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Vol.89 No.57 USPS 045360 12 Pages
Battalion
College Station, Texas
WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Partly cloudy
HIGH: 70 LOW: 48
Monday, November 20, 1989
Hazing dies out as awareness of law increases
By Selina Gonzalez
and Suzanne Calderon
Of The Battalion Staff
Hazing on the Texas A&M campus is be
coming a thing of the past as awareness of
the 1987 hazing law increases among fra
ternity rushees and entering Corps mem
bers.
Field Hudgens, Interfraternity Council
external vice president, said, “Now we want
to mold guys (fraternity rushees) into what
they are and who they are instead of break
ing them down.”
He said hazing is defined as anything
that demoralizes, undermines or breaks
someones self-confidence.
The 1987 state hazing law defines hazing
as “any intentional, knowing, or reckless act
that endangers the mental or physical
health or safety of a student for the pur
pose of pledging, being initiated into, affil
iating with, holding office in, or maintain
ing membership in any organization.”
The hazing law was passed after the 1986
alcohol hazing death of a UT-Austin frater
nity pledge. The law established civil and
criminal penalties for groups that haze and
the individuals involved.
According to the 1987 law, the term “ha
zing” includes:
• Any type of physical brutality.
• Any type of physical activity such as
sleep deprivation or exposure to the el
ements.
• Any activity involving consumption of
a food, liquid, or alcoholic beverage.
• Any activity that intimidates or threat
ens the student or subjects the student to
extreme mental stress.
In addition, a section of the law requires
that schools “cause to be published or dis
tributed to each student during the first
three weeks of each semester” a list of
groups disciplined for hazing during the
past three years.
Dr. J. Malone Southerland, associate vice
president of Student Services, said pub
lishing a list of organizations that have par
ticipated in hazing is an attempt to educate
people about the reputation of different or
ganizations.
He does not believe A&M has had any in
cidents that have totally violated the 1987
hazing law.
“We do have some cases regarding a cou
ple of student organizations that, after fur
ther review, the Student Activities Depart
ment believes it would be prudent to do
some form of publication,” Southerland
said. Student Activities officials are cur
rently deciding what should be done in
these cases.
Hudgens said because no fraternities
have been disciplined for hazing at A&M in
the past three years, it has been unneces
sary to publish such a list.
When asked if he felt organizations re
ported hazing incidents 100 percent of the
time, Southerland said, “No.”
Student Services officials recently de
cided incidents of hazing should be re-
See Hazing/Page 12
Aggie Players win
production awards
for ‘ Godot, ’ others
|By Pam Mooman
Of The Battalion Staff
,
Good things come to those who
re waiting — “Waiting For Godot,”
hat is.
The Texas A&M Aggie Players
>von one of two awards for best pro-
luction for their performance of
Waiting For Godot” at the Ameri-
an College Theatre Festival at East
'exas State University Nov. 7-12.
Texas Women’s University won
he other best performance award
ith their production of “Six
tVomen With Brain Death: Or Ex-
>iring Minds Want to Know.”
Sean Duriham, an A&M sopho-
nore theater major from Round
lock, played The Boy. He said
\&M’s production was up against
tiff competition. Eight other uni
versities with drama programs, in-
luding Texas Tech University,
Texas Women’s University, Univer
sity of North Texas and East Texas
state University, competed with the
\ggie Players for the honors.
“There were quite a few really
^ood productions,” Dunham said.
Dunham said “Waiting # For Go-
lot” was a difficult show to stage,
ind it could have bored the audience
tears — but it didn’t.
“We were able to move the critic
nd audience with it,” he said.
The award also is important to
Bohn Flores, a freshman theater ma
jor from Dallas.
“For people to really like my work
this much, it’s a big deal,” said
Flores, who played Lucky.
Being his first time at the festival,
|Flores said he didn’t know what to
xpect and sat watching the other
productions, which were good, with
his fingers crossed.
“It’s my first year and I didn’t
know what to think,” he said. “I was
really excited about (winning).”
The Aggie Players also won other
honors for costume design and sce
nic design and were acknowledged
as the best company at the festival.
Two cast members, Oliver Tull,
who played Vladimir (Didi) and
Clinton Sam, who played Estragon
(Gogo), were selected as outstanding
performers.
Tull, a senior theater major from
Dallas, said he was not surprised that
“Waiting For Godot” won.
“I thought we had a very good
production,” Tull said. “I thought
we’d do well.”
Tull said winning an award like
this helps actors in two ways.
