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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1991)
Battle of the Bands AnNam Tea House to host friendly competition of local music groups pages Water Health expert explains importance of water. page 2 The Battalion Vol. 90 No. 153 GSRS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas 'Serving Texas A&Msince 1893’ Thursday, June 13, 1991 M°gon'/{ Tot/tfl- V6BI ladison rs th Coreans (illation in size rew by ?s eadi dng ra- . But at ?opula- ose im- sors, is major f Asian immon hinese getting • regis- aren't tmong ^al. s, they [rowtb , a de- ible to 9 New headquarters to provide more space, A&M planner says By Karen Praslicka The Battalion Texas A&M University System's new State Headquarters will allow more space for employees presently lo cated in the Systems Building, said the manager of A&M's Facilities and Plan ning Division. Charles Caffey heads the construc tion of the new building currently un der construction near the College Sta tion Hilton, which is expected to be completed by January 1992. Caffee said the new building will al low employees in the systems division to be located in one building instead of being "scattered around" in different buildings. The location of the new building was B lanned to be farther away from the Iniversity than the present Systems Building because employees are not only dealing with A&M in College Sta tion, he said. "The system actually deals with eight universities," he said. "It (the systems division) was planned to be more remote." The building will house the offices of the chancellor, vice chancellor and deputy chancellor, along with the Texas Forest Service (TFS) and the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEES). The TFS presently is located in the Research Park while TEES is located in Henderson Hall on campus. The University bought the building from a savings and loan association in Little Rock, Ark., after the building's original developers went bankrupt. Most of the concrete needed for con struction was in place at the time of purchase while all of the exterior walls were built, but there were no windows or glass in the building. A feasability study done by an ar chitectural engineering firm declared the building structurally sound. The cost of the construction contract was $9.5 million, not including furni ture for the new building or architectu ral design costs. The total cost of the new building is . unknown. Caffee said the University saved money buying a building partly con structed instead of designing a com pletely new one. "There is a savings involved, be cause costs can add up," he said. The headquarters mainly will have office space, but it also will have a li brary and four conference rooms. Punishment reduces crime, report says By Jeff M. Brown The Battalion The decline in punishment and lack of prison space have contributed to the increase in se rious crimes in Texas, according to a study done in part by a Texas A&M professor. According to the study by the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, a criminal can expect to spend only 7.4 days in prison for committing a serious crime, compared to 13 days in 1980 and 24.1 days in 1960. The study defined a serious crime as a felony committed us ing violence. Dr. Morgan Reynolds, an A&M professor of economics and senior fellow of NCPA, said criminals are not scared of com mitting crimes because of the "marked lack" of punishment. "They (criminals) realize these numbers in a large way, so they are not deterred as much as they used to be," she said. "I'm not saying the system has com pletely broken down, but some changes need to be made." Reynolds said that criminal ac tivity "really does pay today" compared to the past. "Any good economist can tell you, if profits are up business will continue to rise," she said. The study compared the Cali fornia and Texas prison systems during the 1980s. In 1980, California had fewer state prisons and a 21.6 precent higher crime rate than Texas. Of ficials in California increased their prison population faster than the population growth in the state and the crime rate started going down. From 1980 to 1989, the prison population of California rose 255 percent while the crime rate fell See A&M/Page 3 Fun in the sun Gus Castellanos, an A&M speech communications graduate student, studies Wednesday by Cain Pool. Philippine volcano kills one Local tribesmen flee mountain home; large eruptions expected to continue MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Tremendous explosions rocked Mount Pinatubo anew on Wednesday, shooting streams of ash and steam 15 miles high and sending molten rock down the steep mountain slopes. Thousands of primitive Aeta tribesmen fled the lush, green slopes on buffaloes and ox- drawn carts after stones as big as a man's head rained down on them. Only one death was reported from the eruptions, the largest at Pinatubo in more than 600 years. A Filipino serving in the U.S. Navy was killed Wednesday when his car skidded on an ash- slickened road north of the Subic Bay Naval Base and crashed into a bus. His name was withheld pending notification of kin. Delfin Garcia of the Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology said the volcano was entering "an episode of big erup tions" that would continue in definitely. The institute said the volcano remained so dangerously active that nobody could get closer than 12 miles for a closer inspec