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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1997)
Texas A&M University W w,mmy W^F^ 1/ ^mj^r ,iJu Today l 97 r a 75 I 93 74 Tomorrow See extended forecast, Page 2. ume 103 • Issue 176 • 6 Pages College Station, TX Tuesday, August 5, 1997 EWS Briefs An lArc ^ uthwest Parkway vjdge to close ie Southwest Parkway bridge Texas Highway 6 will be closed /from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. construction crews repair a gap i bridge. affic on the southbound lanes of ;Hwy. 6 will be diverted to the frontage road. ie contractor will replace a nine- vide section of the bridge to re tie gap. Work is expected to fin- in the $50,000 project by the leof the month. ItS IE I 1 ate files nursing Li me lawsuits JSTIN (AP) — The state attorney ral's office filed lawsuits Monday ist two Central Texas nursing as, accusing them of deficiencies sident care. ie lawsuits were filed against leyan Nursing Home in George- and Hearne Healthcare Center earne. In each, Attorney General Morales asked for the maximum ilty of $10,000 per violation, lie lawsuit against the George- icenter alleges that an invalid pa- was not assessed for equipment event falls after suffering at least (falls in a six-week period. The states the patient developed bdural hematoma from the falls, lie lawsuit against the Hearne ter alleged that staff members d to respond properly to one pa- t’sdiminished bowel function, and operly medicated another patient times. verr Baii er-palooza: Students are appointed in Perry Ferrell’s pus Christi festival. See Page 3. LIFESTYLES OPINION r F' ty://bat-web.tarmi.edu gif:. sten to le Battalion show line. Local businesses adjust to UPS strike By Helen Clancy The Battalion As members of the Teamsters union picketed Mon day outside the United Parcel Service office in Bryan, local businesses were already feeling the pinc4 of the first nationwide walkout against the carrier. See Related Column, Page 5 David Holbert, a textbook manager for Bother’s Bookstore, said shipments of books to his store will be delayed because of the strike. “We’re already going to be delayed a day just be cause of today,” he said. “But I suspect if it ends with in the next day or two that it’s really not going to pose that big of a problem.” Holbert said Bother’s can sustain the effects of the strike if it does not last for more than a week. "I don’t really foresee it lasting very long,” Holbert said. “But we do get a lot of our stuff [via] UPS. That’s our main carrier besides our big freight companies.” Some UPS customers are dealing with the strike by turning to other carriers for delivery service. John Stanlislaw, manager of the University Mail Service, said the United States Postal Service will “take up the slack” for UPS’ campus deliveries. The University Mail Service distributes Postal Service de liveries to campus addresses. “We haven’t seen any changes yet, but we do sus pect people will start to use other methods of trans porting packages,” he said. Kathy Jinkins, Scott & White marketing represen tative, said the clinic relies on UPS for some of its de liveries. However, she said, supplies will continue to reach the clinic through alternative means. “We have not noticed a shortage yet,” she said. “But, it may trickle down over time.” Jinkins said the clinic will not be affected immedi ately by the strike because vendors based in Dallas and Houston can truck supplies to the clinic, if needed. Please see UPS on Page 6. Clinton rules out federal intervention ATLANTA (AP) — The first nationwide strike against United Parcel Service brought most of the company’s big brown trucks to a halt Monday, forcing thousands of American businesses to scramble for other ways to send packages. President Clinton virtually ruled out federal inter vention in the dispute between the nation’s biggest package delivery service and the 185,000 striking Teamsters, and no new talks were scheduled. The main sticking points were pay, pensions and the use of part-time employees. The walkout against UPS—which ships 12 million parcels a day, or 80 percent of the nation’s package de liveries — immediately affected people on both the sending and receiving ends. “Our customer reactions have been varied, from ‘That’s OK, we’re ordering this for Christmas,’ to T need this shipped to my vacation destination and I’ll only be there a few days,”’ said Anna Schryver, a spokeswoman for Lands’ End, the Wisconsin-based outdoor goods retailer. “Those are the people who are going to be most disappointed.” UPS’ chief rival, the Postal Service, was hard- pressed to handle the overflow business, imposing a limit of four parcels per window customer. Please see Clinton on Page 6. ON I Da X.. Photograph: Stew Milne Rank Lara Jr., a UPS truck driver for 20 years, yells at “scabs” who cross the picket line to deliver packages Monday afternoon outside the Bryan UPS distribution center. World's oldest person iesof natural causes ARLES, France (AP) — She took fencing at 85 and still rode a bi- lleatlOO. She liked her port |e,lier olive oil, her chocolate and cigarettes, and she released a CD at 121. lowonder Jeanne Calment, at !the world’s oldest person until death Monday, said she was 'er bored.” lie lived through France’s Third p® Fourth Republics, and into its She was 14 when the Eiffel Tow- ascompleted in 1889. She was a little bit the grand er of all of us,” President P re |ues Chirac said. alment died of natural causes at ■e"%les retirement home where she lived for 12 years. Though blind, deaf and in a wheelchair, she ained spirited and mentally sharp Ithe end. hat was clear to those who at- lentfled her 121st birthday — in Feb- yl996 — when she released CD, lime's Mistress. It featured reminiscing to a score of rap other tunes. A&M will test student election Tanking system’ By Erica Roy The Battalion The Texas A&M Student Gov ernment is working to imple ment an election “ranking