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A&M approves addition to System
Vbl. 101, No. 108 (8 pages)
“Serving TexasAdrMsince 1893’
□ The Board of
Regents gives
permission for
ETSU to join the
A&M System.
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
The Texas A&M University
System chancellor will ask the
Texas Legislature for permis
sion to merge the East Texas
State University complex into
the A&M System.
See Editorial, Page 7
Friday, the Board of Regents
gave Chancellor Barry Thompson
permission to file the legislation
needed to grant the merger.
The Board said that if by
March 8 the committee finds any
reason that ETSU should not be
merged, the Board would auto
matically revoke the request for
the merger.
Regents T. Michael O’Connor
and John Lindsey said their com
mittee will present
the final reports on
ETSU to each regent
by March 8.
The deadline to
introduce new leg
islation into the
Texas Legislature
is March 10.
Regent
Guadalupe Rangel
said she would not grant Thomp
son permission to file the merger
request before she reviewed the
committee’s report.
“I believe it’s very inappropri
ate to get legislation going on a
subject we know very little
about,” Rangel said. “We’re pre
ceding with filing without ever
seeing any documents from our
employees, from our side.”
Thompson said he thinks the
merger would benefit A&M and
ETSU.
"By the year 2010, there are
only going to be two systems in
the state of Texas."
— Billy Clayton,
Board of Regents member
“Everything we’ve seen has
been extremely positive,”
Thompson said. “I have no
doubt that ETSU would be a
strong asset to the A&M Sys
tem and we are excited about
the possibilities that exist.”
ETSU University has a main
campus in Commerce, an upper-
level branch campus in
Texarkana and a Metroplex Cen
ter, which offers graduate cours
es, in Mesquite.
With an enrollment of 9,200
students, ETSU would become
the second largest university in
the A&M System.
O’Connor said 90 percent of
ETSU’s alumni approve of the
merger.
Lindsey said everyone in the
university has been supportive.
“They think A&M is the best
thing in education,” Lindsey said.
“They like everything they know
that’s connected with A&M.”
ETSU is the second institu
tion this year to win the Board’s
See Addition, Page 2
GOING OUT WITH A BANG
The women's basketball team crushes
Baylor 99-65 in their season finale.
Sports, Page 5
Monday • March 6, 1995
Regents approve step to
resolve Tenneco dispute
□ A&M agrees to non
binding arbitration with
Tenneco over the
scrapped cogeneration
plant project.
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Board of Re
gents gave the A&M System’s
chancellor permission Friday to
pursue non-binding arbitration
to resolve a dispute with the de
veloper of A&M’s scrapped co
generation plant.
The Tenneco Power Genera
tion Company claims the project
cost the company $59 million be
fore A&M killed the project, pri
or to completion, in June 1994.
The University offered Ten
neco $16.2 million in January,
but Tenneco did not accept.
On Feb. 28, the Texas Senate
Administration Commission
gave A&M’s Board of Regents
until 5 p.m. Friday, March 3, to
agree to arbitration, settling out
of court with a third party’s
help, in order to resolve its dis
pute with Tenneco.
The Board unanimously
agreed to arbitration in an emer
gency meeting Friday morning
and instructed Chancellor Barry
Thompson to start the process.
Terri Parker, director of com
munications, said that if the
Board had not agreed to arbitra
tion, public hearings would have
been held on the subject.
See Project, Page 2
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Eddy Wylie/THE Battalion
Spending an afternoon in the past
David Shipman, a B-CS resident is about to the Society for Creative Anachronism on Sunday
strike C.W. Karstens, a junior mechanical engi- afternoon. The society’s purpose is to study all
neer major from Bryan, in a chivalry practice of aspects of the Middle Ages through recreation.
Colin Powell gives insight into
America’s role in world affairs
□ Gen. Colin Powell
tells students how his
life has changed since
the end of the Cold
War.
By Gretchen Perrenot
The Battalion
Gen. Colin Powell, former
chairman for the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said that the American
family has kept the United
States a strong nation in the af
termath of the Cold War.
In a speech sponsored by the
Wiley Lecture Series that re
ceived two standing ovations
Saturday in Rudder Auditorium,
Powell said the solution to both
internal and external problems
is for Americans to continue to
come together as a family and
take care of one another.
“We’re looking inward to solve
problems at home,” he said.
“We’ve got to start being out
raged at the things that shame
our family. That will take us
through this difficult period of
trying to find out what our new
mission is.
“It’s that concept of American
family that allowed us as a na
tion to overcome the Cold War.
The concept of family is why
people look to us for leadership.”
Although America has prob
lems at home, he said, there is a
need to help other countries.
“We cannot return to an isola
tionist view,” Powell said. “We
will always have a regional in
terest and a moral interest in
other nations.
“It is much harder for leaders
to deal with these issues that
have, little to do with College
Station, Texas.”
Other nations have a trust in
the U.S. that cannot be ignored,
Powell said.
“The people of Haiti trust us,”
he said, “the people of Eastern
Europe trust us, just as the peo
ple of Kuwait trusted us a few
years ago.”
Powell said that the U.N.
forces’ defeat of Iraq was the
first test of the new world order
established after the Cold War.
“This time the U.S. and the
Soviet Union were working to
gether,” he said.
The political objectives were
achieved when the war ended,
he said, despite complaints that
the war was not over.
Powell said the war was both
a victory for the military and a
victory of the American spirit.
“There was an incredible out
pouring of love,” Powell said.
“You fell in love with your
Armed Forces again.”
Powell said he wanted the pa
rades celebrating the return of
Gulf War veterans to also in
clude the Korean and Vietnam
veterans so they could finally
have the parade they deserve.
