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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2000)
.w I dissident gr.. WEDNESDAY January 26,2000 Volume 106 ~ Issue 77 14 pages i BRADLEY ATCHISONAI'hi BaTTM.ion PATRIC SCHNEIDER/Tm BaTTAI ION Firefighters and city officials gather at the Doherty Building to evaluate and stop the fire that began in an underground tunnel Wednesday af ternoon. PATRIC SCHNEIDER/Tm Battalion Campus fires erupt Smoke fills the Doherty Building BY BRADY CREEL & JEANETTE SIMPSON The Battalion i Two fires -— one in Krueger Residence Hall and one in She utility tunnels adjacent to the Doherty building—"broke iout on the Texas A&M campus yesterday. Both fires caused minor damages and involved no injuries. The College Station Fire Department was dispatched to [campus at 1:57 p.m. for what was suspected to be a struc ture fire in the Doherty Building. Fire trucks arrived on the scene at 2:03 p.m. “This is something we have run into before,” Bart Humphries, public information officer for College Station Fire Department, said. “The smoke was from a small grass and leaf fire outside the building.” Humphries said it is suspected that the fire was started by a burning cigarette, which was dropped into one of the grates alongside the building. The smoke was drawn into and spread throughout the building by its ventilation system. Once it was ablaze in the underground tunnel, the smoke filled the utility tunnels, and eventually backed up and in filtrated the chemistry building before the fire was extin guished. The underground tunnel system and vents are prone to accumulating dried leaves and grass, and it appears this is where the fire began. Chad Kocurek, a freshman nuclear engineering major, was leaving the Civil Engineering Building’s lab when he saw smoke. “As we walked down the street, smoke started pouring out of the vent in the street,” Kocurek said.“We pulled the [Doherty Building] door open, and the hallway was filled with smoke.” Kocurek said he held the door open while another stu dent ran into the building to make sure it was empty. Kocurek was able to stop a police car going southbound on Ross Street. The officer got out and immediately checked the building to make sure it was unoccupied. Fire trucks ar rived shortly thereafter. “I ran out and flagged the fire truck down,” Kocurek said. “They got an ax and busted the lock on the access panel and went into the room.” See Dohert y on Page 2. Clothes hamper starts fire at Krueger BY BRADY CREEL The Battalion The College Station Fire Department was dispatched at 11:29 a.m. and arrived at Krueger Hall at 11:33 a.m. in response to smoke on the second floor of the building. Bart Humphries, public information officer for the College Station Fire Department, said a dry cotton tow el had been heated in a microwave oven and placed in a closed clothes hamper, where it began to smolder. — “1 was in my room about to take a nap, and the alarm started going off and everybody w alked out in a daze,” Kristen Lacefleld, first floor resident of Krueger Hall and a freshman English major, said. “Everybody was annoyed because we all thought it was a fire drill.” See Krueger on Page 2. e experiment Balance otation I alignment Bowen holds forum about fee increase BY ANN LOISEL The Battalion 593-8575 itch President Dr. Ray M. Bowen held an open ■ forum Tuesday to discuss his upcoming rec- I ommendation to the Board of Regents for a $2 ■ increase in University Authorized Tuition ■ (UAT) to $40 per credit hour, to take effect ■ next fall. The Texas Legislature has also increased ■ the state-mandated tuition by $52 for Fall ■ 2000. »rs tulips) ccepted. © 707 Texas Ave Bryan 822-2141 d Bv: tcP ICRCING uded iis coupon. Butociavc STtniuznno* Cican Modcrn Studio “The fees, along with other proposed fall semester fee increases, would amount to a to tal fee increase of $89, a drop from the aver age increase of $107 per year,” Bowen said. The estimated $2.2 million generated from the UAT fee increase would be used primari ly for a faculty salary increase of three percent, William B. Krumm, vice president for Finance and Controller, said at a forum held Monday to discuss the proposal. “It’s very important to the value of an A&M degree that we have the best faculty,” Krumm said. “And in order to get the best faculty, we have to pay competitive salaries,” he said. In a salary comparison with the Universi ty of Texas-Austin, Krumm said A&M pro fessors, associate professors and assistant pro fessors are paid less than their UT counterparts on average. “If the Board of Regents approves it, it’s official,” Bowen said. The Board of Re gents will consider the matter at their March meeting. RUBEN DELUNA/Thi Battalion RUBEN DELUNA/Tm: BATTALION Hurd’s agenda includes extensive recycling program BY JEANETTE SIMPSON The Battalion That soda can tossed in the trash after class may have a second chance if Will Hurd, student body president and senior computer science major, has his way. Hurd’s preliminary agenda for the spring se mester includes a recycling program which will ex pand upon the current program. “The main goal of this program is to make peo ple aware of the positive affects of recycling, and what can be recycled,” Hurd said. Some recycling receptacles are already in place on campus. The residence halls on campus have recycling receptacles