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t 8 aS Vo1 - 88 No. 123 USPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas
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Friday, March 31,1989
IBuchman elected student president
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STAFF WRITER
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fouryeat Kevin Buchman, the next Texas
: getting student body president, swept
getai 59 percent of the vote in T hursday’s
'.on.cbjstudent Government elections.
Buchman, a junior speech com-
age wasifcunications major, ran against Mi-
ie athlflt ;hael Kelley, a senior political sci-
i» take lie :nce major.
“I took the issues to the students
md didn’t have any gimmicks,”
Buchman said. “I just told the stu-
probleu dents what I wanted to do. I guess
wait w hey liked my plans.”
Kelley said, “I was reading before
ft studetl [ came here tonight how Abraham
worhj Lincoln lost many of his races before
re became president. So I know
here is a purpose for me elsewhere
hr now.”
Buchman received 3,044 votes,
lout higl jeating Kelley by 1,665.
The contest for yell leaders at-
of48ati racted the most voters, with Corps
re holditi )f Cadets members c linching all po-
l the en ikions in the race. Senior yell leaders
very pou vill be Steve Coan, Ed Allred and
IVaylan Gain. Junior yell leaders will
going! >e Brant I nee and Kevin Fitzgerald.
Katherine Smith won a second
and wen erm as president of the Class of ’90.
; for you (athleen Broderick will be vice pres-
you a dent and Jason Rappel secretary.
The social secretary will be Jennifer
ivans and the historian will be Sha-
on Brunner. The treasurer position
will be decided in a run-off election
\pril 4. Vying for the spot are Ka-
en Hodge and Chris Leist.
The Class of’91 presidency will be
lecided in a run-off between Phillip
lobertson and Billy Flanagan. Vice
resident of the Class of ’91 will be
Lhristy McBride. Tracy Butler was
:lected secretary; Leah Bennett trea-
urer; Leslie Willingham social sec-
etary; and Gil Delgado historian.
Trenton Kelley was re-elected
Hass of’92 president. The vice pre-
lidency will be determined in the
un-off election. Candidates are
3 atty Warhol and Bill Van Fman.
Jennifer Collins was elected secre
tary; Terri Welch social secretary;
Jason Scott historian. Steve Beller
and Read Garrett will be in a run-off
to decide the Class of’92 treasurer.
Curtis Rick was re-elected presi
dent of Off-Campus Aggies. Keith
Powell won vice president, Millicent
Thompson was elected secretary and
La Ray McKay treasurer.
Leah Hanselka will be Residence
Hall Association president and Kyle
Jacobson will be vice president. Mar
tina Seyfert will be secretary.
All St udent Senate chairmen races
were unopposed. Kerrie Neck will
be Academic Affairs Committee
chairman, Christi Choat will be Stu
dent Services chairman, David Wie-
land will be Finance Committee
chairman and Kenny Gossett will
head the External Affairs Commit
tee.
In the College of Agriculture, the
at-large senator positions will be
filled by Jason Baird and Jeff Darby.
The senior agriculture senator will
be Jason Grier. The agriculture ju
nior senator will be Dawn Wayne.
Stephen Weber will be the sopho
more senator.
The at-large seats in the College
of Architecture were won by Philip
Chen and Tim Hagen.
The business administration sen
ator at-large will be Jason Peterson.
The senior seats will be filled by
Thomas Donna and Diane Put inton.
Meredith Brown and Chris McClain
won the junior seats while Jennifer
Darr and Jojo Yiu will be the sopho
more senators.
The seat in the College of Educa
tion will be decided in the run-offs.
Both John Hubert and G.G. Grant
received one vote.
The College of Engineering se
nior senators will be Kurt Thomlin-
son, Tim Dillman and Jeff Starr.
The junior seats will be filled by
Charles Keffer, Joel Bittick and Jeff
Chapman. Coy Kouba, Steven White
See Elections/Page 6
An ecstatic Kevin Buchman, surrounded by friends and
supporters, celebrates as he is announced student body
Photo byJayjanner
president for 1989-90. The results were announced about
11:45 Thursday night outside the Academic Building.
Horak left notes to family,
roommate says
Exxon fires
tanker captain
for drinking
VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) — The
captain of the oil tanker Exxon
Valdez was fired Thursday fol
lowing a federal investigation that
determined he was legally drunk
around the time his ship ran ag
round, causing the nation’s worst
oil spill.
The National Transportation
Safety Board said Capt. Joseph
Hazelwood, who had turned over
command of the Exxon Valdez to
an unejualified third mate before
the accident, had a blood-alcohol
level of .061 when he was tested
nine hours later.
