•nber; ■ |P
Texas A & M University
actDr.GisJ
0r Dr, Cjf
ixt.144 |
scopaist/;
and dr,,
at 902 ‘I
104™ YEAR • ISSUE 65 • 10 PACES
m
w.
TODAY
TOMORROW
COLLEGE STATION • TX
See extended forecast. Page 2.
TUESDAY • DECEMBER 2 • 1997
tugby:P- :
.m.atj
tite. Na
no expe r :
. contac
actice w
thy Intra-
:essary!;
ation.co'
•etingor:
ct will belt
us.
ictice wii
f Acade
cessan,:
:iation: S
ie heldc -
ration: 1
i6p.m
itCentef.
tiOlhfih
villbete
udentCe'
rwsliip:
Dr deK:
round broken on new child-care center
By Amanda Smith
Staff writer
Bryan-College Station children
I shoveled the top ground layer at the
ground-breaking ceremonies Mon
day for the Texas A&M Child Care
Center, which will open Fall 1998.
The construction will begin
this month for the center on
Hensel Drive behind the Univer
sity Apartments.
Rosie Schoenfeld, the execu
tive secretary of the child care
center advisory committee, said
the children were selected by
members of the advisory com
mittee and student residents in
the University Apartments.
“Because of the child care
center, we thought it would be a
nice touch to have children per
form the ground breaking,”
Schoenfeld said. “The center is
being built for the children.”
The child care center advisory
committee received its lowest bid
of $904,000 from RM Dudley
Construction.
Mary Miller, the chair of the
child care center advisory commit
tee and associate vice president of
administration at A&M, said the
committee must wait for approval
of the bid from University President
Dr. Ray M. Bowen and A&M System
Chancellor Barry Thompson before
construction begins.
Diane Kaplan, a member of the
advisory committee and an associ
ate professor of educational cur
riculum and instruction, said the
child care center was designed to
accommodate Texas A&M stu
dents, faculty and staff.
She said the child care center
will fund its operating costs.
“Regardless of [parent’s] income,
we want to make child care avail
able for the children of student par
ents and faculty,” she said. “The
child care center has to pay its op
eration costs, so the tuition will not
be cheap. We want to encourage
people to make donations for
scholarships for low-income staff
and students with children.”
The child-care center will
serve 118 children full-time and
40 children part-time.
Miller said die slots will be filled
tentatively through an application
process. If the number of applicants
exceeds the number of available
spots, a lottery will be held to deter
mine who will fill the slots. Applica
tions will be available after the begin
ning of the Spring 1998 semester.
Fred Patterson, the principal
owner of Patterson Architects in
Bryan, said his firm designed the
center with expansion in mind. The
facility will occupy 10,300 square
feet. Patterson said an additional
module could be added in the future.
The planning and develop
ment of the center began two
years ago when Bowen called for
the organization of the child care
center advisory committee in De
cember 1995. The advisory com
mittee received approval for the
center in January 1997.
Kaplan, chair of the daycare
subcommittee of the Faculty Sen
ate, said the Senate stressed the
need for a child care center in 1993.
“The Faculty Senate initiated a
proposal for child care in trying to
ensure a commitment on the part
of the University,” Kaplan said. “We
(Faculty Senate) brought forth the
research by showing the history
and the success of child care cen
ters at other quality universities.”
Kaplan said the Student Senate
and Graduate Student Council
both submitted resolutions for the
need of a child care center.
“Planning and development of
the child care center has shown co
operation from the students, facul
ty and the staff,” Kaplan said. “It has
been a long time coming, but it’s
going to be wonderful.”
A
ROBERT MCKAY/The Battalion
Local children help break ground Monday morning on the new Texas A&M Child Care Center to be built behind the
University-owned apartments. Texas A&M University President Ray M. Bowen and other officials also attended.
3 fit stl'.
and a
! sot
idajil
ed ruiij
lesam
iid will
lendai
Model students
Architecture class to present own designs for new Dallas health center Wednesday
By Rachel Dawley
Staff writer
Sixteen Texas A&M students from the Col
lege of Architecture will present prototypes of
a health center for the Presbyterian Healthcare
System in Dallas Wednesday.
'w.
;
BRANDOM BOLLOM/The Battalion
Matthew Lillard, a junior environmental design major, and Kathleen Slagley, a senior
environmental design major, examine their model for their Architecture 305 course.
