BASEBALL PREVIEW
A&M baseball team begins
spring training.
Sports Page 1 5
THE
GOD VS. EVOLUTION
Does one belief necessarily
preclude the other?
Opinion Page 19
THE YEAR IN ROCK
Green Day, Tori Amos top list of
year's best in music.
Aggielife Page 3
“Serving Texas AdrM since 1893”
Wmm IllS ... i
Tuesday • January 17, 1995
v :
University audit s effect on state funding uncertain
QA recent state
audit may cause
problems for A&M
during the Texas
legislative session.
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
A&M administrators expect
the University to be scrutinized
during the 1995 Texas legislative
session due to the state audit
which blasts A&M for wasting
millions of dollars through mis
management.
The audit, which was released
Jan. 6, criticizes A&M manage
ment for ignoring policies, proce
dures and laws.
“This breakdown in controls
has contributed to poor decision
making, ineffective use of re
sources, weak oversight of opera
tions and a general lack of ac
countability,” the audit said.
“The results have been in
creased costs of operations, un
lawful activities by some mem
bers of executive management, in
creased risks and liabilities asso
ciated with the System and Uni
versity operations and negative
publicity.”
Barry Thompson, chancellor of
the A&M System, said the audit’s
findings may cause legislators to
closely monitor A&M during the
session.
“I expect some negative im
pact,” Thompson said. “We’ll
have to prove we are good ser
vants of the finances that we’re
given.”
Ray Bowen, president of A&M,
said he expects any impact during
the session to be minimal.
“It may have no impact,”
Bowen said. “This information
has been available to the public
for quite a while.”
The audit cites examples of
mismanagement over a two-year
period, many of which received
extensive media coverage when
they occurred.
The audit criticizes the actions
of Ross Margraves, former chair
man of the Board of Regents, and
Robert Smith, former vice-presi
dent of Finance and Administra
tion, in negotiating a contract for
the University’s campus book
store with Barnes & Noble Book
stores, Inc.
Margraves resigned as board
chairman in 1994 while under in
vestigation by the Texas Rangers
for illegally purchasing alcohol
with state funds. Smith was con
victed in November of soliciting
gifts as a public servant.
The audit mentions the
scrapped cogeneration power
plant, which was to cost A&M S75
to $120 million, becoming the
largest capital project in the Uni
versity’s history.
The audit faults management
for beginning the project without
knowing how much the plant
would cost or how it would be fi
nanced.
The project cost A&M $15 mil
lion before the Board of Regents
killed it, unfinished, in July.
The audit criticized manage
ment for its inattentiveness to
warnings that John Bockris, dis
tinguished professor of chemistry,
and his associates were not fol
lowing University policies in the
Philadelphia Project, a research
project reportedly attempting to
turn base metals into gold.
‘"They failed to take timely ac-
See Funding, Page 7
Amy Browning/ The Battalion
Voices of Praise perform in the MSC for a Martin Luther King Day celebration Monday afternoon.
Feud continues
over King Center
ATLANTA (AP) — The na
tion remembered Martin
Luther King Jr. on Monday
amid a feud between his fami
ly and the National Park Ser
vice over who will preserve his
memory and how.
At Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where King was pas
tor, Dexter Scott King vowed
to continue his father’s work
through economic opportunity,
calling for a $10 billion invest
ment in the black community.
“My father had a dream, I
too have a dream,” the 33-
year-old said in a Martin
Luther King Day address. “My
father delivered to his genera
tion political freedom. I would
like to deliver to my genera
tion economic freedom.”
More than 400 people
packed the church, next door
to the Martin Luther King
Center for Nonviolent Social
Change and the crypt that
holds the body of the civil
rights leader, who would have
been 66 on Sunday.
The park service wants to
build a museum and visitors
center near the King Center.
King’s widow, Coretta Scott
King, and children want to
create their own inter
active museum.
The dispute prompted the
family to halt park service
tours of King’s birthplace. The
service now shepherds tours
past the home and presents a
slide show at its own facility
about a block away. The sides
are to meet Saturday and dis
cuss the disagreement.
The feud cropped up Mon
day in Dexter King’s church
speech, and in appearances on
CNN and NBC by King and
Troy Lissimore, the park jser-
vice’s superintendent of the
King Historic Site.
Lissimore said he thinks
the dispute could be worked
out. But King, now president
of the King Center, said the
park service has falsely ac
cused the family of trying to
profit from his father’s
memory.
“Myself and my family have
been accused of protecting our
legacy, the King legacy,” King
said during the service. “Yet
we did not wake up one morn
ing and decide to start a com
pany called Martin Luther
King Jr. Inc.”
