Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1988)
_exas A&M »The Battalion Tuesday, October 18,1988 College Station, Texas Vol. 88 No. 37 USPS 045360 10 Pages “cadenit 3 lobby discusses Texas’ economic addresses challenges of new Legislature condition ^ By Sherri Roberts —■ ^ Staff Writer t. Gov. Bill Hobby discussed the lomic condition of Texas and the lenges facing the 71st Legislature in ;ture sponsored by the Political Sci- !Society last night. I Certainly, there’s nothing in Texas we need more than economic devel- lent,” Hobby told an audience of ap- ;imately 35 people in Rudder Tower. I ! have too much real estate and not jgh money in our banks. Oil prices i [oo low, farm prices are too low and I mployment is too high. Texas needs [industry and new jobs.” —' —; lobby said the factors needed for in dustry relocation and expansion — an educated workforce and a healthy busi ness climate — are supported by state tax dollars. However, he said, the high dropout rate of one in three students and low lit eracy level of many high school grad uates signaled a need for changes in the present educational system. “If it costs more money to solve this problem, we need to make sure we get more for that money,” Hobby said. “We now have the tools to measure student and teacher performance. Schools that don’t produce quality education should be required to improve. Schools that im prove should be rewarded. That is called accountability. You deserve that when you are paying the bill.” Hobby commended the research activ ities of A&M, saying research will boost the sagging economy. “The biotechnology research initiative this University plans in Houston should create dozens of new products and thou sands of new jobs,” he said. “The ex pense of universities is paid back many times with the prosperity they create.” Another issue the Legislature will ad dress is prison reform, Hobby said. Although Texas legislators have ap propriated $275 million to build more than 13,000 prison beds, he said the causes of crime must be further attacked. “When we make our 10-year prison population projections, we are planning on the incarceration of people who are now seven, eight or nine years of age,” he said. “We are telling them in effect, ‘We do not have the resources for you to day, but we are reserving a $30,000 per year space for you when you become an adult. ’ ” Hobby said efforts to curtail alcohol and drug abuse and to stop child abuse must be intensified. Efforts to develop the economy will fail, he said, if a solid framework of highways, water and other services are not provided. “Highways and airports are key to economic development,” Hobby said. “No CEO will locate his headquarters in a place that lacks a first-class transporta tion network.” Tax reform should remain a top prior ity of the Legislature, Hobby said. “Our tax system hinders economic growth,” he said. “It burdens most of the industries hit hardest by international competition. The franchise tax is a tax on capital. Raising it as we did last year hampers growth.” Hobby urged people to vote in the up coming presidential election. “There is no more important decision than who will lead this country for the next four years,” he said. “Do your part, or don’t complain about what you get.” Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack Four workers from H.B. Zachry Constructin Co. prepare to hoist the coun terweight of a crane off of a trailer in front of Sbisa Dining Hall Monday af- moon. The crane will be used in the constmction of a new residence hall ear Sbisa. Center provides counseling, information about drinking By Denise Thompson Staff Writer Faculty and students who are con cerned about their drinking habits or those of someone they care about can get suggestions and help at the Texas A&M Center for Drug Prevention and Educa tion. “Our center is to be used as a resource for faculty, staff and students to come in and find out about alcohol,” Ann Coombes, director of the Center, said. “We provide information about abuse, physiological effects and other facts about certain aspects of alcohol and other drugs.” Several alcohol and drug-related orga nizations are sponsored through the Cen ter. BACCHUS, or Boost Alcohol Con sciousness Concerning the Health of University Students, is a national student organization whose purpose is to pro mote responsible drinking decisions among college students. The campus chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, a fellowship of people who help one another achieve and maintain sobriety, is sponsored through the Cen ter. Narcotics Anonymous, which is based on the AA approach, is a support group for people with a drug addiction. For individuals who suffer confusion associated with an alcoholic parent, Adult Children of Alcoholics also offers support through the Center. If a students thinks that he needs more serious attention, Coombes said, the Center provides counseling and referrals. “We do individual one-on-one work with students if we think they might have a problem,” she said. “If a student thinks he might have a problem, he could come in, and we would sit down and talk about it and do a preliminary assessment. If we do find out he has a serious problem, we refer him out to agencies such as Green- leaf.” Besides providing counseling and re ferrals, the Center also sponsors infor mation seminars for various groups. “We do presentations to classes, stu dent organizations, Fish