The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 27, 1995, Image 1

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 27, 1995, Image 1

Newspaper Page Text\ WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS DEFENDING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION i GUMP FICTION The women's basketball team brings home the NWIT Championship. Uptmor: Many misconceptions about the pro gram and it recipients need to be clarified. Robbins: The Academy Awards have yet another chance to ignore originality when awarding the Best Picture. Sports, Page 7 Opinion, Page 11 Vol l01.No. 118 (12 pages) “Serving Texas AdrM since 1893 Monday • March 27, 1995 im Fee allocation committee recommends budget cuts □ Several organi zations will have smaller budgets next year because of cuts made by the Student Ser vices Fee Alloca tion Committee. By Eleanor Colvin The Battalion The student services fee bill, passed by the Student Senate March 9, cut the budgets of five University departments. Each year the Student Services Fee Allocation Committee of the executive branch of Student Gov ernment reviews department bud gets and spending and bases its recommendations for an increase or decrease in budgets on this in formation. This year, the Student Sen ate approved a decrease in the budgets of the sports clubs, the vocal music department, finan cial aid, student handbook and The Battalion. Laurent Therival, chairman of the Student Services Fee Al location Committee, said it is unusual for an organization to receive a decrease. “We’ve increased budgets as much as we can,” he said. “Each organization that has taken a de crease understands why.” Therival said the committee is trying to increase the number of quali ty programs avail able to students. This means increas ing some areas and decreasing others. “I haven’t heard of any organization whose budget was cut saying they’d have to cut programs or reduce the quality of them,” he said. But Michelle Bergeron, trea surer of the Texas A&M Gym nastics Club, said a decrease in their budget will make it more difficult to participate in out-of- town events. “We already raise a lot of mon ey for our travel expenses,” she said. “They spend money for foot ball and other NCAA sports but not for others, where a lot of those students put more of their heart.” Tim Sweeney, associate di rector of Student Activities, said the committee tried to be as fair as possible. “They did a thorough job of scrutinizing depxartments,” he said. “They were trying to avoid an increase in the stu dent service fee and make sure any increases or decreases were absolutely necessary.” Therival said an increase in the student service fee was ap proved in response to lack of planning and overspending in the past. “In the past, we’ve used too much money from the student service fee reserve fund,” he said. “The fee will be a little higher this year because we don’t want to take any money out of the reserves.” The committee gave the follow ing reasons for decreases in some of the departments’ budgets: • Sports clubs’ members should assume more of their travel ex penses. Many administrative costs of the sports clubs are now assumed by the Department of Recreational Sports. •Vocal Music’s department elimination of a staff position re duced the funding needed. Therival said some organiza tions have to take decreases to offset the increases needed by others. Therival said their goal was to encourage wiser spending of funds. “We want the administration and organizations to plan before hand instead of not anticipating problems, he said,” "I haven't heard of any organiza tion whose budget was cut say ing they'd have to cut programs or reduce the quality of them." — Laurent Therival, committee chairman Best in the southwest RHA wins regional competition □ A&t\A's RHA is ranked first in its region, eighth in the country. By Wes Swift The Battalion The Texas A&M Residence Hall Association won the regional School of the Year Award at the recent Southwest Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls conference. The award names A&M’s RHA as the best . "This only reflects that quality of student program ming by the RHA and the staff is exemplary." — L)r. J. IVLalon Southerland, vice president for student affairs residence hall association from among 50 schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The award places A&M’s RHA among the top eight in the country. This is the second time the RHA has won the award. It won the regional title in 1992 and placed second nationally. The RHA is now preparing for a national competition to be held at Virginia Tech Univer sity May 24 through 30. Suzanne Lyons, RHA national communica tion coordinator, said the RHA’s bid and its theme, “One Step at a Time,” reflected the progress the RHA has made over recent years. “Two years ago, the RHA was very disorga nized,” Lyons said. “Now, I feel we’ve made a lot of improvements. We’ve found new, innova tive ideas and strengthened old ties and made the RHA really strong and ready to grow.” Lyons pointed to new programs, such as en vironmental affairs and leadership training, as signs of progress. Lyons said the unity among the 9,000 resi dents and 35 halls was a vital part of the bid. “We’re the fifth largest RHA in the na tion,” Lyons said. “Unity was an amazing feat. It’s hard to do things with one voice and still let the halls keep their identities. Every hall is different and needs to shine.” Lyons said that events between two men’s residence halls, Puryear and Law, and Legett Hall, a female residence hall, displayed the unity on campus. After a heated battle over possibly See RHA, Page 4 Iraq imprisons two Americans □ Poland diplomat works to free two U.S. citizens convicted of entering the country illegally. BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The head of the U.S. interest section in Baghdad urged Iraq to free two Americans convicted of illegally en tering the country, and insisted on his right to visit them in prison in the meantime. The men are “absolutely innocent,” Polish diplomat Ryszard Krystosik