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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1995)
X A A WL U N R Y owneJ e s' nej tingr Hammer time Habitat for Humanity looks to raise awareness with annual Shack-a-thon. Aggielife, Page 3 Good example Hill: If more people were like Ok Army Lou, Aggieland would be a better place. Opinion, Page 11 Great finish The A&M Volleyball Team finishes its regular season 21-5. Sports, Page 8 \ Battalion Vol. 102, No. 58 (12 pages) Established in 1893 Wednesday* November 15, 1995 linton, GOP leaders trade attacks over budget Olhe Senate's restaurants ere closed because of a partial government shutdown, forcing Republicans to eat Domino's pizza. WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Smith- lonian’s museums shuttered and federal vorkers sent home in droves, the Clinton ad- ninistration and Republican leaders failed ,o reach accord on the budget Tuesday and iharply attacked each other over a partial government shutdown. “At this time, I haVe to tell you we are at n impasse,” White House Chief of Staff Leon ’anetta said after several hours of talks with aOP leaders ended without agreement. With the shutdown less than one day old, owever, Republicans moved to shelter certain olitically popular programs from disruption. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said legis lation would likely begin moving “in the next ay or two” to reopen facilities such as Social ecurity offices so new applications could be aken, veterans’ offices, passport facilities and possibly national parks. Both sides seemed to be digging in, though, on the overall issue of getting the entire government back into operation. “Let’s say ‘Yes’ to balancing the budget, but let us together say ‘No’ to these deep and unwise cuts in education, technology, the environment, Medicare and Medicaid,” Clinton said in an assault on the GOP bud get priorities. Gingrich quickly retaliated, saying Clin ton was accusing the GOP of “phony cuts that do not exist.” He said the president’s own balanced-budget proposal would perpet uate deficits forever, and he challenged Clin ton to help negotiate a seven-year plan to erase deficits “without baloney.” The first effects of the shutdown were felt as the political positioning unfolded, al though essential services such as the na tion’s defense, air traffic control system and prison operations were maintained without interruption. “Due to the federal government shutdown, the Smithsonian Institution must be closed,” read signs posted up and down Washington’s Mall, home to museums where millions flock annually to gaze at exhibits of art, space ex ploration, natural history and more. Mary Jo Kampe, visiting from Williamston, Mich., missed a long-awaited White House tour and was turned away at the nearby Holocaust Museum as well. “I have waited a very long time for this so I’m very upset, disappointed,” she said. Some 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal civilian workers in Washington and around the world had a place to go — home from their offices after reporting to work and be ing told their services were nonessential. The American Federation of Govern ment Employees filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s handling of the situa tion, including its definition of essential workers and its authority to require them to work without knowing when they would be paid. A federal judge scheduled a hear ing for Thursday. The inconvenience penetrated even the Senate’s private preserve. Republicans gath ering for their weekly senators’ lunch dined on Domino’s pizza — cheese, vegetable and sausage toppings, they said — because the Senate’s restaurants were closed. Senior White House aides met at midday with key lawmakers in one of the Senate’s com mittee meeting rooms. But the session yielded no agreement. Shutting down How a government shutdown would affect U.S. federal services and agencies: SERVICES AFFECTED ssSmithsonian museums and the National Zoo.would close. National Parks would be run by skeleton crews. m No new food stamps would be issued. is New money for food packages for women, *i_i* infants and children would not be available. m Environmental regulation, enforcement, research and grant programs would cease. ■ Rural development and farm credit programs would shut down. h Veterans compensation benefit checks would not be immediately affected. hi Post offices, criminal investigations, border control and inspections, federal gp*' prisons, medical care at > L veterans’ hospitals and Medicare. Social Security recipients m) would receive $$ their checks, but field offices would be understaffed. Associated Press Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Experimental eruption Michele Byrom, a senior earth science education major, teaches ninth graders a chemical reaction lesson at Lamar High School Tuesday. Keathley, Fowler, Hughes halls ready to consolidate □ The co-ed complex may alternate men's and women's floors so that both could live in first-floor rooms. By Heather Pace The Battalion Representatives from Keathley, Fowler and Hughes halls shared their recommendations for the Keathley-Fowler-Hughes Complex and answered residents’ questions at a general meeting Tuesday. Pablo White, a Fowler resident ad viser and a junior computer science major, presented suggestions for the new staff structure of the KFH com plex that will go co-ed Fall ’96. The proposed staff includes an area hall director, a senior resident adviser and 20 resident advisers. The area hall director, which is a new position, would be a full-time employee. The senior