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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2004)
lOK u« ial :rs The ne 110 • Issue S7 • 12 pages Monday, February 9, 2004 \ Texas A&IM Tradition Since 1893 Sports: Aggie swimmers have impressive weekend. Page 7 www.thebatt.com PAGE DESIGN BY : LAUREN ROUSE MSG hosts Silent Witness program , That id, otsurt I By Natalie Younts THE BATTALION Afire early Sunday morning destroyed tie Olive Garden on Texas Avenue. Ik fire probably started in the Mm vent hood, said Battalion Fire Mfed Rapczyk of the College Station FwTepartment. The fire is still being invtstipted. Rapczyk said CSFD was informed of the fiftal5a.m because the smoke in the build ing M set off the sprinklers, which activat ed a water-flow alarm. The alarm company :d the fire department, which sent tlruck to investigate. That unit immedi- < ES |P BEATO III • THE BATTALION like Ruesink of the College Station Fire Department operates a ladder at the Olive Garden restaurant on Texas Avenue College Station firefighters iponded to a call at 5:05 a m. Feb 8 The incident is still under investigation. Fire destroys Olive Garden ately called for backup. Rapczyk said. Thirty-five firefighters with 10 trucks spent three hours putting the fire out, Rapczyk said. Robin Burt, the general manager, said the entire roof caved in and most of the equipment was destroyed, either by the fire or the damage from the building col lapsing. "It’s like losing your home,” she said. “I don’t think we could salvage a thing out of there.” Burt said another Olive Garden will most likely he built in College Station, although it could take a year. "Whether we rebuild on that site or choose one that’s maybe a little bit better than that one remains to be decided." she said. Burt said she has 100 employees at the store. "I have a great wonderful team of employees, and knowing that it’s going to be very hard to survive this all the way until we get rebuilt and repaying every one of them,” she said. “That’s very painful, too." Burt said she will probably give them two more weeks worth of pay and work hard to place them in other local restaurants or See Fire on page 2 By Pammy Ramji THE BATTALION More than 100 women in Texas were murdered in 2002 as a result of domestic vio lence and, of those, more than 15 were within 50 miles of the Brazos Valley, with one reported in the Bryan- College Station area, said Christy Elliston, a training specialist at Phoebe’s Home, a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Elliston said she wants to get the word out about Silent Witness National Initiative, a pro gram founded in 1990 by a group of women upset about the growing number of Minnesota women murdered by their partners or acquaintances. The women created free standing, life- sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who worked, had neighbors, friends, family or children, whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-hus band. partner or acquaintance, Elliston said. These figures are called witnesses. They started with 26 fig ures in 1990, and today there are an estimated 3,500 witness es across the 50 states and in 27 countries. A group of representatives from several law enforcement organizations and Texas Rep. Fred Brown will be on hand for the presentation of the Silent Witness project Monday at noon in at Memorial Student Center Flag Room. During the presentation, 16 life-sized red figures will be on hand to stand as silent witness es to domestic violence. Each figure will have a sign indicat ing the name and a brief story of the victim it represents. "This is a very serious issue that everyone needs to learn about, it should not be taken lightly,” said Ehsan Azizi, a junior finance major. Elliston said women need a strong support system of fami ly and friends so one does not feel isolated, which would help lower the num ber of domestic violence instances. "The goal of the Silent Witness pro gram is to have zero domestic violence deaths by 2010,” said Sara Bendoraitis, a graduate assis- tant for Gender Issues Education Services. “A fight can start out as an argument and turn out to be very serious.” Currently, there are no Silent Witnesses in the Brazos Valley area. Bendoraitis said people need to leam more about domestic violence and they need to know the warning signs. Texas A&M will hold a walk March 8-11, Elliston said. Elliston said the celebration embraces the institution’s commitment to the inclusion, welcome, and support of indi viduals from all groups, encompassing the various characteristics of people in our community. U -nv • This is a very serious issue that everyone needs to leam about it should not be taken lightly. — Ehsan Azizi junior finance major olood drive falls short of expected quota f L0 °? W0ES 1 X Alpha Phi Omega spons< By James Twine THE BATTALION n Brozovic, a junior animal science major, lid lie donates blood every chance he gets. “If I can help by donating then that's what I Mttodo,” he said. "You never know what might ippen.” :ovic said he was inspired to donate blood fliisgrandfather, who made donating blood into blthy family competition to see who of the two oidonate more blood. la Phi Omega, a service fraternity, spon- »ted a campus blood drive Feb. 4-6 with the assis- ttce of Carter Blood Care, but did not meet its »alof800 units. Jeromy Parker, a phlebotomist for Carter Blood re,saidthe drive collected only 70 units of blood of late Thursday. The donations from the first of the two blood drives that Alpha Phi Omega hosts each semester help serve parts of Northern and Central Texas, Parker said. Parker said many people depend on blood donations, from people who have blood related diseases such as leukemia to people who need emergency organ transplants, bone marrow transplants, heart sur gery patients, burn victims and automobile acci dent victims. However, Parker said blood supply levels are not at a critical level at this time, but that that could change at any time. “Accidents, emergencies and disasters can occur at any time, and these are the times when levels become depleted,” Parker said. “You never know when someone needs blood.” Jacqui Bourland, president of Alpha Phi Omega, said she was disappointed with the turnout, but said other blood drives may have been a factor. Blood donors can only donate blood every 56 days because it takes about a month for the body to replace the pint of blood donat ed, Parker said. Bourland said only 3 percent of the Texas population donates blood, putting the state in a position to import blood from elsewhere, which is a costly process. “Donating blood is necessary and important, you never know who is going to need it, you never know when you are going to need it,” Bourland said. Even though the expected goal was not reached, Bourland said she was not discouraged. “You can not be disappointed with any result of a blood drive, every bit helps,” she said. Bourland said Alpha Phi Omega will be co sponsoring another blood drive with American Red Cross April 12-16. Alpha Phi Omega sponsored a blood drive Feb. 4-6. The goal was to collect 800 pints of blood. As of Thursday, only 70 pints were collected. Only 3 percent of the population of Texas donates blood. At crucial times, the state must import blood from out-of-state, which can be costly. MAHESH NEELAKANTAN • THE BATTALION SOURCE : CARTER BLOOD CARE Panel discusses challenges acing women in academics ly Anthony Woolstrum THE BATTALION Allhough women have made great fc toward equality in academic :(es, women are still discriminated inst in different fashions, said a ioup of women administrators and Kulty members who gathered Friday (discuss challenges that women face i academia. A five-member panel of women itiinistrators met in the Faculty Club id discussed tips on how women can in the academic community, panel consisted of Patricia ■arke, professor of teaching, learning ; Mary Jo Richardson, inter- idean of the College of Geosciences; iaren Kubena, associate dean of Sciences; Valerie Taylor; and . Maldonado, associate dean (fie College of Engineering. They said a new mind set is devel oping that sees higher education and administration as much of a woman's job as a man's. The situation is just improving slower than in other profes sional communities. The panelists emphasized how they kept their per sonal lives separate from their profes sional lives. "Networking is exceedingly impor tant," Richardson said. Larke said encouragement from her family and church friends was crucial to her ongoing success. Even with a strong network, when there are not many women in a department, some women say they still feel alone. "The academic culture is very tradi tional and very political," Maldonado said. "You're going to fail, just learn from it." See Panel on page 2 46 th Annual Grammy AWARDS Record of the Year Coldplay “Clocks” Album of the Year Outkast “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” Song of the Year Luther Vandross, Beyonce big winners at Grammys Luther Vandross “Dance With My Father” Best New Artist Evanescence For the complete list of winners visit www.thehatt.com RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE : WWW.GRAMMY.COM By Nekesa Mumbi Moody THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Balladeer Luther Vandross, recovering from a stroke, won four Grammys on Sunday including song of the year for “Dance With My Father,” and Beyonce earned a record-tying five honors. OutKast won album of the year for "SpeakerBoxxx/The Love Below” in a ceremony televised by CBS on a five-minute delay to avoid anything like Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flesh flash. Despite a tightly scripted show devoid of outrageousness or spon taneity — a marked contrast to today’s pop scene — Jackson’s breast-baring at the hands of dance partner Justin Timberlake remained the major subplot, as CBS and Jackson offered conflicting reports about why she was not at the show. “1 know it’s been a rough week on everybody,” said Timberlake, stifling a self-deprecating laugh while accepting the best male pop vocal performance award for “Cry Me a River.” He brought his moth er as his date. “What occurred was unintentional, completely regret table, and I apologize if you guys are offended.” Vandross won for best song, best R&B album and best male R&B performance for “Dance With My Father;” and best R&B perform ance by a duo or group with vocals for “The Closer I Get to You,” a remake he did with Beyonce. He was unable to attend, but sent See Grammys on page 2