January 28, 2000
Volume 106 ~ Issue 79
22 pages ~ 2 sections
W * i WiVVAWtVMi'l =<: W114
ech faculty proposes running school paper
BY MEREDITH HIGH!
The Battalion
Hhditorial control of all student publications
; Texas Tech University may soon fall directly
junper the School of Mass Communications staff.
A recent proposal
from Tech’s School of
Mass Communica
tions’ Chairperson Dr.
Jerry Hudson, calls for
radical changes in the
structure of all Tech
student publications,
including The Univer
sity Daily, the student
newspaper at Tech.
fhe proposed changes include a university
[ stiff "newsroom editor." who would also teach a
I rep. >rting class. Work produced by students in the
ould be published in The University Daily.
■The proposal claims that these stories would
fretter written and “could possibly reduce the
^■tber of paid reporter positions.”
“This goes against every principle I’ve
been taught and strived for and that I’ve taught
my reporters and editors,’’ Wayne Hodgin, ed
itor-in-chief of The University Daily, said.
“[It] could only mean trouble for Texas
Tech and for student media across the nation.”
The proposal also calls for an advertising
director to teach an advertising sales class, and
states that this will increase the advertising
revenue for The University Daily.
Other proposed changes include hiring two
new university stafYmembers, a news director
and an assignments director, who would also
teach a broadcast journalism class that would
report and produce a newscast for KTXT-TV,
the campus television station.
The proposal claims that “this arrangement
will allow the school to expand its faculty base
without new tenure-track positions.”
“1 don’t think it’s a good proposal, and I
won’t support it,” Dr. Jan Childress, director of
student publications at Tech, said. “The inde
pendent editor is too important to not let the stu
dents be in control. We’ve been organized like
“This [the proposal] goes
against every principle
Tve strived for and that
I've taught my reporters
and editors."
— Wayne Hodgin
The University Daily editor-in-chief
(Texas Tech newspaper)
we are now since 1963. Wc have nationally and
state-wide well-respected publications and pro
grams.”
The proposal will be discussed at a meeting
Feb. 4 at Tech.
Hudson, Dr. Donald R. Haragan, Tech’s
president and Dr. John M. Burns, Tech’s provost
are scheduled to attend, but Childress said she
does not know who else will attend.
“1 can’t imagine that we wouldn't be able
to provide input with a major change like
this,” Childress said. “Hopefully, the meeting
will be the opportunity to provide informa
tion.”
The University Daily's Website describes
the newspaper as “an independent publication
that seeks to fulfill the functions of any mass
medium.”
“As an independent publication serving
the campus community. The University Dai
ly maintains professional standards and ethics
reflecting the best in American journalism and
advertising, and staff members recognize not
only the rights granted them by the First
Amendment but also the responsibilities that
accompany those rights.”
According to Tech’s Department of Student
Publications Website, the Student Publications
Committee advises the department "under author
ity granted by the president of the university.”
The Website also states that the Student Pub
lications Committee exists to support and pro
tect a vigorous, socially responsible press at
Texas Tech University.
All student publications at Tech are current
ly part of the Student Affairs Division, are con
sidered non-academic student activities and
have no official connection to the School of
Mass Communications.
Hudson, who drafted the proposal, could not
be reached for comment on the recommended
changes Thursday.
At Texas A&M. the Student Media Board
serves as “the supervisory and advisory agency
for all student media.”
The board reports to Executive Vice Presi
dent and Provost Dr. Ron Douglas.
“We have a long tradition of independent
student media,” Dr. Barbara Gastel, chair of the
Student Media Board and head of the journal
ism department, said. “I have every expectation
that this would continue.”
The bylaws of the board state that “neither
the general manager of Student Media, nor the
news adviser, nor the Student Media Board, nor
the head or faculty of the Department of Jour
nalism shall determine the content of the stu
dent media.”
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Faculty ethics, concerns
over bonfire not heard
HOUSTON (AP) — Texas A&M faculty engineers con
cerned about the stability of the school’s annual bonfire were eth
ically bound to raise those fears with supervisors, the head of
A&M’s engineering program said.
CODY WAGES/Thf; Batfai.ion
5 and 28
Irate referee Ed Yancy attempts to retrieve a basketball from teasing Harlem Globe Trot
ter Paul “Showtime” Gafney at Thursday’s performance at Reed Arena.
C. Roland Haden, dean of the University’s Dwight Look Col
lege of Engineering, said registered engineers’ professional code
of ethics requires such action when public safety is at stake.
