/*Uy cftQOl . 93 No. 50 (10 pages) The Battalion 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Friday, November 5,1993 Clinton says to ignore Perot's NAFTA bashing "If this is such a good deal, why doesn't every body get excited about it?" „ J * - Ross Perot The Associated Press LEXINGTON, Ky. - President Clinton told fellow Democrats Thursday not to be spooked into rating against free trade with Mexico by this week's Republican election victories. He also traded I tabs with Ross Perot, who called 1 the trade pact "stupid.” I Clinton dismissed arguments from the Texas businessman that a trade agreement with Mexico I would cost many American jobs. J "That one fellow talks about I the giant sucking sound," Clinton aid. I "I know a little about this; I was the governor of a state that lost plants to Mexico," the presi dent said. I "I used to go stand at plants on the last day they were open and shake hands with people when they walked off the job for the last time." "I want you to understand this very clearly from somebody who's lived through this: This agreement will make that less likely, not more likely," Clinton said. Perot praised opponents for their political courage. He said the agreement is "dead on arrival" among ordinary citizens. "If this is such a good deal, why doesn't everybody get excit ed about it?" Perot demanded. He called it "another stupid trade agreement rammed through by special interests." Clinton flew to Kentucky to ap pear at a Lexmark plant that makes computer equipment that is subject to a 20 percent tariff in Mexico. The trade agreement would eliminate the tariff. With the House set to vote Nov. 17, the White House ac knowledged it still lacks enough support but said things were pick ing up as a result of new deals with Mexico to protect politically sensitive American industries. NAFTA supporters estimated that an agreement with Mexico on sugar would bring Clinton 10 to 12 votes. Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., said there are 53 solid Republican votes against NAFTA in the House. Appearing at a news confer ence with Perot, Everett and other NAFTA opponents said there are 213 House members against the agreement. Some analysts believe the Re publican sweep in Tuesday's elec tions in New York, New Jersey and Virginia will make fence-sit ting Democrats even more ner vous about casting risky votes. See NAFTA/Page 5 A&M receives notification from NCAA for meeting with infractions committee Texas A&M University an nounced it received notification from the NCAA for a meeting at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 14 with the infractions committee. The meeting will be held in the Embassy Suites Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. Representatives from Texas A&M in clude Dr. William Mob ley, Texas A&M University System chancellor; Dr. E. Dean Gage, interim president; Robert Smith, vice president for finance and administration; Wally Groff, athletic director; R. C. Slocum, head football coach; Dr. Thomas W. Adair, faculty athletic repre sentative; Tim Cassidy, assistant athletic director; Tedi Za- lesky, director of intercol legiate athletic compli ance and Scott Kelly, as sistant general counsel. The group is expect ed to leave College Sta tion for Kansas City fol lowing the University's foot ball game against Louisville. Kick-off time has been moved to 6:30 p.m. (CST) to accommodate ESPN television. ATMs keep barflies off streets longer Local nightclubs install money machines, have decrease in bad checks By Geneen Pipher The Battauon I n the past four months, many nightclubs in the Bryan-College Station area have placed automatic teller machines in their establishments. Jeffrey Keith, vice president of marketing at Core Data Resources Inc., the company that processes all Pulse machine transac tions, said the placement of money ma chines in nightclubs and bars is a growing trend. "Initially, banks started issuing ATM cards as a newfangled convenience to their customers," Keith said. "Now 67 percent of all households in the United States have ATM cards. In a survey conducted by Pulse, they found that people rank the value of their card just below that of their car. That's a pretty dramatic state ment." Ralph Clinard, owner of CardPro Inc., the company that owns the Pulse-Pay ma chines in four of College Station's night clubs, said merchants make a substantial sum of money from the machines. "On average, the merchants make rough ly $2,500 per month off of these machines," Clinard said. "The ones in College Station have a transaction fee of $1, and of that dol lar, merchants typically make 50 cents." In contrast to other businesses where Pulse-Pay machines are placed, most of the money withdrawn at nightclubs is spent in the club, Keith said. "The nightclubs are an interesting excep tion to other businesses," he said. "If someone goes to a machine at a 7-11 and takes out $20, they probably won't spend it all there. But if they go to a ma chine in a nightclub, chances are they are going to spend a hefty portion of it there." Don Salinas, manager of the Tap, said the machines help protect clubs from losing money as a result of returned checks or bad credit cards. "The main reason we have the machine is to protect ourselves," Salinas said. "We are not trying to pump customers for cash, we just want to make sure we don't lose any money. We don't have the problems we once had with hot checks or bad credit cards. Now, if a customer wants to write a check, we tell them to use the pulse machine instead." Clinard said the machines providing a much-needed service to nightclub patrons. "The customer gains from these ma chines because if they are in the club, and they are running out of money, they can stay and have fun with their friends instead of leaving to go get more money," he said. Jennifer Newberry, a senior English major from Houston, attempts to withdrawal mon ey from her checking account from the ATM Salinas said the machines actually help nightclub customers stay safe while drink ing because they no longer have to leave the club