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Today Tomorrow
See extended forecast, Page 2.
olume 103 • Issue 168 • 6 Pages
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College Station, TX
Tuesday, July 22, 1997
Jews
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Briefs
oday marks 10-week
drop deadline
Today is the last day for Texas A&M
dents enrolled in the 10-week sum-
rsession to Q-drop classes.
,, To Q-drop a course, contact the de-
l "": tment adviser.
The last day to Q-drop for second
timer session classes is July 28.
In hr
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Vaco
)rmer student to
inounce candidacy
State Rep. Steve Holzheauser (R-
toria) will announce his candidacy
Texas Railroad Commissioner at
LetM pWood Airport at 3 p.m. today.
Holzheauser is chair of the House En-
P nta %Resources Committee and is on
House Ways and Means Committee.
Holzheauser is a graduate of the
torate program in veterinary med-
ied\d ieat Texas A&M.
O'V 2 Commissioner Barry Williamson is
ongthe seat to seek another office.
1 a tripi
ptoft later tests barred
gom Chevron trial
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HOUSTON (AP) — Tests indicating
langerous crude oil contaminants
luted a Houston neighborhood
*ebeen barred as evidence in an
going trial against Chevron USA.
The test results, obtained from the
, of Houston’s legal department,
lowfew samples that contain pol-
iantsand no results indicating con-
iiants at dangerous levels, say
o independent drinking experts
mtacted by the Houston Chronicle.
Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Ker>
ith Hoyt has barred the tests from evi-
rceatthe request of plaintiffs attorney
ihnO’Quinn, who claims the city may
3^ teen biased in its testing approach.
Residents in Kennedy Heights in
wtfeast Houston claim contami-
Ms/wn three abandoned crude
on'Mpits below their neighborhood
‘° mi ' re infiltrated the water supply
,f ^dare to blame for cases of lu-
tou ^ s,cancer, birth defects and oth-
imniune system diseases in the
gtiborhood.
63,431
nittini
uh ialveston causeway
fts. Ht , , J
nmoniay be replaced
|nSal1 GALVESTON (AP) — After nearly
[ll 'years of use and 37 years after
jijd last renovation, the Galveston
^^liseway could be headed for re-
by#
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LIFESTYLES
|o 4
1 4
eta haircut and get a real
•4 b: Students begin preparing
lemselves for the ‘real world.’
2 4
iter: National Endowment
rthe Arts prevents lack of
‘figinality in society.
See Page 5.
iW'C 1
See Page 3.
OPINION
ONLINE
%//bat-web.tamu.edu
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ource.
Students remain divided
over tobacco regulation
ohcl
Photo illustration: Tim Moog
By Robert Smith
The Battalion
Texas A&M students have mixed opin
ions about the possibility that the tobacco
industry will pay billions of dollars to pay
for the costs of treating smoking-related
diseases and will be forced to stop adver
tising aimed at children.
Rajesh Vijayagopal, a smoker and an
aerospace engineering graduate student,
said tobacco companies should not be held
responsible for smoking-related illnesses.
“There’s a Surgeon General’s warning
on every pack, and people know what
these things do,” Vijayagopal said.
Kimberly Kinnebrew, a nonsmoker and
a senior education major, said the tobac
co industry should pay for damages
caused by tobacco.
“I think it’s a smart thing to do,” she
said. “If anyone should pay for it, the ciga
rette companies should.”
Last month, state attorneys general
and the tobacco industry announced an
agreement that would require cigarette
companies to pay $368.5 billion over the
next 25 years to compensate states for the
costs of treating smoking-related illness
es, to finance nationwide anti-smoking
programs and to underwrite health care
for uninsured children.
The U.S. Congress must approve the
settlement for it to go into effect. Congres
sional debate is expected to conclude no
earlier than the fall.
All cigarette advertising and marketing
aimed at underage smokers would cease,
including Phillip Morris’ Marlboro Man
campaign. R.J. Reynolds voluntarily
dropped its Joe Camel campaign for
Camel cigarettes, which the government
says was designed to attract younger
smokers, earlier this month.
Kinnebrew said this will help decrease
the number of underage smokers.
Please see Tobacco on Page 6.
Buyoff claims
arise in court
MIAMI (AP) — Philip Morris,
the nation’s biggest cigarette
maker, paid a small competitor’s
legal bills for months in an at
tempt to buy its silence about
the dangers of smoking, an at
torney charged Monday.
Stanley Rosenblatt, an attor
ney for flight attendants suing the
tobacco industry for $5 billion be
cause of illnesses they blame on
smoky cabin air, made the charge
with the jmy out of the room dur
ing testimony by Liggett Group
owner Bennett LeBow.
Please see Court on Page 6.
icement.
The Texas Department of
importation is about to begin a
million study to determine
y ( iether Galveston County needs
lew link between the island and
umaimand.
f \ The study could recommend
1 T,| nstruction of a new causeway —
u .j ibably at a cost of $40 million.
other $30 million of improve-
j sntsto Interstate 45 also could
required.
hnd
Ironsides
sets sail for
anniversary
(AP) — Its masts and six billowing
white sails towering above the New Eng
land waters it once protected, the oak
warship nicknamed Old Ironsides set out
Monday under its own power for the first
time in 116 years. /
An estimated 100,000 people on
land and sea watched as the USS Con
stitution left its temporary anchorage
at Marblehead, Mass., on a one-hour
voyage marking its 200th anniversary.
