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DOUBLE VISION
A&M point guard Kyle Kessel also
stars as a New York Met prospect.
Sports, Page 7
MAROON SCARE IN ACGIELAND
Stidvent: Many comparisons can be made between
A&M and communist Russia.
Opinion, Page 11
THE WHEEL WORLD
Students debate the value of
transportation methods.
Aggielife, Page 3
‘i? . ‘v f
The Battalion
102, No. 83 (12 pages)
Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893
W.
Wednesday • January 31, 1996
Fee committee proposes budget cuts
] A committee will decide
whether to recommend an
llocation bill increasing the
tudent services fee
avorably or unfavorably.
lyCretchen Perrenot
[hi Battalion
A Texas A&M Student Senate bill devel
oped by the Student Services Fee Alloca-
ion Committee (SSFAC) that proposes a
increase in the student services fee is on
so fund allocation can be further re
newed. The committee also decides which
(rganizations benefit from the revenue
See related EDITORIAL, Page 11
The SSFAC will review the suggested
,_nd allocation for The Battalion and the
Memorial Student Center and will pre
sent the revised bill to the Senate’s Inter
nal Affairs Committee Monday.
Kelli Harman, SSFAC chair, said
there was some confusion about the origi
nal bill’s funding for the MSC Student
Finance Center, which was recently sepa
rated from the MSC and put in the stu
dent activities department.
Harman said proposed funds to the fi
nance center will probably be readjusted.
However, Harman said the suggested
allocation to The Battalion, which at a
94-percent decrease is the biggest pro
posed decrease, will probably not be
changed.
“The (student services fee allocation)
committee most likely will stand where it
is,” Harman said, “unless there’s some
mathematical error.”
The Battalion received $73,800 from
student services fees in fiscal year 1996,
an $8,200 decrease from fiscal year 1995.
Although The Battalion requested nei
ther an increase or a decrease in funding,
the SSFAC has suggested an allocation of
$4,050 for fiscal year 1997.
“Obviously the Batt has been hit the
hardest,” Harman said. “We made this
recommendation, not because The Battal
ion wasn’t doing well or because we
weren’t endorsing it, but because we felt
other departments needed the funds to
stay up to status quo.
“We felt that, this year, the money
that went to The Battalion would be bet
ter used elsewhere.”
Dr. Charles Self, Student Publica
tions Board chairman and head of the
Department of Journalism, said the de
crease in funding would hurt The Bat
talion financially.
“It’s not a trivial matter that The Bat
talion has essentially lost all of its fund
ing from the Student Government,” Self
said. “It is essentially a total loss — 94
percent, down to $4,000 for 43,000 stu
dents for a 12-month period, is essential
ly a zero allocation.”
The cut in funding would also cut the
ties between the students and their paper,
Self said, by reducing the amount students
pay each semester for The Battalion.
“... This represents the students’
See Fees, Page 12
iltilJJlLDt'lIil
DEPARTMENT
CURRENT
RECOMMENDATION
MSC
-5 99
$1,603,321
BUS OPERATIONS
-2.53
$ 654,700
STUD. COUNSELING
3.14
S 1.526,099
REC SPORTS
-5.11
S 1,246,111
AGGIE BAND
10.21
S 38.574
BATTALION
-94.51
$ 4,050
INTL* STUD. SERV.
-8 58
iffirtwitfti
$ 151,228
STUD ACT
-1.70
$ 737,818
SPORTS CLUBS
-16.93
$ 53,661
STUD. GOVT.
-0.85
$ 96,842
STUDENT LIFE
3.33
mmmmmzmm**"
$ 541,448
VP STUDENT AFFAIRS
-5.00
$ 162.298
UNIV. ARTS
-10.25
$ 51.159
GRAD. STUD. COUNCIL
22.65
S 19,134
MULTICULTURAL SERV.
0.62
S 294,599
STUDY ABROAD
-6.80
$ 60.283
VOCAL MUSIC
21.23
$ 140,564
STUD. FINC. AID
-7.55
$ 299.122
STUD. ORG. FINC.CENT
7.91
$ 81.264
STUDENT HANDBOOK
-53.25
-
$ 7.714
5
e
7 p.m.
p.m.
)
40
:d
to
n
> ■
j
Department
gives reaction
to services
IJ Business owners and
A&M faculty members
\ are arguing over the
perit of off-campus
tutoring services.
tiy Michelle Lyons
The Baitalion
Texas A&M chemistry de
partment faculty members are
protesting the practices of some
off-campus tutoring services,
saying that they borderline on
academic dishonesty.
Dr. John Hogg, chemistry
professor and undergraduate ad
viser, said that tutoring services
are teaching students shortcuts
rather than problem-solving
techniques.
