The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 17, 1997, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    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.