The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 07, 1996, Image 1

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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
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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