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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1999)
)ning and aim ;emia blood ct d Japan nited Statesanj aations in Is. dnesday • November 10,1999 -f f\£Z Jk R3IMkHT nrBVJkC JLOL^JI I HklTVfCIXgTfV College Station, Texas Volume 106 • Issue 53*12 Pages ore-curriculum committee o hear students’ concerns irst of its kind’forum seeks ways to improve requirements BY KENNETH MACDONALD The Battalion The Core Curriculum Review Committee 11 give Texas A&M students an opportuni- :y|to voice their concerns and offer input on Bneral educational requirements for all un- i^rgraduate students in the MSC Flagroom m 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. According to the 1999-2000 Texas A&M iversity Undergraduate Catalog, every un- trgraduate must complete 48 hours of core Curses in mathematics, natural and social sci- ?nce, humanities, visual and performing arts, social sciences, history and kinesiology in ad dition to classes required by their majors. ■ Paul Parrish, review committee chair and an English professor, said the idea to review the core curriculum was brought up by the Faculty Senate a couple years ago “The State of Texas required all public uni versities to follow a common core curriculum,” he said. “The Faculty Senate thought that there should be an assessment of [Texas A&M’s] cur riculum. The state core-curriculum require ments go back to 1988. The only changes made since then were some fine-tuning. ” Parrish said he talked to former students, administrators and current students, but this will be the first open forum of its kind. Texas A&M Student Body President Will Hurd, who is helping to coordinate this event, said he looks forward to seeing what students have to say. “1 think it is great that we are asking how to improve the core curriculum from the broad-based input from everyone,” he said. “This is in the best interest of the 43,000-plus students.” Forum Today Voice your concerns about your required CORE GLASSES MSC Flagroom 9 a.m. to t p.m. RUBEN DELUNA/Thh Battalion Hurd said the core curriculum should pro vide undergraduates with a well-rounded ed ucation,regardless of their major. “A&M is not a technical school or a junior college,” he said. “We want students to re ceive a broad education.” eterans: War a ‘foolish’ thing a-lot >unt. n.-9 p.m.). -.30 p.m.) BY CHRIS CARTER The Battalion Nine Korean War veterans spoke to students about the hardships and grueling nature o[ war in a lecture hosted yes terday by history professor Dr. Arnold Krammer. I Krammer said the veterans pro vide a better method of teaching history than textbooks. I “It’s great to have these he- rbes here today,” he said. “Why learn history from a guy who read it'from a book when you 'earn about these great icvents from the heroes who ■/rote that page in history?” I Norman Beal, a member of the Marine Corps and a veteran of the Korean War, spoke about the dif ferent military campaigns of the war, such as the invasion at Inchon and the Chosin Reserv- “I am not here to glorify war... [but] to glorify the soldiers who fought in this war- ior campaign. Beal said his appearance was not intended to bring attention to war but to those who ———- fought in these conflicts. “I am not here to glorify war in any way,” he said. “I am here to glorify the soldiers who fought in this war.” Beal said bonds of brother hood formed between fellow soldiers through this war. “These sol diers up here to day are my brothers,” he said. “I know what they’ve been through, and 1 know for what they stand. The longer we were [in Korea], we realized we weren’t fighting for the [United States] flag or the United Nations but for the guys [fighting] right next to us.” The program became emotion- — Normal Beal Korean War veteran al when George Pharis recalled his enlistment into the Marines dur ing World War II at the age of 15 and his later service in Korea. A teary-eyed Pharis offered insight into the reality of war. “There should never be a war,” he said. “War is the most foolish thing.” The Korean War was a con flict between communist and non-communist forces from 1950 to 1953. The United States lost, 54,000 soldiers in the war as a result of combat or the harsh conditions of the moun tainous terrain. This is the 15th year Krammer has invited veterans to partici pate in this lecture. Mt. Aggie returns BRADLEY ATCHISONH m Bahai ion Pat Marek, a junior agricultural business major, nails down plywood Tues day at the site of the new Mt. Aggie behind the Varsity Tennis Center. Lecturer: Relationships depend on enhancing communication skills ive $100 ur deposit! ,-222-5108 >11 free ority students in some districts Improve on TAAS test, prof says BY ROLANDO GARCIA The Battalion >er apartment, jires 12-31-99. cs. JAlthough the number of African-Ameri- ah students who pass the Texas Assessment f [Academic Skills (TAAS) test lags behind of Anglo-Americans, Texas A&M politi- science professor Kenneth Meier has iden- iffed some school districts which have made iignificant improvements in test scores. JMeier, Texas Educational Excellence Project lirector, conducted a study of TAAS scores 1995 to 1998 from 170 school districts in P'ex.is from with at least 1,000 students and •ver 10 percent African-American enrollment. ^■‘By identifying exemplary districts, we loped to provide the public and policymak- rs with information that will inform future ^^fforts aimed at improving minority educa- ion in Texas,” Meier said. For the project, each school district was valuated on such factors as the percentage INSIDE of families living in poverty, per-student in structional funds, teacher qualifications and district policies. Based on these factors, researchers project ed what each district’s passing rate for African- American students should havebeen and com pared it to actual student performances. School districts were ranked by how much they ex ceeded. or fell short of expectations. For example, the Ferris Independent School District ranked first, with scores that topped projections by more than 20 points. Bryan Independent School District (BISD)and College Station Independent School District (CISD) ranked 143rd and 149th, re spectively. According to the study, Bryan had an average African-American passing rate of about 54 percent between 1995 to 1998, more than six points below the study’s projection. Dr. Jan Hair, assistant superintendent for see TAAS on Page 2. African American 1998 TAAS Scores GO < t) Ferris: # 20.11% above expected # Average Score: 68 93 2) Pittsburg: # 25.74% above expected • Average Score: 67 .93 3) Hooks: ♦ 22.73% above expected • Average Score: 66 10 143j Bryan: ♦ 1.97% below expected • Average Score. 