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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1989)
fnJ^xasA&MT> n 4-Mr nil ^ laitjTIic Battalion Times Vol. 88 No. 163 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas v\\\ 1 / y/y WEATHER Wp o ISfl ////TTrrfwAN FORECAST for THURSDAY: Sunny and hot, with mild temps in the evening. / y/iWxW HIGH: 90s LOW: 70s Wednesday, June 28,1989 5 of the 2,200 dt; oss the nation. il retardation, peoj below-averagenj ,e between I2anii death row inma! te group opposed ty- ; the death sentei tilers in Missouri^ court noted that rmitting capital pc r its use for anv the crime beforeiij lot establish the 4 I consensus this cot thought sufficien; ar punishment era ustice AntoninSc bans ccident. ents near Newpoit ■ River on Saturdj n ship channel, ing from the cat after a plans tc nationv s to ha ; clean- xt sumr h mout spe spend $2S!' ide netwoi idle a maji ip system let. tine anti* imittee is tentative! 1 a proposed ban oi irea of the souther, n of drilling bansfe lorida and NewEt a smaller channel s from approach Allison, allowing! ge vacuum machic 11. ape Tony Rodriguez, right, and his wife Jody talk about teaching children to deal with AIDS to an audience of about 50 in Rudder Photo by Kathy Haveman Tower Tuesday night. The Rodriquezes both were diagnosed two years ago as hav ing the disease. Infected couple use experiences to teach about AIDS education By Kelly S. Brown SENIOR STAFF WRITER Jody and Tony Rodriguez were the average American cou ple. When they married, it’s likely they had dreams about their lives together. But it’s unlikely that ei ther expected their dreams to fade so quickly or to be Fighting AIDS for the rest of their lives. But since discovering two years ago they had the fatal disease, Tony and Jody have faced it head on. They have accepted the reality of AIDS to the point where now they can help others understand and even Fight the disease. They are both volunteers with the AIDS Foundation in Houston and were brought to Texas A&M Tuesday by the Texas Students Education Association. With them they carried a part of the so lution to AIDS. “Education, and application of that education, is still the most important factor when dealing with the disease,” Tony said. “Ni nety-two thousand people have been diagnosed with the disease in America alone; by next year this figure will double. People have to start listening sometime.” Tony said that people of all ages and races are uneducated about AIDS, but that parents es pecially are not listening. “Educating the children is a slow process,” Tony said. “We First have to educate the parents. Too often we can’t even get into the classrooms to educate the kids on AIDS because there are actu ally parents out there who don’t want their children to learn about the disease. They’re afraid.” Tony said he sometimes has to work around the parents. See Victims/Page 4 lents sought byCo: ding the moventf rested. tement said toil 1 le fleeing police"- Legislature may consider proposal for A&M-West Texas State merger By Alan Sembera ed in the sky of I said the statenrf i in Wu’er’shand. n a day in Junetk season of fresh flo* /men, my classi# -arms fell,” it said SENIOR STAFF WRITER I Lawmakers may consider a pro posal to merge West Texas State University with the Texas A&M Sys tem during the special session, a Ung , ofunarmed# okesman for the g overnor said - ITuesday. | No final decision has been made, the spokesman said, but the propo sal may be introduced later this eek. There have been ongoing dis cussions between the boards of re gents at A&M and WTSU, and both Ichools are doing research on the possible merger. The A&M Board Beijing. its** E3) approved a feasability study in May. Sen. Tell Bivins, an Amarillo Re publican whose district encompasses WTSU in Canyon, said a merger would benefit both parties. The Panhandle area is one of the centers of agriculture production in the state, he said, and A&M is one of the best agriculture schools. He said the trend in Texas is for universities to join a major system in the future, and WTSU would rather choose a system now than be forced into one 10 years from now. Another reason WTSU wants to join the A&M Systen, Bivins said, is that the system looks out for its in terests full-time in the capitol. A me dium-sized school like WTSU can’t compete as well for state funds, he said. A spokesman for Sen. Kent Ca- perton, D-Bryan, said he has not heard enough about the bill to be able to support it at this time. Nobody was available at the A&M System chancellor’s office for com ment Tuesday. If the bill is introduced and passes, the merger still must be ap proved by both universities’ regents and by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. A merger with WTSU would bring the number of schools in the A&M System to eight. Three South Texas universities were added to the system earlier this year. Magazine ranks A&M among ‘elite’ schools By Richard Tijerina STAFF WRITER Texas A&M is ranked ninth na tionally among schools in the area of industry support, according to a spe