TUESDAY
November 3, 1998
Volume 105 • Issue 48 • 10 Pages
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Beau Voelkel,
commander of
the Aggie Band
and a senior
biomedical
sciences major,
displays fire
damage in
Eli L. Whiteley
Hall (Dorm 9)
to Bob
Boudreaux, a
reporter from
Houston’s
KTRK-TV
Monday
afternoon.
After an early-morning fire erupted on
the third floor of Dorm 9, members of the
Corps of Cadets were evacuated; damage
to the building may cause some students
to be displaced from the hall for the rest of
the semester.
Bob Wiatt, director of University Police
Department, said when emergency teams
arrived on the scene, flames were seen
coming out of the back window of a third
floor room, and the third and fourth floor
halls were filled with smoke. Nine students
who were unable to evacuate the building
relocated to a fourth-floor room and sig
naled emergency personnel who later
evacuated them using a ladder.
Two students were taken to College Sta
tion Medical Center for treatment for
smoke inhalation and were later released.
Dorm 9 residents are members of the A
Battery and B Battery of the Aggie Band
and some members of Company F-2.
Wiatt said residents of the room where
the fire began awoke and saw flames com
ing from underneath the bed.
“Room 309, the point of origin, was
completely destroyed, and room 409, the
room directly above it, suffered severe heat
damage,” Wiatt said.
He said the cause of the fire is still be
ing investigated.
“We are interviewing everyone in the
dorm who was awake or may have seen
something to indicate how the fire got
started,” Wiatt said.
Kristin Harper, associate director of Stu
dent Life, said members of the depart
ment’s Critical Incidence Response Team
arrived on the scene immediately.
“The first thing we did was make sure
all of the students were accounted for, and
then we asked them to contact their fami
lies,” she said.
The students were temporarily relocat
ed to Dorm 11.
Col. Ray Toler, director of bands in the
Corps, said students who live on the first
two floors would be allowed back into the
dorm once the College Station Fire De
partment determines it is safe to re-enter.
“The fire department wants to make
sure the fire alarms are working, but after
that point, the first two floors will be al
lowed back in,” Toler said.
Toler said third floor residents may have
to be relocated to other dorms for the rest
of the semester but will still live in rooms
on the Quadrangle.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president
for Student Affairs, said the band director
will be making a list of textbooks that were
lost in the fire, and the Texas A&M Book
store will donate books to replace those
that were damaged.
Wiatt said students in Dorm 9 respond
ed appropriately to the fire.
“The procedure we have for emergency
situations worked well; everyone respond
ed with discipline,” Wiatt said. “We had
students running up and down the hall
banging on doors even though the hall was
filled with smoke to make sure everyone
realized that this was not a drill but a real
fire. Discipline on past fire drills made the
evacuation a success.”
Statue aims
to celebrate,
promote
diversity
BY 1VIEGAN WRIGHT
The Battalion
During the next Presidential Advisory
Committee on Art Policy meeting, a sub
committee will be selected to begin plans
on a work of art to be placed on campus
to represent diversity at Texas A&M.
Dr. Jerry Gaston, vice president for
Administration, said the sub-committee
is the first step in the process of estab
lishing a tribute to campus diversity.
“The president has approved a rec
ommendation from the Presidential Ad
visory Committee on Art Policy (PACAPj
to commission a work of art celebrating
diversity,” Gaston said. “It will include
Student Body President Laurie Nickel and
myself as co-chairs on this subcommittee
of PACAP to go through the process of
gathering ideas and examples of kinds of
art expression that
would adequately de
pict the great diversity
including cultural, geo
graphic, racial, ethnic
and. gender groups.”
Gaston said the ap
pointed subcommit
tee will not make the
final decision con
cerning the artwork.
“We will oversee a process that will
ultimately make a recommendation to
PACAP,” Gaston said. “Funding for the
project will come from a fund estab
lished to provide art on campus. The
money came out of set aside money
from earlier building projects.”
Gaston said a recommendation to
the PACAP can be expected sometime
near the end of the Spring semester.
“We have to have our potential ideas
and deal with prospective artists,” Gas
ton said. “My estimation is that by the
end of spring, we should know what we
are going to suggest to PACAP and the
direction we think we should be going.
After that, the creation of the art itself is
the function of the artist and however
long they would take. ”
Gaston said the Academic Building
plaza is being considered for the site of
the artwork.
“The desire is to place this art in the
area between the Cushing Library and
the Academic Building,” Gaston said.
“It hasn’t been approved, but that is the
desire because it is an attractive and
heavily trafficked area. ”
Nickel said the idea of a tribute to di
versity has been an important issue
even before she came into office.
“Before campaigning, Matthew
Gaines and a diversity sculpture has
been a huge issue with a number of the
student body,” Nickel said.
see Statue on Page 2.
NICKEL
CAMAC honors Nobel winner
BY NON! SRIDHARA
The Battalion
Octavio Paz, the 1990 Nobel Prize Winner
for literature, was honored last night by the
Committee for the Awareness of Mexican-
American Culture through a program called
“El Dia de los Muertos.”
The celebration of “El Dia de los Muertos,”
which translates to “Day of the Dead,” began
when the Catholic feast of All Soul’s Day merged
with native pre-Columbian rituals of death after
the Spanish conquered Mexico in 1521.
CAMAC’s program started off with a can
dlelight procession from the Academic Build
ing to the MSC where participants were,
dressed in ghostly attire.
Chris Fernandez, programs chair for CA
MAC and a junior construction science major,
gave a brief history of the event. Fernandez
said the celebration usually has an altar which
contains favorite belongings of the deceased
which can include items such as food, ciga
rettes and liquor.
“The skulls that adorn the stage are not
here to be frightening, but they represent the
promise of a new life,” Fernandez said.
Stephen Miller, professor of Spanish, lectured
on Paz’s ideas and what they meant to Paz as
well as modern society. Miller said the main fo
cus of Paz’s ideas centered around fiestas and
how they help break down political models and
promote community within the culture. Miller
said Paz’s visits to Spain during the Spanish Civ
il War and work as an ambassador of Mexico to
India influenced his writings.
“Paz tried to explore the notion of cultural
and theological difference and went through
meditation of what these difference meant,”
Miller said.
Miller said “El Dia de los Muertos” repre
sents the center of Mexican life and cultural
identity.
“Paz felt that the modern vision of death
was that life is all and death is nothingness,”
he said. “Celebrations such as this provide a
link between the pre-Colombian society and
today’s society in the Mexican culture.”
Gil Saldivar (left), a
senior Spanish ma
jor; Jason Cedillo
(center), a junior
manufacturing
technology major
and Joel Rugerio III
(right), a sopho
more engineering
major, ready to join
the procession
from the Academic
Building to the MSC
in honor of El Dia
de los Muertos
Monday night.
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion