: rontiers
[&M engineers develop a new fiber-optic sensor
Page 2
THE
Opinion
ELIZABETH PRESTON: The whole point of opening lines of
communication is to understand each other better.
Page 7
Sports
A&M quarterback Corey Pullig
turns in a good performance in
the season finale.
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MONDAY
November 21, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 61 (8 pages)
“Serving Texas AdrM since 1893 ”
State senator to work
or local book selection
Amount of enrollment interest
prompts task force proposal
AUSTIN (AP) — The fight over
chool textbook selection could move
the legislative arena next year, when
ne senator says he’ll work to get the
iften controversial decisions handed
iack to local school boards.
The elected State Board of
ducation for the past 10 years has
lecided which books state money can
ie used to purchase,
But state Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount
’leasant, said he will introduce a bill
hat would give local boards the
reedom to use state funds to buy
whatever books they choose.
think people need to understand
hat the decision already is in the
lands of local districts,” said Ratliff,
hairman of the Senate Education
tommittee. "They have the option of
uying whatever they want; they just
an’t use state money to do that.”
In past years, issues such as
nclusion of the biblical theory of
reation in science books and human
lexuality in health books have stirred
he most controversy at education
loard textbook meetings.
luts increase risks at
tefinery, unions say
HOUSTON (AP) — Four workers’
inions at the giant Exxon refinery in
iaytown say maintenance cutbacks
iver the past year have led to an
ncreased risk of deadly fires,
xplosions and chemical releases.
The unions, which represent all
,850 refinery employees, made the
xjmplaints in an Oct. 6 letter to refinery
nanager Sherri Stuewer and in
nterviews with the Houston Chronicle
astweek.
Union leaders claim that
nspection and maintenance of
pumps and other important
| equipment have slipped noticeably,
fef "Each undone project, patch job
and purposely neglected
tnaintenance project puts another
nail in the coffin of certainty which
brings us closer to a major incident,”
he unions said in their letter.
Grand jury investigates
slaughter of horses
DALLAS (AP) — A federal grand
ury is investigating claims that wild
rorses are being sold to slaughter with
he help of officials responsible for
Jrotecting them.
The grand jury in the Texas
)order city of Del Rio is looking into
eports that officials with the Bureau
of Land Management there are
illowing people to acquire horses for
!125 through the agency’s Adopt-A-
Horse program to sell to
slaughterhouses for up to $1,000.
Current and former bureau
employees told The Dallas Morning
News in its Sunday editions that
agency officials interfered with efforts to
uncover wrongdoing in the program.
Some current and former BLM
officials said there has been no criminal
wrongdoing. They call the investigation
a misguided crusade by the bureau’s
law enforcement officials.
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
More people want to come to A&M than there
is room for, so A&M System Chancellor Barry
Thompson proposed Friday that the Board of Re
gents have a task force look into options to reme
dy the situation.
The task force will consider issues like making
the admission requirements stricter, increasing tu
ition or expanding the current facilities to accommo
date more students.
“I really think it is in the best interest of the Uni
versity to form a task force to look in to this issue,”
Thompson said. “There are certain external forces
that have to be looked in to.”
The administration capped enrollment this year,
and 2,500 qualified applicants were turned away
from the University simply because there was no
more room.
Dr. Sallie Sheppard, associate provost, said
these students were referred to other A&M Sys
tem schools.
Dr. Ray Bowen, A&M president, said enrollment
was capped because of the increased cost of admit
ting more students.
He said adding 1,000 more students for just
one year would cost the University more than
$6 million.
He said that amount does not include the
costs of adding more dormitories, parking areas
or library facilities.
Bowen said that 42 more faculty would have to be
hired to accommodate the extra students.
“When you talk about increasing enrollment,” he
said, “you have to look at your resources.”
