Report predicts decline in education
niversity administrators are urged to improve minority access
dent Council
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ten at 845-577
iorca.tamu.edu.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Ip A&M Baseball Team
Mists one of the top
Bruiting classes in
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Sports, Page 7
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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