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HIGH: 70 LOW: 56
Monday, March 26,1990
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:al
oard gives go-ahead
for new events center
By CHRIS VAUGHN
pOf The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M Board of' Re-
Igents gave the go-ahead Friday to
Ibegin plans to build a 14,500-seat
[special events center on west cam-
Ipus.
I The Board discussed the special
[events center Thursday, but didn’t
I vote on the plans until Friday af-
Iternoon. William A. McKenzie,
chairman of the Board, said he is
ecstatic about the new coliseum.
“This is the most welcome addi
tion to the campus we’ve ever had,”
McKenzie said.
The special events center’s cost is
projected to be $35 million and is
scheduled to be built near the Beef
Cattle Center on west campus.
McKenzie said the actual con
struction could begin in only a year
with the entire project completed in
three years.
The special events center will re
place the 36-year-old G. Rollie White
Coliseum, which has become an
“embarrassment” to A&M, accord
ing to a document prepared by the
University.
G. Rollie White is the second
smallest arena in the Southwest Con
ference with a seating capacity of
7,500. Only Autry Court at Rice
University is smaller.
McKenzie said Thursday that
A&M basketball has suffered in high
school basketball recruiting because
of the outdated arena, and a new
coliseum might attract more young
players.
In addition to basketball games,
the new coliseum will be used during
commencement exercises.
A&M officials said in a document
that commencement “has become a
laborious occasion for graduates,
their families and the faculty be
cause of the limited capacity and the
uncomfortable seating” in G. Rollie
White.
Commencement is divided into
nine sessions, and University offi
cials said a new coliseum would re
duce that number and would en
hance the graduation experience for
everyone.
The new center would also be
used for concerts, rodeos, circuses,
ice shows, large banquets and con
ferences.
The arena will be a double bowl
Regents approve resolution
to expand TAMUS drug policy
By BILL HETHCOCK
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M University
System will have a broader drug
policy, the Board of Regents de
cided in a resolution passed Fri
day.
The drug policy now in effect
applies only to employees of the
System and does not deal with al
cohol. The expanded policy will
cover both students and employ
ees, and will apply to alcohol
abuse and illegal drug use, said
Edward Hiler, deputy chancellor
for academic program planning
and research.
“By adding alcohol, we’re ac
knowledging that alcohol is a
form of drug,” Hiler said.
TAMUS officials are consid
ering stricter rules and penalties
for students and employees who
abuse alcohol, Hiler said. A task
force has been created to took
into specific changes in A&M’s
policy toward alcohol and drug
abuse, he said.
James Bond, deputy chancellor
for legal and external affairs, said
the new drug policy also may call
for some form of drug testing.
This issue will be decided in up
coming meetings of the drug pol
icy task force.
In December, President Bush
signed the Federal Drug-Free
Schools Bill. This bill requires
schools to implement a program
to prevent abuse of illegal drugs
and alcohol. Schools tailing to
adopt a program of this type by
Oct. 1, 1990, risk losing federal
funds and other forms of finan
cial assistance, including student
loans program participation,
Hiler said.
But compliance with the Fed
eral Drug-Free Schools Bill is
only pan of the reason for devel
oping a new system-wide drug
policy, Bond said.
“This effort to really get at the
drug problem started before we
found out we would have to con
form to the new federal laws,” he
said. “Now we must harmonize
what we do to meet, the federal
regulations.”
Bond said he expects A&M’s
new drug policy to include educa
tional programs aimed at increas
ing awareness of problems relat
ing to drug anti alcohol abuse,
and a rehabilitation program for
employees and students who have
substance-abuse problems.
The U.S. Department of Edu
cation is developing guidelines
for implementing the drug-free
schools bill.
structure with three different levels.
The main level will include all of the
seating. One level will include the
playing floor, support facilities, stor
age, food services, and meeting fa
cilities. Another level will include
box office areas and security posts.
College Station Mayor Larry
Ringer has said the city’s Capital Im
provement Control Committee will
propose a bond election in the sum
mer to help fund the facility.
In other business, the Board of
Regents:
• Approved the spending of $6.6
million for utility adjustments near
the A&M campus when the Texas
State Department of Highways and
Public Transportation begins its Lo-
Trak Project on Wellborn Road.
The LoTrak Project will lower the
railroad tracks west of campus in or
der to separate them from bicycle,
vehicle and pedestrian traffic. A&M
has agreed to assist the state by fi
nancing all utility adjustments from
University Drive to George Bush
Drive.
• Approved an increase in park
ing garage fees beginning with the
fall semester. A reserved numbered
parking garage permit will jump
from $150 to $200, a priority permit
will increase from $170 to $225, and
a basement garage permit in Zachry
will increase from $180 to $225.
Anticipation
Photo by Jay Janner
Members of the Texas A&M baseball team watch
from the dugout as the Aggies make the final out
in their first win in a double-header sweep of the
Texas Tech Red Raiders Saturday at Olsen
Field. Those wins and another win Friday night
increased A&M’s winning streak over Tech to 21
games.
• Complete game results/Page 9
Fire ravages club
killing 87 patrons
from smoke, flames
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NEW YORK (AP) — Fire raced
through an illegal social club early
Sunday and turned a packed dance
floor into a deathtrap of smoke and
flame that killed 87. A man who al
legedly had earlier fought with a
dub worker was arrested for investi
gation of arson and murder.
The fire, the nation’s worst in 13
years; tore through the Happy Land
dub, which authorities saici lacked
proper exits and other safeguards.
The 2:40 a.m. (CST)fire killed 61
men and 26 women, most of them
Honduran and Dominican immi
grants. Most were found on the sec
ond floor.
“People literally were stacked on
top of each other,” Anthony De Vita,
the Fire Department’s command
chief, said. “It was a firetrap,” he
said of the two-story building in an
impoverished neighborhood near
the Bronx Zoo.
Some of the victims broke a hole
through a wall to an adjoining hall in
a desperate attempt to save their
lives, Red Cross worker Margaret
Glugover said.
Police Commissioner Lee Brown
told a news conference that Julio
Gonzalez, 36, a Bronx resident, was
arrested for investigation of arson
and murder.
“We believe the motive in this case
was the result of a dispute he had
with a female employee of the club,”
Brown said.
Police said Gonzalez went into the
club about 2 a.m. and began arguing
with his former girlfriend, who sold
tickets near the entrance.
“He’s trying to talk her into mak
ing up, she’s saying ‘Leave me
alone,’ ” Lt. Raymond O’Donnell, a
police spokesman, said.
A club bouncer evicted the man
half an hour later, and police alleged
he returned and started the fire near
the entrance.
The woman employee left before
the fire, Brown said.
At least two women and one man
— the disc jockey — survived,
Brown said.
Most of the dead were believed to
have suffocated from the thick
smoke, which billowed hundreds of
feet, but some were trampled, said
Lynn Schulman, an Emergency
Medical Service spokeswoman.
After viewing the bodies, Mayor
David Dinkins called the scene
“graphic and sad.”
Dinkins said an order to vacate
the club was issued in November
1988 becausee the club lacked
proper sprinkling systems, exits,
emergency lighting and signs. City
records show orders were delivered
to the club July 24 and again Nov. 1,
Dinkins said.
“I don’t know what subsequent
visits were made there,” the mayor
said, adding that the city was step
ping up efforts to shut down such
clubs.
“This is the worst thing I have
seen in my career,” Emergency Med
ical Services specialist Christopher
McCarthy said. “It hurt my stomach.
It was sickening.”
“Most of the bodies were in dance
clothes,” McCarthy said. “They were
out to have fun. ... I saw wall-to-wall
bodies — an indication of mass con
fusion and panic.”
EMS Lt. Roy David said there
were “a lot of people, obviously fran
tic at one point, trying to make an
exit.”
The fire was the deadliest in the
continental United States since a
May 28, 1977, blaze that consumed
the Beverly Hills Supper Club in
Southgate, Ky., killing 164 people. A
Dec. 31, 1986, fire at a hotel in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, a U.S. common
wealth, killed 96 people.
The tragedy occurred in East
Tremont, a section of the Bronx bo
rough. Deputy Mayor Bill Lynch de
scribed it as an “economically disad
vantaged, working-class, Latino
neighborhood.”
The building housed a group that
organized children’s baseball as well
as adult social events, Lillian Rivera,
a neighbor, said.
A makeshift morgue was set up at
a hall next door.
CAMAC sparks official language debate
By SEAN FRERKING
Of The Battalion Staff
A discussion about the controversy over En-
f lish as the official language of the United
tales was a war about words.
The presentation, part of a conference
sponsored by the Committee for the Aware
ness of Mexican American Culture, sparked a
heated debate in front of 80 to 100 students
Friday.
Louis Zaeske, Class of ’64 and founder of
the American Ethnic Coalition, and Dr. Her
man Garcia, an associate professor of curric
ulum and instruction and Bilingual Education
at Texas A&M, presented their cases to the
mostly Hispanic audience.
Zaeske, who began the debate, said the is
sue of English as an official language has been
misunderstood as English-only legislation.