He said the A&M faculty is currently teaching at
See Enrollment/Page 8
Proposal requires good
teaching skills for tenure
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
Faculty at Texas A&M Sys
tem schools will have to meet
new requirements, including
good teaching skills and satis
factory peer reviews, to be
granted tenure under a pro
posal that a tenure task force
will make to the Board of Re
gents in January.
Dr. Manuel Ibanez, presi
dent of Texas A&M at
Kingsville and head of the task
force, said that teaching skills
are often over-looked at large,
research-based universities.
“Traditionally, we say if
people have the degrees, they
have the qualifications to
teach,” he said. “That’s not
true, though. You have to
learn how to be a teacher.”
Chancellor Barry Thompson
said many A&M faculty are
lacking in the area of teaching.
“Institutional leadership is
probably the weakest area we
have here,” he said.
Thompson said he would
like to see a group of the best
teachers helping other teach
ers in the classroom.
“If you really want to impact
teaching in the classroom,” he
said, “that will do it.”
The task force also proposed
See Tenure/Page 8
A precision team
Robyn Calloway/THE Battalion
The Fish Drill Team performs one of their exercises during the halftime of the A&M-TCU game Saturday.
Corps to urge cadet
adherence to Aggie
Code of Honor
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
The Corps of Cadets is urging its mem
bers to make the Aggie Code of Honor a pri
ority in their lives by holding an honor dis
cussion Monday and Tuesday night that
each cadet will attend.
Blaine Joseph, vice chair of education on
the Cadet Honor Board, said the Corps
needs to make cadets aware of the impor
tance of integrity because it is the Corps’
mission to produce leaders of character and
competence for the nation.
“We’ve always had competent leaders
come out of the Corps,” Joseph said, ‘hut not
always moral people. This nation needs
moral people.
“I don’t believe there is complete igno
rance of the Code of Honor in the Corps,”
Joseph said, ‘hut sometimes there is a lack
of concern about it. It’s the same in the
Corps as it is back down through society.”
Joseph said the meeting will focus on the
day-to-day dilemmas that cadets are facing
now and will be facing after they leave A&M.
“If you sign out of CQ (call to quarters)
to go to the library but go to your girl
friend’s instead, that’s a question of char
acter,” Joseph said.
“There are always going to be problems.
For example, the Corps instills the buddy
system in cadets, but sometimes that crosses
the line between loyalty and honor.”
Joseph said the Honor Board is looking
for open discussions among cadets. After Dr.
J. Malon Southerland, vice president for stu
dent affairs, addresses the cadets, the group
will divide into battalions for scenario dis
cussions led by faculty members.
Dennis Davenport, assistant Corps area
coordinator and a discussion leader, said
cadets need to remember everyone is subject
See Honor Discussion/Page 8
Republican win could net
Bentsen more influence
Democrats expected
to support tax cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) —-
Outnumbered in Congress for the
first time in four decades, Democrats
are likely to lend significant support
to Republican efforts to cut spending
and taxes,-reduce government and
reform welfare.
But they will spend the next two
years attempting to hold Republicans
accountable for keeping the deficit in
check, shielding student loans and
other selected programs from the ax
and making sure the wealthy aren’t the
prime beneficiaries of tax cuts.
They’ll also try to hold the line on
any attempts to enact a conservative
social agenda.
"I’ll vote for some spending cuts,
sure,” as well as work with
Republicans on welfare, said Sen.
Harry Reid, D-Nev., echoing the views
of many Democrats.
At the same time, he said, “I think
we have to stand for something. I think
we have to have a social conscience. I
think we have to be concerned about
the working people.”
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Today s rxATf
Classified
6
Frontiers
2
Opinion
7
Toons
4
Weather
8
What's Up
3
WASHINGTON (AP) — As
most Democrats prepare to lose
stature when Republicans take
control of Congress next year.
Treasury Secretary Lloyd
Bentsen could become a more
valuable player, say analysts
and interest
groups.
