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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.