Texas A & M University
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Tomorrow
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be 103 • Issue 144 • 6 Pages
College Station, TX
Thursday, June 5, 1997
EWS
Briefs
ad student dies
heart attack
(iGordon Czeschin, Jr., a 30-
Magronomy graduate student,
jfa heart attack June 1 in Col-
Station.
eschin will be honored at the
9Silver Taps,
ws of the funeral services have
ten announced.
(cation student
ned state finalist
ImaBairrington, a doctoral stu-
Ineducational human resource
jopment at Texas A&M Univer-
ijsnamed a state finalist for
Issidential Award for Excellence
Teaching of —
pngton, a
grade
1 at Rock
Is Elementary
Kge Station,
Ire of three
■finalists se-
| Apnyanation-
Ininittee of
■tors, scien-
Ijidformer award winners.
I?recipient of the award, who
(reref announced this fall, will re-
Ian all-expenses-paid trip to
Itnafilton, D.C., where he or she
ftoIgivena presidential citation, a
pn- Wgrant to the awardee’s school
tisfrom private donors.
Indjpngton was selected for her
Red|*ith students in the fields of
[anland science, including her
f recent project, a study in wet-
asf conservation.
Maria repairs
lin this week
Bairrington
Hxas
vily
pro
Department of
us'fportation will begin pave-
ofjMr on a section of FM
av-f U79(Villa Maria Road and
■crest Drive) from Texas Av-
re-flo29th Street,
aul pmixpavement surface will be
after damaged parts of the
Whave been removed.
[itWilliams, the Texas De-
entofTransportation Bryan
engineer, said the work will
t feacomplete reconstruction
Ipavement but will make the
smoother.
project, which begins this week,
be completed by June 20.
\M Med School
Ids graduation
mmencement observances
le Texas A&M University
liScience Center College of
cine's graduating Clasp of
'will be held June 7 in Col-
Station.
cobservances will begin at 2
iiRudder Theatre.
Lonnie R. Bristow, immediate
Resident of the American Medical
ion, will speak at the ceremony.
OPINION
league baseball enforces
^guidelines to guarantee
(standards for players.
See Page 5.
SPORTS
k: Columnist analyzes
Of if Ken Griffey Jr. can
^Roger Marls’ record.
See Page 5.
W/bat-web.tanm.edti
for
^es of
issues
lfi Batt.
Texas Avenue repairs
proceed as scheduled
By Matt Wfjber
The Battalion
As efforts to improve a mile-long stretch of Texas Avenue
between University Drive and Dominik Street continue,
some residents feel the construction work has taken too long.
‘Tve seen other jobs around here done in six months
or less,” Jacob Quisenberry, a sophomore physics major,
said. “It should be done by now.”
However, College Station and state officials said the
construction is proceeding on schedule and that the im
provements made through the project will make up for
any inconvenience the roadwork may cause commuters.
Denise Fischer, public relations officer for the Texas
Department of Transportation, said work on Texas Av
enue was necessary because of the amount of traffic
the street supports.
“Routine traffic [on Texas Avenue] for an average day,
not counting special events, is about 45,000 cars,” Fisch
er said. “It is easily the most heavily traveled road in
Bryan-College Station.”
The street is being expanded from four to six lanes,
including wider curb lanes to accommodate more bi
cycle traffic.
Bicyclists using the street have complained that the
lack of bicycle lanes going both directions make it diffi
cult for drivers to see bicycles. People using the outside
lanes as “buffer” lanes while entering or exiting Univer
sity parking lots also have been a hazard to drivers and
cyclists on Texas Avenue, Fischer said.
“The real motive for the changes is safety,” Fischer
said. “It was becoming dangerous.”
As part of College Station’s Streetscape program, a me
dian also will be added to the road.
Ed Hard, head of planning and zoning for College Station,
said the goal of Streetscape is to make such city improve
ments as the Texas Avenue expansion more attractive.
"The biggest part of Streetscape [in this project] involves
dressing up or doing things within the median,” he said.
" WeTl have trees and all other kinds of landscape vegetation
growing there, as opposed to just asphalt medians.”
