he Battalion
NATO opens doors
Leaders accept President
Bush’s proposal to invite
Warsaw Pact members to
visit a meeting of the
military alliance.
See Page 6
ol.89 N0.I68USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, July 6,1990
in a j,
&M officials agree, finalize plans
o use Points Plus cards on campus
By KATHY COX
2 mjfi 0* The Battalion Staff
Texas A&M finalized plans
I Thursday to accept Points Plus cards
I on campus.
Robert Smith, vice president of fi-
j nance and administration, made a
verbal agreement with Points Plus
J President Jody Read to enact the
| debit card system on campus later
I this month.
Points Plus cardholders use their
I card, instead of cash, to make pur
chases. Cardholders start an account
by buying “points.” Points are then
I deducted from cardholders’ ac-
I counts for each purchase.
“ Points Plus operates like the Uni
versity’s Aggie Bucks program, but
Read said his company will install its
own equipment, keeping it separate
from A&M’s food services program.
Read said cardholders first will be
able to use their Points Plus cards at
Pie Are Square, the Ag Cafe, the
MSC, the Copy Center, the Under
ground Market and the golf course
and golf course snack shop.
Read expects to have the system in
operation sometime after July 16.
After the system is “up and run
ning” in these places, Read said the
agreement will allow them to expand
across campus.
“It’s our anticipation to have vir
tually all the places on campus (on
the system) going into the spring se
mester,” he said. “Any place a stu
dent can spend money, I’d like to
have it so they can use their Points
Plus card.”
Read said he does not believe
Points Plus is in direct competition
with Aggie Bucks.
“If a student is going to live on
campus and eat almost all their
meals on campus, then getting a
meal plan or getting Aggie Bucks is a
good deal,” he said.
But he said Points Plus offers
more flexibility and value for off-
campus students because they can
use it both on and off campus. Also,
students can use the card to pay bills
and get cash.
Read said that from a business
standpoint the Points Plus system
will benefit the University as well as
the students.
“Tests show that you’ll have be
tween 40 and 70 percent more trans
action dollars spent through a plastic
card than you will through cash or
check,” he said. “So the vendors
should see an increase in business.”
The University can increase sales
while providing a service for stu
dents, Read said.
j Barton supports amendment
l (! | for partial funding of bomber
Congressman makes speech in local church
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Photo by Eric Roalson
Congressman Joe Barton
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
A local advisory committee to
Congressman Joe Barton strongly
recommended only partial funding
of the B-2 Stealth bomber Thursday
in a meeting at St. Paul’s United
Methodist Church in Bryan.
The meeting is probably the last
one before Barton, R-Ennis, casts his
vote in August.
If he were to base his vote only on
the committee’s opinion, Barton said
he would have to support an alterna
tive ammendment to full funding.
The bill would terminate production
of new B-2’s but permit completion
of the 15 aircraft already authorized.
The bill would allow for comple
tion of the B-2 test program includ
ing flight testing and B-2 technology
maintenance in case the future na
tional security situation warranted a
reversal.
The alternative proposal an
nounced by Secretary of Defense
Dick Cheney in April proposes 75 B-
2’s at an estimated cost of $61.1 bil
lion. The alternative amendment
would be $31 billion cheaper than
the Cheney proposal.
The Stealth bomber is capable of
penetrating enemy territory unde
tected and attacking targets at close
range during a nuclear war.
Because of its design and the
materials used to build the bombers,
B-2’s are very difficult for Soviet air
defenses to detect. They absorb most
of the radar frequencies used by So
viet radar stations.
Barton estimated the Soviets
Organizations schedule
rallies, demonstrations
for Economic Summit
HOUSTON (AP) — The Interna
tional Economic Summit is attracting
more than delegations from the
! world’s seven most industrialized
1 countries and thousands of journal
ists.
! Organizations ranging from the
AIDS advocacy group ACT UP to
the Ku Klux Klan have scheduled
rallies, parades and demonstrations
in the Bayou City preceding and
throughout the three-day summit
that starts Monday.
At least five organizations have
obtained parade permits — only one
is allowed per day, according to city
! ordinance — while at least 17 groups
have registered to have rallies in
Houston parks.
“We know there’ll be others that
refuse to get permits, like the anti
abortion people who intend to get
arrested,” said Lou Garza, special
events coordinator for the city parks
and recreation department.
“We deal with it quite often, with
every group imaginable — political,
religious, social — and they want to
use the parks for a public forum,”
Garza said. “I think of the parks as a
place for the public to seek the quiet
and have a chance to relax and not
have someone shove a Hare Krishna
pamphlet at you or hear the boom
ing voice from a loudspeaker that if
you don’t repent, you’ll go to hell.”
