Friday
Partly Cloudy
High near 90
Kerrvitle Folk Festival
Camping getaway provides regional music galore
pages
Civil Rights
House approves Democratic
anti-discrimination bill that
Bush promised to veto.
pages
The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 149 GSPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas "Serving Texas A&Msince 1893" Thursday, June 6,1991
A&M employees take classes, receive high school diplomas
math, writing and science.
By Melinda Cox
The Battalion
Texas A&M students are not the only
group spending time in University class
rooms in pursuit of an education.
University employees also can con
tinue their studies by enrolling in the
General Education Development (GED)
program sponsored by A&M's Human
Resources Department.
The GED program allows employees
who do not have a high school diploma
to continue and finisn their education
without giving up their jobs, said Ann
McMullan, GED's training and devel
opment manager.
McMullan said employees who are
nonprobationary, full-time and budgeted
are eligible for the program.
"Employees need to get permission
from their department head before be
ginning the program because classes are
attended during the day," she said.
The program allows employees to ob
tain a certificate equivalent to a high
school diploma in five different areas.
Classes cover social science, literature.
McMullan said the program's costs are
funded by the University, so employees
do not have to pay any tuition.
There is no starting date for the
courses because the program is a contin
uous process, McMullan said.
Classes are based on self-paced in
struction. McMullan said some people
learn faster than others, depending on
the level of instruction the person had
before leaving school and how long that
person has been out of school.
She said a university environment is
the perfect place to have such a program.
"This is an educational institution and
we believe a program like this will help
people and give them the ability to do
their jobs better," McMullan said.
Jennifer Drake, a training and devel
opment specialist for the Human Re
sources Department, teaches classes
twice a week from 8:30 to 10 a.m.
Drake said employee instruction
usually takes from four to six weeks to
complete. She teaches grammar and
writing skills to a large group and han
dles literature, social science and science
in smaller, more individualized groups.
Drake said she realizes people have
full-time jobs and families to deal with
outside of the classroom. Because of
these time restraints, most work and in
struction has to be done in class.
The GED program has been part of the
Human Resources Department since
1988, but originated in the Phyiscal Plant
Department about five years ago. The ed
ucational opportunity is open to all de
partments.
Employees interested in the program
are encouraged to contact Jennifer Drake
in the Human Resources Department at
845-1275 between 8 a.m. and noon.
Columbia
soars with
exotic load
Shuttle takes off with special cargo
to study the effects of space on earthlings
CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (AP)
— Columbia dodged poor weather
and soared into orbit Wednesday,
starting seven astronauts, a gang
of rats and a colony of jellyfish on
a nine-day study of the effects of
space travel on earthlings.
After two launch postpone
ments and an 85-minute delay due
to dense skies, Columbia roared
off the pad at 9:25 a.m. 'The craft,
trailing a column of fire and
smoke, disappeared into clouds
just one minute after rising from
its oceanside launch pad.
"Thanks for a great ride," shut
tle commander Bryan O'Connor
told Mission Control. "We appre
ciate it."
Three-and-a-half hours after
launch, the astronauts powered
up a Spacelab module carried in
Columbia's cargo bay.
"Houston," an astronaut re
ported a few minutes, "We're in
the Spacelab. We're inside."
A television picture from inside
the pressurized laboratory module
was beamed to Earth, and Mission
Control told the crew, "We see
you in the module and you all look
good."
The laboratory is the size of a
small bus and is attached to the
crew compartment by a tunnel. In
the weightlessness of orbit, astro
nauts easily float through the tun
nel to enter the lab or return to the
crew quarters.
A television view showed the
astronauts floating about effortles
sly as they worked at equipment
installed in the lab's walls, floor
and ceiling.
Cages in the lab are the space
home for 19 rats. Ten others are
held in sealed cages within the
crew compartment. The astro
nauts also are sharing Columbia
with 2,478 jellyfish carried in plas
tic bags and bottles.
