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bl lume 103 • Issue 158 • 6 Pages
College Station, TX
Wednesday, July 2, 1997
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Briefs
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«M students study
lergy efficiency
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,v ® tie Texas A&M Energy Systems
oratory (ESI) and the Bryan-Col-
Station Habitat for Humanity are
a local house to learn more
otenergy-efficiency this fall,
lie ESI and College of Architec-
’ er yj students will rewire the Habitat-
1 “ lliouse with sensors to monitor
iperature, humidity, carbon diox-
*ind, solar radiation and the use
oergy sources.
HeESL’s work will help Habitat
itfiich energy conservation mea-
swill save money for Habitat and
ilieswho live in the houses.
ItieA&M students will use the in
flation to understand how a
seuses energy.
ctoria's Secret given
rade' ruling
EASTON, Pa. (AP) — The Miracle
limed out to be a courtroom bust
Woria’s Secret.
lie lingerie company with the sexy
lorder catalog has been ordered
ayA&H Sportswear Co. of Stock-
mmorethan $1.2 million.
U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Van
:*rpen ruled that Victoria’s Se-
suse of the word “miracle” in its
acleBra line infringes on the Mir-
esuitswimsuit that A&H produces.
IlieMiraclesuit gives the wearer a
mer appearance. Miracle Bra
wear makes the wearer appear
we a larger bust size,
a ruling released Monday, Van
werpen said Victoria’s Secret
istpay2 percent of all net sales of
Miracle products since November,
tola's Secret mustalsorunadis-
lara each time it uses the “mira-
ft’nameand pay a 2 percent royal-
'w the profits.
endy's pressured
vegetarian group
N, Ohio (AP) — Wendy’s is
its new garden veggie pita
fches after a vegetarian group
sdabeef over its ingredients.
^Vegetarian Awareness Network
Tuesday the fast-food chain mis-
ssented its new product in nutri-
slguides available at its restaurants,
legroup said the veggie pita
Ascribed as “vegetarian” and
vegetable” even though the
ssing contains gelatin, which
flesfrom animal tissue.
Indy's International Inc., which op-
:es 1,500 restaurants worldwide,
is to remove all gelatin from the
ssing and should have it in restau-
ts within two months, spokes-
| fan Rebecca Lusk said Tuesday. In
meantime, it will continue using the
fent sauce, she said.
Lusk said Wendy’s discovered the
)r last week and recalled thou-
I ds of guides from stores.
V.. ' .
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SPORTS
Griffey Jr. led the voting
the 1997 AL and NL
Star rosters were released.
See Page 3.
OPINION
'Wbat-web.tamu.edu
! ks
delated
to the
Aggies clean up cut site
Bonfire will burn Thanksgiving evening
iter: Boycott of Disney
iinpany displays ignorance
American society.
See Page 5.
By Erica Roy
The Battalion
Before Aggies can “build the hell outta Bonfire,” they have
to find the wood to build it.
The redpots are searching for a suitable cut site for the fall,
but they must clean up last year’s site near Hearne first.
John Gallemore, head stack and a senior agribusiness ma
jor, said a cut site will be chosen within the next month after
the clean-up at the Hearne site is complete.
Gallemore said the junior and senior redpots do a major
ity of the cut site cleaning with the help of brownpots.
Blaine Lewis, a junior redpot and management major,
said the goal of clean-up is to make the land usable again
for the landowners.
“We try to get it back to where it was before we got there,”
he said.
The redpots collect trees that were felled but not used last
fall and clean roads at cut site. Also, the redpots use bulldoz
ers to “pop” stumps out of the ground. The stumps are piled
together, burned and buried.
After the stumps are pulled out, the redpots use a root rake
to tear out the roots.
Lewis said Aggie Bonfire has a responsibility to the
landowners to clean the land after it is used.
“After we go down there and take all those logs, we owe it
to these kind people who give us their land to work on to
clean that up,” Lewis said.
Gallemore said that in the past, problems have occurred
when cut site was not cleaned up. Therefore, the redpots
must now finish cleaning up the old site before the Univer
sity will approve a new site.
