The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 44 USPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas
Inside today..*
Bolshoi Ballet ticket sale — Page 3
Browsing for hippie fashion — Page 4
MSC OPAS presents “LBJ" — Page 6
Thursday, November 1 , 1990
Ten for 10’ offers
staff health program
By BRIDGET HARROW
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M Health Promo
tion Program implemented a service
to send a health team to make
“house calls” to staff and faculty of
fices on campus.
The “Ten for 10” program offers
10 preventive health assessments for
$10, and all test results are given on
the spot, says Bonnie Sorenson, pro
gram coordinator.
The program, formed in Septem
ber, is offered so standard health as
sessments will be more accessible to
A&M employees, Sorenson says.
“Ten for 10” is designed to make
A&M employees more health con
scious in areas where lifestyle
changes might occur, Sorenson says.
Assessments offered include
blood pressure, strength, total cho
lesterol level, body composition,
blood sugar, job satisfaction, cardio
vascular fitness, health lifestyle ap
praisal, flexibility and health locus of
control.
Nutritional analyses and exercise
prescriptions also are offered for an
additional cost.
Participants also can compare re
sults to national age and norms, says
program director Paul Kingery.
Kingery, assistant professor of
health and physical education, says
the purpose of the Health Promo
tion Program is to suggest dietary
and exercise regiments for A&M
employees.
The Health Promotion Program,
part of the Human Resources De
partment, also provides health and
well-being education programs in
cluding brown bag seminars every
Tuesday on health issues, video pre
sentations and training programs.
Those interested in “Ten for 10”
or other programs can call the
Health Promotion Program, 845-
4141.
Nineteen killed in dispute
Government minister protests blocking of temple’s construction
AYODHYA, India (AP) — Thousands of
Hindu fundamentalists failed in a new at
tempt Wednesday to storm an ancient shrine
claimed by Moslems, and at least 19 more peo
ple died in violence sparked by the dispute.
A government minister resigned to protest
Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s attempts to block
construction of a Hindu temple on the dis
puted site, deepening the crisis in his belea
guered coalition.
Armed paramilitary troops blocked about
5,000 Hindus from attempting to re-enter the
mosque in Ayodhya, which has been the cen
ter of a decades-old dispute between India’s
Hindu majority and Moslem minority.
Hindu fundamentalists broke through po
lice cordons on Tuesday and chipped away
bricks and bits of plaster from the one-story
mosque, which they want to replace with a
temple.
At least five Hindus were killed and 20 in
jured when police opened fire to throw back
the rioters. One of the injured died of his
“Armed paramilitary troops
blocked about 5,000 Hindus
from attempting to re-enter
the mosque in Ayodhya.”
wounds on Wednesday, doctors said.
Press Trust of India said at least 18 other
people were killed in street battles between
Hindus and Moslems in four widely separated
cities.
The dispute has killed at least 170 people in
the past eight days and pushed Singh’s 11-
month-old government to the verge of col
lapse. The Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya
Janata Party withdrew support from the gov
erning coalition last month to protest govern
ment policy on the temple project.
The desertion left Singh without a majority
in Parliament, but he has said he will win a
vote of confidence scheduled for Nov. 7.
Singh’s attempts to ride the religious and
political crisis received another setback
Wednesday, when the deputy minister for
sports, Bhakta Charan Das, resigned to pro
test the police action at Ayodhya.
Das, a Hindu, accused Singh in his resigna
tion letter of “lack of foresightedness” in tack
ling the crisis.
The dispute also triggered violence in
neighboring Bangladesh, an Islamic nation,
where Moslem mobs attacked temples and
Hindu shops and homes after hearing of the
situation in Ayodhya. Authorities clamped
curfews in the capital Dhaka and the port city
of Chittagong to curb rioting.
In Ayodhya, volunteers of the fundamen
talist World Hindu Council said they would
make another attempt to storm the mosque on
Thursday. Officials said they had information
that hundreds of Hindus would try to enter
the town at night.
KEVIN IVY/The Battalion
Freshmen Marci Allen and Dennis Trammell laugh at Keisha structor, Scott Dittloff, allowed his students to wear costumes for
Jones’ Halloween costume in their political science class. The in- extra-credit points.
