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•iListen to KAMI! 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m.
fdr details on the Blinn nursing program.
• Check out The Battalion online at
battalion.tamu.edu.
V
• King takes court
A&M basketball player
Bernard King travels overseas
to play with Big 12 All-Star team
Page 3
Weather:
Partly cloudy with a
hiqh of 98 and a low
of 75.
MONDAY
August 7, 2000
Volume 106-Issue ikO
6 pages
i a i i<i :i w 4rwi
Sun and sand
Southerland denies
threats for partidpation
Nathan Handberry, a junior information and operations management major, bumps the volleyball back to
his opponent Sunday afternoon at the Student Recreation Center.
President
discourages
UT sickout
AUSTIN (AP) — University of
Texas President Larry Faulkner has
warned staff members that partici
pating in a sickout later this year
could cost them their jobs.
Employees in June threatened a
"burnt orange flu" that could keep
6,000 university employees home
Sept. 6 through Sept. 8 — the uni
versity's busiest time — if officials
did not meet a list of demands re
garding wages, benefits and work
ing conditions.
In an email sent Friday to UT-
Austin employees on the advice of
UT System lawyers, Faulkner cited
a state law that prohibits public em
ployees from participating in an or
ganized work stoppage. He warned
employees of the consequences of
joining the walkout planned by the
University Staff Association.
The group, which represents
about 200 of about 12,000 non
teaching employees, says the
planned protest is not a strike. Peg
Kramer, association president, said
the email warning was intended "to
threaten, intimidate, control and
disempower workers" and is al
ready having an impact.
"It's making some people more
angry ... and some people have al
lowed the message to intimidate
and scare them," she said.
The group is protesting higher
health insurance premiums, the
elimination of paid dental insur
ance and other issues.
Labor lawyer Rick Levy, who
represents the Texas AFL-CIO,
said the planned demonstration
reflects the dilemma for universi
ty employees who continue to lag
behind the private sector in pay
and benefits.
In May, about 300 workers tem
porarily walked off their jobs to
protest changes that will take ef
fect Sept. 1. Average out-of-pock
et employee premiums are ex
pected to increase to $66 a month,
according to the University Staff
Association. Employees with de
pendents could pay as much as
$80 a month for coverage.
A&M prof gives two
factors for high temps
Chris Cunico
The Battalion
With summer in full swing, Texas
A&M students are exposed to danger
ously high temperatures with no sign of
relief in the near future. The cruel sum
mer heat appears to be taking its toll.
The scorching heat of a South Texas
summer makes the simple task of going
to class a painful ordeal. With tempera
tures consistently breaking the 100-degree
mark, Colin Blanken
ship, a junior civil engi
neering major, said that
August and early Sep
tember weather does
little to motivate stu
dents to attend class.
"I've had days
when I was forced to
haul all of my calcu
lus and physics books
from Zachry all of the
way out to West Cam
pus where I had
parked my car,"
Blankenship said. "I
dread having to walk
to class in unbearable heat. November
weather is more suited for my likings."
The lack of rain has caused drought in
much of the western United States, and
it is responsible for the Texas heat, said
John Nielson-Gammon, Texas state cli
matologist and professor of meteorology
at A&M. Nielson-Gammon also said the
two most important causes of the recent
heat are the lack of rain and subsidence.
Subsidence, the downward movement of
1 dread having
to walk to class
in unbearable
beat, November
weather is more
suitable for my
likings”
— Colin Blankenship
junior civil engineering major
air that results in warming of the air,
causes clouds to evaporate. By removing
the clouds from the atmosphere, subsi
dence allows more sunlight to come into
contact with the Earth's surface.
"We have warm days in Texas every
year at this time/ Nielson-Gammon said,
"but it takes two ingredients to make it re
ally hot: subsidence and lack of rain."
Nielson-Gammon said subsidence,
which increases temperatures, also plays
a role in making the at
mosphere unfavorable
for rain. Warming the
atmosphere increases
its stability, reducing
the chances for thun
derstorms to form.
"Sunlight passes
through the atmosphere
to heat up the Earth and
other solid objects on its
surface," said Nielson-
Gammon. "So, the
ground gets hot and
heats up the air — our
environment gets hot
from tire bottom up."
Having air condi
tioners on full blast while sprinkling the
lawn costs Bryan-College Station resi
dents extra money in the summer.
Jason Dannatt, a junior business ma
jor, said the cost of cooling his house
has definitely emptied his wallet.
"My cooling bill has almost literally
doubled since March," Dannatt said. "I'm
so glad that we're almost through with this
summer. I don't think I would be able to
stand the heat for another three months."
Stuart Hutson
The Battalion
"I never issued any threats
during the meeting," Dr. J. Mal-
on Southerland said in response
to a press letter written by Keep
the Fire Burning, a student group
attempting to organize an off-
campus bonfire for Fall 2000, al
leging that Southerland issued
threats to prevent the off-campus
bonfire during a July 31 meeting.
"As a matter of fact, I thought
the entire meeting went well,
and I thought it ended very am
icably," Southerland said. "You
know, 1 didn't even know what
they were going to want to talk
about when I met with them. We
began with topics such as how
the progress of the bonfire
memorial was doing and we just
drifted off to the subject of the
off-campus bonfire."
Southerland said he told the
student group that the Universi
ty will not in any way condone
or support any representation of
the University in an official ca
pacity at the event.
