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^ 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.
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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.