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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1989)
-l» -.It ,-, ., lie t5attalion ./■,"/ //■C //'/■At WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Chance of showers HIGH: 76 LOW: 52 Vol.89 No.54 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, November 15,1989 IFC declares next semester will begin dry rush By Selina Gonzalez Of The Battalion Staff The taps have all run dry. After a three semester transition period, or “damp-rush period,” when alcohol possession was limited, the Interfraternity Council has de clared next semester the first dry or alcohol-free rush. The Spring 1990 rush policy bans the use of alcohol from all rush activ ities, Shannon Smith, IFC rush chair, said. The Dry Rush Policy states: • The possession, use and/or comsumption of alcoholic beverages while on or off chapter premises, during an official fraternity event, or in any situation sponsored or en dorsed by the chapter, including B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bottle) parties, is strictly prohibited during fraternity rush. • No alcoholic beverages may be purchased through the chapter trea sury nor may the purchase of same for members in the name of or on behalf of the chapter. - • No chapter members, collecti vely or individually, shall purchase for, serve to, or sell alcoholic bever ages to any rushee. • All rush activities associated with any chapter will be dry rush functions. • No chapter may co-sponsor an event with an alcohol distributor, charitable organization or tavern where alcohol is given away, sold or otherwise provided to those present. • If the above rules are not ad hered to and a complaint is filed with the IFC the Judicial Board will investigate the complaint and take the appropriate action if the mem bers of the Judicial Board feel sanc tions are necessary. Furthermore, official rush functions are under the GAMMA Committee’s jurisdiction. Smith said a dry rush method was inevitable and has many advantages. “The Texas A&M greek system isn’t the traditional organization on A dry rush policy will help give the greek system a more positive image.” — Shannon Smith, IFC rush chair campus,” Smith said. “A dry rush policy will help give the greek system a more positive image.” Another advantage of an alcohol- free rush is that “the sober actives will be more interested in the sober rushees as opposed to wanting to party,” Smith said. A dry rush is safer because less people will be driving drunk. Smith said. “A big factor in all greek organiza tions across the nation is liability,” he said. Many chapters belong to an in surance company known as the Fra ternity Insurance Purchasing Group which has guidelines that require chapters to engage in dry rush. Smith said the new rush policy is strict so people will need time to ad just. “Some fraternity members are definitely against having a dry rush because dry rush is a big risk,” Smith said. “People are naturally resistant to change.” In an effort to enforce the strict policy, the IFC has formed a local branch of the national GAMMA committee, Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol, Smith said. GAMMA enforces the policy by attending a party anytime and checking the situation to insure the chapters are following the dry rush alcohol policy. Football tickets will be drawn starting Thursday Student ticket distribution for Texas A&M’s football game against the University of Arkansas starts Thursday. Tickets will be drawn dif ferently than usual for the Nov. 24 Southwest Conference showdown between the Aggies and the Razor- backs to allow students to pick up their tickets before the Thanksgiv ing holiday. Ticket distribution will be as follows: • Graduate students and seniors - Thursday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. • Juniors — Friday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. • Sophomores — Monday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. • Freshmen — Tuesday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. • Late Ticket Draw — Nov. 22 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. • Late Ticket Draw — Nov. 23 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Non-student tickets can be purchased at Window 7 and student tickets will be available at Window 8. There are more than 7,000 non student tickets still available, most of which are located in the horseshoe at the north end of Kyle Field. They cost $20 each and can be purchased in 110 G. Rollie White Coliseum or by telephone. Phone orders can be made using MasterCard or Visa. To make phone orders, or for more in formation, contact the Athletic Ticket Office at 845-2311. The University of Arkansas has been allotted 3,080 tickets so far. Survey says “Bleacher Bums” Joe Macaitis, a pre-med major from San Anto nio; Greg Nightingale, a business major from Fort Worth; and Dan Orr, a computer engineering major from New Braunfels, heckle Photo by Jay Janner the U.T. Lady Longhorns after serving into the net Tuesday at G. Rollie