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— 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.