h 9,
Windy and cool
Highs near 60
Lows in the 30s
“The Young Conservatives of
Texas are politically biased
themselves.”
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Page 9
Women bring
issues back to
rhythm ‘n’ blues
on new releases
Page 3
Men’s tennis
team prepares for
SWC play
Page 7
The Battalion
Vol. 91 NO. 111
College Station, Texas
‘Serving Texas ASM since 1893”
10 Pages
Tuesday, March 10, 1992
Yeltsin's
reforms
shake up
economy
Soviet distribution
system crumbles
MOSCOW (AP) — The price re
forms begun this year by Presi
dent Boris Yeltsin are destroying
the centralized distribution system
of the Soviet era, but vital necessi
ties are beginning to find new
paths to consumers.
The painful "price liberaliza
tion" that Yeltsin ordered on Jan. 2
was copied by the other 11 former
Soviet republics. The three Baltic
republics, independent since last
fall, had already lifted state con
trols on prices.
A survey by The Associated
Press of 14 cities in the former So
viet Union two months after the
alias' reforms began found virtual disin
tegration of the old central distri
bution system.
Food was least available in
k at itttl northern cities and easier to find
nlooka! ^ i n the agricultural regions of the
south, except those hit by ethnic
unrest. Manufactured goods were
as a cm more available in the industrial
up wit® north than in the south,
hanger Lifting state price controls was
if p\; intended to attract more goods to
market and stimulate production.
So far, the move appears largely to
be assisting in the breakup of the
I I distribution system, a step that
■ some Yeltsin advisers consider a
■ necessary prelude to the emer-
K gence of a new order.
Alexander Titkin, the Russian
■ industry minister, predicted Mon-
Iday that industrial production
■ would fall through September, but
Irise in the last three months of
|1992 as manufacturers discover
new sources of supply.
The AP survey found that pro
cess already under way in the con
sumer market. Prices in state
stores.varied widely from city to
city, whereas those in private mar
kets were closer.
A slight improvement in food
supplies was reported in three
capitals: Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan,
Baku in Azerbaijan and Dushanbe
in Tajikistan.
But all three cities still suffer
from shortages of baby food, veg
etable oil, rice and cereals.
Overall
W l
17 3
13 7
11 9
13 9
11 10
11 9
9 11
ieet aga:
nd of
ks for ii
:h.
ROBERT J. REED/The Battalion
Flag detail
Paul Bandidi, a Squadron 17 freshman, raises a flag in front
of the Systems Building Monday morning. Each outfit does
“flag detail” once a semester to ensure the flags get raised.
Poll indicates Texans
favor Bush, Clinton
Party delegates align to support front-runners
AUSTIN (AP) — Last-minute
polls showed President Bush lead
ing handily among Republicans
and Bill Clinton outpacing a
shrinking Democratic field as Tex
ans prepared
to vote in Su
per Tuesday's
largest prima
ry.
Voters also
will choose
nominees for
November
elections to
Congress, a
Railroad Com
mission posi
tion, the state Gov. Bill Clinton
House and
Senate, three
spots each on the Texas Supreme
Court and Court of Criminal Ap
peals, and for the 15-member State
Board of Education.
But presidential campaigning
received most of the attention.
Texas, with 121 Republican Na
tional Convention delegates and
214 Democratic convention dele
gates, was the largest prize in the
election derby. Every major candi
date spent at least a little time in
the state, where about 7.9 million
voters were registered.
Clinton, the Arkansas gover
nor, and his wife Hillary both
crisscrossed Texas on Sunday
looking for last-minute support.
Bush, who calls Houston home,
was in Washington but counting
on loyalists in the Texas party to
help turn out his voters.
Although TV commentator
Patrick Buchanan and former Ku
Klux Klan leader David Duke
both are on the GOP ballot, nei
ther campaigned much in Texas.
Duke made one campaign swing
in late February, and Buchanan
stumped in San Antonio and Dal
las last Friday.
A Houston Chronicle poll pub
lished Sunday showed Bush fa
vored by 80 percent of 328 Repub
licans surveyed, while 6 percent
were undecided. Buchanan had 12
percent and Duke just 1 percent.
All 121 Republican convention
delegates will be apportioned
based on the vote tally.
Monday's withdrawal of Iow r a
Sen. Tom Harkin left Clinton and
two other major Democratic can
didates — former Massachusetts
Sen. Paul
Tsongas and
former Califor
nia Gov. Jerry
Brown. Neither
of them spent
much time in
Texas, where
Clinton has
locked up
dozens of en
dorsements.
Of the 328
Democratic
primary voters
surveyed for
the Chronicle, Clinton was sup
ported by 54 percent, followed by
Tsongas with 16 percent and
Brown with 4 percent. Undecided
made up 24 percent.
Of the Democratic delegates,
127 will be determined by the vot
ing while 69 more will be picked
in a three-tiered caucus process.
President Bush
KAMU director calls funding freeze
misguided conservative reaction
By Reagon Clamon
The Battalion
Putting a hold on a funding bill
for public radio and television is a
misguided action for a noble
cause, said the program director
for Texas A&M's public television
station.