The humans and their compan
ions are all specimens in the most
extensive biomedical study con
ducted yet on the space shuttle.
Three of the crew, James Ba-
gian, M. Rhea Seddon and F. An
drew Gaffney, are physicians.
Two others, Millie Hughes-Ful-
ford and Tamara Jernigan, are
trained scientists. O'Connor and
pilot Sidney Gutierrez will control
the spacecraft while the others
work in Spacelab.
The mission's goal is to discover
the fundamental changes that oc
cur in the body as humans re
spond to the microgravity of Earth
orbit.
During their mission, the astro
nauts will be poked, probed,
weighed, stuck with needles,
forced to exercise while breathing
different mixtures of gas and re
quired to wear inflated collars that
measure blood pressure. Blood
samples will be drawn repeatedly,
and urine specimens will be
saved.
Gaffney was launched with a ca
theter threaded up his arm and
into a vein near his heart. The ca
theter carries sensors that mea
sured blood pressure during
launch and afterward to detect the
changes in fluid volume. The ca
theter was to be removed about
eight hours after launch.
A&M encourages diversity
Speaker for Faculty Senate
seeks to recruit minorities
By Chris Vaughn
The Battalion
Diversity will come up at least
once in any conversation with Dr.
Patricia Alexander — guaranteed.
It does because the 43-year-old
professor of curriculum and in
struction is absolutely and defini
tively committed to diversifying
Texas A&M.
But Alexander, recently elected
speaker of the Faculty Senate, now
is in a better position to help rem •
edy what she believes A&M is
lacking —> a diverse population.
"If I could change one thing
about A&M, it would be to main
tain the sense of loyalty and sense
of commitment to the University I
feel, while altering the composi
tion of it," she said.
She means altering the composi
tion of a largely white, male-domi
nated, Conservative University
with the infusion of more blacks,
Hispanics, Asians and women
into its student body and faculty.
"We want diversity because a
university strives on differences of
opinions, outlooks," Alexander
said. "It fosters intellectual
growth. It serves the academic
community. Most students leave
home and go to college to expand
their horizons. A diverse univer
sity, then, means for students to
come across other students they
might not otherwise meet."
Alexander personally has gone a
long way toward diversifying cam
pus.
A look at her background re
veals she is a native of Washing
ton, D.C., a former public school
teacher in the Shenandoah Valley,
and maybe most surprising, a for
mer jazz and blues nightclub
singer.
She earned her Ph.D. from the
University of Maryland in 1981
and headed straight for A&M. Ten
years later, she is leading the Fac
ulty Senate — the first woman
ever to do so.
"I want to be the best speaker T
can be, regardless of gender," Al
exander said. "I am the speaker for
all the faculty members. But I real
ize that being the first of anything
carries with it a certain responsibil
ity and honor."
Alexander is driven by two
equal personalities, one a highly
organized, scientific researcher
seeking resolution to a problem,
"Moststudents ...goto
college to expand their
horizons. A diverse
university, then, means for
students to come across other
students they might not
otherwise meet."
- Dr. Patricia Alexander
and the other an energetic, enter
taining teacher.
"I am someone who loves the
whole sense of academia, being
able to gather around a group of
scholars," she said. "Pat Alexan
der values knowledge and the
concept of learning.
"I believe when one stops grow
ing, one stops living," she said. "I
also believe change is not some
thing to be tolerated, but to be
sought."
Alexander, however, admits her
constant search for change and di
versity at A&M is hindered by the
University's past.
The University's military tradi
tions, which typically have drawn
conservative students, and its aca
demic traditions of agriculture, en
gineering and business, which do
not attract most women or minori
ties, are among diversity's obsta
cles, she said.
Another problem is Bryan-Col-
lege Station's somewhat remote
location from Texas' major urban
areas where minorities are more
likely to live, Alexander said.
Dr. Patricia Alexander
A lack of extensive support net
works in the local area, partic
ularly for single or minority faculty
members, is another problem. Al
exander, a single mother of a teen
age son, knows this well.
