Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1991)
Page 7 Once again, another major city could no longer support two major newspapers in its market, and the reason is as simple as the bottom line-money. -Columnist Todd Stone on the last printing of the Dallas Times Herald. The Battalion Vol. 91 No. 72 College Station, Texas ‘Serving Texas A&M since 1893' 8 Pages Thursday, December 12, 1991 Jury acquits William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault charges WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - William Kennedy Smith was acquitted Wednesday of sexual assault and battery in a case that focused national attention on date rape and tarnished the Kennedy legend. The jury of four women and two men took about 90 minutes to reject the allega tions of a 30-year-old woman who said Smith chased her, toppled her on the lawn of the Kennedy estate and raped her under a full moon. Smith wished a Merry Christmas to cheering supporters outside the court house. "I want to thank the jurors," he said. "My life was in their hands and I'm so grateful." He also thanked the judge and said, "I have an enormous debt to the system and to God and I have a terrific faith in both of them." "This has hurt all rape victims, and you're going to have a lot of victims that won't come forward because of what has been done to this woman," Robin Miller, who heads a group called Families En raged Against Rape, said outside the courthouse. In Rhode Island, Patrick Kennedy said: "This has been a very difficult time for my family. I believed in my cousin Willie's innocence all along. The jury's swift verdict will now allow Willie and all of us to get on with our lives." Smith graduated from Georgetown University Medical School this year. He was to enter a residency program at the University of New Mexico Medical Cen ter in Albuquerque. Officials of the school said they will talk to Smith before decid ing anything about his status. Smith, 31, had taken the stand on his own defense, adamantly denying her charges and painting her as a sexually ag gressive woman who initiated sex after they met at a trendy night club during Easter weekend. Smith grinned as the verdict was read and embraced his lawyer, Roy Black, who had argued passionately in his defense earlier in the day. There was no other reaction in the courtroom because the judge warned the spectators they would face punishment if they made any noises to show approval or disapproval. After the verdict. Circuit Judge Mary Lupo thanked the jurors, saying "You have done justice regardless of your ver dict." "This has not been a movie made for TV," she told them. "The TV has come into the courtroom. The only difference between this case and any other is that more people want to see this case.". She told jurors it was up to them whether they wanted to talk publicly about their decision, but "I need to tell you that you are the story now." As he left the courtroom. Black was asked how he felt. "Terrific, just terrific." "I feel great, just great!" said Smith's mother, Jean Kennedy Smith. Before the jury began deliberating, prosecutor Moira Lasch denounced Smith as a rapist who inflicted "violence, humil iation and degradation," on the Florida woman. Black said the sexual encounter was "right out of a romance novel." The sensational case was submitted to jurors at midafternoon by the the judge, who told them "all of us are depending upon you to make a wise and legal deci sion in this matter." "This isn't a date rape," Lasch told the panel in closing arguments. "This is a stranger rape. She didn't know this man." "This is the act of a rapist," she said. "This is not the act of love." : % MSSMilPlP - F9 .4 •' . Jpr * m Stars and stripes TED W. ALBRACHT/ The Battalion Jake Battenfield (left), a freshman from Lewisville, and Jesse as Brian Box (right), a junior from Mexia, folds it in front of the Guzman (middle), a sophomore from Del Rio, hold the U.S. flag Academic Building Wednesday evening. Republics plan move, Yeltsin says Russian President attempts to win support for alliance Boris Yeltsin MOSCOW (AP) - Boris Yeltsin said Wednesday two more republics will join the common wealth forged by the three Slavic republics, adding momen tum to efforts to replace the dis solving Soviet Union with a new political ar rangement. Four other republics called a meeting to de cide their stand on the common wealth, founded over the week end by Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia. Yeltsin met with senior Soviet Defense Ministry officials and army commanders to win support for the commonwealth, one day after Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev held talks with the same military leaders. Gorbachev and Yeltsin are bat tling over who will decide the fate of the former Soviet Union, and both the Russian and the Soviet legislatures convene Thursday for crucial sessions on the new com monwealth. Ukraine and Byelorussia have already ratified it. Yeltsin and Gorbachev met Wednesday. They refused to speak with re porters, but Yeltsin said later that Gorbachev had ruled out the use of force in their political con frontation, the Russian Informa tion Agency reported. Yeltsin told a separate meeting of Russian