cope. riciay went s:| scope was in eJ lotensofthon* \'contrast,i«! iy moreprobfel its madeitsafeil iver one, pa 105 YEARS AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY WEDNESDAY July 28, 1999 Volume 105 • Issue 177 • 6 Pages College Station, Texas sports • The drug allegations directed at Lance Armstrong show a lack of respect for the Texan. PAGE 3 today’s issue Nation 6 Battalion Radio Tune in to 90.9 KAMU-FM at 1:57 p.m. to hear how one local resident was honored for his computer-presentation skills. opinion • Recent lawsuits against gun makers raise controversy over how to change policies. PAGE 5 Bus stop TERRY ROBERSON/Tm: Battalion Brian Chapman (left), a senior agricultural economics and agriculture education major, works on the “Rudder" bus after the bus went dead at the Corner of Louis and Coke Streets. ‘ Bus driver Ian Perez, a sophomore civil engineering major, looks on. Freshman enrollment forces course changes BY SUZANNE BRABECK The Battalion The Class of 2003 is causing A&M ad ministrators and departments to make last minute plans concerning course availability this fall because of the large number of students the class will bring. Although the number of incoming freshmen has decreased from last year by 700 students, Mark Weichold, associate provost for undergraduate programs and academic programs, said that for the past two years, the Office of Admissions has overestimated the number of people who would enroll but this year’s incoming class is a few hundred people over the University’s estimate. Weichold said the Academic Opera tions Committee (AOC), which consists of the associate deans from each of A&M’s respective colleges who deal with undergraduate affairs, met with repre sentatives yesterday from Student Finan cial Services and the registrar to see how things look in relation to course avail ability for the two remaining transfer stu dent conferences and one remaining new student conference. “We are going to put our heads to gether and estimate the amount of cours es we think we will need,†Weichold said. The decision to add more sections for classes is a decision that is made by each individual college. Colleges decided in January which courses would be offered this fall. Each college tries to estimate the demand for each course. “Duripg the summer, the process of adding sections is more a process of fine- tuning,†Weichold said. “During this time [the Office of] Admissions has a better idea of how many people will show up. Weichold said colleges were informed that additional sections were needed ap proximately two and a half weeks ago. So far, additions have been made in the Colleges of Agriculture, Architecture, En gineering, Liberal Arts, Science and Geo sciences. Weichold said that right now, colleges are doing what they can to ensure that freshmen will be able to register for at JR BEATO/The Battalion Orientation Leader Terry Frank, a senior mechanical engineering major, greets new students and parents during check-in at the Southside Commons last week. least 12 hours for the fall. He said he has heard reports that some students are leaving their conferences without a full course load. Right now, administrators are primar ily concerned with phasing out lower-di vision classes for freshmen and sopho mores. Weichold said if students look on the Bonfire computer system for course avail ability, it can be misleading. “We release some spots for classes for each conference so everyone can have an equal chance at attaining courses,†he said. Another major concern the large freshman class has raised is classroom capacity and a lack of human resources. While there are numerous facilities on campus, there are few lecture halls that hold more than 100 students. Weichold said there may have to be some compro mises made. For instance, instead of a class meeting twice a week for an hour and a half, some classes may be offered at night once a week for three hours. He said the lack of human resources stands out as the largest problem caused by the influx of students. Some colleges have asked professors to take on more students, some professors have been redirected to teach different classes and some doctoral students will be teaching courses as well. Weichold said another situation that compounds the problem of a lack of pro fessors is that they are called away to oth er assignments at the last minute. Such assignments range from being asked to be a visiting professor at another univer sity to gaining a research opportunity, to being asked to fulfill other work needed by the University. “We have gotten a lot of support from the administration,†he said. “The provost has been very forthcoming with additional funds.