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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 1990)
ctober 25, igjj wakening. Planningfel [Center. Call 846-571) I he Battalion Runnin’ down a dream Senior tailback Darren Lewis chases record See Page 9 /ol.90 No. 40 USPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas Friday, October 26, 1990 at 6 p.m. attheFlyk am 9 a.m. to5p.m.a mention from noonloi vIlO (AP) - PM lark school -d a Texas Supn Wednesday to I ae case and rk quickly to i 3 ref® e essence, ames Vasquez ( ool District, awsuit. “It doesl) we get it out to it ickly as possible, preme Court said] nts Nov. 28. late District Jit tied the system ause it doesn’tgj -antially equal" a similar taxefM ing despite effoi summer toreforzj _ ricts in the laws'-d irby, claimed tt is no differf'l tlared unconsi-, as Supreme Co l 3. The f " the new svsit'I of some plai nesday they I ng before men ssion convenes ; superintendent 1 I District, anotW hopes the state legislators n®' :o reform the? stitutional. lawmakers toi the front end j 3 not wait until d minutes” so t have time top be 1991 -92 sd®| a lawyer fort n Legal Defftj Fund, concurs aits 13 schooli ies in the finarl Solution search continues ;h lesson at 7:30 pm. or more information t the Baptist Sluder! ng on junior year et ngland from 10 to It on at noon. Cal k md community dinne: ation. ill have guest lecture: i47 for more informa- ue" at 8 p.m. at 3715 ave a meeting to elect ws after at 8:30 pm. are information, D FARMHOUSE: wl m. For moreinfoma- ?, 216 Reed McDW’ date, We publish k 'o so. What's Up isi nissions are run on will run. If you hm lore r the! reral homes, id Herrin would to all the charges id he has been Ita- neral industry be- for the casketsht I i much lower that irough funeral| ■eat deal ofbitter ] errin) and the fu- ecause he under- iness by selling ) or $800,” Ken- aded innocent | ic theft charge, Tools d actiool : court iBy CHRIS VAUGHN lOfThe Battalion Staff The physical impossibility of trav- leling to and from West and East ICampus in 10 minutes has the Texas lA&M Faculty Senate and registrar’s [office working to find a solution to [the problem. The Faculty Senate Planning [Committee and Academic Affairs [Committee, along with the regis- [trar’s office, are studying possible so- [lutions because students with back- |to-back classes on East and West [Campus often leave class early or ar rive late. “We wouldn’t be working on this [if it wasn’t a big problem,” says Dr. [james Morgan, chairman of the Aca- [demic Affairs Committee and an as sociate professor of civil engi- [neering. “On Monday, Wednesday [and Friday, 10 minutes is just impos- Isible.” Dr. Steve Sercy, chairman of the [Planning Committee’s subcommittee [on the issue, says students leaving [early or arriving late are disruptive, [but he believes there is a larger prob- llem. “I’m more concerned that stu- [dents are missing material in class,” [Sercy, a professor in agricultural en- [gineering, says. “That’s the bigger loss. A lot of important information is given out at the beginning and ending of class.” Kenny Gossett, speaker of the Student Senate, agrees the problem is worth studying. “It’s a definite problem,” Gossett says. “Ten minutes, or even 15 min utes, is really tough for students since it’s so far between East and West Campus.” Among possible solutions to time conflicts are increasing Monday- Wednesday-Friday classes to an hour and 15 minutes, leaving 15 minutes between classes and elimi nating Friday as a class day. But eliminating Friday classes is not an option Morgan personally supports. “That would mean we lose class periods or we go into the night be cause there aren’t enough hours in the day,” he says. Another option is to leave Mon- day-Wednesday-Friday classes at 50 minutes, but increase time between classes to 15 or 20 minutes. This alternative would increase the length of the class day and prob ably make some classes start at odd times. Changing the West Campus schedule to half hours — 8:30, 9:30, etc. — is another alternative, but Sercy says it already has been tried and wasn’t popular with students. Sercy says students complained about limited numbers of classes if they had some that started at half hours while others started on the hour. Other solutions being studied in clude prohibiting students from reg istering for back-to-back classes on East and West campus, informing students by voice response during telephone registration they have a campus conflict and improving shut tle bus transportation. “Another option is not to make any change,” Sercy adds. He says he hopes