KINE may be cut from core curriculum
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Drop KINE 199 required hours
from 4 to 1
Change KINE 199 courses to
Health and Fitness courses
which consist of 2/3
academic work and 1/3 activity
Three of six social science
hours may be taken as
Humanities
Include a minimum of two
writing-skill classes for each
major
ROBERT HYNECEK I m Hum
BY KENNETH MACDONALD
The Battalion
Sweating through math tests may be some
thing that will never change for students at Texas
A&M, but sweating through a racquetball or
weight training kinesiology course may soon be
come a thing of the past.
A preliminary report by the Core Curriculum
Review Committee (CCRC) recommends three
hours of KINE 199 be cut from the core cur
riculum, and that the remaining kinesiology
hour he a 1 lealth and Fitness class which would
consist of two-thirds academic work and up to
one-third activity.
According to the report, it was the commit
tee’s opinion that “physical activity courses
have no place within a core curriculum” be
cause of the limited number of course hours in
the core curriculum.
Dr. Paul Parrish, chair of the CCRC, said this
recommendation was based on 50 hours of meet
ings with p committee of 20 faculty members in
addition to time spent with student leaders, an
email survey of former students and an open forum
in the Memorial Student Center last November.
“Over all, the students were more sympathet
ic to the kinesiology than the faculty response,” he
said. “Nothing said in the report is intended to di
minish the value of physical education, but cours
es which are physical and not academic don’t fit
in with the core curriculum.”
Parrish said the health and fitness course should
teach students the value of physical activity rather
than requiring students to be active for a grade.
“We are all impressed with the Recreation
Center, but the majority of the students do not take
advantage of it on a regular basis. Seventy-five
percent use it once a semester, 50 percent average
once per week, but only 6 percent use it more than
three times a week — which is what the Surgeon
General recommends.”
Dr. Robert Annstrong, a representative on the
committee from the Department of Health and Ki
nesiology, was against the idea of losing three core
KINE 199 classes.
“In all fairness to the committee, they ap
proached the issue thoughtfully,” he said.
“[But] of course, there was a lot of competing
interest between the faculty on the committee.”
Most of A&M’s peer universities have
dropped the requirement. Of the 17 peer univer
sities surveyed, only three had any physical ac
tivity requirement.
Armstrong said that the top 10 learning in
stitutions in the country did not have the re
quirement at all.
Annstrong said that job loss is a possibility,
but it is very unlikely because the plan would be
phased in over a period of years. Because of a
high rate of job turnover in the department, Arm
strong believes the department could shrink by
not replacing kinesiology faculty who leave dur
ing this time span.
“At top speed, if the recommendation went
through, the change could possibly be seen as ear
ly as the 2001 catalog, but that timeframe is real
ly not realistic,” he said.
The CCRC also recommended that three of the
six hours now required in the core curriculum for
social sciences be offered either as a second hu
manities or social science class. The report said the
idea behind this recommendation was to give the
students more flexibility in their schedules.
The report also recommends a bolstering of
writing and communication skills across the cur
riculum by including two classes within the stu
dents’ majors which will “contain a significant
amount of writing and attention to writing skills.
Southerland reflects
on bonfire aftermath
Ready, aim . . . FIRE!
lit
SOUTHERLAND
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: fusing to let small
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cond time when wet
e was very afraidbect
omething wrong wit
said. “When it
aid ‘God is great’.'
Ka/akstan, the
Moscow and finall
the passengers were
i drink,
ackers gave preferei
o their families, gif
and water first andfl
t Pepsis to their chili
i said,
ave all the Pepsis tot
d we got what was!
our country Pepsi is'
a use it costs too it
1 passenger, who iie
If only as Rokhai,
35 to 40 family men
th the hijackers. Thf
the aircraft, he said
divided their pel
everyone was afraid
en and children»'
ey threw off their bAl
j their faces. 1 the
y bad,” Shamsullah'
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J women who aretf
interact.
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i “and the women'"
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.Hitset of the hijai
•eports that 36 men"
family were aboard
ding a woman who
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bul.
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Minister WakilAh 1
has warned Britain
him to people wM
not political reft!?
trage hijackings.
BY MEREDITH HIGHT
AND STUART HUTSON
The Battalion
While the Special Commis
sion on the 1999 Aggie Bonfire
collapse may he done with its
work by March, Aggies may
never fully heal from the tragedy.
Vice President for Student
Affairs Dr. J. Malon Southerland
said the collapse is still on Ag
gies’ minds.
think [the collapse] is
completely in our consciousnes
reel contact with every student injured, some eas
es multiple times. About 85 percent of those in
jured have routine contact,” he said.
