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4 th YEAR • ISSUE 100 • 8 PAGES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TODAY TOMORROW
FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 27 • 1998
ouncil rejects Northgate garage petition
By Susan E. Atchison
Staff writer
Mege Station voters will decide in a spe-
election May 2 on the design and con-
ictionofa $6.8 million Northgate parking
age.The College Station City Council last
]t rejected a citizen’s petition aimed to
) development of the garage project.
'This fact is certain — more public park-
is needed in Northgate for businesses,
irches and citizens if that area is to con-
ieto prosper with the rest of the city,”
Mayor Pro Tempore Hub Kennady.
“Otherwise, the blighted conditions of that
area will continue to worsen.”
The proposed 750-space garage would
be located on a 1.5-acre space at the mid
dle block of College Main Drive.
Citizens presented the council with a pe
tition Feb. 17 containing 549 signatures
against the garage project.
Mike McMichen, who helped circulate
the petition, addressed the council last night.
“Probably the most disturbing thing is
the $6.8 million that comes out to $9,000
per parking space,” McMichen said.
“Every parking garage that has been
built on the A&M campus came in at under
$7,000 a space.”
McMichen said that a Texas A&M parking
official had reported to him that the Univer
sity has over 5,000 parking spaces either on
the drawing board or under construction.
McMichen said the city must consider
A&M’s plans before constructing the North-
gate parking garage.
A parking consultant hired by the city to
evaluate the need for the new parking garage
determined a need for off-street parking.
Council member Steve Esmond said the
city’s consultant recommended Northgate
This project in its early
years, will be a
financial disaster to
this city.”
Dick Birdwell
Council member
parking expansion, but not a parking garage.
“This was not the project that the con
sultant recommended,” Esmond said. “He
recommended we proceed first with devel
oping surface parking and go from there.”
Council member Dick Birdwell said the
city’s consultant also pointed out problems
with paid parking in areas that were previ
ously free parking.
“It is very unlikely, until we educate peo
ple, that any kind of facility like this is going
to pay for itself,” Birdwell said. “This project,
in its early years, will be a financial disaster
to this city.”
LOT conference to begin
pe Leaders of Tomorrow brings 275 high-school students to A&M
weekend of leadership training and taste of college experience
By Suzanne M. Riggs
Staff writer
The MSC Aggie Leaders of
lorrow (ALOT) committee
given 275 Texas high-
oolseniors the opportunity
tay on campus and explore
ects of leadership Friday
(Saturday during the first
mal Student Leaders ofTo-
rrow(SLOT) conference.
Tie SLOT conference is de
led to encourage high-
ii ooi seniors to enroll at
as A&M and to introduce
m to the leadership oppor-
ities available, particularly
tin the MSC.
We want them to be excit-
ibout A&M and realize what
lecial place we have here,”
said Bill Anderson, ALOT exec
utive chair and a junior me
chanical engineering major.
"We also hope to make them
feel like they
have a
chance to
succeed and
will be able
to come
here and
take on
leadership
opportuni
ties.”
He said
the idea of
the SLOT
conference
was planned last summer.
Anderson emphasized
that the conference could not
“It was a great
learning experience
for everyone.”
Bill Anderson
ALOT executive chair
have happened without the
devoted teamwork of the
ALOT members.
“It was a great learning ex
perience
for every
one and
provided a
good op
portunity
to promote
leader
ship,” An
derson
said.
Russ
Bair, ALOT
public re
lations ex
ecutive and a junior comput
er science major, said
students are coming from a
variety of Texas cities includ
ing College Station. He said
the students were selected af
ter ALOT sent out 1,200 appli
cations to students in schools
within a 200-mile radius of
Bryan-College Station.
The applications were tar
geted to students already ad
mitted, but undecided on
whether to attend the Uni
versity.
Bair said he anticipates that
the conference will be success
ful and that ALOT plans to in
vite more students next year.
“We had a very high de
mand this year so we hope we
can do it in two separate week
ends next year,” he said.
Please see ALOT on Page 2.
