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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1997)
Page y • February 20,1! The Battalion Jin a battle on thej / tempo ofma o paint a met; ittlefield. cetball, marching aurpose buttodes it. The dragging,i dulls the fans intoil p. The decibel 1m ■ momentum ceas oler, Director of he Aggie Band dance music,! irvey of students idem body dislil .The question is olume 103 • Issue 98 • 8 Pages The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamu.edu Friday, February 21, 1997 udit leads to investigation of A&M prof Melissa Nunnery and Erica Roy The Battalion Remembering WWII gs help sixth-graders celebrate the war [A computer science professor is being estigated for possible misuse of Texas M funds and personnel. The University Police Department and | Brazos County 1 district Attorney’s Office investigating Dr. Dhiraj Pradhan follow- lasn’t the AggieE|| reports from an A&M System audit, y inrecentyeatiWlim Ashlock, executive director of Uni- this inquiry, airMsity Relations, said the district attorney irs truly showed ” ■ does not approt racticeofplayii isle. ilso said the it have many of: needed to .hum music. Bui lemselvesanac] rand if they don »er equipment y other college can play? Aggie Band shots • attempt at plait style of music or. tment should fin ) can and will. t, A-G-G-I-E-S n is further com- e yell leaders.ln{i kctball gamete time-outs.Thetfc tilled with theab t-tempo, high-eiE vvd frenzy createii lion on the floor united so iff a yell. What .■ yell leadersned] ist they quiet theAgsto ion is the yell a basketball e. Let themt crowd begirt , hawk'chant# Let themotof s appear tort: as they jumptf® eachers, wife? ting them# ill, we need# out ofG. ler yourselfart r schools. Ifyoub G. RoHie to cult 1 insideryourselfi ndingthegart rang foryourbi reviews any records which hint at violation of state law. Travis Bryan, attorney for Pradhan, said his client denies any wrongdoing. “The question is whether or not Dr. Pradhan has used A&M facilities and per sonnel to benefit himself,” Bryan said. “We deny that has occurred.” A Wall Street Journal article reported Wednesday that Pradhan said he is being targeted because of his ethnicity and his stance on tenure. Ashlock said Pradhan’s claims are un founded. “[The investigation] has nothing to do, as he (Pradhan) alleges, with his position as a foreign national or his position on tenure,” Ashlock said. Bryan declined to comment on why Pradhan believes he is being unfairly inves tigated. Ashlock and Bryan both said no charges have been filed against Pradhan. Ashlock said that until the media caught wind of the district attorney’s office investi- (AP) — In daltojoltC ged pedopML iardensemplf f hoys into sex J hockey sticks* d victim sap he sex ringf 1 n which group he backroom - one ofhoctf d arenas—si# 1 Toronto M*! gation, the audit was a routine dispute be tween a faculty member and administrators. “ [Disputes] are not uncommon around here, or any other university for that mat ter,” Ashlock said. Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner said records pertaining to the audit and investigation are potentially the subject of litigation. Turner said when Pradhan asked to review the system auditor’s records, the district at torney’s office sent a letter advising the sys- ► COSGA tern’s general council to protect the records until the investigation was completed. “[The letter was] not intended to mean Dr. Pradhan won’t have a chance to review the documents and present his side of the story,” Turner said. He said the district attorney’s office will not proceed with any charges or litigation until Pradhan’s attorney sees the records. Bryan said Pradhan left the United States for India to visit relatives and possibly could return by March 1. Dave House, The Battalion Tommy Congora, a sixth-grader at Jane Long Middle School, jumps over a final hurdle in an obstacle course as part of the WWII celebration Thursday. By Laura Oliveira The Battalion Jane Long Middle School sixth- graders welcomed members of Rudder’s Rangers and Aggie Wran glers to their end ofWorld War II cel ebration Thursday. The celebration was the culmina tion of six weeks of integrated learn ing, in which WWII was incorporated into all of the students’ classes. Jennifer Austin, a sixth grade teacher at Jane Long, said the inte grated style of teaching is effective. “It helps the kids make a connec tion,” she said. “It gives them a pur pose for learning.” The students studied nuclear power and the atomic bomb in sci ence class and Holocaust related sto ries in reading. Each day the students studied a particular date in WWII history and used that date on their papers. Thursday’s event ended the six- week long study and