The city also will be adding new street lights and im
proved sidewalks, Hard said.
Fischer said many drivers do not understand the com
plications involved in the construction work.
“The problem is the entire project has to be done while
the road is in use,” Fischer said. “That makes it very prob
lematic getting as much done as quickly [as possible].”
Please see Construction on Page 6.
Photograph: Tim Moog
When the Texas Avenue construction is completed, the new medians will be
landscaped with trees and other vegetation.
Search for
fugitive
continues
By JenaraKocks
The Battalion
The television program “America’s Most
Wanted” will feature a story about Don
Davis Jr. and his parents’ plea for his return
to Brazos County.
Don Davis Jr. disappeared in Sep
tember 1996, days before he was to go
to trial for two counts of aggravated
sexual assault.
Don Davis Sr. and Linda Davis, Davis Jr.’s
parents, were charged with helping Davis
Jr. disappear. On May 27, Davis Sr. pleaded
guilty in a Brazos County courthouse to a
charge of hindering apprehension or pros
ecution of a felon. The same charge against
his wife was dropped.
Brazos County Assistant District Attor
ney Margaret Talk said Davis Sr. said he
gave his son $6,000 dollars and an automo
bile to leave Houston where the Davises
live. Davis Sr. said his son did not tell him
where he was going.
Davis Sr. was sentenced to five years
probation and up to 6 months in jail be
ginning June 20.
Talk said Davis Jr.’s parents were ordered
by District Judge John Delaney to cooper
ate with the media in finding their son as
part of Davis Sr.’s probation sentence.
This is the second time the case has
been featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
The case was also featured on “Unsolved
Mysteries” earlier this year.
Bob Wiatt, director of the University Po
lice Department, said UPD received 130 to
140 leads following the shows, but none of
the calls led police to Davis Jr.
J. Price Blalock of Houston, defense at
torney for Don Davis Sr., said his client felt
relieved after the taping of the show.
“He (Davis Sr.) felt it was a positive de
velopment in hopes that everyone in
volved can start a healthy healing
process,” he said, “and there can be clo
sure to this incident.”
The television show will appear on Fox
Channel 28 TV and TCA cable channel 7 on
Saturday at 8 p.m.
University implements password access system
By Robert Smith
The Battalion
Texas A&M students and faculty now must
have a CLAIM identification name and pass
word to access the Internet and e-mail ac
counts on University computer systems.
Until this summer, people could log on to
the University system on campus without an
I.D. name or password. The Texas Depart
ment of Information and Resources now re
quires all state agencies, including universi
ties, to restrict access of their computer
systems to authorized users.
Tom Putnam, Director of Computing and
Information Services, said the new logon sys
tem allows better service to users.
“We can now offer expanded services that
we could not offer without identification of
the person,” Putnam said.
Students will be able to set up a home di
rectory that will automatically set up e-mail
and allow them to save e-mail on the system.
Putnam said students will have a system
debit account they can use to pay for special
ized services in campus computer labs.
“Students can use this for allocation of ser
vices like color printing and transparencies,”
he said. “If they use all of that, students will be
able to add their own money to the system.”
Putnam said the CLAIM password sys
tem will prevent users other than students
and faculty from logging on to the Universi
ty system.
“With all of these machines, you don’t
know who is using the computer,” he said.
“This invites people to send threatening mes
sages to others. Now, we will know who is us
ing each computer.”
Students have voiced mixed reactions to
the new logon process; many do not under
stand why it was changed.
Ben Nathan, a senior chemical engi
neering major, said the password system
is annoying.
“It’s easy to set up,” Nathan said, “but it’s a
pain to have to log on each time you want to
use the computer.”
Students and faculty can pick up a
form at the computer labs on cam
pus explaining how to set up a new
password.
BlaireTully, a sophomore commu
nity health major, said setting up a new
password was difficult.
“I had to get help with it,” Tully said. “I
just got back into town and I don’t know
why they changed it.”
Glenda Simmons, a senior internation
al studies major, said setting up the pass
word was a lengthy process.
“I had to go up to the front and get
a sheet and it took a while,” Sim
mons said.
