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TOMORROW
r YEAR • ISSUE 137 • 12 PAGES
COLLEGE STATION • TX
WEDNESDAY • APRIL 29 • 1998
tudent Senate debates campaign budgets
Jy Amanda Smith and
Colleen Kavanagh
Staff iv liters
jlitics as usual could change for
lit body president candidates
tear.
j response to student com-
|ts about excessive campaign
jling in this year’s elections,
|al solutions have been pro-
Ito deter spending violations,
^mbers of Student Senate may
In the fall on a resolution to
[off campus and sandwich-
1 campaigning.
Iris Chase, a senior history ma-
lid he favors a proposal to low-
ppaign spending,
don’t know of anyone who has
St over their limit in this election,”
Chase said. “We want to bring
elections and campaigns back to
the students and want students to
know about the candidates and
their platforms.”
Student body president candi
dates are currently limited to
$ 1,000 budgets during preliminary
elections. Runoff election candi
dates may increase spending by 33
percent to $1,333.
Murray Van Eman, the elections
commissioner and a senior animal
science major, said the budget report
submitted by the newly elected stu
dent body president, Laurie Nickel,
did not indicate excessive spending.
Van Eman said the specific figures
are confidential and cannot be re
leased to the student body. He said
none of the winning candidates ex-
‘M think that the
budget may be at a
limit where some
students can’t afford
to run.”
Murray Van Eman
Elections commissioner
ceeded their budgets, according to
budget reports submitted.
However, Nickel is the only stu
dent body president candidate to
submit a budget report to the elec
tion commissioner. She said she fa
vors decreasing the allotted bud
gets of student body president
candidates.
“I don’t want anyone to think
that they could not be president be
cause of the money,” Nickel said. “If
you’re smart, creative and don’t wait
until the last minute, you can do it.”
With the help of her campaign
staff, Nickel said she used a part of
Spring Break to prepare for the start
of campaigning the following week.
“We had a huge sweatshop of stu
dents painting signs during Spring
Break,” Nickel said. “We made every
sandwich board ourselves.”
Some members of the Student
Senate favor moving elections to
the week before spring break.
The decreased length of time to
prepare and promote campaigns
would automatically decrease the
amount spent by student body
president candidates, according to
some supporters of limited cam
paign budgets.
Van Eman said the current bud
get may exclude students from run
ning for student body president.
“I think that the budget may be
at a limit where some students can’t
afford to run,” Van Eman said.
“Maybe some students do not have
$1,000 to run, but they have the de
sire to run. In terms of student body
president candidates, we see a lot
more creative publicity. What they
have done is print table tents in
stead of multiple brochures (and
similar campaign techniques).”
Some supporters of increasing
campaign budgets argue that indi
rect campaign expenses like cam
paign staff parties are not always in
cluded in budget figures.
Van Eman said the reports he
received seemed accurate but said
he would not expect candidates to
record campaign staff party ex
penditures.
“I couldn’t expect two kegs of beer
coming in on budget,” Van Eman
said. “That is more staff development
than campaign expenditures. It has
to be a declarable expense to be
placed on budget.”
Carolyn Adair, director of Student
Activities, said the rules are always
changing because election candi
dates find new ways to campaign.
Please see Campaign on Page 7.
'orum to address issue
f women’s leadership
By Katy Lineberger
Staff writer
ues in female leadership will
center stage tomorrow at the
tggie Women’s Leadership Fo-
The program and lunch,
sored by the newly organized
Leadership Programming
mittee, will kick off at 12:30
at the George Bush Confer-
Center banquet room,
r. Sara Alpern, an associate
essor of history, will be the
lote speaker. Committee chair
a Baggett, a sophomore elec-
il engineering major, said
rawill discuss the history of
len and their involvement at
iSA&M.
orum director Kathy Schwit
ters, a sophomore psychology ma
jor, said participants will also meet
with former students to explore
leadership topics.
“It’s a good opportunity for former
students to come back and help cur
rent student leaders by talking about
leadership roles in the community,”
she said. “It’s also a good way for Ag
gies to just come together and talk
about leadership.”
Rachel Allen, MSC vice president
of leadership development and a ju
nior speech communications major,
attended the first forum last spring.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was a won
derful experience to sit down and talk
with other women about important
issues in an informal setting.”
Allen said there was good discus
sion at the individual tables with the
former students and female leaders
as facilitators.
“It’s a neat opportunity because
the women that come are there to
share and talk,” she said.
Baggett said the forum was de
veloped last spring to address the
often overlooked topic of women’s
leadership.
“It was started as a way to incor
porate women’s programming into
the diverse spread of programming
in the MSC,” she said.
Schwitters said that although the
speakers will be women, men are
also invited to come to the forum.
“That’s a big misunderstanding
we have,” she said. “It’s not just for
women — everyone’s invited.”
The program and lunch are free
to all participants.
Walk of Champions
icks to bear names of those honoring spirit of Aggieland
By Jennifer Wilson
Staff writer
Indents, staff and friends ofTexas
now have an opportunity to
:e their names a permanent part
ggieland.
he “Walk of Champions,” cre-
1 by the department of Recre-
mal Sports, will allow partici-
,ts a chance to have their name
/or affiliation engraved on a
Is Aw Bk in the walkway of the Student
reation Center.
[udy Cook, marketing director of
Department of Recreational
|rts, said die walk is being created
lonor those with Aggie spirit.
The Walk of Champions will hon-
veryone’s dedication to leader-
1, fair play, honesty and integrity,”
iksaid.
