Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1989)
The Battalion 2 STATE & LOCAL Monday, April 17,1989 be e to ax )ean ueltenfuss jinion Page Editor 'lie United States not only because ave to be paid, but Id be in a place ak the language. e government two dlars because it for that expensive e anymore (which lawsuits resulting j his loot in his ays something). , and dir ectors of being irresponsi- stupid. e enough money, officials into a vat to swim around in ring this perfor- for the low, low ) the R ussians. eat state. But it’s irdly worth keep- t Union is proba- out cleaning it up is, so there’s no < to them. nett and appoint erica’s new drug ling entirely too lit against drugs, it winning. to the old days tig America’s war Say No” didn’t ennett’s banning didn’t cost any- six proposals - ore out there. If >e call your local fiey’d appreciate a junior joum- 7 page editor for reathed reathea A&M students, children play on Youth Fun Day By Sharon Maberry STAFF WRITER Student Y Youth Fun Day IV was, literally, all fun and games. Saturday’s event for Bryan-Col- lege Station third-, fourth- and fifth- :rs to compete in relay races at Kyle Field was a success for children, parents and counselors, Scott Sloter, director of Youth Fun Day IV, said. “Youth Fun Day is an opportunity to promote good relations between A&M students and the Bryan-Col- legeStation community,” Sloter said. The 160 participating children were divided into four teams with about 90 Texas A&M students as tbeir counselors. Each team had a name and a yell, along the lines of Camp traditions. The four teams were the Teal Seals, Pink El- phants, Mean Green Martians and Purple People-Eaters. The children played four relay games during the afternoon, with those in the same grade competing against each other. In the Cotton Ball Relay, the chil dren put Vaseline on their noses, ran down the field to counselors who held cotton balls, picked up a cotton ball with their noses and ran back to their team to shake off the cotton. In the Water Balloon Relay, each team formed two lines facing each other and tossed water balloons back and forth down the line. In the Dress-Up Relay, the chil dren unpacked a bag of adult-sized clothes, put them on, ran down the field to a counselor, undressed, re packed the bag and ran back to their teams. In the Kangaroo-Bat Spin-Klee- nex Box Relay, the children placed a soccer ball between their knees and hopped to a baseball bat where they put their foreheads on the bottom of the bat and spun around it five times. Then they ran down the field to counselors who gave them Klee nex boxes to place under their chins and ran back to their teams. The spirit of the afternoon was of friendly competition. The children received maroon ribbons for their efforts during the games. The Teal Seals won the Most Ath letic award, the Mean Green Mar tians were chosen the Most Compet itive team, the Pink Elephants were awarded with the Most Spirited title and the Purple People-Eaters were named the Most Enthusiastic team. Although all the games were fun for the children, some of them had their favorites. Natalie Morse, a fourth-grader from Fannin Elementary School, said, “I think the water balloon pass ing was fun because we weren’t really against any teams. It didn’t matter how fast you run.” Jessica Haynes, a fourth-grader from Sam Houston Elementary School, said, “I liked the cotton ball race because it was easy. I want to come back next year because the counselors are nice and fun.” Michael Martin, a third-grader from Fannin Elementary School, said, “The water balloon game was my favorite because at the end we got to have a water balloon fight. We stole some balloons and splashed them on the girls.” Two A&M yell leaders did their part to make Youth Fun Day IV a success by leading the children in a few yells. Waylan Cain, 1989-90 head yell leader and Kevin FitzGe rald, who will be a junior yell leader next fall, answered questions from the children about A&M traditions. Cain commended the children for their enthusiasm. “If ya’ll display this kind of spirit when you’re Aggies, there’s no limit to where A&M will go,” Cain said. Karen Hodge, associate director of Youth Fun Day IV, said the event took time and hard work by the A&M volunteers. “We contacted all the schools and left applications for the children,” Hodge said. “We visited as many schools as we could and told the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders about Youth Fun Day IV.” The Aggie volunteers began meeting at the end of November to plan the event, Hodge said. Sloter said director applications for Youth Fun Day V will be avail able until Wednesday. This year marks the 100th anni versary of A&M’s Student Y, the sec ond oldest organization on campus after the Corps of Cadets. California school raffles faculty parking to students By Holly Becka REPORTER Imagine. . . . You get up for class a tie later than usual, jump in your car and drive to campus, arriving at your personalized parking space in a faculty/staff lot that you won in a raffle. Adream come true for students at Texas A&M? Not entirely, said A&M Director of Parking, Traffic andTransit Tom Williams. “I think it’s an idea worth looking into,” Williams said. “I don’t know if there would be a legal problem with raffling off state property though. I’d be happy to look into it.” The idea originated at Orange Coast Community College in Costa Mesa, Calif. The school is the largest state-supported, single-campus com munity college in the nation and has a student body of approximately 26,800. Barbra Newbern, coordinator of student activities at the college, said Hands Across Aggieland generates 1,500 food items By Juliette Rizzo STAFF WRITER Nearly 1,000 Texas A&M stu dents and local community resi dents gave a hand to the needy Sunday as the line for Hands Across Aggieland stretched across the Polo Field.. Keri Keilberg, chairman of the event, said the event, which con cluded Student Y Awareness Week, was a success. More than 1,500 