That exceeds the standard of
intoxication under federal law for
operating a commercial vessel at
sea, which is .04 percent, said Wil
liam Woody, who headed a four-
member NTSB team investigat
ing the tanker accident.
Shortly after the NTSB an
nouncement, Exxon Shipping
Co. announced it was firing Ha
zelwood, who has been convicted
twice of drunken driving.
Maximum criminal penalties
for operating a ship while intoxi
cated include a $5,000 fine and
up to a year in jail, Coast Guard
authorities said. In addition, vio
lators face the loss of their sea
man’s license and up to $1,000 in
civil penalties.
The NTSB investigation found
no indications of drinking by the
third mate who was piloting the
ship without certification when it
ran aground, or by the ship’s
lookout, the helmsman or the ra
dio operator. However, a Coast
Guard employee who was work
ing in a radio room in Valdez had
a blood-alcohol level of .20 when
he was tested more than 12 hours
after the accident, Woody said.
The worker, Bruce Blandford,
told investigators he had begun
drinking only after he got off
work and was not drunk at the
time of the tanker accident.
Woody said his superiors re
ported that Blandford’s perfor
mance appeared normal.
Meanwhile, another ship ar
rived Thursday to take the re
maining oil off the crippled
tanker, and an oil slick continued
to spread ewer 500 square miles of
what once was one of Alaska’s
most beautiful marine habitats.
“Anyone who goes up and
looks at the slick has to be
humbled by it,” Coast Chief Petty
Officer Todd Nelson said.
By Stephen Masters
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Harry Louis Horak, charged with
six felony counts in the March 21 at
tack on two female Texas A&M ca
dets, apparently wrote notes saying
he would not return from the attack,
his former roommate said.
Mike Morris, Horak’s former
roommate in Aston Hall, said he
found a tablet with eight or nine
notes to Horak’s family, to the family
of the sophomore cadet whom he is
charged with attacking, and to some
of Horak’s other ex-girlfriends say
ing goodbye because he would “not
be back.”
A man identified by police as EIo-
rak entered the fourth-floor dorm
room of Tricia Sexton and Sandra
Alcala, both members of Squadron
14, on March 21 with two rifles,
about 160 rounds of ammunition
and a hunting knife, Bob Wiatt, di
rector of A&M University Police,
said.
Alcala awakened and grabbed the
barrel of one rifle, Wiatt said. Dur
ing the struggle, Sexton woke up
and grabbed the other rifle barrel,
he said.
Wiatt said eight shots were fired
during the scuffle, but the only inju-
Religion
By Melissa Naumann
REPORTER
Religion means different things to
different people, but the religious
studies courses at Texas A&M can
satisfy almost anyone’s religious in
terests.
Philosophy courses at A&M cover
Indian, Oriental and Near Eastern
religions as well as the New and Old
Testaments and the philosophy of
religion. Courses in other depart
ments include the Bible as literature,
the sociology and psychology of reli
gion and primitive religions.
Religious studies courses have
changed considerably since Dr.
Richard Stadelmann, associate pro
fessor of philosophy, came to A&M
20 years ago.
“The dean at that time thought
they (religious studies courses) were
particularly inadequate in an aca
demic sense in that the local pastors
taught them,” Stadelmann said.
“There was one pastor who had a
Battalion file photo
Harry Louis Horak
ries sustained were minor powder
burns by Sexton and Alcala.
The women took the rifles from
the suspect and fled to the hallway,
leaving the attacker armed only with
the hunting knife, Wiatt said. He
said the suspect then went to the
closet and remained there until re
moved by five UPD officers.
Sexton and Alcala have been relo
cated since the incident, Wiatt said.
Morris said he could not remem
ber the exact wording of the notes.
reputation for giving everybody A’s
if they were baptized at the end of
the semester.
“Then there was another pastor
who required some knowledge of
Greek and Hebrew, so I don’t mean
to indicate that they were incompe
tent.”
The courses evolved into objective
presentations of different religions
combined with elements of philoso
phy, said Stadelmann, who teaches
Old Testament, New Testament, In
dian/Oriental religion and Near
Eastern religion.
Many of the students who sign up
for the Old and New Testament
courses don’t expect critical thinking
to be applied to the Bible, he said.
Stadelmann begins his Old and New
Testament courses with epistemo
logy, the theory of knowledge, to
teach students how to argue whether
something is true.
Maintaining objectivity is impor
tant in teaching these types of classes
even though some students don’t ex
pect it, he said.
“We have a number of students
but paraphrased them from mem
ory.
