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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1991)
Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain and a high of 90. Page 11 President Bush said Operation Desert Storm was not about oil but unhindered agression. He should prove this by taking preventive steps against the same type of agression which could occur in the Pacific. -David Nash on the end of the U.S. lease on a Naval Station in the Phillipines. Page 7 Movie/Album Review: "The Commitments " •h and lot ) and Do| nomas:' carry Vol. 91 No.12 GSPS 045360 The Battalion ^oMe^e^tation^Texa^ 12 Pages Jjuesdcr^SegtemberlT^lSSl er injurii ing staff ftchardsd |A&M faculty, departments try to cope with budget woes By Troy D. Hall The Battalion ame wit hman t led for ind cat; yards £ University faculty say they are coping chesws with continued budget cuts on a daily ba- ;rab frisis. but voice concern about how further I Buts would affect classes in the coming excitinsf lionths. nowhi Some colleges are being hit harder by ;verybc: budget cuts than others, but faculty nnilpBeem to be coping, said Dr. Patricia ^ z ° ne Alexander, speaker of the A&M Faculty ^faBenate. in thehifg Simm ' makir. /e. Fre; ous afc it by ws arries. nervous igb scfc collegii' ning. V. ourself call ca: what they are spending," she said. "But we were all prepared for it (budget cuts) and we are trying to cope." Dr. Mel Friedman, dean of College of Geosciences, said the biggest problem is the lack of teaching resources. "We have really gotten behind on re pairing and replacing equipment and the problems are beginning to pile up," he said. Without an adequate budget, the problem will continue to get worse, Fried man said. "Our operating budget is down about five to ten percent compared to our peers around the country," he said. "We are having to rely more on dedication of the faculty to do their job rather than re sources." Most departments are cutting back on photo copies, telephone calls and travel expenses. But Dr. Charles Harris, associate de partment head of philosophy and human ities, said the budget situation in the near future will grow to affect students and faculty. The department is scheduled for a four percent cut in this year's budget and then again next year, he said. n the si;- Ddney,a ns aree saturdai ichanfc as prot- holdr! n Wilbef puntsib ongof'. : ! yards; s' kick "Next year's budget will be worse be cause it will include the loss of money from this year," Harris said. The philosophy and humanities de partment is considering eliminating all summer school classes for next year. Other University departments also have felt the brunt of the budget shortfall. "The budget woes have cut down some of the luxuries of teaching, but not the quality," said Barbara Gastel, associ ate professor and assistant journalism de partment head. "We were hoping to es tablish a master's program in science and technology, but things are not moving as fast as many of us would like." Dr. Charles Self, journalism depart ment head, said the Texas Higher Educa tion Coordinating Board announced a freeze on accrediting any new master's programs, putting a hold on the proposed masters program. "The department took a bad hit at a . bad time," he said. "It removed all flexi bility." Self said the department has slashed its operating budget, laid off part-time help and graduate assistants. He said he See Faculty/Page 2 A&M gives ’back pay’ to 19 profs EEOC investigation reveals female faculty underpaid By Chris Vaughn T7ie Battalion ; - — HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Branching Out Tawny Britton, a political science major from Plano, prepares for her next class under the shade of an oak tree located on the left side of the Academic Building. Texas A&M has been quietly settling with 19 female faculty members for years of salary wrongs as part of an agreement between the University and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportu nity Commission. The 19 women have received thousands of dollars each in "back pay" and had their salaries "ad justed" during recent months fol lowing an EEOC investigation that began last fall. The University has already spent more than $100,000 in awarding back pay. The EEOC became interested in A&M's salaries last fall when a complaint was filed with the agen cy about salary discrepancies be tween male and female profes sors.The EEOC, led by principal investigator John Wynkoop, then came to A&M and searched through the files of every depart ment with a female and male pro fessor of the same rank. Following a two-week investi gation that involved 900 files and 160 female faculty members, the EEOC and University found 19 cases of salary-based discrimina tion. See Discrimination/Page 2 Aquino engenders public support for renewal of lease for U.S. Navy base lMI lay, MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Cora- ?.on Aquino vowed Monday to call a public referen dum and use "people power" to overturn a Senate vote against renewing the lease for a big U.S. Navy oase. Her action could delay a U.S. withdrawal from he Subic Bay base for months or even years. The :>ase is a major supply and repair station for U.S. 7th Fleet ships in the western Pacific and the Indian Dcean. The current lease on the base expired Monday. The U.S. government had said the Navy would begin leaving quickly if the Senate rejected the treaty to extend the lease for 10 years. But U.S. offi cials said Monday the departure would be delayed to await the referendum. The White House praised Aquino. "We do appreciate her efforts," spokesman Mar lin Fitzwater said. "She's trying to engender public support for the treaty." Aquino's former allies in the "people power rev olution" that put her in office pleaded with her to