The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 13, 1997, Image 1
I i Texas A & M U n i v e r sit iMl 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 I -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. m r\i