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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 1985)
ncient Rome, i them sober on i wine enjoyed ity in the Urn ihibition, but are unlikely to rholic wines. H t gourmet coutitt es and Europe, mus, dealcohoii ; to Connois* you thin. A fa lealcoholized« orn pared to IM erpart. )es Dtion 3S ited Press (ias stations »ti as pumps sM , water and wild su pplies to it •presentativesi :e, l)-Beaumoi ;e Business ai mmittee his li e services be pto v purposes. Rt| Houston, filed 983, Departme records show it !8 non-fatal M y defective lilt dents," Pricesai McDonald, D-l that travelings 11 res constantfl t that the lath difficult, he two legislats re that all gassl) )oms. is, operator of r station, toldlt ms only ones s in his area till vices. :n the service so ippose the rtt who have discos 'ices even thouj! cl their motives' California, Ne> ania and Ohi slat ion requiriit hey aren’t free, tt, president si rv Co. in Dallas ■ committee thai vide the service ast of raising p them. CICO el Jackson, whoi r in Mexico, daborate, art® y because of li* aid. illy wears sequin vious attempts business here, I 1 ful and spent® 1 oping a used! Hhs first record' November and< lias been earoi ■II as record sale has given a ge* pie to many rod ent several yea! ood rock in Sp® lave not been ad way in the tastes isical critic 14 said. ■s are “No tevofj it Going to Beg ir “We are Rosl' ;k y escuchen," 1 ’ 1 en.” Vol. 80 No. 111 GSPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, March 7, 1985 Texas horse racing battle ends in House Associated Press AUSTIN — The Texas House on Wednesday voted 90-52 against a horse race betting bill, apparently slamming the gate on pari-mutuel gambling for at least two more years. “It’s a dead issue,” said Speaker Gib Lewis, a supporter of the mea sure. Gov. Mark White agreed the vote killed the bill for this year. “I frankly was very surprised by the overwhelming vote in opposition to it,” he said. “I suppose that will be the end of that for tnis session.” The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Hugo Berlanga, D-Oorpus Christi, said he had thought he enjoyed a three-vote margin going into the floor debate. Afterward, he agreed with Lewis that the 1985 battle is over. “This issue won’t go away,” he predicted. “1 think it will come back (in another session).” The bill’s defeat followed a hour debate. Racing opponents cheered the vote, saying the sizeable margin shows that Texans don’t want gambling legalized. “I think it snowed very wide spread disillusionment with pari mutuel gambling as a revenue-rais ing measure for Texas,” said Phil Strickland, director of the Baptist Life Commission. But Strickland said he expected the issue to come up again in the 1987 Legislature. Senate sponsor Ike Harris, R-Dal- las, refusea to declare the 1985 bat tle over. “It’s still alive,” he said. "It was a heavy vote but there are other ways to get it in.” The state twice has allowed pari mutuel betting — from 1905 to 1909, and from 1933 to 1937 as a money-raising move during the De pression. A projected $733 million state budget deficit was viewed as the im petus to passage, and backers pushed the gambling bill as a reve nue-producer. The Senate approved a similar bill in 1983, but it failed by two votes in the House. Lewis said the latest effort might have been doomed by trying to guar antee that minorities would own at least part of all race tracks and con cession contracts. Those sections were added after the 11-member Legislative Black Caucus — whose votes were viewed as crucial to passage — said it would oppose the bill because it would not dedicate part of the racing revenue for welfare. Increasing minority quality, not quantity, goal of A&M By KIRSTEN DIETZ Stull Writer Increasing the quality of Texas A&M’s niinoritv students, not the tpantity, is the Office of School Rela tions’ goal, says Loyd Taylor, direc tor of school relations. “It's not a numbers game to us, it’s a quality or success game,” he says. The office defines a minority as a black or Hispanic person. The Texas Equal Educational Opportunity Plan from the U.S. Department of Educa tion requires Texas A&M to work to ward enrolling a certain number of minority students. The University is to reach this number by enrolling a specified number of black and his- panic freshmen each fall. The speci fied number changes each year. Sheran Riley, assistant to Texas A&M