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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1990)
I I § ’ e nt to • John st 'veekb, all -mili lai r . the )l - David ullane anj d - neitht, ts Purpose ° n of an» ,Ve re to d f ,l ">d. Softj u P e r-shar[ i lr,d dipt The Battalion Vol.89 No.103 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers HIGH: 65 LOW: 45 Tuesday, February 27,1990 Red Army leaves Czechoslovakia FRENSTAT, Czechoslovakia (AP) — A brass band struck up the “Internationale” on Monday as the Red Army began leaving Czechoslovakia 22 years after it arrived to crush a reform movement. Karel Micek of the Civic Forum said the pres ence of Soviet troops had meant “empty shelves in stores, polluted water, an occasional fight in the pub and a reminder that we are not a free country. “Their main problem was that they were here,” said Micek, whose group played a central role in the peaceful revolution that ousted the Communist Party from exclusive power in No vember. Over 20 Soviet T-62 tanks loaded on flatcars left the northern town of Frenstat, beginning a negotiated, three-stage pullout of the 73,500 So viet military personnel, scheduled for completion next year. A second train, laden with 33 armored vehi cles, left a few hours later from the Domasov nad Bystrici station near a Red Army base at Libava in eastern Czechoslovakia. It is the first time the Kremlin has removed its soldiers from the territory of a Warsaw Pact ally. Hungary is near agreement with the Soviets on a similar accord, but no deals have been struck with Poland and East Germany, the other Soviet allies in Europe that are hosts to Red Army troops. Soviet soldiers remained in Czechoslovakia af ter a Warsaw Pact invasion crushed the reformist “Prague Spring” of 1968. They entered Hungary in 1956 to put down an anti-Stalinist uprising. Before the withdrawal began, the Soviet Union had 1,220 tanks, 2,505 armored vehicles, 77 combat aircraft and 146 helicopters in Czechoslovakia, in addition to the 73,500 sol diers. Soon after the first train rolled toward the bor der, the official news agency CTK reported that Soviet-Czechoslovak military maneuvers would be held next month. Sbisa luncheon provides chance to voice concerns Texas A&M students will have an opportunity to voice their con cerns about A&M undergraduate education during lunchtime Wednesday. Members of the A&M Commit tee on Academic Campuses Advi sory Panel on Undergraduate Ed ucation will be at Sbisa Dining Hall from noon to 1 p.m. to an swer student questions and iden tify issues and concerns about un dergraduate programs at A&M. Vicki Running, secretary of the Board of Regents, said eight ta bles consisting of three people from the Board of Regents or the advisory council will be set up in Sbisa for talks with students hav ing lunch. The committee is madp up of student leaders, faculty members, members of the Board of Re gents, former students and the president of the Federation of A&M Mothers’ Clubs. 0! rpreter iryour in our anyon, back- in this .eraess ntains, infor- t is hike plore inder info, ;ayak rpro- I out- cperi- tyfor ^hip. r ee‘* ,2/245 5/250 9/425 0/570 5/475 6 I late us Nicaraguan leader admits loss of power Ortega concedes to voters’ verdict MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — President Daniel Ortega assured the world Monday the Sandinistas will accept the voters’ verdict and sur render power after more than a de cade to an opposition alliance formed only six months ago. “We leave victorious because the Sandinistas have sacrificed, spilled blood and sweat, not to cling to gov ernment posts, but to bring Nicara gua something denied since 1821,” he said in a dramatic dawn speech broadcast nationwide. Ortega spoke hours after it was clear the electoral tide was against him and Violeta Barrios de Cha morro, publisher of the opposition newspaper La Prensa, would be the next president of this battle-scarred nation, which has in the past decade become one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. “People wanted a change,” she said as she headed for a victory cele bration at her campaign headquar ters. With 82 percent of the precincts counted, Chamorro had 633,357 votes, or 55.2 percent, to 468,040, or 40.8 percent for Ortega, the Su preme Electoral Council said. The coalition also won a majority in the National Assembly. Chamorro is to take office April 25 and the transition could be diffi cult, given the bad blood between winners and losers. “It’s going to be a bit harder than the normal transition,” said Alfredo Cesar, one of Chamorro’s closest ad visers and a former leader of the Contra rebels. “That means the two sides ... will sit down and make sure the transition is accomplished in a peaceful manner.” There was elation at the White House. “In this year of political change, democracy won another vic tory,” President Bush said in a statement, and officials said lifting the U.S. economic embargo was un der discussion. Under the Sandinistas, Nicaragua became a self-proclaimed revolu tionary state and adopted portions of