V (\iO01'
'Mol. 93 No. 100 (8 pages)
The Battalion
1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Wednesday, February 23,1994
ggie ring order policy unfair, transfer students say
By Melissa Jacobs
The Battalion
Students should have been notified be
fore changes were made in the Aggie ring
ordering policy, members of a new transfer
student organization said during a meeting
Tuesday with members of the Association
of Former Students.
The policy change was that the Associa
tion of Former Students wanted the Aggie
ring to represent more than 30 hours at
A&M, Porter Garner, associate executive
director for alumni programs, told Transfer
Aggies Making A Commitment, a new or
ganization for transfer students.
The Association of Former Students,
which handles the ordering of the Aggie
ring, is a private, non-profit corporation.
On January 1,1994, the number of hours
required for transfer students to get their
ring changed from 30 to 60.
Michael Jasek, president of TAMAC
said he was shocked when he first heard
about the change.
"I think transfer students were sur
prised to one day open the Battalion and
read that the ring requirement had been
changed from 30 to 60 hours-that's double.
We weren't notified beforehand and all of a
sudden we're looking at another whole
year," he said.
The grandfather clause, recently added
to the requirements, protects students who
are currently enrolled from any changes in
the ordering policy.
That means students transferring to
A&M this semester will have to wait
longer. Gamer said.
Chris Oddo, TAMAC associate director
of external affairs correspondence, said stu
dents should have been notified of the
change.
"I don't think it's right that students
were not informed of the fact that they
would be affected beforehand," he said.
Garner, an A&M graduate who was
also a transfer student, said he has seen
what makes A&M so special.
The change in policy will hamper the
participation of some students in the Boot
Line at football games and the Ring
Dance.
"Just because you don't have your ring
doesn't mean you can't go to the Ring
Dance," Garner said.
However, some students feel that not
having their ring at Ring Dance will
lessen the experience. Officials are trying
to solve the problem but have not yet
reached an answer.
Garner said the changes were not
made to punish transfer students.
"Some of the best Aggies we have are
transfer Aggies," he said.
"When you graduate you are automat-
"I don't think it's right
that students were not in
formed of the fact that
they would be affected be
forehand."
- Chris Oddo, TAMAC
associate director of external
affairs correspondence
ically a member of the Association of For
mer Students. Students are not good con
stituents if they have a bad experience at
Texas A&M."
Jasek said he is more understanding
about the policy change now that he
knows it is not concrete.
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SWC's future looms in doom
with Big Eight expansion bid
The Associated Press
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The Southwest Conference, a tradition in college ath
letics that has dominated the southwestern landscape
since 1915, moved a step closer to extinction Tuesday, an
apparent victim of changing times.
Texas, Texas A&M, and Baylor — original members of
the SWC — along with Texas Tech have received infor
mal offers to join the Big Eight Conference's expansion
plans. The proposal leaves Rice, Houston, Texas Christ
ian and Southern Methodist to fend for themselves.
It also leaves in doubt the future of the Cotton Bowl,
long associated with the SWC.
"All I can say is, we have an informal invitation,"
Texas-Austin President Robert Berdahl said. "No deci
sion has been reached. That would have to be made by
the board (of regents)."
The four SWC schools would join the Big Eight in a
made-for-television 12-team conference that would be in
a better position to bargain for television contracts when
the current television deal ends in 1996.
"It could happen today (Tuesday)," Texas-Austin re
gent Lowell Lebermann Jr. said. "It could certainly be
that quick, but we also thought that last week. We're all
being kept informed. The Southwest Conference is mori
bund, that's pretty clear."
Texas A&M regents chairman Ross Margraves said
the board would consider the issue at its Thursday meet
ing.
"My concern is that Texas A&M makes the best deci
sion for it and will most favorably affect the other mem
bers of the Southwest Conference," Margraves said. "We
have some responsibility and obligation to them, but our
first obligation is to our own program."
There has been speculation about a conference break
up or realignment since Arkansas left the SWC in 1990 to
join the Southeastern Conference.
The four uninvited schools would be left with weak
ened bargaining power on television contracts that could
See SWC/Page 6
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Students maintain innocence in assault
By Angela Neaves
The Battalion
Two Texas A&M students testi
fied they were not involved in the as
sault of a former student in a civil
case in which the victim is seeking
punitive damages of more than a
million dollars.
The assault occurred April 9, 1992
after former student John Walker,
who is currently a student at Sam
Houston State University, left
Zephyr night club, was followed and
assaulted.
Gregory Pappas, one of four de
fendants and a 24-year-old graduate
"I didn't know what he
was planning on doing.
