,er 12,1993
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The Battalion
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Vol. 93 No. 56 (8 pages)
1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993
Monday, November 15,1993
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AIDS virus taints
plasma supply
BONN, Germany — The AIDS
scare sweeping Germany wors
ened Friday with the announce
ment by health officials that at
least 50 premature newborns may
have received AIDS-tainted plas
ma during treatment in Bavarian
clinics.
The report is likely to increase
anxiety about contaminated blood
supplies, despite evidence that
only a small fraction of the coun
try's 60,000 people infected by the
AIDS virus got it from tainted
blood.
More than 1,500 people in Ger
many have been infected with the
AIDS virus after receiving blood
products since 1984. The infec
tions of six people have been
traced to two companies that
were shut down after officials
said they had distributed tainted
blood.
Sales surging for
Christmas season
WASHINGTON - Sales surged
at auto dealers, department stores
and building supply centers in Oc
tober, heralding a busy Christmas
shopping season and a strong year-
end nnisn for the economy.
Retail receipts overall jumped
1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted
$177.3 billion, the Commerce De
partment said Friday. It was the
biggest increase in six months and
the seventh in a row.
Commerce Secretary Ronald H.
Brown hailed the report as "a clear
signal that our economy is improv
ing." Many private economists
concurred. They are predictms; the
October-December quarter will be
the year's strongest.
"This whole report was evi
dence the consumer has not died
and gone away and is out there
and willing to spend money/' said
economist Paul Lallv of R.H.
Wrightson & Associates in New
York.
Surrogate for sale
on highway ad
HOUSTON — It's eye catching
all right.
Above the highway buzz of
Houston's traffic reads this bill
board:
"Womb for Rent! Educated,
Healthy, Loving, Surrogate Mother
Available. Call 820-4878."
A Houston woman, driven
away by what she says is the bu
reaucracy of clinics and national
newspapers that refused to take
her ad, is advertising her womb on
the billboard.
She says she hopes some
prospective parents wul eive her
lawyer a call so she can help an in
fertile couple and also meet some
of her own personal goals, such as
using part of her fee to complete a
doctorate.
"It's the sheer bureaucracy they
have to go through," the prospec
tive surrogate said Saturday.
Angel edited into
Davidian footage
WACO — A city council woman
from suburban Bellmead thought
she saw an angel hovering in tele
vision footage of the Branch Da-
vidians' burning compound, but
later discovered the image was en
hanced by producers of "The Mau
ry Povich Show."
Last week in Waco, Povich
taped a review of the Davidians'
51-day standoff with federal offi
cials from Feb. 28 through April 19.
A spokesperson for the show
confirmed the images reported by
Ruth Haines were edited into the
fire footage showed during
Povich's special, "Answers from
the Ashes."
In a split-second frame during
Tuesday's show, a bright, three-
story image appears in the fire near
th,e second-story window of the
Branch Davidian complex, then
disappears.
-The Associated Press
SEC looks at $200,000 gift
The Associated Press
COLLEGE STATION — The Securities and Ex
change Commission is investigating a California
man's $200,000 gift to Texas A&M University to
fund a research project aimed at turning mercury
into gold, the Bryan College-Station Eagle reported
Sunday.
SEC spokeswoman Sandra Harris said it is trying
to find out if the April 1992 donation from William
L. Telander is part of a $7.8 million fraud case the
agency is investigating.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported 11
months ago that Telander's investors were told
about the research project. Some investors also said
they were told gold could be made from lead, the
Union-Tribune reported.
The SEC has charged Telander, fellow business
man Roger C. Briggs and a financial institution
called Southwest International Exchange with sever
al violations of securities laws in California.
The two men and the international exchange are
accused of selling millions of dollars in fraudulent
and unregistered securities from mid-1990 to mid-
1992 to 380 investors.
The SEC is trying to determine whether part of
See SEC/Page 4
A&M tells its side to
NCAA during meeting
r-£
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Officials from Texas A&M University met
with the NCAA committee on infractions
to explain the University's role in the
Warren Gilbert pay-off controversy.
"They gave us'a fair hearing and lis
tened to what we had to say," Dr. Tom
Adair, faculty representative, said about
the 41/2 hour meeting.
The pre-hearing 1,227-page A&M response to the
NCAA stated the University's case. Officials from A&M
said the University should not be held accountable for the
nine players involved.
See NCAA/Page 3
Howdy Miss Reveille ma'am!
Reveille VI madtTher debut as Texas A&M's mascot Saturday
during the Aggie football game against Lousiville. The 10-
week-old puppy will officially replace Reveille V after the
Tim Moog/Tw: Battalion
A&M-University of Texas football game on Thanksgiving
Day, Nov. 25. The pup lives with Company E-2 of the Corps
of Cadets. See story on Page 2
Students take on stress of school, work
By Jacqueline Mason
The Battalion
For a handful of Aggies, the stress of preparing for exams,
group projects and papers is intensified by the pressure of jobs
that require up to 70 hours of work per week.
Many of these full-time student/full-time workers have
adapted to their demanding schedules, but they still complain
of not having enough time to do it all.
San Torres, a senior animal science major who works 36
hours a week at Texas A&M's Emergency Medical Service, said
he tries to sleep during the day but it is sometimes not enough.
When he is on-call, he may work up to 70 hours a week.
"Right now, we have about 34 people listed as employees,"
Torres said. "Thirty-three are students."
