Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1994)
% 1994 ity :h AP Photo pson. aining a it Gold- ielonged , the re reports - own. to Ms. idomini- left the >zzaluna ;ed. : known a., when ir about ne. nday,« liticians corpora- stic vio- ies that yroll al to wife- g Hertz tangers gations s letter graves. , Board y bene- sigrxed ; Book- A&M’s irward- angors invest!' to tak- v York ier '■dee nd ad- .ss the aid for s’s ex' urrent jd 111®" ne, the Texas •onsis- ioing- Weather Wednesday and Thursday, fair at night with sunny and very hot days. Lows in the 70s, highs from 100 to 108. — National Weather Service Sports Tony Barone lends his coaching style to A&M's basketball camp Page 3 Opinion Stanford: "Societies evolve in many ways. Some aspects get better and some get worse. They had fewer drug problems and we have Cray computers." Page 5 WEDNESDAY June 29, 1994 Vol. 93, No. 165 (6 pages) “Serving Texas A&M since 1893” Five Texas A&M officials indicted Bart Mitchell/ The Battalion District Attorney Bill Turner announced the in dictments Tuesday afternoon at the Brazos County Courthouse. Indictees, four others face trial for Class A misdemeanors By Jan Higginbotham The Battalion Five Texas A&M officials were in dicted Tuesday by the Brazos County grand jury. Among those named in the charges were Robert Smith, for mer vice president for finance and ad ministration, and Wally Groff, A&M’s athletic director. Smith was charged with two Class A misdemeanor counts of soliciting gifts from Barnes & Noble Bookstores, Inc. while he was negotiating a con tract with the company. Groff and three other A&M officials were charged with tampering with See Editorial, Page 5 government records, also a Class A misdemeanor. Penny King, assistant athletic di rector; Ronald Carter, manager of the chemistry department’s business and facilities operations; and Dr. John Wormuth, interim head of oceanogra phy, were also charged with tamper ing with government records. According to the charges, they falsi fied information on state vouchers, dis guising alcohol purchases as purchases of food, soft drinks, ice and cups. Similar charges were also filed against four people who opted not to go through the grand jury process. Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student affairs; Dr. Don Hellriegel, a professor of manage ment; Sabrina Saladino, an academic business administrator and Sheran Riley, assistant to the president, were charged with record tampering. According to the Associated Press, Smith, Groff, Wormuth and King each face up to two years in jail and $6,000 in fines if convicted. Carter, Hell riegel, Saladino, Southerland and Ri ley each face up to one year in jail and $3,000 in fines. Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner said the charges do not deal with using state funds to pur chase alcohol. “This investigation has nothing to do with the status of funds that were used,” Turner said. “The amount of money was not, is not and will not ever be an issue. The issue is whether gov ernment records are accurate.” Turner said the charges are only misdemeanors and not felonies be cause no intent to defraud has been found. “Noticeably absent in the indict ments is the language that they in tended to defraud the fiscal depart ment,” Turner said. “It is a felony if you attempt to defraud fiscal.” In a statement released late Tues day night, Groff said he was disap pointed that the situation regarding the preparation of vouchers for Please see Indictments, Page 6 ~ 1 m 1 1 If convicted: Robert Smith, Wally Groff, Dr. John Wormuth anc King could jail and $6,000 in fines. Ronald Carter, Dr. Don Hellriegel, Sabrina Saladino, Dr. J. Malon Southerland and Sheran Riley could face up to one year in jail and $3,000 in fines. Gaston named new interim vp Smith's replacement takes over A&M finance, administration By James Bernsen The Battalion Texas A&M President Ray Bowen appointed Dr. Jerry Gas ton as the new interim vice presi dent for finance and administra tion late Monday. Gaston, who previously served as executive associate provost for academic affairs, will take over the position immediately. Gaston said he is enthusiastic about working in the new position. “I’m extremely pleased to be considered for serving the Univer sity in this function,” he said. “I look forward to working with Dr. Bowen and my colleagues in this position.” Gaston will replace Robert Smith, who was reassigned June 14 to the position of executive di rector of special operations. Smith was indicted Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of soliciting gifts from Barnes & Noble Book stores. Gaston said he knows little de tails about the indictments, but hopes to start off his new job in an atmosphere clear of controversy. “There’s been a lot of stress in the University across campus, and if there’s anything I can do to reduce it I will,” he said. “I hope that this division and the other di visions can work together to help Dr. Bowen.” Bowen said he chose Gaston because of his administrative ex perience. “In his current position, he heals with lots of administrative concerns,” he said. “He can bring those talents to finance and ad ministration.” Gaston said the new position 'fill be challenging because he hll have to work with depart ments such as food services and transportation, whereas before, he only worked in academics. Dr. Benton Cocanougher, inter im senior vice president and provost, said no replacement will be named to take over Gaston’s former position, because the new position is only an interim one. “In the short run, we’ll try to double up and keep these areas going,” he said. “We certainly ex pect him to return to the executive provost position