Inesday • October 20, 1999
College Station, Texas
Volume 106 • Issue 38*12 Pages
•EAST
TIMOfl
TIMOR
Tim
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e itin
roups aim to decrease drowsy driving
ggie organization hosts awareness-day events
BY CHRIS CARTER
The Battalion
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Texas Aggies Making Changes (TAMC) is promot-
awareness of the dangers of driving while fatigued
[ay with Drowsy Driving Awareness Day. The event
part of a larger program to curb drowsy driving
led the Lupe Medina Hotel Program,
o inform students about the dangers of fatigued
ving and the program, TAMC will staff tables at the
• - finer Business Administration Building and Block-
Building and at Rudder Fountain. They will also
[tribute red, white and blue ribbons symbolizing
issue’s national importance,
he Lupe Medina Hotel Program allows fatigued
dents to rent hotel rooms at discounted rates.
[Ben Rodgers, TAMC chair and a junior business
ninistration major, said the program is a worth-
ile effort to combat a serious college issue.
“We want students to be aware of the dangers of
wsy driving and let them know this program was
ated specifically for them,” he said. “Even if the
dent cannot stay the entire night, two or three
|urs of sleep are better than risking others’ lives and
ir own.”
Jeffery Dunn, a junior finance major, said the dan-
sof driving while fatigued are all too real. He said
found himself falling asleep while driving home
e weekend during his freshman year.
1V1
Show that you are aware:
-get a ribbon @ Wehner Business Administration Building,
Blocker Building, and Rudder Fountain
-attend the Student Senate meeting tonight 7:30 p.m.
in Governance Room, Koldus Building
-meet representatives from Sen. Steve Ogden and
Rep. Fred Brown's offices
ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion
“I didn’t realize my eyes had shut and I was drift
ing off the road,” he said. “I just remember the sound
of the [rumble strips on the road’s] shoulder startled
me, and I woke up just in time to avoid hitting a large
road sign.
“I was very lucky the road had those strips, or I
could have been seriously hurt.”
Dunn said he is optimistic the Drowsy Driving
Awareness Day will succeed.
“If everyone is aware that this is a very dangerous
issue, the steps can be better taken to combat this prob
lem,” he said. “I hope others can learn the importance
of being alert while driving from a program such as this
instead of having to find out through experience.”
Universities, legislature to discuss resolution
BY ERIKA DOERR
The Battalion
Representatives from the State
Legislatures’ offices and the stu
dent body president of Baylor Uni
versity will attend the Texas A&M
Student Senate meeting to discuss
the Commitment to Drowsy Dri
ving Awareness Resolution
tonight at 7:30 in the Governance
Room of the Koldus Building.
Rob Ferguson, an off-campus
senator and a junior political sci
ence major, said he expects the
Student Senate meeting to be a
night for everyone in attendance
to learn about the facts of fa
tigued driving.
In Sept. 1998 the Student
Senate passed the Lupe Medina
Bill for Driving Safety, stressing
the dangers associated with
drowsy driving.
Ferguson said the Lupe Medina
bill is the foundation for the Com
mitment to Drowsy Driving Aware
ness Resolution.
“Through the Lupe Medina Bill
for Driving Safety, various motels
have been providing discounted
rooms to college students driving
55 miles or more from their home
campus,” he said.
Jenn Holmes, public relations
director of the Student Govern
ment Association and a sopho
more management information
systems major, said the meeting
will provide a means for those who
wish to help save lives by helping
this resolution get approved.
“This will be a pro-active meet
ing where we will vote on an im
portant resolution,” she said. “The
resolution and the Student Gov
ernment Association will help
make Aggies aware of the dan
gers of drowsy driving, in order
to save their own lives and aid in
saving the lives of future Aggies. ”
Ferguson said the resolution
will be presented to Baylor Stu
dent Body President John Rolph,
who will accept the resolution on
behalf of Baylor. He is attending
because four Baylor students
were among the six students
killed Oct. 10 in a pedestrian-au
tomobile collision attributed to
drowsy driving.
Ted W. Bruton, a 21-year-old
agriculture and life sciences ma
jor at A&M, was also killed in the
collision.
