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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1997)
The Battalion )lume 103 • Issue 103 • 8 Pages The Batt Online: http:// bat-web.tamu.edu Friday, February 28, 1997 enate alters structure of caucus groups Caucus leaders will be ippointed by Senate officers to attend Internal [ffairs meetings as non-voting members. By Erica Roy The Battalion ■TheTexas A&M Student Senate changed its structure to make senators more re sponsive to their constituencies, but did not ^uce the Senate’s size Wednesday night. (The Senate officers will now appoint each caucus leader rather than have the caucus elect its leader. A caucus is a constituency group, such as academic colleges and residency areas. The appointed caucus leaders must at tend the Internal Affairs meetings as non voting members, and inform their caucus es of the issues addressed at the meetings. Leaders are also responsible for establish ing contacts with major organizations in the leaders’ constituencies. Speaker Chris Reed, a senior finance ma jor, said centralizing the caucus groups will improve the Senate because it will enable senators to work together as a caucus group to represent their constituencies and find out the student body’s opinion. Eliot Kerlin, Student Services Commit tee chair and a senior finance major, said the caucus system will provide anoth er way making senators account able to their constituents. Kerlin said this bill is the first step in effectively im proving the Senate. “It’s more of a journey than a destination,” Kerlin said. “We’re on the road to success, but we surely haven’t arrived. This is a start.” Other changes in the bill include: • Choosing Senate commit tee members through applica tions. The applications must in clude a list of goals and ideas for the committee during the year. • Giving External Affairs the power to implement an absence policy to guarantee attendance at organi zational meetings other than the Senate, such as the Board of Regents or Faculty Senate. Reed said mandatory at tendance at external func tions can improve internal parts of the Senate. “It (mandatory atten dance) was important for the Senate internally,” Reed said. “If we (the Senate) start having visibility... it really can have an impact on the decisions made.” The original bill introduced to the Senate would have reduced the size of the Senate by eliminating some residency seats. Northside and Southside would each have had two senators, and off-campus seats would have been reduced to nine. An amendment was passed striking these parts of the original bill. Reed said that reducing the size of the Senate would force candidates to run on a platform. “By reducing the number of senators... we will be able to stop them from playing the numbers game,” Reed said. Drew Howard, a college of science sena tor and a senior math major, said the Sen ate could lose valuable input from senators if the Senate were reduced. See Senate, Page 2 - i tv kf'I m rx h . ■/' • jam Hi m Sk i Hr! A Making Change Amy Dunlap, The Battalion Shelby Kimball, a sophomore speech communication major, contributes to the Special Olympics drive organized by Alpha Phi Omega. Cadets share ideas at roundtable Corps members from U.S., Mexico discuss military issues By Benjamin Cheng and Joey Jeanette Schlueter The Battalion Colorfully decorated uniformed cadets from the United States and Mexico converged on Texas A&M as Military Weekend commenced Thursday in the MSC. Approximately 150 cadets from uni versity and military corps will attend roundtable discussions covering haz ing prevention, integration of corps programs and goals of the corps. Highlights of Military Weekend in clude the Combat Bash to be held tonight at 9 and a March-In Saturday at 10:10 a.m. Yvette Espinoza, chair of Military Weekend and a senior international studies and political science major, said the roundtable discussions offer equal footing and an opportunity for cadets to suggest improvements to the corps. “It is a four-night and five-day con ference where cadets from all over the country and Mexico can share ideas that are pertinent to military institu- ► Kappa Alpha Psi tions,” Espinoza said. A highlight of the weekend is the breaking of international boundaries by including cadets from the Heroic Mili tary College in Mexico City, she said. Cadet Corporal Roberto Carlos Giron Marban said this is the first time he and four other cadets have been to the United States. “My partners and I are glad to be here,” Marban said. “We are having fun at A&M, and we are looking forward to sharing our ideas.” The main subject of yesterday’s roundtable discussion was hazing and how to prevent it. John Stone of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy said the number of hazing in cidents at the Coast Guard