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Vol. 90 No. 2 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, September 4,1990
Bush issues global call for donations to aid military
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Bush is dispatching two high-
evel missions this week on a gloljal
earch for billions of dollars to sup-
aort the economic and military cam
paign against Saddam Hussein — a
trategy some say is unbecoming of a
uperpower.
One delegation, led by Treasury
secretary Nicholas Brady, leaves
fuesday for stops in Paris, London,
ieoul, South Korea and Tokyo,
sassing the plate in search of as
nuch as $25 billion to help defray
he expense of the American troop
leployment and to aid nations suf-
ering hardships from the economic
mbargo against Iraq.
Secretary of State James A. Baker
II leaves later in the week on a simi-
ar whirlwind trip looking for assis-
ance in the capitals of oil-rich Per-
ian Gulf countries.
Bush announced the burden shar-
ng effort just last Thursday and on
donday officials were still scram-
>ling to put together itineraries for
he hastily scheduled trips.
The fact that Bush was sending
wo of his closest Cabinet advisers
erved to emphasize the importance
the president was attaching to the
task of getting other countries to
share the burden. However, admin
istration officials conceded that the
sales job was not going to be easy.
Bush’s effort has also raised ques
tions about the propriety of issuing a
global call for donations to support
“This is not a rent
military. It's not a
mercenary force.”
— Patrick Leahy,
Senator, D-Vt.
the U.S. military. Critics charged
that it left the appearance that
America’s soldiers are up for hire as
mercenaries.
“I don’t want to leave any impres
sion in the world that we pay for our
soldiers and our sailors if we send
them into another part of the world
only through another country’s
money,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
said. “This is not a rent military. It’s
not a mercenary force.”
Leahy said a better approach to
take would be to boost taxes if nec
essary to pay for the Persian Gulf
buildup.
Bush has vigorously rejected sug
gestions that putting pressure on the
allies for money to support the U.S.
military was improper, and he has
received support for this position
from other members of Congress.
“The Japanese have a hell of a
stake in this, and they ought to pay a
hell of a share,” Sen. Frank Lauten-
berg, D-N.J., said.
Many congressmen noted that Ja
pan and many countries in Europe
are more dependent than the
United States is on the flow of oil
from the Persian Gulf.
Still, many private analysts saw the
pledge-seeking missions as stark ex
amples of where America’s global
fortunes now stand.
As the world’s largest debtor na
tion, burdened by huge trade and
budget deficits, the United States no
longer has the economic muscle to
go it alone.
ecrea-
new it
ire not
[eared
Is will
erson
f>12.00
ation,
A KBTX cameraman zooms in on MDA Tele
thon hostess Laura Willson and 6-year-old
Caffrey Lane as Lane dumps out the $35 she
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
collected from her neighborhood into the
“Fish Bowl” during one of the many live
broadcasts of the 22-hour-long telethon.
res. Mobley rejects proposal
for complex grading system
3y CHRIS VAUGHN
Df The Battalion Staff
3ottos
J
A Texas A&M Faculty Senate pro
posal to drop the 4.0 grading system
in favor of a more complex, 13-level
grading system failed to pass A&M
President William Mobley’s final
'exam.
Mobley rejected the Faculty Sen
te resolution at the end of August
after it received opposition from the
Academic Operations Committee,
Academic Program Council, Student
fSenate and Graduate Student Sen
ate.
The Faculty Senate narrowly
aassed the resolution, 36-34, during
May’s meeting.
The resolution requested the Uni-
rersity drop the five-level, 4.0 grad-
ng system presently used and re-
alaceitwith a 13-level system adding
aluses and minuses to the grading
scale.
Under the proposed system, an
A+ w'ould have been equal to 4.33
rade points; an A, 4.0 points; an A-,
.67 points; a B + , 3.33 points and
so on down the scale.
Faculty Senate Speaker Dr. Bill
Stout said May’s Senate meeting was
busier than most and the vote proba
bly was taken without enough time
for debate.
“Once this vote came out, it
doesn’t surprise me the administra
tion wasn’t inclined to do anything
about it,” Stout said. “But they did
give it a fair hearing.”
A&M Student Body President Ty
Clevenger, who was Student Senate
speaker when it overwhelmingly
voted against the proposal, said most
students will be pleased with Mob
ley’s decision.
“The new scale would have hurt a
lot of people,” Clevenger said. “It
would have made grading even
more arbitrary than it already is,
even though the opposite was inten
ded.”
The Academic Operations Com
mittee (AOC), which unanimously
recommended the system not be im
plemented, stated that the proposed
system would hurt students with
lower grades since students with a C-
Oil companies’ facilities in Houston
may become targets for terrorist attack
HOUST ON (AP) — Several major oil companies
are bolstering security at their facilities because they
fear the Middle East crisis may spark terrorist attacks
on Texas soil, analysts say.
