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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1995)
A IVI u N E R T Calling the shots! Faulkner’s fight Students have six pool halls to choose from in College Station. Aggielife, Page 3 Hill: Shannon Faulkner should be ashamed of her decision. Opinion, Page 15 Taking aim The Aggie Soccer team has title hopes in mind for the 1 995 season. Sports, Page 11 RVICE: Battalion Vol. 102, No. 3(16 pages) Established in 1893 Wednesday * August 30, 1995 ?en ormer A&M student released from captivity □ Friends and relatives of Thomas Hargrove, who was held captive by Colombian guerril las, comment on the ex- dtement of his return. By James Bernsen Tm Battalion ■ After nearly a year as a captive of Colombian guerrillas, a former Texas A&M student, was unex pectedly released Aug. 22 and walked out of the jungle and into his house in Cali, Columbia. Dr. Thomas Hargrove, Class of ’66, was on his way to work at an agricultural research station when he was kidnapped Sept. 23, 1994 at a roadblock near Cali. Hargrove’s brother, Raford, Class of ’70, said he was talking via telephone with Thomas’ wife, Susan, who lives in Cali, about plans to get his brother out when he simply walked in the door. “All of a sudden, dogs started barking and she started screaming,” Raford Hargrove said. “I thought they had thrown Tom’s body on the side walk or something, or that Su san was being kidnapped. “Then [Tom] picked up the phone and said hello. We were flabbergasted.” Raford Hargrove said it was an incredible feeling for him to hear the excitement of the reunion on the speaker phone. Thomas could not be reached for comment, and shortly after his release was ordered by the Colom bian police not to speak any fur ther with the media. Thomas told his brother via electronic mail that his captivity was worse than anything he expe rienced in Vietnam. “Just got back after two days hard march brother was released last Aug. 21 and was escorted out of the moun tains by five or six guerrillas. Late Tuesday morning, the guerrillas through the Central Cordilleros, Columbia’s most rugged mountains, ” Thomas wrote. “Also walked alone, physically at least, through that proverbial Valley of the Shadow of Death — but I’m alive.” Raford Hargrove said his "It was a long year (for Thomas), and the worst of all was the boredom." — Raford Hargrove Thomas Hargrove’s brother pointed him to the nearest village and abandoned him. He arrived there on foot and was immediately recognized by the villagers, who had seen news reports with his picture. They in sisted on driving him to his home in Cali, a three-hour drive. Thomas’ release let his fami ly breathe easy for the first time in a year. Raford Hargrove said it is “an immense relief’ to know that his brother is safe. “I’ve spent a year tied up in knots over this,” he said. “We (he and Susan) were talking every day. We were going to get him out, unless some s.o.b. got him killed.” See Release, Page 16 orps offers women chance or physical, mental growth Against The Odds □ Women leaders in the Corps continue to succeed despite barriers at other military institutions. female cadet participates in the first Corps march of year. By Maria Jimena Albarracin The Battalion E ven though Shannon Faulkner retreated from her two-year battle with the Citadel last week, she and women like her are winning the war to integrate the male- dominated service academies and college military programs like Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets. After fighting to become the first female in the South Carolina military academy’s 152-year history, Faulkner dropped out when she ended up in the infirmary for heat exhaustion during her first week. Cadet Capt. Amy Rimmer, a junior industrial distribution major, said that even though Faulkner’s career at the Citadel may have ended, the struggle left an impact on women’s roles in the military. In 1974, 51 women joined the Corps, ending an 98-year all-male tradition. Women joined special units, such as the Aggie Band, for the first time in 1985. “[Faulkner] was making history as the women did here in the Corps of Cadets 20 years ago,” Rimmer said. “It was tough back then, and they fought it. And now I have an opportunity to be here in the Corps.” In the past 20 years, thou sands of women have graduat ed from the nation’s service academies and similar mili tary programs, and A&M’s Corps is no exception. Of the current 2,100 cadets, 115 are women. The Class of ’99 has 72 incoming women cadets. Tyson Voelkel, Corps com mander and a senior engineer ing technology major, said women military leaders are not unusual. “Women hold important po sitions in the civilian world. They are leaders of business es, they are CEOs in corpora tions, and it is the same in the military,” Voelkel said. “The only reason it is different is because of stigmas.” The physical differences be tween men and women have See WOMEN, Page 8 Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Gettin' a head start Brandi Raymond, a freshman chemical engineering