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Page 9
MBW Texas A&M ^ <■■ A
The Battalion
MSC Council meets
Chefs job given up at Rumours
Page 3
Serving the University community
Vol. 80 No. 143 USPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, April 30, 1985
Hobby shows
assets over
$8 million
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Ll. Gov. Bill Hobby
was worth about $8.4 million at the
beginning of the year, according to
financial statements filed in the sec
retary of state’s office.
1 he required disclosure
statements, due last Friday, do not
mandate that state of ficials give a de
tailed breakdown of their worth. But
Hobby voluntarily included a page
listing his assets and liabilities.
That page showed “excess of as
sets over liabilities" of $8,367,569 as
of Dec. 31, 1984.
Gov. Mark White's statement
■ showed he owns more than 500
" shaves of stock in V ann and Home
Savings. It also showed he earned in
a non-profit,tell excess of $5,000 f rom rental of
h computers.fc;, Houston properties.
Room lUl.feH r , .
I he governor owes more than
$5,000 on each of six loans, accord
ing to the report, which does not re
quire officials to disclose exact
amounts.
White listed assorted gifts re
ceived, including two pairs of boots,
a pistol from the Game Wardens As-
sociadon, horses given to his “depen-
Bdents” and a needlepoint portrait
K % Ifrom an Austin couple.
\ m ft Linda Gale White, the governor’s
ftl ft Bwife, listed her occupation as real es-
■ Btalc agent. The report showed that
White’s three school-age children
have no jobs.
Attorney General Jim Mattox's re
port listed a variety of business inter-
lests, including two car washes he
|owns.
hip is $10 and £
.iuding fwrtjjffiji
I. This is the ite
Donald!
■ I
'AST EVER!
iRNINC
President says
trip to cemetery
is morally right
Dormitory For Sale?
Photo by Lorraine Christian
It seems that even dormitories aren’t safe
when Texas A&M gets a budget cut. So,
maybe someone will call the president’s of
fice and check out the going rate on Walton
Hall. This real estate agent’s sign has been
by Walton’s Ramp C for about three weeks.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan, on the eve of departing for
a 10-day European trip, said Mon
day he will visit a German cemetery
where Nazi SS soldiers are buried,
saying it was “morally right.”
Reagan also said ihe uproar over
die controversial slop will not ruin hi
s summit meeting with six other
world leaders.
Vice President George Bush,
meanwhile, called on the nation to
support Reagan, saying it “has been
a very difficult time for everyone
and especially so for the president.”
Reagan will fly tonight to Bonn,
West Germany, for the annual sum
mit of the seven major industrialized
democracies. He hopes to nail down
a date for the start of a new round of
international trade talks.
The journey also includes state
visits in West Germany, Spain and
Portugal and a speech in Strasbourg,
France, on the 40th anniversary of
Germany’s surrender in World War
II.
Overshadowing the entire trip is
Reagan's planned appearance with
West German Chancellor Helmut
Kohl next Sunday at the Kolme-
shohe cemetery at Bitburg, near the
Luxembourg border. Among the
nearly 2,000 graves are those of 49
soldiers from the Waffen SS, the
elite Nazi combat corps which ran
Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps.
Jewish leaders and American vet
eran groups have condemned Rea
gan’s planned appearance at the
cemetery. Some senators and House
rhembers wrote to Kohl urging him
to withdraw the invitation for Rea
gan to Bitburg.
Will he still go to Bitburg? “Yes,”
Reagan replied firmly.
In a television interview with fot
eign journalists, Reagan said, “The
final word has been said as far as 1
am concerned. 1 think it is morally
right to do what I am doing, and 1
am not going to change my mind on
that.
“All of those in that cemetery have
long since met the supreme judge of
right and wrong,” he said. “And
whatever punishment or justice was
needed has been rendered by one
who was above us all.
“It isn’t going there to honor any
one, it is going there simply to, in
that surrounding, bring to the peo
ple an awareness of the great recon
ciliation that has taken place,” Rea
gan added.
Meanwhile, the House postponed
action on a resolution urging Rea
gan to reconsider his visit because of
opposing viewpoints.
“This is a great wrong, Mr. Presi
dent,” said Rep. Robert G. Forri-
celli, D-N.J. “Admit it, change it,
don’t offend the good name of our
country. There is no place for you at
the tomb of the unknown Nazi.”