asserted in an ex clusive interview with Associated Press Televi sion. Poland represents the United States in dealings with the Iraqi government. Krystosik said his office “will spare no ef fort to have their release. We request their release to be immediate.” Iraq was silent Sunday on the eight-year prison sentences imposed on the two men, but Iraqi media carried a barrage of criti cism of the United States. One Iraqi newspaper blasted what it called American “cowboy” foreign policy, and the deputy prime minister rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to permit Iraq to sell more oil to gener ate revenues to feed its people. U.S. officials fear that Iraq may view the Americans as bargaining chips in its campaign to end crippling U.N. economic sanctions. The United States insists the issues are separate, and officials have said they are working hard to gain the men’s release. “We’ve made very clear that there’s no justification for the sentences that were im posed on these two: These were innocent mistakes that were involved here,” White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Womens Week features art exhibit, programs German fuel barrel washes up on beach JERUSALEM (AP) — A barrel of airplane fuel from Nazi Germany has surfaced intact on a beach in northern Israel. The 53-gallon metal container was discovered rolling in the surf Saturday by a man strolling the beach in Akhziv, a resort near the Lebanese border. It was stamped with the date 1942 and the word Wehrmacht, Germany’s World War II army. Scientists on Sunday found it still contained jet fuel and it was deposited in a nearby landfill, said Haim Shenhar, a local Environment Ministry official. “It was completely whole after more than 50 years in the sea,” Shenhar said. “This is the first time we have found such a phenomenon.” Environment Ministry spokesman Iftah Kramer said the barrel was probably carried over by currents from Italy or other Mediterranean countries. Police round up Neo- Nazis before concert ERFURT, Germany (AP) — German police, acting on a tip, rounded up 231 neo-Nazis headed for an extreme-right rock concert. Police took most of the skinheads into custody Saturday at railway stations and on autobahns before they reached the concert hall in Triptis, a town near this eastern German city. Police confiscated knives, baseball bats, starter pistols and other weapons, as well as illegal neo-Nazi propaganda. Criminal charges are being prepared against 51 of the skinheads, accusing them of illegal weapons possession, possessing racist propaganda and displaying illegal Nazi paraphernalia. The other 180 were released. Interior Minister Richard Dewes of Thuringia state told reporters Sunday the arrests show that eastern Germany won’t tolerate being used as a parade ground for violence-prone extremists. □ Many events round out Women's Week. By Lynn Cook The Battalion Women’s issues, health, lifestyles and career choices will be highlighted this week as Texas A&M celebrates Women’s Week, March 27 through 31. See Editorial, Page 11 The Women’s Week Commit tee, The National Organization of Women and Student Health Services are some of the groups that will present programs about eating disorders, contra ceptive choices, female student leadership, career choices and the women’s movement. NOW is hosting the “Rally Against Violence,” formerly known as “Take Back the Night,” tonight from 7:30 to 10 at Rudder Fountain. Elaine Mejia, president of NOW, said that because of the re cent violence against abortion doc tors, the national group urged stu dent groups to change their Take Back the Night program to a Rally Against Violence. However, Mejia said the pro gram will focus primarily on vio lence directed at women. Repre sentatives from the University Po lice Department and Phoebe’s Home, a domestic violence shelter, will speak about domestic violence and personal safety. “We’re trying to not center everything around rape, but the program will be oriented slightly to women’s safety,” Mejia said. Mejia said NOW will also make a presentation about pornography and women from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 29. The program will fo cus on the effects of pornography on women’s images in society. “Generally they focus on what these types of pictures do to the equality between the sexes,” Mejia said. “No one that sees this pre sentation ever leaves the same. It is very powerful.” Artwork from A&M female students is on display this week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Langford Architecture Cen ter Gallery. Amy French, from the College of Architecture, said that all but one of the students whose artwork is displayed are A&M students and most are from the College of Architecture. French said women across the campus were encouraged to sub mit entries of all types. Although the art is by women, it does not fo cus exclusively on women. “The purpose of this exhibit is to recognize the women all over campus for their artwork,” French said. “This is their opportunity to be in the spotlight.” Jenny Cotner, a member of the University Women’s Week Pro gram Committee and communica tions specialist in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, said they received art work ranging from paintings to computer-generated images. ‘We’ve got photographs, water colors, sculpture and videotapes,” Cotner said. “Many different kinds of media are represented.” This year, everyone who sub mitted pieces had their work displayed. Next year, Cotner said, if the contest gains popularity, someone outside of the College of Architec ture will be paid to choose whose artwork is displayed. The Langford Architecture Center Gallery will host a re ception today at 7 p.m. for the artists. Cotner said the recep tion is free and everyone is en couraged to attend. Resource tables will be in the MSC between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. today with more information about Women’s Week activities.

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 27, 1995, Image 1

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