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we wereripuring the next four weeks, students will be able to attend
rd game. (Series of student leadership workshops sponsored by the de-
i matteroi wtinent of Student Activities. The workshops focus on pro-
aat firstpi'Bng student leaders with the skills needed to manage their
tourpaS'organizations more effectively.
egantoiraSln the past, Student Activities held a series of leadership
bsonled Votrkshops called the Student Leadership Institute. Student
• w hils' eaders were required to attend six weeks of workshops. Now,
’l e leh Jtudent Activities has moved to a more open workshop that
tudents are not required to attend.
■Five topics will be presented during the next few weeks.
The first workshop has already taken place and dealt with as-
0 llu 1 Ssment and effective decision-making. The goal of this par-
;jcular topic was to help students determine their organiza-
:ions’ missions and help create a decision making-process
within that structure.
■ “Typically, we have many different organizations with
!many different purposes,” said Ryan Williams, employee at
• Student Activities and graduate student. “So helping the stu-
i ; ^ dents define what exactly their mission is, serving to their
, ’ niche, we are trying help further their mission along.”
sday AM management, a new directive from the office of the
dorado,: v * ce president for Student Affairs, will also be covered. The
i the ba objective of the workshop is to help students make effec-
ies dele; W Q decisions by utilizing a thought-process model for risk
core. Ki management. Here, the students learn how risk manage
ment goes hand-in-hand with their organizations’ mission
statements.
Jl “Ifyou ask yourself a question about what your organiza-
is doing, and if it goes along with your mission state-
npMBent. if the answer is no, then maybe it is something the or-
"““•^pinization doesn’t need to be doing to further their process,”
illiams said.
At this workshop, students are encouraged to take a look
all areas of their organization and find ways to make ac-
ities safer.
The third workshop will discuss safe travel and entails de-
loping a plan for student trips. The travel workshop is de-
ned to help students realize what variables are involved in
anning a trip, such as how many students are going, what
ie weather conditions will be and length of the trip.
“There will always be that one variable that you will not
able to foresee,” Williams said. “So this workshop is try-
Jg to help students be deliberate and reduce the factors they
) see.”
The other workshops will deal with event planning and
nflict resolution. The event-planning workshop is intend-
to give students a grasp of all the situations that may take
ace during the course of an event. An example used is al-
hol being brought to an organizational function. The work-
op will tell students how to handle the situation and make
|ire it does not happen again.
The conflict resolution workshop is intended to help stu
nts by establishing a mechanism for overcoming conflict
ithin the organization.
Currently, Student Activities is offering the workshops
a training opportunity for students to gain a better
See Workshops on Page 6.
■m
STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion
1
Left: David Bosmans, a sophomore speech communication major,
crawls from the end of a chain being pulled by Melinda West, a
freshman business administration major, in the torture chamber
room at the Hotard from Hell haunted house on Sunday. Top right:
First-year veterinary medicine students Kim Saunders and Shelly
Rike get into costume at the for participation in the Night of Terror
haunted house held at the Vet School. Bottom right: Schuyler
Hauser, a senior industrial engineering major, and Melissa Videtto,
a senior applied mathematical sciences major, hit the road in the
Halloween Fun Run on Sunday.
UPD, Red Cross offer safety tips
By Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
Beware: Creatures of the night, goblins and
ghouls will be wandering the streets along with
witches, ghosts and Teletubbies.
To ensure a safe Halloween, the Red Cross and
University Police Department (UPD) have issued
lists of Halloween safety tips for students throwing
or attending parties and young trick-or-treaters.
UPD compiled the list of safety tips from the
National Confectioners Association and the Choco
late Manufacturers Association list of Halloween
Safety Recommendations. Copies can be picked up
in the University Apartments main office and pro
grams office.
“I think the list will be effective as long as the par
ents read it,” said Sgt. H. Allen Baron, certified crime
prevention specialist. “It seems that, in the past cou
ple years, parents have become more aware of the
safety issues regarding their children and Halloween,
and action has been taken to keep them safe.”
