106 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
fsday November 16, 1999
College Station, Texas
Volume 106 • Issue 57 • 16 Pages
wKmmmmmmmm
tudents threatening
•thers with gun sought
\ictims say suspects pointed, fired unloaded shotgun
BY ROLANDO GARCIA
The Battalion
[Criminal charges are pending
iinst two Texas A&M students
10m University Police Depart-
?nt (UPD) officers said threat-
?d two other students with an
[unloaded shotgun.
[|UPD Director Bob Wiatt said
incident occurred Thursday
jbrning when a passenger in a
■rked vehicle in Parking Area 20
on the north side of campus
[pulled out a shotgun and pointed
li»t two students walking east on
Jones Street. He then pulled the
■gger.
I Wiatt said the gun did not dis-
1 charge,' but the suspect continued
■ cock the weapon and pulled
| tie trigger several times while
laughing at the victims’ reactions.
lub stance
ibuse focus
>f program
BY BRADY CREEL
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Department of
■ Student Life Alcohol & Drug Edu-
Jcation Programs will host a na-
1 tionally known alcohol and drug
fa/v/se speaker tonight at 7 in Rud-
|der Auditorium.
Dr. Dennis Reardon, director
3f Student Life said Corneliuson
use her knowledge, person-
I experiences and personality to
lake a‘realistic look at college
prinking.
“Alcohol and drug abuse
awareness are important not
anly because of their education-
impact but because colleges
across the nation have serious
toncerns about use and abuse of
^Icohol and drugs by their stu
dents,” Reardon said.
A&M President Dr. Ray M.
Jowen said in a press release
Ihat his vision for A&M includes
|a campus environment that is
ree of alcohol abuse and its ef
fects in classrooms, student res-
Jfcient communities and our time
■onored traditions that are the
pSocial fabric of our campus.”
Mark Macicek, deputy com
mander of the Corps of Cadets
[ and a senior business manage-
jlient major, said all freshmen
and sophomore cadets are re
quired to attend the event to in
crease their awareness of the is
sues surrounding the use of
see Alcohol on Page 2
INSIPF 4
I Aggielife
•You have the right
Knowing legal rights
helps students deal
with police.
Page 3 j
Sports
•A common goal
Sophomores Riley Janes and
Nik Tate take different paths to
success.
Page 11
Opinion
Don’t drink or
drive or else ...
Scare tactics
should not
be used to
teach
esponsibility.
Page 15
Batt Radio
Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at
1:57 p.m. for details on a plant
closing in College Station.
“If you’re encouraging
and abetting someone
committing a crime,
then you become a
party to that crime.”
— Bob Wiatt
Director, University Police
The suspects left the area on
foot by the time UPD officers ar
rived, but their vehicle was
towed, and police confiscated a
Harrington & Richardson Arms
.410 gauge shotgun and an un
spent shotgun shell.
The incident is still under in
vestigation, Wiatt said, but the
two suspects may face a felony
charge of carrying a weapon on
campus and a Class A misde
meanor charge of reckless con
duct. The matter will be sent to
the Brazos County District Attor
ney’s Office later this week.
Still to be decided is whether to
file charges against both students
or just against the owner of the
shotgun.
“If you’re encouraging and
abetting someone committing a
crime, then you become a party to
that crime,” Wiatt said.
The suspects have given state
ments to the police. Wiatt said the
owner of the shotgun explained
his possession of the weapon by
saying it was an antique, but that
would make no difference in
whether the suspects are charged
with a felony.
Sparks will fly
CODY WAGES/Tmh Battaijon
Bennie Kilough, a welder, prefabricates water pipes that will be used in the construction of a new
Northside cooling tower on Monday.
Coming in
out of the
Cold War
• Exhibits at George Bush Presidential
Library and Museum features relics
from Berlin and the Cold War.
