Texas A & M University
ibe:
Mil
4 th YEAR • ISSUE 110*6 PAGES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TODAY TOMORROW
FRIDAY • MARCH 13 • 1998
lopgood names Corps commander, deputy
I By Sarah Goldston
Radio producer
ie Corps of Cadets announced last
Tase Bailey will be the Corps com-
I lerandKellyGarrity will be the deputy
nander for the 1998-99 school year.
I liley, a junior aerospace engineering
L.r, said be was amazed he was selected
I rpspommander.
look at all the people who have come
[ e me,” he said. “It’s overwhelming to
of tlie shoes I will have to fill.” Bailey
he first sergeant of company E-2.
irrity, a junior journalism major, will
t in [leading the Corps and serve as
nander in Bailey’s absence.
I!ie said she was surprised she was cho-
" s deputy commander.
I hope to continue with what has al
ready been established by Danny and
Ken this year and to help Tase lead the
Corps,” she said.
In the ceremony, Corps Commandant
Maj. Gen. M. T. “Ted” Hopgood com
mended current Corps Commander
Danny Feather and Deputy Commander
Ken Evans for leading the Corps of
Cadets this year.
Evans said he and Feather will prepare
Bailey and Garrity to do their best.
“These people have the utmost capabil
ities, and we will mentor them for the next
two months so that they may be able to
handle the responsibilities that come with
their positions,” he said.
Feather said he was pleased with who
was selected.
“I think back to a year ago today and this
last year has been one of the most reward
ing and exciting of my life,” he said “The
Corps is going to be in great hands.”
Tom Gillis, the oldest living Corps com
mander and author of The Cadence, the
code book for the Corps, presented Bailey
with one of the first editions of the book in
the ceremony.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president
of Student Affairs, said all of the candidates
were qualified to be Corps commander.
“The quality of the young people inter
viewed makes me feel confident about the
future of the Corps of Cadets,” he said.
Feather says Corps commander and
deputy commander are encompassing
jobs, and Bailey and Garrity should expect
a change of lifestyl e.
“They should expect over a year of little
sleep, phone calls and activities,” he said. “It
is a rewarding experience.”
The selection process drew from 23 can
didates. A panel of eight military officers
and eights cadets voted for and held inter
views before choosing the leaders.
Feather said it is a very democratic
process.
“The candidates go through an inter
view process,” he said. “They are asked
questions pertaining to gender issues, al
cohol policies, hazing, scholastics, leader
ship philosophies and a number of other
topics.”
Jim Reid, Marine Colonel commanding
officer for the Naval ROTC at Texas A&M,
served on the selection panel.
“The selection was difficult,” he said.
“There was tremendous quality to draw
from. Narrowing it down to one person
was challenging. The class of ’99 is blessed
with talent.”
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
Tase Bailey is congratulated by Dr. J. Malon
Southerland.
EWS
Briefs
students host
Idle school group
pe College of Agriculture and Life
, ices hosted a group of students
Kirby Middle School in Houston
jcipatmg in the Exxon Kids in Col-
Partnership Program Thursday,
ctiviiies included an orientation
ie college and a tour of the
ge Bush Presidential Library and
3um.
le program is a multi-faceted
|-;ach program that involves mid-
school students, universities and
n Company, U.S.A., along with
Vs distributors and retailers,
ie primary objectives of the pro-
i are to provide middle school
3nts with a college campus ex-
I: nee typical to that of a college
l^nt and to help motivate middle
ol students to set goals and
preparing for college.
^dical professor
ids lecture series
imuel H. Black, a professor of
cbiology and of humanities in
icine in Texas A&M’s College of
icine, recently has established
ndowed lecture series in the De-
nment of Humanities in Medicine,
'ne series has been named in
jory of Black’s wife, Elisabeth
ha Black-Zandveld.
he Black-Zandveld Lectureship in
listory of Medicine will bring em-
t scholars from around the world
impus.
lack said it is his hope that the
ire series “will serve as a fitting
te while enriching the academ-
;periences of students and fac-
alike.”
i addition to the gift made by
k, many other friends of Elisabeth
k-Zandveld have contributed to the
l(i; to establish the lecture series.