Houston police have enlisted the
help of the Harris County Sheriffs
office and the Department of Public
Safety to handle the crowds at the
events and demonstrations, police
spokesman Dan Turner said.
“This will be one of the largest
events we’ve ever had to handle in
Houston,” he said. Officers will be
working 12-hour shifts.
Several organizations have set up
their own version of the summit to
coincide with the event at Rice Uni
versity.
The Other Economic Summit, or
TOES, set up a similar three-day
event preceding the official summit
that features leaders representing
“the seven poorest peoples” in the
world and the “populist leaders sum
mit” for the seventh year.
Former Democratic presidential
candidate Jesse Jackson will join
other unsuccessful presidential can
didates and “populist leaders” from
Brazil, Mexico and Columbia in ac
tivities scheduled for Friday through
Sunday.
Representatives from Bangla
desh, Columbia, Guatemala, Haiti,
Nigeria, the Philippines, Puerto Rico
and Native Americans from the
United States also will attend TOES,
which includes discussions of envi
ronmental concerns and workshops
on economic self-reliance.
Environmental groups plan the
Envirosummit starting Saturday
with guided tours of Houston’s envi
ronmental sites. Clean Water Action,
one of the groups, plans a “Bush’s
Boston Harbor” tour of the Houston
Ship Channel on Sunday, featuring
the environmental hazards posed by
refineries and other industrialists
fronting the channel.
The Human RACE — Racial Ac
ceptance Class Equality — planned
its first annual “Human Summit”
Saturday on the steps of the City
Hall as a counter-demonstration to
the KKK rally and parade.
The KKK plans to organize be
tween 200 and 300 members, the
skinheads and Carry A. Nation. The
group will be bused Saturday from
the suburb of Humble by the city of
Houston for security reasons for the
march and rally that culminates at a
statue of Sam Houston in Hermann
Park.
would have to spend $300-400 mil
lion to readjust existing radar fre
quencies to detect the B-2.
One bomber carries 100 times the
destructive capacity of the bomb
which leveled Hiroshima.
Barton said he voted against B-2
funding last year because he
couldn’t justify spending so much
money for one weapons system.
This year, however, Barton said it
is a different story and economics
are playing a larger role in his deci
sion.
The jobs of 1100 workers in an
LTV Aerospace and Defense plant
in Dallas (also in Barton’s district)
and the resulting economic impact
to the area are at stake.
Committee members expressed
concerns over the bomber’s cost and
necessity in light of a $3 trillion na
tional debt and highly advanced mis
sile systems which, Barton said,
could target and destroy the church
in which they were meeting.
Barton said the B-2 could actually
save money since the long range of
the B-2 could make overseas bases
obsolete at a time when some coun
tries are no longer friendly to the
idea of U.S. installations on their
soil.
Barton said committee members
are chosen based on their positions
in the community.
Exam schedule
The following is, the final exami
nation schedule for Summer I five-
week classes.
Friday:
• 6 to 8 p.m. — Classes meeting 8
to 9:35 a.m.
Saturday:
• 8 to 10 a.m. — Classes meeting
10 to 11:35 a.m.
• 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Classes
meeting noon to 1:35 p.m.
• 2 to 4 p.m. — Classes meeting 2
to 3:35 p.m.
Finals for classes meeting after
these times are up to the instructor’s
discretion.
“One of the largest obstacles they
(students) have to their education
here is financial management,” he
said.
Read said although Points Plus
caters to students, anyone can get a
card. He said 5 to 6 percent of the
company’s cardholders are not stu
dents. t
Points Plus service is free to card
holders. The company, which took
its first cardholders July 2, 1989,
earns money by charging vendors a
3 percent transaction fee and collect
ing interest earned by cardholders’
money.
“We’ve got an integrated system
that is certainly ahead of its time,”
Read said. “It’s an arrangement
where everybody wins.”
Robert Smith did not return
phone calls to The Battalion Thurs
day regarding the matter.
Cause of crash
at Easterwood
still unknown
Plane engine falls
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
No cause has been determined yet
in the crash of a twin-engine Cessna
plane at Easterwood Airport Tues
day night.
Federal Aviation Administration
officials visited the site of the plane
crash Wednesday to investigate why
the right engine on the 1970 Cessna
310 apparently failed as the pilot ap
proached Runway 16 at Easterwood
at approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The pilot, Ronnie Lynn Huddles
ton, 40, from The Woodlands, and
Susan Kern Crouch, 36, from Con
roe, suffered minor injuries in the
crash.
Huddleston and Crouch were
treated and released Tuesday from
Humana Hospital.
