D 1985
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Spring break hours
Facilities set new schedules
Pages
* Vi?
Big dreams in Dallas
Metcalfs Ags begin SWC tourney
Page 7
The Battalion
College Station, Texas
Friday, March 8, 1985
University suspends
Cadet for violation
of new training code
Associated Press
COLLEGE STATION — A mem
ber of the Corps of Cadets was sus-
E ended for one semester after he al-
■gedly required another cadet to
perform unauthorized physical
exercises, school officials said Thurs
day.
The student, identified as Joseph
Andrew Gassman, 20, is being al
lowed to attend classes while the
charge is appealed, officials said.
Nine other cadets also are being
called for disciplinary hearings on
unrelated allegations of misconduct,
officials said.
University officials declined to
discuss the specific charges, citing
laws that govern release of informa
tion about students and their re
cords.
“The only thing that we can say is
that we will not tolerate any form of
abuse — physical or mental — of any
student attending Texas A&M, and
we will, and are, investigating any al
legations that even hint of prohib
ited actions,” said Bill Kibler, assis
tant director of student affairs.
However, a unit commander said
Gassman was dismissed after fresh
man Williams Buvins, 18, of Baton
Rouge, La., was ordered to perform
“motivational exercise” on Feb. 9.
Buvins marched and did sit-ups,
push-ups and leg lifts for four
hours, said commander Frank DeL
eon. Afterward, Buvins returned to
his room and took a nap on the
floor, DeLeon said.
When Buvins’ roommate tried to
wake him, the cadet would not get
up. The cadet was later revived, but
was disoriented and fatigued. A se
nior officer in the dormitory called
an ambulance, and Buvins was taken
to the A.P. Beutel Health Center.
Buvins has since withdrawn from
school.
The “motivation exercises” per
formed by Buvins violated new reg
ulations governing physical training
by the Corps, DeLeon said.
Gassman was disciplined for alleg
edly violating a rule that prohibits
exercises on weekends. But DeLeon
said the University is overreacting to
the incident because of the death last
year of another student.
But Gen. Ormond Simpson, assis
tant vice president for student serv
ices, said violations of University
rules would not be tolerated.
“It doesn’t make any difference
whether he (Buvins) was injured or
not,” Simpson said. “I don’t think
the University is overreacting. We’re
just not going to tolerate hazing any
more.”
Col. Donald L. Burton, Corps
commandant, added that the admin
istrative charges against the nine up
perclassmen resulted from an exten-
See UNIVERSITY, page 5
Zentgraf still hot
over mistreatment
now 13-2 overall, downed the Crimson Tide
5-4 and the Tigers 6-3. A&M will meet Cal-
Berkley at 2:30 p.m. today in the semi-finals.
*■‘'March to the Brazos project
to support March of Dimes
, y DEAN0
iketball’s) 3
(fastbreak)
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By DAINAH BULLARD
|j|' Staff Writer
The project is fun but the purpose
is serious.
The project is the March to the
Brazos on March 30, when the
Corps of Cadets will meet on the
banks of the Brazos River for a day
of fun and games. The purpose of
the march is to raise money for the
March of Dimes.
Greg Bowen, Corps adjutant says
the Corps’ goal this year is $40,000,
about $23 for each cadet.
Last year, the Corps raised about
$33,000 for the March of Dimes.
Bowen says B-Battery brought in
about $4,232, an average of about
$85 for each cadet, while other out
fits brought in an average of only $4
for each cadet.
The cadets will march about 14
miles to the river, then compete in a
chicken-eating contest sponsored by
Tinsley’s Chicken-and-Rolls, and
games such as tug-of-war, stretcher
races and 50-yard relay races.
Three Dallas Cowboys Cheerlead
ers will be on hand to inspire the ca
dets.
Prizes for the cadets who raise the
most money include a round trip for
two with the Aggie football team to
an out-of-town game and a color
television set, Bowen says.
In addition to the March to the
Brazos, the Corps and local sorori
ties are sponsoring a “Spring Break”
mixer on March 29 from 9 p.m. to 1
a.m. at the Lakeview Club.
Tickets ($2 for each person in ad
vance or $3 at the door) will be sold
March 18 through March 28 in the
main ha|l of the Memorial Student
Center and on the Quadrangle. The
mixer is open to everyone.
T-shirts advertising the mixer will
be sold for $5 each. Profits from the
mixer and the T-shirts also will be
donated to the March of Dimes.
The March to the Brazos began in
1908 as a means to remove the
rowdy student body, then all-male
and all-military, from the Texas
A&M campus on All Fool’s Day
(April 1).
It was discontinued when a cadet
drowned in the Brazos River in
1915, and resumed in 1977 to raise
money for the March of Dimes.
Since 1977, the Corps has raised
about $165,000 for the March of
Dimes.
From staff and wire reports
HOUSTON — Texas A&M Uni
versity President Frank Vandiver
says he neither supports nor opposes
Melanie Zentgrafs suit against for
mer University president Jarvis
Miller, former Corps of Cadets
Commander Robert Kamensky and
Vice» President for Student Services
John Koldus.
“I have no opinion for or against
it,” Vandiver says. “It’s a matter of
legal concern, and I can’t comment.”
Zentgraf, who filed a class-action
lawsuit against A&M during her ju
nior year, is seeking $75,000 dam
ages from Miller, Koldus and Ka
mensky for public humiliation and
sex discrimination.
In testimony Wednesday before
Judge Ross Sterling, Zentgraf said
she was taunted by classmates, ig
nored by school officials and
snubbed by the University president
after she sued to gain entry into all
male campus organizations.
Zentgraf, 26, and now a captain in
the U.S. Air Force, said the ultimate
embarassment came at her 1980
graduation when former A&M Pres
ident Jarvis Miller refused to shake
her hand.