Expert forecasts
rise in oil prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
rice of oil could easily “explode” to
100 per barrel if war broke out in
the Persian Gulf, a panel of experts
told a Senate committee Wednesday.
“There’s no limit,” said John
Lichtblau of the Petroleum Industry
Research Foundation. “It depends
on how much panic there is.”
With the Bush administration rat
tling sabres in Iraq’s direction, Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., presid
ing over a hearing of the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee,
echoed growing concern in Con
gress about what will happen at the
pump if war breaks out.
“The day the war starts prices will
explode,” said Lichtblau, one of sev
eral experts on the oil industry to ap
pear before the panel.
Oil prices hovering in the $33 per
barrel range could easily triple, said
Professor Fariborz Ghadar of
George Washington University’s
business school. “I would not be sur-
E rised if oil prices reached $100 per
arrel,” Ghadar said.
Translating a crude oil price in
crease into a higher price at the
pump is an inexact science. But
some industry experts use a ratio of
12 cents more per gallon for every
$5 increase in the price of a barrel of
crude.
At $100 per barrel, under that
formula, gasoline could rise to
nearly $3 per gallon.
The witnesses told Lieberman
that with oil production already at or
near capacity, oil consuming states
could do little beyond releasing oil
reserves onto the market.
Tapping oil reserves would have
to go beyond the use of the U.S. gov
ernment’s Strategic Petroleum Re
serve, said Professor M.A. Adelman
of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. It would have to occur
globally.
In addition to the strategic re
serves there are the oil reserves held
by private companies and substantial
reserves held by Japan and western
European nations, witnesses said.
The reasons for the sharp price
rise, the experts said, would be fear
that war would disrupt supply lines
combined with the likelihood that a
Gulf war would curtail Saudi Ara
bia’s oil-producing capabilities.
Bush fed up with poor treatment of hostages
President Bush said Wednesday he was fed
up with Saddam Hussein’s harsh treatment of
1 U.S. hostages. Iraq later said it would allow
American families to visit the captives for the
I' holidays.
! Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a
British commander warned the likelihood of
war in the region was increasing.
; But Iraq’s ambassador to the United States,
Mohamed al-Mashat, said he sought to avoid
bloodshed and reiterated Iraq’s offer to nego-
I date.
Mubarak said the Persian Gulf crisis has
become so dangerous it “could explode at any
j time.” And he urged “our brothers in Iraq” to
I realize the danger their Aug. 2 invasion of oil-
f rich Kuwait has caused.
The commander of British forces in the
gulf warned that an attack against Iraq is in
creasingly likely. Air Chief Marshal Sir Paddy
Hine said a joint team culled from the Royal
Air Force, Royal Navy and Army is devel
oping plans for military strikes.
“Saddam Hussein seems reluctant at the
moment to accept the judgment of world
opinion,” he said. “It is looking increasingly
unlikely that Saddam Hussein will withdraw
unconditionally from Kuwait.”
“The embassy is being starved,” Bush said
of the besieged U.S. mission in occupied Ku
wait. “The people out there are not being re
supplied.
“Do you think I’m concerned about it?
You’re darn right I am. And what I’m going
to do about it? — let’s just wait and see, be
cause I have had it with that kind of treat
ment of Americans,” Bush said.
Later Wednesday, an Information Ministry
spokesman in Baghdad said the Iraqi govern
ment is prepared to allow families of Ameri
cans in Iraq to visit during the Christmas and
New Year’s holidays. No other details were
immediately available.
A few diplomats have held out at the U.S.
Embassy in Kuwait, defying an Iraqi order to
close missions in the annexed nation. Iraq has
cut utilities and surrounded the compound
with troops. The British Embassy also re
mains open.
Bush said, however, the recent comments
from his administration about the possible
use of American military might against Iraq
should not be interpreted as an indication
that war was imminent or unavoidable.
“You don’t use pretext when you have
force deployed,” he said. “You just do what’s
right.”
In Baghdad, Information Minister Latif
Jassim said the United States was spreading
“false reports” on the conditions of “foreign
guests” to seek an excuse to attack Iraq.
Baghdad calls the hundreds of Westerners
held in Iraq and Kuwait to deter attack by the
multinational force deployed in Saudi Arabia
“guests.” Many have been sent to strategic
sites as human shields.
