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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1994)
Vol. 93 No. 96 (12 pages) The Battalion 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Thursday, February 17,1994 Multiculturalism requirement put on hold Gage says more research needed before implementing start date for classes By James Bernsen The Battalion ■ Texas A&M liberal arts majors will not be re quired to take multicultural classes this fall, accord ing to a letter from Interim President E. Dean Gage. ■ Dr. Woodrow Jones, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, wanted to implement the require ment in the fall of 1994, but Gage sent a letter to Jones Monday saying the courses could not be re quired as early as the 1994-1995 school year. H"The reasons for my decision include the current Faculty Senate proposal and the best overall Univer sity-wide approach to this important subject," he said in the letter. "There also are still many valid academic, fiscal, course identification, public sup port, politically correct, development and external is sues which must be effectively addressed." A study task force will be appointed by Dr. Ben ton Cocanougher, interim senior vice president and provost, to determine these concerns. Jones could not be reached for comment, but Janis Stout, associate dean of liberal arts, said she dis agreed with the University's decision to put the classes on hold. I "I'm disappointed," she said. "I think they are needed." Dr. Richard Stadelmann, associate professor of philosophy and member of the Liberal Arts Councii, said he voted against the requirement last June for a variety of reasons. "I think some of these people generally believed that by teaching culture they could increase the har mony on campus," he said. "Others have political viewpoints that they want stressed." Stadelmann said there was never a set timetable for implementing the requirements, but it was gener ally assumed they would start in the fall. Stout said Gage's action has generated concern about the governance of the colleges. "Traditionally the colleges can set their own cur ricula, and we're concerned about that," she said. Stadelmann said it is now clear Gage will make the final decision about the classes himself. Gage said he did not want liberal arts implement ing the multicultural classes until the study is com pleted for the University-wide proposal. "We would not approve a single college moving forward until the University-wide program is ap proved," he said. Stout said the College of Liberal Arts will work with the task force to find a solution. The Liberal Arts Council's original proposal would require liberal arts students to take six hours in either international or American cultures. In the letter Gage said he would agree to a three- hour requirement in international cultures for liberal arts students in the 1994-1995 school year. jpinton drug plan receives ixed reactions at A&M By Stephanie Dube The Battalion ^resident Clinton has shifted the emphasis of the drug war by intro ducing an anti-drug strategy that focuses on treatment and prevention rather than interdiction. ■This shift has been praised by some groups as being a more efficient method of combating drug abuse. But others condemn the plan and claim it will open the door to greater drug abuse in the United States. ■Bob Wiatt, director of the University Police Department, said rehabil itation is important in combating the complicated domino effect which ilturrently plaguing the prison system. ■Wiatt said about 30 percent of the prison population in the United States consist of drug offenders, many of which are first-time drug users ■"The state prison system is filled to capacity, " he said. "The county jails are filled with inmates waiting to enter the state prisons. The paroles review the inmates in prison to make room for those waiting in county jails." ■Wiatt said many of those paroled to make room for drug users are violent offenders who committed crimes such as rape, kidnapping or murder. ■'Drug users (especially first-time offenders) should have an effort to rehabilitate rather than be incarcerated as a felon," Wiatt said. "This would make more space for violent offenders so that if prisons don't Iwe to make room for the drug users, prisons can incarcerate the vio- lerii offenders more." . ■Wiatt said drug pushers, unlike drug users, do not deserve the mce for rehabilitation. 'The pusher has the drug transported in and is profiting and spread- ig the venom throughout many people," Wiatt said. "He is allowing users to commit crimes and give him the proceeds." ■Dr. Dennis Reardon, coordinator of A&M's Center for Drug Preven tion and Education, said although enforcing laws may help the supply side of the drug problem, it cannot help those who already have addic tion problems. ■"Many people think addiction is simply the use of the drug," Rear don said. "It is more. It is a disease, and there must always be treat- me nt. Enforcement is important, but people will continue to use drugs unless we change their perspective through treatment and education." ■■ Reardon said many drug users have a problem finding a treatment ■ility. ■ "Part of the president's idea is to respond to these needs and have ftrvices available," Reardon said. "I see the change in the national ■nd (to rehabilitation) as mirroring what Texas is already beginning to do at the prison level." (Reardon said several rehabilitation prisons in Texas have a high suc- Js rate. [A drug rehabilitation center will be built in the Bryan-College Station |a next year, Wiatt said. (George Segrest, president of Aggies for Hemp and a sophomore gen eral studies major, said he approves of Clinton's idea. Aggies for Hemp See Clinton/Page 6 Hooping it up Blake Griggs/Thc Battalion IFC's Jeff Hamilton drives past Corps defender Scott Mcann in the Coliseum Wednesday evening. ICF won the basketball game in a first Corps vs. Frats basketball game held in G. Rollie White 66-40 victory. RHA to bring Mexican students to A&M By Joseph Greenslade The Battalion Four students from Monterey Tech in Mon terey, Mexico will spend six days visiting the Texas A&M campus next month thanks to the Residence Hall Association. A group of RHA members visited the Insti tute Tecnologico Y De Estudios Superiores De Monterey (Monterey Tech) last fall. They were hosted by Monterey Tech's equivalent of A&M's RHA, the Associated Residents of Tec De Monterey (ARTEM). Chris