“One of (the notes) was to the
mother of (Sexton) saying what hap
pened, but if she wouldn’t have been
such a bitch it wouldn’t have happe
ned,” Morris said.
“One was to his parents (saying)
sorry about all the expenses, but if
you wouldn’t have made me come
back to A&M, this wouldn’t have
happened.
“One was to Trish saying some
thing about if only she had tried
harder. All he had asked was for her
to try a little bit harder.
“One was to (Alcala), saying some
thing about that’s what you get for
hanging up on me.
“One was to his sister saying he
hoped she met a nice boy someday,
but to try not to be like Trish.
“One was to his brother telling
him to have a nice time at AggieCon
(an annual convention on the A&M
campus).
“There were a couple to some ex
girlfriends he had been dating be
fore he met Trish.”
Morris said the notes were picked
up by police as evidence.
Bob Wiatt, director of University
Police, confirmed the messages were
picked up and are part of the evi
dence for any upcoming trial. He
who expect a Sunday school type of
class,” Stadelmann said. “But one
must aim for objectivity in teaching
at a state school.”
Stadelmann said he tries to as-
said he could not confirm the infor
mation because it is vital to the case.
Morris said Horak’s Hewlett Pack
ard calculator had been pro
grammed with a threatening mes
sage about Sexton, but Wiatt said
officers searching the scene could
not confirm this report.
Horak remains in Brazos County
Jail on six felony counts including
two counts of attempted murder. He
faces a maximum of 169 years in
prison. Bail has been set at $100,000.
Brazos County District Attorney
Bill Turner issued a statement
through Wiatt saying Turner and
Wiatt will do everything in their
power “to prevent at all costs any
early release on bond of Mr. Louis
Horak.”
Horak was a member of EL-2 dur
ing his freshman year, but Lt. Col.
Donald Johnson, assistant comman
dant, said Horak was dismissed from
the Corps at the end of the Spring
1988 semester. Johnson said he
could riot give the reason for Ho
rak’s dismissal.
Corps Commander Todd Rei
chert said Horak was dismissed for
academic cheating, an Honor Code
violation. Reichert said he did not
have details on the incident.
Horak remained in school for the
Fall 1988 semester, moving in with
sume his students know nothing
about religion, but this is not a realis
tic goal.
“I say that I don’t assume any
thing, but then I realize that I’ve
Morris in Aston Hall.
Wiatt said Horak attempted sui
cide Dec. 3, two days after Sexton re
fused to attend the Alabama football
game with him. Morris said Horak
began attending psychiatric counsel
ing sessions after the attempt so he
could stay in Aston. University pol
icy requires counseling after a sui
cide attempt for a student to con
tinue living on campus.
Wiatt said Horak signed a stan
dard student counseling “contract”
after the attempt saying he would
not harm himself or others. Wiatt
said the contract was hanging above
Horak’s desk when officers searched
his room.
Morris said Horak had appoint
ments to attend counseling as late as
the week before spring break, March
13-17.
University officials have refused
comment on whether Horak was en
rolled for the spring semester, but
Morris said he thought Horak had
attended classes up to the day of the
attack.
Wiatt said a decision was made to
expel Horak the day of the attack
and a letter was prepared to inform
the suspect of the decision. The let
ter was delivered to Horak at the jail
the following day by a LJPD officer,
Wiatt said.
been assuming all along,” he said.
“Religion is culturally conditioned to
an extent.”
Daniel Lynch, president of the
See Religion/Page 5
classes broaden theology spectrum
Religion minor expected in Fall ’90
By Melissa Naumann
REPORTER
Students who want to minor in religious studies
probably will be able to do so by Fall 1990, Dr. Jonathan
Kvanvig, associate professor of philosophy, said.
Although the establishment of the minor has been
approved by the Educational Planning Committee, the
requirements for the minor have not been outlined,
said Kvanvig, who is chairman of the committee.
Because people usually are interested in religious
studies for pre-seminary training or academic pur
poses, this program was created for those who take reli
gious studies courses solely for academic reasons, he
said.
it you really want an academic exploration of reli
gious studies, you can do it this way,” Kvanvig said.
Last fall, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts ap
pointed an ad hoc committee to investigate religious
studies programs at other universities.
The committee found that, out of 79 non-theological
institutions, 35 had departments of religious studies.
All 79 schools had some sort of program involving reli
gion.
Dr. Richard Stadelmann, associate professor of phi
losophy and a member of the ad hoc committee, said al
though the minor is not official, students have been
able to unofficially minor in religious studies with ap
proval from their advisers.
Those who minored unofficially were required to
take 12 hours of religious studies courses. The new pro
gram will require at least 15 hours, Kvanvig said.