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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1983)
The Battalion Serving the University community 1.76 No. 82 USPS 045360 14 Pages Minority students optimistic College Station, Texas Tuesday, January 25, 1983 by Kelley Smith Battalion Staff A report from the President’s Com mittee on Minority Conditions states what many minority students here have known — that minorities are underrepresented in the faculty and student body here. “The report did not suprise me,” said DeAndrea Davis, president of the National Society of Black En gineers. “It made me feel good that the school recognizes that there is a problem in this area and that they intend to correct it.” Kelsel Thompson, president of the MSC Black Awareness Committee, said that the suggestions made by the committee should be successful in bringing more minorities to Texas A&M. “Until something happens though, I just see it as an article in the paper,” Thompson said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.” The committee made 31 recom mendations including providing more money for minority student scholarships and increasing salaries to attract qualified minority faculty. “If recruitment and employment of more minorities came about, it would be a way of getting more minority students,” Thompson said. “It starts with the faculty. Students need someone they can identify with.” Davis said that hiring a larger num ber of minority faculty may be diffi cult because there is not a large num ber of minority teachers and adminis trators from which to hire. Both Davis and Thompson agree that the University needs to streng then its minority student recruitment efforts. The Office of School Rela tions, which is the main source of con tact with minorities for the Universi ty, has been going to high schools to talk with potential students about Texas A&M. Davis, who learned about the Uni versity through the office, said the office has been doing a great job, but it must be expanded to be more effec tive. Several reasons were given as ex planations for the low minority rate. Thompson said that both money and attitude are factors. “Texas A&M over the years has promoted an attitude of one-way thinking. It’s traditions, traditions. If you don’t like it, you don’t say any thing, you just leave,” Thompson said. “Many people do leave.” Davis said that traditions may con tribute to the alienation some minor ities feel. “Most (traditions) were initiated at a time when virtually no minorities attended,” he said. “Since the school is so heavy on traditions, some minority students may feel alienated.” One Hispanic student, who asked to remain unnamed, said that the atti tude toward minority students by other students may be a cause of the low minority rate. “In general, you can tell there are some prejudices, but they are subtle and well-hidden,” he said. “Friends may be playing around and call names that aren’t intended to hurt, but sometimes they do.” However, the student, who is a See STUDENTS, page 8 Regents discuss minority report A recent report on minority con ditions at Texas A&M received a less than enthusiastic response Monday at a meeting of the Texas A&M Board of Regents. The lengthy document, which included 31 recommendations of ways to improve conditions for minority faculty and students here, was included as a discussion item during a meeting of the com mittee of the whole. University President Frank E. Vandiver, who authorized the study, explained that the 10- member committee, chaired by Dr. Ruth Schaffer, had been charged with determining condi tions faced by minority faculty and students. “I don’t agree with everything in the report,” Vandiver said, “but it poses for our consideration a very interesting situation.” Vandiver stressed that minority conditions could be improved without changing the structure or standards of the University. But several of the regents ques tioned the implications of the study and said they thought the report should not be published un til after they had a chance to study it. Regent Royce Wisenbaker of Tyler then asked why minority conditions were receiving so much attention, and said he hacln’t heard much about any problems here. Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen intervened, asking that regents de lay comment on the report until they had read it. Regents Chairman H.R. “Bum” Bright then reminded the group that while specific operations of the institutions within the System are not handled by the board, re gents are responsible for approv ing policy statements. Implementing all of the correc tions in the plan could cost nearly $8.5 million. Vandiver can imple ment some of the recommenda tions, while the more costly ones have to be approved by the board. staff photo by David Fisher Scooter lessons v»l Pleasant weekend weather made it possible for Robert Wagner, a technician at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, and his son, Kris, to try out Kris’s new scooter. Kris is getting a lot of help from his father on the proper way to propel the scooter and balance on it at the same time. New A&M regents chosen, men say Regents consider special fund, PUF \ tall Farmers feed more ■wheat, corn in ’83 m\ i J United Press International WASHINGTON — Farmers will Sed more wheat and corn to their ivestock during the current market- )(liltt n 8 V ear than previously