105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
THURSDAY
June 3, 1999
Volume 105 • Issue 146 • 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
today’s issue
Campus 2
News 6
Battalion Radio
Tune in to 90.9 KAMU-FM at
1:57 p.m. for details about this
months Texas Music Festival.
opinion
• Sensationalism, community
involvement among issues
facing today’s media.
PAGES
I Crash of Flight 1420
American Airlines Flight 1420, a Super MD-80, crashed
at Little Rock National Airport just before
midnight, killing at least nine people.
Direction
of wind
Q Thunderstorm hits as plane arrives.
Q Plane touches down
and skids along the
rain-slickened runway.
? H Plane slams into the
raised approach lights
and stops after rotating
150 degrees. Fuselage
splits open on impact A
and catches fire, y
Smoke and y—
Approach lights
Little Rock
National Airport
Plane not
to scale
The weather factor
Hail and winds
gusting up to 87
mph hit the airport
just as the plane is
landing.
Arkansas River
Weather blamed for crash
Source: Flight Guide, Airport and Frequency Manual
AP/Wm. J. Gastello
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An American
Airlines flight with 145 people aboard skidded
off a runway while landing during a gusty hail
storm, broke apart and burst into flames. Three
sources familiar with the investigation said nine
people were known to have been killed.
The deaths in the crash, which occurred just
before midnight Tuesday, were the first on a ma
jor U.S. airline in nearly 1 1/2 years.
After sliding down the rain-slickened runway
in winds gusting to nearly 90 mph, the twin-en
gine Super MD-80 slammed into a steel light
tower, split into pieces, caught fire and wound
up on the edge of the Arkansas River.
As flames spread through the plane, some
passengers squeezed one by one through an
emergency exit while others escaped through
openings created when the plane’s fuselage
fractured. They scrambled away from the plane
across lowlands near the river in darkness, rain
and hail.
“We grabbed each other and ran away,” Mis
sy Lewis, who was traveling with her husband
and teen-age daughter, said.
Sources familiar with the investigation said
authorities could account for nine deaths in the
crash of Flight 1420 from Dallas.
The plane’s captain was among those who
died and its first officer had a broken leg, said
Aggie Band leader among injured
BY VERONICA SERRANO
The Battalion
Texas Aggie Band Direc
tor Lt. Col. Ray E. Toler was
injured when an American
Airlines flight from Dallas to
Little Rock, Ark., crashed
while landing during a hail
storm Hiesday night.
Toler, who made the trip
to Little Rock to visit his
TOLER
son, is being treated at Baptist Memorial
Center in North Little Rock. A press release
from University Relations said Toler was in
an intensive care unit and has sustained a
broken arm and possible internal injuries.
Officials at Baptist Memorial said Wednes
day evening that Toler was in satisfactory
condition.
Toler, who conducted bands during his ca
reer in the Air Force, became the fourth di
rector of the Aggie Band in 1989 since the ti
tle was created in 1924.
Bob Baker, the airline’s executive vice president
of flight operations. One flight attendant had a
broken leg and another had hip or pelvic prob
lems. Two others were not injured.
At least 83 people were injured and taken to
hospitals. Fifty-one others did not require hos
pital treatment. Two people were not immedi
ately accounted for.
“You don’t know if anyone on impact was
thrown into the swamp,’’ American Airlines
spokesperson John Hotard said.
Barrett Baber, a student at Ouachita Baptist
University at Arkadelphia, said the plane made
a fast approach to the airport as lightning raged.
Hail pelted him once he got out, he said.
“The plane was going so fast, when we hit
the ground, we went off the end of the runway,”
Baber said at a theater-aerospace museum near
the airport where survivors were taken to meet
with families and friends. “We hit a huge pole,
and it split the plane in half. A fire started at the
front of the plane and spread back.”
NEWS
IN BRIEF
otl
- University to unveil
Vision 2020 plan
■ Texas A&M University will for
mally unveil Vision 2020, its con
cept for attaining status as one of
tie top-10 public universities by the
jfear2020, Friday at Reed Arena.
The unveiling comes after two
/ears of planning and a year of work
' a 260-member task force.
lUvBThe Vision 2020 study was initi-
TjSftd by Texas A&M President Ray
4. Bowen and Jon L. Hagler, a part-
pr in a Boston-based investment
Bn and Class of ’68.
B At the event, Bowen and Hagler
vil explain what the report’s find-
entwillt n g s anc j recommendations mean
if t he or A&M and Texas.
6 Aggies selected
in 1999 MLB Draft
3 arty: 82
jmFronts Six members of the Texas A&M
anistPartyjBseball Team were selected in this
r^iek’s 1999 Major League Base-
*” J t )ill Draft.
ly whit/ Junior pitcher Chance Caple was
:ed the wen in the first round (30th overall)
mg theBthe St. Louis Cardinals.
■ The righthander has compiled an
a proBiiwl record this year with a 4.21 ERA.
lationa Fellow junior pitcher Casey Fbssum
partheiiffls selected by the Boston Red Sox
g it of n the second round with the 48th
ot bonverall pick.
ogized Also drafted were senior first base-
teleziJman John Scheschuk (232nd - San
InkathaDpgo), senior catcher Shawn Schu-
media macher (252nd - St. Louis), junior out-
I wasf helder Steven Truitt (424th - Milwau-
iwhileikJe) and junior shortstop Steve
ANC Scarborough (544th - Milwaukee).
Student Senate looks
at parking, evaluation
BY CARRIE BENNETT
The Battalion
The 1999-2000 parking
arrangements, changes in the stu
dent evaluations of instructors
and prerequisites for upper-level
classes were among the topics dis
cussed by Student Senate at its
first meeting of the summer.
