Tuesday
Partly Cloudy
High 85°
■rr
“Early registration for graduating se
niors would make life a little easier on
everyone.”
— Ellen Hobbs
page 2
Back on track
Texas A&M baseball team
sweeps twinbill from Rice to
climb back into SWC race
pages
Wolf Pen Creek
Architects’ designs and
engineers’ plans for
phase I of the College
Station project are
nearing completion.
pages
The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 131 USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas
'Serving Texas A&M since 1893'
Monday, April 15, 1991
State submits school funding plan
Here are important events in the
course of the school finance case:
July 13, 1984
- Gov. Mark
White signs
House Bill 72,
the education
reform mea
sure passed by
lawmakers in
special session
in an attempt
to equalize
school funding.
Oct. 2, 1989 - The Texas Su
preme Court unanimously de
clares the school finance system
unconstitutional and calls for law
makers to devise a new one.
Feb. 27, 1990 - Legislature be
gins meeting in special session to
address the court ruling. It is the
first of four special sessions.
June 7,1990 -
Gov. Bill Cle
ments signs
Senate Bill 1, a
reform mea
sure giving
schools an ad
ditional $528
million in state
money this
school year.
Jan. 22, 1991 -Texas Supreme
Court again rules the public school
funding system unconstitutional
and gives lawmakers until April 1
to come up with a new one.
March 26,
1991 - With the
Senate poised
to vote, Lt.
Gov. Bob Bul
lock releases
figures show
ing the com
promise bill
would cost
nearly $14 bil
lion
AUSTIN (AP) — The last time
the state faced Texas Judge F.
Scott McCown in court, he gave
officials a stern warning: This
time, they must reform the
school finance system so that all
children are treated equitably.
When the state returns to
court Monday, it will be with a
plan designed to do that by shift
ing hundreds of millions of dol
lars in local property tax revenue
from wealthier to poorer school
districts.
It's a new step, and a frighten
ing one for some Texans.
Some critics have called the
plan socialistic. But unless they
enjoy being the target of righ
teous anger, they don't do it
more than once in the hearing of
Senate Education Committee
Chairman Carl Parker, D-Port
Arthur.
"It just crawls all over me for
somebody to describe that as so
cialism," he said. "Socialism is
where the state owns the means
of production and tries to make
everybody equal in what they
have.
"What this does, it takes the
wealth of the state as a whole
and tries to give every citizen an
equal shot or opportunity to
have the same level of educa
tion."
The Texas Supreme Court has
twice, unanimously, ruled the
school finance system unconsti
tutional .
Roads close today
Several roads on Texas A&M's
campus will be closed indefi
nitely beginning today to allow
for repair and reconstruction
projects.
Houston Street was expected
to be closed from Joe Routt
Boulevard to the entrance to
Parking Area 48 (the new visitor
lot) earlier this morning.
Faculty and staff members as
signed to Parking Area (PA) 46
adjacent to the Read Building are
asked to use PA 48 until the first
phase of Houston Street recons
truction is completed. They
should access PA 48 from Hous
ton Street via George Bush
Drive.
When entering the parking
area, individuals holding PA 46
permits should take a visitor
ticket, which will be validated at
no cost when leaving.
Completion of the Houston
Street reconstruction is sched
uled to coincide with the com-
letion of the University Center
arking Garage, scheduled for
opening late this summer.
A companion project to the
Houston Street reconstruction is
the repair and reconstruction of
Throckmorton Street from Lewis
Street to George Bush Drive.
This section of Throckmorton
will be closed at various times
during the reconstruction pe
riod.
Southbound traffic on Throck
morton will be required to de
tour by way of Lewis and Bizzell
streets when "road closed" signs
are posted on Throckmorton.
Rainy weather proves no match
for annual Big Event volunteers
By Troy D. Hall
The Battalion
Rainy weather on Saturday
did not hamper Big Event, the
annual Texas A&M service pro
ject to repay the Bryan-College
Station communities for their
support of the University.
"Big Event is the students'
way to show the University's ap
preciation to the community,"
said Suzanne Greever, Big Event
romotions coordinator. "Big
vent makes individual organi
zations look good, while making
A&M look good."
She said this year's Big Event
was the largest in its nine-year
history.
The committee had not re
ceived final numbers, but
Greever estimated more than
1,000 people attended the kickoff
at Olsen Field where students
participated in an Aggie yell
ractice and the formation of a
uman American flag.
She estimated more than 3,000
people worked throughout the
community on 115 projects.
Many of the projects were
coordinated through the city
governments of Bryan and Col
lege Station.
Several A&M organizations
worked on demolishing and re
furbishing the exterior of 15
houses and storage sheds in the
east gate area of College Station.
Greever said the houses were
given a complete facelift, while
Corps of Cadets groups demo
lished a few abandoned storage
sheds in the targeted east gate
area.
The Horticulture Society spent
the day landscaping the Crest-
view Retirement Community,
while A&M sororities cleaned up
along several major Bryan-Col
lege Station streets.
Another group went to the
Still Creek Boys Ranch near Kur-
ten to paint buildings, build a
storage shed and clean the pool.
While weather was not a ma
jor factor in the project, there
were some temporary delays.
"A good percentage of the jobs
were completed Saturday,"
Greever said.
She said the few projects not
completed would be finished by
the weekend.
