Confusion surrounds hijacked ship passengers By The Associated Press Palestinian pirates last night held more than 400 hostages under threat of death on a captive Italian cruise liner, floating in the Mediterranean with no where to go. A man who said he was the captain reported by radio all aboard were safe and pleaded against rescue attempts. In Washington, National Security adviser Robert McFarlane said late last night he believed the vessel was anchored off the coast of Syria and he expected "some movement" today. He declined to say in which direction. President Reagan yesterday called the hijacking "the most ridiculous thing," and the White House said the United States was working with other governments "to bring about an end to this act of terrorism." The message from international waters in the Mediterranean, purpor tedly from the captain, contradicted unconfirmed reports that the hijack ers, who demand that Israel free 50 Palestinian prisoners, had killed two American passengers. Columbia, Delaware divest from S. Africa From staff and wire reports The University of Delaware's fac ulty senate Monday passed a resolu tion urging the divestiture of more than $47 million in stocks and bonds in companies doing business in South Africa, as Columbia University be came the first Ivy League school to support divestment. Columbia University's board of trustees voted to sell, over the next two years, virtually all the universi ty's $39 million in stock in American companies tied to South Africa, according to The New York Times.. Delaware's resolution, passed on a 26-25 vote, calls for total divestment in companies with holdings in South Africa. The university's investments in those companies represents 40 percent of the university's portfolio, according to an ad hoc committee report. The resolution will go to the univer sity's board of trustees, which does not have to take action on it. The board's next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 13. Werner Brown, chairman of the board's finance committee, would not comment on the resolution but said the board already practices "selec tive disinvestment" by buying stock only in companies that follow the Sullivan Principles, a code to im- committee to examine TA training New By CELESTE McCAULEY Collegian Staff Writer Improved training for teaching as sistants will be the goal of a new committee designed to implement mandatory training programs throughout the University, the presi dent of the Graduate Student Associa tion said. Brian Delßuono said the commit tee, being formed by GSA's academic division and the Undergraduate Stu dent Government's Academic As sembly, is in response to a GSA survey that found almost three- the daily "Please, please, don't try anything on my ship," he shouted into the radio from the Achille Lauro, which was reported to be off Cyprus at the time, according to port officials in Leb anon. The Palestinian hijackers were said to have a large supply of explo sives, and vowed soon after seizing the vessel Monday night that they would blow it up if military air or naval forces tried to interfere. Flotta Lauro, the shipping line, said 913 people were aboard, including 331 crew members. The ship sailed west from the Syri an coast after it was denied access to Syrian territorial waters outside the port of Tartus. A Western diplomat in Damascus said it was bound for Cy prus, and Beirut port officials said it was in international waters off the coast of Cyprus. But a Cypriot gov ernment source said the ship would not be allowed to dock there. Italy's defense minister, Giovanni Spadolini, said after a late-night emergency session with Premier Bet tino Craxi and Foreign Minister Giu- prove working and living conditions for company employees. Columbia's South Africa-related holdings involve only 4 percent of the universities $9OO million total invest ments. The companies from which Columbia will divest by October 1987 include American Express, Mobil Oil and Sperry. Both decisions came six months after a wave of anti-apartheid pro tests erupted at campuses across the country and follow a summer of vio lence in South Africa. Some of last spring's most bitter demonstrations took place at ColOm bia, where hundreds of students blocked a campus building for three weeks to attract national attention to their cause. But the Columbia trust ees said their decision had nothing to do with the protests. "We are expressing our abhorrence of of apartheid and the South African government's obdurate adherence to it," said Samuel I. Higginbottom, the trustees' chairman. "We are in the fortunate position of having only a small fraction of our endowments in companies doing busi ness in South Africa, and so we can divest without imposing a heavy bur den of transaction costs on our fac ulty, students and staff," Higginbottom added. Please see DIVEST, Page 16 fourths of TAs polled consider their department's training inadequate. Recognizing TA training as a major concern, the Faculty Senate in 1981 voted to require TAs who have re sponsibilities in lectures, recitations or practicums to attend a teaching training program. The senate defined the content and execution of TA training as "the responsibilities of the deans of the colleges." "Certainly this has not been fol lowed," said Delßuono, whose orga nization found last year that 72 Please see TAs, Page 16. Collegian lio Andreotti that Italy had not established contact with the hijack ers and said there would be not nego tiations for prisoner "that are not in our hands and over whom we have no power." Andreotti said the Syrian govern ment had said it would allow the ship to dock at a Syrian port if the Italian and the U.S. Governments asked for such a move. Onda Pesquera, a monitoring sta tion in San Sebastian, Spain, said radio reports circulating among ships in the area of the Achille Lauro indi cated some type of agreement might have beer, reached with the hijack ers, and they might leave the ship. The station could not determine who was making the reports or get specif ic details. "There haven't been any solid de velopments," said an Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman this morning. Spokesmen for the shipping