Cook said the walkway will be a
reminder of the contributions
ny people make at A&M. She said
bricks will be laid in the front
kway of the center and in the land-
ped grass area of the circle drive at
building.
'The center is here for the stu
dents and we thought it was a per
fect place to put the Walk of Cham
pions,” Cook said.
Cook said the response to the
brick campaign so far has been
outstanding.
“We can put in thousands and
u This is being done
for the students, to
go back to the
students.”
Angela Stanton
Department of
Recreational Sports
thousands of bricks,” she said.
Angela Stanton, graphic designer
for the Department of Recreational
Sports, said that the campaign is tar
geted towards every student and
staff member and is a great way for
Students warned about date
ape, abusive relationships
By Amanda Smith
Staffwriter
A representative of Phoebe’s
me told an audience in Rudder
leatre last night how she was raped
age 17.
Ashley Peterson, the lead training
iecialist at Phoebe’s Home, de-
ibed her personal experience and
ivstudents can be affected by abu-
«relationships.
“One third of women will become
[victim,” Peterson said. “This may
iver happen to you. It may be your
>ter or your best friend.”
■Alpha Chi Omega and Phoebe’s
ptne sponsored the forum last
ight to promote awareness of the
iths and consequences in un
healthy dating relationships.
The increased awareness of vio
lence in relationships drew members
ofTexas A&M sororities, fraternities
and the Corps of Cadets to the forum
last night. The response to the forum
this year could result in a forum next
semester opened to the entire stu
dent body, Peterson said.
“We wanted to target a big group,
but not too big of a group,” Peterson
said. “Dating violence is much more
common (than non-dating). We
wanted a program to inform both
victims and abusers because you
just don’t know. Making abusers
aware (of the consequences) might
deter them.”
Christi Humphries, vice president
of fraternity relations for Alpha Chi
Omega and a junior speech commu
nications major, said she hopes the
program educates students.
“We have found that college stu
dents are at high risk for being in
volved in abusive relationships,”
Humphries said. “We want to pro
vide resources for those who are in
unhealthy relationships."
Kim Novak, the judicial coordi
nator for Student Conflict and Res
olutions Services, said the center
can provide free legal advice and
coordinate mediation services for
students involved in abusive rela
tionships on campus.
“Relationship violence does not
always leave bruises,” Novak said.
Please see Date on Page 7.
graduating seniors to leave their
mark on campus.
“This is being done for the stu
dents, to go back to the students,”
she said.
Current students and current or
retired faculty and staff can add a 4-x-
8 inch brick to the Walk of Champions
for $100 and a 8-x-8 inch brick for
$200. The smaller bricks are limited to
one individual name except for a hus
band and wife: the larger bricks are for
multiple names or team names. For
former students and others, the cost
is $250 for the smaller brick and $400
for the larger one.
Cook said the revenue will be
used to develop an endowment fund
that will support the Student Recre
ation Center.
“The support will allow us to con
tinue to offer a world-class facility on
campus,” Cook said.
The Walk of Champions is the sec
ond brick program now underway on
campus. The first campaign, which is
in progress, involves the placement of
bricks in the plaza area outside the
Sam Houston Sanders Corps of
Cadets Center.
Clamping down on finals
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
Cody Henderson, a sophomore environmental design major, tightens clamps on a glued bedpost for his fi
nal project in Environmental Design 205.
College admissions
arguments continue
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man
whose lawsuit helped end the use
of race in Texas university admis
sions was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to
lobby for legislation that would pro
hibit the use of race-based admis
sions policies nationwide.
Also Tuesday, Texas Attorney
General Dan Morales announced
he would not appeal the ruling
that ended affirmative action
policies at Texas colleges, declin
ing a request from University of
Texas System Chancellor William
Cunningham to do so.
After thorough review,
Morales said, “My office has
identified no sufficient grounds
upon which to base an appeal
seeking to reimpose race-based
decision making at Texas institu
tions of higher education.”
David Rogers, one of the four
white plaintiffs who challenged
the UT law school’s admission
policies after being denied ad
mission in 1992, told a news con
ference that he “enthusiastically”
supports legislation by Rep. Frank
Riggs, R-Calif.
That measure, expected to be
considered this week during de
bate of a broader higher education
bill, would ban colleges or univer
sities from using race, gender, eth
nicity or national origin when
making admissions decisions.
Riggs stressed that the legislation
wouldn’t affect minority outreach
or scholarship decisions.
“Affirmative action policies all
too often discriminate against
certain groups of Americans and
lead to segregation rather than
assimilation, and preferences
rather than equal opportunity,”
said Riggs.
Texas ended its university af
firmative action policies after a
federal appeals court found that
a UT law school policy meant to
boost minority enrollment dis
criminated against whites. That
ruling, named after Rogers’ co
plaintiff Cheryl Hopwood, was al
lowed to stand in 1996 by the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Rogers said unequal admis
sions policies giving preference to
minority students — who in
some cases were admitted with
significantly lower test scores —
are “an outrage which ought not
to be tolerated in America.”
“The nation deserves for this
law to pass,” said Rogers, who
plans to enter Texas Tech’s law
school in the fall.
INSIDE
aggie life —■—
Tap Dogs, the award-winning
dance performance, pays a
visit to Rudder Auditorium
for two shows.
See Page 3
sports
Texas A&M point guard Brian
Barone announces decision to
transfer to Marquette.
See Page 8
opinion
Voss: Testosterone shown to
be contributing factor of
mental decay.
See Page 11
online
http: / / battalion.tamu.edu
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