Hack History Month concludes
vith a look toward A&M’s future
By Jennifer Wilson
Staff writer
Black History Month provides an op-
rtunity to recognize the struggles and
ttributions of African-Americans at
as A&M University. *
Mitchell Rice, director of the Aw***
ceand Ethnic Studies Insti- ifjy* ^
eand a professor of urban J
iology, said to appreci- ^
African-Americans 40^
their culture we
ist understand their
ttributions. I
Rice noted the in- |||||
ition of the comb
4 brush and the traf-
light as examples of
ttributions made to the
tld by African-Americans.
Rice said that diversity should be re-
I to A&M students because the real
is diversified and A&M must see it
self as part of the world.
“Diversity is a benefit to all,” he said.
“One role of the University is to provide stu
dents with the education and background
necessaiy to compete in a diverse world.”
Rice also said that A&M cannot base
everything on the views of alumni.
“A&M cannot exist in a vacu
um,” he said. “It needs to be
guided by those who can pro
vide diversity experiences
so students can compete
^ in the real world and in
the future.”
Earnest
Obadele-Starks, a
professor of history,
said that although A&M
is making progress in be
coming diversified, it still
lags behind many universities
and institutions.
“From my experience, A&M is be
hind in having a good representation of cul
tures in the faculty and student body,” he
said. “This is a problem Black History
Month helps address to bring awareness to
the campus to the need of a better com
mitment in moving forward in these areas.”
Several departments at A&M such as
the journalism department are moving
forward by their efforts to recruit more mi
nority professors.
Rice said A&M is committed to having
a diversified staff and is making positive
strides in this area.
“A benefit of having minority faculty is
that it helps students deal with the reality
of a world composed of many ethnic back
grounds,” he said.
Rice said that although the need for
more minority students and faculty is be
ing pursued by the University, the impli
cations of the Hopwood decision have
hindered the progress.
Please see Month on Page 2.
NS D E
Paintball
represents good,
down-ln-the-dirt
fun for students
who choose to
be painted.
See Page 3
sports
borrow marks the final
isketball game to be
ayed in G. Rollie White.
See Page 8
Draft carves warning for Iraq
of‘severest consequences ,
opinion
fertin: Saddam Hussein
^esa surprising pop-culture
Section in his palace.
See Page 7
online
^//battalion.tamu.edu
up with state and na-
^al news through The
r MP’s 24-hour online
\ service.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Britain and the
United States are pushing the entire Security
Council to warn Iraq of the “severest conse
quences” if it breaks its deal with the U.N.
chief, according to a draft resolution obtained
today by The Associated Press.
The draft, crafted by Britain in close con
sultation with the Americans, also expresses
regret that Iraq’s lack of cooperation with U.N.
weapons inspectors “has further delayed the
moment when the council can consider the
lifting” of economic sanctions.
Security Council members still were
working on the draft today. Three of the five
permanent council members, Russia,
France and China, have said they wouldn’t
accept any resolution threatening force for
Iraqi noncompliance.
Any of the five can veto council resolutions.
The draft doesn’t spell out the use of mil
itary force.
“It’s obviously going to be subject to some
evolution because colleagues will have their
own views and we need to have that discussion,”
said Britain’s U.N. ambassador, John Weston.
“I think we’re now talking about getting the
draft right and it in the form that everybody
can subscribe to,” Weston said. “And I hope
that that will happen fairly quickly.”
The resolution was drafted to back an ac
cord Annan signed over the weekend in
Baghdad.
The agreement pledges to open all sus
pected weapons sites in Iraq to U.'N. inspec
tors provided that a team of diplomats ac
company the in
spectors to the
presidential sites.
Baghdad’s fail
ure to open those
sites to U.N. in
spectors prompt
ed the most recent
crisis, in which
the United States
and Britain were
threatening mili
tary strikes.
The inspectors
must certify that
Iraq has eliminated
its weapons of mass destruction before
sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion
of Kuwait can be lifted.
