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RAISING AWARENESS
Gay Awareness Week helps
to improve tolerance.
ACGIELIFE, PAGE 3
Valdez: The University
could do more to help
employees.
OPINION, PAGE 11
A&M first baseman
Jeff Bailey employees a
unique hitting style.
SPORTS, PAGE 7
he Battalion
Vol. 102, No. 128 (12 pages)
Serving Texas A&M University Since 1893
Friday • April 12, 1996
weekly dinner
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aave their own
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le effects from
calling 1-800-
Parents experience Aggie traditions
Byjohanna Henry
The Battalion
Thousands of parents will arrive at
Texas A&M today and Saturday for
Parents’ Weekend.
Parents’ Weekend, held for the first
time in 1919, has grown in size with the
student body. In recent years, Bryan-Col-
Station hotels have been filled to ca
pacity, forcing parents to make reserva
tions in cities as far away as Huntsville.
Tonight, A&M students and their fam
ilies will have a chance to attend yell
practice and the MSC Variety Show.
The Singing Cadets will give a con
cert at 8 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium fol
lowing the Variety Show, and the Resi
dence Hall Association Casino Night
run from 7 p.m. to midnight.
The Aggie Moms Clubs will sponsor
an arts and crafts boutique in Duncan
Dinning Hall on Friday and Saturday.
Anne McElroy, Parents’
Weekend Committee chair
and senior speech com
munications major, said
turnout for the Bevo
Bum Barbecue, which
will be Saturday from
11 a.m. to 2 p.m., has
increased dramatically
in the past three years.
“Last year, there were
2,500 people at the barbe
cue,” she said. “This year we
expect between 2,500 and 2,800.”
Also on Saturday, the U.S. Marine
Silent Drill Team will perform at noon
on Simpson Drill Field and at 4 p.m. on
Olsen Field.
A&M Parents of the Year and
Buck Weirus Spirit Award winners
will be named at the All-Uni
versity Awards Ceremony
at 9 a.m. Sunday.
McElroy said the
weekend’s events are
not just for A&M stu
dents whose parents
are in town.
“This is a campus
and University week
end, and we encourage
students to attend the
events even if their parents are
not in town,” she said.
“It is a chance late in the year, when
everyone is getting stressed about
school, for the students to relax and fo
cus on Aggie traditions.”
This year’s yell practice, featuring
former yell leaders and the 1996-
1997 yell leaders, will be held at
Olsen Field because Kyle Field is un
der construction.
The Aggie Band will play from the
stands in order to preserve Olsen Field
for Saturday’s baseball games.
Sunday’s Corps Military Review and
Ross Volunteers and Fish Drill Team
performances, which begin at 1 p.m.,
have been moved from Kyle Field to the
Simpson Drill Field.
McElroy said Parents’ Weekend,
which began as a Mothers’ Day open
house, was moved to April when gradu
ation ceremonies began to be held in
early May.
Mark Evans, a University Relations
representative, said Parents’ Weekend
is unique to A&M.
“Other schools have homecoming or
programs where alumni come back,”
he said, “but I’ve never heard of anoth
er school hosting a weekend just to
honor parents.”
Cristy Cox, a member of the Student
Government Parents’ Weekend Com
mittee and sophomore agricultural de
velopment major, said the committee
has been working since last September
to organize this year’s program.
The ’96 Parents’ Weekend Commit
tee printed a listing of the weekend’s
activities, including times and locations,
which is available at the Student Gov
ernment Office, the Parents’ Weekend
table in the MSC, and various other
places on campus.
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Rony Angkriwan, The Battalion
SAY AAHHH!
Soner Tarim, a graduate wildlife and fisheries science major,
works to preserve the head of a 156 pound, 6 foot 7 inch gar that
he and two other students caught while sampling an ox-bow lake
by the Brazos River.
