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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1997)
The Battalion /olume 103 • Issue 129 • 12 Pages {Faculty Senate The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamu.edu Tuesday, April 15, 1997 eeting focuses on minority recruitment By Kathleen Strickland The Battalion The absence of a quorum ended the Texas kM Faculty Senate meeting Monday after- [ion, leaving many debates unresolved. The Senate must have a minimum umber of members present to take ae on at meetings. The Faculty Senate heard a report and |commendations from its minority condi- jms subcommittee regarding the recruit- lent and retention of minorities at A&M. Diane Kaplan, chair of the subcommit- : and a visiting assistant professor of ed ucational curriculum and instruction, pre sented the report to the Faculty Senate. “We are still in the process of examining the campus climate and issues,” Kaplan said. “Today we are bringing forth for Sen ate approval of the recommendations we feel are most important for recruiting and retaining minority faculty on campus.” She said a representative student body is necessary to maintain minority facul ty members. “We are doing the best job we can in re cruiting a diverse student body now that liv ing under the Hopwood decision seems to be a reality, at least for the immediate fore seeable future,” she said. The committee used a report on un dergraduate admissions and tenure re ports from A&M to create its recommen dations. Results of the studies led the committee to recommend a new three- year plan for the University to facilitate the recruitment and retention of minori ty and women faculty and students. Re cruitment and retention of minorities would cost an estimated $3 million, while the cost of recruitment and retention of women is estimated at $1 million. D. Stanley Carpenter, a professor of ed ucational administration, favored a change in the committee’s recommendations. “Apart from our sitting here and doing the committee’s work for them ... and rewriting the nature of the report or rewriting the recommendations for them, what we need to do is send a very strong statement,” Carpenter said. “We are sitting on a disaster with respect to diversity in the faculty and in the student body. In fact, the language of the report is wrong, it’s not strong enough.” Before any decisions could be made re garding the subcommittee’s report and recommendations, a quorum was lost as senators left the meeting. All discussion on the report was postponed until the May meeting. In other business, the Faculty Senate: • Approved recommendations from the University Curriculum Committee. • Approved candidates for graduate and undergraduate degrees and candidates for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, subject to completion of all requirements. • Approved recommendations from the Rules and Regulations Committee. • Reviewed the unofficial results of the Faculty Senate elections. • Reviewed the recommendations of the Academic Affairs Committee. Mmif, m mm es Spy plane, ground teams oin search for warplane Ryan Rogers, The Battalion t a. a • . | Maurice Padilla, an employee at AIDS Services of Bra- Test Anxiety zos Valley, administers an HIV test in the MSC Monday as ^ I part of HIV/AIDS Awareness Week. EAGLE, Colo. (AP) — The pilot of the A-10 hunderbolt that disappeared almost two 'eeks ago with four bombs aboard could have isabled an emergency beacon and then se- tetly bailed out over the Rocky Mountains, an ir Force official said Monday. The search for the warplane was joined Mon- ay by a high-flying SR-71 “Blackbird,” a spy lane that carries highly sensitive radar. The Air orce also has sent ground teams into the snow- overed, remote terrain. The possibility that Capt. Craig Button, the Hot of the $9 million jet, is still alive is one of le issues lending urgency to the search. An ther is that the plane carried the 500-pound ombs, although Air Force officials have said ley do not believe the bombs were activated. Triggering the plane’s ejection seat ordi- arily would set off an emergency locator sig- al, but “the pilot could manually disable the The Battalion INSI DETODAY NEW FACES: The Texas A&M Football Team looks to three new coaches to help guide the Aggies into the 1997 season. Sports, Page 7 Aggielife Page 3 Toons Page 5 Opinion Page 11 ejector seat beacon,” said Air Force Capt. Mike Richmond. Pilots are given the ability to switch off the bea con because it sends out a radio signal that could be intercepted by enemy forces in wartime. Button, 32, and his A-10 disappeared April 2 during a training exercise out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., where