j MSC gets students involved • Page 2 Meet the "Yappers" • Page 4
The Tapper
(I „ . First year serving Texas A&M University
Volume 1 • Issue 1*4 pages Thursday, June 20, 2002
REBECCA MILNES • THE YAPPER
Members and parents of the Class of 2006 look through course catalogs and scheduling
information while waiting for the next session to begin at the New Student Conference.
Fish check in, then check out A&M
By Tricia Anderson
THE YAPPER
The sun is blazing on the treetops out
side of Duncan Dining Hall. Under the tree
branches, nervous parents converse quietly
with their excited sons and daughters.
They often check their watches. They
are all waiting for the New Student
Conferences to begin. Every year approxi
mately 10,000 freshmen and transfer stu
dents participate in the New Student
Conferences.
During this program they find out about
classes, student life, and all of the traditions
that make Texas A&M special. In the
words of David Pruitt, program coordina
tor, it is “a great opportunity to ask ques
tions.”
The starting point for all of this is
check-in. At check-in, the freshmen get
their conference cards and basic informa
tion that will greatly help them in their
college life.
After they check in, students have the
option of going on a tour. The tours are a
good opportunity to introduce freshmen to
the campus.
They are led by two orientation leaders
teach the traditions and show the stu
dents the campus.
Tours Program Coordinator Amanda
Roe offers this advice to freshmen.
“Familiarize yourself with what build
ings your classes are in.” After all, in a
big campus like this, it is easy to get lost.
So what do the students think about
A&M’s campus? “It’s scary and big,” said
Jessica Holloway. When asked what she
thought of the campus, Kara Smith said “I
love it! It’s great!”
Erin Sziy said that the campus was very
pretty although it needed a lot more trees.
For Sziy, however, it was not the campus
that stood out, it was the people.
“Everybody’s so friendly,” said Sziy.
“I’ve never seen that anywhere else.” Nora
Cargo, assistant director of the Department
of Student Financial Aid, summed up
A&M’s friendliness by saying it has “A
spirit that’s not anywhere else.
The traditions are one of the things that
make A&M special. Both Stacey Meuth
and Holly Dockal said that they like the tra
ditions.
Skipper Adams, whose daughter is an
incoming freshman, said that the traditions
were one of the things that made them pick
A&M.
Dockal said that she is excited but a lit
tle scared to be going to college for the
first time.
“I can’t wait,” said Jessica Holloway.
Parents, however, are a little more nervous.
David Pruitt said that is one of the reasons
New Student Conferences exist.
NSC helps deal with confusion
KATE EORE • THE YAPPER
Several incoming freshmen and their parents trek through the Quad arches
and learn about different aspects of Texas A&M as they follow AOLP leaders.
By Linda Berlakovich
THE YAPPER
What is one word common
among the freshmen at Texas
A&M University? That word is
confusion.
Luckily, for them, Texas
A&M has New Student
Conferences going on. Check
in, one of the first things in the
conference, helps the students
through their confusing day.
This lifeline is held at
Duncan Dining Hall and has
been going on all week.
For check-in, the freshmen
stand in lines according to their
last name. J.K. Kovasovic,
associate director, helps out
with these programs.
Kovasovic says that the main
reason for check-in is for stu
dents to get a lot of information
about such as where different
conferences are, meal plan
information and how to get stu
dent I.D. cards.
Along with this information
some items freshmen get to
purchase are T-shirts and tick
ets for the Howdy Lunch.
David Pruitt, Class of 2003
and program coordinator, said
that the check-in is always very
busy towards the early part.
It supplies new students with
all the information that will
make students less confused.
Of course even with all this
information, freshmen may still
have trouble in college.
Pruitt’s advice to the fresh
men is, “Study, read every
thing, read your textbooks,
study even if you think you
know everything. Go to class,
and definitely go talk to your
professors.”
He hopes that the freshmen
will take his advice and use it.
After check-in the students
have the option of taking a tour.
They will be shown the main
parts of campus. Amanda Roe,
tours program coordinator, said
that there are ten to fifteen
guides.
There are two guides with
each tour and there are four to
five tours everyday. Once in a
while, if they are lucky, there
will be six tours.
Rudder Tower, theMemorial
Student Center, Harrington
Education Building, and indi
vidual college meeting places
are some of the important
buildings shown to the high
school graduates and their par
ents during the forty-five to
sixty minute tours.
You may have heard that the
tour guides must be able to
walk backwards to get the tour
jobs and according to Roe this
is very true.
Roe said that the tour is the
same as three or four years ago
except that the routes have
changed a little and the infor
mation has been updated.
She added that you should
always know where your class
es are and your life will be a lot
easier. Good luck, freshmen.
Speakers show Aggieland as community of respect
By Caitlyn Travis
THE YAPPER
Having tolerance and respect for
yourself and other people is something
that the students of Texas A&M
University take pride in.
On June 18, 2002, in Rudder
Auditorium there was a program for the
new student conference where speakers
talked about moral and ethical issues
that students might face during their
years in college.
At the program they talked about sev
eral different topics. They talked about
what to expect and how to handle it.
One of the major points they talked
about was drowsy driving. In the last
year there were 10,000 reported acci
dents in the United States because of
drivers who were literally asleep at the
wheel.
“I had no idea about drowsy driving
I thought drinking and driving was the
biggest deal for student accidents,”
said Patrick Lan.
They also discussed academic hon
esty. The University defines academic
dishonesty as acquiring or providing
information, plagiarism, conspiring to
commit an act of dishonesty or fabrica
tion of information. If a student com
mits any of these, he or she can be
expelled from school or receive a fail
ing grade for that class.
Another subject they talked about
was being honest with your classmates.
Being honest with your classmates will
give you a better and happier stay at
Texas A&M. You can make a big
impact on other peoples lives if you are
honest with them.
Another of the topics they talked
about was drunk driving. Three out of
every five students at Texas A&M
University said they have never driven
after drinking. A major point in this
topic was don’t drink. The majority
[64%] of Aggies say they drink three
or fewer drinks per week. Over 90%
of Aggies have never been in trouble
with authorities due to drinking.
The actors also performed a skit on
anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia and
bulimia are eating disorders and are
extremely bad for your body.
Student Jeremy Rogers said the pro
gram was informative and enlighten
ing. “And the statistics and facts were
an eye opener,” he said.
Aggieland
0°^ ^
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Corps of Cadets provides opportunites
By Kaitlyn Jorge
THE YAPPER
at
Jane wakes up every morning
six a.m. She dresses in the outfit that
she must wear every day for the
summer. She then starts her physical
training of a two to three mile run
and calisthenics.
At 8 o’clock she starts her aca
demic day with classes, studying and
other personal business. She is a
cadet in the Corps of Cadets along
with 2,600 other cadets.
On the subject of recruiting all
these students J. Alan Goddard said.
The purpose of cadet recruiting is
to coordinate, motivate, and direct
ah cadets in an aggressive, enthusi
astic, and qualitative effort that
ensures the Corps of Cadets reaches
and sustains a Corps of at least 2,600
cadets.
A Corps of Cadets numbering 2,600
can only be achieved and sustained by
recruiting 900 new cadets each year.”
The Corps also helps students to
become leaders amongst their peers
and help the cadets to succeed during
their college life. To help the cadets
in this way the Corps provides an
elective course that teaches students
skills for succeeding in college.
The Corps also provides free
tutoring for small groups that need to
study math, engineering, business
math and physics.
The Corps is a military based pro
gram for the students who want to
attend. Three of the mornings in a
cadet’s week are begun with a two to
three mile run. After their academic
day they continue with other military
drills or they study for next day’s
classes.
Throughout all of this the cadets
are in their uniforms. Uniforms vary
from season to season.
In the winter the freshmen and
sophomores’ wear heavy dark green
jackets over tan shirts, black ties,
and dark brown pants, accompanied
with the shoes that the Corps allows
them to have.
The seniors wear a long sleeved
green shirt with dark brown pants
and a khaki tie with their boots.
In the summer all of the cadets,
unless they are in band, are
required to wear a Khaki short
sleeve shirt, black tie, and matching
khaki pants. The band students are
required to wear long sleeve khaki
shirts with black ties and khaki
pants all year round.
On rainy or stormy days the
cadets wear their BDU’s or Battle
Dress Uniform. The BDU’s consist
of a camouflage shirt over a brown
undershirt, camouflage pants, and
combat boots.
The cadets must pay for their own
uniforms. Each uniform costs around
$758. The cadets are also required to
keep their uniforms clean and in near
perfect condition. Dry cleaning usu
ally costs $100 to $150 per semester
It is mandatory for cadets to
By Sean O'Neal
THE YAPPER
Hundreds of Freshmen came
to the maroon colored Rudder
Auditorium
Tuesday morning for a very
emotional New Student
Conference program, Aggieland:
A Community of RESPECT.
In this program, the new stu
dents were entertained by a
series of skits and informed by
statistics on some of the more
life-alternating problems that
students might face at A&M.
Though the program was a
serious one, the actors opened
the show with a friendly
“howdy” and welcomed them
to A&M. They were even able
to squeeze in a laugh here or
there during the skits.
At the program, the actors
and actresses acted out the dan
gers of drinking and driving,
and driving when, drowsy. Did
you know that driving when
you have had little sleep it is
just as dangerous as driving
after drinking 6 beers? It will
also slow your reaction time
down to nearly nothing.
These are just two of the many
reasons to get some sleep before
driving, even if you were studying
all night long.
Participants at the session
also discussed the conse
quences of racism, eating disor
ders, sexual assault, cheating
on tests and hazing. Though
cheating on tests may seem to
be the only solution, you will
only be lying to your friends,
teacher, and yourself.
If a gang or group that you
want to join hazes you, then it’s
not a good idea to be a part of
that group. “It showed situa
tions that we may not have
thought of at A&M,” said fresh
man Nathan Brown.
Overall, students were able
to enjoy themselves and learn
important facts at the same time.
This is what made the
RESPECT program at the New
Student Conference such a great
success.
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE YAPPER
Liz Vacek (left), a future member of the Corps of Cadets, and her mother Mary, view
one of the many exhibits located in the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center.
attend all home football games and
seven to eight days out of the month
are spent off or on campus with the
parents of the cadets.
The Corps of Cadets is an organi
zation with great pride in what they
do and high standards for their stu
dents. The students who are willin
to join become the best of friend
with those who join them.
It is a challenging experience an
most everyone that joins says the en
result of their stay with the Corps i
worth the hard work and effort.