resident advis er would have all of the responsibili ties of a resident adviser besides serving as a liaison between other resident advisers and students. “Seven hundred thirty-four resi dents is more than one person can handle; the position of senior resident adviser will ease the amount of work placed on the area hall director,” See Halls, Page 6 Aggies In Action Aggies observe Texas Recycles Day □ Students are encouraged to drop off old telephone books at any of the various collection sites on campus. By Tara Wilkinson The Battalion Festivities for the 2nd annual Texas Recycles Day, including raffles, a speech and the collection of recycleable materi als, are being held today on the Texas A&M campus and in the Target parking lot in College Station. Nov. 15 was declared Texas Recycles Day last year by Gov. Ann Richards, and again this year by Gov. George W. Bush. The A&M Student Government Envi ronmental Issues Committee, Aggies For A Clean Tomorrow, the A&M chap ter of the Texas Environmental Action Coalition and the cities of Bryan and College Station decided to play their part in Texas Recycles Day by recycling telephone books. Telephone books, which have been collected for about two weeks in the A-l, A-2 and A-3 lounges, the Commons Lob by and the Student Government office, will be accepted at all these campus lo cations and at the Rudder Fountain booth throughout the day. Phone books can also be taken to a collection site in the Target parking lot between 10 a.m. and (> p.m. Cassandra DeLarios, FIG chair woman, RHA environmental affairs di rector and a senior geography major, said 15,000 new GTE telephone books, a total of 700 tons, were distributed on the A&M campus last month. “What we’re hoping is that for every phone book we brought on cam pus, we will recycle an old one," De Larios said. “Our main goal is that we want to help keep these phone books out of the landfills.” Last year, 20 tons of telephone books were collected from the A&M campus, do nated to Sunbright, a recycling company in Waco, and sold as wallboard for new houses. This year, the telephone books will be donated to the same company, Students who bring phone books, soft drink cans, copies of The Battalion or other recyclable materials to the Texas Recycles Day booth by Rudder Fountain today will be entered into a raffle for re cycled pens, pencils, binders or “reag- bies,” frisbees made of milk jugs. Jessica Porrazzo, EIC Green Team subcommittee chairwoman, said the Rudder Fountain booth is intended to ed ucate students about recycling options. Porrazzo said most people think only of recycling aluminum cans and news papers, but many other items, such as cardboard boxes, packing “peanuts,” magazines and plastic containers can also be recycled. “The purpose of the booth is to show students you can recycle almost any thing,” Porrazzo said. The booth displays the slogan “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle and Buy Recycled,’ and Delarios said all of these elements are crucial for environmental improvement. “We’ve finally found that to recycle is n’t enough,” she said. “We must continue to close the loop and buy recycled, too.” A petition calling for a more compre hensive recycling program at A&M will See Recycle, Page 6 Glenn turns trash into treasure □ Trash art will be on display at Post Oak Mall this week in recognition of Texas Recycles Day. By Tara Wilkinson The Battalion A stream flows through L^aura E. Glenn’s “Waste Nothing Art Installation” exhibit, but not a stream of crystal-clear, sparkling water. It is a stream of paper, household trash, rubber tires, kitchen appliances and broken toys. Glenn’s “Waste Stream,” an artistic play on a term used by environmentalists to refer to the flow of waste material into the environment, is a 30-foot-long collection of material peo ple commonly throw away. Because much of the material in “Waste Stream” and in the real waste stream is recycleable and reusable, Glenn’s goal is to sensitize people to the potential of “trash.” At one end of “Waste Stream,” which varies from 2-feet to 10-feet high, is a mirror upon which is written “One of the people responsible for the waste stream.” “We must reevaluate, reinvent, reuse and recycle all of the rust, rubble and rejects of our world,” she said. “My goal is to encourage a change of perception, so that a ‘thing’ can be en joyed, not only for what it was, but also for what it could be.” Glenn’s “Waste Nothing Art Installation” opens today, in honor of Texas Recycles Day, at 7 p.m. in Post Oak Mall in the former Homefront Store next to Sears. The exhibit is free and is open to the public until Nov. 19. The exhibit will include displays by Glenn and several oth er artists, along with masks created by children from Shelter ing Arms and paper made by senior citizens from Years for Profit, all made from waste materials. Kelly Bellman, Bryan recycling coordinator, said Glenn’s exhibit heightens people’s awareness of the things they throw away. Stew Milne, The Battalion Laura E. Glenn sits on a broken washing machine that is part of her “Waste Nothing Art Installation" exhibit. “Really, what she is trying to show is that a lot of so-called garbage is stuff people can reuse,” Bellman said. Many of the art pieces are metal sculptures, made of struc tural steel, wire, washers, screws or saw blades. Ken Drain of Taos, N.M., creates battleships from bits and pieces of waste material. One of his battleships, which is 2-feet high and 3 1/2-feet long, will be on display with Glenn’s exhibit. “They (the battleships) are whimsical, but very realistic as See Glenn, Page 6