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bl.89 No.136 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, April 20,1990
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By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Nothing about us, without us.
— Old Polish proverb
A top Solidarity economic adviser reiterated in an
[interview Wednesday Poland’s wish to participate in
negotiations to reunite West and East Germany.
Minister Witold Trzeciakowski, a leading eco-
[nomic intellectual in Solidarity, is visiting Texas
A&M as part of the MSC Wiley Lecture Senes titled
“The Changing Faces of Communism.”
The lecture, moderated by ABC journalist Sam
[Donaldson, will be tonight and will feature leading
government officials from Hungary, Soviet Union,
I German Democratic Republic and the United States.
Trzeciakowski said Poland wants to be involved in
| the reunification negotiations because Poland still
remembers the Polish occupation by Nazi Germany
| during World War II.
“Poland is worried about a unified Germany be-
[ cause of historical experiences,” he said.
Presently, the Soviet Union, United States, France
j and England are the outside nations participating in
| thedicussion.
He said Poland has no right to deny East and West
[ Germany the right to reunite, but wishes the process
would occur with the interests of all of Europe rep
resented.
“The problem is not of preventing them from
| See Poland/Page 5
Photo by Karl Stolleis
Witold Trzeciakowski
Photo by Karl Stolleis
Nikolay Shishlin
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
The Soviet Union and the United States will agree on
large troop reductions in Europe this year, the deputy
chief of the Propaganda Subdepartment of the Com
munist Party Central Committee predicted during an
interview Thursday night.
Nikolay Shishlin, one of the Soviet Union’s most au
thoritative spokesmen on foreign affairs, is visiting
Texas A&M as part of the MSC Wiley Lecture Series ti
tled “The Changing Faces of Communism.”
The lecture, moderated by ABC journalist Sam Don
aldson, is tonight, and also features leading govern
ment officials from Poland, Hungary, the German
Democratic Republic, and the United States.
Shishlin said the decisive step in U.S. and Soviet
troop reductions in Europe will be made during the
scheduled May summit between President George Bush
and President Mikhail Gorbachev.
“I think that 1990 will be marked by tremendous cuts
in conventional weapons and troops in Europe,” Shish
lin said.
President Bush unveiled a proposal during the Open
Skies Conference in Ottawa, Canada, earlier this year to
cut U.S. and Soviet troop levels down to 195,000.
When asked about Lithuania, Shishlin said the Soviet
Union is prepared to grant the breakaway republic its
independence, hut economic, military and other ques
tions must be answered first.
“I think we should just end this war of nerves and be
gin negotiations between Moscow and Vilnius (Lithua
nia’s capital),” he said.
The Lithuanian Parliament voted to declare its inde
pendence last month, but Gorbachev has said he will
place a boycott on oil and gas supplies to the maverick
republic in response to the independence movement.
It was reported Thursday that the Soviet Union had
indeed cut off oil to Lithuania’s only refinery, but
Shishlin said he was “poorly informed” of the present
situation since his arrival in the United States and did
not know if the reports were true.
Shishlin, who has been a deputy chief in the Commu
nist Party Central Committee since 1988, said the Soviet
Union has no intention of using force against Lithua
nia.
“The Soviet Union does not have two options — one
of force or one of a Soviet crackdown,” Shishlin said.
Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III said
earlier this week that U.S.-Soviet relations could be at
See Soviet/Page 5
ndergraduate
tuition rates
to remain same
(CHRIS VAUGHN
(The Battalion Staff
Texas A&M’s 1990-91 under-
aduate tuition rates will remain
e same, although some graduate
am rates could increase next
progr
versary of
3 a.m. oo
Tuition for Texas residents will
emain at $18 per semester hour,
According to the Legislature’s tuition
jaw passed in 1985.
The Texas Higher Education
iordinating Board, which sets tu-
rates for non-residents, has
nade no move to increase rates.
University Controller Tom Taylor
aid A&M officials expect rates to re
gain at $122 per semester hour
[again next year.
The Legislature, however, did
Jve boards of regents in Texas the
authority to raise law school rates
and certain graduate program rates.
Taylor said the A&M Board of
iRegents has been discussing possible
acreases in graduate programs in
ae College of Business. A decision is
expected to be made during the May
aard meeting.
