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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1991)
mi Texas A&MW 1 ^ m * 1# The Battalion Vol. 90 No. 105 GSPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Friday, March 1,1991 Local bank fails First American buys United Citizen Bank 5y J*ym Battalion Texas A&M students and local residents that normally do their banking at United Citizens Bank will find themselves customers of First American Bank today. United Citizens Bank was de- dared insolvent Thursday and ac quired at 4 p.m. by First American Bank from the Federal Deposit In surance Corporation. Don Adam, chairman of the board of First American, said he was pleased to be able to work with United Citizens' former customers. First American also has acquired several other failed banks in the local area over the past several years. “We think we’ve done an excellent job of providing banking services to former First Bank and Trust cus tomers and University National Bank customers,” Adam said. “We want to make certain it is clear the United Citizens locations will reopen tomorrow uninterrupted.” He said all operations will be man-. aged by First American Bank and all United Citizens checks written will be honored until they are changed over to First American. Other financial institutions placed bids with the FDIC for United Citi zens, he said. Despite the acquisition of three failed financial institutions since 1989, Adam said First American Bank is not losing its solvency. “We have grown in net deposits since February 1989 in excess of $60 million,” he said. “Obviously the people of Bryan-College Station ap preciate the services to customers (of failed banks).” John Willingham, president of First American Bank, said opera tions will be business as usual. “One thing we’re trying to do is minimize the effect this has on the customers,” Willingham said. He said the bank also was trying to keep the insolvency from affecting United Citizens employees. Most of the employees will keep their jobs under the new management. Adams also announced plans for First American to break ground for anew location at the intersection of FREDRICK D. JOEThe Battalion Don A. Adam, chairman of the board of First American Bank, speaks to reporters concerning Thursday’s First American take over of United Citizens Bank. John Willingham, president of First American, also spoke to reporters. The press conference was held in Adam’s third floor office in the First American Bank Building on Briarcrest. Farm-to-Market Road 2818 and service bank,” Adams said. Texas Avenue. He said it will be the premier “The engineering and architectu- banking location in College Station ral design is currently underway for because of the future extention of the erection at that location of a full FM 2818 to the Highway 6 bypass. Symposium promotes science By Greg Mt. Joy The Battalion Several Texas A&M scientists hope the fourth annual Science, Technology and Youth Symposium Saturday can help prevent a short age of scientists predicted by the year 2000. Dr. Bob James, a professor of sci ence education and director of the symposium, says this year’s event will bring about 1,400 high school teach ers and students to A&M to experi ence the latest advancements in sci ence and engineering. The symposium, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Rudder Tower, is sponsored Dy the Texas Alliance ana the col leges of Agriculture and Life Sci ences, Education, Engineering, Geo sciences, Medicine, Science and Veterinary Medicine. “The symposium has been effecti vely allowing students and teachers to interface with scientists and engi neers,” James says. “The students certainly leave feeling positive and excited about science and engi neering, as well as A&M. “We think we can avoid the pre dicted shortage of scientists if we do our best to get more people to con sider careers in science,” he says. About 40 science presentations in the morning and a series of workshops and tours in the af ternoon will highlight the day’s events. Presentations range from veteri nary anatomy professor Dr. Bill Klemm’s display of computerized techniques for mapping brain waves, to the Chairman of the Texas Space Grant Consortium Oran Nicks’ ses sion on the opportunities for careers in space. “We have some marvelous tours to follow the presentations,” James says. “Some examples are Jorge Martinez’ tour of the University’s windtunnel and Bill Ward’s orienta tion to the College of Medicine.” James says attendance has in creased by more than 50 percent from the previous symposium and this year’s event is full. No on-site registration will be available. “Recent advances in science, from the bedroom to the kitchen to the A n A ll-Night Affair MSC event offers games, contests Saturday By Jay The ayme Blaschke e Battalion Although the All-Night Fair will not actually last all night Saturday, Texas A&M students still can have fun with dozens of games and contests in the MSC.. Committee chairman Robert Graham, a senior pre- med major from Brownsville, says All-Night Fair — from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday — serves many pur poses. Some people look at it as a fund-raising activity for different campus organizations, while others see it as a form of cheap entertainment, he says. No matter how a person views it, All-Night Fair of fers something for everyone, Graham says. “This is a small carnival,” he says. “There are no rides, but there are lots of games. It makes for a cheap date.” More than 60 organizations are taking part in this year’s fair. Graham says there is much more interest in the event this year than last year. He says because of construction, All-Night Fair was in Duncan Dining Hall last year, and the move hurt the annual event’s attendence. “A lot of people thought that because it was held in Duncan last year, it was strictly a Corps event,” he says. “Also, many students didn’t know where Duncan even is, where the MSC is much more accessible.” Denis Koch, adviser for All-Night Fair, says plan ning for the event is going better than expected. “Everything is moving along right on schedule,” Koch says. “In fact, it’s moving so smoothly that we’re starting to get worried that we’re leaving something out.” He says this year’s All-Night Fair will be successful. “This is a great group of officers running things this year,” he says. “They have taken care of every thing and kept the group’s morale high. MSC All Night Fail “All-Night Fair is probably one of the hardest com mittees to work on because they have only one event all year,” Koch says. “Focusing that much can burn people out.” Graham says a wide variety of events will keep the more than 4,000 expected attendees entertained. “There are going to be groups selling cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones,” Graham says. “Recreation is holding a giant twister game, and some members of the Corps are going to be putting people in jail.” Stacy Feducia, a sophomore English major from Shreveport, La., says the MSC Literary Arts program is holding a date auction. “We are going to auction off a number of campus celebrities to go out