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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1998)
iteerst ipoints. es nee d to hit their eady to fight, the Aggies ouple of years with Vander- ’P. )ilt is a good ics believe in get the win. inks the Van- e tough, and go into the ere thinking, 'What Ho go in there beini m is at a strong poii 'down even thougi playing more mate iks said. "Every pose uliis team." TODAY TOMORROW YEAR • ISSUE 121 • 8 PAGES COLLEGE STATION • TX MONDAY • APRIL 6 • 1998 ro-lifers watch pro-choice rally in silence By Amanda Smith Stajf writer J-lifers stood and watched in silent st of pro-choice advocates gathered at tnd annual rally held at Rudder Foun- i on Saturday. Sara I Suniga, president of the Texas A&M ional Organization of Women (NOW) pter and a junior psychology and English jor.lsaid pro-choice supporters need an nue to voice their opinion on campus, nh a conservative campus, we need to ;e our opinion,” Suniga said. “There are of people that straddle the fence, and we it them to know that there are pro-choice ocates here.” Planned Parenthood is scheduled to open an abortion clinic in Bryan by late summer, after 23 years in the Brazos Valley. Emily Lopata, a member of St. Mary’s Re spect for Life Commission and a junior biol ogy major, said an abortion clinic in Bryan- College Station could devastate the community. “I think that the abortion clinic will have a terrible impact,” Lopata said. “With the open ing of an abortion clinic there will be a heed for all sorts of counseling services for the women who are victimized by abortion.” This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize abortions in the United States, Roe vs. Wade. Suniga said pro-choice supporters con tinue to fight for the right of women to choose. Recent parental notification and parental consent laws regarding abortion have lessened the freedom of choice in more than half of the 50 states, Suniga said. “Part of what we fight for is representative freedom and having options available to women,” Suniga said. “It is important be cause it gives us control over our bodies.” The Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan will provide increased family planning ser vices and testing for sexually transmitted dis eases (STDs). Melaney Linton, the Planned Parent hood senior vice president for medical ser vices and a Texas A&M graduate, said the clinic will increase options and services for women in Bryan-College Station. “Our goal at Planned Parenthood is sim ply to provide a full range of choices to women,” Linton said. “This facility is going to allow us to serve more women, men and families, and it will make more semces avail able in the Brazos Valley.” Planned Parenthood performs about 200,000 abortions each year nationwide, Lin ton said. “Planned Parenthood is committed to preventing unplanned pregnancies and abortions,” Linton said. DeWitt Patton, an electrical engineering professor and a supporter of the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life, said Planned Parenthood representatives provide misleading informa tion to women contemplating abortion. “These are members of a profit-seeking organization trying to exploit women and their decision concerning abortion,” Patton said. “The location of an abortion clinic in Bryan is simply going to facilitate a snap de cision. An added two-hour drive to Houston may be enough to make her think it over and change her mind about having an abortion.” Suniga said women often choose to have an abortion because they have no other options. “It is when a woman feels that she has no other choices that she decides to have an abortion,” Suniga said. “But Planned Parent hood does present women with other op tions (than just abortion).” jramm llks on Medicare I By Amanda Smith Stajf writer iside your )Q live at Village! iJ.I. Senator Phil Gramm said Fri- 'th( nation needs to progress to ds . hanging the Medicare system n | transfer payment system to a terp based on benefits. ‘Tfu re is nobody in the the U.S. Senate who dis agrees the financial crisis of the health care system is the largest in the histo ry of the country,” Gramm said. “Transfer payments are the captives of demographics. Un der the best cir- tfisfances, you are still looking at a tire payroll tax of at least 30 per- itwith the current system.” Gramm spoke on Medicare re- Bn the first of a series of public- picj forums at the George Bush fsidential Library Center. (Amm serves as the chair of the H Senate Subcommittee on alt! i ()are and was recently named al7-member national Medicare 333 ■tission aimed at saving the sys- (ffiom bankruptcy Gramm said Medicare raises )blems within the U.S. govern- ;nt which can be addressed Bgh tire