accept the Senate's 12-11 vote to close the base and end the U.S. military presence in the Philippines af ter 93 years. Noriega called 'crooked cop MIAMI (AP) — Manuel Norie ga, the most powerful man in Panama, was "just another crooked cop" who sold his nation to Colombian cocaine kingpins, a prosecutor said Monday to open the ousted dictator's drug trial. Pointing to Noriega and call ing him a "small man in a gener al's uniform," lead prosecutor Michael Sullivan said the govern ment would prove Noriega abused his authority to help a flood of cocaine pour into the United States. Noriega came to the Medellin cartel's attention in the late 1970s when he arrested smugglers and intercepted drug shipments, Sulli van said. "The cartel chiefs sat down and said they were either going to eliminate him, or they were going to buy him," the prosecutor said. "They decided to buy him." The defense elected to hold its opening statement until the prose cution rests, which could take months. Sullivan never referred to de fense arguments that Noriega's ac tivities were tolerated or even au thorized by U.S. intelligence agen cies, in part to help the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in the mid- 1980s. Among the first prosecution witnesses was convicted U.S. drug trafficker Max Mermelstein, who was among others expected to outline operations of the Medellin cartel. Mermelstein is in the federal witness protection program and says there's a $3 million price on his head. He took the stand under tight security. pace shuttle dodges laJi Soviet rocket debris ; 1 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Discovery early Mon- lay dodged a chunk of a Soviet l)cket, the first such near miss of lie shuttle program, before the ■ew assembled a giant "Erector let" as practice for the proposed ■>ace station. I The five astronauts should not _ lave to worry about any more , . lich encounters during the mis- able Ion, NASA said. , I The shuttle and the debris — al>out the size of a van — passed Office [lithin about 10 miles of each oth- TV ■ m * nu t es a f ter midnight. * I It was the first time in the 10- "ldan Bear-old shuttle program that as- ■onauts had to move their ship to Ivoid orbiting debris. I "I think we scored a space |rst," Mission Control's Jan Davis lid the crew before they went to sleep for the day. "Good work on fiverybody's part." I The astronauts have been ts rs working at night and sleeping during the day since they reached orbit Thursday, arranging their schedule around the midnight re lease of an atmospheric observa tion satellite. Before going to sleep, the as tronauts assembled a Tinkertoy like structure for an experiment gauging the effectiveness of com ponents for the space station. The structure was shaken electronical ly to see how it withstands vibra tion in microgravity. "While it might look like an Erector Set ... it's not a trivial ex periment," astronaut James Buchli said in a preflight interview. "I ex pect there are two or three folks whose Ph.D.s are riding on it." After awaking Monday evening, Buchli and astronaut Mark Brown planned to return to test 17,500 mph. The astronauts tried to spot the object, but it passed too quickly. Attorney accuses McKenzie of leaking information DA,Wiatt support A&M regent By Greg Mt.Joy The Battalion A defense attorney's theory alleging Texas A&M Regent William McKenzie tipped off local officials to a gambling inves tigation of Lloyd Alexander "L.A." Ford to aid one of his clients in a busi ness deal is not likely to be supported by evidence, a Bryan District Attorney said. District Attorney Bill Turner said local media had played up defextse attorney Travis Bryan Ill's testimony at a pretrial hearing on Sept. 6. "In criminal cases, defen- mh**«*s* dants and their attorneys often "" c * en2 e have theories that the evidence in the case does not pertain to," Turner said. "It is not unfair to put forth such theories, but it has been my experience that the theories pursued by the defendants are not always borne out by evidence." The pretrial hearing was not completed on Sept. 6, Turner said. The hearing will re sume sometime in December. At the first hearing, Bryan said McKenzie told A&M Di rector of Security and University Police Bob Wiatt about alleged gambling activity involv ing Ford, Brazos County Sheriff Ronnie Miller and four other men. Bryan testified that McKenzie tipped-off Wiatt to help a client, Bryan resident Greg Court. McKenzie was representing Court in negotiations to sell Court's half interest in Brazos Bingo to "L.A." Ford's wife, Sandra K. Ford, who owned tire other half. Wiatt, how ever, said the business dealings had no bear ing on McKenzie's decision to inform him of the gambling activity. "McKenzie's involvement has been made into some kind of a conspiracy," Wiatt said. "The way he provided information to us is something that goes on every day. People are always giving information to law enforce ment officials. That's how things are done." Wiatt said McKenzie might have been concerned about Sheriff Miller's involve ment, since both rnen are Republicans. "The defense attorney's testimony makes the whole thing seem like the evil intentions of a powerful regent," he said. "This is total ly a defense strategy. It's what you would expect from the defense, but it is certainly not the case." Wiatt said McKenzie's call was not the only one he received information concerning the'gambling operation. "Within 10 days of McKenzie's call, a sec ond source called, and told me about a book making operation on campus involving Uni versity employees," he said. Wiatt said he believed the bookmaking might be connected to McKenzie’s call, and began an investigation which he later turned over to Department of Public Safety officers in Houston. See McKenzie/Page 3