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blume 103 • Issue 110 • 12 Pages
The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamu.edu
Tuesday, March 18, 1997
Concessions revenue benefits students
l&M receives about $900,000 in commission each year from vending machines
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Ever wonder where all of the money
at students and staff put into campus
nding machines goes?
There are approximately 400 vending
achines on campus that include prod-
ts from Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper,
aen a student pu ts coins into one of the
nding machine or uses Aggie Bucks for
or sodas, they are contributing to a
ndthat allocates money to student ac-
if j ides and administration.
Each month, the University receives
percentage of the money generated
from vending machine sales in the form
of a commission check from the Coca-
Cola Bottling Co. Sales from conces
sions at athletic events are included.
The commission check, which averages
about $100,000 a month, goes into an
account called the special concessions
account. A&M President Ray Bowen de
cides how the money is distributed.
Senior Contracts Administrator
Mike Huddleston handles the con
tract between the company and the
University.
He said the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
owns the machines on campus and stocks
them, and the University is paid commis
sion for allowing them on campus.
“For each coke or snack purchased,
A&M receives a certain percentage on
every dollar,” Huddleston said. “Coca-
Cola writes a check to the University for
the total amount.”
Tom Taylor, assistant vice president
for finance, said most of the money goes
to the Department of Student Activities.
“This money is fairly flexible mon
ey for us,” Taylor said. “It supports stu
dent activities and also administrative
applications.”
Taylor clarified the meaning of ad
ministrative applications. He said these
funds are allocated to offices to help with
entertainment activities and services the
state does not provide for the University.
Taylor said A&M receives about
$900,000 in commission from vending
machines each year.
The money is then allocated to the
offices of the president, the chancel
lor, the commandant and the director
of publiq information.
Taylor said the president’s office is al
lotted about $55,000 a semester for
entertainment and office expenses.
He said some activities not paid for by
the state are necessary.
See Vending, Page 5
Ryan Rogers, The Battalion
Stacy Wilson, a freshman general studies ma
jor, grabs her soda from a vending machine in
the Blocker Building.
Seeing Green
Ess
Ryan Rogers, The Battalion
Sabrina Lejeane, a bartender at Fitzwilly's, puts green food coloring into beer yesterday. The
restaurant served green beer as part of its St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Marchers honor famine victims
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NEW YORK (AP) — Pipes and
drums fell silent for one somber
minute Monday as St. Patrick’s
Day marchers honored the mem
ory of 1.5 million Irish who died
in the Great Potato Famine some
150 years ago.
Echoes of protest also hung
over the nation’s largest St.
Patrick’s Day parade for the sev
enth year in a row as three
dozen demonstrators from the
Irish Lesbian and Gay Organi
zation got arrested. They were
protesting their exclusion from
the march.
The 236th annual celebration
for Ireland’s patron saint was oth
erwise a spectacle of bands, kilt
ed bagpipers, military marching
units and joyous spectators.
Organizers estimated that
150,000 people marched and a
million or more watched.
“The soldiers are my favorite,”
said 8-year-old Joseph Bassafi-
ume of Montville, N.J. He
watched the parade from the
shoulders of his father, Mario,
who said the boy has “a drop” of
Irish heritage.
“I love the whole thing,”
said Terence Sheehan, 20, cos
tumed as a leprechaun and
posing with tourists. “But the
bagpipes and the drums, that’s
really awesome.”
See Parade, Page 5
Commission creates
campaign home page
► The web site will give
student candidates
widespread exposure.
By Laura Oliveira
The Battalion
On-line campaigning will make
it easier for candidates running for
positions in the student body elec
tions to reach their constituents
through a home page created by the
election commission.
The page will include a question
naire, which gives candidates equal
coverage. Candidates may link self-
designed pages to the home page.
Cody Lane, a candidate for agri
culture senator and a freshman
agricultural economics major, said
the home page gives the candidates
widespread exposure that is diffi
cult to get otherwise.
“You can’t talk to everyone on
campus about how you stand on is
sues,” he said, “but everyone has ac
cess to this and can read it and
know what you think.”
Jason Jaynes, elections commis
sioner and a junior computer sci
ence major, said the commission
created the home page to be as user
friendly as possible.
“If they (the candidates) are not
familiar with home pages, all they
have to do is answer the questions,”
Jaynes said.
Eric Williams, a candidate for
Resident Hall Association president
and a junior biomedical science
major, said constituents might be
persuaded to vote for candidates
with more advanced linked-on
home pages.
“Students who are more com
petent could come up with a real
spectacular home page,” he said.
“But giving everyone the option
[to have a page] — they are being
fair in that aspect.”
Jaynes said many universities
have caught on to the idea of using
the Internet in the voting process and
have turned to online voting. The
election commission has considered
using an electronic voting system but
doubts it would work well at a large
university, Jaynes said.
