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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 1993)
y> June 8, dinale Stroud 0 ,UOW LoM^ ^ AVe YA' LL Seen going OUT? Rosas ~MWAY <VH<Tg-| o, / OarvTrrtS ion 3 billion, ap se it is more nds of law- idy is work- the whole X” she said rs." spending - ls far as I'm as strength- e Congress r collider." ’ he said, unlikely to oth projects und of net- ig, she was rats in the >uld seek to r victory, on said on /eryone in as well as ons. And I ty partisan ;nt existed -s over the :ase from lied a na- )n "makes > have the r at their ' Sekulow piro said, ;h into the emain ab- hat such ve been Court." The Battalion Vol. 92 No. 154 (8 pages) 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Wednesday, June 9,1993 Student Regent bill could return By JASON COX The Battalion Twenty-two and counting. The controversial Student Regent Bill, which died in the Texas House of Representatives last month af ter being introduced for the 22nd time, may be down but is not necessarily out, say state legislators and University officials. The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Jim Turner (D-Crockett), calls for the creation of a non-voting student seat on each university system's board of re gents. Because the measure was scheduled late in the legislative calendar, lawmakers adjourned be fore a vote could be taken. Why the bill is having so much trouble being ap proved by the legislature is what Jay McCullough, an official with Turner's office, called "the million dollar question." McCullough said some regents might be uneasy with the idea of a student representative who wouldn't be able to serve the usual six-year term. "If I were a member of the Board, I might think, here is a student that is only going to be here for a limited time and is going to try and change how we think," he said. McCullough applauded the work of student dele gations in getting the bill further through the ap proval process than it's been in over 20 years and said it would be a "strong bet" that the bill would come up in the next legislative session. Brian Walker, Texas A&M student body presi dent, said it was unfortunate that the bill was set so late on the calendar, but the response it received dur ing the session was positive. Walker said there was a concern about confiden tiality in the meetings, but legislators were support ive of the bill when it was decided the student See Student/Page 4 A&M student found drowned Death first of two weekend drownings at Lake Somerville By JENNIFER SMITH The Battalion The body of a Texas A&M University student who drowned Saturday at Lake Somerville was found Monday night. Zhen Liang Xu, a 30 year-old soil and crop science graduate student, was reported missing at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, said Dpt. Hugo Heinz, a Somerville police officer. "He was swimming with some friends and he wandered off in the water too far," Heinz said. "He just went under." Heinz said that when the dis appearance was reported, a res cue team immediately started to look for Xu. "Divers were called in, but their efforts were fruitless," he said. Xu's death was the first of two drownings this weekend at Lake Somerville. The body of a Brushy Creek man was found Tuesday. Heinz said the second drowning occurred when the man fell out of his boat into the water. Before this weekend. Lake Somerville had not had any drowning incidents for almost two years, Heinz said. Heinz said Lake Somerville doesn't have a severe undertow or any other hazards that would be likely to drown someone. "It's just an unfortunate oc currence," he said. Xu was working towards his doctorate degree and also See Drowning/Page 4 Workin' at the car wash STACY RYAN/The Battalion Larissa Kozlova (left) and Natasha Davidyuk, for a trip to Colorado next week. Today they will college students from Russia visiting the United continue the car wash from 10 a.m. -4 p.m. at the States for the summer, wash cars to raise money Jack In The Box at 1504 Texas Ave. University works to recruit women, overcome all-male school reputation Main Campus Total Liberal Arts Engineering Business Administration Agriculture and Life Science □ Female ■ Male =9 ■ UAIUU 1 1 1 -rrr ITT rr-rr -rrr TTT tt r By JENNIFER SMITH The Battalion Texas A&M University has yet to mirror the 1990 census, which reported a slightly higher number of women than men in the United States, according to a spring 1993 semester summary of enrollment from the Office of the Registrar. In 1990, there were 121 million men (49 percent) and 127 million women (51 percent) in the United States. In 1993, A&M had 23,592 men (58 percent) and 16,848 women (42 percent) enrolled in spring semester classes. Dr. Nikki Van Hightower, as sistant director of University Rela tions, said A&M is still trying to overcome its reputation as an all male military school. "There's definitely a reason women are not coming to Texas A&M in the same numbers as men," Van Hightower said. "Women, like minorities, have to live with the same tradition that this school once excluded them." Texas A&M was established as a military institution in 1876. In 1963, wives and daughters of stu dents, professors, faculty and staff were admitted to Texas A&M on a limited basis. In 1965, member ship in the Corps of Cadets be came voluntary. By 1971, women were being considered for admis sion under the same qualifications as men. After almost 100 years of being an all-male military school, A&M is working to match national sta tistics. "I think that when you are coming out of a history of exclu sion, you need to send out a posi tive message," Van Hightower said. "There are great opportuni ties for women here, and we want women at this University." Many colleges within Texas A&M have almost an equal num ber of men and women represent ed. In the colleges of general stud ies and science, men