ursday • October 7,1999
106 YEARS AlWEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
College Station, Texas
Volume 106 • Issue 29*14 Pages
eshmen elect
ass officers
mighi:
in of L®
Trains' c
wssenge
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BY AMANDA SMITH
Tlie Battalion
jlht' Class of ’03 elected six new
|ss Council officers to steer class
fivities and fundraisers after two
iys < f run-off elections held yes-
tday and Monday.
Freshmen elected for the
^^■2000 year include Marke
specula' lar}’' president, with 65.7 per-
collisior jnt (f the vote; Dustin Hammit,
ihauhfBrresident, with 63 percent;
thel99T: elirsa Tyroch, secretary, with
oranswrlS percent; Ryan Nolen, trea-
H, with 56.3 percent; Melissa
r iMier, social secretary, with
fJl.9; and Armando Garcia, his-
1)htiitt, with 52.5 percent.
1 ifl ■ election commission an-
ced the results at 10 p.m. last
it in front of the Lawrence Sul-
Ross statue.
rarp, elected as Class of ’03
president and a political science
major, said he decided to run be
cause of his interest in govern
ment and to become involved in
class decision-making.
“1 went to a small Christian
school, and now I am at one of the
largest universities in the nation,”
Tharp said, in response to his in
troduction to the class-election
process at Texas A&M.
Ashlea Jenkins, the 1999-2000
election commissioner and a ju
nior political science major, said
the run-off elections went smooth
ly, giving some of the newer mem
bers of the election committee
more experience.
“1 think we did a wonderful
job,” Jenkins said. “It is good prac
tice for the spring elections and a
good learning experience.”
Garcia, elected as Class of ’03
historian and a kinesiology ma-
Student senators:
support loan bill
, CHAD ADAMS/The Battalion
(Back row left to right) Dustin Hammit, vice president; Armando Garcia,
historian; Ryan Nolen, treasurer; (front row, left to right) Melissa Abshier,
social secretary; Marke Tharp, president; and Melissa Tyroch, secretary.
jor, said he wanted to participate
in class activities as a freshman
at A&M.
“I wanted to get involved
and help the class anyway I
can,” he said.
Jenkins said 900 freshmen vot
ed in the run-off elections, com
pared to 1,500 students partici
pating in the primary elections.
The Class of ’03 elected five
student senators in primary elec
tions last week.
Freshmen elected as student
senators include Katie Chastaine,
Chris Collins, Jenny Isgitt, Brad
Knox and Lara Pringle.
More than 70 students ran in
the primary elections, according
to reports from the election
commission.
Jenkins said the pool of fresh
man candidates in the fall elec
tions is relatively small, compared
to the large number of positions
open to all classes for student
body president. Student Senate
and Class Council positions.
BY ERIKA DOERR
The Battalion
The Student Senate discussed the
endorsement of Proposition 13, a bill
that if passed by the State Legislature
would amend the Texas Constitution
to authorize the Texas Higher Educa
tion Coordination Board to issue $400
million in general obligation bonds to
continue college loan assistance
through the Hinson-Hazelwood Stu
dent Loan Program, last night.
Chad Wagner, external affairs chair
and a sophomore political science ma
jor, said the Hinson-Hazelwood Loan
Program is self-supportive.
“Not a single penny of state fund
ing is used to pay for administration
or to repay loans,” he said. “The Hin
son-Hazelwood Loan Program pro
vides more than $900 million in stu
dent loans to more than 260,000 low-
and middle-income students.”
Wagner said the Student Senate en
courages students to vote for Proposi
tion 13 on Nov. 2. He said the Propo
sition 13 bill is similar to the Proposi
tion 17 bill, which amends the Texas
Constitution to make the Permanent
University Fund (PUF) a “total return”
fund. Proposition 13 would provide
additional funding for higher educa
tion without increasing taxes.
“We want students to be motivat
ed enough to get out to the polls and
vote ‘yes’ for these propositions,” he
said.