gradual replacement of ■urent system with a system re nt on investments. "By I he year 2000,1 believe we will Ha transitional-based system for ■care,” he said. “I am convinced at it is worth it to guarantee people atlover time we will pay people ■fits. It is cheaper over a 50-year riod to get out of the system.” jTfie Bush School of Government d'Public Service and the Depart- snt of Economics at Texas A&M persity sponsored the forum to jite national leaders in the health- Hfield to discuss new solutions to EMedicare crisis. INSIDE 'ercury Rising, Lost in Dace open with solid lots, good acting and top Dx-office ratings. ours 0-6 2 - 6 See Page 3 las A&M Softball Team Veeps University of houri in doubleheader. See Page 5 opinion >rguson: Jonesboro iotings does not validate v gun-control laws. Jf I See Page 7 Spice up your life JAKE SCHRICKLING/The Battalion David Claybar, a junior business major, serves a bowl of chili at Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Chilifest ’98. The event raised $25,000 for local charities. DWI bill crashes in House WASHINGTON (AP) — Intense lobbying by the liquor and restaurant industries helped prevent a House vote on legislation lowering the threshold of drunkenness be hind the wheel. Such laws should be left to the states, not Washington, says the Republican committee chair whose panel kept the measure off the House floor. But its Democratic sponsor says the committee action proves unmistakably that “the liquor lobby ... put profits ahead of people’s lives.” The legislation was an amendment to a gi ant highway spending bill that would have taken highway money away from states that do not enact .08 percent blood alcohol con tent levels for drunken driving. It is shaping up as one of the most hard- fought drinking issues since the drive more than a decade ago to make 21 the nationally recognized legal age for drinking. A month ago, the Senate passed such an amendment to its highway bill by a strong 62- 32 vote, and President Clinton has endorsed a national .08 percent standard that already is in force in 16 states. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., main sponsor of the House amendment, angrily blamed the liquor and restaurant lobbies for stopping her amendment from even getting a vote. “Today the liquor lobby bottled up our bill and demonstrated loud and clear that they put profits ahead of people's lives,” Lowey said. ‘The man on the cross' Resurrection Week promotes Christianity with barbecue, guest speaker and mock crucifixion By Colleen Kavanagh Stajf writer The Resurrection Week committee kicked off 1998 Resurrection Week activities Sunday with a free barbecue at the Grove. After committee members acted out a scene of Jesus’ crucifixion, speaker John Hairing, Class of ’93, said many men have died for what they believe in, but Jesus is the only man who has died for his faith and been resurrected. “See the man on the cross?” he said. “That’s why we are here today, to celebrate his resurrection.” Harring encouraged participants to be lieve that Jesus is a good man, a prophet and God’s son. “There are three options,” he said. “Jesus is either a liar, looney-toony or the Lord. Looking at the evidence, the only choice is Je sus is Lord. He was God in the flesh with pow er to change life.” Shannon Austin, 1997 Resurrection Week committee treasurer and a Texas A&M grad uate, and her father helped prepare the food for the barbecue. “This is my second year out at Resurrec tion Week,” she said. “Res Week is a huge out reach to campus for the Lord. It is my desire to be involved in the Lord’s work, because in the real world, you don’t always get opportu nities like this. “I want people to hear about the Lord, that’s our purpose, and be assured of where they’re going to be for eternity.” Committee member Monique Marrou, a freshman general studies major, said Resur rection Week is an evangelistic opportunity that will help her spread the word of Jesus. “I encourage people to come, hear the gospel and see what the Bible has to offer,” she said. NSF says degrees being exported to foreigners DALLAS (AP) — For at least 10 years, most minority students earning doctoral degrees in science or engineering in the United States have been from other countries. In 1996, about 40 percent of the science and engineering doctorates awarded in the United States went to foreign students, and three out of four went to foreign-born minorities, ac cording to the National Science Foundation. American blacks accounted for less than 2 percent of the degrees, and Hispanics, about 2 percent. Some American universities aggressively pursue potential graduate students on over seas recruiting trips. In many graduate pro grams, foreign students are in