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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1989)
Texas A&M The Battalion 1.88 No. 127 USPS 045360 14 pages v \ \ 11 / /// inHnl t&M WEATHER FORECAST for FRIDAY: Continued sunny and warm with radiational cooling resulting in low temperatures at night. HIGH:78 LOW:48 College Station, Texas Parents’ Weekend will debut new yell practice By Juliette Rizzo | STAFF WRITER Parents are coming for the annual Aggie I Parents’ Weekend and that means rooms j ar e being cleaned and last minute plans are being made to make Mom and Dad feel at home away from home. The annual three-day Aggie tradition has been in existence since the early 1900s when the first Aggie Mother’s Club was formed under the leadership of Mrs. Peep les of Dallas. The mothers gathered out of concern for their sons’ well-being in the Corps of Ca dets. In 1919, these caring mothers were honored officially at what was then called the traditional Mother’s Day Weekend, held on the May weekend when the holiday was observed. However, as the times changed, so did the tradition. Today, the April tradition honors both parents with a weekend full of activities. This year, the first Old Army Yell Prac tice will be Friday at midnight at Rudder mountain. Former yell leaders and other ormer students will lead both parents and students in the traditional Aggie yells. Clay Whitaker, Parent’s Weekend public relations sub-chairman, said the yell prac tice is for those parents who miss the oppor tunity to attend yell practice before game days in the fall. 6 “We hope that the yell practice will be come a tradition itself so that parents will be akje tp feel the Aggie spirit themselves,” Whitaker said. The new Aggie Parents of the Year will be named at the Parents Day Awards Cere mony Sunday at 9 a.m. in Rudder Audito rium. The Buck Weirus Spirit Award, hon oring students who have contributed significantly to A&M through extracurricu lar activities, also will be awarded at that time. The outstanding Corps outfit of the year will be announced Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Kyle Field. The Parents’ Weekend Schedule is: Friday, April 7: • 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. — Federation of A&M Mothers’ Clubs boutique, Rudder Exhibit Hall. • 7 p.m.- 12 a.m. — Resident Hall Asso ciation Casino Night, Memorial Student Center. • 7:30 p.m. — MSC Variety Show, Rud der Auditorium. • 8 p.m. — Century Singers, spring con cert, Rudder Theater. • Midnight — Old Army Yell Practice, Rudder Fountain. Saturday, April 8: • 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. — Federation of A&M Mothers’ Clubs boutique, Rudder Ex hibit Hall. • 10 a.m.-l p.m. — campus tours, MSC Flag Room. • 10 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. — tradition slide show every half hour, Clayton Williams Alumni Center. • 11 a.m.-2 p.m. — Burn Bevo Barbecue cook-off between competing A&M moth ers’ clubs and statewide A&M clubs, The Grove. • 8 p.m. — Singing Cadets spring con cert, Rudder Auditorium. Sunday, April 9: • 9 a.m. — Parents’ Day Awards Cere mony, Rudder Auditorium. Parents’ Day reception, Rudder Exhibit Hall. • 11a.m. — Parents’ Day chapel service (nondenominational). All Faiths Chapel. • 1 p.m. — Ross Volunteers perfor mance, Kyle Field. • 2:30 p.m. — Corps of Cadets review and awards ceremony with Reveille IV’s fu neral immediately following, Kyle Field. • 3:15 p.m. — Fish Drill Team perfor mance, Kyle Field. • 4:30 — Parsons Mounted Cavalry per formance and review, Polo Field. Hall doors will stay locked all day in fall By Sherri Roberts STAFF WRITER The exterior doors of residence halls at Texas A&M will be locked 24 hours a day beginning in Fall 1989 to increase the security of residents, the Department of Student Affairs announced in a memo to hall resi dents. The policy will apply to all civilian halls except the four unaircondi- tioned men’s dorms: Law, Puryear, Walton and Hart. Because opening doors in those halls provides ventila tion, residents of the halls will be al lowed to vote and establish the hours doors will he locked, Tom Murray, assistant director of Student Affairs, said. These halls probably will pro vide other measures to compensate for this loss of security. “We want to give residents the op portunity to decide who comes into their hall and not have that decided by external factors,” he said. Murray said a student life com mittee including representatives from Student Affairs and the Resi dence Hall Association considered implementing the 24-hour locking policy in Fall 1988, but decided in stead to lock the doors from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. Previous to that, doors were locked from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The doors probably will not be locked 24 hours a day when residents are checking in and out of halls between semesters, Murray said. Murray said the increase of theft, soliciting, and assaults in residence halls