outnumber women only slightly, and veteri nary medicine, a traditionally male-dominated field, has more women than men. But in the fields of agriculture and life sciences, architecture, business administration and engi neering, men outnumber women at Texas A&M. These are the colleges with the highest enrollment and conse quently receive the most atten tion. The College of Engineering is representative of colleges in which men outnumber women in great numbers. In the graduate and under graduate programs in the College of Engineering, there are 9,563 students. In the graduate pro gram, there are 2,019 students en rolled. There are 1,741(86 percent) men and 278 (14 percent) women. There are 7,544 students enrolled in the undergraduate program. Men make up 6,192 (82 percent) and 1,352 (18 percent) women. Karan Watson, assistant dean of the College of Engineering, said they are very concerned with See Women/Page 4 Bus operations consolidates two routes By LISA ELLIOTT The Battalion Texas A&M students who rode "OT Sarge" and "Fish Camp" last semester are now catching "Cotton Bowl" to school. Sherry Wine, assistant manager for bus opera tions, said the two bus routes were merged this sum mer to save money. "Our resources would be better allocated to a combined route," she said. The new "Cotton Bowl" route covers the South west Valley area toward Ponderosa. The routes titled "Fish Camp" and "OT Sarge" had very low passenger counts last year. Wine said. The new route contains all the stops the two old routes included except those on Fraternity Row street, off Wellborn Road past FM 2818, because very few people were utilizing them. Wine said students were notified about the change a month before the spring semester ended. The new route covers more ground in the same amount of time. Blaine Hufnagel drove both "OT Sarge" and "Fish Camp" and said he has not heard any negative com ments about the new route. He said it takes the same amount of time for the new route as both of the old routes and the only difference is that the people who used to ride "Fish Camp" are having to wait longer to get home because all the former "OT Sarge" route goes first. "Most students seem concerned with how the new route will run in the fall when the number of students increases," Hufnagel said. Mark Lowry, a passenger of "Cotton Bowl" who formerly rode "Fish Camp," said he hasn't noticed any difference in the length of the route except he feels he's waiting a little longer at school than he used to. Wine said they are not certain about the success of the new route because summer is not a good time to get an accurate passenger count. 3SS Tia Gam- g to pre- my more we can aid. if breast -omen is is signifr ian CoT of health dered to ntil they id early ; impor- jreness. lat it can ? the ap- ct them- not only irly din- Colwell Freebird's constructs world's largest burrito in California College Station considers next attempt at record By CARRIE MIURA The Battalion Freebird's World Burritos of Isla Vista, Ca. made the 1993 Guiness Book of World Records in May for constructing the World's Largest Burrito. The burrito tipped the scales at 1,126.8 pounds. Freebird's has two college-based restau rants, one of which is here in College Sta tion located on Northgate. Pierre Dube, a partner of Freebird's who works at the College Station location, said, the next attempt to break the record may occur in College Station. "There is a possibility to build another of the world's largest burrito, but this time here in College Station," Dube said. He said Freebird's has been in touch with Texas A&M's Residence Hall Associa tion (RHA) and they have been considering attempting to break the record during RHA Awareness Week. "We have also thought of having a com petition between the two stores and to break the record by about 10 pounds every time," Dube said. The record was broken May 14, 1991 on the intramural fields of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Two weeks ago the record was con firmed by Guiness Book officials and will be published in the 1993 copy of the Gui ness Book of World Records. Pete Wroblicky, a Freebird's spokesper son, said, "It took about one hour to pre pare and put everything together." The ingredients of the world's largest "monster" burrito included 160 pounds of tortillas, 235 pounds of pinto beans, 189.9 pounds of rice, 189.9 pounds of chicken, 44.6 pounds of barbecue sauce, 48.8 pounds of lettuce, 62.8 pounds of cheese, 87.6 pounds of guacamole and 111.2 pounds of salsa. Wroblicky said, "This event was coordi nated with the health department and Free- birds'." Three hundred UC-Santa Barbara stu dents signed up on a first-come, first-served volunteer basis to participate in the event. Wroblicky said the main purpose of the event was to help feed 600 homeless peo ple, but local health officials refused to per mit the donation since the burritos were rolled outdoors. "The main emphasis was to benefit the homeless and the community," he said. The football field-long burrito was then cut into 600 small burritos and placed in new trash cans. They were later eaten by homeless people. The former record for the world's largest burrito was 700 pounds. Ironically, a year after Freebirds success fully broke the world record, students at the University of California at San Diego at tempted to top the record, but came 10 pounds short of Freebird's record. "It would even be interesting to try and get a rivalry going between A&M and the University of Texas," Wroblicky said. Sports •Baseball: Ags washed out by Long Beach, 6-2 •Clay: Sports used as alcohol's billboard •Chuck Knoblauch interview Page 5 Opinion •Editorial: Regent bill unrealistic, students not suited to serve •Column: Canadian health plan offers U.S. no guidance Page 7 Tomorrow in Aggielife— Preview: College Station gets new 16 screen theater! Review: Steve Miller Band releases new album