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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1991)
April 15, rs fices, especiait areas, will sta te to allow mo- ff returns cars. send volunteers of the Mi o fill out simple r advice on d returns. Any- \geles basin wl nine the closes: until midnigli: al number. “I’m sure a good time was had by all and, amidst the growling, chirping, howling and slurping — an Eeo- warriorwas born.” — Larry Cox page 2 Clean Sweep A&M beats Rice to complete series sweep and move into a tie for 4th place in the SWC pages EDITORS NAMED Editors named for Bat talion, Aggieland and Aggievision staffs pages The Battalion /32- Vol. 90 No.,135"USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas 'Serving Texas A&M since 1893' Tuesday, April 16,1991 illil! College Republicans protest use of fees for Forum speaker By Timm Doolen The Battalion One Texas A&M student organiza tion is protesting the use of student services fees to bring nationally known liberal activist Cesar Chavez to the Uni versity on Wednesday night. Scot Kibbe, former chairman of the A&M College Republicans, said Mon day if student services fees are to be used, then the groups bringing the speakers should give equal opportu nity to all sides of the issue. Chavez's speech is sponsored by MSC Political Forum, Great Issues and the Committee for the Awareness of Mexican-American Culture (CAMAC). Chavez will speak at 7 p.m. Wednes day in Rudder Auditorium. Kibbe and MSC representatives meet today to determine if the College Re publicans will be allowed to have a ta ble outside Chavez's speech to present an opposing point of view. Chavez gained national recognition for his years of struggle to unionize and secure better working conditions for farm workers. Rob Fowler, MSC executive vice president for programs, said the MSC strives to bring an overall balance of programming throughout the year. Kibbe said another problem with Chavez's speech is that the $5,000 fee used to bring him to campus is going to the United Farm Workers, a union con sisting mostly of migrant farm work ers. Delia Munoz, chairwoman of CAMAC, said the UFW is Chavez's agent, and it is not unusual for money to go to the agent of a speaker. Kibbe said he would not be upset if there was a balance of speakers or if student services fees were not used. "We're not against Chavez coming to campus," Kibbe said. "The problem is if they're going to pay this kind of money, there should be a balance." Fowler said students and faculty have reacted positively to the program, which is intended to be educational, not political. Kibbe said he wants the MSC to make an honest commitment to bring in other speakers of varying political background. .D/Rec Sports setomorrm op in at ny questions at 845-71 [ remains a e weekenc J Outdoors- &M) and is rdomofthis jresent $75 ($82 for amentalso ;. The class instructors- rescue Marcos River ter. The $6(1 isportatioii, s and expe- 12. Signup Governor signs bill into law Court would consider challenges, judge says Monkeyin’ around Tyewanika Davis, Ginger Shugart, Monica Loza and Leslie Killough, fourth graders at South Knoll Elementary School, play on the monkey JAY JANNER/The Battalion bars during recess Monday. Monday’s signing of the school finance bill allows for the continuation of scheduled state aid payments to schools. AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Ann Richards signed the $1.3 billion school finance bill into law Mon day, about 20 minutes before the court hearing began. State Dis trict Judge F. Scott McCown said he got copies with "the ink hardly yet ary." Lawmakers have battled over the reform plan since late Jan uary, and they missed the Su preme Court's April 1 deadline for action. McCown said Monday he will presume Texas' new school fi nance law is constitutional, al lowing state education aid pay ments to go out as scheduled later this month. However, he emphasized that the court keeps its jurisdiction over the issue. He said any chal lenges to the school finance law would be considered, even if they are not filed for several years. "Should the Legislature some how depart from Senate Bill 351 (the reform measure), or should it not be funded, or should expe rience show two or three years from now that it hasn't worked, the court continues to retain ju risdiction to make its judgment effective," McCown said. The law, designed to meet a Texas Supreme Court order to even out funding to school dis tricts, would shift hundreds of millions of dollars in local prop erty tax revenue from wealthier to poorer school districts. It would cause an estimated $400 million increase in local roperty taxes and cost the state 1.3 billion over the next two years. Rich and poor school districts said they are studying the mea sure to decide wnether to op pose it in court. McCown said he would quickly set a hearing if a challenge is filed. Lawyer Al Kauffman of the Mexican-American Legal De fense and Educational Fund, representing poor school dis tricts, said there were problems See Richards/Page 4 Expert says reform bill fails to instruct schools on spending of funds By Jayme Blashke The Battalion One Texas A&M business professor said he believes the new school reform bill signed by Gov. Ann Richards today does Tittle to improve the overall qual ity of education in Texas. "The new plan definitely helps some districts at the lower end of the spec trum — those that are so poor that any thing would improve their situation," Dr. Jared Hazleton said, "Unfortuna tely, this bill doesn't tell districts how to spend money. More money alone won't solve the problem. That money must be wisely spent." Hazleton, an expert on public school