The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 03, 1990, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    m Texas A&M mm V#
he Battalion
"deraCot
lnt ierMo n;
senc e, rent
ln ' l >nistin|i
friend;
h China
lid too.
a ordered!
Bator to*
th eir home
«ted theei :
Mongolia k
Jf improvinj
' trade resa-
nse official;
mbadrald),!
'hina desk.
WEATHER
TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Mostly sunny with a slight
chance of showers.
HIGH: 72
LOW: 60
Vol.89 No.123 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, April 3,1990
shops, bact
»ck climbei:
■rograms ait
ntsanoppe
fellowship. |
)
g* Fee”
550/57J
455/475
10/12
32/35
45/50
ryone
? Read. For
nturc
Alike'
are, bargain
handicrafts
; many fiat
3re Mayan
-sea fisfMS
ie island by
tch rays on
/hite sand
living,
belts.
Pro-choice
activists
to assemble
Riots wreak havoc in English prisons
By SUZANNE CALDERON
Of The Battalion Staff
Students across the country will
demonstrate their support for a
woman’s right to decide her options
in a crisis pregnancy situation on Na
tional Pro-Choice Campus Day,
April 5.
Texas A&M pro-choice activists
will rally together on Thursday in
the school’s first major pro-choice
event. They will join campuses
across the nation on April 5 for a day
of rallies on National Pro-Choice
Campus Day sponsored by the Na
tional Abortion Rights Action
League and United States Student
Association.
During a teleconference from
NARAL headquarters in Washing
ton D.C. on Monday, Elissa Mc
Bride, NARAL campus coordinator,
said the rally at A&M on Thursday
will be a first.
“It’s one of their first major rallies
there, and they are really excited
about getting students out,” Mc
Bride said, during the teleconfer
ence which connected student news
papers from eight universties across
the nation.
“It is actually a campus that has
been considered to be a conservative
stronghold from what I understand
— they are excited about showing a
pro-choice majority,” she said.
McBride said Bob Bingaman, the
national field director for NARAL,
who spent many years as a student
organizer for the the USSA, will be
speaking at the A&M rally.
Kate Michelman, executive direc
tor of NARAL said, “All of this is de
signed to harness what has been tre
mendous energy ... by students as
they have become aware that their
right to choose is very seriously
threatened — a right they have
grown up believing was theirs could
begone with the stroke of a pen.”
Michelman said for the first time
students are recognizing the impor
tance of the right to choose and of
understanding that rights are won
by political action and not just
granted. People have to work and
suffer for their rights, she said.
“Our reproductive rights have not
come about easily and they can be
lost if we are not vigilant,” she said.
“Oyer the years we have not been
vigilant — we have taken it for
granted and become complacent.”
Michelman said it is important to
remember that the pro-choice
movement advocates women’s rights
to determine for themselves their
options in the case of a crisis preg
nancy. She said pro-choice is not
pro-abortion.
“We are not pro-abortion, in fact,
if we could do anything in our
power, the most important thing to
do would be to eliminate the need
for abortion,” she said.
Correction
PSYC 107-501 is not one of the
classes that possibly was exposed to
measles.
A student enrolled in this class
was diagnosed as having the measles,
but he did not attend this class while
he was sick.
The Battalion regrets any incon
venience this might have caused.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Inmates
at Long Lartin Prison attempted a mass brea
kout Monday night and about 30 convicts
barricaded themselves on a prison landing af
ter guards foiled the escape bid, the Home
Office reported.
At a second prison in central England,
Strangeways Prison at Manchester, nearly
100 inmates ran loose Monday but guards re
gained control of much of the riot-damaged
facility and officials were in contact with the
remaining inmates still inside, authorities
said.
T he Home Office, which is responsible for
prisons, said in a statement that guards at
low-security Long Lartin grabbed a group of
prisoners as they tried to scale the 15-foot
wire mesh perimeter fence. The guards led
them back into the building without violence,
it said.
f he statement did not say how many in
mates tried to break out, but said other in
mates immediately began demonstrating,
forcing guards to retreat.
The Home Office said about 30 prisoners
barricaded themselves on one of the landings
of a prison wing and kept guards at bay early
Tuesday.
At Strangeways, prisoners hung up a flag
saying “No Dead,” but the government said
deaths could not be ruled out in one of Brit
ain’s worst prison riots.
Authorities said 37 inmates and 12 prison
guards had been injured since riots began
Sunday at Strangeways, one of the most
crowded jails in Britain. News media re
ported unconfirmed accounts of up to 12
deaths.