Dr. Brian Williams, a psychologist for Texas A&M's Student
Counseling Services, said many students take jobs for financial
reasons.
"They have Other responsibilities than just finishing school,"
he said. "They need to work to pay for rent."
Amy Rodgers, a community health major who works 36 to
40 hours a week as a respiratory therapist at St. Joseph Hospital
and Health Center, said respiratory therapy is her career, school
comes second.
Rodgers said she is finishing her A&M degree just in case she
decides to change careers later.
Torres said money is not his motivation for working for
A&M's ambulance service.
"I'm an employee of the state and get paid $1 a month," he
See Work/Page 3
Student suing for computer speech rights
The Associated Press
DALLAS — Free speech is a new,
coveted right for Gregory N. Stesh-
enko. And he is testing its limits in the
computer age.
Twice in the past five months au
thorities have pulled the plug on com
ments Steshenko has made about Russ
ian and Ukrainian politics on Internet,
a worldwide computer network.
Now, Steshenko has decided to
strike back.
The University of Texas at Dallas
student has filed s S2 million lawsuit
against the school for disconnecting
him from Internet for his critical com
ments. The lawsuit charges Stesh-
enko's rights of free speech were vio
lated.
Legal experts say the case could test
whether free speech laws extend to
electronic exchanges of ideas.
"I am trying to live in a normal, de
mocratic society," the Ukraine native
told The Dallas Morning News in its
Sunday editions. "I didn't leave Russia
to live in another totalitarian state."
In June, the Eastern European emi
gre was fired from Microsoft Corp, af
ter the software company received
dozens of complaints that Steshenko's
messages were offensive and some
times obscene.
Last month he was disconnected
from Internet by the University of
See Computer/Page 8
Court sexual
harrassment
decision causes
controversy
By Jan Higginbotham
The Battalion
The Supreme Court's recent decision,
making sexual harassment easier to
prove, was a major decision for women
in the workplace, said one Texas A&M
faculty member.
Nikki Van Hightower, a faculty
member in the Department of Political
Science, said she was especially pleased
with the ruling because it was a unani
mous decision.
"It is a strong statement that women
are in the work force to stay," Van
Hightower said.
The decision, handed down last
Tuesday, ruled that a worker will no
longer have to prove an employer's in
appropriate conduct caused any psycho
logical damage in order to prove such
actions actually occurred.
The court's decision stemmed from
sexual harassment charges made in the
mid-1980s by Teresa Harris, a Tennessee
woman who quit her job after two-and-
a-half years of misconduct by her boss
at a trucking company.
Before the ruling, a worker had to
prove that an employer's harassment
was so severe that it caused severe psy
chological breakdowns.
Now, a worker only needs to prove
that the environment, to any reasonable
person, is hostile or abusive.
"The major benefit to come out of
this decision will be prevention," Van
Hightower said.
"Companies will now clean up their
act. They will let employees know that
it will not be tolerated in the work
place."
Van Hightower said the decision will
now make things more difficult for de
fendants in sexual harassment cases.
"It will be much harder to defend
yourself," she said. "They will have to
defend themselves in a broader way."
Courts will not consider if incidents
of sexual harassment are a one-time
thing but will now look at whether such
cases are ongoing. Van Hightower said.
Judith Baer, associate professor of po
litical science, said the situation will
cause greater problems for defendants.
"Hopefully, it will make defendants
realize that what they are doing is
wrong and will prevent further cases,"
Baer said.
Baer said she was appalled by a low
er court's decision that psychological
damage need be evident to prove sexual
harassment charges and that such evi
dence was not provided in the case of
Teresa Harris.
"The (Supreme Court's) decision will
make it much easier for people to recov
er," Baer said. "Now, the whole ele
ment of having to prove psychological
damage is gone."
Van Hightower said the decision will
be especially beneficial because it will
encourage more women to bring cases
forward, but she also said the ruling
will not cause an influx of cases.
No statehood for Puerto Rico;
citizens vote for commonwealth
The Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Supporters of con
tinued commonwealth status for Puerto Rico
prevailed at the polls Sunday over those who
wanted statehood, turning back the strongest
movement this century for full union with
Washington.
"The people spoke and I will obey them,"
Gov. Pedro Rossello, who spearheaded the state
hood campaign, said before thousands of sup
porters acknowledging defeat.
But he added: "This is a struggle that will go
on."
With votes counted from 89 percent of the
precincts — 1,582 of 1,784 — official results
showed continuing commonwealth status receiv
ing 740,892 votes, or 48.5 percent; statehood
707,314, or 46.3 percent; and independence
66,915, or 4.4 percent.
The remaining ballots either were left blank
or were disqualified.
Thousands of commonwealth supporters
filled the streets started a blocks-long caravan.
One of the celebrants, Nereida Rodriguez of the
central city of Caguas said commonwealth
changed the poor, sugar-farming island into an
industrial success, and she was forever grateful.
Screaming.over salsa music and honking
horns, Rodriguez, 56, said: "We've affirmed that
we're Americans — but we're Puerto Ricans, too.
We have our own separate Olympic teams, our
own Puertoricaness.
Inside
-
wigp
Campus
►High school students 'test
drive' the Corps
Page 8
Sports
•A&M pounds Louisville,
42-7
Page 5
Opinion
•Jones: Interracial dating
means looking past skin color
Page 7