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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1997)
19C mm Texas A&M University 94 94 Today Tomorrow See extended forecast, Page 2. lime 103 • Issue 149 • 6 Pages College Station, TX Tuesday, June 17, 1997 lln'af Sews If ti . th lie# Briefs 1xa$A&M engineers ht jceive ASEE awards f er ljEngineers from Texas A&M Uni- lityandthe Texas A&M Universi- Nwstem will receive six of the 12 y’^l'dsto be given out by the Amer- Society for Engineering Educa- | sta lJune 18. ' iar itoiving awards at the ASEE ffljuet will be Herbert H. Richard- P e |.associate vice chancellor and di- Pwofthe Texas Transportation In- lite; John Weese, professor of a l;lianical engineering and former jouldofthe Department of Engineer- frwchnology and Industrial Distrib- fc; Robert H. Page, professor | ov ltfitus of mechanical engineering; pidljfiWatson, associate dean of en- hll |sring; J.N. Reddy, Wyatt Professor pHechanical Engineering; and Le- liA. Carlson, professor of aero- pe engineering. ■USEE is a 10,000-member non- S lfitorganization promoting ex- Ifence in engineering technology (ration. [ubesity, cholesterol ladiiybe unrelated oerts Ivhili gov Id in I DALLAS (AP) — A teen-age girl with cholesterol may not solve the prob- by losing weight. M’s because girls’ cholesterol elsappearto be unrelated to their mtage of body fat, according to published in Monday’s edi- ofthe American Heart Associa- arnal Circulation. Darwin Labarthe, the report’s cdauthor, said the findings contradict Motional wisdom that obese peo- Jaiemore likely to have high cho- levels. sa P’l Ctofesterol is a soft, fat-like sub- itortund in human cells and used Jtacell membranes, certain hor- ''' imsand other substances. The body, wrilythe liver, produces cholesterol, idietbeing the other source. ’attlemen having cow about Oprah lAMARILLO (AP) — Texas cattlemen ft °«aserious beef with Oprah Winfrey. ’(^During an “Oprah Winfrey Show” least last year, a guest said that (dingground-up animal parts to cat- I spread mad cow disease to lans in the United States. To ap- 3 from the studio audience, Ms. % exclaimed: “It has just stopped tf’lffom eating another burger! ” |h>P s Cattle prices began to fall the day W e show and fell for two weeks be- np 6 * irising again. | s i n Amarillo cattle feeder Paul Engler dadozen cattlemen are now suing K dera 1995 Texas law that protects pd (cultural products from slander. ItP ‘(couldn’t help but be infuriated,” Ift' 01 Angler, who flipped on the program i tl 1 ievisiting Chicago, Winfrey’s home lent se, l sat there anc | CO uldn’t hardly ;Rej ievewhat I was seeing." voi c3l ivia trend: Students enjoy Jiallenging themselves at bars and restaurants. I i,nf lorf LIFESTYLES See Page 3. OPINION lano: Mankind confronts (Hfecomputer and discovers harmless nature. See Page 5. ONLINE ^p://bat~web.tamu,edu Ken to music Joiifhews on Battalion’s ,i site. Enrollment decreases in engineering College's strict academic requirements contribute to the decline Engineering vs. Veterinary Enrollment 8000 Undergraduate Engineering 7000 Enrollment ■ Undergraduate Veterinary ©000 Medicine Enrollment 5000 7000 6089 0863 2040 2066 1115. 5 GOO 661 87 02 0© I 9* Graphic: Brad Graeber & Tim Moog By Robert Smith The Battalion The College of Engineering long has been the leading college in student enrollment at Texas A&M University, but a greater percentage of students has pursued degrees in other fields in recent years. Statistics from the Engineering Workforce Commission reveal the to tal number of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded in the 1995-96 school year at Texas A&M dropped by 44 from the previous year. There also has been a trend of de creasing undergraduate enrollment in the College of Engineering at the University. In 1987,25.7 percent of all undergraduate students at A&M were enrolled in the College of Engi neering. In 1992,24 percent of all un dergraduates were engineering ma jors. This spring, only 21.4 percent of undergraduates could say they were engineering majors. Dr. John A. Fleming, an electrical engineering senior lecturer, said the engineering college is partly responsi ble for the decrease in enrollment and graduates in the college. “There was a deliberate plan to lower the number of students,” Fleming said. “The main reason is that the college was just becoming too large to handle.” Jeanne Rierson, director of engi neering student programs, said the college’s enrollment management program also limits the number of students eligible for enrollment in the college. The program requires potential en gineering majors to maintain a certain GPR after taking first-year classes, in cluding English composition, calculus, introductory chemistry and introduc tory engineering. Students pursuing civil, electrical and mechanical engi neering degrees must maintain a 2.75 GPR after completing these “common body of knowledge” courses. Students studying computer engineering, com puter science and chemical engineer ing must have a 3.0 GPR or higher. Bio medical Engineering degree candidates must maintain a 3.25 GPR. For students who scored lower than a 620 on the math portion of the SAT, the road to the engineering school is now a tougher journey. Please see Decline on Page 6. United States out of running for Olympics (AP) — The last, slim chance of an American city playing host to the 2008 Olympics died Monday, with hopes instead set on staging two other international sports events. The U.S. Olympic Committee’s board of directors voted against pursuing a bid for 2008, while agreeing to go for the Pan American Games in 2007 and con sider a bid for the Olympics in 2012. The vote by the 107-member board was taken in a mail ballot and followed the recommendations last month of the USOC’s executive committee, which said the U.S. chances of winning a fifth Olympics in 28 years were doomed against a large international field of bidders. “It gives us the direction we had been hoping for,” USOC executive director Dick Schultz said. The committee did not release the vote, but Schultz said 90 of the 107 board members responded near unanimously on the Pan Am bid and overwhelm ingly on the others. Eight cities — Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Wash ington — were U.S. candidates for 2008, and are ex pected to be joined by Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and western New York state in the 2012 race. Please see Olympics on Page 6. Better Shape Up Photograph: Robert