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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2000)
s in Brief r crashes di Arabia Bahrain (AP)—A iter jet crashed i the Saudi Arabi- ring a routine train- the Bahrain-based t said in a state- md a navy flight of- to safety from the 14 Tomcat, the iid. It did not name ive the precise lo- crash. were recovered in md have been >y helicopter to the in western Saudi atement said, d taken off from arrier USS Dwight f, which is current a the Red Sea. nt is under investi- atement said. president e-election an (AP) — Iran's hammad Khatami esday he will seek xt year in a dial- liners trying fosfi- 3. Section in May ni has introduced enness to theout- d granted greater litical freedoms, cipate in the presi- >ns and will put my and will respect ihoice,” the official alic News Agency mi as saying in a officials of the Min- :e and Technology, as elected with percent of the i no date has been <t election, it yiay 2001. campus bonfire plans progressing rapidly COLLEGE STATION (AP) — Students in- olved in a group working to keep the Texas t&M University Bonfire alive say plans are apidly progressing to build a log stack off ampus this fall, in spite of a two-year mora- orium on the annual tradition after last rear's deadly collapse. Texas A&M officials are critical of the stu- ients' plans for an alternative bonfire and said hey will not support their efforts, the Bn/an-Col- lege Station Eagle reported in Sunday editions. The 2-million-pound bonfire stack collapsed during construction on Nov. 18. It killed 12 Ag gies and injured 27 others, some severely. In May, a five-member commission appoint ed and funded by Texas A&M to investigate the deaths blamed flawed construction techniques and a lack of adequate supervision of students assembling the stack. In June, A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen announced the 90-year bon fire tradition would continue, but not until at least 2002 and not without major changes, in cluding far greater University supervision and a professionally engineered design. Will Clark, one of the board members of Keep the Fire Burning, said students, former students and community members need to see a bonfire burn in order to heal and to move on. "That's what is prompting us to do this: The Aggie spirit and love for bonfire can't be turned off," he said. "When Dr. Bowen re leased his findings, that was a challenge for us to come up with a safe plan. We still have much to do, but we think it can get done. If the engineers tell us there are problems though, we will pull back and plan for 2001." Members of Keep the Fire Burning say they have been meeting with professional engineers, lawyers, fire safety officials and security companies. “We will not sup port any bonfire off campus now or in the future/' — J. Malon Southerland Texas A&M vice president for student affairs The group has chosen Nov. 22 as the event date. Joe Dyson, one of the group's board mem bers, said a professional engineer has been do nating his time to design several options for a safe bonfire, basing his models on standards set by Bowen. He would not identify the engineer. Students would cut their own logs, which would be contrary to Bowen's plan that no stu dents be involved in chopping down trees, and the bonfire stack would be smaller, Dyson said. The group hopes to finance the project through donations. Past bonfires have cost as much as $70,000. Dyson and other board members de clined to release details about the exact de signs under consideration or the location, saying only that several Brazos County landowners have offered their property. They said an announcement will be made once those details are finalized. Dyson said his group understands the ad ministration's concerns and reasoning be hind waiting for two years before continuing bonfire, but believes the tradition can be re built in the meantime. But the student group does not have an ally in the University's administration. "We will not support any bonfire off cam pus now or in the future," said A&M Vice President for Student Affairs J. Malon Southerland. "We will not condone it. A bon fire off campus is not bonfire. I would hope anyone giving this consideration would think about all the people this would affect and think of the consequences." Regents approve new curriculum Diversity classes required >! Anna Bishop The Battalion Freshmen entering Texas A&M in Fall 2001 will be re quired to take six hours of in ternational or cultural diversi ty courses. The Texas A&M System Board of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the new curriculum require ment proposal. “I think it is very important for all college graduates ...to have a sense of cultural diversity." — Ronald Douglas Texas A&M executive vice president and provost Texas A&M Executive ■’ Vice President and Provost ) Ronald Douglas said the ap proval came about a year af ter a study found many Texas employers view A&M graduates as "lacking the sort of broad outlook neces sary to compete in the glob al economy." "I think it is very important for all college graduates, no matter what their major is or what job they are looking for, to have a sense of cultural di versity," Douglas said. "Since all students today will be working abroad or interacting with other people, I think this will be useful." The current 48-hour core curriculum will be changed to 43 hours by reducing the number of physical education and social sciences courses. Douglas said that, in ad dition to taking a minimum of six hours of international or cultural diversity classes, students would take two in tensive writing classes in their majors and one foreign language class. Junior elementary educa tion major Lindsey Ruthart said while the cultural di versity courses may benefit students in a competitive job market, the classes may not be received well by every student. "Since these courses are mandatory, there is not much the student body can do, re garding likes and dislikes," she said. "However, I believe these courses are a good idea, because so many jobs today, especially business majors, re quire a knowledge of