White Coliseum. The defending national champions beat the Lady Aggies in A&M’s last home game of the season. Multicultural Services tells Student Senate campus must be aware that racism exists President Buchman addresses goal of having no alcohol, better behavior at bonfire By Mia B. Moody Of The Battalion Staff It is important that students are made aware that racism exists at Texas A&M, a speaker from Multicultural Services, said at the Student Senate meeting Tuesday night. “Though women, minorities and immi grants make up 43 percent of the workforce today, by the year 2000, they will make up 85 percent of the workforce,” Shawn Mulligan, assistant director of Multicultural Services, said. “So angles should learn now how to get along with other ethnic groups.” Mulligan said anyone who says that racism does’t exist at Texas A&M, is wrong because students have reported incidents to Multicul tural Services and the student counseling cen ter. “Last year it was reported that a white pro fessor asked the only black student in a large class to join him and sing, ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot,’ ” she said. Mulligan said in another incident, a black male student was attacked by a group of whites at a fraternity party because he ap peared with one of his white girl friends. Five black women reported that they were ha rassed last year after bonfire by whites who tore off their antennae and scratched their car while they yelled racial slurs. Mulligan said at Texas A&M, angles make up 81 percent of the population, hispanics, 7.2 percent and blacks 3 percent. She encouraged angles to get involved with the center to learn more about these groups which are underepresented at A&M. During committee reports, Student Body President Kevin Buchman, said he is working with a task force to clean up student behavior at bonfire. “This group will try to eliminate spectator alcoholism at bonfire,” Buchman said. “We want to keep the tradition alive and we feel that the dangers of drinking is a threat. The task force will encourage students to abstain from taking alcohol to bonfire and to drink moderately if at all before they come.” Finance Committee Chair, David Wieland, passed out a survey to measure how ofteh Student Senate members use the shuttle bus and to let them estimate how much their con stituents use them. The report will be used to to help determine shuttle bus financing for next year. The Senate also approved a resolution to set up a sister relationship between the stu dent senates at A&M and Kazan State Univer sity in Russia. A&M adds more parking spaces for day students By Mia B. Moody Of The Battalion Staff be Depart Transit and Traffic Services made changes to parking lot designations at Texas A&M to increase the num ber of parking spaces available to day students. The decision to reassign parking areas was made following daily in spections of all campus lots, Tom Williams, director of parking, transit and traffic services, said. Williams said the center will mon itor the lot changes to see if they are successful. Parking Lot Changes: • The south side of Parking Area (PA) 62 between Kyle Field and Wellborn Road and PA 69, east of the tennis courts, is designated both blue (day students) and red (dorm students). In the past, day students were restricted to the north side of PA 62. • The parking area adjacent to the Medical Sciences Library and the Reynolds Medical Building, PA 72, will -be designated'yelkw,''re-- served faculty and staff parking, only. This lot, in the past, offered limited parking for day students. • Both Olsen Road, north of Joe Routt Boulevard to Kleberg Circle, and Agronomy Road, south of Uni versity Drive to Kleberg Circle, are designated for day students only. These spaces were formerly re served for random staff brown per mit holders. Kleberg Circle will re main random staff parking. • PA 64, west of the railroad tracks and south of Eli Whitley Park, will be designated for day students, and random staff. This lot had been reserved for those holding any valid parking permit. ® The back two rows of PA 51, across from the Wisenbaker Engi neering Research Center, will be designated for blue permits only. This area was formerly reserved for faculty-staff parking. • There will be many changes to lots north of the Rosenthal Meat Sci ence and Technology Center. The first three rows of PA 74-71, north of the grass esplanade, will remain as reserved staff yellow permit. The next four rows are for day students only and the last two rows will be for University vehicles only. The rows south of the grass esplanade are des ignated for day students only. • Additional reserved staff park ing will be available in PA26 near Duncan Dining Hall. Speakes visits A&M, recounts success with Reagan By Holly Becka Of The Battalion Staff Former White House Chief Spokesman Larry Speakes credits his success as former President Ron ald Reagan’s image maker to the fact that he and the president had many similarities and could identify with each other. “Ronald Reagan and