Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1991)
:h 22,1J ips osts $ worth | start at?i trough St trationci 9 a.m. t ^ the Coj - and h the Sean !r. ion, conti '67. Tuesday Cloudy High in mid-SOs E2 page 2 “Should the movement seek to make the sexes equal in a world created by men or should women refuse to conform to a world they were not allowed to help create?” — Tim Tmesdale $cf Spring cleaning, almost A&M baseball team just misses sweeping Arkansas for the first time since 1977. page? “Whether justice was done” Journalists from the alternative media urge Americans to doubt the reasons for fighting the war pages The Battalion Vol. 90 No. 116 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas 'Serving Texas A&M since 1893' Monday, March 25, 1991 tion dilate stii more pe minimiiD iigherEdu n g Boan ates to $14 la te tuition °r resident per credi minimuD Legislate it gradual sed to $| r than tin 2 time. Gov. Richards to address Spring 1991 graduates By Mike Luman The Battalion Gov. Ann Richards was confirmed as a spring commencement speaker during Friday's Texas A&M University System Board of Regents meeting. University President William Mob ley, who contacted Richards, said she is scheduled to speak during the 2 p.m. May 10 ceremony. State Comptroller John Sharp will speak during the 7:30 p.m. May 10 cer emony, he said. The May 11 com mencement speaker remains unde cided. In the first meeting for new regents Alison Leland and Mary Nan West, the Board approved a package of campus fee increases, including a graduate tu ition rate hike. Resident graduate tuition will rise to more than double the present rate of $20 per semester credit hour by 1993, the new rate depending on the mini mum amount set by the Texas Legis lature at the time. Non-resident graduate tuition will rise to more than $160 per credit hour by 1993. Regents also approved several cam pus construction projects, including a $1.3 million Easterwood Airport run way upgrade. The Board awarded the contract to Palasota Construction of Bryan. William McKenzie, during his last meeting as board chairman, said he ex pects the Federal Aviation Administra tion to pay all but 18 percent of the run way renovation. Regents considered and rejected three new plans for the proposed Lo- Trak project. McKenzie said he was not satisfied with any of the proposals. "We have agreed to give a substan tive amount of time and money to this project, but if I had to go with one of these proposals I would not," McKen zie said. The Board also accepted a $452,352 construction bid by the Bryan firm Young Brothers, Inc. for repairs to Houston and Throckmorton streets. Action was delayed on a west cam pus expansion of A&M's library facili ties. Under the delayed plan, a $9 million library building would be constructed near the new College of Business Ad ministration building. Regents approved preliminary de sign of the west campus College of Business building in January. In other business Friday, the Board approved the establishment of the In stitute for Marine Life Sciences at Texas A&M at Galveston. Mobley said the institute will bring together experts from the A&M system to study tne effects of industry on coastal waterways. The institute will promote conserva tion of endangered species such as Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, and study long-term results of farming of marine animals, he said. The Board also approved a licensing agreement between the System and TechSource Development Corp., a Houston-based company, to work to gether for commercial development of a potential AIDS therapeutic treat ment. Regents elect new chairman By Mike Luman The Battalion The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Fri day elected Ross Margraves Jr. Board chairman and Douglas DeCluitt vice chairman. Margraves, Class of '63, said his goal will be maintaining qual ity education at universities in the A&M system while battling Legislative budget shortfalls. "Things like administration and upkeep are important, but the students are our primary purpose for being here," Mar graves said. "The goal is to pro vide the best quality of education possible." Margraves' election, however, comes during a crisis in Texas higher education funding, as for mer state Sen. Kent Caperton made clear to the Board Friday. Caperton, now a lobbyist for higher education interests, said state universities face an imme diate $800 million budget short fall with the budget situation ex pected to worsen. "It's very sobering," Caperton said. "I don't see a solution ahead. I see a major train wreck." Caperton said A&M must find new ways to cut expenses to off set the "staggering" budget shortfall. He said A&M realistically might be able to trim only a frac tion of operating expenses paid by state funds. Margraves, a partner in the Houston law firm of Margraves, Kennedy and Schueler, P.C., said finances undoubtedly will dominate his attention as Board chairman. "A great deal of my time will be directed toward finding ways to increase finances of this Sys tem, sort of getting the most bang for your buck," Margraves said. Caperton's analysis of the fi nancial situation is accurate, and the key to surviving the financial crisis is for the Board not to