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Serving Texas A&M since 1893
Thursday, April 14, 1994
-raising campaign approaches goal
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(Texas A&M’s Capturing the Spirit campaign has
reached 73 percent of its fund-raising goal for the
(Jniversity, and members of the campus community
art doing their part to support the effort.
JThe campaign, which is expected to reach $500
■Ilion by August 1996, is an effort to raise money
B scholarships and other needs of the University.
■ The Department of Engineering Technology and
the Department of Petroleum Engineering recently
established Campus Endowment Campaign funds for
Iculty, staff and students to donate money for the use
i|the departments.
■ The Campus Endowment Campaign is part of the
iverall effort that is exclusively for faculty, staff and
Planners say campus endowment ahead of
projected $500 million August 1996 schedule
students of A&M to make donations.
As part of the campus endowment, the engineer
ing technology department created a fund for Engi
neering Technology Excellence.
Dr. John Weese, department head of engineering
technology, said they are trying to do something for
students that faculty and staff can enjoy.
“We created this endowment to do our part in the
University campaign,” he said. “This fund is for the
students and staff to meet academic needs and fund
programs within the department.”
Weese said since the program began in December
1993, four faculty members have donated $5,000 to
the fund.
The petroleum engineering department’s fund is
not only for the campus campaign. It is also in honor
of former department head Dr. Doug Von Goten, who
was killed in a tractor accident in 1991.
The scholarship fund was originally the petrole
um engineering students’ idea and funded by their
annual golf tournament. But faculty, staff and pe
troleum businesses have since taken charge of the
fund-raising efforts.
Carl Jaedicke, director of development for the
College of Engineering, said both programs are in
the early stages.
“Since the programs are in the beginning stages,
not a lot of money has been raised, yet,” he said.
“But we’re hoping the $20,000 goal is met by the
time the campaign is over.”
Dennis Prescott, deputy director for the Capturing
the Spirit campaign, said die campus endowment pro
gram was established to give faculty and staff a chance
to donate to A&M and for donators outside the campus
to see how supportive they are of the campaign.
“Since the program began in September 1990,
See Capital/Page 12
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Texas businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Clay-
Ion Williams Jr. will be on the Texas A&M campus today to
to the Corps of Cadets and the Society of Petroleum Engi
neers.
Mando Avila, deputy commander of the Corps, said Williams
will be speaking to Corps members about lead
ership in the business world at 5:30 p.m. in
3 0 1 Rudder Tower.
“He’ll probably talk about how he got where
he is today and how he learned from his expe
riences in the Corps,” he said.
Williams will also speak to the Society of Pe
troleum Engineers at 7 p.m. in 106 Richardson
Petroleum Engineering.
Ted Lafferty, vice-president of SPE, said
Williams will discuss issues facing the petrole
um industry today.
“We decided to bring him to campus be
cause of his success in petroleum engineering,” he said. “We’d
ftikehim to talk especially to seniors who are graduating, to give
reinclw. 'hem an idea of what to expect.”
I Lafferty said SPE has extended
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other engineering fields and the geosciences, but the
speech will focus primarily on petroleum engineering.
Williams, Class of ‘54, is the founder of ClayDesta, a petrole
um engineering company in Midland. He later expanded into
the communications field in the late 1 980s with ClayDesta Com
munications.
Williams also has a building named after him on the A&M
campus. The Clayton W. Williams Jr. Alumni Center, which was
built in 1988, was named after Williams because he was the
major contributor to the project at the time.
The $7 million, 5 7,000 square-foot building began construc
tion in June of 1985. It was expected to be completed in Sep
tember of 1986.
The alumni center houses the offices of the Association of
Former Students and the Aggie Ring Office.
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United Way Kiss-Off
Event invites all pairs
to kiss, raise money
By Angela Neaves
The Battalion
When members of Texas A&M’s United Way began planning
Saturday’s Kiss-Off to raise money for local organizations, they
invited all couples from the Bryan-College Station area to attend.
Members of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Aggies are taking
them up on that offer, and neither group expects any sort of dis
ruption at the Kiss-Off, which will begin at 3 p.m. at Kyle Field,
Mark Martin, a senior psychology major and presiaent of the
Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Aggies, said he and a group of homo
sexual friends plan to participate in the Kiss-Off. So far, no one
has expressed any concern over their participating, Martin said.
“Tm excited about the Kiss-Off,” he said. ‘ It will illustrate
our key point; our struggle for equal rights.”
Martin said he hopes people will understand their desire for
equal rights after the Kiss-Off.
“We don’t want special treatment that straight people don’t
get which is a popular misconception,” Martin said. “We just
want the same rights they have. I think the Kiss-Off will bring
that idea home.”
Dan Rose, a member of A&M’s United Way, said the group
discussed the participation of homosexual couples.
