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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1998)
mm Aggielife ••• so6 P&^g 3 ^ Opinion ... see Page S 54 th YEAR • ISSUE 148 • 6 PAGES TEXAS ASM UNIVERSITY - COLLEGE STATION. TEXAS TOMORROW Opinion: Health insurance should cover prescriptions of Viagra, the recently- marketed drug for curing impotence. MONDAY • JUNE 8 • 1998 o teens arrested Jun. 2 carjacking Staff and Wire Reports juston Police arrested two 17-year-old males hnection with an aggravated robbery in Hous- Jfilriday. investigation determined the two suspects, tified as Justin Hopper of Hearne and Aaron ards of New Baden, were the same individu- btured on the security video related to a June ^^Jjacking at Post Oak Mall. video was obtained from mall security after a woman reported that she had been THoached from behind by a man who demand- .'Ht vehicle at gunpoint. With the assistance of the news media and lo- twowitiRrirnestoppers, photos of the subjects were Bvn on television and the College Station Po- ^■Department received numerous calls from Ions identifying the suspects. B< th the Hearne and Franklin Police Depart- illlts and the Robertson County Sheriff's De- llment assisted the College Station Police De- I similar Iment in obtaining full identification ■rmation on the subjects captured on the secu- ;is (ft tyivideo. f Through further efforts of officers from all ■Kies, a possible location for the suspects in Houston was developed. Through coordination with the Houston Police Department Robbery Di vision and the HPD Patrol Division officers were sent to that location. The HPD received a report of an aggravated rob bery in which the suspect veliicle matched the de scription of the vehicle stolen from College Station on June 2. When Houston police located the suspect ve hicle and attempted to stop it, the suspects fled in the vehicle. The vehicle was involved in a minor accident, at which time the three passengers fled on foot. A short time later, the three were apprehended. The driver was charged with aggravated rob bery and unauthorized use of a vehicle. The pas senger and a juvenile were charged with evading detention. Detectives with the College Station Police De partment went to Houston where they met with the two suspects arrested by the HPD. Detective Capps of the College Station Police De partment obtained arrest warrants Friday on both individuals for one count of aggravated robbery re lating to that offense. Additional charges by the College Station Police Department are anticipated. (lingi: face." [illediltj iO.OOM )cked | ks. Bmf atureK btiffil season d. MA president reminds portance of medical By Amber Benson City Editor he incoming president of American Medical Associa- jn admonished graduates to emember the importance of bmpassionate care during the ghteenth commencement ex- |ses of the Texas A&M Col- of Medicine. r. Nancy Dickey, associate Ifessor of family and commu- medicine at A&M and the woman president-elect of the addressed the 49 gradu- receiving doctoral degrees in licine Saturday in Rudder |iditorium. fcickey will officially take the elm of the respected medical [anization on June 17. ickey, who joined the Col- of Medicine in January 1996, is director of the Family Practice Residency Foundation of the Bra zos Valley and directs the Family Medicine Center in Bryan, which provides training for up to 18 family medicine residents. In her commencement ad dress, Dickey gave the gradu ates a "prescription for modern- day medicine." She stressed the importance of ethics and professionalism in the medical field, especially in an age in which profits and pa tients are often intertwined. "Far too many patients today are unsure of what or who is dri ving medical decision-making," Dickey said. "Some of them are con cerned—and rightfully so—that health plans, CPAs and bean counters are calling the shots, not their doctors." graduates ethics Quality also made Dickey's list of essential ingredients for modern medicine. "Increasingly, managed care, insurers and health care facili ties themselves are measuring performance and with literally dozens of different yardsticks," Dickey said. "As physicians, part of the cure for today's challenges is simply to take up our own role in developing the tools and pro viding our patients with the care they need." While encouraging gradu ates to embrace technology, Dickey reminded the Class of 1998 that above all, medicine is a human endeavor. "Patients need your compas sionate touch, your caring words, every bit as much as they need medicine's tools," she said. 1 AMi s Sji m J.P. BEATO/THE BATrAUON Mark Breedlove, a senior finance major, fires at the opposing team Saturday during a paintball game at Brazos Valley War Games. Breedlove is the president and founder of the A&M Paintball Club. [inority medical school enrollment debated AUSTIN (AP) — University of Texas medical and Idental schools plan to enroll as many African-Ameri- Icans and Hi span! cs this fall as in 1996, before the fed- leral court Hopwood decision eliminated affirmative ac~ jtion programs at state colleges. Records released Friday showed UT making strides jas it looks beyond grades and test scores when choos- jing future doctors, UT System chancellor William Cun- [ningham said. Tm very pleased with the progress the medical Ischools have made,” he told the Austin Americnn- \Statestnan. UT admissions officers interviewed more candidates land considered a broader range of qualities, including I family background, dedication to learning and success in overcoming adversity. But Cunningham said he is not prepared