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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1999)
105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY WEDNESDAY July 7, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 165 • 6 Pages College Station, Texas sports • The Womens World Cup Soccer Team aims for its second title of the decade. PAGE 3 today’s issue News 6 Battalion Radio For details on the Bryan Aquatic Center’s screening or The Parent Trap this Friday, tune in to 90.9 KAMU-FM at 1:57 p.m. opinion • Proposed cabaret would have a detrimental effect on the Bryan community. PAGE 5 New look planned for tower Changes to 24-year-old structure to include new tan color, A&M logo BRADLEY AICHISON/Thk Battalion ■he University water tower on Nagle •treet near the Northside Parking Marage currently is painted light blue. BY STUART HUTSON The Battalion Texas A&M University’s water tower, locat ed on Nagle Street near the Northside Parking Garage, is undergoing sandblasting in prepa ration for a new paint job. A&M paid Advantage Construction Com pany of Houston $372,000 to repaint the wa ter tower in the color of “Aggie tan” with the words “WELCOME TO AGGIELAND” and the A&M logo printed in maroon around the top of the tower. L. David Godbey, assistant director of en gineering and design services for the Texas A&M campus, said the project should be fin ished in October. Godbey said the decision to paint the two million gallon water tower came a year ago af ter an independent analyst determined a new paint job was needed to stop corrosion being caused by spray from the nearby water plant. Jerry Gaston, vice president for adminis tration at A&M, said the color scheme was chosen during a presidential staff meeting. “[This meeting] determined the current col or should be altered so that the tower more closely matched the surrounding buildings and the nearby smokestack,” Gaston said. He said the University worked with former students and student leaders from organiza tions such as Texas Aggies Making Changes to determine what words and symbols should be displayed on the tower. Godbey said the phrase” WELCOME TO AG- GIELAND”was a strong candidate because it was displayed on the main campus water tow er that was built in the 1920s, which was torn down in 1975 when the current tower was erected. James Stokes, construction inspector for the A&M physical plant, said before repaint ing can begin, the tower must first be covered with a nylon-like cover which will protect the surrounding area while the tower is being sand-blasted and painted. Gary White, project administrator at the A&M physical plant, said he thinks the re painting will be a good change for the A&M campus. “The tower is like a landmark,” he said. “When you drive into College Station, the first thing people look for is the tower and Kyle Field.” . : ''7’■ v... 1! J0 ULND af-w ‘ mt A1 M nfm JL Aw* 8 $ ’" 1' ;V ; ' w i ii Mill SPECIAL TO THE BATTALION Preparations are now underway to repaint the tower “Aggie tan” with a maroon A&M logo. gS.I. program S j offers options for tutoring Traffic stop neans niled syou M L ■ > it. BY CARRIE BENNETT The Battalion Students looking for ways to improve their grades with uthaving to spend all their free time at the library can turn fo the Center for Academic Enhancement’s Supplemental In- truction (S.I.) program, which offers free tutoring by stu- ents for students. Linda Callen, program assistant for the Center for Acad- |mic Enhancement, said the characteristics sought in stu dents who lead the sessions, called S.I. leaders, include well roundedness and previous success in the course. I “1 say they are part scholar, part yell leader and part fish lamp counselor,” Callen said. I She said S.I. leaders must have a 3.0 overall grade point jjratio and be able to market the class, which includes speak ing in front of a large group of students. Callen said S.I. lead- rs must have good people skills and interpersonal commu- lication skills. Dan Pirolo, a political science 206 (American National government) S.I. leader and a senior geology major, said the essions benefit him as well as the students. “It’s given me a lot of experience talking to people and Explaining complicated ideas,” Pirolo said. “These are skills ]ou can use in a career when talking to a customer or ex- jlaining something to a boss.” He said the leaders are given a lot of freedom when see Study on Page 2. TERRY ROBERSON/The Battalion Officer Walter Payers of the College Station Police Department directs traffic at the intersection of Spring Loop and University Drive Tuesday. The fuse of the