The tips for children include using face paint in
stead of masks, choosing costumes that are marked
flame-retardant, adding reflective tape to dark-col
ored costumes, giving and accepting only wrapped
or packaged candy, having children bring treats
home for adult inspection and making sure cloth
ing is short enough to prevent tripping.
For students throwing parties, the Red Cross
lists fire safety as one of the most important fac
tors. Electrical outlets should not be overloaded
with holiday lights or special effects, paper and
cloth yard decorations should be placed where they
cannot be blown into flaming candles and jack-o’-
lanterns and hot lamps should not be placed near
drapes or decorations.
For partiers, the Red Cross recommends having
a designated driver and remaining cautious and dri
ving slowly through residential areas.
The Red Cross also reminds students that pets
can get frightened and recommends that pets be
confined or segregated during the evening of fright
ful sights and sounds.
For those who decide to go trick or treating,
See Halloween on Page 6.
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RUBEN DELUNA/The Battaij
Professors forecast Gore victory
KiSfc..
By Rolando Garcia
The Battalion
Polls show a race that will go down to the wire, but for
a handful of political scientists, the 2000 presidential elec
tion was over months ago, and the winner is Vice Presi
dent A1 Gore.
At an August meeting of the American Political Science
Association, seven forecasts by academic analysts project
ed Gore winning between 53 and 60 percent of the vote cast
for the two major-party candidates. The mathematical for
mulas, based primarily on economic factors, assumed that
campaign tactics and candidate personalities make no dif
ference and voters will reward the Democratic Party for the
country’s economic prosperity.
But Patricia Hurley, a political science professor at Texas
A&M, cautioned that the accuracy of such forecasts can be
limited because votes are influenced by more than just a
pocketbook assessment.
For most voters, candidate preference is preordained by
party identification, Hurley said. Although fewer and few
er Americans voluntarily identify themselves as Republi
cans or Democrats, their voting patterns and political lean
ings tend to align them with one of the two parties.
Despite candidates’ aggressive courting of voters and
the media’s extensive coverage of issues and personalities,
campaigns serve mostly to reinforce voters’ latent political
tendencies, Hurley said.
I
See Politics on Page 2.
Student organizations
stifle campaigning,
predict Bush victory
By Richard Bray
The Battalion
While the experts are predicting the
closest presidential election in decades
between Republican candidate Gov.
George W. Bush and Democratic candi
date Vice President A1 Gore, few organi
zations are campaigning on campus be
cause they think the Texas vote is already
wrapped up in Bush’s favor.
Jack Long, president of the Texas
A&M College Republicans and a junior
political science major, said the organiza
tion’s first goal this semester was to reg
ister as many people to vote as possible.
“The county voter registrar has depu
tized a lot of the members of the club so they can go
out and actually register people to vote,” he said.
“We’ve had about 115 people deputized and they’ve
gone to their apartments and dorms and stuff and
registered people there, so the main thing that we’ve
been doing is registering any voters who weren’t
registered, so they could vote in College Station.”
Long said members registered any voters who
were willing and did not screen voters according
to party affiliation.
Ac ademlc an aJ ys ts pred icI:
A! Gore will win by S3 to 60
pe re e n t., H owev er, w i th <>n e
week before the election,
it is anyone's race
Texas A&M political science professors
gave some reasons for the close race:
Influence of party affiliation
Candidates’ public: image |
Skepticism toward politics
Use of campaign resources
—j
RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
Next weekend the College Republicans will trav
el to Arkansas and Louisiana to campaign for Bush.
“We are getting ready to go on a bus trip to
Texarkana and Shreveport to campaign for the
governor Nov. 3-5,” Long said. “Arkansas and
Louisiana are battleground states where Gov. Bush
and Vice President Gore are polling really close
right now. Since we don’t really need to campaign
See Organizations on Page 6.