\
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.