Texas A&M
The Battalion
Tuesday, November ii>, i98G
College Station^ Texas
Vol. 88 No. 57 USPS 045360
Pages
Jennifer Diehl, a junior journalism major from
Houston, steps up Monday to examine one of five
statues in the exhibit “Mindless Competition” dis
played near Rudder Tower. The statues are part
of The First Texas Triennial exhibition brought to
campus by the Office of University Art Collections
and Exhibitions. The statues are made of foam
rubber and steel.
Motorcycle chase ends in death,
spurs riot in Miami neighborhood
MIAMI (AP) — About 75 people
burned cars and threw rocks Mon
day at police who had fired at a mo
torcycle during a chase that ended in
a wreck and the death of one suspect
and the injury of another, authori
ties said.
About 125 police officers in riot
gear closed off an area about 17
blocks by nine blocks in the predom
inately black neighborhood just
north of downtown, which has been
the site of major racial strife in the
past.
Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez de
clared the riot “contained” about
five hours later. School officials an
nounced five schools in the area
would be closed Tuesday.
Several officers hit by rocks and
bottles were treated at the scene, po
lice said. At least two cars were set
afire, two news vehicles attacked
with rocks and several people who
wandered into the area were hit by
rocks, authorities said.
Miami police were placed on full
alert, with overnight shifts called in
early, and the Florida Highway Pa
trol and Metro police placed on
standby.
The incident began about 5:45
p.m. on the Martin Luther King hol
iday when police started chasing a
motorcycle with two possible rob
bery suspects, police Sgt. Michael
Mazur said.
Police started shooting, and the
motorcycle ran into a car, Mazur
said.
NAACP accuses DPS
of racial discrimination
AUSTIN (AP) — NAACP offi
cials on Monday filed a complaint
against the Texas Department of
Public Safety, alleging the state’s law
enforcement agency discriminates
against black employees through an
entrenched “good old boy” system of
favoritism.
The complaint was filed with the
federal Equal Employment Oppor
tunity Commission on behalf of SO
black troopers and support staff,
said Gary Bledsoe, president of the
Austin chapter of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People.
The complaint alleges disparities
in treatment between black and
white employees in hiring, promo
tions, and disciplinary actions at the
DPS.
DPS officials disputed the
NAACP, saying progress has been
made to increase minorities in the
ranks.
The DPS has more than 5,000 em-
ployees, of which 2.600 are commis
sioned law officers, said spokesman
Mike Cox.
Cox said that as of last April, 2 1 .<S
percent of the personnel in law en
forcement were minorities, up from
9.6 percent 10 years ago.
“We think there’s been some very
positive improvement over the last
10 years.
We were working to make things
better even before the original
NAACP concerns were expressed
and will continue to do so,” he said.
A recent survey by the Texas State
Troopers Association showed that
many of its members believe a “good
old boy” system exists and promo
tions frequently have little to do with
an employee’s abilities.
“It’s unlikely that a good old bov is
going to include a black and it sure
isn’t going to include a female,”
Bledsoe said at a news conference.
That charge was denied by Col.
Joe E. Milner, DPS director.
“I reject that,” Milner said. “Our
promotional system is very fair, and
we welcome any examination of it.”
Bledsoe said the department’s
oral interview committee has dispro
portionately disqualified blacks and
Hispanics from promotions; that
blacks are penalized more harshly
than white employees who commit
the same violations; and that black
recruiting numbers are consistently
too low 7 .
Bledsoe declined to give detailed
examples, saying the EEOC com
plaint is an anonymous process and
that the NAACP still is gathering in
formation.
Charles Arnold, a custodian at the
DPS, said he has worked there 15
years and w 7 as passed over for a pro
motion by a white employee.
Arnold said the DPS did not even
list the job to inform employees
about the opening.
“I feel neglected,” he said. “I just
wanted to be treated fair.”
1989-90 academic calendar
approved by Faculty Senate
By Juliette Rizzo
Staff Writer
The Texas A&M Faculty Senate
approved the 1989-90 academic cal
endar Monday.
The calendar will now be sub
mitted to President William H. Mob
ley for final approval.
Spring break is tentatively sched
uled for the week of March 13-17
and final exams for the spring se
mester are tentatively scheduled for
Friday May 5 and Monday through
Wednesday May 8-10.
An amendment to the calendar
proposed by Sen. Richard Shumway
also was approved by the Senate.
The amendment, which pertains to
upcoming summer sessions, states
that “degree candidates in all semes
ters and sessions shall sit for final ex
aminations with other students in
the registered class.”
