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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1996)
le indi- ! a cer ts does cadem- I” nts are acade- egents’ cadem- r sponsi- 1102, No. 144 (6 pages) i all in- '■stem,” •nsibili- \\ short i at all e A&M of the s plan- isoring related The Battalion Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 Thursday • June 6, 1996 Former regent faces nisconduct charges ilelissa Nunnery !| Battalion and, the Margraves, Former Chairman lecision. fexag a&M University System orum of Regents, faces his first pretrial I for the . mg j un e 25. ve com- 'argraves, who resigned from the II reporty 0 f R e g en t 8 j n April 1994, was 3a y- Lted on charges of official miscon- ^.dvisory . April 30. ccording ^charges involve the use of an A&M ‘ can be- f or a personal trip Margraves _ J*to Baton Rouge on Aug. 4, 1993. five this 'ffidal misconduct is a third-degree ork with it young felony,” Bill Turner, Brazos County District Attorney said. If convicted, Turner said Mar graves’ sentence could be between two years of probation and 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Because of the pending hearing and possible trial, Turner could not com ment further on the case. Regent John Lindsey said Margraves was in Baton Rouge on official business. “The board was aware of the trip be fore he went,” Lindsey said, “and the president of LSU invited him there to sit on the platform at graduation and address the graduates.” Lindsey said Margraves talked with the LSU Board of Regents about A&M joining the Southeast Conference, since the decision for A&M to go into the Big 12 had not yet been made. Billy Clayton, former regent, said he believes Margraves is innocent. “He [Margraves] did inform the board of the trip,” Clayton said. “I think it’s a vendetta against Margraves. He did nothing wrong and I think this is just something about nothing.” Neither Margraves nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Gwendolyn Struve, The Battaijon V Rony Angkriwan, The Battalion SHAPE UP ianYourman, a junior at Southwest High School in San Antonio, runs through drills at an A&M football camp on Simp- nDrill Field Wednesday morning. The University holds the camps to train future football hopefuls. Lines at The Pavilion are traditionally long during drop-add period. Graduating seniors face scheduling woes //' The section you have requested is full, no other sections of this class are available." By Christine S. Diamond The Batealion Students seeking to fill their schedules learn to dread the “rejec tion line” on telephone registration. For graduating seniors, the dread can become a serious problem when requirements cannot be fulfilled be cause of full sections. Seniors with a foreign language requirement can quickly find their graduation plans derailed by high demand for these classes. The Student Senate tried to deal with the issue this past Spring with the Access to Modern and Classical Languages Act. The bill recommended the department allow any major with degrees requiring 14 or more hours of a foreign language be given preference in force decisions. Mandy Gomez, a sophomore po litical science and international studies major, sponsored the bill. After receiving faculty feedback, she said the Department of Modern Languages will work with students needing the classes. “There was a big problem in lack of communication between the stu dents and the department,” Gomez said. “Students weren’t aware of the agreement [to help them] and the department secretaries didn’t ex plain it to the students.” Gomez felt there has been im provement in the effort of the de partment to accommodate students, noting the increase in language sec tions only available to freshmen, sophomores and juniors. "I asked for a force [in the bill] in stead of more sections because I know the money isn’t there to staff more sections,” Gomez said. Don Carter, Texas A&M Admis sions and Records Registrar, said many departments may hold back a number of seats during early registra tion, but students needing the classes for graduation should still get in. “I’m not aware in all my history at this university — 30 years — of a graduating senior in his graduating semester not to be accommodated for that class,” Carter said. “A dean of the student’s depart ment will usually make a substitution, it is entirely a department decision.” See Seniors, Page 2 ■i rogram aims to help * fomen succeed in Lawmakers approve proposal to let state schools set own tuition rates 3 - July 18 1 - Aug 15 lonstudent 3 - July 8 - Aug 12 lonstudent 2 - July 10 - Aug 14 nonstudent r»g [ 1 - July 9 16 - Aug 13 lonstudent rr 10 - July 8 19 - July 17 'nonstudent nr /nonstudent s /nonstudent 5 nonstudent 25 - July 23 1/nonstudent flaking t/nonstudent ngineering field Under the recommendation, public schools could set their tuitions up to two times the state rate Ip new program is a 'Xas A&M and Texas 'in Marie Hauser 'Battalion ■*as A&M engineering students may see more women added to their ranks of a new program with A&M system •1 Texas Women’s University (TWU). 