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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1999)
106 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY ulsday • September 28,1999 College Station, Texas Volume 106 • Issue 22 • 12 Pages aiwanese students Former press secretary to aid quake victims speaks on experiences ' DISAlVOi cores her y last nigr nd Martin, coach G i sed with it weekend, e of a tear 'at,i is how Rdine," he ng off sucii iustin, it w, to get m gam rs. Butthe- ? moment:' ?re viaorio.' 'o Texas .to oudhow-: lorbelli sat-; J ined. This ■ lallenge w; and wend ttens with.. percentage, iters Celia Hi klaaHenonk lieffli'd) i If we/ !o h onil BY BRADY CREEL The Battalion I The family of Suan-Wien Chen, vice president of Sibcas A&M’s Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) and a wildlife and fisheries graduate student, is cur- ■ rently living in the family car and in the front yard of Beir home which was severely dam- ■**■***■ aj;ed by the 7.6 - magnitude earth quake that rocked Taiwan last Tlies- day, Chen said. More than 2,100 were killed and Bore than 100,000 were injured in Me Taiwan quake. I “[The house] was not totally de stroyed, but my family cannot go back because it is not safe anymore,” le said. I He said his brother has been trying ti borrow tents from friends for the family to use as temporary shelter. I TSA is helping the Taiwanese Association of Amer- llca (TAA), a nationwide non-profit Taiwanese Ameri can organization that established the Taiwan Earth- ■uake Relief Fund for handling domestic contributions ■nd humanitarian aid. I The quake’s epicenter was located near Nantou Bounty, where an extensive amount of damage was ftaused. Other cities and counties in northern and cen- “We just want to do something for the whole country/' — Kuo-Min Lin TSA president tral Taiwan were drastically affected, with an estimat ed half a billion dollars in damage. Kuo-Min Lin, president of TSA and a food science and technology graduate student, is helping to coordi nate the local fund-raising activities. “We just want to do something for the whole country,” Lin said. Sheng-Jang Sheu, treasurer of TSA and an economics graduate student, said all of the money donated will be forwarded directly to help with the re lief efforts in progress in Taiwan. “We hope that everyone can sup port us and donate,” Lin said. He said the families of two Tai wanese A&M students lost their homes, but there are no known casualties di rectly affecting A&M students. “The problem will be the rebuild- ■ ing process, and that will take much money,” Lin said. Those who want to make contributions to the relief effort can do so by visiting one of the donation boxes on campus, or by sending a check to TSA. Lin said there are boxes located at Rudder Foun tain, the University Housing office, and the Inter national Student Services office. Donations also can be made by check, payable to TAA - Taiwan Earth quake Relief Fund. BY CARRIE BENNETT The Battalion Press secretary for former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Marlin Fitzwater, said during his 10 years as press secretary his job consisted of 50 percent media consulting — telling the president what the press is thinking, and 50 percent dealing with the press — telling the press what the White House is thinking. “[This job] will ruin your health, cause you to lose your friends, families and go bald, but it’s the great est job ever,” Fitzwater said. Fitzwater said at a lecture yesterday at the George Bush Presidential Library and Conference Center, that he began his career as press secretary for Reagan and then served for Bush during his vice presidency. Fitzwater said Bush asked him to be on the record at all times, said he would never criticize Reagan in any way and that Fitzwater could have access to the vice president whenever he needed. “The biggest things vice presidents do is go to fu nerals, and they throw out a lot of first baseballs at games,” he said. “They’re never well received at sport ing events because, invariably, people want to see the game and they get bored.” Fitzwater said Bush decided to take the bat boy out with him one time because he thought the crowd sure ly would accept him with the bat boy wearing a pres idential jacket at his side. At first, the crowd cheered, but then Bush threw the ball right into the dirt, and the crowd started booing. “Even the bat boy deserted him,” Fitzwater said. JP BE/sfro/'l’m. Battalion Marlin Fitzwater fields questions from the audience Monday afternoon. Fitzwater said he began working for Reagan again after he asked him to come back during the Iran-Con tra Affair because “everyone else had gotten fired or was on their way to the slammer.” At the end of the Cold War, Fitzwater said the press was calling the United States and the Soviet Union “old friends,” but he disagreed and said they were “old enemies,” not friends. “The reality is that these people wanted to destroy us for decades,” he said. He said the end of the Cold War was “a crucial kind of turning point,” which has been forgotten by the United States. see Fitzwater on Page 2. Shark attack BRADLEY ATCHISON/Thk Battalion Jack White, an international pool shark and trick shot artist, breaks and sinks six balls. White hosted a program that demonstrated his skill at billiards in the MSC Flagroom Monday afternoon. Later that afternoon White also hosted a free pocket-billiards clinic for students to help them learn basic theories about the game. This is his last tour of college campuses before his retirement. White was a world-champion pool-player in the ’60s. Fraternity adopts ‘dry’ house policy BY MATT LOFTIS The Battalion The Phi Delta Theta fraternity voted unanimously Sept. 14 to be come the first fraternity at Texas A&M to have an officially alcohol- free fraternity house. Tom Meriwether, Phi Delta Theta vice president and a senior mechan ical engineering major, said the res olution to “go dry” was prompted by a decision in 1997 from the Phi Delta Theta national council to require all chapters to prohibit alcohol in the fraternity house by July 2000. Meriwether said after two weeks of official