The Battalion
STATE & LOCAL
3
Thursday, March 23,1989
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Student Senate OKs
bill urging revision
of syllabi guidelines
By Kelly S. Brown
STAFF WRITER
The 1988-89 Student Senate,
in its Final meeting of the semes
ter, approved a bill asking the
Texas A&M administration to
implement new directives per
taining to syllabi content and dis
tribution.
Mark Williams, a graduate stu
dent in land development and co
author of the bill, said many pro
fessors already have effective syl
labi and the bill won’t affect them.
Beth Ammons, a sophomore
environmental design major and
co-author of the bill, said it is
aimed at the few professors
whose syllabi do not adequately
explain course content, course
prerequisites, attendance policies
or grading policies, or do not ad
equately list text and materials re
quired for successful completion
of course work and projects.
Ammons said a professor
doesn’t always make it clear that
later in the semester a student will
have to buy a new book or more
supplies, and this lack of commu
nication sometimes results in Fi
nancial hardship for the student.
The stipulations for the syllabi
directives include:
• Mandatory class-wide distri
bution of syllabi on the first class
meeting date and thereafter.
• Syllabi should include a
complete outline of the instruc
tor’s grading policy pertaining to
the specific course.
• Syllabi should include any
specific attendance policy of the
course.
• Syllabi should include the
specific prerequisites necessary to
successfully complete the course.
• Syllabi should include a
complete disclosure of all course
texts and materials that will be re
quired for successful completion
of the course.
In other action, a resolution
that would have approved a 10-
week session for all courses of
fered during the summer was ta
bled.
Williams said he tabled the res
olution (indefinitely postponed a
vote) because he wants “to check
with the student body and see
what they think about it.”
UDENT
RNMENT
INI V 1: HS I I Y
The Faculty Senate passed the
resolution for 10-week sessions
during their last meeting March
6.
Academic Affairs Chairman
Kerrie Neck, a sophomore busi
ness administration major, intro
duced the bill to the Student Sen
ate. He urged Senators to
evaluate the purpose of being in
school.
“(The purpose) is to get an ed
ucation,” she said. “And the qual
ity of academics in the summer is
weakened in two five-week ses
sions, while many professors are
frustrated because they don’t feel
they can cram what they teach
during a normal semester into a
(five-week) summer session.”
Neck said one of the positive
aspects of the resolution was that
the 10th week would be devoted
to final examinations and gradua
tion, which would give students
and faculty time for processing fi
nal grades, clearing students for
graduation and conducting grad
uation exercises.
The Faculty Senate’s resolution
has been sent to President Wil
liam Mobley and the Board of Re
gents for approval.
A&M financiers earn 10th place
in AT&T Investment Challenge
By Sharon Maberry
STAFF WRITER
Texas A&M students who tested
their financial skills in a four-month
stock market game invested well
enough to rank A&M in the top 10
of 864 colleges and universities par
ticipating, including 58 Texas
schools.
The First Annual AT&T Colle
giate Investment Challenge allowed
more than 11,000 students nation
wide to choose from a portfolio of
stocks listed on the New York,
American and Over-the-Counter ex
changes. The game, which was de
veloped by Wall Street Games, Inc.,
started Nov. 1 and ended Feb. 28.
Each student paid $50 to partici
pate in the game. Students started
with $500,000 and had the option of
borrowing another $500,000 from a
bank. They spent four months buy
ing and selling stocks as if the money
were real.
The game included a separate di
vision for professors. The top win
ner in the professor category closed
with $866,694.
The Financial Management Asso
ciation sponsored the game at A&M,
President Jay Cook said.
“We were approached by Wall
Street Games, Inc., to market the
game at A&M,” Cook said. “As this
was the first year for the game, we
didn’t have much time to market it.
“First, we had to determine what
the game was all about. Then we be
gan marketing it to the students. We
sold games to about half of the A&M
participants while the other half sent
off for it on their own.
“The game is a good experience
tool. It’s close to actual market simu
lation and gives you an opportunity
to make early perceptions of the
market. It gives you experience
without actual losses or gains.”
The $50 fee provided students
with the game, monthly account
summaries and status and a toll-free
phone number to call stock brokers
for information or advice, Cook
said.
