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Review by Julia Spencer page 3
NAACP expressing
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The Battalion
90 No. 165 CISPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
"Serving Texas A&M since 1893"
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Tuesday, July 9, 1991
Slovenia negotiates secession; violence shifts to neighbor
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) — The
breakaway republic of Slovenia agreed
Monday to negotiate the terms of its
secession with the federal government,
but the threat of large-scale violence
seemed to shift to neighboring Croatia.
For the first time in the two-week se
cession crisis, the army Sunday inter
vened in Croatia, battling republican
militia for 10 hours in the town of
Tenja. As many as 33 people were
killed or wounded in the fighting,
according to some sources.
The army intervened after battles be
tween the Croatians and bands of Ser
bian gunmen. In villages throughout
the Slavonia region of northeast Croa
tia, ethnic Serbs were reportedly forti
fying positions against Croatian attack.
Borisav Jovic, Serbia's man on the
eight-member federal presidency,
warned that "war could happen" if
Croatia insists on splitting from Yugo
slavia without giving ethnic Serbs the
right to self-determination.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman,
in turn, warned that "if someone
threatens us with the army, I am going
to call on all of the Croatian people to
defend itself."
The agreement reached Monday,
with mediation from the European
Community, commits Croatia and Slo
venia to peacefully work out a resolu
tion of the two republics' June 25 seces
sion declarations.
"The declaration is not ideal but rep
resents a compromise which prevents
war," Slovenian President Milan Ku-
can told reporters.
Tudjman, in a television address,
said his republic would honor the
agreement but added he expected fed
eral army units in Croatia to also pull
back to their bases.
In Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, the
decrease in tension achieved by Mon
day's accord was tangible. Police dis
mantled steel rail-and-wire barricades,
and traffic on the streets was brisk for
the first time in nearly two weeks.
The agreement gave the republic
limited control of its international bor
ders and called for federal army units
to return to barracks and the Slovene
territorial defense to be deactivated.
Premier Ante Markovic and his Cab
inet accepted the agreement, and it
also had to be ratified by the collective
presidency, which began reviewing it
Monday evening. The accord's real test
was expected Tuesday, when Slove
nia's Parliament was to vote on it.
The agreement suspends the inde
pendence declarations for three
months, allowing a cooling-off period
leading to an Aug. 1 deadline for the
start of negotiations on the terms of the
two republics' secession.
/
Slovenia ordered all of its federal leg
islators in Belgrade to immediately va
cate their seats, Tanjug reported.
Ron Tyrrell, a math teacher from Houston, Texas, skates around New Main Drive Monday and heads to the Zachry building for a teachers’ convention.
A&M tries
to evaluate
Sharp's plan
Recommendations call for funding changes
By Chris Vaughn
The Battalion
Texas A&M administrators have been riding a fiscal roller
coaster since March, but State Comptroller John Sharp's recent re
port has thrown them for another unexpected loop.
A&M's administrators have been scrambling the past 10 days to
assess and evaluate Sharp's Texas Performance Review, a plan to
reduce Texas' deficit by more than $5 billion.
The TPR recommendations call for massive changes in higher
education funding. Under those recommendations, A&M would
lose at least $53.6 million in the 1992-93 biennium, which translates
to $28.9 million in fiscal year 1992 and $24.7 million in fiscal year
1993.
Dr. E. Dean Gage, provost and vice president for academic af
fairs, told the Faculty Senate on Monday that Sharp's plan would
be "devastating" to A&M if the Legislature acts on nis recommen
dations.
The two areas which concern administrators most are proposed
changes in tuition and a possible loss of earned interest on the Uni
versity's local funds.
The TPR recommendations on tuition include:
□ Setting tuition at 25 percent of cost of education, which trans
lates to $32 per credit hour for residents.
□ Allowing the state to retain 75 percent of the tuition increase
to fund other state services, while the University keeps the remain-
See Mobley/Page 6
Principal implements
new learning program
By Susan Maguire
The Battalion
A multisensoiy approach to learning is one of several new pro
grams being implemented by a principal of a private boys' school
in Singapore who visited Texas A&M Friday to preview the Uni
versity's educational programs.
Joseph Guan, principal of St. Patrick's, said the three-stage
multisensoiy approach was tested on a group of ninth-graders at
his school this spring.
In the first stage, a teacher uses regular classroom techniques to
teach.
In the second phase, called the receptive stage, the teacher tea
ches the same content, but music is playing in the background. The
children also close their eyes and visualize the material.
