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.