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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1998)
Weather Today N S I D E 1 ■ 1 1 ^ Opinion . Sports ... see Page 3 .see Page 5 HIGH LOW IglJI Tomorrow J'GH “iow acksoncot ’unday’sii Jstnortliot pffic for It ^er to 6,7[l; Co. cus fton, Free; he nortli: ratures ninthepi Pndaymo: ply 0.09iitc for oar fain for; morning; [er than [vi h remains: rage ra hi re |'s annua: jiormal. were If jrrentwe 104™ YEAB • ISSUE 162 • 6 PAGES TEXAS ASM UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE STATION. TEXAS Tomorrow Aggielife: Summer movie craze over comets, meteors prompts in-depth expert report on impact possibility with Earth. WEDNESDAY • JULY 1 • 1998 A watery past A&M nautical archaeology department discovers a bit of Southern history * U % / I A r WT* T *—Ur-’ A T-» »—v■% r ' I ' •11 1 ^ By Patrick Peabody Staff Writer Bi’he Texas A&M Department of Nautical Archaeology will explore i fiiece of Confederate history sit ing on the ocean floor. The project officially began when the Denbigh, one of the two most successful blockade-runners of the Confederacy, was rediscov ered in December 1997. Archaeolo gists and students have been map ping out the site since May 1998. Barto Arnold, the project's lead archaeologist, said the sunken ship was not hard to find. "We expected to find it some time," Arnold said, "but it came as a surprise when we found it our first time out." I y: lurday Ifficeor I mole I of the Photo Courtesy of Barto Arnold The project gained momentum when the project received dona tions totaling over $200,000 from Houston Endowment, Inc., The Hillcrest Foundation, The Strake Foundation, and the Trustees of Communities Foundation of Texas. "This project will be completely funded by donations," Arnold said. "The money we have now is only about 10 percent of what will we need to finish this project." The project is expected to last ap proximately five years with the first year dedicated to preliminary field work and test excavations. The Denbigh ran more than 26 trips through the blockade before being sunk, while most runners av eraged only four. The Denbigh was constructed in Liverpool, England in 1860 as an ordinary merchant vessel. It is ap proximately 180 feet long and 22 feet wide. It was purchased in 1863 by the European Trading Company, a con sortium of Confederate, English and French companies. Two months after refitting, the Denbigh arrived in Cuba and began preparing for the trip to Mobile, Ala. On Jan. 10, 1864, it successfully completed the first of its many runs through the Union blockade. The converted merchant ship continued to make runs from Ha vana, Cuba, to Mobile, Ala., and Galveston where it provided sup plies to the Confederacy. On the night of May 23,1865, six weeks after the Confederacy sur rendered, the Denbigh was sunk near Bolivar Point by blockading Union ships. Although the nautical archae ology department recently found the ship, the Denbigh was never truly lost. The iron-hulled steamer was a harbor landmark for many years af ter the Civil War, and parts of the ship can be seen when the tide is ex tremely low. An 1880 Corps of Engineers map clearly marked the location of the wreck, and sport divers and fishermen have know about it for years. see Denbigh on Page 2. Ice c: Professor recognized for work in medical journalism field Duntyj; lachof’i By Rod Machen City Editor A professor in the department of shotrjjjjlimalisrn has been honored for her ac complishments in medical journalism. ■ Barbara Gastel, associate professor ’ of journalism and of humanities in medicine, has been awarded the Harold Swanberg Distinguished Ser- ypev Award by the American Medical inters Association. I Gastel will receive the award at the HlWA annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia in October. ■ She recently returned from the Bople's Republic of China where she taught an intensive four-week /©urse in medical writing at Beijing > Medical University. In the course she taught editors of Chinese medical journals and facul ty members how to submit articles to English language medical journals. Gastel's most recent publication is the Health Writer's Handbook, a guide for writers of medical journalism for the popular media. Gastel believes medical journalism is an established field that has recent ly, gained popularity. "As the population has aged, in terest in health has increased," Gastel said. "Also, various institutions have become more active in disseminating information on health." Gastel came to Texas A&M in 1989 as the University began preparation for a graduate program in science and technology journalism. The program was first requested in the late '80's, and after several set backs from the Texas Higher Educa tion Coordinating Board, the first stu dents entered the program in the fall of 1996. The journalism department had long desired a graduate degree. Dr. Charles Self, professor of journalism and head of the department, said sci ence journalism fits with A&M's strong science programs. "One of the things that has distin guished A&M is its science and tech nology mission," Self said. Gastel summarized her mission and the goal of the graduate program. "I teach people how to distill tech nical information clearly, interesting ly and accurately," Gastel said. TH Jt mmmk: JiHi Dr. Barbara Gastel, associate professor of journalism and humanities in medicine, received the Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award by the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) for her accomplishments in medical journalism. Gastel will re ceive the award at the AMWA an nual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia in October. Photo By Jake Schrickling/The Battalion Artistic expression fo-. . A 1 ’Vv- **»• :ii‘ i STEPHANIE CORLEY/The Battalion Basel Hunter, a Ph.D. student in Recreation, Parks and Tourism Science and a local artist, paints a portrait of the legendary Sullivan Ross. Basel considers art “an expression of the soul — it has nothing to do with literal representation.” p—News Briefs— from staff and wire reports Accounting fraternity ^cognized as 'superior chapter' [ The Texas A&M University ctla pter of the national account- ln 9 fraternity, Beta Alpha Psi, has ^rned "superior chapter" Cognition for the seventh con- Se cutive year. The members of Texas A&M's e lta lota chapter completed 0re than 1,800 hours of service u hng the past academic year. I 'his was a major factor in earn- 9 recognition as a superior chap- ® r , noted a local spokesperson for the fraternity. Students donated their time to 0re than a dozen organizations Cr °ssthe Brazos Valley, providing services to elementary schools and a nursing home, for example. In addition, chapter members offered support to the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business through tutoring and grading practice problems. The national fraternity is com posed of upper-level accounting students with a 3.0 or better grade-point ratio. Members re main active by earning points through participation in service activities, professional meetings and committee. The A&M chapter was char tered in 1974. Austin ISD spends $1.2 M for , 98- , 99 school year to increase number of bilingual teachers AUSTIN (AP) — In an effort to attract more bilingual teachers, trustees of the Austin In dependent School District have voted to spend $1.2 million in the 1998-99 school year to pay certified bilingual and special educa tion teachers $1,000 annual stipends. Some 12,000 students, about 16 percent of AISD's enrollment, sought help last year from the district's bilingual program, which offers instruction in four languages through high school. Spanish-speaking students make up about 93 percent of students in the program. Most other students speak Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese. But educators say support for the pro gram sometimes falls short. And like other districts, Austin has fewer certified bilingual education teachers than it needs. Such shortcomings make learning English more difficult, teachers said. They want de ficiencies addressed soon, because state offi cials want districts to use state achievement tests to determine whether a student should be promoted. Kocurek Elementary teacher Rita Haeck- er said students in Austin's bilingual pro gram could succeed on the same level as their English-speaking peers if they got Spanish editions of the same textbooks and materials. "We do need the tools and we need the same quality of tools as the English-speak ing students get," Haecker, president-elect of the Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education, said. Della May Moore, director of the district's bilingual education department, said Austin hires about 500 teachers each year. It hired 80 bilingual teachers in the 1996- 97 school year, 69 for 1997-98 and another 28 by the end of May. Yet the district still was understaffed by 62 certified bilingual teachers at the end of last school year. "We recruit all year long," Moore said. "Bilingual teachers in particular are in high demand. And we're up against some big, big, big competition." Other districts, such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Manor, offer incentives to recruit and retain certi fied bilingual teachers. Austin already offers those teachers one-time $1,500 signing bonuses. The district also wants to offer $1,500 to entice certified teachers who are working elsewhere in the district back into the classrooms where they are needed. The 1998-99 budget proposal also in cludes $150,348 for two additional bilin gual coordinators.