barrels.
Smith said they have taken tests
and done borings at the site, but it is
too early to draw any conclusions.
“We have yet to determine
whether there are toxic chemicals in
volved,” he said. “It could be that it is
just dirt in the barrels. The official
report doesn’t come out until later
this week.”
Margin Garza, a field investigator
for the Texas Water Commission,
said if there are hazardous chemicals
involved, A&M will have to hire a
company certified by the state to
transfer the toxic waste to a proper
dumping ground.
Garza said if the contents of the
barrels are harmless they will be sent
to a landfill.
Even if the results of the investiga
tion prove bogus, it still needs to be
determined who is responsible for
burying the three 55-gallon drums.
“Right now we are not at the point
where we can start accusing people
of wrongdoings,” Smith said. “Our
number one priority is finding out if
there are toxic chemicals involved.”
When asked if he thought the
people who buried the drums knew
that they were dumping harmful
waste, Smith said he didn’t know.
“We are conducting this investiga
tion in an open manner,” he said.
“We are not trying to hide any
thing.”
Soviet sister city
Program promotes friendship, understanding
By NADJA SABAWALA
Of The Battalion Staff
While many people spent Christmas vacation re
laxing at home, some local citizens visited the Soviet
Union to promote friendship between American
and Soviet cities.
The Bryan-College Station Sister City Association
sent nine members, including two Texas A&M stu
dents, to Kazan, Bryan-College Station’s sister city in
the Soviet Union. The association’s goal is to be able
to exchange both students and ideas one day, bring
ing the cities closer together in understanding.
Jeff Starr, a senior electrical engineering major,
said the visit to Kazan was very educational.
“It was a lot like I had expected,” Starr said. “One
impression that came clear to me was the different
types of people and the different ethnic groups
within the Soviet Union.”
The ethnic population of Kazan is 50 percent Rus
sian and 50 percent Tatar, Starr said. Kazan is the
capital of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Re
public which basically has Islamic traditions.
As guests of the Kazan city council, the group vis
ited a mosque, a Russian-Orthodox church, a mu
seum, the Kremlin in Kazan, two schools and Kazan
State University.
The university is the third largest in the Soviet
Union and one of the most prominent, Starr said.
He said they met with university officials and visited
classes as well as talked with students.
“We met with the leader of the Komsomol, which
is the student counterpart of the Communist Party,”
Starr said.
Although the Komsomol is the understood stu
dent communist party, Starr said the students have
more liberal beliefs than the traditional Communist
Party.
“You could still call the students communists but
they don’t advocate all the traditional beliefs the
party has,” he said.
Starr said the people of Kazan were very inter
ested in American economics.
“Their economy has a lot of catching up to do and
Fheir economy has a lot of catching
up to do and they know that. That’s
what they’re trying to do.”
— Jeff Starr,
A&M student
they know that,” Starr said. “That’s what they’re try
ing to do.”
He said the people are excited about all the
changes happening in the Soviet Union, but they are
ready for the economy to change as well.
“They still have these economic problems — peo
ple are still standing in long lines for food and stuff
and this is putting a lot of pressure on Gorbachev,”
Starr said.
Officials from the Sister City Association say the
Soviets are eager to come to the United States. The
association has invited a delegation to visit Bryan-
College Station as early as this spring.
Chicago archdiocese announces
closing of churches, schools
CHICAGO (AP) — Thousands of
Roman Catholics in the nation’s sec
ond largest archdiocese learned
Sunday that their churches and
schools will be closed to ease what of
ficials called a critical financial
squeeze.
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin said in
a letter read at weekend services that
approximately 30 churches and 10
schools will be closed by mid-1991
because of the “new circumstances in
which we find ourselves.”
He referred to deficit spending
that has forced the archdiocese to
borrow money from commercial
banks for the first time in its 110-
year history.
He said later at a news conference
that “the real heart” of the financial
rescue plan is a proposal to raise rev
enue through increased collections
in churches and higher fees at arch
diocese schools.
“These changes in no way reflect a
retreat from or an abandonment of
our mission,” he said. “Instead they
are a reaffirmation ... of our com
mitment to quality pastoral care for
the entire faith community.”
“I’m heartbroken,” Marion Ded-
ina said of the news her parish
church, St. John Nepomucene in the
city’s south side Bridgeport neigh
borhood, was among those that
could be shuttered.
“It’s rotten,” said her friend, Pat
Jurgens. “But what are you going to
do? If there’s a money shortage and
you have to go somewhere else, you
g°”
The two said they have been
members of the parish for 40 years.
Five-minute time slots on two local
stations were purchased with dona
tions so Bernardin could make a
televised speech scheduled for later
in the day.
It has been known for some time
that closings and mergers would be
made, but archdiocese officials had
declined to detail them, saying they
wanted congregations to hear the
news Sunday from their pastors.
The closings and mergers would
cut more than $13 million in arch
diocese spending, officials said in a
package of information released at
the news conference. It’s hoped rev
enues can be increased by more than
$30 million, they said.
Manufacturer recalls
contact lens solution
The Food and Drug Adminis
tration announced that a batch of
Wet Cote contact lens solution is
contaminated with harmful bac
teria that could cause serious eye
infections.
The contaminated batch, with
the lot number W3028 and the
expiration date June 1991 on the
label, was distributed in Texas,
Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Caro
lina, Maryland, Tennessee and Il
linois.
Of 20 bottles from this batch
that were analyzed, seven were
infected with a bacteria called
Pseudomonas cepecia, which can
cause serious eye infections that
could result in blindness.
Bottles from this batch should
be returned to the place of pur
chase so that retailers can return
them to the manufacturer.