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Battalion
1. 102, No. 176 (6 pages)
Serving Texas A drM University Since 1893
THE BATT ON-LINE: http://bat-web.tamu.edu
Monday • August 5, 1996
I Embracing the Spirit
[96 Olympic games draw to a close
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J ATLANTA (AP) — After 16 days, 271
events, millions of spectators and end-
lens hours of timeless moments, the
Olympics got down and jammed the
night away Sunday to celebrate the end
of the lOOth-anniversary Summer
Genes, the biggest ever.
■ Thousands of young athletes, their
labors done, their medals lost or won,
their memories safekept for a lifetime,
poured onto the Olympic Stadium in
field in an end-of-games free-for-all of
music, dancing and farewells — and of
vows to meet again at the 2000
Olympics in Australia.
“I call upon the youth of the world to
assemble four years from now at Syd
ney,” declared Juan Antonio Sama
ranch, International Olympic Commit
tee president.
Samaranch congratulated Atlanta or
ganizers but stopped short of calling the
games “the best ever,” as he traditional
ly does after each Olympics. Instead, he
called them “most exceptional.”
The bittersweet partings took on a
specially sad note for these ’96 games, be
cause of the bombing, still unsolved, that
injured scores of people and killed one at
an Olympic park concert a week ago.
The 80,000 packed into Olympic Sta
dium remembered the victims Sunday
night with a moment of silence. Sama
ranch also recalled the tragedy of Mu
nich 1972, when 11 Israeli athletes
were killed in a terrorist attack.
“No act of terrorism has destroyed the
Olympic movement and none ever will,”
he said to the crowd’s cheers. As he
spoke, an army of police, federal officers
and military kept watch on the stadium
and other Olympic venues. A police blimp
and helicopter hovered overhead.
Aside from those melancholy mo
ments, the night, telecast to hundreds of
millions worldwide, belonged to buoyant
athletes, rocking musicians and the time-
honored ritual of the closing ceremony.
The evening’s ceremonial heart was
an old rite of passage, the handover of
the Olympic flag — passed on since the
Antwerp Games of 1920 — from At
lanta’s Mayor Bill Campbell to Sydney’s
Mayor Frank Sartor.
The Atlanta Games, where sprinter
Michael Johnson made history and
gymnast Kerri Strug defined courage,
ended with a bang and a boom: U.S.
boxer David Reid’s stunning gold medal
knockout, and the women Dream
Team’s romp over Brazil.
Reid captured America’s only gold in
the boxing ring Sunday, while the U.S.
women rolled to a 111-87 victory that
capped a year-long odyssey and erased the
memory of settling for a Barcelona bronze.
The 17th and last day, which offi
cially ended with a closing ceremony
featuring Stevie Wonder and Gloria
Estefan, began with a South African
marathoner mining an extraordinary
gold medal and delivering a message
of conciliation.
See Olympics, Page 6
Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion
REST IN PEACE
The grave of "Ranger," former A&M President James Earl Rudder's dog, lies in front of
the President's Home. Rudder and his wife, Margaret, named the dog after the Rudder
Rangers, which James Earl Rudder was a member of. The dog was also an honorary
Corps Cadet.
Student leaders work to
stop high school drug use
By Melissa Nunnery
The Battalion
A group of Texas A&M student
leaders are working to publicize
their views on alcohol and drugs.
Workers in the Center for Drug
Prevention and Education — an of
fice in the Department of Student
Life — are distributing pamphlets
and posters to high schools. The
purpose is to promote A&M to high
school students and inform them
about leadership, alcohol and drugs.
Carl Baggett, A&M student body
president, said he created the project
to evoke a positive image of A&M
while teaching high school students
to say no to drugs and alcohol.
“It’s good for high school kids to
see, from a student’s point of view,
why you can do well in college and
drugs don’t have to be a part of it,”
Baggett said.
He said the program will be effec
tive in reaching high school stu
dents because they are more likely
to listen to people their own age.
“I really think students will lis
ten to students,” Baggett said. “We
would have a different angle. We’re
going through the same things they
(high school students) are, or we
just did in the past five years. They
would be more responsive to what
we have to say.”
