Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1996)
4 Mediocre Movies VENDOR WARS Back on Track riday • January 1*), ick team s Big 12 view ? Texas A&M Swift: B-CS theaters offer poor movie selections. Aggielife, Page 4 students Landauer: Salespeople on campus will tell students anything to earn their commission. Opinion, Page 9 The Men's Basketball Team recorded their first SWC win. Sports, Page 7 Battalion Teams will ete in the OW Invitational. ante Christopher ALIGN 02, No. 76 (10 pages) Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893 Monday • January 22, 1996 i Kappa Alpha suspended from activities Saturi g ’exas A&M Men’s Track and Field Tes i their season S oma City in what* k preview of the Big on. ily will the Aggie Oklahoma Invitation there will be many of their soon rivals. said he is very s team and feels it ti the Southwest Confs this year, i is not the only oi the Aggies have a comps ir O' con e fraternity could nalized by the rfraternity Council lazing. issa Alanis ATTALIGN Texas A&M chapter of appa Alpha fraternity is orarily suspended from cipation in campus activi- md from use of all Univer sity facilities because of a Jan. 16 preliminary investigation into alleged hazing incidents. Lanita Hanson, coordinator of Greek affairs and assistant direc tor of student activities, and Jon FVice, Interfraternity Council ad viser, initiated the investigation after Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student affairs, notified them that a non-fraterni ty member reported hazing inci dents to him. Investigation reports state that Pi Kappa Alpha pledges were allegedly subjected to forced work, sleep deprivation and denial of food and water. “Based on the reports, the or ganization violated state and University hazing regulations,” Hanson said. “Hazing is not a thing to be taken lightly. It is dangerous and wrong.” Price said he, IFC members and Student Conflict Resolution Center members are conducting a further investigation into the matter. “If information is found that the hazing was a violation of an organization’s standards, charges will be brought to the judicial board of the IFC,” Price said. If the investigation also de termines the incidents were vi olations against individuals, the information will be handled by student-conduct officers in the Student Conflict Resolution Center. “Sanctions will be handed down depending on the level of violations,” he said. “The Univer sity or the IFC could sanction the organization.” Robert D. Muse Jr., Pi Kap pa Alpha chapter president, de clined to comment, but in a Jan. 18 press release he said his fraternity does not condone hazing-related activities. “We intend to cooperate fully with the University’s investiga tion,” Muse said. “Further, we are conducting a complete in ternal investigation to deter mine if a violation of fraternity standards has occurred. “Any members found in viola tion of our anti-hazing policy will be dealt with by the chapter and could face expulsion from the fraternity by the chapter.” Price said that in his six years of experience with Greek organi zations, he has noticed that inac tive fraternity members or alum ni usually are the ones who in stigate hazing incidents. “These individuals have no consideration for what the orga nization is about and what it is doing,” Price said. “Those who haze are concerned only with having fun.” Now that hazing allegations See Suspended, Page 6 C crown. 55-meter hurdler La? aid A&M has the lev here every Aggie cor. ; a fair shot of winnir? they line up. ;eep our heads togeti out as a team ani akes care of business hould be able to Wade said. • strength for the k veckend and fori senior 55-m hurdlei (irkland. id said that sheis st her feet this week she can make herli- ments for the SWC ;h not looking pasl the Aggies are tnilj rward to the SWC ise of the end of the Hoach Nelson and ) Brown have never VC, this is our r ade said. “Wenot to win the title for ut primarily for BSLC provides attendees ith leadership strategies articipants said conference was itivational. Pam Benson Battalion Student leaders from Texas, lahoma, Louisiana and kansas gathered at Texas I /% Dom Dance 1 rch 25. April I. 8. 15,22 >0pm lent $30/nonstudcnl bug i 31. Feb 7. 14.21.28 ent $30/nonstudail Shane Elkins, The Battalion Ida Gooden, from TSU, speaks conference participants. A&M this weekend for the eighth annual Southwestern Black Student Leadership Con ference. Participants attended work shops on subjects ranging from the Million Man March to preparing for job interviews, and speakers attempted to in spire participants to become strong leaders. Dr. James Anderson, confer ence speaker and dean of un dergraduate studies at North Carolina State University, said the “pillars” of students’ lives crumble when they do not take responsibility for their educa tions. “When you waste your time watching ‘dope-operas’ instead of going to the computer lab, the pillars will crumble,” An derson said. Anderson told students that the next Barbara Jordan could be sitting at the conference with them, and that it was time to make a difference, just as Jordan did. A