Ferguson said representatives
from the offices of Sen. Steve Og
den and State Rep. Fred Brown
also will attend the meeting to
deliver statements concerning
the issues of drowsy driving. Bru
ton’s family also have been in
vited to express their concerns at
the meeting.
Other points of discussion at
the Student Senate meeting will
include voting on the second
reading of Proposition 13, which
would authorize the Texas High
er Education Coordinating Board
to issue $400 million for student
loans, and adding a voting site at
the George Bush School of Gov
ernment and Public Service.
JGS
MEN!
iium
rograms partner up A perfect fit
or homeless survey
017, COOII
BY DIANE XAVIER
The Battalion
The Brazos Valley Homeless Coalition, in
injunction with Twin City Mission, will
induct the first-ever seven-county homeless
vy and count tonight.
Marcus Loeve, survey coordinator and a
manager for T\vin City Mission’s Home
ers Program, said the survey is intend-
|to get an accurate count of the Brazos Val-
s homeless population
[dto study the social-demo-
phic traits of the homeless.
Loeve said Twin City Mis-
n is looking for individu-
who lack shelter and
ti help.
“The 1990 census stated
ere were no unsheltered
meless people in the Bra-
is Valley, and that’s just not
fc," he said. “By doing this
irvey, we hope to provide
'tter community awareness
|id get a better idea of what the needs are of
iis community. ”
Volunteers from all seven counties will
lam with students from the Texas A&M
lepartment of Sociology in an attempt to
Icate and survey as many homeless peo-
fe as possible.
Dr. Carol Albrecht, the event’s intern co-
jrdinator of the event and a sociology pro-
Issor, said more than 40 students from So-
fology 205, an introductory sociology
ourse, and Sociology 220, a research-meth-
ds course, will conduct the survey.
Students will be put in groups of four,
ach group will include a Spanish-speaking
Itudent and a law-enforcement escort.
“We want to teach our students how to
inister a survey, show them what pover
ty is like and let them explore the causes and
consequences of poverty,” Albrecht said.
“This is a great opportunity for them to get
an up-close and personal view on what it is
like to be homeless.”
Students and volunteers will meet at
the homeless shelter to interview the res
idents first. Then police officers will es
cort the groups around the community to
help identify the homeless and to ensure
students’ safety. Surveyors will interview
the homeless to get a
profile of them.
“There are a lot of
stereotypes about the
homeless which are not
true,” Albrecht said. “I
want our students to
know that they are hu
man beings who just
have different chal
lenges and stresses.”
Albrecht said the survey
gives students an opportu
nity to obtain experience.
“This is a great time for students to ap
ply what they learn and give back to the
community,” she said. “We also get to use
this data and give analysis.”
The Texas Department of Mental
Health and Retardation and the Texas De
partment of Housing and Community Af
fairs are funding the survey. Data from the
survey will be calculated by the Texas
Homeless Network.
Loeve said anyone who knows of home
less individuals living in their community
should contact him.
“We don’t have access to all the people
out there who lack shelter,” Loeve said.
“This is why we are here. If anybody knows
anyone who needs help, then it’s important
for us to know so we can help them.”
“[We hope to] get a
better idea of what
the needs are of
this community.”
—Marcus Loeve
Survey coordinator
INSIDE
News in Brief
Aggietife
• Do you feel
lucky?
Students tell sto
ries of run-ins with
the law.
Page 4
Sports
•Ags get ready for Sooners
Texas A&M Football Team
/ prepares to take on the Uni
versity of Oklahoma.
| Page 7
Opinion
•Do Something
Students should become more
involved as activists.
Page 11
Batt Radio
Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57 p.m.
for details about errors made on
Bryan High School transcripts.
Families establish bank fund
for son of accident victim
The Flores and McEachern families have set up
a bank fund for the five-month-old son of William
Michael Flores, the Southwest Texas State Univer
sity student who was one of six students killed in an
accident in College Station on Oct. 10. Donations
can be mailed or electronically forwarded to: Texas
First Bank, c/o Infant- Kylan Aaron McEachern,
12402 Hwy. 6, PO. Box 608, Santa Fe, Texas 77510.
Woman dies from injuries
sustained in bus collision
Pam Swartz, a Texas A&M employee, died yes
terday evening from injuries resulting from a car
collision with a A&M shuttle bus Monday morning.
