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Sports: Aggies looking to rebound • Page 7 Aggieufe: Go ahead, check my I.D. • Page 3
THE BATTALION
Volume 109 • Issue 31 • 12 pages
www.thebatt.com
Friday, October 11, 2002
Student kidnapped at gunpoint and robbed
By Sommer Ounce
THE BATTALION
A Texas A&M student was kid
napped at gunpoint outside his College
Station apartment complex Monday
and forced to drive his assailant to
Corpus Christi before being robbed and
left in an empty parking lot. Corpus
Christi police said.
Christopher Michael Duke, a senior
history major, was loading his 1997
Dodge Dakota truck at 3:30 p.m.
Monday when a Hispanic male
approached him with a gun and ordered
him into the car, said Cmdr. Mike
Walsh of the Corpus Christi Police
Department (CCPD). The man then
save Duke directions and ordered him
DUKE
to drive west on
State Highway 21,
south on U.S.
Highway 77 and
south on Interstate
37 into Corpus
Christi, Walsh said.
Duke contacted
Corpus Christi
police just after mid
night Tuesday, after the assailant had
directed him to a quiet parking lot.
Duke told police in the report that he
passed out when the man pointed the
gun at him when they stopped, in
what he later told police was the south
parking lot of Corpus Christi’s
Memorial Coliseum.
When he woke up, the man had left
and taken Duke’s laptop computer,
credit cards and cash.
Duke then headed down Shoreline
Boulevard, calling police from the Best
Western Marina Grand Hotel, Walsh
said. According to the report, Duke also
called his wife in College Station, who
contacted the College Station Police
Department.
The assailant is described as a six-
foot-tall, 185-pound bald Hispanic
male in his 20s or 30s. CCPD’s crime
unit took photos of Duke’s Dakota and
pulled fingerprints from the vehicle,
but are still analyzing the evidence,
Walsh said.
“I'm worried we may have some
body loose in Corpus Christi that’s
capable of pulling this,” Walsh said.
Duke is the Memorial Student
Center (MSC) Council’s Vice
President for Marketing and was
chairman of MSC OPAS last year.
Duke declined to comment.
Duke was not injured in the car
jacking and returned to College
Station on Tuesday. Friend and co
worker Barry Hammond, MSC
Council president, said Duke would
spend the next few days at home recu
perating.
“We expect him to be back on his
feet in a few days,” Hammond said.
Detectives at the College Station
Police Department are investigating
the car jacking, said Lt. Rodney
Sigler. College Station Police detec
tives met with University Police
Department Director Bob Wiatt
Thursday morning.
“They’re asking us to help, and
we’re doing what we can,” Wiatt said.
During the car jacking, labeled an
“aggravated robbery” in the CCPD
report, the assailant used Duke’s cell
phone to place three calls before toss
ing the phone out the truck’s window,
Walsh said. Duke told Corpus Christi
police that the man spoke in rough
and broken English.
“This is an unusual type of car
jacking,” Walsh said. “They usually
relieve you of your keys and money
and you’re going to be standing there
watching your truck drive away. I’ve
not seen a kidnapping like this in a
while.”
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Items lay in the road after being thrown from a Ford
Ranger when it was hit and flipped over at the intersection
of FM 2818 and Wellborn Road at 6:15 p.m. Thursday.
A&M Consolidated High School junior T.J. Brooks hit the
Al.ISSA HOLLIMON * THE BATTALION
truck when he failed to yield while attempting to make a
left turn onto Welborn in his red 2-door coupe. The driver
and passenger of the truck were taken to the College
Station Medical Center with minor injuries.
RHA, Hart officers
charged with hazing
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
The vice president of the Residence
Hall Association (RHA) and other resi
dence hall student leaders may be ousted
from their positions for their involve
ment in an alleged hazing incident, but
the students are condemning the
University’s proceedings as a sham trial
rigged against them.
Student Conflict Resolution Services
meted out sanctions this week to Eric
D’Olive, RHA vice president for adminis
tration, Jennifer Caballero, the president
of Hart Hall, Rashaun Fontenot, Hart’s
vice president, and at least four other Hart
residents for hazing freshman Clayton
Whittle, who also lives in Hart.
The students were given conduct pro
bation, which according to A&M student
rules places them “not in good standing
with the University” and ineligible to hold
office in any student organization. Whittle
received hall probation, which is a warn
ing that a student is in violation of resi
dence hall rules. All are appealing the
decision.
The charges, D’Olive said, stem from a
Sept. 16 incident in which he and others
duct taped Whittle to a swivel chair and
tried to spin him around until he vomited,
an activity D’Olive and Whittle character
ized as friendly horseplay.
A group of Hart residents had gone to
Sbisa Dining Hall to eat dinner together,
and Whittle ate 18 Push-Pops to break the
unofficial Hart Hall record. To hold the
record, a student must not throw up after
wards, D’Olive said, and so he and others
playfully attempted to make Whittle throw
up when they had returned to Hart.
Outside, in plain view, D’Olive said,
they tried to tie Whittle to the swivel chair.
Whittle said the prank was random and
harmless.
“We were all joking, and I just wish I’d
had my camera,” said Whittle, a business
major.
