The Battalion
alume 103 • Issue 23 • 10 Pages
Wednesday, October 2,1996
The Batt Online: Bat-web@tamu.edu
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By Carla Renea Marsh
The Battalion
The women in the Class of ’00
lutnumber their male class-
nates, marking the first time in
I'exasA&M’s history that men
]rein the minority.
Fall figures reveal there are
,243 freshman women and
|,144 freshman men enrolled
It A&M.
Gary Engelgau, executive di
lector of admissions and
pcords, said the freshman fe-
nale enrollment has slowly in-
(teased since women were first
dmitted to A&M in Fall 1963.
“Another milestone has been
passed,’’ Engelgau said.
Anna Bell Harvey, Class of ’67,
was one of the first 11 women
admitted to A&M.
Harvey said the women were
required to sign a contract stat
ing they would withdraw from
the University if A&M reversed
their decision to admit women.
“I didn’t realize the impact it
had back then,” Harvey said.
Harvey said women were ei
ther loved or hated by the staff
and students, but she has no
regrets.
See Freshmen, Page 10
mountain at a time
Graduates find 'glass ceiling’ in some career fields
By Courtney Walker
The Battalion
More women are entering
careers traditionally dominat
ed by men, but some feel they
face a glass ceiling that limits
their progress.
The George H. Gallup Interna
tional Institute polled 1,000 se
niors from 88 national colleges
and universities. The survey,
commissioned by the Graduate
Management Admission Coun
cil, found men and women per
ceive their opportunities in the
workplace differently.
Kristin Cotrell, a junior psy
chology major, said men have
more career opportunities avail
able to them.
“Men get the higher salaries
and have more opportunities,
but women want it more and
work harder, which is why they
get so frustrated with the glass
ceiling issues,” Cotrell said. “It’s
like women are second best
and if a man can’t get the job or
promotion, then the women
can have it.”
But Teresa Williams, a senior
marketing major, said women
can overcome the glass ceiling if
they have the right mind set.
“I am entering a field,
myself,that is mostly men deal
ing with other men,” Williams
said. “Whether I like the situation
or not I have to accept and deal
with it. I don’t go into a situation
with a mind set that I have to act
different or prove myself. I just
treat everyone equally whether
they’re male or female.”
Michael Haack, an engi
neering graduate student, said
the glass ceiling is fading. In
his two internships with engi
neering firms, Haack said, 25
to 30 percent of his superiors
were women.
See Career, Page 6
- Saturday
i. - 6:00 ps I
sed!
lug
ionanza
Dave House, The Battalion
Anna Rodriguez, a senior elementary education major, shows off her pet walk
ing stick. Students in Dr. Gold’s entomology class raise a bug for 30 days while
observing their daily behaviors. After the project is completed, the bugs are re
leased into the wild.
Freshmen pick leaders
By Marissa Alanis
The Battalion
The Class of ’00 went to the
polls Tuesday to determine
which candidates will lead the
freshmen through their first year
at Texas A&M.
Jason Jaynes, election commis
sioner and a junior computer sci
ence major, said elections are a
stepping stone for freshmen.
“It’s a footstep in the door for
their future at A&M,” Jaynes said.
The elections brought eight
days of campaigning by 85 can
didates to a close.
Candidates visited residence
halls and distributed fliers across
campus. Some candidates even
wore T-shirts to promote their
campaign.
Sarah Vanya, a freshman general
studies major, said the more she
knew about the candidates, the
more likely they were to receive her
vote. Fliers with candidates’ pic
tures on them were ineffective,
Vanya said, although others may
not agree.
“I would want to know the per
son,” Vanya said. “I don’t think the
picture is going to tell you enough
about someone.”
Craig Reynolds, a freshman
presidential candidate and a me
chanical engineering major, said
freshmen are enthusiastic about
elections but this is no indication of
voter turnout.
“Freshmen are pretty excited
about electing officers,” Reynolds
said. “But I don’t know if people are
excited about the idea of voting.”
Reynolds said running for of
fice at A&M is different than in
high school.
A&M’s large student body,
Reynolds said, makes it is impor
tant for candidates to increase
their visibility.
“As freshmen, the name of the
game is recognition,” Reynolds
said.
Jaynes-said reaching the large
constituency in only eight days of
campaigning is challenging.
Election results were an
nounced at 7:30 a.m. in front of
the Sul Ross statue.
Victory in each office was
awarded to the candidate that won
with a majority of the votes. A run
off election will be held if there was
no majority vote.
Voting for run-off elections will
take place Oct. 8 from 8 a.m. to 6
p.m. at the same polling locations.
