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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1999)
"inCi mother andi-. lother, pi ea( ] fc Wednesday • December 1, 1999 boy’s return.C| wife, Nelsi, lier baby,. old half-brothei 1 was found i ist of Fort Lil hursday afteif >oat carrying. ‘s capsized, li ts were resctii ic, Fla. n bodies were. U.S. Coast Co; search. Threet a resumed deacl i blames Ihfl or the tragediJ d had beenfcl iother, whodi age. 106 YEARS AT TOCASLA&M UNZV College Station, Texas Volume 106 • Issue 65 • 12 Pages hows of support for victims of tragedy continue roups to preserve emorials placed at Bonfire site I. BY BRADY CREEL The Battalion 11s. Texas Aggies have shown the world what their spirit is capable of in I face of adversity, and although they are slowly piecing their lives back ;ether after the Bonfire collapse, Aggies will never forget what hap- ned in Aggieland on Nov. 18. For most Aggies, their outlook on life may never be the same, but to my, the knowledge that something lies deep within the heart of Texas iM is comfort enough. Bill Anderson, MSC Council president and a senior mechanical engi- ering major, was one of many to recognize the need to preserve each ifact at the Bonfire site and make them available for viewing by gen- itions of Aggies yet to come. “When I walked out there, 1 saw the heart of Texas A&M poured out to Bonfire site, and those things need to be preserved,” he said. A team at A&M is doing just that. This joint effort between the MSC uncil, Traditions Council, Department of Anthropology, Physical Plant d the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs will make sure ch piece of memorabilia will be collected and preserved. ‘This is a University-wide effort to preserve all of those things,” An- rson said. Indeed, all of the items will be preserved. Literally everything, includ- ; flowers, cards, letters, notes, posters, rosary beads and handmade crafts II be taken from the site for permanent preservation beginning today. Anderson said he expects items will continue to be placed at the e for months to come, but every artifact left at the Bonfire site will entually be kept and preserved. The operation will be an on-going focess. “We don’t want to lose anything,” he said. ■ Schuyler Houser, program subchair for the Traditions Council and a finior industrial engineering major, said Aggies do not need to worry ajbout seeing their memories of the Bonfire lifted by the hands of others. I “We know there is going to be a lot of concern,” she said. “We are not f|rgetting, by any means, but this is our effort for people in the future to rlinember. ” I Dr. Sylvia Grider, a folklorist and associate professor of anthropology, said pie team’s concern is to gather each individual artifact for safe keeping. ontributions to funds br injured, tributes to dead ngoing, surpass $94,000 The Association of Former Students has established the Bonfire Relief Fund, the Texas A&M Foundation has created the Bonfire Memorial Fund and Bank One has established the Aggie Bonfire Fund. Rose Ann McFadden, manager of communications for the Texas A&M Foundation, said the Foun dation has been affected by the tragedy because many of their employees are part of the Aggie family. “We’ve been grieving with the rest of the campus,” McFadden said. “A lot of our employees, in cluding myself, are Aggies and even those who aren’t have been affected by the situation.” The money raised by the Texas A&M Foundation will go to assist families with expenses resulting from the accident and will support permanent recognition, such as en- BY RICHARD BRAY The Battalion Cyril Connoly once wrote in r book Journal and Memoir that outh is a period of missed op- rtunities.” Obviously, the au- or never met Caitlin Walker. After hearing about the Bonfire llapse, the young girl decided to door to door in her College Sta- ifm neighborhood to collect mon- to donate to the families of the idents killed and injured in the cident. Tuesday afternoon, Walk- and her father donated the $332 e collected from her neighbors to e Bonfire Memorial Fund at the xas A&M Foundation. Hundreds of people and orga- zations throughout the Brazos Valley have responded to the Bon fire collapse by creating funds to honor the students who were killed or injured. Counseling services helps students entering 'moving on y process CODY WAGES/Thf. Battalion “We are treating all of the artifacts with a great deal of respect, and as professional archaeologists and anthropologists,” she