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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1991)
26,1991 es 'nts pray for right, m lot you mW lelman, rdinator Wednesday Cloudy High 85 Don’t buckle up because the law tells you to. I agree, It’s a govern mental intrusion into your private life. But do it anyway, because the damn things work.’ _ UrryCox page 2 Successful tune-up 12th-ranked A&M baseball team destroys TSU14-3,15-0 in non-conference twinbill. pages TOEJAM WONDER Musician overcomes handicap to become accomplished guitarist. pages The Battalion 90 No. 118 USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas 'Serving Texas A&M since 1893' Wednesday, March 27, 1991 =>3 ilrj '91 j e & price! 3T °n/y —1 3 at :enter. eck y other offer- 10 3 it Printed' Not good istomers. pon does a leaners Election allows students to decide future of cable TV issue By Karen Praslicka The Battalion Texas A&M residence hall students will vote today and Thursday on the hotly contested issue of whether to in stall cable in every dormitory room for a yearly student fee. The TCA Cable referendum pro poses a $20 charge per dorm room resi dent. The charge would be added to housing rent, and students would re ceive 34 basic cable channels. Cable service would be active all year, begin ning in the 1992-93 school year. If students vote in favor of the pro posal, Business Services and the Texas A&M University System Board of Re gents must approve the change. Residence Hall Association presi dent Kyle Jacobson said he recognizes both sides of the issue, and although the extra charge seems unnecessary, it benefits students wanting cable. Jacobson said students with cable might be paying for other students who are "stealing" cable by splicing into cable wires. He said students "stealing" cable services would not want to pay $20 so all students get a good rate. "It's a burden that people who don't have cable have to face," Jacobson said. However, some students said they have legitimate reasons for believing cable is an unnecessary expense. D'J Coughran, a senior resident of Keathley Hall, doesn't think it's fair for all residence hall students to subsidize cable. "I don't think cable is a necessary part of college life," Coughran said. Coughran said if students strongly favor cable, a better proposal can be made. She said an automatic payment from A&M to TCA Cable will lower the quality of service because the company won't see any reason to be compet itive. "I think if there's more pressure, the prices will go down," Coughran said. Freshmen and sophomore members of the Corps of Cadets are not allowed to have TVs in their rooms, so the $20 will be a wasted expense for them. "For anybody it's a waste," said Rob ert Grygar, a freshman in the Corps. "When do you have time to watch TV?" Other residence hall students said the proposal is fair and will benefit most students. Shelley O'Neal, a sophomore resi dent of Legett Hall, said students will get a better cable rate through the pro posal. She said even students who don't have their own televisions will See Students/Page 4 Ag leaves desert heat for warmth of family By Liz Tisch The Battalion After 15 months in the Saudi Arabian de sert, Maj. Robert Siegert, Class of '74, re turned home to College Station Tuesday eve ning to find waving nags, colorful signs and open arms from family and friends. Siegert, a former member of the Aggie Band, was operations officer for the 210th Field Artillery Brigade during the 100-day war with Iraq. The major, dressed in his Desert Storm fa tigues, said it was good to be home as he hugged his tearful 13-year-old daughter Jen nifer. Before her father's arrival, Jennifer said she was anxious to finally talk to him. "Communication with my dad was really hard," she said. "He did not receive a lot of the mail that I had sent him." Siegert, looking tired but happy, told the crowd he was not expecting this type of wel come home party. "To see all the yellow ribbons gave me a warm feeling insiae," he said. "All this sup port has made a big difference in the soldiers' morale." Siegerfs father, a retired colonel after 30 years of military service and a Vietnam vet eran, agreed. "When I fought in the Vietnam War, the soldiers did not feel much support from the nation," Siegert's father said. "The war I ex- See Loved/Page 7 Major Robert W. Siegert is greeted by his grand mother Lilian Clary, (right) Tuesday evening. His daughter, Jennifer Siegert, (below) looks down the street from her house in anticipation of his return. KEViN IVY/The battalion a State official evaluates cleanup of Bee Creek following contamination By Sean Frerking The Battalion Texas Water Commission field investigator Joy Watson will return to College Station in a few days to evaluate cleanup efforts at chlorine-con