Texas A & M University
55
27
[ TH YEAR • ISSUE 106 • 10 PAGES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TODAY TOMORROW
MONDAY • MARCH 9 • 1998
sh School hosts Cold War conference
l\ Sarah Goldston and
Jennifer Wilson
Staff writers
e fourth annual Texas A&M
;rence on Presidential Rhetoric
ast weekend explored various
; on the topic “ Public Discourse
Id War America.”
W|Brands, co-coordinator of
onference on presidential
ic and professor at Texas A&M,
e conference was a success,
his was a good conference,” he
“It showed three things: per-
ives presented by various schol-
at have different views, intro-
on of new literature from
jus fields and an opportunity to
new colleagues.”
Amy Tilton, research assistant for
the Program in Presidential Rhetoric,
said the conference offered an in-
depth study of the Cold War.
“The conference is an analysis of
issues from the Cold War,” she said.
“By studying these events we can see
what we did wrong and if faced with
the same problems again, we can
know what to do better the next time
if something like this were to arise.”
The conference was held at the
George Bush Presidential Library
and Conference Center.
A keynote speech Thursday ad
dressed “Myth and Reality: America’s
Rhetorical Cold War.”
Dr. Martin Medhurst, co-coor
dinator for the program in Presi
dential Rhetoric and a professor of
ush
chool
GREG MCREYNOLDS/The Battalion
Dr. Norman Graebner, keynote
speaker for the 4th annual Confer
ence on Presidential Rhetoric, lec
tures at the Bush School.
speech communication at Texas
A&M, said the Cold War lasted ap
proximately 45 years.
“The Cold War is considered the
period from the end of World War II
in 1945, up to the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989, then to the demise of
the Soviet Union in 1990, ” he said.
“That’s what we’ve been studying at
this conference.”
Dr. Norman Graebner, a professor
at the University ofVirginia, present
ed his views regarding rhetoric and
doctrine of the Cold War era.
Graebner said there is a lot of high
tension involved with the Cold War
due to the power and influences sur
rounding it. He said one goal of the
United States should be to drain the
reaction of the war so that it does not
spread to other countries in Europe
and Asia. He said the Cold War was
huge because it was a war of ideolog
ical power, which is limitless, and not
of military power, which has limits.
Sessions were held Friday to
discuss issues regarding emotion,
propaganda and opinion of the
Cold War.
Friday evening the rhetoric of film
in Cold War America was presented
at the Hilton Hotel and Conference
Center amphitheater. A screening of
documentary films about the Cold
Wa r was presented and discussed.
Rita Whillock, associate director
for the Center of Communications at
Southern Methodist University,
moderated Friday night’s events.
“Most of the attendants of this
conference grew up in the Cold War
era,” she said. “We saw these types of
films in elementary school, and no
one ever questioned or challenged
what was being said in these films.”
The rhetoric of American foreign
policy and dissent, Cold War propa
ganda, advancing militaiy technolo
gy and Cold War liberalism were dis
cussed Saturday.
Dr. Walt W. Rostow, former na
tional security advisor to President
Lyndon B. Johnson; Ambassador Ab
bott Washburn, deputy to the special
assistant to President Dwight D.
Eisenhower for Psychological Oper
ations; and James Olson, former
C.IA. chief of station in Vienna and
Mexico City and a professor at Texas
A&M, were featured panelists.
ftaking new ground
JAKE SHRICKLING/The Battalion
»gan! Lask, a junior accounting major, Zane Huber, a sophomore biomedical science major, and Rad Brannan, a freshman gener-
studies major, finish planting a tree at Replant Saturday.
tudents explore Asian culture
, . By Suzanne Riggs
■■ StaffWriter
>,fl new MSC committee is giving Texas
A students the chance to gain valuable
^jghts into Asian cultures, and at the
e time make history.
7’he MSC Asian Cultures Education
E) committee sets precedent as the first
in MSC committee. The committee is
pting applications from any student
rested in Asian culture. Applications
ivailable at the information desk in the
lent Programs Office in 216 MSC.
