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Vol. 87 No. 66 GSPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, December 3, 1987
Official: Dates
not set to hear
hazing-law case
By Clark Miller
Staff Writer
No date has been set for the hear
ings that could find some Texas
A&M Corps of Cadet members
juilty of violating state and Univer
sity hazing laws, an A&M official
laid.
The hearings will be held because
)f the Nov. 15 incident that left
A&M senior George Russell Pulliam
landcuffed and tied to a post on the
University of Texas campus.
Dr. Brent Paterson, student devel-
tpment specialist with the Depart-
nent of Student Affairs at A&M,
aid letters have been sent to 22 stu-
ients charging them with either di-
ectly participating in the incident or
if having knowledge of the incident
ind not reporting it to the proper
University officials.
Pulliam, a member of the Corps
ind the commanding officer of
iquadron 10, reportedly was taken
rom the A&M campus by freshman
adets in his squadron.
In an interview shortly after the
ncident, Maj. Gen. Thomas Darling,
:ommandant of the Corps, said Pull
iam’s abduction was a freshman
prank.
“It was a case of freshmen trying
to earn their Corps brass,” Darling
said.
Darling also added that it wasn’t
something he condoned.
Paterson said his office knows the
students who are involved and they
all have received the letters that tell
them what they are charged with.
However, Paterson said the names
are confidential and cannot be re
leased.
A member of Squadron 10, Tram-
pus Black, a freshman general stud
ies student, declined to comment on
the incident when contacted by tele
phone.
Black said he wasn’t involved in
the incident and added that he was
told not to discuss it with anybody.
When asked who told him this, he
said it was his commanding officer,
who is Pulliam.
Despite repeated efforts to reach
Pulliam by phone, he hasn’t been
available for comment.
Paterson said that the dates of the
hearings have not yet been set.
Four hogs line up and try to eat grass through the fence at the Texas A&M Swine Center.
nake
staff
lid.
9
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3
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ormer A&M student gets vital liver transplant
By Janet Goode
Staff Writer
John Stone, the former Texas A&M stu-
ent who called upon the support of his fel-
)w Aggies to raise money for a desperately
ceded liver transplant, underwent surgery
nd received a donated liver Tuesday.
The surgery began at 9:30 Tuesday
1 ht and successfully was completed at
0 Wednesday morning. Stone now is
sted in serious condition and is in the in
tensive care unit at the Baylor University
Medical Center in Dallas.
Susan Hall, spokesman for the medical
center, said that this is typical for a trans
plant patient, and that Stone is doing as well
as can be expected.
Hall said Stone will spend two or three
days in an intensive care emit and" then
three to four weeks in a regular patient
room, if all goes well.
Stone, 25, suffers from Alpha-1-Anti-
Trypsin Deficiency, which keeps his body
from controlling his digestive enzymes, re
sulting in cirrhosis of the liver.
“Basically, I’m digesting my own liver,”
Stone told The Battalion earlier this semes
ter before he was put on the donor list.
The cirrhosis of his liver kept his blood
from-circulating properly, so if he had not
received the operation, doctors feared he
would have hemorrhaged and bled to
death.
Scott Donahue, Stone’s friend and chair
man of the John Stone Liver Transplant
Fund, said about $35,000 has been raised
through various channels including dona
tions, leaving about $85,000 still needed to
pay for the deposit on the doner waiting
list.
The medical center let Stone receive a
donor and undergo the transplant without
the full funds. Donahue said in a earlier in
terview that he thinks the hospital officials
realized how serious Stone’s condition was
and felt pressure from the media.
Stone also needs about $250,000 more to
pay for the operation itself.
Persons wishing to donate should write
the American Transplant Association, Box
822123, Dallas, Tx. 75382-2123, or the
American Transplant Association, care of
the John Stone Fund, Post Oak Branch of
First State Bank in Caldwell, P.O. Box
10130, College Station, Tx. 77840.
the
Student Senate backs plan
cutting funds, health care
By Drew Leder
Staff Writer
The Student Senate Wednes
day backed a student-service fee
budget proposal recommending
the elimination of all-night, inpa
tient care at the A.P. Beutel
Health Center, an almost 98 per
cent decrease in shuttle bus fund
ing and no funding for the newly
reated Multicultural Services
Center.
In what Speaker of the Senate
|ay Hays called “one of the most
productive meetings in three
fears,” the Senate also approved.
" recommending that next se
mester faculty be given the option
)f providing a separate final
xam to graduating seniors or
tempting seniors from finals.
The budget proposal, written
>y the Student Government Fi-
lance Committee, was unani
mously approved by the Senate
with virtually no debate and
serves as a recommendation to
the Student Services office of how
student service fee revenues
should be allocated in the 1988-
89 school year.
The budget proposal calls for a
per-student increase of $2 that
will bring the fees up to $67. This
will increase funding for the 17
campus organizations that receive
student-service fee allocations
2.35 percent to $5,070,176.
The major area of funding is
the health center, which is to re
ceive 28.1 percent of the fees. Al
though the health center’s fund
ing over last year will increase
almost 37 percent to $1,424,719,
the Finance Committee didn’t
meet the center’s request, recom
mending that health care services
from midnight to 8 a.m. be dis
continued because they aren’t
cost efficient.
The proposal also calls for a 98
percent decrease in funding for
the University shuttle bus service,
alloting $2,000 to help fund free
bonfire shuttle service. According
to the budget, shuttle bus fund
ing should come solely from the
students who utilize the service.
