^tober 20, if
■clubs within the International Students Association are participating
their own Mini-Olympics.
aiservative,
m y applicnj
sking '
Opinion
Page 2
MELISSA MEGLIOLA: More important than changing admissions
for business schools is that the new GMAT points out the need for
candidates with better writing skills. ^ ^ .
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Sports
The Texas A&M soccer team is
defending their title in the Post
Oak Mall Soccer Classic.
Page 7
FRIDAY
October 21, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 40 (12 pages)
“Serving Texas A&M since 1893”
heard o[| | 'c WM: ^ ^
‘-.Irikfs E-Mail messages outrage networkers
insitioatoses at the heart
trade dispute
IVASHINGTON (AP) — Brutal
lumn about ■ness, noses.
tuse. AsIrB he ultimate symbol of love is at
for her. LoriB heart a bitter dispute between
t study stl' and Latin American growers
“■could make romance a bit more
Sh ’ Bensive.
1 nes PratjM n industry graced with variety
cannot have»es like Only Love, Joy and
1 such a fnerAing is showing its thorns, caught
iought,sin( | n accusations of marketplace
? deadlinecaiii ffhisf and other florid rhetoric,
topic. ri stake ma Y be tbe survival of an
>s no friends | ac *y diminished industry, relations
1 Leen hemispheric neighbors, and
T j price and choice Americans see
i at lexasASi l n buying their favorite flower,
ly 18 goingt«merican growers are attacking
t all yoursel! ■orts of Colombian and Ecuadorian
o make some, pes, believing unchecked
1 fun. Bments from those countries will
she saidlh’M them out of business as surely as
t friends,ac!# carna tions have withered.
ge is still tel
re, but she i liicides plague U.S.
(le fun. Gd'| rv j cemen j n H a j|;j
statements i
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ORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)
|The U S. military geared up for
ti with flak jackets and malaria
Is, expecting casualties from
ifnbat or disease.
[The only three U.S. servicemen to
so far all took their own lives, and
cialists are struggling to prevent
her suicides.
|Battalion chaplains and mental
professionals are sounding out
fe ranks for signs of stress and
iression that could lead to another
cide among the 18,000
icemen and women in Operation
|hold Democracy.
Commanders are also trying to
up morale by making available
jjio and TV broadcasts, the
asional steak or day on a beach,
concerts next week by country-
stern stars The Gatlin Brothers.
change leads to big stress,”
ij Eric Cipriano, 33, of the 528th
Combat Stress Control Detachment
Hm Fort Bragg, S.C., said
mrsday. “We want to make sure
Jt people understand that suicide
jl$| a permanent solution to a
porary problem.” .
lush, Richards to
hold televised debate
AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas gu-
rnatorial candidates, separated by
single percentage point in the most
cent opinion poll, head to Dallas
iday night for a televised debate.
The prime-time showdown on
blic station KEFIA-TV likely will be
e only face-to-face meeting be-
een Democratic Gov. Ann Richards
9nd Republican challenger George
Bush before the Nov. 8 election.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
and Democratic nominee Richard
[isher also will debate, the second
of three such sessions in their cam-
ign.
The event consists of separate,
)e-hour programs for each race be-
hning at 8 p.m.
y
lew Down Syndrome
est proven safe
| MONTREAL (AP) — A test for
! own syndrome that can be done a
: II month earlier than the standard
ethod of finding fetal abnormalities
9s proved safe in a study of more
(an 150,000 women, researchers
i ported Thursday.
Some research had suggested
tltat the test, chorionic villus
j ampling, or CVS, could slightly
crease the risk of birth defects. But
e study found no evidence of that.
Amniocentesis, the standard test,
goes not provide results until the
1th to 16th week of pregnancy.
VS can help ease parents’ fears
arlier; it provides results in the 10th
eek of pregnancy.
The findings are important
! ecause demand for the test, which
Snow available in many large
ssearch hospitals, is likely to grow
s other advances in genetics
icrease its usefulness, said one of
le study’s authors, Dr. Laird
ackson of Thomas Jefferson
niversity in Philadelphia.
J % %
Baxx
Campus 2
Classified
8
iports
7
Toons
3
leather
5
A/hat's Up
5
Illegally accessed account
used to send racist messages
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
Computer users across the nation re
ceived white supremacist messages Mon
day through the electronic mail account of
a professor at Texas A&M University-Cor
pus Christi.
Grady Blount, a professor of environ
mental science at Texas A&M in Corpus
Christi, said someone stole his Internet
password and broke into his E-Mail ac
count Sunday night to send 20,000 racist
messages nationwide.
