“On the morning of July 4, A&M
graduate Paul Broussard was beaten
to death by 10 youths wielding boards
with nails protruding from them. If
you haven’t heard about this, you’re
not alone.”
____ e —Ellen Hobbs
page 5
Beutel Health Center offers
tips to help fight depression.
page 2
The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 169 tISPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
"Serving Texas A&M since 1893"
Tuesday, July
Local group questions validity of TCA-MTV controversy
By Susan Maguire
The Battalion
Bryan-College Station cable viewers
will get their MTV back, but at least
one local group doesn't know why the
TCA-MTV controversy even began.
Gwynne Ash, spokeswoman for Cit
izens Against Censorship, said CAC is
pleased with TCA's announcement Fri
day to bring MTV back to its cable
lineup but added that TCA and Vi
acom, MTV's parent company, have
the same deal they had before.
"(TCA) seems to be talking out of
both sides of their mouth," Ash said. "I
don't understand why they put their
customers through all this trouble.
"TCA claimed their goal was a posi
tive option of being able to tell custom
ers about blocking, but customers
knew of that option."
Ash said CAC will form a cable
watchdog committee to monitor future
cable franchise agreements.
She said CAC began because of the
TCA-MTV problem but its purpose is
to monitor all forms of censorship.
TCA's area manager Randy Rogers
said MTV will return to TCA Cable as
soon as a blocking option can be in
stalled.
"Customers will now have a choice
about whether they want their MTV,"
Rogers said.
Credit will be issued to customers
due to the temporary loss of MTV with
the amount to be determined at a later
date, he said.
The cable company, however, got
what it was originally aiming for, he
said.
"Earlier we had to wait until custom
ers complained before we could inform
them of the option of blocking," Rog
ers said. "Now we're able to inform
them about this choice as soon as they
sign up."
Rogers said TCA will begin the proc
ess or returning MTV to its lineup by
sending out letters to customers later
this week.
In the letter, TCA will explain what
has been done up to this point and in
clude a postcard that customers can
send back if they do not want MTV.
He said TCA will try to have MTV on
the air in mid-August.
"It really depends on the number of
requests for blocking we receive," he
said.
MTV will not return to cable channel
36, though, because it will be easier to
block on a different channel.
"After some of the initial complaints,
we tried to block MTV, but it interfered
with channel 35," Rogers said.
The new channel, however, has not
been selected, he said.
MTV officials were not available for
comment.
'*:\l
SCOTT D. WEAVER/The Battalion
Me and my shadow
A cyclist rides down Asbury Street late Monday evening. The photo was taken from the roof of the Northside Parking Garage.
A&M faces
low funds
University officials seek to maintain
current service levels during 1992-93
By Greg Mt Joy
The Battalion
Texas A&M officials have decided to just try to stay afloat with
State Comptroller John Sharp's budget-slashing report sinking
hopes for generous future funding.
Dr. E. Dean Gage, provost and vice president for academic af
fairs, told student leaders Friday A&M could lose as much as $52
million in the 1992-93 biennium but would ask only for enough
funding to maintain the current service level of the University.
"We don't expect the cuts to be anywhere near the proposed
level," Gage said. "We think our legislators see the benefits educa
tion promises the future of the state, but we are desperately asking
for the same level of funding we recieved during the last bien
nium."
Gage said University officials think the resulting tuition jump to
$32 per semester hour is reasonable and a jump as high as $40
could be supported.
A tuition increase would probably not come before Spring 1992,
See Tuition/Page 6
College of Geosciences searches for successor
Dean stays in office after resigning
By K. Lee Davis
The Battalion
After eight years as dean of
Texas A&M's College of Geosci
ences, Dr. Melvin Friedman de
cided to go back to teaching, but
a lack of a successor has kept
him in his office for 18 months.
Friedman tendered his resig
nation in January 1990 and is
awaiting his replacement before
he leaves the position.
An international search for his
successor, which included an in-
house search, has been under
way since his decision to step
down.
An offer was made to one
"gentleman" who would not be
able to come to A&M until Jan
uary 1992, Friedman said.
Dr. E. Dean Gage, provost and
vice president for Academic Af
fairs, is in charge of the search.
Gage, however, could not be
reached for comment.
Friedman is the college's fifth
dean, having served the second
longest term in the college's 25-
year history.
When Friedman steps down,
A&M will lose a dean that has
set high standards for the person
chosen to follow him and one
that has garnered much praise
for his list of achievements.
Friedman's accomplishments
during his tenure as dean in
clude increasing total research
expenditures from all sources
from $12 million to more than
$60 million a year.
1 He also added six endowed
professorship/fellowships and
i Maintained student scholarships
and other forms of financial aid
at constant levels despite a 40
percent drop in the college's stu
dent enrollment.