“It’s one of the things that come
from peer recognition,” he said. It’s
a way for actors to know if they have
done a good job, he said.
“It’s (also) a way to advance a care-
“Waiting For Godot” has been
nominated for participation in the
ACTF Region VI festival held in
Lubbock in February 1990. Tull said
only six spots are available for the re
gional festival, and the participants
will be selected next week.
Winners at the regional festival
will be invited to Washington, D.C.,
for the National Festival and will
perform at the Kennedy Center.
But even if “Waiting For Godot” is
not chosen to advance to the next
level of competition, Tull and Sam
still will compete with other actors
from across the nation for a $2,500
scholarship, as their awards were
separate from the best production
award.
. Germans protest
ommunist leaders
lespite new reforms
DRESDEN, East Germany (AP) —
Tens of thousands of protesters in at
[least eight cities braved icy winds
Sunday to keep the heat on the
Communist leadership, despite open
borders and the election of a re
form-minded Cabinet one day ear
lier.
Nearly 3 million East Germans
crossed into West Berlin and West
jermany between Friday and Sun
day, the second weekend since the
^government opened borders to the
[West, border police said. Most were
just visiting for the day.
Ferry service across the Elbe
[River, which forms part of the bor-
tder, resumed Sunday at Hitzacker,
labout 80 miles southeast of Ham-
iburg, for the first time since April
[23,1945.
In another change, the official
|ADN news agency reported that the
froles of the party and the govern-
Iment in East Germany’s armed
|forces will be separated.
ADN said 50,000 people partici-
Ipated in Dresden’s first officially au
thorized protest rally. Other esti-
[mates of the crowd size ranged up to
1100,000.
“Lord don’t forgive them because
[they knew what they did,” one ban-
|ner in the southern city, making a
[biting play on words from Jesus
[Christ’s agony on the cross, said.
In East Berlin, thousands partici-
fpated in an unauthorized march
[from the Alexanderplatz square to
[Parliament, calling for sweeping re-
jforms and abolition of the Commu-
Inist Party’s guaranteed monopoly on
! power.
Parliament on Saturday con
firmed a reform-minded Cabinet of
Communist Premier Hans Modrow
and created a committee to study
possible constitutional changes, in
cluding dropping a law guarantee
ing Communist rule.
“We won’t let ourselves be blinded
by the open borders,” one protest
banner said. “Swap DDR (East Ger
many) for Mickey Mouse,” another
said.
One sign suggested, “Honecker to
court,” and speakers called for pros
ecution of the country’s former lead
ers, including ousted president and
party chief Erich Honecker, who was
replaced by Egon Krenz on Oct. 18.
Krenz was quoted by a West Ger
man newspaper as saying Honecker
is one of those under investigation
by a parliamentary commission.
Just outside the capital, about
30,000 Communist Party backers
demonstrated in Potsdam to show
their support for the government’s
announced reform program, ADN
said.
ADN reported other pro-democ
racy rallies Sunday in a half-dozen
cities and towns.
The rallies were as follows: 20,000
people in Erfurt, 10,000 in Mei-
ningen, also 10,000 in Frankfurt an
der Oder, 3,000 in Schwedt and
2,000 in Neustrelitz. The official
agency said “thousands” protested in
Karl Marx Stadt but did not give a
more precise crowd estimate for the
march there or in East Berlin.
At least some demonstrators were
cool to the idea of unifying the two
Germanys.
Aggies beat Aussies 87-74
A&M’s Freddie Rick steals back a rebound from over the Australian Olympic team marked the
Australia’s Tim Morrissey and scores. The victory Aggies’ season opener. Story, page7
A&M officials
investigating
cause of fires
UPD checks out
possibility of arson
By Andrea Warrenburg
Of The Battalion Staff
A string of four fires on the Texas
A&M campus in the early morning
hours of Nov. 11 has the University
Police Department investigating pos
sible arson.
All occurring on the north side of
campus, the first fire was reported at
2 a.m. and the last fire at 4:45 a.m.
Dumpsters in parking area 30 and
parking area 2, two trashcans in the
breezeway of McGinnis Hall and a
couch in the A-3 study lounge, south
of Davis-Gary Hall, caught on fire.
Dan Mizer, A&M assistant direc
tor for residence life, said the study
lounge received extensive damage
and will be closed for repairs for
some time.
“The dumpsters will have to be re
painted and the trashcans replaced,”
Mizer said. “As for the study lounge,
.95 percent, of it is covered with black
soot and the damage is pretty exten
sive.”
