Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1996)
"W COM L. Battalion 1. 102, No. 176 (6 pages) Serving Texas A drM University Since 1893 THE BATT ON-LINE: http://bat-web.tamu.edu Monday • August 5, 1996 I Embracing the Spirit [96 Olympic games draw to a close r s (oldness ... of ongoing' impson and n Simpson, id his llien- od. He was for wrong- ■ deaths of friend Ron led at her star was igs in 0c- mdtuous, 'tided, he and con- e was be- I, accord- d by The liman to declined st to de- nstrotion owncast ALE ES J ATLANTA (AP) — After 16 days, 271 events, millions of spectators and end- lens hours of timeless moments, the Olympics got down and jammed the night away Sunday to celebrate the end of the lOOth-anniversary Summer Genes, the biggest ever. ■ Thousands of young athletes, their labors done, their medals lost or won, their memories safekept for a lifetime, poured onto the Olympic Stadium in field in an end-of-games free-for-all of music, dancing and farewells — and of vows to meet again at the 2000 Olympics in Australia. “I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now at Syd ney,” declared Juan Antonio Sama ranch, International Olympic Commit tee president. Samaranch congratulated Atlanta or ganizers but stopped short of calling the games “the best ever,” as he traditional ly does after each Olympics. Instead, he called them “most exceptional.” The bittersweet partings took on a specially sad note for these ’96 games, be cause of the bombing, still unsolved, that injured scores of people and killed one at an Olympic park concert a week ago. The 80,000 packed into Olympic Sta dium remembered the victims Sunday night with a moment of silence. Sama ranch also recalled the tragedy of Mu nich 1972, when 11 Israeli athletes were killed in a terrorist attack. “No act of terrorism has destroyed the Olympic movement and none ever will,” he said to the crowd’s cheers. As he spoke, an army of police, federal officers and military kept watch on the stadium and other Olympic venues. A police blimp and helicopter hovered overhead. Aside from those melancholy mo ments, the night, telecast to hundreds of millions worldwide, belonged to buoyant athletes, rocking musicians and the time- honored ritual of the closing ceremony. The evening’s ceremonial heart was an old rite of passage, the handover of the Olympic flag — passed on since the Antwerp Games of 1920 — from At lanta’s Mayor Bill Campbell to Sydney’s Mayor Frank Sartor. The Atlanta Games, where sprinter Michael Johnson made history and gymnast Kerri Strug defined courage, ended with a bang and a boom: U.S. boxer David Reid’s stunning gold medal knockout, and the women Dream Team’s romp over Brazil. Reid captured America’s only gold in the boxing ring Sunday, while the U.S. women rolled to a 111-87 victory that capped a year-long odyssey and erased the memory of settling for a Barcelona bronze. The 17th and last day, which offi cially ended with a closing ceremony featuring Stevie Wonder and Gloria Estefan, began with a South African marathoner mining an extraordinary gold medal and delivering a message of conciliation. See Olympics, Page 6 Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion REST IN PEACE The grave of "Ranger," former A&M President James Earl Rudder's dog, lies in front of the President's Home. Rudder and his wife, Margaret, named the dog after the Rudder Rangers, which James Earl Rudder was a member of. The dog was also an honorary Corps Cadet. Student leaders work to stop high school drug use By Melissa Nunnery The Battalion A group of Texas A&M student leaders are working to publicize their views on alcohol and drugs. Workers in the Center for Drug Prevention and Education — an of fice in the Department of Student Life — are distributing pamphlets and posters to high schools. The purpose is to promote A&M to high school students and inform them about leadership, alcohol and drugs. Carl Baggett, A&M student body president, said he created the project to evoke a positive image of A&M while teaching high school students to say no to drugs and alcohol. “It’s good for high school kids to see, from a student’s point of view, why you can do well in college and drugs don’t have to be a part of it,” Baggett said. He said the program will be effec tive in reaching high school stu dents because they are more likely to listen to people their own age. “I really think