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The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High . ..
75 High
.. .68
Low. . . .
.. .53
Chance of rain .. 30% Chance of rain .
. 30%
Missing key may be link
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Dorm thefts top $1,500
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Photo by Kathleen Wakefield
Strange catch
Fishing is not always the relaxing sport some people believe it to be.
After this picture was taken. Sherry Evans, junior journalism major,
was hit in the leg by a UFG (unidentified flying golfball) while practic
ing casting in a pond on the Texas A&M University golf course.
Children's deaths
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United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — The glittering
l Mardi Gras floats eagerly awaited by
more than a million screaming revelers
meant death to two small children,
shoved under the wheels by surging
Carnival mobs.
The youngsters died Tuesday in
separate but similar accidents in the fin
al, raucous hours before today’s onset of
Lent, making this year’s Mardi Gras the
most tragic in recent history.
The children were pushed under
floats by rowdy celebrants scrambling
for virtually worthless plastic and alumi
num trinkets. Sunday night, three peo
ple were injured by gunfire that came,
police said, from a detective scuffling
with a band chaperone.
The coroner’s office said Margaret
McKenzie, 2, of New Orleans, was with
her father when she was pushed under a
float at the disbanding point of the Zulu
parade. She was pronounced dead at
Charity Hospital.
“He dropped the baby,” said horri
fied bystander Louella Givens. “She fell
under the float and the float rolled over
her head.”
A hospital spokesman said a second
child, Christian Lambert, 8, of Jefferson
Parish, was knocked off a ladder by a
crowd fighting for favors tossed by rid
ers in the Elks Krewe of Orleanians pa
rade.
Each year, spectators nail boxes to
the tops of ladders so children will get an
unobstructed view of the festivities. As
people pushed forward for a handful of
trinkets Tuesday, the Lambert ladder
toppled and Christian fell under the
float wheels.
Parade after parade snaked through
the mobs of people — many disguised in
masks and outrageous costumes — hav
ing one last fling before today’s Lenten
austerity in the “city that care forgot.”
On Bourbon Street, the wall-to-wall
crowd flowed beneath balconies
packed with hotel guests tossing beads
and aluminum doubloons to screaming
spectators below.
The Rex parade, rolling for the 100th
time since 1871, lost one of its most
popular bands because of Sunday’s
bizarre shooting incident.
The St. Augustine High School mar
ching band, a blaring all-black unit from
New Orleans that shattered the color
barrier when it marched for the first
time in 1967, voted to bow out because
one of its members was shot in the
weekend Bacchus parade.
Senate cleans house
on old bills tonight
ITS
Mt2S
Cleaning out the legislative closet
will be the order of business at tonight’s
student senate meeting at 7:30 in 204
Harrington.
Ten of 12 bills listed under old busi
ness will probably be reported out of
committee for consideration by the full
senate, including:
—A bill to request changes in basket
ball ticket distribution procedures.
—Two bills asking changes in bicycle
and motor traffic regulations and poli
cies.
— A proposed alternative to current
on-campus housing policies.
— Proposed changes in campus park
ing ticket policies.
— A proposed expansion and in
crease in support of the Learning Re
source Center in Heldenfels Hall.
Bills appearing before the senate for
ibe first time include:
—- Recommendations from the fi
nance committee on student service fee
allocations which would entail a $7 in
crease over current fees.
— A measure asking University offi
cials to study the possibility of estab-
lishing an outdoor recreation facility.
— Endorsements of user fees for stu
dents receiving prescriptions, x-rays
and similar items from the A. P. Beutel
Health Center and for students partici
pating in intramural sports.
— A recommendation for the build
ing of an addition to the health center.
— A request for extension of Q-drop
deadlines for graduate students.
— A request for official University
recognition of off-campus fraternities
and sororities.
A bill proposing recognition of frater
nities and sororities has failed once be
fore in the senate. Judicial Board Chair
man Paul Bettencourt said Tuesday
“there is no telling” what the reaction to
another Greek-approval bill would be.
By BERNIE FETTE
Battalion Staff
Recent burglaries in the Neeley Hall
dorm have amounted to the loss of more
than $1,500 worth of jewelry and cash
and a missing pass key is being linked to
the events.
Hadley Hoff, head resident of Neeley
and Hobby Halls, said three rooms were
burglarized Friday, the night of the
MSG All Night Fair, and one more theft
was noticed Monday night. She said the
pass key was probably used because the
rooms were locked before and re-locked
after the burglaries.
The pass key was discovered missing
Thursday, she said.
Hoff said the residents of the hall
were told to remove their class sche
dules from their doors and to tell no one
what times of the day they would be
gone from their rooms for the remainder
of this week.
Although there is a chance new locks
will be installed on all the doors, Hoff
said she won’t know until later this week
if that will be done. “We’re also trying to
monitor the halls,” she said.
The number of thefts on campus re
ported from the beginning of the fall
semester until the end of January is sub
stantially higher than during tbe same
period last year.
Lt. Josie Hoelscher of the University
Police Department said the increase is
due to a greater awareness of the
crimes.
“It used to be that more were just not
reported,” said Hoelscher, who has
been in charge of investigations for the
University Police since last July.
“They either didn’t take the time to
report it or just thought that if some
thing was stolen, it was gone and no
thing could be done about it,” she said.
“Now more of them are being re
ported.”
There have been 494 thefts and burg
laries reported so far this school year, a
27 percent increase over last year’s
count of 388, according to a summary
compiled early in February by Univer
sity Police.
The biggest theft problem being
faced now involves billfolds and purses
left unattended by students in locker
rooms and restrooms, Hoelscher said.
She said people who leave their bill
folds and purses on shelves in restrooms
such as the ones in the Memorial Stu
dent Center are taking unnecessary
risks and with a little more attention
they could take an active role in reduc
ing the amount of thefts.
In a related area, she said that un
locked bicycles are another invitation to
theft.
“Some people leave their bikes un
locked because they’re just going inside
somewhere for a few minutes,” Hoels
cher said. And that gives a potential
thief more than enough time to make off
with the bicycle.
In an effort to reduce the amount of
thefts and burglaries, Hoelscher said
many of the officers and investigators
make presentations on crime preven
tion. One such seminar was conducted
last semester for the residents of Briggs
Hall.
But, Hoelscher said, students can
also help fight the problem by doing
such things as locking dorm room doors
and reporting any suspicious activity to
the University Police.
Raintree residents to file suit
By BELINDA McCOY
Battalion Staff
A group of residents from the Rain-
tree subdivision of College Station will
file suit today against the College Sta
tion City Council for a decision it made
to rezone a 53-acre tract of land near the
subdivision, said C. David Stasny, the
attorney representing the group.
Citizens for Responsible Govern
ment, the group formed to oppose the
rezoning, will seek a writ of mandamus
(court order) to force a referendum on
the rezoning of the land, said Robert C.
Webb, chairman.
However, there will probably be a
delay in court action on the suit, said
Stasny.
“There has been a snag that might
cause a delay,” Stasny said. “The City
Attorney has been instructed not accept
service of citation for the council. ”
This means that the papers informing
the individual members of the council
that a suit has been filed against them
cannot be served by the city attorney’s
office. Instead, a sheriffs deputy “or
someone” will have to serve the papers,
causing “possibly a long delay” in court
action, said Stasny.
A Jan. 8 decision by the council re
zoned the land near the Highway 6
bypass from residential and agricultu
ral-open to industrial. Westinghouse
Electric Corp. later announced that it
plans to buy that land.
The citizens group later filed a peti
tion requesting a referendum election
to repeal the rezoning decision, and
presented the petition to the council
Thursday night. The council denied the
petition upon the advice of City Attor
ney Lowell Denton.
Denton told the council that the elec
tion would be void, since the city char
ter does not provide for referendum
elections on rezoning issues.
Mayor Gary Halter later said that suit
action by the group is a political move.
