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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2000)
Wednesday, July 5,® orgia s incentm i, few of the families stud- lost benefits. Connell a!- program's success to Ik I as reminders from case- requent public service! weren't unduly burdened ement," he said. ? program, Georgia fant for Aid to Families wii children benefits eschool-aged children had immunizations. Familie y would lose their benefit ren who were not imraii- ts varied widely but ave ' $25 monthly per d >n rates evaluated were fa leria, tetanus and pertu- 'irus; MMR (measle dla); Hib (Haemophilusr- e b); and hepatitis 13 Brief ague Europe a (AP) — Hundreds of s southern Europe on emained in the gripof riven temperatures as rzling temperatures ac- ought to strike there i has already caused e it began in late May. the streets in southern o people who fainted in and television stations ildren to stay inside, ixpect no let up in the weeks, and they urged firefighters to stay on • reserves, burned Tuesday in Re sful efforts by firefight fires, said lonel Craci eneral Headquarters, in the Romanian fires, /as “considerable,"it if water impeded fire 0^ : • Listen to KAMI! 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m. for details on the Whataburger shootout • Check out The Battalion online at battalion.tamu.edu. Slave tp the music Columnists rant about summer music festivals Page 3 Weather: Partly cloudy with a hiqh of 95 and a low of 71. THURSDAY July 6, 2000 Volume 106-Issue 163 8 pages » f * i Vi li]:i k’J 4 I ‘Willie, Waylon and Me’ Student senator polls peers Survey reveals that majority favors 1996Hopwood decision David Allan Coe steps back to view the audience at the Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic. The concert drew in more than 10,000 people to Southpark Meadows in Austin. Maureen Kane The Battalion April Somers, a student senator and ju nior microbiology major, wanted to find out liow Texas A&M students felt about various policies at A&M. In order to do this, she designed a survey asking for students' opinions on an increase in tuition, an in crease in kinesiology and foreign language requirements and a possible standardized “A group of stu dents from the University of Texas Law School took the university to court over race- based admissions/ 7 — April Somers student senator and junior microbiology major state core curriculum, as well as the top 10 percent rule and the Hopwood decision. The 1996 Hopwood decision states that universities cannot admit students based on race. Until 1996, universities used race as an option on applications. "A group of students from the Univer sity of Texas Law School took the univer sity to court over race-based admissions," Somers said. The Supreme Court declared that race-based admissions were not legal. As a result, the Texas Legislature began looking to increase diversity in Texas uni versities and created the top 10 percent rule, which states that every university in Texas must accept an applicant if he or she was in the top 10 percent of his or her class. This legislation gives students from schools where minority students are the majority an advantage towards being ad mitted into college. "The class of 2002 is the first class to go in under the top 10 percent rule," Somers said. Joe Estrada, interim assistant provost for enrollment, said that through the im plementation of the Hopwood decision and the top 10 percent rule in admissions, A&M has increased diversity on campus. "The whole intent of the top 10 percent rule is to enhance diversity, particularly at Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin, and reward students who finish in the top 10 percent by allowing them auto matic admission to the school of their choice," Estrada said. "I think, from the di rector of admission's perspective, this is working exceptionally well. This Universi ty has always accepted the top 10 percent of classes. Prior to Hopwood, we could say no to any student for any reason — even those in the top ten percent — but we ad mitted most students — 99 percent." Somers' survey, the Student Govern ment Legislative Relations Survey, was mailed to a random sample of 1,200 stu dents. Of the 1,200, 342 usable surveys have been returned, which is close to the desired number of 380. 83.7 percent of the respondents were white, 6.6 percent were Hispanic, 4.5 percent were Asian, 3.3 percent were African-American, 1.2 percent were multicultural, and .6 per cent were Native American. Respon dents indicated that they would like to see an increase in diversity on A&M's campus, and one said that this is nec essary to meet the goals of Vision 2020. Estrada said that through the imple mentation of the Hopwood decision and top 10 percent rule A&M has in creased diversity on campus. More than half of the respondents support the top 10 percent rule, while 39 percent do not support the rule. Ap proximately 80 percent of the respon dents approve of the application of the Hopivood decision to admissions proce dures, whereas 11.6 percent do not ap prove of this legislation. Although supported by a majority of students at Texas A&M, the effects of implementing the Hopwood decision are not clear. Forrest Lane, student body president and a senior political science ma jor, said there is always debate about the top 10 percent rule. "There are people on both sides of the fence on this issue. The survey is useful to show student opinion about the top 10 per cent rule," Lane said. Somers said, "At A&M, minority en rollment has not been very successful. From the time that Hopwood was imple mented until now, the percentages have remained pretty much the same. During the time period before Hopivood until now, minority enrollment has dropped slightly because universities are not al lowed to look at race, but it has not dropped significantly." She added that during the first year Hopivood was implemented (1996-1997), 3.6 percent of the admitted students were African-American and 11.2 percent were Hispanic. During the 1998-1999 year, 2.7 percent of admitted students were African- American and 9.1 percent were Hispanic. See Survey on Page 6. Student Opinion on Hopwood Decision and Top 10 Percent Rule Agree . Disagree BRANDON HENDERSON/The Battalion ingling Bros, and Bamum & Bailey to perform at Reed Arena July 5 - July July 5 - July )uly 5 - July )uly 5 - July July 5 - July,) 1 July 5 - July 1 ) July 5 - Jul ti. on closing date :le support to the i acus on cash handWI lesk on the 2nd floor 0 ! 