Matt Fuller, the Hart director, came
outside and stopped the activity, D’Olive
said. After speaking briefly with the par
ticipants, Fuller wrote an incident report
which he submitted to University officials.
The report, D’Olive and other participants
maintain, is full of gross inaccuracies and
fabrications, especially its assertion that
hall leadership had made a tradition of
making students who broke the Push-pop
record vomit.
“It is in no way a tradition,” said
D’Olive, a senior international studies
major.
Fuller could not be reached for com
ment Thursday.
According to University rules, hazing
is defined as “any act that endangers the
mental or physical health or safety of a
student for the purpose of initiation,
admission into, affiliation with, or as a
condition for continued membership in a
group or organization.”
Each student was questioned individu
ally, D’Olive said. After interrogating a
student, the hearing officers deliberated
for a few minutes and then handed down
the sentence, without having talked to the
other students, D’Olive said.
“Because of our positions we got
nailed to the wall,” D’Olive said.
Michael Collins, director of Student
Conflict Resolution Services, could not be
reached for comment.
Kristin Harper, associate director of the
Department of Student Life, said she was
not familiar with this case, but said the stu
dent disciplinary process is intended to be
an open dialogue between students and
hearing officers.
“We want to sit down with students and
discuss what happened and why it
See RHA on page 2
Soderberg named freshman
class president in runoff
By Sarah Walch
the battalion
Gram Soderberg was named freshman
Thursday night after a
cram '?* ect ' on and a computer error
datA u arnoun t of time the candi-
es had to poll.
put f er a Shtch last week in the com-
Scxbh^ 0 ^ 1111 t ^ iat tabulates votes,
for„ r er £ an d James Lloyd campaigned
annA^ 0Slt ' on w hich had mistakenly been
bounced as filled.
main! er ^ er §’. a business administration
out nf W ° n w hh 577 votes, or 69 percent,
medirN t0ta * voters. Freshman bio-
255 vnt sc ' ences major Lloyd received
otcs, or 31 percent.
hapDenedT^ Hke to a P ol °g ize Cot what
Pectin aSt f lrne ’ ’ ta'd Erin Eckhart,
Rv rw Cornrn i ss ioner and junior biolo-
grani . We have reviewed the pro-
the Se a ' e com Pl ete ly confident that
annnnr, are tke correct results we are
nn ouncin g tonight.”
iieshmQ 1 ^ 6 ! 1 ^ sa ‘^ he is thankful the
“It- n c l ass has put its trust in him.
said 4 8reat honor to be elected,” he
pajgns- C ran incredible cam-
Sa ^ that since both oppo-
Histakp 61 ^ no hhed last Friday after the
"'astho Was discovered, the loss of time
tame for both opponents.
“I would have started campaigning
sooner, but we did both find out on the
same day,” Soderberg said.
He said he will decide on the T-shirt
design and start the freshman class fund
raiser within the next month.
• Lloyd said campaigning was a good
experience.
“There are many other ways to be
involved,” Lloyd said. I am definitely
going to be active in student
government. This campaign
was a great opportunity to
meet people.”
General studies major Ben
Steed won freshman vice pres
ident with 572 votes, or 70 per
cent. History major Cinnamon
Hodges received 250 votes, or
30 percent.
Steed said he would focus
on promoting the class.
“I was pretty confident in
my campaign,” he said. "I
worked pretty hard, and I real
ly met a lot of people.”
General studies major Lear
Bowling won freshman social
secretary with 516 votes, or 64
percent, and general studies
major Joey Boggs won fresh-
class historian with 447
man
votes, or 55 percent.
Alissa Hollimon •THE BATTALION
Grant Soderberg (top) waits with freshman general studies major
Ben Steed for freshmen election runoff results Thursday night in
the Academic Plaza. Soderberg hugs freshman Greg Kay, a fresh
man business major, after learning he is the new freshman class
president.
Overseas day to educate
on traveling abroad
By Lecia Baker
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M’s Study Abroad Program Office will host
“Overseas Day” today in the Flag Room and main hallway of the
Memorial Student Center (MSC) to educate students of the
University’s international opportunities.
“The primary purpose of Overseas Day is to promote the Texas
A&M Study Abroad faculty-led program,” said assistant director
Cathy Schutt.
The event enables students to shop around and talk with facul
ty to become aware of the different international locations avail
able, Schutt said.
A&M cannot fulfill all of the internationally bound students’
requests to study abroad. For this reason, Schutt said the office has
invited other programs outside the University to participate in
Overseas Day and offer students additional opportunities.
Schutt said students can also get information on student loans,
international health risks, international student ID cards and other
assistance and necessities for studying abroad.
“Students can travel overseas and remain in their comfort zone
with their friends and Texas A&M faculty,” she said. “Then they
will feel more comfortable traveling the world on their own.”
Along with completing classes and internships, most students
have the opportunity to travel to several cities or countries while
they are abroad.
“Vision 2020 states that all A&M students will have an interna
tional experience before they graduate,” Schutt said.
Schutt said this is an excellent time for students to study abroad
because they can receive financial assistance while at A&M.
The main events will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but addi
tional presentations will take place at 3:30 p.m. in Rudder Tower
to inform students of programs outside the University.