line said they had heard of no agreement. In Tunisia, the No. 2 man in the Palestine Liberation Organization, Salah Khalaf, said the PLO had taken Senate retains plus-minus grading By DAMON CHAPPIE Collegian Staff Writer An attempt to repeal the new plus and-minus grading system failed yes terday as the University Faculty Sen ate dashed an attempt to preserve the present five-level grading procedure. The senate sustained the new sys tem, which will add grades A-minus, B-plus, B-minus and C-plus to the current system of grades A, B, C, D and F. The University will begin using the new grading system Fall Semester 1987. Under the approved system, an A minus will equal 3.67 grade points; B plus, 3.33; B-minus, 2.67; and C-plus, 2.33. The senate had approved the plan at its last meeting of the academic year in April after the idea had been tossed around for nearly two years. But several senators believed the marginal 58-53 passage vote did not reflect the will of the entire senate. steps with the Italian and Egyptian governments "for the liberation of the hostages and the peaceful solution of the affair." He said the PLO, which has condemned the hijacking, had sent envoys to the Egyptian cities of Port Said and Cairo and had called on the hijackers to return the vessel to Egyptian waters. The pirates said they were from the Palestine Liberation Front, one of eight guerrilla groups that comprise the Palestine Liberation Organiza tion. An Italian Foreign Ministry official said the PLO in Tunisia told Italian authorities that five to seven hijack ers, using false South American pass ports, boarded the vessel in the northern port , of Genoa, where the ship began its Mediterranean cruise Most of the Americans who had been on the Achille Lauro cruise were among about 600 passengers who disembarked in Alexandria, Egypt, before the Palestinians seized the ship about 30 miles west of Port Said. Reports indicated about a . dozen America= still were aboard. Because that meeting ran long and some senators left before the vote, Cara-Lynne Schengrund, professor at the University's Hershey Medical Center, moved to reverse the decision this year. But in a relatively brief hour-and-a half meeting yesterday, the senate voted 79-48 to defeat Schengrund's motion and uphold the new grading policy. Jay Clark, president of the Under graduate Student Government's Aca demic Assembly, said he was pleased with the senate's action. "They approved it the first time and I was pleased. They've approved it a second time and I'm even more pleased," Clark said. He said he believes the first vote was representative of the senate's will and the second vote simply re inforced that impression. Most senators favored the new grading procedure, but several sen ators including Schengrund said they Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1985 Vol. 86, No. 64 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802 Published by students of The.Pennsylvanla Stale University ©1985 Collegian Inc. would like to see more divisions in grades especially an A-plus catego ry. "I don't understand why I cannot give an A-plus when we can give an A minus," Schengrund said, adding that students wishing to go to grad uate school may be hurt by not get ting the plus with an A grade. In a related matter, George Simko vich, professor of metallurgy, pro posed a measure that would add grades of A-plus, C-minus, D-plus, and D-minus to the new system. Faculty Senate President Donald Rung said the measure would be debated at next month's session, but that "perhaps we will have some way of disposing of it before then." - University Registrar Warren R. Haffner said that at Washington State University, which adopted a similar grading plan in 1979, the number of students who received As dropped from 25.8 percent that year to 14.3 percent in 1984. Strict alcohol rules linked to problems By JOHN KING Associated Press Writer PROVIDENCE Universities that permit underage drinking have fewer alcohol•related disciplinary problems than schools that strictly enforce state drinking laws, a study by a national students' group says. "Severe or prohibitive policies do not produce a lower incidence of alcohol-related problems on cam puses," the study by the American Association of University Students said. "The approach of a student as a responsible citizen appears to have a better impact" on curbing alcohol abuse, the study asserts. The group polled administrators at 32 schools nationwide and found schools that do not enforce drinking age laws had fewer cases of vandal ism, assault, harassment and• disor derly conduct. "By de-emphasizing the prohibition and strict, enforcement, universities with permissive policies develop stronger alcohol education programs, alternative• programming and send messages of concern and respect to the students to make their own re sponsible choices," the study said. "Univefsities which have devel oped strict prohibition policies seem to be bogged down in the enforcement of policy and notifying students of policy." Schools allowing minors to "deter mine their alcohol-consumption lev els," such as Stanford University and Yale University, have developed stronger alcohol-education programs than other schools, the study con cluded. It said Stanford in 1984 did not try a single alcohol-related case in its stu dent courts, while the University of Wisconsin, which strictly enforces that state's legal drinking age of 19, reported that 95 percent of its vandal ism cases were alcohol-related. Correction Because of an editing error, State College Borough Manager Carl Fairbanks, Solicitor Robert Kistl er and council member Felicia Lewis were incorrectly identified in a photo caption in yesterday's Daily Collegian. Fairbanks and Kistler were incorrectly identified as council members and Lewis was incor rectly identified as Council Presi dent Mary Ann Haas. Council member Gary A. Wiser, who was also pictured, was correctly iden tified. f_l43ia. index opinions Page 6 sports Page 8 weather Another nice day with mostly sunny skies and a few high clouds. High 73. Tonight, partly cloudy and mild and not as cool. Low 47 Heidi Sonen
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers