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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1994)
yugjj ardinale By JO Weather Friday through Sunday, mostly cloudy mornings with sunny, hot afternoons and fair nights. Lows in the 70s, highs near 100. — National Weather Service Aggieland graffiti Beneath the A&M campus, a labyrinth of steam tunnels reside in secrecy, history Page 3 and lore. x Editorial MADD needs to refocus its efforts against those who truly pose a threat to society m Page 5 THURSDAY July 7, 1994 Vol. 93, No. 169 (6 pages) “Serving Texas A&M since 1893” ETCHED/ iiyiiiif ^ Jot to /\ ozlE. we . pia;i£-/\Nv M BAU-S. 01: Informal s invited. Meets »re info call that lists non- and activities, ter than three ed run date, are not events ^ease call the ! sday | lion | ner I / 1 1 m I fABC to vote on drink specials ban A&M professor's proposal would end educed-price alcohol promotions Twelfth Man tribute— n t Christine Johnson The Battalion The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commis- sion (TABC) will vote Aug. 29 on a regula- proposed by Kirk Brown, state chair man of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and a Texas A&M professor, to tliminate certain alcoholic drink specials. The regulation would ban any promo tions based on reduced prices of alcohol, it just “happy hours,” Brown said. It tould also require bar and restaurant iwners to sustain prices on alcoholic bev- s for week-long intervals. See related editorial, Page 5 “Many establishments are losing mon ey by trying to keep up with the competi- he said. “They say that ‘happy •’ is getting out of hand and is just an advertising gimmick,” he said. The proposal will actually help the jiars and restaurants by letting them earn more money, decrease liability and save lives, Brown said. “Why would they (bars and restau rants) oppose that?” he said. Glen Garey, general counsel for the Texas Restaurant Association, disagrees. The proposal has caused us some problems because I don’t think our restaurants want to give up using alcohol a marketing tool,” Garey said. Garey met with Brown on Tuesday to discuss a compromise, which would do away with the types of promotions that induce people to drink to excess, such as penny beer nights. The compromise would still leave the bars and restaurants able to control their own prices and pro motions, Garey said. Brown said he hasn’t changed his mind. “The compromise is something that Garey would like to have happen, and that’s what he is going to propose, but I am sticking with the original proposal,” he said. Robert Donahoo, a local enforcement agent for TABC, said there are already some restrictions on “happy hours” from several years ago. Bars and restaurants cannot serve two or more drinks for the price of one, and they cannot have “happy hour” past 11 p.m. “They’ve figured out ways to get around these regulations, though,” he said. “Personally, I agree with MADD, and most of the retailers do too,” Donahoo said. “The bottom line is they are not making money by giving drinks away.” Locally, MADD is not actively doing anything about the ban because it is a state-wide effort, Brown said. Walter Shoemake, manager of Bull- winkle’s Grill and Bar, said the ban would not hurt them as much as it would a dance club because they do not go to ex tremes with drink specials. “We stick with one or two dollars off, not penny drinks like some of the other Please see MADD, Page 6 A wall to be placed at the north end of Kyle Field will bear the names of people who have donated money to Texas A&M’s football program. Drawing courtesy of the Twelfth Man Foundation. Wall to honor football endowments Case of baby's death goes to grand jury A Brazos County grand jury will be gin proceedings today against a 21- year-old Texas A&M student accused of putting her newborn baby in a I garbage chute in Mosher Hall on i March 25. Bob Wiatt, director of University Po lice Department, said the dead 7- pound baby girl was_ discovered wrapped in towels and in a garbage bag in the second floor garbage chute. Results of an autopsy by the Bexar County Forensic Science Center in San Antonio showed the infant suffocated. Wiatt said in a previous .interview with The Battalion that the woman claimed she was never pregnant. Doctors who treated the woman at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan deter- Bill Turner, Brazos County district attorney, refused to comment on the case Wednesday, but said in a previous interview with The Battalion that a variety of charges will be presented to By Sara Israwi The Battalion The Texas A&M Athletic Depart ment and the 12th Man Foundation will dedicate a wall honoring various positions on the University football team in spring. > ; The wall will recognize individu als who have donated a sum of mon ey to endow each one of the positions on the team. The endowment will help offset expenses, such as travel. The wall, part of the 12th Man Plaza, will be located on the north side of Kyle Field, next to the 12th Man Statue. John David Crow, director of de velopment for athletics, said this is the beginning of a series of endow ments that will be set up for each sport in the athletic department. “This is the first of, hopefully, many recognition walls for our sports teams,” he said. “We are trying to endow all of our different teams in our athletic program.” Crow said the 12th Man Founda tion raises funds and endows schol arships for the athletes, and this pro ject will raise funds for the competi tive arena. Crow said he sees this as some thing that will benefit the athletic program. “It is something that would be im portant to help with the cost of trav el,” he said. Frank Shannon III, executive di rector of the 12th Man Foundation, said the foundation is in charge of managing funds that are given by donors. He. said this is a great way to use the funds. “We are excited about the oppor tunity for providing recognition to people who contribute to the athletic program in a major way,” he said. Shannon said there has been a great response from people who want to donate money. “We have had a good response from former students and friends, but you don’t necessarily have to be a former student,” he said. Crow said any former student who has the funds and the concerns for the athletic department may donate to the plaza. Depending on the amount of mon ey given to the foundation, donors may have their name etched in the stone, he said. He said that eventually the green space scheduled to take the place of DeWare Field House after it is tom down will be part of the 12th Man Plaza. A.