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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
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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.
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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.
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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