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VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 133
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TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
rairie View employees file lawsuit
Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
[Six current and former employees of
irie View A&M University filed a
discrimination lawsuit against the school
and the Texas A&M University System
Wednesday, alleging they were punished
for criticizing embattled Prairie View
ident Dr. Charles Hines.
The suit, filed less than a month after
the System settled another lawsuit against
^nes, adds to the growing public criti
cism of the Prairie View president, with
many in the university community
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■manding his removal.
The plaintiffs, all
black, claim they
have been the vic
tims of race discrim
ination by the mostly
white Board of
Regents acting
through Hines, who
is also black. Hines,
at the behest of the
regents, works to undermine the pre
dominately black university, the suit
claims. The suit also alleges Hines
violated the employees’ free speech
rights in his zeal to punish those who
criticize him.
HINES
Anne Kellet, a System spokesper
son, declined to comment.
The suit alleges Hines fired the
gospel music announcer at the campus
radio station when the station played a
hit gospel song Hines thought was
inappropriate. This upset local church
es and prompted a group of Waller
County ministers in November to
demonstrate on campus and collect
hundreds of signatures asking for
Hines’ resignation.
“[Hines] doesn’t understand that the
First Amendment applies to his
employees, and he has exhibited an
inability to deal with criticisms of his
mismanagement,” said Gaines West, a
College Station lawyer representing the
plaintiffs.
Hines could not be reached for
comment.
The suit also includes two physics
professors at Prairie View who allege
they were punished for voicing criti
cism of Hines’ management of the
University. Many faculty members
have accused Hines, a retired Army
major general, of running the institu
tion like a military operation, meddling
in the affairs of academic departments
and not tolerating dissenting views.
The suit alleges Dr. Cleo Bentley
was removed as head of the physics
department after denouncing Hines’ ill-
fated plan to merge the physics and
chemistry departments. Plaintiffs also
include the director of alumni affairs at
Prairie View and the director of the
physical plant at the university, who
claim they have been denied pay raises
for publicly speaking out against Hines.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a
highly-publicized lawsuit filed by Dr.
Dennis Judd, a physics professor at
Prairie View, who claimed Hines tried
See Lawsuit on page 6A
Scientists
look to keep
By Sarah Darr
THE BATTALION
Even with 1,620 holes drilled on the ocean
floor since 1968, scientists have just begun to
ad the archives resulting from sediment
ken from the ocean floor, and Texas A&M is
supporting the effort through the Ocean
rilling Program.
Dr. Paul J. Fox, professor of oceanography,
;eology and geophysics and director of the
pcience Operations Ocean Drilling Program,
g up with big pk
ects his new
gave the fourth and final lecture Wednesday of
the Distinguished Lecture Series held by
A&M each year.
Many countries are involved with the
Ocean Drilling Project, which began in 1984.
Each country gets an annual budget of $3
to be able to block il million for a project total of $46 million. The
United States gets a portion of this because it
has been involved with the drilling for the
past 33 years.
The Ocean Drilling Project is a global
operation whose main goal in studying the
oceans is to find what has triggered the change
in climate on Earth, Fox said. The research
initiatives of the Ocean Drilhng Project are
intended to record not only drilling’s effect on
climate, but also the samples of the oceanic
crustal column, the microbiology, earthquake
processes and long-term geochemical moni
toring, he said.
The Ocean Drilling Project has been most
successful in uncovering the global climate
over the last 70 million years. Fox said.
Fox emphasized the importance of ocean
drilling to learn more about the earth.
Rapid change is a way of life, and change
>n climate could have a major effect on planet
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See Drilling on page 2A
Draping the sea
Distinguished lecturer Jim Johnson
hangs fabric from the ceiling in prepa
ration for the student floral design
JOHN LIYAS • THE BATTALION
exhibit hosted in the J. Wayne Stark
Gallery. The exhibition titled "Under
the Sea" will open Thursday at 7 p.m.
TxTF-1 trains
for disasters
By Marianne Hudson
THE BATTALION .
Members of Texas Task
Force-1’s white team will step
into “Disaster City” near the
grounds of Easterwood Airport
Thursday for a practice drill
similar to what most of its mem
bers faced seven months ago at
ground zero.
In Disaster City, 72 members
of the 216-strong task force will
brave 52 acres of collapsible
structures and a
10,000-square
foot pile of
rubble to res
cue 30 mock
victims from a
collapsed
three-story
building. The
drill, intended
to exercise the
team members’
experience
with weapons
of mass
destruction,
will also include the release of a
pretend chemical nerve agent.
Task Force-1 will be the first
task force team in the United
States to participate in a training
exercise involving a weapon of
mass destruction.
