Sports: Title IX keeps men's programs off the field • Page 3
Opinion: No-call list a fraud • Page 5
Volume 109 • Issue 158 • 6 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Grad students seek remedy for insurance hike
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
A group of graduate students is call
ing for an emergency meeting of the
Graduate Student Council after the
state Legislature reduced the amount of
money the state will contribute to its
part-time employees’ health insurance
coverage.
The Texas A&M System released
health insurance prices for the 2004 fis
cal year last Friday, and the new prices
show increases for part-time workers
employed in the System.
Part-time employees with families
could be subject to as much as a
$379.48 increase in their monthly
health insurance bills, and every gradu
ate assistant with health coverage will
be subject to at least a $145.60 month
ly increase.
Full-time employees are also subject
to increases, but not as significant as
their part-time and graduate assistant
co-workers.
Josh Peschel, GSC president, said
Tuesday that he will meet with the
GSC’s executive council today, and the
group will decide whether to hold an
emergency meeting.
Even if a meeting is called, Peschel
said he is not sure if they will have
enough members for a quorum.
Peschel said he has already submit
ted the. GSC’s position to A&M
President Robert M. Gates, Executive
Vice President and Provost David Prior
and John Giardino, A&M’s dean of
graduate studies.
“(The GCS’s) recommendation
was for the University to fully cover
the health insurance premium’s
increase for all graduate students who
want it or need to have the insurance,”
Peschel said. “I feel like this is a real
istic solution.”
Peschel said another option would
be for the University to try to offset
some of the costs by giving graduate
assistants a pay raise, but that would
not help those with families who face
larger increases in costs.
Whatever happens, Peschel said he
was confident that A&M would do
something to help graduate students.
“I really believe the University
wants to keep its graduate students,”
he said.
Andreas Mershin, a graduate stu
dent in the physics department, helped
organize an impromptu meeting
Monday afternoon for graduate
See Insurance on page 2
Enter the dragon
SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION
Petstop employee Jen Stinson clips a bearded dragon’s expandable throat pouch with spikey scales. Their large
toenails Tuesday night at the College Station pet shop, stomachs can accommodate insects, plants and even
Bearded dragons get their name from a characteristic small rodents.
Race ruling will be felt
beyond college campuses
By Ann Gearan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s endorse
ment of affirmative action this week brought sighs of
relief from institutions as different as West Point, Yale
and General Motors.
Current or former leaders at all three had urged the
high court to consider how race and racial preferences
work in the real world.
The 5-4 ruling acknowledges that, “in a society like
our own ... race unfortunately still matters,” as Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor put it.
The court’s most significant civil rights statement in
years will affect walks of life beyond the college cam
puses that Monday’s rulings directly addressed, lawyers
said Tuesday.
“This decision is not confined merely to the halls of
academia but rather is intended to show the court’s sup
port for the breadth of affirmative action in the work
place, in the corporate boardroom, the military acade
mies and throughout other institutions in American
life,” said Wade Henderson, executive director of the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
At the same time, the court did not signal a new will
ingness to support broadly preferential treatment for
racial minorities. Its limited, cautious rationale is
unlikely to undermine previous 1 " rulings that rejected
race-based preferences in college scholarships, con
struction contracts and other arenas, lawyers said.
“It only directly reaches situations where the state is
acting as an employer or operator of a university,” said
Andrew Koppelman, a constitutional law professor at
Northwestern University and author of
“Antidiscrimination Law and Social Equality.” “But
people can give the words of the Supreme Court what
ever persuasive authority they like. If the Supreme
Court says affirmative action is a good thing ... that
might influence your thinking.”
The court didn’t quite say affirmative action is a
good thing, but made clear that it has a place in soci
ety for now.
Ruling in two cases covering affirmative action pro
grams at the University of Michigan, the court upheld
the use of race as one among many factors that public,
tax-supported colleges and graduate schools may use to
select their students. A majority of justices said a diverse
campus is valuable enough to justify flexible admission
programs that give qualified minorities an edge in com
petition with white applicants.
As with many major Supreme Court rulings, the
full implications may take awhile to sort out. It is not
clear, for instance, how many colleges or universities
will have to retool their admission policies, or
whether schools might resurrect preferential programs
that were shelved while administrators awaited the
high court ruling.