“When students go to these
services and copy problems and
turn them in as their own, that
is academic dishonesty,” he said,
legend has it you don’t have to
?o to class if you go to tutoring
with so and so, and if that’s your
only goal, passing the class but
tot learning a thing, then I
Suess it’s the right thing to do.
“In the long run, that’s going to
come back to haunt you big time.”
Though Hogg disagrees with
the off-campus tutoring prac
tice of selling equations and
formulas prepared by profes
sors, he said there is little he
will to do to stop it.
“I don’t think there’s a thing
(the professors) can do, and I
don’t necessarily think there’s
anything we should do,” Hogg
said. “It’s a free country. Over
all, we certainly have no orches
trated plan to go out and put
these places out of business.”
On the other hand, Hogg said
that if students attend class reg
ularly and do assigned home
work, supplementary off-campus
tutoring may be beneficial.
“I don’t care if there are 27
tutoring operations across the
street, if they really help the
students learn,” he said. “We’re
not out to harass these people,
and 1 think that’s what they per
ceive us as.”
Dr. Murray Milford, Depart
ment of Soil and Crop Sciences
associate head of academic pro
grams and chairman of an ad
hoc committee on academic tu
toring guidelines, said the
biggest complaint from depart
ments on campus is that these
services are making too much in
formation available to students.
“By one mechanism or anoth
er, (tutoring services) was gain
ing access to information that
faculty deemed unfair to make
available to students,” Milford
said. “Personally, I feel we
should do all we can on campus
... to show students that they do
See Department, Page 6
Evan Zimmerman, The Bayfalion
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE WAVE TANK
Senior ocean engineering majors, Ryan Piwetz (left) and Paul Griffin (right) work in the wave tank at the Offshore Technology Research Center
on the submarine they will use to compete in the human-powered submarine race in California later this spring.
Battalion File Photo
Sanitation kits and drinking water drums from the
cold war era are stored under Heldenfels Hall.
Nuclear nooks in the nineties
□ In these relatively
peaceful times, campus
bomb shelters are used
for purposes other than
fallout protection, such
as housing the Sbisa
Underground Market.
By Eleanor Colvin
The Battalion
Whether it is a Northgate bar or
the Recreation Sports Center,
Texas A&M students overwhelmed
with tests, jobs and roommates of
ten escape to personal fallout shel
ters when the battles of college life
become too intense.
But from the late 1950s through
the 1970s, A&M students had ac
cess to the real thing — fallout
shelters built for protection from
bombs.
Areas underneath the Academic
Building, Sbisa Dining Hall, the
Doherty Building and the Animal
Science Building were turned into
bomb shelters at a time when the
threat of nuclear war was on every
one’s mind.
Harry Stitler, A&M Department
of Safety and Health director, said
that as the threat of nuclear war
diminished, emergency provisions
and equipment were removed.
Students who want to see the
former shelters can tour them un
der the supervision of Physical
Plant maintenance teams.
“There are no longer any desig
nated bomb shelters on campus,”
Stitler said. “If there is an immi
nent disaster today, we expect peo
ple to know their buildings well
enough to go to the areas that will
provide the best protection.”
Richard Williams, Physical Plant
associate director for facilities, said
most of the bomb shelters are now
being used for other purposes.
“Those days are long gone of
storage rooms stocked with equip
ment, large water barrels, and box
es and boxes of crackers,” he said.
“If students were to visit those
buildings today, there would be lit
tle or no evidence that it was for
merly a bomb shelter.”
The Sbisa Underground Market
is an example of how the bomb
shelters have been converted.
“The only things there are the
kitchens, the court and storage ar
eas,” he said. “Most students have
no idea that
they are dining
and shopping in
an old bomb
shelter.”
Williams said
A&M students
are fortunate
that the need for
bomb shelters is
a thing of the past.
“A&M students probably remem
ber growing up having tornado drills
in school,” he said. “Back then, there
were atomic bomb drills.
“When I was growing up, people
the street from me built one in
their backyard, because the craze
to protect one’s family was very
widespread.”
Williams said he is glad most
current A&M students did not live
through that era, but hopes they
will continue to pay homage to peo
ple who dedicated their lives to the
war which ended the bomb scare —
the Cold War.
“For most students, Vietnam
and the atomic-bomb threats are
merely history,” he said. “For their
parents, it was real life experi
ences, in living color.
“Fortunately we never had to test
"Those days are long gone of storage rooms
stocked with equipment, large water bar
rels, and boxes and boxes of crackers."
— Richard Williams
Physical Plant associate director for facilities
were building bomb shelters eye x( Ty : the durability of these shelters, and
where. A family that lived down hopefully we’ll never have to.”