the majority. At the University of Texas at Austin, for ex ample, 108 of the 187 graduate students studying computer science are noncitizens with temporary visas, according to The Dal las Morning News' Sunday editions. At Texas Tech University, 67 of the 101 stu dents pursuing doctoral degrees in engineer ing are described as “nonresident aliens.” There are no American Hispanics or blacks. U.S. minorities complain that they are greatly underrepresented in science doc toral programs, despite decades of affirma tive action. Some complain that foreign students are being educated, in part, at U.S. taxpayers’ ex pense. A recent National Research Council study found that more than 70 percent of non-U.S. citizens cited university support as their primary source of financing. “I think what it comes down to, frankly, is ... an unwillingness to finally do something about our own,” said John F. Alderete, presi dent of the Society for Advancement of Chi- canos and Native Americans in Science. But other educators say the selection of graduate students is colorblind. They say U.S. minorities just don’t perform as well on standardized tests. “It’s not that U.S. universities deliberately avoid looking at the domestic market,” said Krishnan Chittur, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Al abama at Huntsville. “Because it would be a lot easier for us to have students coming in from domestic programs.” High-paying jobs in a booming economy lure top minority students away from grad uate programs, said Bill Perry, dean of facul ty at Texas A&M University. In some cases, students choose to pursue a graduate degree in business or in other lucrative fields, such as law or medicine. Clinton extends ban on military-style rifles WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton is mak ing permanent his temporary prohibition on im porting military-style rifles that have been modified for sport shooting in order to skirt a 1994 assault weapons ban, a White House official said Sunday. On Monday, Clinton will issue an executive or der permanently banning import of 58 modified weapons, according to the official, who spoke Sun day on condition of anonymity. Most of fhe affect ed guns are variations of the AK-47 and Uzi semi automatic weapons, the official said. The president is scheduled to announce his or der in a Rose Garden ceremony. Clinton’s order comes after a Treasury Depart ment review of 59 weapons, done in consultation with state game and law enforcement agencies, hunting guides, and publicans and groups devoted to hunting and shooting. The review determined that many of the guns in question do not meet import re quirements for sporting purposes, mainly because they can be fitted with large capacity magazines. Liberation army fights for Kosovar freedom IN THE DRENICA REGION, Yugoslavia The KLAls “war” has been limited to claimed also the large Albanian minority in neighbor- “We are ready to fight to the last drop of blood. The war has begun and will not end until Kosovo is free.” Unidentified soldier Kosovian Liberation Army (AP) — In this rugged heart of restive Koso vo province, Serbian police control the roads, while ethnic Albanian militants seem to hold the countryside. Wary Serb officers with flak jackets and au tomatic rifles stop cars at frequent check points, scouring identity papers and search ing trunks. Police peer out from sand-bagged positions or speed along in hulking armored vehicles around villagers in horse-drawn carts. Up in the hills, young men wearing cam ouflage with Albanian insignia and carrying AK-47s watch the scene below and wait. They say they are the Kosovo Liberation Army and that they intend to force Serb op pressors out of Albanian land. “We are ready to fight to the last drop of blood,” vows a bearded young man intro duced as a KLA commander. “The war has begun and will not end until Kosovo is free.” attacks that have killed 50 people in tire past 20 months, mostly Serb police and alleged Al banian collaborators. The Serbs retaliated last month by attacking what they called KLA strongholds, killing a suspected KLA leader and about 80 villagers, including children. The increasing violence stoked fears of a new Balkan war, engulfing not only Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the Yugoslav province’s 2 million people, but ing Macedonia and possibly Albania itself. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is on notice to open serious negotiations with Kosovo Albanians by late April, or face new economic sanctions. He may comply, but it is unlikely his spe cial police will withdraw as demanded. In Drenica, they have dug in to protect key po sitions like the slope leading to an ammuni tion factory from KLA militants.