Texas A&M
Battalion
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WEATHER
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1.89 No.97 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 19,1990
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construction begins
spite forecasted rains
fCHRIS VAUGHN
The Battalion Staff
The long-awaited $36 million ex-
[ision of the Texas A&M Univer
ity Center is scheduled to begin to-
y, but Mother Nature may hinder
jistruction efforts.
jjBFW Construction of Temple
cted fences last week in prepara-
on for the major construction work
Jit is scheduled to begin today. But
Rh heavy rain Sunday and more
|i in the forecast for today, work is
aected to be soggy.
The fountain area of the Univer-
ity Center, Parking Area 60 and the
Jt entrances to the MSC will be
|sed for the entire construction
ect.
he bike racks near the main east
ranee of the MSC will be relo-
ed to the entrances by the MSC
|st office and the art gallery.
he Automatic Teller Machines
Itside the MSC’s main entrance are
eduled to be moved inside of the
C near the main desk later this
ek.
IDennis Busch, assistant director
I I the University Center, said areas
of the MSC will oe closed down dur-
imt certain parts of the construction
project. The bowling alley, video ar-
de and snack bar on the basement
Expansion plans for Rudder
shelved for financial reasons
Several alternate expansion
plans in the Rudder Theater
Complex were shelved because
they were too costly, Steve
Hodge, manager of the Univer
sity Center, said.
A lecture hall, a high-tech
meeting room and forum sup
port space were planned for the
north end of the Rudder Com
plex, but, Hodge said, the $4 mil
lion price tag would put the en
tire project over budget.
The Rudder Theater expan
sion would have resulted in an
addition of 30,700 square feet.
Because of the changed expan
sion plans, two large oak trees
near the Rudder Theater Com
plex are out of danger, Hodge
said.
Many students voiced opposi
tion to the expansion, which
would have caused several oak
trees to be moved or destroyed.
Robert Smith, vice president
for finance and administration,
said the planned parking garage
will be completed by July 1991,
and the remainder of the expan
sion project by November 1991.
The project will add more than
200,000 square feet to the Uni
versity Center at a cost of $36.7
million.
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floor of the MSC are already off-lim
its to students.
Busch said he isn’t sure how dis
turbing the noise will be for students
in the MSC, Rudder or nearby build-
ings.
“We’ll just have to cope with it
when it happens,” he said. “It re
mains to be seen how much noise
there will be.”
High five
Texas A&M’s Dan Robinson, right fielder, is con
gratulated by team members after hitting a grand
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
slam during the first game of a double header
Saturday. See baseball story/Page 9
n
onservatives keep lead MSC gets absentee voting site
apan’s Liberal Democrats control lower house
By BILL HETHCOCK
Of The Battalion Staff
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s conservative governing
arty surpassed the minimum number of seats required
or a majority in Parliament’s powerful lower house, of-
cial returns showed Monday.
The Liberal Democratic party, in power since 1955,
joked as if it may have lost about 30 seats in Sunday’s
tram. ia donal election due to scandals and an unpopular tax.
' "flut its seat count reached the bare majority of 257 after
ote counting resumed Monday morning, according to
eturns on Japan Broadcasting Corp. and Kyodo News
service.
Financial markets showed little reaction to the victory
)f the pro-business Liberal Democrats, which had been
iredicted in media polls. The key index on the Tokyo
tock Exchange opened a moderate 134.11 points
tigher Monday at 37,594.43, and the dollar opened
lightly lower at 144.28 yen.
A jubilant Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu declared the
esults had “purified” the Liberal Democrats of scandal.
But opposition parties said political reforms still were
required, and the legislative outlook was difficult since
[he opposition controls the less powerful upper house
of Parliament.
Vote-counting had stopped Sunday night with the
Liberal Democrats in a clear lead and heading for a ma-
win af^ority. Then on Monday'counting for 81 seats in the To
kyo area started, and the governing party quickly sur-
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passed the bare majority.
