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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1999)
nt k a Snowe, R-!t : the day. son said shetij language inaii| )n tomakeit eated like am office - a cides whether .‘ged crime- u no future Oe, sure. THURSDAY February 11, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 90 • 12 Pages College Station, Texas 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY aggielife • This weekend Mardi Gras celebrations reach their peak in three southern cities. PAGE 3 today’s issue Flu Outbreak 6 Toons 2 Friday’s issue Gays in the military should have kept to the don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy for the benefit of all. sports • Texas A&M mens basketball team ropes in 79-74 win against Kansas State University Wildcats. PAGE 7 Student worker bill to be bmitted to registrar TERRY ROBERSC' Gift Shoppe.de more than 2,K 1 on. BY RACHEL HOLLAND The Battalion ■e Residence Hall Association recognized ident advisers as student workers Wednes- and will submit its recommendation to the istpar. Recognizing resident advisers as student rkers will allow them to register early for assts. Student-worker early registration is rrently available to students who work a inimum of 12 hours between 8 a.m. and 5 m, Monday through Friday. Resident advis- 3 are on duty 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Monday rouigh Friday, and do not qualify as student arkers. Nicole Carlson, an author of the bill and a phpmore history major, said resident advis ers have expressed concern over the difficulty of planning their class schedule around the hours they work in the residence halls. “It’s a 24-hour job,” she said. “It entails a lot more than the 7-[a.m.]-to-7-[p.m.] duty hours. Resident advisers get calls for lots of things, like lock-ins, all throughout the day.” “This is our recommendation to the regis trar,” he said. “If it was only up to the RHA, we probably would have done it a long time ago.” The first reading of the bill was Jan. 28 and the decision was postponed. The bill was passed unanimously last night without a sec ond reading or debate. There are 150 resident advisers who serve more than 9,000 students in resident halls on campus. it’s M .lesday said tte mting death of; iot weather plagues Texas id authoritiestd ^ CARRIE BENNETT )rk in Austin,ak| 1 dl 16 Battalion ing againstthei Unseasonably hot weather :h of NicholasG- th e Brazos Valley has peo- ewondering if winter is over najor and pledge# ? !(is time t0 out the tal. ' ' ortk the ground Oooi Fo1 the last week and a ■as beaten, poll#-! lh e average high has ' students ortrati en 75 degrees, and the hu ll at the frat hoc ldlt y has been 60 percent. us -time of year the high • shortly before! n P E ’ rature is norrna hy in the n., police said. v 60s. Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, sociate professor of meteo- llogk said the warm weath- QC* hot unusual for this time Co I dJ year - ** “This hot spell is not un- eceilented,” Nielsen-Gam- in said. “About two years b i| was this warm around ■Year’s Day. ” Nielsen-Gammon said average of $39,fiat is needed in the atmos- eacher salary inliere for warm weather is a ationally. :ach zonal jet, which is a jet stream blowing from east to west across the northern part of the United States. He said the cold fronts do not penetrate through Texas when this hap pens. “Typically, the Pacific Coast is wet, and the Great Lakes are stormy when there is a jet stream blowing east to west,” Nielsen-Gammon said. A cold front is expected to come through Texas late Thursday or early Friday and to bring temperatures in the upper 50s and thunderstorms to the Brazos Valley. However, the cold weather will only last a couple of days, and temper atures are predicted to be in the upper 60s Sunday. Nielsen-Gammon said there should not be any long term effects on future weath er conditions because of the hot spell. “The atmosphere doesn’t remember short spells of tem perature like this,” he said. “If the sea surface temperatures had changed, then we could expect long term effects such as a long, hot summer.” Nielsen-Gammon said be cause water temperatures change slowly, a noticeable change in sea surface temper atures would indicate a change in the atmosphere that would affect future weather conditions. He said one of the effects of this weather will be plants will bud early and a freeze could kill them. “It is possible for some more cold weather to come through the Brazos Valley,” Nielsen-Gammon said. “Canada and Alaska are expe riencing below-normal tem peratures right now, and a big change in the jet stream would bring a cold front this way. ” Big 12 Champions (R to L): Dan Camp bell, Rich Coady, Toya Jones and Bran don Jennings present the Big 12 South Divi sion Championship, the Big 12 Champi onship and the Sugar Bowl trophy to the public at the men’s basketball game vs. Kansas State Univer sity Wednesday night during halftime at Reed Arena. Mike Fuentes/The Battalion Details of suspects’ suicide released EDGEWOOD (AP) — Nicholas Arm strong and Jeremiah Wilkerson were both 21. They both had attended South west Texas State University. Their paths apparently crossed for the first time last weekend. By Tuesday, they were dead. Armstrong, a communications major and Tau Kappa Epsilon pledge at Southwest Texas State, was beaten Sun day morning while he was sleeping on the couch of his fraternity house after a party. He died in an Austin hospital Monday. Wilkerson was the prime suspect, but before San Marcos law enforcement officers could prepare an arrest warrant, he had returned to his father’s home in East Texas and committed suicide. ‘‘We regret that this terrible tragedy has profoundly touched the lives of two fam ilies and at least two communities,” San Marcos police Chief Steve Griffith said. The Canton Herald reported that Wilkerson shot himself once in the head with his father’s 9mm pistol Tuesday af ternoon. Wilkerson was apparently sit ting in a chair under an oak tree — a fa vorite resting spot — when he fired