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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1994)
Campus [e were the arch J^der Challenge Team prepare for p' 1 hage"offens’’ c0fri P et '^ on in Washington. years but ure of Moon. NFL player wk ;M, arrived at | , succeeding Jem the team’s 14ti je began in 1 Page 2 Opinion AJA HENDERSON: It is truly unfortunate that a growing rule of thumb in the country is: black men + menacing + dark skin = "there's your durned criminal, Bubba!" Page 11 T1HJ& THE ^ J3AIIA1 I01N Sports Lady Aggies declaw S.W. Texas Bobcats in four games. Page 7 WEDNESDAY November 16, 1994 Vol. 101 No. 58 (10 pages) “Serving Texa< A&M since 1893 ” iiim NEWS RIEFS o killed in attack n Egyptian police raft Beer i.-Thur. 7 p.m. CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Suspected (Muslim extremists attacked a police car | southern Egypt on Tuesday, killing m security officers, police said. I The attack took place in Mallawi, «.;160 miles south of Cairo. The attackers, who were armed with Automatic rifles, fled after stealing the lutomatic rifle of one of the victims. I Muslim militants seeking to overthrow the government have Irgeted police, members of Egypt’s optic Christian minority and foreign burists. More than 450 people have jeen killed in the 2 1/2-year empaign of violence, most of them olice and suspected extremists in outhern Egypt. The militants moved their center f activities to Mallawi several ronths ago after police cracked own on extremist hideouts in eighboring Assiut. p to $7.00. pon per table. • 0/94 Hinton open-minded ibout school prayer rw; With coupon Exp j , *69 95 d 8r VT ^ | With coupon Exp 09-30-95 e-Ups ill new resistor spark plugs, Charging systems. & inspect h coupon Exp. 09 30 95 WASHINGTON (AP) — School irayer is one thing he could talk ibout with the Republicans, President linton said Tuesday. A liberal group luickly accused him of “an instant ave-in” because of last week’s lection results. A proposed constitutional mendment allowing voluntary prayer n schools is among the items high on he House Republicans’ agenda. After hey take charge of Congress in lanuary, House GOP leaders plan learings on the subject, and they :xpecta House vote by early July. Liberal groups long have argued against the amendment, on the grounds it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. But Clinton, asked about the GOP proposal during a news conference in w/ndonesia, where he is attending a jtrade meeting, said he did not believe hat separation necessarily would be iolaled by voluntary school prayer. Itoo boys killed while J crossing Hwy. 290 Vails ■self! mi r We offer trained Sail Technicians, comfortable seating, compUmntar) drinks, and first class m nt will he notri and <1 a little hit Mao taking xl and Ger- n for lunch tunlay from 1 have fun. AUSTIN (AP) — Two 7-year-old toys were killed after being hit by a eras they held hands and tried to toss a busy highway during rush lour, police said. Nathaniel Johnson and Timothy toreno were pronounced dead after leing hit while attempting to cross S. 290 East in northeast Austin hortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, lustin police spokesman Mike lurgess said. ’It appears that they were holding lands trying to cross the highway,” lurgess said Tuesday. “This is just a errible tragedy.” Burgess said the driver of the car hat hit the boys won’t be charged vith any wrongdoing. “Our investigation shows there vas nothing the driver could do,” urgess said. ‘The driver was driving he speed limit and there was no vrongdoing on her part. It was dark, fhe children were small and wearing lark clothing.” Pilot arrested for oilet paper raid INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) — fhe ammunition was squeezably soft, Hit authorities weren’t laughing after pilot buzzed downtown rooftops and dropped several rolls of toilet paper rom his plane. The pilot, a 37-year-old ndependence man, was arrested when he landed his plane around 2:30 m. Tuesday. He was being held in he county jail on $100,000 bond on suspicion of flying an airplane while under the influence and littering. Montgomery County Sheriff Jack Daniels said the pilot, who hadn’t been formally charged by late Tuesday afternoon, was drinking with friends when he bragged he could hit Main Street from his plane with a roll of toilet paper. He purchased a generic four-pack of toilet paper at a convenience store and then swooped over town, dropping several rolls, Daniels said. today's BA"! Classified 8 Extra Mail Call 8 Opinion 9 Toons 3 Weather 3 What's Up 4 T'L: atiiiiiiiii Ill ill Thompson to work on improving System’s service "We need to stay focused on the fact that the most important thing is the students. We need to retain and recruit quality faculty. If we have a second-rate faculty, we will have a second-rate educational system." — Dr. Barry Thompson, Texas A&M System Chancellor By Michele Brinkmann