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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1999)
The THURSDAY April 29> 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 139 • 14 Pages College Station, Texas 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY opinion • Woodstock 1999 will mar the memory of the original celebration of music, peace and love. PAGE 13 today’s issue Toons 2 Title IX 9 Battalion Radio Listen for results of a petition to oust the College Station mayor at 1:57p.m. on 90.9KAMU-FM. aggielife • Professional bull riders will take the center stage at Reed Arena Friday and Saturday. PAGE 4 lail bail 12 Aggies lose lives in ’99 Accidents most common cause of student fatalities GUYS a ground! onsored b»S iut in 55 n stopped itoi : a suspect R Ayer and is* ly.it is Mi Land ilM* with thetafl jed inaofel : is no doffi-f, woyoungfil t satanic p' /ayne La® olencetoi'u, urselves." |j ease' ■ The :on MM BY AMANDA PALM The Battalion The lives of 12 students have been lost this semester, a three-person in crease from the fall, but not unusual overall. Gene Zdziarski, associate direc tor of the Department of Student Life and an on-call member of the Critical In cident Response Team, said. Bob Wiatt, director of University Police Department, said the causes of the 12 stu dent deaths so far this semester and the nine this past fall were, for the most part, traffic accidents. He said people need to use caution when driving. “Kids come here, and they think they are in wide open spaces,” he said. “That activ ity can catch up with them. When they get behind a 4,000-pound vehicle, they need to curb road rage and the need to show off. Students need to look out for themselves and each other when on the road.” Wiatt said alcohol was a contributing factor in a number of the fatalities and that anyone who drives with alcohol in their system is running a high risk. He said a common formula for traffic acci dents involves the combination of alcohol and high speeds. Wiatt said this semester’s number of deaths seems inordinately high and that this semester has been sobering to stu dents. But Zdziarski said the Department of Student Life records an average of 20 to 25 student deaths per year, so this se mester’s number is not as unusual as it seems. He said people are often alarmed by the annual death average, but if they consider the size and location of the Uni versity, it is not as unreasonable. He said since A&M is not in a metro politan area, students often travel long distances, which raises the risk for traffic accidents. Dr. Wade Birch, director of Student Counseling Services (SCS), said it is in teresting that the counseling services fo cuses so much attention on alcohol abuse and emotional problems when most the deaths this semester have been from traf fic accidents. “Younger drivers make more impul sive decisions in what they do,” he said. “I’ve seen students whip out and change lanes. Accidents can happen in the flash of a second.” Birch said SCS has made an effort to reach out to students this semester, which has caused them to feel the impact of the deaths more than in past semesters. “We have had contact with a number of students in the accidents or friends of those students,” he said. “We can never require, nor do we want to require, coun seling. We don’t want to use coercion; it is purely voluntary. ” A&M women leaders discuss pursuit of higher education SALLIE TURNER/Thk Battalion Jeff McDonnell, (left) a senior kinesiology major, and Gordon Rhodes, a junior speech communication major, shoot waterguns at passers-by from their “jail cell" yesterday at Rudder Fountain. McDonnel and Rhodes were jailed as part of the United Way’s Jail-a-thon. BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion One of the first women ad mitted to Texas A&M told 100 students and visitors last night that attending A&M was one of the greatest expe riences of her life. Judy Franklin, Denis May- field, Brooke Leslie, Laurie Nickel and Kelly Garrity served as panelists at the Women’s Leadership Forum last night. Franklin, one of the 30 fe male students admitted to A&M in Fall 1964 and one of the first women to graduate from A&M, shared her per spectives on leadership op portunities with current and former A&M women leaders. “We were new to the world of education, particu larly to getting higher educa tion degrees,” Franklin said, in recognition of the strides A&M has made since the first women began at the Univer sity. Since Franklin graduated from A&M in 1968, she has worked in mass communica tions for several Fortune 500 companies and in fund rais ing for A&M and Harvard University. Franklin said experience has taught her that balancing a career with family and friends can be challenging, particularly for women who have to combine modern and traditional women’s roles. Mayfield, Class of ’85 and the second female to serve as MSC president, said her experience in leadership as an undergraduate pre pared her for work and life today. “I understand the respon sibility of being on time and being responsible,” Mayfield said. “When you are a moth er, you are really under the spotlight of being responsible and being persistent. The world asks a lot of each of us. The world asks more of women.” Mayfield, the mother