ONE LAST TIME
Five seniors play their last game at
G. Rollie White tonight.
Sports, Page 7
THE
TIME FOR A NEW PROPOSAL
Elchanan: Competing agendas on campus have
prompted the creation of a more plausible plan.
Opinion, Page 9
ART AT A&M
Three art galleries in the MSC
give artists exposure on campus.
AggieUfe, Page
Vol. 101, No. 105 (10 pages)
‘Serving Texas AdrM since 1893
Wednesday • March 1, 1995
■aw®
Law enforcement officials look to Food COUTt’s SUCCCSS challenges
reduce accidents, increase tickets
dining facilities, local restaurants
3 The College Station
Police Department will
monitor areas where
speeding is a problem.
ByKasie Byers
The Battalion
The College Station Police Depart
ment will begin cracking down on speed
ers today as part of program to reduce
traffic accidents.
, Last year 1,657 traffic accidents oc-
I curred in the College Station area.
The Speed Selective Traffic Enforce
ment Program will monitor four areas in
College Station where speeding is a ma
jor problem.
' The areas involved are Highway 6, the
1100 through the 600 blocks of University
I Drive, FM 2818 from Dowling Road to the
I north city limits and FM 2818 from High-
j way 6 to Texas Avenue.
Speed STEP, which grants each city
| $25,000, is funded by the National High
way Traffic Safety Administration and ad
ministered through the Texas Depart
ment of Transportation.
The program’s goals are to reduce the
number of speeding vehicles by five per
cent and to increase the number of cita
tions and warnings given to speeders by
35 percent.
Lt. Scott McCollum of the College Sta
tion Police Department said Speed STEP
will change how officers handle speeding
violations.
See Tickets, Page 1 0
Bart Mitchell/THE Battalion
A local police officer uses a radar gun to
monitor motorists’ speed.
□ The Underground
Food Court has
decreased business
at other dining
facilities and
restaurants.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
The Underground Food Court’s
success has decreased business at
some nearby restaurants and other
on-campus dining facilities.
The food court opened Feb. 20, af
ter more than a year of construc
tion, with four fast-food restau
rants: Whataburger, Chick-Fil-A,
Alonti Deli and Taco Bueno.
Ron Beard, interim director of food
services, said the response to the food
court has been good.
“We are very encouraged,” Beard
said. “We’re just delighted with the
response from the students, faculty
and staff.”
Beard said the food court, attracted
students from everywhere on campus.
“There were a lot of people who said
‘Let’s go see the new place,”’ Beard
said. “I’ve talked to several people
from Southside dorms that have come
to the food court at least once.”
Beard said the food court sales have
caused a noticeable drop in business at
some on-campus restaurants.
“We did see an affect in sales in
the MSC, especially in Hullabaloo.”
Beard said. “There was also a dip in
Sbisa, since some students opted to
use their meal credits. The Bus
Stop Snack Bar was also affected
because it’s only three blocks away.”
But the new food court has some
off-campus restaurants’ attention too.
Nasser Ham dan, owner and man
ager of the M&M Grill, said the food
court has had a large effect on his
restaurant’s sales.
“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
business was not good,” he said.
George Sopasakas, owner and
manager of Burger Boy, said his busi
ness was affected slightly, but he ex
pected the food court will have a
greater effect on the on-campus
restaurants.
“It has af
fected us a lit-
tie,”
Sopasakas
said. “I came
to the conclu
sion that the
University is
really just
redirecting
their own traf
fic. We don’t really worry about it.”
Some restaurants are not affect
ed at all.
Ahmed Motay, manager of the
Northgate Cafe, said his restaurant
has not been changed.
“It’s had little or no effect,” Mo
tay said. “It’s taken some business.”
Nick Rodnicki/THE Battalion
Celebrating culture
Brad Wilson, a junior political science major tional Japanese dress, at the Japan Club’s
and Deven Rohrer, a sophomore geology major booth in the MSC during International Week
pose after being dressed in kimono, the tradi- Tuesday afternoon.
Democrats hold out on balanced-budget amendment
0 Republicans make
concessions to gain
Democratic support
but still come up short.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a
tense drama blending constitu
tional principle with raw politics,
the Senate moved toward a show
down Tuesday on a balanced-bud
get amendment designed to end
chronic federal deficits.
Republicans coughed up a last-
minute concession barring feder
al judges from ordering tax hikes
cr spending cuts to balance the
budget, and pocketed two Democ
rat votes in return. Still short of
the support necessary to prevail,
they negotiated with other De
mocrats over companion legisla
tion that would leave Social Secu
rity trust funds off-limits to bud
get-cutters.
“It’s a cliffhanger,” said Sen.
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a leading
supporter.
The centerpiece of the Republi
can revolution in Congress, the
proposed amendment to the Con
stitution is designed to end the
run-up in federal debt that ex
ceeds $4.8 trillion. It calls for a
balanced budget by 2002 and re
quires a three-fifths vote of both
houses to run a deficit in future
years. A similar measure cleared
the GOP-controlled House in Jan
uary. Senate passage would
mean the House would have to
vote on the newly modified ver
sion before submitting it to the
states for ratification.
