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Final game today
Houston meets the Knicks at home in Game
7 of the NBA Championship
Page 4
Frank Stanford —
"We do need heroes, but the sad truth is
there are no heroes except for Superman."
Page 5
Weather
Thursday and Friday, partly cloudy with
scattered showers and thunderstorms.
Highs in the 90s, lows near 70.
— National Weather Service
X3
WEDNESDAY
June 22, 1994
Vol. 93, No. 161 (6 pages)
“Serving Texas AdrM since 1893”
Tobacco company
misleads FDA
WASHINGTON (AP) — A major
company secretly developed tobacco
with double the usual nicotine,
pumped it into “light” cigarettes last
year and then misled federal
investigators about it, the government
charged Tuesday.
Food and Drug Commissioner
David Kessler stopped short of using
the word ''lie,’’ but said Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Co. denied
breeding any such tobacco until
Friday, when it learned that the FDA
had uncovered its genetically altered
tobacco plant called Y-1.
“That sounds like a pretty
deceptive way or misleading way of
answering the question," said Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
B&W also pulled its U.S. patent
application for Y-1 and removed its
seeds from the National Seed
Storage Laboratory just after the FDA
announced its investigation, Kessler
told Waxman’s Energy and
Commerce health subcommittee.
Congress, Disney
argue over new park
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress-
shouldn’t try to keep Mickey, Goofy
and Pluto from coming to Virginia,
senators said Tuesday, although
critics contend a $650 million
"Disney’s America” theme park west
of the capital threatens a nearby Civil
War battlefield.
“The U.S. Senate has no business
refereeing ... every Mickey Mouse
dispute around the country,” said
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, D-
Colo., apologizing for the pun.
Mark Pacala, general manager of
"Disney’s America,” pledged to “go
the extra mile” to minimize the impact
of the park on nearby communities
and the Manassas National
Battlefield, one of the most historic of
the Civil War.
Officials campaign
to prevent SIDS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health
i officials want to change the way
i American babies sleep in the hope of
saving thousands from sudden infant
death syndrome.
At least 2,000 infants’ lives could be
| saved annually in the United States if
babies were always put to sleep on
[i their backs or sides and not on their
stomachs, said Dr. Duane Alexander,
director of the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development.
Alexander said Tuesday that’s the
message the federal government and
some private agencies hope to relay
to parents, baby sitters and day-care
workers in a national campaign to
change the way baby sleeps.
Alexander said research in the
| United States and in several other
nations has shown that up to half of
the fatalities from sudden infant death
syndrome may be related to how a
| baby is put to bed.
‘Traditionally, American parents
have placed their babies on their
stomachs to sleep,” said Alexander,
j "It is a goal of this campaign to
reverse this practice and to have
nearly all babies sleeping on their
back and side.”
Nation focuses on
domestic violence
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The arrest
of O.J. Simpson for allegedly killing his
ex-wife — a woman he once beat so
severely she sought hospital care for
split lips, head bruises and a black eye
— has focused new attention on
America’s dirty little secret of violence
against women.
From California to the nation’s
capital, hotlines for abused women
have been deluged since the June 12
slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ronald Goldman.
"There’s a lot of talking going on
right now about domestic violence,”
said Stacey Kabat, co-producer of the
1993 Oscar-winning documentary
"Defending Our Lives.”
"Hopefully it will force people to
confront the myths — one is that it’s not
that bad,” said Kabat, who also works
with a Boston group called Battered
Women Fighting Back. "We have
clergy who say, ‘Pray and try to work it
out.’ We have law enforcement officials
who walk (men) around the block, calm
them down and then leave.”
•day's RA'rr
Comics
6
Opinion
5
Sports
3
State & Local
2
What's Up
6
A&M under scrutiny
Community speculates on impact of negative publicity
"I don't think the publicity has af
fected the fact that A&M is a
good place to get an education.
What attracts people to A&M has
n't changed in spite of the nega
tive publicity."
— State Rep. Steve Ogden
By Jan Higginbotham
The Battalion
The recent negative publicity
that has plagued Texas A&M
has created mixed opinions
throughout the University and
the state, and officials are specu
lating whether the publicity will
directly affect students.
Dr. William Mobley, A&M
System chancellor, said he be
lieves A&M’s strengths are more
important to students than any
negative publicity.
“A number of these issues
aren’t affecting student life,” he
said. “Students ultimately judge
the quality of what they get out
of Texas A&M. The quality of
the school is still very positive.”
Mobley said he is optimistic
about A&M’s future.
“Every organization has its
problems,” he said. “This insti
tution is fundamentally strong,
and I think that will show.
A&M has come under fire in
the last year because of investi
gations by the Brazos County
District Attorney and the Texas
Rangers for misconduct. The
misconduct charge centers on
the fact that two Board of
Reagents secretaries were in
dicted on charges of record tam
pering.
Questions have also arisen
concerning the privatization of
certain campus operations.
Other controversies that have
continued to plague the Univer
sity are a chemistry professor’s
efforts to turn mercury into gold
and recent NCAA sanctions
placed on the A&M football
team.
“The important thing is to get
these problems solved and move
on.”
State Rep. Steve Ogden said
the publicity is not likely to af
fect students.
“I don’t think the publicity
has affected the fact that A&M
is a good place to get an educa
tion,” he said. “What attracts
people to A&M hasn’t changed
in spite of the negative publici
ty.”
Ogden said if the publicity
continues, it could become a fac
tor in the recruitment of faculty
and administrators.
It should not be a major factor
in A&M’s search for a new Sys
tem chancellor, he said.
“In some cases, it might at
tract some applicants who are
interested in helping the Univer
sity move forward,” he said.
