Campus
detention rates high for A&M freshmen, low for
minority groups.
Page 2
THE
Opinion
Sports
COLUMNIST DEBATE: Is access to abortion a human
right?
Page 6
Bryant kickin' up a storm on the
A&M football field.
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FRIDAY
September 16, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 15 (8 pages)
'Serving Texas A&M since 1893"
■i
Wl~ A&M faculty not surprised by invasion
S., Korea continue
eapons talks
BERLIN (AP) — Amid reports of a
dbdlock, U.S. and North Korean
ip rnnats held a third day of technical
ps on American initiatives to steer
Koreans' nuclear program away
weapons production.
Neither side provided any details of
talks.
The negotiations Wednesday
|gan at midmorning and were
ected to last into the evening.
The United States has offered to
lace North Korea's reactors with
t-water reactors that are safer and
duce less weapons-grade
itonium than the Russian-designed
iphite reactors North Korea is now
eloping.
A South Korean newspaper on
dnesday reported a deadlock in
talks caused in part by North
rea’s demand that the United
ites pay $1.2 billion to compensate
stopping construction of its
phite nuclear reactors.
eds catch on to
itest welfare scam
By Constance Parten
The Battalion
President Clinton’s decision to invade
Haiti didn’t surprise some Texas A&M
faculty.
Pierre Catala, an engineering technol
ogy senior lecturer and a resident of Haiti
for six years, said he hoped the United
States would invade Haiti.
“The majority of Americans are op
posed to the invasion because they don’t
care about Haiti,” Catala said.
“They didn’t, until recently, even
know where the country was, and Haiti
doesn’t have a tremendous economic im
pact on the U.S. so they just don’t care.”
Catala said the suffering is incredible
in Haiti and he is concerned for many of
his friends still in the country.
He also said the U.S. embargo is par
tially to blame for many of the deaths of
Haiti’s citizens.
“The people are dying because there is
literally nothing to eat,” Catala said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the
test scheme to defraud the
svernment's largest welfare
ogram, bogus grocery stores are
Kinging up around the country to
under food stamps for restaurants,
■holesalers and street traffickers.
I The lucrative scams are spreading
] a time when federal oversight of the
Imd stamp program has been
\ eakened by deep budget cuts, and
I hile record numbers of Americans
Ire collecting benefits.
I The Agriculture Department
I pends $24 billion a year providing
bod stamps to more than 26 million
Americans — one in 10. Yet USDA’s
: ood and Nutrition Service has only a
landful of regulators and investigators
o police the program.
According to agency officials and
awmakers, the Food and Nutrition
ervice has 46 food stamp
Investigators, compared with nearly
I0 in 1979. Its field office staff, which
iversees food stamps as well as other
lutrition programs, has shrunk from a
lousand workers to about 150.
lalloween doll
tackles racial slurs
|ioaay s J3yvi
JT
Campus
2
Classified
8
ppinion
6
Sports
5
What's Up
4
“The U.S. is already involved. They can’t
back out now.”
More than 3,000 Haitians have been
killed since the regime took power, and
more than 24,000 have fled Haiti, seeking
refuge in the United States. There are
now some 14,000 refugees housed at U.S.
military instillations at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
Clinton said he has already sent two
aircraft carriers, the USS America and
the USS Eisenhower, into the Caribbean
to join the 15 ships already present.
Joseph Dawson, director of the Mili
tary Studies Institute, said Clinton’s
heart is in the right place, although his
actions in the past several months have
hurt him politically.
“Clinton has always seemed disdainful
of foreign policy,” Dawson said. “He is fi
nally coming to the understanding that
the United States can’t avoid involvement
See Haiti/Page 3
Haitian leaders should 'leave now or we will
force you from power', White House says
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Clinton built his case Thursday for an
American invasion of Haiti to expel a mil
itary regime that stole power and stands
accused of 3,000 political murders. Every
sign pointed to an imminent invasion.
Seventeen American warships omi
nously shadowed Haiti’s coast, and two
troop-laden aircraft carriers were on
the way.
Clinton signed an executive order au
thorizing the call up of 1,600 reservists to
support the 20,000-person invasion force.
The president was using a prime-time
address from the Oval Office to explain
why American lives should be risked to
restore deposed President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide after three years in exile.
