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The Battalion
STATE & LOCAL
Friday, April 6,1990
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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.
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