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COLLEGE STATION • TX
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 10 • 1998
ee recommendations announced
1 By Rachel Dawley
Stajf writer
e Student Senate and Graduate Stu-
3ouncil next week will consider a rec-
,m ’‘ l 2nelat ion from the Student Semce Fee
( J I 1111 ': ition Board (SSFAB) for the allocation
int
,7mi llion in student service and health
r fees for 1998-99 school year,
pproved, the proposal will go to the of-
f the Vice President of Student Affairs
idem
■ apprt
crGro:
lea.
the he. President Dr. Ray M. Bowen. The
erems, reset nation will be before the Board of
its during their March meeting.
t ' ,)nI e SSFAB, comprised of nine appointed
'8 ^ i! nts, allocated $9.6 million in student
!nt efees and $4.1 million in health center
' an " departments receiving these funds in-
the Memorial Student Center, Recre-
al Sports, The Battalion, the Student
selin g Service, Bus Operations, Student
| rnment and Multicultural Services.
Ije board is appointed with direct input
ifhe Student Government Association.
The SSFAB recommended an increase in
the Student Health Services Fee from $44 per
semester to $48 per semester. The increase
will be used for state mandated salary in
creases, utility improvements, ambulance
expenses and inflationary costs.
The MSG receives the highest amount of
student service fees, totaling almost two mil
lion dollars, followed by the Student Coun
seling Service and Recreational Sports.
Heath Hendricks, SSFAB chair and a ju
nior chemical engineering major, said the
groups with major budgetary changes this
year are The Battalion, the Child Care Center
and the Aggie Band.
The board recommended a decrease to
half of the normal budget for The Battalion
because of the size of the paper’s reserves
and the large amount of mandatory salary
increases around campus.
The Child Care Center, which was unable
to open when planned, was not allocated
funds in next year’s budget because the cen
ter did not use last year’s funds.
The Aggie Band’s budget was almost dou
bled for drill field repairs, instrument re
placement and mandatory salary increases.
MacGregor Stephenson, a SSFAB mem
ber and a doctoral student in educational ad
ministration, said increases in funding for
most areas centered around mandated
salary increases and computer upgrades.
“The University is looking towards its goal
of keeping up-to-date computer systems,”
Stephenson said. “This requires that there be
yearly funding of capital outlays for comput
ers. This is the reason for major funding in
creases in different areas.”
Stephenson was recently chosen as the
1998-99 SSFAB Chair.
Applications are currently being accept
ed for next year’s SSFAB. Applications are
available in the Student Government office
and are due Friday.
Stephenson said the board is looking for
a diverse group of students.
“We as students have an incredible op
portunity to make a direct impact on the
manner in which the student fees are allo
cated,” Stephenson said. “We’re looking for
people that have experience or interest in
student activities and programming at A&M.
We’re trying to ensure the board represents
the student body as a whole.”
Faye Little, Vice President of Finance for
the Student Government Association and a
senior finance major, said student members
gain valuable experience by serving on the
SSFAB.
“The board provides great budgetary and
business management experience,” Little
said. “It also gives members insight into the
University and the opportunity to work with
administration.”
Little said the SSFAB is unique because it
makes recommendations based on student
input.
“Texas A&M is very fortunate to have the
SSFAB,” Little said. “We are the only school in
the Big 12 to have a board like this. It is very
refreshing to know that students have this
much input into where their fees go.”
ft* Allocation
Final Recommendation % change
Memorial Student Center $ 1,923,147 6
Recreational Sports
$ 1,479,068
6
Student Life
$ 737,800
15
Multicultural Services
$390,365
12
Student Financial Aid
$ 329,281
3
Student Government
$117,312
12
Aggie Band
$92,428
85
Child Care Center
$0
-100
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GREG MCREYNOLDS/The Battalion
in T. Bellah shoots water from the monitor position at the Brayton Fire School Monday. Bellah was there
his annual training for Formosa Chemical Plant.
sj S I D E
“ aggie life
North by North-
gate scheduled
to host over 30
musical talents
in various local
music venues.
See Page 3
lie Softball Team begins
fcampaign today against
thwest Texas.
See Page 7
Lecture series illustrates
planning of Bush Library
opinion
ions: Allowing children to
>e Internet unsupervised
I potential for danger.
See Page 11
>:/ /battalion.tamu.edu
|k up with state and na-
Jal news through The
s, AP’s 24-hour online
% service.
By Lyndsay Nantz
Staff writer
Students and the general public
will get an insider’s view to the plan
ning and design phases of the
George Bush Presidential Library
and Museum during the Rowlett
Lecture Series today.
The program consists of morn
ing and afternoon sessions with
speakers from Texas A&M, includ
ing Don W. Wilson, executive direc
tor of the Bush Library.
Wilson said the program is an
opportunity to understand every
thing involved in the development
of a building.
“Our goal in the development of
the George Bush Library Center has
been to create a living institution,”
Wilson said. “The program centers
on how the library came to be and
how it came to A&M.”
The morning series will focus
on the political side of planning
the library, which occurred when
Bush was still in office. The after
noon will focus on the design of
the library and will include a time-
lapse video of the construction
process. Students can attend the
entire program or just the series
that interest them.
Bobby Bernshausen, communi
cation specialist with the College of
Architecture, said the program is
open to everyone.
“Anybody who wants to come is
more than welcome and it is free of
charge,” Bernshausen said. “It
should be a lot of interest to con
struction science majors, and any
“A&M captured a ma
jor prize when we got
the Bush Library.”
