The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 03, 1998, Image 1
L-AMERICAN RL "^lleybairs Stacy Sykora >sfora ‘killer’ season. )RTS, PAGE 11 'v A TASTE OF CULTURE • OPAS offers more artistic type of entertainment. OPINION, PAGE 15 CHECK OUT THE BATTALION ON-LINE h ttp://battalion, tamu.edu THURSDAY September 3, 1998 11.1X111 O N D J F Ki 1998 vans Library • - DCWU j — »ceives rare ook collection advanced 0.4 record high.C a mounted to: te of $650.4p. i„g N al 6 W S > S PrObabfy 0116 the largest gifts of •' Tue5da, l! "oo#(s the library has jWeather ver received/' — Charlene Clark Public relations officer for University Relations BY AARON MEIER The Battalion rriCc C. Evans Library will officially acquire a rare 00 volume collection of Slavic literature today. :harlene Clark, public relations officer for Evans Li- miss y, said the acquisition of the George Sabo Slavonic k Cbllection is historic for Evans Library. •wfj^This is probably one of the largest gifts of books the - ary has received,” Clark said. he Collection contains works of Russian, Polish and :h origin. Chester Dunning, a professor of Russian history, played p/ role in the acquisition of the Sabo collection, and said ropical storm jptains works of historical as well as literary value. The collection should include typically things like en- apedias, historical works, monographs, critical editions, y codes, works of fiction by famous authors whose works are then sub ject to many works of criti cism,” Dun ning said. ‘‘But we don’t even know the exact contents of the collection.” The collec tion was be queathed to the University he George Sabo estate and George Sabo’s heirs, ■ph Corcoran, and Irene Corcoran, Sabo’s daughter, v nationwide search was conducted before A&M selected as the site to house the books. Junning said A&M beat out the University of If . >ming, Notre Dame and the University of North Car- ’ 1 ^ * a at Durham for the Sabo collection. One of the reasons the collection was selected to lie here was we have so many excellent Slavic schol- ere,” Dunning said. arolyn Smith, the head of the gift department of is,-will be heading up the unloading of the collec- this morning. uniting said the works in the collection focus pri- jily on Russian history and literature between the s and 1980s. he Sabo Collection is part of an initiative by Evans ary to build up the collection Slavic and Latin ?rican research materials. tunning said Fred Heath, dean of the general li- ies at Texas A&M, will hire an additional two as- ints to help catalog the extensive collection. UP SeleCil have requested that once the library has received them books) that they be placed on display so Slavic schol- nf f Ufl :an wa k through the collection and tag the works they ore of more value,” Dunning said. _ ^ndunning said the earliest he expects the collection PaCC'^ e made available is next spring. inflatabl jrmtu^assing the buck ipppcSOll , interested in using Aggie Bucks and what other fi nancial services they could offer students through Aggie Bucks. Pace said students can now use Aggie Bucks in more places off campus and the number is grow ing. Freebirds, Applebee’s, Honeybee Farms and Copy Corner all now accept Ag gie Bucks. Charles Hood, the manager of Freebirds on Texas Avenue, said they started accepting Aggie Bucks only a few weeks ago, and already the ma jority of the students that come in are using them. Aggie Bucks are now used by students that come to Freebirds more than checks and credit cards combined. Hood said Freebirds decided to start accepting Aggie Bucks for customer convenience. “It is a positive thing. It’s about the conve nience for our cus tomers.” Hood said. Check liversity expands ie Bucks program nclude more inesses. $204y AMY CURTIS The Battalion $12J ’ggie Bucks are now widely accepted out- of campus, and more $ Blesses are planning to $20 t ^ em t ^ ie near ^ u " allow more busi- ^ ’ es to accept Aggie ts on and off cam- Texas A&M has 2d contracts with est Bank, Aggieland it Union and MBNA rica. even Pace, the Aggie administrator, said a A&M had total con- over Aggie Bucks, on-campus mer- ttp://tamu.bkst0i f ts and merchants re- to the campus could brs:8a.m.-^hem. .,Sat: 1996 they took note hat businesses were Student Center Station, TX Repairs on University Drive warrant police monitoring for motorists’ safety. Road work on University Drive causes traffic back-up Wednesday afternoon. Police were on hand to ensure motorists and pedestrians were safe. Under BY JOE SCHUMACHER The Battalion University Drive from Well born Road to Texas Avenue is currently undergoing heavy construction. A seal coat and a hot-mix overlay are being ap plied to the road. Plans are’for the project to be completed by mid to late September. Catherine Hejl, assistant area engineer of Brazos County, said the seal coat will take five to six working days to complete and the hot-mix will take another five to six working days. Traffic heading east is heavily congested from Wellborn to Bizzell. College Station Police of ficers were directing traffic at every intersection from Texas Av enue to Old College Road. Tfaffic is narrowed down to one lane in either direction dur ing construction hours. Hejl said the project was slat ed to be completed in August. However, there were several de lays in construction. The primary contractor, Jones G. Einke, Inc. of Sealy, sub-contracted the repairs on University Drive repairs to a smaller company. However, upon viewing the condition of University Drive, the company backed out of the contract. . The contractors have request ed police assistance to ensure the safety of motorists and students. Lt. Mike Mathews of the College Station Police Depart ment said there will he officers on University Drive during construction. He also advises motorists to use alternate routes if possible. Otherwise, motorists should plan accordingly for delays. A press release from the Texas Department of Transportation said most work on University Drive will begin at 7 a.m. Meteorology sees jump in fall student