cial issue this week of Business Week magazine. The magazine ranks A&M among the top 12 schools listed as industry- supported “academically elite” insti tutions and third nationally in the number of Ph.D.s conferred in sci ence and engineering. A&M re ceived $13.4 million last year from industry sources, such as energy, medicine, agriculture and engi neering. The University’s ranking re inforces the National Science Foun dation’s latest annual survey of A&M’s research expenditures, the latest period for which NSF compar ative Figures are available. The NSF’s figures showed A&M ranks eighth nationally among the coun try’s top research universities with $219 million in research expendi tures. University officials said A&M’s 1988 research total was $246 million. Dr. R. Malcolm Richards, asso ciate dean of the College of Business Administration, said the magazine’s ranking of A&M can only help the University be recognized as one of the top research institutions in the country. “I’m sure (the ranking) gives a D i eople who read the article in Business Week and who haven’t taken us and what we do here seriously, will start to look more closely at what we’re accomplishing.” — Malcolm Richards, assistant business dean greater visibility to our program,” Richards said. “People who read the article in Business Week and who haven’t taken us and what we do here seriously, will start to look more closely at what we’re accomplishing.” The magazine listed the Massa- chussetts Institute of Technology first nationally, with $35 million of industry support for research. Other schools ranked in the top 12 by Busi ness Week are Georgia Tech, Penn State, the University of Washington, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, the Uni versity of Michigan, UCLA, Wash ington University in St. Louis, North Carolina State and the University of Arizona. In Business Week’s ranking of of institutions by number of Ph.D.s conferred in science and engi neering, A&M was third. A&M has 291 such Ph.D.s. Cornell, which ranked first, has with 365 and UCLA, which ranked second has 362. Dr. William L. Perry, associate dean of the College of Science, said the College of Science places a lot of emphasis on the recruitment of Ph.D.s and graduates working to ward their Ph.D.s. “To further basic science, re search has to occur,” Perry said. “You have to be training new re searchers for the next generation of science, and if you don’t get grad uate students to train them, then the next generation is going to be short of them.” Perry said the College of Science heavily recruits Ph.D.s by conduct ing recruiting trips and providing fellowships. He also said other uni versities are aware that A&M has an excellent graduate program, and that faculty across the country rec ommend that their graduate stu dents and Ph.D.s attend A&M. Bush calls for amendment to forbid flag desecration WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush, declaring the American flag a “unique national symbol,” Tuesday called for a constitutional amendment to set aside last week’s Supreme Court decision and forbid flag dese cration. “As president, I will uphold our precious right to dis sent, but burning the flag goes too far, and I want to see that matter remedied,” he said at a news conference. His announcement came as efforts already were ad vancing in Congress to condemn last week’s decision ex tending First Amendment free speech rights to protes ters who burn the flag. The House was expected to act on a resolution later in the day denouncing the 5-4 ruling. The Senate has already voted “profound disappointment” with it. Bush, who made patriotism, the flag and the pledge of allegiance a central theme in his 1988 presidential campaign, asserted, “I think respect for the flag tran scends political party and I think what I’ve said here is American. It isn’t Republican or Democrat, it isn’t lib eral or conservative.” He said adding an amendment to the Constitution would be the only foolproof way to set aside the Su preme Court ruling, which nullified flag-desecration laws in 48 states. However, the process is a lengthy one — requiring two-thirds votes in both House and Senate and then ra tification by no less than 38 state legislatures. In 200 years, thousands of constitutional amendments have been proposed but only 26 have been ratified. Still, Bush said, “the importance of this issue compels me to call for a constitutional amendment.” “Support for the First Amendment need not extend to desecration of the American flag,” he added. “Pro tection of the flag — a unique national symbol — will in no way limit the opportunity nor the breadth of protest available in the exercise of free speech rights.” Bush’s comments were praised by conservatives but denounced by civil-liberties groups. “We think it violates the fundamental principle of this nation that every person has a right to express their views and express them in a way they choose, no matter how obnoxious the majority find those views,” said Morton Halperin, Washington director of the Ameri can Civil Liberties Union. David