I«T
I uition will only increase
every two years”
— Tom Taylor,
A&M controller
The tuition bill passed in 1985
tovides for tuition increases every
years through 1995. The first
12-per-semester-hour increase came
1987, followed by another in 1989
othe present level.
Rates are scheduled to increase to
$20 in September 1991 and to $22 in
ptember 1993.
While other universities in the na-
ion are announcing small increases
r the fall, Taylor said Texas is not
cause it wants to stick to the tuition
pill already in place.
“There has been no reason to re-
dse the law,” Taylor said. “It just so
appens that as part of the schedule
if payments, tuition will only in-
:rease every two years.”
Average tuition rates for universi-
ies in the United States increased 5
9 percent during the present
ichool year after large increases a
ew years ago.
Rates at four-year public colleges
hroughout the nation increased 20
rcent in 1983-84 before leveling
pff in the 5 to 9 percent range since
|hen.
Although tuition rates will not
ise, the Board of Regents will vote
May on two proposed fee in
eases for the health center and the
itudent services fee, Taylor said.
The health center fee, which has
en $15 for 18 years, will increase
o $25 next fall if approved by the
loard.
Another proposal before the
foard would raise the student serv-
ces fee to $6.75 per semester hour,
lot to exceed $81 per semester. The
urrent student services fee is $6.10
)er hour, not to exceed $73 per se-
nester.
Aggie Parents of the Year may move to C.S.
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
More than 27 years ago, Dick
and Pat Brunner made a decision
to involve themselves completely
in the same activities as their chil
dren.
It meant hours of work in
Little League, softball leagues,
sports booster clubs, band booster
clubs and student government ac
tivities, while their three children
worked their way through school.
It didn’t bother the Brunners.
They just thought it was part of
parenting.
“Our devotion goes back be
yond our kids’ college years,”
Mrs. Brunner said. “It goes back
to a philosophy Dick and I share.
We said when we started having
children that we would be in
volved with them.”
Mr. Brunner agreed.
“We are totally devoted to
them,” he said.
The Brunners’ three children,
who all attended Texas A&M, be
gan to pay their parents back a
few months ago when they nomi
nated them for Aggie Parents of
the Year.
University officials must have
agreed because a very surprised
Brunner couple was named 1990
Aggie Parents of the Year during
Parents’ Weekend ceremonies.
“I think we were probably just
shocked,” Mr. Brunner said. “We
couldn’t even get up out of our
seats.”
The Brunners, who also were
surprised to find their two older
children who live on the East
Coast at the ceremony, said the
award was special.
“To know that your children
nominate you is even more speci
al,” Mrs. Brunner said. “The
bond is real special in our family.”
The first of the Brunner chil
dren, Barbara, graduated from
A&M in 1984 with a bachelor’s
degree in accounting and in 1985
with a master’s degree.
Photo by Fredrick D. Joe
Dick and Pat Brunner are A&M’s 1990-91 Parents of the Year.
The second Brunner, Mike,
graduated from A&M in 1987
with a degree in construction sci
ence.
The third Brunner, Sharon, is
a senior agricultural economics
major and is scheduled to grad
uate this year.
All three Brunner children
earned the Buck Weirus Spirit
Award during their freshman
years.
The Brunners, both natives of
See Parents/Page 4
Speaker says women
must initiate change
By KEVIN M. HAMM
Of The Battalion Staff
• Related story/Page 3
A former president of the Na
tional Organization for Women
stressed the need for women to pur
sue decision-making positions in va
rious facets of society in order to
bring about fundamental changes.
“We’re not at any of the decision
making tables where the decisions
that matter are being made,” Elbe
Smeal said.
She said a change in attitude
needs to occur, not just toward
women, but also minorities, people
in Third World countries and the
environment, and that women must
actively participate in bringing about
these changes.
“The social problems of our day
are some of the worst the world has
had to deal with,” she said.
Although the proportion of
women in leadership positions in
government and business is rising, it
must be higher she said. Smeal said
women make up only 5 percent of
the Congress, and 3.5 percent sit on
corporations’ board of directors.
“It’s like we started on Earth a
thousand years later,” she said, con
demning people who tell women to
“just wait.”