“I want to tell you that our guests live in
good conditions at some places better than
many Iraqi families, but Bush perhaps wants
an excuse,” Jassim said.
The United States has more than 210,000
troops in the gulf region and Washington
plans to send 100,000 more. About 100,000
soldiers have been deployed by other nations.
The 13-nation force faces about 460,000
Iraqi troops stationed in southern Iraq and
Kuwait.
Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, has led
Arab opposition to Saddam. Speaking to re-
orters in Cairo Wednesday, Mubarak said
e hoped “our brothers in Iraq will under
stand well that the situation is very dangerous
and could explode at any time.”
Centerpole
to be raised
this afternoon
Bonfire’s centerpole will be
raised at 4 p.m. today at Duncan
Field.
A yell practice will be held af
terward at Duncan.
See The Battalion’s special sec
tion on bonfire in today’s issue
for information on the event’s
history and tradition, efforts tb
reduce bonfire’s volume, pros
and cons about cutting and burn
ing trees and anything else you’ve
ever wanted to know about the
spirit symbol.
Telephone registration begins today
Touch-tone telephone regis-
| tradon by classification begins to
day and will continue through
Nov. 27.
I The registration system is open
! from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Twenty minutes are allowed to
f register once the system has been
I accessed. The system automat-
| ically disconnects after 20 min-
I utes, but students can redial and
I continue until they complete reg-
I istradon.,
Open registration, and drop
[ and add by phone is Nov. 28
through Dec. 14 and Jan. 2 to 17.
[ The system will be available from
j 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., excluding week
ends.
For more information regard
ing registration, consult the
Spring 1991 class schedule book.
Graduate students worried
about fall semester classes can Q-
drop through Friday.
Writing program
restructured
Seniors needing English 104 or
301 to graduate in May should
register for these classes as soon
as possible.
The writing program is being
restructured, and temporary
shortages of these classes could
occur during the spring.
Dr. Lawrence Mitchell, English
Department head, says reorgani
zation of the program will be
complete by Fall 1991.
Graduating seniors who want
to register for closed sections
should come by the English de
partment, but must present proof
of graduation status. Advisement
times will be posted outside the
English department main office.
Sections held
for BAs only
The Texas A&M Department
of Modern and Classical Lan
guages wants students to be
aware certain sections of Spanish,
German and French 101 and 102
are reserved for BA students
only.
BA students can register for
any section, but candidates for
other degrees are limited to non
sections.
The department will enforce
this policy at the end of preregis
tration arid again at the end of
late registration by removing all
students in violation.
Non-BA students who already
have registered for reserved sec
tions need to make schedule
changes.
Corps members wear spurs
expressing desire to beat SMU
KEVIN IVY/The Battalion
By ISSELLE MCALLISTER
01 The Battalion Staff
Freshmen cadets are clanging
around the Texas A&M campus
wearing homemade “fish spurs” to
celebrate their desire to “spur the
hell outta the Mustangs.”
The spurs become part of the ca
dets’ uniform the week before the
Texas A&M vs. Southern Methodist
University football game.
When the SMU football team was
on probation two years ago, cadets
did not break tradition, and instead
sported their spurs before the Texas
Tech game.
The spurs are made of flattened
bottlecaps and coat hangers, says
Mark Hoskyn, deputy Corps com
mander.
Cadets must make their own
spurs, he explains. They spend
hours finding bottlecaps, hammer-
ring them flat and stringing them
with coat hangers.
According to tradition, cadets
must wear fish spurs before they can
earn the privilege of wearing senior
boots, he says. Students joining the
Corps after their freshman year still
must wear fish spurs before becom
ing seniors
Each outfit’s spurs are designed
differently, he says. For example,
some outfits make their spurs with
94 bottlecaps to symbolize their class,
others use another number that is
significant to them.
If a cadet’s spurs fall off, tradition
dictates they “wildcat” back to the
Quadrangle. When “wildcatting,”
cadets must run with their arms in
the air as they yell the traditional
freshman “Aaayy.”
Looking back on his days as a
freshman, Hoskyn recalls the tradi
tion as being a slight nuisance, but
says, “It was kind of fun.”