According to the draft, the council “reiterates
its intention to consider action to lift” sanctions
once Iraq has eliminated all of its weapons of
mass destruction and weapons programs.
/ The draft requests that Richard Butler, the
executive chairman of the U.N. Special Com
mission that oversees weapons inspections,
report to the council to finish setting the in
spection procedures relating to the eight
presidential sites as soon as possible.
Butler said today he looked forward to
“testing in practice what is written on paper.”
Clinton
Total eclipse of the heart
ROBERT MCKAY/The Battalion
Leslie Jackson, a junior mechanical engineering major, observes a partial solar eclipse
Thursday. The eclipse blocked between 18 and 22 percent of the sun in the area.
Oprah slaughters suit
AMARILLO (AP) — Oprah Winfrey beat
Big Beef to cheers and champagne in the
heart of Texas cattle country Thursday.
“Free speech not only lives. It rocks!” the
talk show host proclaimed outside the cour
thouse to a crowd of townspeople after a
jury rejected an $ 11 million lawsuit brought
against her by a group of Texas cattlemen.
The cattlemen blamed a collapse in
prices on a 1996 “Oprah Winfrey Show” that
they said falsely warned American beef
could spread mad-cow disease to people.
“I come from a people who struggled and
died to use their voice in this country and I
refuse to be muzzled,” the talk show host, re
ferring to her black heritage, said as a few
members of the crowd drank champagne.
The cattlemen’s lawyer said the jurors
clearly were swayed by Winfrey’s star power.
Winfrey’s arrival was the biggest thing to
happen to Amarillo in years. Whatever beef
the cattlemen had against her, the people of
Amarillo showered her with affection, wait
ed in long lines to hear her testify, and fought
for tickets to tapings of her show, which was
moved from Chicago to Amarillo during the
trial. By the end of the five-week case, but
tons, banners, caps and T-shirts proclaiming
“Amarillo Loves Oprah” were everywhere.
“You’d have to be blind to say (jurors)
weren’t influenced by one of the 25 most in
fluential Americans,” said cattlemen’s attorney
Joe Coyne, referring to a 1996 Time magazine
article. He said the cattlemen will appeal.
The jury took six hours to reach a verdict.
Juror Pat Gowdy said deliberations
turned on the First Amendment. “We felt
that a lot of rights have eroded in this coun
try. Our freedom of speech may be the only
one we have left to regain what we’ve lost,”
he said.
The verdict came in red meat country,
where 25 percent of the nation’s grain-fed cat
tle is produced, where the city's biggest private
employer is a slaughterhouse, and where the
“World Famous” Big Texan Steak Ranch offers
a 72-ounce steak free to anyone who can wolf
it down in an hour. Even the courthouse had
a mural of cattle above the elevators.
“I was scared to come here at first,” Win
frey said. “I saw where there were bumper
stickers that said, ‘The only mad cow in Texas
is Oprah.’ That hurt my feelings.”
Also exonerated were Winfrey’s produc
tion company and Howard Lyman, a vege
tarian activist who was a guest on the show.
The lawsuit had been expected to be the
biggest test yet of the “veggie libel” laws en
acted in Texas and 12 other states in recent
years to protect perishable agricultural prod
ucts from false and disparaging remarks.
But last week, in a big victory for Winfrey,
U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled
that the case could not go forward under the
veggie libel law and would instead be tried as
a conventional business defamation case.
That meant the cattlemen had to meet a
higher burden of proof: They had to show
Winfrey deliberately or recklessly hurt their
business by way of false statements.
In explaining her ruling in documents re
leased Thursday, Robinson said the plain
tiffs had not proved that cattle are a “perish
able food” or that “knowingly false”
statements were made.
During the April 16, 1996, show, Lyman
said that including processed cattle in cattle
feed — a practice banned last summer —
could spread mad cow disease to people in
the United States.
"You said this disease could make AIDS
look like the common cold?” Winfrey asked.
“Absolutely,” Lyman answered.
“It has just stopped me cold from eating
another burger!” Winfrey exclaimed to ap
plause from the studio audience.