■Hi ■ Texas A&M
The
m
i
76 No. 136 USPS 045360 16 Pages
sition open —
inority affairs
by Kim Schmidt
^ Bp* K B Battalion Staff
~ < a ! A new administrative position, de-
led to lielp minority students with
n fi jir | problems and concerns, has
-< j 5 rjBapproved and will be initiated as
z ^ ■ pnas someone is hired f or the posi-
*' 2“ r ':™a University of ficial says.
3-^{iDr. John Koldus, vice president
S nBjident services, said the duties of
2.^ ^iBsistant director of student activi-
“ nys Bind coordinator of minority
fairs will be two-fold,
coordinatoi of minority stu-
mts, duties would include advising
counseling minority students and
king with minority student
c J rjlips.” he said. “But this is only one
3.' f.Bf the entire focus of the posi-
3 3
a«*3:P . ...
job also includes responsibili-
3 c j5“;Rsociated with the student activi-
£ ~ a$:B ro gi am and its seminars and
7 a r-'l'idos, Koldus said. The position is
d ^ Jiiar to those of the international
^3 f : ii«nt adviser and the handicapped
o^sjident adviser, he said,
o jip: Initiating the position is the first
-!Lrc e|° improve minority conditions
Tpossibly to increase minority en-
■ent at Texas AK.M. Koldus said,
■e position is extremely impor-
3'B*
0 f5 (t.
S' (t
-OS
3 , 13'< .
a’S*5'nll (ause there has been a lack of
§tB fio'ity staff members to whom
. ttority students could relate, he
- r:L
S'SS'O Mldus said he became more aware
q.u i -'^r need for that type of position
cl in
§:?i
a el
Jlf ,... 7 1 ,1 ,
53.3-ter reading the report issued
^ 3 S 1 jltry by the President’s Commi
O 'tC* t x ' •f ' r-> 1 • • 41.1
mittee
Minority Conditions. Although
Bits said he recognized minority
ns before this, it was af ter read-
a
d
"0 3 5 ‘
5 0 ci ; L
n 3 syBe report that he decided some-
’■ finally had to be done.
:“11 the institution had a great many
■rity students and staff members,
then you would have a natural oppor
tunity for students and staff to relate
to each other,” Koldus said. “When
you don’t have this you need to make
an adjustment.”
Gerald Wright, the System affir
mative action officer, has met with
University officials to discuss con
cerns of minority students. Wright
said he agrees that an adjustment in
dealing with minority students needs
to be made. The fact that minority
students come to him with their prob
lems instead of to a University em
ployee is an indication that the Uni
versity needs someone to handle
minority affairs, he said.
Wright said he feels the new posi
tion could fill this need and be benefi
cial and effective if approached in the
correct manner.
“If it is properly administered, if it
is built w ith the in-house concern and
intensity the University is capable of,
if it is built with the mechanisms of
awareness and seriousness, then I
think it will be effective,” Wright said.
But he said if the position is not
administered in this way and becomes
simply a token or showpiece with
minority concerns falling on deaf
ears, he sees no reason for it.
“Let’s make it (the position) a true
part of the administration to assist in
alleviating some of the problems,”
Wright said.
Some of the problems and con
cerns minority students have express
ed to Wright include the lack of such
activities geared tow'ard their in
terests as concerts and art exhibits,
the holding of “slave auctions;” flying
the Confederate flag and the lack of
administrators who are aware of the
students’ concerns and needs, espe
cially in relation to dormitory living,
he said.
) Cadet falls
ftfrom dorm
Fredrick Regini Campbell, a
freshman cadet from Killeen, is
^wxxl condition after falling
jjoni a third floor window of
Km 7 at midnight Sunday.
■Maj. Richard M. Pitts said
fcmpbell had been drinking be-
pelie fell. Pitts said Campbell’s
tall was cushioned by falling
■through a tree.