lawmakers that Gor bachev would remain comman der-in-chief of the military for the present. Although Gorbachev has struggled to keep the union intact, an aide acknowledged that it was a lost cause. Igor Malashenko said on na tional television that the Soviet leader must retain that power and the right to represent the republics in foreign relations. "I think that Mikhail Gorbachev is ready to re sign, probably he will do that, but I don't think his potential is ex hausted," said Malashenko. II University surpasses Yale, Princeton A&M ranks in Merit Scholars EC leaders establish compromise By Susan Maguire The Battalion Texas A&M has overtaken Yale and Princeton to become fifth in the nation in the number of freshmen who are National Merit Scholars. Dr. Dale Knobel, director of the University Honors Program, said on Tuesday the National Mer it Scholar Corporation issued its annual report during the first week of December and the report showed that A&M has moved up two places from its seventh place ast year. Texas A&M is listed behind arvard. Rice, the University of exas and Stanford. A&M has 154 new National Merit Scholars this year, an increase from last year's number of 131 and the previous year's number of 113. "The University is coming to the attention of some heavily-re cruited students," Knobel said. Merit scholars are recruited through the Summer Honors Invi tational Program, scholarships | and visits with officials from the Honors Program. He said A&M is doing a good ^ job of delivering the opportunities that the Honors Program advertis es. "We pop up on several top-10 lists," Knobel said. He mentioned that A&M's Honors Program is one of the largest and most comprehensive honors programs in the country. "We offer 300 honors classes a year, and 2,500 students partici pate in the program," he said. He said that the University is seventh nationally in the volume of research funding, taking in $275 million. Knobel said that many good students at A&M aren't National Merit Scholars. "Almost half of the freshman class came out of the top 10 per cent of their high school classes," he said. "Almost 1,000 have SAT scores that range in the top 1 per cent of SAT-takers." National Merit Scholars are chosen from their PSAT scores, their SAT or ACT scores, their high school records and from rec ommendations of counselors and principals. "One-half on one percent of all graduating seniors wind up as National Merit Scholars," said Knobel. He said that each Merit Schol ar needs a sponsor which can be the National Merit Scholar Corpo ration, private corporations or one of the 225 colleges and universities that sponsor the scholars, includ ing A&M. "One of the nice things we can do is to tell any National Merit fi nalist who declares A&M as their first choice that we can sponsor them," he said. The University sponsored 118 of the 154 National Merit Scholars that chose to attend A&M this year, Knobel said. Tammira Early, a freshman chemical engineering major and National Merit Scholar, said that she decided to come to A&M be cause it is a well-rounded univer sity. "I like the extracurricular ac tivities, the spirit and the tradi tions," she said. Early said she participated in a Summer Honors Invitational dur ing the summer of her junior year. Also, she said, she received "a ton of mailings" and was invited to a presentation given in Hous ton. Early said she never consid ered A&M when she was thinking about her college career. MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (AP) - With tur moil gripping the eastern half of their continent, Eu ropean Community leaders have agreed to expand their powers to help achieve greater stability and prosperity. Leaders of the 12-nation trading bloc hammered out a compromise in the early hours of Wednesday setting up a loose federation with a common foreign policy and a single currency by 1999. The accord, marking a turning point in the com munity's 34-year history, was fashioned only after Britain was exempted from the single currency and rules governing workers' rights and other labor con ditions. See European/ Page 2 Final Exam Schedule The following is a list of the final exam schedule for Fall ‘91: Day: Dec. 13, Friday Dec. 13, Friday Dec. 13, Friday Dec. 16, Monday Dec. 16, Monday Dec. 16, Monday Dec. 16, Monday Dec. 17, Tuesday Dec. 17, Tuesday Dec. 17, Tuesday Dec. 17, Tuesday Dec. 18, Wednesday Dec. 18, Wednesday Dec. 18, Wednesday Dec. 18, Wednesday Time of final: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. 3 to 5 p.m. 8 to 10 a.m. 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 1 to 3 p.m. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. 8 to 10 a.m. 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 1 to 3 p.m. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. 8 to 10 a.m. 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 1 to 3 p.m. 3:30 to 5: 30 p.m. Classes meeting: MWF 8 a.m. TR 12:30 to 1:45 p.m TR 11a.m. to 12:15 p.m. MWF 9 a.m. MWF 12 p.m. TR 8 to 9:15 a.m. MW 3 to 4:15 p.m. • MWF 10 a.m. MWF 2 p.m. TR 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. MWF 1 p.m. TR 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. MWF 11 a.m. TR 2 to 3:15 p.m. TR 5 to 6:15 p.m. or later