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TOMORROW
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COLLEGE STATION • TX
MONDAY* FEBRUARY 9 *1998
oncert schedule poses conflict for some students
led school program aims
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By Robert Smith
City editor
Texas A&M University student
leaders have voiced complaints that
the University Athletic Department
scheduled a concert at Kyle Field
that will disrupt the A&M Senior
Ring Dance.
Ring Dance, which will be in the
Rudder complex, and the concert,
featuring country & western singer
Mark Chesnutt, are scheduled April
25. Doors open at Ring Dance at 8
p.m. The concert is set to begin at 7.
Curtis Childers, student body
president and a senior agricultur
al development major, said the
sound from the concert may inter
fere with Ring Dance.
“It’s not so much whether we
can or can’t hear it, but the Ath
letic Department doesn’t care if
they’re going to ruin our event,”
Childers said.
Wally Groff, director of the
Athletic Department, said the
Athletic Department has not re
searched whether the sound
from the concert will be heard in
Rudder, which is just across the
street from Kyle Field.
“We haven’t tested it, but I can’t
imagine it being a problem,” he said.
The concert marks the first
live music concert at Kyle Field,
and all of its proceeds will bene
fit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bra
zos Valley, the Harvey Little
League and the Still Creek Boys
& Girls Ranches.
John David Crow, director of De
velopment for Athletics, and Mark
Dennard, former Texas A&M and
Miami Dolphin football player, are
organizing the benefit concert.
Groff said the concert was
planned after Crow asked him for
permission to use Kyle Field, and he
was not aware of the Ring Dance
date when he scheduled the concert.
“We made no attempt to over
lap the concert with the activities
of students,” he said. “But, there
are student activities almost
every weekend in the spring. It's
not the first time two things have
gone on in the same night.”
Student leaders said the Athletic
Department should be subject to the
same activity regulations as student
activities organizations, but Groff
said he disagreed.
Please see Concert on Page 12.
scribing a cure
Colleen Kavanagh
Staff writer
Se Texas A&M University Sys-
<ast week announced its early
ptapce and admission pro-
Mt to the Texas A&M University
ge pf Medicine, and Universi-
dministrators and students
3 on at least one thing — the
Tam will help bring doctors to
^ that most need them,
ne program, Partnership for
ary (.are, is open to students of
hnic backgrounds, but the pro-
l requires that applicants live in
al or medically under-served
of the state. The first students
e program will be enrolled as
jrgraduates in September,
r. Elvin Smith, associate vice
idem for health affairs instruc-
d administration, said the pro-
i is designed to help medically
3r-served areas of the state and
iase the enrollment of minori-
n the medical school.
Thepartnership is a very innov-
app roach to try to provide doc-
br the underdeveloped rural ar-
fTexas,” he said. ‘A&M is the first
ol in Texas to try this, and the
ram is in every way consistent
the Hopwood decision,
y Virtue of the existing geo-
hic distributions of A&M’s
ols, we expect to have more mi
les,” Smith said. “The program is
iesigned specifically to recruit mi-
ies, but if under the program, we
ien we will be pleased with that.”
:udents in the program will
plete their undergraduate
c at one of the participating
System Universities. Stu
dents who maintain at least a 3.5
grade point ratio and complete the
required undergraduate courses
are automatically admitted to the
Texas A&M University College of
Medicine upon graduation. They
do not have to take the Medical
College Admissions Test (MCAT),
nor do they have to wait until their
senior year of graduation to know
“ We are the first
school in Texas to
decide not to use
the MCAT for this
special program.”
Dr. Elvin Smith
Associate vice president
for health affairs
instructional
administration
if they have been accepted to
medical school.
Smith said that because the use of
the MCAT in the admissions process
almost reaches a level of religion, de
ciding not to use it under the program
caught everyone’s attention.
“We are the first school in Texas
to decide not to use the MCAT for
this special program,” he said.
“When the program is fully oper
ational, one half of the class will
be under the MCAT program now,
and the other half will be under
the new program.”
Paul Cohen, who works for
Princeton Review, said even though
people at the Princeton Review help
prepare students for the MCAT, they
applaud A&M’s decision of not re
quiring some students to take it.
“Above all else, we are student
advocates,” he said. “As part of the
process of admission, these tests
are unfair. They don’t do well pre
dicting success in school and as
doctors.”
Cohen said there is a definite dif
ference between someone who
scores a 20 and someone who
scores a 36, but, in general, the tests
are misused.
“The MCAT is used as a cut-off,
rather than just one of many tools
for admission," he said. “Really top
students are denied admission be
cause of the test. They still go
through rigorous classes and are ex
pected to make top grades. They
shouldn’t have to prove themselves
through a false test.”
Medical school student Nahille
Natour said she thinks students
should still be required to take the
MCAT even if it is not used in the
admissions process.
“For one, it’s an endurance test,”
she said. “If you can’t sit through it,
it should be a clue that med school
isn’t for you. It also helps integrate
all of the sciences you’ve had so far
that you’ll need as a doctor.”
Natour said at first, current med
ical school students were upset
about the program.
Please see Enrollment on Page 12.