Student Body President Will Hurd,
a senior computer science major, said
Proposition 13 and Proposition 17 are
positive initiatives by the State Legis
lature to provide more opportunities
for the youth of Texas to attend insti
tutions of higher learning.
In other business:
• The Senate presented a resolu
tion of appreciation to former Chan
cellor Dr. Barry B. Thompson.
see Senate on Page 2.
Mays Business School selects CEO
to receive award for rescuing airline
BY JULIE ZUCKER
The Battalion
The Lowry Mays College and Graduate
School of Business will host a reception and
award ceremony honoring Gordon Bethune
for rescuing Continental Airlines when it
was on the verge of liquidation.
The reception will be held today at 9
a.m. in Wehner Business Administration
Building 159.
Donald Fraser, head of the Department of
Finance, said Bethune will receive the Kupfer
Distinguished Executive Award for the work
he did as CEO of Continental Airlines in
1994, when it was one of the worst airlines.
“Now [Continental] is first among air
lines in terms of on-time performance, lack
of complaints and other areas related to
customer service and business efficiency,”
Fraser said. “We view that [turnaround] as
an entrepreneurial activity. Bethune took
an airline that had twice been bankrupt and
was heading for bankruptcy again, and cre
ated one of the top airlines.”
“We view that
[turnaround] as an
entrepreneurial activity/ 7
—Donald Fraser
Head of the Department of Finances
Beginning in 1987, faculty and adminis
trators have chosen a recipient of the
award, which was established by two A&M
Corps of Cadets members, Gerald Ray and
Donald Zale, in memory of their classmate,
Harold L. Kupfer, Class of ’57.
At the reception, a current Corps mem
ber will receive a scholarship in the name
of Ray and Zale. The Corps members pick
the scholarship recipient, who is usually is
a junior or senior.
Fraser said recipients must have made a
large impact on companies and businesses,
but the real focus is a professional with en
trepreneurial skills.
Since Bethune joined the company. Con
tinental Airlines has achieved four consec
utive years of profit sharing and was named
one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for
in America” by Fortune magazine.
Aviation Week & Space Technology maga
zine named Continental Airlines the best man
aged major United States airline in 1998.
One thousand invitations went out, and
Fraser is expecting a few hundred attendants.
That last recipient of the Kupfer Award
was Michael Dell, C.E.O of Dell comput
ers in 1997.
Professor says Christianity medicine clash
•The
Highwayman
Willie Nelson,
ho is heading to
College Station, talks
about his music, life.
CODY WAGES/Thh Battalion
Students view the 1999 Agriculture Career Exposition at the Kleberg Ani
mal and Food Sciences Center. Twenty four companies participated in the
career fair.
Greek life creates
new council on
multiculturalism
BY ROLANDO GARCIA
The Battalion
The Office of Greek Life created the
Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), new
this fall, to address the needs of tradi
tionally Hispanic and Asian fraternities
and sororities.
Deidra Crawford, Greek Life adviser, said
the council consists of four fraternities and five
sororities, which, because of the lack of na
tional councils for Hispanic and Asian Greeks,
were without an umbrella organization.
“This pulls these groups together and al
lows them to coordinate activities, work to
gether on campus issues and act as a sup
port network,” she said.
Crawford said the council will also serve as
a liaison to University administration for fra
ternities and sororities. She said Greek orga
nizations not aligned with councils are wel
come to petition for admittance to the MGC.
MGC will have a total membership of 150
students, making it smaller than the Inter
fraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council,
see Council on Page 2.
Page 3
Sports
•Houston awarded NFL
expansion franchise
City beats out Los Angeles, pays
record $700 million fee.
Page 9
Opinion
grading \
system
A&M failet
Leaving grading structure up to
professors leads to misrepresen
tation of students’ performance.
Page 13
Batt Radio
ftm ■ vyw w, , ' , \^Viy, mAW'HV
Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at
1:57 p.m. for details about
donating used sports equipment.
BY ROLANDO GARCIA
The Battalion
Dr. H. Tristram Engelhardt
Jr., a bio-ethics professor at the
Baylor College of Medicine and
a professor of philosophy at Rice
University, said last night in the
All Faith’s Chapel the Western
world living in a post-Christian
society has serious ramifications
for the medical field.
