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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 1996)
• November 2d “Serving Texas A&M Since 1893" The Battalion ume 10 ^ • Issue 61 • 10 Pages Monday, November 25, 1996 The Batt Online: http://bat-web.tamu.edu alvin Davis at !nrelay’s game take those exl Barone said play as many _ anted to. We® ell Leader bill tabled by committee Anderson wil r the Aggies, ct on from thesk he played lastyi earning experic said. “Coach hi h me and guiii n practice. Id lion smoothly.' ig will go smoc: s a long seasc: cl valleys. The >ve during the of securing a r tournament py JoAnne Whittemore The Battalion A rill that would require run-off jcgions for the top five senior Yell ader candidates and the top four ator Yell Leader candidates was bled by the Rules and Regula rs Committee of the Texas A&M adi nit Senate Sunday night. Eliot Kerlin Jr., one of the au- ors of the original bill and a se- or finance major, said the com- ittee’s decision was upsetting. “We just told the student body their opinion doesn't matter even though we asked for it.” Eliot Kerlin Jr. Student senator “I think it’s a travesty,” he said. “Senate dropped the ball as a rep resentative of the students.” The proposed bill first ap peared as a referendum on the election ballot last spring. Of the 10,000 students that voted, ap proximately 6,300 voted in favor of requiring run-off elections for Yell Leader candidates. The Senate then set out to amend the election regulations to include Yell Leader run-offs. Kerlin said the issue has been in committee for seven months, so the impact of the referendum has lost its effect. “We just told the student body their opinion doesn’t matter even though we asked for it,” he said. Kerlin said run-offs would in crease representation of the stu dent body as well as increase the legitimacy and prestige of the Yell Leader office. “Yell Leaders define Texas A&M tradition and spirit,” he said. Chris Torn, head Yell Leader and a senior agricultural develop ment major, said the run-offs would lower the chances of candi dates not in the Corps of Cadets being elected. “If you’ve got guys that are run ning for Yell Leader within the Corps, they’re going to muster up more support than a student that has to do it by himself,” he said. “That’s going to hurt non-reg can didates wanting to be Yell Leaders.” Torn said the Senate does not have the right to legislate the activ ities of the Yell Leaders, just as the Yell Leaders do not have the right to interfere in the Senate's affairs. He said it would be an injustice if a candidate who did not work as hard during the first part of the elections made it to the run-offs and then decided to work hard and won over a candidate who had worked hard the entire elec tion. Torn said that is not what be ing a Yell Leader is about. See Committee, Page 4 finished impr excited. U’ste o it.” o nable state listrativelea' )fgar -ady Aggies 5 in G/RollieK ach LaurieCc n is unsureofi tial, since it all eight cyli ing. date kind of said. "Wet\ ^cause we wi / hard.” vvks (9-22,3' hree games A&M president host forum By Wesley Poston The Battalion ■ University President Ray M. Biwen will present the Gener al Jse Fee (GUF) increase pro posal and answer questions about its implications at a public hearing tonight at 7 in Rudder Theatre. ■ Two years ago, the Texas ninth in Ihf : Shite Legislature passed a bill trip to Kan increasing the tuition at all is have onfst^te-funded colleges and uni in the regal vei sities by $2 per semester the Comb credit hour until it reaches $40 ^ersity of Q! Per credit hour in 2000. The the team is legislature also lifted the $12 inal stretcli G11F cap, allowing the Board of )n. Regents to raise the GUF to sping our ini: e Q4al tuition for that year. said. “Wecai I Bowen will propose to the e endofthetur; Boarcl of Regents that the HjUF be increased $10 to $34 S-iffh-esler ereilit hour for jail 1997. The increase would support faculty and staff salary raises. S B With each GUF increase proposal, a public forum is re- qiiired by law. For A&M, that forum is tonight. ■ Dr. Bill Kibler, associate » vice president for student af fairs, said the University will if iA 0 ► See Editorial, Page 9 :: PARt11n A ,; 5 : 'PARf'iERiE$ ; ' present the forum not only because it is required, but be cause they value student feedback. “We want them to have opinions based on facts,” he said, “not on perceptions.” Bowen said students’ sup port of the increase proposal is of personal interest to him. “I want to get a buy-in,” he said. Kibler said despite the Uni versity’s efforts to ptdSTicfze the forum, only a small per centage of the student popu lation is expected to attend the informational session. “Rudder Theatre has 750 chairs,” he said. “We’d be ab solutely thrilled if 750 people came.” See GUF, Page 6 \ Can I be sure that all the money is going to salaries? Why raise student fees without raising financial aid? Didn’t the fees just get increased? Will the money be used for classroom improvements? Will the increase solve the problem? Can they link GUF increase to tuition? Are we going to slow our efforts to get more money from the state legislature? Couldn’t it be done in increments? Why are we so far behind? Will the increase always go to faculty raises? Chillin' Ryan Rogers, The Battalion Kevin Farrell, a graduate student in student affairs, takes shelter from the hostile weather Sunday afternoon in the Copesetic Cafe. This week temperatures will stay low, slightly warming through Friday. Keyes morality in politics By JoAnne Whittemore The Battalion Alan Keyes, Republican Party presidential candidate, said those who voted President Clinton into office for another term are in for a disappointing four years. “I think there are some really bad times ahead for Clinton vot ers,” Keyes said Saturday in the MSC Flagroom. “They’re going to have to go through some real ago nies. I have a feeling that the next couple of years are not going to be so great for them.” Keyes, along with Republican Party