to get money. "If a customer runs out of cash and they Kyle Burneti/Tm: Battalion at the Tap Monday night. Newberry said the new machines alleviate some of the pres sures associated with carrying cash. want more to drink/they are going to get it no matter if the Pulse machine is here or down the street, so they might as well stay here and be safe," he said. "It keeps them off the street a little longer." Vendors to show products at fair Salespeople won't be in MSC foyer, hallway for semester's first 2 weeks By Kim McGuire The Battauon The Concessions Committee is in the process of finalizing plans to create the "Back to School Student Services Fair" that will start three days before the spring semester be gins. The fair is a result of a commit tee proposal restricting on-campus vendors from offering their prod ucts during the first two weeks in the MSC foyer and hallway. Ven dors wanting to offer their prod ucts must now take part in the fair which will run six days and be in one central location in the universi ty center complex. The back-to-school fair was cre ated to increase students' conve nience in locating services and is a response to complaints from stu- as banks, and also we're looking at tutoring services such as Kaplan and Princeton review." Busch said space will be a con sideration when organizing the fair, and the start up services will take precedence over the other ser vices. Also, he said, the committee will embark on a massive advertis ing campaign. "The University will heavily publicize the fair, which is some thing we haven't done in the past," Busch said. "Also, we're consider ing offering promotional gim micks, such as door prizes. A stu dent would get so many signatures from vendors and then be eligible to have their name drawn for a prize." Kibler said as a result of previ ous publicity of the fair, some ven dors have voiced concerns about "Personally, I wouldn't like to be moved some where out of the mainstream like the second floor of the MSC." - Reed Jenkins, Star Tel marking representative dents that vendors have practiced overaggressive sales techniques. Dr. Bill Kibler, interim assistant vice president for student services and Concessions Committee chair man, said the next step in organiz ing the fair is contacting the ven dors. "We'll only be inviting vendors who offer services we consider 'start up services,'" Kibler said. "Things like newspapers, long dis tance services and cable companies are these primary services." However, credit card companies will not be among those vendors invited. The committee decided credit cards are not considered as one of these services. "A credit card, in the commit tee's opinion, is not necessary to begin school," Kibler said. "You can go anywhere on campus and pick up an application anytime." Dennis Busch, assistant manag er of the university center complex and Concessions Committee ad ministrator, said the committee is considering extending the range of vendors invited to the fair. "We want to offer the full range of services," Busch said. "We'll be inviting financial institutions, such the restrictions placed upon them. He said some of them had some reservations about the location. Reed Jenkins, a Star Tel marking representative, said he hoped the committee wouldn't move the fair out of student traffic. "In the past we've been set up in front of areas of high traffic sucn as the MSC bookstore and snack bar, and as a result, we've gotten a lot of business," Jenkins said. "Person ally, I wouldn't like to be moved somewhere out of the mainstream like the second floor of the MSC," he said. "However, if everyone else is in the same location, and the competition is fair, it's really not a problem." Kibler said traffic was a major concern when the proposal origi nated. "We want to take it off the beat en path," he said. "By setting up the fair in a specific area of the Uni versity Center Complex, we give students a greater freedom of choice. If you want to go you can, if you don't, you don't have to." Julian McMurrey, College Sta- See Vendors/Page 2 Recycling conference focuses on environment By Jan Higginbotham The Battalion The commitment to recycling at Texas A&M University will continue this weekend as the school holds the Recycling and Waste Management Seminar and Workshop. Dr. Roy Hartman, vice presi dent of the Texas Recycling Coalition and associate professor of engineering technology, said the event will concentrate on state legislation, the purchase of recycled products, and include a series of workshops. "The purpose is to increase ecological awareness," Hartman said. The conference is important because it will help to teach people to be thought ful about the envi ronment, he said. The confer ence, which kicked off this morning, is a series of semi nar speakers and workshops addressing en vironmental con cerns. It brings together people from across the state of Texas, including waste man agers, staff from a number of cities, recycling experts, and even students. The keynote speak er for the event is Bill Rathje, an ar- chaeologist from the Uni versity of Ari zona. Other semi nar speakers include repre sentatives from the Environmen tal Protection Agency, speaking on environmental market develop ments, landfills and new legisla tion. Texas recycling legislation and the issue of landfill legisla tion will also be covered during the two-day conference. Saturday's agenda includes a number of workshops focusing on setting up recycling pro grams. Twenty vendors will also be on hand in the Rudder exhibit hall Friday and Saturday to demonstrate various recycled materials. The conference will conclude on Saturday with a field trip to Texas A&M's recycling experi ment station. Inside Sports •Adams - finalist for Lombardi award •Lady Aggie soccer closes out on the road Opinion Page 7 * Pro/Con: Were A&M officials ethical in accepting trips to New York? Page 9 Weather •Friday: partly cloudy, isolated showers, highs in 60s ► Saturday: sunny and cool, highs in 50s, lows in 30s ► Extended forecast: sunny, warming through the week with high in 60s