former African- American congresswoman, Jor dan died last week. Other speakers included Michael Dyson, director of the Institute of African-American Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Barbara Reynolds, a USA Today columnist. Felix Mouton, a conference participant from Lamar Uni versity, said he was impressed with the conference as a whole and with the diverse perspec tives represented. “Coming to the conference has been a great opportunity for me to meet some very posi tive and intelligent African- Americans,” Mouton said. SBSLC coordinators received many compliments on the con ference’s success. Katy Pace, SBSLC director of registration, said the staff fo cused on conveying practical strategies of leadership to par ticipants. “The feedback from the par ticipants has been wonderful,” Pace said. “Our focus of a more realistic type of leadership helped not only the partici pants, but the staff as well.” Niki Bisor, SBSLC chair, said participants walked away with a wealth of inspiration and motivation. More than 1,100 people at tended this year’s conference. North gate Revitalization □ A finalized redevelopment plan will be completed in the next few weeks. By Heather Pace The Baitalion The College Station City Council approved the Northgate Revitalization and Redevelop ment Plan Jan. 11, but Northgate business owners are angry and uncertain about the plan’s benefits. Although three official community meetings and numerous unofficial meetings were held last semester and in the summer, business owners said their input concerning changes to Northgate has been ignored. A concrete, detailed Northgate plan will be finalized in the next few weeks, and starting dates for many of the plan’s facets are sched uled to begin this summer. The first changes will include renovation of the University Dr. sidewalk and facade im provements to Campus Photo and University Bookstore. Bernie Gessner, owner of Aggie Cleaners, said the plan reflects what designers feel is best for Northgate. “The planners and the city have essentially decided they don’t like Northgate the way it is,” Gessner said. “They really haven’t gotten any input from the people at Northgate and have pretty much ignored what we have said.” Gessner said the major problem with the plan is that it loses sight of Northgate’s main purpose. “Their vision for Northgate is to make it a wonderful, cutesy shopping center, and that’s not what Northgate is; it’s a ser vice center for the students,” he said. Todd McDaniel, Northgate project coordina tor, said renovation plans change the focus of See Northgate, Page 6 Cory Willis The Battalion INSTANT RICE: JUST ADD WATER An usher cleans up water on the basketball court at halftime of the A&M-Rice basketball game Sat urday. The water flowed down a ramp and onto the court from a nearby bathroom. A&M finds new homes for In November, four teams of architecture professionals, architecture students, architecture professors and local merchants developed sketches of a potential future Northgate. This sketch, aspects of which may or may not be incorporated into a final design, creates a public space behind the bars on University Dr. fall’s overassigned students □ Approximately 100 residence hall rooms were vacant at the start of the semester. By Johanna Henry The Battalion Thanks to Texas A&M’s De partment of Residence Life and Housing, a few hundred stu dents have been relieved of the cramped living conditions they endured last semester. The housing department solved a 300-student overas signment problem by relocating students to less-crowded resi dence halls. Housing officials gave 97 per cent of fall semester’s overas signed students a room in the residence hall of their choice. Last semester, the University assigned groups of three stu dents to many rooms designed to accommodate two students. Now only 10 students, by choice, are still living three to a room. Ron Sasse, director of the De partment of Residence Life and Housing, said the sudden abun dance of residence hall spaces is not surprising. The number of students moving off campus in the spring is always greater, he said, than the number of stu dents moving on campus. “Students graduate, co-op, get married, fail out, transfer or move off campus,” Sasse said. Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student af fairs, said the University kept its promise to find space before the spring semester for all overassigned students who wanted to live with only one roommate. He said the University doesn’t make any money, or benefit in any way, from overassignments. “By the time we give price breaks on room rent and buy ex tra beds, we just about break , even,” he said. Brad Allcom, a freshman bio medical science major who opted to continue living with two room mates, said living with an overas signment helps him meet people. “The way I look at it, if you have three people in a room, that’s one more friend you have,” Allcorn said. “I was very lucky, because I have two really cool roommates.” But Allcorn said he wasn’t always so confident that three people living in one room would work out. See Overassignments, Page 6