The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 14, 1998, Image 1

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    litizens protest Munson decision
BY BETH MILLER
The Battalion
he College Station City Council
;ed a motion last week taking
m to restrict traffic flow through
College Hills neighborhood, but
:ens opposed to the barricades
restrictions have not given up.
/like McMichen, a former mem-
of the disbanded Munson Av-
e TYaffic Committee, said a
jp of citizens against the city
ncil decision will gather Thurs-
from 7 to 9 a.m. to encourage
irs to sign a petition to put the
ison Avenue issue on an elec-
ballot. He said the majority of
event’s organizers were previ-
ly on the traffic committee.
McMichen said the gathering will
be an opportunity for College Station
voters to sign the petition, rather
than holding a rally. He said there
will not be any presentations made
or speakers present at the gathering.
If the group obtains the required
number of signatures, city officials
will certify the petition and call for
a special election; however, the bar
ricade issue will not be put on the
election ballot this November be
cause the petition will not be sub
mitted to the city by the deadline.
McMichen said while the group
is required to obtain 1,010 valid sig
natures, its goal is to obtain 1,200.
Kayla Glover, a committee mem
ber and organizer of the petition,
said the group already has obtained
approximately 300 signatures from
College Hills residents and other
College Station citizens, many of
whom have children attending Col
lege Hills Elementary School.
Glover said if the group does not
reach its goal Thursday morning, it
will offer voters another opportunity
Saturday to sign the petition at the
south end of Dominik Drive.
Glover said she does not neces
sarily favor any particular outcome
of the vote; rather, she is simply try
ing to get the issue on a ballot.
“The main thing 1 am doing
with this is to get it on the ballot for
public vote,” Glover said. “It’s not
so much to open or close the street.
1 feel the citizens should have the
right to vote.”
Sorority row
MIKE FUENTESThe Battalion
Aaron Ffrench, a senior environmental design major, photographs members of Alpha Chi Omega
sorority in front of the Jack K. Williams Administration Building Tuesday afternoon for the Ag-
gieland, Texas A&M’s yearbook.
818
Photo Courtesy of Missyplicity Project Staff
The Texas A&M Missyplicity Project aims to be the first endeavor of its
kind to clone a dog, Missy.
Contract temporarily
snags cloning project
BY AMANDA SMITH
The Battalion
Legal problems are slowing down
efforts to clone the first dog at Texas
A&M University, the Missyplicity
project manager said Tuesday.
Lou Hawthorne, project man
ager and the president of the Bio
Arts Research Corp., said he hopes
to meet with Texas A&M senior of
ficials within the next two weeks
to resolve the dispute over the
contract he signed with the Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station.
“I am very optimistic that we
can smooth things over,”
Hawthorne said. “We were called
by a Texas A&M lawyer, who ques
tioned the validity of the contract.
The contracts were signed in good
faith. My job is to find out what
party was not included and what
party needs to be included.”
The Texas Agricultural Experi
ment Station, part of the Texas
A&M University system, signed an
agreement in July with the Bio Arts
and Research Corp. of San Francis
co to attempt to clone Missy, an 11-
year-old border collie-husky mix.
Missy’s owners are funding the
$2.3 million cloning project, in
hopes of producing another dog
like her within the next two years.
In the first annual quarter of the
two-year project, $500,000 was in
vested in the project.
Mark Westhusin, lead scientist
in the Missyplicity project and a
Texas A&M professor of veterinary
medicine, will work with col
leagues Duane Kraemer and
Robert Burghardt on the project.
Researchers are planning to op
erate with a 10-person staff, during
the project and are currently inter
viewing applicants for assistants.
In a “super meeting” recently
held at Texas A&M, researchers and
Hawthorne met with consultants
from the University of Georgia, Cor
nell University, the San Diego Zoo
and Texas A&M University.
Kraemer said each of the four
consultants working with the
team has expertise in an area re
lating to the cloning project.
Texas A&M scientists’ special
ties were chosen to complement
work in the Missyplicity project.
Texas A&M was selected to partic
ipate in the cloning among appli
cants across the United States.
Westhusin specializes in nu
clear transfer, Kraemer in embryo
transfer and Burghardt in tissue
culturing and analysis.
see Missyplicity on Page 2.
j|j Ixperts:
^indents at
igh risk of
ettingflu
3
re *
ire
ickDiy
nase.
No drinking allowed
Despite the numerous entertainment events it houses, Reed Arena is an alcohol-free zone
Nall
BY BETH MILLER
The Battalion
This year’s flu season is just
und the corner, and health ex-
1s in the community are advis-
students to take proper precau-
Qs to protect themselves from
viruses.
Shirley Kostohryz, a public
nurse for the Brazos Coun-
Health Department, said the
ual flu season typically peaks
ween December and February,
!tMargaret Griffith, health edu-
on coordinator at A.P. Beutel
alth Center, said emergency
ms have already reported cas-
this season.
Griffith said college students are
high risk for contracting the flu
is because they constantly are in
e contact with other students in
ises and living quarters.
Sharon Arnold, assistant di-
tor of nursing services at Beu-
said the health center re-
tived information that some
tojor flu outbreaks occur early
the season in some states.
see Flu on Page 2.
BY ANDREA BROCKMAN
The Battalion
Since the newly-constructed Reed
Arena opened its doors in April, it
has held numerous events, including
Muster, the Barnum and Bailey Cir
cus and a Shania Twain concert.
However, since Reed Arena lies
on the Texas A&M campus. Vice
President for Student Affairs Dr. J.