The white team spent 10 days
at the World Trade Center site in
September, searching through
voids in the rubble and scaling
metal out-croppings in mentally
and physically exhausting 12-
hour shifts. Before Sept. 11,
members dealt with destruction
The rules have
changed. We have to
Ife proactive because
it is still our job to
get everybody home
safely. ?
— Tim Gallagher
TxTF-1 Commander
caused by floods, fires and torna
does, but had not faced full-scale
urban disasters.
“The rules have changed,” said
Tim Gallagher, Task Force-1 team
commander. “We have to be
proactive because it is still our job
to get everybody home safely.”
In the 40-hour drill that
begins Thursday, team members
will operate a full-scale .mission
on similar 12-hour rotations,
said Marilyn Martell, director of
public information for the A&M
System’s Texas
Engineering
Extension
Services
(TEEX).
Team mem
bers from across
Texas will be
paged and must
report for duty
in “Disaster
City” within
four hours.
Upon arrival,
they will be
briefed on the
incident and given the necessary
equipment for responding to a
disaster involving a weapon of
mass destruction.
Gallagher, who responded to
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said,
“I learned that anything is possi
ble, and we must be trained and
fully equipped for the worst.”
Task Force-1 operates under
the TEEX, whose headquarters
are in College Station. Should a
disaster occur, TEEX packages
See Training on page 12A
Aggie Band director candidates announced
flA Jl KJ( X KJK. ^
3 CANDIDATES FOR DIRECTOR OF BANDS
0
V^l
Maj. Otis French
Commander, U.S. Army Ground Forces Band
Col. Jay Brewer
Associate director since 1988, Fightin
Texas Aggie Band
Capt. Tim Rhea
Associate director since 1992, Fightin’
Texas Aggie Band
.1 —■
CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION
By Marianne Hudson
THE BATTALION
Three candidates were named in the
search for a new Director of Bands who
will lead the Aggie Band on Kyle Field and
in stadiums across the nation next Fall.
Maj. Otis French of the U.S. Army and
Col. Jay Brewer and Capt. Tim Rhea, both
current associate directors of the band,
were chosen this week from a list of 10
applicants.
“These candidates all seem to have the
package,” said Dr. Bill Kibler, chair of the
search advisory committee and associate
vice president for student affairs. “They
rise above the other applicants because of
their leadership experience in training and
conducting bands.”
The search committee began inter
viewing its three final candidates
Thursday, April 11. After interviewing
ends, the committee will make a recom
mendation for the next director of bands
in the Corps of Cadets.
French, current commander of the U.S.
Army Ground Forces Band, has been with
the Army band since 1978. He received a
master’s degree in music from Indiana
University and is currently working on his
doctoral dissertation from Maryland.
“He doesn’t have the experience work
ing with college-level bands, but he does
have experience working with military
bands,” Kibler said. “The Ground Forces
Band is a major band in the Army.”
Col. Chip Wenmohs, combined band
commander and a senior finance major,
said French’s lack of experience with col
lege bands should not be an issue in the
decision. He said Col. Ray Toler, the cur
rent director of the bands set to retire at the
end of the semester, came from the Air
Force with no college band experience.
“When Toler came, everyone thought he
would change the band into a stage band or
something,” Wenmohs said. “But everyone
soon got over their fears and realized that
wasn’t his intention. He has kept the Aggie
Band traditions in place.”
Brewer and Rhea are candidates from
A&M, Kibler said.
“Brewer and Rhea already know a lot
about A&M and the traditions,”
Wenmohs said. “They are already past
the acclamation stage.”
Brewer, associate director of the bands
since 1988, has been with the Aggie Band
See Director on page 2A
FAC asks for student body input
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
In the absence of Bonfire, the Fall
^ctivities Council (FAC) formed by
Student Body President Schuyler
Houser, is asking for student body
'oput for an activity to take place in
the fall to unify the campus.
About 20 different ideas were sub
mitted to FAC chair Trevor Voelkel
and a committee composed of 20 stu
dents and several advisers.
The committee narrowed them
down to the top 10 ideas and put them
in survey form.
“The council is looking to get the
campus involved in the fall, and we
are excited and pumped to do stuff,”
said John Casares, Resident Hall
Association (RHA) president and a
junior management major.
In an open forum in the Sbisa
Dining Hall Quiet room and Duncan
Dining Hall Wednesday, students were
given the opportunity to give the coun
cil preliminary feedback by filling out
a survey.
Students will get the opportunity
See FAC on page 6A
Sports Pg. IB
Ags stunned by
Horns
Opinion Pg. 5B
Real life, celebrity style
MTV’s ‘Osbournes' captivates
television audiences
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