Marxist and Leninist ideology to remake its economic and social structures. It won strong support from the Soviet Union and Cuba, and was accused by the United States of trying to instigate a Communist revolution in neighboring El Salva dor. The Sandinista loss to the United National Opposition,which favors Western-style representative gov ernment, followed by months the movement toward democracy in sev eral Soviet-aligned nations of East Europe and democratization in the Soviet U nion itself. Both Ortega and Chamorro pre sented themselves as candidates of national reconciliation and economic recovery, Ortega because he be lieved the United States would rec ognize his victory and Chamorro be cause she had Washington’s support. She promised economic recovery to a nation that suffered from a de cade of war, a U.S. economic em bargo and poor management. Ortega and the Sandinistas mounted a carefully orchestrated campaign that ended with a rally at tended by an estimated 300,000 peo ple. The man who marched into Ma nagua as a victorious young revolutionary in July 1979 had not expected to lose, and the first hours of the stunning upset were tense. Former President Jimmy Carter was among thousands of interna tional election observers who mon itored the voting. Defense Minister Humberto Or tega, the president’s brother, and In terior Minister Tomas Borge, who controls the police, had suggested they might not give an opposition government control of those forces. Daniel Ortega said he spoke for his party and government, however, in promising to honor the results of Sunday’s election. Fenced out Texas A&M tennis fans peek through the fence to watch a match Smith Tennis Center. The Aggie men’s team beat the Indians 5-4. in Monday’s tournament against Northeast Louisiana at Omar See tennis story/Page 7 Ross Volunteers march in Mardi Gras parade By DAPHNE MILLER Of The Battalion Staff Texas A&M tradition and excellence are part of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras today as the Ross Volunteers march in the King Rex Krewe Pa rade. Dressed in crisp white uniforms with shining swords and boots, the Ross Volunteers began the seven-mile march at 10 a.m. Capt. Mark Johnson, adviser of the group, said the Ross Volunteers will serve as King Rex’s honor guard on this Fat Tuesday. “Attending Mardi Gras is the second unofficial duty of the Ross Volunteers,” Johnson said. “The first is to escort the governor of Texas.” This is the 39th time in the past 40 years the RVs have participated in the parade. Icy weather prevented the group from participating last year. More than 100 Ross Volunteers and their ad visers departed from A&M by bus at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The group is staying on the USS Guam, anchored on the Mississippi River. The RVs experienced the Mardi Gras festivi ties Sunday night during free time, and the New Orleans A&M Club hosted the group for a Cajun and seafood dinner' Monday night. After Tues day’s parade the group will drive back to College Station. Johnson said the trip is paid for by A&M funds and an honorarium from King Rex Krewe, orga nizer of the parade. The Ross Volunteers have been practicing for the parade since the beginning of the school year, starting with the Bryan-College Station Christmas Parade and the “Go Texan” Parade in Conroe earlier this month, Johnson said. Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack Speaker says anyone can affect history By JILL BUTLER Of The Battalion Staff The international events of the past year should inspire all peo ple that anyone can have enor mous effects on history, said the executive director of the White House Initiative on Black Col leges and Universities. Robert K. Goodwin, former deputy chancellor for external af fairs at Texas A&M, was the guest speaker at the Conference on Student Government Associa tions luncheon Monday. “The gravest danger to our democratic way of life and our economic system is the thought that each of us can’t make a dif ference," Goodwin said. “We are at a critical juncture in our civilization’s history,” he said. “On the one hand, unimaginable opportunity and on the other, unspeakable hazards. They inter sect in such a way that you and I can make a difference.” He said history is full of exam ples of ordinary men and women, who through extraordinary ac tions, changed the world. Goodwin cited as examples Dr. Martin Luther King jr., the Chinese students in T ienanmen Square and Germans who broke down the Berlin Wall. “Leadership is a case of follow ing tried and true principles, fol lowing a path cleared by others,” Goodwin said. He said to improve leadership skills, people should look to ex amples set by others. “By objectively reviewing those human attributes you relate to and gravitate toward and want to emulate, you can paint a faint pic ture of an option for your life — something you can aspire to and shoot for,” Goodwin said. Robert K. Goodwin Setting goals is imperative to reaching a level of excellence, Goodwin said. He said deciding where you want to go by setting goals