Campus
B
Bush to attend November
ground breaking ceremony
for presidential library.
Page 2
THE
Opinion
FRANK STANFORD: By enforcing this "one minute"
prayer period in public schools, the government is truly
"respecting an establishment of religion" because minors
MUST attend school.
Page 15
Aggielife
•AlIALION
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Breakdown of Bryan-College
Station music scene
Page 3
THURSDAY
September 1, 1994
Vof. 101, No. 4 (16 pages)
“Serving TexasA&Msince 1893”
University settles dispute with Gilbert
12th Man Foundation bows down, express mails
football tickets to wife of disassociated booster
By Michele Brinkmann
The Battalion
Texas A&M announced Wednesday it
has mailed priority season football tickets
to Pattie Gilbert, wife of disassociated
booster Warren Gilbert.
“After months of being in an extremely
difficult situation, we now hope that this
matter will be resolved,” said Wally
Groff, A&M athletic director. “We were
caught in the middle of a complex situa
tion that involved individual rights,
Texas contract law and sanctions im
posed by the NCAA.”
In 1978, Warren and Pattie Gilbert of
Dallas gave a 830,000 endowment to the
12th Man Foundation, entitling them to
four preferred tickets and parking for Ag
gie football games for life.
On Jan. 5, the University disassoci
ated Mr. Gilbert in order to comply with
sanctions handed down by the NCAA
because he had violated that organiza
tion’s rules.
Mr. Gilbert broke NCAA rules be
tween 1990 and 1992 when he paid nine
student-athletes for work that was never
performed. As a result, the NCAA placed
the Texas A&M football program on pro
bation for five years.
Mr. Gilbert was banned from A&M
athletic programs for the five-year period.
He is also prohibited from receiving bene
fits or privileges that the public cannot
receive, including preferred seating at
football games. To attend a home foot
ball game, Gilbert would have to buy a
general admission ticket.
Mrs. Gilbert said she wrote the 12th
Man Foundation earlier this year asking
them about her tickets because she had
not received them.
Mrs. Gilbert said her family’s en
dowment was a legal and binding con
tract and because she had not violated
any NCAA rules she could not be.de
nied her rights.
She said the matter has nothing to
do with her husband or attending foot
ball games.
“Legal contracts are more important to
me than a football game,” she said. “The
whole thing is over the fact that they
need to honor their contract with me.”
Frank Shannon, executive director of
A&M’s 12th Man Foundation, said the
tickets were sent to Mrs. Gilbert Tuesday
via express mail.
“She should have received them by
noon on Wednesday,” Shannon said.
This week the University mailed out a
new policy to priority ticket holders re
minding them: “A disassociated member
of the Texas A&M athletic program can
not utilize priority tickets or other bene
fits not generally available to the public
at large.”
Groff said because Mrs. Gilbert did not
violate any NCAA rules, the University
could issue her the tickets, provided they
are not used by her husband.
“Since Mrs. Gilbert is considered a
representative of the University’s athlet
ics interest,” Groff said, “if she provides
priority tickets to Mr. Gilbert he would
be indirectly receiving an improper bene
fit and not only would jeopardize her
right to future tickets but could cause the
University to violate NCAA rules.
“We want to do what is right for all
concerned. We have every intention of
complying in every way with NCAA regu
lations as well as the laws of the state of
Texas.”
Amy Browning/THE Battalion
“Howdy sir!”
Jack Easter (left) ,a freshman business major from Duncanville, Copperas Cove looks on. "Whipping out" is a way for under
whips out to Caleb Rackely, a sophomore political science major classmen to meet and introduce themselves to upperclassmen
from San Antonio, as Ryan O'Connor (center), a freshman from within the Corps of Cadets.
West ready to accept
challenges as Regents’
first chairwoman
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
For Mary Nan West, Texas
A&M’s first woman Board of Re
gents’ Chairman, stepping into
an historically male role is noth
ing new.
West, 69, said
she has never felt
discriminated
against because
she is a woman.
“My grandfa
ther told me that
I could do any
thing I wanted to
and still be a
lady doing it,” West
she said.
West was raised by her grand
parents on the Rafter S Ranch in
South Texas. She became the
ranch manager when she was 18.
She worked with the San Anto
nio Livestock Exposition for many
years, and became its chairman
in 1981.
Since she has been chairman,
the Exposition has raised more
than $5.2 million in scholarships
for students.
Keith Martin, executive direc
tor of the San Antonio Livestock
Exposition, said West is a great
asset for the livestock show.
“She not only spends her time
on the project,” he said, “but also
her money. She buys the kids’
animals.”
Before being appointed to the
Texas A&M Board of Regents,
West was on the Board of Regents
for Incarnate Word College in San
Antonio, the Marine Military Acad
emy in Harlingen and the Texas
Animal Health Commission.
She was also the first, woman to
serve on both the Marine Military
Academy Board and the Texas Ani
mal Health Commission.
West became involved with
Texas A&M when she was asked
to join the Agricultural Develop
ment Council, through the Col
lege of Agriculture and Life Sci
ences. She also worked with
A&M students through the San
Antonio Livestock Exposition.
West graduated from St.
Mary’s Hall, a private high
school for girls in San Antonio.
She attended the Universities of
Colorado and Arizona, but did not
complete her degree.