M S I D E
ing Break vacationers
to the hot spots for fun
in the sun
and a little
relaxation.
See Page 2
sports
Aggie Baseball Team
els to Oklahoma State
a three-game series.
See Page 6
opinion
lumacher: Parents should
held responsible for
lavior, attire of children.
See Page 5
online
;p://battalion.tamu.edu
>k up with state and na-
lal news through The
e, AP’s 24-hour online
vs service.
A roach by any other name
ROBERT MCKAY/The Battalion
Cordelia Rasa, an entomology graduate student, takes a break from insect toxicology
class to show a specimen of Gromphadorhinna portentosa, a Madagascar Hissing roach.
Rate of cancer cases
lowers for first time
Students see South
on civil rights tour
By Jennifer Wilson
Staff writer
Spring Break for 12 Texas A&M students
will be spent on an educational journey
through six states on a week-long civil rights
tour, March 13 to 19.
The tour will take students through Sel
ma, Ala.; Montgomery, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.;
Birmingham, Ala.; Oxford, Miss.; Memphis,
Tenn.; and Little Rock, Ark., and will give stu
dents an in-depth view of the leadership of
people involved in the civil rights move
ment.
The students were required to apply for a
space on the tour, sponsored by the Depart
ment of Multicultural Services, by submitting
an essay on an unsung hero of the civil rights
era. The students were then enrolled in a lead
ership class to learn more about the tour and
how to sharpen their leadership skills.
Rodney McClendon, coordinator of stu
dent retention and development for the De
partment of Multicultural Services, said stu
dents will visit famous sites of the civil rights
movement and will meet people whose
names are not famous, but who were great
ly involved in the movement.
“We’ve made arrangements to visit with
people involved with the movement or their
families, who were lynched, water hosed or
involved with the freedom marches or riots,”
he said.
McClendon said the tour will give a his
torical look at people who supported inte
gration and those who supported segrega
tion. He said students can look at these
leaders and analyze their skills to learn
from them.
Anthony Edwards, a junior biomedical
science major, said he is going on the tour
because he wants to continue to gain a per
spective on how many people suffered to
give him the chance to attend A&M.
“I want to learn as much as I can about
what it was like and to understand what the
people before me had to do for civil rights,”
he said.
Edwards said his unsung hero of the civil
1
rights movement is O.Z. White, a minister in
San Antonio, who was stabbed trying to pro
tect Martin Luther King Jr. at a hotel when a
fight broke out.
Edwards said the leadership class helped
him form and become president of the As
sociation of Black Leaders in Science.
“All of these events have helped to show
me that I need to take more of an initiative
on campus and to maintain and increase my
focus for why I am here,” he said.
Francisco Maldonado, a junior political
science major, said he wants to understand
more about what happened during the civil
rights movement that can not be learned in
textbooks.
“This will be an opportunity for me to see
what went on and how much courage these
people had to have and the sacrifices they
made not for themselves, but for those who
came after them,” he said.
Maldonado said his unsung hero of the
movement is his grandfather who made many
sacrifices so his children could have an edu
cation and inspired him to become an attor
ney for civil rights and immigration law.
“It is so inspirational to see what these
people did and it gives me a great apprecia
tion for everything I have at A&M,” he said.
“It has helped me realize that I take everyday
things for granted that people had to fight
for only 35 years ago.”
McClendon said the students will get to
gether at the end of the tour to reflect on
what they have experienced.
“We want the students to gain an appre
ciation for the blood, sweat and tears that
were given for lost lives that resulted not
only in the freedom of blacks in America, but
in freedom for all people,” he said.
WASHINGTON (AP) —The rate
of new cancer cases among Amer
icans inched down for the first
time, meaning over 70,000 fewer
people than expected were diag
nosed between 1992 and 1995, the
government said Thursday.