He said that Campbell has no
broken bones and was admitted
to St. Joseph Hospital for obser
vation.
Pitts said the emergency care
team from A.P. Beutel Health
Center and the University Police
did an excellent job of adminis
tering first aid to Campbell im
mediately after die accident.
Mi"—L.. : -
3
Wr
^ 1
staff photo by Guy Hood
‘‘It’s like this guys
Surrounded by his cadet players, Gary Kubiak, former
quarterback for the Texas A&M football team, gazes at
the field in Friday’s annual Elephant Bowl. Kubiak was
one of the coaches for the Army-Navy team that played
against the Air Force-Band team in the event that was
part of Parent’s Weekend activities.
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas Monday, April 18, 1983
Parson’s Mounted Cavalry parades in front of a crowd to Aggie parents and guests was one of the many
at the polo field Sunday afternoon. The mounted salute activities held during the ninth annual Parents’ Weekend.
Sexual harassment a problem
at A&M, University official says
Editor’s nole: This is the first in a
two-part series on sexual harassment
of students at Texas A&M.
by Kelley Smith
Battalion Staff
Sexual harassment doesn’t happen
just at work or on the streets. It can be
a problem at school, too — and it is a
problem at Texas A&M, the Universi
ty affirmative action officer says.
While less than 20 cases of sexual
harassment are reported here each
year, Margaret Smith, affirmative ac
tion officer for Texas A&M, estimates
that the actual number of instances is
much higher because many go unre
ported.
“Yes, w'e (at Texas A&M) do have a
problem,” Smith said. “To me, even
one case is a problem.”
Smith, who handles sexual harass
ment complaints, is concerned that
many students do not report sexual
harassment because of embarrass
ment, guilt or not knowing where to
g°-
“There is a place to go,” Smith said.
“It is illegal and the University is com
mitted to correcting the problems stu
dents have with professors and that
employees have with supervisors.”
The University complies with fed
eral guidelines that define sexual
harassment as discrimination. It in
volves not only physical attacks but
also any type of verbal innuendo, star
ing, off-color remarks or “accidental
ly” brushing against parts of a per
son’s body.
“You could say the same thing to 10
female students; nine may think no
thing of it, one is extremely
offended,” Smith said. “That’s why
sexual harassment is a tricky area.”
When a student feels he or she has
been harassed, Smith must act on the
complaint even if she would not have
been offended by the professor’s ac
tions.
“I have to take action and help
them out because their perception is
that they were harassed,” she said.
“Professors and supervisors need to
be more sensitive about their actions
and what they say to people. Whether
they kid around or not, it’s not funny
to somebody. It’s better to be careful
than face a complaint.”
Harassment at Texas A&M hap
pens in all forms, Smith said.
“We really have a wide range —
from remarks all the w^ay to attemp
ted physical assualts. We’ve actually
had situations w r here the professor
wall grab a student in a passionate
embrace and try to kiss her,” Smith
said. “But I couldn’t say one type is
more common.”
However, she said, there is a parti
cular type of student that is more like
ly to be harassed, a certain pattern
that most cases follow and a common
reaction of students after they have
been harassed.
The typical student is one that
appears meek, Smith said. Some pro
fessors may think a meek person
won’t have the nerve to report the
professor for sexual harassment.
“The problem with that is they may
eventually pick on the wrong person,”
Smith said. “The professor may pick
one who will tell a roommate or some
one who know s where to go to report
the professor.”
While there is a typical harassed
student, there is no typical harasser,
she said. Professors who harass stu
dents are of all ages, Smith said.
How'ever, she added, more married
professors than single professors
harass students.
“The place where it occurs the most
is in the professor’s office where the
professor shuts the door,” she said.
“The student goes to a professor
asking ‘What can I do, I’ll do anything
to bring my grade up to pass the
course.’ Some professors say ‘Well,
okay,’ and they make a pass.”