make mistakes. Margraves said. "We need to see every dollar spent is spent wisely, and make sure we don't pay for anything twice," he said. Margraves said his intent is to formulate plans with A&M's re gents to get the most "mileage" out of University funds. "I think we just need to be smarter in decisions and money we spend," he said. "The Texas See Margraves/Page 4 Hutchison resists state tax proposal By Greg Mt. Joy The Battalion A proposed state income tax would take away an important advantage Texas has in attract ing corporations, said State Trea surer Kay Bailey Hutchison Fri day at Texas A&M. Hutchison spoke during a meeting of the College of Busi ness Administration Devel opment Council. She said the lack of a state income tax is one of the few advantages Texas has over other states. "When you ask a new busi ness why they moved to Texas, they will usually give you two reasons," she said. "One is the central location of our state, and the ability to get to either coast in the most efficient ways. Second is that there is no state income tax." Only six other states do not have a state income tax, Hutchi son said. If one was imple mented, Texas would lose eco nomic development, she said. "In fact, a study of the last eight states to adopt a tax shows that all but one have already in creased the tax in the last 10 years," she said. The lack of an income tax has helped businesses overlook See Treasurer/Page 4 Train collision leaves student hospitalized A Texas A&M student re mained in Humana Hospital in serious condition following a col lision with a Union Pacific train near the comer of Wellborn and Cain roads. Witnesses say Debbie Noel Wilks, 27, did not notice the northbound train that struck her ehevy b-JLU pickup about z a.m. Saturday. Wilks was heading east on Cain Road about one-half mile south of College Station. D. P. S. Officer Bobby Gideon said Wilks had a .02 blood alco hol level, the equivalent of one beer. Wilks was alone in the car. Land Commissioner connects environment, economic gain Environmentalists gather for first TOTEM conference By Mack Harrison The Battalion Environmental solutions are intertwined with economic im provement, the Texas Land Commissioner said Saturday in Texas A&M's Rudder Audi torium. In the keynote address to The Oklahoma and Texas En vironmental Meeting (TO TEM), Commissioner Garry Mauro said environmental concerns are changing the way economies operate, and re gional businesses and govern ment agencies must follow na tional trends. "This area of the country must get in on the beginning, using our initiative, resources, technology, brainpower and universities in ways that first change our economy and envi ronment and then create eco nomic growth and jobs for our states," Mauro said. "We ei ther do that or we will be left behind." Mauro gave the Mexican government's decision to close down the March 18 Refinery in Mexico City for public health reasons as an example of chan ging business practices. "Mexico's experience also proves it's better to act before the situation is out of control," he said. However, the environment and the economy do not have to be enemies. Helping the en vironment does not mean hurting the economy, he said. "That's no law of nature," Mauro said. "It's a product of failed vision." Environmental cleanup also can be a catalyst for tremen dous economic growth, he said. For example, converting from fossil fuels to natural gas not only reduces air pollution, it also benefits Texas' and Ok lahoma's economies, Mauro said. Texas has 27.5 percent of the nation's natural gas reserves and Oklahoma ranks second in reserves among the 48 con tinental states, he said. "A nationwide environmen tal cleanup emphasizing natu ral gas would mean hundreds of thousands of new jobs for our region," Mauro said. "Bil lions of dollars in annual See Mauro/Page 6 By Mack Harrison The Battalion Environmentalists from Brownsville to Bartlesville, Okla. converged on Texas A&M this weekend for The Oklahoma and Texas Envi ronmental Meeting (TOTEM). Students and speakers from Texas and Oklahoma met for the first time to share ideas from their respective commu nities. Participants attended activities that included workshops, speeches, con certs and fieldtrips. More than 130 people had registered for the conference by Friday evening, with more participants arriving the next day, said Mary Albert, TO TEM public relations chairwo man. "There's a lot of people coming into town just for Sa turday," Albert said. The Texas Environmental Action Coalition played host to the regional conference. Bryan-College Station resi dents also participated in TO TEM, she said. Sixteen local restaurants offered discounts to TOTEM participants, and local groups partipated in an ecofair Sunday. "We feel like the commu nities and A&M have given excellent support," Albert said. Scott Hantman, conference coordinator, said the confer ence was going "super." "Tm so happy everything's going as planned," he said. "We've got a good turnout." TOTEM also offered a unique activity Saturday morning. Marchers in the "Think Green" Silent Walk journeyed from Rudder Tower to the field between the O&M Building and the Langford Architechture Cen ter. The walk emphasized per- See TOTEM/Page 4