'May 9, the engineering department at U&M announced a program in conjunc- !, ith Texas Women’s University designed -act more females to this field of study, a program will combine the strengths ^universities. The Dwight Look Col- Engineering at Texas A&M and the ■8e of Arts and Sciences at TWU will l?administer the dual-degree program. fU Vice President for Academic Affairs !r ley Byers-Pevitts and Texas A&M Chancellor and Dean of Engineering C. M Haden have signed an agreement Ashing the “TWU-TAMU Cooperative in Engineering at TWU.” a agreement states that, upon com- J ti of the two education tracks, the Ats will have earned the proper engi- ig bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M ‘bachelor of science degree in mathe- from TWU. now, TWU students had no oppor- 1 to study engineering at TWU. • first three years of the new program ■ake place at TWU where the women SoHr> mathematics. "Me range of courses in computer sci- Wmanities and social and natural sci- 'Mll also be required in preparation |hire engineering courses. * final two years of the five-year plan R completed at A&M in the Look College neering. During this time, students r«8 on technical engineering studies. cooperative effort by Women's University Texas A&M Executive Associate Dean of Engineering Dr. B. Don Russell said engi neering is a male-dominated field. “This program will help us attract very good female students that we need for diver sity in engineering,” Russell said. Some women engineering majors say they possess the ability to succeed in engi neering, but the atmosphere makes it more difficult for them. Dr. Lale Yurttass, a professor of chemical engineering, welcomed the opportunity to attract more women to the field. “I think it’s a good idea,” Yurttass said. “Usually females need a lot of encourage ment to go into engineering, and this pro gram can create a better environment for them to succeed in.” Yurttass noted that the female/male sep arate education will be more comfortable for the students because they will have other women/men to mentor and advise them. Janice Rego, a senior chemical engi neering major, said some female engineer ing students feel gender differences may be another obstacle in the way of their en gineering degree. “Women want immediate results and are easily discouraged when they don’t succeed in a class,” she said. Rego says she has observed a decrease in the number of women in her engineering classes over her time in college. “I remember when I was an under classmen and girls in my class who had the same learning capacity as I did were easily discouraged by one class,” Rego said. “I think that as females we want im mediate results and don’t have as high a self-esteem as males to continue the pur suit in another class.” AUSTIN (AP) — Texas public universities and colleges would be allowed to set their own tuition rates under a recommendation ap proved Wednesday by a panel of state lawmakers. But the lawmakers said the free dom of setting tuition on a school- by-school basis should come with a requirement that more money be set aside for “need-based” scholar ships if schools are going to in crease rates beyond those estab lished by the state. Undergraduate tuition for Texas residents currently is $30 a credit hour, or $360 for a 12-hour class load. That is set by the state. University governing boards al ready determine graduate student tuitions. Those cannot be more than two times the undergraduate rate. Under Wednesday’s recommen dation, approved 6-3 by the Senate Education Committee, public uni versities and colleges could use the state undergraduate rate as a base and set their tuitions up to two times the state rate. But those schools setting higher undergraduate rates would have to increase the amount of money they set aside for scholarships for the poor. That money, 15 percent to 20 percent of each instate student’s tuition, currently stays at the school level. But the lawmakers said that could change to allow the money to be shared by schools within a university system or by all Texas schools. Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleas ant and chairman of the Senate Ed ucation Committee, pushed the idea. “If we continue on this road of not raising tuition and not providing ad equate funds, I fear we’re in jeop ardy of having a second-class educa tion system,” Ratliff said. Dr. William Cunningham, chan cellor of the University of Texas Sys tems, said different institutions have different financial needs be cause they all provide various levels of service. He said those differences should be reflected in tuition rates. “Different schools have difference costs. That’s just a fact,” he said. New day care benefits parents, children By Amy Protas The Battalion Searching for day care for their one year old son, Caleb, became an extremely frustrating experience for Giancarlo and Heather Newsome. They found day care in the Bryan-College Station area to be lacking in many areas. Instead of giving up completely, the two decided to open their own day care center. On May 1, the Newsomes will convert Bright Begin nings Child Development Center into Heaven Sent. They hope Heaven Sent will eliminate the problems they encountered in their search. Giancarlo, a senior marketing major, said people should not be expected to pay for inadequate day care. “We went looking for day care and got disgusted,” Giancarlo said. “We did some surveying and found out it wasn’t just us who felt this way. People have to have day care so they were just settling for what’s available. It’s also difficult to find a job as college students that will pay for day care. If it was good care, I’d pay for it. But if it wasn’t good, I wasn’t going to pay for it.” What the Newsomes came up with is a day care pro gram that will benefit the parents, children and the center. Heather said the first problem the Newsomes ran into was parents not being encouraged to get involved with their children’s child care. “We were so shocked,” Heather said. “You don’t go into day care on a whim because you’re dealing the the most emotional thing. We didn’t like the fact that the centers were excluding us and not encouraging us to be involved.” One way Heaven Sent will help parents get in volved and save money is the cooperative structure of the center. “We decided on a half-way cooperative structure,” Giancarlo said. “The parents will be given the option of volunteering. They can volunteer an hour and then they will get two free hours of child care.” Midge Stark, former owner of Bright Beginnings and director of Heaven Sent, said for security reasons, the parents will be screened. “Not only is the staff screened,” Stark said. “The parents will also be screened if they decide they want to participate in the volunteer program. As the center’s See Day care, Page 2