“If access to me is useful, that's a priority.
The time is going to be made. Student Coun
seling Services (SCS) has their own thing go
ing. I'm confident that a number of students are
availing services.”
Southerland said most of the students di
rectly affected by the collapse are in the same
social circle.
“Bowen and I had supper with Bill Davis
[one of the injured students] in the Commons
and three of the others we wanted to speak with
were there,” he said.
“[The injured students] are comfortable with
being back in school in most cases. They feel
good. They connect with friends and associates,
plus being busy with friends and school helps.”
‘But once you’re involved in a tragedy, you
1’tknow what will trigger that memory. You
’t go to the Bonfire benefit concert and
be triggered. The strength of everyone to
gether is very good,” he said.
“The Association of Former Students had a re
ception for the families of the injured students. It
was a very powerful event. It’s the natural emo
tion and moving forward.
“One of the lasting impacts is that all of us
are less likely to take individuals for granted,”
he said. “It was an important loss, not with unim
portant consequences.”
“Because of this, thousands of people are
Bonfire police records,
statements available
More than 150 statements collected
by the University Police Department (UPD)
shortly after the 1999 Aggie Bonfire col
lapse will soon be made available to the
general public by Texas A&M’s General
Counsel.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. J.
Malon Southerland said he is concerned
that the students who gave the state
ments— previously unavailable because
of their connection to a UPD investigation
— may have assumed the statements
would be kept confidential.
These students may now be inundated
with calls from various media outlets.
“We just want to give these students
a heads up, and let them know that they
should use their own judgment in how
much and in what ways they communicate
with the media,” Southerland said.
“These students have no obligation to
talk to anyone.”
Southerland said he hopes these stu
dents will continue to work with the Special
Commission on the 1999 Aggie Bonfire.
“We are concerned that these stu
dents will be confused." he said. “These
calls might impact them in a negative
way, but we continue to want anyone
with any information to help in the in
vestigation."
Kroll Associates consulting firm will
handle any further interviews necessary
for the commission’s work.
going about their business in a slightly differ
ent manner. No, slightly is the wrong word,
people have been affected from just slightly all
the way to significantly different ways than
they were,” he said.
“An important part of the process is deter
mining the cause. We hope the commission can
identity those cause or causes. It is essential to the
next process of evaluating the next steps.”
See Southerland on Page 2.
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ELIZABETH O’FARRELL/Iiif Bahai ion
Sophomore sports management major Matt Severs, of the Army ROTC program, demonstrates how to shoot
his rifle on the hand grenade assault course Wednesday.
Pradhan seeks resolution from A8dVI
BY BRADY CREEL
The Battalion
Fonner Texas A&M en
dowed professor Dhiraj Prad
han claims Texas A&M still
holds on to some of the same
racial grudges that he believes
to be part of the prejudiced
history in the state of Texas.
“Texas A&M had me
jailed on trumped-up charges of using the copy
machine,” Pradhan said. “Bizarre it may sound —
■K
PRADHAN I
but this is the old South. They don’t like me, so
they sent me to jail.”
Pradhan, who at one time was the highest-
paid computer science professor at A&M, said
although it has been years since original allega
tions were brought against him by the Universi
ty, his case remains unsettled and A&M refuses
to offer any kind of compromise.
However, according to an April 30, 1998
article in The Battalion, Pradhan declined
an offer from the district attorney earlier
that month, which would have offered him
four years deferred adjudication with a
$5,000 fine and restitution of $30,000.
“This is no offer to me,” Pradhan said in the
article. “1 do not want to put distance between my
self and Texas A&M, but [the University] is us
ing the district attorney to indict people like me.”
Last week, Pradhan said he was looking for
employment outside of the United States but had
to forfeit job interviews in Europe and India be
cause his passport was seized on Dec. 17, 1999
and has not been returned. He currently resides
in College Station.
See Pradhan on Page 6.
Gasoline prices to rise
NEW YORK (AP) — As Lydia
Gamos filled up her fuel tank, she re
fueled her complaints about rising
gas prices.
The homemaker grudgingly paid
Si.45 per gallon to gas up her Honda in
Houston. “It certainly does hit you in
the pocket” she complained Tuesday.
The hefty prices at the pump have
Gamos holding her driving to a mini
mum “until it gets a little cheaper.”
She may be in for a long wait.
Prices that now average $ 1.41 a gal
lon in the United States could stay high
into the summer travel season. Some
analysts even predict pump prices up to
Si.60 and $1.70 per gallon before the
problem eases. Americans already are
talking about curtailing their driving
just as resorts and other vacation spots
are starting to gear up for summer.
