iSSS.-Sept.-
—
OMEN OF
A&M
ty celebrates 35th
ry of womens
'e. AGGIELIFE,
SUMMER TIME
• Strickland comes back
from injuries to start for
Aggie volleyball team.
SPORTS, PAGE 9
CHECK OUT
THE BATTALION
ON-LINE
http://battalion, tamu.edu
SAME ADDRESS, NEW LOOK
m
THURSDAY
September 17, 1998
Issue 15 • 14 pages
mqi
nilli
Newt Cing:
lics case.
The White ft
>sibility Hiev;
ept a penalt.
Presidential
Curry’ saidC
e the tam
1
mm
ll|l
m
Batiahon
105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
Wash
inor,:'
idates urged
tend meeting
thet will be a mandatory
for the freshman class
■vas- md Student Senate can-
onight.
n;- eeting will focus on how
a suc-
cam-
nd the
Dived in
"ling.
Chase,
;ommis-
id a se-
ory and
major, nickel
s impor-
e fresh-
understand the dos and
: running their election.”
nt Body President Laurie
M \\ Alt' || on hand to give the wel-
SUPPLth speech, along with various
-est speakers to inform po-
*LD{
ii
vt
jandidates about the rules.
_want them to know the
1!
[ 999 demy honors
er students
8
uf the.
only
only 5
Freshman class second-largest ever
SH AT we also wan1: t hern to run
J e campaign, and that if they
'R LESSER \ |y questions the election
be here for them anytime,”
-aid.
I 0% 0 f' 3genda f° r the mee1: ' n S w' 11
—- election procedures, cam-
25% J 5gctc. where to place signs
-3S and fines.
paigning begins at noon
and will end at midnight
, 3.
ions will be held Sept. 29-
\l 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 10 lo-
af rie/i across campus.
e nesting will be in 292 MSC
t.
• Figures indicate
A&M’s highest
enrollment in the
past eight years.
BY AMANDA STIRPE
The Battalion
The second-largest freshman class
in Texas A&M history registered for
classes this fall with 7,363 students.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, Vice Presi
dent of Student Affairs, said.
The largest freshman class at A&M
was the Fall 1987 freshmen, with
7,406 students.
The exact enrollment figures will
officially be released today, the four
teenth class day, through a press re
lease by University Relations, Mary Jo
Powell, Associate Director of Univer
sity Relations, said.
The exact figures had not been re
leased on the twelfth class day as ex
pected due to the large class size.
“There is an immense amount of
data,” Powell said. “We are still in the
process of analyzing the data before it
gets to the public.”
Last year’s freshman class was
6,233 students. The difference in class
sizes was expected, but not in the
magnitude seen this fall.
“We were shooting for a large
class, but the amount who chose to
come was much higher than expect
ed,” Powell said.
Total enrollment this fall is around
43,406 students, compared to last
year’s enrollment of 41,461 students
not including Texas A&M at Galve
ston. Texas A&M was sixth in total en
rollment in the nation.
The exact ranking will not be pub
lished until all national schools re
lease their fall enrollment figures. Fall
1998 enrollment figures for A&M are
the largest in the past eight years.
The overassignment situation this
fall has not been as historically re
membered as Fall 1995, known as the
worst overassignment problem in re
cent A&M history, with 600 students
living in various study carrels and
rooms throughout campus.
“There are around 200 men and
women overassigned right now,” Ron
Sasse, Director of Residence Life, said.
Financially, the large freshman class
will not have an impact on funding un
til Fall 1999. Mary Jo Powell said Texas
A&M follows a funding formula.
“The amount of money the state of
Texas gives the schools are related to
the amount of students we have this
year,” Powell said. “We won’t get
more money until next year.
The anticipation of the large
amount of freshmen this fall led to the
availability of more money to accom
modate the extra students.
Blood banks suffer
from low donations
BY AARON MEIER
The Battalion
With the national blood
supply at a critically low level,
the American Red Cross is en
couraging all eligible people to
donate blood.
