Texas A St M University
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; 04 ! " YEAR • ISSUE 102 • 10 PAGES
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TODAY
TOMORROW
COLLEGE STATION • TX
TUESDAY • MARCH 3 • 1998
esidence halls to undergo 9 percent increase
By Amanda Smith
| Staff writer
Students planning to live on campus this
1 can expect a nine percent increase in
eir room rent. The largest increase is in
tlities expenses, which accounts for 56
[rcent of the increase.
Ron Sasse, Department of Residence Life
bee tor, said the increase is part of a series
jim reases designed to tmlance the de-
[rtment budget.
“At the time we took over the depart
ment, we were $1 million in the red,” Sasse
said. “We developed a fiscal plan to have in
come expenses met by the end of fiscal year
1998, which is this August. We are on target
to meet that goal.”
A nine percent increase for fiscal year
1999, which runs from September 1998 to
August 1999, will follow after this year’s in
crease. Rates increased 9.5 percent in 1997,
which included a student-initiated increase
of over 4.5 percent for cable TV and ethernet.
Jason Taylor, a senior RHA member and
a a senior recreation, parks and tourism sci
ence major, said the rent increase impacts
students wanting to live on campus.
“It seems like we got hit,” Taylor said. “The
increase is a lot to be hit with at one time.”
The average student lives on campus for
the nine-month academic year for about
$2,150, Sasse said. On-campus residents do
not pay separate utility bills, phone instal
lation fees, cable fees and service or trans
portation costs.
The average cost of off-campus housing
is about $480 per month, which does not in
clude the additional costs of housing ex
penses, according to a spring 1998 report
released by Off Campus Student Services.
Texas A&M on-campus residents pay the
fifth-highest rate to live on campus com
pared to other Big 12 universities, accord
ing to an A&M report.
Occupancy rates, the percentages of stu
dents living in residence halls, affect bud
get estimates by the Department of Resi
dence Life, Sasse said.
“The residence hall budget has typically
been built on actual occupancy, which has
been very high,” Sasse said. “Our 10-year
average is over 100 percent. We are trying to
slowly lower the percentage that we use to
build the budget. We have to reduce income
to do this and we need all the income we
have to make the budget work right now.”
Please see Increase on Page 2.
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Upward Lam, a freshman electrical engineering major, works on lettering at the Hong Kong exhibit for International Week in the MSC Monday.
ousing renewals made easy
•epartment of Residence Life introduces website, simplifies process
By Amanda Smith
Staff writer
Today is the last day stu-
bnts living in residence halls
In renew their contracts over
|e Internet.
Mack Thomas, an associate
rector of the Department of
bsidence Life and head of
msing Assignments, said al-
ig students to renew con-
icts electronically provides
►nvenience.
“It allows students the oppor-
Inity to fill out the form work at
jeir leisure,” Thomas said. “It
?o allows the Department, of
bsidence Life to avoid mistakes
reading and entering the forms.”
Thomas said students can
make changes to their contract
renewals at any time during the
renewal period.
The deadline for final
changes is April 1 but students
must directly contact the De
partment of Residence Life.
“Due to wide access, the elec
tronic contract renewal will al
low students to make changes
without going back through a gi
ant paper system,” Thomas said.
“At the same time that it will
allow us to survey work, it won’t
allow the students to make
choices that waste efforts.”
Hall residents will receive
pamphlets from the Depart
ment of Residence Life to ex
plain the procedure to follow
when renewing the contract
over the Internet.
Once students hook up to the
website, then they click on a
contract renewal icon.
Students enter their student
identification number and
birthdate to access the system
that allows selection of resi
dence hall, roommate and re
lated preferences.
Thomas said the Depart
ment of Residence Life expects
the first electronic contract re
newal to run with little or no
technical difficulties.
Students with access to the
Internet can access the pro
gram from their dorm rooms.
