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i04 TH YEAR‘ISSUE 141 *14 PAGES
93
65
93
65
TODAY
TOMORROW
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TUESDAY‘MAY 5‘1998
EWS
Briefs
Student scores up with minority teachers
i M
|study, t
ism! J 0 P asakis requests
Ipferendum recount
A College Station restaurant
mer announced Monday he
Ians to submit a petition to the
|handsii t Y that rec l uests a recount of Sat-
.inwday’s referendum in which citi-
IwainP: zipns narrowly decided tQ support
|ie construction of a Northgate
pr, ceJLrkjng garage.
George Sopasakis, owner of
□s oft-
Itryii
I:
I p.e-. :
pm
■urger Boy, said he expects to
lers ti n in the petition before the end
the week.
oiiege* Sopasakis, who has criticized
ie iwtlie garage plan openly, said the
usteftry close vote prompted him to
■tart a petition.
I “We just have to be responsi-
■e to the people who supported
Bs," he said. “We want to make
lire the count is right. If the vote
Bad gone the other way, the peo-
todesBe who support it would do the
Ha me thing-”
Citizens, by a 1,947 to 1,894
te, defeated an ordinance limit-
gthe city council from extend-
using, lending or granting
[inds for the development or con
duction of a public parking
rage at Northgate.
The proposed four-story, 752-
Bace garage would be located on
*1.65 acres between College Main
^Jnd Second Street that the city
r %ould acquire.
(esearch updates
available online
I The oceanography department
las launched a new web site that
|ill allow students and teachers
lo follow Texas A&M scientists as
fiey cruise the world’s seas.
I As researchers embark on dif-
lerent cruises, the department
I/ill post background information
In the trip as well as the objec-
pves the researchers hope to ac-
i omplish.
Visitors to the site can register
lo receive e-mail updates as the
Iruise progresses or e-mail ques-
lons to participating scientists.
| Found at
I http://gulftour.tamu.edu>, the
Reefs of the Gulf” web site is
urrently set up to follow oceanog-
aphers Ian MacDonald and Will
ager as they map the wreck of
■he USS Monitor off Cape Hat-
leras, N.C., and survey the Gulf of
llexico’s hydrocarbon seeps us-
[ingthe Navy’s NR-1 submarine.
The cruise will run through
lost of May with the two scien-
sts posting descriptions and pic-
ures of their research as it’s con-
lucted.
INSIDE
axgleUfe —
Texas A&M
^ student proves
1^ the pen is truly
mightier than
he sword by garnering a
iterary award.
See Page 3
sports
exas A&M prepares to
hake bid for NCAA Regional
iaseball Tournament.
See Page 7
opinion
iuffines: Columnist offers
he naked truth about A&M’s
%ney for world-class status.
See Page 13
online
http://battalion.tamu.edu
took up with state and na-
ional news through The
htire, AP’s 24-hour online
^ws service.
By Amanda Smith
Stciffwriter
Researchers from Texas A&M Uni
versity and the University of Texas-
Pan American found that minority
and Anglo students score higher on
standardized tests when attending
schools with an increased number of
minority teachers.
Kenneth Meier, co-director of the
study and the Charles Puryear Pro
fessor of Liberal Arts at A&M, said he
did not expect Anglo students to
show improved standardized test
scores in environments with in
creased minority teachers.
Feel the chill
“I was very surprised by the re
sults,” Meier said. “We had found
that minority teachers generally
helped (performance of) minority
students. But we were surprised to
find that Anglo students benefited
as well.”
The study was conducted as part
of the Texas Educational Excellence
Project and examined the 350 largest
multiracial school districts in Texas
from 1991 to 1996.
Meier said he began his study at
the University of Wisconsin in Mil
waukee using a database from the
Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The data compared minority
and Anglo students in school dis
tricts having a higher percentage
of minority teachers to those hav
ing a lower percentage of minority
teachers. TAAS scores were used to
measure student performance in
the study. The experiment con
trolled for other factors influential
on test performances such as
poverty levels, expenditures and
teacher qualifications.
Meier, who arrived at A&M in Jan
uary, said he hopes to continue more
studies in an area that he began re
searching in 1984.