Currently the local chapter
of the Red Cross is having a
blood drive on campus.
Tina Sharp, communica
tions manager for the Red
Cross, said the A&M drive is not
meeting its daily goal, and the
drive’s overall goal of 1,250
units may not be reached.
Jeff Nutter, a representative
from the Red Cross, said A&M
usually has a high donation
rate, but this drive has not gone
as expected.
With two days remaining un
til the blood drive ends, only 515
units have been collected.
“We don’t know why dona
tions have been decreasing,”
Sharp said. “In the summer, we
expect them to go down, and
we anticipated that. We did
hope they would pick back up
this month, and they haven’t.”
Nutter said two surgeries
have been canceled in Wichi
ta Falls, Texas, hospitals due to
the shortage.
Nelson Way, a representative
of St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Bryan, said the hospital has
been made aware of the blood
shortage.
see Donors on Page 8.
Slip sliding away
7 7 y.een former students will be
5 ~ J into the Texas A&M Petro-
igineering Academy of Dis-
ed Graduates tonight at the
jstry banquet for their life-
Tievement.
3s K.B. and Audrey Nelson
■ be recognized for their $10
gift to the petroleum engi-
department.
gift is the single largest gift
t Dancencademic department in the
f the University.
Nelson’s gift will fund two
00 student scholarships and
. million faculty chairs.
’gift also will allow the petro-
; igineering department to be
, in honor of Harold Vance,
only l> lf ’ 49
“"Tfuture Academy members
nit 99ers nt t0 p ^ percent of living
-- 1 " —les who have had their de-
g>r 15 years or longer.
ither blamed
|*fdbike accidents
weather and traffic conges-
IJ chnli re l3 ' amecl f° r two accidents
U billing CO ||j S j on 0 f bicyclists
Pj t 's Wednesday.
1 IT ifl^ 1 minor accidents occurred in
1 ly afternoon and did not re-
. ^serious injury.
VIPW Imitations were issued in ei-
cident.
^ first accident, at 12:42
'as at Olsen Road and West
oreimpfiTive.
9S student on the bike was tak-
le A.P Beutel Health Center,
second accident, at 2:34
enothcL was on John Kimbrough
, ard.
jin Tortrec stuC j ent on t b e p^g haC j m j_
uises and did not require
-''aI attention.
I THE Wiatt - director of the Uni-
I , Police Department, said wet
“ rKllAijr anc j traffic congestion add
REVltdent potential.
yclists and cars have to be
with one another. It could
y.revieW f ‘ een more serious, but lucki-
wny 1 so t, he said.
MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion
Michael Robertson, a freshman molecular and cell biology
major, jumps through a mud puddle for beginning adventure
dynamics, a kinesiology class.
Hart Hall responds to
heckling accusations
• Hall president
says allegations of
harassment,
attacks stand as
misunderstandings.
BY JOE SCHUMACHER
The Battalion
The president of Hart Hall
took the opportunity at last
night’s Residence Hall Associa
tion to address accusations of
heckling the Ross Volunteers
progressing to last week’s Silver
Taps ceremony.
Ramsey Parr, president of
Hart Hall and a junior psychol
ogy major, responded to these
accusations at the first Resi
dence Hall Association general
assembly of the year.
During a time designated for
feedback from the University’s
residence halls, Parr said Hart
Hall had been unfairly por
trayed by an opionion column
in Tuesday’s Battalion.
Parr went on to quote sec
tions from the column he felt
were unfair.
Parr said the alleged rude
ness was a misunderstanding.
Parr said a freshman was
yelling at a junior resident of
Hart Hall, not the Ross Volun
teers.
“The fish yelled, ‘Stay the
hell away from my car,’ to a ju
nior,” Parr said.
“Hart Hall is deep in tradi
tion, and would never do any
thing like that,” Parr said to the
assembly.
Preceding Parr’s address to
RHA, several guest speakers, in
cluding Dr. J. Malon Souther
land, Vice President for Student
Affairs, and Patrick Williams
from the Association of Former
Students, spoke to the assembly.