President Frank E. Vandiver, says, “Basically we’re OK on under- S raduate hispanic enrollment but ehind on undergraduate black en rollment.” According to fall 1984 enrollment figures, 601, or 1.6 percent of the students, are black and 1,688, or 4.6 percent, are hispanic. When the of fice opened in 1979, 256, or 0.8 per cent, were black and 789, or 2.5 per cent, were hispanic. According to 1980 U.S. census figures, blacks make up about 11.7 percent of the U.S. population and about 12 percent of the state popula tion. People of hispanic origin make up about 6.5 percent of the U.S. population and about 21 percent of the state population. Since the office opened in Jan uary 1979, Taylor says the number of minorities enrolled at the Univer sity has increased greatly, but the in crease is not reflected in the percent ages because the Univerity has grown at the same time. If minorities are hesitant about at tending Texas A&M, it’s because they feel they can’t handle it acade mically, not because of the lack of minorities at the school, he says. But Robert Bisor, executive vice See INCREASING, page 5 Photo by WA YNE L. GRABEIN Fountain Fun The spray from Rudder Fountain Wednesday afternoon gave these Brownies from troop 1173 a spring break between stops during their field trip to Texas A&M. The troop was visiting campus to look at landscape designs. Student Senate reviews MSC protest bill By JERRY OSLIN Stuff Writer A bill was introduced in the Stu dent Senate Wednesday night rec ommending Texas A&M “take ap propriate measures” to stop all protesting and demonstrations in and around the Memorial Student Center. Robert Hill, the bill's sponsor, said the bill is needed to reinstate the MSC’s “memorial status.” "This bill is not intended to deny First Amendment rights,” he sato. “This bill is to remind students that the MSC is a memorial.” Hill said the bill would pertain only to the MSC grass area and not to Rudder Fountain. Hill said the bill is in response to a student group’s attempt to demon strate on the MSC grass last Novem ber. The bill was assigned to commit tee for further study and will be ad dressed by the Senate during their next meeting on March 20. In other business, the Senate passed a bill that would allow stu dents to voice their opinions during Senate meetings. The bill says that a student will be limited to a three-minute time slot and that the student must reserve this time slot with the Student Gov ernment secretary in advance of the Senate meeting. The bill also says students who “exceed the bounds of good taste and decency” will be subject to re moval. In a speech to the Senate, State Rep. Richard Smith said he would fignt to keep the Legislature from dumping the state’s budget problem on the Univerity and students. Smith said he does not support raising tuition but, because the Leg islature is likely to raise it, he will support the bill that gives students the best deal. The Senate passed a bill that rec ommends how $3.8 million in stu dent service fees should be spent. The Senate also passed a bill call-. ing for all future buiiditigs at A&M to have a handicapped access ramp at the main entrance. It also approved a bill that calls for relocating current parking spaces for the handicapped. Geoffrey Hutton, sponsor of the bill, said some current parking spaces for the haudicapped are not wide enough and some are on slopes that cause a person’s wheelchair to roll away. In otner actioq, the External Af fairs Committee killed a bill that called on the Senate to support pari mutuel betting and horse racing in Texas. The committee killed the bill be cause the State House had voted ear lier in the day to reject a similar bill that would have allowed horse rac ing in Texas. Farmer relief bill vetoed by Reagan Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Reagan vetoed a farm credit relief package Wednesday, calling it a “massive new bailout that would add billions to the deficit” without really helping farmers. Warning Congress not to send him any more of what he considers irresponsible spending bills, Reagan vowed to “veto again and again until spending is brought under control.” Taking the bait of a Democrat- controlled House that rushed the legislation to him, Reagan let it sit on his desk for only 2'A hours before he signed the veto message sending it back to Capitol Hill. House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., D-Mass., said he didn’t plan to ask the House