Opinion split icealed EDITORIAL: A constitutional amendment allowing school prayer would not only conflict with separation of church and state, but would also cause problems too great for schools to handle. Page 9 ‘student' (AP) — Tex- evenly split ve proposal mt the right iled weapons, a poll pub- in The Hous- y of 501 peo- is, 51 percent se legislation ow residents r convictions of mental ill- / concealed ,y-eight per- y supported One percent ose the mea- men, and mi- it more than ig to the poll. percent of gainst allow- d weapons, nt supported l, 55 percent >ort while 45 1 it. rsed the pro- ercent to 46 bout 60 per- ick and His- ons opposed inducted for ost by Hous- tation KHOU ersey survey- t Poll, has a rgin of error, alts a virtual i now own ceep them in , but the ot be carried ic except un- imstances. Ron Wil son, emocrat who sored unsuc- led weapons led a similar :t legislative 3 wasn’t sur- ooll’s overall LIMIT o Aggielife Area cops tell funniest excuses used by students for speeding. Page 3 TUESDAY November 22, 1994 Vol. 101, No. 62 (10 pages) “Serving Texas A dr Ad since 1893" NEWS RIFTS .0 gunmen fire upon luslim extremists GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — 10 gunmen fired into the air and jdfcnounced Muslim extremists bnday as 10,000 people rallied in nat Yasser Arafat billed as a show support for peace with Israel. Militant Islamic leaders called the lly a provocation likely to damage 6 truce worked out by Israeli Arab ediators. “We support democracy, but we fid security and stability to build our te,” Arafat told cheering supporters city square. “We will not allow anybody to sow arder and we will not allow anyone destroy what we have built,” the jalestine Liberation Organization der said. Arafat is seeking broader public eking following bloody clashes iday outside a Gaza City mosque tween his police and Islamic activists posed to negotiating with Israel. Span asks GOP for lore TV access WASHINGTON (AP) — If jepublicans really want Congress to tie more accessible to the public, ey should 1 I .ifrnmrnfeiai ^ ^j 7* CioaM ' T v mraiMirffli jQnf* iSpil: \ Italy K -tpMtSft •• *T s s •> s •. | f Macedonia ^ .-■< IATO facilities - ' - \ pi ylthln the region »' ■fej jgj »patvi% ■ Source NATO m&S 1 S'\j Amy Browning/THE Battalion Run that by me one more time... Andrea White, a speech communications major, prac- Lipinski, a senior management major, in front of All- tices sign language by teaching it to her friend, David Faiths Chapel Monday afternoon. A&M, UH to manage TEX SHARE library resource sharing program By Stephanie Dube The Battalion Texas A&M and the University of Houston were recently awarded a joint contract to man age a library resource sharing program, TEX- SHARE, for all public universities in Texas. Mary Lou Goodyear, associate director of Sterling C. Evans Library, said the contract was awarded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and is funded by the Texas Legislature. “The contract is meant to promote coopera tion between the 52 academic libraries in Texas,” Goodyear said. The main facets of the contract include in stalling a system to aid document transmission between libraries, allowing all libraries elec tronic access to the Federal Register and devel oping a library card and standard procedures among the libraries. The contract will last until Aug. 31, 1995. After the contract ends, the coordinating board will re quest further funding from the Texas Legislature. Tom Putnam, coordinator of strategic pro jects, said access to the Federal Register, which provides information on all the activities and publications of the federal government, has al ready been established. Goodyear said the contract will also involve working to make electronic database services such as the Wilson Indexes shared statewide. By sharing the services among all 52 public uni versities, the universities may be able to obtain a better deal with the companies. Fkitnam said sharing the databases across See TEXSHARE/Page 6 Task force seeks approval to conduct Honor Code survey Today’s K All Classified 8 Coupons 10 Opinion 9 Sports 7 Toons 2 What's Up 6 By Melissa Jacobs The Battalion Texas A&M students may be asked to complete a survey next semester about academic dishon esty and the honor code. The Student Government Honor and Integrity Task Force is working on a proposal that, if approved, would allow them to conduct such a survey. The Honor and Integrity Task Force was created to look at changes that have taken place in the academic honor and integrity of Aggies over the years and to discover options for improvement. Jeff Wilson, Student Govern ment Association executive vice president of administration, said the task force wants to work from the students’ perspective. “We want to do this to get some awareness out there of what the problem is,” he said. Dr. Bill Kibler, assistant vice president for student affairs, conducted an academic dishon esty study in 1991 of 200 univer sities. He said a study of acade mic dishonesty has never been conducted on A&M’s campus. “I don’t think the reason it’s never been done before is fear of the results,” he said. “It’s just no one has ever taken the time to do it.” Wilson said he wants to devel op the task force and its objec tives by the end of the academic year. Objectives the task force has already developed are conti nuity, the mission of the organi zation, a survey to assess the current status of A&M’s honor code and a long-term plan. “What we thought was most important is making sure this continues on,” he said. Wilson said they have considered hav ing a student government orga nization and a university com mittee dedicated to the issue. “There are drawbacks and ben efits to each of them,” he said. Kibler said long ago there was an honor council, or honor court, at A&M, and it was analogous to that which the Corps of Cadets now has. “I got curious about it and started looking it up,” he said, “and from year to year it disap peared.” David Hall, vice chair of the honor and integrity team, said there are different aspects the task force wants to assess. “What is academic dishon esty? When are some situations See Honor Code/Page 2 Busy lifestyle normal for AdrM’s Parents of the Year By Usa Messer The Battalion John and Donna Van Duyn didn’t suspect they were about to he named 1994-95 A&M Par ents of the Year as they sat at the Parents’ Weekend award ceremony last spring. They thought they were part of a secret plan to get their daughter Renee to the ceremony so that file committee could surprise her with the John J. Koldus Award, an award invented by the Parents’ Weekend Committee specifically for the occasion. Donna Van Duyn, who is assistant manager of Cain Dining Hall, said they did not think any thing suspicious about the Parents’ Weekend Committee’s request. “We went through this before with our oldest daughter when she received the Buck Weirus Award,” Van Duyn said, “so when they an nounced Parents of the Year, it was complete to tal disbelief.” Renee Appleton, the Van Duyn’s daughter and a member of the Class of ’QS, said the commit tee’s plan worked perfectly. “They went through all the other awards at the assembly first,” Appleton said. "Parents of the Year was the last award. My parents were waiting for my award to come up so they were so shocked when their names were announced. “My mom started crying, and my dad just sat there. Finally, my grandmother said ‘John, that’s you. You have to go up there.”’ Donna Van Duyn said neither she nor her husband ever thought of winning the award while they participated in A&M activities. “The things we won the award for are things you’re just supposed to do,” Donna Van Duyn said. “This is nothing you ever dream of. It’s an honor to even be spoken of in the same breath Tim MoogfrHEBattalion Donna and John Van Duyn will serve as Par ent’s of the Year until April 1995. with the parents who have won in the past.” Appleton and her sister Michelle Brechbuhl, See Parents/Page 5