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The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 58 (10 pages) “Serving Texas A&M Since 1893” Wednesday, November 18, 1992
Group hosts bonfire debate
KARLA. STQLLCIS/Tiic Bathdion
Panel discussion focuses on bonfire's
effect on environment, alcohol abuse
By REAGON CLAMON
RtpaiU'i of THE BATTALION
A mostly pro-bonfire crowd argued
the pros and cons of the Texas
Aggie bonfire last night at a debate
sponsored by MSC Great Issues.
The audience of about 50 students
questioned the panel on how bonfire affected
everything; from the environment to alcohol
abuse.
Most of the questions came from students
supporting the annual event and were aimed
at the anti-bonfire panelist — Dr. Hugh D.
Wilson, professor of Biology and Genetics.
Dr. Bill Kibler, associate director of
student affairs, moderated the debate and
Stephen Owens, head stack for the Gass of
1993 Bonfire, represented the pro-bonfire
opinion.
Greg Blackard, Senior redpot for the Class
of 1993 Bonfire was also slated to be a
panelist but stepped down, sitting with the
general audience, when Wilson complained
that the panel was one-sided.
Wilson told the audience he collected
signatures from Texas A&M faculty
opposing bonfire two years ago because he
felt the event was destructive and
is our nation dictating to
other nations to ease deforestation and the
burning of large areas of hardwood when
we, as an academic institution, are doing the
exact same thing," Wilson said. "This is an
issue of environmental damage and of
hypocrisy."
Owens responded by saying that for
every tree cut down for bonfire and other
hypocritical.
"My concern
forestry operations in the country, five trees
are planted its place.
"What's the purpose of keeping old
growth forests around if you can't use
them?" Owens asked. "Why not get them
out of the way and plant forests you can use
and are worth something to the population?"
Wilson argued that the replanting the
bonfire workers do every year is a waste of
energy. The Texas Municipal Power
Authority (TMPA) — who has allowed the
bonfire committee to cut trees on land slated
to be strip-mined — is required by Jaw to
replant any way, he said.
"Does it bother you that you are
providing TMPA with free labor that would
cost them hundreds of thousands of
dollars?," Wilson asked.
The replant projects were done on TMPA
land because no other area could be found,
Owens said.
"Nobody had a place for us to replant,"
Owens said. "This year we're currently
looking for a place to replant that wouldn't
be required to be replanted by law."
Bush to talk
with Clinton
41st, 42nd presidents carry out 'ritual'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - In time-hon
ored tradition, George Bush and
Bill Clinton will act as new-found
friends Wednesday when the in
coming president comes calling
on the outgoing.
Rivals no more, the 41st presi
dent and the 42nd will talk one-
on-one in the Oval Office, carry
ing out a ritual as old as the Re
public, one surely feeling quiet
pleasure, the other private pain.
"It struck me how hard it is for
a defeated president to suddenly
see cameras facing in the other di
rection," former vice president
Walter Mondale said Tuesday.
"Your formal transfer occurs on
Jan. 20 but the psychological
transfer occurs before then."
President watchers attach much
significance to the first meeting in
the Oval Office, which is as much
a symbol of power as it is a work
place. Often, the smoothness of
the transition is determined there.
The official word out of the
White House is that "there is no
fixed agenda — whatever presi
dent-elect Clinton wants to talk
about."
Before their first formal meet
ing, Dwight D. Eisenhower derid
ed the incoming John F. Kennedy
as a "young whippersnapper" —
the 1960 version of Bush's refer
ence to Clinton and Al Gore as
"bozos."
But afterward they walked arm-
in-arm into the Cabinet room and
»Eisenhower was described by a
top aide as "overwhelmed by Sen.
Kennedy, his understanding of the
world problems, the depth of his
questions, his grasp of the issues
and the keenness of his mind."
Kennedy had a different view
of their first meeting. His brother,
Robert, said that Kennedy "went
out of his way to make sure that
Eisenhower wouldn't hurt the ad
ministration by going off at a tan
gent ... not that Eisenhower ever
gave him any advice that was
very helpful."
