Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1998)
! ITH YEAR‘ISSUE 127 EWS Briefs xcellence awards o|be presented Inrernational Excellence vaips will be presented Thurs- ny jiuring the International Ex- iljepce Reception, which will be jldntom 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the J. ayrjie Stark University Center alleries. The awards recognize efforts by ju ty and staff members to en- 'jncje international education and varpness at Texas A&M. Ronald Douglas, executive vice presi- |huand provost, is host for the /ent. The program is open to the j|tc. iompany provides to A&M ; Tljie agricultural cooperative atwas once the world’s largest tpoi ter of wheat has given an Wowed scholarship in the yiojunt of $31,700 to Texas lls Department of Agricultural 5on>mics. He Producers Grain Corpora- jn educational trust fund was stablished 10 years ago when ie producers Grain Corporation 3gan to downsize and prepare for jlompany’s liquidation. Tibm Engelke, trust fund execu- Hdirector and a 1975 Texas m graduate, said the original Inners wanted to create a fund ftlexas A&M students who want- dto further their study of agri- yltural cooperatives. exas history book obe given as gift » rare book on Texas history i/ill be added to the Cushing ■norial Library at Texas A&M in Jor of this year’s Aggie Muster, the volume, “Reports of the Iretary of War with Reconnais- flces of Routes from San Anto- lio to El Paso,” was purchased tb a gift from Jean W. Kaspar of finer. ijpublished in 1850, the report 3s a seminal document that con- ributed to the opening of travel 3d settlement in West Texas and Mexico. jfhe explorations in this volume jrveyed a supply and potential ailroad route across West Texas |t became the main passage- 1 for soldiers, settlers and gold Ikers. ■he report contains two folding naps and 72 lithographed plates, jeral of which are hand colored, longtime library supporter, Kas- ?r is a member of the Friends of | Sterling C. Evans Library, a for- |r chair of the Library Develop- int Council and a former presi- wit of the Federation of Texas lM University Mothers’ Clubs. INSIDE '/)# p‘v Students, male and female, take charge to reclaim safety for the night. See Page 3 sports 'omen’s Basketball Coach ndi Harvey resigns to tak I job in the ABL. See Page 1 fllett: Minor league fseball team should look Icall College Station home. See Page 11 online (ttp://battalion, tamu. ed u ok up with state and na- nal news through The ire,AP’s 24-hour online ews service. Texas A&M University •12 PAGES COLLEGE STATION • TX WEDNESDAY • APRIL 15 • 1998 ‘Mud lot’ to close this December By Colleen Kavanagh Staff writer The “Mud lot” parking lot at Northgate, which is used by an esti mated 700 motorists each day, will close at the end of this year. Jack Culpepper, owner of the Mud lot, has decided to use the lot for hotel and retail development, Larry Haskins, his attorney said Tuesday. “The agreement with the opera tor of Mud lot expires Dec. 31,” he said. “Jack doesn’t anticipate re newing the contract, and it is ex tremely unlikely that it will contin ue to exist as a parking lot.” Haskins said he and Culpepper are in favor of a Northgate parking garage because they are convinced the parking garage will be able to support itself. “The proposal is to charge $2 per day, the same amount as mud lot,” Haskins said. “Mud lot makes $1,400 per day and offers less park ing spaces than the garage would.” College Station citizens will vote on a proposed ordinance that would stop the city from spending, using, lending or granting funds for a Northgate parking garage on May 2. A “no” vote supports the garage, and a “yes” vote opposes the garage. Haskins said he cannot think of a good reason why students would not be in favor of the parking garage and vote against the ordinance. “All of the students who used to park in Mud lot will have to find other places to park,” he said. “This will affect everyone. A garage also would benefit the community and the city because it’ll bring better de velopment to the Northgate area.” Councilman Dick Birdwell was one of three who voted to approve the ordinance without a public vote. He placed an ad in Tuesday’s The Bryan-College Station Eagle encouraging citizens to vote to stop this “unsound project.” He said he does not support the pro ject because there is no need for a parking garage. “I was out in Northgate this af ternoon,” he said. “And there were over 120 empty spaces. They’ve (College Station) overestimated the parking needs. It’s going to be big money for the taxpayers.” George Sopasakis, owner of