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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1996)
Report predicts decline in education niversity administrators are urged to improve minority access dent Council ;ral meeting ati Dldus Building For more infer ten at 845-577 iorca.tamu.edu. IBv Meussa Nunnery lusiness Assoc, The Battalion ence will be hell man, Minister report from the Texas nercial Affai M Department of Rural So- he United Stjlogv predicts Texas will be a lusiness relaitelvith poorly educated citi- discussed. T is by 2030, leading Universi- held in Webadnhnistrators to explore .m. Everybody tin ids to improve minorities’ I Mss to higher education. Dr. Steve Murdock, a profes- Iggies: Off ctf and head of the Depart- t for stack unt of Rural Sociology, said lifts will be he;} report examines what ef- details cal tslchanges in Texas’ popula- 3-5228. n Itructure are likely to have thi future. The report indi- hristian Fell ies that if steps are not taken ich: There i improve access to public g with an e; ;her education for minorities cussion at/: 2Q30, Texas will lag behind n. Come lea let states economically, urself orafneJ| m call Jennifell*’ Projected percent of labor force by educational attainment percent IP “Unless we increase ac cess, increase opportunities and increase socioeconomic achievement of minorities, Texas will be a poorer state,” Murdock said. Minority groups are the fastest growing segments of the population. They also have the lowest participation rates in education. Dr. Charles Lee, vice chan cellor for research, planning and continuing education, said the two factors combined could create economic hard ships for the state. “If you extend that out (to 2030), you will have an in creasing percentage of the Texas population with lesser education,” Lee said. “If we don’t find ways to get more Texans engaged in the edu cational process, the econo my of the state is at risk in the next century.” Lee said it is in the best interest of Texas to ensure the competitiveness its citi zens need for the workplace in the future. He said outreach pro grams to help young people realize they can go to college would help increase access to higher education. “It's more than telling them what courses to take to get into college,” Lee said. “We have to help them develop self-confidence and believe it is possible to go to college.” Dr. Barry Thompson, chan cellor of the Texas A&M Uni versity System, said the report indicates Texas will be a third- world state by 2030 if the num ber of African-American and Hispanic college graduates does not increase. “We (administrators) are proposing that ... by 2003 we produce 15,200 more college graduates a year, which will raise us to the national aver age,” he said. “If we don’t in crease higher education, then the majority population will be poorly educated voters with the ability to shape and make public policy.” Thompson said the Texas Legislature needs to take action to improve access to higher ed ucation for minorities to have educated voters in the future. He said financial aid and grants should be increased so attending college is easi er. Thompson said if public universities form partner ships with public schools, universities can help sec ondary schools with their teaching methods. He said access to higher education is a problem that needs to be solved before it worsens. “Texas must address the problem, and I hope policy makers will begin to address it in the next legislative ses sion,” he said. Murdock said he wants ac cess to higher education to im prove as a result of the report. “The best result of this re port is that actions be taken so our projections are inaccurate,” Murdock said. 1990 data 2030 projections Some Bachelor Grad, diploma diploma co||ege degree eadership Si general mi lachry. Veai iken after tin i informati i0-9072. is a Bait lists no faculty e s. Items s! d no latei i advanced date. Ap es and no its and liat's Up. estions, /sroom at onal What are on The b page eb.tamu I red Up Jennifer Fredrickson, The Battalion Lee Houchin, a sophomore computer science major, and David Fuchs, a junior chemical engineering major, record magnetic fields for a physics lab project in Heldenfels Hall. >rs 84S-4S iiiiecorcler reveals final moments of ValuJet crash MIAMI (AP) — Passengers norkel reamed “Fire! Fire! Fire!” and a q/ccq** ght attendant warned, “We can’t y/OOr thxygen back there” during the 11- 3 down to d tc'rrifying moments before Valu- iradise, 7Eight 592 plunged into the Ever- /e Cozume^chss, killing all 110 people aboard. Tithe on the The chilling eight-minute tape hes, or visit T>m the cockpit voice recorder ids with the cockpit and cabin egistraticllihg silent, leaving the sound of ow thru Dec shing air, perhaps from a cock- t window that had been opened let the smoke out. ■ transcript of the recording is released Monday as a hearing JliHlied on the mistakes that led l|Hie May 11 crash. Federal in stigators