said. “We have a procedure in place for gathering artifacts from a cultural site.” Anderson said the students involved with this rigorous operation will receive training in handling delicate artifacts. Grider said the most critical type of artifact is cloth and paper, espe cially pieces with poems or letters written on them. She said they will be temporarily housed in a storage freezer in Cushing Memorial Library un til the staff there is organized to handle such a large project. “We will make sure we gather the paper separately so we can turn that over to University Archives,” Grider said. Grider said they were waiting for the spring semester before attempt ing to make a definitive decision concerning the location of the display showcases in which the artifacts will be eventually placed. “What is critical is to gather the material and preserve it for what ever use is determined in the future,” she said. “It is important to clear the Bonfire site so that the formal investigation can get underway, and [the removal] is also part of the University-wide attempt to get the campus back to normal so that students can turn their attention to final exams and going home for the holidays.” rnr D UNDS RAISED so far for victims of the BONHBFCOITI 1 W AND THEIR FAMILIES Over 600 individuals have donated more than $ 94,000 flip Southwestern Bell has donated $ 100,000 ■Hi dowed scholarships, in honor of those who died in the accident. As of yesterday afternoon, more than 600 individuals had given and pledged more than $94,000. McFadden said the Texas A&M Foundation has received some particularly large donations, among them a $100,000 donation from Southwestern Bell and a $10,000 donation from an anony mous individual. Texas A&M Foundation Presi dent Eddie J. Davis said there has been a national response to the funds because people want to do RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion whatever they can to help the tragic situation. “The outpouring of sympathy and concern has been over whelming,” he said. “People have sought to give in a variety of ways, so we’ve created two Bonfire funds [the Bonfire Memorial Fund and the Bonfire Relief Fund] to help focus the many ideas.” For information on how to con tribute to any of the memorial funds, the Association of Former Students can be reached at 845- 7514. The Texas A&M Foundation can be reached at 845-8161. BY AMANDA SMITH The Battalion The grieving for the 12 Aggies who lost their lives as a result of the Bonfire collapse did not end with the Thanksgiving holidays or with the Aggies’ defeat of the Longhorns. The grieving continues, even as stu dents have returned to classes, fac ing the looming deadlines of the se mester’s end. While the memory of those lost continues to burn in the hearts of those inside and outside of the Texas A&M community, Wade Birch, di rector of Student Counseling Service (SCS), said moving on is an integral part of the grieving process. “There is something therapeutic about [moving on],” he said. “It is like an anchor and helps us get through the grieving process. This whole tragedy has cast a dim light on the Texas A&M campus. ” In the two weeks since.the Nov. 18 collapse, SCS has received more than 285 calls related to the collapse, compared to the 400 calls SCS re ceived in a typical year. The SCS Helpline is operated by more than 40 graduate and under graduate students trained to handle calls from students needing psycho logical assistance. The students chose to keep the Helpline open Thanks giving day, the following Friday and weekend to field calls from students. Birch said the 15 SCS counselors, 10 full-time counselors and five ad ministrative counselors, have made every effort to comfort students since the collapse. Birch said their efforts began with a call from Dr. J Malon Sutherland vice president for Student Affairs, around 3:45 a.m. with word of the collapse. “By 5 a.m., an associate director and I were out at site,” Birch said. “Our job was to mix and to min gle with the onlookers to get a sense of the reaction and to determine what we needed to do.” SCS kept four counselors onsite, three counselors in the MSC Fla- groom and two counselors in MSC 145, where the parents of those stu dents killed or injured in the collapse were told to wait. see Counseling on Page 2. Websites posting grades under fire BY STUART HUTSON The Battalion When Scott Davison was a fresh man, he found the task of what classes to register daunting. That changed when he found a Website featuring class