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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1990)
•The Battalion S7 to 311,1 is in thei 'ol- 9Q No- 6^ CiSPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Lady Ags roll Basketball team survives wild night. See Page 7 College Station, Texas Tuesday, December 4, 1990 ^ated by e cornpai ;en stungl ,es in Hut? ln Francis storni losi rs during' een besei nedical lawsuits, Fate of LoTrak to be decided Economic sanctions $14 million bond election Saturday By JULIE MYERS Of The Battalion Staff >een able :-; P with kh cudved I ^ uture nine independent j ns proposals valued at more than $14 d *B)illion for College Station could be- ■ecided Saturday by Texas A&M ■udents during bond elections. However, in College Station’s ■|ond election in 1984, only 52 of the ■,120 possible voters cast ballots ■rom the MSC, University Owned Mpartments and Northgate area Brecincts. ■ The $14,675 million package in- Lollegefiudes the LoTrak project which r exas A&lBould lower railroad tracks dividing 1 Re r f ast and West campus. 0 discussti* The Texas A&M University Sys- Jem Board of Regents agreed to Ipend $6 million on the proposed project, while the city of Bryan Igreed to pay almost $3 million, of Droble. College Station’s $3 million por- ;ion will purchase right-of-way and rthgate, t. jtilitv relocations for the expansion said. — it’s j built u edictec of Wellborn Road south of George Bush Drive. The State Department of High ways and Public Transportation will pay the rest of the $39 million ven ture. LoTrak will eliminate conflicts be tween automobiles, pedestrians and trains along Wellborn Road through the A&M campus. Cars and pedestrians will be able to cross Wellborn Road quicker, noise pollution will be reduced, and overpasses will be constructed at George Bush Drive, University Drive and Holleman Drive. If all propositions are passed, property taxes paid by College Sta tion residents will increase by 17.84 cents to 58 cents by 1994. Property owners presently pay 40 cents on ev ery $ 100 of property valuation. Sales taxes and city fees will pay for other expenses. Bill Harrison, College Station’s executive director for physical and human resources, said the sales tax already is at its limit and would not increase again before 1994 unless state law changes. College Station residents voted last spring to increase sales tax by one-half cent. The tax increased the rate to eight and one-fourth cents per dollar. The increase went into effect Oct. 1. Harrison said ihe property tax would have a minimal effect on off- campus students who pay property taxes indirectly through their rents. At its worst, a student living in an average apartment unit valued be tween $30,000 and $40,000 could expect to pay $6 more a month in rent, Harrison said. On-campus stu dents are exempt from property taxes. However, considering the com petitive apartment market in the area, it is unlikely landlords would pass on the full increase, Harrison said. See Bond/Page 5 Saturday’s propo sals In the $14 M bond election: • The LoTrak project ($6 mil lion) • street and sidewalk im provements ($4.5 million) • first phase of Wolf Pen Creek project ($2 million) • park land acquisition ($1 mil lion) • park improvements ($1 mil lion) • new College Station library ($2.5 million) e public buildings ($300,000) • early warning weather system ($100,000) • cemetary improvements ($75,000) lack force: Cheney M Presbt: city’s opt the cityar.: g, 'We do; N'orthg® the o promos’ as you du. If p e at, they'd' >f ul and fii ; some o( low if f en rule." Ed Capuano recruits contenders for the Nintendo Campus Challenge. The best player from A&M will advance in the competition. Taking the Nintendo Challenge By JAYME BLASCHKE Of The Battalion Staff The days of Donkey Kong and Pac Man fever might be long gone, but don’t tell that to some Texas A&M students participating in the Nintendo Campus Challenge Mon day and today. . . & Jennifer Carm £ k '%fy'vy.:.P-\ of Untas/Ceco Commumcatfor s, t/rganizer of the two-day event, said the video game challenge eventually will reach more than 50 college campuses nationwide. All students are eligible to compete in the games. She said 12 players will compete against each other playing “Super Mario Bros. 3,” “Pinbot” and “Dr. Mario.” “The rounds are six minutes long, and the winner receives a Nintendo T-shirt as well as getting to advance to the next sta ge,” Carmichael said. “All other partici pants receive Nintendo cups.” The campus champion then will go to the 1992 national finals to compete for a 1991 Geo Storm GSi and $1,000 to $25,000 in scholarships. Nintendo contacted Pi Sigma Epsilon, an A&M sales and marketing fraternity, to help organize the event at A&M. Jennifer Morrow, t’vt fraternity’s vice <; president of personnel, said the group was glad to help. “We did all of the legwork,” Morrow said. “They needed someone