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Asbestos compensation
Court order takes step to
resolve the nation’s biggest
liability issue.
See Page 6
Vol. 89 No. 174 USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 18,1990
niversity leases MSC bookstore
to corporation to improve facility
9\*r BySEANFRERKING
“'M The Battalion Staff
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Texas A&M has taken another step toward be
coming one of the best universities in the nation
by leasing the MSC bookstore to a private firm,
an A&M administrator said Tuesday.
To help improve the University, the private
corporation will provide 20 full book schol
arships each year as a part of its contract and the
new bookstore operators also will fund four full
scholarships per year.
Robert Smith, vice president for finance and
^administration, said the University will benefit
■ greatly from the change in the bookstore’s opera-
Ttion.
Smith, who was authorized by the A&M Board
of Regents to conduct the inquiry into the possi
bility of leasing the bookstore, concluded nego
tiations to lease the store Thursday.
He announced Monday his selection of Barnes
& Noble Bookstores, Inc.
He said he chose Barnes & Noble, Inc. because
of its committment to A&M and the company’s
history of success with other collegiate
bookstores.
“We felt Barnes & Noble has an outstanding
committment to make us the best in the nation,”
Smith said. “They (Barnes & Noble) have had
outstanding success with some prestigious
schools.”
Barnes & Noble manages more than 200
bookstores on campuses across the nation includ
ing bookstores at the University of Houston, Ok
lahoma, Michigan, Tulane and Cornell.
Patrick Maloney, Barnes & Noble’s vice presi
dent in charge of Western territory and Texas,
said his company is excited about the opportu
nity to build A&M’s bookstore into Barnes & No
ble’s “crown jewel.”
“One of our top priorities is to make this
bookstore the best in the nation,” Maloney said.
“With Texas A&M, we feel we have a unique
chance to work with the best resources and peo
ple in the nation.”
Under the new agreement, which will last 10
years with an option to renew, Barnes & Noble
will operate the gift store on the first floor of the
MSC, the bookstore in the basment, the Kyle
Field gift shop and various souvenir stands dur
ing football season.
In the contract, which does not include the
computer store in the MSC, all present store em
ployees will keep their jobs and be offered com
petitive wages.
Also stated in the lease agreement, book prices
will be the same or lower than retail prices in
published book lists.
Smith said the policy for selling used books at
25 percent off the new book price will be main
tained.
“It was one of top goals to see that students
and faculty got the best deal possible,” Smith
said.
Barnes & Noble insisted on providing 20 full
book scholarships each year as a part of its con
tract, Smith said. Four full scholarships also will
be funded per year.
Smith said the qualifications for these schol
arships will be determined by A&M President
William Mobley and will be announced at a later
date.
Maloney said Barnes & Noble also has plans
for a major renovation for the bookstore.
“We plan to increase the size of the bookstore
to 27,000 square feet and build a new entrance,”
Maloney said. “We’re excited about the chance to
make this the most fantastic bookstore you’ve
ever seen.”
Barnes & Noble also will create an academic
reference section, Smith said. The academic ref
erence section will provide supplemental texts in
all areas of study and will enhance the status of
the University.
“Right now, we don’t have anything like it,”
Smith said. “With the addition of such a depart
ment, we will not only increase the value of the
See MSC/Page 4
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Electric bills ‘skyrocket’ unusually early
ByJSSELLE MCALLISTER
Of The Battalion Staff
Summer’s sweltering heat has Col
lege Station and Bryan residents
paying a high price to stay cool.
Many B-CS residents had electric
bills due this week and the unusually
high temperatures in May and June
caused utility bills to skyrocket.
This is something that does not
normally happen until July and Au
gust, Cathy Stark, supervisor of Col
lege Station Utilities Customer Serv
ice, said.
July and August are typically the
hottest months and produce the
highest bills, she said, but this sum
mer the real heat came early.
Energy consumption increased
because of the use of air condition
ing, she said, but rates remained the
same.
Vicki Reim, division manager of
Utility Customer Services for the city
of Bryan, explained that air condi
tioning spins the meter quickly and
can double and even triple energy
bills.
Testing meters for accuracy in
both cities costs $25, but Stark said
there is usually nothing wrong with
them.
In fact, she added, if a meter is
not working properly, it will usually
slow down. It is very rare for it to
speed up, she said.
If energy bills are exceptionally
high, Stark suggests reading the me
ter up to twice a day to see when the
most energy is consumed and cut
ting back accordingly.
The energy department offers
free energy audits, she said. An au
ditor will check the home to see
where energy is escaping and offer
suggestions on conservation.