Malon Southerland said alcohol is
prohibited at these events.
“No public events at Texas
A&M serve alcohol,” he said.
Steve Hodge, director of Special
Event Facilities, said another reason
alcohol is not made available is the
majority of students on this campus
are not of legal drinking age.
“We feel if we sold alcohol at
public events, the money made
would not be a good trade-off con
sidering liability costs and audience
problems,” Hodge said.
Dr. Dennis Reardon, coordina
tor of Student Life Alcohol and
Drug Education Programs, said al
cohol generally is not served at col
lege sporting events.
“Even in private and major-league
stadiums, alcohol is not publicly sold
during intercollegiate events,” Rear
don said. “When I attended the Kick
off Classic in Giant Stadium, the beer
vendors were closed.”
Mary Helen Bowers, associate
director of Special Event Facilities,
said under some circumstances al
cohol can be served at Reed Arena
and other buildings on campus.
“It must be a private party, food
must be served and the caterer
must have an alcohol-catering li
cense,” Bowers said.
Steve Hodge said the 12th Man
Foundation’s Above the Rim Club
and private seating at Kyle Field
are exceptions.
“We rent a room in Reed Arena
before every men’s basketball game.
and alcohol is served,” he said. “In
the private boxes at Kyle Field, alco
hol is currently being sold this sea
son. The key word is private.”
Next year alcohol will be sold in
The Zone addition at Kyle Field.
Brian Landry, director of tele
marketing for the 12th Man Foun
dation, said a bar will be available
in The Zone Club in front of the
1,800 seat-expansion project.
“The only people with access to
The Zone Club are the 1,800 seat
holders and those in the 20 suites,”
he said. “Also, alcohol can be con
sumed in the club only. It cannot be
taken to the seating area. ”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Construction wraps
up on University Dr.
Construction on University Drive
is scheduled for completion today.
The Texas Department of
Transportation has finished laying
down the new roadway, which has
been under construction for the
past month.
Work crews will be out today
painting traffic stripes on the road
to finish it off.
Ogden to visit
Young Republicans
State Senator Steve Ogden and
Brazos County Judge A1 Jones will
address the Brazos County Young
Republicans Club tonight at 7:15 at
Tom’s Barbecue restaurant in Bryan.
At the meeting, the selection of
College Station as the site of the
1999 Texas Young Republican Feder
ation Convention will be announced.
The convention will be held the
weekend of August 27-29, 1999
and will be co-hosted by the
Williamson County and Brazos
County Young Republicans clubs.
License sales pass
$1 million mark
Tabulations by the Division of Mo
tor Vehicle Titles and Registration of
the Texas Department of Trans
portation (TxDOT) show Texas A&M
has become the first institution in
Texas to surpass the $1 million
milestone through the sale — initial
purchases and renewals — of the
special collegiate plates.
Texas A&M President Ray M. Bowen
attributed the success of the program
to “Aggie pride” — students’ and for
mer students’ pride in their school and
a desire to help deserving Aggies who
are in need of scholarship support to
continue their education.
A&M has benefited from more
than 40,000 such transactions
since the state began the collegiate
license program in 1990.
RHA to evaluate
grode wording
The Residence Hall Association
will meet tonight at 7:30 in the Gov
ernance Room of the Koldus Build
ing to present a bill supporting Ma
roon Out in future years and will
discuss grode-yell profanity.
Grode yells are hall yells that
sometimes include profanity. The
association will designate appro
priate places to deliver the yells and
guidelines for appropriate wording.
The first meeting of a Cable TV
Committee Tbesday night discussed
a bill to provide a television guide
for on-campus cable already in
cluded with room rent in the halls.
On-campus cable is presently
limited to one station, with an op
tion to extend to several stations. A
report of the meeting will be dis
cussed by RHA tonight.
Grad student offers virtual tour of Bryan
Image Courtesy of Ming-Han Li
Landscape architecture graduate student Ming-Han Li creates an
idealized rendering of a pedestrian mall in Downtown Bryan.
BY PATRICK PEABODY
The Battalion
Downtown Bryan may have a new
look in the future thanks to Ming-Han
Li, a Texas A&M landscape architec
ture graduate student.
Li created a virtual downtown
Bryan a year ago as a final project for
his master’s degree in architecture.
“I started looking at downtown
Bryan, and I found some areas I real
ly liked, so I began collecting data and
seeing what I would like to change
about it,” Li said.
Li used a combination of image
processing software, 3-D modeling
software and a Computer Aided De
sign program to create his virtual
downtown Bryan.
“Basically what I tried to do was
to create a user-friendly environ
ment,” Li said. “With downtown
Bryan’s badly kept sidewalks and
current parking, it takes away a lot
from the historic beauty and facade
of downtown. In my video I took out
the telephone poles and lines, re
moved the dumpsters and eliminat
ed the central parking area.”
In place of the parking area in the
center of Main Street, Li placed a
pedestrian mall. Li believes the
changes would make the area more
user-friendly and would create an en
vironment for pedestrians instead of
automobile traffic. The overall effect
of Li’s changes creates a park-like at
mosphere, which Li hopes will attract
more people to the area.
In June, Li met with city officials to
present his tape. City officials seemed
pleased with the result, which included
underground utility lines and repaired
and upgraded streets and sidewalks.
“This is also a good example of
using computer technology,” Li said.
“People are usually only able to
judge a construction job after it is
done, but this allows them to see it
before any work is started. It allows
city officials, business people and
community members a way to have
more information and to have more
effective opinions.”
Li’s renovation proposals are still un
der consideration by the city of Bryan.