non-perishable food items were collected and will be distrib uted to the Brazos Food Bank. Keilberg said she attributes the success of the second-year event to community involvement. “This year was the first year the community was extended an invitation to participate,” she said. “We strongly pushed com munity involvement and got it. We generated a lot of response from children and families.” See Hands/Page 6 the raffle was the first of its type at Orange Coast. The school’s student government initiated the idea to raise funds for campus remodeling. After the idea was approved by the administration, the student govern ment organized the raffle in a week. Newbern said California and Texas have similar laws prohibiting gambling and raffles. “We got around the legal stipula tions by selling pencils with the school motto on them for $1 each during registration,” Newbern said. “So after someone bought a pencil, we ‘gave’ them a raffle ticket for a chance at the parking space.” Texas A&M University Center Assistant Manager Dennis Busch said A&M campus organizations have sponsored raffles in the past. “As long as something of value like a pencil is purchased and not a raffle ticket, it’s OK,” Busch said. “The tickets must be ‘given’ away. Another way to do it would be to in volve some sort of game of skill or chance. Students could count jelly beans in a jar for a fee and who mever was closest to the correct number wins.” Newbern said administration, staff and faculty members thought the raffle Was a good idea. • “There is adequate parking on campus for the staff, but during peak parking times students go crazy looking for spaces because the lots are so full,” she said. She said the drawing for the park ing space was at the end of the fall semester. The winner received the reserved space for the spring semes ter. “The potential is there to make a lot of money,” Newbern said. “We raised about $1,000 in a week, but the publicity after the event far ex ceeds the publicity we did prior to the raffle. We anticipate the raffle to be far more popular next time. I really think interest has grown.” She said the $1,000 bought paint for six classrooms. “It did help,” she said. “And I think we’ll be able to do some neat things on campus in the future with the help of the raffle.” A&M student Richard Villanueva, a freshman accounting major from San Antonio, said he’d be interested in a similar project at A&M. “I think that would go over great here,” he said. “A project like that has great potential.” Phillip Chen, a freshman environ mental design major from Dallas, said he thinks a raffle would be a good idea because on-campus park ing has been a big issue recently. “I’m sure a lot of people would buy a few,” he said, “especially if tickets were sold for a buck. Group warns public about violent shaking of its young children By Mia B. Moody REPORTER “Kids . . . You Just Can’t Shake ’Em,” a public service announce ment on the dangers of shaking an infant, is the statewide mes sage the Children’s Trust Fund of Texas is sending throughout April, National Child Abuse Month. Janie Fields, director of the Children’s Trust Fund of Texas, said the problem of shaking in fants and toddlers was chosen to increase people’s awareness on its dangers. “We considered many issues for this campaign and instead of trying to send a broad message,” Fields said, “we decided to focus on one simple, yet dangerous form of child abuse — shaking. Many parents who would never consider hurting their children don’t know this can lead to retar dation or death.” The Children’s Trust Fund of Texas not only is working to de crease the rate of child abuse in infants and toddlers, it also is working to lower the rate of abuse in children. Fields said the reported number of cases is alarming. “There were 57,000 abused children last year in Texas alone,” she said. “On the national level the rate of child abuse is even more alarming. Over two million cases a year are reported and many of these children died. This is only a small portion of the numbers actually abused because many people don’t get reported.” In Bryan-College Station, the fund is helping the Brazos Valley Child Development Center spon sor a child-abuse prevention pro gram. The Children’s Trust Fund helps pay for programs such as this through funds collected from marriage licenses. “Twelve dollars and Fifty cents of each marriage license goes into the fund,” Fields said. “Half of this is used to sponsor local pro grams and half goes into the trust fund.” Mary Kay Smith, associate ad ministrator of the Brazos Valley Child Development Center, said the program will be used to help parents gain better parenting skills. “We teach these skills through parenting conferences and sup port groups,” Smith said. “Pa renting training is important be cause children don’t come with a ‘how to’ book.” Smith said the center will spon sor a conference on parenting in June. She said the conference will discuss problems with raising dif ficult children. OMMUNICATIQM I UJHE KEY TO ROOMMATE SUCCESS 11 \Jf ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A ROOMMATE? If you need a roommate for Summer and/or Fall semester, the Off Campus Center is offering five Roommate Sessions. Attend one or more of the following sessions and meet potential roommates: Dates: Tuesday, April 18 Thursday, April 20 Monday, April 24 Wednesday, April 26 Thursday, April 27 Time: 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Place: MSC 145 For more information, please contact the Off Campus Center, at (409) 845- 1741. The Off Campus Center is located in Puryear Hall, across from the YMCA Bldg., and it is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. > > S I sj N s N s b s i 1 N s N s S S Benefit for Paul & Janie Emola owners of "Texas Hall ol Fame" Wednesday April 19th doors open at 4 p.m. till 12 a.m. All proceeds go to Paul & Janie to help rebuild the "Texas Hall of Fame" Paul & Janie & The Hall of Fame "gang" will be on hand to thank you! 1600B S College - Bryan