Smeal said if the inroads the femi
nist movement has made continue at
the current pace, it will take two gen
erations until men and women are
equally represented in state and local
government. She said it will Be 340
years until they are equal in federal
government.
“Essentially one of the major ques
tions of the feminist movement to
day,” she said, “is now that con
sciousness is raised, how do we
change it; how do women and peo
ple who believe in equality get more
power? (And) is there some burning
reason or need for a change?
“I like to make the case that the
need is not only burning, it’s absolu
tely essential to the survival of the
human species,” she said.
See Women/Page 10
Speaker: Mediafosters
the oppression of women
By ANDY KEHOE
Of The Battalion Staff
Anything that promotes sexist,
racist and abusive images of women
in the mass media should be de
stroyed, a professor of the sociology
of mass media said Thursday during
a Women’s Issues Symposium spon
sored by MSC Great Issues.
Gail Dines, who is a professor at
Wheelock College in Boston, said it
will take the work of a devoted
group to do away with the certain
forms of mass media that contribute
to the oppression of women.
Dines, who spoke on the “Image
of Women in Pornography and Mass
Media,” said she blames much of to
day’s advertising for the poor image
of women.
Many of the ads that are in popu
lar, newsstand magazines, she said,
contain overtly sexist images that are
used to sell products.
“A lot of the ads in Vogue, Elle
and Cosmopolitan contain sexist and
abusive images of women,” Dines
said. “Men are always portrayed as
the norm, and women are dressed
and positioned so that they look like
whores and sex slaves.”
Other examples of sexist advertis
ing, Dines noted, include Yves Saint
Laurent’s Opium, numerous liquor
See Speaker/Page 5
Lawyers for professor’s family will appeal dismissal
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
Lawyers for the family of Abdel K. Ayoub,
a former Texas A&M electrical engineering
professor, say they will appeal the order by a
Houston federal judge who dismissed their
lawsuit against five A&M officials Tuesday.
In January, a Houstonjury ordered the of
ficials to collectively pay $625,000 in punitive
and compensatory damages to Ayoub’s
widow, Odessa Ayoub, because they punished
Ayoub “for exercising his constitutional right
to protected free speech.”
Ayoub, a tenured professor who came to
A&M in 1968 and died in 1988, claimed he
was the victim of pay discrimination because
he was born in a foreign country. Ayoub was
born in Egypt and was a naturalized Ameri
can citizen.
After Ayoub discovered the disparate pay
scale, he raised and continued to raise the sal
ary complaint.
As punishment for his complaints, Ayoub
claimed his office was moved from 214
Zachry to a less convenient location, 216A
Teague.
Judge Norman Black’s order said Ayoub’s
claim for damages was based on the move.
In a letter to Ayoub from Professor John E.
Flipse, associate vice chancellor and associate
dean of the college of engineering, informing
him of the move, Flipse said the move “was to
improve operations in the Electrical Engi
neering Department and to effectively utilize
space available to the Engineering Program.”
Ayoub did not want to move because he
had suffered two heart attacks and was afraid
he would have another attack and no one
would be near his new office to help him. A
third heart attack killed him two weeks after
he filed the suit in 1988. Hill said Ayoub took
most of the evidence to the grave with him.
Ayoub appealed to the Faculty Senate for
help.
In the Faculty Senate’s Final Report of the
Engineering Senate Caucus Special Subcom
mittee Prologue, Ayoub said “he was being
mistreated professionally and that his rights
as a tenured faculty member were being vio
lated since he was never told of the reason for
the move or given any opportunity to explain
or defend himself against what he believed
was a punitive action.”
The subcommittee found that the decision
to move the office lacked “due process” be
cause no hearing was held before the action
was taken.
Ayoub claimed records of the subcommit
tee meeting were destroyed.
In a letter to Engineering Caucus Chair
man B. Don Russell, defendant Herbert H.
Richardson, deputy chancellor of engi
neering for the A&M system, said “all written
records of these proceedings including sub
missions by the parties involved are to be de
stroyed per our agreement.”
Dr. Herman Saatkamp, speaker of the Fac
ulty Senate and head of the philosophy and
humanities department said a caucus is not a
standing or reporting body within the Faculty
Senate.
“Some caucuses send the minutes of their
See Appeal/Page 5