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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1999)
lllllilllii MONDAY April 26, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 136 • 12 Pages College Station, Texas 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY aggielife • Traditional domino, “bones,” games create strong sense of competitiveness. PAGE 6 today’s issue Toons 2 Opinion 11 sports Battalion Radio Bryan named All-American City finalist. Find out more at 1:57 p. m on 90.9 KAMU-FM. • Texas A&M Baseball Team sweeps weekend series with Kansas Jayhawks. PAGE 7 Dinner oms t ha; of Ho inths unique iultures BY ANDREA BROCKMAN The Battalion haretkvB lies. With every turn of a kaleido- ikl mul; ope, a unique combination of kestudf dors and shapes appear. Jaime iiversin aughter, president of Delta Xi Nu icampii idb senior ocean engineering nvonei ajor, said society is similar to a g lawn tlefcioscope. senotafeBrhere are so many different le. Intfe ikijues, and every time you look will be'| someone, it’s like looking oliseun rough a kaleidoscope,” she said, s free, bu never see the same thing once" dee. " At the sorority’s second annual nity Dinner Friday, Joyce Bricso, keynote speaker, carried the iie “A Kaleidoscope of Cul- one step further to a “Ta- of Diversity. ” co, a speech communication icfier and a founder of a multicul- ■club in Austin, said in order to Rrstand and respect other cul- ^ ies, people must understand and ppride in their cultures. She quot- i author and poet Maya Angelou, ft. id said the only way to understand B cultures is through education. § “It is time for parents to teach ■g people early on that there is auty and there is strength. We all pdd know that diversity makes for thesygipi tapestry, and we must under- thesir w mucu unuci- —all threads are equal in value • matter their color,” she quoted. '"Rena Kharbat, Unity Dinner l ^Bwoman and a junior interna- >nal studies major, said 100 stu- fets, faculty and staff attended "e dinner. ^ “There were many representa- r es from student organizations, id a staff member even brought -y children,” she said. .. rM(A foLring dinner, Apotheosis, an ^ appella group comprised of ■ students sang, and Los Flo- pESK citas, a group of children from jyan and Hearne, danced a ballet Iklorico. Delta Xi Nu is a multicultural Ibrity whose aim is to educate the Hi campus on cultural diversity DESK p s P rea d cultural awareness. Whoopstock unites campus PHOTOS BY SALLIE TURNER Students celebrate diversity, enjoy international cuisine BY EMILY R. SNOOKS The Battalion Attendees of Whoopstock sampled inter national cuisine, sunny weather and a variety of music Saturday on O.R. Simpson Drill Field. Students, faculty and staff celebrated di versity at the 7th annual Whoopstock Uni ty Festival presented by the Department of Multicultural Services. Visitors enjoyed tropical drinks from the Puerto Rican Student Association, green tea ice cream from the Japanese Student Asso ciation and fajitas from Minorities in Agri culture, Natural Resources and Related Sci ences (M.A.N.R.R.S.). The day’s festivities had a carnival atmos phere, including cotton candy and a space walk. Entertainment was provided by D.R.U.M., a reggae band; the Aggie Wran glers; Invisible Cindy, a 1960s-type band; DDK, a rap group; children from ’Magination Station; and youth members of the Bahai faith. Brandt Martin, a wax master from Beau mont, said college functions, like Whoop stock are his biggest venues. “The most popular wax impression peo ple made was the gig ’em sign,” he said. Santhi Thotakura, member of the Hindu Students Council and a sophomore biology major, said the groups booth had a consis tently long line of students wanting the tra ditional Hindu body paint, called henna. Holly Doughty, a chair of Whoopstock and a senior agricultural development and entomology major, said attendance at the festival grows every year. “What is great about the attendance this year is that everyone who came stayed,” she said. “We are all really pleased that a vari ety of people came out and stayed to enjoy the festivities.” Doughty’s family participated in Whoop stock, and her father took first place in the cricket-spitting contest. Becky Petitt, an adviser for the Depart ment of Multicultural Services, organized a unity circle toward the end of the festival. Petitt