of twin sons, works on the Houston ship channel in in dustrial manufacturing and volunteers within her com munity, including work with the American Heart Associa tion and the Autism Society of America. Leslie, the first female stu dent body president and Class of 1995, said she en tered the University as a freshman on scholarship with no intention of becom ing involved in student gov- see Women on Page 2. Speaker promotes JgA Libertarian party presi- *^dent candidate told students in ( John J. Koldus last night that Libertarian philosophy is be lli lieving individuals should be free 10 live their lives any way thev choose as long as the so ciety is peaceful. Klacob Hornberger, founder ; and president of the Future of (Freedom Foundation, said Americans should exercise ! their basic rights. J l“We all have certain funda mental rights,” Hornberger said. “We have to utilize our ^ talents, sustaining life without any governmental restrictions. ^ That is the natural human right ' of humans. ” iBHornberger said Libertari- 1 ans believe in the right to ac- -JHF cumulate unlimited amounts - T of wealth and to individually _ Y decide what to do, whether it —"T be to horde the money, share it, donate it or spend it. BHe also said the function of government under Libertarian beliefs is limited and would .a protect, rather than regulate, 3565, society. ■ This belief, Hornberger said, is different than the Re publican and Democrat beliefs. DS eignty. He said he believes the in come of each individual is owned by the government, and that the state decides Ameri cans’ allowances in the form of income tax. Hornberger’s main argu ment concerned the Social Se curity tax. He said American ancestors protested such taxes, so modern Americans should also. “Social Security was one of the mainstays of the Hitler regime,” Hornberger said. “[Social Security] is the will to tax two generations down.” Hornberger said more peo ple per capita are imprisoned in America than in Cuba, Chi na and Korea because of the free-enterprise system. He also argued that illegal immigrants should be allowed to cross the borders if they are willing to work. Hornberger likened the American society to the social ist society of Cuba. “Who is freer, those who know the truth or those who do not?” Hornberger asked. He argued that Cubans rec ognize that they are under the control of socialism. Former yell leader speaks on experience TERRY ROBERSON/Thf. Battalion Jacob Hornberger, Libertarian party president candidate and founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, speaks to stu dents at John J. Koldus last night. He said American society is under the same kind of con trol, but Americans do not re alize it. He said public schooling is an example of this control be- cuase the public school system is a form of socialistic planning in that a central board plans the curriculum for millions of children who are forced to go to school and learn the mater ial presented to them. Mark Roberts, an audience member and a freshman chem ical engineering major, said he agrees with some but not all of the aspects of Libertarianism. “If absolute freedom de tracts from total quality of life, then I don’t agree,” Roberts said. BY AMY DAUGHERTY The Battalion Ronald McDonald, Texas A&M’s first and only African-American yell leader, stressed the importance of getting involved and networking last night in Rudder. The presentation was part of the Broth ers of the Roundtable’s first annual Broth ers Week and their “Uniting Brothers for the Next Millennium” theme. McDonald, Class of ’93, served as a ju nior yell leader in 1991 and a senior yell leader the following year. McDonald said get ting involved was not popular for African Americans when he was a student at A&M. “When you’re an African-American, and you decide to network, it’s different,” he said. “I was ‘that black guy’ at Fish Camp — that’s how I was described.” He said nothing is more beneficial for college students than getting involved in university activities. “I want to talk about the importance of getting involved,” he said. “Usually [students] worry about grades. We should get to know folks, get involved and network. You should get to know peo- “When you're an African-American and you decide to network, it's different." — Ronald McDonald Class of ’93 pie on a personal level.” McDonald said he was elected yell leader because of his ability to network. “Most people did not interact, they hung together with their groups,” he said. “I went and got a person from every group and got to know them. I got great friends and got to network, too.” McDonald was elected Bastrop Coun ty Judge in January 1998, making him the first African-American county judge and the youngest county judge in state histo- __ r Y- He said he utilized the same skills when he ran for county judge as when he ran for yell leader. “It all starts [at A&M],” he said. “This is where I began to net work and got to know people. I wanted them to. know me for my person ality. “If you’re connected and involved in the community, it’s a plus. All of this stuff I learned on the A&M campus.” McDonald was a Fish Camp counselor and an active member of MSC Hospitality while he was enrolled at A&M. He grew up in Bastrop and graduated from Bastrop High School in 1989.