The students, along with HKS Architects of
Dallas, have designed different models of the
130,000 square-foot health center to be built in
Coppell, Texas, near Dallas.
The students, who are enrolled in an archi
tectural design course, were divided into eight
teams and are addressing the “real-life” project
in the studio
while HKS
designs the
facility for the
client.
The stu
dents have
been working
for two
months on
the models.
The students’
designs will
give the pro
fessionals
ideas for the
health care
center.
Aaron
Noto, a ju
nior environ
mental de
sign major,
said he and
his partner
spent many
hours work
ing on the design.
“This is real world experience,” Noto said. “I
learned more from the project than any other assign
ment I’ve had. I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to
do this kind of project again before I graduate.”
Each group was given square-foot regulations
and city codes, but the design and layout were
unique to each project.
Wednesday’s presentation- will include pror
grams, models and drawings. The students will
explain their design concepts and get feedback
from several architecture firms and from Presby
terian Healthcare System.
Carrie Livesay, a senior environmental de
sign major, said the project allowed the stu
dents to learn client-oriented project design.
“My partner and I had never worked with
something of this scale,” Livesay said. “We did
n’t know anything about hospital design. It just
goes to show that you really can do something
with research and time. We’ve learned a lot.”
The facility will contain ambulatory-orient
ed diagnostic and treatment services, as well as
short-stay nursing, a maternity center and
physician practice sites.
The students had a preliminary review with
HKS and were given program sheets describing the
project. The students recently presented prelimi
nary models to representatives from HKS.
Ronald L. Skaggs, CEO of HKS and Class of’65,
said the firm works with A&M’s College of Archi
tecture regularly to give students experience.
Christmas tree lit
to kick offWinter
Spirit celebration
Please see Architecture on Page 5.
By Julietta Jordan
"Staff writer
Texas A&M celebrated the Win
ter Spirit of Aggieland Monday night
by lighting the Christmas tree on the
lawn of the Jack K. Williams Admin
istration Building and the trees
along New Main Drive.
Suzanne Smith, chair of the Win
ter Spirit of Aggieland and a senior
agricultural development major, said
she was excited to be a part of the first
Winter Spirit of Aggieland.
“ [We are] lighting the way to a
new tradition,” she said.
Curtis Childers, student body
president and a senior agricultural
development major, welcomed the
audience to the beginning of a new
Texas A&M tradition.
“ [We are] witnessing tradition at
its conception,” he said.
Tracy Wade, head of campus
relations for the event and a ju
nior marketing major, said she
hopes the Winter Spirit of Ag
gieland decorations will help ease
the stress of finals for students.
“[The event will] lift students’
spirits during fall finals,” she said.
Wade said numerous Bryan-Col-
lege Station organizations have sup
ported the project.
“The Winter Spirit of Aggieland
unites the community with the Uni
versity,” she said.
Different businesses in Bryan-
College Station have donated mon
ey to the Winter Spirit of Aggieland.
The Texas A&M Department of
Forestry donated the Christmas
tree in front of the Administra
tion Building.
The 72 lighted trees along New
Main Drive represent the mone
tary gifts of different organizations
and businesses.
The Fish Band, Singing Cadets,
Reveliers and Aggie Wranglers en
tertained the donors, students
and Bryan-College Station com
munity members who attended
the event.
Spring Battalion editor ready
to bring new approach to paper
By Jenara Kocks
Staff writer
The Spring 1998 semester will bring in different
leadership at The Battalion with a new editor in chief
who hopes to bring a scientific view to the newspaper.
Tiffany Inbody, a first-year graduate student in
science technology and journalism and Class of ’97,
will be the
Spring 1998
editor in
chief.
Inbody,
who has a
bachelor’s
degree in bi
ology, said
one of her
goals for the
spring is to
have a sci
ence page
on Mon
days. She
said the sci
ence page
has been
tried before
at The Bat
talion, but
the timing
was not
right.
“A lot of
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion universities
Spring editor-in-chief Tiffany Inbody aims have science
to bring more science to the Battalion, pages now,”
she said. “This is an excellent outlet for graduate students
or anyone who wants to write for science.”
She said graduate students will be able to contribute
articles to the science section.