The good news comes after two
decades of increasing cancer cas
es — and almost two years after
doctors spotted the first-ever drop
in cancer deaths.
But everybody didn’t benefit:
Some cancers, such as deadly
melanoma, still are rising, and
black men and Asian women have
missed out on the progress.
“We have to make sure the best
(medical) practices are being ap
plied to everyone,” said National
Cancer Institute Director Richard
Klausner, warning that cancer re
mains “a daunting problem.”
“As exciting as today is, and it is
historic, the gains ... are fragile,”
agreed Assistant Surgeon General
John Marks, who said problems
such as recent increases in teen
age smoking threaten to fuel a re
bound.
What’s happening? Scientists
couldn’t say exactly — they’re still
analyzing 23 different cancers. But
they said tobacco use, blamed for
one-third of all cancer cases, has
dropped. Also, people are getting
better testing, meaning not just
that cancer is treated earlier but
that, for example, pre-cancerous
colon polyps can be removed be
fore ever turning into tumors.
At least one-fourth of all can
cers could be prevented by eating
more fruits and vegetables and
less fat, but scientists were skepti
cal that diet had an impact yet —
obesity actually is rising.
The rate of new cancer cases in
creased 1.2 percent a year between
1973 and 1992, says a study by
American Cancer Society and gov
ernment scientists.
But from 1992 to 1995, the can
cer rate suddenly dropped 2.7 per
cent a year.
Preliminary results from 1996
suggest the trend is continuing,
said Dr. Edward Sondik of the Cen
ters for Disease Control and Pre
vention.
As reported previously, the rate
of death from cancer dropped by a
total of 2.5 percent between 1990
and 1995 — representing about
30,000 fewer deaths than expect
ed, Klausner said.
Asteroid poses no threat
to Earth, scientists say
WASHINGTON (AP) — Relax,
Earthlings. That asteroid streaking
toward our planet is going to miss
by miles. Actually, by 600,000 miles,
according to new calculations.
Just a day after one group of
astronomers reported that an as
teroid was expected to pass with
in 30,000 miles of the Earth’s cen
ter and could possibly collide,
astronomers at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory said their
calculations — based on newly
uncovered data — indicate the
asteroid will pass no closer than
600,000 miles away.
“We are saying now that the
probability of an impact is zero,”
said Donald K. Yeomans of JPL.
“It poses no threat to the Earth
whatsoever.”
Yeomans said he and fellow as
tronomer Paul W. Chodas dug out
some eight-year-old pictures of the
heavens taken by the Palomar Ob
servatory telescope and found that
the photos contained images of as
teroid 1997 XF11, which then was
just an unidentified point of light.
Using the 1990 pictures and
recent observations of the streak
ing space rock, Yeomans and
Chodas recalculated the orbital
path of the asteroid and found
that it would miss the Earth by
600,000 miles in its closest ap
proach in October 2028.
Brian G. Marsden of the In-
“We are saying now
that the probability
of impact is zero.”
Donald K. Yeomans
jet Propulsion Laboratory
ternational Astronomical Union,
the astronomer who made the
calculations released on Wednes
day, could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Steve Maran, an astronomer
with the American Astronomical
Society, said that Marsden’s cal
culations were based on very lim
ited data.
“They got more information
about the orbit,” Maran said ofYeo-
mans and Chodas. “They should
have a much better estimate. This
should certainly be more reliable
because it is based on more data.”
By looking at the 1990 pic
tures, Maran said Yeomans and
Chodas, in effect, have a total of
eight years of orbital measure
ments about the asteroid.
“You really do need an intensive
set of observations to really nail it
down,” he said.
On Wednesday, Marsden had
issued a notice that the asteroid
was expected to pass within only
30,000 miles of the Earth’s center.
“The chance of an actual colli
sion is small, but one is not en
tirely out of the question,” he
concluded.
Those calculations were based
on short measurements taken just
last week and included less of the
asteroid’s orbital path than the old,
archival pictures from Palomar.