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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1995)
T A M U Vol. 101, No. 167 (8 pages) Established in 1893 Wednesday • July 5, 1995 New equipment expands services at learning center □ A system that reads printed material and converts it into sound is the most recent addi tion to the Learning Re source Center for stu dents with disabilities. By Javier Hinojosa The Battalion The Learning Resource Center, which is specially adapted to the needs of students with disabili ties, will open full time this fall. Support Services for Students with Disabilities provides the center located in Ramp B of Hart Hall for students with dis abilities such as visual or hear ing impairments, which can im pede academic performance. The Bookwise Edge Reading System is the most recent addi tion to the computer center. Whitney Osters, a senior psy chology major who works at the center, said the system uses a device called the Reading Edge which scans written material such as books and converts it into sound. “The device really serves two types of disabilities — those who are blind and those who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia (the inability to grasp meaning in what one reads),” Os ters said. “The reader itself is for the blind, but it can transfer the material to the screen and high light while it reads each word for those with learning disabilities.” Renee Harris, accommoda tions coordinator for Support Services, said the Bookwise Edge Reading System is the latest in personal reader technology. A literacy grant from Barnes and Noble helped purchase the Bookwise system. Dr. John Dinkel has also contributed to the computer center and is fund ing the new coordinator position. “The new coordinator will be taking over this fall,” Harris said. “We have held off on buying a lot of equipment because of that. The coordinator will be bet ter able to make those decisions.” The coordinator will teach students how to use the comput er technology and will be able to teach them according to their different learning styles. This past spring, 249 stu dents registered with Support Services as having a disability. Of those, 94 had a learning disability, 35 had an attention- deficit disorder, 11 were hearing impaired, 107 had physical dis abilities, 12 were visually im paired and two were blind. The See Computers, Page 2 Enriching the future □ High school students get an inside look at veterinary school through A&M program. By Katherine Arnold The Battalion Prospective veterinary medi cine students gained hands-on ex perience during Texas A&M’s Veterinary Enrichment Program. Forty Texas high school stu dents came to the University last week for a three-day introduction to the world of veterinary medi cine. Last week’s session was the fourth one this summer. Lyndon Kurtz, associate di rector of biomedical science and program coordinator, said stu dents usually participate in the program because they have a strong interest in going to vet- erinary school. “The whole purpose is to show the students what being a vet is all about,” Kurtz said. “Students usually leave either excited about coming back or they learn that vet school is not for them.” Elizabeth Smith, a third-year veterinary medicine student, par ticipated in the program when she was in high school. “I always wanted to be a vet erinarian, but this program rein forced my decision,” Smith said. Smith is now a counselor for the program and said she enjoys helping prospective students. Program activities included guest lectures, experiments, demonstrations and tours of the facilities. The participants viewed a slide show comparing healthy tis sue to diseased tissue and learned about physiology through an experiment that exposed a rabbit to cigarette smoke. They also studied anatomy by analyz ing dissected animals. Students were informed on how to apply to the University and to apply for scholarships and loans. Paul Grunenwald, a second- year veterinary medicine student and a counselor for the program, said the program is important be cause it stresses the difficulty of veterinary school. “A lot of the students who come for the program are very in telligent but don’t have to study,” Grunenwald said. “We try to let them know that they have to be prepared to work.” More than 50 percent of the participants of the program, which started in 1983, return to A&M as undergraduates, Kurtz said. “Until the students do some exploration, they may not know what they really want to do in col lege,” Kurtz said. “It’s great to have programs like this that can give such great insight.” Research Park A place for stu di e s, strolls or s P° rt s By Libe Goad The Battalion S potting A&M student life in the summer is easy at Research Park, the stomping grounds for frisbee- throwers, sunbathers and ... a pink dalmatian puppy? The dyed dog, the victim of practical joke, belongs to Patrick Hickey, a senior psy chology major who said he en joys the quiet beauty of A&M’s 434 acre park. “It’s also a good place for college students to take their dates,” he said. “We’re in col lege, we’re broke, and going to the park is cheap.” Hickey and other students take advantage of the land scaped section of Texas A&M Research Park, a park origi nally intended for public and private research facilities to expand A&M’s tradition of academic research. Since 