Up to 700 marchers walked
through downtown Memphis,
Tenn., stopping at the Lor
raine Motel, now the National
Civil Rights Museum, where
King was assassinated by a
sniper on April 4, 1968.
Students, community reflect on MLK’s goals
By Dana Jones
The Battalion
A crowd of about 200 gath
ered Monday night to reflect on
the life and teachings of the
late Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and agreed that Texas
A&M University must strive to
attain King’s ideals.
See Editorial Page 19
A&M President Dr. Ray
Bowen said Texas A&M Univer
sity plays an active role in
King’s challenge to improve race
relations through genuine care
for all students.
“This university affirms the
place of diversity and accepts
the challenge to change by Dr.
King,” Bowen said.
“When speaking on unity. Dr.
King often challenged the Unit
ed States of America, a nation of
intelligent human beings, to use
the power of our minds to help
make this a better place to be,”
Bowen said.
“Martin Luther King Jr. de
livered many messages to audi
ences across the country,”
Bowen said. “He believed peo
ple could live in communities
of brotherly love in service to
humanity.”
Bowen said King’s princi
ples were centered around four
basic ideas: conviction, com
mitment, unity and a sense of
community.
“Dr. King believed that the
path to change did not happen
through violence but through a
genuine understanding of hu
manity,” Bowen said.
Shawn Williams, president of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
Inc., challenged those who said
King was one of their favorite
Americans to go back and see
what he stood for, what he
caused and what change
See MLK, Page 11
Student refuses to remove hat in MSC
By Dana Jones
The Battalion
As people all over the country reflected on
Martin Luther King’s birthday and the
progress the United States has made in racial
equality, Shawn Williams, president of the
A&M chapter of the NAACP, wondered if Texas
A&M University has actually made that much
progress.
Williams said he believes his rights were vi
olated when he was assaulted in the MSC for
not removing his hat.
After walking into the MSG with his hat on
to check his mail, Williams was approached by
two men who yelled at him to remove his hat,
he said. Williams said that after telling them:
he would not remove his hat, they proceeded to
remove his hat themselves.
Williams said the two men told him to go to
a school that wanted him, said they hated him
and continued to yell obscenities at him. Fol
lowing the incident, Williams reported the as
sault to the University Police Department.
Williams said he believes he is exercising his
First Amendment right of freedom of
See MSC, Page T1
Gramm encourages change in America
j □ Sen. Phil
I Gramm expects
I the Republican
1 Congress to
[ accomplish
i great change
I and discusses
plans to run for
president.
By Lynn Cook
The Battalion
Sen. Phil Gramm told
city and county officials
Monday that he will offi
cially announce his can
didacy for president on
Feb. 24 in College Sta
tion. Gramm is a for
mer A&M economics
professor.
“I think that I’m in a
good state of mind about
this race. I have wanted
to run for president
since I first decided to
get involved in the pub
lic powers and debate
because I’ve always
wanted to change Amer
ica,” Gramm said.
Gramm said that
election results prove
that Americans know
the government is in
trouble and needs to
change the way it does
business. He said that
this Republican Con
gress will try to reverse
the 40 year trend of the
“government answer.”
“For the first time in
my political career we
have a Congress that
has, as its principle pre
occupation, the well be
ing of the people who do
the work, pay the taxes
and pull the wagon
in America,”
Gramm said.
Gramm met
with officials from
Brazos County
and the cities of
Bryan and College
Station to discuss
his expectations
for the legislative
session.
Gramm said
that government
mandates, a bal
anced budget, wel
fare and tax re-
Robyn Calloway/THE Battalion
form and gen. Phil Gramm spoke to the
See Gramm, Page 7 B/CS Chamber of Commerce.
Investigation into A&M’s
minority funding policies
HOUSTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating an
American Indian’s charge that Texas A&M University unfairly denied
her minority benefits at the school.
“We are reviewing the complaint,” said Lee Douglass, a Justice De
partment spokesman.
Justice Department officials told the Houston Chronicle in Monday
editions the policy could violate federal civil-rights laws governing edu-
cationai institutions.
Rose Red Elk Hardman, 40, a senior social science student is chal
lenging a common policy among state universities in Texas, which ex
cludes American Indians and Asians from applying for si + e-funded
minority financial aid.
“Most of them consider Native Americans minorities, but when it
comes down to the money or recruiting, forget it,” Hardman said.
Texas A&M and other universities point to policy guidelines set up
by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as the reason the
See Minority, Page 13