“This study grows out of a re
search agenda with an emphasis on
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Harold Baustian, a delivery driver for Sunbelt Distributors, unloads frozen treats for the Commons Mon
day afternoon.
Few dancing bears in Waco
Lack of participation surprises Baylor administration
WACO (AP) — They are not ex
actly two-stepping the night away
at Baylor University.
A little over two years ago, uni
versity officials captured national
headlines by lifting an unwritten
151-year ban on dancing.
But after all the ado, the Baptist
school has hardly become Waco’s
version of Studio 54.
Only five organized on-campus
dances have occurred since Baylor
President Robert Sloan Jr. opened
an outdoor dance dubbed “A Mir
acle on 5th Avenue.”
And one of those was alumni-
only.
‘T guess they haven’t been as
popular as (administrators)
thought they would be,” senior
Anne Beggs, who attended the
April 1996 dance, told the Waco
Tribune-Herald.
Baylor officials agree there have
been fewer dances than they had
anticipated.
But they also believe the change
was positive for the campus and
for students — a move more sym
bolic than anything else.
“Students really wanted to be
able to dance on campus, but they
didn’t really want to dance on cam
pus,” said Dub Oliver, the school’s
director of student activities.
The school policy on dancing
has several stipulations. Dances
must be open to all students, and
they may be held only four times a
year — at homecoming, a spring
celebration, fall orientation week
and spring commencement.
New cancer drug stock soars
BOSTON (AP) — The stock of a
company developing a new cancer
treatment leaped from $12 to $85 at
one point Monday, even while doc
tors cautioned against getting too ex
cited over something that has been
tested only on mice.
Cancer experts warned that
while the approach is promising,
treatments that look spectacular
in lab animals almost never work
so well in people.
“It’s a very exciting observation
in animals,” said Dr. Bruce Cheson
of the National Cancer Institute.
“That’s a long step from curing
cancer in people.”
The treatment involves two new
ly developed drugs, called angio-
statin and endostatin, that are de
signed to choke off tumors’ blood
supply. Scientists watched mice with
huge tumors respond dramatically to
these injections. Their tumors shrank
and then went away entirely, and it
seemed to work for all sorts of cancer.
The drugs were created by Dr.
Judah Folkman at Children’s Hos
pital in Boston, whose team pio
neered the concept of attacking
cancer by blocking its ability to
grow new blood vessels.
While his results have been writ
ten about frequently and are widely
known to cancer specialists, an arti
cle about the work in Sunday’s New
York Times triggered a new round of
enthusiasm.
“I am real skeptical that Folk-
man will be curing patients with
these drugs,” said Dr. Mark Ratain
of the University of Chicago. “It
would be wonderful if that hap
pens. Oncologists will be looking
for jobs if it’s that simple.”
minority education,” Meier said.
“This will probably keep us busy for
the next year.”
Meier said past studies indicate
that there there is a link between
teachers and student performance
on a national level. He said he decid
ed to use information from Texas
schools because the state makes the
information more available than
most others.
“My interest started out nation
wide,” Meier said. “However, we
are somewhat data driven in this
type of research.”
Meier said he co-directed the ex
periment with Bob Wrinkle, a profes
sor of political science at the Univer
sity of Texas-Pan American.
Wrinkle said he was surprised by
the results.
“We have documented that
both Anglo and non-Anglo stu
dents benefit from the presence of
minority teachers,” Meier said.
“There is no trade-off. No one has
to give up success for one group in
order to benefit another.”
In the future, Meier said he
plans to examine why some school
districts perform better than oth
ers and to further address the ed
ucational relationships among ed
ucators and students.
Students honor
Cinco de Mayo
By Jennifer Wilson
Staff writer
Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of
cultures symbolizing the strength
and determination of Hispanics.is
celebrated today with local festivities
which include dancing, food and
special events.
Cinco de Mayo marks the victory
of the Mexican Army over French
forces at the Battle of Pueblo on May
5, 1862.
Armando Elonzo, a history pro
fessor at A&M, said Cinco de Mayo is
one of the two most important holi
days in Mexican culture.
“Cinco de Mayo is important
because it commemorates the de
feat of French troops by well-
armed and well-trained Mexican
troops,” Elonzo said.
Elonzo said that during the
1850s and 60s, Mexico had a series
of civil wars against the French.