Andy Welch, director of infor
mation services for State Comp
troller John Sharp, said he be
lieves A&M’s attention from the
media could have varying effects
on students.
“In a general sense, I think
anybody would agree anything
that has even the perception of
detracting from the quality of
education an institution pro
vides is detrimental, even to stu
dents,” he said. “It doesn’t mat
ter whether it’s a local school
district where there are allega
tions of cheating or if it’s allega
tions at a major university.”
He said A&M students might
not be affected, though, because
of the school’s reputation.
“A&M is still such an out
standing institution,” he said.
“A student who knows about
A&M knows it’s a quality uni
versity.”
John Black, student associa
tion president at the University
of Texas at Austin, said situa
tions like this can be very harm
ful to a school and a student
body.
“I think it’s pretty clear that
it undermines people’s percep
tions of a university,” Black said.
“Whenever an institution is ex
posed to embarrassing or awk
ward situations, it can be devas
tating.”
Black said negative publicity
can play a factor in a student’s
college choice.
Please see Publicity, Page 6
Bad PR could affect
System funding
By Jan Higginbotham
The Battalion
Concern is rising over the possi
bility of whether or not recent prob
lems within the Texas A&M System
could be a factor in the upcoming
legislative session.
State Rep. Steve Ogden said it is
too early to determine whether or not
the problems will have any effect.
“Probably the impacts will not be
too great unless there is more bad
news,” he said. “If the district attor
ney hands out more indictments, it
could affect the new legislature.”
The Texas Legislature will begin
its new session in January and vyill
decide how much money will be al
lotted to state universities.
Andy Welch, director of informa
tion services for the Office of the
State Comptroller, said the upcom
ing session will be one of the tough
est obstacles A&M’s administration
will face.
“The administration needs to be
able to show that their problems
are behind them,” Welch said. “In
my experience with state govern
ment, I’ve seen organizations and
agencies that have faced a tougher
time in the legislature, but it’s too
early to tell.”
Reliving the good 'ol i
-- ■ ■ ■ .....
Former students return to campus, participate in Aggie
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
Former Texas A&M stu
dents,65 and over, are experi
encing life as students once
again this week as part of Aggie
Hostel ’94.
Aggie Hostel, hosted by the
Association of Former Students,
gives former students and their
spouses the opportunity to visit
A&M and compare today’s col
lege life with their own experi
ences years ago.
The 82 Aggie Hostel partici
pants attend classes during the
day on topics including health
care reform, Texas cultures, the
building of the presidential li
brary and A&M athletics.
The former students also ex
perience life outside of the
classroom through evening ac
tivities such as visiting the Dix
ie Chicken or attending the
Texas Music Festival Chamber
Music Concert.
Bob Lynch, Class of ’48, com
pared the Dixie Chicken to Ed
Hardlickers, a popular student
hangout when he was a stu
dent.
The Aggie Hostel partici
pants will attend a Ring Dance
Thursday night, and they will
reenact graduation Friday.
They are living in Eppright
Please see Hostel, Page 6
Jennie Mayer/ The Battalion
Former Texas A&M students over the age of 65 meet at the Students Association. These students (featured above) met to
Chicken during Aggie Hostel Week sponsored by the Former remember the times they enjoyed outside the classroom.
A&M s cooling unit repaired
Officials say cool water
shortage alleviated
By Sara Israwi
The Battalion
The shortage of cold water to cool the build
ings on the main campus should no longer be a
problem, but Texas A&M officials are still en
couraging the University community to conserve
energy.
Earlier this week Texas A&M could not pro
duce enough cold water for campus air condition
ers. University officials warned students, facul
ty and staff that A&M faced a shortage of cool
water, which could cause the air conditioning on
campus to fail.
A1 Bexter, manager of utilities, said A&M em
ployees worked all day and night to repair one of
the larger water cooling units.
“It should be back on line,” he said. “The
problems should be alleviated, and the operation
should be back to normal now.”
Bexter said one of the largest cooling units
and several small units failed. Each year the
University’s demand for cool water for air condi
tioners becomes greater, he said.
Joe Sugg, director of Physical Plant, said the
cooling problem is only affecting the main cam
pus. And this summer is the first time in four
years that there has been a problem with the
cooling units.
“What has happened here is we’ve received
premature failure in one of our chiller systems at
the main plant and premature cooling at the
cooling tower,” he said. “We were posturing to
improve the system, but we weren’t fast enough.”
Sugg said the amount of cold water is usually
not a problem.
“On a day-to-day basis we have enough cool
water where this will not happen, but not when
Please see Water, Page 6
Fay claims innocence
American teen returns home
SINGAPORE (AP) — Looking
pale and thin but sounding
cheerful, American teen-ager
Michael Fay emerged from
prison Tuesday protesting his in
nocence of the vandalism that
got him flogged.
He said he shook hands with
the official who caned him last
month as a matter of pride.
The 19-year-old claimed his
interrogators slapped him and
pulled his hair to bully him into
falsely confessing that he
sprayed paint on cars last au
tumn with other foreign teen
agers. But he said he was in
good health, and his father said
Fay survived his lashing and im
prisonment better than he had
expected.
As Fay prepared to fly home
Wednesday after 83 days in
prison, his Jewish heritage
moved into the foreground.
Among his strongest supporters
were Israeli human rights cam
paigners, and he repaid the fa
vor by giving his only interview
to Israel radio.
“I was smacked in the face.
My hair was pulled. I was actu
ally pulled out of my chair by
the hair. I was hit on the head
with one of the officer’s knuck
les,” he said in the telephone in
terview.
Fay said other youths swept
up with him in a police anti-van
dalism drive “were also tortured
and some were tortured worse
than me.”
Singapore authorities denied
police abused Fay.