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Texas mm V #
e Battalion
Vol. 89 No.41 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, October 27,1989
Anonymous gay sex occurs in A&M restrooms
By Melissa Naumann
Of The Battalion Staff
Academic Building will be locked after hours
The Academic Building is
thought of as being the center of the
Texas A&M campus, a hub of activ
ity, the heart of the University. To
different people, however, this can
mean different things.
Anonymous homosexual bath
room sex occurs in bathrooms across
the country, and on the A&M cam
pus, it occurs most frequently,
according to gay students, in the
Academic Building.
Jim, a gay A&M student, said the
second floor of the Academic Build
ing has been a popular gay meeting
place for years.
The Academic Building is listed in
a book called “Places of Interest,” a
guide to gay meeting places across
the United States.
Most of the activity takes place at
night in the men’s bathroom, with
some people staying as late as 4 a.m.,
Jim said.
Jim said he studied in the Aca
demic Building before he knew what
went on there. Then, after he
learned, he watched to see who went
in the bathroom and how long they
stayed.
“People would stay in there for
hours on end,” he said.
Jim said when he went there, at
least one person waited in the bath
room at all times, with around four
waiting outside “until something bet
ter went in.”
The actual sexual activity used to
take place through “glory holes,”
By Melissa Naumann
Of The Battalion Staff
The Academic Building, traditionally open 24 hours
a day, will be locked at night and on weekends as soon
as the last few locks are installed, a Texas A&M official
said.
Dr. Jerry Gaston, associate provost, said the building
is being locked for safety reasons.
“More and more faculty and graduate students are
there working and studying at nights and on week
ends,” Gaston said.
The move to lock the building has been in process for
almost two years, said Gaston, who initiated the move.
Dr. Luis Costa, Academic Building proctor and head
of the Department of Modern Languages, said a num
ber of thefts have occurred in the building.
“If you’ve been in the building late at night, it’s
rather scary,” Costa said.
Gaston and Costa said rumors of homosexual activity
in the building were not the reason for locking the
building.
“Whether such activity goes on or not, it was not the
primary reason,” Costa said.
Antonio Caraballo, a lecturer with the Department of
Modern Languages, has worked in the Academic Build
ing for 10 years, first as a graduate student and then as
a faculty member. He said he has known about the ho
mosexual activity for years.
“I wouldn’t be surprised that it influenced the deci
sion (to lock the doors),” Caraballo said.
Caraballo said he received a memo saying the build
ing would be locked at nights and on weekends begin
ning Oct. 13, but Costa said the last locks have not been
installed yet.
Once the locks are installed, the doors will be locked
at 5:30 p.m. except for the north door that allows access
to the language labs. That door will be open until 8 p.m.
The building will he open on weekends when there
are major events on campus, such as football games,
Gaston said.
holes drilled in the partitions be
tween bathroom stalls through
which participants can engage in
anonymous anal or oral sex. The
Academic Building, however, was
remodeled last spring and the holes
are no longer there.
Antonio Caraballo, a lecturer in
the Department of Modern Lan
guages, said he has worked in the
Academic Building for 10 years, first
as a graduate student and then as a
faculty member. He has known
about the homosexual activity in that
bathroom for years and he said the
traffic in the bathroom slowed down
somewhat.
“That particular bathroom was re
done because of that,” he said. “It
got to the point that many of us
would never use that bathroom.”
Jim said that, after the partitions
were replaced, people tried to re
move the toilet paper dispensers to
make new holes.
Most of the people who went in
the bathroom, Jim said, were older,
probably between 30 and 40 and
didn’t look like students. The
younger people usually stayed out
side.
Caraballo said he never was ap
proached nor did the activity inter
fere with his teaching.
“It was never a problem for us as
professors to do our jobs or even
work,” Caraballo said. “It never
really hindered our teaching and I
never felt threatened or worried
about it.”
Jim said he stopped going because
people who saw him there began
spreading rumors that he actually
engaged in anonymous sex.
“I want people to realize that not
all gay people are like that,” he said.
“A lot of people, especially ones
who’ve just come out, are just cu
rious.”
Although Jim said he didn’t know
how many people were there on any
f jven night, he said most of his gay
riends know what goes on there.
In fact, a clerk at the Lobo
Bookstore, a gay bookstore in Hous
ton, said he had heard about the
Academic Building.
“It’s pretty well-known,” he said.
Jim said he has seen the building
listed in a gay magazine as one of the
“Top 10 Hot Spots” in Texas.