this year, including the abduc tion and assault of a female at 1 p.m, led the committee to re-evaluate and change the locking policy. Bob Wiatt, director of campus se curity and the University Police De partment, said he strongly sup ported the policy, noting that it probably would decrease the loss of personal property on campus and the number of calls UPD receives. “A&M is part of the real world,” he said. “You wouldn’t leave your home in Houston or somewhere else without locking the doors.” Although UPD and other Univer sity officials are applauding the new policy, many students are not so en thusiastic. The inconvenience of having to carry an extra key and having to meet friends at the hall’s door to let them in were a few. of the complaints students cited about the policy. “It’s a pain already,” Amy Sabr- sula, a sophomore sociology major living in Hobby Hall, said. “Anybody can get in if they just wait for some one to open the door.” Rob Card, a sophomore chemical engineering major living in Crocker Hall, said, “During the day I don’t feel it’s that necessary. The policy they have now is fine.” Murray said Student Affairs will install convenience phones outside of every hall by Fall 1989 to compen sate for the inconvenience of having doors locked 24 hours a day. The new policy, in addition to the installation of light and emergency phones in remote locations on cam pus, is the result of the University’s efforts to increase campus security. Murray said Student Affairs is working with UPD on the possibility of providing an escort service on Northside. In addition, a foot patrol composed of students who report suspicious activities outside of the halls to UPD, may be formed, he said. Kirk Houser demonstrates one of his kaleidoscopes Wednesday living selling the kaleidoscopes and glass ornaments that he at the A&M Crafts Fair by Rudder Fountain. Houser makes his makes himself, a craft he learned from his father. Texas Parks and Wildlife fires division director Charges including illegal trapping of antelopes in New Mexico result in dismissal AUSTIN (AP) — Charles Allen, Texas Parks and Wildlife division director, was fired Wednesday after a two-month investigation into alleged violations of New Mexico game laws, misuse of state funds and improper game stockings, officials said. “As of this date, Mr. Charles Allen’s em ployment with the Texas Parks & Wildlife De partment has been terminated,” TP&WD Ex ecutive Director Charles D. Travis said in a prepared statement. Allen, who was not immediately available for comment Wednesday night, was replaced by department veteran Bobby Alexander. The statement did not give a reason for Al len’s dismissal, but mentioned an investiga tion into a Jan. 30 incident when a helicopter Allen was operating crossed in Otero County, N.M., where three antelope were captured and taken back for release on a Texas ranch. An Otero County prosecutor filed three felony and six misdemeanor charges against Allen March 28 in connection with the trap ping incident. Allen, who last week said he was innocent of the charges, is scheduled to appear for ar raignment Monday in Alamagordo, N.M. “Because of the publicity of the antelope trapping incident, the department’s investiga tion is not complete on all particulars,” the statement said. “After viewing the informa tion available, it is my opinion that Mr. Allen did not knowingly violate any criminal stat ues.” Parks & Wildlife Commission Chairman Chuck Nash of San Marcos said Tuesday Al len was presented a list of grievances by the department March 28 and was given until Tuesday to either respond or resign. The grievances ranged from .Allen’s stock ing of antelope in January on the Lado Ranch in Culberson County, four months after he spent a two-week vacation in Greece with the Greek owners of the ranch, and his attempt ing to coerce a staff member to change his story concerning the trapping of antelope in New Mexico, Nash said. Exxon refloats tanker; fugitive captain surrenders Jewish student in Nazi outfit causes uproar . SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Trin ity University has charged a cam pus fraternity with violating an anti-hazing policy for an incident jn which a Jewish pledge wore a Nazi soldier uniform on campus last week. , ^ ut the president of the Trin- iteers fraternity, Pete Sturdivant, said the incident “is being blown completely out of proportion” and that punishment is not war ranted. There is a lot of misunder standing and rumors,” Sturdivant said. 0n T uesday, Coleen Grissom, nnity’s dean of students, charged the fraternity with violat- ln g a section of the anti-hazing code protecting the “mental eahh and dignity of the stu- cnt, said to Trinity spokesman Miaronjones. The charge stems from an inci- cart on March 30 in which a Jew- ' s student, Andy Ellenthal, ressed as a Nazi soldier as part nl a / ratern ity tradition requiring P e dges to wear costumes. Al- ou gh he did not wear the cos- ame . to class, Ellenthal