Thursday, February 18, 1988/The Battalion/Page 7 icaiIn advance Seminars help to fill out tax forms , BUT Wf )UD0EN UR HUOa: . ttiAEM \ IfOUIfK By Jamie Russell Staff Writer ’Tis the season to do taxes and this year, with the new changes in the tax code, Uncle Sam isn’t making the task of filling out tax forms any easier. Confused Aggies may attend Internal Revenue Service semi nars on the Texas A&M campus on Feb. 18 and 19 to receive free help on how to Fill out income tax returns. The seminars are co sponsored by the International Student Office and the Graduate Student Office and will provide important information, especially to graduate and international stu dents whose returns may be more difficult to figure out. Meredith Ross, one of A&M’s assistant international student ad visers, sympathizes with students who know little or nothing about tax returns. “The situation is this: at the present time A&M hasn’t taken any responsibility to provide stu dents with information on the new tax information, for that matter, any tax information,” she said. The IRS seminars will provide answers to students’ income tax questions, Ross said. “It’s the only free tax resource available to students on campus,” Ross said. She said the seminars are pri marily aimed towards the grad uate and international students because of the difficulty in doing their forms. Most graduate stu dents have to consider grants and research assistantships when filling out their income tax forms, and international students use an entirely different tax form. The seminars are scheduled at the following times: • Today 11 a.m.-l p.m in 701 Rudder Tower for international students. • Today 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. in 601 Rudder Tower for grad uate students. • Today 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. in 105 Harrington for interna tional students. • Friday 11 a.m.-l p.m. in 701 Rudder Tower for graduate stu dents. • Friday 2 p.m.-4 p.m. in 701 Rudder Tower for international students or last minute questions. Ross encourages any student with taxable income to come to the service. “My main concern is that stu dents just know about this,” Ross s^id. For more information please call 845-1824 or-1825. mi IL'HL RT/ (Continued from page 1) compromise proposal is better than the plan currently in place. They also pointed out that stu dents have been trying to work with the faculty, and that the alternative proposal is not a “student plan” as Shumway had labeled it, but rather a compromise between the two groups. However, the discussion gradually drifted to secondary issues, like the faculty and student original finals proposals and the value of traditions at Texas A&M. After the meeting, Student Senate Speaker Jay Hays said he had hoped the debate would center on the com promise proposal versus the current system. “What I was really disappointed about, and I felt that this would hap pen in the beginning, was that the is sue was not the compromise, the is sue was senior finals,” Hays said. “Traditions, finals . . . that’s second ary. What we needed to discuss w'as, ‘Would this schedule allow students academically and scholastically a bet ter chance at doing well during fi nals then the schedule we’re going to have this Spring?’ ” Rabbi Peter Tarlow and two stu dents also addressed the group to stress the importance of religious traditions. He objected to the fact that both the current plan and the alternative proposal could require students to take finals on Saturday, which is the Jewish sabbath. Shumway planned to take a poll of faculty opinion at the end of the meeting, but opted not to after a show of hands revealed that there was virtually no faculty representa tion other than that of the Faculty Senate. It was suggested by one Fac ulty Senator that the poor faculty turnout was due to a lack of public- ity- But Hays attributed the conspicu ous absence of faculty at the hearing to faculty apathy. “It was clearly publicized,” he said. “I think it’sjust indicative of the faculty’s attitude toward the whole situation.” The Battalion ran a front page story Feb. 9 when the hearing was announced last week, and a second story Tuesday announcing the meet ing. Fortnightly, a bi-weekly publica tion of Texas A&M’s Office of Public Information, also ran a story an nouncing the hearing. Hays said he thought the Faculty Senate’s intentions were good, but he was surprised by the poor faculty turnout at the hearing. “The apathy among the faculty for this was clearly evident, espe cially when the only faculty members there were faculty senators who, as it turned out, were basically opposed to the compromise. “The effort on the part of Dr. Shumway should be applauded, but in practice it didn’t come through.” 2.50 ADMISSION 1. Any Show Before 3 PM 2. Tuesday - All Seats 3. Mon-Wed - Local Students With Current ID s 4. Thur - KORA "Over 30 Nlte" SCHULMAN 6 2002 E. 29th 775-2463 FOR KEEPS pq-13 FATAL ATTRACTHMIr 7:M fcsa $ p6llar pays $ mity bakm pq-13 MELil ASARI pq BABY BOOM po-is M EDDIE MURPHY RAM r I'M •DENOTES DOLBY STEREO PLAZA 3 226 Southwest Pkwy 693-2457 ’lAONWEED r ‘GOOti MORNING VIETNAM r 7:2* •:5S Tii Me SATISFACTIOMpg 13 7:18 *45 Smoking in) ■a* countries, ever, you® re shouBti on coroiK es forced it 1 ilarlywanu rat theree Germain. ; follotreni n the coi e not i form an muniste® aoken aid s,” sh e i been bn* mericani. willing I' andma)! live. Tk 1 because vedtoflfl to meetai :nt durinj rassed l>[ ft mean ess. Thtf, >as as tad 1 irmati. aubarraii iienitk' arise W 1 * and as)- aretauf ■ 0# irate tk 1 ' he ont) (Continued from page 1) from becoming a victim is to be involved in learning who lives around you and what you need to do to secure your property,” Tay lor said. “It is easier to lock it up and not lose it then