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Vol. 90 No. 39 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Danza does Dracula
Local dance company
presents Stoker’s tale.
See Page 4
Thursday, October 25,1990
Fisk beating Clevt.
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and slugging per.
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all Coach Dasid
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possession of step
Budget deal near
final agreement
WASHINGTON (AP) — Budget
negotiators all but reached final
agreement Wednesday on a long-
sought plan to slash the federal defi
cit by boosting taxes on the wealthy,
raising levies on gasoline and in
creasing costs for Medicare recipi
ents.
“I think we have the strong basis
for an agreement” that President
Bush and enough House Republi
cans would support, said Speaker
Thomas Foley, D-Wash., after a
closed session of Democratic mem
bers. Senate leaders expected little
trouble in gaining approval in their-
chamber.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said “the most likely
course” was that a pact would be
reached quickly and that Bush would
sign an emergency bill preventing
the government from a partial shut
down after midnight, the fifth bill of
its kind this month.
One administration aide, de
manding anonymity, said that, pen
ding settlement of remaining dis
putes over Medicare and Medicaid,
the president would support the
deal. Republican members of Con
gress went to the White House to
consult administration negotiators
inthe course of the evening.
Foley said the Democratic plan,
on which the administration has had
no public comment, could reach the
chamber’s floor for a vote Thursday.
The Democratic plan would raise
taxes on cigarettes and luxury items
and cut spending for a variety of
federal programs. But the Demo
crats no longer are insisting on im
posing a surtax on the rich. Rather,
Foley said, the new Democratic plan
“fully supplants the impact of the
surtax.”
Despite the White House silence,
Democratic negotiators expressed
confidence they had found a for
mula that could clear both houses
and pass muster with the president.
That search has taken months of ne
gotiations and alternated between
bipartisanship and election-year pol
itics.
If so, it would pave the way for
savings estimated at $500 billion
over five years, avert the threat of a
partial shutdown of government
services at midnight and signal the
final days of the 101st Congress.
And not a moment too soon.
Congressional officials said this
year’s session had run on longer
than in any other election year.
Budget issues aside, there was the
usual crush of session-ending devel
opments:
—The Senate failed by a single
vote to override President Bush’s
veto of civil rights legislation the ad
ministration claimed would restore
quota systems in private business.
—Both houses were expected to
vote Thursday or Friday on an over
haul of the nation’s clean air laws
that would force reductions in acid
rain and automobile pollution.
—The House and Senate were ex
pected to pass legislation extending
the government’s spending author
ity until the end of the week — the
fifth short-term bill since the fiscal
year began Oct. 1.
Someone to watch over me
FREDRICK D. JOE/The Battalion
Sophomore Melinda Astran, a biomedical science major from Building two or three times a week. “I can actually get some
Seguin, reads at the main flag pole base in front of the System studying done when I’m here,” she said.
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Toughest job you ’ll ever love ’
Peace Corps recruits on campus
By KEVIN M. HAMM
Of The Battalion Staff
For students reluctant to enter the
rat race after graduation, there’s an
alternative: the Peace Corps, which
could be “The toughest job you’ll
ever love.”
Peace Corps recruiters have a ta
ble in the MSC until 4 p.m. today.
Since the Peace Corps’ inception
in 1961 by President John F. Kenne
dy’s executive order, more than
122,000 volunteers have served in
99 countries. According to a Peace
Corps brochure, the volunteers’ mis
sion is threefold:
• Help people of interested coun
tries become trained in various skills
• Help people of other countries
obtain a better understanding of
Americans
• Help Americans better under
stand people of foreign countries
Peace Corps representative Rob
ert Davis says goals haven’t changed
since the beginning, but volunteers
have.
He says the majority of volunteers
used to be “generalists,” but volun
teers have become more specialized
as the Peace Corps evolved. Those
now in greatest demand are agricul
turists and natural resources man
agers.
Davis served in the Dominican Re
public from 1986 to 1989.
“I went because I wanted to help
others,” Davis, 28, said. “I wanted to
live in another culture and experi
ence it. I wasn’t ready for a nine-to-
five job.
“Everyone has their own reasons
for wanting to go,” he says.
Volunteers “come from all walks
of life,” he says, including lawyers,
doctors and IRS auditors. Former
volunteers include Connecticut Sen.
Christopher J. Dodd and writer Paul
Theroux.
The median age has risen to 30.5,
and 10 percent of volunteers are
older than 50.
In a 1960 campaign speech in San
Francisco, presidential candidate
Kennedy said “the hard, tough work
of laying groundwork for peace
must be done by thousands of
hands.
“There is not enough money in all
America to relive the misery of the
underdeveloped world in a giant
and endless soup kitchen,” Kennedy
said. “But there is enough know-how
and enough knowledgeable people
to help them help themselves.”
Thirty years later, the “misery” re
mains. Peace Corps Director Paul D.