the Faculty Sen ate makes a recommendation to the administration by the end of the spring semester so the plan can be implemented by Spring 1992. Morgan and Sercy say they would like the plan to be in effect by the time the College of Business Admin istration — with its more than 6,500 students — moves to West campus later this decade, creating an even larger problem. Sercy says no decision has been made in the subcommittee and one is not likely until more input is re ceived. “We don’t want to make any sud den recommendations without con sidering the ramifications,” he says. “We are going to try to involve the faculty and students in making a change. We want everyone’s opin- Rainforests under seige Candidate supports preservation ByBILLHETHCOCK Of The Battalion Staff Michael Worsham, candidate for U.S. Congress, urged Texas A&M students to take action to save the world’s rainforests Thursday in an outdoor speech between the Academic Building and the library. He told listeners to get involved through environ mental film festivals, speakers, reading, protests, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns. “When you know the problem, and what you can do to save the rainforests, you’re going to want to get involved,” he said. Worsham suggested writing letters to heads of corporations, government officials and newspapers to call attention to the destruction of rainforests. “The power of the pen can move mountains, and hopefully it can help save the rainforests,” Worsham said. He encouraged students to attend a protest in front of the Mitsubishi car dealership at the corner of Texas Drive and Holleman this Saturday. The protest is sponsored by the Texas Environmental Action Coalition. TEAC is protesting to encourage a boycott of Mit subishi Corporation products, including auto mobiles, electronic equipment, Nikon camera equip ment and Kirin beer. According to TEAC information passed out at Worsham’s rally, the Mitsubishi Corporation is one of the largest destroyers of tropical rainforests in the world. They are part owners of several logging oper ations and import millions of cubic meters of tropical timber every year. Mitsubishi also is involved in road building and mining in tropical rainforests and does heavy log ging in Malaysia where over 85 percent of the pri mary forest already has been destroyed after 40 years of intensive development. Rainforests once covered almost 15 percent of the Earth’s terrestial surface, but have been depleted to 6 percent largely because of poor development schemes and overpopulation in Third World coun tries. Ecosystems in rainforests contain many species that exist nowhere else. Deforestation leads to ex tinction of these species. Destruction of rainforests also contributes to the greenhouse effect, depletion of the ozone layer and global climate change. Worsham said boycotting products made by cor porations that encourage destruction of the rainfo rests is a way to help save the forests. “Consumer pressure does affect corporations, even though it takes time,” he said. “So a good thing to do is to check out the products you buy before you make your purchases.” Pumpkins everywhere A child chooses from a pile of pumpkins for the perfect one to carve into a jack-o’-lantern Thurs- JAY JANNER/The Battalion day at The Farm Patch on S. College Ave. The pumpkins were grown on farms in Flatonia. Economist stresses work ethic By BRIDGET HARROW Of The Battalion Staff The work ethic needs to be in stilled and reinforced in society be cause individual input has an effect on the economy, said Dr. James Bu chanan, winner of the 1986 Noble Prize for Economics. Buchanan, spoke on “Economics of the Work Ethic” Thursday at a seminar given by the Department of Management. He won the Noble Prize for his contributions to eco nomic perspectives and in acknowl edgement for leadership in the pub lic choice movement. Buchanan said the work ethic is the only solution to encourage a per son to work harder and make the economy more efficient. “Shifting from leisure to work and supplying more input to the econ omy is more beneficial to everyone because we are expanding the size of the market, increasing specialization and thus lowering the costs of goods and services,” he said. Buchanan said the idea of individ ual input affecting everyone goes against the competitive adjustment theory. The theory states when an individual stops being productive in the economy, the market becomes smaller for a short time but will eventually return to normal. Buchanan said the competitive adjustment theory is wrong m stat ing if a person drops dead