Texas A & M University
%t TH YEAR‘ISSUE 135‘SPACES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TODAY TOMORROW
MONDAY • APRIL 27 • 1998
:ws
Briefs
instruction to
lose lots PA-48, 61
Istruction will begin today on the
]>undation building, which will be
Jon the corner of George Bush Dri-
iHouston Street. The construction
Jet people with red permits using
Ifnd PA-61. Signs are posted indi
hat parking is not appropriate in
ifereas due to construction, which
jieduled to begin on April 13.
iry Wine, the associate director for
■stration of Parking, Traffic and
iBrtation Services (PITS), said the
^Jction is two weeks behind sched-
i;PITS officials recorded license plates
1 parking permit numbers on Friday,
Jkingcounselors called and asked
Is to relocate their vehicles.
IS does not plan to relocate vehi-
liay, unless otherwise directed.
MC food area in
larch of names
pis summer, the 12th Man Burgers
Racks food service area on the first
“■‘Of the Memorial Student Center will
/erted into a food court similar to
Iderground, but with a decidedly in-
lonal flare.
(Besides all-American favorites like
■cue and fried chicken, there is a pro-
sito offer Asian cuisine and south-of-
wrder favorites. The individual brand-
■ts within this new area want to
til their stores with "an A&M senti-
pt’ The University’s Department of
Services is now collecting possible
is.
names will be selected in June as
jeimg of the area begins. The new
lurt is expected to be open for the
lester. Potential names should be
-mailed or telephoned to Debbie
ley, Department of Food Services,
flop 1374, 845-3005 or <dbrant-
| i i;..|l)srv,tamu.edu>.
V
acuity to work
?road announced
pen Texas A&M faculty members
Ceive funding for proposals to con-
Jcholarly work abroad through the
nal Research Travel Assistance
■administered by the Office of Inter-
|ia! Coordination. Approximately 10
> of about $1,000 each are funded
fall and spring.
ring 1998 recipients and the coun-
In which they will work are: Arman-
Inzo, assistant professor of history,
jndand Spain; Daniel Bornstein,as-
|te professor of history, Italy; Tina
, assistant professor of manage-
lFrance and Poland; James Derr, as-
ht professor of veterinary pathobiol-
Nepal; Chester Dunning, associate
ksor of history, the Netherlands, Ger-
Britain and France; Daniel
Ivray, professor of architecture, Italy;
bn Maxson, professor of mathe-
[s, Germany; John McEachron, pro-
fr of wildlife and fisheries sciences,
[alia; Paul Parrish, professor of Eng-
England; Donald Saylak, professor
nil engineering, Russia; and Hans
lessler, professor of physics, Japan.
INSIDE
,Jr. wraps up its spring
ion with two performances
he childrens’ play
old’s Favorite Field Trip.
See Page 3
fielder Will Gray overcame
ersity to become a solid
tributor for A&M baseball.
lii-
See Page 6
Daniel: Phone registra-
i brings frustration and
ential danger.
See Page 7
p:/ /battalion.tamu.edu
Dk up with state and na-
lal news through The
'e,AP’s 24-hour online
vs service.
Yellow bikes to begin cycling Fall ’98
By Amanda Smith
Staff writer
Texas Aggies Making Changes
(TAMC) is paving the road for a bi
cycle transportation program set
to begin in Fall 1998.
The Borrow-a-Bike program
will allow students to use bicycles
from on-campus bike racks and
ride them to classes or campus
locations.
Kristi Polasek, the co-director
of the TAMC Borrow-A-Bike pro
gram committee and a sopho
more nutrition major, said she
hopes students respond positive
ly to the new program.
“I am really excited about the new
program, but I think that the stu
dents must treat the bikes with re
spect,” Polasek said. “A lot of people
have bikes, but there are still a lot of
people who don’t. Students who
have bikes can still use those in the
Borrow-A-Bike program.”
Between 50 and 60 bikes will be
numbered and painted yellow and
placed in bike racks across cam
pus, including West campus.
Polasek said the committee
hopes to receive 20 more bikes be
fore the Fall 1998 semester begins.
The Borrow-A-Bike committee
has received more than 35 bicycles
from Parking, Traffic and Trans
portation Services (PTTS), the
Bryan Police Department and the
College Station Police Depart
ment.
The Brazos Valley Cyclists have
worked to help members of the
Borrow-A-Bike committee learn
how to complete basic mainte
nance repairs on the bikes, Po
lasek said.
Polasek said the Borrow-A-Bike
committee is still discussing
arrangements and the frequency
of maintenance on the bicycles.
Liz Fiagan, a member of TAMC
and a freshman agribusiness ma
jor, said she looks forward to the
start of the program.
“I think it’s a great program,”
Hagan said. “I do not have a bike,
and I live on campus. It will be nice
to have bikes available and not
have to worry about maintenance.
It will also be nice for students
who live off campus who won’t
have to worry about leaving bikes
on campus.”
Cass Burton, an off-campus
senator and a sophomore political
science major, proposed the idea
of a Borrow-A-Bike program to the
Student Senate after initiating re
search on the program as a fresh
man in Fall 1996.
“I am so excited about the pro
gram,” Burton said. “I can’t get
over how cooperative the admin
istration has been. TAMC has
made this program possible.”
Living it up at A&M
Right: Arin
Schall, a
junior political
science major,
gets her hair
braided at
Whoopstock
’98 Saturday
afternoon.
Far right:
Linda
Rodriguez, a
senior electri
cal engineer
ing major, and
Jose
Ornelas,
Class of ’94
graduate,
dance in the
Latin room at
Ring Dance
Saturday
night.
