NCAA upholds A&M football suspensions . . . Page 5
§S8 ®«»|
er2 3,l«
h
^lexandei
11 ^ and vol-
°f the mil
V police,
'anirnouslt
Russia';
nevv articlf
shment foi
°f the con- \
tr yingto
r to a volt j
1e nt. Legis. [
'ill said i
°f the con-
)r a session
are needed
8 e d Prinit
omyrdin to
°nal speecli
' ednesdav,
Ids support
'ocal" and
- necessan
Russia. He
a massacre
hs? Would
ale forgive
d theCabi-
hough For
ster Sergei
is resigna-
decree un-
•t:
ice
rate'
i children
many dc-
ides inre-
, UNICEF
,e-in-five
sraeli, the
d said the
r.
ms/' said
rtelow the
ost indus-
; the next
P. Grant
es for the
i, but said
; reforms
pier 1,000
dons. The
Airterican
bites. The
:ahty rate
0.
has by far
li ving in
a 21 per-
uive dete-
use more
Idren are
said. 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