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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1993)
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One by single > + H 0 2, 5’ ta lald’s College The Battalion Vol. 93 No. 20 (8 pages) 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Friday, September 24,1993 Clinton enlists aid of Cabinet members to sell health care package The Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Clinton dispatched Cabinet members coast to. coast and opened the White House lawn to a thousand allies Thursday to get the sales campaign for his health care plan out of the starting blocks. "We have to do it right and we have to do it right now," Clinton declared. "As much as I wish this to be a cele bration ... I remind you that our work is beginning," Clinton told the rally before heading to Florida for a nationally tele vised town hall meeting. "It's going to be a long, long tortuous road," said Senate GOP leader Bob Dole, praising Clinton for his pledge to com promise but criticizing the Democrat's plan as "a little overgenerous and under funded." Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., urged Democ ratic leaders to impose strict deadlines, such as a wrap-up of initial hearings by Thanksgiving, committee votes by next April, a floor vote by June and a bill to Clinton by August. "My hope is that we can do it sooner," countered Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, "I hope we don't have to wait until next summer to get final pas sage," Vice President A1 Gore went on a morning TV show, and radio talk show hosts, invited by the White House to broadcast from the front lawn, set up shop at 6 a.m. Clinton asked for help in persuading the public the current system is grossly inefficient. Clinton's plan to provide uni versal coverage is expected to cost an ad ditional $350 billion over five years. "It is still sinking in on our fellow citi zens," Clinton said. "There's still a lot of people that don't think we're going to get this done," Clin ton said. He also said the system has de teriorated so much that it will be possible to form a national consensus. "We don't want to rush this thing; it's too complicated," Clinton said. "But we don't want to delay it, using complexity as an excuse." Clinton asked for help in pressing members of Congress to keep pledges of bipartisanship on the issue. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tipper Gore spoke, as well. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen crossed the state of Pennsylvania for tours of a rubber business, then an ice cream company. Health Secretary Donna Shalala lunched in Los Angeles at a seniors cen ter; Attorney General Janet Reno visited a neonatal unit in Buffalo, N.Y.; Kristine Gebbie, the administration's AIDS policy See Health/Page 4 Yom Kippur - the holiest day Jewish day By Jan Higginbotham Tur Battauon The Jewish community in and around Bryan and College Station will start their celebration of Yom Kippur tonight at sun down, marking the end of their Jewish New Year celebration. Yom Kippur, which means day of atonement in Hebrew, is the holiest day of the Jewish year, said Reuben Ehrlich, vice president of religious activities for the Hil- lel Jewish Student Association. Dr. Peter Tarlow, adviser and rabbi for the student group, said the celebration is a period of prayer and contemplation. "It is a period of 10 days in which to ask forgiveness, make up, and to not carry a grudge," said Tarlow of the time between Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish new year which was last week, and Yom Kip pur. Ehrlich said the period of atonement is a good opportunity to begin the new year with a clean slate. Tarlow said the celebration is marked by a total fast starting at sundown on Fri day and lasting through sundown on Sat urday. "The fast allows people to understand the concept of poverty," Tarlow said. "It makes you understand what it's like to not have food or water or even medicine." The local Yom Kippur celebration will begin with the Kol Nidrei, a sacred wor ship service, on Friday at 8 p.m. The celebration will continue on Satur day with a service at 10 a.m. and another service in the afternoon. The activities will conclude Saturday evening with the blowing of the shofar or ram's horn. The shofar is blown at the beginning of Rosh Hashana and at the closing of the High Holy Days. The celebration also ends with a break ing of the fast. Tarlow said the Jewish congregation here at Texas A&M University has its own tradition of "breaking the broken fast," where students go out to a restaurant to gether to celebrate the conclusion of the Yom Kippur holiday. of atonement begins at sundown Man/ Maatianus/THL BatcahOn Scott Bernstein, a junior bioengineering major, will blow the shofar, or ram's horn, at the conclusion of Yom Kippur Saturday. Physical Plant develops proposal for renovating G. Rollie By Andrea Taormina The Battalion The Texas A&M Physical Plant is prepar ing a program of requirements on the reno vation of G. Rollie White to present to the Board of Regents at its December meeting. Joe Sugg, executive director of the Physi cal Plant, said the program of requirements consists of a detailed presentation of the esti mates of money, time and plans that would be involved in the renovation of the colise um. The list of general plans, Sugg said, in cludes upgrading the dressing rooms and the upholstered seating, removing interior supports, improving public accessibility and meeting the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sugg said the hallways would also be widened from eight feet to 20 feet, and new restrooms, especially women's, would be added. The program of requirements also calls for the completion of the horseshoe seating into a full bowl, Sugg said. A new facil ty housing offices, dressing rooms and practice facilities would be built where DeWare Fieldhouse and Down's Natatorium now stand. Athletic Director Wally Groff said if the program passes, the new practice building would have to be built first. The