the Burger Boy restaurant in Northgate, said the city’s parking consultant’s analysis is filled with mistakes. “It (the analysis) was done in a very sloppy manner,” he said. “The analysis has about 80 percent of the parking which is in Northgate. Ob viously, there are mistakes. They (the city) cannot, in good faith, so licit investors when there are errors like this.” Sopasakis organized a meeting Monday night to study the parking consultant’s review of the Northgate area and to present his own inter pretation of the facts. Sopasakis also said the city offi cials have overestimated the need for Northgate parking. “I believe the parking is ade quate,” he said. “They went to the bar owners to find out the demand for the area. The city would be spending our money to accommo date the late-night businesses.” DeShazo, Tang & Associates, a parking consulting firm, was hired by the city to do the analysis. DeS hazo recommended building a four-level, 752 space garage be tween Second Street and College Main south of Louise Avenue. Mayor Lynn Mcllhaney said they wanted to maximize spaces and minimize the amount of land to purchase. “Some people think that we don’t need a garage and we just need to add more parking lots,” she said. “The problem with that is it is diffi cult to get the land. I support a de cision to go ahead with the garage. This issue has been going on for 20 years, but this is the first time we have gotten the property, business and city together on this.” I Summer’s here JAKE SCHRICKLING/The Battalion Tania Fongemie, a sophomore political science and French major, serves snowcones outside the MSC Tuesday at a part of Class of ’00 week. Practice makes perfect Young drivers have more deadly vehicle wrecks, reportfinds WASHINGTON (AP) — More 16-year-old drivers are dying in car accidents even as traffic fatalities drop for older teens, prompting an insurance group to call for limits on the privileges of America’s youngest drivers. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which analyzed fatal accident re ports between 1975 and 1996, reported Tuesday that the death rate for 16-year- olds nearly doubled, from 19 per 100,000 licensed drivers in 1975 to 35 per 100,000 in 1996. The overall number of deaths declined, from 15 per 100,000 in 1975 to 12 deaths per 100,000 in 1996. The numbers also fell slightly for 17- to 19-year-olds, from 27 deaths per 100,000 in 1975 to 25 deaths per 100,000 in 1996. That age group had accounted for the most teen driving deaths until the mid-1980s, when it was surpassed by the 16-year-olds. The insurance institute said it suspected a number of factors, including the belief that more 16-year-olds are driving in high- risk circumstances, including at night and with friends in the car. The institute, which is financed by in surance companies, urged more states to adopt a graduated licensing system, which increases driving privileges as ex perience increases. The insurance industry favors a three- step system with a learner’s phase of at least six months; a half-year intermediate phase in which drivers cannot drive at night or with other teens in the car; and full privileges for drivers who complete the other phases without incident. Driver deaths A look at accident death rates among the nation’s licensed drivers. Number of deaths per 100,000 16-year-olds Aged 17-19 Over 20 Source: Insurance Institute AP/Kiamzon for Highway Safety “We want to try to build up driving ex perience while keeping people out of the high-risk situations,” said Allan Williams, the institute’s senior vice president. FBI notifies UPD of rape suspect release By Colleen Kavanagh Staff writer The FBI and Dearborn, Mich., and Texas A&M University police are investigating the 30 tips they have received from America’s Most Wanted view ers in their continued search for alleged rapist Don Richard Davis Jr. The America’s Most Wanted episode aired for the third time on Saturday, after the FBI in Wash ington D. C. learned that the fingerprints of a man arrested and released in Dearborn in January 1997 matched Davis’s. Davis is wanted in connection with two cam pus rapes in 1995. In August 1996, Davis was out on $150,000 bail when he disappeared from his parents’ Houston home two days before his scheduled pretrial proceedings. Davis’ father served six months in jail after giving him $6,000 and a car to escape. “We thought that if Davis knew his father was serving time in jail,” Wiatt said, “he might feel bad and turn himself in.” University Police Department Director Bob Wiatt said Davis was arrested for shoplifting wool gloves, a