Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1991)
Tlir^'D _ 12 _ „ 1 tie Jtsattalion Vol. 90 No. 98 GSPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, February 20,1991 Bush rejects Soviet proposal cow’s proposal to end the war, Bush declared it was inadequate. “There are no negotiations. The goals have been set out,” Bush said at a picture-taking session with the congressional leaders. “There will be no concessions.” Bush sent a cable Monday night to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorba chev specifying U.S. objections to his proposal. “I’ve been frank with him on this.” The president said Gorbachev had asked that details of the plan be kept secret, and Bush pledged not to divulge the contents. Gorbachev had given the plan to Iraqi Foreign Min ister Tariq Aziz on Monday and re quested a speedy reply. MIKE C. MULVEY/The Battalion Hay, man A little bit of humor is rolled up in this 500 pound bale of hay real but are sure to get second looks from the motorists travel- just south of College Station on Highway 6. The legs are not ing on the highway. WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Bush on Tuesday dismissed a Soviet proposal for ending the war in the Persian Gulf as “well short of what would be required.” The Penta gon declared its readiness to fight a ground war against Iraq and pre dicted victory “in short order.” Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told Congress that any pause in the war would allow Saddam Hussein to regroup his army, which has been weakened by relentless air strikes. “A cease-fire, a pause of some kind, would in fact be veij dangerous from the standpoint of U.S. and al lied forces,” Cheney said. Washington was abuzz with specu lation that a ground war was immi nent. “The general expectation is it’s not far off,” Sen. Claiborne Pell, D- R.I., said as he left a White House meeting between Bush and congres sional leaders. The president was quoted by his spokesman as telling the lawmakers, “I obviously cannot say exactly when a ground operation might com mence. What I can say is, our prepa rations are on schedule.” The Pentagon played the same tune. “We are ready now (for a ground war) if the leadership de cides that’s what they want to do,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly, director of operations for the Toint Chiefs of Staff™ Of the Iraqi forces, Kelly said: “They will be defeated in short or der if we initiate a ground cam paign.” Marlin Fitzwater, the White House press secretary, said, “We’re assuming that the war will have to be prosecuted to the end. We are mov ing along that course. ... That’s where the planning is taking us.” The administration stepped back from its announced willingness to help rebuild Iraq after the war. “We are not about to pay to rebuild Iraq,” Bush told the lawmakers. “It’s a rich country, if they’d just use their re sources Wisely,” Bush said, according to one participant. After a day of silence about Mos- Red Cross relays family emergency news to Gulf By Bridget Harrow The Battalion The American Red Cross provides a 24-hour communication service that allows military per sonnel in the Persian Gulf to receive emergency messages from family members in the United States. “The Red Cross is designated by the military as the one mean of emergency communication be tween family members and persons in the milita ry,” says Bill Thomas, director of the American Red Cross for Brazos County. Family members are permitted to send only emergency messages of birth, death or critical ill ness because of the volume of messages. Thomas says since Jan. 16, the American Red Cross has relayed one message every 26 seconds. “Out of this chapter, we are running about 40 to 50 messages a month, which is one to three calls a day,” he says. Thomas says the Brazos County chapter also handles case work for surrounding counties, such as Grimes or Madison, which do not have American Red Cross chapters. Thomas says messages are relayed to national headquarters in Washington, D.C., which has an immediate link to an overseas location. “We aim for a 24-hour turnaround respond time on the messages we send,” he says. Thomas says the Red Cross sent a message Monday to a serviceman in Saudi Arabia telling him he became a father. The local chapter re ceived a call Tuesday morning that the message had been relayed. See Messages/Page 6 Coalition forms A&M System officials present plan to solve education woes By Jay me Blaschke The Battalion Twelve Texas A&M University System officials are in Washing ton, D.C., today to announce the creation of a mathematics, science and engineering coalition between the System’s universities. Texas A&M University System Board of Regents Chairman Wil liam McKenzie, Interim Chan cellor Edward Hiler and Dean of the College of Engineering Her bert Richardson head the group presenting the education plan. President and Mrs. Bush, as well as Texas’ congressional represen tatives, have been invited to at tend. The coalition is to serve as a na tional model to increase the num ber of degrees earned by minori ties and women. McKenzie said in a University press release that the coalition’s main goals will be to solve the country’s education problems. Without improved education, the nation’s economic future is uncer tain, he said. A&M’s “Commitment to Educa tion” program created by Univer sity President William Mobley last year will be a main component of the coalition. A&M’s designation as the leader in a statewide effort for $10 mil lion for programs to reform sci ence education at all levels also will play a role. All eight universities of the A&M System — which have a com bined enrollment of more than 71,000 students — will take part in the coalition. The universities will receive funding expected to exceed $50 million to operate seven different programs to attain the coalition goals. Hiler said the unique makeup of of the System lends itself to such a program. Prarie View A&M has Texas’ largest percentage of black stu dents and is a national leader in producing black engineers. Laredo State has the largest per centage of Hispanic students in the state, while the main campus produces more Hispanic engi neers than any other university in the nation. Hiler said these factors make the A&M System an ideal model to improve national education. Study says caffeine jolts folks differently By Mack Harrison The Battalion College students consume caf feine and sugar for the rush they provide, but the compounds might not give everyone the same jolt, says a Texas A&M psychology professor. Dr. Larry Christensen, author of “The Food-Mood