PSU Star Wars research
By STEVE SNYDER
Cpllegian Science Writer
Petitions to boycott the proposed
“Star Wars” defense system are cir
culating on at least 37 campuses
throughout the nation but research
ers at the Penn State have not yet
acted.
Rustum Roy, director of the Uni
versity’s Materials Research Labo
ratory, said, “I have not initiated
anything yet,” adding, “Other cam
puses have done a lot.”
L.R. Hettche, director of the Uni
versity’s Applied Research Lab, said
he would not back such a petition.
Charles L. Hosier, vice president
for research and dean of the Grad
uate School, agreed.
“I believe in academic freedom,”
he said. Researchers should be free to
choose what they want to work on, he
added.
Hettche said that there was an
“overwhelming response” of Strateg
ic Defense Initiative program nick
named Star Wars proposals from
Watch out
Attention all trlskaldekaphoblcs: do you know what today Is? Keep an eye 13th. The superstition comes to us from European folklore about the
out for black cats, ladders and maniacal youngsters because It’s Friday the crucifixion.
• The University's Board of Trustees will meet on campus today
beginning 9 a.m. at the Faculty Building. Topics to be discussed include
the status of women at the University and intercollegiate athletics. The
Trustees will not discuss University investments in companies doing
business in South Africa. The meeting is open to the public.
• The Registrar’s Office will replace certificates of registration free to
students who misplaced their bursar’s receipts. Certificates indicate if a
student is full- or part-time and graduate or undergraduate.
Students need the certificates to cash checks at businesses and to
enter football games after this weekend. Duplicates will be issued from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays in 112 Shields. Students need their ID cards to
pick up certificates.
• The Centre Area Transportation Authority’s W Park Forest, ES Park
Forest and Sunday shuttle buses must detour routes due to Aaron Drive
construction. The Park Lane and Upper Aaron Drive stops will 4403303 be
moved to the corner of Sierra and Park Lane. The Lower Aaron Drive stop
will be moved to the parking lot beside the Prescription Shoppe,l6o6 N.
Atherton St. Construction should be completed by Sept. 27.
weather
Today, sunshine giving way to periods of sun and clouds. It will be breezy
and cool. Watch for scattered black cats. High 63. This evening, mostly
the
daily
the University, including at least one
from the Materials Research Lab.
Roy tried to explain the reason for
such diverse opinions concerning SDI
research.
There are three types of defense
research, he said. The first type is
“faculty-initiated research,” which
means that the faculties are allocated
funds and they choose what research
to do. This research is completely
open to the public, he said.
The Materials Research Laborato
ry does not do any classified re
search, unlike the Applied Research
Lab. Universities are institutions of
learning and their information should
be open and shared, Roy said.
“Weapons research” is strictly
classified and deals with “instru
ments of death,” Roy said.
“Defense Department-initiated re
search” is the final type and is a
mixture of the other two, Roy said.
SDI is a combination of Defense
Department-initiated research and
weapons research, he said.
Because many faculty members
Collegian
are unwilling to do classified re
search, they will not involve them
selves in much of the SDI projects
and research, Roy said. Others think
“Star Wars research is a dumb idea
and won’t do anything with that la
bel,” he added.
Roy said petitions circulating at
other universities, including the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology
and Cornell and Carnegie-Mellon uni
versities, are in response to press
releases issued by the U.S. Depart
ment of Defense that “purposely in
sinuated” these universities support
Star Wars.
“Most of the academic world
doesn’t support Star Wars,” Roy
said. The universities that the De
fense Department claims support
SDI are outraged and want to disasso
ciate themselves from the program,
he said.
Hettche disagreed. The petitioners
have a “parochial interest rather
than a moral interest” in the issue, he
said. Hosier said both publicity and
financial support are major factors in
the minds of petitioners.
South Africa may end pass laws
By TOM BALDWIN
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa A govern
ment panel yesterday proposed repeal of the hated
“pass laws” that keep South Africa’s Blacks out of
white areas the second major change in the
apartheid system announced ip two days.
Even Whites who oppose the government hailed
the step
“This is the beginning of the end of apartheid,”
said Sheena Duncan, president of the Black Sash
women’s movement, which opposes the nation’s
system of racial segregation. “I really do think it
means something. They are not playing around
with words this time.”
> Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid member of
Parliament, said, “This is probably the most
important step forward in 30 years.”
A primary effect will be that families now
restricted to their tribal homelands could join the
men working in the cities, preventing the breakup
of families.
On Wednesday, President P.W. Botha told a
congress of his National Party that the govern
ment was giving up its policy that Blacks eventual
ly have to become citizens of Black homelands and
relinquish citizenship in South Africa.
argued
Roy said that SDI “is very bad for
defense.” Star Wars “steals money
from well thought-out programs and
puts it into half-baked ideas,” he said.
Star Wars-like ideas have been
considered by researchers for 30'
years, but because they are so im
practical they have never been ini
tiated, Roy said. SDI “represents a
political interference into good de
fense research,” he said. It is a
political gimmick that will end in 1986
after the Democrats retake the U.S.
Senate, Roy said.
Hettche agreed that SDI has been
discussed in a “political forum.” The
public has been confused by the rhe
toric that has gone on, he added.
If a petition were circulated and
signed, it is unknown how much mon
ey in federal research grants the
University would lose.
Hosier said the University would
not lose much money directly, but
might lose a lot indirectly. Much
“basic research is funded by this
budget item,” he said. “SDI hasn’t
focused on any 1 item."
