The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, January 18, 1996, Image 1

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LEADING THE WAY
Student leaders dedicate their
time to improve campus life.
Aggielife , Page 3
1102, No. 74 (10 pages)
OBSESSED AND BUMMED OUT ■ STAMPEDE
Clark: Considering A&M's obsession with UT, Aggies
deserve their recent "Bum Steer" awards.
Opinion, Page 9
The Lady Longhorns rout the Lady
Aggie Basketball Team, 87-66.
Sports, Page 7
Battalion
Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893
Thursday • January 18, 1996
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SBSLC builds
jlhe conference will
focus on problems in
le African-American
[ommunity.
I) Heather Pace
to Battalion
More than 1,000 students
liomTexas and surrounding
slates will gain a renewed sense
! ([community responsibility at
ike seventh annual Texas A&M
Southwestern Black Student
Leadership Conference (SBSLC).
Conference coordinators said
SBSLC, which starts today and
tads Sunday, will concentrate on
finding solutions to problems in
the African-American communi
ty that have been discussed at
previous conferences.
James Jolivette, SBSLC as
sistant director of public rela
tions and a sophomore biomed
ical science major, said this
year’s SBSLC theme, “The
Foundation of the Past is Laid
... Will the Pillars of Today
Support the Roof of Tomorrow?”
expresses the conference’s goal.
“Each year’s theme leads up
to the next year, and so this
year we are basically looking
for solutions,” Jolivette said.
“We know what is going on, we
just have to find some way to
solve these problems.”
Niki Bisor, SBSLC chair and
a senior business analysis major,
said committee members chose
the theme because college stu
dents must prepare themselves
to shoulder responsibility for
their communities.
on goals from previous year
“Many of us have been very
positively influenced by leaders
in the past who have done a lot
for the African-American com
munity,” Bisor said. "But we
ourselves have not taken a part
of the load to help make this a
better world.”
Jolivette said he was heart
ened by the determination of last
year’s conference participants to
better their community.
“I was very excited just see
ing the number of people out
there who were trying to find so
lutions for problems within the
minority community,” he said.
“My excitement stemmed from
the enthusiasm of the partici
pants and their willingness and
the readiness to listen and com
municate and get things done.”
The conference will facilitate
problem solving with workshops
and speakers.
Antonia Jackson, a graduate
student in education administra
tion who will attend the confer
ence for the first time this week
end, said the conference provides
African-Americans an opportuni
ty to network.
“I’m going to meet people
from other places to see what
they are doing and to exchange
ideas,” Jackson said. “We don’t
have a lot of opportunities to
gather together.”
She said the conference will al
low participants to discuss issues
that are relevant to their lives.
“They are going over a lot of
good topics, such as some of the
things African-American women
may be going through in the
workplace,” Jackson said.
Ron Sasse, director of resi
dence life and housing, said he
has learned an immense amount
and gained new perspectives
from attending SBSLC events.
“The greatest benefit for me as
an Anglo person is that if you put
yourself in a situation where you
are the minority, you learn so
much more just by listening and
being a part of it,” Sasse said.
This year’s speakers include
Michael Dyson, author of “Re
flecting Black: African Ameri
can Cultural Criticism,” and
Barbara Reynolds, a USA To
day columnist.
SBSLC will host Reg.e Gaines
in Rudder Auditorium Thursday
at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 each.
The Texas Southern Universi
ty debate team will discuss affir
mative action Friday at 7 p.m. in
Rudder Auditorium.
Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
SBSLC will hold a career fair in
Rudder Exhibit Hall, which is
open to the public. Vendors will
sell African artwork, clothes
and books.
"Many of us have been very positively influenced by
leaders in the past who have done a lot for the
African-American community."
— Niki Bisor
SBSLC chair
Gwendolyn Struve, The Battai.ion
ADDING UP FAST
Daniel Silvas, a senior wildlife fisheries major, loses his books at Texas Aggie Bookstore Wednesday.
Pneumonia takes congresswoman^ life
Q Barbara Jordan was
the first black woman to
be elected to Congress
from the South.
AUSTIN (AP) — Former U.S.
Hep. Barbara Jordan, whose elo
quent defense of the Constitution
inspired the nation during the
Watergate hearings, died
Wednesday. She was 59.
The first
black woman
elected to
Congress from
the South,
Jordan was
femembered
a figure
'vho tran
scended parti-
politics to
set an exam
ple of ethics,
Public service
and the pursuit of justice.
And always, there was her
Voice — formal, eloquent, deep
and powerful, befitting the
daughter of a Baptist minister.
“Barbara’s words flowed
Jordan
with heartfelt conviction and
her actions rang of indefatiga
ble determination as she chal
lenged us as a nation to con
front our weaknesses and live
peacefully together as equals,”
President Clinton said.
Added Vice President A1 Gore,
“Her impassioned defense of the
U.S. Constitution during Water
gate will ring in America’s collec
tive memory forever.”
Jordan also had been ill for
several years with multiple scle
rosis, and used a wheelchair and
walker. She nearly drowned in
1988 when she lost consciousness
in her backyard swimming pool.
