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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1999)
TAMq ld l! TUESDAY April 6, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 121 • 10 Pages College Station, Texas 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY aggielife • Shakespeare Festival to bring the bard's plays and period music to the A&M campus. PAGES today’s issue Toons 2 Opinion 9 Battalion Radio Find out details about the new Pentium 3 processor today at 1:57p.m. on KAMU-FM90.9. sports • Texas A&M Baseball Team looks to continue home dominance against Sam Houston State. PAGE 7 brmer student being held captive by Serbs BY MEREDITH HIGH! s game agat^ The Battalion hrew herfi..—. ■\ former Texas A&M student is one of American soldiers who was cap- 995seasor ;un d last Wednesday near the Yu- Blovia-Macedonia border and is being reki by Serbian forces. ■J.S. Army Spec. Steven Gonzales was Bnechanical engineering major and ived in Lechner Hall when he attended ■M in the 1995-1996 school year on an acldemic scholarship. ■Sonzales graduated in the top-10 per- 0 Ht of his class from Palestine High nHI/n} 001 * n 1995 > w * lere he lettered in soc- 1 111 lll.-gj and track. MGonzales’ parents work for the Texas D^iartment of Criminal Justice in ■ntsville. The family, which includes Steven’s 8- and 14-year-old brothers, moved to Huntsville in 1995. len Castlebury, a spokesperson with \nzona' he PON ralif. ; will rei hen the\ ? Univer oftbaB C lined onthi e,” Johnsc ay’s edition >ats thissp: room lorn ) regular seax-J st theChia; Alou, wliol ■en placedffl fielder willi ign after® uerior emeu ? working the criminal justice department, said Gonzales planned to come back to A&M after serving his two-year re-enlistment. “Steven went to A&M for a year and then entered the Army in September of 1996,” he said. “He re-upped in Septem ber 1998 for a two-year enlistment and planned to return to Texas A&M and stay in the Army after that.” Gonzales’ parents, Gilbert and Rosie Gonzales, spoke at a press conference in Huntsville Thursday. “Steven and the other soldiers don’t deserve this,” his mother said at the press conference. “They’re young men with their whole lives ahead of them. They were put in a bad situation, and we just pray ... for their safe return, all of them. “These soldiers are not criminals, and they should be dealt with as such. They’re innocent young men who were over there as part of a duty to their coun- Guidelines for Treatment of Prisoners of War The guidelines for the treatment of Pris oners of War were established at the 1949 Geneva Convention: • POWs must be at all times humanely treated • POWs must be protected particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity • No physical or mental torture nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on POWs to secure from them any information of any kind. Courtesy of the CNN Website try. ” Gonzales was described by friends and family as intelligent and deeply religious. The three soldiers, cavalry scouts for the U.S. Army, were sent to Macedonia on a United Nations peacekeeping mis sion. Milan Bozic, Yugoslav federal govern ment minister and deputy mayor of Bel grade, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “Late Edition” that the soldiers would not face trial. “The army is under the control of the [Yugoslav] federal government, so we will treat them along the lines of any con ceivable international agreements — first of all, the Geneva Convention,” Bozic said. “They will receive the best treat ment. They will be held [in Yugoslavia], and we strongly believe that this madness with the bombing will stop very soon, and they will be at their homes as soon as possible.” Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jo- vanic, speaking on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Friday night, said the soldiers would be safe. “I can tell your fellow Americans that American prisoners of war, the three American soldiers, are safe and treated in a civilized manner,” he said. However, Jovanic said on “Fox News Sunday” that the soldiers might stand tri al. “Whether they are going to be brought to justice before the military court, it will depend on the result of the investigations that are now under way,” Jovanic said. “Those investigations are routine when ever you capture infiltrated enemy sol diers in your territory.” President Dr. Ray Bowen responded to Gonzales’ capture in a press release. “We are saddened by the news that three United States Army members of the NATO peacekeeping force in Macedonia have been taken prisoner by Serbian forces,” Bowen said, “and it is even more distressing to learn that one of the young see ROW on Page 2. Regents promote A&M faculty BY APRIL YOUNG The Battalion The Texas A&M University System id.ird of Regents approved promo- for 81 Texas A&M faculty mem- be; Friday March 26. ^■According to the University State- irtlnt on Academic Freedom, Re sponsibility, Tenure and Promotion, tenure is defined as the “entitlement faculty members to continue in ackdemic position held, unless dis- ■issed for good cause ... tenure is tyaped on the need to protect acade- pic freedom and is irrevocable ex cept as outlined in policy.” |HAnn Pittman, manager of faculty programs and services, said the process of deciding who receives promotions and tenure begins with a probation period. ■“Faculty come in under a seven- year probation period,” Pittman said. Bfter five years of probation, they an considered for tenure and pro- indnion to associate professor.” "■Janis Stout, dean of faculties and professor of English, said faculty members not promoted during the seven-year probation period are asked to leave. (Pittman said the board acts on Recommendation from the president af the University when faculty mem bers are considered for tenure. [“The process