The hold was requested by a
group of conservative senators
last year and is expected to be act
ed on soon. Reportedly, the sena
tors have stopped the authoriza
tion bill because of what they
claim is liberal bias and unac
countability in public broadcast
ing.
Allegations also have been
raised that the move is a reprisal
against National Public Radio's
Nina Totenberg, who last fall was
the first reporter to release Anita
Hill's claims of sexual harassment
by Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas. Totenberg has
refused to release- the name of her
source to a Senate committee.
Roger Lewis, program director
for KAMU-TV, said the hold on
$275 million of federal money ear
marked for the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting — which sup
ports public television and radio
stations — is an understandable
reaction.
Lewis said the senators were
reacting to a move by Public
Broadcasting Services to gain
more power over local public sta
tions. Previously, stations could
purchase programs one show at a
time.
"In the past I looked at the pro
graming from PBS and cast a vote
on which (specific) series our sta
tion was willing to buy," Lewis
said. "That has all changed now.
The only option we have now is to
buy 100 percent of PBS programs
— which this year 'would have
cost us $206,000 — or 50 percent.
Money talks."
Lewis said by selling their pro
grams to the local stations in lump
sums, instead of individually, PBS
usurped control over what can be
shown and what cannot.
"The senators are reacting to
what they believe is the centraliza-
See NPR funding/Page 2
Learning, teaching top
A&M dean's priorities
By Melody Dunne
The Battalion
force-
Giving
>Corv|
Offic-
aSe-l
3 post
Iktirne
imu-
tthe
dget
and |
DER,
i
Dr. Jane Stallings
A Texas A&M dean, and
newest member of the National
Science Foundation's Advisory
Committee for
Engineering,
said she wants
to be a learner
and a teacher
in her new job.
Dr. Jane A.
Stallings, dean
of A&M's Col
lege of Educa
tion, said she
looks forward
to reaching
goals and
working with
the other 22
members of the committee.
"We should see how we might
achieve President Bush's national
goal of being number one in math
and science by the year 2000," she
said. "This is a great challenge
which can only be met if scientists,
engineers, mathematicians and ed
ucators work together collaborat
ing with schools and industry."
Stallings is unique to the group
because she is the only one with
an education background.
The other committee members
are engineering or technical spe
cialists.
The National Science Founda
tion initiates and supports basic
scientific research and programs
to strengthen research potential
and science education programs.
The advisory committee
Stallings was appointed to plays a
key role in providing advice, rec
ommendations and oversight to
the National Science Foundation's
activities.
Education is not as popular a
career choice for math and science
specialists as it used to be, she
said.
"A&M used to produce the
greatest amount of math and sci
ence teachers, but that is no longer
true," Stallings said.
The people who are stronger in
these specialties go into careers
other than education. Raising
teacher pay is one way to motivate
students to become teachers.
Children need more software
programs designed specifically for
them so they can have the oppor
tunity to learn the basics of com
puters before they complete ele
mentary school, Stallings added.
"Children need technological
equipment in the classroom,
rather than only in the lab," she
said.
Stallings taught school for 10
years and has been the A&M Dean
of Education for 18 months.
If she were to teach again,
Stallings said she definitely would
try to bring computers into her
classroom.
Barone On Break
KARL A. STOLLEIS/The Battalion
You have to understand,
with basketball there was
never a spring break."
- Tony Barone, A&M head
basketball coach
Spring Break Memorjes
□ Dr. John Koldus, V.P. for student services -
Monday
■ Tony Barone, basketball coach - Tuesday
□ Dr. William Mobley, A&M president-
Wednesday
□ R.C. Slocum, head football coach - Thursday
Coach recalls hitching post-tourney ride to Miami in '66
Editor's note: This is the second of a four-part
series on Texas A&M administrators reflecting
on their past and present sprmg break experi-
By Bridget Harrow
The Battalion
"Basketball."
It's 11 a.m. and Tony Barone, head coach
of Texas A&M's men's basketball team, an
swers the phone in his office. His secretary
has gone to lunch, and he is trying to contend
with a new phone system.
"That was it, I'm done," he says as he
hangs up the phone, clasping his hands be
hind his head and reclining back in his c^iair.
"What was my most memorable spring
break?" Barone says, repeating the question
just posed to him. Then, leaning forward he
continues, "You have to understand, with
basketball there was never a spring break."
Barone says ever since his college days, his
spring breaks have centered around basket
ball. His most memorable spring break in
volved a trip with two fellow teammates to
Miami. It was Barone's sophomore year at
Duke University in Durham, N.C. and the
Blue Devils had just returned from a third
place finish in the 1966 NCAA Tournament.
"We decided that we were going to hitch
hike from Durham to Miami for spring
break," Barone says. "We walked outside of
our dorm, down the highway and stuck our
thumbs out."
The first car that went by Barone and his
two teammates, Joe Kennedy and Mike
Lewis, stopped and picked them up.
"It was absolutely incredible," Barone
says. "The guy (driver) was a college gradu
ate student who had been on vacation in N.C.
and was going back to Miami."
The trio stayed at a friend's house on a
beach in Miami and did a lot of sightseeing.
While the weather in Durham had been de
cent, the weather in Miami was superb.
See Never/Page 10