Academy was reduced by handing out more severe punishments for breaking hazing rules. “It’s not really necessary because you can get your point across without hazing,” Stone said. Shasta Bateman ofTulane Universi ty said the integration of the student body and the Corps of Cadets atTulane, combined with a short orientation ses sion, prevents many of the hazing inci dents other institutions encounter. Jonathan Dues of the U.S. Military Academy said discipline should be ad ministered in an objective manner. “Make sure you’re correcting the problem and not the person,” he said. Sean Nowlan of Auburn Universi ty said the fear of being disciplined is not the most effective tool in instill ing character. > “In the middle of battle they’re going to be more afraid of dying than getting an article 15 (a disciplinary action),” Nowlan said. Jim Harrison, Cadet Col. and a se nior business analysis major, said re ducing hazing incidents involves rec ognizing the chain of command and learning from other institutions. “Professionalism is paramount,” Harrison said. Corps Commandant Maj. Gen. M.T. “Ted” Hopgood Jr. said the Corps at A&M has reduced hazing incidents by increasing awareness of the problem. “Hazing won’t be tolerated in the Corps of Cadets,” he said. Olympiad to feature African dance By Shikonya Cureton The Battalion Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity will step into action for the 8th annual Greek Olympiad Saturday at 7 p.m. in Rud der Auditorium. The Greek Olympiad is a perfor mance of dance called step.The dance originated in Africa as a means of help ing tribal groups communicate and set tle disagreements. Step was first per formed by pledges at black universities to impress their big brothers and sisters. It then became a form of entertainment on college campuses. This year’s Greek Olympiad will feature between 12 and 15 perfor mances lasting from 10 to 12 min utes each from different universi ties around the state including Prairie View A&M and the Universi ty of Houston. John Thoppil, vice-president of Kappa Alpha Psi and a senior bio chemistry major, said the Greek Olympiad is a competition to unite Greek organizations on campus and around the state. “The purpose of the step show is to show unity between the Greeks and for entertainment,” he said. “It is a friendly competition among the fra ternities and sororities because we have a common goal, which is to ser vice our community.” Vince Allen, a Kappa Alpha Psi member and a senior business analy sis major, said each group adds a unique perspective to the perfor mance as an expression of how the members see themselves as a whole. The students performing will be judged on originality, precision, au thenticity and overall stage perfor mance by eight judges representing different/Treek organizations. “The performance is an expres sion of the fraternity or sorority,” Allen said. “For instance, the Kappas are caners because the cane is a sym bol of power. “We believe that how the person handles their cane while performing is how they handle power.” To Kappa Alpha Psi, the Olympiad is more than entertain ment, Allen said. Proceeds from the show will fund scholarships for motivated high school students in the Bryan-College Station area who show an interest in higher education. Education officials look into allegations v Accusations ofTAAS I testing irregularity prompt investigation of two school districts. AUSTIN (AP) — Allegations of cheating on Texas’ academic skills test ire under investigation at two school listricts, and 20 students’ reading scores were invalidated at a third dis trict because of teachers’ mix-up. ■ “Overall, we have very, very few iroblems, but every test administra- |ion there are accusations about some |ind of testing irregularity,” Texas Ed- Ication Agency spokeswoman Deb- lie Graves Ratcliffe said Thursday. The Battalion INSI DETODAY HILL; The quest to reinstate public prayer neglects Christian theology. Opinion, Page 8 Debriefing Aggielife Sports Page 2 Page 3 Page 5 The TEA will review school officials’ probe of the allegations and deter mine if further investigation is need ed, she said. “We take test security very, very seriously.” Ratcliffe noted, however, that few school districts typically are involved in complaints about the Texas Assess ment of Academic Skills, given to 1.8 million students annually. This week, the TAAS was adminis tered to students in grades four and eight and in high school. Students must pass the high school exit-level test to get a diploma. The TAAS also is used to gauge school dis trict performance. . Cheating allegations have been re ported to TEA concerning Silsbee In dependent School District, 81 miles northeast of Houston, and Grapevine- Colleyville ISD, northeast of Fort Worth. The reading mix-up occurred at Mesquite