Connection: Eat ing Your Way to Happiness,” says even though people believe caffeine and sugar act as stimulants, the sub stances might actually cause depres sion in some people. “It was really a fortuitous find ing,” he says. For the past 10 years, Christensen has been observing the effects of diet on behavior. In a study of refined carbohy drates, Christensen did not get re sults in test subjects like he desired. In a “shotgun diet” that elimi nated sugar, caffeine and other sub stances, the subjects in the study did not show signs of depression. When a participant who worked as a waitress told Christensen she felt jittery when drinking coffee at work, he knew he was on to something. “I gave her a cup of coffee and by the time our conversation was over, she was showing signs (of nervous ness),” he says. Christensen then began focusing on caffeine and sugar as causes of depression. KEVIN IVY/The Battalion Christensen says symptoms of de pression can include mood fluctua tions, constant tiredness and head aches. He says caffeine or sugar might be the cause of these problems in some people, but not everyone who suf fers from these ailments is sensitive to caffeine or sugar. Christensen uses a psychological inventory to test people who might be sensitive to the substances. The easiest way to control the symptoms is to avoid caffeine and See Caffeine/Page 6 Campus projects urge recycling Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part series in The Battalion on recycling and its increasing impor tance on our future. Today’s focus is on the University and the students’ efforts to recycle. By Greg Mt. Joy The Battalion Recycling on the Texas A&M campus still is in its initial stages, de spite far-reaching plans for the fu ture. Joe Sugg, director of the A&M Physical Plant, says support for the plant’s white office paper recycling program has been overwhelming. “We’ve taken these first steps very slowly to make sure we don’t make any catastrophic errors that could cost a lot of money,” Sugg says. “Working everything out in advance has really helped us. You can’t just start up at Mach 2.” Efforts by the Environmental Is sues Committee of Student Govern ment have been equally successful. Collection of alumminum cans be gan Feb. 9 and plans for expansion are being finalized. “This is the initial stage,” says Amy Todd, co-director of the com mittee. “We have many more out- reaching goals, things we have never tried before. It all depends on the response of the students.” Todd says efforts by A&M stu dents will determine recycling’s rate of expansion. R-ecyc/zV?# a three-part series M Recycling at A&M □ Recycling in B/CS □ Why we recycle “If students are totally psyched, we can grow quickly,” she says. “If they are not willing to give the ef fort, we can’t do anything without them.” Todd says the committee has 100 aluminum can receptacles spon sored by about 20 organizations laced around campus. She says, owever, the receptacles are only in about 0.1 percent of the planned campus locations. “We are currently operating in Blocker, the Corps of Cadets dorms, and a few other buildings,” Todd says. “Our ultimate goal is to have sponsored receptacles in every building on campus.” The Environmental Issues Com mittee is pursuing more sponsors. Organizations wishing to sponsor a receptacle can call Student Govern ment at 845-3051. David Wieland, a Student Gov ernment vice president, says most organizations do not realize the amount of money they could gener ate by sponsoring a receptacle. Wieland says recycling’s benefits also could be a great supplement to an organization’s funding. Todd says she estimates that the initial $5 fee could be raised or even surpassed within a week. “The fee is only a token to show commitment on the part of the orga nization,” she says. “The money goes directly back into the program. Since we’ve never done this before, we really don’t know how much money can be made. “I assume the sponsors would call us if the receptacles weren’t being filled up,” she says. “We have not had a single complaint yet.” Todd says efforts have been made to notify all University-recognized organizations of the recycling effort. She says she hopes eventually each of the almost 200 organizations will sponsor receptacles. Both Student Government and the Physical Plant have more pro grams planned. Sugg says the Physical Plant’s white office paper collection was a three-month pilot program. He says the six buildings in the program have collected about 31,500 pounds of paper, even though some of the buildings only participated in the program for three weeks. “The pilot is officially over,” Sugg says. “We have already expanded to 21 buildings, and we are continuing to expand almost daily. Our goal is to make the program University-wi de.” Sugg says he is unsure how much money has been made through recy cling, but the program was not in tended to be a huge money-maker. “Our first goal is to preserve re sources,” he says. “Our second goal is to save the landfill, which the 15 tons of paper we collected in the pi lot certainly did. Money is only our third goal, and we really only plan on just breaking even.” Initial response has been great, and the program should be able to pay for itself, Suggs says. The reason for the program’s success is the cus todial service’s involvement in pick ing up the paper, he says. “People only have to sort the pa per at their desk, and their part is through,” he says. “Custodial serv ices does the rest.” Sugg says, however, there are more ways to save resources than by just collecting them. “You save them by using recycled materials,” he says. “That is some thing we are pushing very strongly. “Recycled paper can be bought at the Printing Shop,” Sugg says. “It doesn’t cost any more than regular paper. All it takes is the initiative to demand the recycled paper.” Sugg says pilot programs pres ently are underway to recycle both transmission oil and plastic bottles from cleaning supplies. KARL STOLLEIS/The Battalion Custodial worker Johnnie Delley empties one of the white paper recycling bins in Evans Library. “The oil program has been 100 percent effective, since we change the oil for every one of the 600 vehi cles the University runs,” Sugg says. The bottle program also has worked well because suppliers sim ply pick up empty bottles when new ones are delivered. Sugg says plans also are in the See Recycle/Page 6 Inside 2 column /I What's 'the itch' Up 5 Cartoons w Wudel Police / column Beat Weather Outlook Thurs Fri Sat Cloudy Partly Cloudy Focus Aggie baseballers win again A&M blanks Westmont 8-0 Tuesday in Olsen Field. n£|P6