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Texas A & M University
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he Ekittalion encourages l
srs must be 300 woidsot
mthor’s name, class, and r-i
he opinion editor reseiwtj
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be submitted in personal
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The Battalion-MailCj
013 Reed McCta*
YEAR • ISSUE 118 • 18 PAGES • 2 SECTIONS
Rax: (409) 84M&!'
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COLLEGE STATION ‘TX
TODAY
TOMORROW
WEDNESDAY • APRIL 1 • 1998
E-mail: batt@unlx.tjni.
Iws
Briefs
atch
ers
es, tulips)
S
s Accepted.
r
lay
707 Texas Avi
Brys'
822-21
an posts bail
o theft counts
exas A&M University profes-
osted $3,500 bail Monday on
:ounts of theft between $750
fib,000.
liraj Pradhan, once the highest
A&M computer science pro-
jr, received a grand jury indict-
t last Thursday that accuses
of using state funds to pay
Hfora personal patent,
adhan received a separate in
tent in late February on two
ts of abuse related to two of
ersonal businesses. Officials
H National Science Founda-
(NSF) presented evidence to
■id jury and accuse him of
g travel expenses to a govern-
«ency and to Texas A&M.
■s A&M University officials
Hccused Pradhan of using
),0 0 of University funds for
inal gain.
amm to speak at
sh Library Friday
■. Sen. Phil Gramm will speak
■edicare Reform Conference at
aArge Bush Presidential Library
plex on Friday.
ie conference will take place
V a.m. to 4p.m. Gramm is
tiled to speak at 3:15 p.m in
rrs of a series of public policy
■ sponsored by the Bush
xj of Government and the De-
®nt of Economics.
■ nation’s leading economic
achers in the health care are-
vi| come together to present
Solutions to the problems as-
d with Medicare,
he chairman of the U.S. Sen-
[bcommittee on Health Care,
was recently named to a 17-
r Medicare commission
to pull the Medicare system
ankruptcy.
new look, links
break)
‘ to Campus
• CLOSE TO CAMR!
loftcc served on
Cl drinks available.
mis on Saturdays
e from either
Plugs n 1 More
located at
Station
34-1975
xas A&M web site
•ts
exas A&M University’s re
ed web page is now online,
site was adapted to make infor-
li more easily accessible to
5e unfamiliar with Texas A&M and
icrease its speed and efficiency,
ft new page uses 12 major
dngs in a drop down menu di
dry list as well as five new links
those seeking information con-
Tig prospective students, cur-
jtudents, former students, fac-
and staff and visitors. Another
Jon is a search box that
rches the Texas A&M web site
specified word or phrase in
ik name or the actual URL.
stateAppro»4|e new web site is designed
■^d Netscape Navigator 3.03+
ternet Explorer 3.01+. Down-
ime has been reduced to 11.5
ids. The URL for the Texas A&M
remains the same
[://www.ta m u. ed u>.
AGGIELANl'
TAN
Tanning &
Accessories
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and Get A
FREE id Libs celebrates 40th
5»rt«.-i versar y of making
Iple laugh.
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46-2265
5 4-31-98
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See Page 3
ital
|ie Baseball Team
iged earlier loss to UTSA
18 to 4 slaughter.
See Page 7
■vear
-409) 696-5557
ntral Texas.
Uimacher: Cartoon
garters ridicule psycho-
(cal problems.
See Page 9
c//balta1l0n.tamiLedu
k up with state and na-
al news through The
Ire, AP’s 24-hour online
iws service.
Student election signs
evoke mixed reactions
By Kelly Hackworth
Staff writer
With the recent theft of campaign signs Saturday, the
importance of campaigning for student elections has
come into question.
■ See Voter’s Guide, Special Section
Murray Van Eman, student elections commissioner
and a senior animal science major, said the signs are
causing more trouble than they are worth.
“This is making me want to speak to the student sen
ate revisions committee to have big signs removed both
on and off campus,” he said.
Van Eman said there is a limit on the number of signs
allowed on campus and their location. The signs are also
restricted to 16 square feet of advertised space per side.
