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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 1997)
Texas A&M University IIHa :.ml Tomorrow Today See extended forecast, Page 2. llume 103 • Issue 162 • 6 Pages College Station, TX Thursday, July 10, 1997 Campus construction runs on schedule wmpanies work \o ensure safety By Jenara Kocks The Battalion With the number of construction areas on the Texas <M campus, most students cannot escape walking rough or seeing these areas while trying to get to class. A common sight this summer is someone walking toss campus with a backhoe slowly following. The amount of heavy equipment used in these ar- smakes some students wonder about their safety ring construction. Marcus Brown, a senior environmental science ijor, said places where a lot of construction is tak- >place, such as Spence Street, should not be acces- ile to pedestrians. Please see Safety on Page 2. L I I (po o<> 8kI: Forward Horn* Krivw: lMtp;//>rww.v»b-t>rovrg»rt^o»m/ lake a Iringr ling to help more I rill of lust an By Jenara Kocks The Battalion Concrete trucks, backhoes and steel poles are becoming as much a part of the Texas A&M campus as the Twelfth Man statue or the Academic Building. Several areas of campus are under con struction. Some of these include the plaza in front of the Blocker Building, roads on Main and West Campuses, George Bush Library, Sterling C. Evans Library complex, Kyle Field and Reed Arena. Guy Cooke, assistant manager of fa cilities construction division of A&M’s Facilities Planning and Construction, said most projects are on-schedule and are going well. “We’ve been doing more work than we’ve ever done,” Cooke said. “We have a good staff, and we’ve been highly suc cessful. I’d give us an A.’” Tom Williams, director of Parking Traf fic and Transportation Services, said road construction on West Campus is sched uled to be completed before the fall se mester starts. Road projects on West Cam pus include Olsen, John Kimbrough and the roads alongside Reed Arena Special Events Center. Williams said that Olsen Road from Bush Drive to Joe Routt Blvd. will be en larged to two lanes each way instead of just one. He said medians and more light ing will be added to this road. Williams also said that in the fall, stu dents will be able to catch shuttle buses at a regular bus stop with lights, trash cans, benches and covered areas in front of the West Campus Library, instead of waiting at the circular drive. Cooke said the Bush Library should be completed by November. Adelle Hedleston, public relations staff assistant at the Evans Library and Class of ’88, said renovations and addi tions to the library should be competed in Summer 1998. Please see Campus on Page 6. Bottscape&jpreme Court Decision R*lo»4 m Print Find Stop it'tlW? j \ Vhat's Cool? 11 | N»t S»aroh | | Software A&M responds to Internet ruling CDA Challenge: A chronology •February 1996 — President Clinton signs into law the Telecommunication Bill, which includes the Communications : Decency Act (CDA). ^American Civil Liberties Union (ACW) seeks a temporary re- strdining order against indecency provisions in the CDA. •March 1996 — The trial begins at a federal district court in Philadelphia. •June 1996 — First Amendment victory: judges rule in favor of ACID, preserving free speech in cyberspace. •)uly 1996: The government ap peals the decision; case heads for the Supreme Court. |une 26, 1997 — Supreme Court rules 7-2 to strike down the CDA as unconstitutional. •july 1997 — Texas A&M is taking measures to clarify regulations of student expression on the Universi ty computer system. By Joey Jeanette Schlueter The Battalion When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act on June 26, it ruled that censorship of pornography on the In ternet violates the First Amendment. Since this ruling, Texas A&M officials said they are relieved of the responsibility of regulating student activi ty on the Internet. However, officials also said they will continue tp act in the best interest of A&M students and re port any criminal or illegal activities on Web pages to the proper authorities. • Tom Putnam, director of Computer Informa tion Services, said a problem at A&M has occurred with students putting nude pictures or obscene im ages on their Web pages. He said people outside the University and those who do not understand com puter systems sometimes believe the University endorses these displays and demand immediate removal of the offensive material. “The real problem is trying to restrict people from putting nude images up that could be seen by minors,” Putnam said. “A&M could have been held liable for something like this if the Supreme Court ruling went the other way.” The Court said the government cannot limit adults to “seeing only what is fit for children.” John Dinkel, associate provost for Computing In formation Services, said the Communications De cency Act (CDA) did not clearly define objectionable speech and that the Court ruling was necessary. “I think there’s a sense of release,” Dinkel said. “It (the Court ruling) makes life easier for us at A&M in the electronic