Brian Minyard, speaker of the
senate and senior biochemistry
major, said the senate will look
into the Faculty Senate’s decision
to change entry requirements for
300- and 400- level classes for Cat
alog 123.
Minyard said when a new 300-
or 400-level course is created or
reviewed, prerequisites may be
added which will affect the Class
of 2004 and could possibly affect
current students who want to
change majors.
“[For example] if a freshman
wants to take a 300-level political
science course they can now, but
if this [change in entry require
ments] goes into effect then they
won’t be able to,” Minyard said.
Student Body President Will
Hurd said the Academic Opera
tions Committee is also consid
ering changing the application
date for incoming freshman from
March 1 to Feb. 1 and from April
1 to March 1 for transfer stu
dents.
“U.T. [students] got their ac
ceptance letters back a month ear
lier than we did,” Hurd said.
“This change will make A&M
more competitive.”
Minyard said the senate will
also be working to change the for
mat of student evaluations of in
structors by creating a package
that would include course syllabi,
teacher evaluations and grade dis
tributions in the evaluation.
He said the change would in
clude creating short-essay evalu
ations, instead of relying on mul
tiple-choice evaluation forms in
order to get a better idea of the in
structors’ abilities.
“This process will help to
screen out students that are fail
ing, who are bitter about their
grade and might not give an ac
curate report of the professor’s
teaching abilities,” Minyard said.
Senator Peter Schulte, senior
business administration major,
said the parking map for the 1999-
2000 school year will be finalized
soon. He said the faculty will no
longer have assigned parking
spots, but will instead have their
own parking lot.
“There will not be numbered
24-hour reserved parking spots
next year,” Schulte said. “The
spots will be turned into reserved
lots which will be used on a first-
come, first-serve basis.”
Schulte said the gravel lots by
Reed Arena will be expanded for
more parking, and construction
on the new parking garage on
West Campus will begin in No
vember.
jjNew assistant provost takes post
BY RYAN WEST
The Battalion
III Tllis week marl <ed a transition
l-Vqlr Rodney McClendon as he
Boved from being assistant direc-
?rican[ tor in the Depart-
nd nient of Multicul-
opuMtiral Services to
Lilt oh the Office of the
;ion of Provost as the
the nil! newly appointed
75,OM assistant provost
r 1979 1 ' for Texas A&M
j undf ; University.
ationS' As assistant
pouP provost, McClen-
o thet'don will provide guidance and ad-
thegFvise Ron Douglas, executive vice
lovertf president and provost, other asse
ts and : elate and assistant provosts, col-
erty.
MCCLENDON
lege deans and other academic ad
visers.
“I will see to it that A&M is on a
firm foundation, both from a moral
and ethical standpoint, on deci
sions for both the faculty and stu
dents,” McClendon said.
McClendon said he feels it is not
only his formal academic training,
but also his education which qual
ify him for the position.
“I was a banking and finance
major at Morehouse College.” he
said. “They taught us to think on
our feet and to analyze things
thoroughly. I also attended
Emory University for law school,
which improved both my inter
pretation and communication
skills.”
Wanda Williams, senior secre
tary in Multicultural Services,
worked with McClendon for the
past four and a half years. She
said that she is confident Mc
Clendon will do well in his new
position.
“He was always wonderful to
work with,” Williams said. “There
was never a question too petty for
him to answer.”
Felicia Scott, director of multi
cultural services and a former co
worker of McClendon’s, said he al
ways encouraged students to find
their strengths.
“He has a knowledge of stu
dents because of his student affairs
background,” she said. “That,
along with his legal background
will bring a fresh perspective to his
position as assistant provost.”
BRADLEY ATCHISON/Uiu Battal ion
Fourth-grader Chenta Castillo of Bryan presents Texas Lt. Gov. Rick Perry with a keychain Wednesday
at the Bryan Boys and Girls Club.
Perry stresses importance
of education in Bryan visit
BY RYAN WEST
The Battalion
Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry, Class of
’72, discussed his legislative session concerning
teacher pay raises, school funding increases and tax
cuts at the Boys and Girls Club in Bryan yesterday.
“I think this was the best legislative session for
the students of Texas, the schoolteachers of Texas
and the taxpayers of Texas,” he said. “We had a
substantial budget surplus of which 75 cents of
every dollar went to children.”
Perry said he was proud of the cooperation and
bipartisanship with which the Senate operated.
“We had some talent in the Texas Senate that has
been unsurpassed for many years,” he said. “No
matter how you grade it, the Texas legislature gets
an A.’ ”
Perry said there are thousands of reasons for the
Boys and Girls Clubs to focus on education.
“For some, it is their only alternative to the
streets,” Perry said.
Perry discussed the implementation of a new
program in which new teachers will be mentored
by more experienced teachers.
“We will be using the newest technology and the
newest science,” Perry said. “We will also give a
$5,000 dollar yearly bonus to those teachers who
volunteer for the program.”
Ron Rolett, director and president of the Brazos
Valley Boys and Girls Clubs, said Perry chose the
Bryan location both because he is an Aggie and be
cause of the clubs’ reputations.
“We’re proud he chose us,” Rolett said. “It
shows he has done his research and knows that our
program, with its nationally recognized students
and staff, is top notch.”
At the end of Perry’s speech, Chenta Castillo, a
fourth grade Boys and Girls Club member, pre
sented Perry with a club membership and key
chain.
“We chose a keychain so every time Rick uses
it, he will be reminded that the Boys and Girls Clubs
are the key to Texas’ future,” Rolett said.