“Any students capable of run
ning on the Web with Netscape 3
or 4 or with Internet Browser 3 or
4 should be able to renew their
contracts from their rooms,”
Thomas said. “That covers about
99 percent of students with In
ternet access.
“Others can log on at the li
brary, the computer labs or at
the Department of Residence
Life. It is important for stu
dents to print and read a copy
of their housing contracts.”
Please see Dorms on Page 2.
By Susan E. Atchison
Staff writer
Aggie engineers have once again set a
national standard for excellence, according
to one recent magazine report.
Texas A&M’s petroleum engineering
program is ranked first in U.S. News &
World Report’s 1998 annual rankings of
America’s best graduate schools.
“Aggies have been leading the way in en
ergy development, not just in Texas, but
also in the world, as long as that industry
has existed,” said Jim Ashlock, executive di
rector of University Relations.
Dr. Roland Haden, vice chancellor and
dean of engineering, said the ranking reaf
firms the school’s credibility.
“We’ve been ranked number one for
some time, and it’s good to see that we con
tinue to he,” Haden said.
Haden cited a number of reasons he
thinks A&M’s petroleum engineering pro
gram received the number one ranking.
He said the strength of the faculty and the
number of faculty in the National Acade
my of Engineering probably played a role
in the ranking,
Haden also Cited A^M’s membership
in the Global Petroleum Research Insti
tute, a partnership with eight of the
world’s largest oil companies, including
Exxon and Texaco.
Dr. Bud Peterson, executive associate
dean of engineering, credited the faculty
with the success of A&M’s petroleum engi
neering program.
“We have a fine faculty who are very
closely tied to the petroleum industry,” Pe-
U.S. News
terson said. “They are not only doing an
outstanding job in the preparation of both
undergraduate and graduate students, but
are also actively involved in some leading-
edge research activities.”
Dr. Dan Robertson, executive director of
the Office of Graduate Studies, said he is
pleased with the ranking from a recruit
ment perspective.
“Rankings play a major role in the deci
sion of prospecti ve students in where they
go to school,” Robertson said. “Usually this
kind of recognition will be followed by an
‘ increase in the number of applications re
ceived from around the nation.”
The March 2 issue of U.S. News & World
Report ranks the nation’s graduate schools
in business, law, medicine, health educa
tion, engineering and public affairs. Texas
A&M is ranked 21st out of the top 25 schools
of engineering. Among engineering spe
cialties, A&M is ranked 8th in nuclear engi
neering and 7th in industrial/manufactur
ing engineering.
Prof released on $4,000 bond
By Amanda Smith
Staffwriter
A tenured Texas A&M
professor was arrested and
released on $4,000 bond on
two felony counts that
charge him with misappro
priating state funds for per
sonal financial gain.
Dhiraj Pradhan was in
dicted at a Brazos County
grand-jury hearing on the
two felony counts on Feb. 26.
A trial date has not been set,
District Attorney Bill Turner
said Friday. TUrner could not
be reached for comment
Monday evening.
Pradhan said he hopes to
avoid a trial.
“I am hoping that this does
not go to trial,” Pradhan said.
“This indictment will have a
drilling effect on the faculty.”
Pradhan faces accusa
tions of misusing between
$1,500 and $20,000 of state
university funds for his two
businesses, Technology
Transfer Institute and Reli
able Computer Technology.
Travis Bryan, Pradhan’s
criminal defense attorney,
could not be reached for
comment Monday evening.
Pradhan was suspended
with pay in August, as a result
of a separate University audit
that accuses him of misap
propriating $100,000 of Uni
versity funds.
T research links biology
female homosexuality
WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers
^y they have found the first strong evi-
jrlce of a physical difference between
isbians and straight women — a find-
■ that the inner ears of gay women
|oi:k more like those of men.
The discovery adds new support to the
lieory that sexual orientation maybe pre-
isposed before birth,
llirhe origin of ho-
losexuality has long
|een a matter of con-
mtion. Some believe
to be a matter of
loice, but others —
icluding many gay
jeople — say it is not
|hoice but biology.
Jjfln the study to be
published today in the
Bceedings of the Na-
loi ial Academy of Sci-
fnces, researchers at
te University of Texas, said they found the
mer ears of female homosexuals have
|ldergone “masculinization,” probably
pm hormone exposure before birth.
TrTheir auditory centers have been
tiasculinized and the presumption is
pat so have the sites in the brain that di-
leifct sexual preference,” said Dennis Mc-
fadden, the lead author of the study.
| It has yet to be proven, however, that
The research is
compelling and consistent
with the biological origin
of lesbianism.
Dr. Michael Bailey
Northwestern University
there is a specific site in the brain that di
rects women to be lesbians, he said.
Dr. Michael Bailey of Northwestern
University, said the research is “com
pelling” and may be “consistent with the
biological origin of lesbianism.”
“The most likely interpretation,” he
said, “is that this represents some kind of
effect of early hor
mones on the devel
oping fetus.”
Bailey cautioned,
however, that the re
search will not be ac
cepted as valid until
others replicate the
experiment.
To test for differ
ences between the
sexes, the re
searchers recruited
more than 200
adults divided into
four groups: homosexual women and
men, and heterosexual women and
men. Some from each of the four groups
were later identified as bisexual. The sex
ual orientation of the subjects was de
termined by questionnaire.
The results, McFadden said, indicat
ed that lesbians had click-responses that
were significantly weaker than those of
heterosexual women.
20 dead after protests ends
with pohee confrontation
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP)
— Riot police fired water can
nons and tear gas Monday at
tens of thousands of ethnic Al
banians, clubbing them as they
fled into side streets in Pristina.
It was the third day of violent
clashes that some fear could ig
nite broader regional fighting.
Hundreds of policemen wad
ed into a crowd of30,000 ethnic
Albanians protesting the deaths
of compatriots in clashes last
weekend. Those confrontations
claimed at least 20 lives.
The violence in Serbia’s
restive Kosovo province has
alarmed the international com
munity and heightened fears of
a wider conflict in the Balkans.
Serbia is the dominant republic
in what is left of Yugoslavia.
Some worry the clashes
could lead the province into a
war of separation similar to
those in Bosnia and Croatia.
In Washington, State De
partment spokesperson James
P. Rubin condemned the vio
lence and said the ranking U.S.
diplomat in Belgrade has
protested to authorities in Ser
bia and Yugoslavia.
“The United States expects
the Serbian police in Kosovo to
act with maximum restraint,”
Rubin said. “Further state-
sponsored violence would only
deepen Belgrade’s isolation and
dim prospects for the integra
tion of (Yugoslavia) into the in
ternational community.”
Rubin added that U.S. sanc
tions against Belgrade will re
main in place until authorities
there “have taken meaningful
steps to address the legitimate
grievances” of Kosovo’s Alban
ian community.
The United States also has
called on ethnic Albanian lead
ers to condemn actions by the
Kosovo Liberation Army, he said.
Kosovo Albanians, who
make up more than 90 percent
of the province’s 2 million peo
ple, have been pushing for in
dependence from Serbia,
which abolished the province’s
broad autonomy in 1989.
Kosovo province, bordering
Albania and Macedonia, has
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MACEDONIA
GREECE
simmered with violence since
Serbia introduced heavy mili
tary and police rule a decade
ago.
In Brussels, Belgium, the Eu
ropean Union called for in
creased international pressure to
push Yugoslav President Slobo
dan Milosevic into negotiating a
peaceful solution to the crisis.
INSIDE
Adopting a pet
provides students
with a furry friend
who can offer a
lifetime of love.
See Page 3
sports
Women’s Big 12 Basketball
Championship promises
‘March Madness’ preview.
See Page 7
opinion
Lemons: Tradition of polishing
Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue
causes damage, ruins features.
See Page 9
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