he Battalion
TATE & LOCAL
hursday, September 27,1990
Economic summit co-chairman says
Houston still basks in positive image
ly LIBBY KURTZ
DfThe Battalion Staff
y
‘eidea
Houston continues to bask in the
limelight although the 1990 Eco-
jomic Summit is over, the summit’s
ost committee co-chairman said
Wednesday.
George Strake, who spoke to a
pecial topics journalism class
den, Wednesday night, said his office
11 continues to receive “glowing let
ters” from foreign dignitaries who
isited the city July 9 to 11.
The class is taught by Peter Rous-
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mer President Reagan and President
Bush’s spokesman during his early
years in office. Roussel served as
communications director during the
summit.
Roussel invited Strake to speak to
Texas A&M students so they could
hear Firsthand about events sur
rounding the first ecomonic summit
in Texas.
“The summit could not have come
at a better time for Texas,” Strake
said. “We’d gone through a horrible
recession that wasn’t fun for anyone
and we needed a booster. The sum
mit was that booster. Everybody in
Houston was fired up about the
event.
“We received calls from people
with some very creative summit
ideas,” he said. “One guy called and
said he had eight tame longhorns.
He thought it would be a great
photo opportunity if the eight world
leaders sat on them. I just laughed
and told him he could tell the presi
dent himself.”
One idea that proved successful
was the installation of eight light
spikes across from the George R.
Brown Convention Center. The
lights represented the flags of coun
tries participating in the summit.
“The lights served as a backdrop
for many news reports and pro
moted a positive image of the sum
mit,” he said.
Strake said one of the main goals
of his committee was to channel the
community’s enthusiasm into sum
mit preparations.
Four committees were formed to
help prepare for the summit. The
committees dealt with everything
from cleaning Houston to dealing
with 4,000 media members in town
covering the summit.
Strake said the positive press cov
erage they received, especially from
the foreign press, helped improve
Houston’s image.
“The world leaders left Houston
with a better opinion of the city than
I thought possible,” he said. “They
left thinking Houston was the
friendliest, cleanest city in the world
and a great place to do business.”
Strake attributes the summit’s suc
cess to community members who
volunteered time and effort to clean
up the city.
He said more than 5,000 volun
teers picked up about 1,000 tons of
trash from Houston’s streets.
“I can tell you without question, it
was the cleanest I’d ever seen Hous
ton,” Strake said. “I’d never been
prouder to be a Texan or Housto
nian. The city sparkled.”
Strake, who co-chaired the com
mittee with Ken Lay, said Houston
hopes it will host more events like
the economic summit in the future.
Hispanic students get tips on making it to top
By ELIZABETH TISCH
01 The Battalion Staff
A Hispanic businessman revealed
his secrets for success Wednesday
night to the MSC Committee for the
Awareness of Mexican-American
Culture.
Narciso Cano, president of Cisne
ros Asset Management Company of
San Antonio and Houston, said al
though few achieve success on the
first try, students entering the work
force must have “passion and per
sistence” if they want to make it to
the top.
Robert Cano, a Texas A&M ju
nior and education program direc
tor for CAMAC, said the committee
isited Narciso to speak to Mexicau-
American students because of the
high dropout rate among these stu
dents.
“We felt it is a subject that doesn’t
receive enough attention,” Robert
said. “There is over an 80 percent
dropout rate among Hispanic high
school students.”
Narciso, Class of ’66, earned a
master’s in science structural me
chanics from A&M and a master’s
from Harvard Business School.
He urged the student audience
“to hang on no matter how tough it
gets.”
Narciso said few Mexican-Ameri-
cans are employed in top positions.
“To this day, you can count the
number of Hispanics in Texas law
firms on two hands,” he said.
No single reason can explain the
low numbers, he said, but he believes
students today have few Hispanic
role models to follow.
“That is why I’m encouraging stu
dents to hang in there and have
faith,” he said. “After a few years,
Mexican-American students’ careers
will suddenly take off.”
Narciso also stressed the impor
tance of a good education.
He encouraged students to master
communication, particularly
through writing.
“I would take a class where the
professor requires you write once a
day,” he said.
He also encouraged students to
increase their knowledge about com
puters.
“You should become familiar with
at least word processing, spread
sheets and data base management.”
Narciso left the members of
CAMAC with one last piece of ad
vice.
“You all should not be in such a
hurry,” he said. “Enjoy being stu
dents and go out and experience the
world.”
Early release
of prisoners
evokes stress
HOUSTON (AP) — City
Council members on Wednesday
urged Gov. Bill Clements to call a
special legislative session to ad
dress concerns about early prison
release programs in the state and
county.
The resolution, which passed
with a unanimous vote of the 10
council members present, urged
Clements “to address the grave
concerns of the people of Hous
ton, the people of Harris County
and the people of Texas.”
“There’s a lot of people
scared,” Freda Baker, co-owner
of Baker’s Indoor Pistol Range,
said.
“I know that there are more
phone calls from people inquiring
about instruction and women
buying handguns,” said her hus
band, C.T. Baker, who handles
instruction for the range.
“They’re worried about their
safety ... they’re arming them
selves to protect themselves.”
The federally ordered release
of 276 Harris County Jail inmates
earlier this month already had in
creased sales of handguns and se
curity systems in the Houston
area. And county officials said at
least 31 offenders already are
back behind bars.
“We’re just arresting the same
people; we’re letting them out
and arresting them again,” said
Harris County Sheriff Johnny
Klevenhagen.
MSC: more than
another building
By MIKE LUMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The MSC student organization at
Texas A&M has more members than
Student Government, but MSC
Council President Matthew Wood
says some aspects of its operation re
main in the dark to many people.
About 1,800 students are involved
in the MSC, either on the Council, its
governing body or on one of 24 pro
gram-oriented committees.
From All-Night Fair to the Opera
and Performing Arts Society, from
the Black Awareness Committee to
Cepheid Variable, the MSC is home
to diverse organizations.
Wood says with more than 1,300
events a year, A&M has one of the
largest student program associations
in the country.
“A lot of people recognize names
like Town Hall and Aggie Cinema,”
he says. “We hope people will see the
MSC for its role in this rather than
just as a building.”
The Council is a hierarchy consist
ing of the president, nine vice-presi
dents, 24 committee chairs and 17
directors.
Wood, a senior political science
major, was Political Forum chairman
before being appointed MSC presi
dent April 1990.
He says multicultural awareness
was the MSC’s main goal this semes
ter.
“We are truly dedicated to it, even
above what is required by the Uni
versity,” Wood says.
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Matt Wood
Committees including the Jordan
Institute for International Aware
ness and Political Forum presently
are working on a program about the
Middle East.
The Council handles things like
financing, development, facilities
and public relations.
Every committee is working on
something, he says.
He says Political Forum scheduled
Clayton Williams to speak Oct. 16
and is trying to contact Ann Rich
ards.
BATTIPS
Anyone with story suggestions can
call BATTIPS, The Battalion’s
phone line designed to improve
communication between the news
paper and its readers.
BATTIPS’ number is 845-3315.
Ideas can include news stories,
feature ideas and personality pro
files of interesting people.
A&M students face
last chance to Q-drop
Texas A&M undergraduate
students wanting to Q-drop
classes must do so by Friday.
The Fall 1990 class schedule
book explains the Q-Drop proce
dures for dif f erent colleges.
Graduate students have until
Nov. 2 to Q-drop.
tones.
from
i the
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