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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1990)
The Battalion Vol.89 No.112 USPS 045360 14 Pages College Station, Texas WEATHER V\\\l//A TOMORROW’S FORECAST; Partly cloudy and warm. HIGH: 80 LOW: 43 Jl / ///lY\vX Monday, March 19,1990 Residence hall campaigning begins today By ANDY KEHOE Of The Battalion Staff Residence hall campaigning begins today and will last until Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m. in most of the Texas A&M residence halls. Halls that will allow campaigning for to morrow and Tuesday are on the north side of campus. These halls are Clements, Davis- Gary, Haas, Hobby, Hughes, Keathley, Law, Lechner, Legett, McFadden, Moore, Neeley and Schumacher. Campaigning will not be in Puryear or Walton halls. Campaigning for halls on the south side is planned for Wednesday and Thursday in Appelt, Aston, Dunn, Hart, Krueger, Rud der, Spence, Underwood, and Wells. Mosher Hall will allow campaigning from 7 to 9 p.m. only. Hart Hall will hold a forum on Wednes day at 7 p.m. Any interested candidates are welcome to give the public relations rep resentative materials to be distributed to the hall. Campaigning in the Corps dorms will be held on Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Campaigning policies for this year mostly follow those from previous years. However, with the new 24-hour locked door policy, campaigners must now 7 check in at each hall, leave their names, arrival times, and student identification cards with a desig nated hall monitor. Campaigners may distribute up to two informative items to each room not display ing a red “Stop” sign. These signs, which will be made available to all residents, indi cate to candidates that those particular rooms are not open for campaigning. “The signs are just for the people who don’t want to be bothered,” Kyle Jacobson, Residence Hall Association vice president, said. “It will allow people to study.” So far in the election, there is only one candidate each for the offices of president, vice president of operations, secretary and treasurer. There are three candidates for vice president for student development. Voting will take place on March 29 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Academic Plaza, Blocker, Kleberg, and the Memorial Stu dent Center. Election results will be an nounced later that night at the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue. Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack An employee of Instant Shade Trees Inc. jumps down from one of the former MSC trees Friday afternoon in front of Cain Hall. Four men arrested for woman’s rape By CHRIS VAUGHN Of The Battalion Staff Four local men, including three Texas A&M students, were charged Saturday with sexual assault in connection with a sexual assault of a College Station woman last Thursday. Ahmad Hussein Aldirawi, 29, 806-C Oran Circle in Bryan; Hussein Kassem Khalil, 27, 402 Nagle St. #214 in College Station; Ahmad Youssef Noubani, 27, 1301 Harvey Road #352 in College Station; and Kassem Said, 29, 804-C Oran Circle in Bryan were each charged with sexual as sault. Aldirawi, Khalil and Noubani are A&M students. The four men were released from fl-m Brazos County Jail Saturday on $10,000 bond. All four were arrested Friday without incident, police said. The criminal charges are a result of a sexual assault which occurred between 12:30 and 4 a.m. Thursday. The woman told police she left a College Station night club with a man who drove her to an apart ment complex. The police report said that she and the man were joined by three other men in the apartment. The report states that the woman was held down by two men and sexually as saulted by two other men. The woman was returned to her home by the man she met at the nightclub, the report states. The woman was taken to St. Joseph Hos pital at approximately 4:30 a.m. Thursday, where hospital personnel called the police. Vacationers kidnapped Mexican police rescue Okla. students BROWNSVILLE (AP) — Mexican police rescued three Oklahoma college students and a friend, reportedly kidnapped during spring break, while four other vacationers have died in accidents at South Padre Is land. Three Matamoros, Mexico, residents face a judge Monday on charges of depriva tion of freedom. The three Oklahomans and a woman were held against their will for about three hours in a car after they ac cepted a ride to the Gateway International Bridge, police said. A Matamoros police officer, about to go off duty, spotted the Americans as he drove by a warehouse where they had been taken by the assailants. Darren Crabtree, 19, of Oklahoma City, said the Americans feared for their lives. He said the abductors ordered them to go into the vacant warehouse. “At that point we thought they were going to kill us because last year those peo ple got killed during Spring