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The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 56 (10 pages) “Serving Texas ASM Since 1893” Monday, November 16, 1992
Official not pleased with IFC decision
By JULI PHILLIPS
Reporter of THE BATTALION
A letter from a state representative
sent to Texas A&M Board of Regents
Chairman Ross Margraves voiced still
lingering concerns about the University's
actions against Sigma Alpha Epsilon
following a party that sparked
controversy for its racist overtones.
State Representative Ron Wilson, D-
Houston, stated in his letter that harsh
action should be taken against the
fraternity.
He called for the Board of Regents to
take a deep look into the University's
handling of the SAE matter, but said the
only true way to resolve the "indelible
stain upon the reputation of Texas A&M"
is to dissolve the fraternity.
"I also request that you send a strong
signal of support to the minorivies in
attendance at A&M, as well as to those
within the community, by removing this
fraternity from the A&M campus,"
Wilson's letter stated.
"Any actions that fall short of
complete censure and banishment only
serve to encourage this type of behavior
in the future."
Kevin Carreathers, director of Texas
A&M Multicultural Services, said that
although many minority students agree
with Wilson's suggestion, he feels the
greater amount do not because of the lack
of widespread outcry about the situation.
The sanctions, recommended by the
judicial board and approved by Dr. John
Koldus, Vice President of Student
Services, consisted of the cancellation of
all 1993 "mixers," a review of the
chapter's operating structure and pledge
education program, a $1,000 fine and a
period of disciplinary probation.
The incident also prompted the board
to recommend future IFC regulation of
party themes.
Carreathers backed the decision
saying,"The disbanding of the fraternity
would serve no purpose but to send the
message that Texas A&M does not
condone that type of behavior. With
these sanctions, we are sending the
message that the behavior is not
condoned while educating the members
of the fraternity."
He said he believes that the incident
was borne from ignorance and that is
something that needs to be confronted.
Wilson closed his letter
stating/'Should those actions (future
attempts by A&M officials to further
“Any actions that fall short of
complete censure and
banishment only serve to
encourage this type of
behavior in the future.”
—Ron Wilson
State Representative
resolve the SAE issue) fall short of what I,
and others in the minority community,
think appropriate in dealing with this
offensive behavior, I will not hesitate to
use every means at my disposal as a
member of the Texas House of
Representatives to ensure that Texas
A&M is not rewarded for this type of
behavior."
Carreather's concerns for the future
are not rooted in politics, but in student
and faculty recruitment.
"Often people don't see the big picture
- they don't see that people looking at
coming to Texas A&M don't realize that
the atmosphere isn't always like this," he
said.
"We are lucky that this happened in
the fall semester when our recruiters are
already on the road and can answer the
questions. Otherwise, recruiters would
have to be sent out in additional trips to
calm potential students and others."
Cuba relief group
to defy embargo
Caravans of supplies to cross border
Plan to help victims of sex offenses
Administrators offer suggestions for receiving assistance
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANTONIO — Caravans
of food and other supplies for
Cuba were headed toward the
Texas-Mexico border, but organiz
ers expected trouble in their bid to
defy a trade embargo.
More than 100 activists were
expected to finish gathering and
move Tuesday across one of the
international bridges in Laredo,
triggering a possible confronta
tion with federal customs officials.
Organizers of the mission said
they expected arrests when they
try to take 43 carloads of food and
other humanitarian supplies
through Mexico for the destina
tion in Cuba, a group spokes
woman said Saturday.
President Bush last month
signed new, tougher restrictions
on trade with Cuba
But the activists, sponsored by
the Minnesota-based Pastors for
Peace, want to deliver items such
as medicine, powdered milk, bi
cycles and spare parts, school
supplies and Spanish-language
Bibles, spokeswoman Laurie Port
said.
"Because of the embargo, peo
ple (in Cuba) are suffering. They
are not getting the food and medi
cine they need," Port told the San
Antonio Express-News in a tele
phone interview from Minneapo
lis.
"We think that's wrong."
But Pastors for Peace needs a
special license from the agency's
Foreign Assets Control Office in
Washington, which the group has
not sought, said the U.S. Treasury
Department.
"This is a violation of the rules.
Everything from school supplies
to Bibles is prohibited (for export
to Cuba) without a license," said
Bob Levine, a treasury depart
ment spokesman.
He said the agency was aware
of the groups' caravans and plans
to cross the border.