“Texas has lost a powerful
voice of conscience and integrity.
Barbara Jordan was a champion
of our freedom, Constitution and
laws,” Gov. George W. Bush said.
Jordan died at Austin Diag
nostic Medical Center of pneumo
nia thought to be a complication
of leukemia, said George Christ
ian, former press secretary to
President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Once considered a possible
vice presidential candidate,
Jordan left politics after three
terms in the U.S. House, choos
ing to teach at the University of
Texas. She shunned the lime
light and devoted her energy to
her students, who fondly called
her “B.J.”
Her life was a series of firsts:
Her 1972 election to Congress
came six years after she made
history as the first black woman
ever elected to the Texas Legisla
ture and the first black elected to
the state
Senate
since
1883.
At the
time of
her death,
Ms. Jor
dan was chairwoman of the in
dependent U.S. Commission on
Immigration Reform.
In recent years, she had devot
ed herself to her students at UT’s
LBJ School of Public Affairs,
whose faculty she joined in 1979.
Jordan, who was born in
Houston in 1936, said her father
demanded that she bring home
A’s when she was growing up.
She graduated with honors
from Texas Southern University
— where she was a member of
the debating team that defeated
Harvard — and studied law at
Boston University.
Jordan practiced law in Hous
ton and got her start in politics
licking stamps in the Kennedy-
Johnson campaign of 1960.
Jordan made two unsuccess
ful bids for the Texas House of
Representatives. Then in 1966,
after the Supreme Court’s one-
person, one-vote ruling, the
Legislature divided Houston
into electoral districts.
Jordan ran for the state Sen
ate and won.
Her legislative achievements
included co-sponsoring the state’s
first minimum wage bill, sponsor
ing a workers’ compensation bill
and leading opposition to a bill in
tended to disenfranchise blacks
and Hispanics by tightening voter
registration requirements.
Jordan is survived by two sis
ters and her mother, Arlyne, all
of Houston. Funeral arrange
ments were pending.
"Texas has lost a powerful voice of con
science and integrity."
— George W. Bush
Texas governor
Select classes
offered on TV
□ The experimental
courses may increase in
selection and enrollment
if successful.
By Greg Fahrenheit
The Battalion
Some students in Bryan-Col-
lege Station will soon be able to
lean back in their recliners and
attend course lectures from the
comfort of their own living rooms.
Four experimental “telecours
es” are being offered this semes
ter in a joint effort by Blinn and
KAMU-TV.
Psychology 2301, General Psy
chology; Government 2306, State
Government; Sociology 1301, In
troductory Sociology; and History
1302, American History II will be
taught by Blinn faculty members
and can transfer for A&M credit.
The lectures will air Jan. 22
through the end of the semes
ter and will be shown Mondays
through Thursdays at 6 a.m.
and will be repeated Sunday
from 8-11:30 a.m.
Telecourse instructors will
be available for student confer
ences, and traditional exams
will be-given.
Dr. Rodney Zent, director of
A&M’s educational broadcast
services, said the courses are
open to students with circum
stances restricting their class
attendance, such as disabilities
or full-time jobs.
“KAMU will be able to offer
the classes to people who other
wise might not be able to attend
traditional, scheduled lectures,”
Zent said.
Henry Hill, Blinn associate
vice president for Brazos County
campuses, said enrollment in
these courses is limited to 194
students because this is the first
time the program is being offered.
“This is an experiment,” Hill
said, “meaning that we did not
go out of our way to get a large
number of faculty members for
the program.”
General registration is po
longer open, but extenuating cir
cumstances will be considered.
If the program succeeds, Blinn
representatives said they will ex
pand the number of facility mem
bers involved in the program to
allow more students to partic
ipate next semester.
Benjamin Moore, a freshman
chemical engineering major, said
the program will be helpful.
“It’s sometimes hard to fit
everything into a schedule the
way the registration process is
now,” Moore said. “If I could tape
a class and watch it on the week
end when I’m not busy, it would
be very convenient.”
KAMU broadcasts on UHF
Channel 15, which is cable Chan
nel 4 in the B-CS area.
Lawyers offer Aggies
free legal services
□ Attorneys can give
advice on accidents,
MIPs and landlord
disputes.
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
Faith Maciejko, a Texas
A&M sophomore biomedical sci
ence major, had a big problem.
She had just received her
second Minor in Possession ci
tation outside a College Station
liquor store on a Saturday
night. She was facing a stiff fine
of S500 to $1,000.
But instead of panicking,
Maciejko called her lawyer.
It just so happens that her
lawyer, Rick Powell, has more
than 40,000 other clients.
Powell, an attorney and
A&M coordinator of student
legal services, provides legal
advice to all A&M students
free of charge.
And although Powell cannot
represent students in a court
of law, he can advise students
on virtually any legal matter.
“We (legal services) are a
general practice law firm
available to students for
free,” he said.
Powell has helped students
with all sorts of legal matters
ranging from traffic tickets
and automobile accidents to
domestic affairs, such as pa
ternity suits and wills.
He advises students who
See Lawyers, Page 2