June 21,19?:
dinale
The Battalion
Vol.92 No. 161 (6 pages)
1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993
Tuesday, June 22,1993
Europeans urge end to Bosnian crisis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ERE IS HE
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Following
the failure of an international peace plan, Eu
ropean Community leaders tried Monday to
persuade Bosnia's Muslim president to accept
the division of his country into three ethnic re
gions.
President Alija Izetbegovic emerged from
the meeting without making a commitment to
attending peace talks on the Serb-Croat plan
for dividing Bosnia, but he did not rule out ne
gotiations.
He also criticized European and other na
tions for opposing an end to the arms embargo
on the outgunned Muslim-led government. He
said the embargo has supported the Bosnian
government's defeat and "the primacy of force
over right."
After his meeting with the British, Belgian
and Danish foreign ministers, European Com
munity officials said Izetbegovic sought a sign
of good will that the Geneva talks would not
simply continue while Serbs and Croats roll
back Muslim-led forces farther.
"We have the support of the European
Community that they will support the integri
ty of Bosnia-Herzegovina as one," Izetbegovic
said, referring to community statements about
maintaining Bosnia's territorial integrity.
He left Copenhagen with no concrete expla
nation of how the community or any other in
ternational organization would preserve a
Bosnian state divided into three ethnic zones.
Western nations have shied from military in
volvement in the Balkans conflict.
The Muslims' big fear is that sooner or later
the Bosnian Serb territory would be annexed
by Serbia and the Croat-held territory ab
sorbed by adjacent Croatia, leaving the Mus
lims squeezed in between.
Foreign ministers of the 12 community na
tions agreed late Sunday that the three-way
split was the best the Muslims could hope for.
Officer assaulted when he
discovers burglary attempt
A University Police officer
was struck on the forehead with
an unknown object just before
5.00 a.m. today when he walked
in on an apparent burglary in
progress in the Reed McDonald
Building.
UPD Director Bob Wiatt said
Officer John Phillips was doing
a routine walk-through of the
building when an unknown as
sailant jumped out from hiding
and struck him.
He said the assailant was at
tempting to force entry to an of
fice in room 100.
Wiatt said the suspect fled
immediately after striking
Phillips and had not been found
as of this morning.
Wiatt said he recalls one or
two break-ins at the same room
in the past several months.
Phillips was treated and re
leased at Brazos Valley Medical
Center.
The boys of summer
m: is hold-
ae trial at
<. West of
ia. Contact
4-9377 for
talion ser-
on-profit
es. Items
Id be sub-
lan three
isired run
deadlines
events and
it's Up. K
s, call the
3.
?rs.
leaver’s fuel
at 9:07 a.m
odds of ac-
. Their mate
problems -
ut Sunday's
ttle over an
too.
naveral, th!
n and outoi
ship briefl)
he Atlantit
would have
down to the
1 would inv
. It did not.
lation
make a bi
g charges,
!. That's all
ley told The
•re hanging
MARYMACMANUS/The Battalion
Heavy showers cause flooding;
local residents get their feet wet
By JENNIFER SMITH
The Battalion
Bryan-College Station residents
experienced a taste of April show
ers in June Monday as an abun
dance of rain, which began around
4 p.m. and lasted well into the
night, caused flooding in the area.
At 8 p.m., officials with the Col
lege Station Police Department said
three roads were closed.
These roads include Highway
30 at Carters Creek, Sandy Point
Road at Thompson Creek and EM
60 at White's Creek. Officials also
anticipated closing EM 1179 at
Wickson Creek if the rain contin
ued into the night.
Water levels in Wolf Pen Creek
were very high as well, said Peg
gy Calliham, public information
officer for College Station. Flood
ing in the Wolf Pen Creek area
completely covered the landscap
ing and almost reached the street.
Barricades were posted on all
the roads that were closed, and
Calliham said they will remain
until the flooding subsides.
Officials with the College Sta
tion Police Department said the
biggest problem they have to
deal with during heavy rains is
people getting stuck in flooded
areas, even when they post barri
cades and warnings not to enter
the area.
Bryan residents were more for-
tunate. They experienced all of the
rain but little of the flooding experi
enced by College Station residents.
