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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 1988)
Texas A&M *1 Battaliori Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1988 College Station, Texas Vol. 88 No. 32 USPS 045360 10 Pages ; goin5t 0t !■■■< rnameiitsi s.\ Mr. Postman... Liz Tisch, a sophomore special education major from Klein, picks up mail at the MSC Post Office Monday. Photo by Jay Janner Students who checked mailboxes Monday found them empty because of the Columbus Day holiday. New center helps minorities apply to medical programs k the m , tional^; Team m leatthg ^Min Resid H nt, ^ j tificateW ndtl it Vali^l ; reaW By D’Ann Marie Aviles Reporter Preparing for medical or dental school lis a difficult process for anyone, but for [minority or disadvantaged students, the |task can be even more difficult. Texas A&M is now home to the Ap- ] plication Center for Summer Programs in |Texas. The center streamlines student I applications to summer medical school [enrichment programs for minority and [disadvantaged students. Students can apply for all the summer [programs in Texas with a single applica tion instead of filling out an application [foreach program. The summer programs are intensive four- to six-week courses that strengthen students’ backgrounds in the sciences as well as introduce them to what medical school will be like. Billy Rankin, assistant dean of A&M’s College of Medicine, is director of the center. Rankin pioneered the application con solidation process while he was at the University of Texas. At UT, he consol idated applications to the medical and dental schools. The Application Center for Summer Programs in Texas is six years old. Be fore coming to A&M, Rankin and the program he helped develop were used at UT-Galveston and Baylor University. “When you say minority, you have to say in what context, ” Rankin said. “When we talk about minority and medi cine and affirmative action, the affirma tive action in admission to medical school is aimed at those groups who are underrepresented in medicine.” In the United States, Rankin said, the underrepresented groups in medicine are Latin, Mexican-American, American In dian and mainland Puerto Rican. Summer programs do not limit them selves to these minorities, Rankin said. The key word, he said, is disadvantaged. In addition to A&M’s medical school, other participants include the University of Texas Health Science Center in Hous ton, Baylor’s College of Medicine in Houston, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Each school has its own summer pro gram. A&M’s program is called the “Bridge to Medicine Program.” It began in 1986 in order to help mi- 1 nority students who wanted to attend medical school, but were lacking in the proper background. Although the Center’s headquarters is at A&M, each school makes its own de cisions about accepting students. A&M serves only as a clearinghouse for the program. Filomeno Maldonado is the director of the Bridge to Medicine Progam and as sistant director of the application center. In addition to chemistry and biology, Maldonado said the Bridge to Medicine Program focuses on writing and the hu manities. “This is a service profession,” Maldo nado said. “It’s important to have the necessary skills to relate to people who are ill or dying.” Maldonado stresses that the program isn’t only for Black or Hispanic students. By including the phrase “disadvantaged students,” Maldonado said she hopes white students who are economically or academically disadvantaged will apply. “It’s an enrichment program, not re mediation,” Maldonado said. “But peo ple see the word ‘minority’ and think of that stereotype. ” Maldonado directs the program in ad dition to his administrative role. “I’m involved with the students,” Maldonado said. “I counsel the students. I also teach. I’m in the forefront, and I’m always there.” Although Rankin’s role as director of the center is primarily administrative, he works with the Bridge to Medicine Pro gram whenever he is needed. “I would be happy to go and present a seminar,” Rankin said. “But it’s File’s program, and if I went, it would be as a guest.” Both Rankin and Maldonado say they believe programs give minority and dis advantaged students a great advantage. Application to a summer program is similar to an application for medical school. From the start, the students get a chance to see what medical school will be like. “We want to impress upon them that these programs are in every way credi ble, genuine and authentic,” Maldonado said. The programs give students an inten sive course in biology and chemistry. Students experience classroom, labo ratory and hands-on approaches to learn ing. At A&M, students in the program visit hospitals, meet with physicians and get an introduction to what their first year of medical school will be like. “Two-thirds of the time, you’re in the classroom,” Maldonado said. “The other one-third, you’re given the opportunity to experience what’s going on in terms of research in the College of Medicine.” Federal funding supports all pro grams. Students receive room and board and classroom materials. They only have to provide their own transportation. To apply, students must show proof of being disadvantaged if they are not mem bers of minority groups. They must fill out the application and indicate the pro grams they are interested in attending. The application is sent with a college transcript and an evaluation from the stu dent’s health professions adviser to the A&M center. That information is fed into a com puter system which distributes the infor mation to other schools. Of the 200 students who apply to the program, about 100 are selected to par ticipate. A&M takes 15 students for the Bridge to Medicine