Mizer said a couch in the lounge
caught fire and as the blaze grew, set
the wood paneling and the ceiling on
fire, damaging some ceiling beams.
Carpet, light fixtures and some
beams will have to be replaced, he
said.
“Outside companies are submit
ting bids for repairs, trying to put a
dollar amount on the damage,”
Mizer said.
In the opinion of College Station
Fire Department Captain Timothy
Fickey, who was on duty that night,
it was arson.
University Police Department De
tective Jim Lindholm is investigating
this possibility. Evidence has been
taken to the Department of Public
Safety laboratory for analysis.
“We have eyewitnesses to the
other fires and there’s a strong possi
bility they’re linked,” Lindholm said.
“We have a couple of suspects.
“I’ve been here for almost seven
years and don’t ever remember a
string of fires like this,” Lindholm
said.
If anyone has information on the
fires, they are asked to contact Lind
holm at 845-6712. All information
will be kept confidential.
Survivor of collapsed Oakland freeway dies
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Buck Helm, the
longshoreman rescued from a flattened freeway
three and a half days after the Oct. 17 earth
quake, was mourned Sunday as a gutsy symbol of
endurance. His death raised the toll from the
quake to 67.
Helm, 58, died of respiratory failure Saturday
night at Kaiser-Permanent Medical Center in
Oakland, hospital spokesman Ron Treleven said.
No other details on his death were available.
“Buck’s passing pretty much took everyone by
surprise because he was improving,” Gary
Frischer, a spokesman for Helm’s family, said in
a statement.
Helm had been taken off a kidney dialysis ma
chine, and doctors had hoped to wean him from
the respirator that had enabled him to breathe.
His death raised the toll from the collapse of
the double-deck Nimitz Freeway in Oakland to
42. Overall, the 7.1-magnitude quake killed 67
people, injured more than 2,800, left more than
14,000 homeless and caused an estimated $7 bil
lion in damage.
“To many, Buck had become a symbol of sur
vival and hope,” Frischer said. “For the Helmses,
the thousands of cards and letters from all cor
ners of the world gave Buck and the family
strength and encouragement, and for that they
are forever grateful.”
Others were rescued from the collapsed sec
tion of Interstate 880 shortly after the quake hit,
but Helm was the only person to be pulled alive
from the rubble after rescue crews began search
ing the wrecked road.
Rescuers had given up hope of finding more
survivors when an engineer testing the struc
ture’s stability saw Helm wave from inside his
small car Oct. 21. A large beam that fell in front
of Helm’s Chevrolet Sprint saved it from being
flattened.
The 220-pound, 5-foot-10 Helm suffered a
fractured skull, fractured neck, three broken
ribs, nerve damage to his leg and kidney prob
lems caused by dehydration. He already had dia
betes and high blood pressure.
Helm, a longshoreman’s clerk who worked the
docks in Oakland, commuted 250 miles each
weekend to visit his family in the small town of
Weaverville.
His former wife, Lorrie Helm, and the cou
ple’s children were frequently at his side during
his hospitalization. She said he acknowledged
hearing his family read the cards and letters sent
to him by well wishers but couldn’t speak because
of the respirator.
NASA counts down to secret military mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA
faced a tight schedule Sunday as a veiled count
down began for launching the shuttle Discovery
on Thanksgiving Eve with five astronauts and a
secret spy satellite.
“We’re on a tight schedule, but Wednesday
night is a make-able launch date,” space agency
spokesman Lisa Malone said.
Launch director Bob Sieck gave the go-ahead
to start the countdown Sunday afternoon even
though workers at the pad were several hours be
hind schedule in doing final checks and closing
up panels on the lower part of the two solid fuel
booster rockets.
The panels were removed last week so workers
could check computer boxes suspected of having
faulty wiring. One of the boxes was replaced.
Sieck said he was confident the lagging work
could be done in parallel with other countdown
operations and that liftoff could occur as
planned between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
Wednesday. It will be only the third after-dark
launch planned in 32 shuttle flights.
The Pentagon will not let NASA publically dis
close the exact time of launch until nine minutes
before the planned liftoff. Officials said that
would make it more difficult for Soviet recon
naissance satellites and a spy ship sitting offshore
to track the shuttle.
Critics argue that such secrecy is unnecessary
because the Soviets, with their intelligence capa
bilities, undoubtedly already know a great deal
about the mission and that once Discovery is in
orbit, they will be able to track it precisely and
know what it is doing.