"The music helps to synchronize the workings of the right and
left hemispheres of the brain," said Guan, who has a background
in music education.
The last stage — or active stage — reinforces students' learning
skills by using role-playing.
"For example, if it is a science class, a student might pretend he
is the scientist and give a lecture," Guan said. "The element of
stacking the information this way saves time in revision.
"Ninety-one percent of the Doys in the program said they felt
they were learning more productively," he said.
Guan also has introduced leadership programs, life skills pro
grams to teach time management and stress reduction, and career
guidance programs.
"These (techniques) teach skills that aren't purely academic,"
he said. "The boys can use them throughout their lives."
Because of the country's lack of natural resources, Singapore's
main asset is the education of its children, Guan said.
"A lot of ministry officials involved in education travel around
the world studying similar education systems," he said.
Compared to the United States, Guan said students in Singa
pore don't have as much freedom of self-expression. Each child's
See Singapore/Page 6
State considers salt dome dump sites
By Robin Goodpaster
The Battalion
Storing toxic waste in under
ground salt domes — one site
potentially within 50 miles of the
Houston area — is an alternative
that will be considered this fall
by the Texas Water Commission
and supported by at least one
Texas A&M faculty member.
Dr. Neville Carter, an A&M
geophysicist, said underground
storage is the best alternative to a
desperate situation.
"Hazardous wastes sitting
around in barrels are very unsafe
and not acceptable," Carter said.
"Salt domes are tight and very
impermeable."
Carter has studied salt struc
tures for more than 25 years. He
has expertise in the deformation
of rocks under stress, time and
temperature. He also has spent
15 years studying the storage of
radioactive wastes in salt domes.
Salt domes are used for the na
tion's strategic oil reserves, and
Germany stores its radioactive
wastes in salt domes.
Carter said the usual concerns
about toxic wastes leaking into
an area's water supply do not
apply in the case of salt domes
because salt domes are imper
vious to any fluids and are sta
ble.
Carter said salt domes have
even withstood nuclear explo
sions.
The Salmon Event in the 1960s
still contains radiation at the site
in Mississippi. Carter said there
Graphic by Bingo Barnes
have been no signs of radiation
leaks during the past 25 years,
demonstrating that salt domes
are indeed safe.
The salt dome plan was in-
tially proposed by the Hunter In
dustrial Facilities. Hunter offi
cials plan to mix the waste with
ash and cement and crush it into
the gravel inside the salt dome.
If this plan is aprroved by the
Texas Water Commission, it will
still be subject to approval by the
Environmental Protection
Agency.
The proposal must pass a "no
migration petition," a condition
stating that the waste would not
leak for at least 10,000 years.
Carter said scientific reasons
for using salt domes to store haz
ardous wastes have been
straightforwardly demonstrated,
but political and emotional is
sues nave created problems.
Memorial service held for A&M engineering professor
A public memorial service was
held at 3 p.m. Monday at First
Presbyterian Church in Bryan for
Dr. Douglas Von Gonten, 57,
head of Texas A&M's Depart
ment of Petroleum Engineering
since 1976.
He was buried in a private
service at 1 p.m. Monday in
Grimes County.
Von Gonten, a Rockdale na
tive, was killed last Tuesday in a
farming accident in Robertson
County near Wheelock.
Von Gonten graduated from
A&M in 1957 with bachelor's de
grees in geology and petroleum
engineering. He served as a first
lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force
from 1958 to 1960.
He worked for Mobil Oil Co.
until 1963, when he returned to
A&M. Von Gonten earned his
master's degree in petroleum en
gineering in 1965 and his doctor
ate in 1966.
That year Von Gonten became
an assistant research engineer
with the Texas Engineering Ex
periment Station. He was em
ployed as an associate professor
of petroleum engineering in
1967.
Von Gonten became a full pro
fessor in 1976, the year he was
named department head. He re
ceived the Outstanding Achieve
ment in Departmental Adminis
tration Award in 1981.
Von Gonten also received the
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Distinguished Achievement
Award in 1983, the Association
of Former Students Distin
guished Teaching Award in
1986, the SPE Distinguished
Member Award in 1988 and the
SPE Distinguished Lecturer in
1990-91.
He was a lecturer for the So
ciety of Petroleum Engineers and
also evaluated the petroleum en
gineering programs for schools
in Colombia, Saudi Arabia and
China.
Von Gonten was a deacon and
elder of First Presbyterian
Church in Bryan.