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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
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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.