Cher Ross, administrative assistant of The Med
of College Station, said Schwartz was admitted
immediately following the collision and remained
in the intensive care unit until last night.
Gary Stratton, an officer with the College Station
Police Department, said witnesses to the accident
said Swartz’s 1992 Ford Taurus rolled into the in
tersection of George Bush Drive and Wellborn Road
as she stopped at a red light. Swartz was east-
bound on George Bush Drive in the right lane. The
bus was travelling southbound in the left lane when
it broadsided the Taurus on the driver’s side.
Stratton said the department is still looking
into the case, but questions will probably remain
unanswered.
CODY WAGES/Thh Battalion
Kyle Frazier, a junior mechanical engineering major and member of the Ross Volunteers, gets fitted for his uniform
by To’ta Muller, an employee of the military warehouse.
Historian discusses U.S. choice
to use atomic bombs on Japan
BY JEANETTE SIMPSON
AND BRADY CREEL
The Battalion
Many controversies still sur
round the United States’ deci
sion to use atomic bombs on
Japan to force an end to World
War II. Dr. Edward Drea, a Unit
ed States Defense Department
historian, said Texas A&M stu
dents and faculty should con
sider the decision after analyz
ing the details of the war during
a lecture yesterday.
“What would you have
done if you had to make the
decision of whether or not to
drop the atomic bomb on
Japan?” Drea asked.
Drea’s lecture, “The Atom
ic Bomb and Japan’s Re
sponse: the Controversy,” ex
amined and explained the
three methods of interpreta
tion considered in reviewing
the decision to use the atom
ic bombs.
“The first, being from the
post-war era, was that the use
of the atomic bomb prevented
an invasion that would have
taken an enormous toll on
American lives,” Drea said.
He said a second interpreta
tion, developed in the ’60s,
claimed the use of the bomb was
unnecessary because American
leaders knew Japanese leaders
were near defeat. The ’90s post
revisionist interpretation of the
bombs’ use is a synthesis of the
former two, he said .
“This interpretation says we
had the bomb; it was going to
avoid losing many lives,” he
said. “It would punish the
Japanese for the surprise at-
ANTHONY DISALVO/The Battalion
Dr. Edward Drea spoke yes
terday about World War II.
tack on Pearl Harbor and for
their inhumane treatment of
prisoners of war, and finally, it
see Historian on Page 2.
Teaching history of religion difficult, prof says
. BY JEANETTE SIMPSON
The Battalion
Considering the many
problems professors
face when teaching a
class on the history of
Christianity, many may
wonder why Dr. Daniel
Bornstein, director of
Texas A&M’s religious
program and a history
professor, bothers to
teach classes on such
subject at all.
“I feel it is my civic duty to the University
and to the larger community to address such
issues,” Bornstein said. “If we do not, we are
likely to see more incidents such as the one
that occurred 90 miles up the road [in Waco], ”
BORNSTEIN
a controversial
Bornstein, 1999 Fallon-Marshall lec
turer, discussed teaching the history of
Christianity to more than 120 students,
faculty and staff last night. He addressed
the issues and problems that arise in
teaching the history of Christianity to a
group of predominately self-proclaimed
Christian students and how one should
handle these problems.
“Good research is supposed to be con
troversial and open-ended,” Bornstein
said. “Teaching theories and the history
of Christianity must be the same way.”
Bornstein said two methods must be
adhered to when teaching sensitive is
sues such as the history of Christianity.
“When presenting the material, it must
be well-grounded in evidence,” Bornstein
said. “Secondly the material must be pre
sented in a way that is fair to everyone.”
Bornstein said to present material
that is well-grounded, assignments
should be drawn from a specific source,
not some modern-day interpretation of
ancient beliefs.
He said questions presented to students
must create responses that will draw from
the source as well so that professions of
faith are minimalized.
He said fairness also is crucial in han
dling such topics.
“When you lecture on this material,
you must be open to discussiori and be
prepared to be constantly interrupted,” he
said. “[Students] must feel that their con
cerns are being met. I also find it gratify
ing when students tell me, that this is the
class they will remember 10 years down
the road. I want my class to make them
think, even if it creates a controversy. ”