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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1992)
4 ember 7, If fieorSf The Battalion Vol. 92 No. 7 (12 pages) ‘Serving Texas A&M Since 1893’ Tuesday, September 8, 1992 Silver Taps honors seven, pays tribute By M. WILLIAM EVANS * *K7/ deenj >ke •rats, whid al struggk Staff Writer of THE BATTALION At 10:30 tonight six buglers and the Ross Volunteer Firing Squad will pay tribute to seven students who have died over the past five months as part of the first Silver Taps ceremony of the fall semester. The ceremony honors those students who have passed away in the previous month, but tonight's ceremony will honor those who have died since Aggie Muster last April. "It's our way of showing how much Aggies care for one anoth er," said Tammy Brown, chair man of the Traditions Council of Student Government. "It's a time for us to leave be hind our busy schedules one day a month to commemorate some one that we not have even known." The first Silver Taps was held in 1898 to honor Lawrence Sulli van Ross, founder and first presi dent of the University. The cere mony is held in front of the Aca demic Building on the first Tues day of every month during the school year. The MSC chimes will ring at 10:15 p.m. as the lights around campus are turned off out of re spect for those students honored at the ceremony. The Ross Vol unteers march in at 10:30 p.m. and fire a 21-gun salute. "Silver Taps" is played by six buglers to the north, south and west. For Brown, one Silver Taps stands out. It was about this time last year when a friend of hers was among the honored. He was in the Corps. His bud dies bought his senior boots for him, placing them by the statue of Sul Ross the day of Silver Taps. They guarded the boots all day before giving them to their friend's parents after the ceremo- ny. "It's an experience to go your first time, but it's a very different experience when you go and someone you know is being rec ognized," Brown said. Silver Taps is a way of re minding others of the impor tance of one person at Texas A&M, Brown said. "It doesn't matter if you're the student body president or just at tend classes," she said. "Every single person is important at Texas A&M." The following people will be honored at tonight's Silver Taps ceremony: - Jennifer M. Cammack, a ju nior sociology major from Richardson, Texas. Cammack died on May 14 as the result of an auto accident. - Joseph T. Mendes, a gradu ate counseling psychology stu dent from Winnipeg, Canada. Mendes died July 13. He had dia betes. -Lisa K. Karle, a senior animal science major from McAllen, Texas. Karle died on July 15. She had pancreatic cancer. - Carlos E. Mendiola, a sopho more aerospace engineering ma jor from San Antonio. Mendiola died on Aug. 7. - Jeffrey D. Cardwell, a senior chemical engineering major from Victoria, Texas. Cardwell died on Aug. 27 as the result of an auto accident. - Janet L. Greer, a graduate poultry science student from Buna, Texas. Greer died on Aug. 29 as the result of an auto acci dent. - Lee Yong-Hun, a graduate electrical engineering student from Seoul, Korea. Yong-Hun died Aug. 25 of a brain tumor. The following former students died over the summer but will not be honored because they were not registered at A&M at the time of death. The two will be honored at the next Aggie Muster. - Miguel A. Perez, a 23-year old former Texas A&M student from Weslaco, Texas. He died in a motorcycle accident on June 6. - William C. Nichols, a 25-year old senior in environmental de sign from San Antonio. Nichols died April 16 after being in volved in a car accident. \TJ 5> S It n th Homeland troops open fire on ANC marchers; 24 killed THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JOHANNESBURG, South Africa— Troops in the black homeland of Ciskei opened fire Monday on an ANC march against the homeland's mil itary government, killing at least 24 people and injuring almost 200. The South African government said it was sending troops to Ciskei at the request of the homeland's government to guard important installa tions from possible retaliatory attacks. The bloodbath threatened to plunge South Africa into a major crisis and block efforts to revive stalled talks between the African National Con gress and the South African government on giving blacks the vote and ending apartheid. The ANC said the killings could trigger an explosion of popular anger. The Ciskei government is an ally of South African President F.W. de Klerk, and the ANC promptly blamed de Klerk's administration for the killings. "It seemed so absolutely unnecessary. If this is a taste of things to come, then God help us all/' said John Hall, head of the National Peace Secretariat, who was on the scene. The secretarial monitors political vio- :e. The Ciskei troops apparently opened fire without warning on the inarch by some 20,000 ANC supporters calling for the removal of Ciskei ruler Brig. Gen. Oupa Gqozo. The march began in King William's Town, approximately 4 miles from the Ciskei border. Soldiers with semi-automatic weapons fired waves of bullets into the crowd as terrified people ran screaming for cover. Some witnesses said the troops fired for at least two minutes before throwing tear gas grenades. Dead and wounded people littered the road as survivors tried to care for them. Some struggled to crawl away, dragging dead or injured friends. "People were paralyzed — even the ANC leadership," said local jour nalist Guy Jepson. "It was absolutely terrifying." Political leaders taking part in the march, including top African Nation al Congress officials, dived for cover as troops blazed away on the out skirts of Bisho, capital of the nominally independent homeland. Witnesses said the first of two bursts of gunfire erupted when the marchers stormed through a back'ventrance of a stadium on Bisho's out skirts. lll®!i!!!lllll Firm violates rules in airline case the associated press Federal court ousts Houston attorneys, says group switched sides in dispute GALVESTON — Attorneys for American Airlines say they are elated with a federal appeals court ruling that Houston's Vinson & Elkins law firm cannot represent Northwest Airlines in an airlines industry antitrust lawsuit. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Friday Vinson & Elkins must be disqualified from representing Northwest. While it based its ruling on oth er legal issues, the court specifical ly said Vinson & Elkins violated ethics by switching sides in the dispute. On June 10, Vinson & Elkins agreed to represent American Air lines in the legal battle. On June 11, the law firm in stead hired out to Northwest Air lines in the same case. "Vinson & Elkins' withdrawal from the American representation and acceptance of the Northwest representation on June 11 was a switch of sides in the same case, a clear violation of legal ethics," the panel said. American is the defendant in lawsuits filed in June by North west and Continental Airlines. The two smaller carriers accuse American of predatory pricing practices designed to increase ri val airlines' costs and drive com petitors out of certain markets. The lawsuits were filed in Galveston U.S. District Judge Sam Kent's court. On July 24, Kent denied Ameri can's request to oust Vinson & Elkins from the case on grounds that the law firm was privy to de tailed information about Ameri can's business and operations that could help Northwest in its case. Among other things, Kent ruled the law firms involved were large and sophisticated enough to prevent unfair or improper use of information acquired during earli er cases. The federal court disagreed in a 55-page ruling issued Friday and issued a writ of mandamus re versing Kent's ruling. "We hold that Vinson & Elkins' prior representations of American in substantially related matters re quire the disqualification of Vin son & Elkins in this case," the court concluded. Harry Reasoner, a Houston Vinson & Elkins partner who agreed to represent Northwest af ter his firm was contacted by American, told the Houston Chronicle Sunday the prior repre sentation issue was the specific reason the firm was disqualified. He said the firm believed it was well within ethical bounds in its decision to take on Northwest af ter another partner, Alison Smith, had discussed the case with American officials. "I'm deeply disappointed we can't represent Northwest," said Reasoner. "I think they have a just case." Galveston attorney Ross Citti, one of American's lead attorneys in the case, said the court "found that if it had not granted the writ, irreparable harm would have re sulted to American Airlines." "The court ruled that American had a clear and indisputable right to the disqualification of Vinson & Elkins. The court said this case gener ally and the iss aes we raised were of grave importance to the attor neys and their clients throughout Texas because of the ethical con siderations involved," Citti said. Bait receives national award The Texas A&M football team is not the only Aggie institution to gain national recognition. The Associated Collegiate Press and the Newspaper Associ ation of America named The Bat talion one of 12 regional Pacemak er winners in the nation for 1991- 92. Pacemaker, the top award in the nation for student newspa pers, considers the overall consis tency of the journalism in each is sue. Robert Wegener, manager of Student Publications, said the award is the result of hard work and long hours. "We've shown a good amount of solid, local stories from the city desk and strong leadership in our editorial and opinion page," We gener said. "Tying this together with our design is what wins awards." The judges requested four is sues from each newspaper, three from specific dates and one "edi tor's choice" from any date dur ing the school year. Topics cov ered in these issues of The Battal ion included fall coverage of sexu al harassment in the Corps of Cadets, features on the Bolshoi Ballet, sports and outdoors stories and a column by Stacy Feducia. Spring topics included a Spring Break series, a student govern ment election voters' guide, "thought police" monitoring of professors' political bias and a satirical "Don't Vote" column by Brian Boney. Fall Editor in Chief Timm Doolen said although the newspa per faced many difficulties that semester. The Battalion also pro duced some of its best journalism in the past five years. He said more newsworthy campus events occurred during that time than in most full academic years. "It (the Pacemaker award) vali dates everything we strived for last fall," Doolen said. "It says that despite all the controversies we were creating good journalism last year." Other Pacemaker award win ners included newspapers from Harvard, Indiana University, Michigan State , University of Kansas, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Okla homa State, University of Texas- Arlington, University of North Carolina, University of South Florida and University of South ern California. The five national finalists will be announced in October. Labor Day marches protest Bush's views THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Labor Day celebrations in cluded as many protests as pic nics, all marking the unofficial end of the summer season and the heating up of the presiden tial political season. Thousands of union mem bers marched in New York's Labor Day parade along Fifth Avenue, many carrying plac ards criticizing President Bush and supporting Democrat Bill Clinton for president. Teachers and New York City employees lacking contracts turned their wrath on Mayor David Dinkins, with some carrying signs read ing: "Our mayor can spell pota to, but can he spell c-o-n-t-r-a-c- t?" Contracts with nearly all union city workers expired a year ago.Gray skies didn't keep people away from the New Jer sey shore, but many didn't swim. The holiday was a wet one in much of the nation. "It was not a normal Labor Day weekend/' said Lt. Woody Ferry of the Ventnor City Beach Patrol." We had people in the water over the weekend, but only a couple of hundred total. We usually had maybe 35,000 to 45,000." In Los Angeles, hundreds of school teachers, students and supporters donned black garb and followed a hearse in a mock procession that slowed traffic along the Santa Monica Freeway and clogged streets around Los Angeles Interna tional Airport. The hearse carried a coffin filled with students' letters protesting education budget cuts approved by the Legisla ture last week. In South Central Los Angeles, former gang members led a march between housing projects to support ef forts to keep the holiday week end free of violence.At a rally in Philadelphia, AFL-CIO Presi dent Lane Kirkland reminded union members of the labor slo gan "An injury to one is the concern of all." DARRIN HILL/Tlte Battalion Linda Adams, a senior exercise technology major from Irving, runs stands at Kyle field on Monday.