The ship is normally docked at
Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard,
where it has been a floating museum
for generations.
The oldest commissioned warship
in the world was saluted by modern
naval escorts: the Blue Angels flying
team, which zoomed past 300 feet
above the deck, and the guided missile
destroyer USS Ramage and guided
missile frigate USS Halyburton.
The 44-gun frigate sailed the At
lantic at a modest speed of four knots
in light winds.
“I’m kind of speechless, you know,”
said boatswain’s mate Joe Wilson, cap
tain of the deck. “I wanted to cry. They
were tears of joy.”
Please see Ironsides on Page 6.
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Photograph: Stew Milne
Construction workers attach the fourth floor skywalk between Sterling C. Evans library and the student
study and computing center Monday morning.
Walking on Air
Computers may replace Scantrons for testing at A&M
-we
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fl
Graphic: Ed Goodwin
By Jenara Kocks
The Battalion
Texas A&M students may have to
trade in their No. 2 pencils for a key
board and their Scantrons for a
computer in the future.
Scantrons are a common way to
test students, but some depart
ments at Texas A&M and the Scant
ron Corporation are developing
programs that may be used to test
students at a computer terminal.
Willis Marty, a senior lecturer for
the Department of Computer Sci
ence, said computers will be used
more for testing in the future.
However, he said one problem
must be solved before computer
testing can be used as frequently
as Scantrons.
“The replacement of Scantrons
will occur when you can ensure the
person taking the test is the one do
ing the work,” he said.
Charles Hughes, an outbound
sales representative for Scantron
Corp. in Tustin, Calif., said the
company is concerned that taking
tests on computers will be as pop
ular as using Scantrons and is de
veloping technology to keep up
with the times.
Hughes said that with Scantron
Corporation’s ParTEST Online
teachers can create tests that their
students can take on computers.
But Hughes said teachers will not
use this technology for some time.
“Lots of schools don’t have the re
sources to buy personal computers
for all their students,” Hughes said.
Hughes also said some teachers
will not feel comfortable using com
puters and will stick with letting
their students fill in the bubbles.
Marty said A&M students can
use computers to take tutorials or
quizzes to help them study for pa
per exams.
Dr. Martin Gunn, a professor of
biochemistry, said that Tim Chester of
Computer and Information Systems
wrote a computer tutorial program for
Gunn’s section of Biochemistry 410
that will available to students this fall
through Gunn’s Web site.
Gunn said the tutorial’s multi
ple choice questions will be simi
lar to questions on his exams. The
program will grade the students’
answers, and students will see
which questions they missed and
the correct answers.
Please see Tests on Page 6.
Some Northern Ireland Protestants out of negotiation talks
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Irish
Republican Army supporters took their
place at the site of Northern Ireland peace
talks Monday, prompting some Protestant
politicians to bolt for the door.
The largest pro-British Protestant par
ty is still talking with the government,
however, despite the party’s suspicions
about the IRA’s new cease-fire.
“They’re not walking, we’re still trying, so
the talks process still holds,” Northern Ire
land Secretary Mo Mowlam said.
Locked out of the talks for 13 months, se
nior figures of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party
entered their offices thanks to the open-end
ed truce the IRA launched Sunday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has in
dicated Sinn Fein can join other parties in
negotiations on Northern Ireland’s future
if the IRA holds its fire until Sept. 15. For
now Sinn Fein can use an office at Stor
mont, the center of British administration
in east Belfast, and start talking informally
with anyone who’s willing.
On Monday, that meant potential allies
including Irish Foreign Minister Ray
Burke, leading the Irish government team,
and leaders of Sinn Fein’s moderate rival
for Catholic votes, the Social Democratic
and Labor Party.
Sinn Fein’s enemies made clear their dis
taste. The Rev. Ian Paisley’s Democratic
Unionists avoided Stormont entirely, while
the small United Kingdom Unionist Party
walked out right after Sinn Fein came in.
“We are talking here about people with
a Stalinist or Fascist ideologue mentality,”
said U.K. Unionist leader Bob McCartney,
who represents Northern Ireland’s most
affluent legislative district and is one of
the province’s top lawyers. “There is no
question of you meeting them on a ratio
nal basis, having your arguments or their
arguments subjected to logic and reason.
These people are programmed.”
Sinn Fein Chairman Mitchel McLaughlin
dismissed McCartney’s protest.
“Unionist leaders in the past have
walked away from the process, only to
come back,” he said.
Critically, the leader of the largest
Protestant party, David Trimble, led an Ul
ster Unionist delegation to meet Blair in
London. Trimble said he’d won no con
cessions but spoke of “some possibilities
of progress.”
“We will not shirk our responsibilities. We
are not in the mode of walking out, we’re
there to try and achieve things,” Trimble
said. His party received 32.7 percent of the
Northern Ireland vote in May’s national elec
tions, the largest share of any party.
The British and Irish governments,
which cosponsor the talks, have drawn up
rules for when the IRA must start disarm
ing during negotiations, the longtime
Protestant demand that the IRA insists will
never happen.
The rules are supposed to be put to a
vote Wednesday, but Trimble says he will
torpedo them because they call only for
“due progress” toward IRA disarmament
— but no guarantees that the British gov
ernment will expel Sinn Fein if the IRA
doesn’t cough up guns or explosives at a
specific point.