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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1999)
M* MONDAY March 29, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 117 • 8 Pages College Station, Texas 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY aggielife • Students share shameful stories of succumbing to slumber in class. PAGES today’s issue Toons Opinion 2 7 Battalion Radio Tune in to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57p.m. for details on new tests for College Station police officers. sports • Texas A&M Softball Team wins three of four games in weekend Big 12 action. PAGES former A&M athlete irrested on campus BY AMANDA PALM The Battalion Folmer Texas A&M football player rrick Spiller was arrested on cam- s Thursday and charged with Dny weapons possession and mis- neanors for theft and drug posses- n. Boh Wiatt, director of University ice Department (UPD), said UPD leers arrested Spiller and Courtney mg, both of La Marque, after an icer saw the men removing hub- )s from a 1997 Dodge truck. The officers searched the 1999 dge the men were driving and md a loaded 9 mm automatic pisr tol. In the glove compartment of the vehicle, the officers found a box of 9 mm shells, $1,590 in cash and an un labeled bottle of pills. Spiller, 21, was charged with a third-degree felony of possession of a dangerous weapon and two misde meanors, Class B theft and Class A possession of dangerous drugs. Young, a student at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, was charged with Class B theft and Class A possession of dangerous drugs. A third-degree felony charge is punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine; a Class B mis demeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a $2,000 fine; and a Class A misdemeanor is pun ishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $4,000 fine. The men were released from the Brazos County Jail on Friday after Spiller posted $2,250 and Young posted $1,750 in bonds. UPD took the bottle of pills to a pharmacist who identified them as Alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax. The drug is used to treat ner vousness and anxiety disorders and is only available by prescription. Spiller, a former tight end for the mike fuentes/theBattalion Aggie football team, is awaiting the Derrick Spiller, No. 87, catches a pass against the NFL draft in April. He is not current- University of Texas last November. Spiller was ly enrolled at A&M. arrested on campus Thursday night. deadly gas brees hall svacuation BY RACHEL HOLLAND The Battalion Residents evacuated Krueger Hall Thursday ;ht while carbon monoxide was ventilated from ? building. The College Station Fire Department and the tM Environmental Health and Safety Depart- ?nt responded to complaints from Krueger lidents of headaches and a gas smell at 6:30 n. Chris Meyer, director of the Environmental alth and Safety Department, said a compressor mping water from a leaking tunnel that sup- esl Krueger with water was the source of the rbon monoxide. He said the gas-powered compressor released jh levels of carbon monoxide because the en- te Jwas old and not maintained. Mpyer said a pump that added air to the tun- 1 for repair workers to breathe contributed to ? problem. ... Besides the carbon nonoxide flowing from the compressor, it was also )eing pumped in ” Gate keepers MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion Steph Sandlin, lead singer of Haywood and Class of ’96, performs at North by Northgate. Spectators watched the band though rain plagued Haywood’s set Saturday night. More than 90 acts took part in the music festival. Regents approve fee hikes BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion Students will pay an extra $4 per semester credit hour in University Authorized Tuition (UAT) beginning in Fall 1999. The Texas A&M Board of Regents voted Friday to bring the UAT to $38 per semester credit hour, the maximum level allowed by the state. The rev enue generated from the $4 increase is expected to generate $4.4 million over a two-year period and will be applied to a 3-percent faculty pay increase. The Board of Regents approved increases in the Student Services Fee from $10 to $11, the Computer Access Fee from $6 to $7, the Graduate Application Fee from $35 to $50 and the Interna tional Student Fee from $24 to $28. In other business, the Board of Regents: • Approved the preliminary design and the re vised project budget of $30 million for the con struction of a West Campus parking garage, which will accommodate 3,200 cars. • Appropriated $10 million for the design and selection of the architect/engineer design team for the Wellborn Road pedestrian passageway, a crossing that will run under the Wellborn Road/Union Pacific Railroad corridor connecting main campus and West Campus. The passageway will be integrated into the new West Campus park ing garage and the new Kyle Field entry plaza. • Approved