he was on temporary duty from his station at Laughlin Air Force Base at Del Rio, Texas. Radar data and witness accounts indicate Button consciously flew the plane to Colorado — about 800 miles off course, but Air Force of ficials said they do not know why. Ground and air searches focused Monday on five possible impact sites, reduced from eight that were targeted Sunday in a remote area of the Rockies. The five sites in the area of the 12,500-foot New York Mountain contain “irregular shapes that are not normal in nature,” Lt. Gen. Frank Campbell said. Dick Dixon, who owns an outfitter’s shop in Avon, said he saw a large fire south-southwest of Interstate 70 on the day Button disappeared. “All you could see was the glow,” Dixon said. “It looked like a miniature sunset or sunrise. It was very intense.” The SR-71 “Blackbird,” capable of flying three times the speed of sound and high enough that pilots can see the curvature of the Earth, was expected to make two passes over the re gion on Monday. Older U-2 spy planes were used during the weekend but they experienced radar problems, Campbell said. The SR-71 brought a decidedly high-tech as pect to a search that also included some old- fashioned legwork — a local mountaineer was leading military personnel on foot through the rugged terrain. Panel discusses prospect of peace By Joey Jeanette SCHLUETER The Battalion Suicide bombings, bus bombings and sporadic vio lence plague Israel and Palestine as the two coun tries struggle to reach a peace settlement. For Israelis and Pales tinians, a nightmare exists. The possibility of peace and the role of the United States in this feud over territory were discussed last night as the MSC L.T. Jordan Insti tute and the MSC Political Forum hosted a panel dis cussion titled “Israel-Pales- tine: Peace in Our Time?” The discussion was de signed to inform the student body of different perspectives of the peace process between the two groups. Dr. Nehemiah Geva, an Is raelite and a political science professor at Texas A&M, was a member of the panel. He discussed Israel’s point of view, saying peace in the near future is possible. “We have full peace with Egypt,” Geva said. “We have full peace with Jordan. If we can accom plish peace with these two countries, then we are walking the path of peace with Israel.” Mohammed Al-Hassan, editor of The Muslim World Monitor newspaper and a “True peace in the Holy Land is possible if Israel changes.” Mohammed Al-Hassan Editor,The Muslim World Monitor newspaper Palestinian, also was on the panel. He urged the audi ence to think long and hard about the peace process and what it entails. “True peace in the Holy Land is possi ble if Israel changes,” he said. “Still, Is raeli law per mits torture only against Palestinian prisoners.” Al-Hassan said four is sues must be addressed. Israel must withdraw from areas occu pied since 1967, including Jerusalem, solve the refugee problem, change territory policy and establish securi ty by dismantling nuclear weapons. The conflict between the two groups dates back to the 40s, when the Republic of Is rael was founded. The repub lic occupies almost 8,000 square miles of Palestine, on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Jerusalem is the capital, where the conflict began in a fight over territory. Bernard Shapiro, director of the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies in Houston, gave his view of how peace should be obtained between Israelis and Palestinians. He said peace is negotiable if the two parties can cease fight ing. Shapiro said he is from Is rael and has seen the devas tation of the fighting. See Panel, Page 6 New editor aims to improve coverage, quality of Aggieland By Marissa Alanis The Battalion Amber Benson knew she did not have a chance when she applied for the 1997 Aggieland editor position last year, but the junior political science and journal ism major applied anyway. Benson, who was recently named ed itor of the 1998 Aggieland, wanted the Student Publications Board to know about the improvements and changes she had in mind for the yearbook after working there for a year. “I wanted them to hear that I had a vi sion,” Benson said. “That way, when I fi nally got all the skills and the experience, I could come in here and make it a reality.” Benson said she will not forget that vision as editor of next year’s Aggieland. Being editor of the largest yearbook in the nation will be a huge responsibil ity, she said. “I could feel the weight being dropped upon me as soon as they said I was editor,” Benson said. “But I’m so ex cited and so enthusiastic about it.” Her responsibilities will include over seeing a staff of 20-25 workers, having full editorial control and approving the content of about 800 pages. Although the Aggieland is known for being the biggest yearbook, she said, it does not have the reputation for being one of the best. She said the Aggieland is a good yearbook, but it still has a long way to go. “I believe we have the resources avail able to us in this office to produce one of the best books in the nation,” Benson said. Access to advanced technological re sources at the Aggieland was something new to Benson as a college freshman. Her high school yearbook staff had ac cess to oAly one computer. Benson said her journalism teacher at Wylie High School, Liz White, en couraged her to pursue goals beyond her reach. “She taught us that if we just learned the basics and stuck with it, there would come a day when we’d be given the op portunities that we had prepared for,” Benson said. White said she recalls Benson being a diligent and organized worker who had the potential to go in any direction she wanted. “I think she could carry her journal ism qualities in any field she chooses,” White said. The new editor’s goal is to make the Aggieland a source of pride for Texas A&M students. “When you pull out your yearbook to open it up,” she said, “I want the images and the words to make you say, ‘Wow, I’m proud to be a student at Texas A&M. This is what Texas A&M means to me.’” Benson said accomplishing her goal will carry with it the responsibility of considering the many perspectives that make up A&M. “I think our biggest problem right now is that we don’t represent the breadth and width of students that go to Texas A&M,” she said. “We’ve been known to take isolated incidents and make them bigger than they appear here.” T Ryan Rogers, The Battalion Amber Benson, a junior political science and journalism major, was named editor of the 1998 Aggieland. Benson said she was talking to sev eral members of an A&M African- American fraternity, who noticed African-American fraternities and sororities never have been represented in the yearbook. “We’ve ignored people who are a large part of our university,” Benson said. “That’s a huge part of A&M that’s not there.” See Aggieland, Page 6 Tobacco companies argue for dismissal of case Lawyers claim Morales' lawsuit relies on racketeering statutes TEXARKANA (AP) — To bacco industry lawyers ar gued Monday that Attorney General Dan Morales’ $14 billion lawsuit should be thrown out because, among other reasons, it improperly relies on federal racketeer ing statutes. The racketeering claims are especially worrisome to the industry because any damage award could be tripled under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. Daniel Webb, Philip Morris’ national counsel, presented the industry’s case at a three- hour hearing before U.S. Dis trict Judge David Folsom. The racketeering claims al lege that the industry lied to federal officials, committed fraud, illegally marketed its products to children and con spired to deceive the public about the dangers of cigarettes. The state alleges Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Loril- lard, Brown & Williamson and industry groups should reimburse Texas for tobacco- related health-care costs the state has paid through Med icaid over four decades. Tobacco lawyers say the lawsuit should be dismissed on several grounds. Webb told the court that the racketeering laws do not apply because they concern only damage to property, not personal injury like smoking- related illnesses. In addition, he said, the state itself suffered no direct damage from cigarettes. Webb also argued that a Texas law passed in 1993 gives the tobac co industry immunity from product liability lawsuits. “This lawsuit is no more than a veiled attempt by the plaintiff to get the federal court to substitute yourself for the judgment of the Texas Legislature,” Webb said. He also said the state can not claim damages based on a statistical model that includes estimates of how many Texans smoked, how many suffered tobacco-related illnesses, how much Medicaid paid for their care and other factors. Instead, Webb said, the state should have to prove that individual smokers suf fered actual damages, “smok er by smoker.” Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School who has helped attorneys generals in several states sue the tobac co industry, argued for Texas. He told the court the state has as much right to sue for damages in this case as it does when a polluter dam ages the environment. “The state’s treasury is no less public property than its waters or its land,” he said. Tribe said the racketeer ing charges are appropriate even though they stem from personal injuries suffered by the smokers. See Lawsuit, Page 6