The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 12, 1993, Image 1

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Vol. 93 No. 32 (8 pages)
1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993
Tuesday, October 12,1993
Haitian militants halt U.N. efforts to restore democracy
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Army-
backed toughs wrecked plans for Ameri
can troops to land Monday as part of an
international peace mission, and drove
away U.S. diplomats waiting to greet
them.
The band of 25 to 50 men then beat up
merchants in the nearby market and fired
guns while roving through the capital.
No casualties were reported.
U.S. and U.N. officials said the distur
bances would not halt the overall peace
mission. It was another direct challenge
by the military to the U-N. efforts to re
store democracy to Haiti.
Monday's landing was to begin in
earnest the peace mission to restore
democracy and rebuild the economy.
About 100 other U.N. personnel are al
ready in the country to do advance work.
The White House delayed the deploy
ment of nearly 200 American military
medics, engineers and civil affairs special
ists aboard the USS Harlan County, an
amphibious landing ship anchored 800
yards offshore. There was no word on
when the troops might dock.
Port officials supported by the Haitian
military blocked the Harlan County's
docking by moving another ship to the
pier where arrangements were made
days ago for the U.S. ship to berth at 10
a.m. Monday.
Guards at the dock refused to let Vicki
Huddleston, deputy chief of mission at
the U.S. Embassy, enter the gate, and po
lice stood by or blocked traffic while a
group of shouting Haitians filed off a bus.
Described later by a trembling Hud
dleston as "a group of gangsters, a group
of thugs/' the men shoved diplomats and
reporters gathered for the scheduled
docking, then punched and kicked their
cars as they fled.
"We don't want foreigners coming
here and trying to tell us what to do!" one
man screamed. Another shouted: "We're
going to do to them what they did in So
malia!"
Haiti's military is betting the interna
tional community does not have the will
See Haiti/Page 4
Officials at forum question benefits of NAFTA
Free trade agreement could create
loss in jobs for American citizens
By James Bernsen
The Battalion
Experts in politics and business ques
tioned the benefits of North American
Free Trade Agreement and said the treaty
could cost Americans jobs Monday at
Texas A&M University.
C. Parr Rosson, assistant coordinator
of the Texas Agricultural Market Re
search Center at Texas A&M, said NAF
TA would add to the increased openness
of the Mexican economy that in the last
ten years has resulted in more trade.
"Their imports of U.S. agricultural
products have more than doubled since
the early 1980's," he said.
James Scott, a policy analyst for Public
[Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, said
he views NAFTA as a missed opportunity.
"NAFTA is, essentially, a chance for
the United States to help Mexico to devel
op resources in much the same way that
the European Community did to Portu
gal, Spain and Greece," he said. "But we
don't see the structure there to help Mexi-
jco, like in the European Community."
Scott said free trade zones, called
I Maquiladoras, have existed on the Mexi-
Icanside of the border since the late
i 1960's. He said the same promises are be-
lingmade for NAFTA that were made for
I the zones.
"What we've seen is wholesale degrada
tion of the environment," he said. "These
areas are a magnet for bringing people
North, and we're having a serious crisis
with population and health problems."
U.S. companies relocating to these
zones have failed to provide services and
growth for the people in them, he said.
But, Rossen said, NAFTA would pro
vide a framework for negotiating side
agreements to see to these issues and an
appeals process to enforce environmental
regulations.
Tom Salinas, a representative of the
Teamsters union, said the low wages of
the Mexican workers will cause a large
loss of jobs in the U.S.
"It would cost the loss of American
jobs and not improve the position of Mex
ican workers," Salinas said.
The side agreements negotiated by
Clinton are also detrimental to the Ameri
can worker.
"NAFTA sells out American families,"
Salinas said. "The multinational corpora
tions only have a greed for more profits
and pay slave wages to the Mexican
workers."
Rossen said although the U.S. will ini
tially lose jobs with NAFTA, it will even
tually net Americans 175,000 jobs, accord
ing to studies conducted by his center.
"We know there is going to be losses,"
he said. "But the question is, how do we
compensate these people."
One of the main advantages of NAF
TA, Rossen said, is the help it will pro
vide to the Mexican economy.
"Until countries get to a certain level of
affluence, they don't have the resources to
get into environmental cleanup," he said.
93
845-0731
845-2624
845-2625
845-9655
tttl | Worst is yet to come, expert says
James Scott (left), a policy analysts from Austin, rebuts a point
made by C. Parr Rosson, assistant coordinator with A&M's
Kyle Bumett/THE Battalion
Agricultural Market Research Center, at a NAFTA forum held
at the College Station Conference Center Monday night.
Crisis in Russia
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By Cheryl Heller
The Battalion
An expert in foreign policy
decision making warned stu
dents that the worst is yet to
come for Russia at a meeting of
the Texas A&M University Polit
ical Science Society Monday
night.
Assistant Political Science
Professor Dr. Alex Pacek spoke
to students and faculty members
about the aftermath of the Oct. 4
conflict that began When Russian
President Boris Yeltsin invited
members of the Russian Parlia
ment to disband in September.
Yeltsin has had problems
dealing with the Russian Parlia
ment since he was elected for the
first time, Pacek said.
"It was obvious Yeltsin had a
hard time working with the De
mocratic Congress even then,"
he said.
Yeltsin's clash with Parlia
ment continued with his plan to
separate the presidency from the
political center in Moscow, Pacek
said.
Tensions rose when Parlia
ment attempted to remove
Yeltsin's adviser in 1992, and es
calated when Yeltsin continued
to build a state council to replace
Parliament.
Pacek said, "Yeltsin thought
Parliament members were not
representative of the Russian
people, and that they shouldn't
be there.
"The state council would be
created by Yeltsin to have a
strong presidency outside the
boundaries in the old constitu
tion. It would consist of two loy
al deputies from each of the 88
regions, not elected or approved,
who made major decisions."
With the help of a new,
streamlined Parliament elected
in December, Yeltsin will move
ahead with his economic re
forms, Pacek said. He said the
disbanding of the Russian Parlia
ment and the attempted revolt
occurred because neither Yeltsin
or the Parliament would budge.
"Yeltsin has triumphed so
far," Pacek said. "Even though
his popularity was just above 40
percent when Parliament was
disbanded, and even though
Parliament believed the upper
hand would shift, Yeltsin won
because of weakness, isolation
and alienation."
But Yeltsin may face even
more problems in the future,
Pacek said.
In the next presidential elec
tion, Yeltsin will face two of his
former close allies who are rising
in popularity.
"Both contenders have stabili
ty and trustworthiness, traits
that Yeltsin hasn't proven him
self to have," Pacek said.
Because there is little indica
tion that the Russian economy is
on the rebound, there could be
massive unemployment and tru
ly serious food shortages, Pacek
said.
"If Yeltsin moves forward
with his radical shock therapy
economic reform, he will proba
bly face these problems," he
said.
There could also be major
problems with economic reform
in Russia's 88 regions, Pacek
said.
"Yeltsin's radical economic re
form will not be implemented at
the same rate in every region,"
he said. "The gaps will widen,
and Yeltsin will have a major cri
sis on his hands."
Gage encourages administration,
faculty to work together for future
By Lisa Elliott
The Battalion
Interim President E. Dean Gage emphasized Mon
day the need for cooperation between administrators
and faculty members to push Texas A&M University
into the future.
In a speech to the Faculty Senate, Gage said the
University will be a much different place in the year
2000 than it is today. And it must start preparing for
the future today.
"We must not make future decisions," he said,
"but we must
consider the fu
ture of today's de
cisions."
The University
will play an im
portant role in the
future by leading
the way in ad
dressing societal,
economic, work
force, international and demographic changes al
ready in progress and by producing intelligent stu
dents to handle these changes, he said.
An important part of preparing for the future is to
continue to support the University financially. Gage
said. He reported the University to be in a "less than
ideal, but a stable financial condition" and asked the
Faculty Senate to continue to urge contributions
from colleagues and friends.
"Continued strategic planning, priority setting,
enrollment management, external fund raising and
legislative support will require our full attention to
"Our goal must be to develop sufficient fac
ulty, staff, reward systems, facilities, equip
ment and funding to allocate appropriate
resources to each of these missions."
keep us stable and moving toward the 21st century,"
he said.
Gage pointed out some of the achievements of this
semester including record total enrollment, record
minority enrollment, and record number of National
Merit Scholars. He said these trends need to contin
ue into the future with the help of the faculty and
students.
He expressed a need for continued devotion to the
Continuous Improvement Program and announced
it has passed the $325 million mark on schedule.
Gage said the money allocated from the Program
should be put to-
ward improve
ments in Universi
ty facilities and
programs.
"Our goal must
be to develop suf
ficient faculty,
staff, reward sys
tems, facilities,
equipment and
funding to allocate
appropriate resources to each of these missions," he
said.
Gage said later this month the University will
submit its next biennial Legislative Budget Request
to the Texas Legislature and asked for help from the
faculty in determining the request.
"These processes must be open and participatory
with faculty involvement at the departmental and
college levels," he said.
See Senate/Page 8
- E. Dean Gage, interim president
A&M offers procedure for dealing with sexual harassment
By Jennifer Smith
The Battalion
Men and women at Texas A&M University who are dealing with
sexual harassment can seek assistance from many different avenues
within the University.
"The University takes this problem very seriously," Jan Winniford,
assistant vice president for student services, said.
Winniford said this problem probably happens at A&M more often
than people think it does.
"For some reason there's a feeling that causes people not to want to
bring it up," she said. "They might think they are somehow to blame
or that there might be repercussions."
Janis Stout, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said she
has no reason to believe the problem of sexual harassment is bigger at
A&M than it is anywhere else.
"But it's hard to know if it's a problem because people are hesitant
to come forward," she said.
Stout said trying to determine actual statistics on sexual harass
ment at A&M entails guesswork.
The informal procedure for dealing with sexual harassment in
cludes discussing the incident with the offender, consulting with Uni
versity provided counselors, reporting the incident to the offender's
supervisor and bringing the incident to the attention of one of the
three official contacts.
If a person desires to deal with the incident through formal proce
dures, however, they can make an official complaint that will then be
investigated.
If this investigation warrants further investigation, an ad hoc com
mittee will be created to investigate the incident. This committee can
recommend sanctions which could include formal reprimand, proba
tion, or dismissal from the University.
Stout said the University's policy on sexual harassment was devel
oped after studying the policies of other universities.
"I think A&M is up to date in the way we handle sexual harass
ment," Stout said.
A study released in June by the American Association of Universi
ty Women found that sexual harassment is prevalent in high school
and can affect a person's attitudes when they come to college.
See Harassment/Page 4
Inside
Sports
• Wide receiver Harrison
closing in on yardage record
Page 5
Opinion
•Vasquez: No matter how
bad it seems, there's
someone who cares
•Editorial: Texas Avenue
expansion plan should
be re-evaluated
Page 7
Weather
•Tuesday: partly cloudy,
highs in 80s, lows in 60s
•Wednesday: partly
cloudy, highs in 80s
•Extended forecast: partly
cloudy, chance of
showers, highs near 90
becoming cooler and
windy Saturday