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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1994)
i The Battalion Vol. 93 No. 93 (2 sections - 16 pages) 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Monday, February 14,1994 w, eekend rap-up Chiapas fighting forces migration LAS MARGARITAS, Mexico - About 8,320 refugees have arrived in this village about 30 miles north of Guatemala since fighting broke out between Zapatista rebels and government soldiers in Mexico. According to Mexican Red Cross officials, the conflict has dri ven more than 35,000 people in Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas from their homes. Entire families fled their vil lages after the jungle country east of Las Margaritas exploded into violence when rebels of the Zapatista National Liberation Army launched their New Year's Day revolt. They are jammed into 11 camps and 219 private homes, says municipal secretary Azahel Zagal Garcia, who is overseeing distribution of medicine, cloth ing and food. Fund crunch hits malaria vaccine WASHINGTON - Scientists think they're on the brink of a suc cessful malaria vaccine that could lead to global immunizations by 1998, but threatened budget cuts jeopardize the work. New research shows a drug called SPf66 probably is the vaccine breakthrough scientists have been hunting. It is now undergoing a fi nal test to see whether it protects hundreds of children in Tanzania, who get bitten some 20 times a day by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. "We are hot on the right trail," Dr. D.A. Henderson, a renowned vaccine expert and assistant U.S. health secretary, said Friday in an interview. But the United States, a major fi nancial backer of malaria vaccine research, probably will cut some of that money this year, leading to fears that other countries will fol low suit. Prosecuter down, but not out yet FORT WORTH - A day after abandoning his case against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, pros ecutor Ronnie Earle released reams of documents he said show a "massive misuse of state employees" while she was Texas treasurer. A preliminary review of the thousands of documents made public Saturday show that state workers wrote thank-you notes for Hutchison's personal and po litical speaking engagements and for gifts she received. They tracked checks written as political contributions and kept Hutchison's daily schedules both inside and outside of the Treasury office. Former first lady treated for cancer NEW YORK - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis thought she might have the flu when she saw her doctor about a month ago. But the examination turned up cancer of the lymph system and the former first lady has been un dergoing chemotherapy. The cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, evidently was caught early and doctors believe she has a good chance of recovery, said Nancy Tuckerman, a longtime as sociate who speaks for Onassis. "She's doing very well. She's maintaining her schedule," Tuck erman said Friday from the of fices of Doubleday publishing, where Onassis is an editor. Onassis, 64, decided to ac knowledge her condition because of recent rumors about her health, Tuckerman said. She would not disclose details of her treatment. -The Associated Press University stiffens entrance requirements By Geneen Pipher The Battalion Beginning this summer, Texas A&M will make it tougher for high school students in the top ten percent of their high school class to be automatically admitted to the University In order for these students to be automatically accept ed and gain early notification of admission, they must have a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of 800 or an American College Testing exam (ACT) score of 19, said Gary Engelgau, executive director of Admissions and Records. "The only change we made in our admissions proce dures this year is the standards for students ranking in the top ten percent of their high school classes," Engel gau said. "If they don't meet the test score requirement, they can still be considered for admission, they just are not eligible for early notification." Mary Broussard, coordinator of special programs for the associate provost, said students ranking in the top ten percent were once automatically accepted to A&M, but due to a soaring number of qualified applicants A&M has been forced to be more selective. "At Texas A&M we're talking about hundreds of qualified applicants and competitive admissions," Broussard said. "Last year we were unable to offer all qualified applicants a place here at A&M, and we proba bly won't be able to do it this year either. " Engelgau believes A&M was sending the wrong mes sage to high-ranking high school graduates with low test scores. "By just admitting all students in the top tenth of their classes we were basically telling them they would have it easy here at the University, that school wouldn't be a challenge," he said. "That simply isn't true." See Admission/Page 2 Feathers and flourishes... A dancer performs Saturday evening for the Native American Student Association's Stew Mihie/THE Battalion second annual pow-wow at G. Rollie White