Other items on the agenda
were an amendment to the RHA
constitution.
“Hart Hall is
deep in tradition,
and would never
do anything like
that/'
— Ramsey Parr
President of Hart Hall
The amendment requires the
depositing of funds to their Stu
dent Organization Finance Cen
ter account within 24 hours of
obtaining the funds.
The amendment was passed
unanimously.
In a light-hearted moment
that concluded the evening, a
bill titled BS98-03, sponsored by
Heather Lindner and former
RHA President Eric Williams,
known as the Official RHA
Handshake bill, was unani
mously tabled.
Magee sees doors opening for women in leadership
BY MEGAN WRIGHT
The Battalion
Amy Magee, a senior psychol
ogy major, is helping shape histo
ry at Texas A&M. For the first time
in the history of A&M, a female
student body president is working
directly with a female student
speaker of the Senate.
Magee, the speaker of the 51st
Student Senate, began her in
volvement in student politics as a
freshman in high school.
Since entering college, her ac
tivities have included holding the
position of chair of the MSC Ab
bott Family Leadership Confer
ence, COSGA, being a member of
Alpha Chi Omega sorority, acting
as a senator for the College of En
gineering and being Student Sen
ate Rules and Regulations chair.
“It involved combining my ex
perience and research I’ve done
about women’s roles at A&M,”
Magee said. “I worked at devel
oping a productive vision, and it
was difficult to communicate to
the Senate at times. I try to bal
ance a lot of variables at one time,
and it is not always an easy job.”
Magee feels gender plays no part
in the duties of the speaker of the
Senate, but that perhaps the ap
proach differs.
“As a speaker you keep order
and make sure meetings flow
smoothly. Keeping order may
have different perceived ap
proaches. If a man is assertive, it
is just that — he is assertive.
When a woman is assertive, there
is a good chance that it will be tak
en differently, and she will be
seen as a dictator. I strive to bal
ance my strong ideas and drive
and try to set a tone that is very
open,” Magee said.
In her four years at A&M,
Magee said she has found the roles
of women on campus changing.
“As a freshman, I didn’t see
much participation from women
in the upper levels of leadership.
There was always a good number
of women participating in ‘the oth
er education,’ but in the past few
years the leadership capacity of
these women has really taken off. ”
Magee is optimistic about the
future of women on campus.
“We’ve been getting this
tremendous influx of dynamic
women here at A&M,” Magee said.
“It’s wonderful to see their oppor
tunities increasing because A&M is
growing to be more of an open
campus in that respect. ”
Seneca Falls
anniversary
honored with
discussion
BY BETH MILLER
The Battalion
150 years ago it was a radical con
vention held to promote women’s
rights; today it will be the subject of a
commemorative discussion about the
historical event.
The Women’s Studies Program and
the Office of Gender Issues Education Ser
vices will hold a discussion today at noon
in 306 Academic Building in celebration
of the Seneca Falls Convention.
Nancy Tlibbs, a graduate assistant in
the office of Gender Issues Education
Services, said the Seneca Falls Conven
tion, in July of 1848, was the first
women’s rights convention. Two con
cerns discussed were suffrage and
property rights.
The Declaration of Sentiments was
written as the result of the convention. It
was similar to the Declaration of Indepen
dence but declared “all men and women”
equal, rather than simply “all men.”
Barbara Finlay, director of the
Women’s Studies Program, said the cel
ebration will include a reading of the De
claration of Sentiments, followed by a
discussion of the progress women have
made in society.
Finlay said she felt the event is impor
tant to help people understand feminism
and gain respect for the women of the past.
“A lot of people are unaware of the
feminism in the United States and the
fact that it does go back a long way,”
Finlay said. “These women were very
courageous and are partially responsi
ble for what we have today. It’s a part
of history that rarely gets taught.”
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
Amy Magee, a senior psychology ma
jor, is serving as speaker of the 51st
Student Senate.