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gEWT GINGRICH'S TRUE COLORS
slew Speaker of the House starts new year with
thud.
Opinion, Page 11
THE
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• Friday’
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BEEF VS. CHICKEN
Both beef and chicken are important parts of a healthy,
balanced diet.
Page 2
HOME SWEET HOME
Aggies improve perfect home mark,
look to take success on the road.
Sports, Page 7
l. 101, No. 78 (12 pages)
*
“Serving Texas AdrM since 1893 ’’
tiisitil i
Monday • January 23, 1995
SBSLC weekend conference ends in gunfire
An unknown
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SBSLC party early
Sunday morning.
iy Kasie Byers
he Battalion
I Gunshots fired on campus ear-
1\ Sunday morning interrupted
the Southwestern Black Student
Leadership Conference party.
The shots were fired towards
DeWare field house around 2 a.m.
As of Sunday afternoon, no
one had been taken into police
custody.
Bob Wiatt, director of the
University Police Department,
said that although it was appar
ent from what direction the
shots were fired, the atmosphere
of the party made it impossible
to determine who fired the shots.
“The shots came from the di
rection of Clark and Lamar
Streets,” Wiatt said, “but the
place was a madhouse with peo
ple dancing in the streets. There
was no way of knowing who was
involved in the incident.”
Bruce George, a Texas A&M
student who witnessed the inci
dent, said the shots caused
a panic.
“A friend and I were going to
get something to eat when the
shots occurred,” George said.
“As soon as we heard the shots
we saw people running across
the grass toward Cain Hall. We
didn’t wait around to see what
"Two of the shots hit DeWare field house, one
about ten feet high, the other about four feet
high."
— Bob Wiatt,
director of the University Police Department
happened after that.”
After the crowd from the par
ty dispersed, UPD found three
rounds from a 9 mm pistol and
evidence that two shots had hit
the side of the field house.
“Two of the rounds were spent
and one live round was found,”
Wiatt said. “Two of the shots hit
DeWare field house, one about
ten feet high, the other about
four feet high.”
University officials including
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice
president of student affairs and
Kevin Carreathers, the advisor
for the SBSLC, said they were
unaware that such an incident
had occurred.
“I have yet to receive a report
of the incident,” Southerland
said. “I hope by Monday the full
details of the matter will be
made known to me.”
University Police will release
the police report today.
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Amy Browning/THE Battalion
Nine-year old Jodi Singer and her friend, ten-year old Emily
Rockett, play in the MSC fountain Saturday afternoon. The girls
were part of a Methodist Youth Fellowship group from Caldwell
that was at A&M to watch the basketball game in G. Rollie White.
Panel undergoes
restructuring for
changing needs
□ The former Students Rights Appeals
Panel has been expanded and
renamed the Illegal Discrimination
Appeals Panel.
By Lynn Cook
The Battalion
Students who feel they have been discriminated against by Texas
A&M faculty or staff can seek recourse from the new Illegal Dis
crimination Appeals Panel.
Dr. Ray Bowen, Texas A&M President, approved the revised pur
pose and procedures for the new panel Jan. 4. Last May, then Inter
im President Dr. E. Dean Gage appointed a task force to look into
questions raised by students and faculty concerning the Students
Rights Appeals Panel.
Dr. Bill Kibler, assistant vice president for student affairs and
chair of the task force, said the Illegal Discrimination Appeals Panel
evolved from the old Students Rights Appeals Panel. The new pan
el, however, has a clearer purpose and definition of the types of dis
crimination it will hear cases about, he said.
“We have redefined the description and purpose of the panel,” Ki
bler said. “We hear cases and incidents of illegal discrimination. In
reality, the Illegal Discrimination Appeals Panel is far better than the
Students Rights Appeals Panel. The Students Rights Appeals Panel
involved a lot of steps and affirmative action. It was too onerous.”
Illegal discrimination, as defined in a letter and proposal sent to
Bowen, is discrimination based on but not limited to race, ethnicity,
gender, religion, disabilities, the right to free speech and the right to
freedom of the press.
Dr. Ruth Schaffer, professor of sociology emeritus and former
chair of the of Students Rights Appeals Panel, said the revising and
restructuring were necessary.
“We worked for many months on this and there were just
See Panel, Page 5
Earthquake leaves Japanese
with endless frustrations
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Quake survivors battle rain, fear of disease
KOBE, Japan (AP) — Bone-chilling rain Sun
day grounded relief flights, delayed search opera
tions and bred fears of disease among survivors of
Japan’s deadliest quake in more than 70 years.
The death toll neared 5,000.
Resentment and frustration appeared to grow
among thousands of survivors. Many showed signs
of deep psychological scars, while others struggled
to get by without basic services.
“We just need a bathroom,” Mun Wah Soon, a
Korean, said as she puttered about the tent she
and her husband share with about 20 others.
There’ s no water. We can’t wash anything.”
Five days after the 7.2-magnitude quake, police
Put the death toll at 4,936, with 171 people still
Hissing. Nearly 26,000 have been injured.
Doug Copp of the San Francisco-based Ameri
can Rescue Team said there was a “good possibili
ty” more survivors could be found.
