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THURSDAYJANUARY 24, 2002
VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 79
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CHINA
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
\IEPAL
Calcutta
Alumni to
y give Bonfire
^edback
Shootout; #
the U S.
governs
building it
three men
dead
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
he it a'
>n polic
porizinj
e facts
iran,
eavy
i Jaff
i arte __
I they fell.
; eumnan
la/ed Pres; former students now have an oppor-
un ty to provide feedback on the
M -Iki evimped 2002 Aggie Bonfire at an
it u inline survey sponsored by The
^^^Hociation of Former Students.
■he Association will analyze the
Bouses and send a report to A&M
Kident Dr. Ray M. Bowen, who is
■ected to decide Feb. 8 whether
will burn next fall,
survey to gauge the attitudes of current
S Bents toward Bonfire was completed last
1 and the results were released Tuesday.
| Q^jlPf §l ie Association’s survey, accessible
^ trough its Website, w'ww.aggienet-
^^■k.com. is open to the public and asks
■- ;sf indents whether they support the
svi inped tradition with its strict safety
^ matures and whether they are willing to
upport Bonfire financially. Bonfire
>.*■2 could cost as much as $2 million,
ut the price tag of future Bonfires will
e between $500,000 to $750,000, said
tonfire 2002 Steering Committee
Coordinator Dr. Bryan Cole.
B'he survey also asks respondents to
ank Bonfire against other programs The
Hociation supports, such as the Aggie
hurtandn l ani1 . student scholarships and the sup-
treated for-* 011 f un d for Reveille,
least 20 peopkfWormer students can also vote for
vhich of one of three potential stack
o run away.Mesigns they prefer. In the student survey,
succeeded in non than 95 percent voted for the wed-
aid Jerusalen ling cake-like structure, and Cole said
hat is the design the steering committee
villi recommend to Bowen. All logs touch
Ini’round, but are cut to different lengths
bra multi-level appearance,
jarhe survey also allows alumni respon-
... j-, Jent^ a space to provide additional com-
gJ^jnjjients. The survey will be open until mid-
™^Bt .Ian. 27, and the results will be posted
02 ^ JpBhe Association's Website Jan. 31.
ntu
for.
the area
.* number
scene,
id si
fhere was
rifle is in
acuated."
Rock and a hard place
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALIOInT
Senior history major Emily Arakelian scratches an Wednesday morning. Scratches on the glass will
unidentified rock on a small plate of glass during a help determine the hardness of the rock and help
geology lab in Halbouty Geosciences Building on identify it.
^A&M ranked 10th in nation’s design schools
G? The Hiltc
9:00 p.m.
Oxford Street)
0:00 p.m.
p Ten USi-rankings for
Cornell University
Harvard University
University of Cincinnati
Syracuse University
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan
Iowa State University
University of Illinois
University of Virginia
0. Texas A&M University &
Yale University
tm At manat or rmto*
ADRIAN CALCANEO • THE BATTALION
By Carol Treece
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M's College of
Architecture was No. 10 in the
Almanac of Architecture and Design’s
annual survey of the nation’s top
design schools.
A&M tied with Yale University. No
other Texas school made the list.
The survey asked 3,000 U.S. design
professionals to name schools from the
1 1 1 architecture programs currently
accredited by the National Architectural
Accrediting Board that best prepared
their students to be successful in the
architectural profession. The respon
dents were asked to answer based on
their experience over the last 10 years.
“Though there are many outstand
ing design schools that did not make
the list, the relevance of the surveys
cannot easily be dismissed,” said J.
Thomas Regan, dean of the College
of Architecture.
“The rankings amount to a cus
tomer satisfaction survey from the
industry that will help A&M recruit
faculty and students and increase the
size of the college’s career fairs,”
Regan said.
Among the factors considered in
the survey are study abroad pro
grams, opportunities for practical
design experience and a low teacher-
student ratio.
A&M advanced from No. 15 in the
Almanac’s 2001 top design list. Dr.
Philip Tabb, head of the architecture
department, said this was caused by
the school’s study abroad programs in
Italy, Spain, Guatemala and Mexico.
The college is in the process of
designing a more structured work
study program.
“Texas A&M’s isolated location in a
small city like College Station allows
professors to focus full time on their
classes, rather than working on design
projects,” Tabb said. A&M has the
largest architecture doctorate program
in the nation, with an enrollment of 60
students.
The Almanac of Architecture and
Design is an annual reference book
for professionals in all areas of the
architecture industry.