Matt Mayfield, executive vice
president of Student Government
administration, agreed with Baggett
about the effectiveness of an anti
drug message coming from A&M
student leaders.
“In the ’80s there was the big
‘Just say no’ campaign,” Mayfield
said. “Now I think that’s falling
on deaf ears. We need to show
kids there are kids in college, es
pecially at A&M, who stand up for
the right things.”
Dr. Dennis Reardon, senior co
ordinator of the project, said the
point is to get student leaders to
gether to address alcohol and drug
issues. He said the pamphlet will
address people’s success and lead
ership roles and how alcohol and
drug abuse affect them.
“You can’t be in a leadership po
sition if you’re abusing alcohol and
drugs,” Reardon said. “Even if you
can get away with it for a while,
you won’t be looked at as a leader
with potential.”
Reardon said the program seeks
to separate alcohol from A&M tradi
tions. He feels if alcohol is not part
of traditions, A&M will be seen in a
more positive light.
“We want to change the environ
ment surrounding traditions,” Rear
don said. “This project sends a
strong message about what leader
ship thinks of alcohol.”
Mayfield said he hopes other col
leges in the Big 12 will follow in the
footsteps of A&M’s student leaders.
“It (the project) is a positive
thing. Hopefully we could lead a col
legiate charge against drugs and al
cohol,” Mayfield said. “Very positive
effects are going to come out of it.”
Melissa Ballou, who was unavail
able for comment, is also involved
with work on the pamphlet.
Local gyms lose customers
By Ann Marie Hauser
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Student Recre
ation Center is taking a chunk out of
area gyms’ student membership rolls.
Aerofit Health and Fitness Center
bought Jay’s Gym and Royal Oaks
Racquet Club after business de
creased because of the Rec Center.
Larry Isham, director of market
ing at Aerofit, said student numbers
diminished at the club the day the
Rec Center opened.
“I considered it (the decrease)
solely because of the A&M Elec Cen
ter,” Isham said. “Everybody here
knew it was coming.”
The Class of ’91 voted for the $50
fee to pay for the then-future Rec
Center. Isham, a 1991 graduate, now
faces the consequences.
For Royal Oaks, the Rec Center
opening was only a contributing fac
tor in the club’s buyout.
Darren Busby, the manager of the
Royal Oaks club, said the club has
always maintained a racquet club
persona and is more family oriented.
“It (Rec Center’s opening) certain
ly didn’t help us any,” Busby said.
“The few college members we had,
we certainly lost.”
The Royal Oaks club is now under
the Aerofit title along with the aero
bic annex on Texas Avenue.
Joe Brown, a Bryan public infor
mation officer who has worked out
at Aerofit for six years, said fewer
students seem to be working out at
the club.
“Aerofit was wise in their market
ing by shifting their focus to the fam
ily,” Brown said.
See Gyms, Page 6
Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion
Stuart Jackson, a junior finance
and accounting major, works out
at Gold's Gym Sunday.
Dole to unveil economic package
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Dole, try-
ig to reinvigorate his presidential cam-
aign, decided to sweeten his economic
ackage with a dramatic call for a 15-
ercent across-the-board tax cut, his ad
ders said Sunday.
He will formally unveil his tax plan,
hich the campaign claims would cost $548
iUion over six years, on
londay in Chicago.
Dole aides said it was
le first step in a-major
ix simplification plan
tat would eventually
-suit in a “flatter, fairer
ad simpler” system.
“It is bold and it is
oiuprehensive,” senior
•ole policy adviser Don-
Id Rumsfeld said Sun-
ay. “It will be a wonder-
d thing for the country.”
The plan was immediately attacked
y the Clinton administration. Vice
Vesident A1 Gore said it would “blow a
l ole in the deficit.”
Dole had swayed between such a Rea-
atiesque tax cut and a more modest ges-
Ure of proposing the repeal of the 1993
ax increase pushed through Congress
y President Clinton.
But he finally sided with advisers
ke defeated GOP rival Steve Forbes
ltd Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich.,
DOLE
who had forcefully urged the more dra
matic approach, said those close to the
deliberations, speaking on the condi
tion of anonymity.