tion. About 10 miles to the east, hundreds of Americans fled Clark Air Base, which was evac uated by nearly 15,000 American military personnel and their fam ilies last Wednesday. More than 19,000 Filipinos have been evacuated from three provinces near the volcano's slopes. At a refugee center in Olong- apo, 35 miles southwest of the volcano, survivors told of the sky growing dark, then of hear ing a tremendous explosion fol lowed by a rain of ash. "There was panic everywhe re," said Manuel Romualdo. "Children were crying. We had to grab whatever we could." Ash fell over about seven towns in Zambales province west of the crater and the San Miguel naval installation, which the United States turned over to the Philippines this year but where many Americans as signed to the Subic naval base still live. Ash was so thick that at noon, motorists were driving with their headlights and windshield wip ers on. Workers used giant rakes to clear ash from city streets. The huge plume could be seen in Manila, 60 miles to the south. The cloud drifted westward into the South China Sea, raining ash over a wide area of southern Zambales province on the west ern slopes of Pinatubo. Heavy rains drenched the area late Wednesday, and scientists warned that mudflows threat ened the slopes and nearby plains. After three eruptions during the day, the volcano calmed, then exploded late at night with a fury. Metcalf believes officials planning to clear charges Ti Shelby Metcalf A&M officials Tuesday, for mer A&M basketball coach Shelby Met calf said he believes he was cleared of charges that he con- trolled a slush fund used to pay A&M basket ball players. "I can't speak for the school, but I thought things went well," Metcalf said. Metcalf was A&M's basket ball coach for 27 years, until he was removed in 1990. The Austin American- Statesman, however, reported Sunday that four sources said Metcalf operated the fund for more than a decade, tunneling thousands of dollars to his playe Tw layers. Two former players and two A&M administrative sources, all speaking on the condition of anonymity, said cash pro vided by A&M boosters was f iven to players in the late 980s. They said the money was spent on clothes, parties, din ners, beer, cigarettes, air fare and an abortion for one play er's girlfriend. Metcalf, his assistants and two former players have den ied all the allegations. A&M spokesman Lane Ste phenson does not know whether the school will con duct its own probe. But Mark Jones, director of enforcement for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, said the organization would respond to the charges. Jones dia elaborate. not Area museum to open new building By Mack Harrison The Battalion The Brazos Valley Museum is roaring into the present by ex panding to hold robotic dino saurs, learning centers, and new exhibits in a $600,000 building set to open this fall. Ron Young, museum director, said the building should be fin ished by the end of September, but will take an additional two years to install all the exhibits. "We're opening Oct. 5 whether it's done or not," Young said. "The big picture is that a small community museum is growing up." The site is located next to Bra zos Center and was privately funded by donations, grants, membership dues and program revenues. The museum will feature Di- namation — half- to full-size ro bot dinosaurs — from Oct. 5 to Dec. 1. The main purpose of the robots is raise money, but they have other benefits. Young said. "In the process of (fund rais ing) we see to it an awful lot of education goes on," he said. The new building also will fea ture classrooms and a new col lections room with the environ mental controls, security and fire suppression necessary to ac credit the museum with the American Association of Mu seums by 1996. As a member of the AAM, the Brazos Valley Museum can ap ply for federal funding with a better chance of success. "This means that when I apply for a national grant, I can play on a level field," Young said. Accreditation also means the museum will be able to bring in traveling exhibits from any where in the world, which it can not do with its present facilities. It will also be able to attract new employees. Young said. "What's really important, we will have an equal shot at hiring museum professionals," he said. One of the museum's goals is to educate local children. In ad dition to its present summer pro grams, the museum will have several rooms dedicated to en lightening adults as well as chil dren. The museum will promote a hands-on appproach to learning in its Nature Lab. The room will be a "wet lab" where area school children can work with speci mens from a nearby creek. "It's where you can teach classes that are really messy," Young said. The Discovery Room rep resents the opposite of what people think a museum is, he said. The room will have five sta tions, each with a different theme. Visitors of all ages will learn about the solar system, en dangered species, ecosystems, survival and nonbiological cy cles. "You don't take a tour, with someone answering your ques tions," he added. "You discover the answers yourself." The Astin Gallery will have 3,500 square feet devoted to ex hibits. Young said the room will focus on the natural history of the Brazos Valley. Exhibits will show how the area looked mil lions of years in the past. "It will be a walk through about 66 million years of Brazos Valley history," Young said. "It's a logical way to present things."