Before a site is chosen, the redpots go to the possible
site and talk with the landowners. Also, they survey the
land and amount of timber and look for any problems,
such as drainage.
“It’s (cut site selection) a pretty tedious selection process,"
Gallemore said.
Please see Bonfire on Page 6.
Pay-Per-Chew
Tyson’s bite mars ‘sport’
Tell, it has been
officially proven,
Mike Tyson’s bite
is worse than his bark. Of
ten ridiculed for his “femi
nine” voice, Tyson has
proved that voices can be
deceiving.
Mike Tyson did the
unthinkable — he went
totally out of control. Af
ter losing the first two
rounds 10-9, 10-9 in the much-an
ticipated Holyfield-iyson re
match, Tyson said he “snapped”
— and boy did he ever. Tyson not
only bit a chunk off of Holyfield’s
ear, he did it twice and then he
went absolutely ballistic in the
ring and had to be escorted out of
the ring. He claims it was retalia
tion for the head butt he received
from Holyfield earlier in the
match, but skeptics have their
own theories.
These theories have ranged
from “he was on some kind of
drugs” to “what else do you expect
from a convicted rapist.” But while
we may never know exactly what
happened Saturday night in the
ring, one thing is certain —
these events illustrate
why professional
boxing is not
and should
not be a
sport.
Please see Boxing on Page 3.
Sports Editor
Kristina Buffin
Senior journalism major
m
‘*V
Graphic: Brad Graeber
Clinton
Clinton criticized
for slow moves to
sanction Internet
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton, criti
cized by industry leaders for moving slowly to sanc
tion an Internet marketplace for American busi
nesses, today called for key patent and intellectual
property policies to be in place within 12 months.
In an East Room ceremony, the president also
committed the administration to a schedule that
would allow a full array of international online
business transactions by 2000. Government in
volvement in the venture, he said, should en
courage online commerce to flourish rather than
drown in a sea of regulations.
“Electronic commerce is like
the Wild West of the economy,”
Clinton said. “In the 21st centu
ry, we can build much of our
prosperity on innovations in cy
berspace in ways that most of us
cannot even imagine.”
A presidential task force re
leased its recommendation for a
hands-off, no-new-taxes ap
proach to regulating commerce
on the Internet. But some in
dustry leaders remain unhappy that Clinton has
moved slowly and has not budged on the restricted
sale of encryption devices.
“We don’t feel the United States is necessarily in
the lead on this,” said Dennis Tsu, director of elec
tronic commerce for Sun Microsystems.
He said it was good news that the task force
recommended letting the Internet industry regu
late its own business in cyberspace. But, he
added, the pace of key decisions on patents, copy
rights, protection for intellectual property and
tariffs were "not happening fast enough.”
As a result, Tsu said, the United States risks being
locked out of trading blocs, in Southeast Asia, for exam
ple, where more aggressive governments have already
moved to encourage international online business.
One White House official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said such dire warnings are premature, that
the issues are still open in most countries and that Clin
ton intends for the United States to be in the lead.
The president today was laying out specific
goals on intellectual property, privacy and
patent policies that he would like to see met in
the next 12 months, the official said.
Industry analysts expect Internet trade, if left
mostly unfettered by government regulation, to
reach $200 billion in the United States by 2000.
The report was drawn up by a presidential task
force of businesses, consumer groups and Internet
educators. A draft version recommended the gov
ernment take a hands-off approach to the world
wide computer network, levying no new taxes and
keeping the Internet a duty-free zone.
That is in marked contrast to the administration’s
attempts to ban obscenity on the Internet. Clinton has
said he would separately pursue alternative protec
tions for children using the computer network.
The task force would leave unchanged the Clin
ton administration’s policy that encryption tech
nology can only be exported if the technology is
able to be decoded by national security agencies.
The industry complains that such a restriction leaves
other countries leery of American encryption products
and renders American companies unable to compete.