enrollment BY PATRICK PEABODY The Battalion There has been an in crease in the amount of me teorology majors this fall. The meteorology depart ment enrolled twice as many students , this fall than they were expecting. ^ There were 70 new enrollments which is twice the number that the de partment usually gets. James McGuirk, assistant head of me teorology, said the department expected a large number of in coming freshmen, but they had not ex pected as many trans fer students. “We had 45 fresh men enroll, which is 15 more than we usually get,” he said. “We received about 10 more transfer stu dents than usual, and most of them trans ferred in August, which we were not expecting.” McGuirk also said the meteorology department is a little understaffed but is adjusting to handle it. “We were going to offer a Meteorology 151 class,” McGuirk said, “for anyone in the University that want ed to take it, but we’ve had to cancel that and add two more sections for our $\ undergraduates. Also, we had to add a new [Meteo rology] 201 introduc tion class, to get all of the students in.” Meteorology 151 will be opened to everyone in the spring. The meteorology de partment does not ex pect the enrollment rates to keep increasing, but they do not expect them to decrease. Also, like so many other things, the in creased enrollment can be blamed on El Nino. “There are three things that we believe caused this increase,” McGuirk said. “El Nino has brought attention to the profes sion, as have movies like Tivister, and increasing awareness of global warm ing.” see Enrollment on Page 6. Fish Pond crossover now closed to thru traffic BY LESLIE STEBBINS The Battalion No longer will students or buses be able to cut through Fish Pond on their way through campus. The driving path was closed in August for safety reasons. Prior to 1984 the path was closed off to drivers, but with the installation of the bus sys tem it was opened to buses only, said Douglas Williams, associate director for the De partment of Parking, Traffic and Transportation Services. Over the years it has be come increasingly difficult to limit the traffic flow to buses only, and now PTTS has closed the path off. “Bollards [concrete barri ers) have been ordered and will be installed to make sure no automobiles are able to dri ve through,” said Williams. Gary Jackson, bus opera tions manager, said the bus es will still run as scheduled and pick up on both sides of Fish Pond. The Rudder and Traditions routes will run approximately five minutes longer, while Howdy and Gig ’em will not be affected by the change. There will be bus opera tions employees at the stops to assist students. “We have instructors and senior bus drivers to help stu dents get on the right bus,” Jackson said. Some students are upset that they can no longer cut across campus through Fish Pond. “It is frustrating because there is no way to get from one side of the campus to the oth er without going out on the busy main roads,” said Craig Funk, a sophomore business major. Traffic has become a prob lem around Fish Pond, and PTTS and bus operations were afraid someone was going to get hurt. “We have been very lucky no one has gotten hurt,” Jack- son said. “There were too many cars other than buses and University vehicles driving through for it to remain safe for the pedestrians.” Williams adds that they have plans to build bus shel ters similar to those on West Jake Schrickling/The Battalion The Texas A&M Marching Band’s Bugle Rank stands at attention during the open ing of yell practice All University Night A&M athletes, leaders enjoy festivities, band performance BY MEGAN WRIGHT The Battalion All University Night, held last night at 7:30 at Kyle Field, kicked off the 1998 fall semester with approximately 10,000 peo ple in attendance. The introduction of freshmen to Ag gie spirit, tradition, student leaders, and fall sports teams was hosted by head Yell Leader Brandon Neff. Among those to welcome the Class Of 2002 was Student Body President Laurie Nickel. “It is so wonderful to finally have fresh men on campus again,” Nickel said. “I know that you’ve probably heard it 100 times that you are a large class. I hope you never feel like a number. You are not a number, you are an Aggie.” Other speakers included Dr. Ray Bowen, president of Texas A&M Univer sity; Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice pres ident for student affairs; Lynn Hickey, se nior associate athletic director and Head Football Coach R.C. Slocum. Two additional guest speakers in cluded football team members Dat Nguyen and Chad Frantzen. The Aggie Band performed for the first time on Kyle Field during the night’s festivities, performing the same drill performed during Monday night’s Kickoff Classic in New Jersey against Florida State. Neff said he felt the night was a sucess in bringing together different parts of the university. “It made you proud to be an Aggie,” Neff said. “You saw everybody working together, doing the yells. “You saw all these people, from dif ferent factions of campus from dorms to the Corps to sororites, come out and support one thing, and that is Texas A&M.” Josh Pinter, a senior industrial distri bution major and member of the Corps of Cadets, said All-U Night was succes- ful for the freshmen in his outfit. “It is all about giving the freshmen class a sense of unity and a place at A&M,” Pinter said. All-U Night also brought to light a Jake Schrickling/The Battalion Senior yell leaders Sam Bluntzer and Pat Patillo and junior yell leaders John Bloss and Jeff Bailey listen to Laurie Nickel’s speech at All University Night. new tradition for Aggieland. This year for the Nebraska game. Ag gies will be participating in the first an nual “Maroon Out” on October 11. “Normally, when Nebraska comes to A&M, they bring a lot of support with them and you see a lot of red shirts in the stands,” Neff said. “This year we want to get a lot of support and have a sea of maroon shirts in the student section.” Additional information and t-shirts will be made available soon by the Class Councils.