begins in the pro fessor’s academic department, then it goes to the dean of the faculty’s re spective college, then to the provost, and finally to the president,” Pittman said. Pixey Mosley, assistant professor at Sterling C. Evans Library, was granted tenure this year. Mosley said she will use the ex perience of receiving tenure as an opportunity to further her research. She said it is like a validation of her accomplishments. Stout said students should not be concerned that professors with tenure will neglect their jobs. “Future promotions, future salary raises and a number of other things depend on their performance and re search, so very few professors will let up because they were granted tenure,” she said. “Professors are rel atively not very well paid, so their drive to excel and the trade-off that as long as they are doing a good job, they can count on keeping their job is what many of them depend on.” Stout said faculty members are evaluated annually to determine whether or not they are developing and improving their teaching and re search. After faculty members are pro moted to associate professor. Stout said it is typically another six or sev en years before being promoted to professor. Fenced in MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion Trey Flesher, a sophomore electrical engineering major, paints a fence with a sock at the Parsons Mounted Cavalry Complex Mon day afternoon. Flesher said the fence was being painted in prepa ration for Parents Weekend. A&M societies designate April as Greek Month BY LISA K. HILL The Battalion Texas A&M Greek societies have designated April Aggie Greek Month to promote community service and unity among the Greek systems and other student organizations. Jenna Brummett, Greek activities chair, said she along with Panhellenic committee members organized Aggie Greek Month with the community in mind. “Throughout the month of April we are challenging all stu dent organizations to collect three items: baby items, canned goods and school supplies,” Brummett said. Brummett said any student organization is welcome and en couraged to participate. “We hope to unite the different areas of the Greek system with other campus organizations,” Brummett said. “We also want to draw attention to the community services we do that are not recognized.” Donations will be collected April 30 on campus and then giv en to community charities and the Bryan Independent School District. Meg Manning, Panhellenic adviser, said Aggie Greek Month will promote the positive aspects of Greek life. “The multicultural fraternities and sororities, the Inter Fra ternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic and Panhellenic will unite as Aggies, not Greeks, to help local charities,” Manning said. An awards banquet April 22 will recognize outstanding ef forts by members of the Greek system. “Mr. Greek and Ms. Greek will be crowned, a faculty appre ciation award will be presented as well as the presidential achievement award,” Brummett said. Organizations interested in participating in Aggie Greek Month can contact the Panhellenic office in the Koldus Build ing. shipbuilding key to understanding wrecks current-il BY SAMEH FAHMY The Battalion A nautical archaeologist said in speech Monday that under- inding the basic concepts of ipbuilding is essential to recon- 'ucting shipwrecks. Brad Loewen, a Ph.D. candi- te at the University of Laval in tebec, Canada, spoke to more ■an 30 people in a lecture de- spned by the Nautical Archaeolo- Program to evaluate potential faculty members. ■ Loewen’s speech focused on ships of the Renaissance and texts ■ritten about them. Loewen said I Kipbuilders used simple geome- y, similar to that used by the reeks, in designing their vessels. “The methods that shipbuilders bfeed had been around for a very png time,” he said. “It’s remark ably simple, and it works.” I Loewen said most texts on shipbuilding broke the process down into three major steps: de signing the proportions of the hull, designing the central section, and fashioning the rear of the ship. Loewen said both large and small ships had similar propor tions and that the central section was designed using a series of arcs. Loewen said the rear of the ship was designed by making the floor higher and more narrow. He showed diagrams of Renaissance ships and photos of shipwrecks. Loewen said shipbuilding was an important industry during the Renaissance and that writing texts on shipbuilding could be lucra tive. “There was money to be had,” he said. Loewen said the knowledge in cluded in shipbuilding texts did not come from the authors, but rather from observations about techniques used in the past. GUY ROGERS/Thk Battalion Brad Loewen, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada, speaks at the Nautical Archaeology Program Monday night. He focused on ships of the Renaissance. “They were simply describing Loewen has worked on ships what was going on in the world,” from the 16th and 17th cen- he said. Loewen’s lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session. turies. He will discuss late me dieval navigation Tuesday in 111 Koldus. Silver Taps tonight at 10:30 in front of the Academic Building will honor the memory of • William Elton Berry Jr., a freshman agricultural engi neering major • Pauline Lizette Derby, a junior information and opera tions management major • Amber Donn Lightwine, a junior health and kinesiology major • Melissa Renea Morrow, a junior international studies major • Chau Buu Tran, a fresh man general studies major. All lights on campus should be turned off from 10:20 to 10:50 p.m. The Ross Volunteers Honor Corps will march across campus to the Academic Building where they will fire a volley salute. Bu glers from the Aggie Band will play a special arrangement of “Taps.” The Albritton Tower bells will toll to end the ceremony.