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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1989)
Texas A&M m m V • e Battalion WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Rather cloudy, showers HIGH: 86 LOW: 66 Li© Vol. 89 No.10 USPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, September 14,1989 Splashdown! Senior marketing major Michelle Matis is un able to protect a passing student from the sud den downpour • which occurred on campus Photo by Phelan M Ebenhack around noon. Matis was on her way to the MSC. The cloud and rain are expected to con tinue tomorrow. Three suspects arrested for Coin Exchange shooting Brothers jailed, charged with robbery, murder By Kelly S. Brown Of The Battalion Staff Three brothers are behind bars after a Crime Stoppers tip led police Wednesday to the men suspected of murdering a Texas Coin Exchange employee while robbing the store in the early morning of Sept. 5. Rudy Gutierrez, 20, was arrested at 1:30 p.m. yesterday in his home at 1300 Weaver Street in Bryan and charged with aggravated robbery and capital murder. His brothers Jose Angel, 28, and Jessie, 24, were arrested in their Houston home, 4102 Mangum #60, around 6 a.m. Bond has not been set for Rudy or Jose Angel, who also is being charged with capital murder. A $15,000 bond has been set for Jessie, who joins his brothers in Bra zos County Jail on charges of posses sion of stolen property in connection with the robbery. Jessie had two out standing warrants out for his arrest. After an eight-day search police said an anonymous tip from the Houston area broke the case wide open. Apparendy, the men were bragging about the robbery to their friends. Rudy and Jose Angel are sus pected of entering the store at 404 University Drive shortly after 10 a.m. where three employees and two customers were present. Employee Dorthy McNew was shot in the back of the head with possibly an Uzi or Mac 10 automatic weapon after she came out of her of fice briefly and turned to back in. Police speculate she might have seen that the men were armed, and was returning to the office to call for help or sound an alarm. Everyone in the store was told to lie down on the floor behind the jew elry counter as the suspects stole di amonds and gold chains. They left through the front door and fled on foot through a field to the east of the store. An extensive search of the area by police. College Station’s Special Op erations Response Team, tracking dogs, a helicopter from the DPS and an airplane from Easterwood Air port ended the night with not much for officials to go on in the case. Efforts of a three-hour operation on McNew to remove the bullet from her head were unsuccessful. She died the following day. KAMU recieves $72,500 grant; will replace obsolete equipment Bv Andrea Warrenbura By Andrea Warrenburg Of The Battalion Staff >. lc t the Phil Gramm announced Friday that Texas A&M’s television station KAMU has been awarded a $72,500 federal grant. This is the second consecutive year A&M has re ceived a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Last year KAMU received a $225,000 grant. “To receive grants for two years in a row is unusual,” Rodger Lewis, program director for KAMU-TV said. “Each year they accept applications from a variety of public institutions and competition is stiff.” The funds will help replace obsolete equipment so the station can provide students with better training on up-to-date equipment and better serve their broadcast area. KAMU-TV serves not only Bryan-College Station, but also a six-county area of about 25 cities and 216,000 residents. In order to be a recipient, the grant money must be matched by the University. This is significant because although KAMU is a Uni versity department, it has been neglected for the past 15 years, Lewis said. The matching funds provided last year were the first capital outlay from the University since 1973 — it helped us get the second grant,” Lewis said. In previous years, revenue for the station has come from station workers being hired out. Last year KAMU purchased three new television cameras, support equipment for the cameras, two 1- inch video recorders and a video and audio switcher with the grant. This year, the station plans to finish replacing obso lete equipment by purchasing a video switcher for one of the studios and a still-store machine — an important production tool that can freeze single frames and other support equipment. Lewis said A&M received the grant not only because the need was obvious but because A&M’s political strength in Washington has grown in the past few years. Barton, Class of ’72, is responsible for obtaining the grant for A&M, Lewis said, as is Gramm, a former A&M professor. Lewis said the department already is preparing a grant proposal for next year that will include a power upgrade for KAMU-FM and funds for A&M to join other land grant colleges in establishing a national agri culture satellite. tie Scientists to perform jwhale autopsy at A&M [jg By Selina Gonzalez Of The Battalion Staff ESAli A v 9 * A IS y Texas A&M researchers will in- estigate the death of the baby rm whale, Odie, which died Sun- ay in Galveston, helping scientists learn more about his species, Gina Barrow, state coordinator for the Texas Mammal Stranding Network, s*said. Barrow said the scientific study on the rale’s organs will be conducted within A&M facilities. If the marine biology department at Texas A&M- Galveston acquires the equipment, then the research will take place in Galveston, Barrow said. "If not, we’H take it up to the main campus,” she said. Although extensive research is ceded, Barrow speculated that the three week-old whale died of pneu monia. Reports stated the 13-foot whale started spewing blood through its blowhole Sunday morn- Odie, who beached near Sabine Pass on Sept. 2, “touched many liv es” while being cared for at Sea-Ar- ama Marineworld, Barrow said. “People were very sad and many cried.” Barrow said the whale’s learning and behavioral patterns were stud ied extensively. Scientists from Bos ton, San Diego and University of Texas-Medical Branch came to re cord the whale’s movements, sounds and heart rate, Barrow said. “We are going to learn a lot from the necropsy,” Barrow said. Some of the information on Odie will be re layed to the federal government’s Smithsonian