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Texas A St M University
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TODAY
TOMORROW
1TH
YEAR • ISSUE 114 • 16 PACES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
THURSDAY • MARCH 26 • 1998
News
Briefs
-CS tunes in to rock festival
iter year of planning, Northgate merchants kick off 3-day music festival
show at Shadow Canyon tonight featuring Ruthie Foster, David Garza
By Robert Smith
City Editor
; South by Southwest it isn’t.
Bui this weekend’s first ever North by
| )rthgate Music Festival could provide a
ot in the arm for live music in Bryan-
>llege Station.
The festival will bring the largest num-
r of music acts B-CS has seen in one
jekend, with more than 70 bands
bed tiled to play at seven venues.
NiXNG has been in the works since last
ar, when Texas A&M student Nathan
cFall approached the Northgate Mer-
ant’s Association with his idea for a
?ekend of live music.
“The idea came to me when I was at
uth by Southwest last year,” said McFall,
lenior environmental science major.
“I was watching all these bands play
d I thought, ‘We can do this in College
Ttion.’”
McFall submitted a proposal to the
u thgate merchants last September, and
er adding more details, he was given
e green light to begin planning.
"When it first started out it was going to
two days and about 20 bands,” he said “It
rued out to be much bigger than I ever ex
pected.”
The festival became more than an idea
/hen the Northgate merchants brought in
/illic Bennett to recruit talent.
Binnett has been instrumental in bringing
live music to B-CS during the past several
years, including major names such as Bo Did-
dley, Robert Earl Keen and the Nixons.
north
by northgate
music
festival
“I had a meeting with the Northgate Mer
chant’s Association, and they officially told me
they wanted me to be a part of it,” he said.
Bennett began his search for bands in Jan
uary and worked the phones endlessly for two
months to secure the festival’s line-up.
“As soon as I found out about it, I began
calling,” he said. “The bands have been
booked for about a month now, and we’ve
been working on the equipment everyone
needs and the sound.”
Some of the bands, such as Breedlove
and Haywood, will be familiar to local
music fans, but several music acts will be
making there first appearance in B-CS.
“Some of the bands I didn’t know about
at first,” Bennett said.
“Huffamoose was a pleasant surprise
because I didn’t know they were going to
be in the area.
“Also American Horse, which has three
of the guys from Jackopierce, was a pleas
ant surprise.”
Bennett plans to make NXNG an an
nual event but said he may change one
thing about next year’s planning.
“I might swing adding one person to
my staff,” he said. “I’ve had to do it all by
myself. Whenever you’re talking about 72
bands, it’s going to be hectic.”
NXNG will kick off tonight with a free
show at Shadow Canyon.
Austin’s David Garza will take the stage
at 7 and local favorites Haywood will go
on at 9.
All-access wristbands are available for Fri
day and Saturday night’s shows at Marooned
Records, Crooked Path Ale House, Fitzwilly’s
and Copacetic Cafe. Wristbands are $20 and
tickets for each night are $13.
A complete schedule of shows is available
at the North by Northgate Web site at
http:/ / www.nxng.com.
Festival parking
raises concerns
The North by Northgate Music
Festival on Mar. 27 and 28 may
bring parking problems if it brings
as many people to the Northgate
area as expected.
Don Anz, owner of Crooked
Path Ale House and Cafe Eccell,
said those attending the concert
should use the parking lots in
Northgate.
The mud lot at Church Avenue
and Nagle Street will be open for
$2.50 per car. The 120-space
parking lot behind Fitzwilly’s and
the Dixie Chicken will be open.
People who attend the North
by Northgate event can use the
Northgate parking garage locat
ed on University Drive. The cost
to park in the garage is seventy-
five cents per hour, with a maxi
mum of six dollars per day.
Anz said he expects North by
Northgate, the first-ever collabo
ration by businesses in College
Station, to bring about 2,500 at
tendees on both Friday and Sat
urday nights. He said the addi
tion of a Northgate parking
garage could benefit the city and
the students.
“If we had a parking garage,
we could bring in more business
es and students would have
more space to park," Anz said.