And their discussion wasn't all
world problems. Eisenhower
"taught him how to use the panic
button that would bring a heli
copter to the back lawn of the
White House in a hurry,"
Kennedy aide Kenneth P. O'Don
nell wrote later. Ike demonstrated
"and Kennedy watched the flut
tering helicopter coming down
outside the windows within a few
minutes."
The outgoing Jimmy Carter,
whose own handoff from Gerald
Ford was a transition model, had
prepared meticulously for his first
meeting with successor Ronald
Reagan.
But, said Mondale, "it all went
over Reagan's head and Carter re
ally was shaken by it."
Ron Ziegler, then 29, recalls
arch-Republican Richard Nixon
and arch-Democrat Lyndon John
son deep in conversation about
the Vietnam War and the social
unrest and division convulsing
the country in 1968.
During the whole transition, the
Nixon press secretary said on
Tuesday, "there always was a
'connect' between the two men, a
mutual respect, sort of under
standing."
In his memoirs, Nixon wrote
See Ritual/Page 6
U.S. senators
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RHA proposes $3-$7 housing hike
Additional money to reduce pressures
of fund-raising for residence hall plans
By TANYA SASSER
Staff Writer of THE BATTALION
On-campus housing rates may
rise if the Residence Hall Associa
tion approves a proposal which
calls for a $3-$7 rent increase start
ing next fall.
RHA President Kim Tenpas
said the money would be used for
"hall programming."
"The real purpose of this fee is
to take the pressure off the resi
dents to raise money for their
hall," she said. "It will be used to
program for the halls."
RHA Treasurer Chip Breier said
the money earned from this fund
will go into a special account.
Under the proposal, one per
cent of the rent increase will go to
the RHA. The remainder will be
divided by the total number of oc
cupants of on-campus housing.
Each hall council will receive a
certain dollar amount according
to the number of residents in the
hall.
It will be up to the individual
hall council to decide how they
will use the funds, Breier said.
It is important for the halls to be
active in RHA, but it is hard when
the residents have to be concerned
about finances, he said.
"Due to the fact that the majori
ty of residence halls are funded by
fund raising, the halls that start
off with no money are forced to be
inactive or pay out of their own
pocket," Breier said.
The small fee would help the
halls tremendously because it
would enable them to participate
in more hall activities without
worrying about money, Tenpas
said.
"Basically, the halls have to
raise their own money," she said.
"This starts the halls off on a bad
note at the beginning of the se
mester if there is no money in
their fund."
The halls use programming
money in a variety of different
ways, Tenpas said. Halls can have
social events, build volleyball or
basketball courts, or use the funds
for hall improvements, she said.
Tom Murray, assistant director
of Student Affairs/Residence Life,
said he supports the proposal
even though it has not yet been
completed.
"I support it because the halls
need more programming money,"
he said. "This would be a lot
cleaner way to collect funds and it
would probably be less expensive
in the long run."
"This system is common at a lot
of other schools," Breier said.
"(Texas) Tech and Trinity Univer
sity already use this system with a
seven dollar fee."
Ten percent of on-campus resi
dents were surveyed, Breier said.
The reported results show that 80
percent of the residents are for the
proposal and 20 percent are
against it, he said.
Currently, the halls receive most
of their money through fund rais
ers, Murray said.
"The individual residence halls
receive most of their money from
Casino Night, which has gone
down in the past couple of years,
and frOm selling activity stickers
to their residents," he said. "These
stickers cost anywhere from $5 to
$10."
The halls also receive money
from a "Coke fund," Murray said.
The residence halls receive $1 per
student, per semester from the
money raised by vending ma
chines on campus, he said.
The rent increase will be pro
posed at tonight's RHA meeting.
U.S. hunts for terrorists, offers rewards
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The United States is
mounting an international search, including
"Wanted" ads and $2 million rewards, for
Iranian-backed suspects secretly indicted for
kidnapping and murdering Americans, offi
cials said Tuesday.
The Justice Department has obtained sealed
indictments against at least four alleged terror
ists identified by U.S. intelligence this year as
responsible for killing American hostages in
Lebanon and blowing up at least one airliner,
said two U.S. officials who spoke on the condi
tion of anonymity.
