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
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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