field.” Dinkel said a study of student Internet traffic was done in the spring. The study found that stu dents and faculty access the Internet through the A&M server at a rate of 500-600 million times a year. Dinkel said this number is steadily growing. Putnam said criminal and illegal acts com mitted by students on Web pages would be han dled properly. “We have to define what obscenity is — what is legal and what is illegal — before we can noti fy authorities,” he said. ^ ^ It (court ruling) makes life easier for us at A&M in the electronic field.” John Dinkel Associate provost for computing Dinkel said A&M has followed the Texas Penal Code to decide what is illegal. The code (para graph 43.21) defines obscenity as material that depicts or describes “patently offensive” sexual acts, including sexual intercourse, sodomy and sexual bestiality. The Student Conflict Resolution Services Cen ter handlesxases of male and female nudity post ed on the Web, copyright infringement and use of a Web site for commercial use. Please see Internet on Page 2. O o M fsa?]m Photograph: Stew Milne Construction workers dig up the sidewalk leading to Blocker Building Wednesday morning. Bush questions Mauro’s hiring of convicted felon hi A Mauro AUSTIN (AP) — Land Commis sioner Garry Mauro’s hiring of a man convicted of bank fraud to oversee a $52 million state con struction program raises ques tions, Gov. George W. Bush said Wednesday. “I just believe it’s important for all of us (in government) to maintain the highest ethi cal standards,” Bush said. “I know what my own in stincts are. I’m confident this person would not have been appointed in my administration.” The com ments were Bush’s first on the controversy that surfaced last week after reports that Mauro, a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 1998, hired ex banker Ruben Johnson to help start a $52 million program to build assisted-living centers for veterans. In 1989, Johnson was indicted on charges of bank fraud in taking kick- backs from contractors building a new bank in Austin. He still owes $4.6 million in restitu tion ordered when he was convicted. Mauro defends the hiring as giv ing an ex-con a second chance and says that Johnson’s fiscal expertise was an asset. “I just hope this doesn’t mean Gov. Bush doesn’t believe in giving people a second chance,” Mauro spokesman Joe Cutbirth said Wednesday. It does not, Bush said. But he said there are other ways of providing those opportunities. “There is doubt about this per son’s capacity to manage construc tion bids. That’s precisely what the job is,” Bush said. “There’s all kinds of ways of giv ing people a second chance.... Par ticularly when all of us must be earning the public trust, it’s a mixed message.” Johnson helped fund the 1982 Democratic Party ticket, making more than $100,000 in contribu tions and millions of dollars in loans to candidates. Texas Ethics Commission records show he contributed $5,000 and his bank loaned $228,000 to Mauro’s campaign in 1982. While not directly criticizing Mauro, the Republican governor did offer a preview of what could become a campaign issue should Mauro jump into the race. “I found it interesting he (John son) had loaned enormous sums of money to different candidates,” Bush said. “I’m not going to comment on Garry Mauro and his ethics until there’s a campaign on. We’re not in a campaign,” he added. “There’ll be an appropriate time.” TODAY IN in a. ■ BAl ick by brick: Red Brick Mery owner Timothy Vanya icusses improvements. See Page 3. incis: Campus construction, Ovations cause harm to locent trees; hinders students. See Page 5. LIFESTYLES OPINION ONLINE ^tp://bat-web.tamu.edu &e link to -«*• web 5 §e for CIS Micies. Witness: Chief fund-raiser was pushed into job WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials from President Clin ton on down pushed John Huang for his controversial fund-raising job at Democratic headquarters though party officials had misgivings about Huang’s grasp of campaign laws, the first witness at Senate hearings testi fied Wednesday. Richard Sullivan, the former De mocratic Party finance director, said he was so concerned about Huang’s lack of fund-raising experience that he warned him about adhering to federal election laws and insisted he be instructed by a lawyer about pro hibitions against accepting money from foreigners. “I was concerned that John knew the rule,” Sullivan told senators. The party has returned nearly half of the $3.4 million Huang raised as the Democrats’ chief fund-raiser among Asian-Americans last year because of concerns that the money came from improper sources. In Spain, far from the blare of the hearings, Clinton acknowledged he may have made a pitch to get Huang the fund-raising job. Please see Witness on Page 2. Roll On Photograph: Tim Moog Jared Bayer, standing at the intersection of Hwy 6 and Hwy 21, watches half of a historic two-story Victorian house that is being moved. This is one of five intersections where the street lights had to be removed so the house could pass. The house was bought at an auction and is being moved from Navasota to Bryan.