students will lis ten to students,” Baggett said. “We would have a different angle. We’re going through the same things they (high school students) are, or we just did in the past five years. They would be more responsive to what we have to say.” Matt Mayfield, executive vice president of Student Government administration, agreed with Baggett about the effectiveness of an anti drug message coming from A&M student leaders. “In the ’80s there was the big ‘Just say no’ campaign,” Mayfield said. “Now I think that’s falling on deaf ears. We need to show kids there are kids in college, es pecially at A&M, who stand up for the right things.” Dr. Dennis Reardon, senior co ordinator of the project, said the point is to get student leaders to gether to address alcohol and drug issues. He said the pamphlet will address people’s success and lead ership roles and how alcohol and drug abuse affect them. “You can’t be in a leadership po sition if you’re abusing alcohol and drugs,” Reardon said. “Even if you can get away with it for a while, you won’t be looked at as a leader with potential.” Reardon said the program seeks to separate alcohol from A&M tradi tions. He feels if alcohol is not part of traditions, A&M will be seen in a more positive light. “We want to change the environ ment surrounding traditions,” Rear don said. “This project sends a strong message about what leader ship thinks of alcohol.” Mayfield said he hopes other col leges in the Big 12 will follow in the footsteps of A&M’s student leaders. “It (the project) is a positive thing. Hopefully we could lead a col legiate charge against drugs and al cohol,” Mayfield said. “Very positive effects are going to come out of it.” Melissa Ballou, who was unavail able for comment, is also involved with work on the pamphlet. Local gyms lose customers By Ann Marie Hauser The Battalion The Texas A&M Student Recre ation Center is taking a chunk out of area gyms’ student membership rolls. Aerofit Health and Fitness Center bought Jay’s Gym and Royal Oaks Racquet Club after business de creased because of the Rec Center. Larry Isham, director of market ing at Aerofit, said student numbers diminished at the club the day the Rec Center opened. “I considered it (the decrease) solely because of the A&M Elec Cen ter,” Isham said. “Everybody here knew it was coming.” The Class of ’91 voted for the $50 fee to pay for the then-future Rec Center. Isham, a 1991 graduate, now faces the consequences. For Royal Oaks, the Rec Center opening was only a contributing fac tor in the club’s buyout. Darren Busby, the manager of the Royal Oaks club, said the club has always maintained a racquet club persona and is more family oriented. “It (Rec Center’s opening) certain ly didn’t help us any,” Busby said. “The few college members we had, we certainly lost.” The Royal Oaks club is now under the Aerofit title along with the aero bic annex on Texas Avenue. Joe Brown, a Bryan public infor mation officer who has worked out at Aerofit for six years, said fewer students seem to be working out at the club. “Aerofit was wise in their market ing by shifting their focus to the fam ily,” Brown said. See Gyms, Page 6 Gwendolyn Struve, The Battalion Stuart Jackson, a junior finance and accounting major, works out at Gold's Gym Sunday. Dole to unveil economic package WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Dole, try- ig to reinvigorate his presidential cam- aign, decided to sweeten his economic ackage with a dramatic call for a 15- ercent across-the-board tax cut, his ad ders said Sunday. He will formally unveil his tax plan, hich the campaign claims would cost $548 iUion over six years, on londay in Chicago. Dole aides said it was le first step in a-major ix simplification plan tat would eventually -suit in a “flatter, fairer ad simpler” system. “It is bold and it is oiuprehensive,” senior •ole policy adviser Don- Id Rumsfeld said Sun- ay. “It will be a wonder- d thing for the country.” The plan was immediately attacked y the Clinton administration. Vice Vesident A1 Gore said it would “blow a l ole in the deficit.” Dole had swayed between such a Rea- atiesque tax cut and a more modest ges- Ure of proposing the repeal of the 1993 ax increase pushed through Congress y President Clinton. But he finally sided with advisers ke defeated GOP rival Steve Forbes ltd Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., DOLE who