at some time.” Gaston said he doesn’t plan at this time on staying in his new job on a permanent basis. Cocanougher said he expects Gaston to do a good job in the new position. “He’s a first rate administra tor, and is familiar with the Uni versity and the people,” he said. “There are a lot of activities we run out of this office, and he was active in many of them.” Gaston said the most important issue he will face is the re structuring of the Di vision of Finance and Administration. “We have a major responsibility, and I will be helping to fo cus the people in the division to do their best,” he said. Bowen said many things will be examined in the evaluation of the department, in cluding the continued existence of finance and administration as one division. “It used to be the case that they were separate,” he said. “A lot of people think finance should be part of administration.” Gaston said he looks forward to the challenges he will face. “I am very enthusiastic and ex cited,” he said. Bowen said the earliest a per manent vice president can be se lected is in the spring, after the evaluation has been conducted and the requirements for the posi tion have been settled. Gaston has been in the A&M administration since 1981, when he joined the faculty as a profes sor and head of the Department of Sociology. "There's been a lot of stress in the University, and if there's any thing I can do to reduce it I will." —Dr. Jerry Gaston, interim vp of finance and administration "day's ’ gg | | Classified 4 Comics 6 Opinion 5 Sports 3 .State & Local 2 Rg | a .y-v. %y. SgSSS <■ &£ ^ \ World CtiP4 y s World Cup standings 4 Your own personal Reveille Dozens of little furry replicas of Reveille VI line the shelves of copies of the A&M mascot when Reveille V retired in November the Texas A&M Bookstore in the MSC. The store stocked up on 1993 and Reveille VI, then a puppy, took over her duties. North, South Korea set summit date Meeting could ease tensions— if it happens PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — North and South Korea agreed Tuesday to hold their first summit in another hopeful sign for ef forts to ease nuclear tensions and end five decades of bitter animosity. But with a history of accords whittled away by disputes over their implementa tion and of failure to bring off previously proposed summits, there was no guarantee the presidents of the two nations actually would meet. Still, hopes were high. For the first time, the rivals set a date for a summit — July 25-27 in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital. “If the summit goes well, relations be tween South and North Korea will enter a new stage,” said South Korea’s chief nego tiator, Lee Hong-koo. Negotiators agreed the meeting of north ern President Kim II Sung and southern President Kim Young-sam would be fol lowed by a second summit in South Korea. But in a discordant note, they failed to agree on a date or place. Nevertheless, optimism soared in South Korea. “My heart is throbbing with excitement,” said Lee Yong-ho, 68, who escaped from the north to South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. “I really hope that the summit will help ease tensions so that divided fami lies in the two Koreas can be reunited.” South Korea hopes to focus the summit on suspicions that North Korea is working on nuclear weapons. But it is unclear whether the communist regime, which says its nuclear research is peaceful, will agree. North Korea insists the nuclear issue can be resolved only in direct talks with the United States, which are due to restart in Geneva on July 8. In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci, who is to represent the Clinton administration in Geneva, briefed the House Foreign Relations Com mittee behind closed doors Tuesday. He de clined to talk to reporters afterward. Clinton asks Americans for help with legal bills Defense fund seeks contributions to pay costs of harassment suit, Whitewater probe WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton on Tuesday became the first chief execu tive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to con tribute to it. He is seeking help with bills that may top S2 million a year to deal with a sexual harass-, ment suit, and a federal inves tigation into his and his wife Hillary’s involvement in the Whitewater land venture in Arkansas. The fund limits contribu tions to $1,000 per person and bars donations from corpora tions, unions and political ac tion committees. “The president will be faced with potentially large legal bills and it’s in the best inter est of the country and the president to have those bills paid,” White House Press Sec retary Dee Dee Myers told re porters. At a briefing at the Wash ington offices of the Sullivan and Cromwell law firm, trustees for the new Presiden tial Legal Defense Trust said creating it was essential be cause the legal bills facing the Clintons could be enormous. Estimates range from $1 million to $2 million a year or more. The Clintons’ 1993 income was about $293,000. The cou ple’s net worth is estimated at no more than $1.6 million, ac cording to financial disclosure forms. The trustees who will orga nize the fund-raising effort in clude Republicans as well as Democrats. They will be head ed by The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, a former U.S. at torney general. “No previous president has had to face the enormous per sonal legal expenses con fronting President Clinton, be cause of current legal proceed ings based on events that al legedly occurred well before he took office,” the two said in a joint statement. ’’These expenses will be many times his total compen sation as president,” the state ment said.