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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1993)
Battalion Vol. 93 No. 33 (8 pages) 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Wednesday, October 13, 1993 North Texas sorority faces possible ban for hazing incidents The Associated Press DALLAS — The University of North Texas could ban a sorority for hazing which already has brought jail terms to five members. The university's dean of students was scheduled to meet Wednesday with Al pha Kappa Alpha's national representa tives. Dean Greg Sawyer said he would then announce his decision about the sorority's future at the Denton school. The sorority's UNT chapter has been suspended from group activities since April, when the hazing was first reported. Criminal charges were filed against seven sorority members after accusations that pledges were struck with paddles and forced to eat hot peppers. Phillip Bustos, associate dean of stu dents, told The Dallas Morning News that LINT could expel the sorority from cam pus, place it on disciplinary probation or impose other sanctions. "There were allegations of phvsical hazing, specifically paddling," said Phil Revnolds, Denton County assistant district attorney. "They were hitting them with eggs, breaking raw eggs over their heads. "They were making pledges.eat cer tain foods that they most probably wouldn't have eaten otherwise, like hot peppers," he said. "It was verbal, mental and physical hazing." A Denton telephone number for the chapter was not listed. Officials at the sorority's Dallas office and Sawyer did not immediatelv return telephone calls Tuesday from The Associated Press. In September, five sororitv members were convicted of hazing, a misdemeanor. Each woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail and one year of probation, as well as 24 to 40 hours of community service. Two were also assessed S500 fines. Two other sorority members also faced hazing charges but have not vet been tried. The university will consider the sorori- ty's hazing record when deciding whether it should be allowed to continue functioning on campus, said Sawyer. Pie said national sorority rules and UNT regulations ban physical and psy chological hazing that was once consid ered traditional. Freshmen elect Kipe president By Kim McGuire The Battalion Freshmen elected Gary Kipe as the new class president dur ing Tuesday's runoff election. Kipe said he will now begin working to accomplish the goals he set for himself. "My immediate goal is to get the fighting class of '97 as moti vated and enthusiastic as possi ble," Kipe said. Kipe won the election with 55.21 percent of the vote. Freshmen class officers are: Chris Foster; vice president, re ceiving 53.28 percent of the vote; Jimbo Cross; treasurer, 54.5 per- cent;Natalie Reinhardt, secre tary, 58 percent; Tracey Mapes, social secretary, 50.1 percent; and Daniel Chaput, historian, received 57.1 percent. Election Commissioner Steven Mathews said this has been the largest turnout ever for freshmen elections. In the general election Thurs day, 1,081 freshmen voted and 542 voted in the runoff. Mathews said this year's elec tion ran more smoothly than past elections. "I attribute most of the suc cess of the election to the class of '97," Mathews said. "They are so fired up." Mike Stcelc/l fu Battalion Political science major Gary Kipe (left) of Houston learns of his election as freshmen class president Tuesday evening with his girlfriend Lacy Williams, a freshman biology major from Houston. Acid leak prompts building evacuation By James Bernsen The Battalion Fire Department officials suspect hydrochloric acid was behind a re ported natural gas leak in the O&M Building that forced the evacuation of faculty and students Tuesday afternoon. Charles Hamburg, a University maintenance worker who responded to the call, said he received a phone call around 2:25 p.m. of a gas smell in the building. By the time he arrived, the building proctor had pulled the fire alarm. Lt. Bobby Rogers, College Station Fire Department, said firefighters ar rived and searched the 14th floor of the building looking for a leak but found no trace of gas. "It's just one of those situations where you just don't know for sure what the real cause was," he said. Henry Moehlman, University maintenance worker, said he was part of a crew that used hydrochloric acid to clean a water distillation unit, a standard procedure. "We were putting the chemical in the water system to remove rusts and salts," he said. "I put some in earlier this morning and no one complained. This is the first time in 15 years or better." In all the years he has been using this procedure, Moehlman said he has never received training on how to handle chemicals. Mary Jo Powell, a representative of University' Relations, said the acid used was not strong enough to require special training, and University employees who are required to use the stronger chemicals receive training. "What they were using was a mild, domestic, institutional acid that's designed to clean such things as toilet bowls and urinals," she said. Maintenance workers applied the chemical near an air handling sys tem, which may have caused its fumes to spread through throughout the building, Rogers said. But, he said, officials are not sure this was the cause because by the time firefighters arrived the smell had dissipated. "I can't verify that this set off the alarm," he said. "What they did may have had nothing to do with