Nurturing nature
Photo by Sondra N. Robbins
Tim Konderla, a senior horticulture major from Bryan, weeds
some hibiscus Monday afternoon inside the Folriculture Green
house. Konderla is a student worker.
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I W. Virginians enact plan
^ for soliciting drug tips
Increase of high scores
inspires new T S A I form
Test changes begin June 1991
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
The Law School Admissions
Council recently announced a re
vised Law School Admissions
Test (LSAT) will be introduced in
June 1991.
The announcement of this
change, which will affect the
more than 100,000 students who
take the test annually, comes on
the heels of a substantial change
in the LSAT implemented one
year ago.
Since that time, the admissions
council has observed there were
four times the number of test tak
ers who received a perfect score
of 48.
Judy Holze, manager of the
Stanley H. Kaplan Educational
Center Office in Waco, said the
number of people scoring higher
than 42 and the number earning
a perfect score has risen.
She said, however, there are
still a significant number of test
scores at the lowest ends of the
scale and fewer people are scor
ing in between.
Stanley Kaplan, chairman and
CEO of the Stanley H. Kaplan
Educational Centers, said in a
prepared statement, “Although
there is no formula to identify
and guarantee which test might
be best for whom, we feel that av
erage or above-average test takers
would be more likely to benefit
from the current version of the
LSAT.
“On the contrary, students who
are not the best test takers, might
benefit from waiting, since those
with below-average skills tend not
to perform as well on the current
version of the test,” Kaplan said.
“However, we are advising all
our students to review these
changes with a pre-law adviser to
assure them the highest level of
preparedness and confidence for
See LSAT/Page 4
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) —
West Virginians can report sus
pected drug dealers by filling out^a
coupon — anonymously, if they pre
fer — and mailing it to state police
under a unique new statewide pro
gram.
Civil libertarians said the program
would create “a paranoid atmo
sphere,” and put West Virginia on
the level of Albania, the hard-line
Communist nation.
The program started on a small
basis in February when the William
son Daily News printed similar cou
pons on its own and invited people
to fill them out and mail them to
state police.
As a result, police in Williamson
and Mingo County have received
nearly 700 coupons listing the
names, addresses or license plate
numbers of suspected drug dealers
or users.
Last month, federal, state and lo
cal authorities arrested 46 people in
Mingo County as a result of the cou
pon tips. Wally Warden, editor of
the Williamson newspaper, said six
people have been convicted in local
courts and plea agreements are be
ing worked out in federal court for
other suspects. No one has been sen
tenced, he said.
State police announced their own,
statewide program Monday.
The coupons will be available at
state police detachments and will be
carried by troopers in their cruisers,
Trooper Ric Robinson said. They’ll
also be passed out at the state fair in
August, he said.
Tipsters, who get no compensa
tion, can fill out the name and ad
dress of drug users, the address of
suspicious activity or the license
plates of cars in the vicinity. The in
formation can be called to a toll-free
phone number, or mailed to state
police headquarters.
“It’s the wrong way to fight the
drug war,” Bob O’Brien, West Vir
ginia delegate to the national board
of the ACLU, said. “It creates a par
anoid atmosphere, just the way it
was in Germany in the ’30s and ’40s
when people were encouraged to
spy on their neighbors.
“It’s the thing going on today in
Romania and Albania,” he said,
“where people complained to their
government about the sense of al
ways being watched. This kind of
program will not make us drug free,
it will just make us unfree.”
Philippine rescue squads lack training
MANILA, Philippines (AP) —
Rescuers worked Tuesday to save
hundreds of people trapped by an
earthquake that left 234 people
dead, but the squads were hampered
by a lack of equipment and the train
ing to cope with the disaster.
The U.S. military joined the
search for survivors. Japan also sent
aid and medical teams.
Filipino reporters who visited
areas of major damage said there
was little sign of a coordinated, com
prehensive government rescue oper
ation.
Most rescuers were private citi
zens organized by local civic groups
and lacked training to deal with the
emergency. Reporters also said res
cuers lacked heavy equipment such
as cranes to lift debris.
The Office of Civil Defense and
the Red Cross reported that 234
people were killed in Monday’s
earthquake, hundreds were injured
and thousands left homeless. The
quake measured 7.7 on the Richter
scale and was centered 60 miles
north of the capital, Manila.
The military said it was unable to
bring cranes, tractors and other
heavy equipment to Baguio because
of landslides triggered by the earth
quake. The landslides also trapped
hundreds of people in passenger
buses, trucks and private cars.
