The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 07, 1991, Image 1

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‘Apparently there are a lot of I
people out there who think that I
just because it's easy to get a pet I
it's easy to keep one.”
columnist Ellen Hobbs, on pet I
owner's responsibilities. I
Campus section Page 2
Civil rights activist visits A&M
to discuss non-violent teachings.
Report on scholarship funding
provided by University license plate
sales.
What’s Up Page 4
The Battalion
Page 7
Texas A&M
overcomes
Lubbock hex with
37-14 victory over
Texas Tech.
Vol. 91 No. 26 USPS 045360 College Station, Texas
“Serving Texas A&M since 1893’
10 Pages
Monday, October 7, 1991
A&M could have provided higher pay raises, official says
Chris Vaughn
The Battalion
The Texas Faculty Association's direc
tor charges that Texas A&M professors
are being "bamboozled" into believing
the University cannot provide them a
higher raise than the 2 percent increase
approved by the state.
Dr. Charles Zucker, TFA director, says
A&M has nearly $148 million in unre
served funds in its local coffers and could
easily provide an additional 3 percent pay
hike for faculty members.
"A&M's faculty should not be bam
boozled into thinking that the University
doesn't have the money to do this," Zuck-
er says.
The figures Zucker quotes are from
State Comptroller John Sharp's audit re
leased in June. The $148 million is from
fiscal year 1990, which ended Sept. 1, but
Zucker says the numbers probably have
not changed.
When Sharp released the Texas Per
formance Review, A&M administrators
challenged some of the figures, but A&M
Vice President for Finance and Adminis
tration Robert Smith did not return phone
calls to The Battalion last week.
The TFA recently released a statewide
faculty advisory calling for professors to
insist on a 3 percent additional raise be
cause of the nearly $1 billion in unre
served funds in public universities.
Sharp's report states that A&M's $148
million unreserved balance is equal to
about 36 percent of its total operational
budget. It also states that the University of
Texas at Austin has $91 million unre
served, which is equal to 24 percent of its
operational budget.
Zucker says universities need to main
tain only about 8 percent of its budget in
unreserved funds.
"It's time to spend some of these fund
balances," Zucker says. "Our position is
not to spend all of the money, but A&M
can afford to prudently spend some of
this money to maintain the quality of edu
cation."
Quality education has become a major
issue in the state as Texas falls behind in
several categories. For example, college
professors in Texas are paid an average of
12 percent less than their counterparts in
the 10 most populous states. Texas uni
versities also employ fewer tenure-track
professors and more lecturers than the
other 10 largest states.
But Dr. Pat Alexander, speaker of the
A&M Faculty Senate, says it should not be
up to the University to cover the state's
neglect.
"What if they spent that money on fac
ulty salaries?" Alexander says. "They
would have no money left for crises. To
ask the University to compensate for the
lack of state appropriations is not fair. We
deserve more, but it is up to the Legisla
ture and the public, not the University."
Zucker says the TFA recommendation
See Raise/Page 6
RICHARD S. JAMES/ The Battalion
Lean into it
Jennifer Appel, a senior at Texas A&M, leans into turn eight on the road
course at Texas World Speedway on Saturday. Appel was competing in the
American Motorcyclist Association BBC Brakes Endurance race with two other
woman riders. Profile of Appel/Page 10. Summary of races/Page 7.
Mobley
changes
committee
President appoints local psychologist
to co-chair panel investigating Corps
dean of the College of Geo
sciences; Mary Elizabeth Herring,
assistant to the dean of the College
of Medicine; Dr. Betty Unterberg-
er, professor of history; and
Stephen Weber, a junior biochem
istry major, and Tricia Heithecker,
a senior business analysis major.
Weber and Heithecker are ex
ecutive vice presidents for A&M's
student government.
In a press release by the Office
of Public Information, Mobley list
ed four objectives for the commit
tee:
-to evaluate the validity of the
allegations and recommend fur
ther action.
-to propose steps to eliminate
any harassment and discrimina
tion in the Corps.
-to recommend any changes
necessary to ensure that proper
disciplinary or criminal action is
taken regarding the allegations.
The committee selected by
See Mobley/Page 6
By Karen Praslicka
The Battalion
Texas A&M President William
Mobley has appointed a College
Station resident with no Universi
ty affiliation to
co-chair the fact
finding commit
tee which will re
view the dis
crimination and
harassment
charges made by
several female
members of the
Corps of Cadets.
Mobley
named Dr. Sara
Jones, a practicing psychologist,
and Dr. Kenneth Dirks, director of
the A.P. Beutel Student Health
Center, as co-chairs of the commit
tee.
