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“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.
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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.
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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