"This won't be the real Aggie
Bonfire," he said. "But should
anything go wrong during this
process, that may be a fact that
the nationwide media and pub
lic may have difficulty under
standing — and that may have
negative effects on our efforts to
produce a safe bonfire."
Southerland also said the
University would press charges
against any licensing violations,
such as using the image of bon
fire or any licensed A&M logo to
advertise the event.
Joe Dyson, a board member
of Keep the Fire Burning and a
sophomore general studies ma
jor, said that while his group is
not attempting to represent the
student body, the group feels as
if Southerland's warnings may
still cause problems.
"I can't speak for the student
body," Dyson said. "I can only
speak for the 12,000 who compose
our group. But that number is
growing every day. Southerland
, used the expression that 'if it looks
like a skunk, and it smells like a
skunk, it might just be a skunk.'
He meant that if a couple hundred
people from the same dorm show
up, then that dorm might be con
sidered as being there in official
school capacity. But, if those peo
ple are all card-carrying members
of Keep the Fire Burning, 1 don't
see how there would technically
be a problem."
Southerland said that the
unauthorized bonfire may hin
der the reconstructive efforts
currently underway to pro
duce a safe Aggie Bonfire in
2002.
"It is technically possible that
this could very much halt the de
velopment of all the attributes
that need to be addressed before
bonfire can continue in a safe and
beneficial way," he said. "I think
that with this loss of life, it is right
to stand back and give two years
moratorium out of respect."
Student organization examining
designs for off-campus bonfire
Keep the Fire Burning, an organization of students and former
students who are currently examining the possibilities of having an
off-campus bonfire, says that no final decision has been reached for
the bonfire design or concerning whether a 2000 bonfire is possible.
( "We are still working hard to come up with a design that can
be proven to be safe both to burn and to be built by students," said
Joe Dyson. "Right now, it would be ignorant to say that we will
definitely have a bonfire for Fall 2000 when we haven't even de
termined what design to use. But, if all else fails, and there isn't a
bonfire, at least we can say that we have been putting in 150 per
cent to make it a possibility."
Dyson said that the non-A&M-affiliated organization has re
ceived a multitude of design plans and offers of help from former
students who are now engineers and lawyers.
"We have gotten quite a few designs, some of which are more
realistic than others," Dyson said. "But everything we get we ex
amine and pass by several engineers. Everybody deserves to be
heard. And we right now have something like eight lawyers ...
and more than one engineer on retainer."
Among the designs submitted to the organization was a pro
posed bonfire memorial structure that would serve as a frame
work for the actual bonfire stack. Keep the Fire Burning for
warded the design by former student Gary von Rosenberg to
A&M student government and administration for consideration.
"It's a pretty good idea that at least deserves to be looked at,"
Dyson said. "It is one of the more realistic proposals we have got
ten, but it and all the other realistic proposals would still need a lot
of work before they would ever have a chance to become reality."
Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. J. Malon Southerland and
Student Body President Forrest Lane could not be immediately
contacted to comment on the design.
This structure is proposed to fulfill the dual purpose and function of be
ing a monument to the 12 who died in the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse,
and it would serve as the base for which the structure would be built.
Clinton vetoes Republican-sponsored, married-couple tax cut
EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — President
Clinton vetoed a Republican-sponsored tax
cut for married couples Saturday, describing
it as "the first installment of
a fiscally reckless tax strate
gy" that would erase pro
jected budget surpluses.
He said the tax break pack
age amounted to little more
than a gift to the wealthy.
The legislation passed
both the House and the Sen
ate by less than the two-thirds majorities need
ed to override Clinton's veto, but a House leader
said an override attempt will be a top priority
after Congress' current summer recess.
CLINTON
GOP presidential nominee George W.
Bush, on a campaign train tour through the
Midwest with running mate Dick Cheney,
criticized the veto. The legislation. Bush said
at a rally in Pontiac, Mich., "was the right
thing to do. What kind of tax code is it that pe
nalizes marriage? It's a bad tax code."
Vice President A1 Gore, the presumptive De
mocratic presidential nominee, said he agreed
with the veto but would sign a different tax cut
for married couples.
"I'm for repealing the marriage tax, but
not going beyond working families and not
giving tax relief to people who are in the up
per brackets and people who are not even
married who are benefited by the version that
was passed," said Gore, speaking from West-
hampton, N.Y. "So I do support the veto. I
also support the right kind of repeal of the
marriage tax."
Clinton vetoed the $292 billion, 10-year tax
cut before his morning round of golf on the
Massachusetts resort island of Martha's Vine
yard, where the first family is vacationing this
weekend.
He returned the legislation to Congress
with a letter in which he said the tax plan was
regressive.
"It provides little relief to families that
need it most, while devoting a large fraction
of its benefits to families with higher in
comes," Clinton's letter said.
The veto, which Clinton announced on his
weekly radio address, is the opening salvo of a
complicated political skirmish as the November
presidential election looms. Clinton and the De
mocrats are trying to offer their own tax-cut pack
age while arguing that Republicans are giving
away the store.
Many Republicans believe Clinton's veto
gives them a wiirning political issue by demon
strating that with a GOP-controlled Congress, a
Democratic president is the only obstacle to
sweeping tax reductions.
"I support tax cuts, but tax cuts we can af
ford. We can't afford a $2 trillion U-turn on the
path of fiscal discipline and economic progress,"
Clinton said in the radio address.