■-
\
wirnd’/M;
in
JAMES FRANCIS/The Battalion
GREG MCREYNOLDS/The Battalion
Turtles take hold in South Texas
CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) — A
pair of rare sea turtles has turned
up on a South Texas beach.
What’s even more unusual —
and encouraging — is that both
Kemp’s ridleys turtles laid eggs.
Saturday’s discoveries were a
triumph for an ongoing federal
program at Padre Island National
Seashore to save the approximate
ly 3,000 turtles that exist.
“This job does require a lot of
dedication and we have to put up
with seeing a lot of dead turtles, but
today we found two — nesting, no
less,” Darrell Echols, branch chief of
science and resources manage
ment for the National Park Service,
told the Corpus Christ! Caller-
Times. “All I can think right now is
that all’s well in the world today.”
A beach visitor reported the first
turtle at 9 a.m. on Mustang Island.
The turtle team found it, watched it
cover 93 pingpong-ball-sized eggs
and caught it. Then they heard the re
port of the second turtle, discovered
by two turtle patrollers.
Scientists placed the two tur
tles’ eggs, 190 in all, in incubators
and captured the turtles, said
Donna Shaver, a U.S. Geological
Survey research biologist who di
rects the Kemp’s ridley recovery
program.
Shaver’s team drew blood from
the two turtles, tagged them,
placed satellite transmitters on
them and set them free. Each
weighs 80 to 100 pounds.
The transmitters will keep track
of the turtles, and the group may
be able to claim another bunch of
eggs if the turtles return to shore.
One of the two turtles was from
the 13,500 that have been raised in
captivity and set free through the
federal program, Shaver said. Its tag
showed that it was born in 1984.
The other had no tag and may have
been born in the wild, she said.
Katy team takes decathlon silver
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A team of California high
school students Sunday were saved from having to eat
loads of canned Spam by winning the U.S. Academic
Decathlon.
El Camino Real High School ofWoodland Hills, Calif.
,beat out 57 other high schools to win the prestigious
competition in which teen-agers from across America
are tested for their knowledge.
“It’s the greatest feeling on earth,” said 17-year-old
Steve Chae, a jubilant member of the California team,
which placed second in last year’s national champi
onship. “The one thing we came back for was the na
tional title, and we did it.”
Defending champion James E. Taylor High School of
Katy, Texas, came away with the silver medal this year.
“We didn’t lose the gold. We won the silver,” said Tay
lor’s Cheryl Hogan, 18.
Mountain View High School of Mesa, Ariz., was
third, followed by the Wheeler School of Providence,
R.I., and the Whitney Young Magnet School of Chica
go, Ill.
The California team spent as much as 50 hours a
week preparing for the contest. They were hungry for
victory, but not for the stack of canned Span they had
pledged to eat if they won anything less than the gold
medal.
“We don’t have to eat the Spam,” 17-year-old Elena
Pelman said after her team’s victory.
Wheeler’s fourth-place finish was the best ever for a
Rhode Island team at the nationals. The Wheeler team
also scored higher than any other Northeast school,
won a medal for the best performance of a small school,
and walked away with a total of 11 individual medals.
“I’m ecstatic. This is more than we possibly could
have hoped for,” said 17-year-old Megan von Reinhart.
Each year, a special award is given to the Academic
Decathlon competitor who has overcome the greatest
adversity.
That award — and a $3,000 scholarship — this year
went to Levon Camp, a Tennessee teen-ager who once
belonged to a gang and who used to be so unruly that
his teachers liked it when he played hooky.
Catholic center
opens Saturday
By Rachel Dawley
Staff writer
More than 1,000 people gath
ered in the courtyard of St. Mary’s
Church Saturday for the dedica
tion of the new Catholic Center,
which will be home to the
Catholic Campus Ministry at
Texas A&M University.
Bishop John McCarthy of the
Diocese of Austin and Archbishop
Patrick Flores of the Archdiocese
of San Antonio celebrated a Mass
at St. Mary’s at noon and a Rite of
Blessing of the new complex was
held after the Mass.
Twenty-five priests and 12 dea
cons from around the world were
present for the dedication.
Father Mike Sis, director of cam
pus ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic
Center, called the dedication “an
historic moment for the Catholic
Church, for Texas A&M University
and for the future of our society.”
Peter de Keratry, development
director for St. Mary’s, said the
30,000-square-foot center in
cludes a small chapel, classrooms,
meeting rooms, an expanded li
brary, a student lounge area, three
conference rooms, several study
areas and an administrative suite.
An adjacent activity center also in
cludes a commercial kitchen and
a large dining space.
De Keratry said the center is
open to the entire community, not
just Catholic students.
The $4.9 million facility was
completed through the church’s
“Building a Tradition in Faith
Campaign,” which received do
nations from current and former
students, foundations and
friends of St. Mary’s from all over
the world. The campaign was ini
tiated in 1994 and completed in
February of this year.
Jenny Koons, president of the St.
Mary’s pastoral council and a senior
English major, said there are cur
rently 10,000 Catholic A&M stu
dents and 4,000 participate in St.
Mary’s Mass. Koons said the new
center will cater to the 40 student
organizations within the church.
“The new center is beautiful,”
Koons sajd. “We tried to design a
space that is accommodating
both with meeting rooms and
leisure space.”
Koons said St. Mary’s activities
affect the community and the new
center will allow a stronger out
reach program.
“We are working hard to im
prove our community programs,”
Koons said. “Now we have a bigger
space to plan. The new center
helps us coordinate our efforts.”