The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 18, 1992, Image 1

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    fbruary 17,1!
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icratic libera!:
ts should offi
President Bus;
tuning ontaif
Partly cloudy with
highs in the mid-
70s and lows in the
40s tonight
‘Grand Canyon’
provides a fantastic
view, but sometimes it
gets too deep
Page 11
"The tortures today
include those lecture room
desks all over A&M"
-Jon DeShazo
Battalion columnist
Page 15
A&M continues
tune-up for SWC
baseball with
double-header
vs. Mary Hardin-
Baylor at 1 p.m.
Page 3
arnia Gov.
is a clear dioj
mocratic riv;
ts to shake i:
alter the pot
ica.
rick Mr.'
ore conservalij
Browns
ily candidate!
10 billion toll
The Battalion
retraining [J/ol. 91 No. 95
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16 Pages
Tuesday, February 18, 1992
A&M College of Medicine focuses on minority recruitment
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By Robin Roach
The Battalion
The Texas A&M College of Medicine
admissions department has made minori
ty recruitment and retention one of its top
priorities, and so has its director.
Filomeno Maldonado, Director of Ad
missions for the College of Medicine, con
tributes much of his time to recruiting mi
nority applicants. In an effort to inform
students of the University's interest in mi
nority recruitment, Maldonado travels to
many other schools to bring attention to
A&M's college of medicine.
"We target minority associations at
other schools," Maldonado said. "And we
are very aggressive toward these associa
tions."
Frequent visits to other colleges and
universities gives the College of Medicine
the exposure it needs to attract prospec
tive medical students to A&M, he said.
One program aimed at minority and
disadvantaged pre-med students is the
Bridge to Medicine Program (BTM) of
fered by A&M during the summer.
For the past six years approximately
100 pre-med black, Hispanic, Asian, and
white students have applied for the pro
gram, which only has room for 20 people.
Applicants to BTM include students from
Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, New
York and Oregon.
The federally funded program helps
the students review basic sciences and
studying skills and prepares them for the
intensity of medical school.
"The Bridge to Medicine Program rein
forces science and offers MCAT prepara
tion," Maldonado said.
The College of Medicine also offers
two summer programs for high school
students and 65 percent of these students
eventually attend A&M, Maldonado said.
The medical school is also proud of its
retention of minority students. The Uni
versity is not only concerned with getting
minorities into the field of medicine, but it
goes to great efforts to keep minorities in
school as well, Maldonado said.
"There is a shortage of minority physi
cians in comparison to the minority popu
lation," he said.
The Organization on Minority Issues in
Medicine (OMIM) is an official student
organization which provides support for
issues that arise for minority students.
Twenty percent of the students are active
in the organization, providing support
and encouragement for each other.
Minority students experience discrimi
nation in the medical field because in the
past, many people believed that the mi
nority population was unqualified.
OMIM allows the students to express
their feelings and it aids in minority stu
dent retention, Maldonado said. The or
ganization brings in guest speakers to
motivate minority students to continue
their medical education.
The organization also donates services
to a Bryan clinic that offers care to the in
digent population. The students work
with physicians and nurses at the clinic to
provide health care to the disadvantaged.
"Working with the clinic brings the
community and the University together,"
Maldonado said.
OMIM offers free screening in high mi
nority traffic areas for such diseases as di
abetes and sickle cell anemia as another
contribution to the community.
Maldonado and the other faculty mem
bers said they are proud of the accom
plishments the College of Medicine has
madedn minority recruitment and plan to
continue efforts toward minority involve
ment in medicine.
Muslims vow
to avenge
leader's death
Shiites riot in wake of assassination,
Israel prepares for retaliatory raids
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - An
gry Shiite Muslims took to the
streets of Beirut on Monday, vow
ing to avenge Israel's assassination
of the leader of the pro-Iranian
group Hezbollah. Israel warned
that any retaliatory raids would
carry "a very high price."
The Lebanese government sent
army reinforcements to the area. It
also lodged a complaint with the
United Nations Security Council
over the Israeli attack on Sunday.
Lebanon said it still planned to
attend the Middle East peace talks
scheduled to begin next Monday
in Washington. The Palestinians
also indicated they would attend,
despite two other Israeli attacks
Sunday that targeted refugee
camps and PLO bases in south
Lebanon.
Hours after the attack that
killed Sheik Abbas Musawi, Mus
lim militants fired rockets into Is
raeli-held territory in south
Lebanon, and continued strikes
into Monday morning. No dam
age or casualties were reported.
Later, mourners at a funeral
procession for Musawi in Beirut's
southern slums screamed hatred
and anger at the United States and
Israel. About 50,000 men marched
through the southern slums carry
ing on their shoulders the wooden
coffins of Musawi and his wife
and a son, killed along with him.
"Death to America!" and
"Death to Israel!" chanted some of
the mourners. "You shall be
avenged!"
In Israel, the army chief of staff
said the army was ready to strike
back hard if Hezbollah militiamen
attacked Israeli territory.
"We are deployed defensively
as well as offensively to react," Lt.
Gen. Ehud Barak said on army ra
dio. "If there will not be calm ...
the saboteurs of the calm will have
to pay a very high price."
