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Vol.92 No. 176 (6 pages)
1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993
Tuesday, July 20,1993
Former NASA center director to teach at A&M
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By REAGON CLAMON
The Battalion
The former director of the
NASA Johnson Space Center has
accepted an appointment as the
Zachry Professor of Engineering
at Texas A&M after ending his
year career with the space or
ganization.
Aaron Cohen resigned his po
sition with NASA Friday and an
nounced he will join the faculty
of the College of Engineering this
. He will teach a freshmen en
gineering course and participate
in a senior advanced design
course when he assumes his fac-
y.position.
Cohen said he will also design
a system engineering course this
College of Engineering welcomes Aggie alumnus to Zachry Professorship
fall to be offered to A&M stu
dents in the future. He said the
course will be a rare benefit to
students and will put them a step
ahead of other graduates.
"This is a course that you usu
ally don't see being offered at
universities, and you usually
have to learn it in the field," he
said. "I see a need for it in my ex
perience with business and gov
ernment."
Cohen has directed the NASA
Johnson. Space Center since 1986.
He has worked for NASA since
joining the Apollo program as an
engineer in 1962.
Cohen, a Distinguished Alum
nus of Texas A&M, said he has al-
"There is nothing more heart
warming than to go back to your
old alma mater and teach ... I was
very honored to be offered the
Zachry Professorship."
-Aaron Cohen,
former director of NASA space center
ways wanted to teach, and after
he decided he was ready to retire
last spring, he was offered the
professorship from the University.
"There is nothing more heart
warming than to go back to your
old alma mater and teach," he
said. "I felt the time was right,
and I was very honored to be of
fered the Zachry Professorship."
The Zachry Professor is sup
ported by the Zachry foundation
of San Antonio in association
with the University.
Dr. Herbert H. Richardson,
chancellor of The Texas A&M Uni
versity System, said Cohen will be
a strong asset for the University.
"I'm delighted that Aaron Co
hen will now be part of Texas
A&M's engineering program,"
he said. "As a leader in the space
program for more than three
decades, his unparalleled scien
tific and programmatic experi
ence will be a gold mine for our
students."
Cohen's experience will be
missed, NASA administrator
Daniel Goldin said.
"Aaron represents all of the
finest you could hope for in a
government servant," Goldin
said. "He has brought technical
excellence, integrity, dedication
and leadership to the Johnson
Space Center."
In addition to his teaching du
ties Cohen will continue to work
for NASA as a consultant to the
administrator on human space
flight as well as research and
technology.
Cohen's honors include twice
receiving the highest award for
senior federal executives, the
Presidential Rank of Distin
guished Executive (1982, 1988)
and three times receiving
NASA's highest award, the Dis
tinguished Service Medal.
Visitors receive campus tour
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MARY MACMANUS/The Battalion
Wes Wadle, a senior political science major from Dallas, leads a was explaining how Lawrence Sullivan Ross became president of
group of people on a tour of campus for the visitor's center. Wadle Texas A&M.
A&M defends against
name change lawsuit
Counsel: 'clerical error' in meeting notice
By STEPHANIE PATTILLO
The Battalion
Charges that the Texas A&M University Board of Regents failed to
give adequate notice of their March 5 meeting, which changed the
name of three System schools, are being defended by A&M general
counsel who said Monday that the regent's meeting was in compliance
with the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Last week five Texas A&I University alumni and one student filed a
lawsuit against the A&M System alleging that the Board didn't give the
necessary 72-hour notice required by the Texas Open Meetings Act be
fore the meeting that resulted in the changing of Texas A&I University
to Texas A&M University-Kingsville, of Corpus Christi State to Texas
A&M-Corpus Christi and of Laredo State to Texas A&M International
University. The name changes, effective Sept. 1, were made to reflect
the institutions' ties to the A&M System.
"The suit is a technical attack on the action the Board took in March
in changing the names of the institutions," said James Bond, A&M
deputy chancellor and general counsel.
Dick Hutchens, a Kingsville lawyer representing the six plaintiffs,
said the main objective of the lawsuit is to have the Board reconsider
the Texas A&I name change.
The original meeting of the Board to vote on the name changes was
to be by telephone since there were not enough regents scheduled to be
in town for a quorum at the time of the meeting. Bond said.
Hutchens said the notice for this telephone meeting was posted with
the secretary of the state on Feb. 26.
Bond said when it was learned there would be a quorum for the meet
ing, the regents decided to change the meeting from a telephone meeting
to a regular meeting. On March 3, a request by the secretary of the Board
was sent to the secretary of the state to amend the meeting format.
Instead, Bond said the secretary of state made a mistake and posted
a notice that the meeting was canceled.
"The Board secretary made it clear all that had happened," he said.
"It was an inadvertent clerical error. It was not sufficient to set aside
the meeting."
Although the secretary of the state's office posted March 3, 4 and 5
that the meeting was canceled. Bond said the Texas State Register, an
See Lawsuit/Page 2
Greenwood
testifies in
murder trial
By JENNIFER SMITH
The Battalion
Sherron Dante Greenwood
feared for his life and had been
warned repeatedly by school offi
cials not to leave his house alone,
tils attorney said Monday.
Greenwood, 16, is accused of
stabbing Billy C. Williams, 16, to
death March 26 in the cafeteria of
Bryan High School's Lamar
ninth-grade campus..
Greenwood, who testified for
most of the morning, said he
Bung out with a group called the
lip Toe Posse. Another group,
called the Squab Mob, had been
involved in numerous fights with
the Tip Toe Posse, and Green
wood said members of this group
had threatened his life on numer
ous occasions.