However, Eric Watson, a fresh
man engineering major, saw
the change as a step toward
better computer service on
campus.
“I don’t see any problems
with it,” Watson said. “I think
it’s a good idea.”
Photograph: Brad Graeber
Prosecutors use emotional testimony
in seeking death penalty for McVeigh
DENVER (AP) —With story after story of dead babies
and loved ones violently taken away, prosecutors urged a
tearful jury Wednesday to make Timothy McVeigh pay
wi th his life for the Oklahoma City bombing.
Jurors started crying even before
the first witness took the stand,
when prosecutor Patrick Ryan sim
ply and poignantly described the
lives of some of the 168 victims —
and the devastation to the families
who were left to carry on.
“It would be easy for you as a jury
to think of this as one mass murder.
Don’t. There are 168 people, all
unique, all individual. ... All had
families, all had friends, and they’re
different,” Ryan said.
“We will ask you to return a verdict of death,” he said,
“the only verdict that justly fits this crime.”
McVeigh sat slumped in his chair with the same stony
expression he wore Monday when his murder and con
spiracy conviction in the April 19, 1995, blast made him
the worst terrorist killer in the nation’s history.
Though his face never changed, at least five jurors
who will decide his fate, including the foreman, wiped
away tears as a stream of witnesses described how they
will be haunted by the painful memories forever.
McVeigh
Policeman Alan Prokop, one of the first to respond
to the bombing, described how he held a woman’s hand
rising from the rubble, only to feel the pulse stop.
“Her hand got very still and started to get cold,” said
Prokop, who said he tried to comfort the woman
pinned under a 12-foot slab of concrete. “I checked her
wrist for a pulse and found none.”
He also described pulling babies’ bodies out of what
had been the second-floor day-care center. One of the
few survivors was a baby boy.
“I cradled him in my arms and he ... appeared to
have a brick sticking out of his forehead,” Prokop said.
He added the baby was “holding a little green block.”
Even though the judge scaled back some of the most
wrenching aspects of the prosecution’s presentation —
banning wedding photos, a poem and testimony about
funeral arrangements — the case remained powerful.
David Klaus choked back tears as he testified that
since his 29-year-old daughter’s death, he has lost
weight, suffered several physical ailments and dipped
into a depression for which he is still being treated.
“I feel like I’ve aged 10 years in two years,” he said. “I
just physically look old and feel older.”
Diane Leonard, who lost her husband, a veteran Se
cret Service agent, said: “I feel like I died, too, on April
19.1 feel like my heart looks like the building. It has a
big hole that can never be mended.”
Scientists find icy miniplanet
NEW YORK (AP) — As
tronomers have found an icy mini
planet that orbits the sun well be
yond Pluto, providing evidence that
the solar system extends much far
ther than was once thought.
The little planet is about 300
miles across, which gives it a sur
face area comparable to Texas. It
is the brightest solar system object
to be found beyond Neptune
since the discovery of Pluto’s
moon Charon in 1978.
At its most distant, it wanders
three times farther from the sun
than Pluto, tracing a looping, ob
long path into an astronomical
terra incognita.
“It’s the first object in a sort of
no man’s land, an area we never
thought we could get a glimpse of
with our current technology,” said
Jane Luu, an astronomer at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
And it’s probably not alone.
Theoretical calculations suggest
that there are millions of small, icy
solar system objects well beyond
the outermost planets.
Astronomers consider their
new discovery an extension of the
Kuiper belt, a collection of small,
icy bodies that circle the sun be
yond the orbit of Neptune. About
40 Kuiper belt objects have been
discovered since 1992.
Before then, the only known
Kuiper belt objects were the
planet Pluto, discovered in 1930,
and Charon.
Luu discovered the new object,
known as 1996TL66, with col
leagues from Harvard, the Univer
sity of Hawaii and the University
of Arizona, as well as an amateur
astronomer based in Cloudcroft,
N.M. They describe the find in
Thursday’s issue of the journal
Nature.
“I wouldn't call this a major
planet,” said Brian Marsden, a
Harvard astronomer and con
tributor to the Nature paper.
“But then I tend not to call Pluto
a major planet.”