traffic light at the intersection was blown when lightning struck a nearby transformer during yesterday’s thunderstorms. dults only roposed cabaret faces opposition BY RYAN WEST The Battalion Despite resistance from local r 7h#sidents, an adult cabaret bar, to ■e owned and operated by John L Skruck and located in the Indus- mal Park Center in Bryan, is sched- ■ ITU t0 °P en ^is October. The building and adjoining parking lot Twill be leased to Skruck for around 1400,000 a year under a 10-year fontract, by Don Ball, the proper- ve< tv owner. I “I don’t believe there’s a Bible- ■gfithumper out there who would ■hj lave done differently with the ^^lame monetary offer,” Ball said. I Ball said several city officials Ire attempting to suddenly en- iorce restrictions on the property, which have been routinely unen- |orced in the past. “It’s just because something’s come along that authorities feel hey need to be self-righteous about,” Ball said. “But individuals ho try to exercise their prejudices are at the risk of being sued. ” Ball mentioned that out of a ozen phone calls he has received regarding this issue, only one was negative, and it was from a lady who wanted to remain anony mous. Teresa Lamb, Human Re source representative for South Corp Packaging, located in the Industrial Park Center, said she is more worried about the effect the cabaret may have on their ability to retain employees than the ef fect it might have on the compa ny’s sales. She said there are some concerns because of safety issues involving the plant’s 24- hour operation. Skruck said he has not faced much opposition on the individual level, other than the concern that the cabaret will decrease the prop erty value of the area. “We gathered three industrial- size garbage containers of trash, redid the parking lot and cleaned up the area,” Skruck said. “How can anyone say the property val ue’s decreased? It’s never looked better.” Skruck, who owns several cabarets, said despite what people think, all cabarets are not simply Computer project aims to eliminate keyboard GUY ROGERS/The Battalion An adult cabaret bar is scheduled to open this October in the Industrial Park Center in Bryan despite local opposition. “gentlemen’s clubs.” He said that couples come into his cabarets all the time. What Skruck calls, “alter native entertainment” offers quality, up-scale clientele, a dress code and heavy surveillance to protect both the business and the clientele. Joe Brown, Communications Officer for the City of Bryan said from a legal standpoint, the city cannot do much about the adult cabaret. “It’s like Planned Parenthood; (the cabaret) raises a lot of op position, but as long as it meets the proper zoning requirements, there is little we can do about it,” he said. BY SUZANNE BRABECK The Battalion Imagine some day having your personal computer composed of only a monitor, central processing unit, speaker and a microphone — no keyboard. The Computer Science Depart ment in Texas A&M’s Dwight Look College of Engineering, along with a dozen other universities, are working on a new project called Qbone, which is focused on creat ing a keyboard-less, voice-con trolled computer of the future. Willis Marti, a senior lecturer for the computer science department, said the researchers working on Qbone have been meeting since last spring to initiate the project. “This is not a single effort,” Mar ti said. ’’Schools are working with their own venders and sharing their research.” A&M is a member of the Inter net 2 Consortium, which has mem bers in 140 colleges and universi ties across the country and also has some industry support. The Inter net 2 backbone network is 45,000 times faster than a 56K modem and covers 10,000 miles. “The idea of the [Qbone] tech nology is to move toward more flexible communication with less delays,” Marti said. “Right now, phone and cable lines are seen as fairly inflexible. In general, Qbone would allow the Internet to move from data services to Online video and audio.” Marti said that with this tech nology, Internet surfers could be able to click on a site, choose a phone number and then talk with the party at the other end via the computer terminal. He said computer users may also have the capability to choose the option to listen to e-mail mes sages instead of reading the text. The computer science depart ment is looking at how the project will affect all colleges on campus , not just the college of engineering. For example, the college of busi ness may look at how this would affect the economy. Marti said an other benefit of this project is that it has drawn more faculty into re search.