All five of the present depart
ment heads within the college
and 38 of the 100 present faculty
members were recruited and ap
pointed during Friedman's time
as dean.
The College of Geosciences is
among the top colleges within
the University in sponsored re
search and is also at the top in le
veraging research seed money.
Research seed money is
money given to a college on the
basis of its ability, not money as
aid or grants from a governmen
tal body for the sole purpose of
maintaining the program.
Friedman has also overseen a
major buildup of the infrastruc
ture of the five departments in
the college, including much
greater research capability in ge
ochemistry, improved computer
facilities, doppler radar in the
meteorology department and sa
tellite data analysis capability in
oceanography, geography and
meteorology.
Friedman said he is resigning
so a new dean can come in and
run the college. A&M's College
of Geosciences will merge with
the maritime program at Texas
A&M-Galveston on Sept. 1.
The name of the new ex-
E anded program will be the Col-
;ge of Geosciences and Mari
time Studies. The expanded
college will entail more responsi
bility for the person chosen as
the new dean, Friedman said.
"Knowing that there was
going to be some kind of search
process involved, I knew that it
(the hiring of the new dean)
would happen sometime in
1991, even though I let them
know about it in 1990," he said.
"By 1991 I will have served eight
or nine whole years here in the
dean's office, and that is long
enough for any dean as far as I'm
concerned."
Friedman plans to step down
as dean and return to his profes
sor's chair in the Department of
Geology where he can concen
trate on teaching and research.
There will be a greater ex
change of students because of
the new merger, Friedman said.
He added that the merger will af
ford unique opportunities to
A&M students in oceanography
and the other geosciences that
other universities cannot match.
Friedman received his bache
lor's and master's degrees from
Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, N.J., and later re
ceived his doctorate from Rice
University in Houston.
He spent 15 years in the pri
vate sector before coming to
A&M in 1967 as an associate pro
fessor of geology.
He achieved mil professorship
in 1969 and reached the title of
associate dean of geosciences by
1982, before ascending to the
dean's office in 1983.
Faculty member relationships
to benefit by campus merger
By Karen Praslicka
The Battalion
Texas A&M at Galveston will
join with the main campus at
College Station giving faculty
members at both universities a
closer working relationship, a
local A&M official said.
Texas A&M's Board of Re
gents recently adopted a reso
lution suggesting the change
be completed by Sept. 1.
Dr. Jerry Gaston, associate
provost for academic affairs at
A&M, said that after the
change, the head administrator
of the Galveston campus will
become the "CEO on location"
and report to the dean of
A&M's College of Geosciences.
Also after the change,
A&M's College of Geosciences
will be renamed the College of
Geosciences and Maritime
Studies.
Though A&M students will
not encounter any significant
changes because of the integra
tion, faculty from both univer
sities will benefit from change,
Gaston said.
"There will be a closer
relationship between the fac
ulty with teaching and re
search," he said. "Inis will im
prove the opportunity for
faculty at both campuses to
work with each other."
The maritime and oceanog
raphy programs at A&M-Gal-
veston and College Station are
compatible with University fac
ulty involved in a large amount
of research at Galveston, Gas
ton said.
Among the differences be
tween the Galveston and Col
lege Station campuses is the
Maritime College at A&M-Gal-
veston.
"The college is an important
component of the (Galveston)
University," Gaston said. "The
unit is devoted to special mari
time programs with ocean en
gineering and the licensing of
Coast Guard personnel a part
of it. It's heavily oriented to-*
ward the ocean."
Another difference between
the campuses is size. The Gal
veston campus has about 1,100
students compared to about
40,000 at the College Station
campus.
Additionally, no majors at
A&M-Galveston are equivalent
to any degree programs at the
University in College Station.
Officials at the Galveston
campus could not be reached
for comment.
1990 census
adjustment
rejected
WASHINGTON (AP) — Com
merce Secretary Robert Mos-
bacher today refused to adjust
the census to include more than
half a million Texans who were
missed in the 1990 count, a deci
sion that could cost the state $1
billion in fed
eral aid.
Mosbacher
said that to
adjust the
count that
overlooked
more than 5
million people
nationwide
would be to
"abandon a
200-year tradi
tion of how
we actually
count people." The government
has never jettisoned official cen
sus numbers in favor of popula
tion estimates in the two centu
ries that it has been counting
Americans.
The Census Bureau said in
June that it had missed an esti
mated 560,000 Texans, many of
the minorities in the state's ma
jor metropolitan areas or colo-
nias on the border, and an ad
justment to include them would
have pushed the state's popula
tion from 16.9 million to 17.5 mil
lion.
Lawmakers say a failure to in
clude more than a half-million
Texans in the census could cost
the state $1 billion in federal aid
over the decade for programs
based on population, including
spending on education, the envi
ronment, health care and trans
portation.
Secretary of
Commerce Rob
ert Mosbacher re
fuses to readjust
the census.