But Rep. Thomas F. Hartnett, R-
S.C., said that although placing iiit-
hurg on Reagan’s schedule was “a
mistake, a blunder and poor
judgment,” Reagan should go ahead
with it out of foreign policy consid
erations.
Lawyer says abused children do not have special rights
Editor's note: This is the second arti
cle in a three-part series on the
rights of minors.
By CATHIE ANDERSON
Staff Writer
Marlin Guggenheim, a former
■staff attorney with the American
ICivil Liberties Union, says abused
Idiildren have no more rights than
feny other minors.
“All children have the right to be
raised by their parents without fear
of harm,” he says. “But abused chil
dren, per se, have no rights other
minors do not have. T hey do, how
ever, have indirect rights since the
state can act on their behalf.
“The state may intervene in the
family and impose minimum condi
tions of care in the upbringing of
children,” Guggenheim says. Gug
genheim, the director of the Juve
nile Rights Clinic at the New York
University School of Law, has co
written a book titled “The Rights of
Young People.”
Parents have the right to raise
their children according to their own
beliefs, he says, although some may
consider this to be a limitation on mi
nors’ rights.
But Guggenheim says the state
can implement a lawsuit on the chil
dren’s behalf by assuming a limited
f (resumption that parents are, in
act, abusive or neglectful.
“Since both children and parents
are presumed to have reciprocal
rights to live together, the state will
try to return children to their par
ents first,” Guggenheim says.
“1 see this (right) as good because
I don’t think that bureaucrats are
able to make decisions like this,” he
says. “It often results in discrimina
tion against the poor and minorities.
And sometimes the children are
raised worse than if they had been
sent back to the home. The child is
not given the continuity of care he
needs.”
But at times children cannot re
turn to their homes, so the state and
some non-profit organizations at
tempt to ensure that they aren’t lost
in the shuffle of today’s work-a-day
world.
The Brazos County Department
of Human Resources is a stdte
agency that helps to ensure that the
rights of minors are protected. T he
child welfare department, an agency
within the human resources depart-
See See MINORS, page 8
he Battalion — it can make
ir break an Aggie's day
80 percent say instructors 'excellenf
Students evaluate Chemistry 102
Editor’s note: This is the sec
ond article in a three-part series
on The Battalion.
By CYNTHIA GAY
Reporter
Texas A&M students file by
The Battalion news stands daily.
Some reach for the newspaper,
others pass it by.
After an all-nighter with an
overdue research paper or a com
plicated computer program. The
Battalion may not be the best
sou rce of encou rage me n t.
Michelle Powe, managing edi
tor, said, “People don’t want to
think about negative things.”
The Battalion has given the
Corps of Cadets a fair shake over
all, Chuck Rollins, outgoing
Corps commander, said.
“It has related the stories as
truthfully as possible compared
to other papers,” he said. “We
had a lot that could have been
blown out of proportion.”
Dainah Bullard, a former staff
writer, was assigned to cover the
Corps just before cadet Bruce
Goodrich’s death in August. Bul
lard went to the hospital the night
Goodrich was taken there, and
she said she knew he had died by
the expressions on his parents’
faces. Bullard said the resultant
coverage of the Goodrich inci
dent by out-of-town newspapers
was upsetting.
“It was a real sensitive issue
and (the reporters) didn't treat it
that way,” she said. “They were
on the outside looking in.”
Bullard adds that after Rollins
understood that she wanted only
the facts, her reporting of Corps
issues became an easier job.
“It’s gotten to where (the ca
dets) call me,” she said, “which is
a big turnaround.”
Dr. Murray Milford, Faculty
Senate speaker, said The Battal
ion's coverage of Senate issues im
proved this semester when the
newspaper assigned staff writer
Kirsten Dietz to the “beat.” He
says problems occurred in the
past between the Faculty Senate
and The Battalion because of
“either party not going out of the
way to be sure the other is well in
formed.”
Opinion columns also need re
search as much news articles,
Rhonda Snider, Fall editor, said.
Doing research for opinion col
umns vs. research for stories may
be dangerously similar, yet the
outcome can be drastically differ
ent. If the writer or the reader
doesn’t take the difference into
account, confusion inevitably
leads to perceptions of injustice.