&M ready to kick off first
lexual Responsibility Week
| By Amanda Smith
Staff writer
College students are at greater
sk for exposure to sexually trans
mitted diseases and unplanned
egnancies than any population
oup in the United States, ac-
Ming to studies released by the
S. Deptartment of Health and
uman Services.
Ms part of a national effort to in-
ase awareness of sexual respon-
[bility, the Texas A&M Department
|f Student Health Services will join
• niversities across the nation to
ck off the first Sexual Responsi-
ility Week, Feb. 9 to 13.
Margaret Griffith, assistant
ealth education director of
[ealth and Human Services, said
udents need to import respon-
I lability into relationships.
fStudents often do not think
bout the seriousness of long-
rm relationships,” Griffith
id. “Some students do not
ink about sexual relationships
terms of STDs and pregnan
es. When I talk to students,
ey are thinking (of sex) in
rms of pleasure, enjoyment
d physical contact.”
“Aggie Luv Lines”, scheduled
r Feb. 10 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
'me MSC flag room, will provide
tudents an opportunity to talk
bout sex and relationships.
Di. Buzz Pruitt, a health and ki-
jesiology instructor of a survey
Urse on human sexuality, said
Aggie Luv Lines will provide an
outlet for students to ask ques
tions and receive answers about
relationships.
“Sex is a subject that is often
only talked about in locker
rooms,” Pruitt said. “We are going
to talk about it in the Flag Room.
We spend lots of time communi
cating about sex in sign language.
We want to eliminate some signs
and add some words.”
Pruitt and Griffith will lead the
“Aggie Luv Lines.”
“Aggie Luv Lines” will feature
Student Body President Curtis
Childers, Yell Leader Brandon
Neff, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
President Shannon Leggington,
Brandon Casteel of Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity and Stacy
Sykora of the A&M volleyball
and track teams.
Pruitt said that students in his
classes do not know as much
about sexual relationships as they
may think they do.
“College students are pretty
vulnerable,” Pruitt said. “College
students tend to think short-term
as far as relationships are con
cerned. If students want to be
more responsible, then they must
be more responsible with their
behavior. A lot of people avoid in
formation. If you are going to be
sexually active, then you need to
be informed.”
Griffith said some A&M stu
dents are abstaining from sex, but
she said communication is im
portant in any relationship, sexu
al or not.
“There are students at Texas
A&M who are abstaining from
sex,” Griffith said. “However,
some people rush into relation
ships. We are very good at having
sex but not good at talking about
it. Communication about sex is
so important.”
Sheila Looney, a member of
Aggie REACH (Representatives
Educating About College Health)
and a junior community health
major, said that talking is impor
tant to any sexual relationship.
“Talking about sex is very se
rious,” Looney said. “(Many)
students need to be more re
sponsible. You need to use a con
dom or protection (if you are
having sex).”
Planned Parenthood will offer
free HIV testing on campus. Beu-
tel Health Center offers testing for
STDs year round.
“If anybody has unprotected
sex, then they need to get checked
out,” Griffith said. “Chlamydia
and gonorrhea (STDs) are the
leading causes of infertility in the
United States.”
Griffith said that the signs for
STDs may be undetectable un
til the condition is so severe that
it results in infertility. In a report
released in 1997 by the Texas
Department of Health, people
aged 18 to 24 accounted for
about 58 percent of reported
cases of gonorrhea.
Hoop dreams
JAKE SCHRICKLING/The Battalion
Chris Varnell, a junior construction science major, goes up for the dunk outside the Student Recreation
Center Saturday.
Approved doctoral plan
to focus on three areas of
speech communications
By Colleen Kavanagh
Staff writer
The Texas A&M University
Speech Communication Depart
ment will admit its first Ph.D.
class in Fall 1998.
The Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board approved in
January the proposal for a doc
toral speech communications
program at Texas A&M. The Uni
versity of Texas at Austin is the
only other Texas university with a
similar program.
The program will focus on three
areas: health communication, or
ganizational communication and
rhetoric and public affairs.
Dr. Linda Putnam, dean of the
Department of Speech Commu
nication, said that graduates of
the program can become profes
sors, communication specialists
and researchers.
“Speech communications is
not like a business school where
everyone gets an M.B.A.,” she
said. “It’s a program where stu
dents have a career path in high-
level management and research.”
Putnam said A&M is one of the
few land-grant public universities
that does not have a speech com
munication doctoral program.
“This program has a very prag
matic land-grant focus,” she said.
“Every citizen can use communi
cation to solve problems.”
Dr. Steve Rholes, associate
dean for faculty affairs, said that
by approving the new program,
the state has recognized that the
programs and faculty at Texas
A&M are qualified to build a
strong speech communications
doctoral program.
Rholes predicted that the pro
gram will strengthen A&M’s na
tional reputation.
“Looking at the universities
recognized as leading universities
around the country, almost all of
their departments have been
granted the authority to have
doctoral programs,” he said. “We
are one step closer to being a
member of that company.”
INSIDE
— aggielife
Continued popularity of
Beanie Babies fueled by
adults, students alike.
See Page 3
sports
Aggie Baseball
Team opens
1998 season
with 3-game
sweep.
See Page 7
HHHHHHp
llMiWBmilil*l
Parekh: Press coverage of
recent presidential problems
shows dark side of media.
See Page 11
http://battalion.tamu.edu
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