3w! SCS offers academic support groups for students
By Melissa Sullivan
rench pi THE battalion
ncina P^ r Students experiencing academic diffi-
y E jiilties are offered counseling programs
f the WOHat teach study skills, stress-combat
lauaae nll> chnit l ues > and may increase student
^ ^ « rade-point ratios higher than a 2.0.
g plus W Tl le Student Counseling Service
ffeis two academic support groups this
imester open to all students — the
LCademic Survival series, which begins
b. 19 after the first round of exams, and
demies Anonymous, which begins
in. 30 with an emphasis on study strate-
ies. Both programs will run until April.
P“These groups are aimed at students
who are suffering from inconsistent
performance, whether that be academ
ic probation, or probation from a stu
dent organization,” said Patti Collins,
professional counselor for SCS.
Academic Survival is used in the fall
as an aid for freshmen in the transition
from high school to college.
“Both of these nine-week sessions
focus on areas students have had the
most trouble with in the past, including
student motivation, attitude, study skills,
and exam-day anxiety,” Collins said.
“We try to find a student’s weaknesses
as well as their strengths and target
them,” Collins said.
Each session has students setting
academic goals and sharing success
with the group. The programs also pro
vide students with academic advisers
We try to find a student’s
weaknesses as well as their
strengths and target them.
— Patti Collins
professional counselor for SCS
and options for students who are strug
gling with their studies.
“The College of Education requires
that a student on‘academic probation
take four learning skills courses offered
by the SCS, as well as complete a
Learning Certificate Program,” said
Vida Wilhelm, director of recruitment
of Academic Services.
“Several kids took the sessions and
quite a few learned a lot, found them
very beneficial and pulled their GPR
well over 2.0,” Wilhelm said.
Though not every college requires
students on academic probation to
complete the programs, Collins said
she suggests Academic Survival to stu
dents who feels their grades are lower
than expected.
S on A.&M receives grant for birth defect research
JJL
By Tanya Nading
THE BATTALION
KA $5.6 million research grant to
he Texas A&M Health Science
Center’s Institute of Biosciences and
fechnology could save billions of
ollars in health care costs for new-
')orns with heart defects — and could
iave lives.
The grant for research of congenital
heart defects in infants, from the
National Institute of Health, is shared by
the institute, the University of Nebraska
Medical Center and the California Birth
Defects Monitoring Program.
The three teams will use different
methods in an attempt to determine the
relationship between heart defects.
drugs, environmental exposures and
vitamin deficiencies in human babies.
The research team, led by Dr.
Richard H. Finnell, director of the insti
tute, will study mice that have under
gone genetic engineering to alter their
susceptibility to congenital defects.
“We take molecular approaches to
modify the mice so they are unable to
take in folic acid on their own,” Finnell
said. “This modification causes the
mice to give birth to babies that have
heart defects.”
Finnell’s team will then attempt to
correct the problem with extensive
quantities of vitamins to the mice, hop
ing to correct the birth defect problem.
See Research on page 2
Faculty
reviews
SACS
standing
By Emily Peters
THE BATTALION
A team of faculty is busy com
piling data that an outside commit
tee will review in April to determine
if Texas A&M will be re-accredited
with the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools.
The association is the recognized
regional accrediting body for higher
education in 11 U.S. Southern states.
A&M is currently accredited,
but an updated review is required
every 10 years.
Dr. Arthur M. Hobbs, a mathe
matics professor and a member of
the University’s re-accreditation
effort, said accreditation means
the University was formally
reviewed and verified as a legiti
mate institution.
“They examine a roomful of
material and certify that we are
doing the job people expect from a
university like ours, and that we are
not a university more focused on
research than students,” he said.
Accreditation is vital to a school
because many government and pri
vate funding agencies will not
grant funds to unaccredited univer
sities, Hobbs said.
“They want to make sure we
aren’t a fly-by-night place that
hands out diplomas with no expec-
tation from qur students.’’ he :>uL
Accreditation is based on both
the university’s compliance with
current standards and strategic plans
for the future, like Vision 2020.
A&M’s last re-accreditation was
in 1993, but the University was
invited to conduct this review early
to take part in a pilot program with
nine other colleges to restructure
the accreditation process.
The University’s self-review
process usually takes three years,
with a roomful of paper for the
review committee to go through
during a campus visit, Hobbs said.
“The process was very time-con
suming with enormous expendi
tures of effort by a lot of people,”
Hobbs said.
This year, A&M was the first uni
versity to submit its report online,
significantly simplifying the system.
The revised program has two
stages. The university compiles the
information to send to an off-site
See SACS on page 2