Sgt. Brian Kyle of the Bryan Po
lice Department said Bryan usually
experiences the least harmful ef
fects when storms hit the area be
cause the water tends to flood the
rest of the county instead of Bryan.
"Most of our water drains out
ward, but I'm sure the rest of the
county is having problems," he
said. Kyle said as far as he knows,
only one road had been closed in
Bryan.
The storms are usually the
most troublesome when they first
hit, he said.
"The water poses problems,
but it's all pretty much short
lived," Kyle said.
Officials with the Bryan Police
Department said the major con
cerns during a flood are blocking
off roads and assisting motorists
who encounter problems.
Heavy rains also caused the
flooding of a local day-care center.
Jill Burdett, a junior education
major, works at the Kinder-Care
Learning Center on Balcones Dr.,
which had almost two inches of
flooding inside the center.
"One of the downstairs rooms
was flooded with about an inch of
water," she said. "In some areas,
there were two inches of water."
Burdett said this was not the
first time the center has flooded.
"But this is the first time the flood
ing has been so bad," she said.
Burdett said she and other
workers moved furniture and oth
er materials to higher ground so
they would not be ruined.
"But we can't do anything
about the water," she said.
High test scores? Kiss your TASP goodbye
Bill exempts students who do well on college entrance exams
By MICHELE BRINKMANN
Paul Allen, the head baseball coach from for nine to 12 year-olds lasts until Wednesday.
Corsicana High School, teaches one of the The kids learn batting skills and various fielding
participants in the Aggie Baseball Camp how to techniques. The drills take place at both Olsen
correctly throw a ball from the outfield. The camp and Kyle Field.
Supreme court rules Clinton administration
can continue to turn away Haitian refugees
The Battalion
Beginning in the fall of 1993, Texas A&M Univer
sity freshmen who score high on college entrance
tests will no longer be required to take the Texas
Academic Skills Program, or TASP test.
A bill signed by Gov. Ann Richards in May will
exempt students who score high on the Scholastic
Aptitude Test, the American College Test and the
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test.
The bill will prevent students from having to take
exit tests in high school and then having to take the
TASP after graduation. This will avoid duplication
and save students the $26 expense of taking the
TASP test.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
and the Texas Education Agency will set the stan
dard scoring requirements students will have to
meet in order to be exempt from the TASP test in
their July 15-16 meeting.
The two agencies are still debating whether or not
the exemption bill will also affect present college stu
dents who have not yet taken the TASP test.
Dr. Gary R. Engelgau, executive director of Ad
missions and Records, said, "We do not expect this
exemption program to cause any major changes in
the enrollment at A&M, but it will exempt several
students from taking the test."
Michael Brasel, program director of the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board, agreed the
change will have little affect on enrollment.
"We do expect to see the new version of the
TASP test to cause a slight increase in remediation,"
Brasel said.
The test is designed to test new students early in
their college years to discover whether or not he or
she is prepared to do college work. Students who
fail a section of the TASP test are given remedial
work or put in remedial classes.
Texas public colleges and universities have re
quired students to pass the TASP test before entering
upper-level college courses since 1989. The TASP
test is used to measure competence in English, math,
and writing.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Refugees fleeing Haiti for the
United States may be stopped at sea and returned
home without asylum hearings, the Supreme Court
ruled Monday, declaring itself unable to solve an un
deniable "human crisis."
The 8-1 opinion dealt a blow to thousands willing
to take a risky ocean passage in search of freedom
and upheld a policy developed by the Bush adminis
tration and adopted by President Clinton.
"This case presents a painfully common situation
in which desperate people, convinced that they can
no longer remain in their homeland, take desperate
measures to escape," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote
for the court.
"Although the human crisis is compelling, there is
no solution to be found in a judicial remedy," he
wrote.
The Haitians' attorney, Yale law professor Harold
Koh, said, "This is a sad day for every one of us
whose ancestors first came here by boat. ... President
Clinton should take no satisfaction in successfully
defending George Bush's Haiti policy before the
Bush Supreme Court."
Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell said
he was pleased by the court's decision.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service and
other U.S. agencies will continue working "to ensure
that interdicted boat migrants who fear political per
secution will be afforded meaningful opportunity for
refugee processing in Haiti," he said.
Department of Transportation offers grants
to minorities interested in civil engineering
By JAMES BERNSEN
The Battalion
Minorities seeking to break
into the field of civil engineering
at Texas A&M and other state
schools are getting help from the
Texas Department of Trans
portation (TxDOT), but they'll
have to work for it.
The Conditional Grant Pro
gram, sponsored by the TxDOT,
provides up to $2,500 a semester
to minority students who pay off
the scholarship by working for
the department for two years af
ter graduation.
Faye Bomar, program coordi
nator, said the program provides
aid to minority high school and
college students who are inter
ested in engineering, but are in
need of financial aid. She said
the students must maintain at
least a 2.5 grade-point ratio to re
main in the program.
Of the first seven students to
receive the grants this year, one
is a current A&M student and
another is a high school student
planning to attend A&M.
Ray James, director of Student
Services for the A&M civil engi
neering department, said A&M
has historically had the largest
number of participants in the
program, which he feels is one
more way of promoting minority
enrollment in the College of En
gineering.
James said the department
has had a 40 percent increase in
minority enrollment in the last
See Engtneering/Page 2
ie Post that
der was fa-
Tiber of the
and several
s gathered
Day week-
felt's 75th
sband died,
felt. She re-
ers Sunday,
i janitorial
t condition
He under-
ery in 1980
speech im-
oss.
If, Ritzen-
"common"
Inside
Sports
•$36.4 million sports center
and natatorium preview
•Sullivan: Definition of
worthless... All Star Ballot
Page 3
Opinion
•Editorial: 'Big brother'
threatens private citizens
•Column: Vasquez fights to
overcome TV addiction
Page 5
Weather
•Tuesday: partly cloudy
with showers or storms
likely. Highs in the upper
80s/lower 90s
•Forecast for Wednesday:
Partly cloudy to
occasionally cloudy with a
chance of showers or
storms. Highs in the 90s
•Extended forecast: Partly
cloudy with a chance
of mainly afternoon rain.
A&M fund-raising effort still going strong
'Capturing the Spirit' campaign marches through summer heat, nears goal
By JASON COX
The Battalion
Texas A&M University's com
prehensive fund-raising effort, the
"Capturing the Spirit" campaign,
is nearing its goal of $500 million,
despite traditionally slower sum
mertime activity.
By the end of May, the cam
paign had raised $289 million in
gifts and commitments, well
ahead of the expected August
half-way mark.
The "Capture the Spirit" cam
paign encompasses The Develop
ment Foundation, which handles
large, often restricted donations to
the University, the Association of
Former Students and the Twelfth
Man Foundation, all of which
have encouraged donors to con
tribute or pledge to contribute to
the targeted sum.
Jim Palinscar, director of the
capital campaign, said the cam
paign counts both endowment
and non-endowment donations.
In most cases, he said, the donors
are supporting areas of their own
interest.
Such a case is that of Julia M.
Easterling, of Toledo, Ohio, who
recently donated $1 million to
Texas A&M's College of Engineer
ing to establish an endowed chair
in honor of her late husband, Mar
cus C. Easterling, Class of '30.
The Marcus C. Easterling '30
Endowed Chair in Mechanical En
gineering will be awarded to an
individual who is nationally rec
ognized as an eminent scholar in
the field of mechanical engineer
ing.
An endowed donation is put
into an account and support is re
ceived through gained interest;
unendowed donations are allocat
ed for use and don't gain interest.
"lb most cases, a tailored re
quest is made by a donor who has
had an ongoing relationship with
the department or program,"
Palinscar said.
Most of the $500 million will
come from donations in excess of
$1 million, according to a capital
campaign brochure. The brochure
shows a breakdown of campaign
goals that includes 130 gifts of $1
million or more, totaling nearly
$300 million.
Name recognition on build
ings, a major incentive to contri
bution, must be approved
through the Texas A&M Board of
Regents, said Palinscar, and it's
important for people to realize the
buildings are not "for sale."
See Campaign/Page 2