Terry Walker, president of Gay
Student Services, said the CSS is
aware of it but doesn’t condone this
anonymous bathroom sex. Instead,
he said, CSS is supposed to give peo
ple an alternative to this kind of ac
tivity.
Walker said there is a difference
between the gay community and the
gay population. The gay commu
nity, he said, consists of people who
lead productive lives both in the gay
community by, for example, work
ing for gay rights, and the commu
nity in general.
The gay population, on the other
hand, includes people who are not as
open and therefore resort to such
activities as anonymous bathroom
sex, he said.
“CSS is trying to promote partici
pation in the gay community,”
Walker said. “We try to offer some-
. thing positive.”
Bob Wiatt, director of security
and the University Police Depart
ment, said UPD has received numer
ous reports of homosexual activity,
but not always in the Academic
Building.
“The Academic Building seems to
be a gathering ground on occasion
but not consistently,” he said.
Wiatt said that once a police offi-
iiif
,'i u E 11
■ 41 y-i; ^ ^
The Academic Building
cer responds to a report, word
spreads, and the activity moves to
another restroom.
Jim said the same activities go on
in bathrooms in Rudder and Har
rington towers.
Wiatt said those who participate in
homosexual activity can be charged
with one of three things: public
lewdness, indecent exposure or ho
mosexual conduct.
Public lewdness, which is engag
ing in any sexual act in a public place
or being reckless about someone be
ing present who would be offended,
applies to sexual intercourse, sexual
contact, oral contact and deviant in
tercourse. Deviant intercouse refers
to participating in anything other
than normal sexual intercourse.
This definition includes oral and
anal sex, Wiatt said.
See Academic/Page 8
Two A&M graduates survive
blast at Phillips chemical plant
By Selina Gonzalez
Of The Battalion Staff
A Phillips Petroleum Co. em
ployee who is a May 1989 Texas
A&M graduate is listed in critical but
stable condition after she suffered
second- and third-degree burns over
Council defends industry/Page 4
50 percent of her body in Monday’s
Pasadena chemical plant explosions.
Stephanie Sneed, who has a chem
ical engineering degree, worked as
an engineer in the polyethylene
plant where a series of explosions oc
curred, Andrew Means, Class of ’88,
said.
Means, who has a mechanical en
gineering degree, works as a project
engineer at Phillips about one-half
mile from the polyethylene plant.
“I heard the emergency siren go
off and I saw a vapor cloud form
over the plant,” Means said. “After
about five seconds, it was a giant
fireball.
“Shock waves followed and lights
came crashing down and my office
ceiling fell in.”
The engineers carry voice pagers
hooked to the emergency radio
channel, he said. If the emergency
siren goes off, the pager tells the en
gineer the extent of the problem.
Means said although the emer
gency siren sounds about once a
week, the problem is usually minor.
Employees in the polyethylene
E lant saw and smelled gas vapor just
efore the explosion, Means said.
“They just started running,” he
said.
Morning has broken
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
ion
This early morning scene will be seen even earlier after this
weekend. Daylight-saving time ends Sunday at 2 a.m. Don’t for
get to set clocks back one hour.
“With all the wreckage, you can’t
realize the extent of the damage un
less you’ve seen it beforehand,” he
said. “The skeletons are the reactors
and all the lower buildings and
equipment are flat.
“It’s hard to imagine the force it
took to do that.”
It was an emotional scene at Phil
lips after the explosions, he said.
The workers had many close rela
tives working in the same plant and
many employees lost brothers or sis
ters.
“For many, once they picked a
plant (to work at) they stayed there
for years,” Means said.
Many employees lost close friends
in the accident.
Means said he has several close
friends in the polyethylene plant be
cause he worked there for a short
while.
“I wondered about all my
friends,” he said. “Other than Ste
phanie, I have one friend who is
missing and presumed dead.”
Means said his plant was not se
riously damaged and should be op
erational in about two weeks.
“Everyone knows the danger of
the business,” he said. “Monday just
reminded us how much.”
Parking situation continues
to confuse, anger students
Administrator attempts to clarify permit rules
Bv Pam Mooman
By Pam Mooman
Of The Battalion Staff
Contrary to what most Aggies think, it is possible
to park on Texas A&M’s campus at night without
getting a ticket.
Kathie Mathis, parking administrator for A&M’s
Department of Parking, Transit and Traffic Serv
ices, said a permit is required for parking on campus
at any time.
“If you even pause on campus, you must have a
permit,” she said. “(But) after 4 p.m., the whole cam
pus opens.”