to claim (victory over the Hopwood decision that was rendered by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Our whole process was not geared to simply cast a wider net to pick up more minority students.” — David Jones Chairman of Admissions, UT Medical School at San Antonio At UT's four medical schools — in Galveston, Hous ton, Dallas and San Antonio — 42 African-Americans plan to enroll out of 790 students. That compares with 24 African-Americans in an entering class of 800 last year. In 1996, before Hopioood took effect, the medical schools enrolled 41 African-Americans. Among Hispanics, 134 applicants — the same num ber as in 1996 — have made commitments to enroll in UT medical schools this fall. That's a third more than the 100 of last year. At the two dental schools, in San Antonio and Hous ton, two African-Americans and 19 Hispanics are slated to enroll in the first-year fall class of 151 students. That compares to two African-Americans in 1997 and one in 1996. Seven Hispanics enrolled in 1997 and 12 in 1996. "We won't have final figures until fall registration," said Budge Mabry, director of the medical and dental applications center at the UT System. But "very, very few" will back out now, he said. Diversity is especially important in medical schools because minorities often return to work in their home communities, some of which badly need doctors, said David Jones, chairman of admissions at the UT Med ical School at San Antonio. "Our whole process was not geared to simply cast a wider net to pick up more minority students,” Jones said. "It was to pick up people who had the same qualities or values. Just using grades and MCAT (Medical Col lege Admissions Test) scores .. . do not predict the suc cess of a medical student or a physician." Enrollment changes have not been made at Texas A&M's lone medical school, and there is a continued de cline in enrollment of African-Americans and Hispanics. A&M had fewer applications from minorities and countered by making more offers to African-Americans and Hispanics. But medical schools compete fiercely for minority stu dents, and A&M has held onto only three Hispanics among the 64 students it intends to enroll, said Filo Maldonado, as sistant dean for admissions. The school offered admission to six African-Ameri cans students and lost them all, one by one — the last one on Friday, Maldonado said. The school is planning changes for 1999 admissions procedures, including interviewing more applicants and evaluating students more broadly, as UT has done. Texas Tech University won't have enrollment data for several more weeks, a spokeswoman said. Information on considered OK, AUSTIN (AP) — Texas colleges and universities can give students informa tion about private scholarships award ed on the basis of race, according to At torney General Dan Morales. The attorney general's office said it wouldn't be a violation of a federal court ruling barring the schools from using race to determine admissions or financial aid. Assistant Attorney General Mary Crouter released a legal opinion late Fri day regarding the federal Hopwood court ruling. The decision forced any institutions ac cepting state funds to drop race as a factor in admissions and financial aid decisions. She wrote that the ruling limits only actions taken by the state. "We do not believe that a private, nonprofit organization's scholarship program would rise to the level of state action merely because a state universi ty provides students with information about the scholarship program," Crouter wrote. "We cannot definitively resolve whether a state university's involvement in the scholarship program of a particu lar private nonprofit organization trans forms the organization's private activities into 'state actions',” she added. "We believe, however, that a state university may provide to a private, nonprofit organization any student in formation that the university would generally provide to any other member of the public and would not thereby transform the organization's private ac tivities into state action.” The 1996 Hopioood decision had been race-based aid Morales says blamed for lower minority enrollment at the state's top universities. But UT and Texas A&M recently announced slight upturns in minority enrollment. According to the UT law school, 21 African-American students had been of fered admission for fall 1998 last week, compared with 11 last year. There had been 48 admission offers to Hispanic students, up from 40. Freshman enrollment figures released by UT last month showed confirmed ad missions from 174 African-Americans, about 3 percent of the 6,070 total. His panic freshmen admissions totaled 858, or 14 percent. In fall 1997, African-American ad missions totaled 163, or two percent, of the fall 1997 class. Hispanic admissions totaled 807, or 12 percent of the class. In fall 1996, before Hopwood, UT en rolled 266 African-Americans and 932 Hispanics in a freshman class of 6,430. For fall 1998, the number of con firmed African-American students at Texas A&M was 146 late last month. That was about two percent of the 6,983 total. At the same time in 1997, the total was 129 of 5,332, or 2.4 percent. The number of Hispanic students con firmed to enroll at Texas A&M was 567, or just more than eight percent. Last year's tally at the same time was 515, or 9.6 percent. UT is appealing the Hopioood ruling. The Mexican American Legal De fense and Educational Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund are ex pected to file a motion to intervene in UT's appeal. The groups consider the university's appeal to be too limited.