41.67 149) College Station: f 8.63% below expected Average Score: 48.00 BRANDON HENDERSON/Tiik Battalion BY JEANETTE SIMPSON The Battalion In a world of email, faxes, chat rooms and conference calls, the way people communicate has changed. To maintain relations with friends, co workers and family members, each person must make a conscious effort to enhance communication skills. Greg Economides, a video-confer ence network engineer for the Center for Distance Learning, spoke to stu dents, faculty and staff yesterday about the importance of being aware of how people relate in conversation. Economides played a scene from the children’s television program, “Sesame Street” in which the charac ter Ernie cannot hear Bert because he has a banana in his ear. Economides said people often have “bananas” in their ears because they do not take the time to listen to the person speaking to them or are letting “bananas” distract them from the conversation. He said the “ba nana” becomes a barrier to commu nication. “It is important that when people are speaking to you that they feel like they are worth your attention,” he said. “You must be an active listener, one who is engaged in the conversation.” Communication runs through everything people do, Economides said. Whether a leader or a follower, one must be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings clearly to another person, he said. Economides said body language, eye contact and tone of voice let peo ple know they are being listened to. “Many times I find that people are unaware of their body language when they are speaking to others,” Econo mides said. “When you are speaking with someone, you must think about how you are communicating yourself to them.” Economides said how people com municate their thoughts through the computer also must be considered when thinking about communication skills. “In email we lack a lot of the nu ances of personal communication,” Economides said. “It is important to remember that when sending emails.” The presentation was sponsored by the Texas A&M University Profession al Support Staff (TAPSS). CBcaic F€D By: z' * Aggielife Let the hunt begin Many resources are available to aid students’ job hunt. Page 3 Ags prepare for Mizzou ies chances of making bowl ppearance hinges on win. Page 7 ano»> pi " ion V \J •Floundering ^ther —^Revelations about ^ V-/ homas Jefferson .allow a man who PlCnCIKleserves little the belt) >raise. ncluded ; Page 111 Dec. 1999 uj/ this O' f O. n juith any other discouf* ■R WQll. • Rutocirvc SiiRi^.isten to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57 v * citRNMoixBKStf) m ^ or information on the A&M iPystem Health Science Center. Author Kunstler discusses ways to make nation ‘beautiful agauf News In Brief BY BROOKE HODGES The Battalion James Kunstler proposed ways civil developers can make towns in the United States beautiful again in a lecture last night sponsored by MSC Current Issues Awareness. Kunstler’s, lecturer and author of The Geography of Nowhere and Home Sweet Home, focused on the public realm — the outsides of buildings, the sidewalks and streets — and how it can make people comfortable in a place so they can enjoy their town. “The public realm is the part that belongs to everybody,” he said. “[In America] it is mostly in the form of the street.” He said the removal of this realm from American streets has created a move to suburbia. “We lost our faith to create a town, and that is why everyone lives in the suburbs,” he said. Kunstler said identical architec ture of suburban homes sends a mes sage of having no past or future to its inhabitants. He said the suburban family spends most of its time putting on the “We’re normal” front, while they are really depressed and anx ious. Kunstler said he believes the recent school shootings are in part a result of this desperation. Kunstler said new urbanism,” a return to our country’s history in the form of “Mainstreet, America,” is the solution to the stripmalls that cluster our towns. He said one form of new ur banism is taking existing malls and breaking them into different city blocks. “The Street and Block Plan cre ates more blocks and more profit opportunity,” he said. Kunstler said a change would consist of constructing buildings more than one story tall. He said the main idea is to build buildings two or three stories tall, with commerce on the ground level and offices and residences on the upper level. Kunstler said the return of the public realm would lead to the BRADLEY ATCHISON/The Battalion James Kunster speaks Tuesday night on improving suburbia in the United States. beautification of the country’s towns. “The bottom line — we deserve to live in better places than the au tomobile slum of our human ecolo gy,” he said. Students to receive memorial award Two recipients of the Ethel Ash- worth-Tsutsui Memorial Awards will be honored at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in Chemistry Building 2104. The awards are presented to woman graduate students at Texas A&M who excel in scientif ic and technical fields. Carrie Vyhlidal, a biochemistry and biophysics Ph.D. student, will receive the Ethel Ashworth- Tsutsui Memorial Award for Re search, for her study of the mechanisms of estrogen and anti-estrogen action in breast cancer. Marina Petrukhina, a post doctoral student in chemistry, will receive the Ethel Ashworth- Tsutsui Memorial Award for Men toring for her work in helping new students adapt to the research group, laboratory, chemistry de partment and community. Dr. Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui taught biochemistry and bio physics at Texas A&M from 1969 until her death in 1998. She received numerous teach ing awards and was known for her compassion and encourag ing nature. ‘Aggieland Saturday’ to recruit new Ags Hundreds of prospective stu dents and their families will be in troduced to aspects of life and study at Texas A&M University dur ing “Aggieland Saturday,” Nov. 13 in the Kleberg Center, Wehner Col lege of Business Building and Bio chemistry/Biophysics Building on West Campus. Several departments and col leges will give presentations, in cluding overviews of each college, admission policies, financial aid, tra ditions and how to choose a major. Division creates $1,000 endowment The Division of Administration has raised more than $24,000 to create an endowed scholarship. The endowment will allow a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded annually to a division employee or the dependent of a division em ployee. A one-time scholarship of $500 will be awarded in the spring because of the success of the fund raiser.