His moder
ate political
views, con
gressional ex
perience and
good standing
with many Re-
publicans
could boost his
influence,
they note. Bentsen
“Secretary
Bentsen was a major force oh
Capitol Hill for a long time. He
has well-developed working rela
tionships on both sides of Capitol
Hill,” said Carol Cox Wait, presi
dent of the bipartisan Commit
tee for a Responsible Federal
Budget. “Having acquired that
stature and relationship is of
tremendous value today.”
But the question is how long
does Bentsen, now 73, want to
stay in the Cabinet? Unlike for
mer Defense Secretary Les As-
pin or outgoing Agriculture
Secretary Mike Espy, there is
no suggestion he would be
forced to leave.
But practically since he was
picked by President Clinton as a
key member of the administra
tion’s economic team, it was
widely assumed he would not
serve the full four-year term.
Speculation about his depar
ture was fueled by reports that
his advice on crucial issues was
not being heeded. And lately,
Bentsen may have helped the
rumors by toning down his exu
berance when asked how he
likes the job.
A year ago, when asked his
plans, Bentsen said: “I am
pleased with my position. I find
it interesting and exciting. I
have no intention of leaving.”
These days when asked if
he intends to retire, his stock
response is, “You all keep ask
ing me that question, and one
of these days you’re going to
be right.”
Also, Bentsen and his wife
recently bought a million-dol-
lar townhouse in Houston that
is unoccupied. And, aides
note, he might want to be clos
er to his six grandchildren
who live there.
But, they quickly add, if the
White House asks him to stay on
the job to help deal with hostile
forces on Capitol Hill, he is not
likely to depart and risk appear
ing a quitter deserting a strug
gling administration.
Texas spends more for basics
Educating students who fall short is shared by
large state universities, but about 85 percent of all
remedial instruction is taken on by community
colleges. The smaller schools now devote about 20
percent of their academic instruction to the cause,
up from 5 percent in 1987.
“This isn’t a development we’ve cheered,” said
Stan Calvert, executive director of the Texas Asso
ciation of Community Colleges. “Community col
leges would like nothing better than to get out of
remedial education and teach college-level work.”
Remedial courses are considered “developmen
tal” and don’t count toward a degree. They can
range from math classes on fractions and percent
ages to basic reading
"This [report] shows taxpayers are having
to pay twice to teach kids basic skills.
And underfunded colleges are being
stretched even thinner."
Remedial college classes
cost state $127 million in
1994-95 school year
HOUSTON (AP) — Teaching Texas college stu
dents the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic
is costing nearly four times more than it did six
years ago, according to a report by state education
officials.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board report says the
cost of remedial col- ' 'O'' N
lege classes in the
three R’s exceeded
$127 million for the
1994-95 school year.
That’s up from $35
million in 1988-89.
“This shows tax
payers are having to
pay twice to teach
kids basic skills,”
board chairwoman
Nancy Atlas told the
Houston Chronicle for Sunday editions. “And un
der-funded colleges are being stretched even thin
ner.”
The skyrocketing remedial course work isn’t
unique to Texas. Experts say spending has in
creased dramatically nationwide since the 1980s,
though no national statistics are available.
In Texas, the increase is driven largely by the
Legislature’s 1988 imposition of the Texas Acade
mic Skills FYogram, a mandatory placement test
that identifies incoming college students in need of
remedial help. Roughly a third of college freshmen
fail the. test annually.
Nancy Atlas, Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board chairman
courses and instruc
tion in grammar and
punctuation.
Nearly $60 mil
lion, or 46.2 percent
of the total spent on
remedial courses in
1994-95, was spent
teaching basic math
skills. Writing class
es took 32.9 percent
of the total, while
reading courses took
20.9 percent.
The Coordinating Board report is being touted
by some as proof that public schools are failing to
do the job.
“Those numbers are a great indication of public
schools’ failed curriculum,” said George Scott,
president of the Tax Research Association of
Houston. “They show we’re spending money the
wrong way.”
Some public school leaders acknowledge the
problem but say progress is being made by phas
ing out less rigorous courses and implementing
college-preparatory classes.