V
Teshman falls to death
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BY MELISSA JORDAN
The Battalion
mends watch freshman
^ovuncoo: «")' Vail fall three
■ecefriberJar^/^5 after losing his
mun Riley Jarwhen Straddling
® )le of ke * m outhside garage
the Mth-TriMidrail
^ss intense wif
siul the Longld
— aring well in {
■e to some iniil
=s coach Don\\:B arr y Joseph Vail II, a Texas
“ormancestot freshman from Spring, Texas,
petition is for * e w Saturday after a three-story
ore wecompt‘U j n ff ie southwest stairwell of
= hey become. le pouthside Parking Garage.
ghest dual-me® 0 * 3 Wiatt, director of the Uni-
Z;M.” Hity Police Department, said Vail
“ae best match ld| two friends were exiting the
— meet shoul oui iside garage at 3 a.m. Satur-
show A&M «'H' 1 1 tei h ' 1vll| . i ’P''i ll'll then vein
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tournament. ar f8 e -
wiatt said witnesses reported
ail Ntraddled the handrail between
, lejthird and fourth floors in the
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stairwell and began to slide down
the rail. After losing his balance, he
fell over the rail to the first floor of
the building.
Vail was taken to St. Joseph Re
gional Health Center and was
placed on life support due to mas
sive head injuries. Wiatt said Vail
was taken off life support after 12
hours.
“They felt that it would do no
good, so they removed the life
support at 6:30 [Saturday],” he
said.
Wiatt said the incident may
have been alcohol related, but of
ficials are waiting for lab results be
fore a determination can be made.
“The preliminary investigation
has indicated the possibility of al
cohol involved in the young man’s
death,” Wiatt said.
Members of the University’s
Student Affairs Critical Response
Team provided counseling to stu
dents Saturday and spoke to resi
dents in Dunn Hall, the dorm in
which Vail lived.
Wiatt said officials will inter-
Police investigate hazing incident
TAMU investigators look into assault claims
by former Corps of Cadets member, hazing practice
Sallie Turner/Thk Battalion
Exiting the Southside garage at 3
a.m., after parking on the fourth
floor, freshman Barry Vail strad
dled and slipped from the stair
well handrail. Police hope the in
vestigation of the incident will
come to a close this week.
view the students with Vail at the
time of the accident tomorrow to
gain information about events that
occurred before the three returned
to the Southside garage.
Wiatt said the investigation of
the incident will come to a close
this week.
“Hopefully we would have a
conclusion reached by Tliesday or
Wednesday,” he said.
BY RONDA COOK
The Battalion
Texas A&M University police
officers are conducting an inves
tigation concerning the assault of
a former freshman Corps of
Cadets member.
The 18-year-old woman was a
member of Squadron 5 and at
tributed the physical and emo
tional assaults to hazing.
Hazing, as defined in the
Texas A&M Student Rules book,
is any act that endangers the
mental or physical health or safe
ty of a student, or that destroys or
removes public or private prop
erty for the purpose of initiation,
admission into, affiliation with or
as a condition for continued
membership in a group or orga
nization.
Such behavior includes but is
not limited to misuse of authori
ty by virtue of one’s class rank or
leadership position, striking an
other student by hand or with
any instrument, any form of
physical bondage of a student,
taking of a student to an outlying
area and dropping him/her off,
forcing a student into a violation
of the law or a University rule
such as indecent exposure, tres
passing, violation of visitation, or
any form of “quadding.”
Having first-hand knowledge
of the planning of such activities
or first-hand knowledge that an
incident of this type has occurred
and failing to report it to appro
priate University officials is also
a violation under this section.
Officials said the woman was
forced to perform rigorous exer
cises at two different Midnight
Yell Practices and at the site of
Bonfire cut.
“[Rigorous exercise is] any ex
ercise beyond the pail of normal
exercise, over and beyond normal
exercise, to the point of physical
exhaustion,” Bob Wiatt, director
of the University Police Depart
ment, said.
An article in The Bryan-College
Station Eagle said officials said
the woman was grabbed and
pushed against a wall in her dor
mitory, another act of hazing.
Wiatt said 20 witnesses or ac
tive participants in the hazing are
being investigated.
Wiatt said once the investiga
tion is complete, the results will
be provided to the county attor
ney to determine whether
charges will be brought forth.
11th annual scholarship pageant crowns winner
Miss Black and Gold plans to continue
bntest Results Bryan-College Station mentoring
iss Black and Gold:
Tiffany Grant
Jr. Journalism Major
$1,000 scholarship
1 st runner up:
Virginia Smith
Jr. Biology Major
$500 scholarship
ilONI) DARLl v
MAGE SALE
IE.Briargate.Br;
2nd runner up:
Adrienne Ballare
Jr. Journalism Major
$300 scholarship
BY APRIL YOUNG
The Battalion
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
crowned the new Texas A&M
Miss Black and Gold Saturday
at the 11th annual Miss Black
and Gold Scholarship
Pageant.
Junior journalism major
Tiffany Grant, Miss Black and
Gold 1999-2000, said the
achievement is an honor.
“I share this title with every
contestant in the pageant, ” she
said. “We are all queens no
matter who wins the crown. I
hope to represent Alpha Phi
Alpha with pride at the state
competition in February.”
Grant says she plans to con
tinue to mentor in the com
munity and use her title to ex
hibit herself as a role model.
“I want to encourage local
teenagers that if they believe
in themselves and strive for
what they want, they can
achieve it,” Grant said.
Kyemba McMillian, presi
dent of Alpha Phi Alpha, com
plimented the job done by the
contestants.
“The contestants did
great,” McMillian said. “I
talked to a few of the judges
after the pageant, and they
said that it was hard to
choose. Up until the winner
was announced, it was still up
in the air. ”
Evan Gentry, chair of the
pageant, said this year’s at
tendance was higher than
last year’s.
Grant encouraged all inter
ested . African-American
women to get involved in the
pageant.
“The Black and Gold
Pageant is a wonderful expe
rience for the upliftment of
our race and for women,”
Grant said. “I look forward
to working with next year’s
contestants.”
ISKi
Katherine Stempien/Thk Battalion
Junior journalism major Tiffany Grant
was crowned Miss Black and Gold
1999-2000 Saturday night.
Board of Regents
appropriates funds
for new building
: : MEDALS conference encourages leadership
^Weekend
hs^eadership
I!>ip sanc v
moat
nmese
nese hoagie san<f
'%M ¥ 'ynference
•^^ittracts
jyAvailable iod , ^
«phoneschoolers
hroughout
he state.
BY NONI SRIDHARA
The Battalion
|ligh-school students from
ughout Texas were part of
Minority Enrichment and
elopment through Acade-
and Leadership Skills
DALS) conference this
weekend.
onference attendees par-
ated in workshops dur-
the two-day conference,
Rch included topics such
leadership skills, preparing
)r college and adjusting to
allege life. Flor Sifuentes, a
conference participant from
Houston, said she decided to
come to the conference be
cause she was interested in
anything geared toward help
ing minorities.
“I was really surprised to
see how many minorities
have worked their way up to
hold leadership positions
here, since this is a predomi
nantly white school,” Si
fuentes said.
Cassandra Solis, a confer
ence participant from Katy,
said one of the most impor
tant things she learned at the
conference came from the en
tertainment Friday night.
“Coming from Katy, you’re
not very exposed to all the
different cultures,” she said.
“1 learned how important it
is to learn from one another’s
experiences. ”
Texas A&M students had
the opportunity to lead and
assist participants with many
of the events as peer advisers.
Tracey Armstrong, a peer
adviser for the conference and
a junior accounting major.
said the students were not the
only people gaining knowl
edge from the conference.
“I learned that that there is
such a diverse number of peo
ple in such a limited area,”
she said. “It is also interesting
to see how everybody is
unique in their own way. ”
Dr. J. Malon Southerland,
vice president for Student Af
fairs, addressed the students
at a banquet and told them
how valuable they will be in
the future.
“If the young people in
this room are not representa
tive of the future, then all of
us are in trouble,” he said.
Dr. Mario Rivas, associate
dean of undergraduate stud
ies at San Francisco State Uni
versity, was one of the
keynote speakers at the con
ference.
Rivas said as a first-gen
eration Latino in the United
States, from a single parent
family, he struggled
throughout much of his ed
ucation and wanted to help
inspire and encourage the
Sallie Turner /The Battalion
Dr. Mario Rivas, associate dean of undergraduate studies at
San Francisco State University, speaks to students Saturday at
the MEDALS Conference.
minorities of today.
“We all have a powerful
learning self, and not always
are we in touch with that
self—but when we are in
touch, we fly,” Rivas said.
Rivas told students to over
come their fears, to dispel the
myths about minorities not
being as intelligent as white
students and to further their
education by going to college.
“College will empower
you to know yourself and
speak yourself,” he said.
Rivas shared his personal
experiences and spoke of
how he eventually had to see
a psychologist, who helped
him achieve his current posi
tion.
“We need others to help us
find ourselves,” he said. “We
need to look for people who
are going to bring us closer to
the light of hope and inspira
tion that we all have in our
lives.”
BY AMANDA SMITH
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Universi
ty Board of Regents appro
priated funds for construc
tion of a new architectural
building, an expanded
northeast campus parking
lot and renovations to Sbisa
Dining Hall in a list of items
approved Friday.
The Board of Regents ap
proved an estimated $12 mil
lion for a new architecture
building between the two ex
isting buildings of the Lang
ford Architecture Center.
The architectural firm of
Philip Johnson and Alan
Ritchie, Architects of New
York has been selected to
prepare the architectural de
sign for the building.
The 75,000-square-foot
building will include a large
auditorium and a large lec
ture hall, a Technical Re
source Center, electronic
classrooms and laboratories
and a defined main en
trance.
Funding for the new facil
ity will come from private
donations.
The Board also appropri
ated $1.4 million for the ad
dition of 600 spaces to Park
ing Area 50, located adjacent
to the Zachry Engineering
complex.
The Board appropriated
$1 million for the replace
ment of the air-conditioning
system and upgrades to the
electrical and the plumbing
systems of Mclnnis Hall.
Other renovations will in
clude compliance with fire-
and-life safety code and
handicap accessibility.
In other business, the
Board of Regents:
• Appropriated $4.4 mil
lion for the replacement of
boiler No. 8 in the Central
Utility Plant.
The construction for the
replacement of the boiler is
scheduled to be completed
by January 2001.
• Appropriated $10 mil
lion for the historical archi
tectural work, roof replace-
Approved
Expenditures
•$12 million
-New architecture building
•$10 million
-Sbisa Dining Hall renovation
•$4.4 million
-Boiler No. 8 replacement
•$1.4 million
-Parking Area 50 expansion
•$1 million
-Mclnnis Hall renovation
ment and the addition of a
new heating and air-condi
tioning system to Sbisa Din
ing Hall.
• Approved development
of the Center for Environ
mental and Rural Health
(CERH), which will consist
of faculty from the colleges
of Veterinary Medicine, Sci
ence, Agriculture, Life Sci
ences, Medicine, the School
of Rural Public Health and
the Institute of Biosciences
and Technology in the Texas
A&M University Health Sci
ence Center. CERH faculty
will research cellular and
molecular mechanisms of
toxic injury caused by envi
ronmental factors and devel
op means to restrict harmful
environmental exposure.
•Authorized request ap
proval from the Texas High
er Education Coordinating
Board for a Masters of Geo
science degree from A&M.
•Authorized establish
ment of the Center for Hu
manities Research at A&M,
with an amendment to allow
the Board of Regents chair to
serve on the Development
Council.