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.”
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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
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niled
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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.