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The Texas A&M Volleyball Landauer: Being a Republican
Team begins its season is completely different than
with a win over Baylor. being a College Republican.
Sports, Page 7 Opinion, Page 11
:**Y'
Skydivers and
pilots take flight
over Aggieland.
Aggielife, Page 3
Battalion
/ol. 102, No. 19 (12 pages)
Established in 1893
Thursday • September 21, 1995
ollege Republicans granted
lextension to prepare defense
Student Senate asked to
research requirement
The hearing for the
(organization was postponed
from Friday. The group is
facing charges of regulations
/iolations.
|By James Bernsen
[he Battalion
Texas A&M’s vice president for stu-
ient affairs granted College Republi
cans a 30-day extension Wednesday to
lallow the group to prepare for a hear-
|ing on charges of violating student or
ganization policies.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland granted the
extension for the hearing that was
scheduled for Friday.
“The primary purpose for this or any
other hearing process is education for
the students involved in the student or
ganization,” Southerland said.
“Because there still appears to be a
significant amount of misinformation
about the purpose and intent of this pro
cedure, ... I have granted the extension
to provide additional opportunities to
clarify these and any other points of mis
understanding.”
College Republicans, A&M’s largest
student organization, is facing charges
stemming from a fund-raising letter that
A&M administrative officials said con
tains misinformation and inflammatory
language about multiculturalism and
other sensitive issues.
David Brown, College Republicans in
terim president, said the original date
was so soon that the group could not
prepare for it.
“None of us have been to class since
this whole thing started,” Brown said.
Dr. Richard Stadelmann, faculty ad
viser for the College Republicans, said
the extra time will allow the group to de
velop a legal defense.
“It’s a First Amendment issue, and
I’m amazed that the administration
didn’t grasp that,” Stadelmann said.
“We’ve been granted time to develop a
legal defense.”
Southerland said the issue is not
about freedom of speech.
“Texas A&M is firmly committed to
freedom of speech; for generations our
graduates have fought to protect that
precious right,” he said. “[This hearing]
concerns a possible violation of a stated
See Republicans, Page 5
□ The group will begin
reviewing past Senate bills
next week to reinform the
student body of the
proposed multiculturalism
requirement.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
Two senators asked the Student
Senate Wednesday to research the
proposed multiculturalism require
ment for a second time, in order to
prepare for questions resulting from
recent events involving the Texas
A&M College Republicans.
Senators Chris Miller, on off-cam-
pus senator, and Chris Reed, Senate
speaker pro tem, requested that the
Senate’s Academic Affairs Committee
look into the multiculturalism require
ment and any previous action the Sen
ate has taken about the proposal.
“I think it’s important that the
student body know our position,”
Reed said.
Becky Silloway, Senate speaker,
said that since the Senate first
passed the bill mandating the in
ternational and U.S. cultures require
ment in 1993, the Senate member
ship has changed drastically.
“A lot of these senators and a lot of
students on campus were not here
when this bill was originally passed,"
See SENATE, Page 5
Tube talk
Bowen hosts televised forum
Amy Browning, The Battalion
Giving the gift of life
Kris Forks, senior agricultural engineering major, gives blood Wednesday at the West Campus dona
tion location. The blood drive will continue through Friday.
Bonfire committee makes changes
to increase involvement, input
□ The Bonfire Advisory
Committee, usually
headed by a staff
member, will be headed
by a head stack red pot
this year to bring more
student input into
decisions.
□ Students, faculty and staff can ask
questions of A&M's president and
administrators on KAMU at 6 p.m.
tonight.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
Dr. Ray Bowen, Texas A&M president, will
host the first of three “Bowen and Friends,” tele
vision shows Thursday, allowing students, facul
ty and staff to question the president and admin
istrators about campus issues.
KAMU, the A&M public broadcast system,
will carry the show at 6 p.m. Two more broad
casts are planned later this fall.
Bowen will answer questions from a small
studio audience in the Moore Communications
Center, a remote question site at the Commons
Lobby and telephone callers.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for
student affairs; Dr. Jerry Gaston, interim vice
president for finance and administration; and
Dr. Charles Lee, interim executive vice president
and provost, may join Bowen to answer ques
tions about their specific departments.