“We’ll lay it all out there,” Dole told
reporters on Sunday as he headed to his
campaign headquarters for what he said
would be a “long” day.
The launching of the economic pack
age begins a critical week for Dole, who
trails Clinton by as much as 20 points in
some national polls.
In the week ahead, Dole must also set
tle on a running mate and prepare for next
week’s Republican National Convention.
Advisers view this period as crucial to
animating the Dole campaign and say
the economic plan will become the cen
terpiece of Dole’s effort.
On the eve of his announcement. Dole
was still grappling with details of the
plan — and how to pay for it.
Beyond spending cuts, Dole will pro
pose the sale of some federal assets to
boost revenues and simplifications in the
tax code designed to reduce tax avoidance.
But a large portion of paying for the
$l00-billion-a-year plan — roughly 30
percent — would come from an assump
tion o*f stronger economic growth, theo
retically to be triggered by the tax cut it
self. Earlier versions called for up to 40
percent to be “financed” through such a
spurt of economic growth.
Besides an across-the-board
tax cut, Dole's plan would:
— Reduce the capital gains tax from
its current 28 percent to 14 percent.
— Re-propose a GOP-backed $500-
per-child tax credit that had been ve
toed by Clinton.
— Repeal the tax hike on Social Se
curity benefits that was part of the
1993 tax increase that Clinton pushed
through Congress.
— Rewrite the tax code so that
about 40 million Americans would not
have to file at all but could do so if
they chose to claim deductions.
— Establish "investment education
accounts" that would be similar to Indi
vidual Retirement Accounts. Earnings
would accumulate tax-free as long as
money was spent on a child's education.
Many economists have scoffed at such
“supply side” economic theories, as has Dole
himself in the past. Dole has a history of
preferring to cut the deficit to cutting taxes.
But campaign advisers felt that the
Republican candidate, who will be for
mally nominated at the GOP convention
in San Diego, needed something dramat
ic to get his campaign off the ground.
Pilot of doomed flight found
EAST MORICHES, N.Y. (AP) —
The pilot of doomed TWA Flight 800
was found still strapped in his seat
before a major section of his cockpit
— a mangled mess of switches, in
struments and seats — was raised
from the ocean floor, investigators
said Sunday.
The bodies of the pilot, Capt.
Ralph G. Kevorkian, 58, of Garden
Grove, Calif., and his flight engi
neer, Richard G. Campbell, 63, of
Ridgefield, Conn., were retrieved
Saturday night.
The recovery of bodies — 194 by
Sunday, leaving 36 missing — and
the arrival of bargeloads of wreckage
were major weekend strides in a dis
aster probe that had been frustrated
for days by bad weather.
The newly recovered wreckage in
cluded seats, instruments, switches
and fuses mangled together in the
cockpit, but did not include a cres
cent-shaped section with windows
that searchers had previously seen
underwater.
The cockpit wreckage — 6 feet
high and 10 feet wide — was pierced
by “a big beam from another part of
the aircraft. I am not even sure how
it got there,” said National Trans
portation Safety Board Vice Chair
man Robert Francis.
“To see that mass of jumble of
wires certainly brought home to me
how difficult it’s going to be ... to try
to put that all back together again,”
added James Kailstrom, the special
agent in charge of the FBI probe.
“Basically, it’s just a solid pile of de
bris all mixed together.”
Francis said investigators would
now begin the arduous task of un
tangling the wreckage to see what
evidence it might contain on the
cause of the July 17 explosion that
killed 230 people.
Because of the condition of the
wreckage, Francis said he was “not
expecting dramatic results from to
day to tomorrow.”
It was unclear how many of the
cockpit’s 900 gauges and dials and
gadgets were in the recovered sec
tion. An instrument panel — per
haps frozen in time — could yield
clues: about engine speed or how the
plane was reacting, perhaps whether
parts were shattered by the crash or
by a blast.
Wreckage will also be inspected
for explosive residue, which would
suggest a bomb. A missile theory and
mechanical failure also have not
been ruled out.