BY ROLANDO GARCIA AND MATT LOFTIS
The Battalion
Patrons of the new exhibits at the George Bush Pres
idential Library Complex can see a tube of lipstick that
is actually a single shot 4.5 mm pistol, an enigma ma
chine used to encrypt messages, a hollow shaving brush
used to conceal film and various transmitters and wire
tapping devices.
The Bush Library has officially opened two new ex
hibits — “The Longest Winter: Berlin and the Cold War,”
highlighting Berlin’s central role in several conflicts and
also includes those events of global scope; and “I Spy,
Tools of the Trade,” an espionage exhibit.
Patricia Burchfield, curator of the George Bush Pres
idential Library and Museum, said the Berlin exhibit will
include such notable historical objects as the original
signed NATO treaty from 1948, the original Helsinki Ac
cords and the reading copy of Winston Churchill’s Iron
Curtain speech. The relics have been gathered from
throughout the world and borrowed for presentation in
College Station.
The espionage exhibit is a collection of Cold War spy
equipment from military historian and spy equipment
expert H. Keith Melton.
Berlin Wall fall
result of people,
events, prof says
BY JEANETTE SIMPSON
The Battalion
The Berlin Wall was much more than a
wall; it was a 100-mile long, 12-foot high ob
stacle that divided Berlin, keeping the peo
ple of the east and west and communism and
democracy separated. Dr. Arnold Krammer
said in a lecture last night.
The professor of German history said the
Berlin Wall was not an ordinary wall.
“Let me put the wall into perspective for
you, lest we lose sight of the massiveness of
this barrier,” he said. “The wall was sur
rounded by 256 guard dogs, mine fields and
self-firing automatic weapons.”
Krammer said the falling of the wall was
not a dramatic event, unlike what was por
trayed on the news. He pointed out that there
were many people and events that led up to
the fall of the wall.
“The events seen in November of 1989
were not as sudden as they seemed on
CNN,” he said. “The destruction of the wall
began with [Mikhail] Gorbachev’s call for a
restructuring of East Berlin; then Hungary
opened its borders. Even [former President
Ronald] Reagan demanded that the wall be
brought down early in 1987.”
He said long before discussions began
about tearing down the wall, 3,200 people
were arrested when they attempted to cross
the wall, more than 800 were killed and
1,000 were shot at.
Slam poet brings
new art to A&M
Special To The Battalion
(L to R): A single shot 4.5-mm pistol disguised as a
tube of lipstick and a shaving brush with a hollow han
dle used for smuggling film are part of the H. Keith
Melton collection on display at the George Bush Pres
idential Library and Museum.
“This exhibit will fire everyone’s imagination,”
Burchfield said. “It’s a fascinating look at some of the
tools of the trade. ”
Other items in the Berlin exhibit include Elvis Pres
ley’s military service records, the original copy of the
treaty uniting the separated halves of Germany, items
from the Berlin Airlift and the space suit of astronaut
Deke Slayton from the Apollo-Soyuz joint space project.
“I think the Texas A&M students would have a grand
time looking at these things,” Burchfield said. “The pho
tographs, treaties and all these things are all just great
encapsulations of the time period.”
Burchfield said the exhibit is intended to corre
sponded with the 10th anniversary of the destruction of
the Berlin Wall and parallel the CIA conference hosted
by the Bush School at the end of the week.
“There are some great photographs and amazing doc
uments throughout the exhibit,” Burchfield said. “There
. are images known world-wide and there are other im
ages that are not so well-known that bring up other
memories from the Cold War. ”
The exhibit will run through March 12,2000 and is ac
cessible with regular museum admission of $5 for adults,
$4 for students and $3.50 for visitors older than 62.
BY BRADY CREEL
The Battalion
In American society of cellular
telephones, fax machines and e-
mail, it is rare when someone has
a problem in finding a method of
communication. But a new form
of literary expression called slam
poetry, which is
SLam
~ t yr
w
%
Luith Steue Colman
8:30 p.m. MSC 206
$3 @ MSC Boh Office
similar to rap
but without the
music, offers a
new way to il
lustrate emo
tions.
