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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1987)
Tuesday, April 14, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local acuity Senate OKs resolution imed at salary discrimination By Amy Couvillon Staff Writer Alter more than two hours of bit- tei debate, the Texas A&M Faculty Senate on Monday approved a reso- pion intended to identify and rem- edv salary discrimination against f e- rnale faculty members at A&M. ■The resolution mentions “statisti- ll evidence of a measurable dispar- it) between female salary levels and jtl) e of men for the 1985-86 aca- ■mic year.” It suggests that A&M flouid set aside sufficient funds to j Irrect salary discrimination where- : ve it is found. ■“An immediate, case-by-case eval- Htion (should) lie conducted by de- ■rtments, with die oversight and ■idance by the offices of the dean ■ faculties and provost, and imme- late raises (should) be granted to th e women found to be victims of ■scriminatory salary treatment,” the I Isolution said. ■The final version of the resolution ■emerging from a tedious tangle of Iiendments, motions, whereases 1(1 therefores — differed substan tially from the original resolution in- tlduced by Dr. Katherine O’Keeffe Brnnithe Committee on the Status of ■omen. The original proposal had ■vocated an across-the-board pay ■tease for all A&M female faculty ! ifembers. All resolutions coming from the Fa ulty Senate must be approved by Jesident Frank E. Vanaiver to be dtime policy. O’Keeffe was emotional and often sarcastic as she defended the com mittee’s proposal to give female fac ulty the raise, which she said would remedy a “collective discriminatory burden of $ 180,905.76” found in a study done by the Office of Planning and Institutional Analysis. The approved resolution, which also includes suggestions for a yearly salary study and an oversight com mittee to be established by Vandiver, was passed in an overwhelming voice vote dominated by male voices. The aware of the fact that I wear a skirt. Most of you do not. “This is a very difficult debate, where people get up and talk about women. There are too few of us here. There are too few of us here to answer.” Several senators, especially Dr. Omer Jenkins of the statistics de partment, objected to the statistical methods used to point out discrimi nation. Jenkins said he was uncom fortable with several technical as pects of the study. “This is a very difficult debate, where people get up and talk about women. There are too few of us here. There are too few of us here to answer. ” — Dr. Katherine O’Keeffe of the Committee on the Status of Women few voices voting against the final proposal were female. O’Keeffe presented survey results showing that most women perceive sex discrimination, while many males do not believe it exists. She pointed out a fact obvious in the crowded room — that there are very few women in the Faculty Senate, which reflects the fact that women comprise only 8.2 percent of the A&M faculty. “1 am looking at all of you,” O’Keeffe said, “and I am acutely “Our society does discriminate against women,” Jenkins said. “But I hate to see a statistical analysis such as this onego on the record.” Dr. Don Plellriegel, interim dean, introduced a presentation from Dr. William FI. Bassichis, who was not present at the meeting. Included in HellriegeTs presenta tion of blurry overhead transparen cies was a list of the number of women per department. The list showed that 24 departments have no women faculty members at all. “I allege,” Hellriegal said, “that for the next 14 departments of the list (that have one woman per de partment), and probably for the next seven departments also (that have two women per department), the number of women in each de partment is too small to determine if anything beyond individual charac teristics is affecting salary.” Hellriegal suggested that a study of female salaries should include only those departments that include more than two women. O’Keeffe responded sarcastically, saying Bassichis’ evidence was anec dotal rather than statistical. “Twenty-four departments,” she said, “who have no women at all, are so ‘pure’ that they are beyond any accusation of discrimination against women?” Dr. Chester Dunning, who sided with O’Keeffe on many of the ar gued issues, urged senators to stop arguing technical statistics and get on with the spirit of the resolution. “I’ve heard many critics, partic ularly statisticians, say they don’t really question the results, just the method,” Dunning said, “and they don’t want us to be associated with dirty data, or dirty manipulation of data, even though the bottom line is we have a history of discriminaton.” Engineering professor Don Rus sell, who proposed the resolution that ultimately was accepted, wor ried that across-the-board raises See Faculty, page 10 State legislators hear committee testimony on abortion proposal AUSTIN (AP) — A state law maker urged colleagues Monday to ban late-pregnancy abortions and require unmarried minors to get parental consent to end