ISD, near Dqllas. The alleged incident at Silsbee ap parently is related to school districts be ing given flexibility by TEA concerning the days they administer the TAAS. That was done because of students’ involve ment in basketball playoffs and the Houston livestock Show, events whose timing districts don’t control. Under the regular schedule, the writ ing portion of the TAAS was to be given Tuesday, the math portion Wednesday and the reading portion Thursday. Under the flexible schedule, school districts had to keep the writing test on Tuesday but could give the others any time between Monday and Saturday. Schools weren’t allowed to change the time of the writing test because it contains only one question and there is no backup exit-level writing test if problems are discovered, Rat cliffe said. At Silsbee, it is alleged that students who took the exit-level math test Mon day looked ahead in their test book to see the writing assignment, she said. The word was then allegedly spread to at least one student in a neighboring school district, and ulti mately reported to TEA, she said. Silsbee school officials alerted by TEA investigated immediately and have already submitted a report to the agency, said Superintendent James Lang. If cheating is found to have oc curred, scores could be invalidated and students would have to take the test again. The exit-level test next will be administered in May. “Certainly we’re concerned about it,” Lang said. “We’re talking about all of our sophomores taking the writing portion of the test.” At Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, four staff members were placed on admin istrative leave with pay after allega tions that some learned of the specif ic writing assignment on the TAAS test administered at a middle school. It was originally alleged that one or more teachers then prepared their students for the assignment. But late Thursday, Ratcliffe said it was unclear whether any teacher shared the infor mation with students. Conference to shed light on presidential communication By Kevin Cummings The Battalion Radiation, deforestation, the spotted owl and other issues concerning presidential communica tion will be addressed in Texas A&M University’s third annual Conference on Presidential Rhetoric, being held today through Sunday. The Center for Presidential Studies and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service have sponsored the conference since 1993. Dr. Martin J. Medhurst, professor and associate department head of speech communication, an ticipates representatives from over 45 different universities around the country and participants from more than 30 states. “This is one of the many ways that the Center for Presidential Studies reaches out to scholars from all around the country to try to underline the impor tance of studying the American presidency as an in stitution,” Medhurst said. “Bringing people to Col lege Station is away of underlining Texas A&M as the leading center for studying the presidency.” Tarla Peterson, an associate professor of speech communication and conference coordinator, said she is interested in selecting participants who not only are well published, but also can bridge across academic disciplines. “We have invited people from [the] depart ments of English, architecture, communications, humanities and environmental science,” she said. “Often the current controversial issues in the real world aren’t divided into the neat little academic segments we have on campus.” J. Robert Cox, professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chair of the national Sierra Club’s Board of Directors, will deliver the keynote address Friday on environmental policy and the Clin ton/Gore White House. Medhurst said he is looking forward to the keynote address. “It’s going to start off with a real bang with Robert Cox’s paper and the two respondents,” Medhurst said. “The two who are responding to it aren’t known for mincing words, and there will probably be some fireworks right off the bat.” Other speakers discussing the policies of vari ous presidential administrations include: Lawrence Prelli, University of New Hampshire; John Nelson, University of Iowa; and Christine Oravec, University of Utah. Roundtable discussion topics this year include the relationships between presidential rhetoric and the influence of nongovernmental groups on science policy and attempts to limit the role of such groups in political decision-making. Medhurst said the quality of the discussions is dependent on the participants. “It’s a matter of getting the right combination of expertise and chemistry,” Medhurst said. “We think the people participating on the roundtable [discussions] have both academic and practical experience. . . and will have some interesting things to share.” See Conference, Page 2