At the White House, President
Clinton renewed his objections.
Pressed on whether Clinton
would campaign to defeat ratifi
cation in the states, press secre
tary Mike McCurry said the pres
ident would make sure state leg
islators “have the information
they need to judge the merits.”
Bowen, Southerland hold
open forums with students
□ A&M students can voice their
concerns to University officials
today.
By Gretchen Perrenot
The Battalion
The president of Texas A&M and the vice
president of student affairs are opening their
doors to students today in an effort to find out
what is on students’ minds.
Students can meet with Dr. Ray Bowen,
A&M president, and Dr. J. Malon Southerland,
vice president for student affairs, today without
an appointment to talk or ask questions.
Bowen’s Open House is in his office on the
eighth floor of Rudder from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Southerland’s third Open Forum starts at 3
p.m. today and lasts approximately an hour and
a half. It is in Rudder 404.
Bowen said he hopes students take advantage
of the Open House and voice their concerns.
“I hope they are interested in the state bud
get and how we are going to support the li
brary,” he said, “and maybe even talk about
baseball and basketball.”
Jeff Wilson, student body vice president, said
the Open House is an example of Bowen’s open
ness to the student body.
“The new restructured administration has
been so much better,” Wilson said. “This Open
House is something that is unheard of in high
er education.”
Bowen said he hosted a similar Open House
at Oklahoma State and had a well-represented
showing of students. There were 19,000 stu
dents at Oklahoma State and 300 showed for
Open House, he said.
He said he hopes there is also a good showing
at A&M today.
“I don’t want to sit up here all by myself,”
Bowen said.
Southerland said he will not be concerned if
many students do not attend his forum today.
“It’s not my agenda,” Southerland said.
“They may not have any questions, but I want to
be available if they do.”
There have been two other open forums in
the past. Last Fall, the open forum had to be
rescheduled because Bonfire fell the day it was
planned. About four or five people showed dur
ing the rescheduled event.
Wilson said not as many students attend as
should.
“Who bettef* to talk to than the vice presi
dent for student affairs or the president of
A&M,” he said.
Southerland’s third Open Forum starts at 3
p.m. today and lasts approximately an hour and
a half. It is in Rudder 404.
Southerland said the two events are on the
same day by coincidence, but he will be attend
ing Bowen’s Open House before his own forum
begins. The events have the same purpose of
finding out more about students’ concerns.
“It all relates together when you’re at a
school this size,” Southerland said. “We’re doing
Open Forum and Chat and Chew and the presi
dent is doing Open House.”
The Open Forum will be more formal than
the Chat and Chew, Southerland said, and may
be represented more by groups and organiza
tions than individual students. However, any
one is welcome to come, he said.
See Forum, Page 10
Beutel discontinues overnight care
O Officials say they
offer many valuable
services for students.
By Cheryl Heller
The Battalion
A&M students no longer
have the option of staying
overnight at the A.P. Beutel
Health Center.
Until this semester, the
health center provided
overnight care for students
who needed it, hut the ser
vices were discontinued for fi
nancial reasons. Dr. Kenneth
Dirks, director of the health
center, said.
“We used to keep some stu
dents several days depending
on how sick they were, but the
service wasn’t being utilized
enough,” he said. “We had on
the average of zero to three
students using the overnight
services at a time and it was
not cost-effective to have a
full-time nurse to care for only
a few students.”
The center does have an ob
servatory room where stu
dents can rest for several
hours and remain under a
nurse’s watch. Students need
ing overnight care must go to
a hospital.
Sharon Arnold, assistant
director of nursing services,
said the health center, which
receives funding from part of
the student services fee, still
offers a wide range of services
for students for minimal
charges.
“I don’t think a lot of stu
dents realize the amount of
services we actually provide
for them,” she said. “We have
excellent facilities compared
to what I’ve seen at other col
leges and I think we provide
an excellent level of care to
students.”
The center is open Monday
through Friday from 8 a.m. to
4 p.m. and provides general
care for sore throats, sprains,
fractures and minor sutures,
Arnold said.
An urgent care clinic,
which provides services for
students from 4 p.m. to 7:30
a.m. and on weekends, usually
sees between 40 and 50 stu
dents a night, Arnold said.
“We won’t turn anyone
away,” she said, “but we ask
that students try to limit
themselves to urgent problems
because we get really busy
and sometimes we only have
one doctor working.”
The center also provides
allergy injections to more
than 300 students a week,
Arnold said.
“They bring their orders, ex
tracts and syringes and receive
the injections for free, which is
a really good arrangement for
them,” she said.
The center provides work
man’s compensation benefits
for employees who suffer minor
injuries on campus and pro
vides courtesy care to visitors
who are in sports tournaments
on campus, Arnold said.
“We charge them what we
charge our own students,”
she said.
The center also provides
counseling services for stu
dents suffering from stress or
eating disorders, Arnold said,
and refers them to the coun
seling center or outpatient
services.
The health education de
partment provides peer educa
tion and classes on various
See Beutel, Page 10