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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1985)
wmmmm iCH iron ent 6-9771 ^ Rock or Rockolle Ac 1 C0UEQ1 •TATION, Local grocery stores continue to cash students' checks — Page 5 MMHHm In SWC, players get money for nothing and cars for free — Page 10 The Battalion Serving the University community INCH Vol. 81 Mo. 18 CJSPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, September 25,1985 Faculty discusses ideas on sick leave law )R $3.59 By SONDRA PICKARD Reporter laculty members at Texas col- |es and universities are showing Icern about this summer’s deci sion by the state Legislature denying sick leave benefits to many profes- . Jots. O-DAVE flKVhile faculty members at Texas 8-DAVE \ jTfidi University, the University of "Houston and the University of ■Texas have not protested the law to '■■Jthe extent that the A&M faculty has, >?iHB8 ®*®lthe issue is sure to be found at the Itoj) of all three schools’ future fac ulty senate agendas. BU September’s meeting, the Bxas A&M Faculty Senate passed ■emergency resolution suggesting the Faculty Senate take “legal steps to readdress the grievances inflicted upon less-than-12-months faculty.” “The reaction of our faculty is not quite as drastic as yours,” Dr. Marga ret Wilson, president of the Texas Tech Faculty Senate, said, “but we are very concerned for a number of reasons, and one is that we could ac tually be docked pay just for being ill.” The new law was recommended to the Texas House of Representa tives by the Legislative Budget Board, which is advised by the audi tor’s office. The final bill which was endorsed included the denial of sick leave to faculty who work less than 12 months per year. Because over 70 percent of the faculty at most universities are on less than 12-month contracts, the law applies to a vast majority of them. According to Wilson, faculty rep resentatives at Texas Tech have spo ken to the administration about the law and are waiting for an an nouncement as to how they will han dle the change. “We may get just as concerned when we find out how our adminis tration acts on the issue,” Wilson said. “Theoretically, we could go back to the old unwritten sick leave policy, only now it’s really written. “I have no idea what the Legis lature had in mind when they passed this bill, unless it was the budget. Austin is fighting for pennies and we’re getting caught in dollars.” Dr. Stephen Huber, faculty senate chairman and professor of law at the University of Houston, said this is a very bizarre situation and that the rider to the bill including the new sick leave policy was added by “audi tor types” who probably weren’t un duly familiar or concerned with the reaction it would provoke. He also said the bill must have passed by accident. “Our reaction to the new law is ex tremely negative,” Huber said. Huber said the potential abuse of sick leave which led the state to add the law in the first place lies in cases where a faculty member experiences an extended illness and does not use his sick leave pay. Then, according to the old policy, if the person dies. Photo by ANTHONY S. CASPER Commercializing the Mud Lot The “mud lot” parking area located at the corner of Nagle and Church streets went under construction Tuesday. The lot is being leveled under the guidance of Skipper Harris (in white), who owns a parking lot maintenance company. Related story page 3. New GPR procedure adopted a now Requirements for MBA raised University News Service ■ Texas A&M University’s College of Business Administration has |raised the requirements for students {seeking a Master’s of Business Ad ministration degree. Traditionally, the University has jrequired MBA students to maintain minimum 3.0 grade-point ratio on a4.0scale — a “B” average. The new policy also requires students to attain a“B” average in MBA core courses iiiorder to qualify for graduation. K “Previously, students making C’s | in core courses could offset their {[fade deficiencies with A’s in elec tive courses,” said Dr. Dan Rob ertson, director of the master’s pro gram. “The new policy requires that any hours of ‘C’ in MBA core courses must be offset by an equiva lent number of hours of ‘A’ in MBA core courses.” Students who do not meet the minimum grade requirements are ? laced on probation, Robertson said. he rules for probation also have been modified. “A master’s student in the college is currently placed on probation when his grade-point average in any semester falls below a 3.0,” Rob ertson said. “Since the grades made during a semester form the basis for probation review, a student may go off probation by making a 3.0 in a subsequent semester even though his cumulative GPR remains below a 3.0.” But that will no longer be the case. “Students on probation will be re quired to raise their cumulative GPR to 3.0 by the end of the next nine hours of course work or within a cal endar year, whichever comes first,” Robertson said. Failure to do so will become a ba sis for dismissal from the college. Robertson said the business school notifies students who are placed on probation and reminds them of re- a uirements for regaining good aca- emic standing. To qualify for graduation at A&M, MBA students must complete 48 hours of coursework. One quar ter of the courses are electives. Core corses in the two-year program con sist of 36 hours of coursework, in cluding two accounting courses, four business analysis and research courses, a marketing course and four management courses. MBA graduates this spring re ceived average starting salary offers of $27,974, up from $25,312 last year,with a high salary offer this year of $38,400. Health center eliminates some services By TAMARA BELL Staff Writer | The A.P. Beutel Health Center no longer provides physical examina tions or gives prescriptions for birth (jonlrdl. The service was discontinued on ept. 1 because this semester the lealth center staff consists of seven ihysicians instead of nine, said Dr. Ilaude Goswick, director of the lealth center. One physician re turned to Brazil and the other one retired, he said. “We see 500 students a day,” he aid. “We don’t want to discriminate igainst women but we’re under- taffed and overworked. This was a logical place to chop. Maybe we’ll |ven have to eliminate some other Services.” Even though the physical exami nation has been eliminated, Goswick said a student can still get another clinic’s or doctor’s prescription for birth control pills filled at the health center. Another reason why examinations for birth control was discontinued, Goswick said, is because some doc tors personally prefer not to give prescriptions for nirth control. “If a doctor doesn’t want to pre scribe birth control, his wishes have to be respected,” he said. “A woman shouldn’t want to get a prescription by a doctor who doesn’t believe she should have it, just as she wouldn’t want surgery performed by a doctor who doesn’t believe she should have the operation. “We try to make it clear that we, the doctors, aren’t here to do routine assignments,” Goswick said. “We take care of injuries and illnesses and this is neither.” But Patty Edwards, a married