>27; ed PC- 30,7 15,7:1! iSte' infer- es. owfe 5. G-13. 7:05 ar; g."$ir 2:20, my. (5,72 llurtl: Movie (0,7:1! 13. Cal infer- es. ;-i3. 5,m 13. 7 and edPC 10,7.0! uter ha^ Weekend Forecast Highs in 90s Isolated Thunderstorms page 5 Yugoslavian Federal troops clamp down on Slovenia. Over 100 dead or wounded. page 2 Grid Emory Bellard Iron Guru speaks of A&M, college, high school experiences. page 3 The Battalion Vol. 90 No. 162 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas "Serving Texas A&M since 1893" Friday, June 28, 1991 TCA negotiations to keep rock video channel fall through By Peggy O'Hare The Battalion TCA Cable attempted to negotiate a special arrangement with MTV Net works to offer the video rock channel as an option at no extra cost, but MTV rejected the offer, TCA general man ager Randy Rogers said Thursday. MTV spokeswoman Carole Robin son, however, said TCA's offer was in appropriate. "MTV is a basic cable service avail able to all customers anywhere, such as Lifetime and CNN," Robinson said. "What TCA is proposing is just not done anywhere in the entire world. "It is an aberration," she continued. "No basic cable channel would agree to such a proposition." If no agreement is reached between TCA and MTV by midnight Sunday, the local cable company will stop broadcasting the video rock station. Robinson said TCA was trying to make decisions for its customers. She said the 200 million homes around the world that receive MTV have the choice to turn off the tele vision if they do not like what they see. She also pointed out that devices such as lockboxes have been used else where to bar access to certain channels. "It is ironic that in Leningrad people have the choice to watch MTV 24 hours a day," she said. "But in College Sta tion they don't have that choice." TCA Cable has received more than 700 phone calls within the last few days from the Bryan-College Station residents protesting the dropping of MTV from the company's lineup. The cable company also faces a pro test from the group Aggies Against Censorship Saturday morning. Gwynne Ash, spokeswoman for Ag gies Against Censorship (AAC), said the protest would be open to anyone who was interested in participating. The protest will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday outside TCA Cable's Bryan- College Station office. "Our disagreement isn't with the parents who find MTV objectionable," Ash said. "(It's) with the decision-making process which saw only two solutions — changing the format or offering MTV as an optional channel." Ash said other solutions could be looked at that would satisfy both con cerned parents and those "who do not want their viewing habits dictated for them," such as a lockbox. Rogers, however, said offering such a box is not practical because 50 to 60 percent of TCA's customers in the Bra zos Valley do not have a cable box. Rogers added that offering such a box is not possible at this time. Robinson said people have to keep the cable company's comments in per spective. 'Our standards are programming the same as those of the broadcast net works," she said. "Everyone knows that TCA Cable's accusations are ludi crous." Rogers, however, disagreed with Robinson's comments. "MTV created an objectionable chan nel that in our opinion and the custom ers' opinions is no longer suitable for broad-based distribution," said Rog ers. "We don't mean to imply censorship in any way at all. "But MTV was not open to the idea of becoming an optional channel in stead of a basic offering in the lineup," he added. "Their decision left us with no choice." Current parking system adequate Space 'pays for itself By Karen Praslicka The Battalion Parking at Texas A&M will never be as convenient as ev eryone wants it to be, but Uni versity students and faculty should be pleased with the present parking system, the di rector or A&M's Parking, Tran sit and Traffic Services said. Tom Williams, director for the past three years, said there have been no increases in the cost of student parking permits since he became director and there are no plans for any fu ture price increases. Because PTTS does not re ceive any state funds for up keep of the parking system, revenue is generated from the cost of parking permits, visitor parking and parking viola tions. "The cost of the parking sys tem determines permit cost," Williams said. "Parking pays its way, in a sense." The total PTTS budget is about $3.4 million, with about $2 million from permit cost and about $900,000 from parking violations. Williams said he hopes the number of violations will de crease as more parking spaces are created with the construc tion of the University Center parking garage. Parking spaces are provided for faculty and staff on a one- to-one basis, so faculty are al most guaranteed a parking SCOn D WEAVER/The Battalion Officer Felder, of A&M Parking, Transit and Traffic Services, writes out a ticket for a parking violation. space, Williams said. The shuttle bus system, paid for and partly operated by stu dents, provides transportation for off-campus students. On- campus shuttle buses also al low students to get to class eas ier if they park far away, Wil liams said. "We are short (student park ing spaces), and there's no way to solve that problem," he said. "No more lots can be built right now because there's no space." On-campus students are guaranteed a parking space. Williams said that last year, es pecially during the spring se mester, there was an abun dance of empty student parking spaces. "You could drive around just about any time of day and find a space somewhere," he said. Williams said that when he became director in 1988, his goals were to find campus parking spaces and provide for off-campus students who needed to drive their cars to campus rather than ride the shuttle bus. Williams said he now be lieves A&M has a much better parking and transportation system. Williams said it is hard to say exactly how many student spaces are available because some parking spaces are "dou ble-used." Some spaces are strictly for faculty and staff. some strictly for students, and at 4 p.m. most spaces are avail able to anyone with a valid per mit. "You have to look at total availability," he said. "We try to accomodate everybody." Williams said the fact that there are many empty staff spaces during the summer ses sion is probably disturbing to many students who park at Kyle Field or Olsen Field and walk or ride the shuttle bus to class. "There's not any way we can solve that problem," he