“It was a concern only because some people asked about it,”
Rose said. “We said all couples were welcome. Couple means
heterosexual or homosexual. We can’t sexually discriminate.”
Rose said he does not foresee any problems for the gay couples.
“There will be no lashing out at them or anything like
that,” Rose said. “They are couples. There is no sign that says
male-female couples only. The main reason for the event is to
raise money for the community.”
The goal of the Kiss-Off is to have thousands of couples partici
pate in the largest crowd kissing at one time, Rose said. The cou
ples will gather on Kyle Field and wait for a countdown to begin
kissing. After the time expires, the couples will kiss as long as they
> want to, Rose said.
The event has not cost the United Way much money, Rose said.
Many local businesses have contributed to the event by donat
ing door prizes, and Kyle Field is being used free of charge. A
local radio station is providing free publicity
In 1984, an event similar to the Kiss-On attracted over 2,000
couples at Texas A&M. Rose said the United Way hopes to set a
new record this year.
Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit Bryan-College Sta
tion community agencies and organizations, such as the Brazos
Valley Food Bank:.
Admission to die event is $2.
Hear me roar
Stew Milne/rfee Battalion
Ben the elephant makes an appearance Republican candidates used Ben to attract
Wednesday at Rudder Fountain. Local prospective voters.
Tobacco industry
forced to publish
cigarette contents
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Under intense pressure
from Congress, the nation’s biggest tobacco
companies released a top-secret list of chemicals
in cigarettes on Wednesday.
“We really don’t know the health effects of
smoking a cigarette with a very specific quantity
of chemicals added in a specific combination, ’
said Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
“It’s disingenuous at best to contend the ab
sence or presence of certain chemicals means
that cigarettes are safe,” said Victor Zonana,
spokesman for the Department of Health and
Human Services.
“We’ve been misunderstood, misrepresented
and we want the American public to know there
is not any misrepresentation,” said Dr. Robert
Suber, a toxicologist for R.J. Reynolds, which
spearheaded the unveiling.
“We decided the noise level got to the point
where we had to put those concerns about trade
secrets aside,” added Reynolds spokesman David
Fischel.
The release came one day before a congres
sional hearing on the content of cigarettes and
whether the Food and Drug Administration
should regulate them as drugs.
Key to FDA’s decision is proving whedier cig
arette companies manipulate nicotine levels. On
Wednesday’s list of additives is tobacco extract,
which contains a small amount of nicotine.
Suber contended the amount is too tiny to justi
fy FDA action.
Also Wednesday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-
C^lif., released a 1981 article written by a to
bacco executive stating that companies specially
blend tobacco to maintain high nicotine while
reducing tar. The executive, Alexander Spears of
Lorillard Tobacco Co., last month testified be
fore Waxman’s health subcommittee that com
panies don’t do that, saying nicotine levels natu
rally drop when tar drops.
See Chemicals/Page 10
Aggielife Pg. 3
Campus Briefs Pg. 2
Cprtoons Pg. 12
National Pg. 10
Opinion Pg. 13
Sports Pg. 7
What's Up Pg. 11
Transformer ignites fire in westside
building, causes minimal damage
Claire Petri!Special to The Battalion
By Kim McGuire
The Battalion
A broken transformer sent smoke spiraling
through the Kleberg Animal Center and caused
the building to be evacuated Wednesday night.
University Police Department received a call
at 6:44 p.m. informing them a transformer in
the basement had malfunctioned and caused a
small fire.
UPD Lieutenant Cabrina Davis said the
transformer ignited the insulation on the
ducts when it blew, sending smoke up the
west side of the building.
Jennifer Beckner, a sophomore animal science
major, was working in the animal lab in the
basement of Kleberg when the lights went out.
“About 30 minutes later, we began smelling
smoke,” Beckner said. “When we went out to
investigate, the building was evacuated and we
weren’t allowed back in.”
Bart Humphreys, College Station Fire De
partment battalion chief, said there was mini
mal damage caused by the fire, but there was
some concern about ether in the building.
College Station Firefighter Johnny Ward said
some people in the labs were boiling ether
when the transformer blew, shutting off the
ventilation system in the building.
Ward said firefighters extracted ether from
the building and iced it down to keep it from
emitting vapors.
Humphreys said firefighters were faced with
the task of ventilating the building since the
joe Warren (left) and Lt. Maggie McGraw
(right) remove their protective gear outside of
power shut off.
“We’re just using the evening breeze to air
out the building,” Humphreys said.
Beckner and a few other students were able
to evacuate some of the rats that were being
the Kleberg Building. Ether had contaminated
the building after a transmitter overloaded.
used in the research labs but were concerned
about the condition of the 100 other animals
left inside.
“They’ve got their own ventilation system
See Fire/Page 14