Prison staff regained control of four cell
blocks and the kitchen Monday after scores of
inmates surrendered. Rioters still held five
blocks, said the Home Office.
The Home Office said 99 prisoners were
still loose, but Ivor Serle, chairman of the
Strangeways Prison Officers’ Association, put
the number at 80 to 90 after more men sur
rendered in the evening.
Serle said he was in three wings of the
prison and saw no bodies.
About a dozen masked inmates remained
on the steep roofs in the night cold, waving
and shouting.
“I think it will go on until tomorrow. ...
They’ve got plenty of food, plenty of drugs
and plenty of fresh air,” Serle said, referring
to looting of hospital storerooms.
Home Secretary David Waddington said
some surrendering prisoners claimed a num
ber of inmates were dead, but he said no bod
ies had been found.
“But the possibility that fatalities have oc
curred cannot be ruled out,” he added.
“The general picture is of prisoners in
dulging in violence on other prisoners — the
full consequences of which remain to be dis
covered,” Waddington told a hushed House
of Commons. v
He said nine surrendering prisoners
claimed to have been forcibly injected with
drugs by other inmates.
Dr. Philip Randall of North Manchester
General Hospital said most of the more se-
Photo by Fredrick D. Joe
Clem Heick, a sophomore business major from Richardson, studies history Monday on a small hill near Davis-Gary Hall.
Student body run-off elections take place today
Student body run-off elections are today from
9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Students can vote in the MSC Flagroom, the
Kleberg Building, the Blocker Building and the
Academic Plaza. In case of rain, the Academic
Plaza location will be moved to the porch of the
Sterling C. Evans Library.
Students must bring their student identifica
tion cards to vote.
These are the offices and candidates to be
voted on today:
STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT:
• Beth Ammons
• Tv Clevenger
LEGISLATIVE CHAIR OF ACADEMIC AF
FAIRS:
• Angie Arrona
• Dan Hargrove
SENATE CHAIRMAN OF STUDENT SERV
ICES:
• Tiffiny Blaschke
• David Shasteen
CLASS OF ’92 PRESIDENT:
• Jennifer A. Collins
• Rod Garrett
CLASS OF ’92 VICE PRESIDENT:
• Heather Casteel
• Shawn R. Roberts
CLASS OF ’93 PRESIDENT:
• Bill Benker
• Paul Seiber
Seminar increases students’ awareness of hazing
By ANDY KEHOE
Of The Battalion Staff
Eileen Stevens is dedicated to ending college
hazing.
. In last night’s Inter fraternity council presenta
tion, entitled the Committee to Halt Useless College
Killings (CHUCK), Stevens spoke on her own tragic
e xperience with fraternity hazing.
In 1978, her son Chuck Stenzel died from acute
alcohol poisoning in a traditional fraternity pledge
program. Today, she is getting the word out to col-
loge students all over the country about the harmful
results of fraternity hazing.
. It (hazing) is in total opposition to what fraterni-
hes represent,” Stevens said. “Hazing, in any form,
defeats the brotherhood and comradery that frater
nities and the corps stand for.”
Each semester, Stevens said, dozens of hazing inci
dents are reported throughout the country. Several
dozens more, she added, go unreported.
In the past decade, 54 students, three of whom
^re female sorority members, have died from
hazing-related incidents. According to Stevens, it s
[| 0 t just the typical physical hazing, but also menta
that can be damaging.
It’s not all the exercising workouts and drinking,
hot also the mental harrassment, sleep deprivation
a nd those sort of things,” she said.
. Eollowing her son’s death, Stevens began n e ^
honal campaign with the help of her sister. With
EHUCK, she hopes to bring about an awareness o
, hazing practices. She has spoken at hundreds o
schools and appeared on televison talk shows, telling
her story. Her presentation to Texas A&M was her
16th of the semester.
“When I speak to students, I’m not talking about
death, I’m talking about life.”
Stevens stressed that, after her son’s death, she
does not dislike fraternities.
“I’m not anti-fraternity or anti-fun or anything
like that,” Stevens said. “Being a Greek is an honor.
It’s important for them to show responsibility and
leadership.”
In recent years, Texas A&M has had several
hazing incidents of its own. First, in April 1982, eight
junior members of the Corps of Cadets were dis
missed as a result of their participation in hazing
against freshman cadets.
Then, in 1984, Cadet Bruce Dean Goodrich col
lapsed and later died of heat stroke after participat
ing in an early morning, off-hours exercise workout.