Institute for use by other researchers. The Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network was stationed in College Station until 1988, when the headquarters were moved to Galves ton. Sponsored by the University, the network studies dolphins, sur veys beaches and educates the public about marine life, Barrow said. “We owe everything to the A&M veterinary anatomy department; it has proven to be invaluable to the network,” Barrow said. TCU ousts fraternity from campus house day after national office revokes charter FORT WORTH (AP) — The punishment handed a Texas Chris tian University fraternity is the latest in a string of troubles for Greek or ganizations living in a new era of al cohol and pledging rules on Texas college campuses. The TCU chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma was ordered out of university- leased housing Tuesday, a day after its charter was revoked by the orga nization’s national office. Ron Siggs, executive director of Phi Kappa Sigma’s national office in Valley Forge, Pa., refused to disclose what chapter members had done to have their charter revoked, but said 10 members were suspended last spring for “hazing violations.” “There were a number of sanc tions on the chapter that I don’t want to go into, but the guys were very much aware of them,” Siggs said. The fraternity had about 50 active members and 23 pledges. About 20 members who lived in the campus fraternity house were of fered living arrangements in other university residences. The fraternity may reorganize when the national organization and school officials agree that a new group of active members will uphold the rules and policies. Siggs said it is likely that no past members will be allowed to rejoin the reformed chapter, which could be active as early as next spring. Texas colleges began cracking down on hazing when the state im plemented an anti-hazing statute in September 1987. Violations can bring fines up to $10,000 and up to one year in jail. But it was the raising of the legal drinking age to 21 that greatly changed Greek life, not the hazing law. The University of Texas tried a “dry rush” this fall. Fraternity and sorority members were forbidden from giving alcohol to a rushee or drinking in the pres ence of a rushee. But two UT fraternities, Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma, are sus pected of violating the policy and face minimum fines of $500 if a stu dent panel finds them guilty, Scott Wilder said, director of the Interfra ternity Council. “At this point they have been ac cused of violating the policy, but we believe in due process here,” Wilder said, adding the cases will be decided Friday. Last spring, the University of Houston’s Interfraternity Council voted to begin dry rush. Sam Houston State University has had dry rush for five years. Texas A&M University calls its rush “damp” because students can bring their own alcohol to open par ties and the chapter can serve alco hol at invitation-only parties. Humana volunteers do more than just shuffle papers By Pam Mooman Of The Battalion Staff Humana Hospital’s Aggie Volun teer Program needs you. Gordon Knight, director of volun teer services for Humana Hospital, aid the program, now being orga- nized for the fall semester, is open to P| Aggies in any major. ^ “(The Aggie Volunteer Program) ESAii 15 f°r any Ag who would like some xperience in the hospital environ- nent,” Knight said. “(But) it’s not limited to medical students at all. There’s) a wide range of interests there, I think. (The program will) M jive students career options and let hem see what’s in the health care 5eld. ” Knight said the Aggie Volunteer Program is organized at the begin ning of each semester. “It’s not a new program,” Knight said. “It’s been running for three or four years now.” Volunteers will work in laborato ries, X-ray departments and the emergency room, Knight said. Some volunteers will answer telephones, type and run errands. “By law, they cannot have direct patient contact,” Knight said. “But volunteers can help make a hospital stay more enjoyable, if there is such a thing as an enjoyable hospital stay.” The hours vary, according to the individual’s schedule, he said. “They come in as they can,” Knight said. “Some come in for as little as two hours and some, for four or five hours.” Knight said that evening and early morning shifts of the 24-hour pro gram are available to volunteers who “T I he workload is too heavy for nurses to take care of. We take the place of nurses.” — Berta Weathers, volunteer cannot fit prime time shifts into their srheHule* However, Aggie Volunteers will get a chance to experience more than just hospital paperwork. “One of the exciting parts about the program is to rotate all of the volunteers who want to through the operating room to observe an opera tion,” Knight said. Humana Hospital also sponsors several other volunteer programs, including the Sunshine Auxiliary, the Volunteer Chaplain program, and the Med Cadet program for high school students, Knight said. Berta Weathers, a Sunshine Aux iliary volunteer, said that volunteer ing brought her a great deal of satis faction but served a practical purpose as well. “I had a lot of time on my hands,” Weathers said. “The workload is too heavy for nurses to take care of. We take the place of nurses.” Doris Linnstaedter, another Sun shine Auxiliary volunteer, said she believes that patients need volun teers. “I decided to volunteer because I wanted to repay some of my bles sings, help others and keep busy,” Linnstaedter said. But Humana’s volunteer pro grams have a practical side as well, and they benefit more than just the participants. The Sunshine Auxiliary runs the gift shop and uses its profits to bene fit nursing students, Knight said. An orientation meeting for the Aggie Volunteer Program will be Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Humana Hospital classroom. Applications will be available and volunteers may sign up for departments they would like to work in. The fall’s Aggie Volunteer Pro gram will begin September 22. Blood drive Today through Friday blood- mobiles will be at the Commons from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Rud der from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The drive is being sponsored by the American Red Cross, Student Government, OPA and APO.