Texas A&M ies /ide The Battalion WEATHER FORECAST for THURSDAY: Partly cloudy and mild. HIGH:68 LOW:45 to drifts J vol. 88 No. 111 USPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, March 8,1989 dies of snoJ r Western I s in the Sol i Melodivil rarado ad l how man! ied on tbf| IN >CA) o join tlie j «latest in-J events. Chicken. I Off Catn ap olym-1 A. FUN! 741. Ne« xasASNl Foundetl rt, fart | w Aggies iblished lesdaye 1 ! ore into-1 acts Gen-1 by Bill will propose altering regent choice policy By Stephen Masters SENIOR STAFF WRITER A bill designed to prevent contro versy surrounding regent appoint ments will be proposed in the state Legislature “any day now,” the presi dent of the Texas Faculty Associa tion said Tuesday. Dr. Kenneth Margerison, presi dent of the Texas Faculty Associa tion and a history professor at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, said a bill to create a 24- member governor’s advisory board will be introduced by Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin. The advisory board would com pile a list of candidates from which the governor could select regents, Margerison said. Barrientos and members of his legislative team were not available for comment Tuesday afternoon. Margerison said there are still “a number of individuals” considering sponsoring the bill in the House of Representatives. He said the bill would create an advisory council of 24 individuals appointed by the governor, lieuten ant governor and speaker of the house. Each would select eight members of the board, he said. The board would consider several different factors for each candidate, he said. I hey (the members of the proposed board) would not just look for their racial or ethnic characteristics, but those would presumably be taken into consideration.” — Kenneth Margerison president, Faculty Association “They would not just look for their racial or ethnic characteristics, but those would presumably be taken into consideration,” Margeri son said. “Also such qualities as knowledge of higher education and expertise in some facet or activity that might be useful for institutions of higher education (would be looked at). “But likewise it’s also useful to have people who represent certain ethnic or minority groups and it’s useful to have people who know something about higher education. The bill comes in response to the controversy surrounding Gov. Bill Clements’ selections to the Univer sity of Texas Board of Regents, Mar gerison said. Clements was charged with cron yism after he selected three white males to serve on the Board. Critics charged that Clements should have appointed a minority group member to the Board because UT regents in October approved a merger with Pan American University, located in predominantly Hispanic South Texas. As the criticism grew, one candi date, Chester Upham, withdrew his name from consideration. Within an hour after Upham’s announcement, Clements selected Dr. Mario Ram irez of Rio Grande City. Ramirez, Robert Cruikshank of Houston and Tom Loeffler of San Antonio were confirmed by the Sen- Group wants representative regents By Stephen Masters SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Board of Regents of any state school should be representative of the state that it serves, the president of the Texas Faculty Association said Tuesday. “We didn’t have any objection to any of them (UT re gent nominees) in particular,” Dr. Kenneth Margerison said. “We just thought the fact that the Board was going to be entirely white Anglo male was the problem. It was then that Dr. Ramirez was put up in addition to the other two.” Margerison, president of the Texas Faculty Associa tion and a history professor at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, voiced his concerns over the delay in selecting Ramirez in a letter to The Battalion dated Feb. 23. In the letter he states, “TFA strongly believes that to the extent that it is feasible, regental boards should re flect the diversity which characterizes this state. We also believe that persons appointed to regental boards should be highly qualified to higher education. Political partisanship should not be the primary consideration. In our experience, universities are rarely any better than their governing boards.” Margerison said improving regental boards is one of the concerns of TFA. “The Board of Regents is supposed to oversee the in stitutions for the people of Texas,” he said. “They are the state’s means of governing the institutions with citi zens. Of course, these are not just ordinary citizens. They have to have certain skills and characteristics to do it properly. See Regents/Page 8 appointed oy me governor, lieuten- expertise in some tacet or activity Antonio were contirmed oy tne sei Officials say recruiting law would help stop violations ate Feb. 16. Critics in the Senate implied that confirmation would be difficult if Clements did not select a member of a minority group for one of the two openings on Texas A&M’s Board of Regents. Clements selected Raul Fernandez of San Antonio and Ross Margraves Jr. of Houston, but was criticized for not selecting a black for the A&M Board. The