exas A&M
he Battalion
Inside
Vol. 88 No. 59 USPS 045360 16 Pages
Thursday, November 17, 1988
Fine Arts
&TE move
may create
to Texas
8700jobs
IRVING (AP) — GTE Corp. an-
lounced Wednesday that it will
nove its consolidated telephone op-
irations division from Stamford,
Conn., to this Dallas suburb in the
largest business relocation ever to
the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The move will begin in January
and take four years to complete. It
will bring more than 3,000 current
GTE employees to Texas and could
create up to 8,70P more new jobs lo
cally, GTE officials said.
“What all this; tells us is that the
Dallas-Fort Worth area was simply
the right place for us to be, for all
the right reasons,” said James L.
“Rocky” Johnson, chairman and
chief executive officer of GTE Corp.
Kent Foster, group vice president
of GTE telephone operations, said
several criteria were used in the se
lection. Among those was finding a
central location with 700,000 square
feet of available temporary office
space to house operations while a
permanent facility is being built.
Other cities considered included
Tampa, Fla., Thousand Oaks, Calif.,
and Westfield, Ind.
GTE will construct a 1 million-
square-foot “campus-like” facility on
a 112-acre site in the Las Cohnas
planned development area of Ir
ving, Foster said. The facility, to be
completed by mid-1991, will accom
modate more than 4,000 employees
and includes 1,000 jobs that will be
created as a result of the relocation.
Until the next facilities are ready,
GTE will operate from four office
buildings within two miles of the
permanent site.
“The Dallas-Fort Worth area was
ultimately chosen because of its cen
tral location, the proximity of the
See GTE/Page 7
Lecture on legalizing drugs
draws opposing opinions
By Fiona Soltes
Staff Writer
For every statistic presented, an
other showed equally rational argu
ments; for every opinion voiced, an
other was equally as strong.
“Tune In, Turn On, Find Out,”
part of the E.L. Miller Lecture Se
ries’ “Drugs, A Modern Dilemma,”
was a panel discussion on drug de
criminalization. The event was spon
sored by MSG Political Forum and
Center for Drug Education and Pre
vention.
About 100 people came Wednes
day to listen to and argue opinions
with Richard Cowan, member of
Advisory Board on Drug Policy
Foundation; John P. McDermott, of
the International Association of
Narcotics Officers; Dr. Ethan Avram
Nadelmann, assistant professor of
politics and public affairs for Prince
ton University; and Sue Rusche, ex
ecutive director of the National
Drug Information Center of Fami
lies In Action. Dr. John Talmadge,
from the Sandstone Medical Clinic,
served as moderator.
Nadelmann and Cowan, arguing
for legalization, were careful not to
advocate drug use, but rather to ad
vocate ways of ending drug abuse.
“It’s time to make a distinction be
tween results of drug abuse and re
sults of the prohibition of drugs,”
Nadelmann said in his opening re
marks. “People are dying from dan
gerous drugs because they’re illegal.
If they’re legal, they’ll be controlled,
and those that use them will know
what they’re getting.”
Rusche and McDermott disagreed
with the idea of legalization.
“Legalization would be a serious
mistake,” McDermott said. “The
problem is not that there’s a law that
forbids them, but rather that they
are dangerous.
“Society should condemn the le
galization of drugs, keeping them il
legal and immoral, not giving them
our stamp of approval.”
Each side presented statistics.
From those for legalization, figures
were given concerning the tremen
dous amounts of money spent on
drug enforcement by police and nar
cotics officers.
“One-fifths of state and local ex
penditures are on the enforcement
of drug laws,” Nadelmann said.
“One-third of the people in prisons
are there on drug-related charges.
In 10 years, the prison population is
projected to double, with one-half of
the inmates there because of drugs.”
From those against legalization
came statistics on drug-related
deaths, using often the “legalized”
drugs of tobacco and alcohol as ex
amples.
“There is a wall in Washington,
D.C. listing the names of all those
who died in the Vietnam War,”
Rusche said. “We would need two
such walls for those killed by alcohol,
and seven to ten walls for those
killed by tobacco.”
Most questions from the audience
were directed toward those against
legalization. Several students sug
gested that drug use should be a per
sonal choice and one should be able
to abuse one’s own body if not harm
ing others. Evaluations turned in fol
lowing the program showed 52 peo
ple were in favor of legalization, 25
were opposed and 25 were unde
cided.
Cowan summed up the war on
drug abuse, regardless of opinions
on legalization.
“No one here is pretending to
have a magic wand,” he said. “We
can’t change the drug problem over
night. But it is not just a Utopian
idea that it can change.