alcohol-free policy, he thinks Phi Delta Theta made the right decision. “We decided there was no rea son to wait any longer, and we de cided to do it,” he said. “From our experience so far, it is a positive change and not a negative change. ” Billy Runyan, Phi Delta Theta president, said switching to a strict ly non-alcohol fraternity house has not been an abrupt change for the fraternity. He said the fraternity has kept alcohol out of the house for more than a year and many fraterni ty functions are now held away from the house at private bars and clubs. “I really don’t see it being a prob lem once we get past the first year,” Runyan said. “After this one is done, it will set the precedent for the future. ” Meriwether said the switch also makes it easier for Phi Delta Theta to hold social functions with soror ities because some of the dry soror ities are no longer permitted to at tend functions of fraternities allowing alcohol in-house. He said changing to an alcohol- free fraternity house is considered by most chapters of Phi Delta Theta to be positive, even outside the impending regulations. In the two years since passing the na tional resolution. Phi Delta Theta chapters have experienced in creased membership rates and, unsurprisingly, dramatically in creases grade-point- ratios. Scott Blackwell, Greek Life advis er, said he praised the move and that the Department of Student Life was attempting to help the fraternity to so lidify its commitment by offering ad vice on social events and ideas. “I think it’s a great idea, and it’s giving that particular fraternity the ability to focus on the benefits of fra ternity life besides social,” he said. Blackwell said aside from the membership and grade benefits, tak ing alcohol out of the fraternity house decreases the liability risk fraternities take on when hosting parties. He said by holding social functions at bars and private alcohol-vending estab lishments, fraternity. see Pm Delta on Page 2. NSIDE Sports •Days of Summer A&M volleyball play er Summer Strick land proves its still summertime. Page 7 Aggielife the green grass grows Students grow plants to reduce |stress and improve surroundings. Page 3^ Opinion •Can you spare a dime? [Philanthropists [must help those [in need. Page 11 Batt Radio | Listen to KAMI! 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m. for details on the.flushing of the College Station water systems. Catalog ranks A&M among trendiest schools BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion Texas A&M is ranked among the trendi est universities in the United States for its “Aggie spirit and pride,” in a survey fea tured in the Kaplan Newsweek College Cat alog 2000. In the Kaplan Newsweek College Cata log 2000, high school guidance counselors describe A&M’s atmosphere as “friendly,” “wholesome” and “traditional.” The counselors recommended several A&M programs including veterinary medi cine, engineering, agriculture and athletics. Brandon Garrett, vice president of pro gramming for the Student Government As sociation (SGA) and a senior international studies and economics major, said campus organizations make the University appeal ing for students and faculty. “I think the Aggie spirit and pride are in grained in you,” Garrett said. “If you are a freshman,-you hear it for the first time at Fish Camp,” he said. “If you are a transfer student, you hear it at T [trans fer]-Camp. If you are an international stu dent, you hear it at I [International]-Camp.” Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student affairs, said Texas A&M contin ues to exceed expectations in “the other ed ucation.” “It starts predominantly with the infec tious attitude of A&M and spreads to stu dents and visitors, making you feel good about where you are,” he said. The Kaplan Newsweek College Catalog 2000 was created to aid students in look ing for a college through indexes which sort schools according to size, cost and selectivity. Laura Sigman, a public relations manag er for Kaplan, said this is the first time a sur vey of 4,500 high-school guidance coun selors from throughout the United States gave responses generated from their own im pressions and knowledge of the universities. “Kaplan works pretty closely with guid ance counselors to show them our books and materials,” Sigman said. “It makes total sense to publish this sur vey. The hope is both will benefit from the survey.' We are happy when Kaplan is hap py and when the schools are as well.” In the survey, Sigman said the high school guidance counselors gave their opinions about the schools, in addition to the students’ input. “Since I have poured through the database, it seems like the feedback was from their ex perience and the feedback of [high school] students, past and present,” Sigman said. “A lot of the feedback probably was from students whose parents were there.” Sigman said many of the positive com ments about A&M came from in-state high school guidance counselors. Garrett said the SGA has worked tc pre serve the rich traditions at A&M and con tinues to create new traditions for the Uni versity. “Being an old military institution, we have a lot of traditions that are still main tained today,” Garrett said. “We say ‘Howdy’ and we still have Muster and traditions like Silver Taps,” he said. “We are now trying to get more stu dents involved in the traditions.” A new tradition that began last year is the effort to show support for the Aggie Football Team by filling the stands with the maroon T-shirts. The Maroon Out commit tee sold 29,000 T-shirts prior to Saturday’s football game. Southerland said the student body’s support of traditions add to A&M’s attrac tiveness. “If you leave A&M with a really good feeling, be it from an old tradition like Sil ver Taps or a new tradition like Maroon universiiiesi ohio universlty new york univers J\\ texas a&m.« university ofgeorgiatk university of co | oraf J o ;/| wellesley c<)llc „ \ -*™aiifornia, \ at san dieg<A university of ■ • \ pennsylvania\ California polytechnic university of r state univers ' t y] wisconsin&adison JP BEATO/The Battalion Out, it is one of the important aspects of a [university],” he said.