Americans overwhelmingly oppose an
invasion, according to polls, and there’s
widespread opposition in Congress.
Defense Secretary William Perry said
Pentagon planning "assumed we would
have to make a forced entry in Haiti."
He said he hoped it would become clear
to Haiti’s leaders that “their best alter
native is to leave and not to try to resist
this force."
Perry said there was no indication
that Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, leader of the
See Clinton/Page 3
Hutchison visits A&M, speaks out against presidents policies
By Tracy Smith
The Battalion
During a campaign stop at Texas A&M Thursday, U.S.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison expressed strong opposition
to the Clinton administration’s plan to invade Haiti.
Sen. Hutchison, who was greeted by about 50 Texas
A&M students and supporters at the Memorial Student
Center, said she does not support the president’s plan to
invade the Caribbean nation.
Hutchison said she believes that Clinton should get
Congress’ approval before moving forward with any action.
“The administration has no reason to put American
soldiers in harm’s way,” she said. “There is no strategic
interest which justifies the shedding of one drop of
American blood in an invasion of Haiti.”
Hutchinson said an invasion could
be avoided if the United States would
work with the people of Haiti.
“We haven’t exhausted our sources
yet,” she said. “I think that by lifting
the embargo with Haiti, and if the
country had another election, it would
be for the good of the Haitian people.”
Hutchison, when asked about Clin
ton’s health care reform plan, said the
American people want a health care
plan, but that decisions about such a
plan are still being decided.
Hutchison
“I am also a strong advocate of insurance reform,”
Hutchinson said. “I want to bring support to people who
have lost their jobs.”
Hutchison concluded by saying she will be in Washing
ton D.C. until late October doing the job she was elected to
do, but will visit Texas A&M when she returns.
“I am always glad to visit Texas A&M and will come
again soon,” she said.
Bo Armstrong, vice president of public relations for the
College Republicans, said Hutchison had several stops to
make in Bryan-College Station, but that she wanted to
take time to meet Texas A&M students Tuesday.
“She has been very supportive of the College Republi
cans through her efforts and speeches,” Armstrong said.
See Hutchison/Page 3
HARRISBURG (AP) — The plastic
lalloween witch doll was supposed to
iffer a recipe for witch’s brew. But a
ashier and a customer at a
larrisburg-area store complained that
he toy instead uttered a racial slur in
fating the necessary ingredients.
Hills Department Stores removed
he dolls from 150 stores this week
ifter the complaints from the
uburban store.
The plastic witch is supposed to
espond to a clap by cackling, “Is
mybody ready for a little witch’s brew?”
Instead, the cashier and customer
ay, they believe the $12 battery-
lowered novelties used a slur for
ilacks in saying what it needed for its
witch’s brew.”
"We’re not sure what it was saying,
was so garbled,” said Glenn
yerson, Hills’ director of marketing.
It certainly could have been
onstrued to be a slur. It certainly
asn’t saying what it was supposed to
e saying.”
Ictor pleads no-
contest to setting fire
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Bobcat
oldthwait’s no-contest plea for
jetting fire to “The Tonight Show” set
|S now official, and he has handed
ver TV spots he was ordered to
ake on behalf of a burn center.
The comedian also must pay
3,888 in fines and restitution,
eluding $698 to NBC for damage to
e chair he set on fire with lighter
f|uid May 6. Jay Leno and guest
auren Hutton doused the fire with
ups of water.
Goldthwait, 32, was in Municipal
kurt on Wednesday to make final the
lea bargain, which also includes six
lonths’ probation.
“We don’t think there was
naliciousness here,” Deputy City
attorney Robert Walters. "It was
ckless. It was a joke gone bad.”
Former student remembers struggle as Vietnam POW
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
Although it was over 21 years ago,
Col. James Ray clearly remembers the
six years of torture he received as a pris
oner of the North Vietnamese.
“It was rope torture,” Ray said. “They
tortured me the first time to try to get
military information. The second time
they wanted a war crimes confession and
anti-war letters to turn America against
the war.”
During his 13th combat mission in
Southeast Asia, Ray had ejected from his
battle-damaged F-105 bomber over
North Vietnam. From May 1966 until
February 1973, he was a prisoner of the
North Vietnamese.
Ray, a former A&M student, said he
wants people to remember, especially to
day on POW/MIA Recognition Day, the
sacrifices that people made, the years
that were amputated from their lives
and those men that are still missing.