1982, Research Park has integrated five major re search facilities with the scenic park located behind the west side of campus. The park was designed after parks at Stanford University and the University of South Carolina. Dr. Mark Money, a former park director, said in a 1983 Battalion article that A&M would benefit from the cam pus-like environment of the park and that it would provide jobs for people in the area, in cluding students. John Millhollon, director of Research Park, said that stu dents are welcome to use the park, though they may eventu ally have to forfeit the space to new research centers. One of these centers will be the up coming George Bush Presiden tial Library. “Research Park was estab lished to improve the capabili ty of the University to support the students,” Millhollon said. “But it was not designed specifically for students to come for a place to play.” Junior math major Betsy Herold throws a rock into the pond at Research Park for her dog, Bailey. Bailey dives into the pond to fetch, though she doesn't always return with the same rocks people have thrown in. But many students use it for just that. Despite the growing number of research centers in the the park since 1986, the grounds remain a place for students to frolic. Hickey said he and his friends once were caught sword-fighting in the park. “Someone reported us to the police,” he said. “Whoever it was told [the police] that we were a bunch of Indians trying to murder people with axes.” Couples also frequent the park for an occasional roman tic evening or as a cheap form of entertainment. James Gush, a senior horti culture student, said his friends play pranks on couples who park on the road next to the ponds. “My friends will pull up be hind a couple making out in a car, and they shine their lights on them,” he said. Pranksters aside, more com mon activities at the park in clude studying and light out door recreation. Gush said the park serves as Stew Milne, The Battalion Kim Henry, senior accounting major, Jennifer Dahms, senior earth science major, and Kris Karas, senior management major, feed the ducks in Research Park. Several bird and animal species live in the park. his focal point for relaxation. “It’s big and quiet,” he said. “There are fewer children here, and you don’t have to lis ten to boom boxes that people take to other parks.” Sidewalks lead visitors through clusters of trees and around two ponds that collect at the bottom of a hilly landscape. Wendy Burch, a former A&M student, said that peo ple love the park for its peace ful environment. “It is a haven,” she said. “It’s a place to get away from school and enjoy nature.” Research Park also serves as a ground for numerous stu dent activities. Millhollon said MSC Town Hall, a student organization that promotes performances on campus,holds its Coffee house at the park one time each spring. Coffeehouse al lows students to display their talents in a relaxed setting, and Millhollon said the pro gram “worked beautifully” at the park. Town Hall is not the only group to take advantage of A&M’s most natural setting. Millhollon said the park has been the site for numerous weddings, marathons and duck races that support Phoe be’s House, a children’s center. Millhollon said people should enjoy the park as much as possible, but they should have respect, too. “We love to see students out in the park as long as they treat it like their own back yard,” he said. CIS introduces interactive campus map MAP □ A&M Computing and Infor mation Services needs volun teers to maintain web pages for an interactive campus map on the Internet. By Jill Saunders The Battalion Texas A&M students soon will have ac cess to an interactive campus map on the Internet. Other services currently available are the Electronic TAMU Community Cal endar and the Electronic Phonebook. David Lawrence, Computing and Infor mation Services user services representa tive, said all services provided by CIS offer diverse opportunities for Internet users. “We provide electronic information in new ways for people to do everything from research to professional work,” Lawrence said. Bill Ambrose, systems analyst and head of A&M’s electronic information access team, said these services are a part of the computer access fee, and students do not have to pay extra to use them. “These services allow students to have a better utilization of their computer access fees,” Ambrose said. CIS is working on an interactive campus map that will show a picture of each build ing, adjacent buildings and other informa tion normally obtained from a map. “We need people to volunteer to main tain web pages for each building,” Ambrose said. “It will depend on the volunteers when this program will be available to stu dents.” Sam Fleitman, programmer for CIS, said there are many things students can do through the Electronic Phonebook. “Students can look up information on people, such as phone numbers and work hours,” Fleitman said. “Students can also simplify their e-mail addresses through the Electronic Phonebook.” Fleitman said many students think they must have a complicated e-mail address that no one can remember. But students can use their alias.tamu.edu as a simpler e-mail address, he said. “An alias is originally assigned by the Electronic Phonebook software, and it is usually a student’s first initial, hyphen. See Internet^ Page 8