it." Powell said the Physical Plant is investigating the incident to determine if the acid was responsible for the smell. Neither the Physical Plant employees nor the people in the building were ever in any danger, she said. . Supreme Court turns down appeal for fired homosexual The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A CIA employee fired for hiding his homosexu ality from the agency for more than five years lost an appeal to the Supreme Court Tuesday. The court refused to hear his job-bias argument that the CIA im properly view's homosexual employees as a greater security risk than heterosexuals. A lower court ruling in the case leaves federal executive agencies free to discriminate against gay employees, the appeal had argued. The man identified in court papers as John Doe has been on paid administrative leave since 1985, w'hen a federal judge ruled that his dismissal had been improper. CIA spokesman David French said the agency now will consider seeking reimbursement of Doe's pay and benefits. In other action Tuesday, the court: — Let stand the conviction of New Hampshire school instructor Pamela Smart, serving a life prison term for coaxing her student lover to kill her husband in 1990. — Agreed to use a Maryland case to consider giving convicted crim inals an earlier chance to challenge career-offender sentences based partly on their prior convictions. — Agreed to clarify the deadline for giving people charged with federal crimes their initial day in court.'The case involves a California man accused of possessing counterfeit money. In the CIA case. Doe joined the agency as a clerk-typist in 1973 and was promoted to an undercover position in 1980. He began engaging in homosexual activity in 1976 and voluntarily told a CIA official in January 1982 that he was a homosexual, his app>eal said. See Homosexual/Page 3 American warship retreats from Haiti The Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Hundreds of militant right-wingers cheered Tuesday as an American Warship left Haiti, in a retreat that marked a major setback for the U.N. mission to restore democracy here. The aborted troop deployment threatened to derail international efforts to prepare for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aris tide on Oct. 30, U.S. officials in Haiti said. The National Coalition declared Tuesday a "dav of indignation," stoppiing buses to keep children out of school and urging their army to resist a foreign "invasion." "We're ready to die!" said Jacques Robert, 32, an engineer w'ho with scores of others stayed through an all-night "patriotic vigil" at the dock. "We'll stay here till Oct. 30. We're mobi lized. We don't w r ant Aristide back!” The USS Harlan County pulled anchor just minutes after Pentagon ordered it to withdraw to international wmters. Among the crow'd of applauding/cheering people at dockside was a beaming, gun- wielding senior aide to Haitian army com mander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who ousted Aristide in 1991. See Haiti/Page 3 Inside Sports •Baylor comes off a one-game passing suspension against A&M this weekend Page 5 Opinion •Parents shouldn't blame Beavis and Butt-head for children's misbehavior Page 7 Weather •Wednesday: partly cloudy, scattered showers, highs in 80s, lows in 60s • Thursday: mostly cloudy, highs in 80s •Weekend forecast: partly cloudy, slight chance of showers, highs in 80s Math anxiety? — Fear of numbers hits A&M By Kim Horton The Battauon A bout 25 students at Texas A&M have been diag nosed with math anxiety, the acquired fear of the language of math. Rodney Paris, lecturer for the Center of Academic Enhance ment, said the problem has been around for "One young lady broke into tears at the mere mention of math." - Rodney Paris, lecturer for Center of Academic Enhancement years, but it has only re cently been treated seri ously. " All math teach ers who have taught in the past 50 years have come across students with this fear, but it is not until now' that it has gained acceptance as a problem," Paris said. "It was humiliating for stu dents to say they had this prob lem," Paris said, "but now it is al most acceptable to be afraid." Students with this anxiety ex perience sweating, trembling hands, and extreme fear when faced with basic math problems. "One young lady broke into tears at the mere mention of math," Paris said. Many students' fears stem from a past humiliating experi ence with math. "1 never understood ninth grade algebra,'" said Lynne O'Kelly, a junior anthropology major. "I thought I was stupid and refused to take math in high school." O'Kelly said she discovered that Texas A&M's math profes sors rush through their lectures and do not give ade quate exam ples, and the help ses sions did not have enough in structors to help all of the students. Through the develop mental math classes and lectures offered by Paris, students progressively re learn the structure of math while building their confidence and un derstanding. Paris said it only takes a cou ple of semesters for students to reach the equivalent level of math as their peers. "There is no known cure, but students can learn to live and cope with this fear," he said. Paris has w'orked wdth stu dents wdth math anxiety for the past 10 years. A ngcl Kan/Tm Battalion 30-93 ■J Tomorrow in Aggielife Features: An interview with A&M student Aval Allen, a modern dance teacher & The Texas Renaissance Festival “llemolition linn" and “Hr. Jonesf alliums bv Alahaina. He La Siml