Northern Israeli towns were on
alert against infiltration attacks,
and police set up roadblocks
around cities and on roads from
See Lebanon/Page 16
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Engineering college
readies for Fall '92
By Melody Dunne
The Battalion
The College of Engineering is
spending $1.75 million to upgrade
laboratory computer equipment
during the 1991-92 school year in
order to be fully re-accredited
next fall.
Dr. Dan Turner, associate dean
with the college, said three funds
— including a new engineering
equipment access fee imposed on
some engineering students last
fall — were combined to provide
the money needed to purchase the
equipment.
"The reason the access fee was
imposed was to upgrade the labs
for the engineering department to
be re-accredited," Turner said.
Engineering Excellence funds
from the engineering dean's office
and funds from the university's
computer access fees distributed
by Dr. Larry Piper made up the
rest of the money.
Almost $330,000 of the fund
has helped purchase and install
100 computers for undergraduate
engineers.
Jane Mills Smith, media rela
tions specialist for the College of
Engineering, said students taking
engineering courses that included
certain computer laboratory class
es contributed to the fund by pay
ing $70 per course.
More than 1,000 undergraduate
engineering students each
semester will use the computers
purchased with the funds, she
said.
"The reason the access fee
was imposed was to
upgrade the labs for the
engineering department
to be re-accredited."
- Dan Turner, associate
dean of engineering
Turner said the new computers
have word processing capabilities
and also solve engineering prob
lems. Most of the students who
will benefit from the computers
are registered in Engineering 109,
which is an introduction to engi- *
neering problem solving.
"The computers have changed
the whole Engineering 109 class
and the students learn more,"
Turner said.
Any student in the university
may use the computers after class
priority hours, he added. Cur
rently, the computers are avail
able for students not taking Engi
neering 109 from 10 p.m. to mid
night in rooms 416 and 418 of the
Civil Engineering Laboratory
Building.
Yeltsin asks U.S. for loan
Russian president requests $600 million more in credit
Boris Yeltsin
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian
President Boris N. Yeltsin on Mon
day asked Secretary of State James
A. Baker HI for an additional $600
million in credit guarantees so his
country can buy American grain
to feed its people.
Yeltsin also said he hoped to be
able to announce at a July summit
in Washington an agreement on
further reductions in both sides'
long-range nuclear arsenals. It was
the first time July has been men
tioned as the summit date, and
U.S. officials insisted that a date
has yet to be set.
Yeltsin's appeal came as Baker
promised $25 million for a center
to help former Soviet nuclear sci
entists, and agreed to provide an
array of equipment and facilities
to help Russia store and destroy
its nuclear weapons.
The guarantees request caught
Baker by surprise, American offi
cials said, but he promised to take
it to Washington for considera
tion.
"I have no doubt in the positive
response of the United States,"
Yeltsin said with Baker at his side
after a three-hour meeting in the
Kremlin.
The United States has already
provided $3.75 billion in grain
credits, of which $3.1 billion have
been used, U.S. officials said. The
remaining $675 million will be
used by April 1, Yeltsin said. The
additional guarantees would be
used in the second quarter of 1992,
he added.
A senior U.S. official said Baker
had made clear to Yeltsin the im
portance of Russia repaying the
loans which the United States
See Russia/Page 7
Dahmer gets life sentence for murders
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison Mon
day after some relatives of his 15 victims called
him a devil and Dahmer told the judge, "I
know society will never be able to forgive me."
"I take all the blame for what I did," he
said.
Nine relatives of Dahmer's victims de
scribed the pain they have suffered because he
killed, butchered and had sex with the corpses
of their family members.
The hysterical sister of victim Errol Lindsey
shouted "Satan!" at Dahmer and screamed,
"Jeffrey, I hate you!!" as she lunged toward
him, shaking her first and shouting obscenities.
She was led away.
A jury decided Saturday that Dahmer, 31,
was sane when he killed 15 young men and
boys he lured to his home. Dahmer pleaded
guilty but insane.
The former chocolate factory worker con
fessed to 17 slayings since 1978 after his arrest
last July. He is to stand trial in an Ohio killing,
and was not charged in one Milwaukee death
because of lack of evidence.
"I hope God has forgiven me," Dahmer
said. "I know society will never be able to for
give me. I know the families of the victims will
never be able to forgive me for what I have
done."
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laurence
C. Gram Jr. sentenced Dahmer to consecutive
life prison terms. Under consecutive sentences,
if Dahmer gained parole in one sentence the
next sentence would automatically take affect.
The prosecutor said Dahmer would not be eli
gible for parole for 936 years.
Dahmer's lawyer, Gerald Boyle, said no ap
peal was planned.
"I wanted to find out just what it was that
caused me to be so bad and evil," Dahmer
said. "The doctors have told me about my sick
ness and now I have some peace."
"This has never been a case of trying to get
free," he said. "I never wanted freedom.
Frankly, I wanted death for myself."
Wisconsin has no death penalty.
"I should have stayed with God," Dahmer
said. "I tried and I failed, and created a holo
caust."
"I feel so bad for what I did to those poor
families, and I understand their rightful hate,"
he said.
See Victims/ Page/