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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1999)
MONDAY January 25, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 78 • 11 Pages College Station, Texas opinion • With repeated altercations in the U.N. and on battlefield over Iraq, question of whether or not to remove Hussein lingers. PAGE 11 today’s issue Student Survey. 2 Golden Globes 5 Tubes’ Return “Tubularmannew strip join ranks of “Fish” and “Simel & Lewis” this semester. sports • Mens basketball ends conference losing streak to beat Baylor; lady hoopsters comeback falls short over weekend. PAGE 9 eadership conference draws to close Mike Fuentes/The Battalion Brazos County Sheriff Terry Smith (Hat) calms a crowd of an estimated 1,000 outside of the Rack Warehouse on Saturday night. Private-party crowd draws four law enforcement agencies I BY MIKE PUENTES AND AARON MEIER The Battalion I Officers from four law en forcement agencies responded Saturday night to help control a large crowd primarily com posed of Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference (SBSLC) participants gathered for a private party held in Col lege Station. p Officers from the College Station, Bryan and University police departments were dis patched to the Rack Warehouse on Southwest Parkway, which hosted “The Crimson and Cream Weekend: Part 11” party presented by Nu-OOP Produc tions. Theressa Cooper, director of SBSLC programs and a sopho more agricultural development major, said the party was not sanctioned by SBSLC. “We encourage people not to have those parties,” Cooper said. “And we encourage peo ple not to attend.” Lt. Irvin Todd of the College Station Police Department, said a College Station police officer used pepper spray to break up an incident outside the Rack. Dennell Brown, a party at tendee and a criminal justice major at Texas Southern Uni versity, said he witnessed three separate uses of pepper spray on the crowd. Brown said the police officer held his arm in the air and sprayed the crowd with pepper spray. “It was completely uncalled for and unjust,” Brown said. Clay Perry, an off-duty Bra zos County Sheriff’s Deputy, was providing security that evening for the party. Todd said Perry made the call to CSPD for police assis tance due to the crowd size. Todd said the crowd at the Rack was pushing and shoving trying to gain access to the building. CSPD estimated the crowd’s size at 1,000. TWo other parties planned to attract SBSLC participants had been organized for that evening, but the parties were cancelled by BPD. Sgt. Christopher Jadlowski of BPD said the parties were cancelled because the party venues did not acquire a spe cial events permit for that evening. Conference focuses on new millennium BY BETH MILLER AND JASON SCHNEIDER The Battalion Speeches, workshops and a career fair informed 1,050 college students from throughout the coun try of ways to prepare themselves for the new mil lennium at the 11th annual Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference this weekend. Theressa Cooper, director of SBSLC pro grams and a sophomore agricultural develop ment major, said all of the events at the con ference were effective in conveying the theme, “Renewing the Mind, Body and Soul to Meet the Challenges of the New Millennium,” to the students in attendance. “[The participants] needed to realize that health is an important factor,” she said. “That’s why we made it part of our theme, ‘Renewing the Mind, Body and Soul,’ it’s a trinity.” Cooper said the goals of conference leaders were to instill in the participants the impor tance of being prepared for the millennium. She said the leaders compiled a resume book, for which participants were offered the opportunity to submit their resumes. The re sume book was distributed to the various 75 corporations and 27 graduate schools present at the career fair. One of the events of the con ference was a speech contest, and the winner of $500 and a trophy was Shantell Lewis. Coop er said the contestants’ speeches were related to the theme of the conference. Cooper said she has directed the conference programs for two years, and the participants seemed to be more enthusiastic this year. “They got into the flow, and they were very ac tive tliis year,” she said. “They were more open to the things that we were bringing to them this year. ” 5 TTS examines campus access BY AMANDA PALM The Battalion Dr. Bryan Cole, depart- bnt head of educational administration, joined the Campus Access and Parking k Force for its third meet- Friday and will serve as acilitator for the committee. Mary Miller, co-chair of task force and associ ate vice president for ad ministration, said a facili- ator was brought in ■cause the task force is a diverse group and a large, complex task set before it. “We really needed someone to keep us fo cused during the meet ings, and to keep us on point,” she said. Cole said he wants the task force to try to build Texas A&M’s capacity to better serve its constituents. “The challenge is, how can we optimize the sys tem so we can meet most of the needs most of the time,” he said. Cole wants the com mittee to first acknowl edge that the members need to represent the sys tem and second to repre sent the constituents. “We want to build a fence around the system we are looking at, so we can all understand what the pieces are,” he said. The committee is look ing at a variety of forms of campus access, from riding the bus system to driving a car to walking or riding a bicycle. Anneliese Reine- meyer, a graduate repre sentative, agreed to serve on the task force because it was going to look at cam pus access in all forms. “It wasn’t just going to be dealing with PITS,” she said. “The scope is broader and is taking everything into perspective to create a solu tion. My greatest hope is to come up with a system that gets students, faculty, staff, everyone to class and the things they need to do on campus in a timely fashion. ” Miller said she hopes the task force will have most of the plan finished by the end of the spring semester. “We are going to shoot for getting as much done as we can by the end of spring and then finish everything up over the summer so that it will be completed by next fall,” she said. Replant sites selected BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion Replant committee mem bers publicizing the event this week expect more participa tion in the Feb. 27 event, after selecting locations in the Bryan-College Station com munity as growing sites, rather than the traditional Lake Somerville location. Replant committee mem bers will offer sign-up sheets for organizations and individ uals, spring staff applications and history on Replant in the MSC this week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dana Arriens, Replant publicity and marketing chair and a civil engineering major, said she hopes planting trees in Bryan-College Station will encourage more students and community members to par ticipate in the event. “We want to enable more Aggies and members of the community to participate in Replant,” Arriens said. “We want as [many] to take part in something that helps the en vironment.” Replant See Page 10 OGDEN Perry appoints Ogden BY RONDA COOK The Battalion Sen. Steve Og den was appoint ed vice chair of the Senate Sub committee on Higher Education and a member of the Senate Com mittee on Fi nance, the Senate Committee on Education and the Senate Com mittee on Veteran Affairs and Mil itary Installations by Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry Thursday. Ogden was elected as a Repre sentative in 1990 and served three terms. In January 1997, he was elected to the 19-county Senate District Five seat in a special elec tion and was re-elected in Novem ber 1998. He said he had been hoping for appointments to the positions and Perry has confidence in him. “These are similar to the jobs I had in the House, and I have a strong background in finance,” Og den said. The Committee on Finance de cides the budget for Texas, which exceeds $90 billion, and the Com mittee on Education is responsible for issues on admission require ments, affirmative action and greater access to higher education. Ogden said he has generated ideas for his new positions. He said he hopes to take advantage of the state budget surplus and use it for education. “We need to make sure that people who are willing to work have an opportunity for higher ed ucation,” he said. In the past, the senator’s legis lation has impacted Texas A&M University. He played a role in the adoption of the legislation allowing busi nesses in Bryan-College Station and the surrounding area to use Aggie Bucks and legislation allow ing construction of the Student Recreation Center. He said he is in terested in Texas A&M and is in volved in issues affecting students. William Henderson III, execu tive chair of the College Republi cans and a senior political science major, is confident Ogden will play a positive role on the committees. “Sen. Ogden has always had a commitment to education and to A&M, and he will continue to work for the students’ interest in his new position,” Henderson said. Upha week promotes eadership, awareness BY AMANDA PALM The Battalion The 14th annual Alpha Week, hosted by Alpha Phi Al ta fraternity, will focus on the various aspects of leader- throughout the week and will conclude with the Miss lack and Gold Scholarship Pageant Saturday, uic Curley, co-programming chair for Alpha Week, said the sk will primarily concentrate on three areas of leadership. l‘We want to prepare people for the millennium on a spiritual, fi- |dal and political level,” Curley said. lay Carruthers, mayor of Prairie View, will speak Wednesday on iportance of politics. |‘We wanted him because he has been involved in the po- pal arena for a number of years,” Curley said, “and we [w he would add a lot to our program.” <yemba McMillan, president of Alpha Phi Alpha, said the fratemi- tants people to know of the issues they may face after graduation. |“We are trying to get people to look toward the future,” lillan said. “We want them to focus on what they are go- tg to do after they graduate.” j|jMcMillan said he wanted to have a variety of event to Alpha Week Events Monday: Open Mic 3 at Rumours Deli Tuesday: Finance 2000- Rudder 401 Wednesday: How Important is Politics? Rudder 701 -Ray Carruthers, Mayor of Prairie View Thursday: A Tribute to Black Women- MSC 201 Friday: Alpha Night Hullabaloo Saturday: Miss Black & Gold Scholarship Pageant at Rudder Theater followed by Black & Gold Ball at the Student Rec. Center inform students about the range of people on campus. “Through the poetry night and the pageant, we want stu dents to be aware of other people’s talents,” he said. McMillan said the biggest event of the week is the Miss Black and Gold Scholarship Pageant and the social, which conclude the week’s activities. “The pageant and the social are a great opportunity for students to come out and have a good time,” he said. There are 10 participants in the Miss Black and Gold Scholarship Pageant and three contestants win scholarships. The pageant winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship and the first and second runners-up will receive $500 and $300, respectively. Fraternities kick of spring rush at MSC BY RACHEL HOLLAND The Battalion Spring interfraternity rush begins today as Aggie men meet with fraternity members and gather rush information in the MSC Flagroom. Individual fraternities will have information booths set up in the Flagroom today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Men interest ed in joining a fraternity will be able to talk with members and get information about the week’s events. Jeff Hilliard, president of the Interfraternity Council and a senior management informa tion systems major, said rush gives Aggie men the opportu nity to learn about each of the fraternities. “The fraternities are very di verse at Texas A&M and rush helps you to find the one that’s best for you,” Hilliard said., “You are going to be spending a lot of time with your frater nity, so it’s important to feel comfortable.” Aggie men also talked with fraternity members at MSC Open House yesterday. Today, in the Flagroom, men will be able to obtain rush cards with each fraternity’s rush sched ule. Joe Theriot, vice president of the IFC and a senior speech communication major, said the individual fraternities try to reach out and gain the atten tion of prospective members during rush. “The fraternity members try to get to know them on a per sonal basis and have them at tend their fraternity’s rush events during the week,” Theriot said. The fraternities will then give bids, invitations to pledge, to men selected during the week. The pledges, prospec tive fraternity members, will receive bid cards Saturday and sign up with the fraternities from whom they received invi tations. Jeremy White, a member of Phi Kappa Theta and a fresh man mechanical engineering major, said men considering rushing should keep an open mind. “I would tell anyone inter ested in rushing not to have any stereotypes about fraterni ties,” he said. White said men interested in joining a fraternity should get involved in rush so they have the opportunity to evalu ate the fraternities and decide which one to join.