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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1990)
he Battalion TATE Friday , March 30,1990 & LOCAL Census count to include U.S. homeless, transient Officials anticipate accurate results By JILL BUTLER Of The Battalion Staff Photo by Jay Janner Mario Casares was among the Bryan homeless who were counted by workers for the Bureau of the Census. Every 10 years the United States Census Bureau counts Americans to determine the number of congressional rep resentatives from each state and to allocate federal funds to cities. Census forms are mailed to ev ery residence in the country asking for information about household members. A large number of people, however, live in the United States who don’t have any form of per manent housing. Two of these groups, the homeless and the transient, are being counted this month. The homeless count was taken in the United States the night of March 20 in an operation called S-Night, or Special Night. Bill Donal dson, manager of the district office in Bryan-College Station, is responsible for census counts in the Brazos County and 15 surrounding counties. “Our job is to completely count all people in the United States, and the homeless are one element of the population,” Donaldson said. “It is important to count ev eryone in the country.” He said pre-census operations included contacting shelters and getting a list of the homeless peo ple known by shelter employees. Donaldson also said the police force of each city knows where many homeless people stay at night. “Counting homeless is not a big problem because of all the pre census operations,” Donaldson said. “It went well for us. S-Night was well-planned,” Census workers, called numer ators, were specially trained for S- Night and were in charge of See Homeless/Page 6 Corps members hold traditional March to Brazos to raise money By DAPHNE MILLER Of The Battalion Staff Members of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets will pound the pavement to raise money for the March of Dimes and participate in traditions during the annual March to the Brazos this weekend. Every year, usually the last week end in March, members of the Corps get together for the march. The cadets will gather on the Quadrangle at 8 a.m. Saturday wear ing combat pants and boots and march in formation to Highway 6. Upon arrival to the highway, the cadets will walk seven miles to the Brazos River. Corps members will participate in various activities after reaching the river. A&M food services will pro vide food, a local band will perform, relay races and tug-of-war games will be offered and the Confederate Air Force will perform two 20-min- ute shows. Toward the end of the day’s activ ities, senior cadets will leave the ju niors and underclassmen and ride back to campus. Clay Whitaker, Corps public relations officer, said that although this act is seemingly in significant, an important tradition takes place before and as the seniors leave. “Everyone looks forward to this march because classifications, ranks and offices are passed down,” Whi taker, a senior marketing major from Dallas, said. During activities at the river, sophomores are told for the first time their positions for the upcom ing year. Junior cadets also are noti fied officially of their responsibilities as seniors and, depending on the outfit, receive their senior brass. Leadership of the Corps is handed over to junior cadets for the march back to A&M. The annual event also is a fund raiser. Whitaker said that prior to 1978, this event was strictly a tradi tion. The tradition was revamped in 1978 to include a fundraiser. raise $50,000 for the March of Dimes. He said last year’s march raised $47,000 and Corps members are trying to surpass this amount. Whitaker said March to the Bra zos works like a March of Dimes Walk-a-thon. Cadets seek pledges from individual sponsors and collect money after the walk. This year the Corps sponsored Bryan poster child Stephen Porter, 6, for the march. Whitaker said the cadets have had a chance to meet him several times this semester. Grad students relay survey results By SUZANNE CALDERON Of The Battalion Staff Two Texas A&M graduate students of sociology are taking the pulse of Aggieland with a survey featuring demographic and opinion questions. And the survey says — something that is not surpris ing to many students at A&M — this is a conservative University. That was part of the findings of Alister Miller and Mitch Peck, who gave an 80-question survey to 837 stu dents in Soci 205, Introduction to Sociology, Feb. 26 to March 1. “This is an extremely conservative group of an swers,” Miller said. “Based on the answers, we can see this campus is highly conservative, highly Republican.” Hoping to Create a database of A&M student opin ions and demographic information, Miller and Peck have started a company called Research Associates and a survey called The Poll. “We had both just taken a methodology course and we had to use some national data for our exercise — we thought it would be a good idea if we had some local, contemporary, pertinent data,” Miller said. But creating a database for use in the sociology de partment was not the only reason for the creation of Research Associates, Miller said. “Another reason was to provide a community service, the sociology department being the community,” Miller said. “We wanted to provide the faculty and students a way to test out or ask questions pertaining to their re search, or to use as a primary source for research data.” For example, in this survey there were several ques tions about Satanism because a student in the sociology department is doing research about Satanism, Miller said. Miller and Peck said they don’t intend for the survey to be a one-time endeavor. They want to continue ad ministering the survey to students every semester. “This poll we took on March 1 gave us a sociological snapshot of what these people where thinking and what their opinions were right then,” Miller said. “We wanted to do this again next semester and the following semester and then compare these photographs and see how things change as time goes on.” He said they also want to see how demographic fac tors like family incomes, male vs. female and minority representation change as time passes. Miller and Peck said they hope to expand the poll in See Survey/Page 6 GOING OUT OF BUSINESS ARE YOU GETTING ENGAGED? DO NOT Buy a Loose Diamond, Until You Shop US! AM Custom Diamond Mounts Are 50% OFF Many set with Fancy Cut Diamonds All Gold Wedding Bands Sold By Weight! All Loose Diamonds have been reduced! We have a large stock of marquise, Round, Pear, Emerald and Princess cut diamonds in stock. 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