Camp, mothers’ clubs, fraternities and sororities,” Coombes said. “We also put out lots of brochures about different alcohol-related subjects such as alcohol and liability or alcohol and the law.” Coombes said that alcohol abuse is not so much a problem of ignorance of the facts of alcoholism as much as it is a dis regard for the facts. “The more I go out and do programs for students, the more they’re knowing what the actual facts are,” she said. “So getting the facts across to people is not a problem — they’re learning most of the facts. “The reason we still have so much of a problem is not because people don’t know the facts, but because they don’t change their attitudes. They don’t care that to drink to get drunk is an irresponsi ble use of alcohol. They have the attitude that drinking is a phase that they’ll get through, and then everything will be OK. That attitude’s bad, because it’s a proven fact that one out of ten people will have a problem with alcohol.” Coombes said that the cost of a DWI conviction is making some people realize the seriousness of alcohol abuse. “Probably the thing most people still do not know is the average cost of a DWI in Brazos County,” she said. “On aver age, it’s $4,500. The fine itself is very minimal, but a lot of people don’t realize that you have many little things that go into the overall cost of a DWI. For in stance, few people know that you have to pay $40 a month just to be on proba tion.” Besides the cost of DWIs, Coombes said that alcohol-related liability is chan ging the attitudes about having and at tending parties. “If you are having a party at your apartment, and an intoxicated person leaves your party and has an accident, you can be held just as liable for that ac cident as any student organization such as a fraternity,” Coombes said. “A lot of people know that fraternities can be hauled into court, but they don’t realize the same things can happen to students.” For information concerning any of the programs or counseling services, contact the Center at 845-0280 or go to the sec ond floor of the A.P. Beutel Health Cen ter. 0roup lists signs that mark possible drinking pipblemgl BACCHUS lists nine signals that may indicate a drinking problem. A person may have a drinking problem if he or she: : • Frequently drinks to a state of intoxication. • Relies on a drink to start the day. • Consistently skips classes be cause of hangovers. • Has blackouts and loss of mem ory from drinking. • Frequently drinks alone to es cape from reality, boredom and lone liness* '. • Sustains bodily injury as a con sequence of drinking. • Excessively denies be or she has an alcohol problem when approached about his behavior concerning alco hol. ♦ Suffers from chronic hangovers and wants a drink to relieve the hang over. . * Does something he or she ordi narily would not do if he or she were not under the influence of alcohol. Vorld Food Day draws local, international issues into view pm cSpofr' By Alan Sembera Senior Staff Writer Higher educational institutes in under- feveloped nations are not producing (High experts in agriculture for the pri- sector, Dr. H.O. Kunkel, former i of the Texas A&M College of Agri- lliturc, said Monday. Hunkel told about a dozen people who Hered to participate in World Food >ay at A&M that most agriculture insti- ps are designed to fill government But most government jobs in the area |griculture are filled in these coun- , said Kunkel, who is now a profes- !>f life sciences. Now, he said, the question asked (nd the world is: “How does the icr benefit from the resources of our ler educational systems?” JBecause these agriculture institutes are now in place, Kunkel said, the tinted States will have to deal with them a different point of view. |!We are collaborators and colleagues T than going in and telling them 'hat to do,” he said. [s they exist, he said, these agricul- institutes are just mechanisms for oyment. le said many graduates of these sys- | don’t contribute anything to the ers of the countries because they Have no knowledge of farming. I He said this is because a large number of the students who go to schools of fgher education for agriculture in these plerdeveloped nations come from large cities. ■They want to be guaranteed the gov- Pment job that goes with a higher edu ction, and they can’t get into more pres- hgious fields such as law or medicine, he said, | The participants in World Food Day ^$o watched a live teleconference link- 'Og universities and communities They also warned that fewer children are going into farming because they can’t make money at it. To coincide with World Food Day, A&M also began a community food drive for the Brazos Valley on Monday. The food drive is being sponsored by Great Issues, the International Devel opment Forum and Students Against Apartheid. Organizations participating in the drive include Greek organizations, the Corps of Cadets and the Residence Hall Association. World Food Day was created by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and is observed by more than 140 countries. Its purpose is to get the people of the world more directly involved in eliminat ing hunger and creating a secure food supply for the world. The observance is sponsored by the United Nations, individual national gov ernments and private volunteer organiza tions. throughout the United States and Canada with an international panel of experts to discuss Africa’s food problems and solu tions. During the