Blacks, however, still will have political rights
only in the homeland, and still will not be able to
vote in South Africa.
Police reported rioting near Cape Town, where
they said they shot and killed three black men, and
in Soweto, outside Johannesburg, where a 50-year
old white school teacher and 10 black students
suffered shotgun wounds after police fired on
“unruly” students.
Residents of Soweto’s White City Jabavu neigh
borhood said police arrested as many as 600
students around Hlengiwe High School, holding an
undetermined number of them in Diepkloof Prison
under state-of-emergency regulations.
The residents said students under age 12 were
freed. The neighborhood has seen the worst of
Soweto rioting since anti-apartheid violence began
more than a year ago. Hlengiwe has been a
meeting place for students who boycott classes
each day, then form mobs that often clash with
police.
Government policy allows the country’s 5 mil
lion Whites to settle almost anywhere while its 24
million Blacks need permits, or passes, to live
near white areas and hold jobs there.
Between 200,000 and 300,000 Blacks a year are
arrested for violations of the.pass laws and sent
Friday, Sept. 13,1985
Vol. 86, No. 46 24 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1985 Collegian Inc.
Democrats cease
efforts to pass
tougher sanctions
Anti-filibuster
vote fafls short
in Senate
By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senate
Democrats, unable to crack a Re
publican .filibuster, temporarily
abandoned efforts yesterday to
pass legislation calling for tougher
sanctions against white-ruled
South Africa than President Rea
gan has imposed.
But Democats, angrily accusing
Republicans of parliamentary
“tricking,” vowed to try again on
the politically volatile issue later
in the year.
“We intend to keep this issue
alive,” Sen. Alan Cranston, R-Cal
if., said before the Senate voted
overwhelmingly against a move to
break the filibuster. The roll call
11 votes in favor of limiting
debate and 88 opposed became
meaningless when Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy, D-Mass., urged other
Democrats to vote against their
own anti-filibuster bid.
His request amounted to a con
cession of failure, Democratic
aides said, because he knew in
advance the attempt was likely to
pull fewer than the 57 votes a
similar bid gained Wednesday.
But Democratic tempers flared
in the well of the Senate immedi
ately after the vote, when Sen.
Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman
of the Foreign Relations Commit
tee, removed the legislation from
the Senate desk. The action, in
effect, prevented Democrats from
seeking any more anti-filibuster
votes.
Kennedy labeled Lugar’s action
a “tactic which is beneath the
dignity of the Senate,” and “trick
ing” behavior. “This is an extraor
dinary action. Those who resort to
that action believe they can’t win
on the merits,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Robert
Dole, R-Kan., replied that there
was precedent for Lugar’s action,
but when pressed to cite earlier
examples, he replied, “We’re still
researching that.”
Dole and Lugar both have pledg
ed to resurrect the legislation if
Reagan fails to pursue the sanc
tions he announced earlier in the
week against the South African
government.
The anti-filibuster vote was the
latest chapter in a drama that
began as a confrontation between
Congress and the White House on
foreign policy and has since trans
formed into a noisy political strug
gle between Republicans and
Democrats.
The nature of the dispute
changed Monday when Reagan,
under pressure from Congress,
imposed many of the legislation’s
sanctions in a bid to force Pretoria
to loosen the apartheid laws that
discriminate against black South
Africans.
Reagan’s order restricts the
sales of computer equipment and
nuclear technology to South Afri
ca, as well as barring most new
bank loans to the government.
Reagan also announced he would
seek permission under an interna
tional trade agreement to ban the
importation of South African gold
coins, the Krugerrand, into this
country.'
But Reagan’s order did not in
clude one key provision jn the bill
a requirement for additional
sanctions in a year if South Africa
has not made significant progress
toward dismantling apartheid. In
addition, the president said he
would veto the legislation if it
reached his desk.
Republican leaders, welcoming
Reagan’s decision, said it made
enactment of the legislation un
necessary but pledged to resurrect
the measure if the administration
wavered in enforcing its own sanc
tions.
However, Democrats said the
president did not go far enough,
and vowed to press for a final vote.
‘We intend to keep
this issue alive.’
—Sen. Alan Cranston, R-
Calif.
Their first attempt failed on
Monday, 53-34, seven votes shy of
the 60 needed to limit a filibuster.
The second vote, on Wednesday,
was 57-41, in what Republicans
said was an attempt to embarrass
the president for political pur
poses.
Sen. Robert Stafford, R-Vt., who
voted against the filibuster on
Monday, but switched sides on
Wednesday, said he did so because
the Democrats were playing “po
litical games.”
back to the tribal homelands, usually for trying to
work in cities illegally.
A committee of the President’s Council, an
advisory panel to President P.W. Botha, on Thurs
day announced a report that said pass laws
technically called “influx control” do not work
and cost too much to maintain.
It also said the laws are “discriminatory”
against Blacks and “conflict with basic human
rights.”
The plan calls for replacing pass laws with what
the council said would be “orderly urbanization.”
Details were sketchy, but the report said more
money should be spent developing black townships
and allowances should be made for “informal”
communities black squatter camps.
The pass itself would be replaced by a common
identity document to be carried by people of all
races.
The President’s Council committee said it fa
vors a phased abolition of influx control, rather
than immediate wholesale repeal.
To take effect, the committee’s pass law propo
sals must be approved by the full council, which is
assured, and then Parliament.
There is little doubt Botha, whose party controls
Parliament, will accept the committee’s sugges
tion, since he appoints the council members.