The MSC Lit
erary Arts Com
mittee offers
Texas A&M stu
dents an oppor
tunity to hear Steve Colman, a
member of the 1998 first-place
team in national slam poetry com
petition, present a live perfor
mance of slam poetry tonight at
8:30 in MSC 206.
Suzanne Spencer, chair of the
MSC Literary Arts Committee and
a senior English major, said Col
man was asked to perform be
cause the committee wants to in
form students about this new
form of literary art.
“Slam poetry gives students
&
the chance to express thought in
new ways,” she said.
Slam poetry is based partially
on poetic rhetoric and partially on
presentation. Slam poetry is pre
sented in both prepared and im-
provisational form.
Spencer said slam poetry is
unique in its nature and format
and is creative
because the
words rhyme and
have a rhythmic
beat.
Kristin Grego
ry, an executive
committee mem
ber for MSC Lit
erary Arts Com
mittee and a
senior business
management major, said slam po
etry delves into political, social
and economic venues, as well as
romantic and other topics.
“[Colman] basically covers the
whole spectrum,” she said.
Gregory said Colman’s perfor
mance includes prewritten sto
ries, as well as stories sponta
neously written during his
interaction with the audience. She
said this informal event will be
see Slam on Page 2.
BRANDON HENDERSON/The Battalion
Student senators pass bill
on constituency relations
BY DIANE XAVIER
The Battalion
The Student Senate will require its sen
ators to prepare constituency reports for
the students and organizations they repre
sent in order to form a closer relationship
between the Sen-
stu-
CHAD ADAMS/The Battalion
Dr. Arnold Krammer, a history professor,
speaks on the fall of the Berlin Wall last night.
People trying to get over the wall were
emotionally driven, Krammer said. Some
burrowed tunnels under the wall, some
clung underneath cars, some jumped from
the roofs of buildings near the wall, and oth
ers attempted to float over the wall in home
made hot air balloons.
He said when the border was opened, and
the news was announced on television. The
troops guarding the wall were not informed.
The people of Berlin marched on the wall
and the troops were faced with thousands of
people clamoring to get over the wall.
“The major in charge gave orders not to
shoot,” he said. “That one order changed the
moment. Someone should find that major
and give him the Nobel Peace Prize.
The crowds climbed the wall, and at
tacked it, and brought i.t down with the ha
tred it had created since its creation. In the
end the credit belongs to the East Berliners.”
The Student Senate
Constituency Relations Bill
- requires senators to submit constituency
reports for the organizations they represent
- increases the accessibility and visibility
of student senate to the student body
- will go into effect next spring
ate and the
dent body.
The Con
stituency Rela
tions Bill requires
each senator to at
tend four meet
ings of different
student organiza
tions and update
the members of
the Student Sen
ate’s activities, in
form them on
campus issues and get more feedback from
the student body.
Justin Toal, speaker pro-tempore of the
Student Senate and a senior agronomy and
business major, said the goal is for the sen
ators to continue the Senate’s on-going ef
fort to provide for students’ needs.
“We are the legislative branch of the
Student Government Association, and we
represent large groups of people,” he said.
“We have to get out there and find out
what the students want.”
Senators will be responsible for com
pleting a constituency report form for each
meeting. The report will contain students’
concerns on campus issues and opinions
on the Senate’s performance.
Toal said constituency reports currently
are not required but are highly recom-
mended. He said
1 some senators file
reports because they
see it as beneficial to
their jobs. Justin
Strickland, student
services chair and a
junior political sci
ence major, said
constituency reports
increase the accessi
bility and visibility
of the Senate to the
student body.
“We wanted to
reach out to the constituents and student
body and better represent them,” Strick
land said.
“It’s just one more thing we can do to
voice the concerns of them.”
Toal said the rule change within the Sen
ate will provide a way to exchange ideas.
“It’s important for a senator to remem
ber how he or she got to where they are,”
Toal said.
“We are there for students, and we need
to get in contact with them more often.”
ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion