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