Mathis said that while on-campus packers must
have a permit, a night sticker is not required for
night parking. However, community members and
students purchase the $15 night permit to make
parking on campus easier.
“A lot of students ride buses during the day, so
they don’t have a sticker at all,” she said. “It’s just an
inexpensive permit that allows the community and
off-campus students to access campus.”
There are, however, exceptions to PTTS’s eve
ning open-campus policy. Lot 26, off Lewis Street,
and lot 27, off Jones Street, are 24-hour reserved
lots and parking spaces on Hogg Street are reserved
24 hours for random staff.
Other illegal parking places are handicapped
spaces, all numbered reserved spaces, golf course
parking spaces, residence hall spaces and visitor
spaces.
Mathis said PTTS’s 1989 Motor Vehicle Regula
tions brochure explains all of the parking rules.
“It’s really plain if (people) read the map,” she
said.
But Randy Wood, a senior computer science ma
jor from San Marcos, said the brochure is hard to
understand.
“It’s not as explicit as it should be,” he said. “It just
doesn’t define all the rules very carefully.”
Wood said he usually parks in day spaces even in
the evening, although he recently read PTTS’s regu
lations and found out that he can park in faculty
spaces. Wood has never received a ticket at night.
But Micah Murphy has. Murphy, a senior second
ary education major from Houston, said once she
had no permit and was ticketed. Murphy said when
she goes to the library to study at night, she usually
parks at the Administration Building on New Main
Street.
“When I came, I would park all over the place,”
Murphy said. “(But) I’ve pretty much got the hang
of it now.”
Murphy, however, said she calls for an escort if
she is leaving the library late at night, unless she is
parked at the Pavilion.
But Mathis said that there are many parking
places around the library that should prevent
women from having to walk long distances to their
cars at night.
Student services distributes pamphlet
explaining random ticket distribution
By Michael Kelley
Of The Battalion Staff
Only those seniors wanting seats
in sections 230-233 of the second
deck of Kyle Field need to wait in
line at the athletic ticket office to
pick up student football tickets. All
other seats are distributed randomly
on specified days according to stu
dent classification, regardless of
when they are drawn.
In order to spread this informa
tion to students, the Student Services
Committee of the Student Senate, in
conjunction with Penny King of the
Athletic Business Office and Jim
Koch of the Athletic Ticket Office,
have created a “Student Ticket In
formation” pamphlet that will be dis
tributed next week at the ticket of
fice.
The pamphlet was designed to
help students understand the ran
dom selection of tickets, except for
senior sections 230-233.
“Most students don’t know that if
they wait until later in the day to get
their football tickets, they’ll have the
same chance to get the same seats as
someone who draws them earlier in
the day,” Ronald Liston, a member
of the Student Services Committee,
said.
The randomization of the ticket
sup pos
benefit those students who need
their student identification cards
during the day to eat in the dining
facilities. This gives them the chance
to get their football tickets at any
time from 7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at
their own convenience.
Those seniors who want to try to
get tickets for sections 230-233 may
do so starting at 7 a.m. on senior and
graduate days (see graphic). This is
usually on Monday, but for the Ar
kansas game it will be on a Thurs
day.
“We’re (A&M is) one of the few
universities that has reserved stu
dent seating for home football
games that is set up by student classi
fication,” said Kim Copeland of the
Student Services Committee. “A lot
of other schools have general seating
on a first-come-first-served basis.
“We feel that our system is good
because by seniority students who
have been at A&M longer get belter
tickets.”
A student is allowed to pick up a
maximum of 10 football tickets and
a student identification card is re
quired for each student ticket. At
least half of the identification cards
must be of that day’s classification or
higher.
Non-student guest tickets may be
obtained by converting a student
The shaded area represents the seats for which graduates
and seniors can get tickets by going to the athletic ticket of
fice at 7 a.m. on senior ticket distribution day.
ticket by purchasing a guest label, or
by purchasing a guest ticket and la
bel at any ticket window. A guest
ticket is treated as an underclassman
ticket.
Tickets are distributed randomly
by classification beginning five
school days before the game. Section
seating is as follows:
Senior Sections: 131, 132, 227-
236 and the first 15 rows of 330-333.
Junior Sections: 130, 224-226,
237-239 and 329-334.
Sophomore Sections: 129, 327,
328, 335 and 336.
Freshman Sections: 128,324-326,
and 337-339.
For more information contact the
Athletic Ticket Office at 845-2311.