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Students approve run-off referendum
. By Joey Jeanette Schlueter
The Battalion
Students voted to have yell leader run-offs
idnesday after a petition made it possible
have the referendum.
Out of of 1,938 votes, 53.8 percent were in
for of yell-leader run-offs and 46.2 percent
ire opposed.
Jason Jaynes, elections commissioner
d a junior computer science major, de
led Wednesday night not to count ballots
st in the MSC between 9 a.m. and noon,
ie decision came after complaints that
try Kipe, senior yell leader and an a;gri-
Itural development major, attempted to
[courage students in the MSC to vote,
Ines said.
[ Of the 378 votes that were disallowed, 308
were for having yell leader run-offs and 70
were against.
The approval of the referendum requires a
run-off election following the general election
to vote for the top four junior candidates and
top five senior candidates.
Jaynes said no challenge of the election re
sults is expected.
He said the election was conducted well,
and the results are valid.
“There was a good student turnout for the
election,” Jaynes said. “It went well with one ex
ception, which was handled properly.”
Carl Baggett, Student Body president and
a senior accounting major, said Jaynes con
ducted the election well.
“Jason [Jaynes] was fair and even-hand
ed in how he dealt with the whole election,”
Baggett said.
Credit should be given to those who
helped in the election, he said.
“Jason Jaynes, Kevin Jordan (Student Gov
ernment judicial board chair and an ac
counting graduate student) and all who
helped in the election should be commend
ed for their hard work,” Baggett said.
The next step in the elections process is to
enact the results of the referendum by mak
ing changes to the Student Government As
sociation constitution.
Baggett said he will adjust the constitution
to add yell leader run-offs.
“The student’s voice is stated,” Baggett
said, “and we are taking necessary actions to
enact what the students voted for.”
Chris Torn, head yell leader and a senior
agricultural development major, said be
fore the election results were announced
that he will abide by the student vote al
though he was opposed having yell leader
run-offs.
Chris Williams, MSC president and senior
political science and speech communica
tions major, said he is happy about the results
of the election.
“I am glad to see that so many students
voted,” Williams said. “I think students have
said, ‘This is what I want.’”
Williams said that after last year’s attempt to
initiate yell leader run-offs, he is sorry to see
that it had to come to a second vote.
Jessie Czelusta, RHA president and senior
agricultural economics major, said he is thrilled
about the results of the run-off election.
“It’s a great big whoop, and I am so happy
it passed,” Czelusta said. “It is about time the
students get what they want.”
Election Results
•1,938 votes total
•1,042 votes for yell leader run-offs
(53.8 percent)
•896 votes against yell leader
run-offs (46.2 percent)
•378 votes were disallowed
•308 of the disallowed votes were
for yell leader run-offs
•70 of the disallowed votes were
against yell leader run-offs
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Amy Dunlap, The Battalion
Moscow Festival Ballet dancers warm up before Thursday's opening-night performance in
Rudder Auditorium.
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gs carry on Replant tradition
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By Graham Harvey
The Battalion
Replant, in its eighth year as an Aggie tra
dition, kicks off tomorrow at Lake
Somerville at 9 a.m.
Replant was founded in 1990 by Scott
Hantman, a graduate student and director
of the Environmental Issues Committee at
Texas A&M at the time. The purpose was to
plant seedlings to offset the cutting down of
trees for Bonfire. Chip Loomis, director of
Replant and a junior biology major, said the
number of trees replanted has increased
from 400 in 1990 to 25,000 last year.
He said Replant draws a diverse group
of participants.
“ [It’s] pretty much a mix of the whole stu -
dent body,” Loomis said. “Sororities, frater
nities, Corps members, off-campus Aggies,
Aggie Moms’ Clubs and others.”
Around 2,500 students will travel to Lake
Somerville tomorrow and Loomis said
about 75 percent of the participants were
also Bonfire participants.
Amy Butler, Replant executive and a ju
nior accounting major, said students who
participate in Replant do not necessarily
oppose Bonfire.
“I just wish that the student body as a
whole would know that we are not anti-
Bonfire,” Butler said. “[Replant is] a very
positive experience working with the Uni
versity and all the students who come out.”
Loomis said Replant is a cyclical
process. The seedlings are provided by the
National Tree Trust, a fund privately sup
ported by Texaco. Replant participants
then pot the seedlings and leave them at
the Welsh Park tree farm near Lake
Somerville where they are cared for by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The fol
lowing year, the potted seedlings are
planted at the Replant site.
See Replant, Page 8
merican's strike deadline draws near
WASHINGTON (AP) — American Air
es officials began around-the-clock
rgaining Thursday night with leaders
Btheir pilots’ union in an effort to head
f an approaching strike at midnight
iday. President Clinton urged both
es to “reach out to one another” and
I ttle their differences.
I “We have a long way to go and a short
I ne to do it in,” the airline’s president,
lanald Carty, toothbrush and shaving kit
I hand, said as he showed up for what
I >th sides expect to be a marathon ses-
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The Battalion
INSIDETODAY
"Mr. Cowboy:" Former
defensive taclde Bob Lilly
visited TCA Cable yesterday.
Sports, Page 5
Aggielife
Toons
Opinion
Page 3
Paged
Page?
sion of back-and-forth proposals.
Clinton, at a news conference Thurs
day afternoon, gave no indication
whether he would exercise emergency
powers to prevent pilots from striking at
12:01 a.m. Saturday. He was urged to do
so by the airline’s chief executive officer,
Robert Crandall, and by mayors and some
members of Congress from areas that
would be particularly affected.