In the meantime, lawyers, educators, business
See Race on page 2
Percent plans and
minority enrollment
States that have race-blind
admissions and admit a
percentage of top students from
every high school have seen
only minimal gains in black and
Hispanic enrollment.
Enrollment rates at state
university systems
: j Black ISBHM Hispanic
Florida admits the top 20 percent
of graduates from each high school
to a state university.
26%
22
'98 '99 '00 '01
The 15- to 19-year old population is
21 percent black and 20 percent
Hispanic.
Texas admits the top 10 percent of
graduates from each public or private
high school to the state university of
their choice.
26%
The 15- to 19-year old population is
13 percent black and 39 percent
Hispanic.
California guarantees admission to
a UC system campus for the top 4
percent of graduates from each
public or private high school.
26%
’98 '99 ’00 ’01
The 15- to 19-year old population is
7 percent black and 39 percent
Hispanic.
NOTE: Enrollment listed is for full
time, first-time freshmen throughout
the system.
SOURCES: Civil Rights Project, AP
Harvard University; U.S. Census
Bureau
Group studies Mexico’s technological development
Africa exhibit opens
By Jodi Rogers
THE BATTALION
Learning all about the United States’
southern neighbor, four Texas A&M under
graduate students and a professor from the
Department of Agricultural Education spent
the last two weeks conducting communica
tion and technology research in Mexico.
The group spent its time interviewing
people about the ways they communicated
with each other and changes in technology.
The four students visited three different
universities in northeast Mexico. A&M
faculty members from the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences conducted
research with the universities through an
organization called the Technical
Consortium from Northeast Mexico.
“Through this bridge that we create, we
want to involve as many young people as
possible, be they undergraduate or graduate
students, in such a way that they get to
experience a connection with other stu
dents in other cultures in a safe environ
ment,” said special programs director
Manuel Pina, Jr.
The students met with a professor in
Mexico and worked together on a commu
nication project.
The trip was part of a larger project
sponsored by the agriculture program
called the Texas-Mexico Initiative, which
began about six years ago. It is a group of
See Mexico on page 2
turkey
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SYRIA i IRAQ
Baghdad
0 100 mi
0 100 km
IRAN
Six British soldiers
killed in two
separate attacks
SAUDI ARABIA
Amarah
Basra*!.
Kuwait Cdg
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SOURCE: Associated Press
AP
Six British soldiers killed in south Iraq
By Steven Gutkin
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Six
British soldiers were killed and
eight wounded in southern Iraq in
a series of attacks on coalition
forces Tuesday that marked one
of the deadliest days since the fall
of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The casualties were a shock to
British troops occupying the
largely Shiite south, which until
now had been essentially free of
the daily hit-and-run attacks
plaguing American soldiers in
central and western Iraq. British
troops have felt so secure they
have been patrolling the coun
try’s second-largest city, Basra,
without flak jackets or helmets.
The U.S. military said insur
gents had increased their attacks
on American and British troops:
25 over a 24-hour period, includ
ing a firefight in Ramadi, west of
Baghdad, that killed three Iraqis
and wounded an American sol
dier.
The violence fueled concerns
that Iraq is descending into a
See Iraq on page 2
By Lindsay Broomes
THE BATTALION
Prairie View A&M professor
the Rev. Clarence Talley Sr.
offered Texas A&M a taste of
Africa with his art exhibit enti
tled “A View of Africa.”
Talley, along with other col
lege faculty members and 17
elementary, middle school and
secondary teachers, ventured to
Tanzania, East
Africa, during the
summer of 2000.
During his stay,
Talley compiled a
collection of works
that include 1,400
photographs, mixed
media and sculp
tures. From
array, he narrowed it
down to 26 pieces to
be displayed in his
exhibit.
Talley’s pieces
vary from beaded
works, both vibrant
colors and black and white, to
photographs that accent a spe
cific body part such as the hands
or eyes.
“In many photographs, the
viewer finds himself staring
directly into the eyes of the peo
ple Rev. Talley met and shared a
summer with,” said Kelly
Hollinger, student adviser
See Africa on page 2
EVAN O'CONNELL • THE BATTALION
Ivory sculptures are among the artifacts on dis
play at the Jordan Institute.