TUESDAY
February 9, 1999
Volume 105 • Issue 88 • 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
aggielife
• Biological and sociolog
ical theories give insight
into the evolution and
social history of the kiss.
PAGES
today’s issue
Toons 2
Prof remembered 6
Wednesday’s issue
Tobacco lawsuits bring about
question of where responsibility
ends and governing begins.
sports
• A&M swimmer Clara
Ho makes a big splash
in her first season by
leading womens team.
PAGE 7
pstinence rally stresses
|rength through religion
| BY LISA K. HILL
The Battalion
of premarital sex and forgive-
^■from God were the discussion
jpics of an abstinence rally sponsored
F^ggie Sisters for Christ.
^■st night’s rally held in the MSC
penfed and closed with prayers, and
speakers discussed abstinence
^■elated issues, focusing on the
entkil and physical risks.
^■cah Wing, rally coordinator and
ember of Aggie Sisters for Christ
fropty, wanted to let attendees know
^fcave a choice when it comes to
remarital sex.
“We want to spread the word that
bstinence is an option in relation
's, she said. “Abstinence is not an
old-fashioned decision.”
Barret Curnutte, Class of ‘97, spoke
on how choosing to be a born-again
virgin changed his life.
“My views on sex took a 180 be
cause I turned my life toward Christ,”
he said. “I want to let students know
that abstinence is a reasonable solution
in the prevention of STDs and AIDS.”
Curnutte said the turning point in
his life was when he saw the inner
peace of those waiting to have sex un
til they were married.
“I was missing that inner peace," he
said, “and now that 1 have it. I’m
hooked in spreading the word.”
David Bereit, rally coordinating as
sistant and a guest speaker, focused on
sexual responsibility.
see Rally on Page 2.
Eric Newnam/Tiik Battalion
tysician Noren Johnson speaks to the attendees of the abstinence rally
Donsored by the Aggie Sisters for Christ Monday Night.
Old Glory
GUY ROGERS/The Battalion
Ben Arcuni, (left) a freshman aerospace engineering ma
jor, and Damon Donoho, a sophomore biomedical science
major, retire the colors in front of the Academic Building.
Eric Newnam/The BATTALION
Susan Nennery (right), a Planned Parenthood representative, discusses re
productive health care with Jennifer Murphy (left), a senior Chemical Engi
neering major, during the mini health fair in the MSC Flagroom Monday.
Mini health fair keeps
students informed
BY AMANDA PALM
The Battalion
Sexual Responsibility Week,
sponsored by Student Health Ser
vices Health Education and Aggie
REACH began yesterday with a
mini health fair in the MSC Fla
groom.
Health organizations from
Bryan, College Station and Texas
A&M were present to offer students
free HIV testing and information
about safe sex and sexually trans
mitted diseases.
Marcy McDonald, a wellness coor
dinator with the Brazos County Health
Department, said the fair was an ef
fective method to reach a lot of people.
“If we don’t provide the information,
students will not get it,” McDonald
said.
Sara Mendez, a community out
reach specialist with family health
services, said fields including fam
ily planning, pediatric care and HIV
testing and AIDS services are of
fered through family health ser
vices.
Erin Howard, an intern with the
Brazos County Health Department,
said students do not know enough
about sexually transmitted dis
eases.
“College students are at a high
risk for STDs,” she said. “They
don’t know about the more com
mon diseases like chlamydia.”
Howard said statistics for Brazos
Valley are hard to obtain because
many students go back to their
home counties to get tested for dis
eases, but STDs and AIDS directly
affect students at A&M.
mages of Earth aid scientists’ research
BY ANDREA BROCKMAN
The Battalion
A representative of the John-
m [Space Center discussed ad-
intages to hand-held cameras,
ng- term missions and showed
rages of Earth’s coastal changes
om volcanoes, floods and hu-
an modification yesterday at the
iird annual Oceanography Semi-
ir.
Dr. Cynthia Evans said short-
irn shuttle missions occur eight
k> a year, last eight to 10 days and
ipture 2,000-12,000 high-resolution
rages.
:;i|“We have collected a lot of
ata,” she said. “We know the cy-
es in which the forests burn and
le plankton bloom.”
Evans, who was in charge of the
rogram for the two-year MIR
aace station mission, said longer-
term missions are advantageous.
“From a space station platform,
astronauts can observe events on
a longer time scale,” Evans said.
“We can determine the longevity
of smoke and smog palls, dust
storms and plankton blooms.”
She said they are better able to
track flood-water movement and
detect changes to the Earth’s surface
during and after volcanic eruptions.
“We can also determine sea
sonal changes and effects of
longer-term events, such as El
Nino,” Evans said.
In a year, NASA will launch an
other long-term mission on the In
ternational Space Station.
Evans said hand-held cameras
provide a variety of angles for de
tail and context.
“Having a human behind the
lens can capture events unmanned
space craft can’t,” she said.
She said astronauts are trained
to decide which areas and phe
nomena to photograph, and hand
held photography complements
aerial photography and imagery
from unmanned satellite scanners.
“Hand-held cameras can docu
ment human-induced changes,
weather cycles and particularly
coastline evolution,” she said.
Evans said all coastal systems
are heavily modified by humans.
“Since coastal systems are inte
gral to transportation and industry,
it is important to know how things
are changing and prepare accord
ingly,” Evans said.
Evans displayed photos of the
Yellow River Delta in China, the
Nile Delta in Egypt and
Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.
“We have been able to inspect
some pretty dramatic changes,”
she said.
Photo courtesy of NASA
Hurricane Elena as it appeared in
the Gulf of Mexico, Sept. 1,1985.
Human-tended spacecraft have
produced more than 350,000 im
ages of Earth over the past 30
years, enabling scientists to ob
serve geological, oceanographic,
environmental and meteorological
phenomena.
Muster draws CEO as speaker
BY BETH MILLER
The Battalion
Through evaluation of more than
100 nominees, members of the Stu
dent Government Association Muster
Committee selected
Mike W. Baggett,
Class of ’68, as
Campus Muster
Speaker for this
year’s ceremony.
Caroline Kohler,
sub-chair for the
speaker selection
sub-committee
and a junior environmental design
major, said the sub-committee chose
Baggett through a process of repeat
ed researching and discussion with
Muster committee members. She
said the nominees are from a list col
laborated over several years.
She said there are no specific re
quirements to be Campus Muster
Speaker, but they are often former
students.
Baggett, CEO of Dallas law firm
Winstead, Sechrest and Minick,
served as vice president of Alpha Phi
Omega and a head yell leader while
he was an undergraduate student at
Texas A&M. Since graduation, he
has served as president of the Dallas
A&M Club, president of the Aggie
Bar Association and a trustee of the
A&M Development Foundation.
David Parker, a sub-committee
member and a senior economics
major, said Baggett was chosen be
cause he fit the profile of who the
sub-committee members thought
would be a perfect Muster speaker.
“He has just done everything you
could possibly do at this University,”
he said. “He was in the Corps and a
yell leader.
“We knew what a successful man
he was. We knew he could address
all age groups.”
Ilexas senators play impeachment roles
Jordanians bid farewell to Hussein,
funeral brings together world leaders
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President
nton’s impeachment trial enters the final
Preach, Texas’ two senators have maneu-
■jhd themselves into leadership roles on
Ivopf the major issues of
|e (jay: Censure and the
jpblic’s right to know.
I Sen. Kay Bailey
lutchison is leading a bi-
gartisan coalition seeking
I) pry open the final de-
Bber.itions and allow the
ubllc to see how the 100
pa tors reach their ver-
actjon the articles of im-
Bthment charging Clinton with perjury
mdlobstruction of justice.
■'.For his part, Sen. Phil Gramm is vowing
ft block a move toward censure of the pres-
ilent’s conduct, dismissing such a resolu-
Bon as an unconstitutional “covering-your-
Ipnny” strategy that could irrevocably
iiufldle the separation of executive, legisla-
Ivekand judicial powers.
1 ICensure establishes a new precedent
|/hi( h will invite punishment through cen
sure every time a Supreme Court justice’s
ruling displeases one party or another, or an
administration official offends Congress,”
the Texas Republican said Monday, calling
censure “dangerous.”
Senators from both parties have been
working on a censure statement that would
be debated only after the Senate voted — as
early as Thursday — to acquit or convict
Clinton. Amid clear signs that the votes
aren’t there to remove the president, cen
sure has been increasingly discussed as an
alternate option.
In an appearance Sunday on NBC’s
“Meet the Press,” Gramm indicated that he
would avail himself of every legislative op
tion available to derail the censure move
ment. “I am adamantly opposed to censure,
and I intend to fight it hard,” he warned.
Gramm or other opponents could force
censure advocates to marshal 60 votes to
bring the resolution up for consideration.
The stance puts Gramm at odds with
censure supporters who are demanding the
opportunity to voice their disapproval of
Clinton’s conduct in covering up his extra
marital relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
“We’re trying to make a historic state
ment of record” on Clinton’s behavior. Sen
ate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said
Monday, predicting that 20 Republicans
would have to join Democrats in voting to
clear the expected filibuster by Gramm or
some other Republican.
Gramm can’t claim his fellow Texas Re
publican as an ally.
Hutchison views censure as constitu
tional and wants the opportunity to send the
signal that “this is not appropriate behav
ior, and the standard for perjury and ob
struction of justice is not blurred.”
In her own battle to waive Senate rules
and allow the public to witness the final de
liberations, Mrs. Hutchison can’t count
Gramm among her supporters.
“For 2,600 years, since the ancient law
giver Solon in Athens and every day since
in every courthouse in America, we have
open trials, we have public evidence, we
have public witnesses, but when the jury
deliberates, it goes behind closed doors,”
Gramm said Sunday.
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — To a welter of
haunting images — a riderless white stal
lion, a sea of sodden black flags, a pale
queen in tears and a simple white burial
shroud — Jordan’s beloved King Hussein
was laid to rest Monday under a gray-
veiled sky.
Dignitaries and leaders from all over
the world — some from states sworn to
enmity — lionized the king, a testament
to the enormous stature that belied Hus
sein’s status as the monarch of a small and
unassuming desert kingdom who
preached peace in a turbulent region.
The funeral produced some stunning
scenes of reconciliation, including a hand
shake between a radical Palestinian guer
rilla leader and Israeli President Ezer
Weizman.
Nayef Hawatmeh’s guerrillas comman
deered a school in Maalot in 1974, a
hostage operation that killed 24 Israelis.
Ordinary Jordanians viewed him more
as a father than a monarch, and wept from
the heart.
The king was buried on a day domi
nated by extraordinary images.
The grief-stricken faithful pelted his
coffin with flowers and police strained to
hold back surging crowds seeking a final
glimpse of Hussein.
Echoing the poignancy of the proceed
ings was the appearance of the king’s rid
erless white stallion and Noor, the Amer
ican-born queen, glimpsed briefly in the
palace doorway as she watched her hus
band’s casket borne off for a solemn pro
cession through Amman, his capital.
The five-hour funeral was also the oc
casion for some delicate diplomatic pas de
deux, drawing sworn enemies like Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Syrian President Hafez Assad.
The two stayed well apart, but even so,
their presence at the same event was un
precedented.
Some of the hundreds of dignitaries at
tending put aside pressing problems.