105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
P> 3 mom ei
moment oil
it of peace, "
lerhood” m
gislators o| I
'used to (' 1
3inet.
Cabinet sis
; One Isra (
?rful were::
s. Rivals (
rted to
opriate.
-s. foreign
gotiated tt
accords
t a newly of)
budgeted 1
elopraent:
Ami, an d
itorian
Israelis anci
:e minister,
ly backgroui
THURSDAY
July 8, 1999
Volume 105 • Issue 166 • 8 Pages
College Station, Texas
aggielife
• Acupuncture and massage
therapy provide relief from
many common ailments.
PAGE 3
today’s issue
News 8
Battalion Radio
Tune in to 90.9 KAMU-FM at
1:57 p.m. for details about
the College of Medicine’s
annual black-tie gala.
opinion
• The furor over a Toys ’R Us
Austin Powers doll is another
example of frivolous lawsuits.
PAGE?
enate supports closing
oe Routt to thru traffic
;al dealer >
1 ATF, Singe
th's body:
ois town of
calibers we
er who sole
osecutotsi
r’s name a;
verenptdis
Heights Gii
;hts, confirr
his store. H
not have til
BY CARRIE BENNETT
The Battalion
The Student Senate passed an
mended resolution that supports the
osing of Joe Routt Boulevard from
■ouston Street to Wellborn Road to cre-
■tea “mall environment,” an area lim-
■ing traffic to pedestrians, bicycles and
■niversity buses.
■ The Senate supports the “mall” pro
posal only if the corridor is not closed to
[buses, which would allow for more effi
cient bus flow from West Campus to main
|ampus. Currently, the proposal that will
e presented to the Texas A&M Board of
Regents does not include accessibility to
buses on the enclosed corridor.
The Senate is promoting the concept
of a pedestrian-friendly campus envi
ronment as outlined in Vision 2020.
The Senate outlines the benefits of the
closure as increased pedestrian safety,
convenience for students traveling from
West Campus to main campus and in
creased bus flow because of a decrease
of competing vehicles.
Student Body President Will Hurd
said that if the corridor allowed buses to
pass through and still restrict other ve
hicular traffic, then the bus would not
have any obstacles.
He said the internal campus roads can
not currently handle the volume of traffic.
“We are dealing with a metropolitan
entity in a rural setting,” Hurd said.
Some senators were concerned that
solutions to the potential problems as
sociated with the addition of buses to the
closed road were not addressed in the
resolution. After debating the issue, a
resolution was added that states, “[The]
Texas A&M University Campus Access
Planning Committee is looking at differ
ent plans that will incorporate options to
this proposal.”
see Closing on Page 2.
d left,” he
ear order ft:
izabeth Sr
ccused hie
ed for he: -
ections.
hanges made to curriculum
Performing arts classes added;
language, computer hours axed
BY RYAN WEST
The Battalion
This fall, Texas A&M’s core curriculum will undergo
changes to meet recently mandated statewide core curriculum
requirements.
Senate Bill 148, passed in the 97th Texas Legislative session,
authorized implementation of a core statewide curriculum.
. , | The bill was passed in order to assure credit to transfer stu-
l-unit cents enrolled in schools across the state. Paul Parrish, pro-
1 : essor of English and chair of A&M’s Core Curriculum Review
bmmittee, said that in the Fall of ’98, a separate Faculty Sen
ate committee made some adjustments to A&M’s core cur
riculum in order to fit the state mandate,
j “We ended up with a 48-hour [University] mandated core
[curriculum], although the [state] mandate only required 42
hours,” he said.
Parrish said a few of the reasons for the greater number of
I Curriculum hours include A&M’s kinesiology requirement,
|vhich the state does not require; A&M’s eight-hour science re-
I • • luirement, whereas the state only mandates six hours; and
hirif&M’s 18-hour social and behavioral science requirement,
[compared to the state requirement of 15 hours.
I Parrish said one of the most evident changes in the cur-
liculum is the three required hours of the visual and per-
-tMK
ien
Curriculum irequirements
OLD 1 NEW
• Humanities
— 6 hours
• Humanities
— 3 hours
• Foreign language
— 2 years
• Visual arts
— 3 hours
• Computer science
— 1 year high school
• Foreign language
— None
OR
— 3 hours college
• Computer science
— None
L
GABRIEL RUENES/Tm Battalion [
>nts:
forming arts. This means, starting with Class of ’03, the for
merly required six hours of humanities credits will be split
into three hours of visual and performing arts and three hours
of humanities. Parrish said that for the moment, the core com
puter usage and language requirements have been wiped out
see Core on Page 2.
