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Aggielife, Page 3
Going out in style! Back In Business
Stidvent: There are some
products on which the A&M
seal does not belong.
Opinion, Page 9
The Aggie Football
Team rebounds with a
24-9 win over Baylor.
Sports, Page 7
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Vol. 102, No. 41 (10 pages)
Established in 1893
Monday • October 23, 1995
Senate group offers three cultures alternatives
□ The suggestions were
discussed during an
Academic Affairs
committee meeting
Sunday night.
By Lori Young
The Battalion
The Student Senate Academic
Affairs committee presented three
new alternatives for a cultures re
quirement last night.
Jesse Czelusta, an on-cam
pus Northside senator and a se
nior agricultural economics ma
jor, presented the first alterna
tive, which would call for each
respective college to create its
own cultures requirement.
Bo Armstrong, an off-cam-
pus senator and a junior com
puter science major, said the
majority of students supported
allowing individual colleges to
set a requirement.
“We think its very important
that those who are experts in
your field set the curriculum,”
Armstrong said.
Jason Waligura, a College of
Engineering senator and a junior
petroleum engineering major,
said this alternative would best
prepare students because it en
hances each student’s degree.
“It preserves the student’s
freedom,” Waligura said. “We
didn’t want someone from the
College of Liberal Arts setting
the curriculum for someone in
engineering.”
Waligura also said the flexibili
ty provided by this proposal
would decrease the negative feel
ings about a cultures requirement
among students and faculty.
The second alternative, pre
sented by Off-campus Senator
Chris Miller, would support the
original Faculty Senate propos
al and the existing qualifying
course list.
The Faculty Senate bill, pro
posed in 1993, mandates six cred
it hours of cultures courses —
three hours concerning U.S. cul
tures and three hours concerning
international cultures.
The Faculty Senate bill
would also provide a list of
more than 200 courses that
would fulfill the requirements.
Elizabeth Neugart, an off-cam
pus senator and a junior biomed
ical sciences major, said the Stu
dent Senate needs to re-examine
its role on the issue.
“We are a Board of Trustees in
this situation,” Neugart said.
Miller, a sophomore English
major, said the Faculty Senate
has done much research on the is
sue of multiculturalism, and to be
effective, both the Student and
Faculty Senates need to speak
with one voice.
“We want to make sure the
students get an effective educa
tion out of this,” he said.
The third alternative, present
ed by Off-campus Senator Jason
Herrick, proposes that the state-
mandated History 105 and 106
and Political Science 205 and 206
qualify as fulfilling a three-hour
American cultures requirement.
Herrick’s proposal would also
call for a three-hour, University
wide international requirement
with the specific qualifying class
lists to be developed by the indi
vidual colleges.
Waligura advised the senators
to talk to all their constituents
and not focus on a few highly vo
cal students.
“This is a very emotional is
sue,” he said. “There seems to be
a couple of minority groups that
have made this their war cry.”
These three alternatives will
be debated at the next Relations
and Curriculum subcommittee
meeting Sunday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m.
in 146 Koldus.
Czelusta stressed that the Stu
dent Senate members need the
opinions of their constituents.
“We are open to any ideas you
have,” he said.
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Ready for take-off
Michael Yoder, age 13, readies at the Lake Bryan Mountain Bike Challenge
starting line. Yoder participated in the beginner class, placing fourth. The
race was held Saturday at Bryan Utility Lake.
Lecture series addresses
violence against women
□ Investigating men before
dating them is one way to
prevent domestic violence.
By Kristen Homyk
The Battalion
Women in Science and Engineering
continued their Women's Health
Month lecture series Friday with “His
torical and Sociological Perspectives
on Domestic Violence.”
Mitzi Vorachek, director of Com
munity Education for the Houston
Area Women’s Center, discussed the
cycle of violence against women, the
ways in which it is perpetuated and
the best preventions and cures for
domestic violence.
Domestic violence is defined as in
tentional, repeated acts by an individu
al’s intimate partner that cause physi
cal, sexual, emotional, economic or spir
itual harm to the individual, usually in
a predictive cycle. FBI statistics say one
of two women will be in a relationship
with a batterer in her lifetime.
“A small minority of men batter,
but what happens is they go from
woman to woman,” Vorachek said.
The cycle of violence is harder on
middle- and upper-class women, who
See Violence, Page 6
Shane Elkins, Tin Battalion
Mitzi Vorachek, director of Communi
ty Education for the Houston Area
Women's Center, spoke about domes
tic violence Friday.
Baker’s parents testify in trial
□ Store employees said
Shamburger used stolen credit
cards to make purchases the
month of the murder.
By Lily Aguilar
The Bati align
The parents of Lori Ann Baker testi
fied Friday that their daughter’s murder
had destroyed their lives, and other wit
nesses told jurors that convicted mur
derer Ron Shamburger used credit cards
taken from Baker’s apartment to pur
chase luxury items.
