A&M
Battalion
Under the big top
Reid Bros. Circus
comes to B/CS
See Page 4
1
Vol. 90 No. 22 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, October 2,1990
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School of Business to request
raise in graduate school tuition
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M Graduate School of Busi
ness will ask the Board of Regents to double
its graduate tuition at the Board’s regular
meeting Thursday and Friday.
If approved, business graduate students
will pay $40 per semester hour in Fall 1991.
This means, for example, that a business
graduate student taking 10 hours in Fall 1991
will pay $400 instead of $200. Other fees are
not affected.
During the last three years, incoming stu
dents in the Graduate School of Business have
ranked tuition costs third, fourth or fifth in
order of importance to their decision to at
tend A&M, says the associate dean for aca
demic programs in the Graduate School of
Business and MBA program director.
“We know that tuition is not unimportant,”
Dr. Dan Robertson says. “But, students are
more concerned about whether they can find
a good job with their degree.”
Robertson says graduate students consider
factors like costs of living in the area or length
of the program in making up their minds.
Part of the proposal to increase tuition stip
ulates that any increase stay within the college.
Robertson says an increase in tuition would
stimulate financial support for students with
special financial needs.
Dr. Larry Guseman, A&M’s director of the
Office of Graduate Studies, says the Higher
Education Coordinating Board has been lean
ing on A&M officials to increase graduate tu
ition and get in line with other state universi
ties.
The University of Houston increased grad
uate tuition from $18 to $36 last year and tu
ition at the University of Texas is twice that of
A&M.
According to a HECB report, Texas ranked
50th in the amount of tuition and fees paid by
resident graduate students attending four-
year institutions in 1987 and 1988.
Tuition and fees paid by non-resident grad
uate students in Texas ranked 47th.
“One way or another someone, whether it’s
the students, parents or taxpayers, pays for
better education,” Guseman says. “The quality
of education will go down if you don’t start
funding at a higher level.”
Except for professional programs such as
law, medicine and dentistry, the current
statewide minimum for Texas residents —
both undergraduate and graduate — is $18 a
semester hour.
However, state resident graduate students
in business, engineering and architecture are
paying the maximum $36 per hour. Pharmacy
students soon will be included.
A law enacted by the Legislature in 1985
will increase minimum statewide tuition from
$18 per semester hour to $20 in Fall 1991, $22
in 1993 and $24 in 1995.
Then in 1987, the Legislature gave boards
of regents from the state’s public universities
authority to double the statewide minimum
graduate tuition.
University regents have no authority in set
ting undergraduate tuition rates.
Dr. Lee Blank, associate dean of engi
neering and graduate operations committee
chair, distributed a questionnaire to all col
leges Aug. 24 asking opinions of a proposed
100 percent increase in tuition for all grad
uate students.
The report from that committee is being
examined by Dr. Duwayne Anderson, asso
ciate provost for research and graduate study.
Anderson says the report is not finished
and would not comment about whether the
report recommended an increase in graduate
tuition in all colleges.
Graduate students make up about 17 per
cent of the A&M student population.
Mauro says economy
linked to environment
By BRIDGET HARROW
Of The Battalion Staff
Texas Land Commissioner Garry
Mauro said cleaning up the environ
ment also can help the Texas econ
omy.
“We all know how bad our air pol
lution problem is in this state and na
tion,” Mauro said during a press
conference at the Wisenbaker Engi
neering Research Center. “When we
see, taste and smell the air, we know
something is wrong. Texas is going
to be on the cutting edge of new
technology because we want to cre
ate jobs in our state, clean up our air;
and we want to save money.”
Mauro said one of the solutions to
air pollution is substituting natural
gas — specifically Texas natural gas
— with gasoline and diesel used in
most vehicles. Mauro said he formed
a coalition, the Texans for the Envi
ronment and the Economy (TE-2)
with the idea that protecting the en
vironment will drive economic
growth.
Mauro, who arrived in an electric
car produced through the South
Central Electric Vehicle Consor
tium, said electric cars give efficient
.12
Silver Taps
service tonight
will honor one
The solemn sound of buglers
playing “Taps” and the sharp ring of
gunfire will be heard on campus to
night as one Texas A&M student
who died during the past month will
be honored in a Silver Taps
ceremony at
10:30 in front
of the Academic
Building.
The deceased stu
dent being honored is:
• Gregory Allan Lewis,
21, a senior physics major
from Dallas, who died Sept.
19.
Dating back almost a cen
tury, the stately tradition of
Silver Taps is practiced on
the first Tuesday of each
month from September
through April, when necessary. The
names of the deceased students are
posted at the base of the flag pole in
front of the Academic Building, and
the flag is flown at half-staff the day
of the ceremony.
Lights will be extinguished and
the campus hushed as Aggies pay fi
nal tribute to fellow Aggies.
The Ross Volunteer Firing Squad
begins the ceremony, marching in
slow cadence toward the statue of
Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Shortly af
ter, three volleys are fired in a 21-
gun salute and six buglers play a spe-
dal arrangement of “Taps” three
times •
Supreme Court
lets ruling stand
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Su
preme Court refused to reinstate the
murder conviction and death sen
tence of an Odessa man who has
spent more than seven years on
death row.
Thejustices, without comment, let
stand a ruling Monday that threw
out John Skelton’s conviction “be
cause the evidence does not exclude
every other reasonable hypothesis.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Ap
peals, the state’s highest, overturned
Skelton’s conviction in 1989 and or
dered him acquitted. Skelton re
mained behind bars pending review
of the case by the Supreme Court.
Skelton was convicted by a jury
and in July 1983 sentenced to death
in the murder of Joe Neal, who died
when a bomb blew up his pickup
truck on April 24, 1982, in Odessa.
Prosecutors said Skelton had
vowed to kill Neal because the victim
had stolen tanks from Skelton’s
steam cleaning business.
The Texas Court of Criminal Ap
peals said the evidence against Skel
ton did not prove his guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt.
“Although this court does not rel
ish the thought of reversing the con
viction in this heinous case and or
dering an acquittal, because the
evidence does not exclude every
other reasonable hypothesis, we are
compelled to do so,” the state court
said.
Senior Yell Leader Brant Ince leads more than 50 A&M Japa
nese students from the Koriyama campus around the College
Station campus after a yell practice on the steps of the YMCA
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Building. The Japanese students arrived here Sunday for a
week-long orientation to what it’s like to be an Aggie. The Ko
riyama campus opened in temporary quarters on May 28.
use of energy which will clean up the
air much faster. He said the Consor
tium has a five-year plan for the
commercialization of electric fleet
vehicles which could serve as an ex
ample to everyone.
David Swan, director for South
Central Electric Vehicle Consor
tium, said they are working with
Houston Lighting and Power and
some of the other larger utility com
panies in the state to try to bring
electric vehicles to Texas.
John Appleby, director for the
Center for Applied Electrochemistry
said the idea is to try to get the utility
idustries interested in electric vehi
cles.
“If they (utility companies) do not
seem to be interested, then no one
else will be interested in electric vehi
cles,” Appleby said.
Appleby said if the electricity used
by an electric vehicle is traced back
to the source of the fuel — burning
natural gas — then compared with
making electricity and using the
electricity in the vehicle, the gas
mileage is three times greater.
“The electric vehicle is using three
times less energy, and that means it
is putting three times less carbon di-
See Mauro/Page 10
World leaders
commit to end
child tragedies
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An
unprecedented meeting of world
leaders ended Sunday with commit
ments of billions to end the scourges
of childhood poverty, and harsh
words for those who commit atroci
ties in the name of the young.
More than 70 kings, presidents
and prime ministers concluded the
two-day World Summit for Children
by adopting a declaration pledging
to fight the hunger, disease and illit
eracy affecting cliildren.
The summit, the largest gathering
of international leaders, seeks to mo
bilize governments to save up to 100
million children from death by dis
ease and malnutrition in the 1990s.
Louis Sullivan, secretary of health
and human services, initialed the
declaration. Earlier, there had been
concern the United States might not
endorse the plan because it urges ra
tification of a pact that opposes the
death penalty for those under 18 —a
practice in some U.S. states.
Many of the world’s leaders gave
at least brief speeches during the
meeting, which also provided a fo
rum for bilateral discussions on a va
riety of themes, not the least of
which was the Persian Gulf crisis.
President Vaclav Havel of
Czechoslovakia said leaders from
Adolf Hitler to Iraqi President Sad
dam Hussein had committed evil for
the supposed benefit of children.
“Thousands of times I have heard
people defending their servitude to
a hated regime by the argument that
they were doing it only for their chil
dren,” Havel said. “Immorality was
thus committed in the name of chil
dren and evil was served for their al
leged good.
President Bush said children can
be saved when adults “live up to our
responsibilities.” But, he said, “sav
ing one child is a miracle.”
John Mobley
Regent assists state Legislature,
serves family-owned companies
Editor’s note: The Battalion will
focus on members of the Texas
A&M University System Board of
Regents during the upcoming week
to better acquaint students and fac
ulty members with the System’s lead
ers.
By BILL HETHCOCK
Of The Battalion Staff
Since 1951, Regent John Mobley
has been active in the management
and development of a group of fam
ily-owned companies with headquar
ters in Kilgore and Austin.
The companies provide special
ized environmental services to in
dustry and government.
Mobley was born in Houston and
attended public schools in Kilgore.
He lived in Kilgore until 1967 when
he moved to Austin.
The regent, Class of ’51, grad
uated with a bachelor of business ad
ministration.
He now serves as a director of
Johnston Pump/General Valve Com
pany in Brookshire and is a member
of Austin Area Research Organiza
tion Inc.
Mobley represented Gregg and
Smith counties in the Texas Legis
lature in 1965 and 1966. He was an
executive assistant to Gov. John
Connally from 1967 to 1969.
In 1970, Mobley served as chair
man for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s first
Senate campaign. He was adminis
trative assistant to Bentsen in 1971.
Gov. Mark White appointed Mob
ley to the Board in 1985. He is chair
man of the Audit Committee, and a
member of the Executive Commit
tee, the Committee for Service Units
and several ad hoc committees.
John Mobley
Wildlife refuge survives
proposed bill for reservoir
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House Appropriations Commit
tee on Monday rebuffed an at
tempt by Texas congressmen to
flood nearly 3,800 acres of pro
tected woodland near Tyler for a
new reservoir.
The committee in a 26-17 vote
refused to amend the interior ap
propriations bill to take the Little
Sandy Wildlife Refuge from con
trol of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
“I think this vote sounds the
death knell for efforts to remove
Little Sandy from refuge status,”
said Robert Dewey of Defenders
of Wildlife.
Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Rockwall,
is pushing to take away the pro
tection. The land is part of 40,000
acres the Sabine River Authority
wants, to flood to create the Wa
ters Bluff Reservoir.
A Hall-sponsored bill stripping
the protection was approved by
the House Merchant Marine and
Fisheries Committee in August.
Without the protection, the river
authority would take control of
the land by eminent domain.
A Hall aide said the matter was
sent to the Appropriations Com
mittee because it stood a better
chance of passage attached to the
spending bill. The aide said Hall
hopes to get the bill on the House
calendar for non-controversial
legislation in the next two weeks.
But environmentalists say the
bill is very controversial. They say
the land is prime animal habitat
and contains some of the best
hardwood forest in Texas.
A hunting club in 1986 gave
the land the Fish and Wildlife
Service.
cer
Look for the Careers and Graduate School section in Thursday’s Battalion
21