A&M System includes Prairie View A&M University, a predomi nantly black school. The Senate re cently approved a merger adding Corpus Christi State University, Texas A&I University in Kingsville, and Laredo State University to the A&M System. CCSU, A&I and LSU all have predominantly Hispanic stu dent bodies. By Alan Sembera SENIOR STAFF WRITER Texas A&M athletic officials agree that legislation aimed at crimi nalizing improper college athletic re cruiting would help prevent viola tions, but they expressed reservations about it because of re ported NCAA opposition. The state Senate passed a bill Monday to make it a third-degree felony to pay student-athletes as part of college recruitment The bill would make it a misdemeanor for students to accept or solicit such pay ments. R.C. Slocum, A&M’s football coach, said the bill has good inten tions and could have a positive effect on Southwest Conference schools. But he added he won’t completely support the bill because of reported NCAA opposition to it. John David Crow, A&M’s athletic director, also expressed qualified support for the bill. “Obviously we’d like to get all the help we could to stop the so-called il legal recruiting,” Crow said, “so we would have to be pleased that it passed the Senate.” He added that he is waiting for the NCAA to take a position on the bill, so he can’t completely support it at this time. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that NCAA officials said criminal penalties would inhibit their ability to gather voluntary testi mony and investigate cases. But an NCAA spokesman said Tuesday afternoon it has not taken a stance on the bill, and will not take one until it has had more time to re view the bill. A spokesman for Sen. John Glas gow, author of the bill, said the legis lation is designed to help restore the reputation and integrity of Texas universities. “The problem comes from alumni, not universities,” he said. “Colleges can’t regulate behavior of alumni.” A third-degree felony carries a penalty of two to 10 years in prison and/or a maximum fine of $5,000. Senator Ken Caperton, who rep resents the district encompassing Texas A&M, said he supports the bill. Governor Bill Clements, who was at the center of a recruiting scandal at SMU that led the NCAA to im pose the “death penalty,” also has expressed support for the bill. A similar bill has been introduced into the House. A&M was placed on probation last season for several violations of NCAA recruiting rules. UH ex-financial officer faces charges of taking kickbacks HOUSTON (AP) — The Harris County district at torney’s office is trying to determine whether the for mer top fmanical officer for the University of Houston System received kickbacks in exchange for granting lu crative consulting contracts to an ex-employee. Assistant District Attorney Terry Wilson confirmed that investigators were looking into the business deal ings between former finance official George Huxel and consultant Lee B. Polanco and his business, MFC & As sociates, the Houston Post reported Tuesday. “I can confirm that we are looking at the entire relationship between George Huxel and Lee Polanco, including whether or not any kickbacks were given,” Wilson said. Wilson said an estimated $600,000 to $800,000 in consulting business paid to Polanco and MFC by the University of Houston System between 1981 and 1987 is in question. Three other consultants also are under investigation, he said. Huxel, who left the UH system in December 1987, is vice president for finance at Cornell University. Po lanco worked under Huxel at Houston’s downtown branch for about eight months in late 1980 and 1981 as assistant vice chancellor for financial services. Huxel and Polanco were not immediately available for comment, but Huxel’s attorney, Carol Vance, den ied his client did anything illegal. “George did not get any kickbacks for giving business to Polanco,” Vance said. Wilson and university officials said Polanco and MFC & Associates — an Austin-based consulting firm for fi nance, computing and management — began receiving work from the University of Houston System shortly af ter Huxel became vice president for finance and ad ministration in August 1981. Bug-eyed A woman passes by the mural of an insect in the hallway of the Herman Heep Building as Photo by Dean Saito she leaves the vending machine area Tues day afternoon. Prairie View refuses to fire football coach PRAIRIE VIEW (AP) — Prai rie View A&M President Percy Pierre refused Tuesday to fire football coach Haney Catchings, and striking players who vowed not to play for the embattled coach said they would bring forth charges of NCAA rules viola tions. Catchings expressed satisfac tion at keeping his job. “It meant kind of a sigh of re lief,” Catchings said of the month-long ordeal. “I still do not think the team as a whole feels ex actly the same way as some of those who have spoken.” Catchings denied charges of rules violations brought by the some of the team members. “That’s not true,” he said. “I think the way things are now, they will do anything they can to take a shot at me.” Players reacted angrily after Pierre announced the results