who was fa miliar with A&M. We are supplying all the workers and most of the local marketing.” Shawn Knight, another Pi Sigma Epsilon member, said A&M was chosen to host the premiere of the competition because of its national reputation. “Our chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon is ranked number five nationally, and that’s out of 1 14 chapters,” she said. “A&M is so big, they felt they could get a good turn out.” However, bad weather almost caused the event to short-circuit, Carmichael said. “We were supposed to set up out front of Sbisa Sunday night, but we were coming from St. Louis with three semis, and got caught in the middle of a cold front,” Car michael says. “It took us 22 hours to make the trip, and it rained every mile of the way.” The competition was supposed to begin at 10 a.m. Monday, but the game tents were not ready until noon, she said. “We worked all morning, but it’s finally ready,” Carmichael said. “The competition will continue in front of Sbisa until about 4 p.m. Tuesday.” Guy Garner, a sophomore industrial dis tribution major, was one of the first stu dents to begin playing games. “I don’t know about anyone else, but this is going to hurt my finals,” Garner said. “It seems all I do is play Nintendo anyway. This is terrible. There’s too much tempta tion.” WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States cannot be sure eco nomic sanctions will ever force Iraq out of Kuwait, and waiting for such an uncertain outcome would risk erosion of the international coalition behind military force, Defense Secre tary Dick Cheney said Monday. Cheney, laying out to the Senate Armed Services Committee the administration’s rationale for build ing up a military force for possible attack in the Persian Gulf, gave the most pessimistic view yet on the po tential of sanctions to work. “Given the nature of the regime, given Saddam Hussein’s brutality to his own people, his very tight control of that society, his ability to allocate resources for the military, their abil- Dick Cheney ity to produce their own food ... he can ride them out,” Cheney told the committee. Several of the panel’s Democrats, including chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia, contended the administra tion seemed to be dismissing sanc tions too easily. “If we go to war, we never will know whether they would have worked,” Nunn said. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, voiced misgivings about a “Chicken Little approach to our policy. The sky is falling and the only option is war.” Cheney spelled out in detail the U.S. position that American and in ternational interests are in jeopardy in the gulf crisis, contending that Saddam might gain a stranglehold on oil, that he is destroying Kuwait and that his continued military buildup that could mean further ag gression. “It is not so clear that time is alto gether on our side,” Cheney said, a statement that appeared in conflict with earlier administration nouncements. pro- Jets collide in fog on Detroit runway Eight reported dead, 20 injured ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — A jet liner clipped another while prepar ing to take off from the Detroit air port in heavy fog Monday, igniting a fire that left one plane in smoking ruins. At least eight people were killed and 20 injured, of ficials said. It was not immediately clear what caused the collision between a DC-9 and a Boeing 727-200, both oper ated by Northwest Airlines. A spokesman for air traffic controllers said the DC-9 appeared to have be come lost on a slick, foggy taxiway and strayed into the 727’s path. For nearly an hour after the acci dent, smoke billowed out of the fuse lage of the DC-9, where passengers apparently became trapped by the fast-moving fire. By the time the fire was extinguished, much of the plane’s roof was open to the overcast sky. Officials had initially said that 19 people were killed, but Northwest officials and Wayne County Exec utive Edward McNamara later said that was wrong. McNamara said the medical ex aminer had “swept through the wreckage twice and found nine bod ies,” while Northwest spokesman Bob Gibbons said the coroner “told a Argentinian rebels surrender BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The last of several hundred rebels who tried to force a shake-up of the army high command surrendered Monday to end a one-day uprising that left at least eight people dead, the government news agency re ported. The insurrection by right-wing re bels occurred two days before Presi dent Bush was to visit. Telem, the government news agency, said the surrender ended a series of firefights Monday between loyalist troops and army rebels in and near this capital city of nearly 11 million residents. At one point, air Northwest representative that there were eight dead.” Gibbons stressed that authorities were not ruling out further changes in the death toll. “This