“The more time passes, the madder I
get,” Blount said. “They’re trying to stir up
racial strife between people. They’re trying
to stir up racial strife in us.”
The messages urged readers to send
“minority parasites packing to fend for
themselves” and condemns community de
velopment funding as support for black
“breeding colonies.”
The message, titled “Free Money” and
signed “Crusader,” said the federal govern
ment funds “80 IQ welfare mothers” and
“Jewish organized crime gangs.”
“And if you bum down your own neigh
borhood when a court decision doesn’t go
your way, don’t worry. Truckloads of mon
ey will soon arrive to build you new breed
ing colonies - er, I mean houses, apart
ments, community centers, swimming
pools, etc.,” the message said.
Blount said he has received harsh re
sponses, including death threats, from
1,000 E-Mail users who thought he was the
sender.
Blount said many of those responses in
dicate that people believe he is a professor
at Texas A&M University.
“The messages say things like, You Ag
gies, I always knew y’all were a bunch of
racist rednecks, and now we have proof,’”
Blount said.
“Outside of Texas, everyone just recog
nizes the A&M part. I want everyone to
know that those racist messages have
nothing to do with the A&M System at all.”
The messages resemble a flier produced
by the white supremacist group National
Alliance in Mills Point, West Virginia.
Franklin Pierce, the founder of National
Alliance, said he was unaware of the mes
sage. Pierce said his group did not send
the electronic message, but a group mem
ber could be responsible.
Blount said there is little hope of identi
fying the message’s sender.
“The sender was logged on in Wisconsin
late Sunday, early Monday,” Blount said.
“Someone at the university noticed a large
amount of messages being sent out and
checked on it. When they saw what the
message was, they cut the sender off.”
The sender came into A&M at Corpus
Christi’s computer network from the Uni
versity of Texas at Austin and sent the
message out from Corpus Christi, Blount
said.
“They could be in Bangladesh and log on
to UT-Austin and log off in Corpus
Christi,” Blount said, “or they could’ve been
sitting right here on this island.”
George Kemper, project director in
See E-Mail/Page 10
Kim Smith/Special to The Battalion
Who put that hut there?
An A&M physical plant employee works to remove the wreckage
left after a bus ran into the hut near Fish Pond Thursday afternoon.
Bowen: decision on multiculturalism
to wait until
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
Incidents of racism at Texas
A&M have sparked concern
about the status of a multicul
turalism class requirement.
Last November, the Faculty
Senate approved a U.S. Cul
tures and International Re
quirement for all students. The
requirement is now awaiting
President Bowen’s approval.
Dr. Mark Weichold, speaker
of the Faculty Senate, said the
Senate spent a long time work-
requirement
ing on the proposal.
“We tried to prevent prob
lems that other universities
have had with their multicul
turalism requirements,” he
said. “Our proposal represents
lots of compromises.”
Weichold said that many
people who disagreed with the
course requirement did not un
derstand it.
The proposal requires stu
dents to take one three-hour
class to meet a U.S. Cultures
requirement and one three-
hour class to meet an Interna-
understood
tional requirement.
Weichold said that some peo
ple thought that only one class
would be offered to meet the re
quirement, but there are about
250 classes to chose from.
“If you had the entire stu
dent body required to take a
single course,” he said, “you
face the problem of students be
ing subjected to a particular po
litical agenda.”
Weichold said that the re
quirement will not add any
See Requirement/Page 3
Houston: from flood to fire
HOUSTON (AP) — Leaking gasoline from a
ruptured interstate pipeline exploded Thursday,
sending 100-foot flames snaking across an al
ready flooded San Jacinto River.
“It looked like hell opened up
on the water and the whole river
was gasoline,” said Mike Nor
man, who was on the riverbank
trying to retrieve his sailboat
from the river when the explosion
occurred about 10:20 a.m.
The explosion at the mouth
of the nation’s interstate
pipeline network known as
“The Spaghetti Bowl” also
caused gasoline future prices to
jump in trading on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
“At this point, we believe the
force of the floodwaters caused
the pipeline to break, that is the
best information we have right
now,” said Ed Schaefer, assistant coordinator for
the Texas Department of Public Safety’s emer
gency management division.
Norman said he smelled gas an hour before he
saw a house explode, setting off an inferno on the
river’s surface that was sheened with gasoline.
“The house exploded and it started down to
the water and it went all over,” Norman said.
“The whole river was cascading into flames.” He
estimated he was about 400 yards away from
the explosion.
The area already had been
evacuated because of the
floods, although six area
schools were emptied today af
ter the explosion.
