Frontiers
local restaurants respond to possible
nationwide smoking ban. 2
Opinion
ELIZABETH PRESTON: Next time you all speak to your true
loves, pretend they're from a different planet. Men and
women need to understand they are not dating someone
exactly like them. Page 9
Sports
SMU Mustangs hold Aggies in 21-
21 tie on Saturday.
Page 7
MONDAY
October 31, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 46 (10 pages)
'Serving Texas A&M since 1893”
NEWS
RIEFS
laitian peace still
on hold for Aristide
I PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) —
Despite the thousands of U.S.
Mldiers in Haiti, armed thugs still hold
sway in some rural areas and many
supporters of President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide are afraid to go
home, aid workers said Sunday.
I The arrival last month of 16,000
U.S. soldiers on a mission to restore
democracy has greatly improved
security, especially in Port-au-Prince,
pere the troops are concentrated,
istide supporters who were in hiding
under military rule now walk the
eets of the capital without fear.
It gives the appearance of being
ry quiet, but there are still pockets
violence and people are still being
rassed,” said Sister Ellen Flynn of
spice St. Joseph in Port-au-Prince,
which offered shelter to fugitives
ide r military rule.
Aristide returned on Oct. 15, three
years after being ousted by a coup.
some of his supporters from rural
areas remain in hiding because they
fear revenge attacks by members of
the old regime, Flynn said.
Government to offer
Isll-free AIDS hotline
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal
pvernment is opening a toll-free
lephone number Monday to provide
atment information by telephone or
mputer to people with AIDS, their
imilies and health care providers.
The HIV-AIDS Treatment
[formation Service was scheduled to
gin taking calls at 9 a.m. EST. The
number is 1-800-HIV-0440 and the
hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST
londay through Friday.
The service will be staffed by health
formation specialists who are fluent in
nglish and Spanish. Deaf access is
iduded, and all calls are confidential.
The service’s staff will not provide
treatment advice. Staffers will,
[owever, provide information the
test research and treatment options
to physicians and patients who call.
Endorsements favor
Hutchison, Richards
DALLAS (AP) — If polls and
wspaper endorsements are a sound
dication, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey
utchison is on an easy road back to
'ashington while the governor’s race
mains too close to call.
Gov. Ann Richards has won the
lajority of endorsements from Texas
iewspapers, but Republican George
Bush boasts a strong showing,
capturing support by the state’s two
irgest newspapers.
Polls over the past few months
ave shown Hutchison, a Republican,
rith a strong lead over Democratic
hallenger Richard Fisher, a
illlionaire Dallas businessman. The
|iichards-Bush race, the polls
fidicate, is a virtual dead heat with
iny leads being smaller than the
Inargins of error.
Hutchison’s spokesman, David
Beckwith, called her sweep of
editorial board support
unprecedented, especially for a
Republican in Texas.
Houston professor to
resurrect cemeteries
HOUSTON (AP) — All the
Halloween hobgoblins have been
exorcised in Burdette Keeland’s vision
of a resurrected American cemetery.
No more ghastly gray rows of
comber tombstones. No more creaky,
usting gates or weeping willows
Swaying in the wind.
i Instead, the spritely 68-year-old
[Houston architecture professor
imposes engraved sculptures, picnic
tenches and rows of pink and purple
irepe myrtles.
Keeland says he’s not trying to
subvert Halloween, but rather add life
othe mythical home of wailing ghouls,
lesh-eating zombies, black cats and
verewolves howling at the moon.
“I think it’s because of Hollywood.
They make it spooky, and at night if
fou come in here there are really going
0 be spooks. It ain’t going to happen,”
Keeland said last week while walking at
Houston’s Glenwood Cemetery.
White House shooting leads to suspect
Classified
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Opinion
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Toons
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What's Up
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Colorado
man with a criminal past will be arraigned
today on felony property damage and
firearms violations following his frighten
ing White House shooting spree. The possi
bility of additional charges, including at
tempted assassination, was left open.
On Sunday, the day after the unset
tling attack, yellow police tape stretched
across the White House lawn and FBI
agents armed with laser equipment con
ducted an inch-by-inch search for bullets
around the pockmarked mansion.
