The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 16, 1997, Image 1

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Texas A&M University
1
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94
Today Tomorrow
See extended forecast, Page 2.
plume 103 • Issue 148 • 6 Pages
College Station, TX
Monday, June 16, 1997
te-
!ews
had a
Briefs
at
questions Trigon
in hazing case
lapt. Robert Dalton, a military of-
iwaiat the Trigon who helped super-
acei ie Corps of Cadets’ Fish Drill
|onl,was questioned Thursday be-
laBrazos County grand jury con-
Jfreliag hazing and assault allega-
Jraulsmade against nine former Fish
iledii'eam student advisers by four
|ran|ifi)en cadets last spring.
Iiandjury proceedings are closed to
Lblicand no details were released.
^Indents return for
Igie Hostel program
lie Association of Former Students
l/liostthe 10th annual AggieHostel
^l*eekas 80 former Texas A&M Uni-
pystudents and their spouses will
P M residence halls and attend
and social events,
irogram is available to former
65 or older and their spouses.
‘Ifatyclasses will be offered to
Iformer students, including ge-
r5Jli0gy t radio history, engineering
future, medication uses, es-
^lemanagement, food production
peprison system and the North
Brican Free Trade Agreement.
. leformer students also will at-
lor "’jbanquets and dances and take
ting tours of the campus and the
.. Creamery in Brenham.
u "Tgraduation banquet will be held
ollege of Liberal Arts
wards staff members
IteCollege of Liberal Arts recently
five staff members with a
Wfesional development award,
toners are Mary Johnson, a
assistant in the Department of His-
Richard, an academic busi-
administrator II in the Department
Science; Andre R. Josiah, a
Assistant in the Public Policy Re-
W Institute; Theresa Wier, an ad-
'istrative assistant in the George
shSchool of Government and Public
f «e;and Teri Czajkowski, an acade-
:business administrator in the De-
thent of English.
Ihe winners each will be given a
M of $100 to be used for profes-
development.
Lward paraglider
ads himself in jail
CASTAIC, Calif. (AP) — A paraglid-
looking to get into the record
bksinstead landed in prison. He
(altitude and aborted his at-
ipt Friday to break a 125-mile
lance record for the non-motor-
t parachute-like glider. The
touched down safely on
!fison field only to find himself
Pounded by 15 deputies who
red a jail break.
Rec Center reinstates continuing pass
Southerland reverses cancellation in response to student protest
ITTAUQN
or
SPORTS
itasA&M plays host to a
sthora of summer camps
uifkids.
See Page 3.
OPINION
story teachings overlook
omen and their contributions
Ward important events.
See Page 5.
lie
ONLINE
^ ^p://bat~web.tamu.edu
p- 3 ok for
le Battalion
Ossified Ads
e|line.
ByJenara Kocks
The Battalion
Student outcry and reevaluation of a
1,150 "non-student” cap agreement be
tween the Student Recreation Center and
local gyms prompted Texas A&M’s adminis
tration to reinstate the Center’s continuing
pass policy Friday.
Students who are enrolled in the fall 1997
semester, but not the summer 1997 semester,
can again buy passes to use the Rec Center
during the summer.
See Editorial, Page 5
Dennis Corrington, director of the De
partment of Recreational Sports, said he re
ceived 60 complaints from students on the
phone, about 20 such e-mail messages and a
325-signature petition protesting his decision
to stop selling continuing passes.
Corrington said the continuing pass poli
cy was reinstated after students voiced their
concerns to the Rec Center and the Rec Cen
ter reevaluated its mission.
“All students are a part of our mission,”
Corrington said.
Corrington said Dr. J. Malon Southerland,
the vice president of student affairs, made the
decision, but he and Southerland had been dis
cussing the continuing pass issue since the de
cision to stop selling the passes was made.
Dr. Jan Winniford, associate vice president
for student affairs, said that Southerland heard
complaints from students and that Student
Body President Curtis Childers and the Student
Government Association presented research to
him on behalf of the students.
“He (Southerland) really looked at the
impact on students and the agreement it
self,” Winniford said. "He felt the policy
that existed (the sale of the continuing stu
dent pass) was probably in the best inter
est of the University.”
