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The Battalion
Volume 103 • Issue 79 • 12 Pages
The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamu.edu
Monday, January 27, 1997
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|$EE RELATED EDITORIALS, PACE 1 1
By Erica Roy
The Battalion
The Student Government Asso-
tion Judiciary Board denied a
dent’s petition requesting en-
|rcement of the yell leader run-
elections referendum Thursday
ght, declaring the referendum
non-binding.
Kevin Jordan, j-board chair and
an accounting graduate, student,
said the hearing questioned the in
terpretation of the Student Govern
ment Association’s constitution,
and did not decide on yell leader
run-off elections.
“It (the decision) had nothing to
do with the merits of run-off elec
tions,” Jordan said. “It had to do with
referendums and the way it (the ref
erendum) was stated. ... We (the j-
board) never once discussed
whether we wanted run-off elections
or not. We’re interpreting rules.”
In the Student Government As
sociation’s Constitution, referen
dums can be grouped under two
sections, F and G.
Under section F, the purpose of
)enRegents approve
Use Fee increase
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UF will climb to $34 per credit hour
By Melissa Nunnery
The Battalion
The Texas A&M University Sys-
Jem Board of Regents approved a
tlO per credit hour increase in the
eneral Use Fee Friday in Laredo.
The GUF will go from $24 per
iredit hour to $34 per credit hour
in Sept. 1.
The $10 GUF increase will pro
vide the University with an addi
tional $11 million a year
Texas A&M faculty and staff
will receive a merit-based pay
raise this year as a result of the in
crease.The University will imple-
will be ass-, ment a 2 percent salary increase
eminar all Mar. 1, and another 3 percent in
crease when the GUF increase
goes into effect.
2 will be Texas A&M President Ray M.
at 4 p.m. Bowen said regents faced a dilem-
ina in voting on the increase.
I “Raising student fees is never
will be a ,fasy and requires considerable
at 5 p.m,'|tudy,” Bowen said in a press re
lease. “Our regents have thor-
lughly reviewed this matter and
:will beageffonsidered every possible alter-
p.m. in hi
ition call Nal
native. I know our faculty and
staff greatly appreciate this diffi
cult decision.”
Bowen said the University must
see students get their money’s
worth from the fee increase.
“It is now incumbent on all of us
at Texas A&M to recognize and ap
preciate where this money is coming
from,” he said in a press release. “We
must guarantee it is returned to the
students through the highest quality
academic experience.”
In other business, the Board
postponed a vote on an on-cam-
pus, child care center on the Texas
A&M campus.
Regent Guadalupe Rangel of
Corpus Christi asked that the vote
on the center be postponed until
the Board’s March meeting, to have
more time to study the proposal.
The child care center would
serve children of students, facul
ty and staff members. If ap
proved, the University would pro
vide the center with a location
and start-up funds.
The center would be self-suffi
cient and would operate on tuition.
9 will be!
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17.
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at 847-021:
haracter names
:ause controversy
\ulder, Scully not welcome at A&M
By Benjamin Cheng
The Battalion
ill beagenff Renaming the Tam2000 com-
|at8:30p,r|)uter-server prompt to “mulder”
or more infijbr “scully,” two characters on the
it 847-8461 television show “The X-Files,” has
|>rought an alien image to Com-
Associatio: puting and Information Services.
I meetingT Philip Kaiser, a service program-
health cafner, said users should not worry
in 201 VMwbout e-mail address changes. Last
guest speftll, CIS announced that the address
>n call Lc'a remained “unbc.tamu.edu” despite
| forthcoming prompt name
Khange to “mulder.tamu.edu” or
Society: /'scully.tamu.edu.”
in theCoftl “That (Unix) is the only name
University |they need to remember or refer
0 p.m inSifo,” Kaiser said,
lation cow The arrival of a new machine,
ItheSunEnterprise 5000, to supple-
|rnent Tam2000 motivated the
bame change. For administrative
• @nd technical reasons, the
... Ii|ram2000 machine has been named
' f rmat^ mU ^ er ” ant * l ^ e SunEnterprise
in 231
or details^
1-57 or r#
a referendum is to consider pro
posed legislation.
