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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.
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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.