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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1989)
lexas A&M ffhe Battalion WEATHER FORECAST for TUESDAY: Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of rain. HIGH:62 LOW:48 t i/ol. 88 No. 81 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, January 23,1989 kptudent lobbyists pound pavement at Capitol -spreads. ttotha H AUSTIN (AP) — They have little money !ctlon oi political clout, but student lobbyists from a bonal fiBexas universities are pounding the pave- ** t * ie f; M ent al t * ie state Capitol alongside their Relieve ip, afessional counterparts. l { -ft andr® Representittg 30 Texas public universi- ffies and colleges, the young lobbyists are )o\ver, Bi.floping to make a footprint on the moun- lional ParSin of issues facing the state Legislature pite cniifBis session. Among the student group’s is- ll -aparil sLcs are opposition to tuition increases, xtreme-ril fipport of increased financial aid and a stu- ■enton every university governing board, the tirsiB “We’re not going to take legislators to ex- undertalBensive dinners and send them cases of irty’s 40-t,I ;rik&M honors egents who bid farewell scotch,” said Jerry Haddican, co-director of the Texas Student Lobby, a lobbying orga nization at the University of Texas at Aus tin. “If our issues are important enough, they’re going to get noticed, and not be cause of money or prestige, because they’re important.” Haddican’s group has joined with stu dents from across the state to form the Texas Students Coalition. Other student lobbying groups have sur faced in previous sessions. But Haddican said this session marks the first time stu dents have mounted a statewide, unified ef fort. “This has a lot more force than anything that has been done in the past,” said Jay Ruuska, vice president of the student body at the University of North Texas. The group held two organizational meet ings during the summer to plan strategy, including meeting with legislators, mount ing phone and letter-writing campaigns and organizing events promoting their views. One rally planned for this spring is “Skip School to Stay in School,” in which students will gather at the Capitol to publicize their cause. The students’ approach, Ruuska said, “is not to be a bull in a china shop.” “We’re not going to play hard ball,” he said. “We just can’t. If nothing else, we’ll compile a long list of experiences to leave for the next legislative session.” Legislative aides from the education committees of both the House and Senate said they were impressed by the students’ efforts. “They have a good grasp of the issues, ” Bruce Hupp, administrative assistant to Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, said. Jonathan Darnell, director of the Boston- based Student Empowerment Training Project, a non-profit organization for stu dent governments and student lobbying or ganizations, sakhalthough student lobbying groups lack the financial resources of pro fessional lobbyists, they have achieved re sults in several states. Arizona students successfully lobbied the state board of regents to trim a proposed tuition increase by almost half. Student lobbyists in Colorado helped stu dents at one campus gain access to student evaluations of professors’ classroom perfor mance. And in Kansas, students lobbied to establish financial aid grants to students in volved in public service. negoit to mlC <> release i lelson M; - would i ity of a in South)! i whitest) id econo eks have )y Stephen Masters ENIOR STAFF WRITER IClt )ly ber Texas A&M said goodbye to over 2 years of experience on its Board f Regents Sunday as it honored three members who will leave office ■fter today’s meeting. I Chairman David Eller, Vice ■hairman Joe Reynolds and Dr. Bohn Coleman will leave office be- Bore the March meeting of the Board. Reynolds resigned Dec. 12 Bnd the six-year terms of Eller and Soleman will expire Feb. 1. B Texas House of Representatives “Bpeaker William Clayton was chosen 'By Gov. Bill Clements to replace T) - I Uooned in * XI "Beynolds. No replacements for Eller ve inonir,M r Qj| eman have been selected. mesdaiH £u er was appointed to the Board 1983. Under Eller, Regent William Mc Kenzie said, the quality of all parts of |he A&M System improved and re- earch funding became a priority. McKenzie told of how Eller irought action on the relocation of he railroad tracks along Wellborn load which had been “cussed and jliscussed” without action for many ears. Eller brought in the state lighway department and other igencies, McKenzie said, to finally ;etthe ball rolling. The Board will hear an update to- ui «> 1 a y from two highway department 11 ■ “Bfficials on the status of the track re- I heres 'Hocation project. u can M Although obviously not happy to nd driviiijB eave 0 jp, ce Eller remained proud •mists a linistrad lisappoii deep tkl ns are. epartmen 22 pera $10.3 H a surge it •r busuies Jit dropii s compet this tout' l ine, heal e, spokesl said tliri ce was if (his is a:| ot change See Regents/Page 7 A ‘capital’ experience Aggie Band members discuss their trip to Washington, D.C. af ter returning to Easterwood Airport Saturday. The band, along with Parson’s Mounted Cavalry and marched in Friday’s inaugural parade. Photo by Jay Janner the Ross Volunteers, a top ad- pert, said was disap the counj » far from the raj n the firs! 1 off in re it we have v said in a intinue and qual; te our ■ barriers learn to deal with AIDS problem By Denise Thompson 5TAFF WRITER >9 ninar Although AIDS has not been a najor concern on many college cam puses, student and faculty organiza- jons across the nation have started aking measures to minimize the pread of the deadly disease. Most organizations are working in hree ways to accomplish this goal: tducating students through aware- tess programs, preventing discrimi- ration against students with Ac- uired Immune Deficiency yndrome and making condoms nore readily available on campuses. 3f these, AIDS education is the least :ontroversial. A common form of AIDS educa- ion is “AIDS Awareness Weeks” md “Safe-Sex Kits.” The University )f Texas provides both of these serv- ces to students, said Sherry Bell, tianager of health education in UT’s tudent health center. “We hold several seminars spon- oring safe sex throughout each se- nester,” Bell said. “Beginning this iemester, every student who attends i seminar will receive a safe-sex kit ifterward.” Presently, the only form of educa- ional devices available to Texas A.&M students is through video apes shown on the television mon- tors at the A.P. Beutel Health Gen et, free informational brochures ind CARE Week. Dr. John Moore, acting director at the health center, said the center has not been aggres sive toward AIDS-related problems because it is in a state of change. “There is a state of flux because I am only an acting director,” he said. “However, we do show video tapes and provide free brochures for stu dents about not only AIDS, but other sexually transmitted diseases.” However, there is a group on the A&M campus that is being aggres sive toward AIDS — the University AIDS Committee. Formed in June 1988, the com mittee already has drafted a propo sal for an AIDS education program that, if passed, would include consul tation with AIDS experts, visitation to other campuses with successful programs, pamphlets, films for the resource library and provision of condoms and other birth control de vices. Also under consideration by the committee is a special topics course that could be added to the curric ulum. Among the most controversial moves made by campus organiza tions across the nation has been in creasing the availability of condoms. Among the successful efforts are the University of Colorado, where 40 vending machines are now in place and sell a total of 800 to 1,000 con doms each month. Although the A&M health center provides gynecological exams and birth control pills for women, con- Health center shows AIDS information film By Denise Thompson STAFF WRITER “I was going to live forever. Aren’t you?” Ending a film based on a true story about a college girl who con tracts AIDS, these lines summarize the meaning behind the movie “AIDS: A Decision for Life,” which is shown at the A.P. Beutel Health Center. Used as a device to encourage safe sex or abstinance, the health center shows the film several times daily on the waiting room television monitors and at residence halls. All women who come into the center to obtain birth control pills also are required to watch the film. The show is about a girl, “Sally,” who meets “Peter” while working at a restaurant the summer before she begins college. Peter is giving mixed signals about whether he is inter ested in Sally or whether he is just being friendly, and Sally decides he must not be interested. A few months later, Sally runs into Peter at a party near the college they both attend, and they begin see ing more of each other. After several months of “getting to know each other,” Sally decides she wants to have sex with Peter. Although Sally and Peter con tinue dating and having sex, the cou ple separates during Christmas break. Peter fails to call Sally until five days after Christmas, and then tells her they’re through. After returning to school, Sally’s friends inform her they saw Peter with a man who appeared to be more than just a friend. Sally’s friends encourage her to get a test for AIDS, which she does. The result of the test is positive, and Sally begins to realize her life has been drastically changed by a deci sion she was making about someone she thought she knew. The movie is far from dramatic. It is, in fact, so realistic it’s frightening — and that’s the message the entire movie broadcasts — that AIDS is frighteningly real. The movie addresses all of the usual misconceptions about AIDS. Peter is in a fraternity, is good looking and has no feminine charac teristics. The movie also proves that time is not always a true indication of how well we know someone. Even if you can get through the movie still telling yourself that it’s only fiction, that