Student leader candidates are allowed to place signs in
four locations: West Campus, Sbisa Dining Hall, the
Commons and the MSC.
Many of the sign rules come from University regula
tions, he said.
Van Eman said his vote was never affected by the cre
ativity of the campaign signs.
Texas A&M students have expressed mixed reactions
to campaigning.
Corissa Remmert, a sophomore English major, said
she looks at the campaign signs rather than the platform
of the candidates.
“I go more for their signs because that shows they re
ally want the job and they’re campaigning,” she said.
Kirby Atwood, a senior business analysis major, said
the candidates’ platforms are more important.
“It’s what they stand for that matters,” he said. “It’s not
how pretty they make their signs.”
Wendi Statzer, a sophomore English major said the
signs reflect effort on behalf of the candidates.
“I think the signs affect my vote because putting more
effort into how they campaign gives an idea of how they
might treat their position,” she said.
The Student Senate has passed a bill that copyright
ed or trademarked materials can not be used for cam
paigning beginning next year.
■ |p i r
| .... i APRIL 1,1998 _
VOTER 1 S GUIDE
IffS
lALIIJM
RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
i
I Steven Smith, associate professor and Special Collections librarian at the Cushing Memorial Library, demonstrates how Shakespeari-
I an books were printed on a replica printing press of that era. The demonstration was part of this week’s 1998 Shakespeare Festival.
Aboutface
Gov. Bush promotes new
plan to further education
DALLAS (AP) — Many problems with public
education could be fixed by employing a few sim
ple business strategies — like holding schools ac
countable for students’ failures — Gov. George W.
Bush said Tuesday.
Bush, addressing members of the National
Center for Policy Analysis, reiterated his cam
paign promise to do away with “social promo
tion” in Texas schools.
Bush said schools, like businesses, should be
required"to show results.
“Proven management principles when ap
plied to government can transform the public
sector and help create sound public policy,” Bush
said to an audience of over 300 people.
“The principles may seen pretty obvious to
people in the business world ... But efficiencies
and good practices that are second nature in busi
ness are often second-fiddle in government.”
Bush reiterated his proposal to eliminate so
cial promotion by requiring third-graders to pass
the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills reading
exam before moving on to fourth grade.
Fifth-graders would have to pass the reading
and mathTAAS, and eighth-graders would have
to pass reading, math and writing.
The plan would take effect beginning with stu
dents in the 1999 kindergarten class.
Currently, the practice of promoting students
regardless of performance is against the law, but
there’s a clause that allows students to be pro
moted if they “demonstrate proficiency of the
subject matter.”
Seniors take lead
Opportunities to experience real world
abound for students on Leadership Trip
By Suzanne Riggs
Staffwriter
Some ofTexas A&M’s top seniors will
gain first-hand knowledge about life af
ter college during the 36th Annual MSC
Spring Leadership Trip (SLT) in Hous
ton, April 1 to 4.
“The trip is like Fish Camp for the
real world,” said Nichole Grice, SLT
chair and a senior political science ma
jor.
At the beginning of every spring se
mester, 42 seniors who have demon
strated leadership abilities at A&M are
chosen for the SLT program.
SLT was started in 1963 by former
students J.Wayne Stark, Class of ’39;
James Ray, Class of '63; and John H.
Lindsey Class of ’44.
The three believed A&M students
needed an opportunity to explore the
challenges facing them after college
and to enhance their cultural aware
ness.
As a result, Grice said the trip has
evolved into three days of personal en
richment.
“We hope the students will have a
good time and learn something from
the people and things they are exposed
to,” she said.
Among the list of SLT’s featured
speakers are Harris Pappas, founder of
Pappaddeaux Seafood Kitchen restau
rants and Class of ’66; Michael T. Hal-
bouty, oil businessman and Class of’30;
and Anne Armstrong, member of the
A&M System Board of Regents and a
former U.S. ambassador to Great
Britain.
A first for this year’s SLT trip is the ca
reer match-up program, which will give
students the opportunity to spend a
morning at work with former A&M stu
dents that are working in their field of
interest.