The j-board ruled that section F
referendums can be non-binding
or binding, and for a referendum
to be binding, the words “binding
to the Student Government Asso
ciation” must be attached.
A referendum under section G
allows the student body to bypass
the Student Senate and enact mea
sures without the Senate’s consent.
The student body president must
take action if a referendum is
passed under section G, because
this type of referendum is binding.
The j-board declared that the yell
leader run-off elections referendum
falls under section E making the ref
erendum non-binding.
Chris Williams, plaintiff in the
hearing and a senior political sci
ence and speech communications
major, said any referendum, by de
finition, is binding.
‘A referendum is not a public opin
ion poll,” he said. “A public opinion
poll does not belong on a ballot. When
something is on the ballot, we expect
our government to comply with that.”
Jordan said the j-board defined
the referendums more clearly in
their ruling.
He said the yell leader run-off
elections referendum was un-
clearly worded, causing confu
sion over whether the referendum
was binding.
Carl Baggett, student body pres
ident and a senior accounting ma
jor, said the j-board’s ruling clari
fied some of the unclear wording iii
the constitution.
“There was ambiguity — that
was the whole problem with every
thing,” Baggett said. “The ambigui
ties that were once there are no
longer there.”
Matt Mayfield, executive vice-
president of Student Government
and a senior animal science major,
said the Student Senate held the ref
erendum to find out the student
body’s opinion on the issue.
“We wanted to solicit the opin
ion of the student body,” he said.
“Looking back on it, we should have
just done a poll.”
Williams said although he re
ceived a fair hearing and he sup
ports the j-board’s process, he still
thinks the referendum was binding.
“Students thought they voted on
something last spring that was
binding — it wasn’t,” Williams said.
“I do still believe the referendum
was binding, but that’s not my deci
sion to make,” he said. “That right
belongs to the j-board.”
Williams said he encourages stu
dents to become more active, if they
want their voice to be heard by the
Student Government.
The j-board is composed of eight
members and one chair (a non-vot
ing member, unless a tie occurs).
There are four at-large members, one
graduate, senior, junior and sopho
more member.
Seven of the eight voting mem
bers supported the decision made
by the j-board.
See J-board, Page 12
f Rony Angkriwan, The Battalion
^^ I Three-year-old Corey Haith, son of A&M basketball coach Frank Haith, reaches up for a dunk with
'JMVSVSl.ll I I | Jim Fitzpatrick after the A&M v. Kansas State game Saturday afternoon.
5000 has been named “scully.”
Cheryl Cato, systems analyst for
CIS, said the new titles help differ
entiate between the two machines.
“Every machine on a network has
an address in numeric form,” Cato
said. “For ease of use, you can assign
an alphanumeric name to that num
ber. It’s easier for people to use.”
The decision to name the ma
chines was made within the Unix
system’s support group, Cato said.
“We just told the team and they
sent me some names,” Cato said.
“They let me win this time.”
Cato said the two machines work
together to operate more quickly and
efficiently. When users log into
Tam2000, a computer shuttles the ac
counts to one of to the two machines
depending on the load. This concept
is designed to use the two machines
to their optimum capacity.
“The goal is that the users won’t
be able to tell one machine from
another,” Cato said.
The speed of electronic mail
^ SCULLY
' \ M U L D E R
UNIX
'Needs Improvement'
Teachers get bad report cards
FILES
James Palmer, The Battalion
service has not improved because
a new file-server machine, TamN-
FS, has not been implemented,
Kaiser said. The Unix support
team plans to name this machine
“skinner” after another “X-Files”
character. CIS plans to put this
machine into service as soon as
possible, Kaiser said.
“It just arrived too late for us to
be able to put it in before the se
mester began,” Kaiser said.
CIS received an inordinate
number of complaints about the
previous change from “tamsun” to
“tam2000,” Cato said.
