15, m— A 3VE X_J 1ST E R Y 101, No. 179 (6 pages) Established in 1893 Wednesday • July 26, 1995 owen revises fee increase proposal Mew proposal eases general use fee hikes GSC declares support An increase of $10 per semester credit hour increase the following year. The proposal would allocate $5 million for 131*013 OS^^d. 1 r rv, Q v-^niv^ $2 mil- faculty and staff pay raises and require Univer- JL JL knowTl itilize: aetici t)6 i start, npanit ,en u ; to t .hem s: re thi: Bus' “If lere ar peopl ^egeredit hour in the fee will be con- iial dered by A&M's Board of Regents "te* August. it to a: .. „ i Wes Swift ] ie „ ke Battalion irmat i ; “lK Dr. Ray Bowen, Texas A&M president, an- eing lunced changes to his proposal to increase the meral use fee during a Tuesday meeting with reVf tveral student senators. y,. The changed proposal includes increasing li evf ie general use fee $10 per semester credit he go; i n fiscal year 1995-96 to $22 per semester t,’ s i n! edit hour, then raising it another $10 in fiscal Jar 1996-97 to $32 per semester credit hour, rme:. The original proposal would have increased tags: 1 © fee to $26 per semester credit hour in the R.y, rstlyear, with an additional $6 per semester utior.. ! legis me st ture •opoea wmmmmm credit hour increase the following year. The altered proposal would require lion in cuts to the University budget, whereas the previous proposal covered the entire $6.7 million budget deficit. The deficit is the result of the Texas Legislature appropri ating less state funds than A&M administrators expected. Bowen said he and his staff reworked the proposal in an ef fort to find the best plan. If passed by the Board of Re gents, the revised proposal would change how the general use fee revenue is spent. The special projects fund, which would have received $2 million from the original fee increase, would receive $350,000. Need-based financial aid would receive $800,000 instead of the $1 million it would have received from the higher fee increase. The proposal would allocate $5 million for faculty and staff pay raises and require Univer sity departments to find another $1 million for 3-percent increas es. The original proposal would have completely paid for the $6 million pay raises. The deepest cut was levied on the deferred maintenance fund. The fund, originally scheduled to receive $1 million in increased fee revenue, will not receive any thing until the fiscal year 1996- 97, if the proposal passes. The cuts would hurt the University, he said, but this al ternative was better than the original plan. “[The $2 million in cuts] will have some ef fect, but not as much as $6 or $7 million,” he said. “It causes us some heartburn.” See Proposal, Page 2 By Javier Hinojosa The Battalion Representatives of the Texas A&M Graduate Stu dent Council said they sup port the proposed increase in the general use fee be cause graduate students may gain more than they lose from the increase. Stepheni Stephenson Moore, GSC president and a graduate meteorology stu dent, said that although the increase comes at a time when tuition and other fees are increasing, the GSC be lieves an increase is neces sary because the recent leg islative budget shortfall has forced the University to seek other funds. The proposed increase of $10 per semester credit hour in the general use fee will generate $5 million for mer it-based faculty and staff salary raises. John Mills, GSC vice pres ident and a graduate geogra phy student, said many A&M graduate students are sponsored by outside sources and do not have to rely on just graduate student assist- antships or financial aid. “Graduate students usu ally take nine hours a See GSC, Page 6 Officials plan for JL oest, worst of fee ncrease decision If the proposed in- by En i conce: ditors to a me . grease in the general tji’ se fee is passed, an- jetoother round of fall fee epro tatements may be T 2nt out to collect ad- Innersit. . ovis; itional fees. ^ non ^ Wes Swift 1 after he Battalion nt Cof Sugg. Texas A&M department heads d, acc 'mpiled their budgets for fiscal ir circtsar 1995-96 over the last several eeks with the fate of the general ]e to o: 5e fee increase still undecided by ie Board of Regents. The uncertain future of the meral use fee has University adget makers looking for pos- mpus, ble cuts in their budgets, hertoaould the regents reject the se increase. A fee in- lu, ass'ease also would provide [turakie majority of funds for saidht 3-percent faculty and er par.aff increase. To cover all the bases, as a iministrators are plan- iyond ing for several different 3 ecific Jssibilities. ?ho nf Dr. Charles Lee, interim exec- :ive vice president and provost, iniventid department heads in the reach ivision of Academic Affairs forthfere told to find 2 percent of ” ieir budgets that could be cut if er pcf/iere is no fee increase. ac [ofe: Lee said department heads ghetlso were told to complete all ramsiree^ssary work in preparation s studs' r the possible faculty and staff ay raises. lersont “The idea is to be ready for ment oth possibilities,” he said. “We £ ee ]t : ant to be ready to implement ie raises as soon as possible if ie : 0 j r e’re allowed to. But we have to uge mow what different depart- j en ^ients can absorb in case the meral use fee is not increased.” Other divisions are preparing similar ways. . o j £l Dr. J. Malon Southerland, I^Eice president for student af- lirs, said his division has al- jady suffered a 3-percent cut in r ^ ro bs state-audited account. He said that his staff also has a con tingency plan in the works for the staff pay raises. “Carrying [the pay-raise plan] out is not a particularly hard thing to do,” he said. The Division of Finance and Administration is not only searching for possible cuts and planning for salary raises, but is preparing its fiscal department to mail out another round of fee statements if the increase is ap proved. The first fees statements were sent out last week. Dr. Jerry Gaston, interim vice president for finance and admin istration, said students should be aware that if the higher fee is approved, new fee statements will charge for the difference be tween the old and new fee. “The fee statements students will be getting now will be multi plied by the relevant dollar amount,” he said. The second round of state- "The idea is to be ready for both possibilities.