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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1996)
ebruary 6,; was a game ol P°orly in tht reat job on oui nd beat us,’ cod by Ander and 11 p 0 i n jj Quesada. ) action Satur y host to SWC h at noon in a test. PARKING PATROL PTTS officers work to dispel myths about their reputation. , Page 5 )1.102, No. 87 (10 pages) TO FEE OR NOT TO FEE Columnist debate: Is increasing the general use fee justified? Opinion, Page 9 INSTANT IMPACT A&M freshman Calvin Davis is not playing like a freshman. Sports, Page 7 Battalion Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 —l-xnadL. Wednesday • February 7, 1996 SSC approves SSFAC recommendations The Student Senate ill make its decision might. Wes Swift ie Battalion The Graduate Student Coun- Iapproved the recommenda- msofthe Student Service Fee llocation Committee last ight, but reprimanded the mmittee for failing to follow sown by-laws. The GSC also refused to con- der any future allocation pro posals if the committee did not follow the by-laws. The proposal will be voted on by the Student Senate today. If approved, the recommendations will be sent to Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student affairs, for further con sideration. Stepheni Moore, GSC presi dent, said GSC’s actions reflect its trust in the committee’s de cisions, but also its anger with the procedure flaws some stu dent affairs departments have complained about. “The work that the (fee com mittee) has done is very time- consuming,” Moore said. “There is no way, unless we took the hours of time required to exam ine the budgets, that we cannot trust these recommendations.” Moore acknowledged that the allocation system had some “pro cedural inequities,” including problems with communication between the committee and stu dent affairs departments, as well as having an inadequate number of voting graduate students. SSFAC by-laws require com mittee liaisons to document all meetings with student affair department representatives. MSC representatives Jim Charney, MSC Council vice president of finance, and Jim Reynolds, MSC director, claim they never signed any docu mentation saying they con ferred with their liaison. Kelli Harman, SSFAC chair, said Southerland told the com mittee that its recommenda tions had to be ready a month earlier than originally sched uled. The shifting timetable, she said, caused the committee to violate some by-laws. By-laws also require that the committee have five voting graduate students. GSC argued in Fall 1995 that graduate students were under-represented on the com mittee, and five graduate stu dent were placed on the com mittee. Yet, only three had vot ing powers, still in violation of the committee by-laws. Amy Kardell, a former GSC president and sociology gradu ate student, said the commit tee’s actions may have been flawed, but the proposal needed approval. “If we ‘no’ vote (the propos al), then we put ourselves in jeopardy of having no process (to decide the allocation) at all,” Kardell said. She urged the GSC to ap prove the allocations, not the allocation process. But some GSC representatives disputed Kardell’s argument, say ing a “no” vote was necessary to change the procedure. “I think it will take a ‘no’ vote to change the process,” John Alvis, GSC nuclear sci ence representative, said. “If we give this a ‘yes’ vote, and the Student Senate gives it a ‘yes’ vote, then that is an excuse not to change it.” Sterling Hayman, Battalion See GSC, Page 6 V Kriatoe <cx p.m. 59 9i W, ion cars wv*'*' set timing, test jnition parts >69 95 re ti - 7 p.m. 7 p.m. D 840 t to sed into ■"I e - J Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED Mike Smalley, a mechanical technician is making an air nossle in the mechanical engineering machine shop. Association of Former Students aids Aggies □ The organization is providing short-term loans to help students buy anything from their class rings to textbooks. By Greg Fahrenholt The Battalion Although many students are con cerned about their financial security because of congressional attempts to cut student loans, one organization has come to the rescue. Each year the Texas A&M Associ ation of Former Students makes con tributions to the Student Financial Aid Office in the form of short-term student loans and scholarships. The Association gives more than $750,000 in short-term loans to stu dents each year. Students in good standing with the University may ap ply for these special loans through the financial aid office. Ron Spies, associate executive di rector of finance for the Association, said the donated money can be used by students for a variety of needs. “We are basically trying to offer short-term loans to students who might need money for anything ranging from paying for a senior ring to buy ing books,” Spies said. “Our objective is to provide money to students who may be having trouble paying off all of their current debts.” Spies said students can take ad vantage of “bridge loans,” which are temporary loans for students waiting to receive regular financial aid pay ments. Although these simple-inter est loans are required to be paid back within three years, most loans are re paid within one year. A1 Bormann, associate director of See Aid, Page fc "Our objective is to provide money to students