Break,” his 25- year-old brother, Marland Crabtree, said. “They were telling us that we better go in because they had a gun.” Darren Crabtree said, “I was not going in. I was ready to fight them. They were trying to make us enter the warehouse when the police just happened to drive by and saved us. “There is no telling what they wanted to do to us inside the warehouse.” One year ago, University of Texas stu dent Mark Kilroy was kidnapped in Mat amoros and was one of 15 people killed at a nearby ranch by members of a drug cult. Matamoros police officer Ruben Morales Gonzalez said he spotted two of the Oklaho mans emerging from a car while he was driving toward the police station about 3:30 a.m. Friday, near the end of his shift. “I saw them there, and I thought it was strange for them to be at that side of town at those hours,” said Gonzalez. “When I stopped, one of them raced toward the car, and told me they were taken against their will. Then I called for reinforcement.” Police said it was unlikely they would have spotted the Oklahomans if they had been in the car, since its windows were tinted black. Renumbering ordinance causes address confusion By JILL BUTLER Of The Battalion Staff Many people came home last week to find that they lived at new addresses — same places, but different addresses. Because of a College Station city ordi nance, some apartments were renumbered. On March 5, however, part of the ordi nance was revoked. College Station City Ordinance 1790, passed in December 1988, was designed to improve police and emergency services for all College Station businesses and resi dences. Part of the ordinance was revoked be cause of the problems it caused apartment managers and residents. The ordinance stated that addresses of all businesses and residences in College Sta tion had to be clearly marked with a certain size letter or number to assist policemen, firemen and ambulance drivers. Coy Perry, a College Station building of ficial, said there was a suggestion in the or dinance for managers to renumber apart ments and apartment buildings. Perry said no managers were required to renumber the apartments. He said it was suggested to managers they assign a number to every apartment building. Also, every individual apartment number would begin with the building number and end with a number that would indicate if the apartment was upstairs or downstairs. Upstairs apartments would end with odd numbers and downstairs apart ments would end with even numbers. For example, Apartment 1011 would be upstairs, the eleventh apartment in the tenth building. Numbers on apartment buildings had to be four inches tall and apartment numbers had to be two inches tall. The changes had to made by Dec. 31, 1989. As stated in the ordinance, anyone failing or refusing to comply with the ordi nance is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor and will be fined no less than $20 and no more than $200 per day of violation. However, March 5, the ordinance was partially revoked after three members of the city staff met with three members of the Bryan-College Station Apartment Associa tion. “After listening to the apartment associa tion’s complaints, we decided to relax the ordinance,” Perry said. He said apartment complexes are no longer urged to renumber, but the number size and location requirement remains. Rosemarie Lindsay, associate executive of the Bryan-College Station Apartment Association, said there were too many prob lems associated with renumbering apart ments. “There is too much confusion and ex pense to change the numbers,” Lindsay said. She said the biggest problems associated with renumbering are mail service and stu dents having to change information on checks and insurance policies. Also, apart ment managers would have to change leases and mailbox keys. Lindsay said emergency service problems are still a concern and will be dealt with. “We will submit maps of every complex to Coy Perry and he will give these to dis patchers,” Lindsay said. Debra Warren, manager of Huntington Apartments, said maps will help, but not solve emergency problems. “Lives could be lost,” Warren, whose hus band is a fireman, said. “Emergency teams waste time searching for apartments. “The addresses are very confusing,” she said. “It’s pretty rough to find some apart ments. Warren is in favor of renumbering com plexes, but did not renumber Huntington because the complex’s original numbering system complied with the ordinance. “I back the ordinance 100 percent,” War ren said. “However, other people might not be happy with my opinion because I did not have to renumber.” She said the city should have studied the situation more thoroughly before revoking the ordinance. “Some people spent thousands of dollars changing numbers,” Warren said. “It’s unf air.” Perry said out of more than 100 apart ment complexes, 11 were renumbered. Josephine