believe that 144 oxy- gen-generating canisters carried in the DC-9’s cargo hold either ig nited or fueled a fire. Six minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, the pilot can be heard telling the co-pi- lot: “We got some electrical prob lems. ...We’re losing everything.” A few seconds later, the voice recorder picked up screams of passengers in the cabin, includ ing several women shouting, “Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!” Over the next 51 seconds, shouts were heard from the cabin twice more and a flight attendant said only, “Completely on fire” be fore the cabin fell silent. The last recorded voice from the plane was that of a crew member telling the tower, “We need the, uh, closest airport available.” The plane crashed 2 minutes, 22 seconds later. While the flight attendant warned that passengers could not get oxygen, National Transporta tion Safety Board investigator Greg Feith said there was not enough in formation to say what may have happened to the oxygen masks that drop down in front of passen gers during an emergency. Relatives of the victims hope the hearing will tell them why their loved ones died. “I dreaded coming here, but this is something that I have to do Hii Battalion TODAY leeding Pink vo percenters take a tid as non-tradi- »nalists and explain lieir beliefs. S&tionalPti Aggielife, Page 3 plumper Crop Ip A&M Baseball Team Mists one of the top Bruiting classes in |ie country. Sports, Page 7 ro/Con lenderson and Apgar: spects of affirmative btion are debated in 2gard to. fairness. Opinion, Page 11 Four drown in attempt to cross border BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — High waves swallowed a group of men, women and children appar ently trying to wade across the Rio Grande into the United States, drowning at least four of them. Six others were feared dead. Authorities searched Monday for the bodies of those killed in the Gulf of Mexico surf at the shallow mouth of the river, which separates the United States and Mexico. Witnesses saw about 10 men, women and children at the river’s in let 20 miles east of Brownsville on Sunday, Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Elizardi said. “They were walking on a sandbar on the Mexican side. When they got to the end of the sandbar, this large wave came in and swallowed them up,” he said. Elizardi said the victims were be lieved to be illegal immigrants try ing to cross from Mexico into the United States. Three bodies were recovered Sun day. A fourth washed ashore but was taken back out by the tide. Two of the bodies were identified as men ages 49 and 19, believed to be from Lahore, Pakistan, Elizardi said. They were carrying Pakistani passports and business cards sug gesting one was an engineer, the other a printer, he said. Their identities were withheld un til relatives could be notified. The third dead man was not car rying identification papers. The Coast Guard scanned the ocean by helicopter while sheriff’s deputies hunted the deserted beach for more bodies before suspending the search Monday afternoon. The mouth of the river is a pop ular crossing spot for illegal immi grants and narcotics traffickers, authorities said. It is generally shallow, with shoals and sandbars that prevent large ships from en tering, although in places it’s too deep for wading. “The river’s not very wide there, but it is very deep and very danger ous,” said U.S. Border Patrol agent Larry Jackson. Waves were up to 10 feet high along the shore Sunday, and that could have created a powerful rip current that would have pulled the victims away from land, said Nation al Weather Service forecaster Richard Hagan. Waves there normally run 3 to 4 feet, Elizardi said. “A single wave is not enough nor- Illegal Immigrant Deaths in Texas — More than 300 illegal immi grants die each year trying to enter Texas from Mexico, and most of them drown, accord ing a study released this year by the University of Houston. — Prior to Sunday's deaths, seven illegal immigrants had drowned in Cameron County in the last six months trying to cross the Rio Grande, according to the Sheriff's Department. — Several illegal immigrants have died this year due to over exposure and dehydration, in cluding eight who died crossing ranch land in Kenedy County. — Two other illegal immigrants died of heat-related heart fail ure in July after being transport ed north to Buda in a stifling 18-wheeler. Beutel cracks down on medical excuses in order to have closure,” said Gwendolyn Marks, a nurse whose 23-year-old son died in the crash. “It may be painful, but it was my child and I want to hear what was going through his mind, what was going on in those last minutes.” Investigators did not release the recording itself out of concern for the feelings of family mem bers. That decision upset Richard Kessler, an Atlanta lawyer whose wife, Kathleen, was killed. “I’m going to Washington after this to try to get them to change the