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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1996)
LIGHTS AND SIRENS CLUELESS COMMITTEE DIVE BOMBERS nuary 31,19% iber infor- lable. Call 847-1443 iation: The bly of the be held at wernance nore infor- damlin at run of 3-4 ginning at ’ G. Rollie f all paces is popsicle .. Contact r more in ion service udent and activities, mitted no n advance te. Appli- lotices are t be run in have any the news- jsted increas- inseling Ser- department of .62 percent; -cent; the Vo- cent; Gradu- ’ percent; the i^ife, 3.3 per- [anization Fi- ested increas- increase was or a previous raduate Stu- >uld allow for ary. speaker, said ved increases and other or- iderstand the ts need to be this is a bud- i. s Committee Id in commit- ate with are- 3 approvedbv ncil, the vice airs and the Tours with A&M EMS workers and UPD officers offer insight. Aggielife, Page 3 Vbl. 102, No. 84 (12 pages) Brown: Student Service Fee Allocation Committee lacks insight into organizations' budgets. Opinion, Page 11 Two A&M divers keep the pressure on the competition and themselves. Sports, Page 7 Battalion Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 Thursday • February 1, 1996 Student retreat center to be built near campus J Plans for the student retreat center include a 500-person assembly hall and dormitories with barracks. By Heather Pace The Battalion From the site of a future stu dent retreat center on Highway 60 near Easterwood Airport, Kyle Field and Albritton Tower can be seen in the horizon. See related EDITORIAL, Page 11 The retreat center will give stu dent organizations a place to es cape, with the benefit of being only 10 minutes from campus. Dr. Carolyn Adair, director of student activities, said plans for the retreat center, which will be nestled on 100 heavily wooded acres, are still being developed. “It will provide a meeting place for students for retreats, meetings, conferences, parties and anything they want to do,” Adair said. “We’re planning to have some overnight facilities that will ac commodate some of our orienta tion camps.” The center will accommodate events like T-Camp and Howdy Camp, but it will not be large enough to facilitate Fish Camp. Dr. William Kibler, associate vice president for student affairs, said making the center large enough for Fish Camp would not be eco nomically viable. “The idea was never for the center to be large enough for Fish Camp,” Kibler said, “because the rare demand doesn’t make it cost effective.” Fund raising will provide the majority of revenue for the project, though some University money may be used to develop the site. “Some funding may be available through reserves for infrastructure, but it wouldn’t be funded by state money,” Kibler said. “The reality is probably that funding will come from a combination of fund raising, user fees and a student fee.” Toby Boenig, student body presi dent and a senior agricultural de velopment major, said he supports the student retreat center as long as student fees are not increased to fund the project. “I think it would be a valuable asset, although I wouldn’t support fees being used for it,” Boenig said. A target completion date for the retreat center has not been set. “We will start it when we can fund it,” Adair said. “It is going to be done piece by piece as we get the money.” The initial plan focuses around a 500-person assembly hall with dormitories featuring retreat- style barracks. Kibler emphasized that stu dents will be given complete con trol of their retreats, having ac cess to features such as a large kitchen in which students can cook their own meals. Some students said they think other retreat centers, such as Lake- view, are a more cost-effective op tion than building a new one. Matt Nowak, a freshman busi ness major, said the current re treat system is sufficient. “I think what they have right now is fine,” Nowak said. “It’s a waste of money to build a retreat center.” "The reality is probably that funding will come from a combination of fund raising, user fees and a student fee." — Dr. William Kibler associate vice president for student affairs Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion SOME LIKE IT HOT Stacy Long, a freshman general studies major, tries to keep warm in the cold weather by sipping hot chocolate while waiting for the shuttle bus outside the Underground Wednesday. The temperature reached 34 degrees. Utility rates decrease for College Station □ College Station officials said the average residential utility bill will drop to $67.43 per month. By Kendra S. Rasmussen The Battalion When College Station consumers receive their next utilities bills, they will notice a substantial decrease in electricity rates. Peggy Calliham, city of College Station public relations and marketing manager, said the expiration of the city’s contract with the Texas Municipal Power Agency has al lowed the city to decrease electricity rates. When the contract, which provided Col lege Station power services through 1990, came up for renewal in 1995, city officials de cided to accept a bid from a power supply company with a lower rate. The city negotiated a contract with Texas Utilities, a large, well-established wholesale electricity provider. “Texas Utilities was selected to provide wholesale electricity to College Station at an estimated savings of S8 million annually for at least four years,” she said. “That is a $32 million savings over what College Station had been paying through the previous con tract with TMPA.” This translates into a 9-percent decrease for the average residential customer and a 13- percent decrease for commercial customers. February utility bills will contain stick ers analyzing each household’s electricity consumption and projecting what each household can expect to spend on electricity in 1996. Tim Ham, a senior marketing major, said he welcomes the reductions because he has paid utility bills as high as $150 per month in College Station during summer months. “As long as the service stays the same, it can’t be a bad idea,” he said. “It’s very rare that they drop the rates like that. It will defi nitely help in the summer months.” College Station residents are not the only ones anticipating the savings. "We feel the obligation to encour age students to call our energy of fice to let us help them as to why their energy bill is high." — /Vggy Calliham city of College Station public relations and marketing manager Bill Silvis, Post Oak Mall general manager, said business owners will get a needed break. “I am looking forward to a substantial de crease,” Silvis said. “The businesses all pay for their own (electricity), so the (savings) will be passed on to them as well.” Calliham said half of the savings from the new contract will be passed directly to utility consumers. “The city has chosen to give back 50 per cent of the savings to the customers,” she said. “The other 50 percent will be retained by the city.” Some of the money must be retained for See Utility Rates, Page 5 Proposed rent increase would provide cable, ethernet in dorms terms of residence hall rates in Texas,” Lyons said. "Even with the increases, we're still one of the cheapest universities in terms of residence hall rates in Texas." — Suzanne Lyons Residence Hall Association president □ The proposed increase for Fall 1996 will be presented to Texas A&M's Board of Regents in March. By Greg Fahrenheit The Battalion A proposed increase in Texas A&M residence hall rates that would go into effect next semester was discussed at a Residence Hall Association meeting Wednesday night. Most RHA members suppprt a propos al by the Department of Residence Life and Housing to increase hall rates by an average of 9.5 percent per student. The proposal will be brought be fore the Board of Regents some time in March. Five percent of the rate increase would be used to build a reserve to pay for new residence halls and to develop RHA programs, and the remaining amount would be used to install cable and ethernet connections into every res idence hall room on campus. The proposal was first suggested last year, and RHA recommended in stalling cable and ethernet connec tions last semester. Suzanne Lyons, RHA president and a senior geophysics major, said she does not expect much opposition to the proposed rent increases. “The general use fee and the student services fee in creases got a lot of negative feedback because they were more of a surprise,” Lyons said. “Unlike those fees, we can be sure of exactly where this money will be going. The room rent increases will go to services that directly benefit students.” Lyons said the increase would not make residence hall rates unreasonable in comparison to other universities. “Even with the increases, we’re still one of the cheapest universities in RHA is-reviewing bids from cable companies to install cable in all resi dence hall rooms as cheaply as possible, at a maximum cost of S28 per student per semester. All rooms on campus would be cable- ready by the fall semester. Students would receive at least 32 channels and would have the option of subscribing to premium channels. Ethernet connections would be in stalled in rooms at an estimated rate of S9 per student per semester. These connections would allow students to connect directly into the campus com puter network through their own per sonal computers without having to use a modem. The ethernet project would take about four years to complete. Ethernet connections are presently available in a limited number of residence See Rent, Page 5