Hancock, manager of Pepper- tree Apartments, renumbered the complex three weeks ago. “I didn’t even know about the ordinance until February,” Hancock said. “I found out about it (the ordinance) when another man ager showed me a copy.” Perry said there was a public hearing about the ordinance and the apartment as sociation included information about the ordinance in their newsletter. Hancock said she renumbered the com plex because she was required to. “Coy Perry said we had to renumber,” she said. “I had no choice.” Hancock said the complex paid $1,400 for materials and labor needed to re number. “There was a lot more involved than just physically changing the numbers,” Han cock said. She said the mailboxes had to be See Address/Page 8 "... We all want the same result’ Future commander discusses Corps role By JILL BUTLER Of The Battalion Staff Anyone traveling from Northwestern United States to Col lege Station may have seen next year’s Corps of Cadets com mander with bugs in his teeth, the wind in his face and half his belongings strapped to his motorcycle. Jonathan Whittles, who will be the highest ranking cadet in the Corps, spent five days on his motorcycle traveling from his hometown of Sand Lake, Ore., to College Station a week before last fall semester started. Whittles, a junior biomedical science major, also surfs, sails, rock climbs, hang glides and plays the guitar. However, he said, he has had little time to do any of these since he was named Corps sergeant major, the highest rankingjunior, last year. His new position, commanding more than 2,100 cadets, has brought even more responsibility. “I can’t believe all the work,” Whittles said. “Every night I get phone calls almost every 20 minutes." Whittles, a member of the outfit D-l Company, said the most difficult thing about being Corps commander is going from the role of a friend and peer to a role of a commander. “The hardest part is having to tell one of my buddies what to do,” Whittles said. Despite all the work and worry. Whittles enjoys his new job. “I’m really excited,” Whittles said. “The job is rewarding and fun. I like to see positive change taking place in the Corps.” The job of Corps commander is not easy to describe. Whittles said. Whittles will oversee the Corps staff, work with military staff to make Corps policy and serve on numerous committees throughout the University. “A lot of what I do is public relations-related,” Whittles said. At the All Night Fair this semester, Whittles took place in a pig-kissing contest against Miss Texas A&M University. Although he does not officially take command until he puts on his senior boots at Final Review in May, Whittles said he has been handling .ill 1990-1991 Corps policy decisions since he was chosen as comm,indci three weeks ago. Five cadets were « Ik wen u> interview for the position of Corps commander. “We went through a verv rigorous nomination and interview process,” Whitt lev vu< 1 All five nominees were interviewed by a selected group of commissioned officers in the School of Military Science. Whittles said all nominees were equally qualified, but he hap pened to be in a better position for the job as commander be cause he was chosen as Corps sergeant major last year. “Serving as sergeant major this year has given me a lot of practice for my position as Corps commander,” Whittles said. He said working on the Corps staff his junior year taught him a lot about the C trps.and will make the transition to commander easier. “I learned that everyone in the Corps wants the Corps to sur vive, ” Whittles said. “Not everyone agrees on how it should sur vive, but we all want the same result.” Whittles said without the Corps, A&M would lose a lot of the spirit at football games and traditions like Silver Taps. He said the Aggie Band is especially important. "The band is an extremely important part of the University and the Corps,” Whitdes said. “The band is our pulse, and with out it, the Corps would dissolve.” Whittles said he became an Aggie because of the spirit and friendliness at A&M. “I had a Marine Corps scholarship and I started looking at all Freshman Chris Blackley of D-1 “whips out" to Jonathan Whittles, the new Corps commander for 1990-91. the academies,” said Whittles, who was born and raised in Ore gon. “I had friends in Houston and came to visit A&M. I didn’t apply anywhere else. I knew this was the place.” Whittles plans to graduate in December 1991 and then will serve at least four years as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Ma rines Corps. He also is interested in becoming a pilot for the Ma rines. “I’ve always thought everyone should do their time in the mil itary,” Whittles said. “But I’m not sure if 1 will make a career out of it. I’ve never really seen myself doing one thing for a long amount of time.” His possible plans after military duty include going to medical See Corps/Fage 8