But she is not ready to correct
the problems by establishing quo
tas.
"I don't believe we want quota
systems," she said. "We want this
University to attract people. We
want to actively seek candidates
who represent diversity and try
and bring them here, but we also
want the very best.
SCOTT D. WEAVER/The Battalion
"We don't want to fill positions
quantitatively," she said. "We
want to achieve the goal of diver
sity, while always striving for the
best."
Alexander said she knows she is
sure to rankle a few people in her
drive to diversify A&M, but she
added that she will not give up on
a problem that will not go away.
"The goal is diversity," she said.
"Gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation: those are not
judgment factors. That's the bot
tom line."
Outreach program helps students plan for college
Houston
University
Outreach Center
By Greg Mt.Joy
The Battalion
An outreach program started by
Texas A&M and several other state
universities is changing the lives
of many children who never be
lieved they had a chance to attend
college, an official with the pro
gram said.
Cynthia Gay, director of the
Houston University Outreach
Center, said the program works
mainly with minority studentsbut
will try to help any promising mid
dle or high school student get into
college.
"We begin working with stu
dents in eighth-grade," Gay said.
"We try to plant the initial seed
and tell all the students chosen
that they do have the potential to
goto college."
Gay said the program, devel
oped in 1987 by A&M and the Uni
versity of Texas at Austin, is now
aiding more than 3,000 children.
Gay said once students join the
program, they receive an exten
sion on counseling normally avail
able at their schools.
"We try to help kids improve
their study habits, build their self-
confidence and self-esteem and
expose them to university life by
visiting various college cam
puses," she said.
The center in Houston is one of
five in Texas and one of three
sponsored largely by A&M under
the Center for Academic Enhance
ment.
"We try to work closely with
A&M and capitalize on programs
that already exist at the Universi
ty," she said.
"We try to get kids up to A&M
for Engineering Day and to events
sponsored by other departments,"
she said. "We try to fit in with the
natural flow."
The center also offers tours and
works closely with other universi
ties, including the University of
Houston.
"Houston often lets us use their
facilities and will sponsor a cam
pus visit next year where the stu
dents will actually stay at the uni
versity in the dorms," Gay said.
The program also tries to pro
vide role models for young stu
dents.
"We work for the most part with
black and Hispanic students and
{ provide them with someone to
ook up to so they can see just how
far they can go," Gay said.
The Houston center expects to
handle about 950 students during
the 1991-92 school year, she said.
"We take in a new group each
fall," she said. "The program is
growing rapidly in that sense, but
the number of staff members is not
growing in proportion to the num
ber of kids."
As a result. Gay said major
agenda changes have become nec
essary and it has become more dif
ficult to work at a personal level.
Gay said, however, that expan
sion of office space is planned,
adding that she believes the pro
gram's growth is positive.
The effectiveness of the pro
gram is not measurable at this
stage, she said.
"The ultimate measure will be
how many of our students actually
enroll in colleges," she said. "We
have noticed, however, that the
students we work with are enroll
ing in more college-preparatory
classes and more extracurricular
activities. We find that this makes
them better-rounded students and
greatly increases their chances of
success."
She said just the fact that some
students now talk about college
and have career interests is en
couraging.
"When you ask them what they
want to be, they say 'a doctor' or
'an engineer,"' Gay said. "Before
they started the program, they
really didn't have a clue where
they wanted to be after high
school."
However, Gay says growth is
needed in the areas of corporate
funding and university
sponsorship.
"Fluor Daniel Inc., an engi
neering firm, last year sponsored
three scholarships," she said.
"They will announce two more to
morrow, and this is the kind of
backing we need."
Gay also said the University of
North Texas has recently joined as
a sponsor for the Dallas center.
"In order for the program to
continue to grow, we may have to
look at getting help from Texas
Southern University, Prairie View
A&M and other schools in the
area," she said.
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