“There was booing and the Aggie
tradition of hissing,” Zentgraf testi
fied in federal court. “I did not get a
handshake. I felt that Dr. Miller
publicly humiliated me at my grad
uation.”
After she filed the suit, Zentgraf
testified, she received demerits for
wearing the same style boots that
male members wore, reprimanded
for attempting to get women in
volved in the traditional bonfire be
fore the A&M-University of Texas
football game, and denounced in the
student newspaper.
“I was basically forced to become a
focal point,” she said. “I had to step
forward and do something.”
In January, U.S. District Judge
Ross Sterling issued a consent decree
banning the exclusion of women
from all-male groups such as the
Texas Aggie Band and the Ross Vol
unteers.
The decree was approved by
Zentgrafs lawyer, Carol Nelkin; the
U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights
division; and Texas Attorney Gen
eral Jim Mattox.
The attorney general’s decision to
settle the case prompted an outcry
by A&M alumni and some cadets.
Houston attorney John Tyler has
appealed the decision to the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in New Or
leans on behalf ol the T exas Aggie
Band Association, an organization of
former band members.
“I don’t see how you can appeal a
consent decree where the judge
didn’t change a word of it,” said
Sterling, adding that Mattox, not
A&M alumni, was the “real party” to
the suit.
O'Neill: 200
House votes
will kill MX
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr.
said Thursday that despite an in
tensive lobbying campaign by
President Reagan, at least 200
House Democrats are prepared
to kill the MX missile.
In the Senate, Assistant Repub
lican leader Ted Stevens of
Alaska said he believes at least 55
senators eventually will vote for
continuing MX production.
While sources said House
Armed Services Committee
Chairman Les Aspin is prepared
to vote for continued MX financ
ing later this month, O’Neill said
he met with Aspin and had not
yet given up hope that he could
be persuaded to vote against (he
missile.
Aspin, from Wisconsin, was
persuaded by arguments that kill
ing the powerful, long-range nu
clear missile just after U.S.-Soviet
arms control talks convene March
12 in Geneva would undermine
the American negotiating posi
tion, the sources said.
But O’Neill callfed the Demo
cratic vote against the MX a “solid
block.” House Majority Leader
Jim Wright, D-Texas, said, “You
haven’t often heard me dispute
the speaker.”
O’Neill said the White House is
pressuring Congress to endorse
more missiles.
MSC Crafts Center merges with After Hours
By CATHIE ANDERSON
Staff Writer
Although the Memorial Student
Center Crafts Center is merging
with MSC After Hours, most Aggies
won’t notice any changes.
While the Craft Center offers
classes including ceramics, drawing
and cross-stitching, After Hours in
structs people in such courses as aer
obics, bartending, and pool.
After Hours will soon be losing its
committee status, and an advisory
committee structure will be formed.
The advisory board will serve as a
go-between for the MSC Council
vice president of operations and
Wayne Helton, the Craft Center su
pervisor. After Hours committee
members will still have input in the
running of the program.
And Helton says this will not only
link the Craft Center mor e closely to
the MSC, something he has been
hoping for, but it will also make the
groups’ management more efficient.
The Craft Center will become one
central location for the continuing
education program. This also will
put the two groups under one man
ager.
Although Helton is looking for
ward to running the two organiza
tions, he says he’s not pleased with
the way the merger occurred.
Lani Balaam, MSC Council exec
utive vice president for programs,
says the program and budget review
committees, standing committees of
the MSC Council, needed to make a
decision quickly.
The MSC budget had to be given
to Student Government finance
committee for hearings on Feb. 23,
which help Student Government de
cide on the disposition of student
service fees. The program review
Committee knew the merger was in
evitable, Balaam says.
! not sure that the form
board provides for the hand$~ok experience the com-
to havef’— Maria Woodruff, chairman of
Helton says he hopes members of
the After Hours committee will not
be bitter about the merger because it
happened so quickly.
Maria Woodruff, chairman of Af
ter Hours, says she isn’t sure she
agrees with the elimination of the
After Hours committee to form an
advisory board.
“I do believe the merger in and of
itself is a good thing, but I’m not
sure that the form the merger is tak
ing is the form it should be taking,”
Woodruff says. “I don’t think an ad
visory board provides for the hands-
on experience the committee used to
have.”
Woodruff says that After Hours
members will have little incentive to
continue working if they can only
make recommendations, not deci
sions.
“And I can’t see anyone who
hasn’t been involved in the commit
tee before the merger wanting to get
involved in the (advisory) committee
later,” Woodruff says. “The people
in the committee now have an inter
est, but looking towards the future, I
just can’t see that.”
The Craft Center now operates
under the operations portion of the
MSC structure, meaning that the
center is run like a business. Now Af
ter Hours will be moving from the
recreational programs side of the
MSC to operations.
The merger will make After
Hours less of a financial risk, Balaam
says. The leadership ability of the
students in this committee has fluc
tuated in the past, although, it has
been good for the last two years.
By bringing the groups together
under Helton’s supervision the risk
will decrease. And by scheduling the
classes out of one office, Balaams
says, the groups’ services will be en
hanced.
James Randolph, associate direc
tor of the MSC, says the merger will
make the Craft Center a more self-
supporting organization, Randolph
says. Although the center is operat
ing in the black, it depends on stu
dent service fees for nearly 50 per
cent of its money.
Five years ago the center de
pended on student service lees for
about 75 percent of its money.
Unlike the Craft Center, After
Hours has not been directly subsi
dized by student service fees, he
says. The group collects fees for
their classes and pays for their ex
penses with the money. However,
student service fees do pay for a pro
fessional advisor for the After Hours
committee.
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