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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1994)
I II F k Xt Texas A&M ' m M^% mm T + Ine Battalion l^ol. 93 No. 132 (10 pages) Serving Texas A&M since 1893 Monday, April 18, 1994 A.ggie Moms vow to keep eye on A&M I By Kim McGuire the Battalion Outgoing Aggie Mothers’ Club Presi- |deni Margaret Freeman vowed Saturday to rntinue to monitor events at Texas A&M nd encouraged members to do the same. Members of the Mothers’ Club unani- liously passed a motion Friday asking ncoming president Shirley Tingley to ppoint Freeman to head a committee to Ronitor and report on various unre- | salved issues. Ann Beck, former president of the Austin pothers’ Club who presented the motion, she proposed forming a committee to bake sure issues were addressed. "I had a feeling when we changed offi- lers this issue might get dropped,” Beck bid. “Since Margaret had the initiative on bany of these issues, she and a committee dould see it through. I hope the new Iresident will honor this motion.” Former officers promise to continue active service to Aggies, vote to keep unresolved issues on table Tingley said she would act on the measure. “I stand behind the action taken by the previous board and will act on it as soon as possible,” Tingley said. “I have always backed Margaret and told her that I would stand behind her and what she has started.” Freeman said she was surprised by the motion but agreed with the idea behind it because she felt it was their duty to look out for the best interest of the students. “It is the Aggie Mothers’ place to make a united effort to take care of the welfare and moral conduct of the stu dents at Texas A&M,” Freeman said. “This definitely involves their welfare and that’s why we’re involved.” Tingley said the motion would be re ferred to the group’s executive committee. Freeman’s farewell speech Saturday at the Federation of Texas A&M University Mothers’ Clubs’ spring meeting drew a standing ovation from the 6,000-mem ber organization. “My term as president has come to an end, but I will still be an Aggie Mom who will speak out when I think the need aris es,” Freeman said. “Can I ask that you will also raise your voices with me?” Since September, Freeman and other members of the Mothers’ Club have ques tioned University officials about their at tempts to privatize the Department of Food Services and the reassignments of its top three officials. In addition, the group has questioned Barnes and Noble Bookstore granting discounts to faculty and staff but not to students. Despite previous meetings and corre spondence with University officials, Free man said she wasn’t satisfied with the an swers given and felt the need to continue until all questions were answered. “It all started with a question,” Free man said. “Why was it necessary to con sider privatizing Food Services, and why were the three top management personnel reassigned with no explanation? We asked the simple question ‘why.’ We have stil not received a satisfactory answer.” Bobbie Hardy, former president of the Houston Mothers’ Club, said she wouldn’t quit either. “Just because I’m not president of our club doesn’t mean I intend to forget about it,” she said. “I’m not going to sit around and eat bonbons.” Several members said they would be upset if the issue dropped. Lylabeth King, former Brazos Valley Mothers’ Club president and new third vice president, said members should con tinue to pursue the issues like Freeman has. “Just because she’s not president does n’t mean it should drop,” King said. “She is too valuable to fade off in the sunset. She has instilled in us that we must keep going.” I4-56.24, Dns, md. )9. )1 Paso teens ecruited as Irug dealers, c ustoms says Just dropping in The Associated Press erican ebed tn ). settings. 9 lloware e set. 19. DALLAS — Some El Pasoans tre questioning earlier reports hat federal authorities had un- overed a marijuana smuggling [mg involving up to 25 current nd former students from Coron do High School. Investigators had said that eens recruited at bars in Ciudad uarez, Mexico, drove marijuana- aden vehicles across the border’s ort of entry and were told to ee if they feared that they might e inspected. Customs officials have so far pinned the smuggling scheme on half the people originally be lieved involved. Twelve individu als, only two graduated students, have been indicted in a conspira- :y to possess illegal drugs with ntent to distribute and with onspiracy to import marijuana. \t least five of the 1 2 attended loronado in the past five years. Several of those charged have titered pleas of innocence. No tri- 1 date has been set. So far, no current students have been identified. The US. at torney’s office has said that three Coronado students will be adju dicated as juvenile delinquents in the coming weeks. Principal Burl Whatley would e to know who they are, if they are his students. If not, he would like the U.S. Customs Service to exonerate Coronado High. “My community is saying, OK, are you covering up, or what’s going on?”’ Whatley said. ’If they’re not here, then we need to know that. “If they are, then we need to them out of the public school setting. Most people would not want their child sitting next to a drug dealer,” he said. ‘ If there are current students, they should be arrested now.” But Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Barnes asks for patience. See Drug Ring/Page 8 t Muslim-held city lost to Serb forces, U.N. tensions rise The Associated Press 111!!!! Roger Hsieh/T’Ae Battalion Ernie Kirkham, a member of the TAMU Skydiving noon. Kirkham was giving a skydiving demon- Club, lands on Simpson Field Sunday on after- stration to a group of students and parents. SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnian Serb tanks lumbered into the long-suffering Muslim en clave of Gorazde on Sunday, U.N. workers said, even as other offi cials spoke of reaching an agree ment for the Serbs to pull back. Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Sarajevo that a UNHCR staffer in Gorazde had called to report Serb tanks within the city and resi dents in panic. Maj. Dacre Holloway, a ‘spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers, spoke of Bosnian Serb movement either toward or into Gorazde. A few minutes earlier, he had told reporters that talks between the United Nations and Bosnian Serb officials had brought an agreement for the Serbs to with draw from a 1.8-mile zone around the southeastern city. The Bosnian army high com mand also said tanks were mov ing into Gorazde. An official in the high command said talks in between the U.N.-Serb talks had been a ‘trick” to win time for the Serb advance. The fall of Gorazde would per mit the Serbs, who already hold more than 7 0 percent of Bosnian territory, to link eastern and south western holdings. And it would be more salt in the wounds for the United States and other Western countries whose efforts to end the war have been criticized as weak and unfocused. Gorazde, which has been under siege for most of the two-year war, has been an especially potent sym bol for critics. The United Nations declared it; a protected “safe area” for Mus lims last year, but the siege contin ued without foreign retaliation, until last week, when the Serbs ad vanced to the edge of the city. Earlier Sunday, Holloway had. said that the talks held at Bosnian Serb headquarters had yielded, agreement on suspension of the Serb siege of Gorazde, permitting hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers ac cess to the area. Holloway said that under the accord, a 3 50-person U.N. force would gain access to Gorazde, a town of 65,000 residents and refugees. The Serbs agreed to pull out their heavy weapons from a 1.8- mile zone around the city, and talk about a more permanent exclusion zone later, said Holloway. It was unclear how the interna tional community would react to a fall of Gorazde. The Serb siege of Gorazde pro voked two NATO air attacks over the past two weeks and raised Serb-UN. tensions to their highest in two years of war in Bosnia. Sun day’s developments came a day af ter a British jet was shot down over Gorazde while moving against a Bosnian Serb tank shelling the town. Bosnian Serbs on Sunday re leased 19 of the more than 150 U.N. peacekeepers being kept un der virtual house arrest. Holloway said the 1 9, including 1 6 Canadians, were returned to See Bosnia/Page 8 ;.S , Cartoons Opinion Pg. 8 Pg- ^ Sports What's Up Pg- 5 Pg- 4 reo ier TV 9. e al Confessed murderer linked to threat letters Apartment contained girls’ addresses The Associated Press WACO — When police arrested Michael Patrick Moore earlier this year, they thought they had caught a murder suspect. After chasing Moore’s car from the scene of a brutal murder in the small central Texas town of Copperas Cove, police caught him with a taife sheath in his bloody hands, according to reports. But authorities later found evidence that may also link Moore to a se ries of threatening letters sent to several young cheerleaders and drill team members months before the murder. In Moore’s apartment was a detailed list of about 200 women and girls’ names, addresses and phone cumbers. One of the cheerleaders who received a letter was the daughter of Christa Ellinger Bentley, the woman Moore confessed to killing. Police say Moore, an unemployed painter from Syracuse, N.Y., crept into Bentley’s house as she slept just before 2:30 a.m. Feb. 26. She was shot once in the side with a .22-caliber pistol and stabbed several times. Police say a 6-inch hunting knife was found at the scene. Minutes later, Copperas Cove police spotted a car driven by Moore speeding along U.S. Highway 1 90 with its lights off. Police then chased Moore, who bailed out of the moving car and started running, Sgt. Danny Austin said. Police stopped Moore, who had J knife sheath with him and blood on his hands, Austin said. Moore confessed to killing Bentley, 35, said Russ Hunt, Moore’s Waco attorney. Hunt didn’t return calls placed by The Associated Press Sunday. Moore, 30, is in Coryell County Jail on a capital murder charge in the slaying of Bentley. He’s awaiting trial, and is being held in lieu of See Suspect/Page 3 1994-95 Parents of the Year chosen By James Bernsen The Battalion John and Donna Van Duyn thought they were only spec tators at the All-University Awards ceremony Sunday morn ing. Their children, however, knew differently. The Bryan couple was stunned when they found out they had been selected as the 1994-1995 Parents of the Year. They didn’t even know they had been nominated. “I’ve never been surprised like that in my life,” John, a re tired Air Force colonel, said. “I wish the Pentagon could keep secrets like that.” Donna, an assistant manager at Cain Hall, said she had no inkling of the coming award. “Total disbelief,” she said. “That’s about all I can say.” The couple was nominated by their daughters Renee, Class of ‘95 and Michelle Van Duyn Brechbuhl, Class of ‘90. When the two daughters recommended their parents, they had to write a one sentence description of them. They wrote; “Mom and Dad have always given unselfishly of their time and energy, and through their unconditional love for others, exemplify the meaning of dedicated par ents, active leaders and involved citizens.” Donna said it is such an honor to even be nominated. “It rates pretty much at the top,” she said. Neither John nor Donna attended Texas A&M, although Donna’s father did. When the couple helped their children decide on a uni versity, they considered most of the large Texas universities. “When we were looking, we had visited several schools in Texas,” Donna said. “We asked a friend, and without hes- See Parents/Page 8 Roger Hsieh/TTie Battalion John and Donna Van Duyn were selected the 1994-95 Parents of the Year at the All-University Awards ceremony on Sunday morning.