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FRIDAY
March 12, 1999
Volume 105 • Issue 111 • 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
aggielife
• Students pass on tips to
avoid Spring Break disas
ters from their own expe
rience.
PAGE 3
today’s issue
Movie Review 4
Opinion 7
Reminder
The Battalion will not be
^ Texas A&M's
larch 15 - 19.
• A&M Baseball Team heads
to Lubbock to face Texas Tech
Red Raiders in weekend se
nes.
PAGE 6
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pring Break safety
tudent should be aware of common, hidden dangers
BY BETH MILLER
•j,. It The Battalion
ButiiiH Students leaving town for Spring
ocon B rea ^ m ay put themselves in danger
sonriH^hen they step into their cars.
mM Dr. Dennis Reardon, senior pro
ram coordinator of the Student Life
Icohol and Drug Education Program,
1 said the most common mistakes made
ticeij By students participating in Spring
■ » rea k activities are driving under the
mute 1 influence of alcohol and driving fa-
till Jmz ued - sa '^ two mistakes have
' l , S . " Been deemed the most dangerous stu-
"'MBents make.
JigB “I think what happens on Spring
Break is students are ready to get away
•ovedbi
nd relax,” he said.
i “They may have been up late work-
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ing on projects or studying before
leaving.”
Reardon said he recommends stu
dents relax before leaving for their
destinations and drive in shifts if they
are traveling with friends.
Reardon said that another poten
tially dangerous situation students put
themselves in is possible exposure to
Rohypnol and other date-rape drugs.
He said many of the people students
associate with during Spring Break are
people they are not well acquainted
with.
He advises exercising good judg
ment when drinking alcoholic bever
ages around people they do not
know.
“[When someone has been given
the date rape drug,] they simply don’t
know what has happened to them un
til the next day, and anything, literal
ly, may have happened to them,” he
said.
“Don’t leave drinks unattended.
It’s better to throw the drink away
than to take a risk.”
Reardon said other Spring Break
concerns include dehydration, alcohol
overdose and alcohol poisoning,
which become greater when students
expose themselves to heat and sun
light. He said students should drink
responsibly and avoid dangerous situ
ations so they return in good condi
tion.
“Take the time as what it is meant
to be — rest and relaxation,” he said.
“Don’t let the time cost more than you
are willing to invest in it.”
Increase in inequality
subject of conference
BY MELISSA JORDAN
The Battalion
State legislators, business professionals, pro
fessors and students will discuss the increasing
income gap among American wage earners dur
ing the Increasing Inequality Conference pre
sented this weekend by the George Bush School
of Government and Public Service and the De
partment of Economics.
Dr. Finis Welch, distinguished professor in
the department of economics, said in a press re
lease that as the American economy grew from
the end of World War II to the 1970s, wages
tended to rise for all levels of workers. Since that
time, the bottom 10 percent of earners watched
their real wages fall by 30 percent. The incomes
of the top 10 percent of earners increased by
more than 80 percent.
Dr. James Griffin, professor of economics.
said the motivation for the conference is the de
cline in wages of lower-income workers in
America while wages of higher income workers
have risen over the past 20 years.
Griffin said various theories have been pro
posed to explain the increasing inequality of
American workers’ wages.
“The point of this conference is to look to see
what the evidence is to support these explana
tions,” Griffin said.
The conference will bring together leading so
cial scientists to address the facts surrounding
income inequality, possible causes of the trend
and the implications of the widening wage gap.
Speakers at the conference will include Dr.
Charles Murray, of the American Enterprise In
stitute and author of The Bell Curve; Kevin Mur
phy, from the University of Chicago and winner
of the John Bates Clark Medal; and Angus
Deaton, of Princeton University.
oted experts slated
or ‘Shipwreck Weekend’
| BY RICHARD PADDACK
The Battalion
I World-renowned nautical
Brcheologists will bring in
formation from the ocean
Boor to the classrooms at
Texas A&M’s second “Ship
wreck Weekend” Saturday
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in
206 MSG.
I George F. Bass, distin
guished professor of nauti-
fal archeology and presi
dent of the Institute of
Nautical Archeology (INA)
at A&M, will offer the pro
gram’s keynote address.
[ Bass, who has had im
portant finds, such as the
Class Wreck off the coast of
■Turkey, chronicled by PBS,
iNova” and “20/20.”
I Bass said he was im
pressed with the attendance
of last year’s “Shipwreck
Weekend.”
“A majority of those who
attended last year were from
out of town,” Bass said.
“The crowd consisted of
history buffs, skin divers
and those who were just cu
rious about what we do.”
‘Shipwreck Weekend’ is
geared for anyone who has
an interest in shipwrecks
and/or archaeology.”
Barto Arnold, director of
Texas Operations for the In
stitute of Nautical Archaeol
ogy, said the mission of the
weekend is to bring informa
tion about A&M programs
and research and increase
their appreciation for ship
wrecks and their heritage.
“The [Nautical Archaeol
ogy Department] is truly
one of the jewels in the
crown of Texas A&M Uni
versity,” Barto said.
“One of the things we do
is try to make the public
aware of this. Everyone is
interested in shipwrecks.”
The list of presenters also
includes A&M associate
professor and New World
Laboratory Director, Kevin
Crisman, who will discuss
The Eagle, a shipwreck of
the War of 1812.
