The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 30, 1995, Image 1

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    Buggin’ out
Fitzgerald: Students must
live in fear because of
A&M's ant infestation.
Opinion, Page 15
In the spotlight
Uptmor: Jonatha Brooke
has thrown herself into the
musical mix.
Aggielife, Page 3
Bat
Good company
The Swimming and Diving
Teams face some tough
competition this weekend.
Sports, Page 11
102, No. 67 (16 pages)
Established in 1893
Thursday • November 30, 1995
HE
adets react to Clinton’s decision Reconnaissance
ED
Jome cadets said the U.S.
ould not be the world's police,
lile others offered support for
I ling the people of former
goslavia.
Heather Pace
[E Battalion
Amid controversy over U.S. involvement
the former Yugoslavia, the Texas A&M
irps of Cadets stands strong in its determi-
iion to follow orders from President Clin-
i, even though personal beliefs may differ.
On Monday, Clinton urged Americans to
pport the deployment of 20,000 U.S. troops
help enforcement of the Dayton Accords, a
peace treaty recently agreed upon by divisions
of the former Yugoslavia.
Although the troops would be under
American control, they would help NATO
enforce a separation zone between the op
posing sides.
Maj. Robert King, a military science pro
fessor involved with the Corps’ Army ROTC
detachment, said the Army must do its duty,
whether it supports Clinton’s decision or not.
“The fact is that we are soldiers,” King
said. “We don’t necessarily question where
we are ordered to go. If we are ordered to
go, we will go on the mission.”
A debate is raging in Washington, D.C.
that centers around whether America’s role is
to further world peace. The debate is also a big
issue within the Corps, since 40 percent of
cadets will seek careers in the military.
Kyle Robinson, A-l commanding officer and
a senior psychology major, said the United
States does not have a duty to the world.
“As far as Bosnia goes, I don’t believe that
we are the world’s police,” he said. “I’m tak
ing a contract in the Army, and I personally
wouldn’t want to be fighting over there in
Bosnia for their disagreement.”
King, however, offered support for Ameri
ca’s role as a global watchdog.
“We are the leaders of the free world and
the head of the democratic new world order,”
he said, “and as such, we have to take the
lead in special circumstances.”
Clint McReynolds, second battalion com
mander and a senior business analysis ma
jor, said he believes the responsibility of for
mer Yugoslavia should be shifted to Europe.
“I personally don’t think we belong over
See Reaction, Page i o
team visits Bosnia
□ The group will survey
the war-ravaged area.
KALESIJA, Bosnia-Herzegov-
ina (AP) — U.S. military experts
arrived in northern Bosnia
Wednesday to scout the battered
countryside where thousands of
GIs are to keep the peace.
“We’ve got a lot to do and
very little time to do it,” said
Col. John Brown, splashing
through the mud in a U.N.
pickup truck.
Within weeks, some 20,000
U.S. soldiers are to begin arriv
ing, and then will fan out across
northeastern Bosnia. French,
British and other troops will pa
trol the rest of the country.
In the meantime, Brown’s
teams will be bouncing, over hun
dreds of miles of northeastern
Bosnia, checking landing strips,
pothole-riddled roads, scores of
villages and many minefields.
The GIs will face “the same
dangers that have been here for
several years and will continue.
See BOSNIA, Page 10
Student Senate passes on-line transcript, Southside mail box bills
Amy Browning, The Battalion
Let out your frustrations
Julie Schumaker, a senior anthropology major, takes a whack at the van painted to re
semble Bevo Wednesday afternoon in front of Rudder Fountain.
ELEPHANT WALK
Seniors prepare to take final walk
□ The Elephant Walk speaker
said the fall's events are
more than a preparation for
graduation, but a transition
to the next 20 years of their
lives.
By Lily Aguilar
The Battalion
Before seniors tour the Texas A&M
campus for the last time as members of
the Twelfth Man, Charles A. “Chuck”
Hinton, Elephant Walk speaker and a
Class of ’76 yell leader, will relive the
journey he made 20 years ago.
Hinton of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, is the
vice president of Nicklos-Hinton
Drilling Company and president of
Faywood International.
Hinton, who has also spoken at Ag
gie Muster, said he wants to address
the graduating class about the future
as they prepare to leave college life.
“I want to talk about why I came to
A&M and what happened to me, person
ally, as I became an Aggie,” he said. “I
also want to talk about the changes they
can expect during the next 20 years as
I’ve seen from my own experience.”
Seniors tend to feel pessimistic after
Elephant Walk and their last Bonfire,
Hinton said, but these events are do
not end their senior year. It is impor
tant for seniors to begin setting new
goals for their futures, he said.
“I know that Elephant Walk is sup
posed to symbolize elephants wander
ing aimlessly,” he said. “It should be a
time when the seniors wander with
a purpose.
“At A&M we are taught to be a part
of established goals — Bonfire, Muster,
Silver Taps. We were led into these
things by those before us. Now we need
to set individual goals.”
Elephant Walk is a bittersweet
memory, Hinton said, because he was
fatigued and stressed from his last
night helping on Bonfire with his
Corps unit.
Being the Elephant Walk speaker
will give Hinton an opportunity to re
create his walk.
“It is an honor to be asked back to
share my experience with this class,” he
said. “It is a challenge to tell them not to
be sad, but proud of what they’ve done.