Frank Kao, ACE chair and a junior ac
counting major, said the committee’s goals
are to foster mutual understanding be
tween Asian students and those of other
nationalities and to serve as a support
group for Asians.
“We hope to increase a commitment to
our community, our nation and our state,”
he said. “We will produce programs which
will increase understanding to minimize
any cultural misunderstandings.”
He explained that these programs
would bring speakers to explain topics like
the participation of Asians in politics and
the use of Asian medicine.
Kao said although the committee will
focus on Asian issues, it is open to any
student.
“We are an open committee that wel
comes everyone,” he said. “We can learn
from others, and they can learn from us.”
The idea to form the committee came
from the desire to dissolve divisions with
in the Asian community on issues includ
ing nationality, generation and religion,
Kao said.
Please see Students on Page 6.
EMS saves baby’s life
s Coen brothers bowl a
ke with The Big Lebowski;
' Fugitive sequel falls
irt on delivery
See Page 3
lie Baseball Team takes
ond Big 12 series of sea-
1, 2-1 over Missouri
See Page 7
opinion
s: Advances in technology
ate a society of hermits
king in social interaction.
See Page 9
online
tp: / /battalion.tamu.edu
Dk up with state and na-
lal news through The
e, AP’s 24-hour online
vs service.
By Lyndsay Nantz
Stoffwriter
Volunteers from A&M’s Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) were awarded a certificate of
recognition Friday for saving the life of a four-
week-old boy.
The medical director and the director of the
health center honored the five volunteers for
service and dedication.
The premature baby had recently been
brought to his new
home, in married stu
dent housing on Uni
versity Drive, when he
went into pediatric
respiratory arrest. His
father called the Bra
zos County 911, where
the call was routed to
A&M EMS.
The dispatcher, Jen
nifer Carr, a sopho
more psychology ma
jor, gave the father CPR instructions while the
ambulance made its way to married student
housing. Paramedics Seth Decamp and
Michael Harris revived the baby with the help
of Dustin Roberts and Aki Ohinata.
Ohinata, a sophomore nutritional science
major, said it was one of the most serious calls
she has worked on.
“I was nervous because I had been through
all the training but had never been in a situation
where someone’s life was at stake,” she said.
te«S
“Then it was a little baby and so tiny he looked
like he may break.”
Ohinata said when the baby started crying it
was a huge relief to all of them because it meant
he was breathing again. The team kept the baby
stable as the ambulance drove to St. Joseph Re
gional Health Center.
A&M EMS handles 70 to 80 calls a month and
is a division of student health services. The ma
jority of EMS workers are students and all are
volunteers. All A&M EMS volunteers have the
same certifications and
capabilities as the Col
lege Station EMS.
Jim Schaferling, EMS
unit manager, said the
training is intense.
“It takes about six
months, 100 classroom
hours and 100 clinical
hours to be an EMT,”
Schaferling said. “It is a
three year process to be
certified as a paramedic.”
Harris, one of the volunteer paramedics on
the call, graduated from A&M and is a full-time
paramedic in Houston.
“I come here and help out whenever I can,”
he said. “I enjoy it because it is a good service
and it is good for the school. It helps people and
is experience for students who want to go into
the medical field.”
Schaferling said the volunteers handled
the situation very professionally and he is
proud of them.
Down Home Ranch
Architecture students inspired to design
model community for mentally disabled
By Susan E. Atchison
Stoffwriter
Students in Texas A&M’s College of Ar
chitecture presented research and design
projects Friday for Down Home Ranch, Inc.,
a community for mentally disabled adults.
Seventeen undergraduate students
from the Department of Architecture and
seven graduate students from the Depart
ment of Landscape Architecture & Urban
Planning each developed a model for the
ranch based on the ideas of founders Jer
ry and Judy Horton.
“I think they’ve done a magnificent
job,” said Mr. Horton, executive director of
the ranch. “They not only built physical
models, but they also captured the idea...
to build a community where people can
have their own independence, their own
place to live.”
The Hortons began coordinating ideas
for the ranch after their fourth child, Kel
ly, was born with Down syndrome. They
based their concept on their concern for
the quality of life that Kelly, 13, will have as
she reaches adulthood.
Faculty advisors for the project are
George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Skaggs en
dowed professor of the College of Architec
ture, and Donald B. Austin, professor of
landscape architecture and urban planning.
“It’s exciting as a professor to take a group
of students through a project and bring it to
a conclusion,” Mann said. “I try to find an in
teresting client, get them together with the
class, and then I get out of the way.”
Students visited the 205-acre ranch in
Elgin, Texas, earlier this semester to meet
the Hortons.
“The students were inspired by par
ents, who instead of sitting around worry
ing about how terrible it is that there’s a
child like this, wanted to do something
positive,” Mann said.
Collaboration among undergraduate
and graduate students has been benefi
cial, said Joe Rivers, a senior environmen
tal design major.
“It was a great experience, not only
"working with the grad students and inter
acting with landscape architecture,”
Rivers said, “but also with a real client in a
project that really means a lot.”
Please see Ranch on Page 6.
Ribbons cut to celebrate
College Station Library
By Amanda Smith
Stoffwriter
Ribbons cut by community members
yesterday at the new College Station Li
brary foreshadow its official opening this
coming Friday. Local leaders, library staff
and community members participated in
the ceremonies by cutting a piece of the
ribbon at the library at 800 FM 2818 in
College Station.
Bob Martin, the Texas State librarian
and the keynote speaker, said libraries
provide a center for educating people.
“It’s an important day to contemplate
the role of libraries in a democracy,” Martin
said. “Our founding fathers often spoke of
the importance of libraries. Libraries pro
vide rich and stimulating opportunities for
development in a community.”
Clara Mounce, the Bryan-College Sta
tion libraries administrator, said the new
facility welcomes all members of the
community.
“We do business with every walk of life
in the community,” Mounce said. “We
welcome Texas A&M students and hope
they come check us out. We are increasing
the availability and visibility of libraries in
the community. For the past 11 years the
College Station Library has been in a small
space and we are ready to expand.”
The new facility will occupy 16,500
square feet, more than three times the size
of the old College Station Library.
Texas Congressman Kevin Brady pre
sented a United States flag to the library at
the dedication ceremony.
“The new library is going to make lives
richer and fuller here in College Station,”
Brady said. “Readers are (future) leaders in
the community, the state and the nation.”
A Citizens Task Force was organized
and began planning on the library in 1996.
Larry Ringer, chairman of the Citizens
Task Force and a Texas A&M statistics pro
fessor, said the library is a tremendous im
provement in the community.
“It’s been a long time in coming, and it’s
an exciting time for College Station,”
Ringer said. “We have been able to in
crease the collection size and add com
puter programming.”
JmSsSm
ROBERT MCKAY/The Battalion
Bob Martin, state librarian, spoke at the
official opening of the new College Station
Library Sunday afternoon.
The new library will have 10 comput
ers with Internet access that can be re
served and used by library members.
There will be two small group study
rooms, a meeting room for non-profit or
ganizations and a snack bar in the entry
area of the library.
Individuals living or attending a uni
versity in the Brazos Valley may receive a
library card by presenting photo identifi
cation and proof of current address. Chil
dren must be accompanied by a parent or
guardian and must be able to write their
complete name to receive a library card.
The library card may be used at the
College Station and Bryan libraries.
The Bryan Public Library, which has
165,000 volumes, is larger than the new
College Station Library, which has 44,000
volumes.
Mounce said the College Station Li
brary has time and room on the shelves to
increase its circulation.
Ringer said A&M students may find
that the library will provide an additional
off-campus resource, although it cannot
provide the reference materials as housed
in the University library on campus.
“In terms of reference for general class
es and for recreational reading, the Col
lege Station library will be beneficial to
students,” Ringer said.