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Spring
Lawnmower
Clinic
HUS UM UMVERSITY
MEQUNCQ) AGRlCtATUfS.
SAT., MARCH 5
8 am-5 pm
$20.00
~ r V-ffhHH —*=Ts
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Li 1 L 11
Pickup & delivery can be made
for an additional $5.
" OIL CHANGE
NEW SPARK PLUG
NEW POINTS &
CONDENSER
SHARPEN BLADE
STEAM CLEAN
SERVICE AIR-FILTER
Other parts & services available
for an additional cost.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CALL 845-5231
POWER & MACHINERY LAB
PE <4LL
e4RE ONE
Opening Ceremonies
29 Feb
MSC
10:30 am
Cultural Displays
29 Feb
MSC
10:30-5
1 Mar
International
29 Feb -
MSC
Art Show
1 Mar
Food Fair
$7.00
2 Mar
MSC
7 pm
Fashion and Talent Show....
$2.50
4 Mar
Rudder
8 pm
COMBINATION TICKET FOR $8.50
For informaton call International Student Services
845-1825
Pi Kappa Alpha
“PIKES”
Annual Calendar
This is open for any girls currently enrolled at Texas
A&M University, for possible selection for our 1988
calendar. If interested please submit your photos to:
MSC P.O. Box 4936
College Station, Tx 77844
Please include your name, home phone number, and
classification
Deadline for entering is March 26,1988
Photo Shooting will begain in April
Any questions please call Jorge Pinera at 693-1007
TAX REFORM CHANGES FILING REQUIREMENTS
In the past, tax filing season hasn’t meant much to most college students. Gener
ally, their standard deduction, or “zero bracket amount” as it was called before
tax reform, combined with their personal exemption, relieved most students of
the obligation to file a return, even if they held part-time jobs. When college stu
dents did file a return, it was usually just to obtain a refund of taxes withheld.
Tax time worries were something gladly left to the older generation.
Unfortunately, thanks to tax reform, college students may now join their elders
in grappling with the Internal Revenue Service. This year, millions of collegians
who have never filed a federal tax return before will need to do so, and what’s
worse they’ll probably owe some tax.
Why the change? The answer lies in the dual concepts of personal exemption
and standard deduction. A general rule (with some exceptions) of taxation is that
a person need not file a federal return until his or her income exceeds the com
bined total of his or her personal exemption and standard deduction. Under the
old rules, a college student, assuming he or she wasn’t married, could claim a
personal exemption of $1,080 plus a standard deduction of $2,480 for a total of
$3,560. Thus, as long as the student’s gross income remained under that figure,
no tax return was required and the student escaped federal income taxes alto
gether.
Now let’s look at the new rules. First, most college students will no longer be al
lowed to claim their own personal exemption. Under tax reform, anyone who is
claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer’s return may no longer claim his or
her personal exemption. Because most collegians are dependents of their par
ents, their personal exemption is gone.
The situation with the standard deduction is a bit more complicated. The stan
dard deduction of a dependent college student, or any other single dependent
for that matter, is the larger of $500 or his or her earned income, but cannot ex
ceed $2,540, the 1987 standard deduction for single taxpayers who are not de
pendents. Thus, with no personal exemption and reduced standard deduction,
many college students who had no need to file a 1986 return will need to file a
1987 return.
Here’s an example. A sophomore at Dismal Seepage Ag and Tech, we’ll call her
Esmerelda, is dependent on her parents’ tax return. During summer vacation,
she earned $700 working a part time job. She also received $22 taxable interest
from her savings account. Esmerelda’s personal exemption is zero (she’s a depen
dent) and her standard deduction is $700 (the larger of $500 or her earned in
come). What’s left over? The $22 interest income, of course, and she’ll have to
pay tax on that amount. Esmerelda must file a federal tax return, and what’s
more, she’ll pay two dollars tax to Uncle Sam.
Most college students, even if they must file a tax return, will be like Esmerelda—
they won’t actually pay much tax, but they will have the hassle of filing.