Students used four-letter pas
swords to conduct transactions with
the stock brokers, most of whom
were college students. They also
were provided a phone number for
a direct line to Dow Jones & Co. for
additional information.
“The only limitation of the game
was that you cquld only trade in
stocks and not bonds or stock op
tions,” Cook said.
Cook said he expects more A&M
participation in next year’s AT&T
Collegiate Investment Challenge be
cause the Financial Management As
sociation will have more time to ad
vertise and market the game.
Changes in next year’s game will
include a “Most Improved Portfolio”
category for the student with the
greatest percentage increase from
the first year to the second year.
Also, the student with the highest
combined portfolio value for both
years will win the “Two Year Cham
pion” category.
A&M ranked 10th in the competi
tion with an average closing value of
$510,250.
A&M was awarded one year of the
Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service
from Dow Jones & Co. for placing in
the top 10 universities. The com
puter service allows students to ac
cess any company by industry or
company name. The system gives
summaries of all articles written
about the companies in the past five
years, including articles written as
early as the previous day.
Sterling C. Evans Library has the
service available this year and A&M’s
success in the investment will enable
the service to continue next year.
Prizes for the top 10 individuals
out of the 11,000 participants in
cluded a week in New York City and
stem at:
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Spring
Bash
at
Parthenon’s
Open Bar
9-12 midnite
Thursday, Friday
and Saturday
Woodstone Center
^15 Harvey ltd.
764-8575
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sociation will have more time to ad- me top iu universities, i ne com- t/t> A
vertise and market the game. puter service allows students to ac- 5ee Investment/Page 4
Lewis says ‘bookkeeping’ measure;
would give extra funds to schools
AUSTIN (AP) — House Speaker
Gib Lewis unveiled his 1990-91 bud
get proposal Wednesday, saying it
would pump an additional $1.9 bil
lion into public schools, colleges,
state employee pay raises, welfare
and AIDS programs.
The money would be on top of a
$43.7 billion, two-year budget pre
viously designed to stay within ex
pected state income.
The extra money would come
from a variety of “bookkeeping”
measures and other changes made
by lawmakers in recent weeks to free
up funds from the state’s “rainy day”
accounts, Lewis said.
“We feel that this is realistic. We
have worked very hard in the last 30
days ... to free up additional funds,”
said Lewis of Fort Worth. “And I
would say, at this point, that we have
accomplished that.”
Lewis said he had worked with Lt.
Gov. Bill Hobby and Gov. Bill Clem
ents to prepare the plan.
Hobby said the proposal had
merit. “There will be differences,
obviously, between what the Senate
passes out, but I think this is a very
progressive, forward-looking plan,”
Hobby said.
House Appropriations Commit
tee Chairman Rep. Jim Rudd said
the Lewis plan was “rather conserva
tive, I thought . . . But it’s where we
should be, in the light of some
things, which may not come to pass.”
Rudd, Brownfield, said Lewis’
proposals for spending the extra
money were “pretty much” in line
with tbe committee’s thinking.
Sen. Kent Caperton, Bryan, chair
man of the Senate Finance Commit
tee, said Lewis’ proposal was “a good
starting point.” But said he’d like to
see still more money for education,
health and criminal justice.
Lewis’ proposal calls for $600 mil
lion to improve equity of public
school financing, which became a
court issue when a poor school dis
trict sued the state last year. A state
district judge ruled the state’s fi
nancing system unconstitutional, but
an appeals court overturned that
judgment.
Lewis’ plan also calls for $10 mil
lion in dropout prevention pro
grams.
In higher education, Lewis’ bud
get would restore across-the-board
cuts with a $315 million additional
appropriation.
Criminal justice programs would
receive another $100 million.
State employees, including
judges, would receive a 5 percent to
6 percent pay raise under a extra
$254 million appropriation.
Welfare and nursing home re
form programs would receive $540
million more in funding, with AIDS
prevention and treatment getting an
additional $45.8 million.
Lewis said he felt good about this
proposal, coming after repeated ses
sions of budget cutting.
“This is the first time since I’ve
been speaker that I have a surplus,
and let me tell you, I’ve been here
when we’ve had deficits,” he said.
“This is a nice feeling. You can ad
dress some of the very critical needs
of the state.”
Easter class schedule
Good Friday will not affect
class schedules. Classes will pro
ceed as usual the entire dav.
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