on a date,” she says. “We have some football players, Reveille and a lot of others. “Fajita Rita’s, Cenari’s, and many more restau- raunts have donated free dinners for the dates,” she says. “That’s one of the incentives for bidding on a da te.” Lee Snaples, chairman of MSC NOVA, says his committee is sponsoring a “cat toss.” “We have a hole in a wall where people throw stuffed cats,” Snaples said. “If they throw it through the hole, everyone hears blender sounds and other gross stuff. “It was popular last year,” he says. Official recommends mulching workplace, have caused a renewed interest in science,” he says. “People realize they need the knowledge to understand and make use of these advances.” James says there also is a great deal of pressure on educators to mo tivate students to do their best in math and science. “We realize the citizen of the fu ture will have to make decisions in the voting booth deciding the future of our science and technology,” he says. “We need to make certain they all make informed decisions, and we believe the symposium goes a long way toward pointing students in the right direction.” James says the symposium has drawn students from as far as Dallas and San Antonio. “We actually had to turn groups away this year, the response was so great,” James says. “We definitely will have to enlarge the program next year.” James says the Texas Alliance has been trying to encourage other uni versities to sponsor programs and expansion could begin next fall. By Mack Harrison The Battalion Bryan-College Station residents can immediately cut down on the amount of solid waste they produce by recycling grass clippings, a Bryan city official says. Ed Ilschner, director of public works for the city of Bryan, says homeowners should mulch their lawn clippings — return them to the yard as fertilizer — instead of bag ging them for pickup by the city. “The greatest contribution within our grasp is in yard waste,” he says. Ilschner says people often over look the consequences of bagging grass clippings. He says yard waste uses 30 to 45 percent of all landfill space. Recycling lawn clippings saves money as well as space, Ilschner says. Cities do not have to pay as much in landfill dumping fees if yard waste is recycled. Bryan-College Station officials created the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency in May to consolidate trash pickup for the two cities. The Rock Prarie Road landfill, in use since 1981, and the unopened Pleasant Hills Road landfill each should last another 10 years, Ilschner says. Recylin^ will help extend the landfills’ lives. For example, if resi dents reduce solid waste generation by 25 percent, it will add five years of use to BVSWMA landfills, he says. Mulching also directly benefits the yard. Ilschner says nutrients go to the tips of grass blades. When the grass is cut and falls to the ground, the nutrients go back into the yard. Ilschner says he practices what he preaches. He did not bag his dip pings last year. “My yard looked better than any in the neighborhood,” he says. “I don’t plan to bag this year.” B-CS officials started the “Don’t Bag It” campaign last year to edu cate residents about the conse quences of dumping yard waste. The program, however, was not a huge success. Ilschner says about 40 households, including his, partici pated in the project. Ilschner says “Don’t Bag It” did not get the support it needed. He says one problem was the equipment requirement. Mulching requires either special mowers or adaptors for regular mowers. Local hardware stores did not carry much of the special equip ment, Ilschner says. Residents also were unaware of the extra effort involved, he says. Mulching requires mowing every four to five days, rather than once a week, so grass clippings are small enough to decay into fertilizer. Ilschner says one way to decrease yard waste is for customers to change the policies of lawn service companies. Customers should re quest yard workers to mulch the clip pings instead of bag them, he says. Inside 2 Truesdale /| What’s column up ^Cartoons ^ dp Focus 1991 Lady Aggie softball preview page Education finance plan shifts local property tax dollars from rich to poor House approves ‘Robin Hood’ reform bill From Staff and Wire Reports The Texas House approved an education finance plan Thursday that would shift local property tax money from wealthier to poorer school districts to meet a state Su preme Court order for reform. The bill was approved on a 103-35 vote after 4'A hours of debate. i State Rep. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, voted against the bill. “The bill that was passed today is unconstitutional and fiscally irre sponsible,” Ogden said in a phone | interview Thursday. The house bill likely is headed for I a conference committee to work out i differences with a similar “Robin Hood” measure passed by the Sen ate, legislative leaders said. “This is probably as good a bill as you could get out of the legislative process,” House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, said. House Public Education Commit tee Chairwoman Ernestine Glos- sbrenner has objected to the term “Robin Hood,” calling her bill the “family plan” because it shares local wealth to benefit all the state’s school children. However, Ogden said the new ed ucational reform bill does not ad dress the Supreme Court’s orders for a balanced tax base for public ed ucation. “We need to tax property in Texas at substantially similiar rates if we’re going to use property taxes to fund public education,” Ogden said. “This bill does not require that.” The present system includes wide swings in education funding among school districts because of disparities in property wealth. Lewis and Glossbrenner said they expect the Legislature to meet the Supreme Court’s April 1 deadline to pass a reform plan. The court threatened to halt state education spending if the deadline is not met. Justices unanimously ruled that the present $14 billion-a-year school finance system, which relies on state aid, local property taxes and some federal money, is unconstitutional. The bill sponsored by Glossbren ner would address funding dispari ties by creating about 200 education taxing regions, drawn largely along county lines. Some local tax money would be redistributed among school districts within those regions. Ogden said the new bill would have little impact on school districts in Brazos County. He said if the bill was signed into law in its present form, the College Station Independent School District would lose a small amount of funds, while Bryan Independent School District would be granted a small in- The bill would set a minimum lo cal property tax rate of 60 cents per $100 valuation, climbing to 80 cents in four years. Every school district would be guaranteed about $3,400 per student at the minimum rate. RICHARD S. JAMES/The Battalion Sign of the times Ed Rochen, a freshman political science major, tears down a peace sign from the Sul Ross statue Thursday as Hugh Stearns looks on. Stearns, who was speaking at a peace rally, put the sign up earlier after a University Police officer took down the first one.