Photo by Dean Saito
Working hard!
Bonfire building continued after the thunder- stack for more than hour and a half following the
storm Tuesday night. Workers had to leave the storm.
Co-ed dorms at A&M
By Kelly S. Brown
Staff Writer
The Student Government, after
much debate, passed a resolution en
dorsing the Residence Hall Associa
tion’s proposal to establish at least
one co-ed hall at Texas A&M Uni
versity beginning 1989 Fall semes-
| ter.
David McDowell, 1987-88 RHA
president, said the dorms in mind
include the two new modular halls
on Southside. The way it would
work is that males would be on one
floor, females on the next — mean
ing every other floor.
Christi Choat, a junior speech
communications major who intro
duced the bill, said co-ed dorms
would not admit freshmen.
“This is aimed at upperclassmen
to make it more appealing for them
to remain on campus. In four sepa
rate surveys, Texas A&M University
I students have overwhelmingly en-
Idorsed the establishment of co-ed
: halls.”
j McDowell said with 7,000 spaces
I on campus now — 46 females spaces
aren’t filled, while thirty-six males
are living in study carrels in the com
mons.
“We surveyed 30 schools — stud
ies show that safety increases and
vandalism decreases, while greater
unity and quality programming exist
in a co-ed hall.”
McDowell said initial results of a
survey taken at A&M showed that 73
percent of the students want co-ed
halls.
“A vote will be taken at the No-
vermber 30 RHA meeting,” McDow
ell said, “and if approved it will go to
the Department of Student Affairs
and they will probably pass it on to
the Department of Student Affairs.”
Mike Lister, a junior finance ma
jor, said he thinks the resolution
would be a change in a positive di
rection.
Lister said, “I’m sure years ago
when the subject was brought up to
allow women in the Senate every one
said, ‘no way — it will never work,’
now women comprise half of the
leaders in here.”
Also passed in Wednesday nights
meeting was a resolution introduced
by Michael Kelley and Kenneth Nie-
derhofer that would officially con
gratulate the University of Arkansas
STUDENT
E1RNMENT
U N I V E It s I T Y
football team for winning the South
west Conference.
The resolution stated, “The Texas
A&M Student Senate congratulates
the University of Arkansas on their
championship victory and A&M, as
members of the Southwest Confer
ence wishes the Arkansas Razor-
backs good luck in the 1989 Cotton
Bowl.”
The resolution caused a lengthly
debate. Those opposing it basically
said the resolution seemed to be con-
decending.
move closer to reality
Mark Williams, a graduate stu
dent in land development, said, “It
seems like we’re saying that we al
lowed them to go the conference.”
Kelley, a senior political science
major and Speaker Pro-Tempore,
said it’s just a friendly gesture and
didn’t see how Arkansas could take it
any other way.
Three bills were introduced at the
meeting and it was the “Yell Practice
Sexual References Bill”, which drew
the most questions.
Because it was the first reading of
the bill — debate was not allowed.
Greg Duewall, a freshman busi
ness major, and Patrick Janis, a
sophomore chemistry major, intro
duced the bill because they don’t ap
prove of the sexual references made
by yell leaders during the yell prac
tice.
The bill states, “As A&M is striv
ing to maintain its worldclass Uni
versity status, it states under “Sexual
Harassment” in Section I, Regula
tion 52 of Texas A&M University
Regulations: 1988-89” — “Conduct
constituting sexual harassment is
hereby specifically prohibited and
will result in appropriate sanctions . .
.(1) Definition . . . Some examples
that might constitute sexual ha
rassment are . . . sexual innuendoes
or statements made at inappropriate
times or disguised as humor, or
obscene gestures.”
“Therefore, be it resolved that the
Student Senate strongly suggest that
the yell leaders restrain from mak
ing sexual references in their re
marks at all future yell practices, and
that should a sexual reference be
made and a complaint registered
with the yell leader advisor, he or
she shall decide on the action to be
taken.”
Steve Goan, a junior yell leader,
said it is not the intention of the yell
leaders to offend anyone, and if any
one does have a complaint that they
should contact any of the yell leaders
and they will work with them.
Duewall said they plan to take a
survey to see how the overall student
body feels about it, as the bill was
sent to the Rules and Regulations
Committee.
Tv Clevenger, sophomore genet
ics major, introduced a bill whereby,
if passed, the Student Senate would,
“find it necessary to eliminate the
$25 application fee for admission.”
The Board of Regents approved a
bill to charge a $25 application fee
for incoming freshman to receive an
application.