Thompson, RHA president and one of the students that visited Monterey Tech last fall, announced the plans to the RHA at their meeting Wednesday night. "This will be a lot of fun," he said. "It will be an excellent cultural exchange as well as an information exchange." The Monterey Tech students will stay with RHA members during their visit to A&M from March 24 to March 29. Thompson, a junior industrial engineering and history major, said ARTEM is a new orga nization and is having trouble getting started. "They are having some financial problems and problems getting people motivated," Thompson said. In other business, a bill was introduced rec ommending the Department of Student Affairs research the feasibility of the University pro viding cable television to all dormitories for a small fee. Jennifer Enos, RHA vice president for oper ations and a junior business major, said stu dents would probably have to pay $20 per se mester if the University were to put cable in all dormitories. She compared it to the computer usage fee that all students pay whether they use the Uni versity computers or not. Surgeons open 'new frontier' with successful operation on fetus The Associated Press ■ WASHINGTON — Surgeons using tiny needles and a miniature camera saved a fetus endangered by his malformed twin without cutting open the moth er's womb. K Such surgery represents a "new frontier in fetal medicine" and could provide a new weapon against a variety of abnormalities, doctors said Wednesday. I "There is a parallel in adult surgery — 20 years ago women were not having hysterectomies through their belly button," said Dr. David Cotton, chief of obstet rics at Wayne State University in Detroit, where the operation, the first successful use of the technique, was performed. ft "What you're seeing for the first time is a fetus has undergone this type of surgery ... It poses unlimited possibilities." Operating on a fetus is extremely rare because of the risks it poses to the mother and baby by opening the womb. Doctors wondered whether endoscopic surgery — performing operations through needle-sized holes guided by miniature cameras inside the body — would be safer. But after four failed attempts that resulted in ba bies' deaths, those doctors succeeded in unclogging a fetus' heart valve, but called the procedure luck and urged others not to copy it. Wayne State obstetrician Dr. Ruben Quintero de veloped a different technique, and on Wednesday an nounced his success by showing a videotape of smil ing Santerras Graham, the first baby born after such surgery in the womb. "It is fair to say you are the first endoscopic fetal surgeon in the world," Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of perinatology for the National Institutes of Health, told Quintero. Toya Graham, a 24-year-old woman, was diag nosed with a rare defect when she was four months pregnant. One of her twins had no heart or brain but was being supported by a normal twin whose heart pumped blood for both fetuses. The defect occurs once in every 35,000 pregnancies. Doctors have tried surgery to correct it, but it wasn't very successful and endangered the mother. Many such women opt for abortion. Last March, Graham agreed to let Quintero experi ment. He inserted tiny instruments through two nee dle-size holes in her uterus and tied a knot in the mal formed twin's umbilical cord. That stopped blood cir culating to the abnormal fetus and allowed the normal fetus to develop properly. In August, Santerras was bom. "With this surgery, other babies have a chance to be saved,” Graham said. "So we're glad we did it." Quintero had tried the operation once before but wasn't able to tie the knot, so that woman had an abortion. Last fall, he performed his second successful operation on another baby. He credits miniature tools he created for his suc cess. In one endoscope, three times smaller than those used on adults, he inserted a tiny camera. Through the second went tiny scissors to cut the membrane around the abnormal fetus. Then in went something resembling tiny pliers, which he used to tie the knot. Now doctors must begin using his technique to correct other congenital defects, Romero said. Birth defects occur in 2.2 percent of pregnancies, and are the second-leading cause of infant death in this country. umber of A&M women engineers increasing By Karen Broyles The Battalion ft The number of women enrolled in the Texas A&M University engi neering department is steadily increasing, yet women still make up only 5 percent of the engineering work force. I Dr. Karan Watson, assistant dean of the Engineering Graduate Pro gram, said encouraging women to go into the engineering field is easy. ■ "We could make them tough enough to stay in the field," she said. "To increase the number of women wanting to be engineers, we'll have to make the system different." I Watson said women engineers face many challenges in the work force, including balancing a career and a family and dealing with the isolation that women engineers face. Many women also are shielded from risky projects, and this can also hinder their advancement in a company. i "These gestures are meant as an almost fatherly response by male su pervisors, especially since so many of the women are young," she said. “ Watson said shielding women from fieldwork can keep them from receiving raises and promotions because fieldwork is important in most fields of engineering. Dr. Ethel Ashworth-Tsusui, a professor of biochemistry and bio physics, said prejudice against women engineers can affect raises and promotions. "Many engineers are older males who come from a time when women weren't supposed to be engineers," Ashworth-Tsusui said. "Hopefully the younger ones will be more accepting of women as col leagues." The engineering system is too rigid for women, Ashworth-Tsusui said. "The system was designed by men, for men,"she said. "Men and women have different life patterns, with the women still carrying most of the responsibility of child-rearing." Women may be able to concentrate more on their career once their children are grown, but the system doesn't allow women to catch-up later in life, Ashworth-Tsusui said. "I think that women can sometimes manage differently from men," See Engineers/Page 6 Inside Aggie life •Cartoon spinoffs: TV toon artists make move to print Page 3 Sports •A&M Men's Basketball beats UH, 93-87 Page 7 Opinion •Editorial: Student Senate must change its fee- allocation system Page 11