Wednesday, Sepiember 6,2000 ;athers agendas tury .sing how to strengthen the role *' t state or government. U N a globalized world — an action ales to consider various goals 6 Freedom from want Nations must confront the extreme poverty and inequality among countries and take action on: * Debt retiet iter ► Needs ot Alnca ► Bndge digital tlV/AiDS divide urns » Access to trade ng the United Nations a Structural reform t > identity and build on core strengths ► Network with private and ixxi-governmental s ► Improve interaction through technology certainly be welcomed lers who have criticized s as a threat to 30 years 'ol treaties, sts have predicted that >e the summit — and a meeting with Clinton re the United States to lissile defense propos- ■. Beijing fears that the shields will render rowing arsenal of mis- roe China into a costly twever, will have his versies to deal with as the Falun Gong spiri- tent stage continuous ons against the Chinese lei jing’s crackdown on part of the 91 demon- inned this week. iVednexday,September 6, 2000 I HE BATTALION Page 5B Last call for alcohol B-CS bars should take hint from rest of state, close later than 1 a. m I magine ... It is 1 a.m. The streets of Northgate are flooded with people. Is there a street par ty? No — they have just been kicked out of the bars. Meanwhile in Austin, students from another university are still partying for an other hour. That is ridiculous. While a beer is being snatched from an Aggie's hand, people all over Texas are still enjoying theirs. At a school so famous /or gallons of beer consumed every year, the bars close earlier than most other places in Texas. ( At a school where it is tradition to con sume an entire pitcher of beer when receiv ing one’s senior ring, people have to go home early. Why is that? There is no good reason. Students have not made their voic es heard. Austin, Dallas, Houston and even Lub bock bars stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m. be cause people in those cities voted for bars to close at 2. In Texas it is legal for bars to Continue serving alcohol until two a.m., as suming that city has voted to extend serv ing hours until 2. With more than half of the voting popu lation of College Station being in college, the students would have no problem chang ing the law if they would register to vote [pcally and make their views heard. The , ' f j £isl majority ol the student body would from this. Students who are not 21 will want to liave the choice to stay in bars later in the future. Students who do not frequent bars n College Station would at least want to tave the choice to stay an hour later. Even indents who do nof drink WpulB'benefit, is dance clubs could stay open later. Also, the bars staying open late will not iffect the late-night restaurant economy. Is refuse to >e American lANGA, Philippines uslim rebels holding lean hostage in a Philippine jungle re- sday to exchange him jected guerrilla. Schilling, 24, of Oak- if ended a' hungef' ^ aco Cabana will still be open when the is being held inaheav- d bamboo hut, said a nt envoy. On Monday, d they had arrested a j man suspected of be- the Abu Sayyaf rebels >ed him of taking part tngs on Basilan island. spokesman Abu ientified the man as father, but refused to for Schilling, who was d Aug. 28. bels will not release or “even 10, even 100 idfathers," Sabayatold Mindanao Network. Dels, who say they are o establish an Islamic the southern Philip pe insisted that the ar- an, Ahmad Opao, be bars close. One might ask, even if the law changed, would bars choose to use this privilege and stay open an hour lat er? According to an anonymous Northgate bar manager, they would. People tend to arrive at the bars at about 10:30 or later. The bar’s peak hours are be tween midnight and 1. Bars would make enough money to offset the cost of staying open later. Bartenders may not like having to work , another hour, but they would make significantly more mon ey in tips. It is absolutely ludicrous that bars do not stay open till 2 a.m. in College Station. One might argue that people will get more drunk if the bars stay open for another hour. This is questionable. If people leave a bar and still want to drink, they will. The only difference is that people are still drinking at the bars, making the bars more li able for peoples' irresponsibil ity. With all of the money at stake, the bars would serve drinks from 1 to 2 a.m. despite this extra liability. So the next time a bar kicks someone out at 1 a.m., he or she should not futilely gripe to the bartender. That person should do something about it. He or she should register to vote locally. The student body should petition to the city council to change this law. If the cur rent city council members do not change the law for the people, students have the numbers