Nathan McFall, the North by
Northgate program coordinator,
said people can purchase tickets
before the event to avoid lines on
the night of the performances.
“There are a limited number of
tickets available,” McFall said.
lad over wheels
By Suzanne Riggs
StaffWriter
The MSC Council has created a
committee that will form pro
grams focusing on the positive
impacts of leadership.
The Leadership Programming
Committee (LPC) will be respon
sible for conducting current pro
grams such as the Aggie Women’s
Leadership Forum and Leader
ship in Action and for creating
new programs like the Leadership
Symposium.
Laura Baggett, MSC vice presi
dent of Leadership Development
(LD) and a sophomore electrical
engineering major, said the Coun
cil created the committee on
March 2 because the MSC Leader
ship Development Programs area
did not have a committee de
signed to aid and assist the pro
grams.
“We felt that these programs
could be a lot better if they had
more people, time and money and
other resources dedicated to
them,” Baggett said.
She said the Council believed
the best way to do this was to cre
ate a committee within the LD
area that was specifically designed
to guide these programs.
“Having the leadership pro
grams focused in a specific area
will allow them to operate in a
more structured and organized
manner,” she said.
The Aggie Women’s Leadership
Forum is a luncheon that takes
place during the fall and spring se
mester featuring a keynote speak
er. The forum is expected to be-
“Having the leadership
programs focused in a
specific area will allow
them to operate in a more
structured and
organized manner.”
Laura Baggett
MSC vice president
of leadership development
come an all-day program under the
direction of the new committee.
Leadership in Action is a series of
casual lunches in which small groups
of students can talk with community
leaders about the application of lead
ership in the workplace.
Included in the plan for pro
gram expansion is the addition of
the Leadership Symposium. The
conference, which will target stu
dents, faculty and staff from uni
versities throughout the Southwest
Region, will be held Oct. 16-18.
Manda Hays, director of the
Leadership Symposium and a
graduate student in leadership
studies, said conferences similar
to this have been successful in
other regions but they have not
been established in this region.
“We are really excited about
this conference and hope to invite
big names that will make people
want to come,” Hays said.
Will Hurd, who will take over
as MSC president in April and a
junior computer science and in
ternational studies major, said
he is enthusiastic that the pro
gram is just starting to form dur
ing his term.
“Leadership is a good topic and
is something that college students
are interested in,” he said. “The
formation of the committee shows
that the MSC is trying to meet the
demands of the campus.”
Those interested in becoming
involved with LPC may attend its
first meeting Friday at 2 p.m, in
216-LMSC.
Applications for general com
mittee membership will be avail
able in April.
MIKE RJENTES/The Battalion
,t. Bert V. Kretzschmar, crime prevention specialist for the University
’olice Department, engraves a student’s bike for identification. The
ngraving service is offered to help recover lost or stolen bikes.
Uder applicants flood NASA
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
NASA’s decision to send a 77-
ir-old John Glenn back into or-
has reignited the space race,
ly this time the contenders are
hors.
Some of the nation’s hardier, old-
souls have offered to replace
?nn aboard shuttle Discovery this
l as the aging population’s envoy
space.
At the very least, they’d like to fol-
v in his high-flying footsteps.
“This John Glenn thing has
Dught just a slew of requests say
ing, ‘How come you picked him?
Why not me? I run triathlons. Or I
do this. Or I do that,’ ” said David
Leestma, director of flight crew op
erations at Johnson Space Center.
Why not me, demanded an 81-
year-old triathlete.
Or me, asked a 77-year-old re
tired military pilot.
Why not, indeed?
The answer, NASA says, is simple.
There’s only one John Glenn, a
Mercuiy astronaut and former Ma
rine with virtually his entire medical
history on file, and he’s in top shape.
Student slashes teachers
PRINCETON, Texas (AP) — A
15-year-old boy described as a lon
er went berserk at Princeton High
School, slashing himself and three
teachers before he was finally sub
dued Wednesday.
The boy and the three wound
ed teachers were treated at Co
lumbia Medical Center in nearby
McKinney and released Wednes
day afternoon.