security is quickly erased when the movie concludes by confirming the truth of the story. doms are not available for sale or distribution. Moore said he didn’t think making condoms available in the health center was a necessity be cause of their availability in grocery stores. “I have no objections to con doms,” he said. “I think we could have vending machines in men’s and lady’s dormitories. I suppose we could sell them in the health center pharmacy, but the problem with that is it could overload the pharmacists.” However, at the University of Ne braska, officials solved this same problem by placing condoms in a large glass fish bowl in the health center and requesting payment from students through the honor system. Since beginning this program, con dom sales have increased by 10 per cent. Although the A&M University AIDS Committee has not previously considered installing vending ma chines on campus, Dennis Reardon, program coordinator in student af fairs, said it is now considering the issue. “I don’t think the issue of vending machines had been brought up until now,” Reardon said. San Francisco wins Super Bowl on last-second TD MIAMI (AP) — In a dramatic fin ish, the San Francisco 49ers football team won the Super Bowl on Sunday with a 20-16 victory over the Cincin nati Bengals. Joe Montana’s 10-yard touch down pass to John Taylor with 34 seconds left provided the winning margin. The victory was achieved through the brilliance of Montana and Jerry Rice, a wide receiver who caught 12 passes for 222 yards, both Super Bowl records. Rice was named the game’s most valuable player. The winning score came at the end of a 92-yard drive, engineered by Montana, whose touchdown pass gave him a Super Bowl record with 357 yards passing. It was the fifth straight win for a National Football Conference team, but by far the most dramatic — the previous four had been by an aver age score of 41 -14. It also gave 49ers Coach Bill Walsh his third Super Bowl win. The first touchdown didn’t come until 44 minutes into the 60-rninute game, when Cincinnati’s Stanford Jennings took a kickoff 93 yards for a score. The game, before a crowd of 75,179 at Joe Robbie Stadium, went undisrupted by racial tensions in Mi- College Station police continue search for rapist By Fiona Soites STAFF WRITER College Station police are continu ing their search for the man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a womanjan. 18. The victim, who was abducted from the Post Oak Mall parking lot at 7:30 p.m., told College Station po lice she was physically forced to drive to a location within the Bryan city limits, where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted for three hours. The man escaped on foot and the woman drove herself home, police reports said. With the victim’s help, College Station police completed the com posite sketch shown below. T he vic tim described her assailant as a 6- foot black male, about 35 years old and 200 lbs. She said he had square facial features and was dark-coni- plected with light spots on his face. The man had a full moustache partly covering his upper lip, crooked teeth and large hands. At the time of the kidnapping and as sault, he was wearing a shiny light- blue windbreaker, a dark button-up shirt and old dark-colored jeans. If anyone matching the above de scription or composite is seen, the College Station Police Department should be contacted at 764-3600 or 764-3616. Soviet army exits Afghanistan with sense of failure KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A So viet military commander said Sun day the Red Army is leaving Af ghanistan with a sense of failure. He also denied the Soviets have re sumed their pullout but said they still plan to be out of the country by Feb. 15. “We have not succeeded in every thing we planned to do here,” Maj. Gen. Lev Serebrov, a political officer at the military high command in Ka bul, told Western correspondents. Serebrov, dressed in a camouflage uniform, chain-smoking and joking occasionally with reporters, said So viet officers are communicating with guerrilla commanders on parts of the key Salang highway, the main route to the Soviet border, to try to keep it open. Serebrov’s contention that the re maining 50,000 Soviet troops have not begun to leave contradicted esti mates by Western diplomats in Ka bul that the withdrawal began in ear nest at the beginning of this month. In addition, Afghan troops are manning former Soviet posts on the perimeter of this beleaguered capi tal, not far from guerrilla positions. “We are ready ... to end the with drawal by Feb. 15, but we have not yet received the order to start the fi nal stage of withdrawal,” Serebrov said. He dodged questions about re ports, including from one Soviet source in Kabul, that the military high command will move from the Afghan capital to the town of Haira- tan on the Soviet border between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. Asked how the commanders will go if they remain in Kabul until the deadline, Serebrov said, “We will find a way.”