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.