A representative from Student Government
will join the president as well.
Bowen said the show gives him an opportunity
to hear from students who would not usually
contact him.
“There are some students who are reluctant to
call my office, set-up an appointment and come
to talk to me eyeball-to-eyeball,” he said.
Mary Helen Bowers, the show’s organizer and
deputy director of University Relations, said she ex
pects the president to answer a variety of questions.
“He’s perfectly willing to take a question on
anything,” Bowers said. “He has made it quite
clear that if he doesn’t know the answer, he’ll
find out and get back to them.”
Bowen said he expects questions about cami
pus safety, residence life and the general use fee,
which the Board of Regents raised in August by
$8 per credit hour.
“I think the whole fee increase caught a lot of peo
ple off-guard,” he said. “We tried to get the word out
over the summer, but a lot of people still don’t un
derstand everything that happened.”
Toby Boenig, student body
president, said he expects stu
dents to question the president
about the controversy between
College Republicans, possible fi
nancial aid cuts by Congress and
the need for quality advisers in
every college.
Boenig said the program is
indicative of Bowen’s efforts to
remain accessible to students.
“That’s the type of person
that Dr. Bowen is,” he said.
“He has made an effort to hear
the students concerns.”
“Bowen and Friends,” debuted in April after
A&M officials saw a videotape of a similar pro
gram Bowen hosted during his tenure as interim
president of Oklahoma State University.
Bowen called the April broadcast a “success.”
He said there were many questions from the
Commons site and the studio audience. There
were also several callers on hold throughout the
entire one-hour broadcast.
Bowen
By Lily Aguilar
The Battalion
More student input and par
ticipation in the Bonfire Commit-
Jtee is the goal of the new primary
f adviser Kevin Jackson, MSC se
nior associate director.
The Bonfire Committee and
the Bonfire Advisory Commit
tee, which regulates Bonfire,
are composed of staff and stu
dents. Historically, the chair of
(the advisory committee has
'ibeen a staff member, Jackson
said, but this year a student
will take over the position.
“We want students to take
on a stronger level of leader-
jjship with the the Bonfire Com-
roittee and the Bonfire Adviso
ry Committee,” he said.
Jackson said he has 14 years of
experience as a student activities
adviser to contribute to the Bon
fire Committee.
“My first priority is to get in
and work with the students and
staff,” he said. “I want to under
stand the student leadership roles
and determine what each is re
sponsible for.”
Jackson also said his involve
ment as an adviser for the MSC
Council will create a closer rela
tionship between the Council and
the Bonfire Committee.
Carl Baggett, head stack
redpot, will serve as the stu
dent chair for the Bonfire Advi
sory Committee.
Baggett said his main goal is to
involve more students in Bonfire
and make coordination easier be
tween the different groups that
participate in the event.
“There are about 25,000
students who help with
Bonfire each year from
beginning to end,” he
said, “and they all
need to know what is
going on.”
Patrick Con
way, MSC Coun
cil president,
said he hopes
the Council will
be able to as
sist the Bonfire
Committee
now that the
two organiza
tions are shar
ing an adviser.
“I’m looking forward to the
MSC Council lending a helping
hand to the Bonfire — one of the
strongest and best traditions at
Texas A&M,” Conway said.
Jonathan Neerman, executive
vice president of relations for the
MSC Council, said he wants Jack-
son to further student participa
tion in leadership positions
through the Bonfire Committee.
“We all know the students ac
tually build Bonfire,” Neerman
said. “But there are a lot of be
hind-the-scenes decisions where
students could get more involved.
“Students on the Bon
fire Committee are
usually too busy
building to worry
about the admin
istrative things,
like fund raising
and the alcohol
policy.”
Jackson said he
and his three assis
tant advisers want to
change this through
student leadership.
“We want to work
with the students to
plan, coordinate and
organize Bonfire,
while giving the stu
dents more control of
the committee,”
he said.
Midnight Yell in Colorado
Battalion File Photo
Midnight yell practice for the A&M-Colorado game will be held Friday night at midnight on the steps of
the Capitol in Denver.