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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.