Williams said that part of the rea
son for such a fee is the intention to
reduce enrollment, but students who
can’t afford it can have the fee
waived.
The bill was sent to the Academic
Affairs Committee.
Leanne Rogers, chairman of the
Rules and Regulations Committee,
introduced a bill that reapportioned
the Senate for the 1989-90 term.
Rogers said, “The Student Body
Constitution requires that the Stu
dent Senate reapportion itself an
nually, and the Rules and Regula
tions Committee is responsible for
submitting a reapportinment propo
sal.”
Membership of the Student Sen
ate will consist of 88 senators this
Spring.
Text buying process complicated for bookstores
| Editor’s note: The following story is the
second in a two-part series.
By Scot O. Walker
Staff Writer
The book buying and selling process be
gins at the end of each semester when de
partments on campus place requisition or-
Iders with the Texas A&M Bookstore.
Rosalyn Mauk, textbook manager for the
j Texas A&M Bookstore in the MSC, and her
l staff then compile master lists to distribute
toother major bookstores in Bryan-College
^Station: University Bookstore, Loupot’s,
Rother’s and Texas Aggie Bookstore. Each
store then decides how many of each text-
i book to keep on hand based on the number
of sections of each class, the number of stu-
| dents per sections, and the expected num
ber of students who will request the book at
that store.
Mauk said that some students don’t want
to sell their used books.
“I’ve noticed that engineering students
are less likely to sell their books when the
class is over,” Mauk said. “Those texts are
also more likey to be used year after year,
while political science, sociology and psy
chology texts seem to change a lot.”
If tbe store cannot find enough used
books, Mauk said they order from used
book wholesalers and tben resort to buying
new books from the publishers.
“We want to keep some new books on
hand because a few students just refuse to
buy used books,” Mauk said.
New textbooks are ordered by the
bookstores directly from the publisher, as
are new editions of older textbooks. Mauk
said that occasionally a student will request
a used older edition to avoid paying for a
new revised edition. She said that she will
honor the request if she has the older edi
tion in stock, but that the student loses out
in the long run.
“Since it is an older, unrevised edition,
no bookstore will want to buy it back when
the student is through with it,” Mauk said.
“If they go ahead and buy the new edition,
they can still sell it back for half price later.”
Shortages can occur if a professor is un
sure how many students will be in a class or
if a professor decides to change the book
required for a class. Sometimes the error
can be corrected by phone and a new order
will arrive in about a week, she said.
But many times a company is unable to
fill the order because a book may need to be
reprinted, may be out of print, or a new
edition may be coming out. At those times,
the bookstores are at the mercy of the pub
lishers.
Students and publishers often criticize
professors for selling their complimentary
copies of textbooks to used book stores,
thus driving down the value of the students’
used texts and driving up the cost of new
ones.
Mauk said that her store won’t buy com
plimentary or “desk” copies from profes
sors and that the professors know not to
bring them in. But she said that she under
stands why the professors want to sell them.
“It’s a promotional thing for the pub
lisher to send the free copy so that the pro
fessor can see the text and hopefully choose
it for his class,” she said. “There is no way
the professor could keep all these desk cop
ies in his office, so what is he supposed to
do with them?”
John Raney, manager of the Texas Aggie
Bookstore in Northgate, said that he sees
no problem with buying any book a profes
sor wants to sell him.
“Publishers are unhappy that the profes
sors are reselling these books that they
never got any royalties from,” he said. “But
it is just a matter of economics to the profes
sor.”
He said that the law provides that any
thing a person receives unsolicited through
the mail immediately becomes his property,
to use or dispose of as he sees fit.
“That certainly applies to complimentary
textbooks, too,” be said.
Raney said that he would never kno
wingly accept a stolen book, but that he sees
no moral dilemma in a professor selling his
desk copies.
“The publishers are going to have to stay
unhappy with the situation until they
change their marketing strategy and stop
sending out so many free books.”
Mauk agreed, saying, “The publishers
should realize that they aren’t going to get
any money out of these desk copies, so it is
their own fault.”
But some students may still say that $30
for a text is a rip-off. Cremer said that they
should think of it in different terms.
He said a student pays $30 for the book,
uses it for a semester and then sells it for
$ 15, leaving a net loss to the student of $ 15.
“Fifteen dollars is comparable to what a
binge of pizza and beer would cost,” said
Lawrence Cremer, former president of
William C. Brown College Publishing Divi
sion. “Don’t get me wrong; I love pizza and
beer as much as anyone. But the value of a
textbook and a quality education lasts a life
time. Pizza and beer adds bulk, but a text
book can give you depth.”