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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1987)
■fat nise raf'at had agra its to negotiatt nent under a) i strong Wi host governm meh and Hai rptly upped the PLO's nti at wouJd hi((' National Com abandon I gyp 1 - eement was ty by all the Pli confirmed Aral The Battalion .82 No. 145 CISPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, April 28, 1987 opinions of it decisions, then’ nost ability to t Ixidy preside: ive their ear.as wer in that.’’ t politician atti :ie administrao hy, he lessen: what he wants ive a lundanic 1 said. "1 (hint rode your base go into a id at rather thanl olitician tryitj er, administnt nore him .s to his guns, dents are ey believe tbi ce a differente lies, but a mill ul student to e the office to power. g to give us pi e going to ban A maids I. EVERY IG m I img Range is lo- lent Services, lent Vandivet grand open- concessions m. : does rain, it Read Build- id Intramural 9 p.m. Indivi- Demonstrators flock to CIA lawn in protest McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Peace dem onstrators protesting Reagan admin istration policies blocked roadways at CIA headquarters Monday, caus ing rush-hour chaos in this serene suburban community and inconve niencing hundreds of commuters. There were more than 550 arrests. There were no incidents of vio lence in the protest, which culmi nated three days of demonstrations against American policies in Central America and southern Africa. It was a day that evoked memories of the anti-war protests of the 1960s, replete with slogan shouting, sing ing, pamphlet passing, placard wav ing and speechmaking by a cross- section of people representing all re gions, ages and races. CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said that, so far as she knew, it was the first large-scale protest at the agency since the headquarters, about six miles from Washington, D.C., opened 25 years ago. The U.S. Park Service said Fairfax County police, responsible for the south gate at the sprawling, tree- lined installation here, arrested 355 persons. Ninety of them were taken to jail for refusing to identify them selves or other reasons. The U.S. Park Police, with juris diction over the north gate, arrested 183 persons. Another 15 were taken into custody by the Federal Protec tive Service. From shortly after dawn until about 9:30 a.m. CST, demonstrators sat down on roadways leading to the spy headquarters, preventing vehicle access. Some were escorted on foot by police to a nearby precinct, while others were hauled away in paddy wagons, many with their hands tied behind their backs. The mood of the demonstrators shifted frequently during the pro test, with many angrily shouting anti-CIA slogans only to revert mo ments later to light-hearted banter with their companions and the po lice. There were cheers for the protes ters as they were carted off in police vans and, as the demonstration wound down, cheers for the re straint exercised by the police. The demonstration attracted a range of participants — from teen agers with “punk” haircuts, to mid dle-aged clerics to elderly grand mothers. They included men in pinstripes and a less elegant group which dropped their pants, exposing a political statement across their naked bottoms: “No Reagan.” Power to set limits on enrollment may shift to Coordinating Board By Lee Schexnaider Reporter Boards of regents of Texas uni versities will lose the power to limit enrollments if bills pending in the Texas House of Representatives and the Senate become law, said Bill Presnal, executive secretary for the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents and vice chan cellor for state affairs. House Bill 2181 was taken from recommendations of the House Se lect Committee on Higher Educa- Bill to allow regents to set tuition rates for state schools By Lee Schexnaider Reporter A major provision of a bill in the House of Representatives will enable boards of regents at state universities to set different tuition rates. Dr. William Mobley, deputy chan cellor for academic and resource de velopment, said the hill will set a minimum tuition level and allow the boards of regents to raise the tuition to double the minimum. The bill now is in the calender committee awaiting scheduling for a floor vote. Mark Browning, the higher edu cation coordinator for the Legis lative Study Group of the A&M Stu dent Government, said a similar Iowa law in 1969 was enacted with out such restrictions and enabled the state board of regents to raise tuition by 70 percent. This was done two days after the state legislative session closed. In the next session, the Iowa Legislature froze the tuition levels, he said. Dr. Eugene Payne, vice president for finance and administration for Texas Tech University, said there are feelings on both sides of the issue at his institution. “If you look at other states with similar policies, the rule puts the stu dent body and administration at odds,” Payne said. “Typically, the rates go up rapidly and state support of higher education goes down.” L. Lowry Mays, a member of the A&M Board of Regents, said he was not opposed to universities setting their own tuition rates. “The regents would embrace that responsibility,” Mays said. Royce E. Wisenbaker, another A&M regent, said this is mainly a po litical issue. “It’s really a hot potato,” he said. Joe H. Reynolds, vice chairman of the A&M board, said the problem is that financial conditions may cause See Tuition, page 8 tion and is sponsored by Speaker Gib Lewis, Presnal said. “It has a lot of momentum,” he said. “Only every eight or 10 years does a speaker put his name on a bill. It’s a clear signal that the bill is a high priority.” Joe H. Reynolds, vice chairman of the A&M Board of Regents, said Le wis wants to keep the bill from get ting bogged down in the politics of the Texas Legislature. “I think Lewis thinks this is