I, though generations apart, had a common background, both being from small towns in Middle America,” Speakes said. “Our values are the same, our thoughts were the same, the way we approached life was the same.” Speakes was a guest Tuesday at visiting lecturer Peter Roussel’s jour nalism class on mass media and the presidency. Roussel is a former dep uty press secretary to President Rea- i fan, and he and Speakes were col eagues and friends in Washington D.C. Speakes said that because he be lieved he knew many of Reagan’s thoughts, he felt justified in covering Reagan’s flubbed quote during a photo opportunity at the first meet ing between the president and Soviet Photo by Jay Janner Larry Speakes Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Speakes fabricated quotes for Reagan then because it was vital for world opin ion, he said. During a photo opportunity, the leaders were asked about their feel ings during the meeting, Speakes said. Gorbachev replied eloquently, but Reagan didn’t. On the way to meet with the press, Speakes said he sat down and wrote out a few quotes, one of which said that the, world could rest easier now that the two leaders were meeting. “Reagan later said that I had known his thoughts and expressed them exactly as he would have liked to,” Speakes said. Speakes said that other than that, when critical situations arose, he would avoid the press. Sometimes avoiding the press was critical to se curity, he said. He also said that during strategic military moves, such as the invasion of Grenada, press secretaries were not involved with the planning of how this would be announced to the public. “If Grenada had not been such a military success, it would have been a public relations nightmare,” Speakes said. “They say Reagan slept during those cabinet meetings — I slept more than he did,” he said. “I be came an expert at drawing the cab inet meeting room.” He said Reagan’s fondness for jokes helped foreign relations. “Ronald Reagan liked jokes and wanted to know what jokes the Sovi ets were telling each other,” he said. “Reagan helped break the ice be tween the two leaders with that atti tude.” He said Reagan shared a joke witfr Gorbachev about a Soviet woman who knocked on the doors of the Kremlin and demanded to see the soviet leader. “Mr. Gorbachev,” the Soviet lady said, “I heard that in America any citizen can go into Ron ald Reagan’s office, bang their hand on his desk and say, T don’t like how you’re running the government.’ “Why can’t we do that here?” the lady demanded. “You can do that here,” replied Gorbachev. “Any per son in the Soviet Union can come in my office, bang their hand on my desk and say they don’t like how Ronald Reagan is running the gov ernment.” Speakes said Reagan was the type of guy who could be your next-door neighbor, someone who would lean over the fence to greet and talk to you, and at the next minute be lead ing the American people. “He had that kind of magic.” Speakes, who has led 2,000 brief ings of the White House press, said one of the most memorable experi ences he had as press secretary, and one that best illustrates his thoughts of Reagan, was when the Challenger exploded. “The vice president burst into the Oval Office, and no one bursts into a meeting,” Speakes said. “He told us the Challenger had exploded. We all sat there in silence for about 30 sec onds, and then Reagan said we should go into the other office where the televisions were. We watched the explosion scene again and again, and the loss of lives, and we couldn’t believe it. “I saw Ronald Reagan as the ordi nary citizen, trying to gather the in formation about the explosion and understand what was going on. I saw the emotions. Then the next day I saw Reagan address and lead the American people in one of the most eloquent speeches I think he has given.” Speakes said his first instinct after the Challenger explosion was to go to the press corps and tell them of the president’s regrets and senti ments to the families of those lost. He said the White House grieved es pecially because they had been so in volved with the teacher in space pro gram. He said he encountered one of the worst questions ever asked of him during that briefing. “A reporter, someone from the back, asked if we were sorry we had sent a teacher>into space,” Speakes said. “Mv mind was going 90 miles an hour. In that 10 seconds before I replied, so many thoughts went through my head, and 1 was think ing, ‘How can I just cut this question off?’ I decided a cold, icy stare and saying, ‘Next question’ made my point.” Speakes told the class about a day in the life of the White House chief spokesman, how the press in fluenced the course of the day the resident and his staff took and how e tried to be with the president as much as possible. Speakes said every day he thinks of March 30, 1981 — the day of the attempted assassination of the presi dent. He said right before the presi dent went to the ill-fated press con ference, he and then-Chief Spokesman Jim Brady went to lunch See Speakes/Page 12