Congressional candidate Gene Fontenot, was brought to Texas A&M by the Eagle Forum Collegians. Keyes said the fact that Clinton was re-elected did not increase the First Lady’s respect for the Ameri- Tim Moog, The Battalion Alan Keyes spoke to students in the MSC Wednesday. can people. He said this was re flected in her recent trip to Aus tralia, where “she went... to tell us that Americans are really terrible and want a First Lady with a bag over her head.” Keyes said people often ask him why he talks about morality, claiming it has nothing to do with politics. He said it fasci nates him that the doctrine of separation of church and state has now expanded into a doc trine which requires separation of morality from politics. Keyes said when one looks at the be havior of many political figures, it is apparent they have achieved that separation. Keyes said most politicians use the “sneeze approach” in their campaigns and speeches. He said the politicians will go through their entire speech as if God does not exist, and then put in a “God bless you” at the end. Keyes said God should not come at the end of speeches, but at the beginning of thoughts. He said one should consider this when choosing pro-life or pro- choice because it is not up to man to decide the issue. “Life and rights are not based on a woman’s choice or a man’s choice,” he said. “They are based on God’s choice, made long before we got here, and all we have the right to do is respect that choice.” Keyes commended welfare, say ing the core of human virtue must include a love for fellow human beings, regardless of their back grounds. He said people must be willing to reach down and help lift others up. Keyes ended his speech by urging the public to vote for Fontenot. “I am standing today to declare that if you care about these things that I care about, you can do noth ing better than to cast your sup port and your vote for Gene Fontenot,” he said. “We need his voice in America.” I|he Battalion TODAY titual Art mist Sharon Kopriva hows the universal ohnection between leath, life and love. Aggielife, Page 3 Reflections Be Texas A&M Soccer earn discusses the brupt end to its season md hopes for next year. Sports, Page 7 sep Sleep leinroth: President Clinton’s nightmare >heds light on glum /Jality. Opinion, Page 9 Elephant Walk 1996 Students design their own Class of ’97 T-shirt to feel included By Laura Oliveira The Battalion In the spirit of diversity, a group of students have de signed a Class of ’97 T-shirt they feel is more representa tive of the student body at Texas A&M. The decision to design the shirt was made after the Class of ’97 Council intro duced this year’s Elephant Walk T-shirt. The E-Walk shirt fea tures five A&M students, all of whom are Anglo, stand ing in locked arms in front of Bonfire. Mosadi Porter, the initia tor of the more inclusive T- shirt design and a senior speech communications major, said the design will give a better representation of races. “We felt the original Class of ’97 E-Walk shirts weren’t in clusive,” she said. “We are do ing this in an effort to make everyone feel included.” Their shirt design will in clude African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, Native American and Anglo students. The committee originally designed an E-Walk shirt, but due to financial compli cations, the shirt was not ready for today’s event. The design will now be a Class of ’97 shirt. The shirts will be sold at cost and are anticipated to be ready for sale at the begin ning of the spring semester. Porter said no profit will be made from the shirts. “It is not about profit, it is about principle,” she said. “We just want to make a shirt that people will be proud of.” Other student organiza tions have designed Class of ’97 shirts without the sup port of the Class Council. An off-campus vendor, working with the Texas A&M Management Society de signed and sold a Class of ’97 shirt with a pitcher of beer on the back of it. The Class of ’97 Council reported the shirt to “It is not about profit, it is about principle. ” Mosadi Porter Design initiator the concessions committee, claiming the shirt did not re flect the mission and purpose of the student organization. The Management Society had its permit revoked be cause it did not meet this guideline, set by the conces sions committee. The management society appealed the decision. They argued they had equal right to sell their shirts because a shirt designed earlier in the semester by the Class of ’97 Council had a similar alcoholic nature. The class shirt featured the logo “Absolut Senior.” Their appeal was upheld and the permit was reissued. Dean Yamada, a member of the Management Society and a senior management major, said the basis on which the Council tried to re voke their permit was hypo critical. “If their mission and purpose for the Class of ’97 was unity and they have [five] white people in front of Bon fire on their E-Walk shirts,” he said, “they are contradict ing themselves.” See Shirts, Page 5 Juniors, Seniors to brave cold weather for E-Walk By Wesley Poston The Battalion Cold, wet and muddy conditions will not stop the ele phants of 1997 from wandering across campus to find a place to die today. At 97 minutes after noon, 1:37 p.m., the Fightin’ Texas Ag gie Class of 1997 will gather at Kyle Field for Elephant Walk, where Tom Fitzhugh, a former Memorial Student Center president and a member of the Class of ’71, will address the senior class. Concurrently, the Class of ’98 will meet at Bonfire site 98 minutes after noon, 1:38 p.m., to begin their own E-Walk activities. Melanie Bradshaw, E-Walk committee chair and a senior elementary education major, said the weather may keep some seniors from participating in Elephant Walk, but be tween three and four thousand people are still expected. “We’re basically going to play it by ear tomorrow,” she said. Senior events will begin at 11:30 a.m., with the Final Feast barbecue in the Grove. If it rains, the lunch will move under the stands at Kyle Field. See E-Walk, Page 5