Mike Guidry, a crisis analyst to five major oil
firms, said Houston is a prime target of Middle East
terrorists because many U.S. petroleum giants have
offices and refineries here.
“Our intelligence sources tell us we would have a
very good chance of seeing terrorism here if we do
S > to war with Iraq,” said Guidry, president of
uidry and Associates CRG, an international consul
ting service with offices in Houston and Washington.
“But whether terrorists actually bomb a facility or
just threaten to, they could shut the plant down and
stop production,” he said.
Pary Perry, a security consultant for Trinity Secu
rity Corp. in Houston, is advising his five oil com
pany clients to take extra precautions now. He said
he’s already seen a marked increase in the number
of requests for uniformed guards,
“Based on the information I’ve gotten from ex
perts on terrorism, I think it (terrorism in the United
States) is overdue,” Perry said.
Bob Campbell, president of Advanced Informa
tion Management Inc., an international security firm
based in Virginia, agrees, saying that a terrorist at
tack in the U.S. “is just a matter of time.”
“It’s definitely not business as usual,” he said. “Oil
companies are very high on the hit list. We’re telling
our clients they need to be on alert to cover their fa
cilities and resources.”
Some major oil firms with offices or headquarters
in Houston have declined to discuss any facet of
their security plans.
“The saying around here is, if you talk about your
security, then you don’t have it,” Les Rogers, a
spokesman here for New York-based Exxon Corp.
said.
Nations shed traditional reluctance
Persian Gulf states
approve U.S. bases
Thirty die
this holiday
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several
smaller Persian Gulf states are allow
ing the United States to base combat
aircraft on their soil, shedding a tra
ditional reluctance for close military
ties with America, Pentagon sources
said Monday.
“It’s very important to the United
States that our aircraft be able to op
erate out of these nations in the Per
sian Gulf,” one source said.
This source said Defense Secre
tary Dick Cheney was able to nego
tiate “a variety of agreements” with
the nations bn the Arabian Penin
sula during his trip there last month.
Because of the threat posed by
Iraqi forces because of Saddam Hus
sein’s invasion of Kuwait a month
ago, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and Qatar have allowed
U.S. warplanes to operate on their
soil.
Cheney was able to extend those
relationships to include other Per
sian Gulf states, such as Bahrain and
Oman, as well, said the sources, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The sources did not have specifics
on their aircraft deployment.
Some nations have allowed for re
fueling rights, others have allowed
for the stationing of aircraft and oth
ers have allowed cargo operations to
be maintained at their bases.
Bahrain has agreed to accept Ma
rine FA-18 attack planes, A-6 attack
aircraft, AV-8 Harrier jets and EA-6
electronic jamming planes, The New
York Times reported in its Tuesday
editions.
In addition, the United States de
ployed a “sizeable number” of F-16
fighters in the United Arab Emi
rates, the newspaper reported.
Also, the United States has F-15E
ground attack planes based in
Oman, the Times reported.
The United States already has ac
knowledged stationing a squadron of
F-16C fighter planes in Qatar.
Prayers sent to military
CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) —More
than 100 people took time out from
Labor Day parades, picnics and par
ties to pay homage to servicemen
and women hard at work in the Per
sian Gulf.
Henry A. Liguori, a Roman Cath
olic Navy chaplain, urged the crowd
at a bayside park to “remember our
military men and women in Saudi
Arabia, the Persian Gulf, the Red
Sea and Indian Ocean.”
During the 45-minute evening
prayer service for military personnel
and hostages, Ligouri expressed
gratitude “to our fellow countrymen
for the sacrifice ... and tenacity.”
Naval Air Station Chaplain Max
Dunks prayed that “the specter of
war which has cast its shadow over
us, now be turned away.”
Irene Cipriano, of the Ladies
League of United Latin American
Citizens, which organized the prayer
vigil, asked that “something can be
resolved quickly and we can have our
loved ones back.”
A wreath of yellow flowers was set
afloat in Corpus Christi Bay.
A color guard bore United States,
Texas, Army, Navy , Air Force and
Marine Corps flags to the accompa
niment of the Corpus Christi Veter
ans Band.
Annual MDA telethon raises
$104,679 in Brazos Valley
average would have less than a 2.0
GPR.
Clevenger said excellent students
might have been hurt more than av
erage students under the scale since
students with an A- would be unable
to achieve a 4.0 anymore.
AOC also said honors students
might request bonus points for hon
ors courses, which would further
complicate the scale.