Powell said during the first
28 years of his military career
there was a period of consistency
with the U.S. mission of contain
ment.
But since the end of the Cold
War, he said, the U.S. has been
in an era of uncertainty. Com
munism has gone, he said, and
with it America’s strategy of con
tainment.
Powell said that during dis
cussions about ending the Cold
War with Mikhail Gorbachev,
former president of the Soviet
Union Gorbachev sensed Pow
ell’s skepticism.
“He could see the skeptical
look on my face and he said
‘General, I’m very sorry you
have to find another enemy,”’
Powell said. “And I thought to
myself, T don’t want to.’ Every
thing I had studied for 28 years
would be changed.”
Powell said there were times
he had trouble accepting the
new world order. For instance,
when Palestinian chairman,
Yasser Arafat, tried to kiss his
cheeks in a show of friendship,
Powell had to pull away.
“I cannot take this much new
world order at one
time,” he said.
Powell said he has
enjoyed his retire
ment after 32 years
in the military and
has been working on
his memoirs and
spending time with
his family.
“For the first time
in 30-odd years there
is time,” he said.
“There’s no phone
calls and no crisis.
Powell said he misses putting
on the uniform of the U.S. Army
and being around all the men
and women of the military.
He said he enjoyed A&M’s
military atmosphere and rich
history.
In a note of advice to the stu
dents, Powell said they will be
remembered for their good
works.
“Find out what you love in life
and give it all your heart and
soul,” he said. “Make sure you
hold something back so you can
give something back to your
community.”
Powell said he found all this
for himself in the Army.
Find out what you
love in life and give
it all your heart
and soul."
— Gen. Colin Powell,
former chairman for
Joint Chief of Staff
ft
Mexico requests return
of suspect in cover-up
I
LI Mario Ruiz Massieu is
accused of altering depo
sitions to protect former
President Salinas' brother.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The po
litical drama unfolding in Mexico
is the story of two powerful fami
lies long connected by friendship,
Uiarriage and partisan interests.
Former President Carlos Sali
nas and his brother Raul, and for-
nier federal prosecutor Mario
Kuiz Massieu — now being held
in New Jersey by U.S. officials —
Play key roles in a murder mys
tery swirling around Ruiz
Massieu’s assassinated brother,
allegedly killed on Raul Salinas’
orders.
In the latest twist, Mexican
Pews media reported Sunday that
the government on Monday will
request Ruiz Massieu’s extradi
tion back to Mexico to be tried on
charges of altering depositions to
protect Raul Salinas.
“This is turning into a novel
about power — full of suspense
with improbable turns,” said
Homero Aridjis, a writer and po
litical activist. “If this story was
written by a novelist, some would
doubt its believability.”
Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu,
the No. 2 man in the ruling Insti
tutional Revolutionary Party, was
shot to death in September as he
left a Mexico City restaurant.
That killing followed the
March 1994 assassination of Luis
Donaldo Colosio, the PRI’s origi
nal candidate for last year’s presi
dential election — another sub
plot in the drama that has more
closely touched Carlos Salinas.
Fields explains views in town meeting
□ U.S. Rep. Jack Fields
spoke about his support
for the balanced budget
amendment and PBS
funding cuts.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
U.S. Rep. Jack Fields discussed
issues ranging from PBS funding
to the proposed balanced budget
amendment with about 50 people
at a town meeting Saturday night
in the Brazos Center.
Fields said that the Senate’s
not voting for the balanced budget
amendment proposal last week
will put pressure on senators who
vowed to support the proposal
during the elections.
“There are some senators who
promised to support it during
their campaigns and voted against
the bill,” Fields said. “Now there
is a record of their vote. The pres
sure is going to be very intense on
those who voted against it.”
The proposed amendment
would force the government to
balance the budget by the year
2002.
Fields compared the proposal
to a brick wall that will make the
federal government accountable
for its finances.
“Until you put that
brick wall up, you will
never have real fiscal re
sponsibility,” Fields said.
Fields said the GOP
wants to stop federal
funding for the Corpora
tion for Public Broad
casting, which controls the Fhib-
lic Broadcast System and Na
tional F*ublic Radio, and encour
age private funding.
“I think we should keep PBS,”
Fields said. “But it should not
have one cent of federal funding.”
Fields, the chairman of the
subcommittee for telecommunica
tion and finance, said PBS sta
tions should take advantage of
digital technology and cooperate
with major television corporations
that would distribute their signed
nationwide.
Royalties from the distributed
signal would generate money for
the station, he said.
“There needs to be creativity in
finding alternatives to federal fi
nancing,” Fields said.
Fields said the departments
of Energy, Education and Hous
ing and Urban Development
may be eliminated. He said the
duties of those departments
could be reassigned to other ar
eas to improve.efficiency.
“The good things the Depart
ment of Energy does can be put
in other departments,” Fields
said. “The Department of Edu
cation should be eliminated. Ed
ucation should be left to the
states and municipalities. And
HUD is a dinosaur.”
Fields said the town meetings
give him a chance to see his con
stituents and hear their concerns.
“I’ve been doing this for 15
years,” Fields said. “It’s an oppor
tunity for the people to come out
and let me hear their concerns,
maybe to criticize me.”
Fields said he uses the forum
to get away from the government
attitude in Washington.
“This is a chance for people to
listen to what’s going on, to hear
the proposals and hear the rea
sons why,” Fields said. “This is a
good way to tell people because it’s
far from the political air.”
"I think we should keep PBS,
but it should not have one
cent of federal funding."
— Rep. Jack Fields