was seen earing the uniform in at least °ne hall. tac° nes Sa ^ Triniteer represen- k e invited to a meeting f' i u ssom w ithin a week to de- hune C P ract * ce wearing cos- ^ found guilty of the infrac- n > penalties could range from evocation of the fraternity’s arter t Q mandatory community . rvi J; e i n a homeless shelter or other social agency to proba- on limiting the fraternity’s social •vities for a specified time. VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) — Exxon today refloated its still-leaking oil tanker, whose fugitive captain sur rendered a few hours earlier to face charges of operating the vessel while drunk. A judge in Hauppauge, N.Y., set bail at $500,000 for the captain, 20 times as much as prosecutors had recommended, saying “we have a manmade destruction that has not been equaled, probably, since Hiro shima.” With claims against Exxon tor damages escalating into the millions, U.S. Navy oil skimmers were pressed into service, and Exxon accepted an offer of help from the Soviet Union. Salvage crews pumped com pressed air into the $125 million ship to float it off Bligh Reef, 25 miles trom the port of Valdez. From there, it began a 30-mile journey un der the control of six tugs to a re mote cove off Naked Island for tem porary repairs, picking its way through scattered icebergs. The ship was refloated before tide reached its peak Wednesday. “It was not just a stroke of good luck,” said Gary Gorski, Exxon’s salvage coordi nator. “It took a lot of hard work. ” Exxon Shipping Co. President Frank larossi said the company has talked with dry docks in South Ko rea, Japan and Singapore about ac cepting the vessel after the tempo rary repairs are made. First choice is a Portland, Ore., dry dock, larossi said, but Oregon officials have raised concerns about accepting the ship. larossi said the ship won’t trail any pollution while it is towed. Cleanup crews continued to skim mayonnaise-thick oil from Prince William Sound, but progress was slow and the oil had spread over an area larger than Delaware. The ani mal death toll rose and salmon hatcheries remained endangered. Oil has floated over 2,600 square miles, soiled 800 miles of beach and killed thousands of animals, includ ing at least 30 sea otters, officials said. “Dozens of otters are dying before rescuers can get to them,” said fish and game spokesman Jon Lyman. Favorable weather, however, has kept it offshore from a national park and additional coastline outside Prince William Sound. Flow through the Alaskan pipe line returned to its normal daily flow of 2.1 million barrels Wednesday, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said. Oil flow from the North Slope had been cut by 60 percent because the spill restricted tanker traffic in Valdez harbor, but traffic has in creased. In Washington, Sen. Alan Cranston and Rep. Mel Levine ac cused the federal government of covering up the possibility of a major spill and the ineffectiveness of cleanup technology. The California Democrats also asked President Bush to cancel oil leasing off the Cal ifornia coast pending a review of the program. Hazelwood is charged with oper ating a ship while under the influ ence of alcohol, reckless endanger- ment and negligent discharge of oil. The charges carry a combined maxi mum penalty of over 2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. FBI officials in Washington say they also are investigating whether Hazelwood could be charged with felony violations of the Clean Water Act, which prohibits negligent dis charge of pollutants into navigable waters. Hazelwood was fired by Exxon a week ago after the National Trans portation Safety Board said tests taken about nine hours after the di saster showed he was drunk. Hazelwood had been arrested twice for drunken driving and had his license suspended three times. Election returns for two Faculty Senate seats from the College of Medicine were announced Wednes day, two days after the Faculty Sen ate Election Committee announced winners in the general election. The results from the Scott & White Hospital in Temple, which is one of the two clinical training loca tions employing College of Medicine faculty, were reported Wednesday. Ninety-four ballots were cast by rtis mother has toia the Asso ciated Press that her son had under gone rehabilitation and that Exxon was aware of his drinking problem, Exxon said it has changed its pol icy because of the spill and now re quires crews to be aboard ship, where drinking is prohibited, four hours before sailing. faculty members in the College of Medicine. Filling Place 2 will be Allison Ficht, who will represent the medical biochemistry and genetics depart ment. Ficht received 90 votes. Place 4 will be filled by William Lowell Rayburn, who will represent the ob stetrics and gynecology department. Rayburn received 63 votes. The results of the election are unofficial until certified by the Fac ulty Senate in its May meeting. Faculty reps announced for College of Medicine