The Battalion Dr. Barry Thompson said Tuesday in a videoconference that his main goal as Texas A&M System Chancellor is to im prove the System’s service to the people of Texas. “What do we do for the people of Texas? Do we give hope to the future? What are we doing to enhance the quality of life in Texas? These are things we need to ask ourselves,” Thompson said. Tuesday’s media briefing was the A&M System’s first to be conducted via the Trans-Texas Videoconference Net work. It was also Thompson’s first media briefing as chancellor. Thompson said he is concerned about the fact that more state funding is going to building prisons than to funding educa tion. “People commonly brag about the num ber of prisons Texas has,” he said. “Per sonally, I find this offensive. “Texas might want to consider funding higher education at a higher rate,” Thompson said. “I believe Texas has one of the 10 best education systems in the world. We need funding if we want to continue to be one of the best.” Thompson said his goal for the up coming legislative session is to earn the public’s trust and convince people that what Texas A&M does is fundamental to the future. “We want them to think they can’t live without us,” Thompson said. Thompson said he wanted to increase the quality of education through improve ments in faculty and staff diversity. “We need to stay focused on the fact that the most important thing is the stu dents,” he said. “We need to retain and recruit quality faculty. If we have a sec ond-rate faculty, we will have a second- rate educational system.” Thompson said he has four legislative priorities: • A 6 to 8 percent increase in faculty salaries, • Increased funding for libraries, • Optional retirement plans, • Utilize major breakthroughs in tech nology and research more efficiently. “I’m a proud native Texan,” Thompson said. “If we want to fulfill NAFTA and all the missions of A&M agencies, then we must have predictable support. I would hate to count on the lottery for funding education. “The legislature giveth, and the legisla ture taketh away,” Thompson said. “If all the formulas were funded at 100 percent as were planned, I would not be here.” Thompson said the System is asking for $1.3 billion dollars in funding this year. In the event Texas A&M does not re ceive additional funding, Thompson said he would not support a tuition increase unless it was tied to a general revenue funding increase. Thompson said it would be devastating to A&M if funding was not increased and enrollment continued to increase. “But we could manage it,” he said. “I’m good at managing an operation with out funding.” Operation Lone Star, Thompson’s plan to create more public awareness of the A&M System’s contributions to Texas, goes into effect in early December, which is “coincidentally” the same time of the new legislative session, Thompson joked. “The ultimate goal is to influence the political process to get a larger cut of the pie,” he said. Thompson said that A&M representa tives will visit all 31 senatorial districts of the state informing Texans of the plans, literacy projects and research breakthroughs of the A&M System. “We will attempt to re-connect with the people of Texas,” Thompson said. See Thompson/Page 6 Nick Rodnicki/THE Battalion Catchin ’ air Steve Shores, a senior environmental design major, leaps off of a wall on his mountain bike near Wellborn Road on Tuesday afternoon. Student groups work to form campus recycling program By Stephanie Dube The Battalion Texas A&M students are getting in volved with environmental issues by taking a greater interest in the on-campus recy cling program. On Nov. 17 and 18, students and faculty will be able to take their old phone books to recycling sites at the Commons Lobby and Sbisa between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Cassandra DeLarios, a junior environ mental science major, is the environmental chairwoman for the Residence Hall Associa tion (RHA) and recycling chair for the Envi ronmental Issues Committee. She said the recycling projects are in conjunction with Texas Recycles Day which was Wednesday. Mark Cribble, RHA vice president for student devel opment, said RHA is cur rently working to expand on-campus recycling. “Our long term goal is to have recycling tubs in every dorm room,” Cribble said. Before the goal can be reached, the RHA needs to ensure the recycling bins will not pose fire haz ards and that proper man power will be available to transport the recyclable items. “We might start with a couple of halls and find out what works,” Crib ble said. Currently, many residence halls have blue bins to recycle aluminum items. RHA, however, hopes to eventually expand this service to other items. “We want to recycle paper, aluminum and maybe eventually plastics and glass in the future,” Cribble said. “We want to push for as much as possible.” The hall councils will appoint environmen tal chairs from each dorm to handle that hal