today no one outside of his family is affected economically. If more people work harder and give more individual in put, then everyone gains more value for what they put in, he said. Buchanan said the work ethic in society may be a survival technique from mankind’s ancestry. Early man knew if he did not work he would starve. Buchanan said he is con cerned about losing this ethic. The anti-work feeling of the 1960s preached harm; people acted unethically, Buchanan said. “If you define ethical acts to be beneficial then telling others to de stroy the economic values for others is acting unethically,” he said. The work ethic encourages peo- C le to increase their input in society y making them feel guilty when they loaf, Buchanan said. And even without guilt, Buchanan said, people would realize that they do not work hard enough. It would even be beneficial to the economy for a person who doesn’t have the values of the work ethic to talk others into working harder, Bu chanan said. “Working is praiseworthy, and loafing is blameworthy,” he said. “Loafing is a non-tradeable good.” Buchanan did acknowledge the work ethic has to be countered with leisure activities or else negative ef fects of working would increase. Buchanan has been at Texas A&M this week as a Kirby distin guished visiting professor to the De partment of Economics and has given several seminars. He is cur rently a professor of economics at George Mason Univesity. Nobel laureate: Americans need survival as goal By KEVIN M. HAMM Of The Battalion Staff “Ease and Security, were these the drugs that abated the external chal- lenges in the minds of men? And did nations, like men, grow sluggish and apathetic when well fed arid bodily comfortable?”—Thomas Jefferson Unless people in the United States strive toward the common, long term goal of survival, the future of the country and the world could be in jeopardy, warned a Nobel lau reate and visiting Texas A&M lec turer. “I fear our past national goals of excellence and achievement are be ing replaced by the pursuits of plea sure and comfort,” Dr. Norman E. Borlaug said Thursday during a University Lecture Series presenta tion. “When I return home after 46 Norman Borlaug years of working in the Third World, I think I see the United States afflicted with the debilitating co-viruses of affluency and compla cency,” he said. Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in grow ing high-yield grains. In 1944, Borlaug joined the Co operative Wheat Research and Pro duction Program with the goal of in creasing wheat yields in Mexico. His developments increased Mexican wheat production by six times. Borlaug then took the knowledge gained in Mexico to India and Paki stan in the mid-1960s. When he started, India was pro ducing 11 million metric tons of wheat a year from 32 million acres. India became self-sufficient in 1975 as a result of the work and produced 54 million metric tons on 57 million acres by 1989. “There’s no magic in high-yield ing crops — that’s like a child that in herits tremendous genetic potential, a good hand of genetic cards,” Bor laug said. “But if that child doesn’t have proper nutrition and education, that potential is never fulfilled.” Borlaug said enough food is pro duced to feed the world according to per capita protein requirements. But this food cannot reach the 800 mil lion malnourished people because of inequitable distribution systems and poverty in underdeveloped nations. It took millions of years for the world population to reach one bil lion in 1850, Borlaug said. Since then, the population has grown to 5.3 billion and is growing by 95 mil lion each year. The problems this population ex plosion creates must be addressed. “We who work on the food pro- SeeBorlaug/Page 6 A&M student charged for DWI, causes wreck By TROY HALL Of The Battalion Staff A Texas A&M student was charged for driving while intoxi cated after police said he caused a three-car accident Thursday morning at the intersection of Wellborn Road and Holleman Drive. A&M business major Philip Wayne Winfrey was hit by two cars when he turned left onto Holleman against a red light, Lt. Mike Patterson of the College Station Police Department said. Winfrey was traveling north on Wellborn at approximately 8:55 a.m. when the accident occurred. Jeff Falcone, a post-doctorate at the Texas A&M Medical School, was taken to Humana Hospital for treatment of possible injuries sustained during the acci dent. He was treated and re leased. The other driver, A&M stu dent Sang Choi of W-2I Hensel, was not injured. At the time of arrest, Winfrey complained of possible injuries