iftOOl *
Vol. 93 No. 39 (12 pages)
The Battalion
1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993
Thursday, October 21,1993
Food Services
to manage
Underground
Four brand-name vendors to operate
in food court under Sbisa Dining Hall
By Jennifer Smith and Michele Brinkmann
The Battalion
Texas A&M Food Services will manage the upcoming Underground
food court that will carry regional and national food chains.
Robert Smith, vice president for finance and administration, said
that after months of receiving proposals from outside companies, he
has asked Food Services to develop a proposal for the food court that
will be located in the basement of Sbisa Dining Hall.
"If we are going to have brand names there. Food Services will run
it," Smith said. "We could do it better ourselves."
Discussions were held with parties wanting to manage the Under
ground food court, but these discussions were concluded when it was
apparent that Food Services could undertake the project, he said.
See Column Page 11
Richard Floyd, interim director of Food Services, said private com
panies are out of the picture.
"It will be a Food Services operation," Floyd said. "We believe that
our management can provide a quality product at a reasonable price."
When it was announced that A&M was looking for someone to man
age the project in August 1992, Smith said many companies expressed
an interest.
In fact, a proposal from ARA, a private food services company,
was being considered until September, but those discussions have
been "terminated," Smith said.
"ARA is not going to be running it," he said.. "They have been no
tified that they will not be there."
Smith said ARA will not be involved in any further negotiations.
But, he said, ARA is still involved with A&M through a partnership es
tablished in September between the University and Coca-Cola USA.
"It will be a Food Services operation. We be
lieve that our management can provide a qual-
1 ity product at a reasonable price."
-Richard Floyd,
interim director of Food Services
ARA contracts with Coca-Cola for certain food and drink sales, he said.
"Coca-Cola did contract with ARA, but under a different division,"
Smith said.
The University has not carried on any discussions involving ARA
for any of the dining facilities on A&M's west campus, he said.
When it was apparent that the proposal from ARA for the Under
ground food court would not be accepted, Smith said he turned to Food
Services, and representatives from Food Services then said they would
submit a proposal.
Floyd said this proposal is almost ready. Two "big-name" vendors
have committed to the project, and Food Services is now in negotiations
with two more vendors, he said.
"If those two called today, 1 would have the proposal to the vice
president (Smith) this week," Floyd said.
Smith said he expects a proposal, including the vendors names, from
Food Services within a week. The proposal will also include how the
food court will be run.
Besides the four brand-name vendors that will be represented in the
10,000 square foot facility, a yogurt vendor will also be included.
"We're seeking to get as much variety as we can," Smith said.
The convenience store that is currently in the Underground will re
main, but it will probably be modified.
Floyd said students will be able to use Aggie Bucks at the food court.
The food court may also accept the lagniappe option, a partial credit to
wards a purchase that replaces part of the meal in the student's meal plan.
After Food Services submits its plan to Smith's office. Smith said he
will inform students about the plan.
Tobin Boenig, speaker pro tempore of the Student Senate, said he is
happy with Food Services running the project.
"We wanted it within A&M ," he said. "I am glad that it ended up
the way it did."
Boenig said Food Services has always been concerned with the stu
dent's needs and wants.
"Companies like ARA are just out for a profit," he said. "I like the
idea of our needs coming first and not money first."
After Smith gets student input, a formal proposal will be drawn
up for the administration and eventually be directed to the A&M
Board of Regents.
"We hope to be able to fast track it from then on," Smith said. "We're
anxious to get started. There will need to be extensive facility renovations."
Discussions about food chains at A&M began when students ex
pressed an interest in this concept.
A survey conducted in November 1992 by the Public Policy Re
search Institute at A&M said 75 percent of the 507 students interviewed
j preferred the idea of a food court. In December 1992, the Student Sen-
! ate passed a resolution calling for the development of a food court with
brand name restaurants.
Inside
Aggie life
•Interview with Blind Melon;
Rush and Pearl Jam reviews
Page 3
Sports
•Venetoulias, Bennett help
A&M kick opponents
Page 7
Opinion
•Guest column: Hat etiquette
different for women
Page 11
Weather
•Thursday: mostly cloudy
windy and cool
•Forecast for Friday: partly
cloudy, highs in the 60s
Texas Lotto
•Wednesday's winning
Texas Lotto numbers:
3, 6, 7, 10, 31, 39
Centerpole arrives today
A crowd gathers around to watch as a drill digs a hole for one of the
four perimeter poles at Bonfire site on Wednesday. Centerpole is
expected to arrive at 4:03 p.m.
from now on November 24.
Thanh Brannan/Special to The Battalion
today. Bonfire will burn 34 days
Student Senate meeting-
Proposal calls for parking garages to accept Aggie Bucks
By Kim McGuire
- The Battalion
Off Campus Sen. Jennifer Simmons intro
duced a proposal Wednesday at the Student
Senate meeting that would allow students to
charge their parking garage fees to their Aggie
Bucks accounts.
"Everyone in the Senate and all the con
stituents that I've talked to are in favor of the
proposal," Simmons said. "Everyone thinks its
a good idea and wonders why it hasn't been
implemented sooner."