a problem that needs to be on a higher plane,” Reynolds said. “We need someone to make those tough deci sions out of the political arena.” Both House Bill 2181 and Senate Bill 1140 would transfer the power to set enrollment limits to the Coor dinating Board, Texas College and University System. According to the House bill, the 18-member board will represent the “highest authori ty” in the state on matters of higher education. The document states the board shall have the power to set maxi mum enrollment limits for all public universities and colleges in Texas. Presnal said the Coordinating Board has not been overpowering in the past, but some officials think the board may be getting too much power. Jess Hay, chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of Texas System, said he doesn’t agree with the shift of power. “I think, ultimately, that partic ular matter ought to be left to the See Enrollment, page 8 Fold Glory Photo by Andy Kirkpatrick John Vitacca, a sophomore Business Administration major from Ir ving, folds the flag toward Jim Lundsford, sophomore Business Ad ministration major from Bryan. Responsibility for the flag alternates from unit to unit. Vitacca and Lundsford are from Squadron 13. House OKs new bill on budget AUSTIN (AP) — A House com mittee Monday approved a 1988-89 state spending bill that is far short of expected revenue for the next two years and more than Gov. Bill Clem ents says he will approve. The House Appropriations Com mittee, by a 20-8 vote, voted for an appropriations bill that would spend $39.4 billion from all funds. The Senate has approved a $39.9 billion bill. Clements has recommended a $36.9 billion bill, which is within available revenue plus a $2.9 billion tax increase that Clements said is the maximum he will approve. The differences between the spending bills finally passed by the House and Senate will be settled by a 10-member conference committee before it goes to Clements. Rep. Jim Rudd, D-Brownfield, House committee chairman, said the measure apparently will be debated next Monday or Tuesday. “We’re going to have a fight on the floor,” Rudd said. “It’ll be too much to some and too little to oth ers.” The $39.4 billion overall spending figure includes $28 billion spending from the general revenue fund, which provides money for most state government operations. Albert Hawkins of the Legislative Budget Board said general revenue estimates for the next year total $24.9 billion, providing the 1986 temporary sales tax increase is ex tended and taking into consider ation the $1 billion current deficit. Since the House bill would spend $28 billion from general revenue, this leaves a $3.1 billion shortfalT in the state’s most important revenue source. Students with unpaid tickets soon will be issued warrants By Curtis L. Culberson Staff Writer Students with outstanding tick ets soon may be visited by one of the University’s finest. Justice of the Peace Mike Calli- ham has directed the University Police Department to issue war rants to all students who have not paid the fines or appeared in court for all violations except parking, court clerk Louisa Dunn said Monday. Director of University Police Bob Wiatt said, “They (students) know who they are, because they have to sign the tickets.” Warrants will be issued to stu dents who have outstanding tick ets for moving violations, simple assaults or any class-C misdemea nor. - Dunn estimates there are more than 600 outstanding tickets, and she said the warrants are being processed for all outstanding tick ets filed in Calliham’s and Justice of the Peace Wesley Hall’s courts. Wiatt said, “When you sign a ticket, you are agreeing to contact je on your own. student has been issued Quest for presidency loaded with pitfalls Campaigning disillusions candidates By Christ! Daugherty . Staff Writer The campaign begins inno cently enough. A group of stu dents with the best intentions set out to “make a difference” on the campus by becoming student body president. Idealism in its purest form. But before it’s over, they’ll spend hundreds of dollars, they’ll lose friends, fail tests and absolu tely never sleep. To those who’ve never done it, campaigning simply doesn’t look that hard; but for those involved, it’s a lesson in dedication, deter mination and, more likely than not, losing. Primary campaigning lasts a week and a half, and for the two candidates who make it to the runoffs, campaigning lasts an other week. On the Sunday night before campaigning is allowed to begin, a candidate can feasibly look forward to two and a half weeks of constant work. Sean Royall, last year’s student body president, said he lost 10 pouncls during those two weeks. Mike Sims, the current president, lost six. And the work is not just physical — it’s emotionally and mentally draining and often very demoralizing. “I started out an energetic, ide alistic dynamo, with my main goals all set out,” Sims said. “You know, 1 came into the office really idealistic, but I’ll leave it far less than idealistic.” Sims, a transfer student who had been at Texas A&M for only three full semsters when he ran for president, ran on a campaign called “Aggie Plan ‘86.” Because he didn’t think he could win on the value of his name alone, he developed a project with a catchy title and played it to the hilt. The only way to get elected, former presidents say, is to blan ket the campus. Attend every meeting of every group and get them to remember your name. Sims, Royall, and David Alders, in their individual races, all were on the Quadrangle talking to the Corps of Cadets every morning at formation at 6:30 a.m. and at tending dorm council meetings at 10:30 p.m. each evening. In between, they dashed from sorority houses, to club meetings — like hometown groups, and academic clubs — and then “doorknocked” for at least an hour before the 9 p.m. deadline. When doorknocking, they dis persed their campaign workers to as