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