Program. Maldonado said that last year, 14 of the 15 students who took part in the 1987 Bridge to Medicine Program applied to medical school. The one student who didn’t apply is going to graduate school to get a master’s degree before applying to medical school. Maldonado and Rankin strongly en courage students to take part in the pro gram because they think it is a way to get a head start on the competition in medi cal school. Students interested in the program should contact Maldonado at the Office of Student Affairs in the Medical Sci ences Building. Presidential candidates prepare for last debate From Associated Press George Bush and Michael Dukakis courted the support of Italian-Americans in competing Columbus Day appearances Monday that left plenty of time to polish their lines in private for this week’s second and final presidential campaign debate. It was a day that mixed campaign rhetoric with colorful made-for-television images. Dukakis proposed a plan to make it easier for first-time home buyers to finance their residences before marching in a Columbus Day parade up Fifth Avenue in mid-town Manhat tan alongside Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York Mayor Ed Koch and John F. Kennedy Jr. Bush took a turn at a pool table in an Italian neighborhood in New Jersey, bouncing the No. 4 ball in the comer pocket while the morning patrons cheered. After that came a speech on crime. Their daily campaign rounds over, both men hustled back to their political lairs to resume preparations for their prime time debate later in the week. Both camps said they expected the 90-minute debate to be held at 9 p.m. EDT Thursday night on the campus of UCLA, and the presidential rivals were flying to the West Coast on Tuesday to prepare. The candidates exuded confidence as they began the final four weeks of campaigning. The vice president, a step ahead in the polls, said he was heartened by surveys showing him the leader across the South and in other key states. Countered Dukakis: “This one is out there to be won. . . . We can taste it. We can feel it. ” Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was the only vice presidential candidate with appearances scheduled. He was in Ohio and Michigan, where he offered another re finement of the answer to the question in last week’s debate that plagued him — what would he do if he suddenly became president. He said he would make a request to speak to the nation and would consult with U.S. allies. “Obviously you do different things under an assassina tion,’’ Quayle said. “The first thing you do in an assassina tion — I would still say a prayer for myself and the nation — but the first thing you do is you get on the phone and call the head of the CIA and see what he thinks it was. You don’t con vene a Cabinet meeting right away. ’ ’ “You get your secretary of defense, your national security adviser, your Secretary of State and meet with them immedi ately,’’ he said. “In the situation of an illness it would be a different type of situation.” Dukakis attacked Bush’s record on housing issues in his first stop of the day. “George Bush has no housing program,” the Democrat said in a speech in Levittown, a Long Island community that was the embodiment of the post-World Wart II boom in affor dable housing. “He has no solutions. He has no new ideas.” But the vice president got the endorsement of II Progresso, an Italian-language newspaper, which said the ‘’traditional values of Italian-Americans can be found in the electoral pro gram of Vice President Bush. Italian-American Cuomo answered for Dukakis, saying, “Then they ought to change their name. From going forward — progresso — to going backward,’’ he said. The vice president street-campaigned in New Jersey, walk ing through an Italian neighborhood in south Trenton before delivering a speech on crime. “Frankly, law-abiding Americans are fed up with the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on them by those who are soft on crime,” the vice president said. He proposed making it easier for victims to collect civil judgements for restitution and allowing them to receive more money automatically if a convict’s financial situation im proved. While refraining from the type of harsh attack on Dukakis’ crime record that has become a regular part of his cam paigning, Bush criticized “liberal thinkers” who he said thought it was compassionate ease sentencing and allow early releases and furloughs. That was a muted remark directed at the Massachusetts prison furlough program that Bush has repeatedly criticized during the campaign. In one infamous incident, a murderer out of jail on a furlough escaped and brutally attacked a Maryland couple. Bush told reporters aboard Air Force Two en route to New Jersey that he favors a review of the federal furlough program but said he doesn’t have anything specific in mind. In a jab at Dukakis, he added he wants to make sure the federal program doesn’t “slip into the Massachusetts model.” There was nothing muted about Dukakis’ attack on Bush in his speech on housing. The Democratic presidential candidate outlined a plan that he dubbed “Home Start” that would allow first-time home buyers to use their Individual Retirement Account or tax-de ferred pension savings for a downpayment on a home. Researcher looks to rats for cocaine abuse study By Melissa Naumann Reporter While cocaine abuse is difficult for most people to overcome, a Texas A&M researcher is attempting to determine how rats react to cocaine use. Learning the difference between rats that abuse cocaine after being exposed to it and rats that abstain from the drug is a project Dr. Susan Schenk of the psychol ogy department has been working on for five years. “I want to figure out what’s