taminated Bee Creek. A half-mile section of the creek near Pepper Tree Apartments, 2701 Longmire Drive, was con taminated with chlorine Monday after 15,000 gal lons of pool water emptied by Mobley Pool Co. drained into the creek. Bee Creek flows directly into Carter Creek, which flows into the Navasota River. Watson, a field investigator in the Waco divi sion of the TWC, said Tuesday her office had re ceived test results from the creek and found "ele vated levels of chlorine" in the water. The higher-than-normal amounts of chlorine might have caused the death of fish in the area, but her department could not assess what killed the fish until further tests could be conducted, she said. Texas A&M scientists in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries are analyzing fish tissue to determine the exact cause of death, she said. "Right now, we don't know what it was," Wat son said. "It could have been a lot of things. But with the evidence we have, it (the cause of death) See TWC/Page 7 Official urges boycott of grapes Spokeswoman cites working conditions By Timm Doolen The Battalion Consumers should boycott grapes because of the damage pesticides inflict on farmworkers and their children, a leader of the United Farmworkers of America said Tuesday. Rebecca Flores Harrington, di rector of the Texas branch of the UFA, told several dozen stu dents in the MSC about her knowledge of the plight of fruit Workers in the United States. "Farmworkers lead a terrible life to bring food to your table," s he said. "Of all workers in the United States, fruit pickers are some of the lowest-paid workers with the worst working condi- tions." Rebecca Flores Harrington She said they make about $3,000 a year for about six months of work. Little or no field sanitation is provided for work ers, and no guarantees are given that pesticides will not harm workers. Harrington said many workers bring their children to pick fruit, which exposes them to danger ous pesticides such as Captan, Parathion, Phosdrin, Dinoseb and Methyl Bromide. She said companies told the workers the pesticides were safe — "if it is good for the plants it must be good for the workers too." But she said research into the pesticides has not resulted in discovering if the pesticides are safe or not. After giving a brief back ground of her organization's struggle against fruit companies in California, Texas and Florida, she showed a short film urging people to boycott grapes. The film depicts life in Califor nia for the grape pickers, includ ing several families whose chil dren had developed cancer, most likely due to pesticides. Harrington said all grapes should be boycotted, even if they are grown "organically." She said California law allows the use of synthetic chemicals on fruit that is labeled organic. Pesticides contaminate water, land and air, she said. She said it is more difficult in Texas than in California to iden tify how much pesticide is used because Texas companies do not have to report pesticide use to Austin. However, Texas does have a law that calls for companies to post signs near fields which have been sprayed recently. But the law is weak because it only applies to pesticides with a seven-day or more waiting pe riod before the fields are safe, she said. "We need to recognize we have a lot of strength in what we choose to buy," she said. Strawberries, peaches and other soft fruits also should be avoided, because the pesticides permeate the skin, she said. Fruits with thicker skins, like apples and oranges, keep pesti cides from penetrating the fruit. Cesar Chavez, a national fig ure in the fight against pesti cides, will be speaking April 17 in Rudder Auditorium. Summer sections closed The following is nearly a complete list of courses that have been closed indefinitely for the summer terms. Section numbers beginning with a "1" are first summer ses sion courses, and those beginning with a "2" are second sum mer session courses. Courses followed by an asterisk have all sections closed. ANTH 205.100 ECON 202.102,200 ECON203.100 ECON 311.100 ECON 323.102 ENGL 103.101-104, 201,202 ENGL 104.101-103,107,110, 111,113,114 ENGL 203.102,201,202,204 ENGL 210.100,200 4 ENGL 212.100 ENGL 221.100* ENGL 227.100* ENGL 228.101,202 ENGL 231.101,200 ENGL 301.101,102,106, 109,110,113-115,117 FREN 101.100 * FREN201.100* SPAN 101.101,102,103* SPAN 201.101,102,103* nisi 105.101,200 | HIST 106.100 HIST226.202 HIST’ 345.100 * HIST 368.100* HIST 402.150* JOUR 214.101 JOUR 273.100* POLS 206.101,201 POLS 207.101,201,202 POLS 331.100,200* POLS 442.100* PSYC107.102,103,202,203 PSYC 307.100 PSYC315.200 PSYC 345.100 * PSYC 351.100* PSYC 485.100,108,115, 120,124,131,133,136,144, 200,208,215,220,231 * SCOM 403.101-103,107, 110-113,203 SOCI205.103,104,201,204 SOCI304.100* SOCI315.100 THAR 110.200 ‘Jj