The intent of the proposal is to
have all students in a given course
take final examinations at the same
time to allow professors equal time to
grade all exams. The second part of
the amendment states that the
amount of time for the faculty to
grade final examinations shall not be
less than the time granted during
the fall 1988 semester, when Presi
dent Mobley approved the revised
finals schedule and a minimum of
two days for professors to grade ex
ams.
Speaker Gary Hart said the ad
dendum to the schedule has been
proposed because it is impossible for
all students to take finals at the same
time and for professors to get grades
in on time to have actual diplomas
distributed at graduation.
2 Dallas teens remain in jail
for murder of police officers
DALLAS (AP) — Two teen-agers remained in cus
tody Monday while police prepared to present the dis
trict attorney with formal charges for the youths’ role in
a car chase that led to the deaths of two police officers.
The youths, 17-year-old Ray Earvin McLin Jr. and a
16-year-old whose identity won’t be released because he
is a juvenile, were held on probable cause charges of
murder, police spokesman Bill Bateman said.
Officers Lisa Sandel and Mark Fleming were killed
when their police cruiser went out of control and
crashed into an oncoming pickup on a rain-slickened
street during a chase Friday night. An officer-trainee
riding in the back seat of the car and the driver of the
pickup were injured.
McLin was in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in lieu
of a $100,000 bond and the 16-year-old was in Dallas
County Juvenile Detention Center. Bond has not been
set, but police will try to have the teen-ager certified as
an adult, Davis said.
Bateman said the police units investigating different
facets of the case would have to get together to decide
what charges would be formally presented to the dis
trict attorney.
Police arrested McLin early Monday after question
ing the 16-year-old, who was brought to them by his
mother Sunday night.
Police believe the youths were in the stolen 1985 Old-
smobile 98 Sandel and Fleming chased, but detective
Roy Hodgens said it was too early to discuss the specific
roles the youths may have played in the car theft and
chase.
“The one person who’d probably be the best witness
is the officer who is still in the hospital,” Bateman said.
The recruit, Nathaniel White, 25, was in serious con
dition Monday in the intensive care unit at Baylor Uni
versity Medical Center, officials said. Police have been
unable to question White because he has been heavily
sedated, Bateman said.
Police said the juvenile had stolen two cars Friday.
Both cars were recovered Saturday and property miss
ing from one was found in the other.
Texans honor King with parades, vigils
Official: MLK passed torch to new leaders
About 15,000 people, marching
from four directions, converged on
Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza in San
Antonio Monday for the largest
Texas commemoration of the holi
day honoring the civil rights leader.
Marchers gathered at sites up to
four miles away from the plaza and
met at noon for speeches by city
leaders and Numonde Ngubo, a rep
resentative of the Black African
Miners from South Africa and
United Mine Workers of America
End Apartheid in South Africa.
The Texas Senate adopted a reso
lution Monday on the “joyous yet
solemn occasion” commemorating
the life “of one of the most influen
tial men of the 20th century, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.”
Co-sponsors were the Senate’s two
blacks — Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-
Dallas, and Craig Washington, D-
Houston.
“Probably Dr. King was one of the
greatest friends of this nation and
this world, for he fought for the
rights of all while teaching to love all
at all times,” Johnson said.
Johnson and state Rep. Ron Wil
son, D-Houston, have filed legis
lation to make King’s birthday an of
ficial state holiday. Federal and
many municipal and county workers
had the day off, but state agencies
were open.
During the last legislative session,
lawmakers made King’s birthday an
‘optional’ holiday for state employ
ees, allowing them to observe it in
lieu of another state optional holi
day.
Washington said the state should
make King’s birthday a full holiday
By Richard Tijerina
Staff Writer
Although Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. was murdered 21 years ago this
April, he has not been forgotten,
and the torch he carried promoting
civil rights has been passed on to the
black leaders of today, a Texas A&M
official says.
Kevin Carreathers, coordinator of
the A&M Multicultural Services
Center, said today’s civil rights lead
ers such as Jesse Jackson and Atlanta
mayor Andrew Young are paving
the way toward racial equality while
carrying the dreams of King.
“(The leaders) are doing an excel
lent job because they have a clear fo
cus on what goals need to be accom
plished and they are well-respected
by society at large,” Carreathers said.
Carreathers said King’s legacy of
promoting racial equality was espe
cially crucial to blacks in the 1960s by
bringing the issue to the public eye.
and suggested combining it with an
other optional holiday, Confederate
Heroes’ Day, celebrated Jan. 19.
