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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.
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“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.
Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at
1:57 p.m. for details on a
musical showcasing Bryan's
heritage.