She has two daughters, seven
grandchildren and two great
grandchildren. Her grandson,
George West Bodden, Class of ’93,
graduated from A&M and now
manages the Rafter S Ranch.
West was appointed as a Re
gent in 1985 and is now serving
her second six-year term.
“When I was asked to join the
Board of Regents, I didn’t know if I
had the time to commit,” she said.
“When I accepted, I didn’t realize it
would take this much time.”
West’s busy schedule keeps her
hopping from her ranch in South
Texas, to College Station, to the
other schools in the A&M system,
and to San Antonio to run the
livestock exposition.
“I’m pretty busy,” she said.
See West/Page 14
IRA calls cease-fire, hopes
to halt religious upheaval
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(AP) — The IRA declared a cease
fire Wednesday, and Northern
Ireland now waits to see if the
long-sought truce will hold and
bring talks to end a quarter-cen
tury of sectarian bloodshed.
The Irish Republican Army’s
supporters called the declaration
a historic opportunity for peace
in the British province. But it
disappointed British officials
and majority Protestants in
Northern Ireland who wanted
explicit assurances of a perma
nent truce.
There also are worries about
whether Protestant gunmen will
hold their fire.
nr, | - , < / .T|~> .
Today s BAT
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Many militant Protestants
fear the British government has
made secret concessions to the
IRA to win a peace, and the ex
tremists could try to provoke re
newed IRA violence by attacking
the province’s Roman Catholic
minority.
Hours before the IRA’s decla
ration, the outlawed Ulster Vol
unteer Force kidnapped a 37-
year-old Catholic, shot him in
the head and dumped his body
on a roadside.
In recent years, Protestant ex
tremists have killed more people
than the IRA in “The Troubles,”
which have brought the deaths of
more than 3,100 people.
“I welcome this IRA cease-fire
in the sense that for some
months no one will be murdered
by them — but don’t expect me
to be grateful,” said Alan
McBride, whose wife, Sharon,
was among 10 people killed by
an IRA bomb at a Belfast fish
shop last October.
The governments of Britain
and Ireland pledged last Decem
ber that there would be no
change in the status of Northern
Ireland without the consent of a
majority of its people.
The IRA has sought for 25
years to end British rule and
join the province with the Irish
republic.
Helping a country torn by violence
Two A&M students, Red
Cross work to provide
relief for Rwandans
By Susan Owen
The Battalion
Two Texas A&M graduate students have
started a group to raise money for the Rwan
dan refugees living in camps in Africa.
The group, called Rwandan Relief Volun
teers, opened an account Tuesday for contri
butions through the Brazos Valley Red
Cross chapter.
Co-chairmen David Oehl and Gerald
Emesih said they plan to host a guest speak
er this fall and to publicize information
about the Rwandan situation.
Oehl, a graduate student in aerospace en
gineering, said the idea for the group came
after he and Emesih watched a television
newscast about Rwanda a month ago.
“We saw all the mass murders and the
kids without parents and all the horrendous
images on TV, and we were just moved,”
Oehl said.
Emesih said he was concerned by the car
nage and the plight of the people he saw on
the screen.
“You see 2- or 3-year-old kids, all of a sud
den, becoming the head of the family,” he said.
More than 500,000 Rwandans have been
massacred in the fighting and more than one
million refugees have fled the country into
Zaire and other neighboring countries.
The death rate in the refugee camps is
now down to about 300 per day, but the
camps faced an initial scourge of cholera,
dysentery, meningitis and other diseases
which killed some 45,000 Rwandans.
Emesih and Oehl founded their group,
which now has 10 members, to raise aware
ness of the situation in Rwanda and funds
for the refugees.
Oehl said the members are not all A&M
students, but come from diverse back
grounds in the community and want to help
for similar reasons.
“We want this to be a community effort,
not just for students,” he said.
Emesih, a graduate student in agricultural
engineering, is from Nigeria and is the presi
dent of A&M’s African Students Association.
“There are so many people that are
touched and looking for a way to help,” Eme
sih said.
He said that according to his records, there
are no Rwandan students at A&M, but there
are students from neighboring countries.
Emesih said he thinks the Red Cross will
be involved in sending aid to Rwandans for a
long time.
“The health epidemic is spreading and
might get over to neighboring countries,” he
said. “They can only do so much.”
Oehl said they chose to' affiliate with the
Red Cross to ensure that the money raised
would go directly to help the refugees.
Bill Thomas, executive director for the
Brazos County chapter of the American Red
Cross, said all contributions designated for
the Rwandan relief effort will be forwarded
to the International Red Cross in Geneva,
Switzerland.
The Red Cross takes their administrative
costs out of money from non-earmarked do
nations and the United Way, Thomas said.
“All the monies that do come in will be
sent on to International Red Cross,” he said.
As of Aug. 12, the American Red Cross
had raised $3 million in contributions, $17
million worth of antibiotics, and an anony
mous donation of $1 million to be used for
the Rwandan relief effort.
The Red Cross opens and operates
refugee camps, sends food, provides medical
supplies and personnel, and works to im
prove sanitation and water purification in
the tent cities set up to house refugees.
Thomas said the national Red Cross con
centrates on raising money from major cor
porations.
He said that in the Brazos Valley, some
individual contributions for Rwandan aid
have been made, but there has been no orga
nized program to raise funds.
“This would be the first fund-raising ef
fort that has been undertaken here,” he said.
See Rwanda/Page 14