said. "Once the spaces are sold they're committed to faculty See Staff/Page 6 Marshall announces retirement Supreme Court Justice leaves after 24 years WASHINGTON (AP) — Thur- good Marshall, the influential civil rights lawyer who became a leading liberal voice on the Su preme Court as its only black member, announced his retire ment Thursday. Marshall, 82, cited his "ad vancing age and medical condition" in a letter to President Bush saying he would leave the court "when my successor Thurg00d Mar . is qualified sha| » has Bush, who nounced his re . will have a t|rement from the chance to bol- Su p remeCourt s t e r the K court's conservative majority with his choice to replace Mar shall, promised to "move very swiftly" in naming a successor. But he turned away speculation on possible nominees. As a justice for the past 24 years, Marshall championed in dividual rights and the abolition of the death penalty. He has been a staunch defender of the court's 1973 decision that legal ized abortion. His departure will give Bush his second appointment to the high court. The first, David H. Souter, joined the court last Oc tober. Speculation immediately cen tered on whether the president would nominate a black to re place Marshall. Among those prominently mentioned are Clarence Thomas, a federal appeals court judge here who formerly chaired the Equal Employment Opportu nity Commission, and Amalia Kearse, a federal appeals court judge in New York City. a Editor discusses changing nature of e Supreme Court./Page 5 The president's next appoint ment is expected to increase the court's conservative majority, making it more likely that affir mative action will be restricted, law enforcement efforts en hanced and the 1973 Roe vs. Wade abortion decision over turned. Asked about possible succes sors, Bush would say only, "So mebody who believes in the Constitution of the United States. Somebody who will be able to serve for a while." He praised Marshall as "an inspiring example for all Ameri cans." The chairman of the Congres sional Black Caucus, Rep. Edol- phus Towns, D-N.Y., said, "Marshall not only has meant so much for black America, and the downtrodden in America, but he has meant a great deal to Amer ica itself." Soldier recounts war experience U.S. forces engage Iraq's Republican Guard in tank battle Two die from injuries sustained in car wreck Editor's note: Michael A. Kel ley, a Class of '89 political sci ence graduate, worked for The Battalion as a reporter in the fall of 1989. What follows is a chroni cle of some of his experiences as an M1A1 tank platoon leader during the Persian Gulf War. This is part four of a four-part se ries. Day 4, Feb. 27: All during our morning movements we passed numer ous defensive positions and obstacles which our engineers had cleared lanes through for our ease of passage. By the time the sun rose that morning, we had two brigades of the 1st Armored Division on line and were actively pursuing the Medina Division of the Re publican Guards. With daylight came the "the largest tank battle since World War II," there just southwest of Basra. Our battalion rolled past an other defensive position and be gan firing rounds at enemy ar mored personnel carriers (BMP- 1s), which were apparently left by retreating infantry units. Ma chine guns fired up trucks and ensured that the bunkers all over the ground were cleared of the enemy. This continued for an hour, until we absolutely had to stop for fuel. Behind us was left col umns of black smoke from burn ing vehicles, but there was no sign of enemy personnel. We stopped for two hours, transferring our best rounds — the armor-piercing depleted ura nium, super sabots — into our ready rack to be fired at long dis tances to penetrate even the Ira qis' best tank, the Soviet built T- 72. Following more maintenance and refueling, we were hurriedly told to get ready to move out, as our scouts and the 2nd Brigade had found the Medina. The battalion quickly moved about five kilometers to a ridge line that the 2nd Brigade was al ready firing off of. Analysis of the Persian Gulf War Huge pillars of smoke and flame came from the valley be low as we pulled up to join in the kill. We had trapped the Medina in the valley below, and for four hours, we pummeled this, the remainder of Hussein's elite ar mored force, causing the Repub lican Guards to cease to exist. It was almost a turkey shoot for the 1st Armored Division, as our M1A1 tanks and attached Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehi cles turned tanks and BMPs into columns of smoke and fire. We shot at ranges that were well outside the enemy's maxi mum effective range, and they acted as if they could not even see us. In a futile attempt to stop the massacre, the Iraqis fired several artillery rounds at us, landing about 200 meters from my tank. Then a mortar round landed less than 50 feet from my position. It was as if the months of artil lery nightmares were coming true. But these indirect fires were quickly silenced by our MLRS batteries. Joining us in the battle were Apache attack helicopters and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolts, adding certain death to those ve hicles unseen from our posi tions. Our artillery also joined in See U.S. forces/Page 6 By Mack Harrison The Battalion A Texas A&M student was killed and another person died from injuries suffered in a one-vehicle accident near Montgomery late Wednesday night. Two other A&M students were injured in the wreck, a DPS spokesperson said. Police Communications Officer J. Shreckengaust said the 1984 two-door Honda was westbound on state Highway 105 at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when its driver lost control. The car ran off the road and travelled 156 feet into a utility pole. The driver, Kelly Lynn Lane of Houston, told troopers she lost control when she swerved to avoid a dog. Marcus J. Tyler, 20, an A&M junior engineering technology stu dent from Dallas, was pronounced dead at the scene and taken to Metcalf Funeral Home in Conroe, Shreckengaust said. Jill L. Johnson, 22 of Houston, was admitted to Hermann Hos pital in Houston in critical condition. Johnson, who was not an A&M student, died at 4:15 Thursday afternoon, a hospital spokesperson said. Neither Tyler nor Johnson were wearing seatbelts, Shreckeng aust said. Lane, a 22-year-old senior political science major, and passen ger Cary Williams, a 24-year-old senior English major from College Station, were treated at the scene for cuts and abrasions.