1. Applications will amu.edu 1 prices subject to chanf Chris Cunico The Battalion The Ringling Bros, and Bamum & lailey Circus is scheduled to perform Presidents of the Bryan-College Sta- narea at Reed Arena July 10-12. But, some college students are jot pleased with the arena's failure jo host events college students jvould enjoy. Over the course of the past year, [omplaints have arisen from the col- ;e crowd concerning the lack of [ppealing events hosted at Reed. Although the circus has been a Shssic form of entertainment irough the years, a number of [exas A&M students did not give the circus top priority when decid ing how they wanted to spend their free time. Steven M. Hodge, director of spe cial events facilities for Texas A&M, said that after the inaugural year, the event scheduling has decreased. Hodge said the combination of scheduling mishaps associated with the last year's First Yell and the end ing of the initial rush for all of the major acts to perform at Reed are to blame for the diminished schedule. "The honeymoon is definitely over. Our second year was not near ly as successful as the first," Hodge said. "We are constantly working with promoters and will take any thing that we can get." Circus trainers and elephants parade down Olsen Boulevard to ward Reed Arena on Monday. Hodge said that Reed Arena and the department of special events fa cilities have little responsibility for the absence of major acts that may have greater appeal for the students, such as concerts and stand-up come dians. He said it has become very dif ficult for venues the size of Reed, which seats 5,000 to 12,500 people depending on the type of show, to compete with the much larger sheds, outdoor amphitheaters like Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands. Hodge said sheds maintain very low overhead costs and most seat more than 20,000. He said net profit, which is the ul timate factor to promoters when scheduling tours, prevents many of the bigger acts from performing at venues like Reed. "When Reed was being built, the state only allowed us to spend $35 million to complete the entire pro ject," Hodge said. "CoTnpare that to Texas Tech being allotted between $65 and $70 million for their arena, which opened in February of 2000." Hodge said a large portion of the difficulty faced by campus are nas and other smaller-sized venues when trying to sign big names could be attributed to SFX, a com pany which owned 75 percent of arenas and sheds and employed the majority of agents and promot ers. Hodge said the vertical inte gration in this company kept the entire booking process within its own set of operations. By promot ing the concerts in its own venues, Hodge said, SFX virtually elimi nated any access university arenas have to the popular tours held in larger, more profit-friendly places. "On the bright side, SFX was re cently purchased by Clear Channel Communications, a company owned by a San Antonio resident and, more importantly, A&M grad uate," Hodge said. Mary Helen Bowers, associate di rector of special events facilities for Texas A&M, said Reed Arena is cur rently negotiating several rock con certs to occur this upcoming fall. She said there are also plans to bring for mer guest and current phenomenon. World Championship Wrestling, back to Reed within the next year. Bill Cosby has been scheduled to ap pear at First Yell in the fall. "We would love to have a couple rock concerts next year. All we've had in the past is country, so I think the students will enjoy it," Bowers said. Courtney Bowles, a junior mole cular and cell biology major, said event coordinators need to make a better effort to communicate with the student body to find what type of events should be given priority and what will get the best reception from a college-age crowd. "The circus is for children, and Bill Cosby is for old people. I'd love for some rock bands to come or at least something from our generation that would be worth spending $25 on," Bowles said. Big Cats Society and B-CS residents to protest treatment of circus animals Jeanette Simpson The Battalion When the Ringling Bros, and Bamum & Bailey Circus comes to town July 10-12, not everyone will be going to Reed Are na to enjoy an evening of entertainment. Frances Delia, a resident of Bryan, will join H.K. Pitts, a wildlife conserva tionist and member of the Big Cats Soci ety, in a protest against the treatment of the Ringling Bros, animal performers. "This protest is a group of people who See related column on Pg. 7 want to be out there to inform the public about how the animals in the circus are treated," Delia said. "We are going to be out there handing out brochures inform ing people about the inhumane ways Ringling Bros, handles their animals." The goal of the group is not to stop the circus from performing but to spread in formation about circus practices. "We as a group are not so naive to believe that we can prevent the circus from using animals, but we can make people realize that they should not support circuses that use animals in their performances," Delia said. Pitts said the goal of the protests for the Big Cats Animal Society is also to in form the public. "I want for people to realize that big cats were not made to perform. The tricks they have them do are not natural, and tire methods they use to train these cats are in humane," Pitts said."We are not against Ringling Bros, only, we are against anyone who exploits wild animals." A student protests treatment of ani mals outside of Reed Arena. Each night of the performances the Big Cat Society and concerned citizens will be protesting the many differenT aspects of See Protest on Page 6.
