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September 12, 1996
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By Melissa Nunnery
The Battalion
Eight classrooms on campus got a face-lift
ore the fall semester, and more classrooms
yget the same treatment during Christmas.
The Classroom Renovation Committee is
rseeing the renovation of classrooms on
npus.
Dan Parker, committee chairman and assis-
provost, said the renovations will bring
ssrooms on campus up to minimum stan-
Professors and students have com
ined in the past about the condition of
ssrooms, he said.
Richard Williams, associate director of the
sical Plant, said the needs of professors
students are taken into consideration
enclassrooms are repaired.
It’s looked at from the ease of teaching (for
professors) as well as from the perspective
he student,” he said. “For example: is this a
i,comfortable place to sit through a class?”
epending on need, classrooms were
aned and painted, chairs were recondi-
red, dimmer switches for lights were added
floor coverings were either cleaned or
laced.
There’s a list of things we want rooms to
have,” Williams said. “When we walk out of
a room, we want to make sure it has all
those things. We just want it to look like a
classroom should when you go in.”
Also on the list of features for classrooms
“There’s a list of things we
want rooms to have. We
just want it to look like a
classroom should when
you go in. ”
Richard Williams
associate director,
Physical Plant
are cable TV and ethernet and telephone con
nections.
Glenn Dowling, with the Department of
Planning and Institutional Research, said his
office told the committee to start with older
buildings that are highly used.
“If a building is 50-years-old and is high
ly utilized, it probably needs more renova
tions,” he said. “We eliminated those build
ings that were renovated in the last 10 years,
and two faculty members on the committee
developed other factors by walking around
and looking at classrooms.”
Parker said eight rooms in the Blocker
building were renovated first because they
were easy for Physical Plant workers to access.
The Blocker rooms also allowed the Physical
Plant to work on several rooms in the same
building at the same time.
Funding for the project comes from the
general use fee revenue. Nearly $1.5 million
have been allocated for the project over the
next two years.
Parker said Texas A&M President Ray
Bowen is looking for more money to continue
funding the project.
“We are stretching the money as far as it
will go,” Parker said. “We won’t do a halfway
job on any classroom.”
The renovations in Blocker were performed
during the hiatus between the summer and
fall semesters. Williams said the next series of
repairs will be during the Christmas holidays.
“Because of class schedules, we have to work
around [students],” Williams said. “[They’re]
why we’re here, so we work at off-times.”
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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) —
defense of an Air Force
idemy cadet and his Naval
idemy fiancee who are accused
a murderous plot stemming
m a love triangle won’t be a
am effort,” the girl’s attorney
dWednesday.
Defense attorney John
lebarger has asked his client,
aneZamora, to refrain from con-
her betrothed, 18-year-old
aid Graham.
feel that they have a very
stong connection,” Linebarger
said. “I would think that if we’re
going to defend this case properly,
the legal decisions ought to be
made by her attorney without any
outside influence.
“This is not a team effort, or at
least not at this point, it’s certainly
not a team effort.”
Zamora, an 18-year-old mid
shipman on leave from the U.S.
Naval Academy, will plead innocent
to accusations she and Graham
killed 16-year-old Mansfield High
School honor student Adrianne
Jones. Jones was found beaten with
a barbell and shot near Joe Pool
Lake on Dec. 4.
A nine-month investigation
brought the two to the forefront
after authorities said Zamora
confided in a Naval Academy
roommate.
Police said Graham of Mansfield
had a one-time sexual encounter
with Jones and that he and Zamora
killed his track teammate at the
insistence of Zamora, who became
irate when Graham confessed the
encounter to her.
Graham is currently in a
Colorado Springs, Colo., jail await
ing extradition to Texas, while his
mother is insisting that her son’s
lawyer not sacrifice Zamora.
Graham’s attorney, Dan Cogdell,
said the cadet’s mother told him, “I
want justice for my son, but I do
not want that at the expense of
injustice to others. I do not want
the Zamora family dragged through
the mud.”
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TO DALLAS — Mildred Johnson worked
dth hundreds of refugee children on her
wnanitarian mission in Zaire last September.
1 said only one could speak English
she first arrived there. What the 12-
: ar-old asked her in his broken English
uched her heart.