anticipated, he Agriculture Department said. ®|ln its Monday report on World \gricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, the department said it now 1 ixpects 109.2 million metric tons of \ ! :orn and 4.5 million tons of wheat to " De used as feed during the 1982-83 marketing year. The report showed 1.57 billion vey raw :ain tiw 1 this bushels of corn were used as livestock feed during the last three months of 1982, up 1 percent from the same period of the previous year. Fewer cattle were sold in the last three months of 1982, leading to pre dictions of a heavier slaughter during the first three months of 1983 and a slowdown in the anticipated increase in prices. Steer prices are expected to aver age between $59 and $63 for each 100 pounds until the end of March. Com mercial beef production is expected to total 5.8 billion pounds. By Robert McGlohon Battalion Staff A former Texas A&M regent and a Houston businessman said Monday night that they have received word from Gov. Mark White that they will be appointed to the Texas A&M Board of Regents. White’s office has not confirmed the appointments, however. Joe H. Reynolds, a Houston attor ney, whose term as a regent ended two years ago, said that White had called to inform him that he would be among the three people appointed to the board. David G. Eller, Class of '59, also said White had assured him of an appointment. Reynolds and Dr. John Coleman of Houston will be the other two appointees, Eller said. Coleman, who has served one term on the board and was not re appointed when his term expired in January, could not be reached for comment Monday. The appointments, which are ex pected to be announced today, are the result of a bitter battle among White, former Gov. Bill Clements and the Democratic-controlled state Senate. Despite lobbying efforts by Cle ments, the Senate on Thursday suc ceeded in returning 59 of more than 100 lame-duck appointments. Among those returned were three men appointed as Texas A&M re gents: geologist Michael Halbouty, former Texas House Speaker Bill Clayton and John Blocker, who was reappointed to the board. Clements’ appointees attended board meetings Sunday and Monday, even though the Senate has returned their appointments. Legally, they are regents until White officially appoints and swears in new regents. As with Clements, White’s apointments are subject to Senate approval. The two men who say they will be appointed by White both said they are looking forward to being regents. by Angel Stokes Battalion Staff A measure to “fight of f raiding of faculty by other institutions” was approved by a Texas A&M regents’ committee Monday, but not without dissent. University President Frank E. Vandiver requested an allocation of $400,()()(), which will be used to match monetary offers made by other insti tutions to Texas A&M faculty. The establishment of a President’s Reserve would allow for more flexi bility in the keeping and hiring of fa culty members, Vandiver said. Regent William A. McKenzie, in a heated discussion involving Vandiver and Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen, asked how the approximately $800,000, appropriated at earlier meetings for use at the president’s discretion, had been used. Vandiver said most of the money previously allocated had been spent for equipment. “There are often special require ments for stellar faculty,” he said. Hansen said a fund of this type helps to absorb expenses that occur at department levels. “You can’t tell in advance where a problem will come from, so the presi dent needs that type of flexibility with money,” he said. The appropriation, and all other committee action, still must be approved by the full board today. Regents also discussed implement ing the PLATO computer-based edu cation system for the fall semester. This system is part of a University wide approach to computer use. The PLATO terminals, which also could be used as general-purpose microcomputers, would offer four courses: FOR FRAN, Calculus I, Phy sics I and Chemistry I. Facilities for 800 students would be available. The system would be hooked up to a computer in Zachry Engineering Center and connected by a telephone line to terminals in the Sterling C. Evans Library. Regents also discussed a proposed constitutional amendment concern ing changes in the Permanent Uni versity Fund. Under the proposed changes, all components of the Texas A&M and UT systems will be eligible to receive proceeds from the sale of PUF bonds. Prairie View A&M will get $60 million over a 10-year period. In addition, 25 universities not in cluded in the PUF would receive an automatic annual appropriation of $125 million, effective Sept. 1, 1984. 'JieTT isj inside iecase V ;cretiotClassified 8 rarks JlBocal 3 National 5 . JOpmions 2 .larger# 0rtS •••• U mgaw* , ; 3 fWhatsup 10 forecast musdt nless P 1 iple, I” iring a 1 Mostly clear skies today with a few ip* jllouds passing by. The high will be 62. NE winds at about 10 mph. Tllear to partly cloudy tonight and on Wednesday. Tonight’s low will be 35, and tomorrow’s high near 11 I almanac reisa® 1 ’ 58. form, if* 1 Y! Try 11 ? I form a ■om tl> e United Press International 11 Today is Tuesday, Jan. 25, the 33T^ : 25th day of 1983 with 340 to follow. ^ | The moon is moving toward its jdoaU' » U H phase. , j 1 The morning stars are Mercury, SSfTi" and Salum - Ihe evening stars are Venus nd Mars. Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. Scottish poet Robert Burns was born Jan. 25, 1759. Novelists Somerset Maugham and Virginia Woolf also were born on this date — he in 1874, she in 1882. On this date in history: In 1890, Nellie Bly, a daring young New York reporter, com- , C]J1 „ pleted a trip around the world in |by w the astounding time of 72 days, six hours and 11 minutes. outlay i" ersity v ivies. Aggies polled want drinking age at 19 Editor’s note: This is the second part of a four-part series based on a recent survey of Texas A&M undergradua tes. by Patti Schwierzke Battalion Staff One out of ten people driving in College Station on a Thursday, Frjday or Saturday night is drunk — but only one out of 2,000 people is ever arrested for drunk driving. And of those arrested, only 17 per cent lose their license for a day or more. Does the drinking age have any effect on those figures? Should the legal drinking age in Texas be raised from 19 to 21? In a recent survey of students here, almost 75 percent said “no” to raising the drinking age. Mothers Against Drunk Driving disagrees. “We want to raise the drinking age because we want to save the lives of young people,” local MADD president Kirk Brown said. “The major cause of death of people between 16 and 24 years old is drunk driving. We aren’t opposed to drinking — we’re opposed to drinking and driving.” Legislation recently introduced in the state Senate would raise the legal drinking age and stiffen drinking and driving laws. One of the bills introduced, Sen ate Bill 1, would strengthen the present laws by making it legal to suspend a person’s driving pri vileges for 90 days if he refused to take a breath test. It also would make it legal for police to intro duce as evidence the fact that the person refused to take the test. The bill also would prohibit de ferred adjudication, which allows a judge to release a DWI offender with the agreement that the offense may be wiped off his re cord if he does not receive another DWI in a specified period of time. Senate Bill 2 would make it illeg al to drink while driving and to have open containers of alcoholic beverages in an automobile. Sen ate Bill 3, if passed, would raise the drinking age from 19 to 21 and establish an education and rehabi litation center for repeated DWI offenders. Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan, plans to vote for Bill 1, according to his press secretary Robert Mead, but Mead said Caperton has not yet decided how he will vote on the second and third bills. “Obviously there are a lot of arguments still to be brought up,” Mead said. “He (Caperton) is going to wait until tbe vote before he makes up his mind.” Mead also said it is too early to tell if the bill to raise the drinking age will pass. But Brown disagrees. “We have overwhelming sup port,” Brown said. “It (raising the drinking age) is going to pass. There is no question about it.” But while MADD wants the drinking age raised, local re staurant and bar owners aren’t too thrilled with the idea. “I’m sure it would really affect our business,” said Bennigan’s Tavern manager Nancy Russell. “It would have a definite impact on our business. We would take about a $17,000 loss per week.” Rebel’s manager Steve Larson wasn’t optimistic either. “Our business would be drastic ally affected,” Larson said. “Over all, it would cut liquor sales by ab out 20 percent. It would also cause an enforcement problem. I am tot ally against the change.” In a recent study published in the Chronicle of Higher Educa tion, only 0.5 percent of the stu dents polled reported being arrested for drunk driving. Forty- seven and one-half percent of tbe students reported driving after drinking, 30.4 percent reported driving after much drinking and 45.4 percent reported drinking while driving. Of the 5,030 students respond ing to the study, 82.1 percent said they were drinkers. In the Texas A&M survey, 80.1 percent of the students said they drink alcohol. The largest group of those who drink alcohol — 42.7 percent — said they had two to five drinks per week. The second largest group — 37.4 percent — said they had one drink or less each week. People who had six to ten drinks each week comprised 12.8 percent of those interviewed. People who had 10 to 20 drinks each week accounted for 6.4 percent of those interviewed and 0.7 percent of the people interviewed said they had more than 20 drinks a week. Does all of this drinking create an alcohol abuse problem on col lege campuses? “Alcohol is a problem for some students,” said Assistant Director See DRINKING, page8 Survey information When was it taken? Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, 1982. Who sponsored it? The fall semester Journalism 403, inter preting contemporary affairs, class. How many students were pol led? The survey results are based on 351 completed questionnaires. How was it taken? The names were randomly selected from the 1982-83 Campus Directory. Stu dents were telephoned and, asked 40 questions. How accurate is it? Because we only sampled 351 out of the 32,000 undergraduate students at Texas A&M, the survey does contain a small amount of sampling error. For every percentage reported, the actual value could range 5.2 percent higher or lower. For ex ample, a percentage of 50 percent could actually be as high as 55.2 percent or as low as 44.8. Should the legal drinking age in Texas be raised from 19 to 21?