sys tem” that would include run-off elections in the student body general elections. The ranking system will be used for the fall freshmen elec tions on a conditional basis, and the process will be includ ed in election revisions sub mitted to the Student Senate in the fall. In the general elections, stu dents would choose a first- choice candidate, then rank the remaining candidates by prefer ence. After the votes have been tallied, the candidate with the least number of first-choice votes would be dropped from the election. The students who voted for the dropped candidate would have their votes given to their second- choice candidates. Votes would be redistributed according to rank until one can didate wins the election. Amy Magee, the Student Sen ate Buies and Begulations chair and a senior psychology major, said the ranking system would be more representative of stu dent body opinion, because every student who voted in the general election would also cast votes in the run-off election. “We’re not getting rid of run off elections,” Magee said. “We’re making it all in one process.” Please see Election on Page 2. MSG to apologize for ad By Jenara Kocks The Battalion Some A&M students and staff said that an MSC Open House advertisement in Monday’s Battalion was degrading to African-Americans. Dr. Stephen Biles, associate director of the MSC, said he was out of town when the ad was created and did not ap prove it. He said he is supposed to be the last person to look at MSC ads. “It missed a step in our review procedure,” Biles said. Biles said the ad does not represent the views of MSC students and staff, and he is sorry that it of fended people. “We hope whoever sees it will understand and accept our apology,” Biles said. The ad shows a picture of an African-American male with three golf balls in his mouth. It reads, “Sing? Dance? Stuff golf balls in your mouth? Beg- ister to entertain us at MSC Open House. It’ll make you popular.” Biles said he does not know where the picture in the ad came from or who created the ad, because sev eral people on the MSC public relations staff design ads for MSC events. He said his office received about eight com plaints about the ad. “There is no way to defend this ad,” Biles said. “It was just a regretful error in judgment.” Lisa Colbert, a senior zoology major, said the ad did not describe Open House, and the MSC should have used a different ad to promote Open House. “I think they should have taken it back to the drawing board,” Colbert said. Bodney P. McClendon, coordinator of student retention and development for the Department of Multicultural Services, said his department re ceived calls from people who said they were of fended by the ad. “We think the ad is inappropriate and insensi tive,” McClendon said. “The ad is reflective of a time period in America when African-Americans had to sing, dance and entertain in order to be accepted into certain halls of society. We hope that is not the case at Texas A&M.” McClendon said the ad suggests that his depart ment needs to work harder to make people aware of issues that might offend others. “One of our goals is diversity education,” Mc Clendon said. Fliers distributed in the Blocker Building Mon day afternoon had on them a picture of the ad and the question, “Is this how Texas A&M views African- Americans?” Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president of student affairs, said he thought the ad was “ou trageous.” “I hope whoever put in this type of ad has al ready apologized,” Southerland said, “or if they haven’t, I will ask them to.” Biles said the MSC will run a formal apology ad in Wednesday’s issue of The Battalion. nton: Witnessing a prisoner’s cution reveals a changing ; wpoint of the death penalty. See Page 5. Gov. Bush kicks off tour to promote tax proposal AUSTIN (AP) — Top state De mocrats helped Bepublican Gov. George W. Bush kick off his 17-city tour of Texas to promote the pro posed school property tax break on Saturday’s ballot. Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and House Speaker Pete Laney are not traveling with Bush, but they joined him at a Capitol news conference as he start ed out Monday. “A billion dollars in property relief ... is certainly not anything to sneeze at,” said Bullock. Mortar Man Photograph: Tim Moog Jack Wesseldine, a worker for the RSI company, removes mortar from a wall near the Chemistry fountains Monday afternoon. Early voting ends Tuesday on the proposed constitutional amendment, which would raise the exemp tion from local school taxes on primary home steads. The cur rent minimum exemption is $5,000. The amendment would raise the minimum exemption to $15,000. That means a home assessed at $100,000 would be taxable on up to $85,000 of its value instead of $95,000. Additional exemptions ex tended by school districts also could decrease the taxable amount. Bullock Bullock called the election “as much a referendum on Texans’ par ticipation in their government, in my opinion, as it is on property tax relief.” Laney said he also was con cerned about turnout. Secretary of State Tony Garza, the state’s chief elections officer, is not making a turnout prediction, said his spokesperson, Lisa Glass. Turnout for constitutional amend ment elections usually is around 15 percent and has dipped as low as 7.5 percent, she said. Bush said if the turnout is low, it will be because August is an unusu al time for an election. The date was chosen to give school districts time to plan their budgets. “People are still on vacation. People really aren’t focused on con stitutional matters or political mat ters,” said Bush. But, he added, “I don’t think it will fail.” Under the plan, homeowners’ savings would amount to their lo cal school property tax rates mul tiplied by 100, which Bush said would average $142 per home. The state is paying the $1 billion cost of the cut. Benters and busi ness property owners would not get the break.