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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1994)
ary 1,1 ammmmmMmmMMmmMm Tuesday, February 1,1994 Page 3 e is andl - and c? rk outf ( mote aii| on a bal also lea: - tin g pit] -ss on i; In't sell aid he c; iston. and 1 itil the;: 11 15,11 36111 lilt nut tha; >ut it/ 1 1. ■ prosei id c‘ hat the; penalh: 1 in char; going to, y.'" spend tq ■/i/eediloi I life edito rts edilw I, Photoedi al Secfaes Sacrifice and sanity Aggie student parents committed to kids, classes » x/f «. ut said the hardest part of being a student weekend," Little said. "But lately it 1 By Margaret Claughton The Battalion M ost parents are in agreement that having children, even one, is definitely a full-time commit ment. And many students will admit that college level courses, even when taken in moderation, are among the most time consuming and challenging undertakings. Judging from this, those who succeed in balancing both parent hood and an academic career must in deed be the kings and queens of time management. Student parent Tammy Oliver, a ju nior English major and mother of two. said the hardest part of being a student parent is deciding what is going to be sacrificed. "Sometimes you sacrifice school and sometimes you sacrifice time with the kids," Oliver said. "And sometimes you sacrifice both for sanity. It balances out eventually. But it always seems like something has to give." Indeed many student parents do sac rifice a lot of family time for an educa tion they hope will provide them with admirable credentials. Ellen Little, a senior recreation and parks major, lives six hours away from her husband and 13-year-old son in Del Rio. "We used to get together every Kyle Burnett/The Battalion Ann Renner (center), a '91 graduate and single parent of two, Jessica and Michael, came back to A&M to get a special education endorsement. weekend," Little said. "But lately it has been more like once a month." Little is the publicity vice president of SOTA (Students Over Traditional Age.) In addition, she teaches first grade Sunday school and has a class load of 15 hours at A&M. At the same time, her husband is a law enforcement park ranger at Amistad National Recre ation Area. "I have my life here and he has his there," Little said. "It's difficult, but we'll see each other on Valentine's Day." Oliver said she thinks the time short age is sometimes hard on the kids. "They don't get all of my attention, especially if I have to study. It's hard for them to understand," she said. James Loy, a veterinarian working on his Ph.D., agrees. "Our daughter Allyson doesn't un derstand deadlines and commitments. Her needs can't be put off," he said. "We must always tend to her first, then worry about school." In addition to time constraints, going to school while being a parent requires financial sacrifices as well. "I was requested to come back to school by my job," said Ann Renner, a '91 graduate and single parent of two children. "I take two classes now which all together cost me $450. That's a big chunk out of a budget as tight as ours." Renner works at the Burleson Coun ty. Vocational Work Program for special education students and commutes to her office in Caldwell. She has a degree in education from A&M, but was re quested to come back and get a special education endorsement. Her two chil dren, Jessica, 11, and Michael, 8, have been right beside her all through her academic career. "My kids have grown up at A&M," Renner said. "They've come to class with me and even taken naps on class room floors." See Sacrifice/Page 5 A league all his own Nautical archaeology professor known as pioneer in his field By Paul Neale The Battalion Dr. George F. Bass digs shipwrecks. The words "first" and "oldest" are the key words when Bass, professor of nauti cal archaeology at Texas A&M, recounts the excavations he has been involved with. "Every wreck we do has many firsts," he said. Many of the sites he has excavated have produced new findings in the field. Bass is currently involved with the exca vation of the Bronze Age shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey. From the 14th century B.C., the wreck is the oldest in the world. The site, discovered in 1983, produced the oldest glass ingots, the oldest tin in gots, the oldest known book, the oldest known seagoing hull, and the first gold scarab of Queen Nefertiti ever found. The excavation yielded fifteen tons of ar tifacts all together. He describes such excavation as "studying the history of technology in a sense by uncovering these well-dated groups of artifacts from each century of antiquity." His findings were published in a 40- page cover story in the December 1987 is sue of National Geographic and were documented in a film for the television series "Nova." Bass left the University of Pennsylva nia in 1973 to found the Institute of Nau tical Archaeology, an institute that has been a part of shipwreck research on four continents. In 1976, Dr. Bass came to Texas A&M and the private institute be came affiliated with this University. "The institute has the potential for making Texas A&M University the lead ing institute for archaeology in the world," Bass said. "I think we're already well recognized." He said the only program comparable to Texas A&M's is that of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Most of their research takes place off North Car- Kyle Bumett/THE Battalion Dr. George F. Bass, a nautical archaeology professor, stands in front of a photo of the Bronze Age shipwreck. olina and Bermuda, he said, and is strict ly concerned with the New World (the Americas.) Bass's continued work also includes an 11th century medieval shipwreck in Turkey with a cargo of 10,000-20,000 Is lamic glass artifacts. The medieval wreck excavations have provided the world's oldest chess set, weapons, tools, and the earliest example of the modem hull. Bass has received many rewards throughout his career. He was one of fif teen to receive the National Geographic Society's Centennial Award in 1988. Fel low recipients that year included Sir Ed mund Hillary, Jacques Cousteau and John Glenn. His sixth and most recent book, "Ships and Shipwrecks of the Americas," was published that same year. During the summer, Bass still visits the site of the Bronze Age shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey. Although Bass limits his diving now, for thirty years, he dove twice a day for three months of the year. ison Mary Macro* avalela y Magee, M* .rrloQueiaJi II anH sp' il '<* and examp sAJMl' rsily in ^ t 013 Reed* assilied adve' 5 p.m. r full ye JI ► S T U 13 E N T FOUNDATION 12th Man Student Foundation Invites YOU... First General Meeting When: Wednesday, February 2nd 7 p.m. Where: MSC Room 206 Guest Speaker: Tedi Zalesky, Compliance Director 'V Thursday February 3rd 5-7pm New members welcome. Come experience what Texas A&M Athletics is all about. WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 2 8:00 PM RUDDER AUDITORIUM SPONSORED BY MSC FILM SOCIETY SPECIAL FREE SCREENING 600 SEATING TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT-THE-D00R, NIGHT OF SHOW STARTING AT 7:30 PM. Ticket Holders Only Will Be Admitted. The MSC Film Society has been requested to limit seating to 600. LIMITED SEATING FIRST COME FIRST SERVED