is probably going to go up or down all evening,” he said shortly after 7 p.m. The DC-9, Flight 1482 to Pitts burgh, was carrying 39 passengers and four crewmembers, according to the airline. The 727, Flight 299 to Memphis, was carrying 146 passen- gers. Both flights had originated in De troit, said Patrick McCann, a North west spokesman at its headquarters in Eagan, Minn. “Apparently the right wing of the 727 hit the aft section, the engine, of the DC9, taking the engine off,” said Alan Muncaster, another Northwest spokesman. “That resulted in the fire. That, at this point, is all we know.” At the time of the crash, visibility was poor and the ground was wet from a morning snow and sleet storm that delayed flights at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Muncaster said the airport had been closed to inbound traffic but that planes were being allowed to take off. See Rebels/Page 5 ‘Rekindle that spark of the ’60s’ Mobley: Education fundamental to space program By MIKE LUMAN Of The Battalion Staff The Texas Space Commission must become active rather than ana lytical in combatting the state’s edu cation crisis, Texas A&M President William Mobley said Monday. Speaking during the commission’s first meeting at A&M, Mobley said education on all levels is of “funda mental interest” to space programs. The commission’s goal is to ana lyze and foster space-related activ ities, which include addressing state education quality and shortages of math and science students. “The challenge is to return a sense of excitement to math and science,” Mobley said. “Rekindle that spark of the ’60s. “Competitive forces among state, cities and universities sometimes Bill Mobley ... says the Texas Space Commission should be active, not analytical. work against us,” Mobley continued. “This is one area we should get toge ther.” Commissioner Oran Nicks, direc tor of A&M’s Texas Engineering Ex periment Station, said the commis sion plans to meet about six times a year at various locations in the state. Nicks agreed state agencies should work together. He also said the purpose of differ ent meeting sites was to make con tacts. “A problem is lack of awareness,” Nicks said. “The education crisis is a long-term thing to fix.” Mobley said math and science cur riculum at all levels should be re vised to integrate related subjects and make the material more inter esting. He said he favors strengthening the teaching force by having “superstar professors” from major universities conduct teaching semi nars. “The space industry, and those in terested in a strong collaboration ef fort, should look for public schools to work with the big universities,” Mobley said. Sallie Sheppard, A&M associate provost for honors programs and undergraduate studies, also ad dressed the commission. She said A&M’s University Out reach Program, established more than three years ago, provides con tact with other universities and pub lic schools. program, officers in work with public Under the Texas cities schools. “We help encourage them to fin ish high school and go on to higher education,” Sheppard said. “It’s not a recruiting ploy.” Mobley credited University Out reach with helping minority students make it to college. A&M and the University of Texas also are part of a federal space grant program. Commissioner Emyre Robinson, president of Barrios Technology, said some of the money is used to fund scholarships. Robinson said some money for the commission’s operating costs comes from special interest organi zations, like Americans for Space Exploration. ASE proposed raising $50,000 a month for the commission through a detailed grocery coupon program. “I don’t think it will come to that much, but it recognizes the impor tance of grass roots organizations,” Robinson said. Silver Taps ceremony to honor two The solemn sound of buglers playing “Taps” and the sharp ring of gunfire will be heard on campus tonight as two Texas A&M students who died during the past month are hon ored in a Silver Taps ceremony at 10:30 in front of the Academic Build ing. The deceased students being hon ored are: • Gilbert Garcia, 32, a junior management major from Houston, who died Nov. 3. • David Erin Setzer, 20, a freshman business administration major from Naperville, Ill., who died Nov. 17. Dating back almost a century, the stately tra dition of Silver Taps is practiced the first Tuesday of each month from September through April, when necessary. Names of deceased students are posted at the base of the flag pole in front of the Aca demic 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 final tribute to fellow Ag gies. The Ross Volunteer Firing Squad begins the ceremony, marching in slow cadence toward the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Shortly after, three volleys are fired in a 21-gun salute and six buglers play a special arrange ment of “Taps” three times — to the north, south and west.