preg nancies. A San Antonio obstetrician said the bill could drive young women to illegal, unsafe abor tions. The testimony came on Rep. Mike Millsap’s bill that would ban abortion of fetuses that have reached “viability” and would be capable of surviving outside the womb. A similar bill was heard Monday in a Senate committee with its sponsor, Sen. Ted Lyon, making changes to increase its chance of passing. “The legislation I have laid out before you today will not totally satisfy people on either side of this issue,” Millsap, D-Fort Worth, told the House State Af fairs Committee, which heard several hours of testimony but planned to take no action Mon day. Millsap on Monday changed the bill to allow pregnant minors to have abortions with the con sent of one parent. The bill pre viously required approval of both parents. “To deny a parent the right to give consent to surgery on their minor daughter that could scar them physically or emotionally for the rest of their lives is simply destructive of the family unit,” Millsap said. “It goes against ev ery principle regarding the sanc tity of the family. No one should have the right to do this to my daughter or to the daughters of any Texan.” His bill would allow pregnant minors to seek court approval for an abortion, a process that com mittee member Lena Guerrero, D-Austin, called impractical. “If a judge finds a young woman mature he will grant her an abortion,” Guerrero said. “If he finds her immature, will he make her a mother?” Lyon, D-Rockwall, dropped from his bill the provision requir ing minors to have parental con sent. “I’m a political realist and I re alize that with that provision in the bill I do not believe I have a chance of passing that out of this committee,” Lyon said. The' bill also was attacked by Sarah Weddington, an Austin lawyer who successfully argued the Roe vs. Wade case that led to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court de cision striking down state laws against abortion. [Sculpture sent back to artist to have damages repaired udents wa-i ug by the art ex- [hibits between the Academic building and Harrington Class- jroom Building may have been doing a double take this week, not [because a new sculpture has been [added, but because one is miss- | in g- “The Howl,” a multi-colored, fiberglass sculpture of a wolf howling at the sky, had graced the walkway between the class room building and Harrington Tower since February, along with several other pieces of art, but a University Art Exhibit spokes man said the wolf sculpture was removed Friday at the request of the artist. Cathy Hastedt said some dam age had been done to the artwork before it came to the campus. Prof gets bomb threat about 2 A&M buildings By Christ! Daugherty Staff Writer An engineering professor in Zachry Engi neering Center received an anonymous call Mon day afternoon in which the caller threatened to blow up both Fermier and Thompson halls. Bob Wiatt, director of the University Police Department, said the professor, who asked not to be identified, received the call on his private of fice line at approximately 2 p.m., and at that time notified the police department. Building proctors chose to evacuate faculty and students in the buildings at that time, against the advice of the police, Wiatt said, and they re mained outside for about 30 minutes. Wiatt said evacuating the building is not a good idea in all circumstances because it often leads to more calls of that type. Instead, the police prefer to quietly check the building in question before upsetting classes. “We have to make a decision in the case of an anonymous phone call as to whether it’s legiti mate or a prank before we evacuate,” Wiatt said. “In this situation we considered it a prank, but the proctors made an individual decision to empty the building.” A sweep of Fermier and Thompson yielded nothing unusual, he said. Since the professor received the threatening call on his private, unpublished office line, it’s possible the caller knows him, Wiatt said. But this sort of occurrence is not unusual, 1 added, and there was a rash of similar calls la spring. Also, although about half the calls are placed to the police department, the other half are re ceived by a variety of people, including secretar ies, professors and students. “It seerrts like it always happens toward the end of the semester during exams,” Wiatt said, “which makes us think someone didn’t study and wanted a long, lazy afternoon out in the sunshi- NOW LEASING Summer (Lease Good Thru 1 3 ! /2’xl2’x8’ Cubicle $105.00 All Units Taken 80.00* yk'xi'x Cubicle 75.00 4’x4’x8’ Cubicle 50.00 4’x4’x4’ Cubicle 35.00 16” Perma Box Space 5.00** SMILE Limited Supply Lease Mow And Be Ready For Summer Excellent for books, accessories, etc. Limited Space Available In Our Air Conditioned Vault For Personal Computers & Software (See Mgr. For Price Quotes) **Boxes Available To Purchase $4.00/EA. Mo Deposit With Aggie I.D. Card U i 99 FOR YOUR FAMILY’S GENERAL DENTAL CARE $ 29 00 Security 2306 S. 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