But Port said Pastors for Peace
did not seek the licenses because
"that's part of the government's
restrictive process" that the group
opposes.
A news conference was sched
uled at noon Monday at the Peace
and Justice Building in Laredo.
At least three of the caravans
were to converge in San Antonio
before heading for Laredo late
Monday.
U.S. Customs inspectors will
meet the caravans at whichever
international bridge they try to
cross, said Judy Turner, spokes
woman for the agency's South
west District in Houston.
"Customs will enforce any re
quirement for licensing for any
goods sanctioned or embargoed
for Cuba," said Turner.
But Port said her group mem
bers are prepared to be arrested.
"We're going to get those
things out of the country," she
said.
"We won't back down."
The effort will include nine car
avans from cities across the coun
try, said Port.
Activists planned to drive their
cars to the Mexican port of Tampi
co, leave them there and fly to
Cuba to meet the goods arriving
by ship.
A critical gasoline shortage in
Cuba and the cost of shipping ne
cessitated the caravans, officials
said.
Pastors for Peace neither sup
ports nor opposes the govern
ment of Cuban Fidel Castro, Port
said.
She said a meeting with Castro
is being set up for the activists'
visit but has not been confirmed.
Ms. Port said Pastors for Peace,
part of the New-York based Inter
religious Foundation for Commu
nity Organization, has sent six
caravans of goods to Nicaragua
and four to El Salvador in recent
years.
The vehicles used in those car
avans were left in Nicaragua and
El Salvador, she said.
By JULI PHILLIPS
Reporter for THE BATTALION
Student Service administrators
are confronting the problem of
sexual harassment and sexual as
sault on campus as well as outlin
ing procedures for the victims to
receive help.
Sexual assault and sexual ha
rassment cases are rarely filed be
cause the victim in the situation is
afraid of being blamed for the sit
uation or being labeled a trouble
maker, said Assistant Vice Presi
dent of Student Services Dr. Jan
Wirmiford.
Survivors also are forced to re
live the sexual assault over and
over while seeking action against
the violator, Wirmiford said. Usu
ally, men or women who are being
sexually harassed only want the
behavior to stop and almost never
seek any formal actions against
the harasser.
Three sexual assault allegations
have been filed with the Universi
ty Police Department so far this
year, but the assault survivors de
clined to pursue the charges re
sulting in a recent report listing
the number of sexual assaults on
campus as zero.
Due to a law passed by the
Texas State Legislature, the word
"rape" appears nowhere in the
Texas Penal Code. The legal term
for rape is now sexual assault.
"The word change was used to
defeat the connotations associated
with the word 'rape,'" Student Af
fairs official Bonne Bejarano-
Sanders said.
"When people think of rape,
they think of penetration, and that
doesn't necessarily need to hap
pen for the action to be considered
rape. Also, it defeats the image
that it can only happen to
women."
The University has set up
many structures to help survivors
deal with the harassment or as
sault situation.
Faculty members should ad
dress formal complaints to Dr. Bill
Perry, Dean of Faculties, while
staff members should contact
Karan Chavis, employee relations
manager. Wirmiford handles stu
dent complaints.
"Informally, survivors can go
to anyone they feel comfortable
talking to," Wirmiford said.
"We are committed to provid
ing a comfortable learning and
working environment and if there
is something that is interfering
with that, we need to deal with
it."
Lithuanian
voters favor
communism
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VILNIUS, Lithuania - The
first republic to break away from
the Soviet Union appeared
Sunday to be on the verge of
returning former Communists to
power in a bitterly contested
parliamentary election.
Lithuanian voters angered by
factory shutdowns, soaring prices
and lack of hot water said as they
left the polls that they were ready
to give the former Communists a
chance to restore economic order.
Leaders of the former
Lithuanian Communist Party, now
called the Democratic Labor Party,
promised that if they won, they
would safeguard Lithuania's
independence and continue to
build a Western-style market
economy.
But they also said they would
improve trade relations with
Russia and demand better terms
from the International Monetary
Fund, which has forced Lithuania
to freeze government wages and
hold down public spending in
return for Western loans.
Sajudis, the anti-Communist
party that led Lithuania to
independence in 1990, has "done
very little in the past two years,"
Andrei Kobzar, 30, said as he cast
his ballot at a high school in
downtown Vilnius.
"Actually, they've done a lot —
to make our life impossible," said
his wife, Valentina, an
unemployed waitress.
"Everything is bad now. We live in
a such a hole, with two kids. I
have no job, no welfare
payments."