graduate student, believes this serv ice is as important as treating stuffy noses and hurt knees. “It’s illogical to think women don’t need this service,” she said. “The health center is there to service the students. That’s why we pay our health fee. “A large percentage of the stu dents here are married. Many go to the health center for economic rea sons.” Goswick said the health center didn’t charge for the physical exami nations, only for the lab fee. Four nurses who work for obste- tricans and gynecologists said a pri vate physician charges about $45 for an examination. The other alternative, Planned Parenthood of Brazos County, re quires an increased payment for its services. College students were con sidered income-eligible by the state to receive low-cost birth control serv ices. But in the last legislative ses sion, students were removed from the income-eligible category and must now pay according to their par ents’ income. Even though this service has been discontinued at the health center, Goswick said, it is possible that one day a gynecologist will be on staff and the service will be reopened. his family receives half of the money he has accrued by not using his sick leave pay. “If you eliminate that provision of the old law,” Huber said, “then the law would be fine, but taking away sick leave pay altogether is a dread ful mistake.” Huber said he has looked over the actual legislation and has written a letter to Gov. Mark White asking that the law be brought to the atten tion of groups more concerned with educational issues. The University of Houston Board of Regents will meet soon, and Huber said they plan to act on the situation. “Our major priority is to get the law changed in the next legislative session, if not sooner,” Huber said. According to Dr. Ruben McDa niel, chairman of the faculty senate at the University of Texas, the fac ulty there has requested that a stand ing committee of the senate, the Fac ulty Welfare Committee, try to inform the faculty on exactly what is happening and then report back to the senate as to what actions should be taken. “There is a lot of concern by the faculty here for three reasons,” Mc Daniel said. “One is how it will affect us individually, two, how it will affect recruitment and three, why did it happen in the first place?” McDaniel said it is still a mystery to him why the bill was passed be- See Sick leave, page 12 Missile defense not foolproof, advisers say Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense program could “substantially in crease” America’s safety under cer tain conditions, but it will never be able to protect the entire country from nuclear attack, science advisers to Congress concluded Tuesday. A study by the Office of Technol ogy Assessment said the United States would need “great technical success” in its research program along with a change in the Soviet Union’s strategy to emphasize de fense rather than offense. A companion OTA study raised new questions about U.S. anti-satel lite, or ASAT, weapons and cau tioned that while this country\ may lead now in a technology field re lated to Star Wars, the Soviets are likely to catch up. “What this means is that after spending billions and billions of dol lars, we could find that we have bought ourselves greater instability than the world has ever confronted in the atomic age,” said Rep. Les As- pin, D-Wis., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The 324-page study of the Star Wars program, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative, was done at the request of Aspin’s panel and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The SDI program “carries a risk” that it could start an entirely new arms race and could create “severe instabilities” if it made the Soviets think the United States was seeking a first-strike capability, the study sug gested. It noted there is confusion over the specific goals of Star Wars. Some supporters of the program want a so-called “Astrodome” defense that would defend the entire nation, while others call for a defense of U.S. missile sites. Critics say the lat ter would violate the 1972 treaty lim iting missile defenses. The study concluded that while anti-missile weapons could “substan tially increase” the safety margin in a nuclear attack, “assured survival of the U.S. population (the ‘Astro dome’ defense) appears impossible to achieve if the Soviets are deter mined to deny it to us.” That is because any U.S. defense could be countered by Soviet offen sive maneuvers that would likely in sure that some attacking missiles would make it through the Ameri can shield, it said. As the November summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev approaches, the Soviets have increasingly called for cuts in the Star Wars program and said any new nuclear arms limitation agreement depends on the United States limiting its research. But the president, contending the Soviets are mounting their own re search into missile defenses, said again last week that he would not agree to limiting the scope of the re search program, although he did say he would negotiate before any sys tem is deployed. An earlier OTA study of Star Wars raised questions about the pro gram’s feasibility. It said any effec tive defense would require technical capabilities in areas such as comput ers and targeting that appeared to be far beyond the nation’s capabili ties. The OTA said its latest study “provides more questions than an swers,” but said the current research program, expected to cost $33 bil lion, is still in its infancy. The ASAT study said the Soviets currently threaten some U.S. satel lites but could be a much greater threat in the future without limits on the program. The Air Force recently had its first successful operational test of the American system, a weapon Rea gan says is needed to offset the So viet ASAT deployed for more than a decade. Both nations use satellites, but the United States is more dependent on them for communications with far- flung military outposts, the study noted. Offshore waste incineration is relocated Associated Press ' WASHINGTON — The E«vi- ronmeatai ProtectkH* Agency is' planning mote tests of ocean in* cineration of hazardous wastes* but they will take place in the open Atlantic Ocean instead of the .Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Lloyd. HHHMHHI D*Texas, said the &PA is expected to issue two per mits for research burning utter this year. Each pemut would al low one cruise, during which sev eral burns could occur. A source who asked not to be identified said one of the sites currently under consideration is about 110 miles east of Atlantic City. The source said one other site is also a possibility, but no de- dsipn' ' Bentsen’s office said EPA is ex pected to make the announce ment in a few days. Incineration at sea is an alter native to land-based waste dumps and incinerators near population centers, proponents contend. But coastal residents fear damage to marine life and tourism. • ; ; Two test bunts have already occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, about 200 mMe* from Brownsville, prompting protests from Texas Gulf Coast residents.