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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 1991)
isVe; ' president! Jhe ffeeli| ’rematute, 3 P ro priat e ;| Jse lie'ssp ; ' 10ie nce>- )f women,. r getfor a e Pay-pet.,;. iectedtos d set by*] *man M Sunny with highs in the low-90s Page 15 "By protesting Tyson’s charge and decision to fight champion Evander Holyfield, ... these advocates have implied he is already guilty." Todd Stone on NOW's denouncement of Mike Tyson. Page 9 Sculptor carves images from blocks of ice Page 7 Former A&M football player and coach Curley Hallman returns to Kyle Field as LSLTs head coach The Battalion Vol. 91 No. 9 DSPS 045360 College Station, Texas "Serving Texas A&M since 1893" 16 Pages Thursday, September 12, 1991 -f-viewoii; nization testthre; nthe d Judith I Faculty pay raise considered unrealistic and unattainable By Greg Mt.Joy The Battalion esnotw Is being id saying '; do said T.. lotion thr • 'g-bmesf V accuse;;.', contest lui the s;- naNew « wome 'abbed on $t(!(l The Texas Faculty Association de mand for a three percent salary increase for faculty members in addition to the two percent jump approved by State Comptroller John Sharp is unrealistic for Texas A&M, a University official said Wednesday. Dr. E. Dean Gage, A&M provost and senior vice president, said the University has already scraped its last penny looking for funds to stem the tide of the current budget crunch. "The TFA's proposal is not realistic, considering the overall state of Texas' budget concerns," Gage said. James Burnside, assistant to the direc tor of the TFA, said the funds for the in creases could come from various "unre stricted local fund balances," or ULFBs. Burnside said these funds consist of money collected by public universities from a variety of sources including grants, gifts, parking permits and fees and bookstore profits. "The list of income sources is enor mous," Burnside said. "This money is frequently kept in local bank accounts. It is put aside for emergencies such as facili ties repairs." A TFA report said Comptroller Sharp's Texas Performance Audit estimat ed Texas public universities are currently holding almost $1 billion in ULFBs. The report said prudent fiscal management dictates public universities should hold at least eight percent of their annual operat ing budget for emergencies. TFA lists A&M and University of Texas system schools accounting for 24 of the 37 institutions exceeding the eight percent level. Burnside said he believes the emergency the funds were created to rescue has already occurred. "Our feeling is that these funds were meant for a rainy day," he said. "Well, it is definitely raining. Faculty salaries in Texas are very poor. Even our proposal for a three percent increase won't raise Texas salaries to a level where we can keep the best professors we have and give us the funds to attract more." Burnside said Texas public university salaries are running an estimated $10,000 behind salaries in comparative states. Gage said there is no question that the salary increases are deserved, but the funds for them simply do not exist at A&M. "We don't have the kind of funds that the TFA is talking about," he said. "The local funds we have are for very specified purposes. "They are set aside for parking, utili ties and specific fees such as the library extension. The funds are very specific, and can only be used for the purposes they are collected for." Gage said he believes the TFA has members in the A&M faculty, but said the TFA is an independent group that sets its own agenda. He said the University usually works through the Council of University Presidents and Chancellors on this type of issue. "Considering the fiscal difficulties we are dealing with, I see no real option available with what they (the TFA) have proposed," Gage said. "Texas A&M is not a part of their request." Burnside said the TFA, the higher ed ucation affiliate of the Texas State Teach ers Association and the National Educa- See Faculty/Page 8 ly battal Givens is is a pie 'But in • em." ;; ■ociated igmeer permirj he past! allow mf v, bu(q them. ie new mucht: i lot ofi ;cause i iyingt| ? dead now tli| rlier,” assist;! ■s for t I that; drop liiif studef i three J mate::, confmi ke bet| havsj ES Troops removed from Cuba Gorbachev and Cuban officials plan talks concerning removal of Soviet army TED ALBRACHT/The Battalion The finer point of giving blood Kelly Ivors, a senior bioenvironmental science major from Lewisville, watches as Red Cross worker Michael Tadlock adjusts the needle in her arm Wednesday afternoon. Red Cross blood donation buses will be behind the Academic Building and at the Commons today and Friday froml 1 a.m. to 4 p.m. MOSCOW (AP) — President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Wednesday the Kremlin will pull thousands of troops out of Com munist Cuba, a major step toward erasing one of the lingering irri tants in U.S.-Soviet relations. The planned withdrawal of the troops, first sent in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, would stop short of a complete Soviet pullout from the island 90 miles off Flori da. And no timetable was given. It was the first concrete sign of a reversal in the 30-year-old Krem lin policy of maintaining a mili tary presence on the United States' doorstep. The pullout would sharply re duce the size of one of the largest Soviet foreign bases. It signaled a return to Gorbachev's policy of military retrenchment following the Aug. 18-21 coup that discredit ed hard-liners. Gorbachev made the an nouncement after a midday meet ing with visiting U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who called Gorbachev's decision "a substantial step" toward better su perpower relations. Gorbachev said talks would begin with Cuban officials on re moving a training brigade based outside Havana. Asked how many from the brigade would be in volved, he said "about 11,000," without specifying how many were soldiers, dependents or oth ers. There was no reaction Wednesday from Cuba. "We intend to transform our relations with Cuba to a plane of mutually beneficial trade and eco nomic ties, and we will remove other elements from that relation ship that were born in a different time and a different era," Gor bachev told reporters during a joint news conference with Baker. See Soviet/Page8 Rep. Ogden reports on successes, failures in assisting A&M students By Greg Mt.Joy The Battalion ) Di r in vIto ►.VI l III ill* The news from the State Capi tol for Texas A&M students wasn't all bad. State Rep. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said of the 72nd session of the legislature. Ogden, speaking to stu dents at a town meeting spon sored by MSC Political Forum Wednesday night in Rudder Tower, said his most recent ef forts resulted in some successes and some fail ures. A major achievement for A&M students and other students across the state, Ogden said, was the vot er-registration card bill he au thored. The bill became law Sept. 1. "There was a huge flap over the voter-registration cards two years ago," Ogden said. "Stu dents had to fill in two addresses, their mailing address and their permanent residence." Ogden said about 1,800 A&M students filled in their parents' ad dress for their permanent address, thereby registering themselves to Ogden vote in their parents' home coun ties. "I am happy to report that two significant reductions in the con fusion were made when the bill was passed," Ogden said. "We eliminated the word 'permanent' from the cards, and will make vot er registrars notify voters if their cards have been sent to another county. I'm proud to say we re ceived a lot of bi-partisan support on the bill, and had help from the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund." Ogden said he was disappoint ed with a near-miss effort to pass a non-voting student regent bill during the second special session during the summer. "We almost pulled off a great coup," he said. "Basically, one person kept us from putting a stu dent on the Board of Regents of all public universities in the state." Ogden said the effort to pass a student regent bill has been talked about for years, but the last ses sion was the first in which such a bill passed either the House or the Senate. "We had the idea to attach the bill to a general education bill as an amendment," Ogden said. "We got the idea going around midnight, not that the move was any type of skullduggery or any thing." Ogden said the bill's chances looked extremely good after it passed both the House and the Senate. "We really thought we had it," he said. "The governor had indi cated she would sign the bill, but unfortunately Senator Carl Parker, D-Port Aurthur, decided to kill the entire bill." Ogden said the student regent amendment was not the only rea son Parker wanted the bill dropped, but for a variety of rea sons he refused to appoint a con ference committee to the bill to iron out differences between its House and Senate versions. Ogden said he has also au thored a rider to the House appro priations bill that could benefit university students across the state. "My rider asked the Higher Education Coordination Board to create financial incentives for schools to put more tenure- tracked faculty in undergraduate classrooms," he said. "The effects would not be im mediate, but the board would re port on its findings in two years. The intent is to get more money to schools that have tenured profes sors teaching undergrad students, and less money to those that don't," he said. Another plan in the works for See Ogden/Page 8 Liberal Arts program expanded New music department proposed for fall of 1992 By Liz Tisch The Battalion University President William Mobley will de cide the fate of a Faculty Senate proposal which calls for the creation of a Department of Music for Fall 1992. Mobley is expect ed to reach a decision within the next month. Werner Rose, co ordinator of music in the Department of Philosophy and Hu manities, says he sees the new department as a great opportunity for students. V "We are trying to * develop an opportu nity for all the stu dents to learn about music and to partici pate if they wish," he says. If the proposal passes, A&M students can earn a minor in music. The music department will of fer courses that are geared toward the liberal arts.. The courses will include history,' theory and a music practicum. The music department, howev er, will not offer professional degrees. "We don't offer professional degrees to be a concert pianist or a music teacher," Rose said. "We may see something a few years down the road, though." Rose said students interested in a music minor should have music experience and be involved with music groups such as the A&M band or the symphonic band. Currently, courses in music are being offered in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities under the College of Liberal Arts. Before Rose came to A&M three years ago, the only music course offered was music apprecia tion. He said he saw a demand for a music de partment from the students. "Enrollment for music classes have always been full," he said. Rose, who taught at the University of Wyoming before coming to College Station, said he wanted to work at A&M because he saw a great opportunity to begin a music department. "I came here because of the wonderful oppor tunity to build this program," he said. "We have been expanding in the last three years," Rose said. "Now we offer about 20 different music courses and we have also expanded our faculty and have developed a great working relationship with the Aggie Band and A&M's Symphonic Band." Rose says he feels confident that the proposal will pass because of the enthusiam he has re ceived from the Faculty Senate and A&M stu dents.