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Times
Vol. 88 No. 163 USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
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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
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Legislature may consider proposal
for A&M-West Texas State merger
By Alan Sembera
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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.
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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.
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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.