The SIMS Advisory Committee
did not support the resolution ei
ther, primarily because the conver
sion of the SIMS software to a 13-
level scale would cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
The Faculty Senate Academic Af
fairs Committee first proposed the
new grading scale, which Rice Uni
versity and Cornell University use,
in order to provide more flexibility
in distinguishing student perfor
mance.
“Truly exceptional (A +) work is
not recognized currently in final
grade submissions to distinguish it
from the more common (though ad
mirable) performances of A- work,”
the resolution read.
By JULIE HEDDERMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
Citizens of Brazos Valley opened
their hearts and their pocketbooks
this weekend for the annual Labor
Day Muscular Dystrophy Associa
tion Telethon.
By 6 p.m. Monday, the official
closing time, $104,679 was raised in
the Brazos Valley, according to
KBTX-TV. However, as long as the
phones kept ringing, they kept tak
ing donations.
Lois Simpson, a registration offi-
cal, said that last year they raised
$106,000, and that they wanted to
beat that this year.
Simpson said that a lot of Aggies
turned out to help, including mem
bers of the Corps of Cadets and
members of the Kappa Alpha, Al
pha Phi Omega and Phi Beta
Lambda fraternities.
Even Reveille showed up. John
Draeger, Reveille’s handler, said
they were all there to give support.
Between midnight and 5 a.m., all
those answering phones were Ag
gies, Simpson said.
Man dies despite A&M
student’s CPR efforts
The Bryan resident a Texas A&M
student pulled from the Bryan Utili
ties Lake this weekend died Monday
morning due to complications from
the incident, a spokesperson from
the Memorial Funeral Home in
Bryan said.
Zeferion Medellin Rojas, 24, died
around 8:15 a.m. Monday in St. Jo
seph Hospital.
Rojas had been listed in critical
condition and remained in a coma
after he was transported to the hos
pital.
A&M student Robert Green, a
sophomore civil engineering major
from Austin, retrieved Rojas from
the lake Sunday evening and admin
istered CPR to him until medical
professionals arrived.
Green said he found Rojas about
30 feet from shore in five feet of wa
ter. He administered one-man CPR
while his friends called for help.
The A&M student estimated he
performed CPR on Rojas for more
than 20 minutes.
A Bryan Police Department offi
cial said Rojas would have died at the
scene if Green had not known CPR.
By JULIE HEDDERMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas Department of Public
Safety reported that by 5 p.m. Mon
day, 30 people, including two from
the Brazos Valley, died on Texas
highways this Labor Day weekend.
The holiday counting period be
gan at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, and
ended at midnight Monday, Sept. 3.
The DPS estimated that at least 40
persons could be killed in traffic ac
cidents during the weekend.
DPS Director Col. Joe E. Milner
said in a press release that this num
ber is lower than last year’s final
count of 52 deaths.
Silver Taps
ceremony
to honor 9
The solemn sound of buglers
playing “Taps” and the sharp ring of
gunfire will be heard on campus to
night as nine Texas A&M students
who died between May and August
are honored in a Silver Taps
ceremony at
10:30 in front
of the Academic
Building.
The deceased stu
dents being honored are:
• Scott A. Nall, 19, a
freshman business adminis
tration major from San An
tonio, who died May 2.
• Christina Ann Meti-
vier, 22,a senior industrial
engineering major from
Denton,
who died May 5.
• Asfia Agha, 25, a graduate stu
dent in electrical engineering from
Karachi, Pakistan, who died May 16.
• Keenan Marsh Mayfield, 23, a
junior agricultural engineering ma
jor from Houston, who died June
10.
• Raj Kishore Saxena, 27, a giad-
uate student in finance, who died
June 13.
• Justin Donald Spencer, 20, a
sophomore business administration
major from San Antonio, who died
July IT
• John Paul Rector, 23, a senior
civil engineering major from New
Braunfels, who died July 27.
• Jessica Ann Schroeder, 21, a ju
nior civil engineering major from
Austin, who died Aug. 9.
• Robert Charles Phillips, 22, a
senior marketing major from Du
mas, who died Aug. 22.
Dating back almost a century, the
stately tradition of Silver Taps is
practiced on the first Tuesday of
each month from September
through April, when necessary. The
names of the deceased students are
posted at the base of the flag pole in
front of the Academic Building, and
the flag is flown at half-mast the day
of the ceremony.
Lights will be extinguished and
the campus hushed as Aggies pay fi
nal tribute to fellow Aggies.
The Ross Volunteer Firing Squad
begins the ceremony, marching in
slow cadence toward the statue of
Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Shortly af
ter, three volleys are fired in a 21-
gun salute and six buglers play a spe
cial arrangement of “Taps” three
times — to the north, south and
west.