He asked me if he could be my little boy
ith a lighten tdcome home with me and go to school,”
id Mrs. Johnson, 60, of Oak Cliff. “So when I
i Marylani me back home, I said, ‘Why not, let’s see
tat you have to do.’”
On Tuesday, a smiling Selemania
itltedman” Rubangura, now 13, ran through
MSC
trth International Airport toward his new
tin America.
On the other end of the short jog waited his
pOSI Xher-to-be, Mrs. Johnson, whose yearlong
orts to bring the boy from Africa to Dallas
dedwhen he ran into her outstretched arms,
there he is, that’s my baby,” Mrs.
L p)—Ani0 tnson yelled as she wiped away tears and
Howard Stedman.
“This is really my baby and I just had him,’
said jokingly about the slim, bright-eyed
es confitifild's arrival.
Mrs. Johnson was granted guardianship of
idman until complicated adoption proceed-
posterfoj ;s are final.
elease of|She met Stedman while she worked as a
ssionary in Zaire, teaching English to chil-
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dren who lived at a refugee tent camp near the
town of Bukavu.
She was selected to be a missionary last
September by Global Ministries of the
United Methodist Churches. She stayed in
Zaire a month before returning to Dallas to
her job as director of the intergenerational
schools program at the Dallas Independent
School District.
She said that of the more than 200 children
she taught, she saw something special in
Stedman. She said he would take her hand and
guide her to different sites in the city where
she worked.
“He took care of me when I first got to
Zaire,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And we just kind of
built a relationship.”
The boy’s parents were killed during the
Rwandan civil war.
He has no brothers or sisters.
“I couldn’t save all of them, but I could at
least try to save one,” Mrs. Johnson said.
She said her husband, A.J, and three grown
daughters supported the idea.
Mrs. Johnson had to meet international
adoption regulations, fill out paperwork and
complete interviews before Stedman was
allowed to leave Zaire.
She expects the adoption to be final in
about two years.
On Tuesday, Stedman said that he was
happy to be in Dallas. The boy speaks limited
English but is fluent in French and Swahili. He
arrived about 4 p.m. wearing blue jeans, tennis
shoes and a denim shirt. After the reunion,
family and friends were headed to McDonald’s
for a hamburger.
“I’m very excited and looking forward to
spending time with him and exposing him to
our culture here,” said Quelanda Clark, Mrs.
Johnson’s 28-year-old daughter who was at the
airport to meet her new brother along with her
mother, her grandmother and some church
members.
“She’s always wanted a son, and he came
from a situation where there was no hope,”
said Ms. Clark, a Dallas police officer. “This is a
better life and a better opportunity for him to
have a successful life.”
Aileen Edgington, executive director of the
Hope Cottage Adoption Center in Dallas, said
the international adoption of an African child
is rare but that adoptions of children from
other countries are becoming an option for
many American families.
Mrs. Johnson said she spent nearly $2,500
to fly Stedman to Dallas. She also had to pay
for an attorney and many long-distance tele
phone calls. She said it has all been worth it.
“He was in such dire need ... I knew he had
no possibilities of school because of the situa
tion he was in.”
He’ll have a new chance at a productive life
with his new family, she said.
Presents:
vritte 11 ,
and
heH°P e
Friday, Sept. 13
and
Saturday, Sept. 14
Midnight
At the Grove
Admission $3.00
Fun Packs $2.50
Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform
us of your special needs. We request notification three
(3) working days prior to the event to enable us to assist
you to the best of our abilities. ^ r
mm®*®
Thurs. Sept, i 2th
6:45 pm
RudderTheatre
‘Everyone is invitedl
The Cue Friday. 8 pm BE THERE!!
1996-97
All-University
Calendar
Produced by the Dept, of Student Activities
Keep your money in the
Aggie Family! Our calendar
is produced in B/CS...
by Aggies, for Aggies.
♦Monthly Calendars
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•Class Schedule Grids
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•Aggie Problem Solver
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•Leadership Class List
•University Center Info
You’ll see other date books that look like they’re
made just for Aggies, but this is the ONLY one
that gives its proceeds to students.
At the Texas A&M Bookstore
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
Informational Meeting
Rudder 504
September 12, 8:30 p.m.
Pick up applications in the Student Programs
Office, 2nd Floor MSC, Room 216
Applications are due Monday, Sept. 16 by 5:00 p.m.
Interviews will be September 18, 19, 20
Any Questions? Call 845-1514
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