The Big Event Committee
thanked students and campus
organizations for the success of
the project.
"Everyone in the community
we talked to appreciated the
hard work," she said.
Chancellor
S ch warzkopf ?
Regent calls
reported offer
'speculation'
By Mike Luman
The Battalion
Operation Desert Storm Com
mander Gen. Norman Schwarz
kopf is considering an offer to
become chancellor of the Texas
A&M University System, the
Dallas Morning News reported
Saturday.
Ross Margraves, chairman of
the A&M Board of Regents, said
Sunday the report was specu
lation, but did not deny contact
ing Schwarzkopf about the posi
tion.
"We're conducting a search,
but we made it a policy not to
disclose people we are inter
viewing — whether it's John
Doe, Gen. Schwarzkopf or
whoever," Margraves said.
State Comptroller John Sharp,
an A&M graduate, said in a Sat
urday wire report that Univer
sity officials contacted Schwarz
kopf about the chancellor
We’re conducting a
search, but we made it
a policy not to disclose
people we are
interviewing... jy
— Regent Ross Margraves
position and both parties seem
interested.
Sharp also said he has heard
plans for an A&M representative
to travel to Europe and discuss
the job with Schwarzkopf.
Margraves said he did not
know where Sharp got the infor
mation. He called the report
speculation, and said Sharp has
no affiliation with the Board's
search committee.
"Until those we are consid
ering for the position elect to dis
cuss it themselves, we have
asked the Board to keep all infor
mation confidential," Margraves
said.
Sharp said he believes
Schwarzkopf will be attracted to
the job because of A&M's strong
military tradition.
"From Schwarzkopf's point of
view, I am sure the military part
of A&M is something that is ap
pealing to him," Sharp said in
the wire story. "It produces the
largest amount of military offi
cers of any school in the nation
outside the military academies."
Schwarzkopf, 56, recently an
nounced his plans to retire from
the Army within a few months.
He is expected to return to
Tampa, Fla. in a month.
A 32-year Army veteran,
Schwarzkopf is a graduate of the
U.S. Military Academy in West
If reports are
true and
Schwarzkopf
accepts the job,
he will replace
Interim Chan
cellor Ed Hiler.
H i 1e r has
held the chan
cellor position
since December
Gen. Norman when former
Schwarzkopf is chancellor
said to be consid- Perry Adkisson
ering an offer to resigned,
become System The position
chancellor. pays $63,036 a
year, and usually is supple
mented by private income
sources.
Chancellors also receive a
house in the Bryan-College Sta
tion area with utilities paid.
Point, N.Y.
Top stories from Friday's Battalion
Editor's Note: Because of Fri
day's power outage on campus.
The Battalion ran only a limited
number of papers. The follow
ing is a summary of Friday's ma
jor local stories for readers who
might have missed them:
□ Texas A&M head football
coach R.C. Slocum restructured
the 12th Man Kickoff Team, de
ciding to use only one player to
represent the student body,
rather than fielding an entirely
non-scholarship kickoff team.
Q Three A&M faculty mem
bers testified before the Com
mittee for a Discrimination-Free
Campus on Thursday, saying
they approve of President Mob
ley's decision to remove sexual
preference from the University's
anti-harassment and discrimina
tion policies.
0 An A&M student worker
quit her job in the Department
of Physics after she was forced
to choose between selling re
view materials, and grading pa
pers and calling roll in the same
class.
0 Three trade officials from
the United States, Mexico and
Canada said President Bush
must get permission from Con
gress to freely negotiate a trilate
ral trade agreement or the
agreement will fall through. The
three men were in town for the
MSC Wiley Lecture Series.
Circuit fault causes interruption in campus power
By Bridget Harrow
The Battalion
Electrical power to most of Texas
A&M's main campus went out Friday
when a fault occurred in a major circuit
supplied from the University's utilities
plant.
The power outage occurred at about
7 a.m. when a circuit breaker did not
operate properly, causing the backup
main bus-duct and generator breakers
to open, said a statement released by
A&M's Office of Public Information.
Dick Williams, associate director for
maintenance and modifications at
A&M's Physical Plant, said in the
statement that all generation sources
from the Utilities Plant were shut
down.
There also was a momentaiy loss of
power from Brazos Electric, which was
restored after a few minutes, he said.
Brazos Electric supplies supplemen
tal power to the main campus but has a
capacity to serve only a portion of the
main campus, Williams said.
Some classes and scheduled tests
were cancelled as a result of the black
out. Power was restored to many cam
pus buildings by 2 p.m.
Williams said other buildings near
the original power fault were brought
back on line by 3:30 p.m. when the
damaged circuit connection was re
paired.
Some buildings, such as Zachry En
gineering Center, were unaffected be
cause they have individual auxiliary
power generators.
A&M's phone registration system,
however, was completely shut off be
cause of the power outage. Assistant
Registrar Willis Ritchey said.
Friday was supposed to be phone
registration for sophomores with last
names beginning with H through O.
"Phone registration lines were work
ing at 6 a.m. and were available for 55
minutes," Ritchey said.
Phone registration was extended un
til midnight Friday and opened up Sat
urday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accom
modate students who were unable to
register during the power outage.
Williams said the Texas A&M Uni
versity System Board of Regents ap
propriated $4 million for the purchase
of two powerful transformers to im
prove power reliability to the main
campus. The transformers should be in
place within 18 months.