to elect their own representatives that would make the students’ views put into law. Shannon Greenwood is a senior computer engineering major. ANGHLIQUE FORD/Th k Battalion Percentile ranking misleading Top 10 percent ruling harms all students O Imaginary journalism Media lacks methods of credibility, integrity n the surface it sounds like a great idea. A stu dent does well in high 'school, say the top 10 percent of his graduating class, and the Texas uni versity of his choice greets him with open arms and a smile. All of his hard work paid off. Or did it? In 1996, a new state law gave all )re they begin talks fori vStuc ^ ents graduating in the top 10 percent of their high s release. £n, Jr. I ept.28"' der Graw light from st Texas! >ct. 26 and Ryden ng and Texas isic meet IE, IS BACK AND BOLDER TRAN TODAYS MOST POPULAR MUSIC j V, AND MANY OTHERS. START- | WITH THE ENTERTAINMENT AND | V, VIVA LUCKENBACH, AND VIVA | 1(512)295-3300. I school class automatic admission to any Texas college, including Texas A&M University and the University of I Texas. Many believed this new legislation was necessary in order to maintain diversity in higher education institu tions after the Hopwood decision the same year ended affirmative action in Texas colleges. To some, it has been a lifesaver. To others, it has been a great disappoint ment. Evidence shows that this law has not done much, if anything, to meet its goal of countering Hopwood. At most, it has served to drive qualified candidates of Texas universities out of state and decrease the statistics that have made A&M and UT what they are today. Based on information reported in the Austin American Statesman mid the Houston Chronicle, one example is St. John’s High School graduate Christine Attia. With a 3.8 GPA, 1520 Scholastic Assessment Test j£ Ij ;(SAT) score and a diploma from a prestigious Houston high school, it was surprising that she was not admitted | to UT’s business school. George Mitzner, carrying a 4.49 GPA and 1470 SAT score from Bellaire High ^School, also failed to receive acceptance. Both capable istudents will continue their educations at out-of-state Colleges. j While SAT scores are hardly an accurate portrayal of ■an individual student’s ability, they deserve to be exam ined and compared with university averages. Since 1996, average SAT scores for both A&M and UT have dropped, while grade-point averages (GPAs) and drop- si out rates have merely teetered around the norm. UT accepted many students with SAT scores lower than 900 because they met the top-10 requirement, while Texas A&M placed many applicants with scores in the 1200s on a waiting list. Additionally, the percentage of minorities attending the two campuses has not gotten the boost proponents of the law had hoped. In 1996, before the Hopwood de cision, African-American enrollment in the freshman class at Texas A&M was 3.6 percent. It is currently 2 percent. Hispanic enrollment dropped from 11.2 percent to 9 percent in the years since the legislation. Those attending difficult high schools should not be punished because they endure greater academic chal lenges and face a greater risk of not being in the top 10 percent. Also, schools around the country, as well as the state, rank their graduates differently, making it impossible to accurately compare two students based on GPA alone. As a result, Texas institutions with formerly selective criteria have to accept students who may not be as pre pared or driven to succeed as others. The opposing argument is understandable. Since Hopwood ended affirmative action, something must be done to encourage diversity in institutions of higher ed ucation. The top 10 percent idea seems accommodat ing, since schools across the state represent all sides of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the law does not serve its intended purpose. It is unfair and frustrating for a number of ap plicants, and its effects could be damaging. Imagine that all students in the top 10 percent of every graduating class of every high school in Texas have a “free pass†to any college they wish to attend in the state. If they apply to UT, A&M and Texas Tech, each of those schools has to reserve a spot for them until they choose which to attend. Meanwhile, these schools are denying admission to many perfectly suitable candidates in the top quarter of their graduating classes. Many of these capable stu dents are forced to take their talents out of state to col leges that do not follow such a law, offering them large scholarships for their academic excellence. Eventually, the top-10-percenter makes his selection, leaving the remaining three universities with one extra spot to fill. However, now the pool of qualified stu dents has been depleted, and more and more students in the lower percentiles of their