da^October^^^y^ College Station, Texas Volume 106 • Issue 39 ♦ 14 Pages J winds. Is: SOmpli un. EDT roup’s aim: state, lational awareness Y »«•*! ’ Y* presentatives discuss actions to be taken in drowsy-driving issue w Antilles (rant tes it to theoce: id. ■ Georjti st Caribbe; are populat; BY ERIKA DOERR The Battalion he Texas A&M Student Senate discussed the imitment to Drowsy Driving Awareness Res- ion, with representatives from the state leg- ture’s offices and the Baylor University stu- body president in attendance yesterday, ob Ferguson, an off-campus senator and a ju- political science major, said Texas Aggies Mak- (Changes Committee (TAMC) has been striving levelop the Lupe Medina Program. nSept. 1998, the Student Senate passed the e Medina Bill for Driving Safety, stressing dangers associated with drowsy driving, chled to a program in which hotels through- the state offer students discounts. |The initial 10 motels that have consistently ported the Lupe Medina Program are com- |ted to continuously offering student dis- nts for college students that are driving at 155 miles from their home campus,” he said. Ferguson said more than 4,000 cards with information of hotels participating by dis counting rooms and 3,000 ribbons were dis tributed yesterday as part of Drowsy Driving Awareness Day. Lisa Woods, Student Senate press secretary and a junior speech communication major, said the Student Senate encourages students to contribute to the development, initiation and publicity of the preventative measures to combat drowsy driving. “In light of the fatal accident that occurred on Saturday, Oct. 9, 1999 involving students from Texas A&M, Baylor and Southwest Texas State universities, the Texas A&M University Student Senate passed the [Senate Resolution S.R. 99 [F)5] The Commitment to Drowsy Driving Awareness Resolution, to reiterate the intentions of The Lupe Medina Program,” she said. John Rolph, Baylor student body president, accepted the resolution on behalf of Baylor. He attended the meeting because the Oct. 10 pedes- Bush to unveil autobiography CODY WAGES/Thh Battalion Baylor Student Body President John Rolph speaks on drowsy driving Wednesday night. trian-automobile collision, which took the lives of six students, including four Baylor students. “This has been a time of healing at Baylor,” he said. “We have lost seven students within seven weeks... as a result of sleep-deprivation accidents.” “We are dreaming big, we want to take the Commitment to Drowsy Driving Awareness to the state and national levels,” he said. Chris Reyes, representative for Sen. Fred Brown, said Brown wholeheartedly supports the Student Government Association’s efforts to increase drowsy driving awareness. “Sen. Brown wants to bring this issue to state level and possibly introduce this issue as a piece of legislation in the next legislative session in •January 2001 census,” he said. News In Brief AS Jr. to feature aster puppeteer nanimotva Opera and Performing Society (OPAS) begins the terrofis if) -flieSa] Tgallactssn rfc ot's®9-2000 bPAS Jr. seaso s with : States' F ir, and it riminal ■cumstaata There art m ■ I J i! ::5n risks iifflM ie pofealcW ireat art®' ckdrop [lings from istTimora cil held a the resold . commit®* andb# lied this It-j rative sp:- uppetshow, “Mozart, Monsters Matisse.” lim West, a master puppeteer, perform a show that begins I the creation of a Mozart pup- and continue with stories acted- with multiple puppets. OPAS Jr. is an annual series of istic programs intended for ten ages two to 12 and their wits. 3PAS Jr. is part of MSC OPAS, ^operative effort between shu ts and the community to bring ural, classical and contempo- artists as well as theater se- to the campus of Texas A&M the community of Bryan-Col- igg 6 Station. Can H uh JR - Performances will be- nevetr 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. in Rud- Theatre. All tickets are $6.50 and are lilable at the MSC Box Office . lepartment hosts vents for charities The Department of Student Ac- jjties will hold a charity event in- ding a garage sale, bake sale d silent auction tomorrow from a.m. to 2 p.m. in the J. Koldus Student Services Building 146. JTwo tickets donated by the Ath- itics Department for the Texas &M vs. the University of Texas- ustin football game on Nov. 26 will tie on the auction block. Proceeds from the event will be nated to charities involved with le State Employee Charitable ppaign in the Bryan-College Sta- Pn community. Sports •McCown shining as Aggies’ starter Hp8| The senior quarterback r I' looks back at his u performance at A&M. ^ Page 9 / Aggielife •Should I compare thee to a summer’s day? Poetry Night allows prospective poets to express themselves. Opinion Loudly call the Wake-Up Rude awaken'r or vocal moti vation? Colum oists com ment on the shout out. Page 13 Bcitt Radio listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57 m. for details on the appoint ment of a new interim head for Brazos Valley Solid Waste Mgmt. Crash Test Twister CODY WAGES/The Battalion Lorna Breault (foreground), a coordinator for Student Alcohol Education Programs, and Roganne Thueson (background), a student development specialist, portray the Crash Test Dummies Larry and Vince in a game of Twister Wednesday as part of National Alcohol Awareness Week activities. BY ROLANDO GARCIA The Battalion Former President George Bush will discuss his new book, All the Best, George Bush, a collection of his personal letters and diary en tries, at the George Bush Presiden tial Library Complex tonight at 6:30. Kelly Lindelien, assistant to the director of the -Ronner George Bush Li- brary Founda tion, said an overflow audi ence is booked for the hour- long lecture and therefore will not be open to the public. “We’re set ting up extra chairs [because] the auditorium seats 600 people, but we expect about 700,” Lindelien said. “This lecture has generated a lot of interest.” Lindelien said Bush will be taking a few questions from the audience. Jean Becker, who worked as a re search assistant on All the Best, said the idea for the book came after friends of the former president urged him to write an autobiography. She said even though Barbara Bush has published memoirs, and Former President Bush has co-au thored a book about foreign policy developments during his term in the White House, the former presi dent repeatedly declined requests to write an auto biography. Becker said a family friend of the Bushes sug gested that the for mer president look into his archive of letters and publish some of them. “He’s a prolific letter writer, so we had a lot of letters to draw upon, and it was