Harry Raisor, director of aviation
at Texas A&M, said it could be a
week to a month before the FAA or
the National Safety Transportation
Board releases an official cause of
the accident.
Huddleston attempted to land the
plane with just the left engine, but
crashed almost 1,200 feet north of
the runway, the Department of Pub
lic Safety reported.
The nose landing gear broke off
during the crash, and the plane
came to rest on its nose.
Huddleston and Crouch lease
space at Easterwood and also oper
ate the Aviation Flight Center, a
flight training school.
Raisor said Huddleston’s experi
ence probably saved them from se
rious injuries and kept the plane
from being totaled.
“He did a good job as far as I’m
concerned, not knowing the cause of
the accident,” Raisor said. “He
cleared all the obstacles, probably at
a great risk to themselves.”
It was the first major accident at
Easterwood since a GTE Lear jet
crashed in December 1986, killing
two people.
Rolling along
Photo by Sondra N. Robbins
James Saxon, a graduate student in computer science from Van
Nuys, CA., skates down Bizzell Street early Monday afternoon.
NAB J at A&M publishes
Unity to recognize blacks
By ELIZABETH TISCH
Of The Battalion Staff
Citing the need for a newspaper
in touch with the local African-
American community, the National
Association of Black Journalists at
Texas A&M is publishing Unity.
The newspaper is scheduled for
its first publication today.
Tante Bluiett, A&M senior and
organizer of the newspaper, said
Unity was designed to bring the Af
rican-American community in touch
with itself through positive media
recognition.
“I think the local media does not
cover the black community adequa
tely — period,” Bluiett said.
She said the media frequently cov
ers the African-American commu
nity only when someone has com
mitted a crime.
“It is rare when you see a black
person in the newspapers who has
done something good,” Bluiett said.
“I want to show the black community
as well as the white community that
black people are good,” she said. “
All of us are not stereotypically
thieves or dope dealers.”
The students of NABJ are not try
ing to segregate thmselves from
other races, she said. The association
wants to recognize blacks who have
made great accomplishments not
covered in the local media.
NABJ also wants to entice the
black community to read.
“If blacks start reading more
about themselves, they’re going to
get interested in reading about other
people too,” she said.
Bluiett also said if readers see
other black people making a positive
difference, they might be motivated
to do the same.
The weekly Bryan Press is allow
ing the all-student association to use
its facilities and distribution services
for the first issue of Unity. In the fu
ture, the newspaper will be pub
lished once a semester.
The students are responsible for
the complete production of the non
profit paper. The six-member orga
nization writes, edits and publishes
Unity on their own, Bluiett said.
The first issue will feature a re
port on the local volunteer Adult
Literacy Program and a “drug page”
which recognizes African-American
individuals’ efforts in the fight
against the local drug problem.
Those who are interested in
NABJ and/or Unity can call 823-
2088
Experiment tests turtle theory
Species may depend on sense of smell
Photo by Eric H. Roalson
A Kemp’s Ridley turtle swims in its home in the Biological Sci
ences Building. Researchers study its nesting habits.
By ISSELLE MCALLISTER
Of The Battalion Staff
Texas A&M doctoral candidate
Heather Kalb is working on an
experiment to test the chemical
imprinting hypothesis on the
world’s most endangered sea tur
tle.
The hypothesis asks, “Do
Kemp’s Ridley turtles smell their
way back home?”
The experiment basically seeks
to test if the turtles smell their
way back to the beach where they
were born when they are ready to
lay their eggs, Kalb said.
The only nesting beach for the
Kemp’s Ridley turtles in the en
tire world is Rancho Nuevo in the
Mexican state of Tamaulipas in
the Gulf of Mexico, Kalb said,
and all the females nest at the
same time.
Since all the eggs are in one
place at the same time, a large
portion of the turtle population
can be threatened or destroyed si
multaneously.
For instance, if a hurricane hits
the beach during the nesting sea
son, or there is an oil spill, all the
eggs can be affected.
Also, the turtles nest in Mexico
where they are not well protected
from poachers or fishermen.
For this reason, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and the
Mexican government coordi
nated efforts in 1978 to export
2,000 turtle eggs each year to the
United States, she said.
The eggs immediately are
placed in South Padre Island
sand before they ever touch Ran
cho Nuevo.
She said the hatchlings are
kept for about one year. It is
hoped that upon reaching matu
rity, which takes anywhere from
10 to 30 years, the turtles will find
their way back to South Padre Is
land to lay their eggs.
Kalb is experimenting with 12
Ridleys born in South Padre Is
land around 1982.
Half are from a group kept at
See Turtles/Page 6