The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 13, 1997, Image 1

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Texas A & M U n i v e r sit
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TODAY
62
48
'Jm 56
49
TOMORROW
104 th YEAR • ISSUE 54 • 12 PAGES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
THURSDAY • NOVEMBER 13 • 1997
College Station to
flush water lines
Tonight at 10 the City of College
Station will begin flushing water
lines in the area from Harvey Road,
Highway 6 Bypass, University Drive
and Texas Avenue, and the area
from Tarrow, University Drive and
Texas Avenue.
Contact College Station Public
Utilities at 764-3638 if residents
experience problems with water.
Oklahoma City to
host Midnight yell
Grove yell will be tonight at 6 at
Bonfire site.
Midnight yell practice will be Fri
day in Oklahoma City, Okla. at Brick-
town in front of Boomerang’s, east
of downtown Oklahoma City.
The Texas A&M Football Team will
play the University of Oklahoma in
Norman, Okla. at 6 p.m. Saturday.
40 people suffer
poisoning outbreak
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — At
least 40 people were hospitalized,
apparently suffering from food poi-
, soning, while attending a confer
ence at a hotel on Wednesday.
Beaumont fire marshal Brad Pen-
lison said those sickened were at
tending a meeting at the Holiday Inn
Plaza. At least 40 were taken to
several hospitals.
Pennison said the apparent cause
tfthe outbreak was food poisoning.
People began getting sick at the
meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Hotel officials could not be reached
facomment Wednesday evening.
Testimony delayed
in Zamora trial
TORT WORTH (AP) — A new co-
jawiiel for former Naval Academy
'WShipman Diane Zamora is to be ap-
pointed, probably by Friday, to help in
Tedefense of her capital murder trial.
I Elizabeth Berry filed a motion in
ite September to withdraw, citing a
tonflict with lead defense attorney
JohnLinebarger that has “resulted in
iilack of cooperation, communication
ad reliability.”
Testimony had been scheduled to
oegin on Sept. 29, but the judge de
led the trial until January and de
led a ruling on Berry’s motion.
State District Judge Joe Drago de
eded Tuesday to allow Berry to pull
Hit while declaring that Linebarger
II remain on the case.
Zamora, 19, and her former fi-
ace,David Graham, also 19, are ac
cused in the 1995 slaying of Adri-
*ie Jones, 16, of Mansfield over a
Nie-time sexual encounter between
JeJones and Graham.
Holocaust survivor recalls WWII
By Sarah Goldston
Staff writer
A 72-year-old Holocaust sur
vivor asked Texas A&M students
yesterday to not forget the Holo
caust of World War II and its crimes
against humanity.
In 1939, German troops invaded
13-year-old SolWachsberg’s home
town of Chrzanow, Poland, and he
was sent to 11 concentration
camps, including Auschwitz.
“Tell [my story] to your children
and don’t forget,” he said, “I’m not
telling you what I have read or saw
in a movie. I’m telling my personal
story. We (survivors) never forget. I
have nightmares and daymares. It
Rain or shine
never goes away. Every camp had
its own way to make your life mis
erable every hour of every day.”
From the first hours of the war,
the Jewish people of Wachsberg’s
town, which was 23 miles from the
German border, decided to evacu
ate Chrzanow. However, Germans
overtook the Jewish people and
forced them to return to the town.
Wachsberg, who spoke to Prof.
Arnold Kramer’s American history
class, said as the Jewish people were
returning to Chrzanow, the Germans
told 37 men and boys, including a
cousin and uncle ofWachsberg, to dig
a hole. Afterwards, the Germans shot
the 37 men and boys and made others
walking home bury the 37 in the hole.
Wachsberg said that when his fam
ily returned to Chrzanow their whole
lives were changed. Wachsberg said
that regardless of age, whether some
one was seven or 65, the Germans put
all Jewish people to work.
In 1941, the Nazis put him and his
brothers in trucks and took them to
Auschwitz. Wachsberg was in the first
group taken to Auschwitz, 15 miles
away from his home in Poland.
“I come from a family of six: moth
er, father, two older brothers and a
younger sister,” Wachsberg said. "My
parents were gassed, my brother and
sister were sent to other camps. One
of my brothers was with me.”
At Auschwitz, Wachsberg said
that he and his brother dug ditches.
“We spent almost a year there and
we were wearing the same clothes we
were picked up in,” he said.
Wachsberg was shuffled through
concentration camps Blechamer,
Zwittaw, Faulbrik-Langebelau and
Leitmeritz before attending Gross-
Rosen, one of the work camps.
“We worked in a stone mine and
coming home in the evening, each
worker was given a stone to carry
back to camp,” he said. "Those that
were lucky were given a five to 10
pound stone, but some people were
given a 40 pound stone. We had to
carry these stones for three or four
miles. Many people couldn’t make
it, and they died.”
Please see Survivor on Page 6.
AMY DUNLAP/The Battalion
Member of the Corps of Cadets take an evening jog through the wet streets of campus Wednesday.
Aggies to attend Nat’l FFA Convention
By Brandye Brown
Staff writer
CORRECTION:
ffie Nov. 11 article about Marines
i n the Korean War should have
said the Marine Corps was cele
brating its 222nd birthday.
I, ft
f
Carrot Juice:
Comedian Carrot
Top brings his
trunk of
inventions for
A&M show.
See Page 3
sports
About 50 Texas A&M students
will travel to Kansas City, Mo., this
week for the National FFA Con
vention, the largest youth conven
tion in the nation with 40,000 peo
ple attending.