Survey says:
Local housing
needs facelift
By Michelle Lyons
The Battalion
A survey conducted by Texas
A&M professors concluded that
38 percent of A&M students
are dissatisfied with one or
more aspect of their off-campus
living situations.
The survey, conducted last
summer by Dr. Charles Gra
ham, associate professor of con
struction science, and T. H.
Kwa, Graham’s research assis
tant, will supplement the city
of College Station’s efforts to
improve apartment and hous
ing policies and building codes.
Graham said the 1,020 stu
dents who turned in surveys
were a random sample of stu
dents living off campus. Eight
hundred undergraduate stu
dents and 220 graduate stu
dents participated.
Graham said he was sur
prised that more than 40 per:
cent of the students said they
would pay higher rent in re
turn for improvements on the
property where they live.
Most apartment owners do
not think students would be
willing to face a rent increase,
he said, particularly because
the average rent in College
Station is already $526.
The survey indicates that stu
dents are most concerned with
improving pest control, acoustics,
carpeting and air conditioning.
It also shows that students
have strong preferences based
on housing cost and location.
Matt Thomas, a junior civil
engineering major, said he is
dissatisfied with the mainte
nance and management at his
residence. He said he soon will
be looking for another place to
live that will provide him with
better services.
Thomas said College Station
housing prices are higher than
in many other towns.
“Everything here is a little
high relative to other places,” he
said. “I guess I’m getting my
money’s worth. For College Sta
tion, I’m getting what I pay for.”
But Thomas said that in other
cities, a resident could pay less
money for a better apartment.
Edwin Buzzell, a senior jour
nalism major, said he prefers
living in a house rather than
an apartment.
Buzzell said that when he lived
in an apartment, bugs and noise
created unbearable problems.
“Living in an apartment, you
always had someone above you
See Survey, Page 12
Plane crash kills girl attempting record flight
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A
7-year-old girl trying to become
the youngest person to fly across
America was killed Thursday
when her plane crashed into a
driveway shortly after taking off
in a storm. Her father and her
flight instructor also died.
The crash that killed Jessica
Dubroff, her father, Lloyd, and
<loe Reid happened on the sec
ond day of their flight. The sin
gle-engine plane, a four-seat
Cessna owned by Reid, crashed
in a residential area, missing a
house by 25 feet, a half-mile
from the runway.
Police Chief John Powell, who
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was first on the scene, said the
bodies were still strapped into
the Cessna when he arrived, but
he couldn’t tell who had been op
erating the plane.
“It was very fortunate it did-
AP
n’t hit any houses in the area,”
he said. “There was a last-
minute attempt by the pilot not
to hit houses.”
Shortly before takeoff this
morning, Jessica told a reporter
for Cheyenne television station
KKTU she thought about one
thing when flying: crashing. But
she went on to say she did not
worry about it.
Dawn Salyards, who lives
nearby, said the plane struck the
ground nose first.
“From the looks of it, you
could tell pretty much right
away that there would be no sur
vivors,” she said.
Tom Johnson, a 15-year pilot,
said he saw the plane shortly af
ter takeoff, and it appeared the
pilot was trying to return to the
See Crash, Page 12
Clinton veto propels abortion issue forward
Dole pegged the presidents action to deny the banning of partial-birth abortions as ‘extremist f
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Dole’s
placement of President Clinton on the “ex-
fremist fringe” for his veto of an anti-abortion
bill sharpens battle lines for the 1996 presi
dential election. But for all the strong rhetoric
from both sides, polls show a majority of
American voters don’t want a ban on abortion.
Dole’s sharp comments, made after Clin
ton vetoed legislation Wednesday to ban
Partial-birth abortions, could make it harder
for him to win support from the political cen
ter as he moves beyond the GOP primaries
into the general-election campaign.
Asked about Clinton’s veto as he cam
paigned in Pennsylvania late Wednesday,
Dole said: “Big mistake.
He’s out there on the ex
tremist fringe.” Dole re
newed his contention dur
ing a campaign stop Thurs
day in Memphis, Tenn.,
saying, “He is out there on
the extreme edge.”