financing and director of A&M's Cen ter for Business and Economic Analy sis, said Texas still faces major prob lems in its public education system. He said the bill tries to correct ineq uities in school finance by redistribut ing property tax revenue and commit ting more state money to education. Many poorer school districts, how ever, are not satisfied with the plan and might file suit against it, Hazleton said. "Right now I don't know whether the court will permit the plan to stand," Hazleton said. "The biggest problem is while the bill increases the money available to poorer districts, it doesn't cap the spending of rich ones." Because spending caps are not set, richer districts could go back and in crease the property tax in their area, giving them more money to work with, he said. Although the state would redistri bute a percentage of the extra income among the poorer districts, the richer districts ultimately have more money, Hazleton said. "The judge said the case would be continued to September," he said. "Unless the case was appealed, the new finance plan would be upheld. "As of today there had been no mo tions filed, but no one really expects the plan to make it to September un challenged," he said. If the plan is challenged, it probably will be rejected by the state court be cause of the lack of spending caps, Hazleton said. The court has implied in previous rulings it considers the lack of ineq- spending caps unconstitutional, he said. "The bill goes some way toward fix ing the problems of the educational system," Hazleton said. "But as long as the state depends on property tax for school revenue, there will be uity." He said continued reliance on prop erty tax at the Capitol translates into higher property taxes at the local level. "Sooner or later the property tax will have to be replaced with some other form of revenue, such as a state income tax," Hazleton said. idamentali s. The class instructors rescue and arcos River ter. The $60 sportation, 5 and expe- 1 Signup Endangered digs? Archaeologist: War may have damaged sites By Bridget Harrow The Battalion Allied bombing of Iraq dur ing the Persian Gulf War may have caused damaged to any one of a half million excava tion sites within the country, a prominent archaeologist said Monday. Dr. McGuire Gibson, a pro fessor of Mesopotamian ar chaeology at the University of Chicago, spoke to about 100 Texas A&M students and fac ulty members about his ar chaeological digs in Iraq — mainly in the city of Nippur, which is located in the south of Iraq between the cities of Baghdad and Bastrop. Gibson's presentation was sponsored by Interdisciplinary Program in Religious Studies. "Before, when I spoke to an audience about my work, I would have to show where Iraq is," Gibson said. "Now it is well-known." Gibson said before the Per sian Gulf War he hoped to help bring a Mesopotamian exhibition containing 200-to- 300 artifacts to the United States in 1992. He said the ex hibition — on display at the Iraq National Musesum —con tains jewelry found in the tombs of the queens of Assyria that is supposed to be more elaborate than anything found in the tomb of the Egyptian king, Tutankhamen. "We are still hoping to bring it to the United States some times, but it's going to have to be negotiated for a very long See Archaeologist/Page 7 University relocates cars to allow for reconstruction of two streets ByJav The me Blaschke e Battalion People who parked their cars on Houston and ThrocKmorton streets Monday morning found empty spaces awaiting them when they returned later in the day. Tom Williams, director of Parking, Transit and Traffic Services, said the University moved the ve hicles so construction could begin on the two streets. "This past weekend PTTS tried calling the own ers of the cars that were parked there to let them know they needed to move, but I think there were about a half dozen we couldn't reach," Williams said. "We blocked off the streets and began towing cars at 9 a.m., relocating them to the lot behind the police station." The towing should amount to little more than an inconvenience for students, he said. The University is paying the towing expenses, about being billed so students should not worry for the move. "Most students understand these things hap pen from time to time, but if any students have E roblems finding their cars, they should call rPD," Williams said. Reconstruction plans for Houston and Throck morton streets were approved during the March meeting of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents meeting. The streets will be widened and repaved in pre paration for the opening of the new parking ga rage. During construction, Houston Street will be closed from Joe Routt Boulevard to the entrance to Parking Area 48. Throckmorton Street will be closed from Lewis Street to George Bush Drive. Williams said he hopes both reopen by the end of summer before students come back in the fall. Until the first phase of reconstruction is com- P leted, faculty and staff members assigned to arking Area 46 should use PA 48, and on-cam pus students can use PA 89 behind the police sta tion, Williams said. Graduate student dies on campus Funeral and memorial serv ices for a Texas A&M grad uate student who died last week on campus are scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Callo- way-Jones Funeral Home in Bryan. Hou Hui- wen, 28, a graduate student in chemical engineering, collapsed Thurs day afternoon after moving a 160-liter, steel liouid nitrogen tank from the Pnysics Build ing to the Joe Richardson Pe troleum Engineering Build ing. An ambulance was called and Hou was taken to a local hospital, where he died 15 minutes later. Hou Huiwen