interesting way to tell his story,” Becker said. see Autobiography on Page 2. BEATO/The Battalion Time travel New schedule adopted for Fall 2000 to ease commute from West Campus BY JULIE ZUCKER The Battalion An experimental schedule change, which will allow extra time for students to commute to the George Bu§h School of Government and Public Service, will go into ef fect next fall semester instead of the original plan of Spring 2000. The experimental time extension was targeted to begin this spring, but is on hold until the fall due to mis- communication. The Texas A&M Faculty Senate resolution to change scheduling for economic and political science cours es taught at the Bush School was ap proved March 8, 1999 and then ap proved by A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen, but was not forwarded to the College of Liberal Arts in time. Dr. Dennis Jansen, economics de partment head, said the new exper iment is an alternative to other pro posed means of getting students to West Campus on time. “There has been talk of more buses, but [A&M does not] have the funds,” Jansen said. “This experi mental time change will hopefully get students to class on time, even if they travel far distances from main campus.” While main campus classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday start at 8 a.m., political science and eco nomic courses at the Bush School CHAD ADANIS/The Battalion Students will be allotted more time to travel from the Bush School to main campus in Fall 2000. will begin at 8:30 a.m. The 30-minute delay will allow students a 50-minute gap to travel from main campus to West Campus. Jansen said students traveling from the Bush school to main campus, however, will miss out on the opportunity of scheduling their classes back-to-back. “When students get out of their classes in Bush at 10:30 [a.m.], the class on main campus [will have] al ready started at 10:20 [a.m.],” Jansen said. “They will have plenty of time to get to their next class. Now [that] there is about and hour and a half of idle time to kill.” Jansen said students will have an opportunity to get other things done during this time, like studying or running errands. However, lining up courses between those at the Bush School and those on main campus will be impossible, he said. Group aims to promote women in eneineerin BY RICHARD BRAY The Battalion The Women in Engineering, Science and Technology program has organized the fifth annual Women’s Engineering Conference to be held this weekend beginning with a din ner tomorrow at 6 p.m. Tricia Draughn, program coordinator for Women in Engineering, Science and Tech nology, said the conference was designed pri marily to attract women engineers, but any one is invited to attend. “[The conference] is geared toward the engineering community, specifically women, and some of the issues [women en gineers] deal with in the engineering field,” Draughn said. Antoinette Cleveland, an electrical engi neering graduate student, said the conference will offer engineers the opportunity to talk to professionals about engineering. “The goals of the conference are to provide students a chance to explore different field specialties, to encourage and support future engineers, to allow students to feel more com fortable with engineering and to provide an opportunity for former students to return and give back to the University,” Cleveland said. Draughn said there will be a variety of ac tivities, such as workshops, to keep visitors busy throughout the conference. m Workforce College of Engineering ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion On Friday, there will be a dinner for in dustry representatives and students followed by a a “teaming workshop.” Saturday will of fer workshops in addition to departmental panels. Attendees will be given agendas and the opportunity to choose which workshops they are interested in attending. Draughn said a mentoring program will be available at the conference offering students the chance to meet with professionals in the field. “We have a workshop for them during the conference and also an opportunity at break fast for them to meet their mentor and start that mentoring relationship,” she said. Cleveland said the conference will address many issues that face women in engineering including “dealing with the glass ceiling, dealing with sexual harassment in the engi neering workforce and business etiquette. ” see Engineering on Page 2. Students for Peace lecture to focus on crisis in Sudan BY BROOKE HODGES The Battalion Students for Peace, a social-justice issue group at A&M, will host a lecture dis cussing the war that divided the African country of Sudan and the genocide in progress that has killed millions at 7 tonight in Rudder 502. Jason Sanders, assistant adviser for Stu dents for Peace, said the group’s focus has moved toward African issues, such as the 16 year long war in Sudan. Cesar Ricci, a member of Students for Peace and a junior plant and soil science major, will present a lecture on the holo caust in Sudan. Ricci said the ethnic groups that make up Sudan helped stem the war. He said the north, along with the government, is dom inated by Arabic Muslims, while the south consists of Black-Africans. Ricci said the main reason the war is over the oil-rich land the southern group occupies. Ricci said the war has resulted in two million deaths, mostly civilians. He said the large amount of deaths are because of the war tactics used by the Sudanese government. “The Sudanese government troops burn down crops and loot cattle,” he said. “They are also capturing women and children and forcing them into slavery.” Ricci said the government is also with holding food from the southern ethnic groups, causing massive starvation. He said the devastation of the war is because of the number of deaths and the fact that the war is resulting in slavery and human- induced starvation. His presentation is aimed at raising awareness of the problem and presenting students with possible solutions to ending the war. Ricci said a Canadian oil company, Tal isman Energy Inc., is purchasing oil from the Sudan government, and the govern ment is using the money from the purchase to escalate the war effort. Ricci said the Divestment Campaign has been proposed to stop the purchasing of oil by Talisman Energy. He said many organi zations who have stock in the company are unaware of their contribution to the holo caust. He said he hopes people become aware of this and remove their support of the company. Ricci said he wants people become in spired to actively help in the fight to end the war. see Sudan on Page 2.