The airline canceled most overseas
flights and about a dozen round-trip do
mestic flights today so that aircraft would
not be stranded at airports with no room
to store them for an extended period.
John Hotard, an airline spokesman,
said the canceled flights included those
into and out ofWhite Plains, N.Y., and Or
ange County, Calif. He said passengers
booked on the canceled flights were noti
fied Thursday to rebook on other flights to
tfie same destinations.
At the White House, Clinton received a
report from the Transportation Depart
ment estimating that the strike would cost
up to $200 million a day and could strand
up to 40,000 passengers.
The department also said it was prepar ed
to temporarily assign American’s landing
slots to other carriers if a strike develops.
“We hope that that analysis of eco
nomic damage won’t need to be a useful
document,” saidWhite House spokesman
Mike McCurry.
The president, who has emergency
powers to intervene temporarily, urged
both sides to reach an agreement. Clinton
said the airline and the pilots union
should “think about how they can reach
out to one another in the best interest of
the nation.”
Hopes for a settlement rose early
Thursday, when the union offered to have
its pilots accept lower pay scales for oper
ating jets on regional routes as long as the
company accepted its other demands.
But American’s parent company, AMR
Corp., says it doesn’t want American pi
lots to fly the new jets that have been pro
posed for regional routes. AMR wants its
American ^agle subsidiary, with lower-
paid pilots from another union, to fly the
commuter jets.
The company did not directly reject
the offer, but a spokesman suggested the
pilots’ plan would not work.
“In reality, those jets are going to be
operated as American Eagle or they are
not going to be operated,” spokesman
Al Comeaux said. “There are costs in
volved beyond pilot costs. We have to
be competitive.”
See Strike, Page 8
Student Senate
passes bike plan
By Erica Roy
The Battalion
Yellow bicycles will be rolling across cam
pus when a Student Senate plan passed
Wednesday night is implemented in March.
The program will use abandoned bicycles
sent to Purchasing Services after being confis
cated by Parking, Traffic and Transportation.
Lreshman senator Cass Burton, a political
science major, began working on the pro
gram, in September to provide students with
a form of transportation other than walking
or riding the bus.
“The size of Texas A&M is mind-boggling,”
Burton said. “This would be a wonderful ser
vice to the student body.”
Burton said the program will provide con
venient transportation to students without
costing them money.
“It (Borrow-a-Bike) is a convenience,” he
said. “[It is] a quick form of transportation
and it’s free.”
Javier Martinez, an off campus senator and
a junior English and philosophy major, said
the Aggie Code of Honor should contribute to
the program’s success.
“I think it’s the greatest bill to come out of
the Senate in a long time,” Martinez said. “I
think it will really fit in at A&M,” he said. “It will
give people a sense of community.”
Volunteers from MSC University Plus will
repair the bicycles donated to the program.
The bicycles will be reduced to one-speed and
the brakes will be tested.
The bicycles will then be sent to PTTS,
where they will be painted bright yellow with
In other Student Senate business:
•The Student Service Pee Bill was re
ferred to the Student Services Committee.
This bill approved the Student Service Pee
Allocation Board’s recommendations on
the use of the Student Service Fee and the
Health Center Fee.
•The constituency relations bill was re
ferred to the Rules and Regulations Com
mittee. This bill will change the Senate by
laws to include a report to be done after
the new Senate session begins and before
the last day of spring classes.
•The computer registration bill was
referred to the Academic Affairs Com
mittee. This bill calls for computer reg
istration over the Bonfire System to be
gin in the spring of 1998.
•The senate restructuring bill was re
ferred to the Rules and Regulations
Committee. This bill includes changes
such as reduction of residency seats, ap
pointed caucus leaders through appli
cation and a mandatory candidate’s
meeting before elections.
the words ‘Borrow-a-Bike’ on them.
The University Police Department will se
rialize and register the bicycles.
The bill established a committee to oversee
tlie program, with a chair selected by the stu
dent body president and the Senate speaker.
See Senate, Page 8
Pebble Creek students
spend day on campus
Dave House, The Battalion
Paige Kieke, a Pebble Creek Elementary student, attends a mock Student Government
Association meeting yesterday on the A&M campus.
By Jackie Vratil
The Battalion
The pitter-patter of little feet was heard
all over campus yesterday when Pebble
Creek Elementary School’s Student Coun
cil visited Texas A&M.
The children’s day included a pizza
lunch, followed by a mock Student Govern
ment Association meeting and a tour of the
MSC given by MSC Hospitality.
Dawn Dewald, enrichment specialist at
Pebble Creek, said she has always wanted
to start a student council. Pebble Creek El
ementary, a school that is only a year old,
gave her the opportunity.
“When I approached the principal about
starting the student council,” she said, “all
he said was to go for it.”
Dewald said she asked A&M’s student
government to help because the children
look up to the A&M students.
“Most of the children have fathers or
grandfathers who attended A&M,” she said.
“I wanted them to meet one-on-one with
the community heroes — the Aggies.”
Last fall, Laurie Nickel, vice president of
programs and student development and a
junior business analysis major, was as
signed the duties of helping the children
run their campaigns, writing their speech
es and putting together a swearing-in cere
mony. Since then, Nickel has attended their
Friday meetings.
Josh Jeter, president of the council and a
fourth-grader, said he became president
because the other students liked his speech.
“We had to make up speeches and get up
in front of everybody and tell them our
speech,” he said.
See Students, Page 8
d the event to en-