Dave House, The Battalion
Steve Farnham, a freshman pe
troleum engineering major, votes
in the Underground.
Mideast talks to resume
Israel rejects firm date on pullback suggested by U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid
tensions and suspicion inflamed by
Mideast violence, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
shook hands at a White House
summit Tuesday and held lengthy
face-to-face talks.
After three hours, the discus
sions recessed on a cordial note,
the White House said. The crisis-
shrouded meeting helped dispel
a mood of mistrust but did not
resolve major differences, offi
cials said. The talks will resume
Wednesday.
“We’ve come a long way in
the last three years,” President
Clinton said as he sought to
build on a 1993 peace accord
between the two sides. “No one
wants to turn back.”
Netanyahu said they had
come together “to try to put the
peace process back on track,” af
ter last week’s violence left 76
people dead. He said he was ab
solutely committed to the 1993
agreements, which include the
promised redeployment of Israeli
troops away from Arabs in the
West Bank town of Hebron.
However, Natan Sharansky, an
Israeli cabinet officer, said Israel
had rejected, as impossible, an
American request for a specific
date for the troop pullback.
“We say to commit oneself to
a date is to create a built-in pos
sibility of the talks breaking
down,” Sharanksy said.
Further, Sharansky said Israel
would not reverse Netanyahu’s
opening last week of a second
entrance to a tunnel that winds
around the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, which has shrines sa
cred to Muslims and Jews. The
opening triggered the worst gun
battles between Palestinians
and Israelis since the 1967
Mideast war.
The White House said the Ne-
tanyahu-Arafat talks went “a long
way towards re-establishing that
notion of trust that must exist be
tween the parties.”
R.M.tl
IE Battalion
TODAY
4-DATE
ew dateline opens
love connection
students seeking
panionship.
Aggielife, Page 3
% i
hat If?
1. Slocum and the
lies ponder what
son record would be
hout the mistakes.
Sports, Page 7
3eSSiO! itranced
s customers
■n per custonf'
-s 10-15-96
iley: People blindly
ow traditions at
University and
fund the world . .
Opinion, Page 9
Ross Street construction options under consideration
By Wesley Poston
The Battalion
Ross Street is caving in and
Texas A&M University offi
cials have blocked part of it
off to investigate reconstruc
tion possibilities.
The westbound lane of the
street, which runs from North-
gate to the Administration
Building, is closed from the cor
ner of the Sid Richardson Build
ing to the Bus Stop Snack Bar.
Tom Williams, Parking,
Traffic and Transportation di
rector, said the westbound
lane was blocked because of
safety concerns.
“We felt it was not safe to
drive on that side,” he said.
“There were chunks of concrete
coming up. We closed it and we
put the barriers up.”
Dick Williams, associate di
rector of facilities for the Physi
cal Plant, said the first issue is
student safety.
“The next step is hiring an
architectural engineering firm
to tell us what the best options
are,” he said.
Dick Williams said the Uni
versity is faced with three op
tions for the street. It could be
left the way it is, repaired mini
mally or fixed completely.
“Each of those considera
tions has a cost,” he said. The
decision will have to weigh the
benefit of each action against
the cost of proceeding, he said.
David Godbey, assistant di
rector of engineering and de
sign services for the Physical
Plant, said plant officials have
outlined a plan for the project.
“Our next step is to sit down
and make up a short list of en
gineering firms to consider for
the job,” he said.
Godbey said a Houston
company has studied the
street using ground-penetrat
ing radar.
The radar detected “numer
ous anomalies,” which Godbey
said are areas of erosion from 3
to 12 inches deep.
Godbey said the erosion was
probably caused by rain water
and faulty utility lines under
and around the street.
“[But] what caused it is not
as relevant as what we have to'
deal with,” he said.
Tom Williams said PTTS has
considered closing the street
permanently.
“We’ve done a traffic study
and a traffic plan and we know
that Ross Street isn’t needed in
our [transportation] system,”
he said. “The buses actually
work better the way we have
them now (routed around
Ross Street).”
He said an increase in
pedestrian traffic around Sbisa
Dining Hall and the Bus Stop
Snack Bar make closing Ross
Street an option that could im
prove campus safety.
The area could be made into
a “pedestrian only” area, Tom
Williams said.
But Dick Williams said re
stricting vehicles would solve
only part of the problem.
“No matter what we did on
top, there would still have to
be something done under
neath,” he said. “Whatever
caused the failing now appar
ently would still have to be
addressed.”
* Stew Milne, The Battalion
The westbound lane of Ross Street is closed from the Sid Richardson Building to the
Bus Stop Snack Bar.