At the end of the semester when
students are most concerned about
their grades, the number of reported
sexual harassment cases rises. Some
professors try to take advantage of
the added stress on the students to
make good grades, Smith said.
See HARASSMENT, page
Number of casualties undetermined
Bomb hits U.S. embassy in
Beirut
United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bomb blew
apart the U.S. Embassy today and col
lapsed the reinforced concrete floors
on employees, killing at least 28 peo
ple, including six U.S. Marines, hos
pital officials said.
The bomb exploded shortly after 1
p.m. Beirut time as the highway out
side the Embassy was jammed with
midday traffic. It went off either just
in front of the mission or just inside
the front door, ripping off the entire
facade. Some reports said the explo
sion was caused by a car bomb.
An Embassy employee, who de
clined to identify himself, said from
the residence of U.S. Ambassador
Robert Dillon that at least half the
Embassy’semployees were injured.
He said he did not know where Dillon
was at the time of the blast.
UPI reporter Peyman Pezman said
from the scene of the waterfront U.S.
Embassy in west Beirut, “The w hole
facade of the seven-story building is
ripped apart. It’s a mess of concrete
and metal rubble. It is horrible.”
Survivors on the top floor of the
seven-story building were calling for
help and lowering attache cases of vit
al papers to Marines who rushed to
the scene. The Embassy was on fire.
French peace-keepers and
Lebanese army soldiers formed a bar
rier around the building and began
sifting through the wreckage.
Relatives of Embassy employees —
most of them Lebanese — collapsed
on the glass-covered sidewalks when
they saw the smoking wreckage of the
mission. Flames lept out of the
ground floor.
The floors in the front of the build
ing collapsed like cards.
“The place is a mess. The street
outside the Embassy is littered with
damaged cars, glass and debris,” one
UPI reporter on the scene said.
A reporter outside the American
University of Beirut Hospital, where
most of the casualties were taken, said
he counted at least 15 dead brought to
the hospital after the explosion. UPI
reporters outside the mission said the
blast also set at least 10 vehicles on
fire.
Unconfirmed reports said the Isla
mic Struggle Movement claimed re
sponsibility for detonating the blast.
Prairie View A&M tackles
tenure policy problems
by Kathy Wiesepape
Battalion Staff
Prairie View A&M University now
faces problems because it has not fol
lowed the Texas A&M System tenure
policy in the past, the university’s
president says.
Percy Pierre, president of Prairie
View A&M, says the policy requires
that professors who have been at the
university six years or longer either be
granted tenure or be fired. The pre
vious administration at Prairie View
A&M did not follow' that policy, Pier
re said, and as a result several mem
bers of the faculty have been at the
university more than six years and
have not been granted tenure.
Pierre said he and other System
administrators have known about the
problem for about six months, but he
said it probably will take a long time to
settle the issue.
“How we will attack the problem is
something that will be decided on a
case-by-case basis,” Pierre said. “What
happened was not supposed to hap
pen. How it will be unscrambled I
cannot say.”
Adding to the confusion was an
article in the Houston Chronicle last
week which reported that Pierre had
notified a third of his staff that they
would be fired. Pierre said that he had
sent out routine notices to each facul
ty member saying that all contracts
w'ould be renewed for the next year.
Faculty members who read the arti
cle, he said, knew' that they hadn’t
received any notice of firing, and the
result was “complete confusion.”
When Pierre was named president
of Prairie View' two months ago, he
announced plans for drastic improve
ments, including upgrading acade
mic programs, facilities and staff
qualifications. However, he said, he
has not made plans to fire any of the
current faculty members.
Pierre said the Chronicle will print
a retraction of the inaccurate article.
inside
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... 4
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... 5
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forecast
Clear to partly cloudy skies today
w'ith a high of 80. Winds from the
south at 10 mph. Mostlv
clear
tonight with a low near 51.
Partlv
cloudy and a little warmer Tuesdav
with a high near 88.
A