triple gym in the annex section where the athletic teams now practice would be tom down to add the extra seating, he said. The renovations to G. Rollie are an alter native plan to the proposed $50 million spe cial events center, which has not been ap proved yet, Groff said. The cost of the reno vations to G. Rollie would be about $20 mil lion less than the cost of building the special events center, he said. Groff said the special events center would cost $1 million to operate and would gener ate revenue of only $500,000. Sugg estimated the cost of renovating G. Rollie at $19 million plus another $10 million to build the new practice facility. If the Board of Regents passes the program of re quirements instead of the special events cen ter, Sugg said he expects to rededicate G. Rollie in 1996. Another plan for renovations to G. Rollie had been proposed, Groff said, but it did not meet the need for additional practice space for University sports teams. Groff said he did not know if the new plan would have any more success than the first one. G. Rollie serves the academic needs of the Department of Kinesiology and Health as well as the athletic needs of the volleyball team and the men's and women's basketball teams. The sports facility under construction across the tracks is a student facility that will be used primarily for recreational sports, Sugg said, with swimming being the only competitive sport possibly taking place there. MSC offers sign change on hat policy By Geneen Pipher The Battalion In order to more accurately explain the tradition of removing one's hat upon entering the building, a new inscription will be placed on the signs at the four entrances to the MSC. The MSC underwent extensive renovation and expansion in the '70's and the building was rededi cated in 1975. The new signs will reflect the words used at the building's rededication, said Heather Hartman, a senior jour nalism major and MSC president. "The old signs reflect the building's first dedication in 1951 when it was only dedicated to those Aggies who died in World Wars 1 and II," Hartman said. "In 1975, the building was rededicated to 'all Aggies who have given their lives in defense of their country in any war past or future,' that is what the new inscriptions will reflect." James Reynolds, MSC direc tor, said the new inscriptions are a temporary part of a larger plan to better inform visitors of the tradition of removing hats before entering the building. "The new signs are needed because the wording, as it stands now, does not reflect the original words and intent," he said. Dennis Busch, assistant man ager of the University Center Complex, said it took almost 20 years to change the wording of the signs because until last year, no one had ever questioned the building's purpose. "I guess it took such a long time to change the words be cause until now no one had ever raised the point that the lettering might be outdated," Busch said. Hartman said the new signs come after many students said they did not feel comfortable re moving their hats because they believed the facility was a memorial to white males only. "Last fall, we began hearing that there were some individuals who didn't feel obliged or com fortable removing their hats," she said. "They did not feel the build ing was a place for them, too." Hartman said she understood why many students were upset. "If I didn't feel like a certain building was for me, I may feel uncomfortable," she said. "I could understand their difficulty with that. I would probably still remove my hat out of respect, but I understand what they were saying." Brian Walker, a senior man- See MSC/Page 4 Richards denies accusations of a political purge The Associated Press AUSTIN — Gov. Ann Richards finished testifying Thursday in a federal lawsuit, say ing that accusations of political patronage in the 1991 reorganization of the Texas Depart ment of Commerce were "offensive." Three former Commerce employees have accused Richards and her key aides of a polit ical purge at the agency in which Republicans Were fired and Democrats were hired. Richards is a Democrat. The trial before U.S. District Judge James Nowlin is expected to last at least two more days. On the witness stand for the second day, Richards said she ordered a feorganization of the Commerce Department shortly after taking office because "the agency was a mess." Richards said federal and state funds were in danger of being cut off because Commerce Department officials had been accused of misman agement and improper expenses. Later, Derek Howard, the attorney repre senting the three former workers, said the problems at the Commerce Department had nothing to do with his clients. "The reorganization was designed to get rid of Republicans," he said. Of those former workers, Richards said, "I'm sure they are very nice people," but she added that their allegations were "offen sive" because as governor she represented Texans of both major political parties. Jim Mikus, one of those suing Richards, said "What we had here was basically a dictatorship. Somebody went in and just chopped a bunch of people's heads off. And now someone is daring to question that form of government." The ex-employees want more than $2 million in back pay, future lost earnings, attorneys' fees and mental anguish damages, Howard said. Other defendants in the lawsuit are Richard Moya, a top aide to Richards; Cathy Bonner, executive director of the Commerce Depart ment; and Alan Kahn of Dallas, former chairman of the agency's board. "What we had here was basically a dictatorship. Somebody went in and just chopped a bunch of people's heads off." — Jim Mikus, one of those suing Gov. Ann Richards Inside ill: : : v-Zx • Sports ►Streaking Lady Aggies bring volleyball to Southern premiere ►Plumer: A Ranger tan's farewell to Nolan Ryan Page 5 Opinion ►Pro/Con: Will Clinton's health care plan work? Page 7 Weather ►Friday/partly cloudy, highs in 90s ►Weekend forecast: partly cloudy with scattered showers, highs in 90s ► Extended forecast: partly cloudy, much cooler, highs in 80s