The Battalion
mpus
Monday •June 22,1 j
Bagpipe blowout
I F
MATTHEW CRAWLEY/The Battalion
Jennifer Hamel and E.J. Jones of the Houston-based Celtic band, Clandestine, perform Saturday
night on Northgate.
WfiKONSE
Continued from Page 1
A day at Wakonse included small-group ses
sions, large group discussions and role reversals
where students would attempt to teach the pro
fessors - often without success.
“We were horrible learners,” said Larry Dooley, an
associate professor of adult education, “but we learned
that we as faculty have to reach students differently in-
stead of just one learning style for all students.”
Originally only for professors, the 1998
Wakonse Conference added a new component:
students. The Association of Former Students
sponsored 11 undergraduate students from A&M
to attend the conference.
“I learned more from those students in five days
than I have learned from students in 15 years,” said
Marty Loudder, a professor of accounting.
The students from A&M, who were chosen
through an application process, were in high de
mand at Wakonse. Professors from all universities
wanted to learn more about what the typical stu
dent is thinking.
“They asked us all sorts of questions like ‘When
Death of Texas youth raises child abuse concerns
CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) — The
death of a 12-year-old boy whose
body was covered with scars,
bruises and sores has led to his
father’s and stepmother’s arrest
in South Texas.
Clayton R. Durham died June
13 of blunt force trauma that
caused his brain to hemorrhage,
a coroner said.
Clayton’s father, Glenn L.
Durham, and stepmother, Bar
bara R Durham, remained jailed
Sunday in lieu of $1 million
bonds each in the Ricardo
boy’s suspected injuries and
apparent slaying.
“He was beaten to death,"
Nueces County Medical Examin
er Lloyd White told the Corpus
Christi Caller-Times. “I don’t think
we’re looking at focusing on a
single episode. This is a bat
tered child.”
He said Clayton’s back and
buttocks were covered with re
cent bruises and he had scars
over much of his body.
“What are massive pressure
sores doing on the knees of a
12-year-old boy?” White asked.
“That would be very painful.”
He said deeply infected, in
flamed wounds covered Clay
ton’s knees and toes, and one
toenail was missing — indicat
ing he may have been forced to
kneel on a hard surface for long
periods of time.
White said the teen, who died
at his home, was probably a vic
tim of systematic abuse and tor
ture for weeks or months before
his death.
But Glenn Durham, 36, told
investigators that his son’s
death may have been a suicide.
Clayton’s father and 33-
year-old stepmother told in
vestigators that the last time
they saw Clayton alive, he was
taking a bath and that they lat
er found him lying on the oth
er side of the room covered
with ants.
The couple were arrested
Friday night, Kleberg County
officials said.
State Child Protective Ser
vices is investigating the death.
Correction
In the June 11 issue of The Battalion, a front page story concerning the
Our Gulf” conference should have listed Jenny Toups as the assistant editoiB
Texas Sea Grant College Program. The conference did not stem from theresejr
Dr. David Owens, a specialist in seaturtle biology, but was funded by the Tel
Grant College Program.
The Greys
By Gate
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do you go to bed?’ and ‘Why don’t you don’t you
read your textbook’,” said Brad Abraham, a sopho
more biomedical science major. “Then we asked
them questions. We were supposed to be teaching
them, but I learned a lot about them as well.”
Shalene McNeil, a lecturer in nutrition, said she
applied what she learned at the conference into
her summer session course.
“About halfway through my lecture I stopped
the class, told them to turn to the person beside
them and tell them what they just learned,” she
said. “At first, they all just looked at me and
laughed. Then they realized they really didn’t know
what 1 had just said, and I realized I needed an
other approach.”
Another approach is exactly what Mike Woster,
a sophomore civil engineering major, was looking
for in his classes.
“I don’t want to be just a receptacle,” Woster
said. “Wakonse taught me that I have to interact
with my professors and tell them that.”
The Wakonse fellows agreed the hardest part
about teaching is making improvement a priority.
“We’re what stands between the knowledge
and the student,” said Doolan. “It’s an incredible
responsibility.”
Education fund
for Jasper man
receives donations
NEW YORK (AP) — Boxing
promoter Don King donated
$100,000 to an education fund
set up in the name of the African-
American man killed in Texas by
being dragged behind a pickup
truck for two miles.
At a memorial for james Byrd
Jr. at the Rev. Al Sharpton's Na
tional Action Network headquar
ters in Harlem, King said: "If we
educate ourselves and if we learn
to contribute and be with one an
other, we can rise to the occasion
to bring about a change that's
much needed."
On June 7, Byrd was chained
by his ankles to the truck and fa
tally dragged near jasper, Texas.
Three alleged white supremacists
were charged.
Byrd's father was in New
York for the memorial orga
nized by Sharpton, who said
his group will give $50,000 to
the education fund.
Sharpton and other black lead
ers including the Rev. Jesse Jack-
son attended Byrd's June 13 fu
neral in Texas.
The Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts
in cooperation with the
University of Houston Moores School of Music
presents a concert of chamber music
Tonight, Monday, June 22
7:39 p.w». * ttuddcr IHenlrc
AN EVENING WITH
LASZLO VARGA & FRIENDS
Lnszlo Vnrgn, violoncello;
Andrzej Grabiec, violin;
Ritn Porfirls, viola;
Jeffrey Lemer, clarinet;
Nancy Goodearl, French horn;
Timothy Hester, piano;
Zoya Shuhatovich, piano
Sonata in F Minor for Violoncello
and Piano, Op. 6
Richard Strauss
Don Quixote
(arr. for cello and piano quintet
by L. Varga)
Richard Strauss
Tickets available at the MSC Box Office
or call 845-1234
Adults $10.00 Season $40.00
Sr. Citizens $8.00 Season $32.00
Students $5.00 Season $20.00
Spoisored by
The Arts Council ol the Brazos Valley • Texas
Commission on the Arts University • Honors
Program • Texas A&M University Bookstore
Norwest Bank • First American Bank* University
Title Co. • Insite Magazine • A. G. Edwards &
Sons, Inc. • Dr. & Mrs. Frank Albert Cotton
and The Eafle
Fbdns higher every day
Computing Toolbox
Computing News at Texas A<&M
by Computing <& Information Services
WHATS AN ALIAS AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Many students are not aware of
the phonebook directory system
at A&M called Ph. The Ph
directory contains information,
including phone numbers, e-mail
addresses and aliases of
faculty, staff and students.
By default, a student's alias is
often a variation of their first
and middle name or initial, and
last name (i.e., john-q-smith or
juan-martinez-jr). You can look
yourself and others up from
www. tamu. edu/phonebook. com.
An alias allows e-mail that has
been sent to alias@tamu.edu to
be forwarded to the e-mail
address specified in the Ph
e-mail field. This is advanta
geous because even if a student
changes their e-mail address,
people can continue sending it
to their alias at tamu.edu, as
long as the forwarding address
is current.
Students are responsible for
changing their directory alias if
necessary; the University will
not update profiles for them.
There is a large amount of
flexibility in choosing a new
alias. As long as the new alias is
unique (students can not use an
alias that someone else is
already using) and is at least 3
characters long, students can
change it from the web change
form located at www.tamu.edu/
phonebook.com.
To learn more about Ph, call
Help Desk Central at 845-8300
or visit the Student Computing
and Information Page at
www. tamu. edu/scip.
eft:
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Lawsuit seeks wasted taxpayerft/f
SAN ANTON JO (AP)—Hundreds
of millions of taxpayer dollars have
been wasted because the state and the
company that administers Medicaid in
Texas failed to collect money they're
owed by private insurance companies,
a whistle-blower lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit contends state health
officials and those at National Her
itage Insurance Co. resisted efforts to
force insurance companies to reim
burse Medicaid when they were re
sponsible for medical bills, the San An
tonio Express-News reported Sunday.
The suit was filed last year by
James M. Churchill of Austin, a for
mer lawyer for the Texas Department
of Health. Documents related to the
case, set for an October trial in Austin,
were unsealed this spring.
Churchill, who retired from TDH
before filing the lawsuit, contends the
state and NHIC ignored a federal law
that requires them to seek reimburse
ment from insurance companies for
certain expenses.
He said about $1 billion had not
been collected in the last 10 years,
calling that "an extremely conser
vative estimate."
"For 21/2 years, I tried to get peo
ple to do what they were obligated to
do. It's a shame it has to get down to
this sort of thing, but 1 was just total
ly frustrated," Churchill said.
The Battalion
James Francis, Editor in Chief
°f|
Samal
roul
About 2.8 '^UUonpeoyk®H OS j.)|
urc eligible lor Medicaida-^ . tw f
lodoral luwlth programJ
and disabled. \H1C recei' ^ i( .
million from the state in fist® q 0 |
1997 to administer thepK$®. a jjJ
According to the E^Jjop.sl
Medicaid paid out $10.7bi®f ou |
Texas in fiscal year 1997,thef* y^i
cent for which statistics are ft®,^ f
About two-thirds of itcame t e |p e |
federal government andoi®«^yl
from the state. p i:
But according to Churcftf®
the state and the federal goveffBDj- j
would have paid out fat (e$% lnce (
mercial insurance compar'*^,^
been forced to pay the med® y[ e |l
lor whu hllu'\ wore respon'ijj^^J
Churchill said he firstfe3®The|
the problem in late i99T% nii7i |
H ea I th Depa rtm en t supervise®^ n I
him to examine collectiongbL]/^'?
outlined in the state's contra®^ gJ
NHIC. Churchill said HefouJp an 0 J
little money was being collect® "p| e [
Ultimately, Churchill sai® we '
lawsuit, senior Health Departn®^, ^ i
facials told him to keep hismoii®^ | 1e /
about the problem. Bthe
Under the whistle-blower® j am j
the federal governmentcould® Unc jJ
three times its actual losses.Cfl n as j
also would be entitled toaporfe®y er f
money recovered, ifhewinstk®| son j
Jpowd
Cartr
JtNeli
|ein tl
Lapp
Mandy Cater, Managing Editor
Quatro Oakley, Visual Arts Director
Chris Martin, Aggielife Editor
Amber Benson, City Editor
Jeff Webb, Sports Editor
April Towery, Opinion Editor
J.P. Beato, Graphics Editor
Ryan Rogers, Photo Editor
Brandon Bollom, Photo Editor
Laura Stuart, Radio Producer
Anita Tong, Web Editor
Kasie Byers, Night News Editor
Spr
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