†After seeing an influx of students the past two years, he said the Office of Ad missions is going to reexamine the pro cedures they use to calculate probability of enrollment. NEWS IN BRIEF > i 8/30/99 enses -ups 5 m \C. uine encephalitis cases discovered in East Texas Texas Department of Health officials have re torted occurrences of eastern equine encephalitis ^East Texas. Eastern equine encephalitis is a disease that ton be fatal to both horses and humans, jin Louisiana, the disease has been cycling for bre than two months, killing 40 horses and an (determined number of emus. Jimmy Olsen, a professor in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M, said two people in Louisiana have been infected. “It’s something to be concerned about [bo use] the eastern variety doesn’t just kill those ■th weakened immune systems like the other va rieties do,†Olsen said. ■In humans, the symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, lethargy, neck stiffness and comas. A&M research scientist honored for hurricane work I A research scientist for Texas A&M’s Hazard Re- liction and Recovery Center has been recognized by Texas Gov. George W. Bush for his “innovative d valuable work†to protect Texans from hurri- nes. Carlton Ruch worked for the University for 20 ars as a research scientist for the University in dition to being a senior lecturer in the College of Architecture’s Department of Landscape Architec ture and Urban Planning and retired from A&M in May 1998. I Ruch was presented with a plaque on the gov ernor’s behalf by State Coordinator for Emergency anagementTom Milwee at the National Hurricane bnference in Orlando, Fla. Profs address food quality Cooperative program to benefit United States, Mexico BY STUART HUTSON The Battalion k A cooperative project between Texas A&M University and Nation al Autonomous University of Mex ico (UNAM) is utilizing a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Agency of In ternational Development (USAID) to benefit both countries. The project, designed to resolve animal and plant health problems in order to sustain free trade be tween Mexico and the United States, focuses on scientific meth ods to improve the safety of food items and cattle exchanged be tween the two countries. This is done by investigating new and im proved tests for diseases such as tuberculosis and finding better vaccines for these deadly pathogens. Dr. Gale Wagner, project coordi nator and a professor of veterinary pathobiology at A&M, said the pro gram has already saved millions of dollars by improving food quality. This is done by improving inspec tion guidelines by finding more ef fective ways to detect harmful pathogens. Wagner said the program has also made important steps in the furtherance of vaccine technology, such as developing a vaccine to fight a strain of salmonellosis found in chickens in America and a vaccine to fight the much dead- “The group neither supported or disagreed with NAFTA. But we all agreed that scientific regulation was needed to ensure free trade.†— Dr. Gale Wagner Project coordinator Her strains of salmonellosis found in chickens bred in Mexico, which has been extremely detrimental to the country’s chicken industry. Billy Hargis, an A&M professor of veterinary pathobiology who worked to develop the salmonel losis vaccines, said the program has been so beneficial that it has been rated by USAID as the most successful project in its history. Wagner said the effort began when a group of professors from both A&M and UNAM recognized the importance of scientific regula tion of plants and animals being ex changed between Mexico and America under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “The group neither supported nor disagreed with NAFTA,†Wag ner said. “But w$ all agreed that scientific regulation was necessary to ensure safe free trade.†Since then, a professor from A&M has worked with a colleague from UNAM toward a specific re search goal. In the process, they have educated more than 30 grad uate students and created new graduate programs at both A&M and UNAM. Wagner said the program has been an overwhelming success so far, but its true success will come from its instillment of scientific ini tiatives in the next generation of scientists. “When we can walk away and be assured that those following us may be entrusted to keep the sci ence going, then we will have done our job,†he said. Council OKs Bryan annex BY MANISHA PAREKH CAVENDISH The Battalion The Bryan City Council unanimously approved the annexation of 6,368 acres adjacent to the city at last night’s meeting. While the ordinance passed without comment from the city council, several residents of the annexed area were outraged because they were not properly notified about the annexation. Ken Kersey, a resident of the annexed area, told the city council he learned of the annexation Saturday. “I came home Saturday night and there was a trash can with ‘Welcome to the City of Bryan’ on it,†Kersey said. “We were not notified of this. It’s total taxation with out representation.†Councilmember Kandy Rose said residents had am ple opportunity during the past two years to hear about and comment on the annexation plans. Susie Primus, a resident of the annexed area, said she could not receive the local television station and she had not read of it in the Sunday newspapers. Renee Taylor, a resident of the annexed area, said no one who lived near her knew of the plans until the trash cans were dropped off. “I never saw it (notification), †Taylor said. “The whole neighborhood missed it. None of us were notified. "We chose not to live in the city — to live more freely. [Bryan] took us. If we wanted to live in the city, we would have been there. †see Annex on Page 2.