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1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993
Wednesday, April 7,1993
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Students make their choice: Walker for president
Thompson, Williams, Ray and Baggett capture other runoff elections
By JENNIFER SMITH
The Battalion
Brian Walker won the runoff election for
Student Body President Tuesday by capturing
60 percent of the vote to Rick Taylor's 40 per
cent.
Walker and Taylor earned the most votes in
last week's election, but they were forced into
a runoff because neither finished with fifty
percent of the vote.
Walker, the current speaker of the student
senate, said improving Texas A&M's reputa
tion will be his highest priority when he takes
over in the fall.
"I want to attack the multicultural issue at
Texas A&M and maintain the credibility and
the name of the Aggie Ring," Walker said.
Taylor could not be reached for comments
on the runoff election.
Walker won 1,653 of the
2764 votes in the runoff
election. Taylor, a member
of the Corps of Cadets, cap
tured 1,086 votes.
Walker said the cam
paign was tough, but defi
antly worth the effort.
"We had a hard road
ahead of us, but we took it
one step at a time," he said.
"We rose to the occasion
and got the job done."
Walker credited his victory to his campaign
staff and the students.
"It was the student body of Texas A&M
who voted me into office," he said.
Walker said he wants to improve the Greek
system at A&M by enlarging the Greek staff.
Throughout the campaign. Walker stressed
that the Student Senate needs to become more
accountable to the student body. To do this.
Walker said the Senate needs to be larger and
more powerful.
Further, the speaker of the senate and the
student body president must work together to
avoid the traditional conflict between the two
positions, he said.
"We want to make the student senate more
effective, and this will hopefully make the
University more effective," Walker said.
Walker has been involved in student gov
ernment for three years. He has presided as
speaker of the senate and has served on vari
ous University committees.
Walker has also represented students in
Austin by testifying before the state legislature.
See Walker/Page 2
Walker
Radiation spreads over Siberia
after weapons plant explosion
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — A tank of radioactive waste explod
ed and burned Tuesday at a weapons plant in the
Siberian city of Tomsk-7, contaminating a vast area
and exposing firefighters to dangerous levels of radi
ation, Russian officials said.
The accident could be among the worst in the for
mer Soviet Union since a reactor at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded in 1986,
spewing radiation across Europe.
It was unclear how much radiation was released
in the accident, or how many people might be affect
ed.
The Interfax news agency reported that about
2,500 acres were contaminated with radiation from
the explosibn. It said the wind was carrying the radi
ation toward unpopulated areas.
Vitaly Nasonov, a spokesman for the Nuclear En
ergy Ministry, said some firefighters at the scene
were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Inter
fax said the maximum dose among the firefighters
was 0.6 roentgens.
Roland Finston, a health physicist at Stanford Uni
versity, said in a telephone interview that such a
dose "would not cause any clinically detectable ill
ness." The average acceptable dose for nuclear work
ers is 2.0 roentgens per year according to the Interna
tional Commission on Radiological Protection.
The international environmental group Green
peace said the explosion took place in a plutonium
separation factory, part of a secret nuclear weapons
complex in Tomsk-7.
Greenpeace said the explosion apparently did not
involve plutonium.
It said its information came from a unidentified
Russian group member who had spoken with Nu
clear Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov.
Tomsk-7 is believed to be about 12 miles outside
Tomsk, a city of 500,000 people about 1,700 miles east
of Moscow. Because Tomsk-7 is secret, it does not ap
pear on ordinary maps.
No efforts to evacuate the region were reported.
Authorities said the tank that exploded contained
a solution of uranium waste products, and the cause
of the explosion was under investigation.
Greenpeace said the explosion apparently was
caused by a rapid increase in temperature in the tank
after nitric acid was added to the uranium.
Although the tank was made of stainless steel,
buried in the earth and covered by a concrete slab,
the explosion "has released all of the radioactive ma
terials into the atmosphere and surrounding environ
ment," Greenpeace said in a written statement.
It added that the explosion was accompanied by a
fire that apparently started because the explosion
short-circuited electrical systems in the plant.
Medicare funding near exhaustion
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Rising
health care costs have left the
Medicare trust fund with only
enough money to pay hospital
benefits for senior citizens and
disabled Americans through this
decade, according to a federal re
port released Tuesday.
The report shows that
Medicare's hospital insurance
trust fund will be exhausted as
early as 1998.
More optimistic estimates sug
gest the trust fund could remain
solvent through the year 2000, but
that's still sooner than expected.
The board of trustees for
Medicare's Hospital Insurance
Trust Fund, which issued Tues
day's report, had predicted last
year that the fund's reserves
would be exhausted by the year
2002.
"These new estimates show a
significant worsening in the eco
nomic health of the Medicare pro
gram," said Health and Human
Services Secretary Donna E. Sha-
lala. "They reflect many of the
problems that we see across the
board in our health care system
today and they are another
demonstration of the need for sys
tem-wide change."
Congress is likely to act before
there is any real threat to seniors'
hospital insurance. A congression
al aide noted that while the
trustees' reports suggest "the sky
is falling ... it never does."
"These new estimates
show a significant
worsening in the
economic health of the
Medicare program."
- Donna Shalala,
Health and Human
Services Secretary
Members of the Medicare hos
pital insurance board of trustees
are Shalala; Treasury Secretary
Lloyd Bentsen; Labor Secretary
Robert Reich; and Stanford Ross
and David Walker, presidential
appointees who represent the
public.
The five also are members of
the boards of trustees for the So
cial Security retirement and dis
ability insurance trust funds.
