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The SWC chase
for Cotton
A&M hosts TCU,
hopes for SWC crown
See Page 5
Vol. 90 No. 58 USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, November 21,1990
Thatcher loses by 2 votes;
fight enters second round
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LONDON (AP) — The Conserva
tive Party on Tuesday staggered
Prime Mininster Margaret Thatcher
with faint support, forcing her into a
second round of balloting in a Fight
for leadership of party and country.
Thatcher fell two votes short of
defeating the sternest challenge of
her 11V2 years as party leader, but
she rejected calls by some to step
down and vowed to battle on in a
second round of voting next Tues
day.
Former Defense Secretary Mi
chael Heseltine, smiling and looking
very much like the winner after the
Conservative vote, also declared
himself ready for round two.
“It is my intention to let my name
go forward for the second ballot,” a
calm and determined Thatcher told
reporters outside the British Em
bassy in Paris, where she was attend
ing a summit on European security.
If Thatcher loses the leadership
of the party, she would step down as
prime minister. The Conservatives
nave a majority in the 650-seat
House of Commons.
The opposition Labor Party
moved to capitalize on the turmoil in
Conservative ranks by tabling a mo
tion of no confidence in the govern
ment. That motion, likely to come to
a vote before Tuesday, would bring
down the government if it carries.
Thatcher, the longest-serving
prime minister in Europe, has
grown increasingly unpopular be
cause of a local services tax that is
widely viewed as unfairly favoring
the rich. Her government also has
been blamed for high inflation and
high interest rates, and the Conser
vatives have trailed Labor in opinion
polls for 16 months.
Heseltine also focused his cam
paign on Thatcher’s attitude toward
Europe, which has caused strains
within her party.
Heseltine, standing hand-in-hand
with his wife, Anne, outside their
home, told reporters: “I am over
whelmed with gratitude to my par
liamentary colleagues who in such
“The party is
obviously in trouble.”
— Teddy Taylor,
Thatcher supporter
large measure have given me their
support.”
Heseltine forced the issue by win
ning barely enough votes to deny
Thatcher a first-ballot victory in an
unprecedented ballot among the
372 Conservative members of the
House of Commons.
Because 16 lawmakers abstained,
Thatcher needed 206 votes, or 15
percent, but received 204. Heseltine
received 152.
In the second round, a simple ma
jority can win, but other candidates
are now free to join the race. If nec
essary, a third and final ballot would
be held Nov. 29.
“The party is obviously in trouble,
and there is no point in hiding it,”
Teddy Taylor, one of Thatcher’s
most outspoken supporters in the
House, said. He urged her to con
tinue.
“I suspect she may have polled
her maximum number of votes to
day,” Conservative legislator Ivor
Stanbrook, who supported Hesel
tine, said.
‘I am absolutely astonished that he
got so many and that so many of my
colleagues should have been so dis
loyal,” Conservative lawmaker Ivan
Lawrence said on Sky Television.
Thatcher, 65, put the best face on
the result, saying “I’m naturally
pleased that I got more than half the
parliamentary party and disap
pointed that it’s not quite enough to
win.”
The pound fell nearly half a cent,
from $1.9695 to $1.9650, following
the vote.
Thatcher was to return Wednes
day to address the House of Com
mons on the summit and to have her
weekly meeting with Queen Eliza
beth II.
Heseltine, 57, pledged during the
six-day campaign to overcome Tory
factionalism to win the next general
election in 1992. He pointed to a
flurry of opinion polls that indicated
voters were more enthusiastic about
the Conservative Party with him as
the leader.
Intra-campus shuttle bus service
prepares faster, simpler routes
By JULIE HEDDERMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
Simplifying the intra-campus
I shuttle bus system is one of the goals
of the Campus Transportation Task
I Force's Bus Routing Proposal.
The Student Senate committee
i suggests two problems exist with the
present bus route system.
First, students do not know where
; each bus goes because the system is
! too complicated.
Second, buses are infrequent —
li making waiting time too long for
most students.
The task force proposes eliminat-
■ ing the problems by decreasing the
•: number of routes to three.
The proposed system, however,
still will service all areas the present
system does.
This will make it easier for the stu
dents to learn where the buses go.
Also, more buses can travel on
each route because there will be
fewer routes which will cut down on
waiting time.
The committee also recommends
changing the names of the three
routes to Clockwise, Counter-Clock
wise and Vet Center, according to
where they travel.
Another problem the committee
found is that many students do not
know the intra-campus buses are
free.
To resolve this problem, they sug
gest posting fliers on bus stop signs
for the first two weeks of the fall se
mester and advertising in the Class
Schedule Book and other campus
publications.
Bart McCleskey, chairman of the
task force, says the committee has
taken the proposal to various stu
dent groups.
He says the group plans to pre
sent it next week to the administra
tion and bus drivers.
The following are several advan
tages of the proposed new system:
• Maximum waiting time will be
reduced to five minutes for two of
the routes and 7.5 minutes for the
other. Waiting times for the present
system is from eight minutes to 15
minutes.
• The new system is simple to
learn and there will be little overlap
ping of routes on the proposed sys
tem, reducing students’ chances of
getting on the wrong bus.
1|§ H ■I Iil» 1
PHELAN M. EBENHACK/The Battalion
Oksana Babich and Aleksei Khemenko of the and hot dogs plus mushrooms, jalepenos and
Bolshoi Ballet-Grigorovich Company peek at pico de gallo. The company’s rehearsals are for
their orders at Fuddruckers Tuesday afternoon, its Friday night premiere in Rudder Auditorium.
Many of the dancers, who had just finished a For ticket information, call the MSC Box Office at
four-hour rehearsal, loaded up on hamburgers 845-1234.
Devils or angels?
Colonial historian dispels stereotypical images of Pilgrims
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A generation after the Pilgrims
landed near Plymouth in 1620,
many of these stereotypically strait
laced pioneers were acting more like
devils than angels, a Texas A&M his
torian says.
Americans’ Thanksgiving patri
otic fervor, partly created when
President Abraham Lincoln de
clared an official holiday for a nation
torn by war, “tries to place our Pil
grims on a pedestal — to turn them
into something they were not,” says
Dr. John Canup, an authority on
New England colonial history.
“We forget the Pilgrims were hu
man,” he says. “Rigorous self-disci-
piine was an ideal for them, but they
were far from prudish Victorians.
“They lived much closer to the
Earth. Some pilfered, murdered,
drank too much and, contrary to
popular image, even fornicated.
Still, the Pilgrims hoped to create a
model society and they could be
ruthless in pursuing their goal,”
Canup explains.
The Pilgrims considered a strong
sense of community essential — a
view that often led them to pry into
one another’s affairs.
When Pilgrims sinned or dis
obeyed the law, they could be pub
licly humiliated, severely punished
or executed if the offense was suffi
ciently grave, Canup says.
Mass killings were reserved for
Native Americans who, Canup wryly
observes, suffered in the “cultural
exchange” between the colonists and
America’s original inhabitants.
In the eyes of the English, the Na
tive Americans simply roamed the
land at will and had no rights of
ownership that the colonists were
bound to respect, he explains.
This rejection of native rights
helped justify the colonists’ often vi
olent supplanting of the native peo
ples, he says.
What firearms failed to accompl
ish, pestilence carried out. A century
later, the Pilgrims spread enough
disease to deplete the native popula
tion, perhaps by 90 percent.
“Of course, the Pilgrims’ descen
dants concluded that God had actu
ally destroyed the ‘heathen’ In
dians,” Canup says.
In 1849, Puritan descendant Na
thaniel Hawthorne wrote: “Let us
thank God for having given us such
ancestors; and let each successive
generation thank Him, not less fer
vently, for being one step further
from them.”
In 1863, Lincoln proclaimed a na
tional day of Thanksgiving for a na
tion that had witnessed the bloody
experiences of Shiloh, Antietam,
Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.
Canup says the sense of patriotism
expressed in Lincoln’s Thanksgiving
proclamation helped cast in stone a
“statuesque Pilgrim image” as well as
other misconceptions.
The historian cites Plymouth
Rock as an example.
“Actually, the boat probably
missed Plymouth Rock,” he says. “I
find it hard to believe the Pilgrims
were aiming at a rock when there
was a brook nearby where they could
land safely.”
On the average, Pilgrims probably
consumed more alcohol in their da
ily diet than Americans today. The
prime motivation for this was survi
val, Canup says.
It was better — even for children
— to drink beer or ale instead of
contaminated water.
