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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1991)
Partly cloudy with scattered showers. Temps in the mid- 80s. Page 9 If these allegations are true, it means one segment of the student population believes it can victimize other students with impunity." Carrie Cavalier on the alleged assault of a female cadet Page 8 An internationally acclaimed black actor from South Africa becomes an Aggie. Page 3 Aggies drop out of the AP Top 25 a]m The Battalion Vol. 91 No.17 USPS 045360 College Station, Texas ''Serving Texas A&M since 1893" ill i Group accuses state of financial neglect in higher education By Chris Vaughn The Battalion The state goes to the courtroom again next week to battle another contentious lawsuit, this one from the Mexican Ameri can Legal Defense Fund that seeks to end years of financial neglect at South Texas universities. The MALDEF lawsuit charges the state, specifically the Higher Education Coordinating Board, with denying South Texas universities the same level of fund ing provided to the rest of the state's insti tutions. The trial begins Monday in a state district court in Brownsville. One of MALDEF's primary pieces of evidence is several studies showing the state spends an average of $155 per per son on higher education, but only $69 per person in South Texas. The difference in creases in Central Texas, where $249 per person is spent on schools like Texas A&M and the University of Texas. "There is a tremendous disparity in terms of access to higher education in South Texas compared to the rest of the state," says Laredo State University Presi dent Leo Sayavedra. The five South Texas schools are Lare do State, Corpus Christ! State, Texas A&I, UT at Brownsville, and UT-Pan Am. Laredo State, CCSU and Texas A&I are part of the Texas A&M University Sys tem. Chronicling the disparity between South Texas universities and the rest of the state is not difficult: — The combined degree inventory of all five South Texas schools does not equal the degree inventory of one mid size university such as Texas Tech or the University of North Texas. — Only one doctorate, a Ph.D. in bilin gual education at Texas A&I, is offered at any of the five institutions. — Corpus Christ! State and Laredo State are upper-levels, meaning there are no freshmen or sophomore students. — Laredo State does not have a cam pus of its own. It shares buildings with the Laredo Junior College. Sayavedra, who said Laredo State re ceives $4.5 million per year from the state, believes the lack of funding is because of the degree inventory in South Texas. "It is evident that state money flows to institutions that have a broad degree pro gram," he says. "South Texas doesn't have the programs that normally generate those funds. We just have not developed as well and as quickly as the rest of the state." Dr. Robert Furgason, president of Cor pus Christi State, also says a lack of pro grams is hurting the people of South Texas. "We want the opportunity to serve a broader range of students through our curriculum," Furgason said. "You have to reflect on the demographics and the needs of that sector to have stronger universi ties." Sayavedra r ays Laredo State's stu dents receive good classroom instruction, but lack everything else associated with university life. See Funding/Page 10 Fighting continues in Croatia Leaders hope cease-fire will hold; army tanks vie for strategic towns Composite by HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Seeing things Mike Sutherland, senior in Squadron 12 comes face-to-face chasing a rabbit photographs combined into one. The cowboy is part of a weather vane atop near Heldenfelds Hall Monday afternoon. The image is actually two the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. ZAGREB, Yugoslavia (AP) — Tanks, of the Serb-dominated fed eral army and Croatian militias tested a day-old cease-fire Mon day, dueling for strategic towns. Much of the secessionist republic was calm and its leaders expressed hope for a lasting truce. The media in Croatia and its neighboring rival republic, Serbia, reported a fierce fight was under way around the central Croatian towns of Nova Gradiska and Oku- cani. Battles were also reported elsewhere. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said Monday night that the fighting seemed to be ebbing, ex cept for sporadic clashes in the eastern region of Slavonia, where Serb insurgents have fought Croa tian militias since the republic de clared independence June 25. "Croatia has shown its teeth, and a completely new relation of forces has been established," said Croatian President Franjo Tudj- man's top adviser, Mario Nobilo, explaining why he thought the truce would hold. "The only language that (Ser bian President) Slobodan Milose vic can understand is the language of force, and we have now shown that will no longer be effective," Nobilo said. "I think we have gotten over the worst," Tudjman was quoted as saying Sunday night by Tanjug. Croatian officials believe Milo sevic is pulling the strings in the fighting and seeks to expand Ser See Croatia/Page 10 jail ball nent in s >day, olo Middle East complexities impede diplomacy U.N. investigators uncover evidence of Iraqi nuclear UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iraqi soldiers detained U.N. offi cials for more than 12 hours in a Baghdad building Monday, then forcibly confiscated documents that apparently show Iraq has been developing nuclear weapons. The inspectors found the pa pers in a surprise search several hours before the U.N. Security Council met to discuss Iraqi ob structions to U.N. searches for hidden weapons and production facilities. The inspectors hauled seven carloads of papers from an Iraqi government building, but authori ties stopped the team, held its members for 12 hours and "forcibly" seized the data, officials said. Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. special commission in charge of finding and demolishing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, said that before their detention the in spectors had copied some of the key documents with their own portable copying machines. The confrontation appeared likely to lead the Security Council to accept President Bush's offer to provide troops to guard the in spectors and warplanes to escort See U.N./Page 10 A&M expert predicts swift use of force By Greg Mt. Joy The Battalion An Iraqi refusal to comply with U.N. in spections for nuclear, chemical and biological weaponry will result in swift and vicious mili tary action by the United States, a Texas A&M international affairs expert said. Dr. Ronald L. Hatchett, director of A&M's Mosher Institute for Defense Studies, said President Bush could not afford to react oth erwise. "We have to hope that our potential to do damage to the remains of the Iraqi armed forces will be enough to make Saddam Hus sein comply," Hatchett said. He said Bush's threats are not idle ones. "This is not a case of muscle flexing by Bush," he said. "This is a matter of real con cern. When Iraq agreed to end hostilities, a cease-fire was negotiated. This cease-fire con tained formal binding conditions." Flatchett said the Iraqi military has been playing a 'shell game' with the United Na tions inspection teams. "The cease-fire agreement says clearly that the U.N. has the right to make inspections anywhere, anytime with no notice," he said. "Iraq has never showed good faith, and has given grossly incomplete lists of weaponry’." Hatchett said several weapon-making ma terials sold to Iraq by Western powers in the 1980's have not been listed. The materials in clude 6,000 containers of chemicals, and a shipment of heavy water, an essential compo nent in making weapons-grade plutonium. "We know these items exist," Hatchett said. "We also have reports from Iraqi defec tors indicating storage of weaponry under ground in Northern Iraq." The U.N. Security Council met Monday to plan a course of action, Hatchett said. "What it boils down to is that the Iraqis signed a binding agreement to end hostili ties," he said. "That agreement gave the U.N. the right to seek out, find, and destroy weapons of mass destruction. That includes the right to surprise inspections." Hatchett said the Iraqis are now attempt ing to renegotiate those terms. "The time for negotiation is finished," he See Mosher/Page 10 President speaks to General Assembly Bush urges acceptance of Zionism UNITED NATIONS (AP) - President Bush told the United Nations on Monday "we cannot compro mise" on demands that Iraq de stroy its nuclear weapons capabili ty. He also urged the world body to disavow its stand that Zionism is a form of racism. Bush set no deadline for Sad dam Hussein to unconditionally submit to inspection and destruc tion of his most dangerous weapons or face renewed military force. The president did say the U.N. should keep economic sanc tions clamped on Iraq as long as Saddam remains in control. Bush He took a strong stance on the 1975 Zionism res olution, a major source of mistrust between Israel and the U.N. "To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself," Bush said in his speech to the General As sembly of representatives from 166 nations. "This body cannot claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel's right to exist. "By repealing this resolution unconditionally," he said, "the United Nations will enhance its credi bility and serve the cause of peace." "It's very encouraging to hear the president did it," said Yossi Ahimeir, a top aid to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. See Bush/Page 10 PLO rejects Israeli peace terms ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Yasser Arafat rejected Israeli con ditions for peace talks Monday, but said the PLO is nonetheless ready to help the United States bring to gether the Middle East's antagonistic neighbors. He spoke at the opening of a pivotal Arafat congress of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile. Its members are divided on how to respond to Israel's tough con ditions for Palestinian participa tion in the peace talks. Arafat's keynote speech dealt in generalities about the planned peace conference. He laid down no specific program. The PLO already has rejected Israeli conditions designed to ex clude the PLO and its sympathiz ers from the talks. Most move ment leaders have described as insufficient promises to the Pales tinians provided last week by U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III. "Let everybody know, we re ject the Israeli blackmail and the Israeli conditions," said Arafat, who gave a victory salute as he took the podium. He appealed to Presidents George Bush and Mikhail S. Gor bachev to "do all within your power to resolve the Middle East problem and, particularly, the Palestinian problem, in conformi ty with international law." He said time is running out to convene the peace conference, which he described as "a rich op portunity that looms on the hori-