“It can’t be a legal move since they
don’t have any legal recourse. They
can’t go back to the previous zoning,”
said Halter. “It’s simply a self-interest
political group. ... I don’t know how else
to define it, except as a political move.”
In response, Webb maintained the
group’s action is not political.
“In fact, right now its a legal move,”
he said.
Webb also said that the citizens’
group will become involved in cam
paigns in the upcoming municipal elec
tion in which two city councilmen —
Larry Ringer and Roy Kelly — will face
re-election.
The group’s filing suit for a writ of
mandamus for a referendum election
has nothing to do with its possible sup
port of candidates opposing the incum
bent councilmen, said Webb.
“They’re two different things,” he
said.
Whether the group wins the suit or
not, Webb said, the group will still band
together in its support of candidates.
“We are planning to lend support to
the candidates we feel will bring back to
the city a bit more response from citizen
input,” said Webb. “We are going to
look very carefully at the candidates.
Certainly the ones who were in
strumental in this thing will not have
our unfailing support. ”
Language is no barrier to love
Couple conquers obstacles to wed
Jon and Ewa Davis met in Moscow and went on to be married despite the fact that neither
speaks the other’s native tongue; they meet on common linguistic ground with Russian.
By LAURA YOUNG
Battalion Reporter
Jon met Ewa in Moscow, married her in Poland and
brought her to Aggieland despite a massive ball of red tape
— but they can’t even speak each other’s native language.
Now, that’s true love.
Anyone who sees the grin on Jon Davis’ lean face whenev
er he talks about his new bride would know that.
And that grin has gotten even bigger since Ewa was able
to leave Poland and join her husband in College Station.
The couple, forced to live apart until the American
Embassy in Poland approved Ewa’s visa, was reunited in
New York on Feb. 22. As a direct relative since she married
Jon, Ewa was not under quota restrictions, but she was
forced to remain in Poland for two months until the Amer
ican Embassy approved her visa while her husband re
turned to College Station.
That was a long two months for Jon who “set up house” in
Married-Student Housing and waited anxiously for Ewa to
arrive.
Jon met Ewa (pronounced like Eva with a short ‘e’) and
began a “love-at-first-sight” romance while both were study
ing at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow last February. The
institute is a school for those who want to learn to teach the
Russian language but are not native Russians.
“The first time I saw her I was standing at the bus stop
waiting for the bus to come,” Jon said. “I was looking at the
bus, squinting because I don’t see very well, and these two
girls were laughing behind me because of the way I was
squinting. I looked and I saw these girls and one of them was
really kind of cute. ”
Jon is a Russian major at Texas A&M University and plans
to graduate in May. Ewa has studied Russian in her native
country of Poland. Although they both know Russian, neith
er can speak the other’s native language.
“When I was first going out with her I’d carry a dictionary
with me all the time,” said Jon, who has since picked up a
little Polish.
“We met in Moscow and then I told her I’d come see her
in Poland. I don’t think she really befieved me.”
True to his word, Jon went to visit Ewa and her family in
Poland. He was there five months until they were married
Dec. 1.
Jon is from Midland where his mother still lives on their
small ranch.
After a three-week honeymoon at Ewa’s parent’s house,
Jon left Poland to return to Texas where he began the spring
semester at Texas A&M, while his bride awaited her visa
approval in Poland.
“The Polish government has been issuing a lot of pass
ports, letting people get out of Poland, ” Jon said. “The U.S.
Embassy was operating under a heavy load and they
couldn’t process her visa very fast,” Jon said.
But, with what Jon describes as ‘a little help” from U.S.
Senator John Tower’s office, Ewa arrived in New York
where she was greeted by her husband. They hadn’t seen
each other since Jon left Poland two months earfier.
The first stop back in the United States was Midland
where Ewa met Jon’s family. He then brought her to Aggie
land.
“We really don’t know where we’re going to live when I
graduate,” Jon said.
When asked if they’d live in Poland, even with the
‘political unrest there, Jon said yes.
“I think that it makes it a little more exciting, because,
well, they’re changing their system. It could become some
thing really great. ”
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