Coverdell said during a speech at
Texas A&M in February:
“Here (in the Third World) we
still find disease, conflict, oppression
and ecological devastation. The de
veloping world is moving steadily to
ward a dank, dreary, dark age.”
To combat some of these prob
lems, Davis says the Peace Corps has
initiated an environmental educa
tion program within the last few
years to raise people’s awareness in
underdeveloped nations.
He says these programs’ goals in
clude educating people about the
dangers of widespread rainforest
destruction and desertification in
sub-Sahara Africa.
Recent political changes in East
ern Europe also have affected the
Peace Corps, Davis says.
Volunteers already are in Poland
teaching English and helping with
urban and business planning. En
glish teachers are in Hungary and
soon will be in Czechoslovakia, possi
bly by the end of the year he says.
An agreement with Bulgaria was
signed within the last few weeks, he
says, and volunteers should be there
by early next year.
More than 6,000 volunteers are
working today in 66 countries world
wide. Peace Corps officials hope to
have 10,000 volunteers by 1992.
Kennedy told a group of Univer
sity of Michigan students about an
idea at 2 a.m. Oct. 14, 1960.
“How many of you who are going
to be doctors are willing to spend
your days in Ghana,” he asked.
“Technicians or engineers, how
many of you are willing to work in
the Foreign Service and spend your
lives traveling around the world?
“On your willingness to do that ...
your willingness to contribute your
life to this country I think will de
pend the answer (to) whether a free
society can compete.”
Computer graphics aid visualization
By LIBBY KURTZ
Of The Battalion Staff
When Texas A&M President William Mobley wanted
to find the best location on west campus for a proposed
stone sculpture, he asked the visualization laboratory
for help.
The $4.5 million lab, in the College of Architecture,
is a forerunner in computer graphics visualization.
“Visualization is a strange term and it’s a bit hard to
define,” says Dr. Tom Linehan, director of the year-old
lab.
By merging data such as videotape and photographs
with computer technology, 3-D images are produced
which allow researchers and designers to visualize their
work.
These images then can be modified for experimenta
tion, and designers are able to view the overall picture
through visualization. Some researchers have described
visualization as seeing the unseen.
“Visualization prevents costly mistakes because de
signers are able to actually see what projections will look
like before they’re built,” Linehan says.
Because of visualization, Mobley and a fine arts com
mittee were able to decide the best site for a stone sculp
ture before it was built and avoided risk of building the
sculpture in an inappropriate area.
“Visualization presents data visually,” says Linehan.
"Humans can absorb much more information if it’s pre
sented visually.”
Linehan, former director of Ohio State University’s
computer-assisted design program, says decision-mak
ers usually don’t have enough information to make im
portant choices.
“One of the purposes of visualization is to try to com-
“Visualization prevents costly
mistakes because designers are
able to actually see what
projections will look like before
they 9 re built.”
— Tom Linehan,
visualization laboratory director
bine that stream of information on a more constant ba
sis to the decision-makers,” he says.
With the aid of visualization, A&M’s Center of Urban
Affairs produced a videotape last year for San Antonio
and the Texas State Department of Highways.
The tape simulated a proposed highway system and
showed what the highway would look like in various city
locations.
“Problems such as the placement of highways have a
tremendous impact on the public,” Linehan says. “City
Council, the decision-makers of a community, must
make decisions that require advanced technical infor
mation.
“Unfortunately, they don’t have access to it or it’s
presented in very technical terms,” he continues. “Vi
sualization can help them make those decisions and
spot potential problems before they happen.”
Besides helping researchers deal with technical prob
lems, visualization also can he used to create character
animation.
Many of Linehan’s students have obtained jobs with
leading production houses, such as Disney and Lucas-
films.
Senate fails
to override
Bush’s veto
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate failed Wednesday to over
ride President Bush’s veto of a
major civil rights bill, sustaining
his objection that the measure
would lead to hiring quotas.
The 66-34 vote was one shy of
the two-thirds majority needed to
enact the bill, and marked the
16th time Bush has made a veto
stick without a single reversal.
Civil rights supporters, re
buffed in enacting their top legis
lative priority, vowed to turn the
issue into an election-year cause
in the final weeks of a midterm
political campaign.
The bill would have over
turned six job discrimination de
cisions that caused a furor when
the Supreme Court handed them
down in 1989. It would have
banned racial discrimination in
the workplace and defined puni
tive damages in extreme discrimi
nation cases.
But GOP Leader Bob Dole, R-
Kan., said the bill would enable
“lawyers to reap huge profits in
the name of racial justice” and re
sult in “quotas, quotas, quotas and
more employment quotas.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
said, “Pure and simple, take it
from me, it’s still a quota bill and a
litigation bonanza for lawyers.”
In vetoing the bill Monday,
Bush submitted a compromise
measure to Congress, But civil
rights groups and their backers
spurned it, and vowed to fight
again next year.
