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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1991)
Ptemberjj irom_Pagj. n to landfill tor of the c : L serv ices i hat the p , he site w 0 J are insura; 'hat must iu says, "i -ager to - Public Sf. Jnd Juncti. plan too| ■cond Coll, meeting! Partly cloudy with a chance of afternoon showers. Highs in the low 90s. Page 7 Redshirt freshman Greg Hill could be the Aggies main man Saturday against LSU. Page 2 Engineering Ethics "The point is to sensitize students to the kinds of situations they’ll find themselves in later on and convince them there are others who have dealt with it.” Dr. Michael Rabins Page 11 "It's not everyday you get to see real people die! And it's not everyday you get to see real hardened criminals fry!" Stacy Feducia, on televised state executions e / Fagan refrain f r . >apers, cji(1 hen a sig^ Voi 91 No 6 usps 0 45360 College Station, Texas amnig. «■■*******■**■■■* erials peoj able, wlnj Js hy," Fag to change! The Battalion "Serving Texas A&M since 1893" 12 Pages Monday, Septembers, 1991 End of Communist rule alters education in Soviet Union rom Page; ie said, "id m. Wede: e money ? wn, very ' ess." sing .1 vises Zommitte- ‘rcollegiats 5 in a 'Jeo ame. M from working PublicAf- lohnson s. i will be a r commit: )pen Hot- 18 p.m. By Jayme Blaschke The Battalion While economists and political scien tists try to figure what effects the end of ! communist rule will have in the Soviet Union, the impact on education is already evident in Soviet universities, says a visit ing Soviet history professor. Dr. Tatana Smolova, professor of American history at Kazan State Universi ty, says most Americans do not realize the severe restrictions the Soviet bureaucracy' places upon education. Even minor changes in the format of a class must be approved by the adminis tration before they can be implemented. But the recent upheaval has enabled the system to be altered in ways that were unheard of only a few years ago, she says. "I introduced a class where Russian students learn English and American his tory simultaneously/' Smolova says. "This is the single biggest thing in the his tory of the university. "My students study American history through the language. I will teach them American English, with all the phrases used here in the United States." Although combining language and history classes might seem insignificant to students and faculty at Texas A&M, Smolova insists it is a major step for Rus sian universities. "This combination of history and lan guage is the first experience of reform in our system of higher education, and I struggled for it for many years," she says. "It wasn't very easy, because our bureau cracy — our administration — wasn't happy with change." The content of the classes has notice ably changed too, Smolova says, opening up areas of history previously closed to Russians. "Scholars try to show that the best in terpretation of their history," she says. "For many years we had only the Marxist view of history. In general, this view chose not to depict the (American) peo ple's history. "For example, all the poor were good and all the rich were bad," Smolova says. "That was the general view on all the his tory. Everything was depicted as the ex ploiters and the people who were exploit ed." That attitude toward history ham pered research and resulted in the loss of much information, she says. "In that narrow corridor of interpreta tion, we lost much information we never knew of," Smolova says. "Documents concerning our history were never avail able to us. They were either hidden in the Kremlin archives, lost in the libraries, or just destroyed by the Communist Party leaders." The changing collegiate atmosphere has also directly affected student life, she says. In the short time Smolova has to spend in America, she is looking at stu dent activities at A&M to take ideas back to Kazan. "We had only one youth organization, Conzumal, which was highly politicized, and we called it the junior brother of the Communist Party," she says. "And the Communist Party was hated by every body, so no one wants to be a member of Conzumal. "Now Conzumal is gone and we don't have any other student organizations in stead," Smolova says. "Our students are all disorganized and don't know what to do. Here you have 700 clubs of interest, and they're all coordinated and exciting, while our students do nothing." Smolova says she believes the lack of student programs is a major shortcoming in Kazan, one she hopes to help remedy. "A&M calls organizations the second higher education and that's very true," she says. "I'm very close to the students and know their problems, so they asked me to see what students do at A&M and help them organize, because they trust me. "There's so much to learn, but I don't have enough time to do everything I need to," she says. "I'm grateful for the time I've had in America, but I need a sabbati cal to accomplish everything." ?deral ft d interK; i "doubt ■lier nuff - to say r thanibi d disiJ! econoir; prise 1* for Apr prodm a these- iucted hllionfcj >90. spendir; ars, Rtf :ablislie : anged break o' page* Thousands attend 1991 Open House By Jayme Blaschke The Battalion up spf' al Amf nd beg theses A." ft -and jm ues. ran-G* cs. in vvhi; >rk ho ien Fie ulanes i tardy 1 f, seers ie dire a il abor -as wi ihippf 'put 4 TlVol' 1 -tentf t dive y exp! Fie Texas A&M's student organiza tions were out in force Sunday at the 1991 Open House, giving thousands of students the oppor tunity to find out about groups with interests ranging from the environment to opera. Jason Rowntree, a sophomore agricultural education major from Kingwood and director of external public relations for the MSC Council, said few events on campus generate as much inter est as Open House. "Our slogan for Open House this year is 'Come aboard and get involved,'" he said. "Hope fully the organizations will en tice the students to do just that." Craig Bradford, a junior aerospace engineering major from Lumberton and chairman of MSC Aggie Cinema, said this year's Open House was one of the most successful ever for his group. "I couldn't believe how success ful we were this year," Bradford said. "We gave away hundreds of posters, calenders and fliers. "We were able to reach out and give thousands of students infor mation on what Aggie Cinema is all about," he said. "Hopefully, this will mean a large turnout for our first meeting for new meet ings." Jason Scott, a senior history ma jor from Houston and Executive Director of Aggie Leaders of To morrow, said Open House gave his committee excellent expo sure. "Our committee has had a fan tastic response, and we've given out more than 1,500 applications to people wanting to join," Scott said. "The best thing about this is that it gives people a chance to find out what we're all about. "Open House