who may be having trouble paying off all of their current debts." — Ron Spies associate executive director of finance for the Association Underground remains popular □ More students are eating at The Underground Food Court and on West Campus than at the MSC or other campus food facilities. By Courtney Walker The Battalion Privatization of The Under ground Food Court and relocation of Texas A&M’s business school from the north side of campus to West Campus have put a dent in sales at main campus dining facilities. Ron Beard, director of the food ser vices department, said this year’s changes have detracted business from the Pavilion Snack Bar, Bus Stop Snack Bar and Pie Are Square because a large part of their revenue used to come from business students who now eat on West Campus. Beard said the customer base has shifted so that even the MSC’s Twelfth Man Burger and Snacks and Hullabaloo Food Court have lost some of their popularity with students. “The numbers haven’t necessarily dwindled, they have just moved from one area of campus to the oth er,” Beard said. “Food is very trendy, and people may want some thing one day and not the next.” Several franchise restaurants, in cluding Chick-Fil-A, Whataburger and Taco Bueno, opened in the Un derground Food Court in February. Mickey Speakmon, Underground Food Court manager, said he thinks the food court’s environment and student attraction to brand names motivates students and faculty to eat there. “It is more of a place to hang out and socialize while eating, rather than strictly sit down and eat,” Speakmon said. “The name brands are definitely an added bonus.” Dwayne Bandy, a freshman chemical engineer major, said he likes the food at the Underground, not just the brand names. “You pay more for food, but it is worth it,” Bandy said. “At the Un derground you know what you are going to get, but in cafeterias some times you take chances on what the menu says and how the food is going to taste.” Beard said the food services de partment is doing extensive market See Underground, Page 2 Aggie Bucks expansion on hold J Grocery stores, Free- lird's World Burrito and HcDonald's are among off-campus businesses in vested in implementing fie debit system. nisa Johnson I’He Battalion Though Aggie Bucks have be- : °tne increasingly popular with Vcas A&M students since they ( 6fe adopted by some off-campus '“okstores in Fall 1995, A&M ad ministrators have not decided ^ether to further expand the Ag- j^Buck system. Dale Witenhafer, A&M debit frd administrator, said one reason i'e University has not decided Aether to expand Aggie Bucks to ^er off-campus businesses is be- a Use a new A&M executive vice Resident and provost, Dr. Ronald '• Douglas, was recently named. Douglas, who will be one of the %inistrators responsible for de mons about Aggie Bucks, has not '^settled into his new job. “Everything at this point is still up in the air,” Witenhafer said. Last year, the University and some bookstores worked together to gain authorization for off-campus Aggie Bucks use. The expansion was not sched uled to begin until August 1996, Witenhafer said, but bookstores were given “the green light” to ac cept them starting Fall 1995. Bookstores were given the go-ahead early because the University wanted to see how the off- campus system would operate and to explore problems as they developed, Witenhafer said. Phillip Beard, vice president of University Bookstore, said Universi ty and bookstore officials are still working out kinks in the off-campus Aggie Bucks system. “The University has basically used the off-campus bookstores as guinea pigs to see if the system is feasible to offer to other off-cam- pus businesses,” Beard said, “be cause of all the necessary interac tion between equipment, comput ers and off-campus phone lines.” The availability of alcohol in many businesses that want to be al lowed to accept Aggie Bucks, such as grocery stores, is an issue that has slowed expansion, Witenhafer said. The Student Affairs Aggie Bucks Advisory Committee, he said, con tinually debates the alcohol issue. “I don’t really see the University putting Aggie Bucks anywhere alco hol is sold,” he said. “But that’s not set in stone.” Witenhafer said many students’ Aggie Bucks are purchased for them by their parents, who object to their children using the funds to purchase alcohol. Beard said other businesses, in cluding Freebird’s World Burrito, McDonald’s and Aggie Unlimited, a gift shop owned by University Book Store, have expressed an interest in acquiring Aggie Bucks systems. Kathy Wood, Wolf Pen Bowling Center assistant manager, said the See Aggie Bucks, Page 6 "I don't really see the University putting Aggie Bucks anywhere alcohol is sold." —Dale Witenhafer A&M debit card administrator < . RoacLhouse sings the blues □ The King of the Roadhouse fights to stay open. By Kristina Buffin The Battalion When Freebirds was thinking about clos ing after only a year in business, Aggies took up the cause of “Save the Bird, Eat a Mon ster.” However, this time it is not Freebirds that is in danger of closing but instead, it is its neighbor, the King of the Roadhouse. After only one year in business, the Road house is experiencing financial difficulty and might have to close its doors if the owner cannot get an investor. See Roadhouse, Page 3