Helen Clancy, Fall 1997 editor in chief and a senior
English major, said Inbody’s background in biology
makes her a unique editor in chief.
“It’s uncommon for someone who was not a liberal
arts major to move up to this position,” she said. “But
at the same time, her status as a journalism graduate
student will allow her to contribute solid leadership
and direction to the young staff.”
Inbody said that although her undergraduate de
gree is in biology, she knew she did not want to spe
cialize in the science field, such as working in a lab. In
stead, she said she wanted to be a science writer, but
did not think about the journalism science and tech
nology graduate program until graduation.
“There are so many facets to science on this campus
that people do not know about,” Inbody said. “We
have the veterinary and medical schools, agriculture,
engineering and entomology—so many departments
that involve science.”
Inbody said she also hopes to get the Department of
Journalism, including professors and students, more
involved with the newspaper. She said she hopes stu
dents in Media Writing I and II will contribute stories
to The Battalion.
“It will give more people experience with The Bat
talion and get more people interested, so we can have
a good pool of writers,” she said.
Inbody worked at The Battalion for three years be
fore applying for the Spring 1998 editor in chief posi
tion. She said The Battalion has changed a lot since she
started in Fall 1994 as a copy editor and page designer.
Please see Editor on Page 5.
Vice President, online industry agree
to increase child-friendliness on ‘Net
WASHINGTON (AP) — As part of
their efforts to make the Internet a
more kid-friendly place, the online
industry has agreed to report activi
ties involving child pornography to
law enforcement officials.
Vice President A1 Core was to an
nounce the initiative here today
when he addressed a conference on
ways to make the Internet a safer
place for America’s youngsters.
Under the policy, Internet
providers would remove child
pornography from their own bul
letin boards and services, said Don
na Rice Hughes, a spokesperson for
Enough is Enough, an advocacy
group trying to get child pornogra
phy off the World Wide Web.
“We have made some head
way,” she said.
Gore also is expected to talk
about the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children’s
toll-free hot line to report incidents
of child sexual exploitation online,
including child pornography, said
White House officials who asked
not to be named.
While applauding the commit
ments to help keep Internet smut
away from kids, Gore also will chal
lenge the online industry to come
up with ways to protect children’s
privacy online, shield them from ex
ploitative online marketing and pro
vide them with more “safe” places to
go online, the officials said.
And he is expected to announce
that the Commerce Department will
hold conferences on these issues,
probably next year, officials said.
“Online companies need to
treat all these issues as seriously as
developing new products,” Gore is
to tell the industry, officials said.
“This can’t be viewed as a Wash
ington issue. It must be viewed as
the issue of gaining the trust and
being able to enter and stay in the
homes of America’s families.”
Kathryn Montgomery, president
of the Center for Media Education,
an advocacy group that wants to
make the Internet safer and more
educational for children, praised ef
forts to improve children’s program
ming on the Internet.
“We need to do more than pro
tect children from bad content; we
need to ensure that there is quali
ty, good content,” she said.
Building on pledges made to
President Clinton in July, industry
groups on Monday — the first day
of a three-day conference — dis
cussed how to educate parents
about anti-smut screening and
how to highlight Internet sites that
are clean enough for kids.
“I hope it works,” Clinton said
Monday of the industry’s efforts.
“I encouraged them to do it, and
I’m glad they’re doing it. I wish
them well.”
Gore will tell the industry that it
“needs to make screening and
blocking tools as widely available
and as easy to use as the TV re
mote,” the official said.
The Center for Democracy and
Technology, a group that works to
protect computer users’ civil liberties,
says all major providers of Internet ac
cess to consumers offer screening
technology free or at a nominal cost.
But a survey of 750 families by
the monthly Family PC magazine
found that only 26 percent use
screening software, most of them
because it is built in to their web
browsers or offered by their online
service providers.
Just four percent of parents use
screening software when they buy
and install it on their computers,
the magazine survey said.
The Supreme Court in June
struck down a law designed to
keep cyberspace’s seedy side away
from children. It said the 1996
Communications Decency Act, in
attempting to protect children
from indecent material on the In
ternet, improperly restricted the
free-speech rights of adults.
Hoping to avoid tough govern
ment regulations some in Con
gress and some anti-pornography
groups want, the industry has
been working on voluntary ef
forts, backed by the administra
tion, to make the Internet a safer
place for kids.