different about rats that do and those that don’t,” Schenk said. Research is intended to point to rea sons why some humans become addicted to cocaine. Schenk divides the rats into two groups — “social” rats and “isolated” rats. Rats that live isolated from the others use more cocaine when given the oppor tunity, she said. “In fact, there’s quite a remarkable difference between them,” she said. Schenk’s discoveries have come as a shock to many drug researchers. “People have reported for years that all rats take cocaine,” Schenk said. “This is because people have traditionally housed rats in isolation. Therefore, we’ve been worried about this animal model we use. If all the rats exposed to cocaine become addicted, will all hu mans exposed become addicted?” Schenk’s modification of the tradi tional drug research, studying both social and isolated rats, emphasizes the impor tance of environment in research. “There is some environmental compo nent to this,” Schenk said. “By modify ing their social environments, I think we’ve changed their brains. So the ques tion is what parts of the brain does it af fect?” To administer the cocaine, a small piece of plastic tubing is surgically im planted into the jugular veins of each of Schenk’s 40 rats. Each rat is taken out of his housing environment daily and put in a box with some cocaine, Schenk said. The rats obtain the drug by hooking themselves up to a tube of cocaine solu tion and pushing a lever to get a “hit.” Each dose of cocaine is comparable to the average amount a person would take. The “high” lasts 12 seconds. Most isolated rats take about 100 infu sions during their three hours in the box. “The record is held by a Canadian rat,” Schenk said. “He regularly had 600 infusions in three hours.” Schenk began her research in Mon treal and came to A&M in 1987 to con tinue her work. The experiments, funded by the psy chology department and a new federal grant, are approved by the Animal Care Committee. After studying why and how the rats use drugs, Schenk thinks the next step will be to reverse her results. “Once we create these drug-abusing rats, can we ‘un-create’ them?” she said. “This might tell us where drugs work in the brain. The more we know about how cocaine interacts with the organism, the better off we’ll be.” Eventually, Schenk hopes her research will be useful in treating people with drug problems. “Right now, we don’t have very good treatment programs,” Schenk said. “Maybe this research can be applied and change things.” Since the rats are not bom with addic tive personalities, the issue is why co caine appeals to some of them, Schenk said. “I think that if you can solve the vul nerability problem of why they want it, you can solve the rest of the problem,” she said. Although the similarities between peo ple and rats are a vital element in the re search, the comparison shouldn’t be taken too far, she said. “Some people have interpreted that because the rats are stressed, they’re tak ing more drugs, but I don’t agree.” Faculty Senators set high standards for transfer scores By Laura White Staff Writer All courses transferred to A&M from other institutions must have a grade of at least “C-minus,” the Texas A&M Faculty Senate unani mously agreed in a resolution passed yesterday. During a regular meeting, the aca demic affairs committee reasoned that the practice of accepting transfer credit for courses in which a “D” grade has been received puts A&M students at a disadvantage because transferred courses don’t have any impact on the students’ GPR. The Senate also voted to support the administration in improving fund ing to the Sterling Evans and Medical Sciences Libraries. A&M libraries currently rank 48th in the nation in terms of quality but rank 7th in university endowments, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The total amount budgeted for the libraries in 1988-89 is 3.23 percent less than in 1984-85, and is the low est since 1981-82. In 1988-89 the budget for books and periodicals will have decreased 18.69 percent from 1984-85. The Senate discussed and sent back to the scholarship committee recom mendations for complying with House Bill 1147, which will limit the number of nonresident students who will pay resident tuition rates at pub lic universities in Texas. In other business, the Senate ap proved a resolution pertaining to the University practice of substituting four semesters of upper-level ROTC curriculum for history and policital science. The practice will be discussed by the University Curriculum Commit tee and possibly will be altered or dis missed altogether at a later date. The Senate also approved the pro posals to add a drug policy to the 1988-89 University Regulations handbook. The addition to the handbook will contain information about drug edu cation, prevention and treatment available at A&M, as well as the le gal aspects and consequences, and the university disciplinary process. Also added to the handbook is a section explaining the new final ex amination schedule. In other business, the Senate rec ognized the Faculty of Plant Physiol ogy as an Intercollegiate Faculty. The academic responsibilities of the Faculty of Plant Physiology in clude teaching undergraduate and graduate courses as well as adminis tration of the graduate programs in plant physiology. The Senate also approved a request by the graduate council to authorize a Master of Arts degree in speech com munication. Development of the program has been designated by the Dean’s office as a first priority within the College of Liberal Arts, and is responsive to a demonstrated interest in speech com munication at A&M. In further business, the Senate ap proved requests for three new grad uate courses: Humanities 685, Music 685 and Sociology 681.