many dorms as possible and went from door to door, dis cussing the candidate and con vincing residents to put the flyers on their doors. This work was, by necessity, constant until the final election of the runoff campaign. Alders calls the campaign “an encapsulated time period, where there’s so much you must do, and so little time.” After being elected and hoping to settle smoothly into office, Sims and Royall first had to deal with scandals involv ing charges of overspending lev eled against their campaigns, somewhat of a campus tradition as a similar situation occurred this year with Miles Bradshaw’s cam- paign. Royall describes his situation, when accusations of overspend- The student body presidency Part two of a two-part series ing plagued his campaign before and after the election, as utterly depressing after all the work he’d put in, and admits there were times when he wanted to quit. “It was really discouraging — I was completely overwhelmed by it — but David Alders encour aged me to keep going,” Royall said. “I lost 10 pounds, I wasn’t sleeping and I didn’t go to class at all for three weeks.” Both say the worst thing about such charges was the sickening feeling that people on campus as sociated their names with illegal acts, whether they did them or not. Both later were cleared of all charges. But once they overcame that obstacle, they were in for an even bigger shock — the realization that despite lofty, well-intended goals, there was really not a whole lot they could accomplish. Sims’ Aggie Plan, for instance, was rather quickly forgotten. A lot of the goals of the plan never came to pass. Goals like a school wide quiz file and a tutorial clear inghouse faded quickly from memory because, he said, he dis covered he didn’t have the power to initiate most of them without the time and effort of a lot of peo ple, most of whom were unwilling to cooperate. “All politics aside, it was a good idea and I really believed in it,” Sims said. “A lot of it didn’t hap pen, and that’s mostly our fault. “After school started we were still full of energy and getting E eople to work on my projects, ut as the semester wore on, the Senate worked less and less on the legislative agenda, and some aides became less interested in their projects. That’s partly my fault too because I’m such an uns tructured manager. “When I first started I was ab solutely full of energy, but misdi rected energy, because nobody really knows how to be student body president except someone who’s already done it,” Sims said. Sims isn’t alone in that lost feel ing; Royall remembers it well. “It’s a huge organization that’s kind of difficult to control,” Roy all said of Student Government. “No student body president can do these things alone. We tried to motivate people — we held meet ings and all that — but it never worked. “When I look back, there are a number of things I wanted to ac complish but never did.” Alders is amused by the mem ory of the promises candidates make during the campaign, be cause his experience has shown him that presidents simply don’t have the power to accomplish them. “Campus politics being what they are, it seems to me it’s always easier in a campaign to say things that make the position seem to have more weight than it does,” Alders said. “Take senior finals, for instance. It’s easy to say you can do things you’re not going to be able to carry out. “And the bulk of the student body are not privy to the infor mation that would let them know that the candidate will not be able to do all he says. You always cam paign with generalities — getting the poor, downtrodden, unrepre sented represented more. “I was always amused when the campaign rolled around and some of those aspiring politicians would get on their soap boxes about issues about which they have absolutely no control.” It is the uninitiated who really aren’t prepared for the job, for the bureaucracy, the futility and See Campaigning, page 8 the judge or pay the fine within 10 days. “Don’t wait for us. Contact the jud .l ticket by UPD and has chosen to ignore it, hoping it will be forgot ten, that student had better think again. “Justice Calliham is very serious — he doesn’t intend to let stu dents leave College Station for the summer without making the max imum effort to bring them before the halls of justice,” Wiatt said. Dunn said students who have outstanding tickets could either pay the fines or make arrange ments to see the judge to avoid a warrant. Wiatt said a warrant officer will call the students and arrange for them to come in and take care of their violations, or he could have officers go out and arrest stu dents. He said a similar situation oc curred a year ago. “Last year, College Station po lice went out and picked students up,” he said. “They went to apart ments to arrest students, and on some occasions, University offi cers accompanied College Station officers to arrest students coming out of classes.” Wiatt said he hopes ticket recip ients voluntarily will take care of the violations but said that there is a possibility that he will have offi cers go out and pick the students up. There is quite a backlog of com plaints filed, Wiatt said, and police may not get to them all. But those students who are not served a warrant or choose not take care of the violations aren’t getting away with breaking the law. “The judge will issue a failure- to-appear warrant to anyone who hasn’t cleared up their tickets be fore they leave for the summer,” Wiatt said. “Failure-to-appear warrants are put out in a law-enforcement net work,” he said. “You could be ar rested this summer in Dallas, Aus tin or anywhere else around the state. “They could put you in the slammer, and that would be a real hassle. “If you don’t get caught by some Texas police agency this summer, the warrant will still be waiting for you in the fall.” He added that the warrant may stay on record for as long as four or five years.