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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1996)
A&M aims to keep All-U Night clean By Mkianie D. Smith The Battalion Vulgarity and violence may threaten the long-standing Texas A&M tradition All-University Night that acquaints new students with the University. Students will gather at Kyle Field at? p.m. for an annual assembly to spotlight fall sports. Several stu dent and university leaders, induding Texas A&M President ray Bowen and Student Body President Carl Baggett, will address students. The festivities will also include the season’s first yell practice at A&M. Ironically, though, yells are what gave All-U Night trouble. In past years, All-U Night has been marred by obscene “grode” yells and lighting between on-cam- pus residents. Rusty Thompson, assistant director of Residence Life and Housing, said that this year, measures are being taken to eliminate negative behavior from the tradition. "Three years ago, All-U Night was really in jeopardy because of yells with vulgar language," Thompson said. “The event is held to show freshmen the spirit of Aggieland, but this behavior See Tradition, Page 9 Hiring faculty may mean fee hike By Wesley Poston The Battalion An aging faculty may mean that hiring fac ulty in the future will translate into tuition and fee increases for Texas A&M students today. In five years, almost 22 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty will fall in that range and beyond. According to 1995 figures, that is almost 400 faculty members. Normally, between 30 and 40 A&M faculty members retire each year. In the 1994-1995 school year, 38 retired. On a national level, the average age of retirement for university faculty is 62 or 63. Dr. Bill Perry, dean of faculties, said the problem stems from a tremendous growth in faculty in the 60s and 70s. “I came to A&M in ’71 and the size of the faculty has doubled since then,” Perry said. In general, the faculty retiring previously was hired before the rapid expansion. Soon, however, the large numbers hired in the early 60s will be nearing retirement. “There is no mandatory age for retirement,” he said. “Studies have shown the most impor tant factor for retirement is whether or not you can afford it.” However, there is some national concern for replacing these professors if they retire according to the statistics and in the expected numbers, Perry said. New faculty hiring begins with recruit ment committees within each department. Prospects are approved by the committee and the applications are presented then to the department head and the dean of the college. The A&M Executive Vice President and Provost, Dr. Ronald Douglas, has final approval. Dr. Steve Oberhelman, head of the modern and classical languages department and speaker of the Faculty Senate, said the prob lem with recruiting quality replacement facul ty is the competition with other institutions for the best prospects. See Faculty, Page 9 TAMU Age Distribution o £ Tenure Facul ty Range 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 Amoun t 177 545 676 339 % of Tol al 9.9 30.4 37.8 1S.9 SUts liuui I'all Tim Moog, The Battalion Taking a break Alan Wann rests outside of Keathley Hall. Iraqi troops still control Irbil U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf remain on high alert BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq ordered its troops Sunday to withdraw from Irbil, the main city in the U.S.- protected Kurdish “safe haven” in northern Iraq. But there was no sign of a pullout in the city, where the Iraqi army and an allied Kurdish faction appeared in full control. Iraq captured the city on Saturday in Saddam Hussein’s largest military action since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. The attack sparked alarm in Washington, and President Clinton put U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region on high alert. After a Cabinet meeting in Baghdad late Sunday, the Iraqi defense minister, Lt. Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmed, said Saddam had ordered him to withdraw all his troops from Irbil. There was no immediate sign that this had taken place. White House spokesman Mike McCurry, asked about the reported pull-out order, answered: “It’s not words, it’s actions we’re looking at.” He spoke in Little Rock, Ark., where Clinton was on a campaign stop. Iraq’s state-run media had warned the United States and its Western allies on Sunday not to intervene on behalf of the Kurds. “The Iraqi people... are ready to pro vide an example that will inevitably remind the Americans of the Vietnam complex,” the newspaper al- Jumhouriya said. Saddam’s forces stormed Irbil on Saturday to dislodge one Kurdish fac tion, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and allow a second, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, to move in. No casualties were confirmed. But speaking from the Kurdish region, PUK leader Jalal Talabani said on ABC’s This Week with David Brinkley, that “hundreds of people were killed or injured” during the 12-hour onslaught of artillery, missiles and tank fire. Separately, the PUK claimed Sunday that Iraqi forces “summarily executed” 96 members of the opposition Iraqi National Congress at a base near Irbil. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said Iraqi forces also captured Sulaymaniya, the area’s sec ond-largest city. The report, which quoted “sources close to Iraqi Kurds,” could not be confirmed. In the wake of the fighting, the United Nations said it would delay sending personnel to implement an Iraqi oil-for-food deal. Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The U.N. deal would permit the sale of $2 billion worth of oil for an initial 180-day period to buy food and medicine for the Iraqi people. U.N. spokesman Sylvana Foa said the action was not intended as pun ishment for Iraq, but that the organi zation did not want to risk the safety of the personnel. There was no heavy fighting in Irbil on Sunday, and Iraqi troops and allied KDP fighters appeared to be in control. Boenig recovering from accident By Erica Roy The Battalion Former Student Body President Toby Boenig has one simple answer when asked what has helped him come back from a tragic, paralyzing accident: God. “He’s (God) used my family and friends to help me,” he said. “They’ve been nothing but amazing.” While rafting with friends on the Guadalupe River in late May, Boenig rolled out of his raft into shallow water and hit a large rock underneath the water’s surface. He dislocated the C4 and C5 vertebrae in his neck. Boenig is now recovering at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center in Gonzalez. No part of Boenig’s body is fully paralyzed, but there is limited movement in his legs. Each day, he regains more movement and feeling in his legs. “They (the doctors) can’t guarantee I’ll walk again, but I know myself,” Boenig Boenig said. “I will walk again.” Boenig can stand in a pool with leg braces for 30 to 40 seconds. His goal is to stand using his own strength by himself within a month. The key to walk ing again, Boenig said, is balance. After he can regain his balance in the pool, he will start working outside the pool. Toby’s mother, Joyce Boenig, said Toby has kept up his spirits through out the accident. “Toby’s attitude has been great,” she said. “When people come, they leave positive because of him. “Toby’s always had such a positive outlook. That hasn’t changed.” Boenig said he has tried to keep his attitude upbeat. “It’s not going to help me to get down,” he said. “It’s about keeping your faith in God. That’s what is going to get me through this.” Amanda Cochran, assistant to the vice president and a sophomore marketing major, worked with Boenig as a freshman Student Government assistant while he was student body president. Boenig, Cochran said, has kept a remarkable attitude throughout the accident. “He’s been more concerned with how it’s (the accident) affecting his friends and family,” she said. Cochran helped organize a benefit concert on Boenig’s behalf to be held Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. The Singing Cadets will perform, and a reception will be held after ward. All proceeds from the concert will be used to cover Boenig’s med ical expenses. See Boenig, Page 9 The Battalion TODAY Laughing it up Freudian Slip begins the semester with auditions for new members. Aggie life, Page 3 World Class Aggie basketball for ward Calvin Davis competed on Nike All- Star Team in Taiwan. Sports, Page 11 Funding Foes Consumer ignorance is a double-edged razor. Opinion, Page 13 Rush ’96 reaches record high By Tauma Wiggins The Battalion For Amy Barton and 782 other Texas A&M women, Saturday was the big day. With excitement and thousands of jubilant cheers in the air Saturday evening, months of hard work and planning for Texas A&M’s 1996 Panhellenic Fall Rush were rewarded as A&M sororities welcomed their new members. “Right now I’m just excited and over whelmed,” Barton said. Saturday’s Bid Day festivities ended a week of parties, mingling and skits designed to match the right women with the right sororities. New members received their bids Pat James, The Battalion Rushees race toward prospective houses. and sprinted down the street toward their respective sororities. Lanita Hanson, assistant director of student activities and Greek activities coordinator, said this fall rush was the largest in A&M’s history. “Texas A&M has had sororities for 21 years,” she said. “(This year) we had 783 women go through, which is the largest rush my records indicate we’ve ever had.” She also said a larger number of rushees received bids than ever before. The Panhellenic rush team, Hanson said, invested hours of hard work and planning to prepare for the annual event. “We had an outstanding Panhellenic rush team and staff that has worked hard since January,” Hanson said, adding that the Panhellenic rush team went beyond its many surface duties to help rushees. “Their help extended beyond making sure you get to your parties on time,” she said. “They developed personal relationships with the women and made friends.” Juliet Wright, a new sorority member and a freshman biomedical science major, said the entire rush program was well constructed and choosing a sorority was difficult because of the excellent choices. “It’s been so much fun, but it’s been diffi cult deciding,” she said. “Everyone’s been so welcoming and more than friendly — it’s been hard to put my finger on what was’ the perfect fit for me.” Big 12 brings small changes By Gretchen Perrenot The Battalion By Aggie definition, traditions don’t change. However, the evolving University and joining the Big 12 Conference caused slight changes with in Texas A&M’s established traditions and may initiate new ones. As Corps Commander Steve Foster said, “We only have to do something twice as Aggies for it to be a tradition.” Freshman Spurs One tradition that will take on new meaning is the tradition of Corps fresh men wearing homemade spurs the week before the football game against the Southern Methodist University Mustangs. The tradition, traced back to the 1920s, is a token of spirit by freshman cadets who show they are ready to “spur the ponies,” Foster said. This year, the freshmen will transfer that tradition to the Texas Tech University Raiders. See Changes, Page 14 Today The Battalion commem orates the inaugural season of the Big 1 2 with a special sec ond section, see inside.