to lose it and find it later.” Many services are offered by the police departments to stu dents to help secure their prop erty. Kapella said that the College Station Police Department along with the District Attorneys Office offered T-top sandblasting for $20 during the Safety Awareness week.It usually costs about $100.However, only three stu dents took advantage of the op portunity. Wiatt said the University Police have engravers that can be bor rowed by students for about 10 days. Taylhr Said pebpre slibtdd use their driver’s liscense number for engraving for easy identification. Roy Kelly of the Crime Stop per program also spoke at the presentation. He said Crime Stoppers is a non-profit organization run by citizens and a police coordinator. The program offers rewards for information that leads to an arrest and indictment. (Continued from page 1) E. Vandiver and back to the Faculty Senate. Vandiver’s executive secretary said the resolution is under consideration and that no one in the president’s office can comment on it until formal action is taken. Very few students are aware of the proposed ban, Moore said, and Student Government committee mem bers are working to increase awareness by word of mouth. She said most of those students who are aware of the proposal are apathetic. “This is kind of a difficult i issue because people that are non-smokers will say ‘well, we don’t care’ so really it’s protecting a minority’s rights, because most students don’t care from what I’ve heard,” Moore said. “I think it’s a really small portion of students that smoke. But my committee’s feelings were that a dorm room is your home and you pay for it.” In addition to tapping student opinion, the Student Senate committee is taking several steps to research the smoking ban. Members of the committee are talking to people at the A.P. Beutel Health Center about the ad dictiveness of cigarette smoke and have written to the American Lung Association to get statistics on side- stream smoke. Autopsy finds no signs of foul play in death of man found in dumpster LUBBOCK (AP) — An autopsy on the badly burned body of an el derly Odessa man found in a dump ster last month turned up no evi dence of homicide, a pathologist said Wednesday. Dr. Ralph Erdmann said 84-year- old Jack Doherty apparently died of natural causes. “There’s definitely no foul play.” Erdmann said no carbon monox ide was found in the body, indicating Doherty was dead when his body was set afire'in the dumpster. Carbon monoxide would have indicated the death was linked to the burning. Earlier this month, Erdmann said preliminary autopsy tests showed Doherty had nearly twice the amount of alcohol in his blood needed to be legally drunk. 1 he body had a blood-alcohol level of 0.196, Erdmann said, while 0.10 is considered legally drunk. Meanwhile, Lubbock County prosecutors say they will present evi dence in Doherty’s death to grand jurors next week. Eddie Wayne Roberson, 32, of Amarillo has been charged with credit card abuse for allegedly using a card belonging to Doherty. Odessa police have said that Ro berson is listed as an acquaintance of Doherty’s on the victim’s missing persons report, filed 12 days before the body was found Jan. 19. Roberson remains in Lubbock County Jail on $50,000 bond, police reports said. AUSTIN (AP) — Pastors, parents, educators and employers urged the Public Utility Commission on Wednesday to ban dial-a-porn in Texas, even if it must be done by killing off sports, weather and other phone services. 'Have we sunk so low that any thing goes as long as there is money to be made?” complained Anne Lash of Houston. “It is our feeling that the phone company should not be in the sex business,” said Marianne Hagg of Corpus Christi. After four hours of testimony, the commission proposed two alterna tives: an end to all “Dial 976” serv ices or a plan in which the calls could be made only by customers who “subscribe” to them. The commis sion will take public comment on the proposals for 30 days. PUC Chairman Dennis Thomas said the best solution might be to separate the dial-a-porn services from other Dial 976 services by set ting up another three-number pre fix for dial-a-porn. Thomas said, however, the commission could not order such a change because of pos sible free-speech problems. The change could be made if Southwestern Bell requests it, but it could not be ordered by the commis sion, Thomas said. Bill Free, Southwestern Bell vice president, told the commission the company also would consider a sys tem in which it would refuse to do the billing for dial-a-porn calls. Un der the current system, the tele phone company does the billing and then forwards the portion due to the company that provides the service. The three commissioners ex pressed frustration with the tele phone company’s response to the 976 problem. “I’m not happy with Southwestern Bell,” Commissioner Jo Campbell said. “I think their greed has absolu tely gotten us into the problem we’re in.” Free said he is “as upset as the commission that we haven’t been able to control 976 service.” According to a PUC report, the cost of the 976 calls, lasting up to 3 minutes, range from 29 cents to $49.95. Dial 976 service is available in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. The numbers can be called long distance from any other location unless they are blocked by the local telephone company. About one-third of the services offer sexual messages, the report said. Free said Wednesday that Bell would be willing to offer free block ing of 976 calls to all customers. Un der the current plan, free blocking will be offered for 60 days, begin ning Saturday. After that it would cost $7 to prevent 976 calls from a phone number. Care Week Feb 15-18 f OO f OO't)0 T t)Q (5 § § 9 (5 9 (5 .9 <5 oa ?