Maintenance, deposit troubles bring headaches
By Joey Jeanette Schlueter
The Battalion
About 75 percent of Texas A&M students live off campus
because of preference or no other choice. Of the students
who apply for on-campus housing this year, almost 1,500
will not be assigned a dorm room and must find somewhere
else to live, the Department of Student Life said.
But even with the extra room and independence
gained by living off campus, an apartment, duplex or
house can sometimes give students problems.
Graphic: Tim Moog
Victor Romero Jr., lease specialist for the Department
of Student Life, said living conditions play a major role in
a student’s life, and they should choose housing carefully
to avoid problems.
“If you are having problems in a living situation, then
you are having problems in class and work and in the rest
of your life,” Romero said.
Romero said the biggest problem students face living
off campus is maintenance of accommodations.
“In the summer, air conditioners are always break
ing,” he said, “and the complexes have trouble keep
ing up with maintenance.”
Allison Smith, coordinator of Off Campus, Adult and
Graduate Student Services in the Department of Student
Life, said housing costs may be another problem and can
determine where a student will live.
“Students are interested in knowing what they are paying
for,” Smith said. “They need to know what a higher price
means. It involves closeness, location and accommodations.”
A price list of apartments and duplexes/fourplexes of
fered by Student Life gives students an idea of what apart
ments are in their price range.
According to this list, the average monthly rent price
for a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in a nine-month
lease in Bryan-College Station is $480.54.
Security, utility and pet deposits and utility expens
es are not included in the rent price. Smith said a prob
lem exists when students are misled about getting their
deposit back.
“There are laws that exist to protect the property man
ager and residents,” she said. “There is no reason some
one shouldn’t get back their deposit if they read what they
sign their name to on the lease.”
Romero said pets often cause residents to lose se
curity deposits.
Catharine Watkins, a landlord and resident of a College
Station apartment complex, said the condition of the liv
ing quarters after tenants leave determines whether a de
posit is refunded. Some students, she said, leave apart
ments with holes in the walls, torn and stained carpeting,
and damage to appliances.
“We had one two-bedroom apartment leased out to
three people, and they lost their deposit because their two
dogs tore up the blinds, the carpet was stained badly and
the kitchen appliances were abused,” Watkins said.
However, some student tenants said they did not re
ceive their deposits back when they should have.
Lori Edmunson, a resident of a College Station
apartment complex and a sophomore biology major,
said she and her roommate lost a $200 deposit because
the landlord said the walls were damaged by nail holes
and the paint was badly chipped.
Please see Troubles on Page 6.
Renter’s insurance alleviates
burden of property damage
By Joey Jeanette Schlueter
The Battalion
Students who rent an apartment, duplex or house face the
chance of damage to or theft of their belongings, but renter's in
surance can ensure the replacement of items lost, saving the
renter heartache and financial burden.
In the spring, fires at Kensington Place Apartments and Travis
House Apartments consumed more than 20 units total, leaving
some students with ruined belongings and no place to live.
Victor Romero Jr., lease specialist for the Department of Stu
dent Life, said some students are not aware that in a case such as
an apartment fire where the complex is not negligent, the com
plex is not responsible for paying for damage to tenants’ be
longings or relocation costs.
However, after these fires, residents were relocated to other
apartments by Kensington Place and Travis House and were aid
ed by the local Red Cross. College Station Fire Marshall Raymond
Olsen found that the complexes were not negligent.
Allison Smith, coordinator of Off Campus, Adults and Gradu
ate Student Services in the Department of Student Life, said stu
dents should buy renter’s insurance if they are not covered by
their parents’ insurance.
“Students come up here with expensive computers and fan
cy electronics, not to mention a big wardrobe,” she said. “They
need to get insurance because you cannot predict what will hap
pen, such as an ‘act of God’ as stated in the lease.”
Smith said that renter’s insurance costs an average of $150
to $200 a year.
According to the Department of Student Life’s off-campus
survival manual, the types of damage covered varies from
policy to policy, but a standard policy usually covers theft, fire
or accidental damages.
Tenants may get renter’s insurance through their landlords or
major insurance agencies.