Khadafy
By MAUREEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
LONDON —, With Britain and Libya in a
diplomatic standoff, Libyan leader Col.
Moammar Khadafy said yesterday he'd
settle for "nothing else" but a lifting of the
siege of his nation's London embassy.
Britain stuck to its demand to question the
trapped Libyans and search the building for
arms. And it brushed aside Khadafy's
claims that British police were to blame for
Tuesday's fatal shooting of a policewoman
during an anti-Khadafy demonstration
outside the embassy.
"His allegations are totally false," a
Foreign Office spokesman said after
Khadafy charged in a U.S. television
interview from his capital, Tripoli, that
British police and helicopters had attacked
the embassy Tuesday.
The crisis began when a gunman firing
from the embassy sprayed 70 anti-Khadafy
"SU must strive to limit costs, Thornburgh says
Gov. Dick Thornburgh discusses University appropriations with members of The Daily Collegian staff in his office in
Harrisburg Wednesday.
Growth rate:
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON The economy, continuing
to astound the experts, grew at a surprisingly
robust 8.3 percent annual rate in the first three
months of 1984, the government reported
yesterday.
But most analysts called the surge
temporary and *dieted growth will slow for
the rest of the year.
The Commerce Department last month
caught economists by surprise with a "flash"
estimate that put growth for January to
March at a rate of 7.2 percent.
When business activity headed sharply
lower in March, many said the preliminary
estimate would be revised downward
substantially; to perhaps as low as 6 percent.
Instead, the department boosted the
estimate of growth in the inflation-adjusted
gross national product to 8.3 percent, which
would make January-March the second best
quarter since the recovery from the recession
began in November 1982.
Last month's initial estimate raised
widespread concern that the economy was
demands lifting of
demonstrators with bullets, killing the
policewoman and injuring 11 protesters.
"We have no gunmen here in this building
and we have no guns or ammunition,"
insisted a man answering the phone at the
embassy last night. He refused to identify
himself.
"We are innocent. We have not harmed
anyone nor broken any laws in this '
cquntry," he said.
In Tripoli, Libyan Foreign Minister Ali
Abdulssalam Treiki met with British
Ambassador Oliver Miles, the Libyan news
agency JANA reported.
Tripoliradio, monitored in London, quoted
Treiki as saying Britain's demand to search
the London embassy is "unacceptable and is
contrary to international traditions."
But JANA said "a common wish was
confirmed at the meeting to deal with this
matter and settle it amicably."
The British Foreign office said the
meeting's atmosphere "was good, and both
Economy surges during first quarter, but experts say climb won't continue
the
daily
growing too fast, threatening to overheat and
trigger sharply higher inflation.
That concern was not evident yesterday
even with the higher figure because of a belief
that consumer spending, which has powered
the recovery so far, is beginning to slow
considerably.
The Reagan administration, concerned that
fears of renewed inflation could push interest
rates higher, stressed its belief that economic
expansion was slowing to a moderate, more
sustainable rate with inflation under control.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said
from Air Force One that "we expect a
moderation of the GNP growth in the second
quarter . . . It's obvious the economy will
remain strong with low levels of inflation."
Undersecretary of Commerce Sidney L.
Jones said the first quitter was only a
"temporary acceleration" and predicted GNP
growth of 4 percent in the second quarter. He
said the administration saw no reason to
change its estimate of 5 percent growth for the
whole year. In 1983, the real, or inflation
adjusted, GNP grew 3.4 percent.
Martin Feldstein, the president's chief
economist, said real GNP had risen at a rate
of 6.6 percent in the past five quarters,
c)lie • lan
`We are innocent. We
have not harmed anyone
nor broken any laws in
this country.'
An unidentified spokesman
inside the Libyan Embassy
sides indicated that they were looking for a
peaceful solution."
Miles said in a telephone interview with
the British Broadcasting Corp. "I think that
the problems here reflect what's happening
in London. But the central negotiations are
going on in. London."
British officials were asked about a report
on ABC television that U.S. intelligence had
intercepted and passed on to London a radio
message from Tripoli ordering the embassy
Photo by Bill Cramer
marking the best pace for any rebound since
1954.
"There isn't any overheating," Feldstein
said. He noted that inflation, as measured by
the GNP's implicit price deflator, ran at 4.1
percent in the first quarter, only slightly
ahead of the 3.9 percent pace in the fourth
quarter of 1983.
Feldstein predicted GNP growth in the
second quarter would be at the "lower end of
the 3 to 5 percent range."
'Some private economists were more
pessimistic.
Donald Ratajczak, an economist at Georgia
State University, and Allen Sinai, chief
economist for Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb,
both predicted an April-June growth rate of 3
percent or less.
Ratajczak said 4.7 percentage points of the
8.3 percent first quarter rate came from
growth in inventories, which he said would not
continue.
Almost half the inventory increase came
from an $8.7 billion rise in farm inventories,
due primarily to the receipt of crops by
farmers under the federal government's
payment-in-kind subsidy program, which
ended in February.
Editor's Note Several staff
members of The Daily Collegian
interviewed Gov. Dick Thornburgh
and state Secretary of Education
Robert C. Wilburn in Harrisburg on
Wednesday. This article focuses on
the state's proposed appropriation
for Penn State and its effect on
tuition. Please see related stories
on pages 2 and 3.
By ANITA J. KATZ
Collegian Staff Writer
HARRISBURG Gov. Dick
Thornburgh said he believes the
state has worked hard to stabilize
the funding picture for Penn State,
and,t.i pow the University's job to
keep tuition costs down.
"This year's 7 percent increase
(in state appropriations) is a
healthy one," Thornburgh said in
an interview Wednesday.
