The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 30, 1990, Image 3

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    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
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