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The Battalion
College Station, Texas
Thursday, September 25, 1986
•reign and dome?
hite allows betting bill to pass into law
New Ownersl;
USTIN (AP) — Saying it is a
21^ Tv Aw> question each Texan must decide,
Bv. Mark White on Wednesday al-
' bend inTx.AlfB' 6 ^ a that could legalize pari
mutuel wagering on horse and dog
yan / / 9-2626 j races to become law without his sig
nature.
he bill calls for a statewide vote
held on the gambling question
ovember 1987.
will vote against pari-mutuel
Igering, but each one of us will
h|ve one vote to cast — a very im-
prtant vote — as equal citizens of
| Bxas,” White said.
TO ORDER: SeMto BWhite said the idea of gambling
or moneyoriWbSl rut 5 counter to his conscience and
($4 99 plus sh«
RENCO
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CoKtoeSUMn.
)UR AGGIE SPIRIT!
religious beliefs, but he said the issue
is one the public ultimately must de
cide.
“I am convinced that unless the
will of the majority is allowed to be
expressed, this divisive issue will
come back again to tie up — and
even plague — future sessions of the
Legislature,” White said.
The bill was approved during the
special legislative session that ended
Sept. 4.
White had until midnight
Wednesday to sign the bill, veto it or
allow it to take effect without any ac
tion on his part.
As approved by the Legislature,
the bill calls for a statewide referen
dum in 1987 on whether to legalize
pari-mutuel wagering for the first
time in half a century.
Such a referendum was one of
three requirements White insisted
on for him to approve any racing
bill.
The other two, which White ac
knowledged were included in the
bill, were local elections in the areas
where race tracks would be located
and protections against infiltration
by organized crime.
Gambling on horse races hasn’t
been legal in Texas since a four-year
period during the 1930s when the
Legislature permitted it as an exper
iment.
White issued a one-page
statement explaining why he de
cided against signing or vetoing the
bill. He said his was an action taken
as a public official, not as an individ
ual.
“All of my personal and religious
values are against it, there is no place
for it among what I believe is good
and right and best,” he said. “My op
position stems from individual con
science, from my Baptist convictions
and from my belief in the traditional
values of Texas.”
However, he noted that Legis-
t on initial
visit
11 Clinic
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A Different Drummer
■Sophomore Todd Nelson plays his drums Wednesday afternoon on
■the polo field out of consideration for his neighbors at Scandia Apart
ment Complex. Nelson, a natural history major, played along with a
tape of the band Missing Persons.
alawsuit slapped on A&M, Corps
Cadet claims negligence at bonfire cut caused leg injury
‘ By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Staff Writer .
{fA Texas A&M cadet filed a law
suit Monday against Texas A&M
and the Corps of Cadets for injuries
he allegedly received cutting wood
for the 1985 Aggie Bonfire.
■The suit charges that Keith Van
Bpskirk, a 20-year-old junior in
Squadron 15, was injured through
the negligence of A&M employees
and that the injury will cause him
“physical pain and mental anguish,
loss of earnings and loss of earning
capacity.”
The suit was filed in Brazos
County district court Monday nearly
a year after the injury allegedly oc
curred on Oct. 20, 1985.
Van Boskirk’s attorney, James
Mehaffy Jr. of Beaumont, said that
the injury resulted from a partially
cut tree that was left standing by one
of the crews. The tree was unat
tended when it fell, knocking over a
second tree which, in turn, struck
Van Boskirk, Mehaffy said.
Van Boskirk suffered a broken
leg, Mehaffy said. The break was
high up on the femur, where the
bone fits into the hip socket, he said.
The resulting medical costs ran
about $6,000, he said.
Mehaffy said his client was not
considering bringing suit against the
members of the crew that left the
tree standing. Rather, the employees
of Texas A&M and the Corps are
the targets of the suit, Mehaffy said.
Jerry Cain, associate general
counsel for the A&M System, said
the defendants had not yet been
served and had no comments con
cerning the lawsuit.
No dollar figure was named in the
suit and Mehaffy said that it is “im
proper” at such an early point in the
suit to discuss precise figures, but he
did say the suit fell in the “several
hundred-thousand-dollar category.”