Last month, two A&M cadets were discharged af
ter Shannon George withdrew from the Corps, com
plaining of excessive exercise training.
Hazing issues are now receiving more attention
from America’s state legislatures. Today, 34 states,
including Texas, have enacted anti-hazing legis
lation.
“We’re seeing changes,” Stevens said. “Some ad
ministrations are setting down rules and some have
done away with their Greek systems.”
Stevens encourages all Greeks and corps cadets to
get involved and voice their concerns about hazing.
“In order to get hazing out of our schools, it’s
going to take courage and leadership,” she said.
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Corps Staff Sergeant Conrado Alvarado asks Eileen Stevens, a
speaker for the Committee to Halt Useless College Killings
(CHUCK), for details about scheduling her to speak to the
Corps of Cadets next fall on the dangers of hazing.
rious injuries were caused by prisoners as
saulting other prisoners.
By late afternoon, 1,458 inmates had been
transferred to other prisons. Seventy-four
more were awaiting transport and 114 were
still loose inside the prison, the Home Office
said.
“The (prison) governor has been in touch
with the prisoners all day long,” said Home
Office spokesman Roy Payne. “There has
been no confrontation, no demands and no
threat.”
Police with riot gear were on stand-by
along with squads of armed officers.
“The riot is the worst prison disturbance
this century,” said a Labor Party spokesman,
Barry Sheerman. “Strangeways is a ghastly
place and conditions there are very difficult
for the inmates and the staff.”
There was no clear indication what caused
the rioting. It began during Sunday morning
service in the prison chapel, when inmates
grabbed keys from guards and used them to
gain access to large areas of the facility.
Faculty casts
votes for 29
Senate seats
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
One day before students returned
to the ballot boxes for runoff elec
tions, the Texas A&M faculty voted
on 29 Faculty Senate seats open this
year.
The Faculty Senate elections
Monday, which decided one-third of
the Senate seats, drew 616 faculty
members to the ballot boxes, a big
drop from last year’s total of 817.
Election Committee Chairman
Mickey Stratton said part of the
drop could be blamed on the fewer
number of contested seats.
“People aren’t as apt to vote with
uncontested elections,” Stratton
said. “The contested seats had a
higher voter turnout, though.”
The closest contest of the day was
in a seat for the Sterling C. Evans Li
brary. Jacque Halverson won the
election by draw over Evelyn M.
King when they both tied at 20 after
a second count.
The voting procedure involves
faculty members ranking their
choices from one to three, rather
than just voting for one person. If
one person does not have a majority
after the first place votes have been
counted, then the second place votes
are tallied.
That policy was instituted a few
years ago to eliminate the need for
run-off elections, Stratton said.
The only other election Monday
which went to a second count was in
a seat from the College of Engi
neering. Dr. William J. Harris won
the senate seat by edging Dr. Mark
Weichold, 38-33, in a second count.
The College of Education re
corded the highest number of voters
with 89, followed by the College of
Medicine with 87. The College of
Engineering registered 74 ballots,
while the College of Liberal Arts had
72.
Even though the numbers were
way down from 1989, Stratton said
he was pleased with the elections.
“The election went smoothly,” he
said. “I was particularly pleased with
the turnouts in the Colleges of Edu
cation and Medicine.”
The results of the election are not
official until the entire Faculty Sen
ate approves them at the May meet
ing. The Senate will swear in its new
members and vote on the officers
and the members of the Executive
Committee at the same meeting.
The filing dates for faculty mem
bers who wish to run for an office or
a spot on the Executive Committee
are April 10-24.
The following is a list of the win
ners in each college:
AGRICULTURE:
Bill Stout, who received 97 per
cent of the vote
Charlie G. Coble, who received 58
percent of the vote
H. James Price, who was unop
posed
Stephen W. Searcy, who received
52 percent of the vote
ARCHITECTURE:
Fred Klatt, who received 52 per
cent of the vote
BUSINESS ADMINISTRA
TION:
Winston T. Shearon, who re
ceived 97 percent of the vote
Robert H. Strawser, who received
97 percent of the vote
EDUCATION:
Patricia A. Alexander, who re
ceived 96 percent of the vote
Viola E. Florez, who received 62
percent of the vote
ENGINEERING:
Pierce E. Cantrell, who received
62 percent of the vote
John E. Mayer, who received 98
percent of the vote
William J. Harris, who received 54
percent of the second vote
S. Bart Childs, who received 68
percent of the vote
See Faculty/Page 5