said gathering the visitors, vendors and performers in the circle celebrated the purpose of the festival — unity. OPSTOC TEXAS a x m vyrnnsm Top Left: Bindu Joesph, a senior accounting major, paints a henna drawing as part of the Hindu Students Council. Above: D.R.U.M., a reggae band, performs Saturday af ternoon as part of Whoop stock. The festival included bands and poetry celebrat ing cultural diversity. Left: Helen Dadfar (I) and Norma Islan have their hands waxed together by the Waxmaster, Brandt Martin. Right: Sunshine Hanze 8 Paints the face of Linda Mathews, 6, both of College Satu?day atWh0 ° PStock ier Ring Dance ’99 takes seniors on world tour BY ANDREA BROCKMAN The Battalion 2 At Texas A&M’s largest Ring 'ance ever, members of the ,j nc | U (jfH s of ’99 stepped through a ^ iait replica of the Aggie Ring H turned their rings to face Hvorld. Hing Dance’s theme. Bund the World in 99 . i a tte#B/’ allowed students to en- Hfood and music of seven Hid cities in one night. Bhe seven cities featured pm^We Nashville, Tenn.; Paris, gplfif mice; Manhattan, N.Y.; New Iy Bans, La.; Rio de Janeiro, m ! il; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Tokyo, Japan. Each guest ved a keepsake passport to tamped at every city and a plementary picture frame. Ring Dance attendees two- stepped and jitterbugged at Nashville Nights, swing- danced at Big Easy Swing, danced latino-style at Ren dezvous in Rio and grooved to top 40 and R&B at Midnight in Manhattan. For those seniors with two left feet, there were other op tions at Monte Carlo Magic, Times in Tokyo and the Parisian Cafe. They tried their luck at the casino, sang along at the piano and karaoke bars and relaxed with friends at the Parisian coffeehouse. Michelle Tillery, event coor dinator, said among the most popular attractions were the pi ano bar, where Bill Ingram made a special appearance, and the karaoke bar. “He played the piano and took requests,” she said. “The room was packed. So was Ru mours Deli, where there was karaoke. Tillery said this year’s was the biggest Ring Dance in A&M history. “The Class of ’99 surpassed last year’s attendance record of 3,005 students,” she said. “It was very successful.” Marissa Alanis, head of public relations for Ring Dance and a senior marketing major, said the types of music offered at Ring Dance are usually the same each year, but a differ ence from last year was the ad dition of swing. “ [The Big Easy Swing] was popular because of this year’s swing revival,” she said. Harris Lectureship brings MIT atmospheric chemist SAMEH FAHMY The Battalion SALLIE TURNER/The Battalion Patrick Hutson of Freeman Photography poses Ryan Ther- rell, a senior construction sci ence major, and Emily Curtis, a junior finance major, Satur day night at Ring Dance. Nobel Prize winnpr n Mano Molina said Fridav tw ban reS “ rCh ’ 2 w 0 h -h,ed y S a j chemicals, wasTn^ P ' eting mental success™ o^T' ma ny challenges but be addressed. 8 need to Molina, an chemist at the Mnl m0 l pheric Institute of t a u Chusett s spoke as part of^? 11 ? lo§y ’ Lectureship 0 f the rnU Harris Geosciences Ho C ° e § e °I bri ng speakers to Te 8ned to io share their kno,^ Xas experience knOWled 8^ and Pollution! depleho 30 f Water a 1 resources and 0r u° f ^Ur ibe chemical comn han§es in composition of the atmosphere are major en vironmental challenges for the 21st century. He said these environ- mental problems stem from human overpopulation. The capacity of the plan et to regenerate itself is not large enough to support the human population we have,” he said. Molina said cooperation among scientists, policy makers and the chemical in dustry made the United Na- tons accord banning ozone-depleting chemicals possible. He advocated a similar ap proach for solving environ mental problems in the fu ture. It is no longer appropri ate to look at issues in isola tion,” he said. “We really have to take an integrated look.” Following the speech, Molina answered questions from the audience and com mented on possible ways to repair the ozone hole, such as transporting ground-level ozone, a pollutant, to the stratosphere. Molina serves on Presi dent Clinton’s Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Molina has received the NASA Medal for Excep tional Scientific Achieve ment. He holds a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.