hat and socks. Davis gave them the false name ofWilliam Allen Webster, had no identifica tion, $13 on him and pretended to be homeless. Dearborn police scanned his fingerprints on die Michigan database, did not find a match and released him, Wiatt said. “Sometimes, because of the cost, state data bases are not integrated with the other 49 states,” he said. “They didn’t get a hit on the prints, so they let him go. The police then sent hard copies to the FBI for files because they didn’t have a hit. The FBI made a hit and notified us last week.” Wiatt said when Davis was arrested in 1997 he had a full beard and was 20 to 30 pounds heavier than when he left in August 1996. Of about 30 tips from the Saturday episode of America's Most Wanted, 12 have been from the Michigan area, Wiatt said. Wiatt said two previous episodes oiAmerica's MostWanted and one Unsolved Mysteries episode of Davis’ story resulted in 125 to 150 tips. “Nothing has panned out yet,” he said. “We’re not holding our breath, but we’ll see.” A&M professors pay increases, still lags UT By Amanda Smith Staff writer Texas A&M University professors are receiv ing an average of 5.9 percent more in their pay- checks during the 1997-98 school year than last year, according to the annual salary report by the American Association of University Profes sors (AAUP). According to the report, the salaries of Uni versity of Texas professors increased by an av erage of 3.9 percent this year. The figures indi cate the average increase for full, associate or assistant professors. William Perry, the dean of faculties and as sociate provost of A&M, said the increase is good, but A&M still lags behind other state uni versities in faculty pay. “Any (salary) increase is welcome,” Perry said. “As far as Texas A&M, we have a ways to go. We are going to need several substantial increases.” The 1997-98 Report on the Economic Sta tus of the Profession indicates average facul ty salary levels increased 3.4 percent from last year. The AAUP report attributes the salary in crease to a prosperous U.S. economy. Texas A&M pays full professors an average of $73,400 per year, compared to $69,500 last year. Despite a smaller percent increase, the University of Texas pays an average of $82,400 to full professors. Perry said A&M still lags behind the Univer sity of Texas at Dallas and the University of Houston. The University ofTexas at Dallas pays full professors $77,400 and the University of Houston pays $79,800, according to the report. Perry said the next opportunity to increase faculty salaries is the next legislative session. “The main opportunity for increase is leg islative appropriations,” Perry said. “There is a connection between the state of the economy and the ability of the Texas legislature to in crease funds.” Texas A&M pays associate professors an av erage of $52,400, compared to $53,700 at the University ofTexas. The Permanent University Fund (PUF) is designated to the University ofTexas system and the Texas A&M system. Perry said the Available University Fund (AUF) of the PUF is primarily used to fund special projects by the University. Internet increases speed, faster than imagination WASHINGTON (AP) — Three high-tech communications companies will offer an ul tra-fast data pipeline and some of the needed network equipment as part of a $500 million contribution toward developing the next gen eration of the Internet. “We will end the days when the World Wide Web is known by some as the world wide wait,” said Vice President A1 Gore, who announced the contributions today at the White House. The revolutionary network — so fast it will transmit the contents of the 30-volume Ency clopedia Brittanica in one second — will make possible new ways of using computers, from long-distance learning to allowing a spe cialist in another city to look at real-time im ages of a beating heart and make a diagnosis. “That’s a startling advance, and it will make a huge difference,” Gore said. “Change some times comes not slowly and gradually, but when we cross thresholds, beyond which the reality is just completely different.” The announcement coincides with the spring meeting of the project’s organizers, the University Corporation for Advanced In ternet Development, which begins today in Washington. Gore also announced a $50 million in vestment in Internet-related projects by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the central research and develop ment organization for the Defense Depart ment. The existing Internet — originally called ARPANET — grew from investments by the agency during the 1960s.