See Names, Page 12
By Rebecca Torrellas
The Battalion
Texas public school teachers re
ceived a C- for teaching quality in
Education Week’s state-by-state
analysis of U.S. schools in the Janu
ary 1997 issue.
The report, “Quality Counts,”
said years of education reform
throughout the country have done
little to improve the quality of pub
lic education in elementary, inter
mediate and high school levels.
“Basically, we found that public
education in this country is riddled
with excellence but rife with medi
ocrity,” Ronald Wolk, editor of Edu
cation Week, said in a Houston
Chronicle article.
None of the states analyzed had
an A average overall. West Virginia
and Georgia earned B’s, and other
states, like California, received D’s.
Texas got an A in the area of stan
dards and assessments, a D for fail
ing to fund schools in a fair and eq
uitable manner and a C-t- for its
adequacy of funding education.
Jean Close Conoley, dean of
Texas A&M University’s College of
Education, said one of the reasons
why public schools are getting crit
icized is because they hire teachers
who are either not certified or teach
subjects different than their degree
of certification.
Conoley said Texas A&M, as well
as at other colleges and universities
throughout the state, has examples
of innovation and high standards in
teacher preparation that reflect
some of the recommendations
made in these reports.
“Our efforts to restructure our
teacher education programs have
been recognized regionally and na
tionally for their innovation in
preparing students to teach in to
day’s and tomorrow’s schools,”
Conoley said.
Texas A&M’s education program
is accredited by the National Coun
cil for the Accreditation of Teacher
Education. Students are required to
have a grade-point ratio above the
university minimum for entrance
into the teacher education pro
gram. An even higher GPR is re
quired for the subject areas the stu
dents will teach.
Conoley said efforts to improve
the system will continue.
“We have a long road ahead to
move from rhetoric about the im
portance of education to action that
supports the success of every
child,” Conoley said. “But we are on
that road.”
Frat Rush wraps up with bid day
cal Service
ational
I in joining
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-equired
jstin Roi^
The Battalion
INSIDETODAY
REFUGE: II u- Hoys
and Girls Club in
Bryan gives students
an alternative to the
street.
Aggielife, Page 3
Toons
Opinion
What's Up
Page 5
Page 11
Page 12
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The
Green Bay Packers finally have a
present to go with their past.
The 35-21 Super Bowl victory
over the New England Patriots on
Sunday hardly brought back
memories of Vince Lombardi’s
grind-it-out champions of the ’60s.
Instead, this was a high-pow
ered Pack—doing it with big plays,
especially by MVP Desmond
Howard — that returned Green
Bay to NFL prominence and put
the title back in “Titletown, USA.”
“I think it’s time that the Lom
bardi Trophy goes home to Lam-
beau Field, where it belongs,” Pack
ers president Robert Harlan said.
See full story.
Sports, page 7
Final Score
Packers Patriots
35 21
By Erica Roy
The Battalion
Texas A&M spring fraternity rush ended Friday in
front of the Systems Building as rushees accepted bids
and ran out to join their new fraternity chapters.
Christen Springs, the Interfraternity Council rush chair
and a sophomore business major, said 300 Texas A&M
men participated in rush and 220 bids were given out.
Almost all of the 220 bids were accepted.
Springs said the two-day delay in starting classes did
not affect the number of participants.
Eric Vroonland, IFC president and a senior finance
major, said this spring’s number of rush participants
was a little higher than usual.
“We were very pleased with the number of bids ac
cepted,” Vroonland said.
Rushees entered through the back of the Systems
Building and received their bids. After they signed in
with the IFC, they ran out the front of the building
where all the fraternities were gathered in a semi-circle
around the steps of the building.
Bid-day parties were held that night at the different
fraternity houses.
Vroonland said the fraternities this semester were
more unified during rush.
Pat James, The Battalion
Victor Munzi, a member of Phi Delta Theta, jumps
into the crowd to congratulate new pledges.
“I think we (IFC) experienced more interfraternal-
ism ... than I have seen in the past,” Vroonland said.
“You might attribute that to some of the recent bad
publicity [of A&M fraternities]. We’ve all realized we
need to work together.”
See Rush, Page 12