major, reads 80 assigned pages for her CHEM 1 01 class in the Academic Building Tuesday. oenig ready to tackle financial aid cuts Toby Boenig, A&M student >ody president, began work toward implementing his ;oals this summer. By Tara Wilkinson The Battalion Touting financial aid and cultural re spect as his top priorities, Toby Boenig has begun his first fall semester as Texas A&M’s student body president. Boenig, a sepior agricultural develop ment major, said he has been working all summer to ensure that student opinions influence financial aid decisions made at the national level. .k . A;' See related Editorial, Page 15 Some financial aid cuts are inevitable, he said, but he hopes they will be minimal. “My goal is that we’re heard, as much as we possibly can be,” he said. “Hopeful ly, the outcome will be that cuts are some what reduced.” Boenig co-authored an editorial with Sherry Boyles, University of Texas stu dent body president, that appeared in the Aug. 6 Dallas Morning News. The editori al stated that financial aid cuts would hurt Texas families. “Yes, the people of this country have sent a mandate to Congress to cut federal spending,” Boenig wrote in the editorial. “We support that mandate. However, by cutting financial aid for education. Con gress is cutting the opportunity for many kids to battle their way out of the inner city and rural Texas.” Boenig also wrote a guest column about his stance against financial-aid cuts for the June 29 is sue of The Battalion. U.S. Rep. Jack Fields, R-Humble, responded to Boenig’s column in an Aug. 1 Mail Call let ter. “I can assure Boenig that I have not forgot ten, nor has the Repub lican Congress forgot ten, the importance of higher education,” Fields wrote. Boenig said he plans to send a letter to the student body pres idents of the Big 12 schools, expressing his concerns over proposed financial aid cuts and encouraging active opposition to them. In a similar tactical move, Boenig said Student Government is starting a grass roots campaign through the Federation of Texas A&M University Mothers’ Clubs. When presented with information about student concerns, Boenig said, the students’ mothers typically get involved See Boenig, Page 10 Boenig Boenig's goals •Ensure that student opinions influence financial aid decisions •Increase cultural respect around campus through student group interaction • Establishment of a student liaison position to work with the Board of Regents. This will be voted on by the Board of Regents this week. • Development of campus safety. Improve ments were made to the lighting of the Olsen Field area this summer, which was Boenig’s pri mary safety concern. But he wants to take safety further, he said, and increase the number of emer gency phones on campus and the number of self defense courses in the kinesiology department. • Creation of sign language courses to fulfill foreign language requirements. Some progress was made on this goal this summer when the decision was made to accept sign language courses for transfer credit • Creation of a student advisory committee to oversee the allocation of funds for library improvements. • Installation of automatic teller machines in the Commons, on West Campus and on Northside. • Elimination of exams on the day of Muster. • Creation of a campus day care center. • Use of off-campus bus routes for transporting people to football games. • Implementation of a residence hall recycling program. A pilot program was run this summer, and the program may be expanded into the fail. Training center to call B-CS home □ The new facility will train emergency personnel to deal with terrorist attacks and natural disasters. By Javier Martinez The Battalion Bryan-College Station will be the site of a new Heavy Res cue Training Center that will prepare emergency personnel to deal with special crises. The new facility, located on 60 acres adjacent to the Bray- ton Fireman Training Field on George Bush Drive, will train firefighters, law enforcement officials and city employees in specialized emergency rescue and crisis management. Mike Wisby, training coor dinator for the center, will su pervise the program that will instruct trainees to deal with situations like the bombing of the A.P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. “This will be state of the art,” Wisby said. “We know it will be top notch.” The center should be fully operational by the year 2000, and Wisby said he expects that more than the initial 3,000 trainees estimated. “We know we will far exceed that,” Wisby said. Sessions will last from two days to two weeks. A Federal Emergency Man agement Agency response team may eventually be sta tioned in Bryan-College Sta tion because of the cities’ cen tral location in the country. All 12 active teams are sta tioned at one of the two exist ing rescue centers in Califor nia and Maryland. The Texas Engineering Ex tension Service estimated the cost to be between S7-15 million. Funding will come from the state and federal governments as well as donations from the private sector, particularly the See Center, Page 14