• 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
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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
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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