Shamburger was convicted of capital
murder last Thursday and faces a life
sentence or the death penalty.
Brazos County District Attorney Bill
Turner called Baker’s parents to the
stand to testify about their daughter’s
character and the impact her death had
on their lives.
Faye Baker, the victim’s mother, said
she and her daughter did “girls things
together” and described the 20-year-old
woman as her “best friend.”
“We were extremely close,” Faye Bak
er said. “She was my best friend. She
was my life, really.”
The murder of her daughter has
dramatically changed her life, Faye
Baker said.
“I am so depressed I
don’t go out,” she said.
“I stay in the house
most of the time. I just
don’t feel well.”
The victim’s father,
Derrel Baker, was in
Aberdeen, Scotland,
when his wife called
him about their
daughter’s murder.
Derrel Baker said he
was totally shocked by
the news.
“I just dropped the phone and said,
‘No! No! This can’t be true,”’ he said.
Derrel Baker described his daughter
as “absolutely the sweetest girl in the
world,” and said his daughter’s death
has wrecked his life.
“I can’t think of anything that can hap
pen to a father worse than this,” he said.
Turner also called on several local
youths who knew Shamburger to testify
about the defendant.
Lindsay Wilson,17, worked with
Shamburger at the Albertson’s grocery
store on Longmire Drive. Wilson said
Shamburger often talked to her.
Wilson said Shamburger knew her
address, license plate number and other
important pieces of information about
her. She said she never told him any of
the information.
“He knew everything about me,”
she said.
Prosecutors also called on Dr. Elise
Garrison, an A&M associate professor
of modern languages, who told the
court that $80 in cash and two gold
credit cards were taken from her house
on Sept. 20, 1994, 10 days before Bak
er’s murder.
Witnesses from local stores testified,
saying Shamburger had used credit
cards he had stolen from Baker and her
neighbors, including Garrison, at their
stores in August and September 1994.
Employees from Dillards, FYo Golf Dis
count of Aggieland and Cavender’s Boot
City said they recognized the defendant as
the man who came into their stores and
purchased goods with Baker’s card.
They said Shamburger used the credit
cards to buy more than $1,200 of shoes,
clothing and other luxury items, such as
cigars and alcohol.
Proceedings resume today at 8:30 a.m.
Breaking barriers
History prof part
□ Unterberger first came to campus in 1968.
She is the winner of three distinguished
teaching awards.
By Heather Pace
The Battaeion
Dr. Betty Unterberger, the first female full professor
appointed at Texas A&M, has provided a role model for
women and expanded the international scope of the histo
ry department during her years at A&M.
Unterberger first came to A&M in 1968 because she
and her husband, a geophysics professor, were both of
fered jobs.
“It took a certain amount of vision from the University
to bring me here because it was a predominantly male in
stitution,” Unterberger said. “At the time, Gen. (Earl)
Rudder was president, and he had the vision to ultimately
open the door for women.”
The winner of three distinguished teaching awards and
author of two prize-winning books, Unterberger said
women scholars need more recognition for the many and
often unpublicized contributions they make to the acade
mic community.
Unterberger attended Syracuse University for her un
dergraduate degree, Harvard University for her master’s,
and Duke University for her Ph.D. She specializes in in
ternational history and American foreign relations, espe
cially between the U.S.S.R and the Far East.
Earning a double major in political science and history,
Unterberger decided to concentrate in history because she
believes the past is the key to the present.
“I believe that in order to understand the present, you
have to have a solid understanding of the past, which in
cludes a history of all peoples and cultures,” she said.
Unterberger’s job has taken her all over the world,
teaching and lecturing in such varied places as Peking
University in Beijing, Charles University in Prague,
Czechoslovakia, Turkey and Pakistan.
As the first female professor at A&M, Unterberger has
broken through many barriers.
“In the beginning years, men couldn’t fathom what a
woman was doing in their classes,” she said. “When I
walked into class, they thought I was a secretary telling
of A&M history
them that their professor couldn’t be there.”
Although she said the women began attending A&M
“very, very slowly,” Unterberger said she was excited as the
number of women enrolled in the University began to grow.
Unterberger said she can relate to the difficulty of
women who were integrated into A&M because she is in a
field dominated by men.
“I feel like I’ve done a great deal for women students
because it v^ps pretty intimidating coming into predomi
nantly male classes, many of them in uniform,” she said.
Unterberger said her understanding of how to deal
with barriers has grown over the years in.
“One of the ways in which I have developed is learning
how to bring about change without aggressive confronta
tion,” she said.
Dr. Julia Blackwelder, the head of the history depart
ment, has seen the creativity and ingenuity that Unter
berger instills in her students.
See Unterberger, Page 5
Shane Elkins, The Battalion
History professor Dr. Betty Unterberger specializes in in
ternational history and American foreign relations.