Speakers will share their
discoveries and experiences
through slides and film pre
sentations relating to recent
discoveries.
After the presentations,
participants will tour the
INA and the four nautical
archaeology teaching labs
in the Anthropology Build
ing.
Visitors will have an op
portunity to see current re
search projects, and learn
how the research is done.
School choice, vouchers
subject of Rudder debate
4
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BY NONI SRIDHARA
The Battalion
Erik Hanushek, director of the W. Allen
allis Institute of Political Economy, Ken
Meier, director of the Texas Educational Ex
cellence program and a political science pro
fessor at Texas A&M, voiced their arguments
concerning public and private schools at a
school choice debate last night in Rudder
Tower presented. Hanushek argued for school
Choice and the option of vouchers, and Meier
said they would have negative effects because
the vouchers would create a competitive mar
ket system.
j The debate was sponsored by MSG Great
Issues and the George Bush School of Gov-
ernment and Public Service.
I Hanushek said school choice and the op
tion of school vouchers is important because
the United States has some of the world’s
most inefficient education systems.
I Hanushek said three main elements sup
port the idea of vouchers for school choice.
He said school choice would be a mechanism
for trying to improve public schools by elim
inating the current public school monopoly.
Would help improve competition education
for the poor.
“Many times people adjust their housing
preferences according to the school district,
but in some cases the families who are at
the poverty level cannot afford to make this
decision,” he said.
Drawn out
CARINO CASAS/The Battalion
Joel Schwirtlich and Glenn Roberts, both freshman construction
science majors, work on their Environmental Design 115 projects
in the foyer of the Jack K. Williams Administration Building Thurs
day. Students enrolled in ENDS 115 must draw a picture of the
foyer from a perspective of their choice.
A&M Cadets
to march in
Katy parade
• Members ofC-1 Compa
ny will participate to raise
money for endowed
scholarship.
BY MEGAN E. WRIGHT
The Battalion
Texas A&M Corps of Cadets company C-l will
march in Saturday’s Future Farmers of America
(FFA) parade in Katy, Texas.
Jarred Worth, company commander and a se
nior agricultural economics major, said the outfit
is participating to represent the Corps of Cadets
and to raise money for an outfit scholarship.
Worth said he spoke to the Katy A&M club
this past summer and was approached by one
of the directors, Randy Callender, Class of ’70.
“Mr. Callender asked me if I would be inter
ested in bringing the outfit down to the parade
because in the past, the Corps has been repre
sented by Parson’s Mounted Calvary a few years
ago and Reveille last year,” Worth said.
Worth said Callender has contributed mon
ey throughout the year to the Corps scholarship
fund. He said the Corps has accumulated $2,000
and needs $25,000.
He said if fund-raising efforts are successful,
C-l could have an endowed scholarship in five
years.
Worth said the Corps would benefit from
marching in the FFA parade annually.
“I would like this to be a tradition,” he said. “It
is a good representation of the Corps of Cadets. ”
Easterwood receives fire station
SALLIE TURNER/The Battalion
Eric Hanushek (left), director of the W. Allen
Wallis Institute of Political Economy, and Ken
Meier (right), director of the Texas Educational
Excellence program and a political science pro
fessor at Texas A&M, debate the pros and cons
of school choice Thursday night.
Hanushek said school choice is one of the
reasons higher education in the United States
is so highly regarded throughout the world;
students have the choice of going to public
or private universities.
Meier said drawbacks in choosing schools
include a lack of supply of students and a lack
of information.
He said an example of a lack of supply is
an experiment in Milwaukee, Wis., where the
school choice program was implemented in
see Schools on Page 2.
BY RICHARD PADDACK
The Battalion
College Station firefighters moved
into a new Texas A&M-owned, jointly
operated station at Easterwood Airport.
The new facility, shared by Easter
wood Airport and the College Station
Fire Department, will serve the airport,
A&M, the west and northwest sections
of College Station and the FM 2818 and
Highway 60 corridors.
The station is in addition to the three
facilities already serving the city, and it
became operable Feb. 8.
A press release provided by Kelley
Chapman, public relations and market
ing manager for College Station, said
the structure was built and funded
through the cooperative efforts of A&M,
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), Easterwood Airport and the city
of College Station.
A&M provided the land and
$800,000 in funds for design and con
struction. FAA provided $900,000 and
Easterwood Airport donated $100,000,
the release said.
College Station provided funds for ra-
“The Easterwood
[fire] station could
decrease response
times in the area as
much as five or six
minutes/
Thomas Goehl
battalion chief
dio communication equipment, com
puter equipment and networking with
city computers. The city will fund 80
percent of the maintenance and opera
tional costs, provide one fire engine and
staff the station.
The FAA provided an additional
$350,000 for the purchase of a new Air
craft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF)
vehicle, which is one of two ARFF ve
hicles at the airport. Thomas Goehl,
battalion chief of the College Station
Fire Department, said he is pleased
with the added help the new station
will provide.
“The Easterwood station could de
crease response times in the area as
much as five or six minutes,” Goehl
said.
Harry Raisor, director of aviation for
Easterwood Airport, said he is pleased
with the close proximity of the station
and immediate accessibility of the
equipment.
“With the increase in the size and
amount of the jets coming into the air
port, we felt the need to upgrade in
emergency personnel and equipment,
as required by Federal Aviation Admin
istration,” Raisor said.