gave the stu dents the opportunity to celebrate the end of the war. Aggie Wranglers demonstrated Jitter bug and Swing moves of the WWII Era. The Long choir sang wartime songs and the students performed a play about the victims of Hiroshima called If I Never See Another Butterfly. Brian Marks, Corps of cadets bu gler and a sophomore agricultural development major, said the event was something he would have liked to have experienced in middle school. Marks played “Taps” and “Reveille” for the students. “I would have liked to have seen older students come to my school,” he said. “And I thought it was neat to see the teachers dressed up in WWII fatigues that made it different.” Poems of the Unknown Soldier were read and victims of the Holo caust and Hiroshima remembered to accompany Marks’ taps. “It is always sad to play taps,” he said. “I think some of the kids under stood what was going on and they got caught up in the moment.” Rudder’s Rangers demonstrated maneuvers used in combat. Jose Galvan, a member of Rudder’s Rangers company and a junior con struction science major, said the event was a great experience for all of the students involved. “It was a lot of fun seeing people that were that young so interested in it (the combat training),” he said. Women in Science in Engineering OTitVISE host career development conference meone recent! better thing* s great Uni# ad strong con 1 ' By Joey Jeanette Schlueter The Battalion The fifth annual Women in Science and Engi- Center wash leering career development conference will be that you doi teld Saturday in the MSC. ^ ! WISE will host a series of seminars and work tops on professional societies, women com- uaintances L j n engineering work force and the sci- htific field. Participants also can attend appreciateotf ,0 rkshops on conflict resolution in the work- ,, I ...pice and sex differences and evolution, acy, ea , con f erence> w hich is open to all students I cant renrt ad professionals interested in science and engi- e ering, will open with a reception tonight at 7:30. Seminars and workshops will be held Satur- tyfrom 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Nancy Magnussen, WISE director, said the blend of qid 1 onference’s theme, “Adapting to a Changing crvice. That 1 * ^>rld,” stresses the goal of providing informa- Thanks Cf ° n on t ^ le c hallenges women face in science ’ tod engineering careers. I Magnussen said she expects a large turnout k the conference. “There is a growing involvement in the confer- 3 E. University 1 ' tice,” Magnussen said. “About half of tlie partici- 268-6050 ants are graduate students, and the other half are !23 Wellborn > leuRy s t a ff, undergraduates and community.” The keynote address at the conference will be given by Dr. France Cordova, vice chancellor for research at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Cordova received her Ph.D in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1979 and teaches physics at the University of Cal ifornia. Cordova will address leadership and women's roles in the field of engineering. Magnussen said Cordova was chosen to speak because she is a successful Hispanic who is fa miliar with women’s issues. “I knew she would make a great keynote speaker because she is prominent in the field of science,” Magnussen said. Karen Butler, assistant professor of electri cal engineering at Texas A&M, will also speak at the conference. She will be speaking about research funding. “I am looking forward to talking at the con ference,” she said. “I have prepared well for this.” Butler’s speech will be the same one she used in her address to the Black Graduate Students Association. Magnussen said the conference helps graduate students understand what careers they want to pursue. This semester, there are approximately 7,200 graduate students at A&M. Dan Robertson, director of graduate studies, Students share ideas, network at conference By Erica Roy The Battalion Over 500 students from 115 uni versities will share ideas at Texas A&M during the Conference of Student Government Associations. The conference begins tomor row and ends Feb. 25. Brandon Casteel, COSGA pro gram chair and a senior interna tional marketing major, said stu dents attending the conference can learn from other school’s ex periences. “We bring people together to exchange ideas,” Ca.steel said. “There’s such powerful network ing at COSGA.” Casteel said students partic ipate in activities such as round table discussions that allow them to discuss successful programs used at their schools. “People feed off each other,” lie said. “You leave with so many ideas you want to implement at your own school.” James Dossett, COSGA regis tration executive and a junior civil engineering major, said the conference gives the partici pants new outlooks on student government. “This conference is important because it allows the chance for people to get new ideas for stu dent government,” Dossett said. Casteel said although COSGA focuses on student government programs, other more general pro grams are discussed. A&M pre sents workshops on Fish Camp, The Big Event and Fish Aides. “Student government is the fo cus,” Casteel said, “but it ends up being a bigger picture than that.” Each school attending the conference can send six students and two advisers. A&M’s dele- 1 gates are selected by application.’ Schools as small as a private school with 200 students and schools as large as the University of Nebraska will attend the con-' ference. Students from Hawaii and Alaska are also attending. “It’s really grown to be quite a major conference,” he said. “It grows every year.” Conference participants can experience College Station night life when they visit the Northgate area, Casteel said, and many want to visit the Dixie Chicken. The conference also will host a karaoke night at Bullwinkle’s Grill and Bar. Faye Little, a conference dele gate and junior agricultural busi ness major, said she wants to par ticipate in COSGA because of the conference’s reputation. “It brings together several schools from around the country and it gets students to meet each other and realize what is going on outside of A&M,” she said. COSGA is the largest student run conference of its kind. It be gan seventeen years ago when three A&M students began intro ducing the idea for COSGA to other schools. Casteel said COSGA provides delegates with knowledge from other schools that can help their own school. “There’s so many ideas,” he said, “so many ways to make your school better, and the answers are at COSGA.” RHA establishes judiciary board said 38 percent of those students are women. Robertson has attended the conference in the past and will attend this weekend. “It has been my pleasure to attend this pro gram,” he said. “It gives [me] the opportunity for networking among the participants.” Robertson said the conference focuses pri marily on women and allows them to interact with others in their field. He said the conference aims to diversify male- dominated fields. WISE will sponsor a social event tonight in the MSC Forsythe Gallery at 7:30. Entertainment at the reception will include ‘Miz Wizard’s Science Secrets’, written and per formed by Jane Curry. The comical presentation focuses on women’s contributions to science. Magnussen said Curry was chosen because of her ties to science and ability to entertain people with the subject. “She was so hysterical in her show ‘Just Say No,’ and I was thrilled to hear she wrote a show about science,” Magnussen said. “We are excit ed to have her here." The conference registration fee is $20. The fee covers the reception and entertainment, lunch, free child care and workshops. The deadline for registration is today. ► The hoard will interpret the RHA constitution and resolve conflicts. By Laura Oliveira The Battalion Revisions to the Residence Hall Association’s constitution calling for the addition of a judiciary board and alterations to executive and director positions were made Wednesday night. General assembly members will sit on the judiciary board, which will interpret the constitution to resolve conflicts within RHA or hall councils. Jesse Czelusta, president of RHA and a senior agricultural economics major, said the board will have little influence over the autonomy of in dividual hall councils. “I feel it (judiciary board) is nec essary,” he said. “If you’re going to have a constitution you need to have an interpretation of what that constitution is.” Karen Fisher, director of facilities and operations and a junior zoolo gy major, said the judiciary board members must have a thorough un derstanding of the structure of RHA. ‘As long as we have knowledgeable people who know how RHA works, everything will be fine,” she said. The duties of some executive officers were also altered in the constitution. The vice president of administra tion will assume the duties of secre tary and treasurer and the vice pres ident of programs was established. A service director was added to oversee projects such as Adopt a Highway and Bottoms Up Clean-Up, a project to collect beer bottles left in church courtyards on Northgate. A publication director will edit the Hallabaloo newsletter which RHA publishes every few months. Czelusta said the separate ser vice committee will allow resi dents to participate in more com munity projects. See RHA, Page 4 The Ba i’i ai ion INSIDETODAY ARMED SERVICE: The armed services face the issues of sexual harass ment and patriotism. Opinion, Page 7 Aggielife Toons Sports Page 3 Page 4 Page5