teleconference, the panel discussed both African and American perspectives in areas such as food pro duction and distribution, agricultural trade, international aid, African debt and the causes and effects of famine. The panelists said nearly one-third of all Africans depend on food imports. They blamed this on several things, including drought conditions, continued regional conflicts, lack of scientists and insufficient technology to cultivate the land. Any organization can join the food drive that lasts until Oct. 21. More than 400 organizations sponsor World Food Day in the United States. Legislature may allow corporal punishment AUSTIN (AP) — A special com mittee agreed Monday to ask the state Legislature to review a law allowing corporal punishment by educators and others. “The whole idea of corporal pun ishment is to cause bodily injury,’’ Steve Chaney, a Fort Worth prosecu tor and member of the House Select Committee on Child Abuse and Por nography, said. “I don’t think we ought to ever have a statute that says a parent can’t spank their child if done appropri ately, but I don’t know why we need to move it outside the home and allow a school to do it,” he said. “You have other sanctions that you can use with children in a school.” Chaney said he believes there are problems statewide in the use of cor poral punishment by caretakers of children. The committee, which includes la- wamakers and others, voted unani mously for the review. A section of the penal code under the “Educator-Student” heading says the use of force, but not deadly force, is justified if the person taking action is “entrusted with the care, supervi sion or administration of the person for a special purpose,” and “when and to the degree the actor believes the force is necessary to further the special purpose or to maintain disci pline in a group.” Chaney said he thinks the law orig inally was meant to address only school districts and educators, but is being applied to anybody who has temporary supervision of a child. If corporal punishment is not elimi nated, Chaney said, limitations should be put into the law. Two Austin parents told the com mittee Monday that their children were physically harmed, one by a worker at a summer activity program, and the other by a private school prin cipal. Texas flag law will be reviewed by High Court WASHINGTON (AP) The Su preme Court, agreeing to decide how far states may go to limit some forms of po litical protest, said Monday it will review a Texas law that makes it a crime to bum the American flag. The justices, setting the stage for a po litically and emotionally charged ruling, will consider reinstating a conviction against a man who burned a flag at a demonstration during the 1984 Republi can National Convention in Dallas. A decision is expected by next July. The court will review a ruling that the Texas law improperly abridged symbolic expression protected by the Constitution. The Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union urged the justices not to review a ruling that permitted the flag burning. The ACLU said state offi cials were trying to create a sense of le gal uncertainty where none exists. While flag-burning generally has not been a hot issue since the days of the Vietnam War protests, the case may at tract considerable attention because of the interest focused on patriotic values by the current presidential campaign. Vice President George Bush, the Re publican nominee, has attacked his Dem ocratic opponent, Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, for vetoing a law re quiring teachers to lead the Pledge of Al legiance in that state’s public schools. The justices agreed Monday to review a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last April that threw out the flag-burning conviction of Gregory Lee Johnson, who had been sentenced to one year in jail and fined $2,000. Johnson was arrested on Aug. 22, 1984, while participating in a demonstra tion against the Reagan administration and the Republicans. The protest culminated with a rally in front of Dallas City Hall that included political chants and the flag burning. Johnson was convicted by a jury of vi olating a state law banning the dese cration of a venerated object. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said, “Given the context of an organized demonstration, speeches, slogans and the distribution of literature, anyone who observed (Johnson’s) act would have un derstood the message that (he) intended to convey. The act for which (he) was convicted was clearly ‘speech’ contem plated by the First Amendment. ’ ’ The state court said the Texas law against flag desecration is too broad be cause it seeks to curb expression likely to cause serious offense. Police officers who arrested Johnson said they were seriously offended by the flag burning. There also had been con siderable vandalism during the demon stration, but Johnson was not charged with that offense. There was also testimony that the charred fragments of the flag were col lected by an employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who was so upset that he later buried the flag’s remains in his backyard. But the state court said seriously of fending someone is not the same as incit ing to riot — an activity that permits re straints on free speech. The state court also rejected argu ments by law enforcement officials that the anti-desecration statute legitimately preserves the flag as a symbol of unity.