I was stunned as to what
happened."
- Gregory Pappas, one of
four defendants
student in agricultural economics,
testified that although he accompa
nied the other three defendants to
Redstone Apartments, he had no
idea a fight would break out be
tween Walker and another defen
dant, 23-year-old Kevin Ormston of
College Station.
"I knew he was going to confront
the individual," Pappas said. "I
didn't know what he was planning
on doing. I was stunned as to what
happened."
Ormston has admitted to assault
ing Walker, who attended A&M at
the time of the assault, but the other
three defendants claim they only ob
served the fight.
However all four defendants pre
viously have pleaded guilty or no
contest to criminal charges of misde
meanor assault on Walker.
See Assault/Page 2
Council to examine international requirements
By Jan Higginbotham
The Battalion
The Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts
Council will meet in a special session today to discuss
the future of it's proposed U.S. and International Cul
tures requirements.
Dr. Paul Parrish, an associate dean in the College of
Liberal Arts, said the meeting will give the council an op
portunity to respond to Interim President E. Dean Gage's
decision last week to postpone a resolution on the pro
posed requirement.
"The council will want to talk about the implications
of the President's decision," Parrish said. "The council
members will have to decide what is the next best step."
In a memo to Dr. Woodrow Jones, interim dean of the
College of Liberal Arts, last week. Gage said he is not ap
proving the implementation of the proposed require
ment.
The council's proposal includes six hours of U.S., gen
der, racial, and ethnic cultures and three hours of inter
national cultures studies.
Gage said in his memo he will approve a three hour
requirement in international studies if the Liberal Arts
Council makes that request.
Parrish said it is important that the council act at one
of their next two meetings.
"The council will have to act relatively quickly on the
question of whether to implement the international re
quirement," he said.
Richard Stadelmann, an associate professor of philos
ophy and humanities, said he was delighted with Gage's
decision last week.
"I have consistently opposed the multicultural re
quirement," he said.
"The international requirement is a step forward. We
will have to decide if we should proceed with that pro
posal."
The Liberal Arts Council will meet today at 3:00 in the
Academic Building. The meeting will be open to the
public.
A&M underworld exposed
Tim Moog/TiiE Battalion
Pete Roberts, an employee with the A&M Physical Plant's electrical department, travels
through 7.1 miles of tunnels Tuesday afternoon that carry an average of 7 million gallons of
water a day to hundreds of buildings on campus. The tunnels also house hundreds of miles
of electric wire that deliver 58 million watts throughout the campus.
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Inside
Sports
•Coach Lynn Hickey leads
women's basketball tonight
against TCU
Page 5
Opinion
•Editorial: Being a victim
does not excuse criminal
activity
•Clay: Some university
employees engage in
harrassment
Page 7
Former CIA officer, wife arrested for espionage
Couple charged with
selling national security
information to Kremlin
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a case with Cold War
echoes and implications for future U.S.-Russia
relations, a former top CIA counterintelligence
officer and his wife were arrested and charged
with selling national security secrets to the
Kremlin.
The case, as described in the federal affi
davit for the arrest of Aldrich Hazen Ames
and his wife, has many of the elements of a
spy thriller novel: hand-offs of secret CIA doc
uments at "dead drops;" $1.5 million in al
leged Russian payoffs and FBI agents sifting
trash cans for clues.
President Clinton called the matter "very
serious," and Secretary of State Warren
Christopher summoned Russian diplomat
Vladimir Chkhikvishvili for a formal protest.
The White House was reviewing how the
case might affect relations with Russia at a
time when the United States is strongly sup
porting President Boris Yeltsin and providing
millions of dollars in aid.
The affidavit accuses Ames and his wife of
conspiring to deliver information about secret
CIA operations and of revealing the identity of
a Russian counterintelligence officer who was
spying for the United States.
Ames is accused of being an agent for the
Russian foreign intelligence service, known as
the SVRR, which is the direct successor to the
KGB of the former Soviet Union.
Ames, 52, and his wife, Maria Del Rosario
Casas Ames, 41, of Arlington, Va., appeared
before a federal magistrate in Alexandria, Va.,
on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to com
mit espionage.
The couple, who had been arrested Mon
day, were ordered held without bail until a
hearing scheduled for Friday.
The CIA had suspected since 1985 that there
was a "mole" spying for the Russians inside
the agency, and Ames had been under investi
gation for two years, according to a law en
forcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Clinton said little about the matter except to
declare it "a very serious case" and to praise
for the FBI and CIA "for the work they did in
cracking" it.
He turned away reporters' questions about
possible effects on U.S.-Russian relations.