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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
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drinks, and
first class
m
nt will he
notri and
<1 a little hit
Mao taking
xl and Ger-
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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