The gunman, 26-year-old Francisco
Martin Duran of Colorado Springs, re
mained silent at D.C.’s central cellblock,
his motives a mystery, his demeanor de
scribed by the Secret Service as “com
pletely flat.” Duran was released from a
military prison in September 1993 after
serving 2 1/2 years for felony assault, the
Army reported.
Colorado man, former soldier faces
firearms violations, felony charges
Described as unshaken by the tumult,
President Clinton rested up during the
day after his grueling Middle East tour
and held to his plan to attend an evening
gala at Ford’s Theatre, where President
Lincoln was felled by an assassin’s bullet
129 years ago.
Press secretary Dee Dee Myers said
Clinton would proceed with business as
usual, confident that the Secret Service
can protect him and his family, but she
added, “Generally, the number of
weapons on the streets of this country is
disconcerting to the president.”
Duran, scheduled to be formally ar
raigned before a U.S. Magistrate on Mon
day, was charged early Sunday with will
fully damaging federal property and pos
sessing a firearm as a convicted felon. The
first charge carries a maximum penalty of
10 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine,
the latter 10 years and $5,000.
The Secret Service held out the possibil
ity that additional charges could be filed.
“I would not eliminate assassination
statutes,” said Special Agent Carl Meyer.
Authorities searched Duran’s home and
car to try to determine his intent.
Several officials disputed a published
report it was a “semi-suicide” note, al
though the senior official said it could
help determine a motive.
The Army said Duran spent 2 1/2 years
imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., af
ter he was convicted in March 1991 on
charges of aggravated assault with a vehi
cle, drunk and disorderly conduct, drunken
driving, and leaving the scene of an acci
dent. He was dishonorably discharged and
released in September 1993.
Duran’s neighbors said he never exhibit
ed a violent streak to them. His wife, In
grid, told officials he left home Sept. 30 to
pick up materials for target practice and
never returned.
New information emerged about Du
ran’s weapon as well, a Chinese SKS semi
automatic rifle that, ironically, was pur
chased Sept. 13, the same day Clinton
signed into law the crime bill. Clinton had
banned imports of the weapon in May and
the crime bill outlawed magazines of the
type Duran used. But neither action barred
sales of gun merchants’ existing stock.
"Bonfire IF bringing students together
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
Old couches, barbecue pits and tents dot Bonfire
site making the polo fields look something more like
a make-shift colony than the traditional site.
But then again, this year’s Bonfire is anything
but traditional.
Hundreds of students, former students, and com
munity members have begun “rebuilding the hell
outta Bonfire” after the first stack of logs was dis
mantled Wednesday when it began to lean. And af
ter four days, “Bonfire II” is almost complete - a tes
tament to the volunteer effort that went into the
monumental feat.
Part of the reason the new stack has gone up so
quickly is due to the many students who have never
worked on building Bonfire before have answered
the redpots’ plea for the student body to help build
Bonfire in one week.
John Shipp, Class of ’96, said he decided to come
help rebuild Bonfire because he wants to help con
tinue the tradition.
“The fact that it has to be done is a big motivator
to come out and ‘build the hell outta bonfire,’” he said.
Jon Keller, Class of ’96, said he had never
worked on Bonfire before because he never felt like
he was needed.
“We took it for granted that it would get done,”
he said.
Students who have experience from working on
Bonfire in past years are also chipping in to help
finish rebuilding it this week.
Drew Isle, a former crew chief and Class of ’96,
said many upperclassmen are working harder and
more hours to rebuild Bonfire than normally would.
“More of the older guys are coming out and work
ing harder than they normally would,” he said. “It’s
a matter of pride to get it finished.”
Christi Rohan, Class of ’98, worked on Bonfire
before it fell and has been working on rebuilding
Bonfire even more since then.
She said that all of the extra people working on
Bonfire and the people who are working harder are
helping rebuild the stack.
“Those who were working hard before are work
ing even harder and those who didn’t come out at
all are coming out and working,” she said.
Students and members of the community are try
ing to make the students who are out working on
Bonfire more comfortable.
Area restaurants have donated food and drinks
to the workers.
Scott Bubier, a former crew chief and Class of
’94, said many of the residence halls have set up
these make-shift colonies around Bonfire site to
give the people working on Bonfire a place to take a
break.
“Instead of wasting time going home and sleep
ing,” he said, “we have these tents set up for people
to rest in.”
