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page 2
Tennis teams split
* A&M netters have busy day as
men whip LITER while women
fall to Tennessee.
page?
Voters’ Guide ‘91
mam-*
Battalion supplement
highlights candidates
for student elections.
The Battalion
90 No. 117 USPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas
'Serving Texas A&M since 1893'
Tuesday, March 26,1991
A&M implements minor in religious studies for Fall 1991
By Twila Waddy
The Battalion
Religious studies will be available as
an official minor for the first time this
fall in the College of Liberal Arts.
The Interdisciplinary Program in Re
ligious Studies will establish the minor,
me program consists of a review com
mittee of eight faculty members from
six different departments in the Col
lege of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Steven Oberhelman, coordinator
of the program said courses in religious
studies have been offered for several
years but now are more organized.
"What this minor does is give a for
mal and more cohesive framework by
which courses on the study list have
been previously offered and are
brought under one umbrella," he said.
"A student is exposed to many dif
ferent religions and also to various
methods by which one can study reli
gion."
Oberhelman said the minor is 18
hours and students must take courses
concerning world religions, including
classes in near- and far- eastern philos
ophy.
He said students will be exposed to
religion's philosophy, history and psy
chology.
"This program is meant to be a fo
rum for the faculty to present their re
search but also to attract students to
understand points and issues of reli
gious studies today," he said.
Dr. Bruce Dickson, an associate pro
fessor of anthropology, said there al
ways has been an interest in religion at
A&M.
"This is a study of religion and not
the teaching of religous doctrines, es-
ecially in the case of anthropology,"
e said.
Dickson will teach ANTH 403, primi
tive religion. This class, however, will
not prepare students to be priests or
ministers, he said.
"We do not teach the beliefs of one
system and say that is the answer,"
Dickson said. "We attempt to compare
cultures. When I teach primitive reli
gion, which means simpler religion, I
compare them."
A large number of students taking
religious studies are pre-theology stu
dents planning to pursue priesthood,
but other students might find the mi
nor a compliment to a technical major,
Dickson said.
Dickson has taught primitive reli
gion for 14 years. Because the Univer
sity is a public institution, however,
some restraints about what can be said
See A&M/Page 6
Chlorinated water invades creek
By Richard Tijerina
The Battalion
A half-mile section of Bee
Creek was polluted Monday
when heavily chlorinated wa
' ter was
drained into
it.
killing
dozens of
fish and risk
ing more en
vironmental
damage.
Workers
from a local company dumped
15,000 gallons of swimming
pool water from Peppertree
Apartments onto a street out
side the complex. The water
soon drained into the ditch.
Bee Creek feeds directly into
Carter Creek, which flows into
the Navasota River.
College Station firefighters
built dams to stop the flow of
contaminated water from
But dozens of sunf-
ish already were killed, and of-
fidals began working around
noon to remove them from the
water and banks.
George Mobley, owner of
Mobley Pool Co., said his
workers were told to drain the
water into the street by apart
ment managers.
However, his company will
be responsible for any nec
essary cleanup, said Joy Wat
son, a field investigator from
the Texas Water Commission.
College Station Utilities offi
cials took samples of the water
for analysis. Watson said the
TWC will wait until the results
are finished sometime today
before further decisions are
made.
A Texas Department of
Parks and Wildlife official said
the fish were not necessarily
killed by chlorine.
"Within this area, you've
got everything that can come
into this creek," Game War
den Mark Simmons said. "The
sample of
ditcl
MIKEC. MULVEY/The Battalion
Max Aileger, an A&M Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences graduate student,
searches Bee Creek for living fish Monday after 15,000 gallons of chlori
nated water from an apartment swimming pool spilled into the creek. Col
lege Station and Texas Water Commission officials examined the scene.
fact that water was introduced
that had a substance in it
might not be what killed the
fish. It may have been some
thing that they stirred up in
the bottom."
However, one water expert
who tested the water indepen
dently said the level of chlori
nation was "three times the
amount you'd find in a swim
ming pool."
Mark Smith, local business
owner and representative of
National Safety Associates,
conducted an orthotolidne test
—similar to the ones used to
test swimming pools — on a
water taken from
the ditch.
An OTO turns the water
sample into various shades of
yellow according to the level
of chlorine present.
Smith's business is on the
side of the ditch next to Pep
pertree Apartments, and he
owns the tract of land the
ditch is on, including half the
water. A sample he tested
from the ditch turned brown,
similar to the color of tea.
Smith said chlorine is not
poisonous in low dosages but
is lethal to fish. The surround
ing area of Bee Creek could be
damaged because of the pres
ence of a carcinogen called tri-
halamethane, he said.
Trihalamethanes form when
methane gases from decaying
objects such as fish bond with
chlorine.
"Those are had carcino
gens," Smith said. "If it was a
long-term situation, you could
have a lot of carcinogens con
stantly in this creek and end
up with strange-looking fish."
Smith's business sells water
filters which remove chlorine
from the municipal water sup
ply. He said he often checks
tor the presence of chlorine
with an OTO before and after
the filter is installed.
It was the second time in
two years the half-mile section
of Bee Creek has been jeopar
dized. A garden shop on the
other side of the ditch caught
fire in 1989, and pesticides and
fertilizers were washed into
the ground when the fire was
extinguished.
Smith said firefighters
stopped the flow when they
realized the hazardous chemi
cals were there.