Case in point: staff writer
Trent Leopold’s recent column
on sorority life at Texas A&M.
Reci Reeves, a member of the
Chi Omega sorority, said, “He
See See NEWS, page 6
Editor ’s note: This is the first article
in a two-part series on the freshman
chemistry program at Texas A&M.
By ANN CERVENKA
Staff Writer
After recent accusations that the
chemistry department at Texas
A&M is too difficult for students, the
department has questioned Chemis
try 102 students to get their opin
ions.
The course evaluation question
naire asks for an overall evaluation
of the instructor’s methods and ef
fectiveness.
The results from 209 question
naires from the classes of Dr. Yinoo
Tang and Dr. Wendy Kenney-Ken-
nicutt, chemistry professors at Texas
A&M, indicate that 80 percent of the
students rate instructors as “excel
lent, highly recommended,” 18 per
cent rate them “good” and 2 percent
rate them as “fair.”
Another question asked the stu
dents to evaluate the course.
Of 206 answers, 11 percent of the
students in the two classes rated it as
“excellent, highly recommended,”
38 percent as “good,” 40 percent as
“fair,” 5.5 percent as “poor” and 5.5
percent as “very poor, not recom
mended.”
The evaluation form also asked,
“What did you especially like about
the course?” The space was often left
blank.
Common responses were “no
thing” and “I have no love for chem
istry. Tang made it bearable.”
The results of course evaluation questionnaires from
209 Chemistry indicate that 80 percent of the students
rate instructors as “excellent, highly recommended. ”
The questionnaires are from the classes of Dr. Yinoo
Tang and Dr. Wendy Kenney-Kennicutt, both are
chemistry professors at Texas A&M.
When asked “What aspects of the
course most need improvement?”
students wrote, “I know the stuff,
but my grades don’t reflect that,”
“I’ve gotten to the point where
learning is no longer the key to
Chem 102, but memorization and
cheating are,” and “Don’t try to fail
chemistry students, just teach them
chemistry.”
Other students complained that
the homework did not relate to the
test questions, that the grading sys
tem is unfair and that students are
forced to rely on tutors to pass the
course.
However, Tang said the chemistry
department provides four types of
help to students free of charge.
• A professor-tutorial program
for most week-day hours to answer
questions on a one-to-one basis.
• A teaching-assistant-tutorial
program for most week-day hours.
• Pre-exam review sessions by all
instructors.
• And, weekly special review' ses
sions.
“Every hour, students have two
places to find individual help,” Tang
said.
In another questionnaire, the two
classes answered questions about the
tutoring system.
Of the 210 answers, 24 percent
ranked the amount of tutorial help
as “excellent,” 31 percent as “very
good,” 30 percent as “good,” 13 per
cent as “fair,” and 2 percent as
“poor.”
When asked if they use tutorial
help outside the chemistry depart
ment, 47 percent said “never,” 18
percent said “occasionally, on an ‘in
dividual’ base,” 10 percent said “fre
quently, on a ‘group’ base,” 6 percent
said “frequently, on an ‘individual’
base,” and 19 percent said “fre
quently, on a ‘group’ base.”
In addition to the help provided
by the chemistry department, pro
fessors provide students with a list of
tutors.
“We offer tutor lists to help stu
dents improve their chemistry,”
Tang said.
Michael Goad, a graduate student
in education, has tutored 413 chem
istry students this semesteUalone.
Unlike most tutors who charge an
average of $8 an hour, Goad charges
$25 for the entire semester, and
therefore makes more than $10,000
in one semester.
Goad’s goal is to put chemistry on
a level his students can understand
by using simple terms.
He said the three main complaints
students have are that the home
work is not corrected and returned
but shows up on exams, the tests are
too long to complete in 50 minutes
and questions on the exams are too
challenging and the students do not
understand them.
However, Tang said these accusa
tions are false.
From Fall 1979 to Spring 1983,
18.8 percent of students failed, in
Fall 1984, only 13.7 percent of stu
dents failed, Tang said.
He also said the same questions
are used now as in the past except
for those that are “more difficult.”
Keeney-Kennicutt said the chem
istry department does not object to
Goad tutoring or making money, but
she said Goad has been illegally us
ing University facilities to carry out a
business of tutoring.
“He can’t be considered a tutor,”
she said. “He’s a very successful busi
nessman.”