is half the journey of getting there. "Leadership is first and fore most about choices,” Goodwin said. He said people must choose va lues, goals and priorities. “We can scale the mountains of selfless giving, or we can trudge in the valley of self-centeredness and narrowness,” he said. Goodwin reflected on the dif ferences between successful and unsuccessful people. “f believe the difference be tween life’s winners and losers is the daring to believe something inside us ts greater than circum stance,” he said. “Life is not something that happens to us,” he said. “Life is something we can control.” Leaders discuss student apathy By JULIE MYERS Of The Battalion Staff In one of 20 roundtable dis cussions, student government leaders helped a peer from The ' University of Texas at Pan Amer ican evaluate the apathetic stu dent body and overcome what he described as a dictatorial adminis tration. Students from 84 universities around the world participated in the discussions in the Memorial Student Center Monday that are aimed at increasing the effective- part of the 10th Annual Confer ence on Student Government As- ' sociations, gave student leaders a chance to share ideas, experi ences and areas of strength. Andrew Robinson, a UTPA student government member, said the school has an apathy . problem. Eight students out of 12,000 voted in student body president elections last year, Robinson said. The apathetic attitude is com pounded by an uncooperative ad ministration. Robinson said uni versity officials are cooperative only if it is agreeable to them. “We are the student’s voice to the administration,” Robinson said. “But it’s frustrating because students tell you their problems and you can’t do a thing about it.” Robinson said the UTPA presi dent can change anything at will and that student government could not override any veto, even if every student at UTPA wanted a change. Brad Motni, a student govern ment leader from Kean College in New Jersey, said the key to ef fective student government is to know the administation one-on- one. “If they don’t know the student organizations,” Momi said, “they won’t care. ” Commission rejects control of liquor sale ‘Happy hours’ ban protects businesses AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Al coholic Beverage Commission unan imously rejected strict rules on the li quor industry Monday that were aimed at reducing alcohol abuse, es pecially among minors. Alcoholic Beverage Commission member R. Allan Shivers Jr. of Aus tin said he sympathized with the thrust of the 15 proposed rules, in cluding a ban on “happy hours,” but said they would infringe on the rights of businesses. Shivers said banning happy hours — periods when establishments of fer drinks at reduced prices —would be similar to banning “white sales at department stores in the Christmas season.” The measures were pushed by Texans for Responsible Alcohol Consumption, a coalition of groups v^ur goal is to safeguard the public from dangerous or abusive practices without causing harm to the honest businessman.” — W.S. McBeath, TABC administrator including Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Texans’ War on Drugs and the Texas Parent Teacher Associa tion. The coalition said it would con tinue to fight for stricter regulations. In addition to the happy hour ban, the coalition wanted bar em ployees to count patrons’ drinks and prohibit unescorted minors from en tering bars. Shivers said the Legislature would have to change state laws in order to implement the coalition’s recom mendations. “The Legislature has said that mi nors can be in places that serve alco hol,” he said. “The Legislature has clearly said that people who are 18 years old may work in places that sell alcohol. The Alcoholic Beverage Commission cannot thwart the will of the Legislature.” Shivers and commission member Morris Atlas of McAllen also dis counted criticism that the alcoholic beverage agency was doing the bid ding of the powerful liquor industry. “I don’t think anybody on this commission is going to be intim idated by anyone,” Atlas said. Jim Crouch, executive director of the Texas PTA, said, “The TABC has been so long involved with the industry without much outside input that this has been a new environ ment for them. “We have given them a third el ement to this relationship,” he said. W.S. McBeath, agency adminis trator, said the commission staff would continue investigating happy hour practices, increase enforce ment and review penalty guidelines on the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors. “Our goal is to safeguard the pub lic from dangerous or abusive prac tices without causing harm to the honest businessman,” he said. Atlas said the commission will probably look at happy hour prac tices again. “That is a problem,” he said. “It has been a problem for some time.” - Students wishing to copy the anti-virus computer programs that invaded the Macintosh com puters earlier this month should copy the virus on their own data disks, not on the system disk. The WDEF virus may have | scrambled or erased programs.