Childers, Judicial Board Chair Will Hurd
and Speaker of the Student Senate Alice Gon
zalez told Corrington and Southerland that as
representatives of the executive council of
Student Government, they were unhappy
with the decision.
The student leaders learned B-CS gyms
were involved with the decision and secured a
copy of the written cap agreement between the
Rec Center and the gyms so they could fully un
derstand the gyms’ perspective, Childers said.
Childers said through their discussion
with the gyms, the gyms better understood
the students’ perspective and the importance
of the Rec Center to students.
Childers said he and the other two
members of Executive Council also com
pared the Rec Center to other services in
the University that compete with private
enterprise in the community. He said the
barber shop and bookstore in the MSC and
the dining services on campus compete
Graphic: Stew Milne
with local businesses in the community,
but students were never denied access to
these services.
Please see Pass on Page 6.
v®-' \ *»• > * ' T
4:-^
City approves
relocation offer
for Burger Boy
By Robert Smith
The Battalion
The College Station City Council ended ongoing ne
gotiations with Burger Boy owner George Sopasakis
Thursday by agreeing to give Sopasakis approximately
$10,000 to relocate his business.
The vote nullified a $30,500 offer made to Sopasakis
that would have required him to release his rights to sue
the city and and other claims.
JKUliiMiiili um lEMMimilMm
Ongoing Coverage
Photograph: Derek Demere
Hivia I n A&g' 6 Swim Club members warm up Sunday afternoon at the Aggie Open meet the team hosted this weekend at
I-/1 VIS III the Student Recreation Center. About 800 swimmers from Texas and Louisiana competed in the meet.
Clinton defends new campaign
President unveiled a plan to ease racial tensions Saturday
WASHINGTON (AP) — With his na
tional dialogue on race barely under
way, President Clinton was defending
the idea Sunday as a good use of the
presidency, “still an effective bully
pulpit” for resolving conflict among
the races.
A poll released Sunday might suggest
otherwise. It said more than half the Amer
icans consider racism an intractable dilem
ma that no president can control.
In a flurry of television interviews,
Clinton sought to dispel his critics’ ar
gument that the campaign he unveiled
Saturday in San Diego, which revolves
around having Americans speak out be
fore a presidential advisory board, will
be a lot of talk about race with little or no
official action.
Where Clinton is most likely to feel the sting
is on affirmative action.
Critics say the president
was absent on that issue
during the most in
flamed moments of the
debate over California’s
Proposition 209, which
eliminated race-based
admission policies in the
state’s university system.
“Where was the
president when the is
sue was engaged?” conservative William
Bennett asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Clinton
“He was not going to anger anybody in
California by coming out on the wrong
side, or the right side, so he was silent.
That’s not political leadership.”
But Clinton, in an interview on CNN’s
“Late Edition,” said the overall problem of
race is much more complex than the af
firmative action debate.
“There are other issues here,” he said,
and having Americans voice their opinions
about them before the advisory board will
give the president the information he needs
to try and solve the problems.
“I believe about eight in 10 Americans
would think that was worth doing,” Clinton
said on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “The pres
idency is still an effective bully pulpit.”
The 4-2 vote ended a two-year struggle to reach a re
location agreement that started when College Station
purchased the building Sopasakis was renting.
Construction on Patricia Street began last week and
workers prepared to clear the area around Burger Boy
to make space for a parking lot. But Sopasakis kept his
business in operation, saying the city owed him more
money than the earlier offer of $30,500 and no rights
or future claims.
Council members Steve Esmond and Swiki Anderson
motioned to give Sopasakis an open 30-minute meet
ing, which was approved by a 4-2 vote.
At 8:12, time started counting down for Sopasakis, and
he began defending his stance that he needed more mon
ey. Sopasakis said relocating his business would require a
new $6,000 vent hood and other inventory to renovate the
new location into a restaurant.
Birdwell then told Sopasakis the city has been fair and
patient in its negotiations.
“Two years ago, the city bought a building that you were
renting on a month-to-month basis,” councilman Dick
Birdwell said. “We’ve tried to assist you for two years.”
Sopasakis said the offer was not sufficient.
“Thirty-thousand, five hundred dollars is not enough
money to successfully relocate my business,” Sopasakis
said. “It’s not right the way you are forcing me out.”