“Like Mac Arthur, ... we shall
return ... and we expect to win,”
Benjamin Hooks, president of
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,
told reporters.
Supporters said the bill would
be introduced in identical or simi
lar form when the new Congress
convenes in January.
“The president has taken the
low road on civil rights, but that is
no reason for the Senate to take
it, too,” Sen. Edward M. Ken
nedy, D-Mass., said in a last-ditch
appeal for support.
But the vote on the politically
charged issue fell one short of the
two-thirds needed to pass the bill
over presidential objections.
Eleven Republicans joined 55
Democrats in opposing Bush.
Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn.,
who originally opposed the bill,
supported the override.
The sharpest clashes came over
intricate provisions that would
have made it easier to win dis
crimination cases against employ
ers. Bush contended that those
terms were so harsh that employ
ers would adopt hiring quotas to
provide themselves with a ready
made defense if they were taken
to court.
Bush explores options
in Middle East standoff
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Bush faces key decisions in the
coming weeks that could signal
whether he anticipates a lengthy
standoff with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein
or wants American forces prepared
to attack.
Among the questions facing Bush:
— Whether to add more troops
and firepower to the U.S. deploy
ment in the Mideast, now at 220,000
and scheduled to peak at 240,000 in
three weeks.
— Whether to withdraw some
units not essential to defending
Saudi Arabia, a decision which could
allay growing public concern about
the prospects of war without dimin
ishing the force’s defensive capabili
ties.
— Approving a Pentagon troop
rotation plan, now in the draft
stages, that sources said should be
ready for White House review in a
week or so.
— Whether to use his authority to
extend 90-day Reserve call-ups for
another 90 days.
The U.S. deployment reached a
symbolic juncture Wednesday with
the arrival in Saudi Arabia of the fi
nal elements of the 11th Air Defense
Brigade from Fort Bliss in Texas. It
was the last combat unit scheduled
for deployment in the region, Penta
gon sources said.
The only remaining troops sched
uled to be sent to the area are in sup
port units. They should all arrive in
the next three weeks, bringing the
total deployment to 240,000, said
the sources, speaking on the condi
tion of anonymity.
“As of now we’re not planning for
any additional buildup. We’re plan
ning to sustain the force that is pre
sent,” one of the Pentagon sources
said.
But Gen. Colin Powell, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has dis
cussed with ground commanders the
possibility of changing the force size.
He is due back from Saudi Arabia
late Thursday.
If Powell recommended, and
Bush approved, adding to the force.
Pentagon sources said the likely ad
ditions would be heavy armor units
from the United States, Europe or
both. Such orders also would neces
sitate sending several additional sup
port units into the region as well, the
sources said.
Bird sanctuary founder
ponders parrots’ plight
By LIBBY KURTZ
Of The Battalion Staff
While some people probably
would not enjoy sharing their homes
and backyards with 60 parrots, the
founder of the Windsor Sanctuary
says it’s part of his life.
Patrick Childers is dedicated to
the plight of birds, especially the
threatened Jamaican Amazon Par
rots.
As part of International Rainfo
rest Week, Childers spoke Wednes
day afternoon to Texas A&M stu
dents.
Childers, a Bryan firefighter, says
the Windsor Sancturary has been his
primary concern for the last 10
years.
His involvement with parrots be
gan 12 years ago when he bred them
for profit.
“As I became aware of the of
fenses committed by the commercial
wildlife trade, I chose to correct my
association as best I could,” he says.
“I decided to maintain my obligation
to birds already in my care.
“Combining this with a commit
ment to help protect Jamaica’s par
rots seems to be the most responsible
alternative.”
Childers says Jamaica’s rainforests
are being destroyed slowly by envi
ronmental crises, and parrots have
been forced to relocate to two re
mote areas on the island.
While the areas do provide some
security, Childers says the parrots
need to be protected from further
human development.
“The parrots aren’t endangered
yet,” he says. “But they are threate
ned.”
Childers and his wife have 15 Ja
maican Amazon Parrots. He says
they have bred the parrots success
fully and sell offspring only to se
lected individuals.
Childers says the Windsor Sanct
uary presently is comprised of three
pieces of property, a small collection
of different parrots and a family
sized membership.
“We have grand intentions,
though,” he says. “TEAC has pro
vided us with a lot of support. We’d
love for Aggies to volunteer their
time and effort to our cause.
“We need assistance in environ
mental design and help in establish
ing an on-going population survey
in Jamaica.”
He says the sanctuary always is
looking for financial resources.
“I have shallow pockets right
now,” Childers says. “My work with
the fire department does allow me to
remain dedicated to the parrots. I
can’t walk away from them.”
The A&M chapter of the Texas
Environmental Action Coalition is
sponsoring Rainforest Week events.
Those interested can contact the
Windsor Sanctuary at 846-1891.