The Princeton High freshman,
whose name was being withheld
by police because of his age, was
confined to the Collin County Ju
venile Detention in McKinney on
aggravated assault charges, Police
Chief Mike Hughes said.
The rampage left a trail of
blood through a school corridor
that school officials quickly
cleaned up, said school Superin
tendent Frank Garner.
“It was nasty, really nasty,” he said.
Garner said teachers saw the
boy cutting himself on the arms
and forehead in front of the school
about8 a.m.
The boy went to a side door and
down a corridor, slashing wildly
with a single-edge razor blade at
anyone in his path as screaming
students and teachers ducked into
classrooms, Garner said.
Math teacher Belinda Selfridge
was slashed in the left cheek, home
economics teacher Melody Witt
was wounded behind the left
shoulder, and assistant football
coach Coy Stewart was badly
slashed across the abdomen, Gar
ner said.
“These were not people he had
anything against at all,” he said.
Finally, after advancing about
100 bloody feet, the boy was tack
led from behind by two teachers
near the gymnasium and held him
until police arrived.
“He was just on the ground
yelling, T want to die, I want to
die,”’ said student Manuel Ve
lasquez, 17.
Although classes proceeded as
scheduled, few students remained
in school by the end of the day as
anxious parents called for their
children, Garner said.
Velasquez, a junior, said the boy
was a freshman who was a loner.
“Fie didn’t let people get too close
to him.”
Classmates and neighbors say
the boy habitually dressed in black
with safety pins stuck in the flesh
of his arms.
This was the boy’s first year in
the Princeton school system and
its 500-student high school, Gar
ner said.
The boy lives alone with his
father in a white mobile home
with blue trim in a small rural
subdivision about three miles
south of Princeton.
Regents discuss
tuition increase
The Board of Regents of the Texas
A&M University System will meet
Thursday, March 26, and Friday,
March 27, in College Station in Room
292 of the MSC.
The board’s Committee on Fi
nance will meet at 9 a.m., and the full
board is scheduled to convene at
9:30 a.m. with remarks from the
chairman and chancellor.
Following the remarks will be a
public hearing regarding proposed in
creases in board-authorized tuition at
Texas A&M International University,
Texas A&M University-Commerce,
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi,
West Texas A&M University and Bay
lor College of Dentistry.
Symposium takes
look at research
Issues involved in developing stu
dent-based research programs will be
the focus of a symposium today at
the College Station Conference Cen
ter sponsored by the Texas A&M
chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific re
search society.
The daylong public symposium will
open at 10 a.m. Marye Ann Fox, vice
president for research at the Univer
sity of Texas, will speak on “Research
IS Education” following the annual
Sigma Xi induction and awards ban
quet. Fox’s speech at 7:30 p.m. in
110-111 Koldus Building is open to
the public at no charge.
Group to explore
Carter Creek area
Several local groups, including two
campus organizations, will unite Sat
urday to lead an exploration of the
threatened Carter Creek natural area,
with a focus on both science and fun.
The Brazos Greenways Council,
Rio Brazos Audobon, Society of Con
servation Biology and American Fish
eries Society will join the Sierra Club
in the Bio-Blitz, a combination of na
ture walks and biological inventory of
the Carter Creek area at the Brazos
Valley Museum’s nature trail.
Open to anyone, the event begins
with a 7:30 a.m. birding walk and con
cludes with a 9 p.m. stargazing ses
sion at the Brazos Center.
Club hosts annual
pancake feed
The Kiwanis Club of College Station
will present their 46th annual pancake
day Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
the Brazos Center on Briarcrest Drive.
Proceeds from the event will be
used to support the club’s communi
ty and youth service activities such as
Reading is Fundamental, Brazos Re
habilitation Center, Still Creek Ranch
and Children’s Miracle Network.
INSIDE
aggie life
North by
Northgate
kicks off and
continues
through this
weekend.
See Page 4
sports
Aggie Softball Team sweeps
doubleheader against Sam
Houston State.
See Page 11
opinion
Cater: Proposed ban on
Shakespearian plays displays
impracticality, censorship.
See Page 15
online
http: / /battalion.tamu.edu
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