grade distributions. SEE RELATED EDfTORIAL ON PAGE 11. “Grade distributions help a stu dent decide how different profes sors grade and how they might measure up in that professor’s class,” Davison, a Student Senator and a senior biomedical science major, said. “They can be a very valuable tool when a student is try ing to find the class they will be most successful in.” The Website Davison visited was maintained by a student who obtained the distributions from the Student Counseling Services (SCS) database, which is open to any stu dents who wish to seek help in their academic choices. The student has since stopped updating the site, but if a recom mendation currently under review by the Faculty Senate Academic Af fairs Committee (AAC) is ap proved, a new site boasting even more grade distribution informa tion may be enacted. Davison said the recommenda tion for the Website originated with a resolution passed by the Student Senate last May. “The Senate felt it is important for this information to be easily available to students,” he said. “This issue needed to be pushed to the forefront for consideration so that the service can be easily and accurately offered.” Kenn Harding, AAC Chairman and a professor of chemistry, said that while the issue will the re viewed by the AAC during their next meeting Dec. 17, the committee cur rently has no stance on the subject. “We don’t officially have any opinions on the subject as of yet,” he said. “But at the next meeting we will hear a presenta tion from students and further discuss the issue. However, there may or may not be some sort of recommendation made.” The AAC previously considered the recommendation at the Sept. 20 see Websites on Page 2. Prill mm ^slfl Vil ■My y Id I Tf? •Andy Warhol Famed artist Jets his ‘15 linutes’ at i Stark Galleries. •Ags look for win against ’Jacks ^&M Men’s Basketball Team |o face Stephen F. Austin. Page 7 I fer< •Do you accept this fee? 'olumnists debate existence, jsefulness of ATM fees. Page 11 Batt Radio Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at ■1:57 p.m. for details on a toy Id rive. Thousands participate in Elephant, E-Walk BY JULIE ZUCKER The Battalion About 3,500 elephants were seen walking around campus yesterday as part of senior Elephant Walk. Junior E-Walk and senior Elephant Walk finally took place yesterday after being rescheduled three times. More than 5,500 juniors and seniors participated in the events. Amy Todd, E-Walk director and a junior political science major, said she was worried about the turnout after the postponements. “We had a great turnout [from juniors and seniors],” she said. “We were worried about who would show up after all of the confusion whether [E-Walk and Ele phant Walk] would happen or not.” At Kyle Fiela, 3,500 se niors listened to Harris Pap pas, president of the Pappa’s restaurant chain, before they began their tour through campus. Seniors waded through Fish Pond on Northside, had their last yell at the Commons and ended at Duncan Field for games and pictures. Students could have pic tures taken with live ele phants, and a velcro wall, bunjee run, rocky mountain climb and a gyro were avail able for students’ enjoyment at Duncan Field. Juniors had a fajita lunch at noon. Katie Dufour, Elephant Walk director and a senior health education major, said it was a good idea to postpone Elephant Walk. “Participants seemed to be in high spirits, and more up beat than they would have been if we kept Elephant Walk last week,” she said. “The whole event was more positive, and it was ob vious because there were lots of smiles and hugs.” Katy Lineberger, a junior journalism major, said she looked forward to E-Walk and was happy she had the op portunity to participate. “It was a really neat expe rience to be with people I haven’t seen since freshman year,” she said. “There was a lot of spirit, and we all came together as upperclassmen to keep A&M traditions alive. ” Lineberger said it is the re sponsibility of the entire se nior class to keep the respect and Aggie spirit alive. “It is up to us as seniors now, to teach and share our knowledge of Aggieland to those who are younger than us,” she said. “We need to make sure freshman and sophomores know A&M means friends, memories and great traditions. ” BRADLEY ATCHISON/Tm Battalion Above: Texas A&M’s Class of 2000 marches in front of the Academic Build ing Tuesday as part of Elephant Walk. Right: Students participating in Elephant Walk link arms as they walk through campus. KIMBER HUFF/The Battalion