Filipino officials and reporters
who visited the city — one of the
hardest hit by the earthquake — said
hundreds of the city’s 120,000 resi
dents have fled their homes and
pitched tents in the city’s park or are
living in their cars.
Eighty-two people are known to
have been killed in Baguio and hun
dreds are feared missing.
Food and fuel supplies in the city
were reportedly running low. Col.
Bienvenido Liclican, spokesman for
the military rescue team, said the
search for survivors had to be sus
pended at night because there is no
electricity to power searchlights.
He appealed over Manila radio
stations for tools, blood plasma,
medicine and doctors to care for the
injured.
Manila radio and television sta
tions appealed to listeners to contrib
ute to a fund for the victims of the
quake.
“This is developing into a national
tragedy,” a reporter for the ABS-
CBN television network said.
President Corazon Aquino de
clared a state of emergency through
out central Luzon island, which suf
fered the greatest damage during
the earthquake, the strongest temb
lor to strike the Philippines in 14
years.
Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos,
who visited Baguio, 110 miles to the
north of Manila on Tuesday, said 50
people may have been killed in the
Hyatt Terraces Baguio hotel when
the front section of the inner atrium
collapsed.
“I never thought in my entire life
that I could see such destruction,”
Ed Pangilinan, spokesman for the
Defense Department who accompa
nied Ramos to the city, said.
Townspeople lined the streets
begging for food as Ramos’ party
drove past, he said.
A U.S. Air Force engineering
team joined the search for up to
1,000 people believed trapped un
der 27 buildings in Baguio.
The United States dispatched a
Naval engineering team and a field
hospital to Cabanatuan, where at
least 49 people were killed when the
six-story Philippine Christian Col
lege collapsed.
Monday’s quake was the worst to
strike the Philippines since 1976,
when a quake measuring 7.8 on the
Richter scale killed 8,000 people.
Candidate makes stop in Bryan
Richards talks about crime, punishment
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
State Senator Kent Caperton joins Ann Richards in Bryan.
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Democratic gubernatorial candi
date Ann Richards said Tuesday
during a campaign stop in Bryan
that Texas needs a governor “who
will do more than talk about busting
rocks.”
Richards, who was joined by state
Senator Kent Caperton, talked
tough about crime and punishment
to a packed courtroom in the Brazos
County Courthouse.
“We need a governor who will do
more than talk about busting rocks,”
Richards said. “We need a governor
who will bust criminals.”
She was referring to Republican
candidate Clayton Williams’, Class of
’54, proposal to send drug offenders
to a military-style boot camp and
make them bust rocks.
Among Richards topics were her
proposals to stiffen prison sentences
for violent criminals, initiate alcohol
and drug rehabilitation programs
for those in prison and begin more
extensive education for all school
children.
Richards, who has served as state
treasurer for the past four years,
said as a woman, she has a particular
interest in battling crime.
She quoted statistics saying that
three of four women in the United
States will be victims of a violent
crime during their lifetime.
“So I want adequate police protec
tion and I want the tough laws and
penalties, including the death pen
alty, that we have on the books en
forced,” she said.
Richards said that if elected gov
ernor in November she would pro
pose laws to end parole for violent
criminals and find less costly ways to
punish non-violent criminals.
“Right now, we’re letting out the
violent ones to let in the non-violent
ones,” she said.
Publicly owned vacant military
bases, hospitals and schools or boot
camps are less expensive alternatives
for punishing non-violent criminals
than sending them to prisons, she
said.
Richards, however, said if Texas is
going to get tough on criminals,
more prisons must be built. As a cur
rent member of the state Bond Re
view Board, she has helped approve
financing for more than 23,000 ad
ditional prison beds in Texas.
The governor-hopeful also said
she would like literacy programs and
alcohol and drug rehabilitation pro
grams in prisons in order to keep
them from returning to prison.
“We are serving notice here and
now that when Ann Richards is gov
ernor, we’re not letting people out of
prison until we have reduced the
chances they’ll do another crime by
ensuring they can read and have
been treated for addiction,” she said.
Richards said another key to low
ering Texas’ astronomical crime rate
is to educate children about alcohol
and drugs at an earlier age, improve
day care services for single-parent
families, and appropriate more
money for pre-natal care for poor
mothers.
When asked about the amount of
campaign money raised by Richards
in comparison to the amount by Wil
liams, Richards said her campaign
ran behind financially in the Demo
cratic primary and the Democratic
runoff.
Richards again predicted victory
in the final governor’s race.
“We will win because the gover
norship of Texas is not for sale,” she
said.
Williams is leading Richards by a
small margin, according to most of
the latest voter polls.