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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1999)
tt alio n 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY THURSDAY April 22, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 134 • 14 Pages College Station, Texas a gg |e|ife • Dance Art Society presents spring show Sunday in Rudder Theater. PAGES today’s issue Toons 2 Opinion 13 Battalion Radio Find out about Byrans Distance Learning Center on 90.9 KAMU~FM^at 1:57p.m. sports • Top-ranked doubles team ofShuon Madden, Dumitru Caradina dominate national scene. PAGES uster md, pro ul Kktarj fexas,: ‘cessans i a tree National fii nheasi The (it ; S00) 52M1 aid iMPii ned ABC astoiw arke^ 'andfljai ny ca J?^ : i MIKE FUENTES/The Battauon Above: Candles are lit for each Aggie called. Left: Ross Volunteers march into Reed Arena. Right: Mike Baggett, Class of ‘68, speaks on Aggie pride. Below: Ross Volunteers perform a 21-gun salute. Jflfc * eaker praises Aggie spirit BY MELISSA JORDAN The Battalion [■he soft roll call of names, candle- and memories filled Reed Arena ^ggies gathered last night to partic- in one of Aggieland’s most Hved traditions, Muster, jdike Baggett, Muster speaker and (ember of the Class of ‘68, said in hepnidst of his service in the Vietnam U he left the base camp to celebrate cluster, to the dismay and curiosity of tther people in the camp. Raggett said before he attended Texas ‘k&lvi, he had the same questions about Aggies and the pride they possess. Kl didn’t understand the source of ftat pride, but I knew I wanted to be- -ome a part of it,” Baggett said. Baggett said personal character, leadership and teamwork form the widation of Aggie pride. JThe Aggie spirit makes you feel iOod, proud of who you are, what you nd who you do with it ,” Baggett _^aggett said Muster is a celebration 3 f the Aggie family, honoring those ^ho have come before them. ■‘Aggie spirit is that pride that says. ‘once an Aggie, always an Aggie,’” he said. The Class of ‘49, celebrating its 50 year reunion this week, was recog nized at the Muster ceremony. Noah H. Kruger, a senior environmental de sign major, said the Class of ‘49 set ex pectations for current students to be leaders in the nation and the world. President Dr. Ray M. Bowen said members of the Class of ‘49 have con ducted their lives with pride, spirit and integrity, and he encouraged the Class of ‘99 to look to the former students for guidance. Kruger said that although a span of 50 years separates the Class of ‘99 from the Class of ‘49, the two are con nected by a universal bond of love and devotion. Bowen said Muster is a time for people to cherish life and come to gether to share the Aggie spirit with others. “Gathering for Muster is a tradition that defines the Aggie Spirit,” Bowen said. “We each have our own under standing of what it is to be an Aggie. Muster is the time to come together and share that understanding with friends and family.” MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion Med school hosts mock interviews Women in Medicine sponsors event BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion Medical schools look for students with leadership ex perience, extracurricular in volvement and community service who show a sincere concern for the welfare of others, Filomeno Maldona do, assistant dean for admis sions in the College of Medi cine, said last night at the College of Medicine Inter view Workshop. Thirty Texas A&M under graduate students and prospective medical school students sat in on the mock interview, sponsored by Women in Medicine, in preparation for the applica tion and interview process. Maldonado said the MCAT and undergraduate grade-point ratio (GPR) are among a the factors consid ered for prospective medical school students. “They are going to look at MCAT and GPR initially and then, after that, will deter mine parameters,” Maldona do said. “But there are other very important factors taken into consideration. What you do now in terms of accom plishments and experiences will help you.” In the initial mock inter view, which served as a demonstration for the audi ence, Dr. Thomas Peterson, vice chair of admissions for the College of Medicine, con versed with Elizabeth Neu- gart, a current A&M medical student. Neugart was chosen because her application and interview process was suc cessful. Peterson said medical school applicants need to be straightforward and honest during interviews. “Be yourself,” Peterson said. “Your answers are your answers. We want to know you as your own person. It’s not the longevity of your in terest in the medical field, but it is whether the interest is really there.” Dr. Denise FitzSimon- Williams, chair of admis sions