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Monday, November 10, 1986/The Battalioh/Page 3
IS?
State and Local
visabled athletes hope to revive club
■ Roomate Problen
Cramped Quarters?
00
TOTAL MOVE-IN
STUDENT SPECIAL
WITH I.D.
Wheelchair dribblers still ‘on a roll’
B'.
By Julie Vass
Reporter
Basketball players Jim Magdalenski and Sam
jj'reorge aren’t just on the ball, they’re on a roll —
wheelchairs, that is.
George and Magdalenski are the only mem-
liers of the Association of Handicapped Athletes,
]n almost extinct club in the College Station area.
Magdalenski says the organization began in
1981 with a membership of about 25 people that
jnjclio led non-handicapped as well as hand
icapped people.
^Heorge says membership, which is organized
Ihrlugh the A&M Intramural Office, has
jlropped drastically in the last year.
()i\e reason f or the membership drop, George
lays, is that many handicapped students think
liey are too disabled to become involved.
^BiVe cannot stress enough that anybody with
linylkind of disability can join,” George says. “We
lever say or think that someone can not partici-
oati."
People in electric wheelchairs who are not able
to use their upper bodies to play sports, can also
participate by keeping score, George says.
“There are some handicapped students on
campus who could be good wheelchair basketball
players, but they are just not interested,” he says.
George says that often handicapped people do
not realize they have the ability to play a compet
itive sport.
Magdalenski agreed. “Some people may not
know what they can do until they are actually
doing it,” he says.
George, who was crippled with polio in his
childhood, says he has been playing wheelchair
basketball for three years and also has competed
in several wheelchair marathon races.
He says the association is not only suffering
from a lack of membership, but also from a lack
of interest.
To address this problem, Magdalenski says the
group is trying to establish more contact with stu
dents. It also is working with the Bryan-Gollege
Station Mayors’ Committee for Disabled Persons
to try to get people in the community involved in
handicapped athletic activities.
Those who have never watched wheelchair
basketball, George says, may be surprised to find
out how last-moving it is.
George, who has been knocked out of his
wheelchair on more than one occasion, says,
“They’re wrong if (they) think it is a non-contact
sport.”
Rene J. Jaime, a non-handicapped A&M stu
dent who has played wheelchair basketball with
George and Magdalenski, says the reason for the
lack of interest could possibly be that people are
ignorant about the sport.
Jaime says some people may think it is unfair
to the handicapped person to play against a per
son who is able to walk.
“The rules and the way the game is set up are
such that being able-bodied is no advantage,” he
says. Learning to control the wheelchairs makes
the game not only more difficult but more of a
challenge, he says.
George says practice is held on Thursdays at 8
p.m. and on Saturday afternoons in DeWare
Field House. Wheelchairs are provided for those
who do not have their own.
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Teacher enjoys roles in classroom, pulpit
S
By Fawn Haynes
Reporter
■evera! plaques adorn the walls of
die neat and ordered basement of-
l^Mice in Senates Hall. Two plaques,
from the state of South Carolina
*^anc the other from Missouri, read
“Honorary State Farmer.” Another
reads “International Clergy Appre-
l ^ 1 nation Week.”
VccnuM he office belongs to Dr. Alvin
lyue Larke Jr., an assistant professor of
,| r agricultural education.
. ^B-arke, 39, has two professions —
that of a teacher and that of a pre
acher.
1,1 guess it (preaching) was a call-
i urn ing early, but it was the accepting of
iilin, it that took a while,” Larke says. He
says has been preaching since 1982.
^^■.arke, who preaches in the Afri
can Methodist Episcopal Church,
says he thinks that his roles are com
plementary.
■Preaching is a form of teaching,”
he says, “and teaching is a form of
ministering.”
B-le adds, however, that he is care-
it we i
‘Dr.
ful not to bring his preaching into
the classroom.
One of Larke’s classes, Agricultu
ral Education 440, Principles of
Technological Change, deals pri
marily with the introduction and
adoption of change in society.
“My class deals with controversial
issues,” Larke says. “I try hard not to
let my values and beliefs flow into
the class lectures.”
Larke says he restrains any ten
dency to preach in class by following
his lecture notes.
He says he does a lecture each se
mester on ethics. And when the class
discussion is about what is right or
wrong, he tends to get caught up in
that lecture because he lives the bib
lical way of life, he says.
“But f have done it (given the lec
ture on ethics) for so long that I
won’t tell you that something is
wrong,” he says. “There are times
that you want to say how you feel in
ternally but you can’t — because you
know your opinion will be biased be
cause you relate everything to the
biblical doctrine.”
Larke says he has had very few
students write on their teacher eval
uations that he preaches too much in
class.
Sometimes he has to ask his stu
dents if they want the minister’s
point of view or the professor’s point
of,view, he says. The answers could
be different or the same depending
on the question, he says.
Larke says he has many students
approach him with their problems
partly because he is a Mentor, a per
son students are encouraged to look
to for informal guidance and coun
seling.
He earned his master’s in special
education from South Carolina State
College and his doctorate in agricul
tural education from the University
of Missouri.
Larke, an advisor for Alpha Phi
Alpha Fraternity, Inc., says he can
see himself as a role model for the
group of young men. The f raternity
consists of 20 members who share
the same common bond of schol
arship and love of all mankind, he
says.
He also is an active supporter of
the gospel group, Black Awareness
Voices of Praise. The gospel group is
made up of about 60 A&M students.
Larke also is a member of Faculty
Friends, a group of faculty members
united by Christian beliefs.
Larke preaches in churches in
both Hearne and Calvert, with one
service at 9 a.m. and the other at 11
a.m.
He says his type of preaching has
resulted in his being labeled a teach
ing minister, because he incorpo
rates teaching in his preaching.
Larke says he has goals for both
his role as a teacher and his role as a
minister.
He says he would hate for his
church to tell him they need him all
the time. He also says he would hate
for his dean to say “teach or preach.”
“I hope I never have to make a
choice between the two,” he says.
Cambodia: Graveyard for
2,000,000 Innocent People
isCGREXT iss^and \ A C GI /^fclNEM a/
Present
Dith Pran
and the movie based on his life
THE KILLING FIELDS
Monday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.
Dith Pran will Speak Tues, Nov. 18
7:30 p.m.
Movie: $2.00 Program: $2.00
Combined Pass: $3.00
The Battalion
er li
irnA
a Texas A&M Tradition ”
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