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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2004)
t" ■ Monday, March 22,2004 The Battalion blume 110 • Issue 112 • 12 pages A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893 AGGIELIFE: Students discuss gambling on campus. Page 3 wvvvv.thebatt.com PAGE DESIGN BY : LAUREN ROUSE &M reviews addiction recovery programs By Natalie Younts THE BATTALION Officials at Texas A&M said ley want to learn more about a Jogram Texas Tech University cre- jed, which helps students who are Jcovering from alcohol and drug Bdiction. Texas Tech received a $250,000 Ideral grant to create a model of its ll-year-old program for students I ^covering from alcohol and drug lidiction that can be replicated by | her universities. The program includes scholar- lips for recovering students and on- |ipiis 12-step meetings and classes addiction, said Kitty Harris, ■rector of the Center for the Study I [Addiction at Texas Tech. "It's not that hard to get sober," Harris said, "It's hard to stay sober." Dennis Reardon, chemical dependency counselor for the A&M Student Counseling Service, said he would like to find out if the program would work at A&M. "We do have a significant issue with alcohol here," he said, "But, whether or not our campus would lend itself to a recovery program, I don’t know." Reardon said the A&M Department of Student Life includes an Alcohol and Drug Education Programs office that provides help with prevention and education, but not recovery. The University of Texas modeled its Center for Students in Recovery, which will open in the fall, after the Texas Tech program. Recovering from chemical depend ency is just like recovering from any other major illness, said Leigh Sebera, health education coordinator with the Alcohol and Drug Education Programs at UT Health Services. "It’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual," Sebera said, "and it requires a lot of support." Students in the Texas Tech and UT programs are required to partici pate in 12-step meetings, which are offered on campus. Although A&M does not offer on- campus 12-step meetings, there are Alcoholics Anonymous groups in the Bryan-College Station community, said Jennifer Ford, program coordi nator for A&M ADEP. The Texas Tech and UT pro grams also include classes on addiction and recovery. Students at Texas Tech take Seminar in Recovery, a one-credit hour academic course, every semester. Students at UT must complete Recovery 101, a three- credit hour course. Reardon said he wants students to have the best possible experiences while A&M, and that alcohol and other drugs can hinder that. "It’s important for a person to be able to deal with alcohol and drug issues for their future," he said, "When they leave here, we want them to be good employees, good supervisors, good citizens and good family members. The abuse of alcohol See Addiction on page 2 RECOVERY AMO ADDICTION 101 Texas A&M officials want to look into alcohol and drug recovery programs recently implemented at other Texas universities. Texas Tech Center for the Study of Addiction • Received $250,000 grant to create a model of its program Center for Students in Recovery • Will be implemented in Fall 2004 Both programs include a 12-step meeting process, which students are required to participate in. RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE : CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ADDICTION, CENTER FOR STUDENTS IN RECOVERY :s |p ttWOi [ : DJS Til fc s S250i| IP! 4W! ‘fits, gel)* nshed.® ’! S325-! noeadi 9-525# do: table If ::2ta M m. l# large ietf ,e. $320« ainviea, acobaift Hoa& : Free Kao mate & 1-7149 shuiT' 1/3bfe Springtime EVAN O'CONNELL • THE BATTALION luryear-old Jessica Bates runs among the daffodils Ik) tulips at the Dallas Arboretum. The 66-acre garden is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Dallas Blooms Festival, the southwest's largest outdoor floral festival. Prof developing new way to test blood sugar levels By Elizabeth Knapp THE BATTALION Gerard Cote, graduate adviser for biomedical engineering and associate professor at Texas A&M , is in the process of developing new ways to test blood sugar levels in patients with type two diabetes. Type two diabetes is where the hormone insulin is in short supply in the body so it is dif ficult to convert sugar into energy. Cote said the current method to check blood sugar, the finger prick blood test, is not sufficient since there are few people who like needles, He said he came up with the idea to implant particles underneath the skin that would fluoresce in the presence of glucose and could be monitored with an “external watch-type of device.” “Once implanted, the monitoring is totally non-invasive so the patient will be able to moni tor very frequently and adjust their levels throughout the day,” Cote said. “There is even the potential to wear it at night, and an alarm would trigger if the person’s glucose went too low, which has immediate detrimental consequences if action is not taken.” Cote said he came up with the idea at a con ference. “One of the key note speakers, Rox Anderson, was talking about laser tattoo removal and said ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have a tattoo that actually did something, like a smart tattoo instead of dumb ink particles?’” Cote said. “So, I thought about it, and together with chemical engineering faculty member, Michael Pishko, the three of us wrote a patent on the idea to the National