the preliminary design for the es timated $2.5 million University Apartments Com munity Center, which will include two conference rooms, three meeting rooms, a general-use recre ation room, kitchen facilities and a laundry room. • Approved $9.46 million for the preliminary design and construction of the Regional Health Science Education Center, an addition to the Texas A&M University Health Science Center at Temple. • Authorized the request to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create the De partment of Performance Studies by combining the existing music section in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities and the Theatre Arts Program in the Department of Speech Communi cation and Theatre Arts at A&M . Fee Increases University Authorized Tuition - increased $4 per semester credit hour. Student Services Fee - increased $1 Computer Access Fee - increased $1 Graduate Application Fee - increased $15 International Student Fee - increased $4 —Chris Meyer Director, Environmental Health and Safety Department “It put us in double trouble because it was mping the carbon monoxide exhaust of the mpressor into the tunnel,” he said. “So, besides the carbon monoxide flowing in •m the compressor, it was also being pumped The carbon monoxide entered Krueger rptigh parts of the pipes that are not perfectly iled. Meyer said that because carbon monoxide is lorless and odorless, the residents probably lelled exhaust fumes from the compressor. Doors and windows were opened to flush the rbon monoxide from the building. Residents re- ned three hours later when the carbon monox- ? reached a safe level. Meyer said they continued to monitor the ilding during the night after residents returned, monitor has been installed, and levels are be- l checked daily. Ron Sasse, director of the Department of Res- mce Life, said one resident requested medical ention at A.P. Beutel Heath Center for a adache, but no related health problems were ind. Candidates list education as one key to diversity Editor’s note: With the upcoming student body elections, the editorial board of The Battalion, has selected three topics which it feels are among the biggest is sues facing the Texas A&M campus. The seven candidates for student body pres ident as identified by the election com mission were asked about diversity, stu dent safety and fee increases. Each day, an article will be dedicated to one of these issues and Wednesday, each can didate will discuss their top platform pri ority. BY EMILY SNOOKS AND NONI SRIDHARA The Battalion The seven 1999 student body presi dent candidates said they have solu tions to the lack of diversity on the Texas A&M campus. Neil Lewis said A&M needs to in form students early in their college ca reers that they are no longer in high school and need to understand the amount of diversity represented on campus. Lewis said programs including Fish Camp, T-Camp and Howdy Camp should help increase awareness be cause incoming students may not have been exposed to a diverse popu lation. Lewis said students must under stand the level of respect required for students from other parts of the coun try and the world. Will Hurd said spreading awareness to 43,000 students is difficult, but us ing new student conferences to stress a variety of issues, not simply academia, would help. Hurd said events like Whoopstock celebrate diversity and aid students in understanding culture. He said one of the main points of his campaign is that A&M needs to in crease the variety of backgrounds of the student body. “A&M is an outstanding institution, and to make it even better, we need to go out and get in touch with all poten tial Aggies starting at the intermediate and high-school level,” he said. “In addition to going to those high schools from which present Aggies graduated, we need to reach out to those schools in Texas that do not have any graduates attending Texas A&M.” T.J. Edwards said he believes diver sity is important for the A&M student body because as Aggies graduate and enter the work force, they will experi ence an ever-changing world. “I think it is important that we edu cate the student body, not only about the different students, not only here at A&M, but the different types of people they will run into in the workplace,” Edwards said. He said he would also like to see a subcommittee of the Aggie Recruit ment Committee created to reach out to the more disadvantaged students to help diversify the student body. “By not having representatives of Texas A&M at these areas, we miss out on a lot of good and diverse students,” he said. Brandon Clarke said the University needs more than one International Week per year to learn about the oth er cultures that constitute the student body. Clarke said one idea is to create a weekly event in which cultures rep resented in the student body have a display with information educating students about the cultures’ back grounds. see Diversity on Page 2.