Under the proposal, students could pay
parking garage fees with Aggie Bucks at each
of the three parking garages. Only students us
ing the garages on an hourly rate would be eli
gible to use Aggie Bucks.
Simmons said she drafted the proposal be
cause she thought it would be more conve
nient for students.
"As a student living off campus, I use the
garage almost every day, " Simmons said. "In
my opinion, it's not very convenient to have to
carry a wad of cash to campus every day to pay
for tire garage fees. We can use Aggie Bucks for
almost everything else. Why not this?"
Sen. Chad King said the proposal would be
an excellent service to students.
"This is the best bill I've ever seen during
my tenure, and I think it's really going to help
the students at Texas A&M," King said. "To be
honest, I have no idea why Aggie Bucks
weren't implemented as soon as the garages
became operational."
Sen. Dave Lilley said he didn't think the
system would be difficult to install.
"It seems all that would have to be done to
implement the system is to install Aggie Buck
machines at the three teller booths in the
garage," Lilley said. "The cost should be ex
tremely minimal."
See Senate/Page 6
UNT sorority receives 5-year suspension for hazing incident
The Associated Press
DENTON — A sorority has re
ceived a five-year suspension
from the University of North
Texas campus for hazing, a misde
meanor for which five of the
sorority members were sentenced
to 90-day jail terms last month.
The sorority will also be on
probation for five years after the
suspension, the school announced
Wednesday.
The university's dean of stu
dents and the AKA national office
levied the penalties against Alpha
Kappa Alpha.
"The AKA sorority will effec
tively cease operations on the
UNT campus for the next decade
as a result of repeated infractions
of anti-hazing rules;" the school
said in a prepared statement.
The suspension started Oct. 18.
According to the sentence, AKA
won't be able to solicit or accept
new members, participate in ser
vice projects or hold local meetings
until 1998. During the ensuing five-
year probation period, meetings
will be allowed at the UNT chapter,
but only under the supervision of a
graduate adviser.
The AKA national office issued
the five-year probation period.
UNT announced.
Seven members of the sorority
were charged with misdemeanor
hazing.
Five of the members were con
victed last month and sentenced to
90 days in jail. They were accused
of striking the pledges with pad
dles and food and forcing them to
eat hot peppers.
The two other members have
not yet been tried.
Confusing long-distance rates plague Aggies
By Geneen Pipher
Angel Kan/THL Battalion
Tt costs Bryan-College Sta
tion residents up to $1.65
for a five-minute, long
distance, evening call to
neighboring Schulenburg
while a call of similar
length to Los Angeles,
Calif, may cost only 75
cents.
The Battalion
W hy does it cost an Aggie almost twice as
much to call Brenham, than it does to
call Los Angeles?
No, this is not the beginning to the latest Ag
gie joke, but a question many Texas A&M Uni
versity students, faculty and Bryan-College Sta
tion residents are asking themselves.
Most residents are unaware that they could
save 50 percent or more on their long-distance
phone calls to cities within a few hundred miles
of Bryan-College Station.
Currently, instead of going directly through
an individual's long-distance carrier, calls to
"short" long-distance destinations, such as Cald
well, Hearne and La Grange, are automatically
routed through the local phone company, which
charges customers for the call as opposed to
their long-distance company.
Consumers could avoid the higher rates, but
most people do not realize that they are paying
more than they have to and have no idea how to
take advantage of the savings. That is one of the
reasons it costs Bryan-College Station residents
up to $1.65 for a five-minute, long-distance,
evening call to neighboring Schulenburg while a
call of similar length to Los Angeles, Calif, may
cost only 75 cents.
The difference has many residents wondering
why their local phone company is billing them
for long-distance calls when they have separate
long-distance carriers.
John Brickey, an administrative manager at
Star Tel, said the Federal Communications Com
mission (FCC) divided each state into regions in
1984, after the splitup of AT&T. Inside each re
gion, all one-plus (1+) calls are automatically di
rected through and billed by the local phone
company, which charges higher rates.
"Prior to 1984, the only company you could
use when you picked up the phone to dial a one-
plus call was AT&T," Brickey said. "Then in '84
when AT&T was dismantled, they had to give
the phone companies some market areas, so
they created these regions called Local Access
Transport Areas (LATAs) with those agreements
that were initially negotiated."
Michael May, a regional manager for Uni
versity Communications Incorporated, said
LATAs were created so local phone companies
could maintain a portion of the long-distance
calling market.
"When AT&T had its divestiture in 1984, the
creation of LATAs was part of the give-and-take
of the local operating companies to help soften
the blow to the Bells," he said. "Since the Bells
would no longer have access to the long-dis
tance area, they at least had some kind of rev
enue coming in."
Although it is not widely known. May said,
customers can bypass the local phone company
and have their calls billed directly to their long
distance company.
"Every long-distance carrier has a code num
ber, and if you find out what your preferred
long-distance carrier's code is, you can get
around the local phone company's charges," he
said. "A customer would dial one plus zero
plus their carrier's three-digit code to get around
the local billing and get the cheaper rates."