class fill the gaps. There is no easy answer to simultaneously maintain a fair enrollment system and ethnic diversity. However, it is clear that A&M has met a difficult obstacle early on in Vision 2020. How can A&M manage to climb the academic charts when it is forced to accept so many stu dents with mediocre academics? MARK PASSWATERS T he world is slightly off-kilter. Prime-time television, which used to provide the public with its dose of fantasy and imagination, is now ob sessed with reality-based programming. The press — where the public goes in an attempt to get real information — has fallen prey to a similar obsession. Unfortunately for everyone involved, that ob session stems from repeated stories about events that did not happen. Peter Pan, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny must be chomping at the bit for their turn on the front page of The New York Times. With each passing headline, the American media blurs the distinction between serious journalism and sensationalism. * Two hot stories in recent weeks center on events that never happened — the “murder†of Princess Diana and the pill-popping, wife-beating ways of former President Richard Nixon. Stories about Diana were expected to pop up in the press last week because it was the third an niversary of her untimely death. The stories that appeared, however, were not remembrances of the late princess, but of a lawsuit filed by Mohamed Al-Fayed against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regarding the circumstances sur rounding her death. Al-Fayed, the owner of Harrod’s department store and the father of Dodi Al-Fayed, the Princess’s last boyfriend, is convinced that “evil and racist forces, working through the British secu rity services, murdered my son and Princess Di ana.†In his lawsuit, Al-Fayed claims that the CIA has information linking the British Secret Service (MI6) to the crash and is helping in the cover-up. The truth, however, is far less dramatic. The dri ver of the Mercedes that night, Henri Paul, was drunk. He was not certified under French law to drive a vehicle that was considered to be a limou sine. According to Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, Dodi Al-Fayed demanded that Paul drive at high speeds to lose members of the pa parazzi who were tailing the couple. The Mercedes entered a Paris tunnel at 120 kph — twice the post ed speed limit — where Paul lost control of the car and crashed. End of story. Not in Mohamed Al-Fayed’s mind, however. Through his attorneys, Al-Fayed claims that Paul was not drunk on the night of the accident and that some other person’s blood was tested. According to the Washington Post, Al-Fayed also claims that Paul worked for the British secret service and that a blinding flash caused him to lose control of the car. Repeated investigations by many independent groups have come up with no evidence to support Al-Fayed’s claims. The CIA categorically denies any involvement. But Al-Fayed continues to pur sue his ghosts, and the press happily follows along. That is, of course, when the media themselves are not chasing ghosts. Following the lead of Irish journalist Anthony Summers, author of The Arro gance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, kicking Dick Nixon is once again fun for the press. According to Summers’ book, Nixon ha bitually used the mood-altering drug Dilantin and was often incoherent. Summers also claims that Nixon beat his wife, Pat. In one instance, Summers quotes a reporter from the Los Angeles area who had heard from a friend that Nixon beat his wife so badly “just be fore or after†his 1962 loss to Pat Brown in the California governor’s race that Pat Nixon “could not go out the next day.†Summers’ brand of investigative reporting is suspect at best. Almost all of his damning informa tion on Nixon comes from second-or third-hand sources, which leaves the legitimacy of his infor mation very questionable. Instead of asking questions of G. Gordon Liddy or John Erlichman, Summers simply writes “some body said Liddy said†or “so-and-so heard from Erlichman that.†This information would probably be dismissed from the work of most professional journalists. Since Summers used such shoddy methods, however, the media decided that it has free rein to use them too. Perhaps it is too much to ask of the press to have it live up to standards such as using first hand information and verifying facts. It is not, however, too much to ask to have it keep its fo cus upon real news. Mohammed Al-Fayed’s O.J.-like hunt to find “the real killers†anckSummers’ lousy piece of in vestigative reporting do not fit the bill. Maybe if something interesting were happening this year, like a presidential election, these things would not happen. Mark Passwaters is a senior electrical engineering major.