Sopasakis uttered similar statements several times
during the meeting.
But council members, showing the frustration caused
by a two-year battle, wanted to know exactly what
Sopasakis wanted.
Please see Northgate on Page 6.
Superintendent faces felony charge
He is accused of preying on his wife’s mental illness, driving her to suicide
BULLARD (AP) — To his new
friends in Snook, Frank Cook was a
respected school superintendent, a
loving family man who sang in the
church choir and attended Bible
study with his wife and teen-age son.
But a prosecutor says that at
home, Cook showed a different side,
one that preyed on his wife’s mental
illness and taunted her with “psy
chological warfare.”
And when Janet Cook, 38, shot
herself in the chest with a shotgun
last summer, her husband drove
her to it, claims Charles Sebesta,
district attorney for Burleson and
Washington counties.
Pushing someone to suicide isn’t
a crime, Sebesta says, but lying
about life insurance benefits is.
Cook was indicted last fall on a
felony charge of aggravated perjury.
Cook told a grand jury he would col
lect $250,000 in life insurance from
his wife’s death. But Sebesta con
tends he’s found additional policies
totaling more than $2 million.
“Our theory is — and this is a
unique theory—that these insurance
policies were purchased, he played
upon her emotions and drove her to
kill herself,” the prosecutor said.
^ ^ Our theory is ...
he played upon her
emotions and drove
her to kill herself.”
Charles Sebesta
Prosecutor
Cook’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin,
has argued that Cook told the truth
about insurance proceeds. DeGuerin
says the other policies are payable
only to a trust created for their son.
Sebesta also questioned how a
couple who grossed less than $80,000
annually could afford $43,000 in
yearly insurance premiums.
Cook, 42, was ruled out as a sus
pect in his wife’s death; an investi
gation was closed in October with
a suicide ruling.
In a brief interview with The Associ
ated Press, Cook referred questions
about the case to his lawyer. But he said
he longs to return to his $56,200-a-year
job, from which he is on paid leave.
Cook told the weekly Burleson
County Citizen-Tribune that he and
his wife felt the long-term benefits of
providing for their only child made
the high premiums worthwhile.
He also told the newspaper that
his wife had battled depression for
years and was on medication.
Those who know him best in
Snook, a town of about 500 people
located 13 miles southwest of
Bryan, say it’s inconceivable that
Cook led his wife to suicide.
“There’s nothing in me that be
lieves that,” said Tim Junek, the
school district’s business manag
er. ‘T’ve never seen him try to dri
ve anybody to do anything. He’s
not a manipulator, the one that I
know. You’d have to be a dastardly
individual to want to do some
thing like that.”
Texas Motor Speedway
hosts massive concert
FORT WORTH (AP) — The
morning after what was billed as
the biggest country music concert
ever, Texas Motor Speedway secu
rity supervisor Robert Langley
surveyed the infield of the mas
sive two-month-old track.
Strewn with garbage, from
beer bottles to watermelon rinds,
it looked like a landfill.
“In all the times I’ve worked
out here for racing, I’ve never seen
it this dirty,” Langley said.
You can’t expect a tea party
when tens of thousands of hot,
humidified country music fans
gather to watch stars such as
Hank Williams Jr., Wynonna,
Vince Gill and hometown teen
age sensation LeAnn Rimes.
Concert officials said the
show attracted an estimated
260,000 people. That was more
than twice the number who
watched the NASCAR Winston
Cup Interstate Batteries 500, de
scribed as the largest sporting
event ever held in Texas, during
the speedway’s debut weekend
in April.
The figure approaches the es
timated 300,000 who attended the
1987 mass celebrated by Pope
John Paul II in a field near San An
tonio, apparently the largest Texas
gathering ever.
An unidentified city official
told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
that the 300,000-seat speedway
was never more than one-third
full at any time as fans came and
went throughout the 12-hour
show Saturday.
Next weekend, the speedway
expects to draw even more people
to RockFest ’97, featuring Bush,
Jewel and No Doubt.
“I think it will bring more peo
ple out to not only to the races,
but the facility itself,” Langley
said. “Now they are going to see
what we actually have out here.”