culture and international diversity." Douglas said an initial core curriculum proposal re quiring students to take a certain number of cultural diversity classes, such as African-American history, died after igniting a debate about whether it was politi cally correct. See Courses on Page 4. Forest fire A fire broke out Thursday afternoon on former NFL official Red Cashion's farmland. What started as a grass fire soon grew into a forest fire around 1:45 p.m. David Abernathy, regional fire coordinator of the Texas Forest Service, said that the fire was started by hay bailing equipment. The combination of weather, dry conditions and lack of rain made the environment ideal for a fire. Abernathy estimated that 50 or more acres were burned in the fire. Napster Inc. granted reprieve Two federal judges allow music-sharing service to remain online SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shawn Fanning emerged from Napster head quarters with his hands stuffed deep in his pockets, baseball cap pulled down tight, and the wide grin of an Internet wun- derkind who just dodged a legal bullet. The llth-hour victory for Fanning's wildly popular music-sharing service came Friday when two federal judges granted Napster Inc. a stay, allowing it to remain online — at least temporarily. Napster had faced a midnight deadline for shutting down the trading of copy righted music on its computer servers after a judge sided with the recording industry, which claimed Napster's sole purpose is to foster an illegal Internet giveaway. "I am happy and grateful that we do not have to turn away our 20 million users and that we can continue to help arbsts. We'll keep working and hoping for the best," Fanning said Friday as he peeked out from under his cap at reporters camped in front Napster's two-story office. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napster in De cember for copyright infringement. The record labels claim they lost millions in profits because of music piracy made possible by the company's software. "It is frustrating, of course, that the tens of millions of daily infringements occurring on Napster will be able to continue, at least temporarily," said Hi lary Rosen, president of the RIAA. A judge hearing the lawsuit had See Napster on Page 4. NNO aims to aware, fight crime Joseph Pleasant The Battalion National Night Out (NNO), a 10- year-old program that aims to foster neigliborhood watch programs and in crease crime awareness, will be held Tuesday from approximately 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. in College Station. Sgt. Alan Baron, of the University Police Department, said NNO is based on the neighborhood watch program, which encourages neighborhoods to work together to prevent crime in their community. "National Night Out is to let peo ple know who their neighbors are so they can watch out for each other," Baron said. Neighborhoods participate by or ganizing block parties or other activi ties that encourage interaction be tween neighbors. Baron said officers who patrol the areas may participate in activities and visit with residents about crime-pre vention programs. Kristina Humphreys, a senior ac counting major, said she likes the idea of NNO because it encourages people to get to know their neighbors. "I think it's a good way of people finding out who they live close to and also to know someone is watching out for them," Humphreys said. "I would get involved in it if I lived in an active neighborhood." LaKendreia Johnson, Drug Abuse Re sistance Education (DARE) instructor and crime prevention coordinator for the See Night Out on Page 4. Texas schools lack standardized sexual abuse programs Anna Bishop The Battalion About one in four school-age girls and one in 10 boys in Texas have been sexually abused, ac cording to a recent Texas A&M re search study conducted by Dr. Danny Ballard, an A&M health professor, and Dr. Beth Lanning of Baylor University. The study sur veyed 89 of the biggest school dis tricts in the state — those with at least 5,000 students. Ballard said the survey showed that Texas lacks a standardized sex ual abuse prevention program and that districts' budgets and training time vary greatly. "There appears to be little con sistency among districts about how they approach these problems," Ballard said. "Some districts regard the program as an important func tion and others give it little time or money. As for a standard preven tion program for all Texas schools to follow, there is none." Ballard said only half of the state school districts surveyed re ceived funding for abuse preven tion programs. "I feel funding had the greatest variability of all the areas we sur veyed," Ballard said. “School districts of all sizes should offer sex ual abuse pro grams in their schools." — Suelma Contreras chairperson of Chilifest, Inc. By law, each district must have methods to report sexual abuse of children, Ballard said. Most school districts' faculties are informed of re porting procedures during in-service, conducted by counselors, police offi cers or psychologists. The Goose Creek Consolidated In dependent School District (GCCISD) in Baytown, Texas, has made an at tempt to prevent sexual abuse of chil dren by hiring family involvement coordinators (FICs). FIC Suelma Contreras said the 13 involvement coordinators in GCCISD work with the parents of school-age children to meet the physical needs such as food, clothing and shelter, and emotional needs, such as sexual abuse prevention. "School districts of all sizes should offer sexual abuse programs in their schools," Contreras said. "Prevention efforts are the most ef fective way to reduce this devastat ing behavior." Ballard said smaller districts lack the funds to support preventive programs such as GCCISD's FICs. "In rural school districts, there are often not many resources available to deal with the problem," Ballard said. Officer Russell, of the Bryan Police Department, is participating in Na tional Night Out. This program is be ing coordinated by local police and neighborhoods, and it is designed to deter crime by allowing residents to get acquainted with each other.