The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 16, 1996, Image 1

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LOADED WEAPON
The Aggie Baseball Team gears
up for a run at the World Series.
Sports, Page 6
UNHOLY MATRIMONY?
Columnist Debate: Should states recognize same-
sex marriages?
Opinion, Page 9
INFINITE MUSIC
Infinite Record Convention brings
memory of vinyl to town.
Aggielife, Page 3
The Battalion
102, No. 94 (10 pages)
Serving Texas AdrM University Since 1893
Friday * February 16, 1996
raternity placed on two-year probation
Pi Kappa Alpha was
ouldbt und guilty of hazing
larges and must write
etter of apology to
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Lily Aguilar
ie Battalion
The Inter-fraternity Council Ju-
cial Board found the Texas
chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha
atemity guilty of hazing charges
a hearing Thursday night.
The fraternity was placed on
robation for two years and will
ave to complete 400 hours of
community service as the penalty
for subjecting pledges to forced
work, sleep deprivation and de
nial of food and water in January.
The fraternity was ordered to
write a letter of apology to an
A&M student involved in the haz
ing incident and initiate positive
programs for pledges.
Jeremy Moss, judicial board
chief justice and sophomore politi
cal science major, said the sanc
tions should show that the Greek
system will not tolerate hazing.
“(Hazing) is a fairly serious
problem that needs to be ad
dressed,” Moss said. “I don’t know
how fair it (the ruling) will go to
stopping anything. I just hope
people will think twice before do
ing this.”
Moss said the judicial board’s
decision was based on reports
filed during preliminary inves
tigations and testimony given
by fraternity members during
the hearing.
Robert D. Muse, Pi Kappa Al
pha chapter president and a se
nior industrial distribution major,
said the fraternity will not appeal
the judicial boards decision, al
though it could.
“We are happy with (the de
cision),” Muse said, “and we
are just hoping to prevent any
thing like this from happening
in the future.”
Muse said the hazing incident
was an isolated occurrence involv
ing only a few fraternity mem
bers. Fraternity members who
participated in hazing were sus
pended, he said, and could face
expulsion from the organization.
Muse said the actions of a
small group within his fraternity
should not be seen as represen
tative of the whole organization,
which he said is dedicated to
philanthropy and community
service and in no way condones
hazing activities.
Lanita Hanson, coordinator of
Greek affairs and assistant di
rector of student activities, said
the judicial board tried to ensure
that the hazing incident was
handled appropriately.
“I think they addressed the is
sue very specifically,” Hanson
said. “They were making sure
pledge programs are supervised
and thoughtfully put together.
Hanson said the Pi Kappa Al
pha pledge classes will have to
meet with Greek advisers twice a
year as part of the judicial board’s
sanctions. This should establish a
positive relationship between the 1
Pi Kappa Alpha members and ad
visers, she said.
The University does not set
fraternity standards, she said, but
members commit to ethics codes
when they join fraternities.
“Fraternity members publicly
state what standards of member
ship they have,” Hanson said. “I
think one important thing we
learned tonight is that they need
to be held to that.”
Moss said there is a broad, gray
area within hazing laws, which
leaves some fraternity members
unclear about what is acceptable
behavior. The Corps of Cadets has
a similar problem, he said.
“The atmosphere at A&M ... al
lows things that are defined as
hazing to be bred in as tradition,
particularly within the Corps of
Cadets,” Muse said.
“If a pledge has to come up to
me and introduce himself and say
he is a pledge for Pi Kappa Alpha,
that is illegal. But we have a
whole student organization, the
Corps, where (students) have to
whip out.”
)eff Williams, a senior wildlife ecology major, drives the Centerpole route. Williams has been working for the Bus
Operations for two and a half years.
Aggies teach Texas immigrants
cultural assimilation skills
ASTRAC dispute
mediation on hold
Rony Angkriwan, The Battalion
SIT DOWN, BUS DRIVER
□ An out-of-court agreement
concerning the building of an
A&M livestock center will be
reached in March.
By Pamela Benson
The Battalion
Mediation sessions between Brushy Creek
residents and Texas A&M administrators to
solve a dispute about a livestock center being
built in the Brushy Creek community have
been postponed until March 2 and 3.
Dr. John Beverly, associate vice chancellor
of the College of Agriculture and Life Sci
ences, said mediation, originally scheduled
for this weekend, was canceled in order to
find a more convenient time.
“The attorneys talked and mutually
agreed to postpone the mediation because
they are waiting for a convenient weekend
when a professional mediator can be pre
sent,” Hiler said.
Dr. A1 Schaffer, an A&M sociology pro
fessor and Brushy Creek resident, said he
wants the mediation to be held as soon as
possible because construction of the Ani
mal Science, Teaching, Research and Ex
tension Complex continues despite resi
dents’ concerns.
“I’m really upset that they’ve postponed
the mediation,” Schaffer said. “The construc
tion on the complex has progressed. They are
bringing in dirt, pipes and building roads.”
Today the two parties agreed on the per
son who will preside over the mediation ses
sions, an attorney from Dallas.
During the mediation, the attorney rep
resenting each side will have 20 minutes to
make their arguments. Then the Brushy
Creek residents and University representa
tives will break into small groups and dis
cuss their differences.
