Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1995)
X A A &: JML U N V E R *1 T Y Good as Gold Clark: The artist formerly mown as Prince hits with The Gold Experience. Aggielife, Page 3 Burnt-out Baxter: The Simpson trial has worn out its welcome in the minds of many Americans. Opinion, Page 19 Winning ugly The A&M Volleyball Team staves off Rice to improve to 2-0 in the SWC. % Sports, Page 15 The Battali [ol. 102, No. 24 (20 pages) Established in 1893 Thursday • September 28, 1995 eale brings Black Panther history to A&M • • Hill Jobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party will speak jn Rudder Auditorium tonight at 7 p.m. •tudent leaders unite or SG’s Roundtable □ Seale comes to A&M tonight as part of "Panther: Taking Charge of the Revolution," presented by MSC Black Awareness Committee. By Rob Clark The Battalion As Texas A&M struggles to unify the stu dent body across cultural lines, students tonight will have the opportunity to hear a prominent voice who helped unite African Americans in the 1960s. Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Pan ther Party, will speak at 7 p.m. in Rudder Au ditorium as part of “Panther: Taking Charge of the Revolution,” presented by MSC Black Awareness Committee. Seale and Huey Newton started the Black Panthers in Oakland, Calif, in 1966. Seale now serves as a volunteer liaison with Temple Uni versity’s Department of African and African- American Studies. While the Panthers promoted themselves in favor of organization and unity in the black community, their methods of armed self-de fense spread fear and controversy among many. Seale said government officials were to blame for this fear. “What scared everybody,” he said, “was the lies, the stereotyping and the racism in the United States government, including politi cians and other law enforcements, such as J. Edgar Hoover.” Such stereotyping cre ated panic among Ameri cans who did not under stand the Panthers’ mes sage, Seale said. “People like Mayor Daley of Chicago jumped up on national television and said the only reason the Black Panthers have guns is to come into the white community and shoot and kill white people,” Seale said. “Why would we want to come in the community and kill white people when we’ve got a working coalition of friends with hundreds of thousands of white radicals all over the country?” Despite involvement in violent shootouts with police officers, Seale said the Panthers did not promote violence. “We didn’t allow riots,” Seale said. “If you stop a riot then what are you for? You’re for or ganizing people, unifying the political, electoral community power.” Seale said the guns and the fear detracted from the Panthers’ prowess as a political force. “We were a political party,” Seale said. “We ran for political office with our names on the ballot throughout the San Francisco Bay area in 1968. We were a po litical party who had grass-roots organizing and believed in self-de fense if we were going to be attacked by any kind of racist.” One of the biggest battles the Panthers faced was police brutality. Seale said violence erupted when the Panthers tried to defend themselves. “They killed 28 of us in all those times they attacked our offices,” he said. “We killed 14 of their officers. They wounded 64 of us, we See Seale, Page 14 Profile PANTHER iStudents will discuss /hich campus problems leed to be addressed at this year's roundtable discussions. By fara Wilkinson The Batt alion Solutions to difficult problems (jiften become apparent when peo ple with opposing viewpoints are villing to communicate. That is the idea behind the Texas A&M Student Government Roundtable discussions, the first >f which will be held Thursday at :30 p.m. in 230 MSC. David Washington, Student lovernment executive vice pres- dent of administration, said the ■oundtable discussions will open hannels of communication be tween members of diverse cam pus groups. “The mission is to bring togeth er student leaders representative af the demographics of Texas A&M University to discuss issues that are pertinent to students’ academic, social and organiza tional success,” Washington said. One representative from 19 cam pus organizations, ranging from College Republicans to the Black Awareness Committee to Off-Cam pus Aggies, were invited to partic ipate in this week’s discussion. Toby Boenig, A&M student body president, said he and Washington will develop a list of topics for monthly roundtable dis cussions based on feedback from this week’s meeting. “We want everybody to get to gether and tell us what they want to talk about for the rest of the year,” Boenig said. “Then we’re going to go from there and see if there is anything pressing to be discussed right then.” Washington said that although there will be an agenda for the year, one point of the roundtable discussions is to deal with contro versial issues as they develop. “We want to come in with a structured agenda,” he said, “ but also to be flexible to issues that come up throughout the-year.” Erin Mozola, Hohors Student Council president, said she expects multiculturalism to be among the pressing topics of discussion at See Roundtable, Page 14 Amy Browning, Tut Battalion Just browsing Freshman history major jennifer Roberts takes a look at the many posters on display at the poster sale in the MSC Wednesday afternoon. A Local Look at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Local delegates share experience □ Dr. Gail Thomas attended the two-week conference. She spoke to students and faculty Wednesday. By Wes Swift The Battalion A four-woman panel, including a Texas A&M sociology professor, shared their personal experiences about the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women with a packed room of students and faculty Wednesday. More than 30,000 delegates representing 189 nations met in Beijing in September for two weeks of workshops, seminars and official U.N. meetings focus ing on global women’s issues. Dr. Gail Thomas, director of the A&M’s Race and Ethnic Studies Institute and a sociology professor, attended the confer ence and said it gave women from across the world a chance to discover their similarities. “The thing that stands out in my mind is how these women found they had similar ideas, a common thread,” Thomas said. Thomas was joined by three women from Austin who also at tended the conference. Each woman shared a personal story about how she got to Beijing or what she experienced in the Chi nese capital. Patricia Callahan, a social work graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, told the audience how a friend challenged her to find a way to attend the conference. “She said to me, ‘If you were to not put your life on hold for school, what would you do?,” Callahan said. “And I said I’d go to Beijing.” Her friend kept challenging Callahan to find the means to at tend the conference, and Calla han said that was the major force driving her. “She put it in terms that made it seem possible,” she said. Dottie Curry, a member of the community outreach for Planned Parenthood in Austin, took her 17-year-old granddaughter to the conference. Curry said the conference dramatically changed her granddaughter. “I can tell you that I did not bring back the same 17-year-old that I took over there,” Curry said. Curry said a recurring theme See Delegates, Page 14 Organizations consider conference’s effectiveness Robyn Calloway, The Battalion Dr. Gail Thomas, director and professor of Sociology Race and Ethnic Studies Institute of Texas A&M and Patricia Calahan, a graduate stu dent of social work from the University of Texas at Austin, were two of the speakers Wednesday afternoon. □ NOW and Aggies for Life are among the A&M groups that have rehashed the progress made in Beijing. By Michelle Lyons The Battalion As the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women came to a close Sept. 15, 1995, many questions be gan to surface on the Texas A&M campus about what had been accomplished. Various A&M groups con cerned with women’s issues gave special attention to the conference and how the deci sions will likely affect the women on campus. Dr. Gail Thomas, director of the Race and Ethnic Studies In stitute and an A&M sociology professor, said student groups could benefit from reading the Platform for Action, the docu ment that addresses the stances that different countries have on certain women’s issues. “I think that the conference could help if people from these groups could actually attend these conferences,” Thomas said. “It’s always described as a vicarious experience for most people.” Dr. Pam Matthews, director of the Women’s Studies Pro gram and an English professor, said one of the most important aspects of the conference is that it served as a reminder for world leaders. “I think it was really impor tant for reminding America and other Western countries See Conference, Page 14 haiMuiii SKWiwt: “SSLiir *«®4l IIMI *»«H IIHI • ii* ( jmli ; |I| 1 £!?!!'■ I’ili