Cari Pope, SLT director of operations
and a senior industrial engineering ma
jor, said this program will help students
understand life in the workplace.
“While most of these students prob
ably have done an internship,” she said,
“the program will provide a different
view that will open their eyes to the fact
that not everything is like what their in
ternships were like.”
Pope said the students will also get a
taste of Houston’s cultural scene.
For example, they will attend a play
at the Alley Theater, visit the the Holo
caust Museum, explore Space Center
Houston and see the Native American
Art collection of Bud Adams, owner of
the Tennessee Oilers football team.
The students will stay with former
students during the first two nights of
the trip.
“Some of the students may be from
a town of 500 and then they go to a big
city like Houston and are afraid of the
traffic,” she said. “They can talk about
what it is like to go to a city they have
never been to.”
Healing touch discredited
CHICAGO (AP) — A study
conducted by a 9-year-old girl
for a science project and pub
lished in a distinguished med
ical journal concludes that
“therapeutic touch,” in which a
healer supposedly manipulates
a patient’s energy field, is bunk.
Emily Rosa, the daughter of a
registered nurse and an inven
tor, found that 21 experienced
practitioners were unable to de
tect the field they supposedly
manipulate to heal.
Her study was published in
Wednesday’s Journal of the
American Medical Association
and immediately drew fire from
supporters of the practice, who
say it is respected worldwide.
Therapeutic touch has been
used to treat problems ranging
from burns to cancer.
The technique is practiced in
at least 80 North American hos
pitals and taught in more than
100 colleges and universities in
75 countries, said the study,
written by the Loveland, Colo.,
fourth-grader, her parents and
a Pennsylvania doctor who
works to uncover quackery.
Those who practice the tech
nique say an energy field em
anates from every person and is
detectable above the skin
through a tingling sensation or
a feeling of hot or cold.
The healer moves his or her
hands over the patient’s body to
modify the field.
More than 100,000 people
worldwide have been taught
the technique, including at least
43,000 health-care profession
als, the study said.
Emily set up a cardboard
screen through which practi
tioners put their hands. With
their sight blocked, she asked
them to identify which of their
hands was near one of hers.
The 21 practitioners chose
the correct hand 44 percent of
the time. That was slightly less
"I do sot believe
jige should be a bar
on an\“dii.n.g.. voun.g
or old.."
than the 50 percent chance they
would have had of choosing the
correct hand by guessing, au
thors said.
“To our knowledge, no other
objective, quantitative study in
volving more than a few thera
peutic touch practitioners has
been published, and no well-de
signed study demonstrates any
health benefit from therapeutic
touch,” the study concluded.
“These facts, together with our
experimental findings, suggest
that therapeutic touch claims are
groundless and that further use of
therapeutic touch by health pro
fessionals is unjustified.”
The research was never in
tended to be published, Rosa
said. But word spread, and the
PBS show “Scientific American
Frontiers” featured Emily’s tests
on Nov. 19. Dr. Stephen Barrett
of Quackwatch Inc., based in
Allentown, Pa., suggested sub
mitting the findings to JAMA.
Dolores Krieger, professor
emeritus of nursing science at
New York University and co-
founder of therapeutic touch in
1972, scoffed at Emily’s findings
and said she was “astounded”
JAMA published the study.
“It’s poor in terms of design
and methodology,” she said.
She said the designer of the
study — Emily — should not
have been the one to conduct it,
and the 21 subjects were too
few and unrepresentative.
Dr. George D. Lundberg, editor
of JAMA for 16 years, said he han
dled the editing of Emily’s report
and the research is sound.
“I do not believe age should be
a bar on anything, either young or
old,” he said. “It’s the quality of the
science that matters.”
Patricia W. Abrams, 59, said
therapeutic touch saved her life 17
years ago after conventional doc
tors had given up on treating her
for agnogenic myloid fibrosis, a fa
tal, incurable blood disorder.
“I’ve never been healthier,”
said Abrams, co-owner of an
educational publishing compa
ny in Washington, Conn.
“It truly changed my life,”
Abrams said.