Colliseum. Minority recruitment must be top priority, officials say : : By Jan Higginbotham The Battalion w T® < hirty years after blacks were first ad- 1 mitted to Texas A&M, they still make 1 up less than three percent of the stu dent body. Paul Parrish, dean of the College of Lib eral Arts, said Texas A&M's history as an all-male military school causes problems in attracting a diverse student body. "We need to recognize that as a Univer sity in this community we are perceived to have certain drawbacks," Parrish said. "We need to work especially hard in an ac tivist way in recruiting students and facul ty." Warren Mayberry, a senior agricultural journalism major, said aggressive recruit ing is needed to increase the number of black students at the University. "In the minority community, A&M is often perceived as a good-old-boy school," he said. "Until that myth is broken, they are not going to recruit the black students to this school." The Department of Multicultural Ser vices provides retention programs for stu dents and offers diversity training pro grams for faculty and staff. But Kevin Carreathers, director of Mul ticultural Services, said he is not pleased with the number of black students at Texas A&M. Carreathers believes the number should reflect the percentage of blacks in Texas. "I hope their numbers increase so that See Minority/Page 3 . : ... Texas gives blessing to school prayer law By Stephanie Dube The Battalion In a continuing effort to define the line separating church and state while still protecting citi zens' freedoms, the Texas Senate recently approved two amend ments focusing on prayer in pub lic schools. Amendment 75-22 states that a school's Edu cation Depart ment funds may be with drawn if the school prevents a student from exercising his right to pray, and Amend ment 78-8 al lows for peri ods of silence in which stu dents can con template their goals, actions, or any moral or religious belief they may hold. Many Texas A&M members of religious groups have differing opinions on this issue. Melissa Weiner, a senior psy chology major and president of the Hillel Jewish Student Associa tion, said she has no conflict with periods of silence if they are not tied to any religious context. Just because Christianity is in the majority, Weiner said the mi nority religions still need to be protected. "The past 40 to 50 years has seen a sharp decline in moral val ues. Prayer is one way to combat the decline in moral and ethical values." - Mike Burns, student director of Campus Crusade for Christ "Christians need to put the shoe on the other foot," she said. "If students were praying to Al lah, then they (Christians) would have objections." Mike Burns, a senior industrial distribution major and the student director of Campus Crusade for Christ, said people today are jumping on the anti-Christian bandwagon. "If I were to show a video in school on Islam or evolution, they wouldn't object as much as they would to a Christianity video," Burns said. "The past 40 to 50 years has seen a sharp decline in moral values. Prayer is one way to combat the decline in — moral and ethi cal values." Scott Berry, a senior speech communications major and presi dent of the Baptist Student Union, said students should have the right to pray when and where they want. As long as the praying is ex tracurricular, Berry said he does not understand why schools would not let any religious group organize. "They never really took prayer out of the schools," he said. See Prayer/Page 3 A&M Riverside Campus - more than just a castaway By Laurel Mosley The Battalion There is a part of Texas A&M even some of the most knowledgeable Aggies have never heard of, yet it plays an important part of the Uni versity System and has a rich history all its own. Texas A&M Riverside Campus, which sits on about 2,000 acres off Interstate Highway 21, is a research laboratory and extension agency fa cility. James Massey, assistant director for facilities coordination, said the campus is an important part of the University. "Riverside Campus is an integral part of the research and extension program at the University," Massey said. "It is is an extension of what happens on the University's main campus." The campus was originally built as an airbase for use during World War II It was deactivated after the war and used as freshman housing for A&M. In 1948 the General Services Administration of the United States took the land over and Texas A&M rented some of the land. It was activated again during the Korean War for use as a jet training facility and was deactivated permanently at the end of the war. A&M took over the title to the land in 1982. Many agencies that are part of the Texas A&M System are located at the Riverside Campus, including the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and the Texas Engineering Extension Agency (TEEX). TTI has used the campus to develop a telephone pole which breaks away when a car hits it, and TTI also uses the old runways to do car crash tests. See Riverside/Page 4 Inside Sports *5ee 1994 Baseball pullout preview ►Men's basketball: Aggies drop first conference game Opinion Page 5 ►Editorial: UH students should face challenge Page 7