to try to override the veto because changes of the Senate doing the same were nil. “I don’t see any sense in it,” he said. O’Neill said the president was wrong in describing the bill as a bud get issue. “For an administration that has added a trillion dollars to the na tional debt,” O’Neill said, “this is a reasonable price for ensuring the survival of an American way of life.” “The bill I vetoed would not really help farmers; it’s too late in the sear son for that,” Reagan said, reading from a prepared statement. “This bill is merely designed to convey the impression of helping farmers.” The credit provisions of the bill were designed to make it easier for farmers already heavily in debt to obtain new bank loans for spring planting: $100 million in interest subsidies; $1.85 billion in new loan guarantees; and about $7 billion in immediate advances on crop loans normally not received until harvest time. In Austin, some Texas House members want Congress to pass a 1985 federal bill that would allow Texas farmers to receive commodity prices that would at least cover the cost of production. “We want Congress to know the Texas Legislature knows there is a farm crisis and wants something done about it,” Rep. Steve Carriker, D-Roby, told a news conference. The resolution, which will be sent first to a committee for study, says thousands of Texas farmers and ranchers face the prospect of insol vency within the next year because of the farm debt crisis. Mission residents work to mend their lives By DAINAH BULLARD Stuff Writer Residents at Twin City Mission in ■ Bryan don’t swim in the mainstream, but they do have dreams similar to those of the “upwardly mobile” American. Thomas and Don are Mission resi dents. They work in the kitchen where they prepare three meals each day for about 70 people. Thomas, 43, is passing time at the Mission until his broken ribs heal. After that, Thomas says he’ll find a job and earn some money to replace the truck he lost after it was im pounded. His recent misfortunes oc curred after he had too much to drink. “It was the first time I’d had vodka in 13 years, and I got a little tight,” Thomas says. “I got into a fight and got my ribs busted. I’ll stay here another week until they heal, and then I’ll move on.” Thomas says he’ll probably find a job in the area laying bricks, a trade he began when he w'as 14. When he saves enough money to buy a van he has his eye on, he'll move on to an other town. Thomas says he will return home soon to take care of his teenage daughter. But right now, Thomas says he’s busy avoiding his former wife. “You don’t know that woman,” Thomas says. “She’s the luckiest woman I know. You know that Coke contest where you spell ‘Coke’ and win $10,000? She won it.” Don, 26, says he missed spelling “Coke” by one letter. Don says he is a traveller, and has crossed the United States 17 times, visiting 49 states, plus Canada and Mexico. “I alw'ays come back to Texas — and I’m not even from Texas, I’m from Illinois.” he says. Don says he asked to work in the kitchen when he decided to stay at the Mission for a while. His father owned a cafe, Don says, and he has worked every job from dishwasher to waiter. ‘T’ve been in food services since I was 12, and I’m 26 now,” he says. Like Thomas, Don has plans for life after the Mission. When he gath ers enough money, Don wants to put his years of experience to work in his own cafe. “I’m going to find a small town, and 1 don’t care how many fast food places there are, I’m going to open me a cafe,” He says. “And I’m not going to have a cement sidewalk. I’m going to have a board sidewalk and a hitching post. It’s going to be old- timey like.” When he opens his cafe, Don says he’ll work the late shift, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. “That’s when your bar crowd comes in,” he says. “The worst shift is the day shift. I hate this shift here (at the Mission).” Thomas and Don say it takes about three hours to prepare a meal for their crowd. They tnink life at the Mission is OK. Their 3:30 a.m. starting time doesn’t bother them, but the talkative preachers they sometimes must listen to do. “I liked the old preacher better,” Don says. “This one doesn’t know when to quit praying. He took four and a half minutes yesterday morn ing.” See MISSION, page 6 Pat Jones, Jessie Breedlove, and Billy “Bird” Sheffield, (left to right) spend the af- Photo by FRANK IRWIN ternoon on a bench in back of the Twin City Mission.