“There were three loud booms
and then an immediate black
cloud,” said a witness, Doug
Trowbridge. “It just began to
spread like wildfire.”
Although no deaths or serious
injuries were immediately re
ported, television footage showed
mobile homes and boats ablaze.
Widely separated columns of
smoke could also be seen
throughout the forested area lin
ing the river.
“This is not unusual for a flood,” said Trans
portation Secretary Federico Pena, in Houston to
observe the flood damage. “We have seen this in
other parts of the country where you have mas
sive flooding and pipes are hit, tanks get loose
and you have ruptures and you have explosions.
So this is not atypical in that sense.”
Pipeline
explosion
Store s decision to sell liquor gets
favorable response from customers
By Stephanie Dube
The Battalion
Randall’s Food and Drug store’s decision to sell
beer and wine has been a profitable one for the
College Station store.
Bill Tusing, assistant store director of the
Randall’s in College Station, said since the
store began selling beer and wine Sept. 16.
business has boomed
“There has been a great increase
in business since we began selling
beer and wine,” Tusing said. “It
was a business decision based on
convenience, competition, and cus
tomer needs.”
A survey of College Station Ran
dall’s customers indicated 79 percent of
the people surveyed wanted the store to
carry beer and wine, Tusing said.
Since the beer and wine were first of
fered, the store has received approxi
mately 20 pleased comments for every
complaint issued, he said.
Tusing said customers did not want to
buy their groceries at Randall’s and then
have to go to another store to purchase their beer
or wine. The decision was meant to make shop
ping more convenient for the customers, he said.
Cindy Garbs, corporate vice president of public
relations for Randall’s Food Market Inc., said the
Randall’s in College Station is not the first Ran
dall’s to sell beer and wine.
In 1992, Randall’s took over the Austin Tom
Thumb stores, Garbs said. Because beer and wine
were already being sold at these stores, Randall’s
continued to sell the products, she said. The stores
also did this when Randall’s took over AppleTree
in Austin.
“College Station is the first original Randall’s
store to sell beer and wine,” Garbs said.
Garbs said there has been a strong demand in
all the Randall’s stores for beer and wine.
“A good percent of people are pleased with
our decision,” she said. “There are people
who have been disappointed in the deci
sion, but they understand the business
reasons for it.”
Before the College Station Randal
l’s began selling beer and wine, stores
in Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth
were already selling them, Garbs
said. College Station began selling
before Houston because of geographic
reasons only, she said.
“We just picked up College Station
on the way into Houston,” Garbs said.
Originally, Randall’s stores did not
sell beer and wine for personal rather than
religious reasons, Garbs said.
“It was a personal reason with the founder and
CEO Bob Onstead,” Garbs said. “A family member
had a difficulty with alcoholism which caused
family heartache.”
Onstead and his two business partners agreed,
when they began the first two Randall’s stores in
1966, not to sell beer and wine in respect for Bob
Onstead’s family member, she said.
Israel seals Gaza
Strip, West Bank
after bombing
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — As an
guished Israelis on Thursday buried
their dead from the Tel Aviv bus
bombing, authorities ordered sweep
ing arrests of suspected terrorists
and sealed the autonomous Gaza
Strip and occupied West Bark.
Facing public demands for a
crackdown on militants in the wake
of Wednesday’s bombing, the govern
ment also ordered the demolition of
the home of a Palestinian suspected
in the suicide attack that killed 21
people.
The fledgling self-rule government
in Gaza deplored the decision pre
vent Palestinians from going to work
in Israel as collective punishment
that could slow the peace process.
“This is an attempt to make the
Palestinian people kneel down,” said
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Speaking at a ceremony for fallen
soldiers Thursday evening, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin vowed Israel
will outlive the Islamic fundamental
ists who seek its destruction.
“To those who are trying to harm
us, the kidnappers and gunmen and
See Israel/Page 10
West Bank and
Gaza Strip closed off
Following the tragic bombing of a
commuter bus in Tel Aviv, the Israeli
Cabinet approved the unlimited closure
of the two Palestinian autonomous
regions on Thursday. The closure denies
65,000 Palestinians entry permits to
Israel, keeping them from their jobs.
Other measures being considered:
H Jailing Hamas activists without a
trial.
M Wrecking or sealing homes of
Hamas activists.
H Internationa! campaign to cut off
donations to Hamas from the U.S.,
Britain, Iran and other countries.
Autonomous
regions
20 miles
20 km
Detail
map
ISRAEL
West
Bank /
JORDAN
25 miles
25 km
Jerusalem
Gaza
Jericho
ISRAEL