At 9:30 a.m., with 460 of the 512 seats declared, the
Liberal Democrats had 253; the Socialists, 127; the Ko-
meito — or Clean Government Party — 32; the Com
munist Party, 14; the Democratic Socialist Party, 12; the
United Social Democratic Party, three; and the Progres-
fiiQ
Oimply being elected does not mean
one is absolved. The need for political
reform is bigger than ever.”
— Tsuruo Yamaguchi,
Socialist Secretary General
sive Party, one. Independents held 18 seats, and about a
dozen of them were conservatives expected to join the
Liberal Democrats in the lower house.
Within an hour the Liberal Democrats’ total climbed
above 257.
“Simply being elected does not mean one is ab
solved,” Socialist Secretary General Tsuruo Yamaguchi
said. “The need for political reform is bigger than
ever.”
Texas A&M students, faculty and
staff and other Brazos County resi
dents will have two new locations to
vote absentee in the March 13 Dem
ocratic and Republican primaries.
One of these locations will be on
campus at the MSC.
Rodger Lewis, chairman of the
Brazos County Republican Party,
said the absentee polling site at the
MSC will be especially important be
cause the March 13 primary voting
date falls during spring break.
“A&M has 17,000 faculty and
staff that will benefit from this extra
polling place, as well as the stu
dents,” Lewis said. “The Bryan and
College Station schools also have
their spring breaks at the same time
as A&M, so that should encourage
many more people than ever before
to vote absentee in the primary elec
tions.”
Ron Gay, chairman of the Brazos
County Democratic Party from 1983
until January 1990, said he saw po
tential problems with having an ab
sentee polling site on campus.
: qf^-canopiis absentee voting sites
Absentee voting begins Station ikhool Tfistrkt admihis-
Wedaesteand will last until, fyadonoffk#<m We&l* Avenue in
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> On-c&mpus absentee voting in Any registered voter in Brazos
on-campus absentee voting will they are registered to vote in an-
be in !$S MSC. 1V • other precinet. • • -I
.- Theother three county abseri- All four precincts will have a?
tee polling sites are the Brazos complete list of registered voters.
County ; Courthouse on 26th . sb voters who have moved or:lost
Street in Bryan, Ben Milam El- their voter registration cards and
“There is a huge parking problem
on campus,” Gay said. “People from
College Station don’t really feel like
the campus voting box is accessible
to them.
“The party has never been op-
e osed to students voting on campus,
ut what we’re looking for is bal
ance. If you put the box on campus,
then you need to balance it out in
other areas of the community.
There are people in the community
and in the rural areas of the county
See Vote/Page 13
Mandela’s release sparks student rally
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
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The release of South African
nationalist Nelson Mandela from
prison just over one week ago
sparked celebrations all over the
world, including one at Texas
A&M Friday.
The Mandela rally, sponsored
by Students Against Apartheid
and the African Student Associa
tion, drew about 70 people to
Rudder Fountain to celebrate
Mandela’s release from prison in
South Africa after 27 years.
Zachee Ngoko, a student from
Cameroon and president of the
African Student Association, told
the crowd that apartheid is crum
bling.
“The people of South Africa
and all the other oppressed'peo
ple of the world have strong ho
pes,” Ngoko said. “With the
power of God, things will
change.”
Ngoko said he sees a time when
people are not identified by the
color of their skin.
“The time will come when you
don’t see me as a black,” he said.
“You will see me as a brother.”
Another African student, Eus
tacius Betubiza, read an open let
ter he wrote to Mandela.
Betubiza, a native of Uganda,
congratulated Mandela and told
him that A&M wishes him
godspeed in his attempt to estab-
Ush a democratic government in
South Africa.
“We want you to know that we
are working hard here to erad
icate apartheid in South Africa,”
Betubiza wrote Mandela.
But the words of the African
students were optimistic com
pared to the speeches by two
members of Students Against
Apartheid.