law,” Kessler said. He said he wanted to know if one of the voic es repeatedly shouting, “Fire” was his wife’s. By JoAnne Whittemore The Battalion Students at Texas A&M are no longer allowed to use medical ex cuses from A.P. Beutel Health Center as a way to skip classes and tests. The University class atten dance policy was revised for the 1996-97 school year. It now states that students who miss class before visiting a physi cian and are not judged too ill or contagious to attend class will not receive a medical excuse. Kirk S. Cole, assistant to the di rector at Beutel, said the revision was prompted by the amount of excuses written the previous year. “The new attendance policy is based on the fact that we had a high number of excuses that our providers were giving per day,” Cole said. “They were for minor ailments where they (students) really didn’t need to miss class.” The Student Senate and Fac ulty Senate jointly revised the class attendance and excuse policy with a committee of stu dents, faculty and staff last year. The policy revisions are includ ed in the 1996-97 University Student Rules. Cole said many students and faculty are unaware of the poli cy revision. “That’s part of the reason we’re trying to get the information out,” he said. “We’ve dispensed infor mation to the faculty. They don’t know about the change, but they need to know.” Dr. Sallie Sheppard, associate provost for undergraduate pro grams, said deans have expressed their concern over students tak ing advantage of medical excuses. She said the faculty is sympa thetic to students with legiti mate problems, but those at tempting to "work the edges” concern the faculty. “I think there’s a double-edged sword here,” she said. “A reaction from the faculty could be to say, T’m not ever going to count any of these excuses that I get.’” “That provides a problem for students who are legitimately sick. On the other side, some times students can hurt legiti mate uses needed by others.” Dr. Lucille Isdale, director of Beutel, said the revision shifts the responsibility of absences back to students. She said it is the stu dents duty to contact their pro fessors when absent. Isdale said writing medical excuses for every minor ailment is the same as treating students like children. “Every other day, we treat them like adults,” she said. “But if they do miss a class, we treat them like babies or children. You’ve got to get Mommy to say you didn’t have to go to school today.” Isdale said the policy has helped the center see more stu dents with legitimate problems. “I had one physician provide 207 patients with excuses,” she said. “That’s 207 patients we would not have been able to see in the past.” mally to carry somebody off and drown them,” Hagan said. “I think there was probably a rip current in that area.” Panel chooses interns for leadership program By Courtney Walker and Ann Marie Hauser The Battalion Seven faculty and staff members throughout the Texas A&M University System have been chosen to partic ipate as interns in the Center for Leadership in Higher Edu cation mentoring program. The program’s purpose is to prepare participants to be fu ture leaders, chief executive officers and senior managers for the A&M System and Texas higher education. The program was estab lished in 1994 by the A&M Board of Regents. Barry B. Thompson, chan cellor of the System, said he refers to the program as com bat training for the interns who are chosen. “They are given a chance to interact with legislators, stu dents, chief executive officers and learn the critical skills needed to perform at a high level,” he said. Interns will work side by side with the chief executive officers of 10 state university systems and eight agencies. Intensive training, in which interns receive hands-on expe rience and learn problem solving strategies, are also part of the program. Patti Urbina, special pro jects and international pro grams coordinator for Texas Engineering Experiment Sta tion, completed the initial pi lot program in August. She said the internship was a great opportunity to improve her understanding of the complexi ties of the System. “We had the opportunity to see the day-in and day-out rou tine,” she said. “And the deci sion-making process of CEOs and how all parts of the system fit together as a whole.” Intern responsibilities include addressing employee relations, ethics, leadership behaviors, public policy development, me dia relations and external fund raising, as well as academic and budget issues. They will also be involved with decision-making, planning, implementation, re search and analysis. Interns were nominated by System presidents and agency directors. Selections were made on the basis of career potential toward a leadership role in higher education, supe- rior communication skills, conceptual skills and practical implementation ability. Urbina said the opportunity to see other styles of leadership was interesting. See Interns, Page 4