The mediator will circulate among the
groups and try to help them reach an
agreement. If a satisfactory agreement can
not be reached, Brushy Creek residents
said they will seek court intervention.
Brushy Creek residents have sought court
injunctions before, but unsuccessfully.
U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr.
ruled against a restraining order that
Brushy Creek residents requested in the
summer to stop the building of ASTREC
in their community.
Some residents claim A&M’s decision to
build ASTREC in the midst of their predomi
nately African-American community, about
six miles outside of College Station on High
way 21, is an act of environmental racism.
Others said they fear ASTREC will cause
See Mediation, Page 10
J Money management
and parenting are part of
he education provided to
some residents of the Rio
Grande Valley.
By Heather Pace
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Department of
Agricultural Communications is using
a new technology to educate groups of
Underprivileged Texas immigrants.
The program is targeting settle
ments throughout the Rio Grande
Valley inhabited primarily by low-in
come immigrants with little formal
education or English skills.
Students are providing education
with the use of Compact Disc Interac
tive, a compact disc player connected
to a television that allows on-screen
choices to be made by remote control.
Carla Beals, an agricultural com
munications multimedia communica
tions specialist, said the technology
is effective because many settlement
residents own televisions.
“It was interesting to go into the
homes, because some roofs looked
like they were going to fall in and
some people had extension cords
running into their houses from their
neighbors,” Beals said, “but everyone
had a television.”
The educational program began a
year and a half ago when the United
States Department of Agriculture
awarded A&M a grant for innovative
efforts in telecommunications.
A&M’s agricultural communica
tions department began the program
as an attempt to combine continuing-
education programs with the newly
developed CD-i technology.
The program provides people
See Education, Page 10
Relationships improve through conflict
Q An A&M professor's
research on conflict
management took her to
Washington D.C.
By Heather Pace
The Battalion
For more than 16 years, Dr. Linda
Futnam, Texas A&M professor and
head of the Department of Speech
Communication, has studied some
thing people face every day — conflict.
Putnam’s expertise was put to use
Jan. 29 when she spoke about conflict
management at the “Campus on the
Mall” series in Washington, D.C.
Hosted by the Smithsonian Insti
tution, the series offers continuing
education courses in humanities
and science.
The series addresses issues such as
urban conflict and the media, crisis
communication across cultures and
conflicts within intimate relationships.
Putnam was selected as the lead
speaker by the Speech Communica
tion Association,
one of the series’
sponsors. In her
speech titled “The
Language of Con
flict,” Putnam em
phasized that con
flict does not have
to be viewed in a
negative light.
“There are
many ways in
which conflict can
become construe-
tive,” Putnam said.
“It promotes change, helps iden
tify problems and relieves tension.”
Putnam said her speech was
aimed at showing that conflict is a
necessary part of communication.
“The end of one conflict is often the
beginning of the next one with that
individual,” Putnam said. “So we need
to view conflict as something that is
managed and not really resolved be
cause it often occurs in other forms.”
"(Conflict) promotes change,
helps identify problems and
relieves tension."
— Linda Putnam
A&M professor and head of the
speech communications
Putnam became interested in con
flict management 16 years ago when
she got involved in a conflict situa
tion related to faculty salaries at a
See Conflict, Page 10
MSC officers share
experiences via video
□ Former and current MSC
presidents are recording
their experiences for the
benefit of future students.
By Courtney Walker
The Battalion
In a video being produced by Texas
A&M’s MSC Council, past and present
MSC officers will pass advice and in
spiration to generations of emerging
MSC officers.
The MSC video history is a collabora
tion between former council presidents
and the 1995-1996 MSC
officers, who reflect on the
experiences and accom
plishments of their reigns.
Patrick Conway, MSC
Council president and a
senior genetics major,
came up with the idea for
the project. The video, he
said, will provide a different medium
through which to examine former MSC
officers.
New officers will have something more
to build on than advice from those in of
fice immediately before them, he said.
“Every time I meet a new former presi
dent, they share the wealth of their past
experiences with me,” Conway said. “And
I thought this would be a way for other of
ficers to tap into this information.”
Conway said he considered other ways
to use the MSC’s rich past, such as a
MSC Council reunion, before deciding to
make the video.
But since former presidents are scat
tered across the world, Conway said it
would be almost impossible to find a
weekend for everyone to come to A&M.
Jimmy Charney, MSC executive vice
president and a sophomore political sci
ence major, recently finished his video in
terview and said he hopes his experiences
will point others in the right direction.
“It gives new officers a chance to learn
from our mistakes and develop a lot of on
going themes,” Charney said.
Officers are asked in the interview to
give general advice and talk about what
they have learned from their mistakes.
“I just tell the new officers to keep
their priorities and goals straight,” Char
ney said.
"Every time I meet a new former president,
they share the wealth of their past experi
ences with me."
— Patrick Conway
MSC Council president
Heath Hendrix, the MSC president’s
assistant and a freshman chemical engi
neering major, said the video will pro
vide an opportunity for new officers to
get information that may not be passed
down otherwise.
“How much information we get de
pends on the person,” Hendrix said.
“Some interviews have lasted five min
utes, and some have lasted 30 minutes.”
A video cassette was sent out to each of
the 45 former MSC presidents to record
their messages. The project is scheduled
to be completed by the end of March.
Hendrix said he has received 15 to 20
responses so far.