of a university investigation into player complaints that Catchings interferred with their academic progress, held unsafe workouts and withheld textbooks as pun ishment. “They were half-stepping on some of the things that have been going on,” defensive tackle Scot- tie Fizer, a junior from Shreve port, La, said. “I think a lot of things they found out, they didn’t tell the story like it was,” he said. “It’s a joke. I think they are just stalling, hoping things will cool down.” Fizer said he was interviewed by the investigating committee and told them of NCAA rules vio lations committed by Catchings. There was no mention of any such violations in the report is sued by Pierre. “I’m not allowed to say what they were because the NCAA is involved,” Fizer said. Pierre acknowledged that player grades had declined since the fall of 1988, Catchings’ first full season as coach. He also said a study hall for the players had been discontinued but an alternative had been pro posed. Abusive relationships affect many students By Denise Thompson Staff Writer Although hair pulling, slapping and verbal slander are indicative of late-night wrestling pro grams, more than 20 percent of college students experience these activities in abusive romantic relationships. Abusive relationships are what Nancy Spence, director of the Office of Women’s Programs and Services at the University of Cincinnati, calls hurtful relationships. “Hurtful relationships don’t only include physically painful ones but emotionally and psy chologically painful relationships also,” Spence said. “It can run the gamut from verbal abuse such as belittling, making hurtful jokes, putting the other person down to physical abuse such as punching, slapping and pinching.” To educate and inform students about abusive relationships and their effect, Spence started a program that includes a 70-minute presentation, “Loving Too Much: Relationships That Hurt.” During the presentation, scenarios are provided to enable students to identify the characteristics of an abusive relationship. “One of the examples we use in the program I got from a book about these relationships,” she said. “It was about a woman who had an abusive relationship and she said when the relationship started, her partner was extremely romantic and had swept her away with his charm. Her partner seemed interested in everything about her and wanted to know about her. “However, regardless of the initial romanti cism, the relationship turned abusive. “This example helps us illustrate that there seems to be a tendency for the abuser to start out the relationship as an extremely romantic per son.” To help Texas A&M students understand abu sive relationships, Student Counseling Services offers several programs. “We offer individual and group counseling, and we offer crisis intervention 24 hours a day,” counseling psychologist Dr. Mary Olona said. “Besides that, we have a relationship group — a specific group that teaches people how to handle rejection.” The women’s transition group is specifically aimed at helping women who have been in abu sive relationships, which Olona describes as one where a person isn’t being respected as a human being. “We call it the women-in-transition group be cause lots of times it’s transitioning from one thing to another,” she said. “In this case, it would be from the old relationship to the new relationship. The group is not just for abused women, but it is just for women.” Unless there is a crisis situation, appointments are necessary to visit the Student Counseling Services and can be made by calling 845-4427. Spence said several signs can point to a poten tially abusive relationship. “In most abusive relationships, there seems to be an element of the need for instant bonding,” she said. “Sometimes you’ll see a couple who has just met two weeks before and they’re already planning to settle down and get married. Things just move too quickly. “T here also seems to be a need of the person who ends up getting hurt to rescue the abuser. This sometimes takes the form of excessive jeal ousy or possessiveness that’s mistaken for con cern.” Although victims and abusers have different characteristics, Spence said one characteristic is common in both. “Low self-esteem is almost always present in abusers, but does not usually appear in the victim until after they experience the abuse,” she said. “Many times victims will start believing they de serve the pain they’re suffering. “As far as characteristics of abusers, there of ten seems to be a history of violence within the abuser’s family. Either the person was abused as a child or witnessed abuse from one parent to the other. There also can be signs of dysfunction within the family such as alcoholism or drug abuse or even something as simple as having a parent who was a workaholic. “Often abusers have rigid sex-role expecta tions. One study found that males who would be identified as masculine or macho are more likely to be abusers. This is sad because in our culture, we’re supposed to be Arnold Schwarzenegger- types and not men with a wide range of emo tions.” Although the relationship can be painful to See Abusive/Page 8