Gasoline prices have been rising
steadily since last March, when the Or
ganization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries cut crude oil production by
7.5 percent, or more than 2 m i 11 i on bar
rels a day, to try to boost prices that had
fallen to 12-year lows.
Fears that gas prices will go even
higher were raised Monday when the
price of crude oil futures closed at
$30.25 a barrel — topping $30 for the
first time in nine years.
Analysts believe that OPEC will
come under increasing pressure — es
pecially from industrialized nations such
as the United States — to raise produc
tion at its next meeting in late March.
Roger Diwan, managing director for
global oil markets at The Petroleum Fi
nance Co. in Washington, expects
OPEC will increase oil production 1.5
million to 1.7 million barrels a day. But
because inventories at refineries already
are low, “that won’t be enough to bring
prices down dramatically and change
the gas outlook in the United States.”
Part of the problem is that U.S. re
fineries normally increase production of
gasoline during the first three months of
the year in anticipation of higher sum
mer demand. That is not happening this
year because the high crude prices and
short supplies have prompted many re
finers to cut back operations.
Ahead of the OPEC meeting next
month, the Clinton administration is
starting to lobby oil producers to
boost output.The rise in crude has also
pushed up heating oil prices this win
ter. The average retail price for heating
oil has nearly doubled over the last year
to $ 1.66 per gallon, up from 86 cents in
January 1999, according to the U.S.
Energy Information Association.
So far, the Clinton administration
has resisted tapping the 580 million
barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve to
help increase the supply and bring
down prices.
B-CS Planned Parenthood clinic
marks one year anniversary
INSIDE
BY JULIE ZUCKER
The Battalion
Over 200 abortions have been performed at Planned Par
enthood of Houston and Southeast Texas’ Bryan clinic since
it opened one year ago.
“We’re not bad people,” said
Debbie McCall, director of commu
nity service at Planned Parenthood in
Bryan. “No one is for abortion.
Sometimes it is the only choice these
women have.”
According to Planned Parenthood,
1.5 million women in America with
unwanted pregnancies choose abor
tion. Most of those women are under
the age of 25 and are unmarried.
A Planned Parenthood poll found
74 percent of voters under 30 say it is
important to insure access to abortion.
McCall said Planned Parenthood
has been in Bryan for 22 years, but
sin,ce the new clinic performs abor
tions, protests have gotten worse.
“February is the worst time for
protesters because of Roe v. Wade. They are peaceful to a point,
but they have become more rowdy,” McCall said.
McCall said protesters line the street with posters and have
begun to write license plate numbers down.
“They know where we live, and they send letters to parents
saying their children have been to our clinic, whether it is for
an abortion or not. Some kids take their friend’s car, and then
they get into trouble,” she said.
STUART VILLANUEVA/Thk Battalion
Father Dean Wilhelm leads Bryan-Col-
lege Station residents in prayer in front
of the Planned Parenthood on E 29th
Street. Today is the one-year anniversary
of the clinics opening.
McCall said more protesters show up on Tuesdays and Sat
urdays, when doctors perform abortions.
“They have no right to judge and harass people,” she said.
“They stop traffic and may cause an accident. The yelling and
screaming do not help. No one knows the woman’s decisions.”
Lauren Guide, executive director
for Brazos Valley Coalition for Life
(BVCL), said the clinic does not pro
vide all of the information to the
women, and the sidewalk counselors
are there for support.
“Wc have people called sidewalk
counselors that line the street when
people go into the clinic,” Guide said.
“We encourage women to look at
other resources such as adoption, crisis
pregnancy programs and churches.
They are murdering by taking innocent
lives of the unborn babies. Planned Par
enthood definitely doesn’t tell the pa
tients everything.”
Guide said BVCL’s goal is to offer
healthy options for both women and
their unborn children.
“Our goal is not to run Planned Parenthood out of the city.
We just want to offer information and education about the prob
lems abortions cause. A good option never includes the de
struction of another human being,” she said.
McCall said abortions are only five percent of Planned Par
enthood’s services.
“We provide health care, mostly. Men and women come in
See Parenthood on Page 2.
Double
tandard in a
ottle, baby
Page 9
• Art of Anthropology
Students get credit for
course by volunteering for
museum. ^JJage 3
• Spaning
generations
Women scien
tists look to pi
oneering lead
ers.
• Listen to KAMU-FM
90.9 at 1:57 p.m. for de
tails on a proposed use
for the bonfire logs.
Check out The Battalion
online at
battalion.tamu.edu.