However, a hard rain two
days later alarmed officials be
cause they were afraid chemi
cals might have seeped into
the ditch. But the water was
tested, and the samples
showed no chemicals were
present.
Budget woes
force summer
course cuts
Liberal arts, science colleges
close sections to save money
By Timm Doolen
The Battalion
Half of all liberal arts summer
courses and 30 percent of bi
ology and chemistry summer
courses have been closed indefi
nitely because of a major appro
priations cut.
Dr. Daniel Fallon, dean of the
College of Liberal Arts, said
Monday that the revenue cuts to
the liberal arts college — more
than $200,000 — have been dev
astating.
He said the only option the
college had was to cut summer
courses, which will make up
about $170,000 of the $200,000
the college needs.
The college's revenue returns
are part of a $3.2 million cut from
A&M's budget by the Legis
lature.
Dr. E. Dean Gage, provost and
vice president for academic af
fairs, said some class closings are
temporary, and he hopes some
of the sections will reopen in the
next few weeks.
Fallon said the courses have
not been "canceled," but rather
the enrollment limits on the
classes were set to zero. This al
lows administrators the freedom
to easily reinstate the classes on
the computer system.
If students try to register for a
course or section that has been
"zeroed," they will receive a
message from the computer that
the class is full. Registration for
summer courses began Monday.
BUDGET CRUNCH
The following is a partial list of courses
in which some or all of the sections have
been closed indefinitely for the first and/or
second summer session.
Administrators expect to reopen sec
tions and courses as funds become avail
able. Information about courses in the De
partments of Anthropology, English and
Modern Languages were not available:
EC0N 202,203, 311,323
HIST 105,106
JOUR 214, 273, 356
PHIL 111
POLS 206, 207, 331,442
PSYC 107, 315, 307, 351,345
SC0M 403
S0CI 205,315
THAR 200
Dr. John Fackler, dean of the
College of Science, said as many
as 30 percent of summer biology
and cnemistry sections probably
will be cut, while a much smaller
number of math and physics
courses would suffer.
He said the college has not de
cided yet which sections to cut,
so students can register for sec
tions that might be cut later.
Fackler said sections of lecture
classes will be combined, but he
is not sure how lab classes will
be handled.
Fallon said administrators at
the College of Liberal Arts made
the decisions of which sections
to cut with three main criteria in
mind:
□ They tried to not cut courses
which would affect graduating
See Budget/Page 6
« lol Mary Kay leader addresses
removed
S role of businesses, environment
Tlie (4
im Me^
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dWO0
on.
April 17,
: or yo 111
iorts
Sta*
By Julie Hedderatan
The Battalion
Businesses, not the government,
should take the lead in claiming re
sponsibility for the environment, the
CEO of Mary Kay Cosmetics told seve
ral Texas A&M marketing classes Mon
day.
Richard Bartlett, president and chief
operating officer at Mary Kay, said
companies must develop environmen
tal policies to respond to environmen
tal concerns.
"Mary Kay Cosmetics has a strong
corporate commitment to pre-emi
nence in environmentally sound poli
cies and practices," he said.
Some of the company's practices in
clude responsible packaging, solid
waste management and recycling, he
said.
Bartlett said he also wants to help
strengthen the market for recycling
and recycled goods, educate employ
ees, the sales force and consumers on
environmental responsibility, and help
other businesses make a positive dif
ference on the environment.
Mary Kay has an office recycling pro
gram whicn began in March 1989. It in
volves corporate recycling of office pa-
er and other materials, employees
ringing recyclables from home, and
recyclable and recycled product pack
aging.
Since the program began, 4.3 million
pounds of glass, aluminum, paper and
plastic have been collected. More than
$8,000 in proceeds were given to the
Texas Nature Conservancy, a program
that buys and conserves natural hab
itats.
Bartlett, vice chairman and a trustee
of the Nature Conservancy, said Mary
Kay also has placed solar panels on the
tops of its buddings and computer con
trols on heating, air conditioning and
lighting systems to conserve energy.
"As i put this program in, the first
year we saved over and above the
money we contributed to the Nature
Conservancy," he said. "We saved
$40,000 or $50,000 in recycling. By try
ing to do something good, something
for the ethical reasons of it, we benefi
ted."
Bartlett said one problem with recy-
clingds making a market for it. He said
there are not many plants for recycling
paper. It also is expensive to produce
recycled paper coated for four-color
use, he said.
Bartlett said 90 percent of all paper
purchased by Mary Kay for office use is
from recycled stock.
In June, Mary Kay introduced re
cycled paperboard packaging. Bartlett
said the company's orders of 2,229 tons
of recycled paper have saved 37,900
trees, 15.6 million gallons of water, 9.1
million kilowatt hours of electricity and
6,687 cubic yards of landfill space.
He said he wants to use the environ
ment as a strategic opportunity so con
sumers will see Mary Kay's commit
ment to safe environmental practices.
Bartlett said it is important that com
panies do not try to exploit consumers
with false environmental claims.
One example of misleading claims is
when a company recently labeled its
aerosol shaving cream packages as "o-
zone friendly" because they don't con
tain chlorofluorocarbons, he said.
CFCs, however, were banned in 1978.
DANCING WITH OSCAR
Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves 1 ’ was a
big winner at Monday night’s Academy
Awards. The motion picture won a total of
seven Oscars, including Best Motion Picture
and Best Director (Costner). For a rundown of
major awards, see page 9.