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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1990)
845-3) The Battalion STATE & LOCAL Friday, April 6,1990 *)£$ iere are 'e to dealt ie animals ‘ign eople thai tivists at is : about iwdermi covery, tk hichsa)s seatbelt eater risk more redestrian id are i at ays. Tlie the white •nmg ixtendeo 'ling. .Or rail, DO iere is iyou r. y a dome vs right verythini he says in e country of the v You’ve t’s the la/ism i Jr. no m A&, Sorority Omega Phi Alpha performs service for community By KATHERINE COFFEY Of The Battalion Staff The first female organization to be recognized by Texas A&M is cele brating its twentieth year at the Uni versity. Omega Phi Alpha, a service soror ity which also was the first sorority to be recognized by the University, has about 58 members, including 37 ac tives and 21 pledges. The women do at least one service for the community per week. Friendship, leadership and serv ice are the cardinal principles of this sorority, Patricia Scully, sorority president, said. This sorority was formed in 1953 when a group of men in a service fraternity at Bowling Green State University in Ohio decided they needed another organization to help them with service projects. Omega Phi Alpha was formed at A&M when women expressed an in terest. In 1967 the organization be came a national service sorority. Scully, a senior biology major, said the Delta Chapter was formed at A&M in 1970. Since then the group has had active chapters formed at other universities. She said the sorority still is ex panding and has formed two new chapters within two years. One of the new chapters was formed at Georgia Tech by Ginger McGaritz, a graduate student there and a former A&M student who also was involved inOPA while at A&M. Scully said the A&M chapter is one of the most active Omega Phi Alpha chapters in the United States. "We are geared toward service for the community, but the sorority is also a good way to make friends and have fun,” Scully said. Most of the organization’s activ ities are performed for the Bryan- College Station community. This se mester activities have included blood celebrates twentieth year Photo by Scott D. Weaver Stacy Prince, a sophomore accounting/finance ers as the rest of her Omega Phi Alpha sisters major from Corpus Christi, puts up paper stream- blow up balloons to decorate the health center. drives, Dance for Heart for the American Heart Assocation, All- Nite Fair, food drives for the Brazos County Food Bank, Big Event, Spe cial Olympics, Adopt-A-Child, bon fire and March to the Brazos. Scully said the group was one of the only organizations to work on the side of the road for the March to the Brazos. Other activities they have done for charity purposes include making Valentine cards for Juan Basombrio, a 1989 honor graduate of A&M who died last January after being diag nosed with leukemia. The Omega Phi Alphas also sent valentines to the U.S. Veterans Ad ministration, where they were dis tributed throughout the United States. Members decorated the A.P. Beu- tal Health Center for Easter earlier this week, and the group has a car wash planned for 2 to 5:30 p.m. to day in the Red Lobster parking lot. An egg hunt is planned for Eas ter, and money will benefit the Saint Joseph Hospital Children’s Ward. Scully said members do at least one service a week, if not more. “I think OPA unites us in the re spect that we do services every week, which is our primary focus and ob jective,” she said. This past summer the chapter hosted the annual national conven tion for Omega Phi Alpha on A&M’s campus. Senior landscape architecture ma jor Maribel Mosqueda, OPA public ity chairman, said the group has about 10 “Omega Men” who are their big brothers. She said the men help out with services when needed, but they don’t have to pay dues or work a certain amount of hours to be active members like the women. Mosqueda said anyone can join the group, but they have to do 30 hours of service work while pledging See Sorority/Page 8 Center scores Texas; economy fails test WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas’ tax system and regulatory environment do little to encour age growth, according to a pri vate research organization that gave the state failing grades Thursday for a lackluster eco nomic performance. In its 1990 report card on the Texas economy, the Corporation for Enterprise Development said Texas’ employment indicators are stagnant, and economic dis parities persist between rich and poor areas and rural and urban areas. Texas also lags behind most states in nearly every area of de velopment policy, including in ternational marketing, tax and regulatory environment, and in frastructure initiatives, the re search center said. The center gave Texas a grade of ‘D’ in both those categories — economic performance and state policy. The state fared better, however, in the remaining two categories — earning a C in busi ness vitality and a B in devel opment capacity. In the area of business vitality, the research organization said Texas’ industrial base has only av erage diversity and its existing in dustries maintain a weak compet itive position. The state, however, has relatively healthy entrepre neurial activity. In its ability to develop, the center said Texas has a high level and quality of financial and physi cal infrastructure resources, but its human resource needs — edu cation and literacy — are great. John Bender, a spokesman for the Texas Comptroller’s Office, said there is a growing realization among state leaders “that all of these human needs and the level of education probably have more impact on the state’s economy in the future than anything else.” In a first step in addressing Third-World conditions along its border with Mexico, the Legis lature last year agreed to provide $100 million to help residents of colonies obtain running water and waste water connections. “It is an indication that law makers understand the impor tance of addressing human needs and they understand that busi ness and industry looks at the level of unmet human needs in a state when making a decision to relocate or expand their busi nesses,” Bender said. Texas’ educational system, however, has been found discrim- \Jlovernment and business leaders recognize Texas needs to do a better job in economic development than in the past.” — John Bender, spokesman, Texas Comptroller’s Office inatory toward poor districts, and Bender said it ranks near the bot tom in nearly every category of social services. “The Legislature has made an effort in recent years, particularly in the last session, to raise the level of state assistance for health care, nutrition, child services — but as we found out just recently, the money is not there in the bud get to provide for all of those needs,” Bender said. “Government and business leaders recognize Texas needs to do a better job in economic devel opment than in the past,” Bender said. GOING OaT OF BUSINESS SALE WE HAVE REDUCED PRICES EVEN LOWER THAN BEFORE. ALL MERCHANDISE IN THE STORE HAS BEEN FURTHER REDUCED. Free Diamonds Saturday, April 7th receive a free diamond with a $ 10.00 or more purchase. 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