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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1998)
WEflTHER Today I N S I Q C Aggielife ... see Page 3 I la ^ I ft# C opinion ...see Page S Tomorrow c h MPg . B 1117 1 flJCi minutes |s showed years ofj | ( 'ncecaii scored Pgoneof! bunds, ai -teamai Corner je re contir, missing! Wonio |121eft,k I with are eft-alt I' to coi [vv a 1 sessioi e Pacert heir lit [ckinsic I Cdp • t re! lour, P« [(ic/i' land ntift iordarft foulecft prowwift Id the' I YEAR • ISSUE 145 • 6 PAGES TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS TOMORROW Sports: Pick-up basketball games at the Student Rec Center serve as a fun and physically com petitive means of exercise during summer school. TUESDAY • JUNE & • 1998 Regents conduct final meeting m Chair Donald E. Powell Vice Chair T. Michael O'Connor Members Robert H. Allen John H. Lindsey Frederick D. McClure Erie Nye M. Guadalupe L. Rangel e Board of Re£er 1HXAS A & M UNIVERSITY New campus water source and acceptance of bids for construction among approved items lien Bit pdvan i iouQt |or a 5-! ] in tlif j In Craig the* solo ho* By Rod Machen Assistant City Editor After the final meeting of the Texas A&M Board of Regents on May 28, the salty state of campus tap water is about to change. During the meeting, the Regents approved a contract with the Brazos River Authority to use water from Lake Limestone as an alternate source to the present ground water supply. The change should improve the quality of water for a campus that uses an average of 8.1 million gallons per day. The Board authorized Chancellor Barry Thompson to take bids to complete the fifth and sixth floors of the Sterling C. Evans Li brary annex. The two floors, which were originally planned to be left unfinished, are expected to be finished by Christmas 1998. In other business, the Board: Authorized the Chancellor to take bids on a renovation of Hensel Street. This area be hind University Apartments will also be equipped with improved street lighting. The project also calls for a parking area for the new child care center scheduled to open in August. Approved a $1.6 billion 1998 budget for the entire Texas A&M University System, a three percent increase from 1997. A&M's share is $684 million. Approved system member Tarleton State University to begin offering upper- and graduate-level classes. The classes will be held at Central Texas College, a community college in Killeen. The University of Central Texas, a private school which had formerly offered upper-level class es at Central Texas College, will transfer its assets to the A&M System. Officials hope the new university will be in operation by fall 1999. leadj Astro*! homtil |nng ul onM le, cha lliagy. Till'd,. ixpansion ns in store for Highway 6 Amber Benson City Editor ■ State Highway 6 from Waco to Houston will be among the j^rstcorridors completed in the Texas Trunk System, due to new Selection criteria adopted by the Texas Transportation Commis sion Thursday in Austin. I The new criteria adopted by the Commission will focus on completing entire corridors by considering projects on a region al basis. Portions of Texas 6, Texas 105, F.M. 1744 from Waco to ■louston and Texas 21 and US 290 from Bryan/College Station |k Austin were selected to be included in the 11 corridors to be |ompleted in the first phase of the project. Highway 6 is an essential ransportation artery which cuts through the heart of Central Texas.” — Steve Ogden Texas State Senator The original list of Phase 1 corridors did not include State lighway 6. By including it and the other highways, the Com- nission has prioritized in excess of $260 million and almost 100 niles of highway construction projects to the area state Senator teveOgden said. "Highway 6 is an essential transportation artery which cuts hrough the heart of Central Texas," Ogden, who petitioned for he roadway known as the 'Aggie Expressway' to be included n the list of priority projects, said. "Most of this region is not erved by an existing interstate-quality road. This is great news." First approved in 1990, the Texas Trunk System is a long- ange plan to upgrade existing roadways into a four-lane, di- ided highway system that includes and complements the in- erstate highway system. According to information provided )y the Texas Department of Transportation, about 3,900 miles )f the Trunk System still need expansion from two lanes to our lanes. Before the adoption of the criteria, projects were complet- ;d in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in incomplete corridors. £■? S > vAu; \! f ? ■ # * »r.J, MATTHEW CRAWLEY/The Battalion Students wait outside the Parking Traffic and Transportation Services (PTTS) office in the Koldus Building on Monday af ternoon to pick up parking tags for the summer session. After waiting in line for an hour, Aaron Corner, a senior market ing major, said, “Why don’t they (PTTS) set up a couple of tables? They know this is going to happen every semester.” News Briefs Freshman to be honored at Sept. 8 Silver Taps Joseph Thornton, a freshman aerospace engineering major from Beeville, died May 1 7 in a car accident. Thornton was a resident of Walton Hall. He will be honored at the September 8 Silver Taps. Faculty Senate elects new '98 - '99 officers The Faculty Senate elected officers for the 1998-99 academic year at the final meeting of the 1 5th session on May 11. Diana Kaplan replaced her colleague in the College of Education, Wayne Wylie as speaker of the senate. Arther Hobbs of the College of Science was named deputy speaker. Former speaker Wayne Wylie installed 32 newly elected and reelected senators. Street accepts appointment to head of department Richard L. Street has accepted appoint ment as head of Texas A&M University's Department of Speech Communication ef fective Sept. 1. He succeeds Linda Put nam, who is returning to her faculty posi tion. Street, a professor of speech communi cations, came to A&M in 1988 from Texas Tech University, where he served as chair of speech communication. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in speech communication in 1975 and 1977, re spectively, from Texas Tech and his Ph.D. in communication from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. In addition to his distinguished research in health-care communication. Street is an award-winning teacher. In 1991 he re ceived the Association of Former Students teaching award. iProgram underway to boost A&M into ‘top 10’ By Shatera Kennedy Staff Writer The Vision 2020 program that was de signed to propel Texas A&M University into one of the "top 10" public universities in the country will kick-off June 4 under the lead ership of Jon L. Hagler. President Ray Bowen chose Hagler, an 11958 alumnus, to lead the initiative be cause of his dedication to A&M and his outside experiences. "Being based on the East Coast, Hagler has the opportunity to view A&M from a Iperspective that is perhaps different in jsome respects from that of ours here in iTexas, and that," Bowen said, "can be a 1 distinct advantage in a project such as Vi- |sion 2020." Hagler is a partner in the firm of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Co. L. L. C. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Texas A&M Foundation, which raises funds on behalf of the univer sity. The new development foundation building, currently under construction, will bear Hagler's name. "I am very grateful to this university which has given me the most profound de velopmental experience of my life and a corollary legacy of rich beliefs from winch," Hagler said, "I draw to this day." The Vision 2020 program will concen trate on 11 key areas which include gradu ate studies, undergraduate academics, de mographics and leadership. The programs primary focus is the steps and strategies necessary to move A&M to the academic forefront nationally by the year 2020. The program, which Bowen announced at the Academic Convocation in October, will actively involve more than 200 faculty, staff, students, former students and other supporters with representation evenly di vided from within and outside the universi ty, Bowen said. A 14-member planning group has been meeting for the past six months to assemble background information and establish basic parameters for the study. The first phase of Vision 2020 will be for mally launched June 4-6 with a series of campus sessions focusing on assessments and aspirations. "Texas A&M represents the best instincts of the people of this state and this nation," Hagler said, "and 1 believe it is our very spe cial destiny to nourish and empower it in the years ahead."