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
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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.”
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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