Sketch artist
BRADLEY ATCHISON/Thh Battalion
Rich Wilkie, a junior architecture major, sketches a window on the outside of the
Jack K. Williams Administration Building Wednesday to be used in his ENDS 211
(Design Media III) class. The drawing will be used for the rest of the course.
n
Vi
MS 1
h aj
Conference to focus
on need for diversity
BY STUART HUTSON
The Battalion
The Texas Higher Education
Diversity Conference will be
held in Rudder Auditorium to
morrow to address the impor
tance of diversity.
Becky Petitt, coordinator for
diversity education at Texas
A&M, said this year marks the
10th anniversary of the confer
ence with the goal of teaching
higher-education professionals
from around the state how to
better facilitate diversity on
their campuses.
She said the program began
as a campus conference within
the Department of Resident Life
and the Housing Office to ad
dress diversity issues at A&M.
“Once other organizations
found out about it, it became a
school-wide conference,” she
I said. “And then it wasn’t long
I before it opened its doors to the
entire state.”
Bill Proudman, founder of
Inclusivity Consulting Group
Inc. based in Portland, Ore.,
will deliver a keynote address
and head a workshop at the
conference emphasizing that
the issue of diversity is as vital
to white individuals as it is to
minorities.
“It is important that every
one understands that the ‘us
and them’ attitude held by
many people today is detrimen
tal to all people,” Proudman
said.
Proudman said this topic is
especially important to A&M
because the University’s stu
dent population is 78 percent
white, according to a' study
done in Fall of 1998 by A&M’s
Department of Multicultural
Services.
Carolyn Sandoval, assistant
coordinator for diversity educa
tion at A&M, said that although
Proudman’s workshop will fo
cus on what white higher-edu
cation professionals can do to
further diversity on their cam
puses, there is also much that
people of minority ethnicities
can learn.
“We need to work together
as a group and as individuals to
understand each other’s view
points,” Proudman said. “This
conference will aim at further
ing that understanding to
everyone. ”
Bryan considers annexation proposal
City Council to vote whether to incorporate 6,368 acres within city limits
BY CARRIE BENNETT
The Battalion
The Bryan City Council will vote July 13 and
July 27 on whether or not to adopt an annexation
ordinance that will determine if 6,368 acres of land
in the Brazos County will be annexed into the
Bryan city limits.
see Related Column on Page 7.
This project began in February 1998 at a joint
meeting of the council and the Planning and Zon
ing Commission, where the council directed the
commission to provide a recommendation on an
nexation.
Six public meetings have occurred since then,
and citizens of Bryan and residents of the area to
be annexed have expressed concerns about the
possibility of annexation.
Karen Hall, leader of Concerned Citizens of
Bryan and Citizens Against Annexation, has a one-
half interest in 6 acres of land located in an area that
may be annexed. Hall began two petitions, one to
stop the annexation and another to allow voters to
decide whether the areas are annexed into Bryan.
Hall said she gathered approximately 2,000 sig
natures on one petition but only 1,500 were seen
as valid.
Hall said the city does not provide maintenance
for the streets already within city limits and it
should not take on more land.
Joey Dunn, administrator for Planning and Zon
ing Services in Bryan, said the city budget will al
low for maintenance for the annexed areas.
Hall said the citizens want the Council to reflect
their values and ideals and the citizens want the
right to vote on the issue of annexation.
Dunn said “procedurally speaking,” the Coun
cil should not let the citizens vote. He said the
Council responded to the public hearings by re
ducing the size of the area to be annexed.
“The state law does not require the City Coun
cil to defer power to decide to the voters,” he said.
“The Council responded to the citizens by remov
ing some areas.”
Dunn said one reason for the annexation is to
promote orderly growth of the city for the next five
to 10 years. He said another reason is to preserve
the gateways or major entrances to the city.
A concern of county residents in the areas that
are to be annexed is the increase in property taxes.
Joey Dunn said the city of Bryan’s property tax
is $ .62 on every $100 worth of property.