Cole, staff attorney for the Center for Consti tutional Rights, said, “The First Amendment has sur vived for 200 years without exceptions. It is outrageous for the president to urge that we deviate from the fun damental principles of toleration and freedom of ex pression.” Last week, the Senate by voice vote added language to child-care legislation that would make desecration of the flag punishable by a maximum $1,000 fine and a year in prison. However, this language would not be added to the Constitution and therefore could be overturned by the Supreme Court. Senators also voted 97-3 for a resolution expressing “profound disappointment” in the court ruling and pledging to “seek ways to restore sanctions against such reprehensible conduct.” A number of proposed constitutional amendments on the subject have been introduced in both houses. No hearings have yet been scheduled. House Republican Leader Bob Michel said he sup ported Bush’s call even though he harbored an “instinc tive conservative’s dislike” of amending the Constitu tion. The court decision “leaves me with no alternative,” Michel said. “Unfurl the flag, fly it, flaunt it, argue about it if you want to, but don’t desecrate it — that’s all we’re asking,” Michel said. Surely that view reflects the common sense of the American people.” upon Prof says spills may spur zrd tough oil clean-up laws LTS your STATE 1 Number By Melissa Naumann ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR S E The recent oil spills in a Galveston ■ay ship channel, the Delaware > River and Rhode Island’s Hull Cove ||ould spark tougher state legislation On oil transportation and oil spill CillwlJl^nups, a Texas A&M professor pi said. R V D Dr. Roy Hann, a professor in the environmental engineering pro- ; gram in the civil engineering depart- Bient, said that although the Exxon Kl spill in Valdez, Alaska, is no Winger on the front pages of the Hewspapers, the three oil spills that Recurred this past weekend will re- piind the public of the gravity of the Broblems they cause. mu Sun. ICO s week! Pizza Slice, Side Salad jlar 16 oz. Drink 2:00 p.m- I “This new set of spills resensitized Bie people to the issue,” Hann said, git is a big problem and can hit ev erywhere in the country. As a result, B’s not just an Alaska problem or a ■exas problem.” ■ Previously, laws on oil transporta- Ron and oil spill cleanup have been field hostage,” Hann said, because Retroleum companies and states have different interests. I “The states are the ones that are Concerned about their own waters, ibore so than the federal govern ment,” he said. “The companies want to deal only with the Coast Guard because they know that agency and they feel comfortable with that agency. They don’t feel comfortable with 50 different states and their own administrations.” Consequently, petroleum compa nies have lobbied to block any legis lation giving states more power, es pecially where states can tax to prepare for oil spill cleanup, Hann said. States with nigh environmental standards, however, such as Califor nia and Maine, are not willing to back down. “A debate has been raging,” he said. “The oil industries say they will allow better laws that call for better compensation if the states stay out of the business. Well, the states say, ‘No way are you going to get us out of this business.’” Any laws that would be created without direct state input would have a definite bias toward the oil in dustry, he said. “For them to say the states should get out of the business of protecting their own coastlines is completely in appropriate,” Hann said. “The bat tle line has been drawn and I think the continued spillages are going to help the states win their victory in getting an improved law without be ing pushed out of the business.” Senior environmental design major Melissa class. The bridge, made of wood and pins, Saul works on a model bridge for a design must be able to hold 31 pounds of lead. Allison dumps heavy rains on Houston HOUSTON (AP) — The rem nants of Tropical Storm Allison moved into East Texas and western Louisiana Tuesday, continuing to dump heavy rain- and triggering thunderstorms that left the Houston area inundated with more than 10 inches of rain. Torrential downpours left homes and streets flooded, forcing at least 800 people into Red Cross shelters and prompting dozens of motorists stranded on impassable freeways to leave their cars. At least one fatality — a traffic death in the Beaumont area — was blamed on Allison, which was down graded to a tropical depression Tuesday morning. Two major Houston freeways — Interstate 45 and U.S. 59 — were shut for more than 12 hours, blocked by high water, debris from bayous that swamped over freeway bridges and abandoned vehicles. See related story/Page 3 “It’s a helpless feeling,” said stranded motorist Miles Nye. “There’s nothing you can do. You just watch the water moving up.” At 11 a.m., the poorly defined center of the depression was near 30.8 north latitude and 94.7 west longitude, or about 30 miles south of Lufkin, moving slowly to the north- northeast.