l’s recycling program. Each hall’s recycling efforts will be on a voluntary basis. DeLarios said she is circulating a peti tion to present to the administration and a survey to gather information on students’ views about recycling. The petition will be presented to the administration at the be ginning of the spring semester. The petition requests the University’s support in expanding recycling facilities and educating people about recycling. “The current program does not provide adequate facilities,” DeLarios said. “We are not asking for specific things, we just want the University to know there is a concern.” Joe Sanchez, recycling coordinator for A&M, said students living on campus are interested in participating in more recy cling projects. “Students in dorms want more recycling,” Sanchez said. “They are getting more in volved. We want to get the.dorms into our system. We’re not picking up at the dorms because it hasn’t worked before. But now the time is right, interest is high.” Sanchez said a pi lot program has been implemented at Ki- est Hall. Texas A&M Recycling has been getting many newspapers from Kiest and the pro gram has been work ing out well, he said. “We would like to eventually get containers on each floor of the dorms,” Sanchez said. “But this will take a lot of cooperation.” Many details, however, will have to be worked out before the program can be im plemented, he said. “In the next few weeks we hope to get a plan going,” Sanchez said. “We are amazed at the interest. We’re making progress, slowly but surely.” Currently, out of more than 300 build ings on the main campus and Riverside campus, 158 buildings are participating in recycling and 116 of these are on a regular weekly pick-up schedule, he said. Texas A&M Recycling also picks up in specific areas around College Station. The items recycled are mostly paper items such as newsprint and white paper, but also in clude aluminum, toner cartridges, and phone books. Homosexuality not a choice, Dallas church dean says Dr. Mel White speaks to a packed room of students about his life as a gay Christian. By Melissa Jacobs The Battalion Dr. Mel White told 325 Aggies in the Memorial Student Center Tuesday night that God does not change homosexuals to hetero sexuals and homosexuality is not something people choose. White, the dean of the 12,000-member Cathedral of Hope Church in Dallas, the largest predominately gay Christian fellow ship in the world, spoke about Christianity and homosexuality as part of the MSC Great Issues Lecture Series. White, who announced his homosexuality in 1993, said he was raised in a devoutly Christian home. He was married for 22 years and had two children before announcing his homosexuality. “I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can say T am gay, I am proud and I know God loves me without reservation,’” he said. Before coming out as a homosexual, he was a ghost writer for Jerry Falwell, Oliver North and Pat Robertson. White wrote a book about his experiences in a book titled Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America, which was re leased in March. White said people must understand that the word homosexual was never found in the Greek or Hebrew versions of the Bible. “People who are using these texts to make their points are not keeping the dialogue,” he said. White mentioned the verse in the Bible that states a man who lies with another man should be killed. “It also states that a man who sleeps with his wife while she is menstruating is punish able by death, as is a child who sasses his par ent,” he said. White said he became a Christian specifically by trusting Christ as his lord and saviour. “It took me 32 years to say this, but I’m so confident right now that I don’t feel as though I’m risking anything,” he said, referring to his acceptance of God. White said if being a Christian means be ing a follower of Pat Robertson and Jerry Fal well, he doesn’t think he is a Christian. “I’m a follower of a Jew named Jesus,” he said. White said the political power in this country doesn’t follow democracy, but theocracy. “They believe God rules the world and they will rule until he returns,” he said. “They be lieve the Bible overrules the Constitution.” White said the Constitution is the tent un der which all people of the nation can live and move freely. “They don’t believe in the separation of the Church and state,” he said. “Do they believe in the first amendment? Yes, for them.” White said he doesn’t think politicians be lieve in women. “They don’.t believe in the woman’s right to choose,” he said. “We can’t start taking free doms away. One is gone, then another is gone, then they’ve all been taken away.” White said God, who is thought to be a white male, is the authority in this country. “Under God comes men,” he said. “The message of God gets to men through the Bible, pastors and priests.” White said Jerry Falwell does not support gay rights. See White/Page 6