For help with your tax return H&rR Block has two locations in the Bryan-College
Station area to serve you. At Sears Post Oak Mall we are open seven days a week
during regular store hours and reached by calling 764-0395. We also have an of
fice in Bryan at 1012 Texas Avenue which is also open seven days a week and can
be reached at 823-8241. H&R Block offers appointments but they are not re
quired. Come in today arid let the “Income Tax People” at H&R Block help with
you.
Friday, March 4, 1988/The Battalion/Page 7
Faculty Senate to discuss final exams
By Karen Kroesche
Senior Staff Writer
The Faculty Senate will con
sider a resolution that would give
students and faculty more time to
prepare for finals when it meets
Monday at 3 p.m. in Rudder Fo
rum.
The resolution is a compro
mise Finals schedule that was ar
rived at when Faculty Senate and
Student Senate officers met in
January after both groups agreed
that the current schedule has def
inite problems.
The current schedule, which
was revised last year to allow se
niors to take finals, met with a
great deal of criticism after its
trial run last semester. The Stu
dent Senate already has approved
the compromise.
The resolution is being intro
duced by the Senate’s Academic
Affairs Committee as a tempo
rary solution to the current
schedule, which it calls “pedago-
gically unsound in that it gives
students no study break between
the last class day and the first
exam day.”
If the proposal is approved by
the Faculty Senate and then
signed by the president, final ex
ams will be moved to Monday,
May 9 through Thursday, May
12.
Currently, finals are scheduled
from Friday, May 6 through
Tuesday, May 10. Under the pro
posal, seniors would take finals
Monday and Tuesday, or at an
other time scheduled at faculty
members’ discretion. Graduation
dates would remain the same.
Registrar Donald Carter said
Wednesday that the Spring 1988
finals schedule still could be
changed.
“If the Faculty Senate approves
the resolution and the president
signs it, it certainly can (be
changed),” Carter said.
In other business, the Senate
will consider:
• Two resolutions concerning
the Board of Regents’ appoint
ment of Jackie Sherrill as a pro
fessor with tenure.
• Revisions in the 1988-89
University Rules and Regulations
including a 10-day extension of
the Q-drop deadline during the
regular semester — to the 35th
class day for undergraduates. It
would allow graduate students to
Q-drop through the 50th class
day.
• A recommendation that
classrooms be classified according
to degree of equipment available.
• Approval of the proposed
1988-89 Academic Calendar.
• Core curriculum revisions.
Lobbyist: State
will save money
with AIDS laws
AUSTIN (AP) — Strict laws to
prevent discrimination against peo
ple with AIDS would save public
funds by allowing victims to support
themselves as long as possible, the
executive director of the Lesbian-
Gay Rights Lobby of Texas said
Thursday.
“I believe it would be the most ef
fective statutory change that can oc
cur without a single cent of state
money expended, and will save you
millions of dollars in return, plus
giving my brothers the dignity to re
main productive citizens,” Glen
Maxey testified before for the Legis
lative Task Force on AIDS.
People with acquired immune de
ficiency syndrome, a fatal disease
that destroys the body’s immune sys
tem, often are fired from their jobs
while still able to work, Maxey said.
They then frequently must rely on
welfare.
“Once you have lost your job and
your insurance, have spent your way
into poverty and have come a ward
of the public welfare system, you
can’t get out,” he said.
“A (person with AIDS) who gets
medical care paid for by Medicaid,
gets AZT (a drug used to combat the
disease) through a public source,
gets food stamps . . . cannot take the
chance of losing those benefits by
taking a job,” Maxey said. “Only if
that job is going to provide health in
surance, and no insurance plan I
know of is going to take a person
with AIDS.”
Will Davis, representing Texas
life, health and accident insurance
companies, also told the committee
the insurance industry does not see
its role as subsidizing health care for
AIDS patients.
