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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 4, 1996)
The Battalion 4102, No. 142 (6 pages) Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 Tuesday • June 4, 1996 ald SUMMERTIME Rising fees increase need for student financial aid By Melissa Nunnery The Battalion Increasing fees and stagnant financial aid make it difficult for students to put themselves through college. The General Use Fee increased to $24 per semester hour in 1995. In the fall, the Health Center fee will increase to $44 per semester hour, and the Student Services fee will go up to $99 per semes ter hour. Tuition will be increased by $2 per hour for resident students and $24 for non-resident students. As a result of these fee increases, stu dents are paying for more of their college education than in the past. Many stu dents have had to seek financial aid to offset the rising costs. “I’m from New Orleans and when out- of-state tuition went up, I had to get an emergency loan to cover the cost,” Burk Hughes, a senior finance major, said. The number of applicants for finan- 1N CREASED TUITION AND FEE ______ TUITION Residence ^Nonresident 3e.ee 32.ee ^ 22.2.00 e-f6.ee GENERAL use fee Z'f.OO 2-e.ee HEALTH CENTER ‘te.eo lllilDENT SERVICE rf3.ee r9d.ee cial aid increases each year, and 65 percent of the student body already re ceives financial aid. In the 1994-1995 school year, $166 million of financial aid was given to 28,000 students at A&M. Despite higher tuition and fees and increasing requests for assistance, there has been little accompanied increase in financial aid. The annual eligibility limit has increased as well as the maximum number of loans a student can receive, but there has been only a slight increase in grant allocation. Grants provided by the federal gov ernment have suffered from recent na tional budget cuts. Don Engelage, director of Student Fi nancial aid, said the government wants to increase Pell Grants by $70 in 1996- 1997. Engelage said despite this, “the forecast for a significant increase in grant funds doesn’t look good.” Engelage said more students are en rolling part-time so they can work to pay for school, and many who take out loans graduate with a large debt. “Students are still able to pay for their education, but they have to rely more on loans,” Engelage said. See Fees, Page 2 Pamela Benson, The Battalion FUTURE FASHION LOOKS BRIGHT & At [ l\ good Not nural I and hell ner in enter Surf, i and a and Pa McClanaldl haue been seeing UFGs far gears from the <fs of their farm in Premand and me except an X-fifes fan ar toM, ■believed them. Theg da exist and ■‘joe landed in oar nation’s cities summer, secretfg observing our f of life. infortunate/y for any visiting ET& 'jb summer has t o/fed around, and the •woe of fashion has emerged, making ^brightness ishat the clothes lack in umrage. Idany styles are geing the may of H.G. (shells and heading hack in time to the t970s. Short skirts and loose pants shine in neon and pastels mith flamers, stars and psychedelia. It may he the revival of the Brady Bunch or the gradual shift in the fash ion industry back to the era of KC and the Sunshine Band and Hair that brought this style about, (dost of the de signs of the f970s are back mith a tmist of the 1990s. The malls of the clothing store Gadzooks, in Post Bak (dall, dis play shimmering shirts and shorts, bag gy Jeans and neons that do not gfom in the dark but look as if they should. See AGO IELIFE, Page 3 Stew Milne, The Battalion SHADES OF SUMMER Meredith Remington, a sophomore general studies major and a lifeguard at the Student Recreation Center, watches swimmers enjoy the warm weather Monday afternoon. allery showcases provocative art on Brown ■'TTALION i pieces titled “Herection” hermaphrodite,” the latest in the MSC Visual Arts l might raise some eye- The exhibit, “Objects of |ion,” which runs until is located on the second >fthe MSC and features 'fks of Houston artist An- Jiilzig. ty of the sculptures in Mbit focus on gender and some of the pieces have sexual overtones, which, initially, alarmed members of the MSC Council. The council was responsible for final ap proval of the exhibition. Erin Mozola, MSC executive vice president of finance and ad ministration and a senior math ematics major, said, “a lot of the art, combined with the titles, could be offensive.” “Hermaphrodite,” for exam ple, is a bull mating-marker placed over the screwpiece of a vise and resembles male and fe male genitalia. One concern of the MSC Coun cil in presenting this exhibition was the number of young visitors to A&M during new student con ferences and youth sports camps. Some of the council members’ con cerns revolved around the appro priateness of the works for younger people who may be on campus this summer. In the end, the council unani mously approved the exhibition. Arts Committee has posted a dis claimer outside the gallery warn ing passers-by of the mature con tent of the exhibit. MSC Visual Arts