for the College of Med icine, performed the second mock interview with Sarah 'IFampota, a sophomore biol ogy major. “I guess there are a lot of variables that made me de cide to pursue medical school,” Trampota said. “Through my experiences with volunteer work and also experience with family med ical problems, I have come to realize how important the medical field can be. It has been real helpful to see what medical schools look for in the interview process.” For the 1999-2000 applica tion year, the College of Med icine will become part of the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service. Maldonado said the new service allows students to ap ply for six different Texas medical schools, including A&M, with a single applica tion. “This should really expe dite the process,” Maldonado said. “Getting your applica tions in early and can be ad vantageous.” The Texas A&M Universi ty Health Science Center Col lege of Medicine accepts 64 new students each year. The College of Medicine’s enroll ment of out-of-state residents must not exceed 10 percent of the whole, according to state mandate. Among Texas A&M med ical students, the average score on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is 30, compared to the national average of 29. The College of Medicine’s deadline for application is Oct. 15. Applications for 1999-2000 will be available within the next 10 days and will be available at the Office of Professional School Advis ing in the Academic Building. Prior to enrollment in the College of Medicine, students must complete eight hours of biology, three hours of addi tional biological sciences, eight hours of chemistry, eight hours of organic chem istry, eight hours of general physics, six hours of English and three hours of calculus at the undergraduate level. see Mock on Page 14. iope r rmick ; vVill^ el ?r itz rris irton ie jerfe e itt Cadet board selects drum majors BY MEGAN E. WRIGHT The Battalion an an ster an 'A board of 18 Aggie Band 3dets and the band director have elected Mark Gandin, Jason Radford and Mike Maginness as ■three drum majors to lead the pDup onto Kyle Field during the 9 99-2000 school year. Rol. Ray Toler, director of the ^gie Band, said the drum ma- ors’ role is to lead the Aggie in march-ins, parades and ’tier functions. ■Their main job is to under- tand the different drills the band ^fforms each week and to teach that to the entire band before each performance,” Toler said. “The drum majors make sure the drills are set and everyone knows what they are doing.” Toler said the tryout process began with preliminary audi tions, after which 11 finalists were chosen. The finalists spent the next two days conducting the band and leading the group through drills. Maginness, a junior political science major, said all the candi dates spent a month and a half preparing for the auditions.' He said each candidate spent three to four hours on the practice field each day. Maginness said the drum ma jors not only lead the band in marching, but together with the band commander, they set the tone of how the year will be for the Aggie Band. Maginness said he feels this next year will be one of the best for the band. “In my opinion, this tryout and the whole process has been one of the best experiences I’ve had at A&M,” he said. “Through out the [preliminaries] and the fi nals, we weren’t overly competi tive; we were really trying to help each other out and see each oth er do our best.” Researchers aim to identify risk factors linked to heart disease BY SAMEH FAHMY The Battalion When Ruth Stephens went to her doctor six months ago for a normal check-up, she found that she had abnormally high cholesterol levels. “I was shocked,” the journalism graduate student said. “I had been an athlete all my life, worked out al most every day, ate a very low-fat diet, didn’t smoke and, in general, tried to be a healthy person. ” Stephens said her doctor told her she would have three months to try to get her cholesterol levels down using a low-fat diet or she would be put on medication. “This appalled me because I was only 25, and suddenly I had to go on medication for the rest of my life,” she said. Although high cholesterol is a known risk factor for heart disease, it is not the only one. The journal Circulation said that 50 percent of heart attack patients have normal levels of lipids, such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Identifying these risk factors has been the goal of a group of A&M researchers. “What we’re doing is applying modern analytical chemistry tech niques to detect heart disease,” Dr. Steven L. Cockrill, a postdoctoral re searcher in the Chemistry Depart ment, said. There are two main types of see Research on Page 14