See Walk, Page 1 0
SCHEDULE
Who: Class of ’96
When: 96 minutes after noon
Where: The walk begins at
Kyle Field ends at Bonfire site
for pictures and yells.
Who: Class of ’97
When: 96 minutes after noon
Where: The juniors’ walk be
gins at Bonfire and ends at
Kyle Field.
The Athletic Department re
minds juniors and seniors to keep
off the field during the event.
The transcript proposal
would allow students to
obtain free unofficial
ranscripts.
ly Tara Wilkinson
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Student Sen
ate Wednesday night called for
ampus additions that would
Provide an option to receive free
transcripts through the A&M
computer system, a Southside
mail drop box and more bicycle
racks on West Campus.
Jesse Czelusta, a Northside
senator and a senior agricultur
al economics major, said in
stead of paying for transcripts,
students should be able to re
ceive them free of charge
through the “Bonfire” command
on the A&M computer system.
“Students seem to like the
idea,” Czelusta said. “It’s just an
other convenience. It’s no big, con
troversial deal.”
Senators were concerned
that if transcripts are added to
the computer system, any stu
dents’ grades could be viewed
simply by entering their social
security number and birth date
into the computer.
But Czelusta said if students
do not feel secure with identifi
cation numbers consisting of
their social security num
bers and birth dates, they
can go to 113 Heaton
Hall and change their
identification number.
Czelusta said this
method would be as se
cure as the A&M tele
phone registration system
already in operation,
through which students can
access their grades.
The Senate also called for
the installation of a mail drop
box on Coke Street between
Corps dorms 4 and 6.
The only mail box currently locat
ed on Southside is in the Commons..
“Essentially, this bill was first
brought up on behalf of the
Corps of Cadets to provide a
mail box that is driving ac
cessible,” Czelusta said.
The mail drop box lo
cation was a compro
mise between the Sen
ate and the College Sta
tion postmaster, who
wanted the mail box lo
cated on an already estab
lished mail route.
Eliot Kerlin Jr., a College of
Business senator and a junior fi
nance major, authored the bill for
additional bike racks to be placed
on West Campus between the
Wehner Building and the West
Campus Library.
The bill states that because
traffic to West Campus in
creased after these two facili
ties were built last year, nu
merous bicyclists are forced to
“lock their bicycles to shrubs,
light posts or nothing at all.”
West Campus will be safer and
more attractive, Kerlin said, if bi
cycle racks are added.
In other business, the Senate
introduced a bill that would
change the funding source of two
Corps of Cadets programs: the
Corps Leadership Training and
Unit Advisor Program and the
Corps Room Scholarship.
These programs, which to
gether cost $337, 972 annually,
are funded by on-campus resi
dent fees.
As it reads now, the bill re
quests a fairer method of raising
these funds, suggesting alumni
funding or a flat fee for the entire
student body.
But Hilary Ekblad, North-
side senator and a junior politi
cal science major, said senators
will revise the options present
ed in the bill after receiving
student feedback.
The Senate bill supports a sim
ilar bill passed this month by the
Residence Hall Association.
Correspondent discusses negative depictions SWC spectacular in tomorrow’s Batt
slewman, a CNN Latin
n correspondent said
Jia coverage focuses on
tive events in Mexico.
Keerins
Lengthy U.S. media coverage of recent
Mexican crises has held American atten
tion, but does not provide a complete pic
ture of Mexico, a CNN Latin American cor
respondent visiting Texas A&M said
Wednesday afternoon.
Lucia Newman, who is based in Santiago,
Chile, discussed media depictions of the
Mexican criris at the Kyle R. Younts Inter
national Forum, an event begun in 1994 to
educate students about international issues.
Newman said U.S. news coverage of
Mexico does not vary from the usual media
trend of focusing on negative events and
neglecting to report positive events.
“The way we cover Mexico is by emphasiz
ing what we think is important,” Newman
said. “It is usually the dramatic and chaotic.”
Dr. Henry Schmidt, an A&M Latin
American history professor, gave an
overview of the Mexican crisis.
“Throughout the 1980s,” Schmidt said,
“two extraordinary things began to happen —
the global break-up of socialism and the Mex
ican desire to change its economic and politi
cal system of at least 60 years standing.”
These two forces, which converged to
shape Mexico into what it is today, he said,
are referred to as the neoliberal change.
In 1982, the Mexican government faced
a foreign debt crisis that consumed Mexi-
can-U.S. relations and media coverage of
Mexico for much of the decade.
“We try to cover human interest stories,”
Newman said. “But stories about good news
invariably take a back seat to hard breaking
news, which is almost always bad news.”
Peso devaluation, the assassination of
presidential candidate Colosio and natural
disasters are examples Newman gave of
Mexican issues dramatized in the U.S. press.
Newman said U.S. coverage of NAFTA,
another hot topic, is usually slanted.
See Correspondent, Page 2
Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion
Lucia Newman, a CNN Latin American cor
respondent, spoke about the impact of the
media's negative depictions of Mexico
Wednesday afternoon.
In tomorrow's issue.
The Battalion will
feature a special section
commemorating the
end of the Southwest
Conference. The issue
will include profiles of
all SWC teams and
focus on the battles
between Texas A&M
and the University of
Texas.
Also in tomorrow's
Batt, look for a special
section chronicling the
history of A&M's
Bonfire.