During the Battle of Pueblo on
May 5, 1862, General Isacio
Zaragosa and his men forced the
withdrawal of French troops.
“Cinco de Mayo allows the Mexi-
can-American people to reconnect
with their past history and with their
culture,” Elonzo said.
Elonzo said in the 1800s ranch
communities would form a plaza to
celebrate a victory with food and
dancing, and it has evolved into the
present holiday.
“Cinco de Mayo is important be
cause it allows Mexican-Americans
an opportunity to stay in touch with
their own heritage and cultural
roots,” Elonzo said.
Angelica Castro, advisor for the
Committee of Mexican-American
Culture, said Cinco de Mayo is usual
ly celebrated more in the United
States than in Mexico, similar to the
Irish’s St. Patrick’s Day.
“The holiday is the official inde
pendence day celebrating Mexican
independence from Napoleon’s
dominadon,” Castro said.
Janie Guajardo, coordinator of the
City of College Station Parks and
Recreation Cinco de Mayo Festival,
and the festival aims to educate the
community about the unity of the
Hispanic culture.
Guajardo said that while growing
up in in the Bryan-College Station
community, she never fully under
stood what the holiday was about.
“We are trying to reach the kids in
the community and educate them
on the culture so they can be proud
of who they are and be proud of their
culture,” she said. “We are trying to
set role models for the other kids.”
Guajardo said the festival cele
brates the battle in which the His
panic people united, and the holiday
celebrates this unity
Elonzo said the commercializa
tion of the holiday sometimes takes
away from its meaning.
Shipwrecked
A&M archeologists to study sunken ship
By Kelly Hackworth
Staff writer
Archeologists from the Insti
tute of Nautical Archaeology at
Texas A&M will begin trips Thurs
day to the remains of the Den
bigh, the second most successful
blockade runner of the Confeder
acy, located in December of last
year outside Galveston Bay.
The 182-foot converted mer
chant ship made runs from Ha
vana, Cuba to Mobile, Al. and
Galveston during the Civil War.
The Denbigh made more than 26
trips at a time when most runners
averaged only four. The ship ran
aground on the night of May 23,
1865 and was destroyed by
blockading Union ships while try
ing to enter Galveston Bay. The
shipwreck is located off Bolivar
Peninsula, close to the North Jetty
and not far off the beach of Boli
var Peninsula.
Barto Arnold, director of Texas
operations for the Institute of
Nautical Archaeology, said his
toric shipwrecks are property of
the state of Texas and anything
found in or around the shipwreck
will go to a museum following in
spection. Objects will be cleaned,
cataloged, studied and published
in articles, magazines and possi
bly a book, Arnold said.
“This is good for both tourism
and educational reasons,” he
said. “It also deals with the ro
mance of the sea and the excite
ment of discovery."
Arnold and his team have used
a side-scan sonar, provided by
Survey Equipment Services and
EdgeTech of Houston, to identify
wreckage sticking out of the sandy
bottom. Their survey determined
that the paddle wheel, some of its
machinery and the boiler are ex
posed with the rest of the wreck
buried beneath the sand.
Andy Hall, research grant
writer for the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, is
conducting the historical research
on the shipwreck.
Hall said the Denbigh remains
have produced good reference
material in maritime history
“Historical nautical archaeolo
gy is interesting because it makes
it possible to tie in analysis of
physical remains with historical
articles and documents,” he said.
“The traditional history com
bined with the physical analysis
gives a greater idea of the ship.”
Dr. Tom Iliffe, professor of ma
rine biology at Texas A&M Galve
ston and diving officer for the uni
versity, said students taking his
scientific diving course will be
participating in the project with
graduate students from Texas
A&M in College Station.
Their first survey will include
studying what is sticking up out of
the low-visibility water and any
thing else sticking above the
sandy bottom. I'he group will
then map them out and probe the
sand to find buried remains.
The scientific diving class is
also working with the National
Marine Fisheries Service, the
Johnson Space Center and the
Texas Parks and Wildlife, Iliffe
said. The scientific diving course
is looking for experienced divers
interested in scientific diving
certification. A class begins May
17 and runs through May 31.
Those interested may contact Dr.
Tom Iliffe at (409) 740-4454 for
more information.