Pilgrims also depended on the
good graces of the Native American
Squanto, who had been to England
and spoke English.
Squanto, apparently the sole sur
vivor of the Patuxet tribe that origi
nally occupied the Pilgrims’ set
tlement, acted as a translator and
advised them on how to get the most
from farmland.
Canup says the Pilgrims probably
celebrated their first feast, forerun
ner of modern-day Thanksgiving, in
October 1621.
The menu probably did not con
sist of turkey, cranberries and
pumpkin pie, but of duck, geese,
venison, clams and oysters.
Thanksgiving celebrations were
held from then on — sometimes
more than once a year — whenever
Pilgrims felt God had blessed them.
But Canup says the Pilgrims also
observed “days of humiliation” to
express remorse for their worldly
behavior.
“Contrary to the humble, black-
and-white stereotype we have of Pil
grims, the well-to-do wore colorful
dress and held an appreciation for
material wealth,” he explains. “They
only objected to those who tried to
dress or live beyond their means or
who valued worldly prosperity above
godliness.”
Canup suggests that in many
ways, the “Pilgrims’ pride” reflected
the same Anglican hierarchy they
knew in England.
Aggie Parents of the Year applications
available as selection process begins
..A thev want to make of it.” she savs. in various camous locations.
By TWILA WADDY
Of The Battalion Staff
Aggie spirit is something many
parents as well as students nave.
Aggie Parents of the Year are
chosen to honor parents who
have shown their spirit for Texas
A&M.
Parents chosen for this honor
contributed to A&M, their family
and the community, senior Tricia
Heithecker, chairwoman of the
Parents’ Weekend Committee,
says.
“It’s really not a responsibility,
but an honor, and it’s mostly what
they want to make of it,” she says.
Richard and Pat Brunner of
Houston were chosen in April
during Parents’ Weekend.
The Brunners have shown out
standing spirit by bringing chil
dren from their hometown to
A&M who are prospective A&M
students.
The Aggie Parents of the Year
also opened their home to stu
dent organizations needing a
place to stay, Heithecker says.
Parents must be nominated by
a son or daughter enrolled at
A&M. Applications for Aggie
of tht
Parents
for
the Year are availaf
le
in various campus locations.
Students must have three to
five letters of recommendation
for their parents. They also must
write three 500-word essays de
scribing their parents’ contribu
tions to their family, community
and A&M.
A committee made up of stu
dents will pick the parents. This is
the only University-recognized ti
tle students choose, Heithecker
says.
Applications are due by 5 p.m.
Feb. I. Aggie Parents of the Year
will be announced during Par
ents’ Weekend, April 5 to 7.
Sigma Nu charter revoked at UT
AUSTIN (AP) — The University of Texas said Tues
day that it is abolishing Sigma Nu as a campus group, at
least through 1996, and punishing seven students after
a hazing probe indicated fraternity pledges were at
tacked physically and psychologically.
Sigma Nu’s national president, James Cherry, also
said the fraternity was revoking the charter of its UT-
Austin chapter after a separate investigation into an al
leged hazing incident.
“Basically, we’re out of business on this campus,”
Cherry said.
The charter revocation ends Sigma Nu’s 104 years at
the university.
“It’s sad to lose a chapter that has historically been
very outstanding,” Cherry said. “But our fraternity was
founded in opposition of hazing in 1869, and we will
not tolerate any form of hazing today.”
The university’s investigation “indicates a continuing
pattern of abuse and brutality including psychological
and physical attacks on pledges,” said Sharon Justice,
UT assistant vice president for student affairs and dean
of students.
Penalties were announced a week after university of
ficials were told by a parent that her son, a Sigma Nu
pledge, had been beaten and subjected to other abuse at
the fraternity’s off-campus house on Nov. 10, the uni
versity said.
The students judged responsible will receive penal
ties ranging from disciplinary probation to suspension
and even permanent expulsion, Justice said.
The students, who were not named, can accept the
penalty or can appeal at a university hearing, she said.
“It is unfortunate when a student’s career at the Uni
versity is brought to an end, but we refuse to tolerate
hazing. These barbaric practices must stop,” Justice
said.
The investigation also indicated the house has an
area known as the “hole,” a crawl space entered
through a closet that is less than two feet high, the uni
versity said. Some pledges were required to enter the
area for varying lengths of time, the university said.