Engelhardt delivered the first
in a series of three lectures spon
sored by the Brazos Valley Or
thodox Institute, an association
of Orthodox Christians.
“We live in an age after a pe
riod in which Christianity was
an established religion, and you
think that these social norms
still exist, but they don’t,” En
gelhardt said.
The shift to secularism has
led to a “culture war” between
traditional Christian and an
emerging pagan culture. This
has made healthcare a prime
battleground as society wrestles
with issues such as abortion
and physician-assisted suicide,
he said.
“What you see is radically
different understandings of re
ality,” Engelhardt said. “Chris
tians see prenatal screening and
abortion as murder, while in the
secular world, it’s viewed as re
sponsible parenting.”
He said these procedures are
now widely accepted in the
medical field, and with health
care now consuming one-sev
enth of Americans’ income,
medical ethics on issues dealing
with life and death decisions
will come under more scrutiny.
“When I first entered medi
cine, almost nobody would
have thought of performing
physician-assisted suicide,” he
said. “Today, maybe 60 percent
of my colleagues would do it if
it were legal.”
In response to audience
questions, Engelhardt said the
medical field is highly secular
ized, and Christian doctors can
expect to have their faith-based
beliefs scorned.
“If you go into medicine, you
will be a stranger in a strange
land,” he said.
Chris Bathurst, a senior bio
medical engineering major, said
he is planning to go to medical
CHAD ADAMS/The Battalion
Dr. H. Tristram Engelhardt, a bio-ethics professor at the Baylor College
of Medicine, speaks on conflicts between medicine and Christianity.
school and he found Engelhardt’s
discussion enlightening.
“[Engelhardt] answered our
questions really well, especial
ly about being a Christian en
tering the medical field,” he
said. “We have to realize that
there’s some differences [be
tween] Christian views and the
medical field, and that you have
to stand up for what you believe
and not just shrug and say
that’s the way it is. ”
The next two lectures in the
series will be about a new Texas
law concerning living wills and
end-of-life decision making on
Oct. 12 and living as a Christian
in a post-Christian world on Nov.
30. The Oct. 12 lecture will be
held in McReynolds Building 102
and the Nov. 30 in Rudder 302.
Aggies create organization for animal rights
BY RICHARD BRAY
The Battalion
Aggies for Animal Rights, a new student
organization, aims to inform students
about animal rights and how to peacefully
inform others of the message.
Jennifer Gentry, president and founder
of Aggies for Animal Rights and a junior
English major, said Aggies for Animal
Rights will be as forceful as possible while
avoiding confrontation.
“Our goals are to educate people about
animal rights and animal welfare issues in
as [peaceful] a way as possible,” she said.
“Animal rights people have a very negative
stigmatism, and I don’t want our group to
be that way. I want us to be open-minded.”
Luke Klima, vice president of Aggies for
Animal Rights and a senior marketing ma
jor, said he joined the organization because
he believes in its mission.
“I think it is a worthwhile cause, and I
want to do anything I can to help,” he said.
Gentry said the group is already plan
ning activities for the future.
“One of the things we are planing on do
ing is setting up a table on campus [and]
trying to get a petition signed for a dissec
tion option on campus,” she said. “We’ve
also been thinking of doing a pet-food dri
ve for one of the local animal shelters.”
Gentry said the organization is already
considering changing its name from Aggies
for Animal Rights to Aggies C.A.R.E. (Ag
gies Care for Animal Rights Everywhere).
“We feel as if people cringe when they
hear the words ‘animal rights,’ so we were
thinking of changing our name to some
thing less confrontational,” she said.
“We’re going to vote on it at the next meet
ing on Oct. 13 at 7 at my house.”
Students can become a member by con
tacting the Student Activities Office.
While Aggies for Animal Rights is just
getting started. People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) is beginning
a contest where students can win free veg
etarian food delivered to their residence
hall room for an entire semester by cor
rectly answering five questions about an
imal rights.