Committee Chair Clyde Brown, a senior en vironmental design major, ex plained why the committee wanted to bring Wilzig’s works. “She breaks the molds of tra ditional art,” Brown said, refer ring to the unconventional mate- ‘Bonfire’ service provides valuable student information By Tauma Wiggins The Battalion believing theu art __woulxL. be.. .Trials used to build the sculptures provocative and stimulating with- (which include the head of a out offending many people. As an additional precaution, the Visual See Gallery, Page 2 litical science department ranked top in publishing nterfor Jo ’owe 11 at both ited to es meet POLITICAL IH PAIUMEim rTEXAS A&M ROCHESTER STANFORD MICHIGAN HARVARD A&M's department had more manuscripts published in journals than any other institution during 1 986 through 1 995 By Christine S. Diamond The Battalion Of MAMlUCRIf'fS Once again, Texas A&M has captured a number one slot in another top 10 survey — this time in political science. The State University of New York at Stony Brook recently conducted a survey on the number of articles published in three of the most prestigious political science journals from 1986 through 1995. The Texas A&M political science faculty had more manuscripts published than any other institution during that time period. Dr. Charles A. Johnson, head of the Texas A&M Political Science Department, said the entire department deserves the recognition. ine good thing about this survey is that not just one, two or a half dozen of the faculty stand out,” Dr. Johnson explained. “Many of the faculty [members] have equally con tributed for the past 10 years.” The journals surveyed include the Ameri can Political Science Review, Journal of Poli tics and the American Journal of Politics. Behind A&M were SUNY-Stony Brook, Rochester, Stanford, Michigan and Harvard. “The work of [the political science] faculty over this 10-year period shows that we rank first in the country ... this is an indicator of quality as well as quantity,” Dr. Johnson said. “Our best researchers are our best teachers, something the department emphasizes.” A&M has been graduating doctoral stu dents in the department of political science since 1992. According to Dr. Johnson, many of the articles in the survey were co-authored by graduate students. The articles dealt with subjects ranging from. international politics and political theory to na tional agendas and comparative topics. At the time of the survey, A&M was also hon ored for the volume of books published and its ex ternal grant funding — surpassing $1 million. The National Science Foundation presented A&M with six awards providing money for re search on national agendas, comparative politics, Texas surveys and international relations. Texas A&M students who are tired of busy University phone lines and monotonous computer instructions may not be aware of Bonfire, a student computer service created to provide information about stu dent blocks, billing statements and available course sections. Larry Malota, A&M’s SIMS (the system responsible for tracking fiscal statements) pro ject director, said the service al lows students to change their mailing addresses and also lets them access information on schedules, blocks and drops. Bonfire was created in Fall 1995 following requests from the Student Senate and the Registrar’s Office that students be able to change their address es without having to use the phone. Malota said the most recent addition to Bonfire is a degree audit allowing students to check on their degree plan. The degree audit enables students to determine the courses they have taken, their grades and the courses still re quired for graduation. Malota said the Student Senate has made a request for the Bonfire program to include student registration in its ser vices. This addition is being considered but has not yet been approved. A relatively small amount of students are presently using the Bonfire services, Malota said. “It’s pretty lightly used, probably not over 300 (users) a day,” Malota said. “Students on this campus are familiar with computers, they probably just aren’t familiar with the (Bonfire) transaction.” Shera Von Heimburg, a Texas A&M chemistry graduate student, said she has used Bon fire and found it more conve nient than using the phone or going on campus. “Sometimes, on the tele phone, you wonder if you pushed everything in right,” she said. “(With Bonfire), I like not having to walk all the way across campus.” Eric Williams, a freshman computer science major and graphics lab assistant said part of the reason many students do not use Bonfire is because they are not aware it exists. “I think if people knew it was there, they would use it more,” Williams said. Jean Claude Kalache, a Texas A&M visualization science grad uate student and graphics lab assistant, said that since the program’s implementation, no one has asked him for assistance with “Bonfire.” Texas A&M students can ac cess Bonfire from any on-campus computer or via modem. Id i 11
