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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1987)
siouf# Q3ioi oj pQQjoj Aiinaoj :d&is IX&N &Q1 in parachuting accident By Yvonne DeGraw Staff Writer University officials ordered flags on campus to be lowered to half-staff today after two Battalion columnists fell to their deaths while skydiving. That order was later changed to three-quarter-staff, then seven-eights-staff. Finally it was agreed that flags would be lowered 2 1 /2 inches in honor of Karl Pallmeyer and Mike Sullivan, two controversial figures on the A&M campus. Pallmeyer, columnist for The Battalion, and Sullivan, opinion page editor and columnist for The Battalion, were attempting to parachute into Kyle Field in an apparent practice attempt for a Midnight Yell Practice landing next fall. But plans went awry and both mens’ parachutes failed to open, causing both Pallmeyer and Sullivan to land face-down (appropriately, some might say) in front of the Reed McDonald Building. Following the accident, rumor spread rapidly that either a Corps member or a traditions council member packed the chutes. Guy Smart, an investigator for the College Station Police Department said, “Well, of course I suspect foul play. ” The inspector has narrowed his list of suspects to 30,000. Apparently there are 5-6,000 students on campus who have never read The Battalion. The main groups of suspects include corps members, Greeks, bowheads, Christians, cat haters, cat lovers, men, women, graduating seniors, freshmen, C&W fans, and business majors. Police Beat The following were not reported to the University Police Department from April 23 through Thursday or any other dates (The names have not been changed to protect the innocent): MISDEMEANOR THEFT: • Three bras, two girdles, five pairs of panties and a pair of control top pantyhose were stolen from a room in Davis-Gary Hall. • A group of students stormed a local grocery store at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday night, the store manager reported, and stole 23 cases of Jolt soda. He called the students “crazed caffeine addicts” and reported that one of the students said he needed the “stuff’ because he had projects due. • University Police confiscated about 250 pairs of womens’ underwear and numerous other lingerie in the closet of a room in Dunn Hall. • A pizza delivery man reported that he saw what appeared to be a nude woman run in front of his car. When he came back to the car after chasing her, he found that seven pizzas and at least nine soft drinks were stolen. FELONY THEFT: J • Four cadets were arrested in connection with the removal of an “Austin City Limits” sign. One cadet told officers they were trying to get an early start for next fall’s bonfire. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: • A student reported that someone peeled off the tint on the windows of his 1985 BMW. DISORDERLY CONDUCT: • It was reported that a man resembling The Battalion Opinion Page Editor announced to the A&M Board of Regents that the Corps of Cadets was abolished. Interim Corp Commander Dr. Malon Southerland received a forged memo from President Frank Vandiver calling for the immediate disbanding of the Corps of Cadets and evacuation of Corps dorms. Mike Sullivan was found sitting on the MSC grass writing a column when officers arrested him. • A student reported that he heard a woman in the Memorial Student Center say that she didn’t understand why Aggies object to officially recognizing gay students. University police have a description of the woman, who is still at large. An investigation is in progress. The woman is being sought on charges of provoking thought at a university. A stake-burning is planned, pending her capture. • Six Aggie mothers received citations because they wore “Ban Vandiver’s Finals Policy” T-shirts during Parents’ W’eekend. HARASSMENT: • A student reported that she sat in a fourth floor group study for four hoiifs Thursday night and no one masturbated in front of her. INDECENT EXPOSURE: • A Battalion columnist was found unconscious in the Blocker Building wearing only a large silver bow and three Greek letters taped to his chest. • A student reported that she thought she heard another student laughing while reading The Battalion’s Police Beat. But she said when he put down the newspaper he made strange noises and played with himself. HAZING: • LTD received pages of the A&M athletic department’s in-house probe that revealed certain athletes were paid money and given the use of a BMW to perform sex acts with A&M sorority pledges. Some pledges said they were promised more sex if they became active members. ASSAULT: • A woman reported that she was attacked by three khaki-clad students while she was washing her car. She said the men stripped her of her clothing, tied her to the back bumper of her car and rolled it into a nearby pond. The three men were spotted selling the girl’s clothes on a street corner and were arrested. The students told officers the stunt was part of a fund-raising event. TOWING: • A student confessed to the UPD that he had parked his car in a 30- minute parking zone on campus for 32 minutes and that his car was not towed. UPD arranged for a wrecker to pick the car up at the student’s home and tow it. The student was fined $50 and was allowed to pick up his car from the wrecking yard a week later.