McKay Texas A&M football defensive line coach Bill Johnson coaches a group of junior high boys at a football camp on O.R. Simpson Drill Field Monday morning. Clinton considers apology for slavery President to focus on repairing 'aftermath of discrimination' WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton says he will consider extending a national apology to black Americans for slavery — but not compensation for their ancestors’ suffering. “It’s been so long and we’re so many generations removed,” he says. The idea of an apology came from a white Ohio lawmaker who introduced apology leg islation in Congress last week, just as Clinton was preparing to unveil his national initiative on race in a speech in San Diego. In a radio interview aired Monday, Clin ton said the apology proposal caught him off guard. He said he would think about it because “there’s still some unfinished busi ness out there among black and white Americans.” “I think it has to be dealt with,” Clinton told the American Urban Radio Network. “I think this would be a helpful debate.” Last month, Clinton apologized for the na tion to the black men who were unwitting ex periment subjects in the government’s Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and in Janu ary he awarded — 50 years late — the Medal of Honor to seven black World War II soldiers for valor in combat. But Clinton said he dis agrees with the idea of pay ing reparations to the de scendants of slaves, something many black ac tivists have said is needed to begin rectifying more than 200 years of in equality that blacks have experienced. “What I think we ought to do instead of reparations is to be repairing,” he continued. “That is why I don’t want to abandon affir mative action without an effective alternative when there’s still so many people living at Clinton least with the aftermath of discrimination.” The apology was proposed last week by Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio. He said he suggested it because he found no record of one. “To me, it’s a moral issue,” Hall said. “We used to count African-Americans as three-fifths of a person. They were not treated as people. “When you’ve hurt somebody, nothing solves the problem at first like a good, old- fashioned apology,” Hall said. “Then we can begin to heal. If you don’t say that, the whole issue lingers and lingers.” Hall ran his idea past the Congressional Black Caucus, which cheered it. He began seeking co-sponsors and immediately found 11, all of them white. Four more lawmakers signed on Monday, Hall said. The bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee. But Hall, too, has declined to embrace repa rations, saying that issue has nothing to do with the apology he is seeking. “This has to do with something basic and important,” Hall said. “(Reparations) ought to be discussed later.” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has intro duced legislation on reparations in every ses sion of Congress since 1989. Each time his proposal, which would create a commission to study the feasibility, has died in committee. “I don’t know what the problem is,” Conyers told CNN on Monday. “We should probably say thank you to Tony Hall... who has been courageous enough to pick (the is sue) up and put it into the dialogue. I think it’s time we should be able to talk about this subject without going ballistic.” Slavery was a central theme in the consulta tions that Clinton made with activists, scholars and other experts in drafting his plan for a na tional dialogue on race. Their advice was that Clinton first address the lingering wounds of slavery, then try to resolve the array of racial problems that stem from it. Baptist leader says he’ll ask for Disney boycott DALLAS (AP) — Southern Baptists may vote this week to boycott the Walt Disney Co., contending it has traded its fami ly-values roots for a “gay-friendly environment.” At last year’s meeting in New Orleans, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to condemn Disney for what it sees as a de parture from family entertainment. The SBC put the Rev. Richard Land, president of the conven tion's Christian Life Commission, in charge of monitoring the company for a year to look for improvement. He says because Disney has done nothing to address concerns expressed at last year’s SBC meeting, he will recommend a boycott of Disney theme parks and stores. “We heard complaints, from Disney employees even, that there was a corporate change on top to move Disney from a family-friend ly environment to a gay-friendly environment,” Land said. Please see Boycott on Page 6. Killing threatens Irish peace talks 25 miles 25 km Atlantic Ocean f ../U y C- 4 FRANCE NORTHERN IRELAND ^ v~- \ IRELAND Lurgan IRA gunman kills * Irish two policemen Sea AP BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) —The Irish Republican Army killed two policemen with point-blank shots to the head Monday— slay ings that threaten the British government’s peacemaking efforts in Northern Ireland. Britain’s new Labor government immedi ately broke off contacts with the outlawed group’s allies, the Sinn Fein party. Two IRA members shot police officers John Graham, 34, and David Johnston, 30, about noon near an Anglican church in the religiously divided town of Lurgan, 35 miles southwest of Belfast. Both men were married and fathers of young children. The gunmen abandoned their car a few miles away in Lurgan’s biggest Catholic dis trict, Kilwilkie, where walls are painted with Sinn Fein slogans and murals of armed IRA figures. The car was then set on fire. The slayings make street battles all the more likely next month between pro-British Protestant marchers and Roman Catholic demonstrators determined to block Protes tant parades on their turf. A showdown over the annual Orange Order parade in Portadown, next to Lur gan, caused widespread rioting last sum mer. The parade, by Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant fraternal organization, is scheduled for July 6 this year. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s govern ment had restored contact with Sinn Fein on May 21, three weeks after his victory in a national election in which Sinn Fein also prospered, winning two of Northern Ireland’s 18 seats in Britain’s Parliament. “It is difficult to interpret this latest at tack as anything but a signal that Sinn Fein and the IRA are not interested in peace and democracy and prefer vio lence,” Blair said at a European Union summit in Amsterdam.