“National POW/MIA Day is an effort
to keep the idea alive of the sacrifices
that individuals have made,” he said.
“They are patriots. They were loyal to
their government, fighting an unpopu
lar war.”
Eric Hansen, commander of the
Arnold Air Society, said people should
understand that Recognition Day is not
held as a memorial.
“It’s a commemorative type of event,”
he said. “It’s to let former POWs and
MIAs know that their efforts aren’t for
gotten and that they’re appreciated. It’s
important for everyone to remember
their sacrifices.”
Maj. David Onaka, assistant profes
sor of aerospace studies, said family
members of POWs and MIAs have also
sacrificed.
“It’s not just the people who fought,”
he said. “A lot of people have sacrificed
because they had loved ones in the mili
tary. It’s important to the family mem
bers to remember.”
Ray said many families suffer because
they don’t know the conditions of their
loved ones.
“A number of MIAs were never ac
counted for,” he said. “There are allega
tions that some were never returned.
“I personally believe there are not any
men still being held alive,” Ray said. “I
say that with a 90 to 95 percent confi
dence rate. As much information as pos
sible has been analyzed, and you can’t
prove conclusively there are any left.
“If people are not aware of the con
flicting material, they jump on the band
wagon,” he said. “I object to that be
cause it puts a worse burden on the sur
vivors of the missing. They’re on an
emotional roller coaster. It promotes
their hopes and then dashes them.
That’s more cruel than a presumptive
finding of death.”
Ray said five percent of him still won
ders if there are still more, however.
“What if we find out tomorrow even
one guy is alive?” he said. “Then who do
we blame?
“This day should send a signal to the
politicians to still be vigilant for that
five percent chance, or one percent
chance, that there are still some left be
hind,” he said.
Robyn Calloway The Battalion
Sophomore cadet Mark Andrews shows off a POW/MIA bracelet. The bracelets are
on sale through today at the MSC. POW/MIA recognition activities end today.
“The difficulty is not only during the
war on the battlefield,” Ray said. “Some
things are never resolved.”
Yumi Yanagisawa, commander of An
gel Flight (an air force student support
group), said she urges everyone to partic
ipate in Recognition Day.
“We can’t forget,” she said. “It did
happen. They still remember and so
should we.”
The final POW/MIA recognition activ
ities will be held today at Simpson Drill
Field at 11:30 a.m. The 147th Flight
Group of the Texas Air National Guard
will fly over the drill field at noon in the
“missing man” formation.
A&M students, administrators opt for E-mail communication
Amy BrowningTHE Battalion
Missy Ramirez, a sophomore computer science major from Wesla
co, sends a letter to a friend at George Washington University.
Editor’s Note: All interviews for this article were conduct
ed through E-mail.
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
Texas A&M students do not have to depend on
the postal service or the phone company for their
communication needs.
A&M is offering students some new communica
tion options through its computing services.
Many people are finding electronic methods of
communication, like E-mail, more convenient than
traditional methods.
Dr. Ray Bowen, A&M president, said E-mail is
often more convenient than the phone for getting
in touch with people.
“It helps avoid playing phone tag with individu
als who are busy,” he said. “It also allows for a di
rect form of communication without going through
other individuals.”
Jay Parsons, a senior computer science major,
agreed that E-mail is convenient for both parties.
“People will get your message eventually,” he
said, “and can reply at their leisure.”
Parsons said many computer science profes
sors tell students to communicate with them
through E-mail.
Some professors send students’ grades to them
via E-mail. Some even have students turn in then-
homework via E-mail.
Bowen said he uses E-mail frequently for com
munication pertaining to A&M, as well as other
interests.
“I receive approximately 40 E-mail messages a
day,” he said. “These come from on campus and off
campus. The contents vary from serious to not so
serious. I find E-mail to be an effective way to ex
change small quantities of information quickly.”
E-mail is not just for classes and work though.
Tito Vasqez-Ani, a senior psychology major,
said many students use E-mail to communicate
with friends at A&M and other places.
“It is much cheaper than talking on the phone
to my friends in Mexico,” she said.
Students have access to E-mail and other com
puting services at A&M through the computer ac
cess fee. All students pay this fee with their tu
ition, so they have already paid for E-mail,
whether they use it or not.
See E-mail/Page 2