had forcefully urged the more dra matic approach, said those close to the deliberations, speaking on the condi tion of anonymity. “We’ll lay it all out there,” Dole told reporters on Sunday as he headed to his campaign headquarters for what he said would be a “long” day. The launching of the economic pack age begins a critical week for Dole, who trails Clinton by as much as 20 points in some national polls. In the week ahead, Dole must also set tle on a running mate and prepare for next week’s Republican National Convention. Advisers view this period as crucial to animating the Dole campaign and say the economic plan will become the cen terpiece of Dole’s effort. On the eve of his announcement. Dole was still grappling with details of the plan — and how to pay for it. Beyond spending cuts, Dole will pro pose the sale of some federal assets to boost revenues and simplifications in the tax code designed to reduce tax avoidance. But a large portion of paying for the $l00-billion-a-year plan — roughly 30 percent — would come from an assump tion o*f stronger economic growth, theo retically to be triggered by the tax cut it self. Earlier versions called for up to 40 percent to be “financed” through such a spurt of economic growth. Besides an across-the-board tax cut, Dole's plan would: — Reduce the capital gains tax from its current 28 percent to 14 percent. — Re-propose a GOP-backed $500- per-child tax credit that had been ve toed by Clinton. — Repeal the tax hike on Social Se curity benefits that was part of the 1993 tax increase that Clinton pushed through Congress. — Rewrite the tax code so that about 40 million Americans would not have to file at all but could do so if they chose to claim deductions. — Establish "investment education accounts" that would be similar to Indi vidual Retirement Accounts. Earnings would accumulate tax-free as long as money was spent on a child's education. Many economists have scoffed at such “supply side” economic theories, as has Dole himself in the past. Dole has a history of preferring to cut the deficit to cutting taxes. But campaign advisers felt that the Republican candidate, who will be for mally nominated at the GOP convention in San Diego, needed something dramat ic to get his campaign off the ground. Pilot of doomed flight found EAST MORICHES, N.Y. (AP) — The pilot of doomed TWA Flight 800 was found still strapped in his seat before a major section of his cockpit — a mangled mess of switches, in struments and seats — was raised from the ocean floor, investigators said Sunday. The bodies of the pilot, Capt. Ralph G. Kevorkian, 58, of Garden Grove, Calif., and his flight engi neer, Richard G. Campbell, 63, of Ridgefield, Conn., were retrieved Saturday night. The recovery of bodies — 194 by Sunday, leaving 36 missing — and the arrival of bargeloads of wreckage were major weekend strides in a dis aster probe that had been frustrated for days by bad weather. The newly recovered wreckage in cluded seats, instruments, switches and fuses mangled together in the cockpit, but did not include a cres cent-shaped section with windows that searchers had previously seen underwater. The cockpit wreckage — 6 feet high and 10 feet wide — was pierced by “a big beam from another part of the aircraft. I am not even sure how it got there,” said National Trans portation Safety Board Vice Chair man Robert Francis. “To see that mass of jumble of wires certainly brought home to me how difficult it’s going to be ... to try to put that all back together again,” added James Kailstrom, the special agent in charge of the FBI probe. “Basically, it’s just a solid pile of de bris all mixed together.” Francis said investigators would now begin the arduous task of un tangling the wreckage to see what evidence it might contain on the cause of the July 17 explosion that killed 230 people. Because of the condition of the wreckage, Francis said he was “not expecting dramatic results from to day to tomorrow.” It was unclear how many of the cockpit’s 900 gauges and dials and gadgets were in the recovered sec tion. An instrument panel — per haps frozen in time — could yield clues: about engine speed or how the plane was reacting, perhaps whether parts were shattered by the crash or by a blast. Wreckage will also be inspected for explosive residue, which would suggest a bomb. A missile theory and mechanical failure also have not been ruled out.