the fatal shot, according to the weekly newspaper. ‘‘He’s back in the back and he blew himself away,” Gary Wilkerson told the ambulance driver, according to a 911 tape. ‘‘He’s my son.” No suicide note was found, but his father said the campus tragedy had been weighing on his son’s mind. ‘‘He was at that frat party and police got called. Other minors got busted for (charges of) minor in possession,” Wilkerson told Dallas-Fort Worth tele vision station KXAS. ‘‘Wished it would have never happened.” Officials said the younger Wilkerson was among four people who had been ejected from a party at the TKE house Saturday evening. He and another person returned to the house, where Armstrong was found sleeping. ‘‘The motive for going back was to act out that anger” for being thrown out, Griffith said. Griffith said police had interviewed the people who had been with Wilker son the night of the party. ‘‘We do know who the second indi vidual is who went back to the TKE house,” he said. aking an atteir ■s,” said Annfi ;woman for the 3 rs Association. )tes said the more time to M deciding whethi fellow bicycles nake debut campus wenty bicydes for A&M e don’t really fc'ji is going to effee she said. 1 raises are parte) slation Hochber; ibbed the "Respe. LpoLf fAMCs Borrow -A-Bikd portion of the ! : "\ot^ r yS ram distributes ig, which >om lessons, H« :; we invest a rool computer if x j . y ist ensure thaK tuaents use. how to use it to f taming,” he sail I BY SALLIE TURNER :hberg said his off The Battalion ting how much th „ cost Texas Aggies Making Changes released 20 yellow , state’s fa$te> kes on campus yesterday as part of the Borrow-A- districts alsotu ke program, which provides free bicycles for student dng off their ;5e t 1 cam Pus. That could help J° e y Neugart, co-director of the Borrow-A-Bike ?s in those area. 70 8 ram and a sophomore political science and his- 'ry major, said anyone can use the bikes to get 1 bill package campus. reerprofessionf^Jhe bikes are community bikes for a one way stogainteacher^P’” de said. “If somebody sees a yellow bike, they tere are virtuall'd ” that you can’t If*] He sai d students should leave the bicycles on the i by taking nigln ; ! ke tacks unlocked so other students will be able to 5 your certificate the bikes. erg. “You cane'' The bicycles were donated by Parking,Traffic and er by going tori;’ ans P orta tion Services [PITS], who allowed the corn- ought to be al)k dtee to select from unclaimed bicycles repossessed ter by doing thatf 6 ^ the past year. tis doesn’t redtitff Neugart said it took three years to start the Borrow- it just makes aff-Bike program due to the condition of the donated Me,” he said. Prof explores origin, history, styles of kissing with passion Sallie Turner/The Battalion Paige Sherman, a sophomore psychology major, tests out a Borrow-A-Bike bicycle Wednesday at Rud der Fountain. Twenty bicycles are available to stu dents across campus. bikes and the lack of a place to store the bikes while they were being repaired. PTTS donated storage space. “The key element was PTTS giving us a place to keep the bikes,” she said. “We also had awesome com mittee members who were dedicated to the program.” Tida Pichakron, co-director of the Borrow-A-Bike program and a sophomore business administration major, said the program will continue if students do not abuse the bicycles. “The bikes are to help people and will remain if people don’t abuse them by taking them off campus or damaging them.” BY ANDREA BROCKMAN The Battalion In time for Valentine’s Day, Dr. Vaughn Bryant, pro fessor and head of the anthropology department, pre sented “Kissing: The Great American Passion” and gave the origin, history and style of what he called one of America’s favorite pastimes. Vaughn has researched the origin of kissing for 30 years and said his favorite definition is Henry Gib bon’s: a kiss is the anatomical juxtaposition of two or bicularis muscles in a state of contraction. Vaughn said there are countless reasons to kiss, in cluding that it is a language all its own. “Kissing gives us the ability to express our deep est feelings that words alone cannot do,” he said.“It sends sensations directly to the limbic portion of our brain where love, passion and lust all origi nate.” Vaughn said research has shown kissing is healthy. “A kiss releases hormones and endorphins that re lieve stress, help us recover from depression, lowers our blood pressure and can make you feel younger,” he said. Vaughn said kissing was probably started as a method of greeting, and it developed into an erotic act between lovers. He said there is no way of knowing if the Nean derthals or earlier humans may have kissed. “Their remains consist of bones and stones but they left no love letters, no paintings of kissing and no books on the subject,” he said. “Because of this, the true origin of kissing remains a mystery. ” Vaughn said the earliest and best records on kiss ing come from India. By 1500 B.C., the Vedic Sanskrit tests of India were transcribed from an oral history to a written history. The three primary^ kinds of kisses i r The nominal kiss: a girl is kissed on the lips but shows no reaction. , The throbbing kiss: a girl k is kissed on the closed lips but she ^moves lips back and forth. ^FThe touching kiss: a girl touches her ^^lover's lips with her tongue. — From the Kama Sutra “In these texts I have found many references to cus toms of rubbing and pressing noses together,” Vaughn said. “I suspect this is the precursor to what we now call kissing.” Vaughn said the Romans popularized kissing and spread the custom to most of Europe and parts of North Africa. “They were devoted kissing missionaries,” he said. Vaughn said the Roman poets explained various types of kissing. The osculum was the friendship kiss, the basium was a more erotic type generally done between oppo site sexes, and the savium was a soul kiss, now better known as a French kiss. Vaughn said kissing spread from Europe to other parts of the world as adventurers, explorers and trav elers migrated to different places.