“I know that my colleagues on this
side of the rotunda have the courage
to combine Confederate Heroes Day
with Martin Luther King’s birthday
because there’s nothing wrong with
it — they’re both heroes in the eyes
of people who love freedom,” Wash
ington said.
Most Texas colleges were open as
were some school districts.
“He raised the conscience level of
the country,” he said. “He was very
instrumental in promoting access for
equal employment and educational
opportunities.
“Specifically, he did a whole lot to
improve (blacks’) self-concept and
their self-pride, to be able to feel
good about themselves and to chal
lenge the system they were under in
those times.”
Reginald Martin, a member of Al
pha Phi Alpha and co-chairman of
the Southwestern Black Student
Leadership Conference at A&M on
Jan. 26-29, said King was not only
instrumental in helping the country
find its way toward civil rights, but
helped black Americans be proud of
themselves.
Martin said Medicine Tribe, a
group of A&M students advocating
a boycott of all classes and food serv
ices on campus, was wrong for pro-
The Corpus Christi Independent
School District, after giving students
the day off last January, voted in
March to drop the King birthday
and Memorial Day from the list of
school holidays.
Responding to protests of local
black leaders, CCISD officials voted
to compromise and hold class Mon
day but dismiss students two hours
earlier than normal.
“But rather than take a holiday,
the district decided to have a regular
testing the University’s decision to
hold classes on King’s birthday.
“I respect them (the group) be
cause they have a goal they want to
accomplish and they’re working to
ward that goal,” he said. “However, I
think they’re going about it the
wrong way because I don’t think
Martin Luther King would have
wanted that.”
The Multicultural Services Center
provides many means of helping mi
nority students at A&M, including
scholarship and internship informa
tion and different ethnic programs.
He said more services such as the
ones the Center provides should be
offered to minorities at A&M.
“You can increase the amount of
scholarship money,” he said. “We
can do more to see the courses being
taught are from a more multicultu
ral perspective. We can change the
tenure progress for minority fac
ulty.”
Carreathers and Martin said even
day and early dismissal so kids could
participate in any community activ
ities going on,” Chris Garcia, CCISD
information officer, said.
About 50 people marched in an
hour-long demonstration organized
by the NAACP outside the Grand
Prairie school district office, police
said. The district held classes Mon
day.
“There was a small opposition
group, but they stayed across the
street,” Grand Prairie police Sgt.
with King’s fight toward civil rights,
racial discrimination is still evident
today. Martin said he feels discrimi
nation will never go away.
“Discrimination is discrimina
tion,” Martin said. “I think it is a
problem that will never go away, be
cause it will never be universally ac
cepted that there is no difference
(between blacks and whites).”
Carreathers said even though
there is still discrimination today, so
ciety must realize blacks and hispan
ics are no different than whites.
“I think people need to realize we
are moving toward a more global so
ciety,” Carreathers said. “People
have to realize the minority of today
is fast becoming the majority of to
morrow. And until you are able to
come to grips with that, it’s going to
be very difficult for you if you are a
white in America in the year 2000
because you won’t be in the majori
ty”
Ron Meine said of the demonstation.
“Everything was quite orderly.”
Meine said police did not identify
the opposition group.
In Houston, the holiday was
marked with a parade through
downtown and various church serv
ices and vigils throughout the city.
Ovide Duncantel, of the Houston
Black Heritage Society, said black
people should do their best to recog
nize King’s birthday.
Gunman
opens fire
at day care
PLANO (AP) — A gunman at a
day care center opened fire Mon
day on a woman who had come to
pick up her children, and the
wounded mother fled to a bowl
ing alley for help and later died
of her wound at a hospital, police
said.
Laurie Lee Newman, 25, of
Richardson, died at a Plano hos
pital of a gunshot wound to her
right side, said Jon Giddings, a
police investigator and public in
formation officer in this North
Dallas suburb.
He said police were securing
warrants for the gunman’s arrest.
“We know who he is, we are
getting warrants for his arrest
and we are looking all over for
him,” Giddings said.
He said that officers were
caUed to the Plano Super Bowl, a
bowling alley where Newman had
driven while fleeing from her at
tacker.
“She drove to La Petite Aca
demy at 4:30 p.m. to pick up her
two children,” Giddings said in a
statement. “When she pulled into
the parking lot, the suspect
pulled up directly in front of her,
exited his vehicle and began fir
ing a large-caliber handgun.”
Giddings said the first bullet
apparently lodged in the wind
shield of Newman’s car, while the
second pierced a passenger-side
window and struck her.