allows freshmen who've never been here before to sit back and ask questions," he said. Delinda Chapa, a senior math major from Lakewood, Colo., and chairwoman of MSC Com mittee for the Awareness of Mex- ican-American Culture, said Open House gave her organiza tion a boost going into the new year. "We usually don't get many members to join at Open* House every year, out tonight we had over 150 people sign up/' Chapa said. "We've also been able to distribute a lot of information on events of the upcoming semester." Rowntree said planning for this year's Open House began last spring with 12 people working to coordinate the event and all the committees involved. "What we've tried to do is allow the A&M student body, as well the community in general, to come and look at what A&M has to offer," he said. "The Corps, fraternities, religious groups and Student Programs Committees - pretty much every campus orga nization the University recog nizes was represented, and com bined, there was something that appeals to just about any taste or culture." Israel vows to increase occupation U.S. opposition to Jewish settlements could endanger Middle East peace talks JERUSALEM (AP) - A defi ant Yitzhak Shamir vowed Sun day that Israel will build more Jewish settlements in the occu pied Arab lands and hinted that U.S. pressure to halt construction could endanger Middle East peace talks. Contradicting previous Israeli assurances, Shamir also said set tlement expansion is necessary to absorb Soviet Jews. His remarks apparently were aimed at President Bush, who has asked Congress to delay consider ation of an Israeli request for the United States to guarantee $10 billion in loans Israel needs to pay for the absorption of Soviet Jews. The guarantees would allow Is rael to borrow at cheaper rates. Bush wants to get a Middle East peace conference off the ground in October before dis cussing the guarantees and re portedly has insisted Israel stop building settlements before the talks. Washington considers them a major obstacle to peace. But Shamir said on Sunday: ''All the territories of Eretz Israel must be settled by Jews, more and more," Shamir said, pounding his fist on the table at a meeting of ac tivists from his right-wing Likud bloc. Eretz Israel is the Hebrew term for the biblical land of Israel, which includes the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians and Arab nations say the settlements, and Israel's drive to expand them, undercut the Palestinians' goal of establish ing an independent homeland in the territories. Secretary of State James A. Baker III has been trying to get all sides to agree to a regional peace conference and is due to return to the region next week for further talks. Palestinian leader Faisal Hus sein!, who has participated in pre vious talks with Baker, welcomed Washington's decision on delay ing the loans. "For a long time the Ameri cans have been sending advice and aid," Husseini told The Asso ciated Press. "Israel was refusing the advice and receiving the aid. Now is the time to say to Israel, you cannot take one without the other." Since capturing the territories from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has settled about 100,000 Jews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are home to about 1.7 million Palestinians. Shamir was quoted Sunday as arguing that if Israel agreed to halt further settlement, it would send the wrong signal. "If today we agree we will settle no more, this would mean we are giving up these territories. This is how the Arabs would un derstand it. This is how others would understand it," Shamir said in an interview published by the daily Maariv. His government insists Israel will not give up the occupied ter ritories. Shamir also contradicted Is rael's earlier stated position and said more settlements are needed to absorb Soviet Jews. Soviet state retains old ways IGYANGA, U.S.S.R. (AP) - The old way is dying hard on the back roads of Azerbaijan, where billboards still exhort people to work forever for Communism. There was little indication that Sunday was an election day. In Baku, the capital of the pre dominantly Muslim republic, rau cous street demonstrations had sought to put off the presidential vote until another candidate could make a serious challenge to Azer baijan's durable leader, Ayaz Mu- talibov — the only person on the ballot. In towns and villages, howev er, Mutalibov's continued firm hand on Azerbaijani affairs was a foregone conclusion. People vot ed calmly, then went back to busi ness as usual. "Who's going to win?" repeat ed one young man at a roadside market along the highway from Tbilisi, Georgia, when asked about the elections. He looked at his friends and laughed. Azerbaijan, one of 10 Soviet re publics that have declared inde pendence, has made concessions to the eclipse of communism across the union. Gyanga, 240 miles west of Baku, was until recently named Kirovabad, after the Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov. Russian has all but disap peared from public signs, a conse quence of Soviet military interven tion to quell pogroms against Christian Armenians in Baku in January 1990. But along the roads, the old symbols remain unchanged. On one billboard, a strong- armed, smiling farm woman holds aloft grapes the size of Christmas tree bulbs. On another, a Soviet couple embraces under a slogan praising their dedication to the common cause. French president's response to coup results in falling support, poll shows PARIS (AP) — In power since May 1981, Presi dent Francois Mitterrand will become France's longest-serving president on Monday. Increasingly, his compatriots are wondering if it's time for a change. The president's less-than-deft response to the abortive Soviet coup fueled debate on whether his judgment was failing. This week, the nation's fore most news magazine, L'Express, carries a cover story depicting him as weary and discredited. Mitterrand, 74, has four years left in his second seven-year term, but his recent problems have prompted speculation that he may step aside in 1993 or, at the least, dump his controversial leftist prime minister, Edith Cresson. The man viewed as the Socialists' most likely sav ior is Jacques Delors, a moderate who is now presi dent of the European Commission. "The French feel that Francois Mitterrand is at the end of the road ... that he's no longer an infallible chief of state," L'Express said. "Ten years is enough." L'Express based its conclusions on a poll of 1,000 adults in which 61 percent described Mitterrand as worn out. The magazine noted that similar problems led Britain's Margaret Thatcher to step down last year after a decade as prime minister. Mitterrand says he will not seek a third term but he has never suggested publicly that he would con sider leaving office before his term expires in 1995. See Mtterand/Page 10