“With a university this size, to be
able to enforce security would be al
most impossible,” he said.
Election commission rules and
regulations and voting times and
places also will be included on the
home page.
Candidates must give their pass
word and user ID before they may
access the system to link on to the
site. Jaynes said the pages will be
screened daily to eliminate any in
appropriate or false campaigning.
“This is the first year we are us
ing this and we are testing the wa
ters,” he said. “But I am not ex
pecting anything negative to come
out of this.”
University plans to install
more computer modems
Regents will consider fee hike to cover costs
By Rebecca Torrellas
The Battalion
A proposal to raise the computer access fee $ 1 to pay
for new modems installed this semester will be re
viewed by the Board of Regents next week.
Dr. John Dinkel, associate provost for Computing
and Information Services, said the modems were in
stalled to relieve problems with computer access ser
vices from off campus.
“There were 7,000 users, less than 600 modems and
a continued increase in subscribers,” Dinkel said.
Dinkel hopes the fee will help cover the costs of the
current problem, future operating costs and build a
fund for new technology and long-term services.
Current plans would make 1,700 modems available
by the fall of 1999.
Plans also would add 7,000 ethernet connections to
the current 3,035 connections in residence halls over
the next two or three years.
This project will cost $3 million dollars over a three
year period.
Dinkel said the main concern is to upgrade the cur
rent mechanism with constantly changing modern
technology, such as cable modems, very high speed
telephone connections and satellites.
“We could run out and buy modems and next year
have a bunch of old modems,” Dinkel said.
Two years ago the modems were 14.4 kilobyte
modems, which made browsing the web difficult
and slow.
Now Computing and Information Services is in
stalling 36.6 and 56 kilobyte modems.
Texas A&M President Ray Bowen said the fee in
crease is appropriate and there should not be any prob-
Rart 1 in a series of 4
lems with students paying the extra dollar.
“The increase is modest and it carries with it addi
tional service, so I do not anticipate a lot of objections,”
Bowen said. “However, fees are a pain for everyone and
all of us will understand that many will want good ex
planations of how the fee benefits students.”
Michael Barber, a junior industrial engineering ma
jor, said it is easier to dial into the system this semester
than it has been in past semesters.
“Last semester, you needed at least 45 minutes in di
aling time,” Barber said. “This semester, dialing in
might take five minutes on a bad day.”
The upgrading is scheduled for completion in the
fall of’99, and Computing and Information Services an
ticipates an operating budget of about $415,000 per
year to support the 1,700 modems.
1A candidate asks Clinton to withdraw nomination
2, & POP;
'Ver^m Anthony Lake was expected
to be confirmed as director.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthony Lake,
'hose nomination for CIA director appeared
trong after surviving stiff GOP resistance,
sked President Clinton to withdraw his
ame from consideration, and Clinton was
xpected to do so, a senior White House offi-
ial said Monday night.
The official, speaking on condition of
iionymity, said Lake complained in a let-
er to the president that the nomination
Tocess in Washington has become too bit-
e fand partisan.
The development was a surprise because
Lake, Clinton’s former national security ad
viser, had weathered several GOP attacks to
emerge relatively unscathed from last week’s
confirmation hearings. The questioning was
less harsh than expected, and Republicans
on the Senate Intelligence Committee said
privately he would probably be confirmed.
Lake’s withdrawal raised immediate ques
tions as to whether a new allegation cropped up
at the last minute to submarine his nomination.
Lake was not immediately available, and White
House officials were not commenting.
One friend of Lake’s in the administra
tion said there was no new development,
“just his feeling that Washington has gone
nuts.” The official re
fused to be identified.
The nomination of
Lake, the president’s first-
term national security ad
viser, raised a steady
stream of questions. They
included Lake’s support
for a secret 1994 policy
that allowed Iranian arms
to flow to Bosnia and his
failure to sell $280,000
worth of energy stock after being told to do
so to avoid possible conflicts of interest.
More recently, Lake said that as nation
al security adviser he was never told by
Lake
subordinates about FBI suspicions that
China was looking to influence U.S. con
gressional elections. Questions also were
raised about the NSC’s role in White House
policy that allowed several circumspect
Democratic donors access to the White
House during the 1996 elections.
Lake was nominated to replace John
Deutch, who has left the administration.
No immediate replacement candidates
were known.
A mild-mannered, professorial man,
Lake was said to have little patience for
Washington politics and talked more fre
quently about returning to his serene farm
in New England.
The Battalion
INSIDETODAY
REDEMPTION: The
Aggie Baseball Team
hopes to get back on
track against Lamar.
Sports, Page 7
Aggielife
Whafs Up
Opinion
Page3
Page 10
Page 11