but was not transported to the hospital, Patterson said. Along with the DWI charge, Winfrey also had two outstanding warrants with the University Po lice Department and was issued a citation for running a red light. He remained in College Sta tion police custody Thursday eve ning. 87 faculty members sign petition, call bonfire ‘needless waste’ By SEAN FRERKING Of The Battalion Staff A petition calling bonfire a “needless waste” and a “source of embarrassment” for Texas A&M has been submitted to A&M President William Mobley and Dr. Bill Stout, Faculty Senate speaker. Dr. Hugh Wilson, one of the faculty members who originated the list of signa tures, said during an interview Wednesday that 87 A&M faculty members and he signed the petition to make a statement about many faculty members’ beliefs about bonfire. Saying he can express only his own feel ings about bonfire, Wilson said it was im portant for faculty members to make their concerns public. “I think bonfire is a major issue the en tire campus needs to address,” Wilson, a professor of biology, said. “That’s why I nelped make the petition public and I be lieve it makes a strong statement.” Stout, a professor of agriculture engi neering, said the petition submitted Thurs day is an outgrowth of a joint committee’s report on bonfire last spring. “This is nothing new,” Stout, chairman of the joint committee, said. “The number of signatures, however, is quite substantial.” Stout said he thinks the petition ad dresses some faculty members’ major con cerns about bonfire, but some suggestions on the list might be impractical. “The petition states bonfire should not receive any state funds when it already does not use state funds,” Stout said. “Moving bonfire also is impractical because it would create more problems than it would solve.” While Stout said he is not opposed to bonfire, he said the annual tradition could stand some changes. “I think there are many positive benefits to bonfire but the destruction should be stopped,” Stout said. “I would like to think students at A&M could come up with a more creative way to express school spirit.” □ Related letter/Page 2 Stout said he thinks that once proposed bonfire changes are implemented, the event won’t be considered harmful to the University’s reputation. “As other recommendations are insti tuted, such as making the stack smaller, I think the good of bonfire will outweigh the bad,” Stout said. Bill Kibler, the University’s adviser for bonfire, said he has not seen a copy of the petition. He said if A&M administrators be lieve the list has some legitimate concerns, the school will take them into consideration. Kibler, associate director of Student Af fairs, said that one of the issues the petition raised was that bonfire should not receive any state funding. Bonfire does not receive any state money, just like any other student organiza tion on campus, Kibler said. “The bonfire committee is an official stu dent organization,” he said. “It (bonfire) does not receive any money from the school.” Kibler said bonfire receives a tremen dous amount of support through donations from former A&M students and other indi viduals. But like any other student organization, bonfire organizers gets advice from the University. “It’s permitted to occur just like Fish Camp,” he said. “Bonfire is a big part of life for A&M students. We try to give it the su pervision any student activity deserves.” One student organization, however, op poses the annual event. Kelly Harper, president of Aggies Against Bonfire, said she supports the peti tion and believes more people are begin ning to see bonfire is destructive. “I think the faculty’s efforts are great,” Harper, a junior wildlife and fisheries ma jor from Fort Worth, said. “The more peo ple know about bonfire, the sooner this bad situation will be changed.” She said she realizes bonfire has its good points, but the event also gives students a false idea the environment is indestructa- ble. “Learning how to be a leader is great,” Harper said. “However, bonfire teaches these students to be destructive to the envi ronment. “What they’re saying is, ‘Don’t be a two percenter. Kill a tree.’ I think that is wrong,” she continued. A&M could use the work of the students in a more productive way. Harper said, and promote a positive image at the same time. “Right now, A&M has a bad reputation because of bonfire,” she said. “We could change that.” Joey Dollins, head stack redpot and chief student adviser for bonfire, disagreed with the petition and those who are against bon fire. “For anyone to imply bonfire receives See Bonfire/Page 6