“There is a tendency to forget that
we are in a free-enterprise market,”
Davis said. “We are not government.
We are not charity. We are not social
services . . . We cannot insure sick
people.”
Insurance premium rates would
skyrocket if people known to be ill
were insured, he said.
“I believe it would be the
most effective statutory
change that can occur
without a single cent of
state money expended . .
99
Glen Maxey, executive di
rector of the Lesbian-Gay
Rights Lobby of Texas
fifth by the task force of citizens and
lawmakers, created last year to make
recommendations on AIDS public
policy to the 1989 Legislature.
Texas has approximately 3,600
reported AIDS cases, the fourth
largest in the 50 states, said the Rev.
Chris Steele, head of the task force.
State health officials estimate that in
three years 240,000 people in Texas
will have the virus that leads to AIDS
and 16,000 of them will have the dis
ease itself.
Austin is the only Texas city with a
specific ordinance prohibiting dis
crimination against people with
AIDS or the AIDS virus, Maxey said.
Besides helping those with discrimi
nation complaints, the ordinance has
deterred discrimination and served
to educate people.
Other measures available to Tex
ans are inadequate, he said.
The inclusion of AIDS as a hand
icap under federal law only covers
programs or contractors that get di
rect federal funding, he said.
An attorney general’s opinion al
lowing people with AIDS to file dis
crimination complaints with the state
Human Rights Commission is insuf
ficient because the commission is un
derfunded and does not work
quickly enough, he said.
“The plaintiffs in many cases do
not live to see their cases through,”
he said.
Witness blames crash
of jet on NWS workers
FORT WORTH (AP) — A meteo
rologist testifying Wednesday as an
expert witness for Delta Air Lines
said two National Weather Service
meteorologists failed in their hand
ling of Delta Flight 191.
In the second day of trial in Del
ta’s claims against the Federal Avi
ation Administration and the
weather service, Richard Douglass
supported the airline’s argument
that government employees were to
blame for the jet’s crash during a
thunderstorm on Aug. 2, 1985.
Douglass said one weather service
meteorologist took a half-hour din
ner break as the storms were threat
ening and another failed to pass in
formation about the fast-developing
thunderstorm to the air traffic con-
>trol tower at Dallas-Fort Worth In
ternational Airport.
Delta lawyers have claimed neg
ligence on the part of FAA and
weather service employees caused
the jet to crash, killing 137 people
and injuring 25 others.
“The entire operation was mis
handled that afternoon,” Delta Air
Lines attorney John Martin said
Tuesday during opening arguments
of the trial, which also may Iielp de
cide how much can be recovered in
damages.
“The crew of 191 found them
selves in the wrong place at the
wrong time because none of the gov
ernment employees did their jobs,”
he said.
Attorney Roy Krieger said in
opening statements Tuesday that
the pilot of Delta Flight 191 had a
pattern of “use and abuse” of three
tranquilizers during an eight-year
period before the airliner crashed.
Krieger said prescription records
will show that Delta Capt. Edward
M. Connors took the tranquilizers
Dalmane in 1978, Valium in 1982
and 1984 and Stelazine from 1982 to
1985.
There was no evidence that Con
nors was under the influence of any
drug at the time of the crash, he
said.
Brazos Valley Golf Driving Range
E. Bypass across from Post Oak mall and next to Aldersgate Church
The range will open on Thursday, Fefo.25
Mon-Fri, 12-8 p.m. Sat, 10-8 p.m.
Sun, 1-8 p.m.
Four baskets available from
$1.25 (20-25 ba!ls)-$4.00 (90-95 balls)
250 off large or extra large baskets with student I.D.
Club rental is available for 250
For Information call 696-1220
■Ah
CLINICS
AM/PM Clinics
Minor Emergencies
10% Student Discount with ID card
3820 Texas Ave.
Bryan, Texas
846-4756
401 S. Texas Ave.
Bryan, Texas
779-4756
8a.m.-11 p.m. 7 days a week
Walk-in Family Practice
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