&M club collects donations for injured student By Tracy Smith The Battalion The Texas A&M China Club has launched a donation drive for a gradu ate student who was hospitalized after a serious car wreck. Hongbin Yu, a civil engineering graduate student, and his wife are un hospital care after sustaining seri ous injuries in a car accident in May. Yu was considered an uninsured dri ver at the time of the accident, there fore responsible for his $100,000 hospi tal bill. Jinchuan Chen, president of the Texas A&M China Club and chairman of the donation committee, said that af ter hearing about the accident, the club decided to help a fellow student by tak ing donations toward his hospital costs. “We are very worried about the Yus’ money situation,” Chen said. “We all know graduate students don’t make a lot of money, therefore having to pay the entire expense, poses, a serious problem. “If his accident had happened a few days later, insurance from his other as- sistantship may have covered the cost of the damage,” Chen said. “Mr. Yu, a victim of circumstance, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Chen said Yu had accepted another offer for an assistantship, but the pa pers had not been processed at the time of the accident. Dr. Kirk Brown, a professor for Soil and Crop Science, said he made a con tribution after hearing about the acci dent from a faculty member. “I know how difficult it can be to pay such steep medical bills, and .1 also know how little money many graduate students receive,” he said. “It is won derful to see a community of people band together to help an individual in need. “Society should do things like this on a more regular basis,” Brown said. Some students feel what the China Club is doing for Yu is something that should be considered common practice on campus. Phyllis Vercher, a senior political science major, said she hopes to see more good things like this happening in the future. “It is nice to see professors, faculty members and students pulling together to help a student in distress,” she said. The China Club has collected $4,000 for Yu, and it hopes to receive contin ued support as it continues to collect money for the next three weeks. Teague expansion to be finished by fall 19 lit ritas tts/Mkls, teMf _ (ViLfUts.) I Construction on the Teague center began in June. By Tracy Smith The Battalion Texas A&M students can expect to see a change for the better in A&M’s computer services as an addition to the Teague Building, the main computer center on campus, nears completion. Work on the building began in March 1992, after the expansion was approved by the A&M System Board of Regents. Construction was completed in June, but the computer system will not be ful ly functional until the end of the fall. Dr. John Dinkel, associate provost for Texas A&M Computing and Infor mation Services, said that to avoid con fusing students during registration, the expansion will not be completed until after the fall semester begins. “With the fall semester so close and people wanting to register for classes, we feel it is better to hold off on any set-up procedures that could have a negative impact on the students,” Dinkel said. “We hope the transition will move smoothly, but it is better to wait for a safe time.” Texas A&M will be moving comput er centers to the renovated Teague Building, thus allowing students easier access to the facilities. James Davidson, an architect and planning manager for the construction project, said the expansion, providing 7,000-square-feet of room for the cen ter, will allow more students a chance to use A&M’s computer facilities. “Teague will be the central location for computer services on campus,” Davidson said. Dinkel said the plan is to move all IBM mainframe computers to one com plex, which will streamline the facili ties on campus. “By moving all computer resources to the Teague center, a user-service atmos phere will be created where students can go and get any computer-related question answered,” Dinkel said. “You may want to consider it ‘A&M’s one- stop-shopping computer center.’” Davidson said Teague’s power sup ply is set up so that the system can run independently of the rest of the University. “The system will allow an Please see Teague, Page 6 Preparations already underway for Bonfire By Amanda Fowle The Battalion The bulldozers are at work nearly a month earlier than usu al this year, preparing the roads at the cut site for Aggie bonfire. Bonfire ’94 is scheduled to bum Nov. 3, two days before the Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football game. The game, traditionally on Thanksgiving Day, is being played earlier this season be cause of the NCAA sanctions barring A&M football from tele vision coverage. Ryan Gehrig, a senior redpot, said the bonfire committee is currently preparing the cut site. Load site is finished, he said, and they are now making the tractor paths. “The roads are already made since the lands were already used for oil,” Gehrig said. “The smoother roads between the cut site and campus will make building bonfire easier,” he said. “The roads going there are much better than past cut sites, so that will help with transporting logs.” The first cut for bonfire will be Sept. 11, the second weekend of the fall semester. Mike Holter, a senior climber, said that in the past cut did not begin until four weeks into the semester. The bonfire committee must also complete fund-raising and Please see Bonfire, Page 6 Aggielife Classifieds 4 Comics 6 Opinion 5 State & Local 2 Page 3 us' >f Aunt the e her ave »rical ters ox- ie and yor of to i mu ill’s emi-