A strong aftershock shook Kobe overnight.
iTere were no reports of damage or injury. The
aftershock measured 4 on the Japanese 7-point
Scale. Tuesday’s quake measured 7 on that scale,
which cannot be converted to the standard inter-
aational scale.
Underscoring the danger still facing this once-
Hbrant port city, three people were trapped Sun-
Jay when a quake-damaged building collapsed,
locking the entrance to their home. Rescuers
saved them.
The search for 30 people missing in nearby
Nishinomiya had to be called off for fear of mud
slides caused by the rain.
The rain also made conditions even more miser
able for nearly 300,000 people left homeless by the
<luake. Almost 52,000 buildings, many of them
homes, were damaged or destroyed.
Virtually all of Kobe’s 1.4 million residents lack
natural gas for heat, and the Osaka Gas Co. said
restoring service could take six weeks. More than
half the city’s households still lack running water.
The bad weather heightened fears of disease,
especially influenza.
Signs of emotional stress are also emerging,
causing a breakdown in the social order for which
Japanese society is renowned.
For the first time, merchants are complaining
about theft, and on Sunday many organized a neigh
borhood watch to guard against night pilferage.
At the Kansai Rosai Hospital in nearby Amagasa-
ki, many patients are experiencing breathing diffi
culties at night. Doctors call the symptom common
among people suffering delayed stress syndrome.
“The people think we’ll have another big
quake,” taxi driver Yoshikazu Morimoto said.
“Most are very afraid another big one will come.
Many people are leaving, and many of them have
lost their jobs” because businesses were destroyed.
Frustration about the government’s relief oper
ation boiled into open hostility Sunday during a
live, nationally televised hookup of government of
ficials and survivors.
“You should have told us or showed us what we
could do in such a bad situation,” barked one man,
abandoning the honorific style of speech that
Japanese ordinarily use to address leaders.
A teacher noted that volunteers walked to Kobe
to help survivors. “Why can’t officials do the
same?” she asked. A high school student told Chief
Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi: “I want you guys
to do something, not as politicians but as human
beings — as soon as possible.”
Simpson acquires new lawyer
Cochran leads defense team, calms Shapiro, Bailey
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
Smart, glib and effervescent,
a mover and shaker in the
black community, Johnnie
Cochran Jr. was from the
start the top choice of legal
experts handicapping the O.J.
Simpson murder case,
Cochran himself was the
last to know. This summer, like
so many other lawyers, he was
a spectator, doing television
commentary on preliminary le
gal maneuvering.
Then Simpson called.
“My concern was, could I
represent someone I know and
be objective?” Cochran recalls.
“I decided, if you couldn’t help
someone who was a friend, who
can you help? I made that deci
sion after talking with my min
ister and praying over it.”
When Cochran took on the
sizzling murder case, he
stepped into a spotlight al
ready glaring on such notable
legal talent as Robert
Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Gerald
Uelmen and Alan Dershowitz.
Those in the know predicted
he would take control, al
though they could not have
anticipated how.
On the eve of opening
statements, a feud between
Shapiro and Bailey over news
leaks turned the defense team
topsy-turvy. It fell to Cochran
to soothe egos. By week’s end.
Shapiro and Bailey were em
bracing, at least for the cam
eras, and Cochran was lead
ing the team.
“He’s a genuine star,” says
attorney Leslie Abramson, who
defended Erik Menendez in his
first murder trial. “He’s earned
it, not because he’s represented
big people but because he’s won
money for lit
tle people
against the
cops. ... He
does what he
does out of
concern for
his clients.”
The 57-
yea r - o 1 d
Cochran has
represented
pop star
Michael
Jackson on child molestation
allegations, former Cleveland
Browns football great Jim
Brown on rape and assault
charges, actor Todd Bridges
on attempted murder, rapper
Tupac Shakur on a weapons
charge and Snoop Doggy Dogg
on murder.
Cochran’s proudest memen
tos, however, are framed multi-
million-dollar checks he won
from Los Angeles for ordinary
citizens abused by police. In
the last 10 years, Cochran’s
firm has won more than $45
million in judgments against
California police departments.
“He’s a miracle worker,”
says Los Angeles defense attor
ney Harland Braun. “And
there’s no better lawyer for the
Simpson case, especially since
there’s a racial element.”
Cochran lives in the upscale
Los Feliz area overlooking Hol
lywood but gets his Simpson
feedback from the barbershop
and dry cleaners in his old pre
dominantly black, working-
class neighborhood and the
Second Baptist Church he at
tends regularly.
After the volatile court ex
change over race with prose
cutor Christopher Darden this
month, he says, “I walked in
to get a haircut, and everyone
in the barbershop stood up
and clapped.”
But, he adds: “This case
won’t go to my head because I
stay in the community. I al
ways say there’s life after
Simpson.”
Cochran is easy to spot
around the courthouse. In a
world dominated by dark busi
ness suits, his finely tailored
wardrobe includes shades of
lavender and olive green. He
wears tinted glasses and drives
a Rolls-Royce with the personal
See Simpson, Page 6
Simpson