Alice Gonzalez, an FFA employ
ee and a junior agricultural devel
opment major, said the majority of
people attending the convention
are high-school students, but be
cause membership extends until
age twenty-one, many of the offi
cers are college students.
“In fact, the national president
is a student of Texas A&M, who
has taken the year off to represent
the FFA around the nation,” Gon
zalez said.
“Many recipients of awards at
the convention will be ag students
from A&M and all of the state offi
cers of Texas are college students.”
Texas A&M students take
along A&M traditions to the con
vention and have yell practice
Friday night of the convention,
Gonzalez said.
“Every Friday night at the con
vention, there are so many A&M
students that we have a yell prac
tice,” she said.
“Other students look forward to
the crazy Texans with Aggie spirit
on Friday nights.”
The convention will include
contests, motivational work
shops, a career fair and different
speakers.
The 450,000 members of the
agricultural youth organization
are from the United States, Guam
and Puerto Rico.
“The national convention is the
premiere showcase of everything
the FFA is about,” she said. “All na
tional awards are given, recogni
tion of sponsors, students, parents
and staff.”
Ann Leslie, a junior agricultur
al development major, has been a
member of FFA for eight years.
She and Gonzalez both work for
FFA presenting a Made For Excel
lence Workshop twelve weeks out
of the year to high-school students
around the nation.
Leslie said that at the national
convention, she and Gonzalez will
present a motivational workshop
called “The Man in the Mirror.”
“The workshop is focused on
the idea that an individual needs
to depend on themselves for suc
cess,” she said.
“Every day a person looks in
the mirror, and if you are not
proud and satisfied with what
you see, you have to keep work
ing to change.”
Please see FFA on Page 2.
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
Holocaust survivor Sol Wachsberg
still bears a tattoo from his days in
the Nazi’s Auschwitz prison camp.
Assets
surpass
last year
By Robert Smith
Senior staff writer
The Texas A&M Foundation,
which directs major fund raising for
the University, announced last
month it ended its last fiscal year with
assets of more than $400 million.
As of Aug. 31, 1997, Texas A&M
Foundation assets totaled $402 mil
lion, an increase from the $338 mil
lion it raised last year.
John R. Stropp, the foundation
senior vice president for finance
and administration, credits the
$72 million increase to broad fi
nancial investments and a positive
stock market.
“It can be attributed to a great
bear market, stock diversification
and investing in foreign markets,”
he said.
“We now have a large enough
investment base to diversify $250
to $260 million ... to be sure we
cover the broad spectrum of in
vestment.”
The foundation’s long-term in
vestment fund achieved a total rate
of return of 25.85 percent for the 12
months ending Aug. 31, 1997.
Stropp said this compares favor
ably to a weighted composite mar
ket return of22.39 percent based on
equivalent market indices.
The $72 million dollar revenue
includes all private gifts made to
the University during the past
year, but not “capstone” gifts or
future commitments such as the
Lowry Mays $15 million commit
ment made to the A&M College
of Business.
Stropp said the foundation’s
eight investment managers work to
ensure the foundation makes di
verse investments.
“You can no longer invest only
in the U. S.,” he said.
“Our increased emphasis on
international markets and alter
native investments has lowered
risk and (has) helped (to) improve
performance.”
Last year, the foundation made
available $23.9 million in new
gifts and investment income to
Texas A&M.
Please see Funds on Page 2.
I
file Texas A&M Volleyball
feam defeated the Texas
longhorns in three sets.
See Page 7
opinion
faldez and Voss: Gender
incepts, role of feminism
3 ce public scrutiny.
See Page 11
online
ftp://battalion.tamu.edu
io ok up with state and
y Clonal news through The
/ire, AP’s 24-hour online
i ows service.
College students
turn to beer, liquor
By Rachel Dawley
Staff writer
A lcohol use is no stranger to college students. Student
drinking has become a problem at universities
across the country.
According to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention,
college students spend approximately $4.2 billion annually to
purchase 430 million gallons of alcoholic beverages, including
four billion cans of beer. Students spend more on alcohol each
year than on books, soda, coffee, juice and milk combined.
In 1994, theTexas A&M’s Alcohol and Drug Education Pro
grams in the Department of Student Life collected informa
tion about A&M students and their use of alcohol. The de
partment found that 74 percent of A&M students drink alcohol.
Betty LeMay, crime prevention specialist for the University Po
lice Department, said alcohol is a problem at the University de
spite a recent positive turnaround of alcohol abuse on campus.
Please see Problem on Page 6.
Acgies no Alcohol
Stu<
of
exas A.
;s di
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-Dept of Student Life
Task force aims to
stop alcohol abuse
By Amanda Smith
Staff writer
T he Alcohol Abuse Task Force was formed this semester from
Texas A&M student and faculty concern that alcohol abuse
is overshadowing University traditions and the campus.
Kristin Sayre, the leader of the Alcohol Abuse Task Force,
associate director of the Department of Student Life and
Class of ’83, said some traditions have become surrounded
by alcohol use. She said that when she received her Aggie
ring, dunking rings in alcohol was not a tradition.
"We (the task force) want to ask what made some traditions
become (alcohol) abusive activities,” she said. “I hope that the
task force will make some distinctions between traditions and
abusive activities.”
Sayre said the group hopes to present recommendations
on how to stop alcohol abuse at A&M to Dr. J Malon Souther
land, the vice president of Student Affairs, by May 1998.
Please see Task Force on Page 6.
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