Don W. Wilson
Executive Director of the Bush
Library
student in the College of Architec
ture is excused from classes to go.”
The program will be from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. at the Presidential Confer
ence Center and charter busses will
pick up students at the MSC and
Langford Architecture Center.
“A&M captured a major prize when
we got the Bush Library,” Wilson
said. “Everyone should go so they
can see how much is involved in the
planning and building of a presi
dential library.”
Proposed changes to ’Net
may overload CIS resources
By Lyndsay Nantz
Staff writer
What used to take Texas A&M
students several minutes to do will
soon take only a few seconds after
Compaq, Intel and Microsoft an
nounced plans last week to in
crease the speed of the Internet by
30 times.
The three companies joined
forces with GTE Corporation to
make upgraded modems that plug
into normal telephone lines with
out interrupting the voice line.
Richard Spiller, supervisor of
open access labs, said the reason
there are so many delays in down
loading information is because of
data-heavy graphics.
“Some pages have more images
and graphics,” he said. “Therefore,
there is more information to
download and it takes longer.”
The traditional method, con
verting digital computer data into
analog format, only reaches
53,000 bits per second. The new
speed should reach 1.5 megabits
per second.
Spiller said images that now
would take a minute or longer to
view will appear in a few seconds.
If such quick access to informa
tion is available, new services will
m
be possible over the net. PCsAvill
be able to shows video over the
Internet that are close to televi
sion quality.
David Hess, network group
manager for CIS, said Universal
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
Lines (ADSLs) allow connecting to
the Internet and calling simulta
neously over one phone line.
“ADSLs can send bits across the
existing wire that run the phone,”
he said. “But they are two different
services. One is for voice and one
for data.”
Hess said the major concern
A&M has with the ADSLs is that
to support the system the Uni-
j
versity and homes that log on
through A&M must be wired to a
central office.
“We don’t have the facility to
run this on our own,” he said. “It is
impossible for A&M to run wire
throughout the entire city. Hope
fully, telephone companies,
specifically GTE, will get into the
business and offer the system to
the community soon.”
Plans have been approved, and
GTE will interconnect A&M and
off-campus students, Hess said.
In the meantime, A&M has or
dered 1,100 modems to alleviate
some of the busy signals students
get when they try to log on.
Student research program offered
By Susan E. Atchison
Staff writer
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies at
Texas A&M University will sponsor Summer Research
Opportunity Programs (SROP) to offer outstanding
undergraduate students the opportunity to work
closely with faculty and graduate students on re
search projects in all academic disciplines.
The ten week program, scheduled for May 31 to
August 7, 1998, is offered on a competitive basis to
students entering their junior or senior college years
during the 1998-99 academic year.
SROP coordinator Fidel Fernandez said that work
shops and activities are offered in a collaborative,
university-wide effort to prepare students for gradu
ate school.
A seminar is planned to help prepare students
to take the Graduate Records Examination, which
is a major part of the process of applying to grad
uate school.
Students will be trained on Power Point, a software
program used in professional presentations. The soft
ware training is provided by the College of Engineering.
Students will be taught how to construct academ
ic research posters, which is another component of
graduate school.
Annette Hardin, assistant director in the Office of
Graduate Studies, said participants enroll in classes
and work one-on-one with a professor doing re
search they would not necessarily have the opportu
nity to do on their home campus.
“[The students] establish connections with pro
fessors, and maybe in the long run they will be work
ing with those professors,” Hardin said. “It really
helps the transition.”
Participants may receive a maximum $2,500
stipend that pays for housing, tuition, meals and fees
during the summer.
Darlene Espinosa, a senior nutrition major, par
ticipated in the 1997 research program. She said the
experience encouraged her to go to graduate school,
despite her previous disinterest.
Espinosa said her summer was spent conducting
breast cancer research.
“It was good experience to be able to work with
other graduate students,” Espinosa said.
Hardin said that all academic disciplines are rep
resented in the programs.
“What we look to do is coordinate summer re
search activities for many of the programs,”
Hardin said.
Similar programs are in place across the campus,
including programs in the College of Agriculture,
the College of Engineering and the College of Vet
erinary Medicine.
Participants must maintain at least a 2.75 GPR
during the academic year, be enrolled as a student at
Texas A&M during the program and be a U.S. citizen
and a permanent resident of Texas.
Application packets must include a completed
SROP application, a complete official copy of under
graduate transcripts that include Fall 1997 grades and
one letter of recommendation on departmental let
terhead from a faculty member.
The application deadline is March 2, 1998. Stu
dents interested may contact Fidel Fernandez at
(409) 845-3631 or by e-mail at fidel@tamu.edu.
Enrollment figures show 900 more students at UT this spring
AUSTIN (AP) — Preliminary
spring enrollment figures at the Uni
versity of Texas at Austin show an
overall increase from last spring, but
the number of black students has.
remained the same and the number
of Hispanics has declined slightly.
Enrollment of 46,364 is an in
crease of 890 students from
spring 1997, UT said Monday. Fi
nal enrollment figures will be
available in March.
Preliminary figures show 30,307
white students, compared with
29,718 in spring 1997. Black stu
dents total 1,660, the same as last
spring, while the number of His
panic students has dipped from
5,872 last spring to 5,828.
The number of Asian Ameri
can students, meanwhile, has in
creased from 4,722 in spring 1997
to 5,084. The number of Ameri
can Indian students also has
risen, from 201 to 217.
Ethnicity was unknown for 30
students.
The figures include 34,825 un
dergraduates, 10,111 graduate stu
dents and 1,428 law students.