To make up for the lost student-
service fee money, the budget
suggests that the price of a bus
pass be raised $10 over the next
three years.
Funding for the Multicultural
Services Center, which was
$106,000 this year, is eliminated
completely. The Finance Com
mittee stated that the center af
fects only a small portion of stu
dents, and the center’s goals — to
work with and aid minorities and
minority programs on campus —
are duplicated in other on-cam
pus services.
The budget also calls for al-
See Budget, page 10
&M superconducting cyclotron
vill help reveal secrets of atom
By Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writer
IThe temperature is near absolute
To. Thousands of feet of super-
foducting wires are coiled and
liting. The electricity flows
(tough the wires, causing magnetic
fids to form. If the maximum
ount of electricity the coils could
Id was run into them, the magne-
field could break the machine’s
!el structural support.
Naked atomic nuclei, stripped of
■ir electrons, are injected into this
irling maelstrom of magnetism in-
e the coils of wire. Radio waves
ther accelerate the particles until
y are traveling almost at the
ed of light. The nuclei travel
ough a vacuum and smash into a
o sheet of aluminum, causing a
try of atomic collisions.
This is how new discoveries will be
de at the new superconducting
lotron at Texas A&M beginning
Inday. Dr. Dave Youngblood, di-
[torof the facility, said the new de-
is one of only three like it in the
rid, because it uses superconduct-
Single
Dee
To radio
frequency
supply
Ion source
Graphic by Susan C. Akin
ing technology in a cyclotron. The
project cost $8 million, which in
cluded building the cyclotron itself
and the structure to house the ma
chine. It will allow A&M researchers
to accelerate atoms as large as ura
nium — which has an atomic num
ber of 92 on the periodic table of el
ements. The present accelerator can
only accelerate atoms up to argon,
which has an atomic number of 18.
Youngblood said the cyclotron
won’t necessarily produce new dis
coveries from planned experiments.
He said researchers learn things
when unexpected results arise.
“It is really a success when the ex
periments don’t do what you ex
pect,” he said. He pointed to a book
containing the proposal for the old
cyclotron and said none of the new
things A&M researchers discovered
were in the 200-page volume. He
said if they had proved all of their
theories correct, they would not
have learned as much.
One of the experiments planned
for the new cyclotron involves find
ing what happens to particles that
travel at the speed of sound within
the nucleus of an atom. Youngblood
said the speed of sound varies in dif
ferent materials. For example, the
speed of sound through air is differ
ent than the speed of sound through
wood.
An experiment will study the in
teractions of ions at this speed. He
said A&M researchers discovered
the speed of sound through atoms is
one-third the speed of light using
See Cyclotron, page 10
A&M leaders provide varied views
of mascot proposal of Old Sarge
By Shannon O’Neal
Reporter
A familiar “Aggie” face came to
life Tuesday when a cadet in an “Old
Sarge” costume strolled around the
Quadrangle. Cries of disapproval
and dismay came from the residence
halls he passed.
Some cadets called for the cos
tume to be destroyed and some
wanted their picture taken with the
animated Old Sarge.
“We need to take that monstrosity
out Thursday night and do a replay
of the flight of the great pumpkin,”
Steve Early, cadet captain of com
pany K-2, said referring to the an
nual smashing of a pumpkin on the
Quadrangle at Halloween.
Head yell leader Doug Beall said
it was the first time the costume had
been in public.
Beall said he picked it up from
Athletic Director Jackie Sherrill
Thanksgiving morning and stored it
in his dorm room until Tuesday.
The Battalion contacted the A&M
Sports Information Office and was
told they knew of no plans for such a
mascot.
Sherrill is out of town until Dec. 7
and could not be reached for com
ment.
Beall said the costume idea had
first been presented to him about
three weeks ago at bonfire stack.
Sherrill approached Beall and the
redpots with the idea of an Old
Sarge costume, but he got nothing
but negative feedback, Beall said.
At the University of Texas foot
ball game, Beall and other student
leaders looked at the costume and
told Sherrill it was inappropriate for
use at the game.
The costume was to be under stu
dent control, Beall said, and would
wander around outside Kyle Field
and on the alumni side of the sta
dium during the games.
According to Beall, Sherrill said
the alumni want something on their
side of the field, and they feel the
Old Sarge tradition is dying.
Some alumni see the costume as a
way to revive the tradition, he said.
But Beall said the alumni feedback
he has received about the costume is
negative.
“The consensus of the old Ags is
that they want to watch the game
and the students,” Beall said. “They
did their yelling when they were stu
dents, and if they wanted to do it
now they would get tickets on the
student side.”
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
The Old Sarge mascot came to life Tuesday.
The student leaders’ initial reac
tion was complete rejection, but
Beall said as the discussion contin
ued, they admitted the possibility of
the costume being worked into bas
ketball or baseball games.
Student Body President Mason
Hogan said those responsible should
have gotten student input earlier.
“If they really wanted student in
put, they could have done so much
earlier and saved someone a whole
lot of money and time,” Hogan said.
Although many people say it will
succeed because Aggies are too nice
to reject it, he feels it is simply not
needed.
“Aggies are going to come to the
game — win, lose or draw,” Hogan
said. “A costume is simply not going
to be a draw for a sports event. We
don’t need it. We already have
enough at the games with pur yell
leaders, cannon, Rev and all the
C.T.s in uniform running around
down there. I just don’t think we
need this big head stumbling
See Old Sarge, page 10