Greenwood said members of
the Squab Mob made many
threatening phone calls to him
saying "they were going to come
hmy house and burn it down."
Greenwood said school offi
cials had repeatedly warned him
h> watch his back.
"They said I'd end up being
hilled or hurt," Greenwood testi
fied.
When asked by Defense At
torney Michelle Esparza if he
could leave his home and feel
s afe, Greenwood said, "not in
fhis city."
Ronnie Jackson, the principal
°fan alternative school in the
Bryan Independent School Dis-
hict who had spent many hours
talking with Greenwood, agreed
the defendant was in danger
every time he left his home.
See Trial/Page 2
Clinton fires Sessions
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton fired defiant FBI Director
William Sessions on Monday, cit
ing "serious
q uestions''
about Ses
sions' conduct
and leader
ship. It was the
first time an
FBI director
has ever been
dismissed.
Clinton is
expected to
name U.S. Dis
trict Judge
Louis Freeh of New York to head
the agency, administration
sources said. Freeh is a 43-year-
old former FBI agent and federal
prosecutor.
The dismissal of Sessions, an
nounced by Clinton himself, end-
Sessions
ed a long feud between the direc
tor and the administration, which
had long been trying to persuade
him to step down voluntarily.
The 63-year-old former federal
judge from Texas has served un
der a cloud since a report six
months ago accused him of ethi
cal lapses.
.To the end. Sessions had
fought the allegations and de
nied any wrongdoing. He had
41/2 years left of his 10-year
term, but served at the pleasure
of the president.
White House aides said that
Sessions' defiance over the
weekend in refusing a demand
by Attorney General Janet Reno
that he resign left Clinton no al
ternative but to fire him.
Clinton announced the firing
after a short meeting at the
White House with Reno. He said
he had called Sessions and noti
fied him of the dismissal.
TASP reform exempts some students
Guidelines add incentive for higher standardized test scores
By CARRIE MIURA
The Battalion
Some Texas A&M students will be exempt from
taking the state-mandated basic skills test beginning
in the fall.
The new standards were devised Friday by a joint
effort among the American College Test (ACT),
Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), Texas Education
Agency (TEA) and the National Education systems
(TASP contractors).
The guidelines, which were established by H.
Paul Kelly in collaboration with the Coordinating
Board Staff are as follows:
•SAT total score must be equal to or greater than
1,200, with each section score (verbal and mathemat
ics) equal to or greater than 550.
• ACT composite score must be equal to or greater
than 29, with the math and English scores only equal
to or higher than 27.
•TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
test) test score equal to or greater than 1,800 on each
section.
Michael Brasel, program director of the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board, said the new
standards were approved because "some people feel
that students are being over-tested, and it's a way to
elevate students from having to take more standard
ized tests."
It is estimated that no more than 10 percent of the
students who normally take the TASP will be ex
empt from the test, Brasel said.
Brasel said the format of the TASP test will not
change, but the standards for every section have
been reformed.
"The math section should better screen for algebra
readiness," he said.
Students will no longer write a personal narrative,
but they must analyze, evaluate and synthesize giv
en information on a certain topic and the reading
section of the test will be screened for the academic
level of material, Brasel said.
"The new standards also add an additional incen
tive to performing well on the standardized tests,"
he said.
Karen Sturdevant, the director for the Center for
Academic Enhancement, said A&M officials are still
in the process of obtaining more information
about the new TASP standards.
Women's health ignored, report says
By MICHELE BRINKMANN
The Battalion
The lack of resources for medical research aimed
at women is causing their health to suffer, say Texas
A&M and women's health specialists.
Dr. Harriett Andreadis, associate professor of
English and former women's studies department
head, said she believes the problem of little medical
research on women can be attributed to living in a
traditionally male-dominated society.
"Male equals human in our world," she said.
"There is no question that women have been exclud
ed from research."
Dr. Ethel A. Tsutsui, professor of biochemistry and
biophysics and women's studies department head,
said, "There has always been an assumption that
women will react the same way that men do biochemi
cally. In the past, money decisions have been made by
men, and there were not many women scientists in
government. As a result, women were left out."
Dr. Vivian Pinn who heads the new Office of Re
search on Women's Health at the National Institutes
of Health recently told an audience in Houston that
the title of John Steinbeck's novel. Of Mice and Men,
exemplifies women's status when it comes to med
ical research. She said as a consequence, the health
of all women has suffered.
According to a report by the Texas Commissioner
of Health, Dr. David R. Smith, a widely cited Har
vard study indicated that an aspirin a day may help
prevent heart disease — in men. Although heart dis
ease is the number one cause of death among males
and females, the study did not even include women.
The largest national study on aging, the Baltimore
Longitudinal Study on Aging, excluded women for
its first 20 years.
"Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are known top
killers of men and women," Smith said. But most
biomedical knowledge about the causes, symptoms.
See Women/Page 2
Inside
Sports
• Ryan returns- Rangers beat
Brewers 5-3
•Venetoulias balances soccer,
football careers
Page 3
Opinion
•Editorial: Lawsuit against rap
artist a dangerous precedent
►Column: Vasquez writes
about Bosnia - not buttcracks
Page 5
Weather
•Tuesday: partly cloudy
highs in the mid 90s
•Forecast for Wednesday:
partly cloudy, highs in me
90s to near TOO. Hot!!
•Your Battalion extended
forecast: Same old stuff,
partly cloudy, highs in the
90s, lows in the 70s