More economic bad news
appeared on the eve of the
election when the daily
newspaper Tiesa reported that
industrial production has tumbled
48.5 percent this year.
According to other recent
reports, one-third of all factories
have closed or sharply cut back
employment. Consumer prices
have jumped 2,200 percent since
1990, and fuel is in such short
See Soviet/Page 10
Program attacks drug problem
Course to ease peer pressure
By Reagon Clamon
Repot ter of THE BATTALION
The participants in an experimental mentorship
program, designed to train Texas A&M undergrad
uate students how to counsel troubled children,
hope to make a dent in Brazos Valley's drug prob
lem.
Project B.E.L.O.N.G, (Building Essential Life
Options through’Mew Goals) will create a course
at Texas A&M to instruct students in techniques
which will help children fight the pressures lead
ing to drug use.
The program will be funded by a $1.6 million
grant from the U S. Department of Education’s
Drug-free Schools and Communities Program and
will involve various organizations in Brazos Coun
ty, including the Public Policy Research Institute
and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station.
B.E.L.O.N.G. will produce many beneficial ob
jectives, said Greg Muller, a graduate research as
sistant at the institute.
"We are hoping this project will help address
the need for support of youth who are at risk,"
Muller said. "It will give them an older role mod
el."
The program would also be an effective teach
ing tool, Muller said.
"This program offers a unique opportunity to
undergraduate students to get some direct experi
ence in being a mentor/' he said. "They are getting
experience that will be applicable at some point in
the job field."
The students targeted by Project B.E.L.O.N.G.
will come from grades four through eight in the
Bryan and College Station school districts.
The first course for mentors will begin during
the spring 1993 semester with successive classes
every semester for three semesters, producing
three groups of mentors..
This program is part of a group of programs all
over the nation that are trying different avenues to
arrive at a solution to the drug problem, Muller
said.
He said the success of this particular project
hinges on community involvement.
"Up to this point, we have had the support we
need/' Muller said. "The schools see this as a
worthwhile project. They're really behind it.”
Orientation classes for Project B.E.L.O.N.G. will
be held on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room 108
in the Psychology Building, and Wednesday from
7 to 9 p.m. in Room 274 in the Read Building.
Those interested in participating in Project
B.E.L.O.N.G. should call Greg Muller at 845-6219.
Supporters of military ban advise
Clinton to make changes slowly
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders urged
President-elect Clinton Sunday to go slow on
overturning the military's ban on homosexuals,
arguing that sudden action would create a furor in
Congress and could endanger lives in the armed
forces.
"He ought to put it on the back burner," Senate
Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said on NBC-
TV's "Meet the Press."
"I can't give him any advice except to go slow,"
Dole said. "There are other things you can do by
executive order that wouldn't blow the lid off the
Capitol. I think this one might come close."
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, appearing on CBS-TV's
"Face the Nation," said, "I think we ought to
proceed very cautiously."
"If you did it overnight, I'd fear for the lives of
people in the military themselves," Nunn said. "I
think there could be some very emotional feelings.
So I would prefer that it be stretched out over a
period of time."
Nunn, Dole and Senate Democratic leader George
Mitchell of Maine, who appeared with Dole on the
NBC panel show, said congressional action would be
required to amend the Uniform Code of Military
Justice even if Clinton did issue an executive order
changing the policy.
"I'd be surprised if he won that vote," said Dole.
Mitchell said, however, "I think the governor will be
supported in that because I think he will do it in a
sensible and prudent way."
The Arkansas governor said Wednesday in Little
Rock that he intends to consult with military leaders
about "the mechanics" of a change in policy. He did
not say when this would occur.
"I don't think (homosexual) status alone, in the
absence of some destructive behavior, should
disqualify people" from serving in the military, the
president-elect said.
A federal judge in Los Angeles reaffirmed on
Tuesday his order that the Navy reinstate a
homosexual sailor, but did not rule on whether the
military ban is constitutional.
The sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Meinhold,
who has returned to duty, said the effect of/a change
in policy on the behavior of gays in the military
would be "a big fat nothing."
"The only difference would be that we would no
longer have to look over our shoulder," Meinhold
said on ABC-TV's "This Week With David Brinkley."
Former Army National Guard Col. Margarethe
Cammermeyer, who acknowledged being a lesbian
when questioned during a security check to attend
the War College, said, "I don't think it's like
suddenly the military is going to disintegrate."
See Clinton/Page 10
V