Other committee members are:
Dr. Manuel Davenport, professor
of philosophy; Dr. Mel Friedman,
Mobley
'Students are at risk'
Health center offers influenza immunization
Pollution violators received
tax breaks, newspaper reports
By Alysia Woods
The Battalion
Students who do not want to spend time in bed
with influenza this fall should stop by Texas A&M's
A.P. Beutel Health Center for a quick and inexpen
sive immunization.
Dr. Kenneth Dirks, director of the health center,
says students are at risk each fall from influenza,
commonly known as the "flu," and they should pro
tect themselves.
"The cost for the shot is minimal, yet only a hand
ful of students come in," he says.
The flu shot is available for $5 and is adminis
tered from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
No appointment is necessary.
The immunization is administered through the
arm and is virtually painless, he says.
"The flu can make people, very sick," Dirks says.
"But the immunization is hardly noticed."
He says to decrease the chances of getting the flu,
□ Officials expect severe flu season/Page 3
all students should be immunized by the end of Oc
tober every year.
People who are allergic to eggs, however, cannot
receive the shot because the vaccine is formulated in
egg solutions.
See Flu/Page 6
HOUSTON (AP) - Harris
County has awarded nearly $1 bil
lion in property tax abatements to
corporations that have received
numerous citations for violating
air and water pollution standards,
a newspaper reported.
The tax breaks, used by state
and local governments as incen
tives for corporations to locate or
expand here, have been ques
tioned both on whether they are
an effective way to bring jobs to
the community and for their im
pact on the environment. The
Houston Post reports.
The abatements will allow 10
petrochemical and paper compa
nies — Quantum, Arco, Chevron,
Lyondell, Champion International
Paper, Shell, Himont, Georgia
Gulf, Du Pont and Ethyl — to save
$5.3 million in 1991 taxes on abat
ed plant expansions or improve
ments while promising only 507
new jobs.
In addition, Phillips Petroleum
alone received a $270,000 tax
break in 1991 on its project to re
built what it lost in a 1989 explo
sion that killed 23 workers.
"I don't see any harm in using
abatements to get companies to
come into the community, but for
the purpose of enlarging or re
modeling, I don't think that's ap
propriate," said Athalea Curry,
head of the Taxpayers' Coalition
of Houston.
"They should go get a loan,"
she said. "That's what I have to
do."
The abatements started five
See Pollution/Page 6
Leaders try to stop ’nuclear renegades’
MOSCOW (AP) - Pledges of
sweeping arms cuts by the U.S.
and Soviet presidents reflect their
belief that the
superpowers
now face less
threat from each
other than from
renegades with
nuclear
weapons.
George Bush
and Mikhail S.
Gorbachev have
moved beyond
the arduous ne
gotiations that characterized
decades of U.S.-Soviet arms con
trol and are instead announcing
unilateral steps.
Significantly, they made their
promises before either side had
ratified the Strategic Arms Reduc
tion Treaty, which was negotiated
very painfully over nearly a
decade and was signed at the
Moscow summit in July.
A member of a delegation
headed by U.S. Undersecretary of
State Reginald Bartholomew that
arrived in Moscow on Saturday to
discuss the nuclear cuts said both
sides had accomplished more in
one week than in five years of ne
gotiations. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Behind the good intent of the
gestures, both leaders have their
own barely hidden agendas,
which mostly overlap but in some
cases contradict each other.
Bush, while acting unilaterally
to scrap and mothball some Amer
ican nuclear weapons, also wants
to dismantle Iraq's atomic poten
tial.'Gorbachev also is backing
U.N. efforts to deny Iraq the
bomb.
Gorbachev, for his part, wants
to reduce the chances of Soviet ex
tremists seizing nuclear arms for
use in domestic turmoil. Bush
shares that goal and paved the
way for Gorbachev by announc
ing unilateral U.S. steps a week
ago.
Although the leaders are unit
ed in their major objectives, each
tilted their promises to favor his
country.
Bush sought to defuse Soviet
demands for talks on naval arms
control by announcing that he was
pulling tactical nuclear weapons
off many American vessels but not
destroying all of them.
Gorbachev
Gorbachev speaks out
against anti-Semitism
MOSCOW (AP) - Breaking
decades of silence by Soviet lead
ers. President Mikhail S. Gor
bachev on Sunday sharply de
nounced hatred for Jews and be
moaned their exodus from the
Soviet Union.
Gorbachev's statement was
carried by the Tass news agency
on Sunday and read the night be
fore at a ceremony marking the
50th anniversary of the Nazi mas
sacre of thousands of Jews at Babi
Yar, in a suburb of the Ukrainian
capita] of Kiev.
Gorbachev said persecution
of Jews did not end in the Nazi
era. In Soviet society today, he
said, "Social expressions of anti-
Semitism have not been sur
mounted and certain reactionary
circles are exploiting this fact."
Soviet and foreign Jewish
leaders have been pressing Gor
bachev for several years to speak
out against anti-Semitism.