“I am standing before you today to advo
cate official English when we talk about our
government speaking to the citizens and the
citizens speaking to the government,” Zaeske
said. “That’s what official English means —
nothing more, nothing less.”
Zaeske said that, at first, many people think
English as the official language would dis
criminate against ethnic minorities. But in
reality, he said, official English protects mi
norities from discrimination by insuring one
ethnic language is not given more weight than
any other.
Zaeske said English as an official language
also would make the practice of government
more efficient. By using a standard language
in a trial or any other event funded by the
state, official English would eliminate the con
fusion caused by multiple languages and their
translations, Zaeske said.
“Can you imagine what kind of chaos a
multilingual state would cause?” Zaeske said.
Zaeske said official English would bring
ethnic minorities in the American mainstream
much more quickly and act as a glue for
American minorities and unify the nation,
Zaeske said.
In fact, Zaeske said, the present bilingual,
education system segregates against Hispanic
students and is the main reason the Hispanic
drop-out rate is so high. He said he favors im
mersing students into American culture so
See Engiish/Page 6
Speaker: U.S. work force
needs educated women
By STACY E. ALLEN
Of The Battalion Staff
Women of tomorrow can enter
the corporate world if they are
equipped with a solid education,
said Carmen S. Gonzalez, guest
speaker at the conference for the
Committee on the Awareness of
the Mexican American Culture.
The session, titled “Women’s
Role in Society,” featured Gonza
lez and Dr. Sylvia Fernandez, ad
missions counselor for Texas
A&M representing South Texas.
Gonzalez said the future looks
bright for women as major con
tributors in the American work
place.
“The future will bring daycare,
sometimes right at the work site
or as an employee benefit and
better maternity leave,” Gonzalez
said. “These changes will make it
easier for women to be superwo
men, juggling career, family, rec
reation and community involve
ment.”
Gonzalez cited “Megatrends”
as reporting that 74 percent of
men work while 79 percent of
women without children under
the age of 18 are members of the
work force. More than half of all
women with children work, she
said.
“The book says the days of
women as a minority in the work
force are over,” Gonzalez said.
“The future of women in the
work force is encouraging, and
those getting a college education
will be in demand.”
Gonzalez said Working
Woman magazine issued a special
report on the state of the work
force in the 90s. The magazine,
she said, reported the American
labor pool is shrinking. Gonzalez
said unemployment is 5.2 per
cent, the lowest in 15 years, and
the labor pool is suffering from a
shortage of qualified young peo
ple.
These statistics show that if
women are equipped with a good
education they can succeed, she
said. A lack of higher order
thinking skills that are required
for high-tech positions and an
under-educated population have
left many jobs begging for qual
ified employees.
Fernandez emphasized that
women should do more than just
fulfill educational requirements if
they hope to be successful.
“You must go beyond those re
quirements because they’re going
to be just enough to get you in the
door,” Fernandez said.
Regent: Education key
to Hispanic enrollment
By TODD L. CONNELLEY
Of The Battalion Staff
Education is the key to increas
ing the number of Hispanics at
Texas A&M, said Board of Re
gent member Raul B. Fernandez.
During a discussion Saturday
.on the evolution of the Mexican-
American family, Fernandez was
asked what could be done to at
tract more Hispanics to A&M.
Hispanics currently make up
seven percent of A&M’s popula
tion.
“Education means opportuni
ty,” Fernandez said “It gives us a
chance to be, to do and to ac
complish anything we want.”
He said that the testimony of a
college student is a powerful
method to attract high school se
niors.
“If you go back to your schools
and talk about the importance of
a good education then you are
making a strong impression,” he
said.
The speech concluded a two-
day conference sponsored by the
Committee for the Awareness of
Mexican American Culture. La
Familia, La Vida: Looking Back
into the Past and into the Future,
was the theme of the conference
and of Fernandez’s speech.
He outlined tne ditferent tami-
lies in his life and the importance
of each.
“My personal family is the most
important to me,” he said. “It’s
the only family that picks us —
you have no choice. Its what you
do with it that’s crucial.”
Fernandez said that A&M be
coming his educational family
was a direct result of his parents.
“As long as I could remember
they told me I was going to colle
ge,” he said. “When the time
came, I got a scholarship from
the Laredo A&M Mothers Club
and off I went.”
After college Fernandez en
tered the military and then began
his succesful business career.
He said the business world was
another family that was instru
mental in his life.
“Each of us has an endless sup
ply of families,” he said. “It’s what
you do with them that is so im
portant.”
“We have a responsibility to
make life a little better for all the
families we’ve been involved
with.”
Fernandez is a builder and real
estate investor from San Antonio.
He was appointed to the Board of
Regents Dy Governor William P.
Clements in 1989.