throughout each hall, but recycle only aluminum products, Dan Mizer, assistant director of the residence life, said. The receptacles are emptied once every two weeks by a student who has signed a contract with the residence hall promising to maintain the re ceptacles, Mizer said. When new residents move in every semester, containers for recycling the cardboard boxes and other cardboard products are placed throughout the halls. Hurd said he hopes that through his program, recycling efforts in the residence halls will grow to include all recyclable products. Hurd’s plan is to first assess the capabilities of the physical plant to support the development and expansion of the current program. “We want to start out basic, such as making re cycling containers available in all food service out lets, and all departments,” Hurd said. “These receptacles will be for aluminum, paper, and plastic,” he said. In order to get both on-campus and off campus students involved, Hurd hopes to create a site where students who collect recyclables can drop the products off at their convenience. “I want to make recycling resources available to everyone,” Hurd said. “If you know the impor tance of recycling, but don’t have the resources, it is hard to make it happen.” If Hurd is able to put his recycling plan into ac tion, he said he will make sure the program goes through the environmental issues committee of the Student Government. “Not only do I hope to see this program put into action, 1 also want to make sure that incoming ad ministration understand the importance, so that the future of the program will be secure,” Hurd said. Sbisa construction causes crowding, annoys students BY MATT LOFTIS The Battalion Katherine Obenhaus, Northside resident and a freshman business major, routinely ate at Sbisa Din ing Hall or the Underground Food Court last se mester. Obenhaus still has a meal plan, but has to go to the Memorial Student Center to eat at Hullabaloo or Rumours Coffee House, where lunch lines are long. “It’s annoying,” Obenhaus said. “It’s not the food that takes a long time, but checking out.” After a full week of classes with Sbisa closed, meal plan sales are up, along with the numbers of students eating at on-campus locations, according to the Department of Food Services. However, some students and food services em ployees said problems with crowding and com plaints still exist. Food services workers have made changes to ac commodate the demands of students who normally would eat at Sbisa, but now eat at other on-campus locations. Gena Monroe, a cashier at the MSC 12th Man International Food Court, said the crowds are diffi cult to deal with at times, and the new meal options were confusing to students who did not know where to enter or exit the line or where they could get food from. “It’s a big change because we used to be just a cash facility,” Monroe said. Workers formerly at Sbisa, the Underground MELISSA SACKETT/Tm Battalion Students gather at “Sbisa Hut”. The Out bound Dining facility was added to North- side to accommodate students who usual ly eat at the Sbisa cafeteria. Food Court and Market and Bemie’s Place were re located to Hullabaloo and the 12th Man for the se mester. However, Monroe added that since the 12th Man is keeping different hours, things are more con fusing. Sean Smith, a junior political science major, lives off campus, but enjoyed joining friends to eat at Sbisa. Smith now eats at the Commons, but said he preferred the selection at Sbisa. Jim Smith, a service board manager for Sbisa, said the Sbisa Hut operations have gone smoothly since opening. Smith said there was a lot of com puter work done to prepare for the hut, but opera tions are running smoother every day. “There have been a couple of bumps, but that’s because the number of meals we’re doing is about double what we expected,” Smith said. Cindy Zawieja, associate director of food ser vices, said Sbisa Hut was serving an estimated 150 students at breakfast, 400 at lunch and 200 at din ner. Zawieja added that total meal plan sales are not final. No Sbisa employees have had their workload re duced or dramatically changed because of the con struction at Sbisa. A few employees were released to other departments but most, including student workers, are filling in shifts at the MSC. No em ployee was forced to take fewer hours than they pre viously had. Zawieja said that meetings would be held in the near future to decide whether or not the Wheels to Meals bus routes will continue. After analyzing stu dent response, the outbound program will be eval uated to see if it will continue in future semesters. “I haven’t received really any complaints,” Za wieja said. Margaret Mayfield, a freshman theater arts ma jor, said that she and her friends got tired of having to go to the Commons or the MSC when they were hungry, and she has reduced her meal plan consid erably since last semester. However, she is excited to see Sbisa after the ren ovations — the reason for the closing — are com plete. “Hopefully Sbisa will turn out as as expected and hopefully it won’t take longer than they expected,” Mayfield said. INSIDE mic book nesday Big day for com ic book • Aggies travel to face Cyclones Men's basketball team goes to Iowa Page 9 • Now more than ever How media conglomer ates control people. 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