Dole’s point was that the
bill, which would ban a sel-
dom-used late-term proce-
Clinton dure, had considerable bi
partisan support in Con
gress — even if not enough to override a veto.
Clinton contended the procedure was
sometimes necessary to protect a woman’s
health or save her life.
The president’s veto and the Senate ma
jority leader’s caustic response are helping
propel the entire abortion debate forward as
a major fall campaign issue.
The last time Dole used the tag “extrem
ist” was against since-vanquished GOP rival
Pat Buchanan, whose anti-abortion views
Dole largely echoes.
But even though Dole, like Buchanan,
favors a constitutional ban on abortion,
exit polls show most Republican primary
See Abortion, Page 12
Class presidents
aim to improve
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
difference.”
The newly elected Texas
A&M class presidents repre
sent a wide variety of back
grounds.
They come from different
parts of Texas, from the north
east comer of the state to the
grasslands west of San Anto
nio. They participate in a vari
ety of organizations, from the
Student Government Associa
tion to the Corps of Cadets.
Despite their differences,
all three class presidents have
one common goal: to leave
their classes better than when
they took office.
K.C. Allan
Class of 1997 President
K.C. Allan, the new Class
of 1997 president, is not afraid
to call it like it is, even when
it comes to describing herself.
Proudly describing herself
as “loud, short and long
haired,” Allan, a junior ac
counting major from Uvalde,
said her fondest memories of
A&M revolve around several
historic traditions and places.
“I’ll always remember Kyle
Field during football games
and Midnight Yell,” Allan
said. “And of course, there’s
always the (Dixie) Chicken.”
Allan’s A&M spirit is evi
dent from her platform,
which calls for unity and par
ticipation of all classes.
In her campaign state
ment, Allan compiled a list of
things she believes in, with
entries ranging from Howdy
and Bonfire to a constitution
al amendment outlawing
two-percenters and grade-
point ratios.
Nolan Barkhouse
Class of 1998 president
As for the future, Allan
said she has her eyes on the
world of corporate law.
She has secured a sum
mer internship working for
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey
Hutchinson, R-Texas, in
Washington, D.C.
Allan said that whatever
she does, she wants to make
a big splash.
“I don’t want to be stuck
in the back at a desk,” Al
lan said.
“I want a chance to wear
the white hat and make a
Nolan Barkhouse, Class of
1998 president, has long-dis
tance, long-term plans.
An international studies ma
jor, Barkhouse plans to visit
Japan to fulfill part of his de
gree requirement and hopes to
parlay the experience into a ca
reer in international business.
Barkhouse, however, does
not have his foot in the air
plane yet. He has his sights
set on first improving his
Class Council.
“One thing I’d like to see is
everyone in the entire class at
Elephant Walk,” he said. “I’d
also really like to help the
Class of 2000 and improve the
stature of Class Council by
mentoring with the incoming
freshman Class Council.”
When Barkhouse recalls
his fondest memories, he con
jures images of the Class
Council’s Howdy Barbecue in
Fall 1995 and his experiences
on the Fish Drill Team.
“Performing for the crowd
during Parents’ Weekend was
really great,” he said.
Away from the office, Bark
house plays soccer, participates
in the Corps of Cadets and
stays involved with the MSC.
Barkhouse considers him
self a hard-working, approach
able person.
“I’d say I’m a nice guy, but a
little busy,” he said. “But if any
one wants to approach me and
hear about what Class Council
does, I’m always willing.”
Greg Nichols
Class of 1999 president
Greg Nichols, Class of 1999
president, enjoys working
with people.
Nichols, a freshman agri
cultural business major from
Nacogdoches, served as vice
president of his class in the
fall, later deciding to run for
president, as a way to use his
people skills.
“I got involved as vice pres
ident and really enjoyed the
people I was working with,”
Nichols said. “I enjoy meeting
See Presidents, Page 10