Their report Tuesday indicates
that although the retirement trust
fund has enough money to pay
benefits for decades, the disability
insurance trust fund is also going
broke.
The trustees' report says the
disability insurance fund will be
exhausted by 1995.
Last year, their report said the
fund would be insolvent by 1997.
The trustees recommended
that Congress avert problems for
the disability trust fund by reallo
cating the payroll taxes that fi
nance both disability and Social
Security's retirement trust funds.
The action would make both trust
funds solvent till the year 2036.
The trustees also suggested
Congress address the Medicare
trust fund's problems by control
ling medical costs through a com
prehensive health care reform
package.
The Social Security Adminis
tration expects to pay $300 billion
in old age, survivors and disabili
ty insurance benefits this year.
Puryear Volleyball
KEVIN IVY/The Battalion
Brad Groves, a sophomore, digs a serve during a volleyball game
Tuesday afternoon outside Puryear Hall. Groves played with five
other residents of Puryear.
Computer
glitch causes
crew to abort
shuttle liftoff
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
For the second time in two weeks,
a space shuttle countdown came
unglued in the final few seconds
before launch early Tuesday. The
likely culprit: a computer glitch.
Computer data indicated a
valve had not closed in Discov
ery's main propulsion system,
raising the danger of a hydrogen
fuel spill and a possible explo
sion. Engineers believe the valve
closed properly and that a bad
circuit might be to blame.
NASA officials hoped to have
the problem corrected and re
sume the countdown by Tuesday
evening. That would allow Dis
covery to blast off at 1:29 a.m.
EDT Thursday on its mission to
examine Earth's fragile ozone lay
er, NASA officials said.
Columbia's countdown on
March 22 was aborted three sec
onds before liftoff when a stuck
valve caused the main engines to
shut down. And Discovery's on
board computers automatically
halted the countdown 11 seconds
before launch, less than five sec
onds shy of main engine ignition.
NASA immediately doused
the engines with water and had
to drain 528,000 gallons of fuel
from the external tank. Shuttle di
rector Thomas Utsman estimates
every launch scrub at the pad
costs about $500,000.
The five-member crew spent
the day reviewing flight data and
flying training jets.
"Space flight is a complicated
business, and sometimes things
don't go as planned," said shuttle
commander Kenneth Cameron.
John Pike, space policy project
director for the Federation of
American Scientists, was less
charitable.
"It's bad luck that they've had
two aborts in a row. It's good
luck that they caught the problem
on the ground. It is a reminder
that this system is not perfect and
that at some point in the next
decade we're going to have an
other Challenger accident."
Hours before Discovery's
countdown was abruptly halted,
Utsman acknowledged that
NASA had "hit a surge of prob
lems" in recent weeks.
Sports
•Preston steps in for Pullig
during football spring practice
Page 5
•Baseball: Aggies fall to UTA
8-6, move to 33-4
Page 6
Opinion
•Editorial:Altered ballots
tainted last week's elections
Page 8
•Expanded mail call!
Page 9
Action-oriented conference to address minority issues
By ELIZABETH LOWE
The Battalion
Critical issues facing minorities in Texas is the focus of a
two-day conference beginning today in Rudder Tower.
The Race and Ethnic Studies Institute at Texas A&M
University is sponsoring the event, titled "Meeting the
Challenge: Critical Issues in Education, Health and Em
ployment for Minorities in Texas."
The conference will bring together students, educators,
policy makers, researchers, business and community lead
ers to discuss solutions for improving the quality of life for
Texas minorities.
The discussion will be unique in its attempt to set an
agenda to implement the strategies suggested by the fo
rum, said Gail Thomas, director of the Race and Ethnic
Studies Institute and conference coordinator.
Lecturers will present their perspectives and join the
participants in workshops to fill the gaps, prioritize and
discuss the remedy they as a group want to propose to
Texas, she said.
"We've had enough of identifying the problem,"
Thomas said. "The dialogue will be fully participatory.
Each participant must take the responsibility of finding a
remedy."
Rather than simply theorize about solutions, the discus
sion will stress determining how to fulfill the solutions,
Thomas said.
University President William H. Mobley said the confer
ence, as well as the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute, "will
serve as an important lens through which the broad-based
research activities of the University are focused on areas
critical to Texas and the nation."
Thomas said the disparity between the individuals who
make policies and people who serve them is one of the
most important topics to be discussed.
Other important subjects she anticipates the conference
will address include the importance of balance in empow
ering minorities and new perspectives which cut across
race, gender and social classes.
The conference will be highlighted with a dinner speech
in the MSC by media entrepreneur Tony Brown. Brown, a
recipient of the NAACP Image Award and founder of the
School of Communications at Howard University, will dis
cuss the nature of race relations and the formation of a
strategic plan for the 1990s.
Other keynote speakers include Joshua I. Smith, presi
dent and Chief Executive Officer of the Maxima Corpora
tion, who will discuss black entrepreneurship; and Maria
Robledo Montecel, executive director of the Intercultural
Development Research Association in San Antonio.
Sen. Royce West will deliver a speech titled "Meeting
the Challenge: Which Direction?" Also, Reuben Warren,
associate director for minority health at the Centers for Dis
ease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Dis
ease Registry in Atlanta, will discuss freedom as the ulti
mate measure of well-being.
The conference will feature more than 20 other panelists.
Thomas said the conference is fortunate to have such a
distinguished panel. "Any one of these could be a keynot
er," she said.
Student passes for the conference are $10 and available
until 3 p.m. today on the second floor of Rudder Tower.