Stew Milne/THE Battalion
Students working on Bonfire II add another log to the stack on Friday night in their ef
forts to rebuild Bonfire in time for Thursday’s burn.
Smith returns
to courtroom
for misconduct
charges
By Michele Brinkmann
The Battalion
Former Texas A&M Vice
President Robert Smith returns
to the courtroom today after be
ing reindicted on official miscon
duct charges Thursday.
A final pre-trial hearing is
scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. to
day and jury selection is sched
uled to start Tuesday morning
in the 361st District Court.
Two Class A misdemeanor
counts of soliciting gifts from
Barnes and Noble Bookstores
Inc. while negotiating a contract
with the company were dis
missed at an Oct. 18 Brazos
Comity pre-trial hearing.
District Attorney Bill Turner
refiled the indictment against
Smith that same week.
Smith was indicted in June
and pleaded not guilty to the
charges in late August.
Judge Oliver Kitzman, who
was appointed to hear the case
this summer, granted a defense
motion in October to dismiss
all charges against Smith be
cause of “fundamental defects”
in the indictment.
Smith’s attorney Dick
DeGuerin, of Houston, said
Turner missed some essential
elements in the indictment.
“It gave no notice in the in
dictment that the contract was a
government contract,” DeGuerin
said. “There is also no indica
tion that Texas A&M is a gov
ernment entity.”
“Everything the prosecution
wants to prove must be stated in
the indictment.”
Turner said he had no objec
tion to dismissing the charges
and refiling the indictment be
cause he wanted no questions
about it on the Oct. 31 trial date.
Turner did not change the
See Smith/Page 10
SFA student government
trying to cancel funding
for gay, lesbian group
DALLAS (AP) — Student government members at an
East Texas university are trying to cancel funding of the
school’s gay student association, charging that its mem
bers could be breaking the state sodomy law.
Stephen F. Austin State University’s Student Govern
ment Association is scheduled to vote Tuesday on
whether to revoke the organizational status of the Gay
and Lesbian Student Association.
“The majority of GLSA members ... are gay and in or
der to be a homosexual, more than likely you have violat
ed 21.06 of the Texas penal code (the sodomy law),” said
student senator Bryan Simmons, who has led the effort
against the gay group.
Simmons is chairman of an organization review board
that this month voted 4-2 in favor of revoking the group’s
charter. That recommendation goes before the 65-mem
ber student government Tuesday.
“We didn’t want to have a group on campus that might
in some way champion violation of Texas law,” Simmons
said. “What if (a national pedophile club) wanted to start
a campus pedophile club? That’s as much against the law
as homosexual conduct.”
The sodomy law makes it a misdemeanor, punishable
by fine, for consenting adults of the same gender to have
See SFA/Page 10
A colony of bache
lors is hanging out in
the upper reaches of
Kyle Field.
For years, large numbers of Mexican
free-tailed bats have made a home in
the stadium and other buildings on the
Texas A&M campus.
The bats that stay in Kyle Field
year-round are males, left behind each
winter by the females and most of the
other males. These other bats migrate
to Mexico and mate there David J.
Schmidly, campus dean of Texas A&M
at Galveston and the author of “The
Bats of Texas,” said.
Schmidly said there may be thou
sands of bats in the Kyle Field bache
lor colony.
George Baumgardner, assistant cu
rator of mammals for A&Mb Texas Co
operative Wildlife Collection, said the
noise of a football game is not enough
to rouse the bats from their roost. The
bats come out at dusk to feed on in
sects, he said.
A&M’s associate ath
letic director for facilities, said
in Kyle Field, the bate
roost m crevices on
both sides of the stadi- /frf
um where the ramps
connect to the main concourse.
“Bate can stay in a place a
quarter inch wide,” he said.
They are impossible
to see in the narrow
cracks, Pickard said.
The bats can make
their way into buildings
through tiny cracks and ex
pansion joints or up through el
evator shafts.
Bats have flown across the
stage in Rudder Auditorium dur
ing performances, Marc Chaloup-
ka, senior stage manager, said.
“I’ve seen them flying a couple of
feet off the floor, just skimming above
the stage,” he said. “They’re cute.”
The last bat sighting in Rudder
See Bats/Page 10