Survey: Doctors admit to use of drugs
Nor# 1 '
■BOSTON (AP) — Nearly 40 per-
eem of doctors under age 40 ad-
mined in a survey that they used
marijuana or cocaine to get high
with friends, and a quarter of doc
tors of all ages said they recently
frlated themselves with mind-affect
ing drugs.
||bverall, more than half the physi
cians and three-quarters of the med
ical students who participated in the
Harvard University survey said they
have used drugs at least once for
self-treatment, to get high or to help
them stay awake.
Only 1 percent of the doctors sur
veyed said their drug use had ever
caused them to give poor care to pa
tients.
Most physicians use these drugs
only occasionally, if at all. But the re
searchers say medical students and
young doctors are more experienced
with drugs than are older physicians.
And they predict that the propor
tion of drug-taking doctors will grow
as medical students set up practice
and take their habits with them.
“Perhaps for the first time,” they
wrote, “appreciable although small
proportions of persons entering
medicine have histories of extensive
drug use and dependence.”
But they concluded that the drug
use they found should not be cause
for great alarm because it simply re
flects growing drug use throughout
American life.
“When psychoactive drug use be
comes a fad and is approved by the
latures have been grappling
question for years, and he a
with the
question tor years, and he acknowl
edged that there are arguments on
both sides.
“If my decision were only a matter
of personal preference, I would
have vetoed this bill immediately,
but it is not,” White said. “The issue
is the right of every person to de
cide, and the issue is my duty to
serve all of the people of this state.
“I believe other Texans should
have the right to make up their own
minds just as I have, because we are
all equally entitled to our own be
liefs.”
Gov. Mark White
Texas may join
highest taxers
if plan passes
broad spectrum of society, just about
all groups get involved,” said Dr.
William E. McAuliffe, the study’s di
rector.
McAuliffe, a researcher at the
Harvard School of Public Health,
published his findings in Thursday’s
New England Journal of Medicine.
His study was based on a random
survey of 500 practicing physicians
and 504 medical students in Massa
chusetts conducted in November
1984.
AUSTIN (AP) — A tax plan sup
ported by the chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee
would make Texas one of the na
tion’s highest-taxing states, Comp
troller Bob Bullock said Wednesday.
Chairman Stan Schlueter’s plan
includes raising the state sales tax
from the current 4'/8 percent to S'/a
percent and adding 5 cents to the
current 10-cent per gallon gasoline
tax, according to Bullock.
“We estimate that this boost will
fall unevenly on Texas wage-earners
since low-income persons spend a
higher proportion of their income
on taxable purchases,” Bullock said.
The increase in sales tax would
give Texas the nation’s eighth-high-
est tax rate.
“Texas will climb near the top of
the high-taxing states,” the comp
troller said in a letter to Schlueter,
D-Killeen.
Schlueter denied having any plan,
although Bullock referred to “The
Schlueter Tax Proposal.”
Schlueter told reporters,“I’m not
pushing anything. I told you, what
ever it takes to get 76 votes.”
But other House members said
Schlueter laid out what sounded like
a plan in a Tuesday meeting in
Speaker Gib Lewis’ office. Rep.
Bruce Gibson, D-Godley and a ways
and means committee member, said
the program also included:
• Establishing a 3 percent gross
receipts tax on bingo games.
• Allowing rural counties that do
not collect a transit tax to collect a
half-cent sales tax to be divided
among city and county govern
ments.
All the increases would expire af
ter three years.
Bullock said he had not yet calcu
lated how much money the increases
would raise for the state.
“There is little doubt that the bill
will greatly help the Texas cash flow
and deficit problems, but in doing so
will make significant changes to the
Texas tax burden,” he told
Schlueter.
Schlueter said he is merely trying
to piece together a tax bill that can
win House approval.
“I think the combination can be
found, but it’s not going to be that
easy,” he said.
Speaker Gib Lewis, who opposed
a tax hike until it became obvious
that lawmakers would not approve
sufficient spending cuts, said
Wednesday he likes the one-year tax
increase plan.
“I think there’s a lot of support
for a temporary” tax increase, Lewis
said.
But Schlueter said majority sup
port is not there, and that there is no
such thing as a temporary tax hike.
“The word temporary should
never be applied to taxes,” he said.