Photo by Fredrick D. Joe
Students gather by Rudder Fountain for a rally celebrating Nelson Mandela’s release.
“Why is it, in a land so rich,
there are so many poor?” Irwin
Tang, a former president of
SAA, asked. “Why?”
Tang, a sophomore political
science major, asked why U.S.
corporations invest in South Af
rica, why the United States does
not put more pressure on South
Africa to end apartheid and why
a form of protest like the anti
apartheid shack is destroyed.
“Apartheid. It is hatred,” Tang
said. “It’s not a black and white
thing. It’s a people thing. It’s not
a past or present issue. It’s a now
issue. It’s a life and death issue.”
Paul Kennedy, an SAA mem
ber and a graduate student in so
ciology, said that although Nelson
Mandela is not behind bars any
more, he is not a free man.
“Nelson Mandela is not free to
vote,” Kennedy said. “He is not
free to run for political office. He
is not free to choose where he
lives. He is not free to send his
children to the school of his
choice. Nelson Mandela is not a
free man.”
Kennedy said apartheid is not
only South Africa’s problem; it
also exists in Israel, Sri Lanka and
the United States.
He said American Indians, mi
grant workers and Americans
who live in the nation’s ghettos
are all victims of apartheid.
“Apartheid is not over,” Ken
nedy said. “Only through unity
and strength can we change it.”
Portions of Mandela’s speech
to the crowd in Cape Town last
Sunday were read by SAA mem
ber Todd Honeycutt.
The speeches were preceded
by three gospel songs sung by the
Voices of Praise.
Paper says grant cut
affects airport quality
HOUSTON (AP) — About a third
of the 262 city-owned airports in
Texas have deteriorated since the
state canceled a modest airport grant
program three years ago, a newspa
per reported.
The dormant grant program was
revived this year when the state Leg
islature appropriated $1 million, but
the amount was so small and the
pent-up needs so pressing that the
Texas Department of Aviation
board spent the entire year’s grant
budget at its January meeting, the
Houston Chronicle reported.
Some state officials say there is a
simple solution for the struggling
airports of Texas — an aviation fuel
tax. The tax would generate enough
funding to maintain the smaller air
ports properly, expand them where
needed and also provide additional
revenue for public education.
But they say the user tax has little
chance against a powerful airline
lobby led oy Dallas-based Southwest
Airlines.
“We’re about to lose a bunch of
our small airports, which are a great
economic development asset for
Texas,” State Sen. Carl Parker, D-
Port Arthur said. “We’re the only
state in the union that doesn’t tax
aviation fuel.”
Parker said some of the publicly
owned airports can no longer oper
ate at night because of deficient
lighting and are losing business be
cause of runways in disrepair.
Parker and other legislators and
state officials say the airlines —which
pay aviation fuel taxes in other states
— have successfully buried the tax
proposal in the last two legislative
sessions.
“You’ve got a very charismatic fel
low running Southwest Airlines, and
he’s hired some nice fellows to lobby
who’ve done a good job,” Parker
said, referring to Southwest Chair
man Herb Kelleher. “That’s a prime
example of how special interests
dominate the Legislature.
“As a result, an elderly couple
driving across Texas and poor peo-
As a result, an elderly '
couple driving across
Texas and poor people
riding the bus are paying a
fuel tax, but rich folks
drinking whiskey and riding
first-class in an airplane are
not paying a penny’s
worth.”
— Carl Parker,
state senator
pie riding the bus are paying a fuel
tax, but rich folks drinking whiskey
and riding first-class in an airplane
are not paying a penny’s worth,” he
said.
Kelleher has been touting a re
cently released economic study he
commissioned as chairman of the
Partnership for Improved Air
Travel, a national organization
formed to influence aviation poli
cies.
The study, completed last year,
estimates that commercial and gen
eral aviation and aircraft manufac
turing activities generate $39 billion
annually in economic activities in
Texas.