Science Foundation.” The idea is being tested on animals and will hopefully be available to diabetic patients in a minimum of five years, Cote said. “My dad has diabetes, and 1 watch him make a face every time that he tests his blood sugar levels and has to prick his finger,” said junior psychol ogy major Christine Horton. “I really think that this new alternative will be much more pleasant for patients and will get the same job done.” No More Needles An associate professor at TAMU is developing new ways to test blood sugar levels for patients with type two diabetes. • Will implant particles beneath the skin that would detect the presence of glucose and would be monitored by an external device • An alarm would trigger if a person’s blood sugar went low • Will be available to patients in five years RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE : GERARD COTE, GRADUATE ADVISER FOR BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING According to the American Diabetes Association, 18.2 million people, or about 6.3 percent of the total population in the United States had diabetes in the year 2002, which was the sixth leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2000. With the many diabetic patients out there, Cote said he hopes his non-invasive idea will help avoid or put off long-term complications of diabetes. “It seems to me that this new innovation would make the life of a diabetic patient easier since it would be less complicated and nearly painless,” said senior political science major Justin Wisdom. “They would not have to deal with the expenses and the complications of prick ing their finger every day.” is ava :E -» bus 33. ■■ ! W Aggie football players ; Arrested on alcohol charges FiiSS rer ^ offices •y law J SIX)* Two Texas A&M football players were charged with ^ Iriving while intoxicated and jublic intoxication after shouting racial slurs at pas sengers at a Whataburger on m l Rock Prairie Road March 15, according to a press release. arCoins’i Geoff Hangartner, a jun- or starting at center, was arrested after failing a field iobriety test, and his passen ger, Cole Smith, a sopho more on the offensive line, was ticketed for public intoxication. Police were called to the fast food restaurant at about 1 a.m. where employees said white males in the drive- were shouting racial slurs at blacks in a car in front of the SUV they were driving, according to the Bryan- College Station Eagle. Witnesses said one of the men got out of the SUV HANGARTNER _C0IDi and yelled at the driv er of the car. Lt. Mark Langwell, public infor mation offi cer for the College Station Police Department, said it was not clear which foot ball player got out of the car. Police followed the car to a home on Normand Street where Hangartner was arrested. Nine members of the A&M football team have been arrested since the fall semes ter started. SMITH New program gives ‘VIP’ view of campus By Aerin Toussaint THE BATTALION High school students who have been admitted to Texas A&M but have not toured the campus will get the chance to see the place they will make their new home. The Very Important Prospect program caters to stu dents who have been admitted to A&M, but never had the opportunity to visit the cam pus, and gives them the chance to have a personal look at what A&M is really like, said Frank Ashley, acting assistant provost of admissions. A&M’s Chief of Staff Rodney McClendon said he is impressed by the prospective students who have been visiting A&M as part of the program. Students who visit A&M as part of this program have a mature outlook on who they want to be and how A&M can help them in the pursuit of their goals, McClendon said. McClendon said that as soon as students arrive on cam pus, they are greeted by some one from the president’s office. The students receive a tour of the campus, a chance to visit with faculty members from their prospective colleges and meet with financial aid coun selors and admissions staff. These students are brought to A&M through A&M’s Regional Prospective Student Centers, which are located in Dallas, San Antonio and Weslaco. Plans are underway for other recruitment centers to open in Houston, Laredo, El Paso, Corpus Christi and East Texas and Panhandle locations, Ashley said. See VIP on page 2 Investigators search for bomb assembly area By Andrew Selsky THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MADRID, Spain — Investigators searched Sunday for the place used to assemble the backpack bombs that blew apart four train ears during morning rush hour earlier this month, killing 202 people and wounding more than 1,400. Spain still grieves after the March 11 attacks. Thousands of people, including Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, crowded the platform of El Pozo train sta tion — where one train was bombed — for a funeral Mass. The Rev. Jose Manuel Peco urged mourners to “reflect upon what we are going through, and reflect upori our capacity for forgiveness and reconcilia tion,” the news agency Efe reported. With seven Moroccans, two Indians and a Spaniard in custody, investigators focused on where the bombs were assembled. An estimated 220 pounds of explosives were used for the bombs, which were stuffed into bags and detonated by cell phones. Ten bombs exploded, and four others failed to detonate. One was taken apart and provided clues that led police to suspects. “We’re now looking for the place where the bombs were put together,” an See Investigators on page 2