The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 25, 1991, Image 3
remote, ood Val- jne who uss your into the car after icense, it I them "I tit, it was ates'91 ity of stu- nosexuals y want l ir society, ght in the temative" pposed to of hearing r 2 percent lion "jour- hiring be- tey, would I s farm ani- ie s? I hope jphilia, pe-1 n abominJ j ajority and : of faculb' [ omosexual’ xuals; I ^ le thrust o" 7 and the) ^ j tumh oir :[ iemphor' (,1 t rthurs nd ha'fi D mtheAp r i tmy?,. is the bu« j ere n gfun^j peoplo-1 1 if soiuee; to insult ’useH'j think r j; take***! ng, )“* 1 prim 01 Thursday, April 25,1991 State & Local The Battalion 3 Which way to Kyle Field? SCOTT 0. WEAVER/The Battalion Chris Smyth (right) stands at attention with the helmet All are freshmen in Squadron 7. Smyth must wear the he must wear when he calls his squadron to dinner, helmet when he “blows chow,” or calls the outfit to at- John Coulson (left) and Andy Watson wait with him. tention with whistle to let them know it’s dinner time. Medical breakthroughs don't mean cure: doctor Expert says society equates advancements with modern miracles By Mack Harrison The Battalion The concept of medical pro gress often takes the form of a moral imperative, a medical ethics expert said Wednesday in the MSC at Texas A&M. Dr. Daniel Callahan of the Hastings Center in New York said many people believe since doctors have the ability to cure an illness, they have a duty to cure everyone with that illness. Callahan spoke on "Biotech nology and the Moral Logic of Progress," and was sponsored by the Department of Philoso phy and Humanities, Center for Biotechnology Policy and Ethics, and Institute of Biosciences and Technology. Callahan, co-founder and di rector of the Hastings Center, an organization that conducts re search on ethical problems in medicine and biology, said peo ple immediately want to put medical breakthroughs to use. "Technology makes action possible," Callahan said. "From most positions it's preferable to do something than nothing." Callahan said society expects medical progress to improve overall living conditions, and also to take care of any unfore seen problems the solution might cause. "People favor short-term, rather than long-term, gains," he said. He said scientists and doctors often enact new medical break throughs without considering the ramifications of these devel opments. Medical advances have elimi nated most causes of premature typf Zalla fever and smallpox, Callahan said. He said now people die when they are older, from ill nesses such as cancer and Alz heimer's disease. "Death once came at all stages of life," he said. "Now it comes mainly in old age." These people must be cared for, and there is an increasing demand for health care profes sionals. This takes resources away from other areas of medi cine, Callahan said. Medical advances have given people a range of choices they never had before, he said. Peo ple can change their appearance, decide whether to have children and live longer lives. The chance of a longer lifespan means people must evaluate See Pubiic/Page 7 Report: A&M affiliate loses endowment increase AUSTIN (AP) — West Texas State University in Canyon lost the opportu nity to increase its endowment by up tb $2.5 million through apparent mis management, the state auditor said in a report issued Wednesday. State Auditor Lawrence Alwin said the university, prompted by heavy ath letic department losses, also used funds restricted for other purposes to finance operations of the university's auxiliary enterprises since 1988. Both matters raised "questions of le gality" and had been reported to ap- ropriate authorities, Alwin said. le auditor's office said it started in vestigating West Texas State after re ceiving information that the university had lost $200,000 on an investment in Mesa Limited Partnership, T. Boone Pickens' oil and gas company. That charge proved inaccurate, the auditor said. But the report criticized the way university endowment fund transactions were handled while Pick ens was chairman of the university board of regents and Ed Roach was president. The school was merged into the Texas A&M University System on Sept. 1, 1990. The transactions "appear to have been handled almost exclusively by the board chairman and the president," the report said. "The type of 'arm's length' relationship which should be main tained between a donor and the uni versity did not exist," it said. Mesa President Paul Cain issued a statement challenging the report. The company "stands by its donations and is proud of the university's efforts to maximize the value of those charitable gifts," he said. "Mesa disagrees with the statement that university officials lost the oppor tunity to increase the donations by as much as $2.5 million. In reality, the university gained more than $1.3 mil lion through its aggressive pursuit of corporate funding," Cain said. According to the auditor's report, the university purchased Mesa stock equal to a $500,000 matching grant from Mesa and a $100,000 personal matching gift from Pickens given in late 1987. But the school failed to raise the nec essary matching funds and began re funding the money to Pickens and Mesa — plus capital gains and divi dends — in September 1988, the report said. Four days after the university's origi nal stock purchase. Roach and his fam ily bought 20,000 Mesa shares through the same Dallas broker the university had used, paying 50 cents less per share, the report said. Roach sold his stock in August 1989,/ three days before reports were pub/ lished that Mesa had a $13.4 millioil quarterly loss. He realized a capitf gain of more than $15,000, the repo; said. f But the university held its inten until seven months later, when t shares sold for more than $4 less. An IBM PS/2 can help you with a double major. Work and college. College can be difficult enough by itself, but when you compound it with a job, the load doubles. The IBM Personal System/2' i ' can help you through these workloads. The PS/2® comes preloaded with soft ware that will let you create impressive papers, reports, graphics and spreadsheets for your classes or for your job. An IBM mouse, color display and tools like a notepad, calendar, cardfile and even games are also included. And its expand able so it can grow with you to keep pace with your needs at work and in college. As a student, you are eligible for a special price on an IBM PS/2.* Affordable loan payments are also available with the IBM PS/2 Loan for Learning. And on a different note, you can get the Roland® Desktop Music System at a special price. 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