^ — Dr. Charles Lee interim executive vice president and provost ments will include information about a plan that allows stu dents to ease the higher fee’s burden. The plan will allow students to pay the difference in two payments, one on Oct. 15 and the other on Nov. 15. Administrators are concerned with how the cuts will affect the quality of student programs and academics at A&M. Both Southerland and Lee said assess ing the damage caused by budget cuts is hard to determine. Lee said that if the regents reject the fee, it could seriously affect the faculty. “This will make it difficult to keep faculty morale up by mak ing it impossible to pass any kind of compensation university wide,” he said- The cuts would not hurt the University if they occurred no more than every 5-10 years, Lee said, but cuts could be damaging if they become frequent. Seminar works to alleviate campus racism □ Conflict assessment, team building and mul ticultural communica tion are the topics of today's workshops. By Michael Simmons The Battalion “Stir-fried” workshops at tempt to alleviate bigotry on campus by encouraging personal interaction of people of different ethnicities. The workshops are the second part of a two-day sem inar aimed at~suppressing racism on the Texas A&M campus. Lee Mun Wah, director of Stir-Fry Seminars and The Color of Fear, a film tackling the effects of racism, said the seminar focuses on lowering communication barriers be tween ethnic groups. “The seminars enable peo ple to get to know each other and learn to feel closer to each other,” he said. The two workshops today, led by Lee, will discuss conflict assessment, team building and multicultural communication. The goal of the workshops is to teach people techniques that can be used to build alliances and communication among groups, Lee said. “The workshops will show the different ways people can interact and deal with each oth er,” he said, “by helping people deal with conflict, conflict histo ry and learning how to listen to and notice different people.” The workshop on conflict as sessment and team building is directed at A&M managers and supervisors. It will teach indi viduals to recognize and utilize the strengths and abilities of their employees. The workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to noon in 144 Koldus. The afternoon workshop, which will be held from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in the same room, is aimed toward teaching the com munications skills necessary to deal with multicultural inter ests and conflicts. Felicia James, assistant to the vice president for student affairs, said the seminar was brought to A&M to collectively address these types of problems. “We’ve had a number of di versity programs in the past,” she said. “But from my perspec tive, this seminar is the most personal and professional.” See Seminar, Page 2 Tommy Huynh, The Battalion Lee Mun Wah leads a group in an audience participation exercise after a viewing of The Color of Fear on Tuesday. Lees film arouses feelings of anger Tommy Huynh, The Battalion Attendants sign a guest list as they enter the auditorium to view The Color of Fear on Tuesday night. By Amy Uptmor The Battalion Lee Mun Wah’s film. The Color of Fear, incited feelings of frustration, tears of anger and the desire to change race relations when it was viewed by Texas A&M students and faculty Tuesday. The film featured nine men of various eth nicities and showed how racism affected them. In the film, the men are put in a house to gether for a weekend to discuss their perspec tives on race issues. Lee used an open-forum situation rather than a script to promote open discussion of their views and emotions. “I couldn’t have written a better script if I tried,” he said. The Color of Fear has been viewed by over 20,000 people, including 5,000 government of ficials since it was released in April 1994. Lee, who is also an accomplished poet and author, said that although the film does not present the viewpoints of women or Ameri can Indians, it does an excellent job of por traying how different ethnic groups feel about racism. Lee said he plans to target sexism and other social issues in future works. The Col or of Fear continues to gain critical acclaim. including Best Documentary at the 1994 San Francisco International Film Festival. The movie also was praised by the stu dents and faculty at yesterday’s viewing. Ricarda Ganjam, an educational human resources development doctoral student, said attending the program will help her re late to the issues and situations presented in the movie. She said she hopes the movie’s message of achieving multiculturalism through trust and equality gains more wide spread attention at A&M. “It’s one thing for student and faculty leaders to see a film like this,” she said, “but it would be better if it were shown at general meetings and Fish Camp, where it could reach diverse groups of people.” Diana Lia, a sophomore biomedical science major, said the film’s viewers should pass the message on to people who have not seen it. In a discussion following the film, Lee en couraged the audience to talk about race rela tions in America. During the discussion, stu dents talked with other audience members about personal experiences concerning racism. The film’s viewers also were encouraged to share personal experiences in front of the See FILM, Page 2 ^Community, business owners discuss future of Northgate food st j print:? mans?! Final designs for the -ood « r & Northgate Revitalization ^•roject, the action plan and Lion, in implementation strategy ices.■ hould be finalized no later tlon han October. ^ an iy Tara Wilkinson leratit HE Battalion ird Three Northgate development plans ; said /ere presented for community feed- >s tob a