Thornburgh's budget proposal,
however, falls short of University
President Bryce Jordan's request
for a 20 percent increase in state
appropriations this year.
Robert C. Wilburn, state
Secretary of Education and
University trustee, said that with
some imaginative management,
the University could keep tuition
increases to a minimum.
Wilburn also said that with
decreases in inflation this year, the
state's appropriation increase was
reasonable.
"I think you have to recognize
that the state appropriation is
considerably higher than the rate
of inflation. It is also considerably
higher than the rate of increase in
wages for state employees," he
said.
Wilburn said salaries for state
employees are going up only 2
percent this year and 3 percent
next year.
"The inflationary pressures are
not that great at this time," he
said. "I think that it would be a
very difficult case to make for a
substantial tuition increase."
Rising tuition costs and other
financing problems are the focus of
the Commission on the Financing
of Higher Education, established
siege in London
to use force against Tuesday's
demonstrators.
"We had no specific information to lead us
to believe that an incident of this kind would
occur," the Foreign Office said in a formal
statement. A spokesman refused to
elaborate.
However, Britain's Independent
Television News, in a report from
Washington, said an unidentified American
intelligence source had confirmed that a
call between Tripoli and the London
embassy was monitored at the U.S. National
Security Agency headquarters at Fort
Meade, Va.
"The same source adds that information
from that call concerning the possible use of
force was passed on," ITN reporter John
Snow said.
He said between 10 and 15 Britons work at
the NSA, and "they would learn almost
immediately of any development affecting
Britain."
by Thornburgh late last year. The
commission was mandated to
develop a more rational approach
to the state's appropriations
methods, Thornburgh said.
One approach the commission
will discuss is a formulated
appropriation, whereby different
state institutions would receive
different appropriations depending
on their size and research' needs.
Wilburn said that before 1979,
appropriations were based on the
institutions' relationships with the
state, with state-owned institutions
receiving the highest
appropriations. The push for equal
appropriations for all state-funded
institutions came from former
University President John W
Oswald, he said.
However, Wilburn said the
institutions have reached a point
where they are accomplishing
different things at different times.
"We really should be looking at
what these institutions do.,Whether
it be a formula based on general
principles or a fixed number
formula, I think that is what the
commission should be looking
towards," he said.
Although the University's tuition
is the second highest among land
grant institutions in the nation,
Wilburn said the University gets
more state student financial aid
than other state schools.
The state also provides funding
for most building construction on
campus, he said.
"With the financial assistance
that is available, it's difficult, but
any student that wants to go to
school can go to school," Wilburn
said.
A 7 percent appropriation
increase to The Pennsylvania
Higher Education Assistance
Agency and its new tax-exempt
bond program will increase
financial aid for students in the
state, Thornburgh said.
The $3OO million program
permits families who are ineligible
for other forms of aid to purchase
bonds to pay for educational costs.
The program also provides loans to
colleges.
First Quarter
Adjusted
Real GNP Increased
$31.8 Billion
DO
Re'
Friday, April 20, 1984
Vol. 84, No. 164 24 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1984 Collegian Inc.
As darkness fell, a police spokesman, near
the embassy said contacts with those inside
were continuing and were "stable."
Home Secretary Leon Brittan, after
heading two meetings of the Cabinet's crisis
committee, visited police at London's
hushed St. James's Square, where
sharpshooters' rifles are trained on the five
story embassy and its estimated 20-30
occupants.
"It's a very impressive scene of
steadiness, patience and resolve," said
Brittan.
In Tripoli, where Khadafy's revolutionary
guards on Wednesday lifted a two-day
retaliatory siege of the British Embassy,
placard-waving protesters staged a
demonstration for two hours. One•sign bore
the message: "Jamahiriya (Libya) Love It •
or Leave It."
In major cities around the world, Libyan
envoys called news conferences to reiterate
charges of British "criminality."
Crime falls
boomers
grow up
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON The Reagan
administration took partial credit:
yesterday for the largest drop in
reported crime in a generation,
but academic observers attributed;
most of the decline to the aging of
the post-World War II baby boom
generation. •
Releasing preliminary figures ••
for 1983, the FBI said the number.:
of serious crimes reported to.-
police in the United States dropped•
7 percent, the second significant
decline in two years and the
largest drop since 1960.
Attorney General William
French Smith hailed the Reagan
administration's campaign
against drug traffickers.
But academic experts, some of
whom predicted the decline eight
years before it happened, said
demographic changes explain far
more of the drop than other
contributing factors, like declining
unemployment, career criminal
programs or citizen crime watch
programs. They said the other
factors are not felt so uniformly
across the nation.
Most largely discounted a
federal role, primarily because
the majority of crimes are state
and local not federal offenses.
The 7 percent decline in the FBI
Crime Index compares to a 3
percent decline in 1982.
The report said violent crimes of
murder, rape, robbery and
aggravated assault declined 5
percent from 1982. The far more
numerous property crimes of
burglary, larceny-theft and motor
vehicle theft dropped 7 percent.
Professor Alfred Blumstein of
Carnegie-Mellon University in
Pittsburgh predicted in the 1970 s
that baby boom aging would cut
crime in the 1980 s.
inside
• The Artists Series has started
subscription sales for their
1984/85 season Page 21
• The University may receive
$9O million in state funds to
improve campus facilities if a
new bill is approved by Con
gress, State Rep. Lynn Herman,
R-Centre County, said last night.
Page 24
index •
Arts
Classifieds
Opinion
Sports
State/nation/world
Weekend
weather
Morning clouds and fog will
gradually give way to partly sun
ny skies later this afternoon.
High of 53. Partly cloudy and
cold tonight with a low of 36.
Partly cloudy and breezy tomor
row with a high near 56.
by Glenn Rolph