“I don’t think any taxpayer is ever
going to believe a temporary tax. If
they do, they’re as foolish as some of
us are.”
White said Wednesday he still
prefers his one-year tax bill.
“I would like to make certain that
any tax increase is going to be termi
nated at the end of this fiscal year,”
he said.
Schlueter drew mixed reaction
when he briefed House committee
chairmen on his proposals, accord
ing to Gibson.
“It was controversial, particularly
the part about three years,” he said.
“Well, really all of it was controver
sial. It obviously complicates the sce
nario tremendously.”
Bill may
help loss
of tuition
Senate OKs fund
for'shortfall'
AUSTIN (AP) — The Senate
voted Wednesday to transfer over
$42.5 million from the state high
way fund, part of which would
cover college tuition losses, on the
condition that the Legislature en
act an increase in the gasoline tax.
The Senate took a House-ap
proved bill that would transfer
$24.6 million in savings from the
highway fund to general revenue
and added an amendment by
Sen. Bob Glasgow to transfer an
additional $17.96 million from
highways to a special “tuition
shortfall fund.”
Glasgow said a House-Senate
conference committee had ap
propriated $18 million to make
up for tuition losses, and an extra
$3.21 million also is available. Put
together, these would recoup all
of the tuition shortfall for 1986.
Some state-supported colleges
lost money in the 1985 tuition
hike because enrollment
dropped.
He said his amendment was
contingent upon the special legis
lative session raising the state gas
oline tax. The bill transferring a
total of nearly $42.56 million in
highway funds was sent back to
the House on a 24-0 vote for con
sideration of Glasgow’s amend
ment.
colleges study new core curriculum plan
By Sondra Pickard
Senior Staff Writer
■The proposed 51-hour core cur
riculum recently approved by both
the Faculty Senate and President
Flank E. Vandiver is being studied
b)' each college to determine the im
pact it will have on the University.
■f the plan is implemented as writ
ten by the Faculty Senate, all Texas
A&M undergraduates will be re-
E red to complete a 51-hour core of
ses in 10 separate disciplines be
ginning in Spring 1988.
SThese include: computer science;
foreign language; speech and writ
ing; mathematics/logical reasoning;
science; cultural heritage; social sci
ence; technology/renewable re
sources; physical education and cit
izenship.
After the proposal was approved
by Vandiver, a committee of four
headed by Dr. Lawrence Cress, assis
tant provost, was appointed by the
provost and vice president for aca
demic affairs, Dr. Donald McDon
ald.
Each of the 10 colleges at A&M
has been asked to review the core
curriculum and report back to the
committee on their findings, Cress
said.
The colleges are considering,
among other things, such academic
and fiscal questions as whether more
faculty will be needed, whether en
rollment will increase or decrease
and whether degree plans will
change.
For example, the added computer
science entrance requirement may
bring a need for more computer sci
ence classes and faculty. And an esti
mate of how many incoming stu
dents have had computer science in
high school will have to be made.
Besides Cress, four others have
been assigned to the committee to
conduct the impact study: Dr. Carl
Erdman, associate dean of engi
neering; Dr. Samuel Gillespie, assis
tant dean of business administra
tion; Dr. Manuel Davenport,
professor of philosophy and human
ities; and Dr. Davis Fahlquist, asso
ciate dean of geosciences.
From the 10 reports — due back
to the committee at the beginning of
October — Cress said the committee
will write a comprehensive statement
to the deans and the provost, who
will review it and either accept it or
ask for more changes.
“The point was not to represent
every college on this impact study,”
Cress said. “The idea was to get
enough people to look at the issue
from a university level and then re
port back to the deans.
“The question is, given what the
senate has proposed, what does this
mean to the University?”
At present, the only courses com
mon to all undergraduate degrees
are a state-mandated requirement of
six hours in American history, six
hours in political science, and a Uni
versity requirement of four hours in
physical education.
The Faculty Senate began work
ing on the core curriculum in Feb
ruary 1984 after Vandiver requested
that the Senate study the general ed
ucation requirements for baccalau
reate degree programs.
Vandiver told the Senate that
A&M is one of the few major univer
sities in the nation that fails to re
quire a broad background in the arts
and sciences, which he said was “the
heart of a university education.”
After much research and debate,
the Senate developed and approved
the final core proposal in April.