The Justice Department declined to com
ment on the indictments, first reported Tues
day by CNN.
One of the sealed indictments is against the
suspected killer of either the CIA's Beirut sta
tion chief, William Buckley, or Marine Lt. Col.
William Higgins, said another source familiar
with the indictments, who also requested
anonymity.
In addition to Buckley, who died in captivity
in Lebanon in 1985, and Higgins, killed by his
Shiite Muslim captors in 1988 or 1989, kid
napped American Peter Kilburn was killed in
1986. It was unclear whether his alleged killer
was among those indicted.
The Associated Press reported previously
that some of the Lebanese kidnapping group,
including its leader, Imad Mughniyeh, took
refuge in Iran in the last year.
"To bring these murderers^to justice, the U.S.
government offers rewards'or up to $2 mil
lion," said one of the ads being placed in U.S.
and international newspapers in the coming
days. It shows pictures of all three murdered
Americans and urges anyone with information
to contact the FBI or the nearest U.S. embassy.
Rewards can reach up to $4 million under
an arrangement of matching funds from U.S.
airlines for information that prevents terrorism
against U.S. carriers or leads to the arrest and
conviction of perpetrators of airline terrorism.
Also among the terrorists identified by the
United States in the last year are those respon
sible for placing a bomb that exploded aboard
a TWA plane over Greece in 1986, sucking four
passengers to their death, said the second
source.
The ads also seek information about that at
tack.
One stark ad shows a pair of baby shoes un
der a caption that says:
"$2 million won't bring baby Demetra back.
But it may bring her murderers to justice."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kerry
HANOI, Vietnam - Three U.S.
senators on Tuesday were given
fading photographs, flight suits
and other sad
relics of Ameri
can servicemen
missing from a
war that ended
two decades
ago but left
wounds on
both sides.
On what he
termed "an ex-
traordinary
day," Sen. John
Kerry, D-Mass. and Sens. Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., and Hank Brown,
R-Colo., became the first Ameri
can officials to tour the Citadel,
Hanoi's equivalent of the Penta
gon.
Vietnamese officials also gave
the members of the Senate Select
Committee on POW-MIA Affairs
military logs of downed U.S. air
craft, a U.S. Army survival manu
al and a flight helmet said to have
belonged to Sen. John McCain, R-
Ariz., a Navy flier who was shot
down over Hanoi and taken pris
oner in 1967.
The visit comes amid rising op
timism that the United States may
lift a trade embargo and diplomat
ic freeze it has maintained to
wards Vietnam since the Commu
nist regime in Hanoi took over
U.S.-backed South Vietnam in
1975.
U.S. policy has been that rela
tions with Hanoi will not be nor
malized until Vietnam offers a full
accounting of the 2,265 American
servicemen missing in the Viet
nam War, including 1,657 in Viet
nam.
"My hope is that the President
will receive the information that
we bring back, and that when we
meet with him, he will listen care
fully to the arguments for why
there ought to be a U.S. response
of some kind at this point in
time," Kerry said. "You cannot
make this a one-way street forev
er."
Daschle raised the possibility of
reciprocating by providing infor
mation about Vietnam's MIAs,
thought to number about 300,000.
The two sides must "resolve to
bring people together and end the
pain and uncertainty relating to
our past conflict," he said.
The senators on Tuesday visited
Hanoi's Central Military Museum.
Museum director Col. Pham
Due Dai gave Kerry three large
albums of fading pictures of dead
and captured U.S. servicemen,
and originals or photographs of
See Vietnam/Page 6
In Advance
The Texas Hall of Fame and several Texas A&M organizations
are sponsoring a smoke-free night of dancing.
It will take place from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. tonight at the Texas Hall of
Fame. Admission is free. Door prizes will be given to the first 160
people.
Eta Sigma Gamma, Aggie Alliance and the American Cancer
Society are sponsoring the event.
“We are hoping patrons will express good sentiments about the
idea and we want to promote awareness (about the dangers of
smoking),” said Chip Schaeffer, assistant lecturer with the physical
education activities program.
Schaeffer said he he would like to see the smoke-out become a
regular, annual event.