“If they thought there was a problem, then they had a duty to
do it,” Haden told The Dallas Morning News in a story published
Wednesday.
The 7,000-log stack collapsed on Nov. 18, killing 12 Aggies
and injuring 27. Students have constructed and burned the tow
er annually since 1909 as a precursor to the football game with
the University of Texas.
Haden said about 65 percent of A&M’s engineering faculty'
are registered engineers. One former faculty member, T.J. “Ted
dy” Hirsh, did voice concerns, according to a colleague.
Hirsh, A&M’s former head of structural engineering, unsuc
cessfully attempted to have administrators alter the design of the
stack, according to a Nov. 19 memo by civil engineering profes
sor Loren Lutes.
Lutes wrote to A&M president Dr. Ray Bowen that others
agreed with Hirsch’s belief that the bonfire design was only “mar
ginally stable.”
In an e-mail Haden sent to a colleague four days after the
accident, he criticized former A&M faculty members who told
a newspaper they had concerns about the safety of the bonfire
stack.
“My question to them would be simple: If you had pro
fessional doubts about the design, why didn’t you go to a high
er authority, indeed, the highest, to get your thoughts heard?”
Haden wrote.
Clinton: $350 billion tax cut
WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas De
mocrats cheered and Republicans jeered
Thursday night as President Clinton ap
peared before a joint
session of Congress
to deliver his final
State of the Union ad
dress, one chockful of
CLINTON
programs — some
new, others repack
aged from earlier ad
ministration initia
tives.
The president’s fi
nal-year agenda —
which includes a $350 billion tax cut, a
$ 110 billion expansion ofhealth care cov
erage, prescription drug benefits and a
plethora of other programs — stands little
chance of being enacted, said Sen. Phil
Gramm, R-Texas.
“President Clinton apparently intends
these final months in office to be spent
buffing his image for history, but the
torch is about to be passed to a new
leader, and 1 believe that most of the old
administration’s spending proposals
should be, and will be, discreetly dis
carded,” Gramm said.
The Clinton agenda, countered the
House’s third-ranking Democrat, Rep.
Martin Frost of Dallas, amounts to “real
solutions that will meet our priorities in the
21 st century, and they deserve serious con
sideration.”
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said
“If anyone thought he was going to be a
lame-duck president and just kind of limp
along the last year, 1 think this State of the
Union speech, which was very aggressive
and covered a number of very important
things that Americans are very much con
cerned about, spoke volumes.”
While acknowledging that Clinton
“makes a great speech,” House Agricul
ture Committee Chainnan Larry Combest,
R-Lubbock, said the president has failed in
past years to follow through on promises.
“The proposals, i f they do come, look sub
stantively different,” he said.
Again and again during his 89-minute
speech, Clinton bragged about America’s
vibrant economy.
“Next month, America will achieve
the longest period of economic growth in
our entire history,” he said. “We have built
a new economy.”
He gave partial credit for the rosy
economy to Texan Lloyd Bentsen, who
was Clinton’s first Treasury secretary and
a key architect of the 1993 deficit-reduc
tion package that the president said “be
gan to put our fiscal house in order.”
Bentsen’s successful effort to push the leg
islation through a skeptical Congress
“sparked our long boom,” Clinton said.
“Lloyd Bentsen, you have served
America well and we thank you,” he told
the 78-year-old Bentsen, who was in the
House chamber as one of first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton’s 10 guests.
Some Republicans said the adminis
tration — and Clinton — deserve little
credit for the nation’s economic boom.
Bryan swing into action
>pe,c.ia\ -Cof 'Nicklaus to design new 27-hole course
Vcar
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
■£oUou)ivu
^ Z4
^ Z6
[ri i 3
Texas A&M University and the city of Bryan
are launching a new partnership that melds the ex-,
citement of Aggie athletics with economic pros
perity from tourism dollars. The Bryan City
Council unveiled the final land plan for Traditions
Golf and Country Club at Univer
sity Ranch Wednesday.
■At the center of tin
partnership is the future
home of the Aggie golf
team — a 27-hole
/OH.S,
course featuring the
signature design of
world-renowned
golf pro and course
designer Jack Nick
laus and his son.
Jack Nicklaus II.
■The course is
expected to be
come a premiere
NCAA golf venue
because of its focus
onl the A&M campus and the
end CoalN.7 varsity golf teams, in addition to Nicklaus’ signa
ture touches — a first for a college course.
41 Traditions is the first signature course in the
nation to be designed by Nicklaus at the request
of a college team.
“It’s going to be a tremendous asset for the
men’s and women’s golf team,” A&M men’s golf
coach Bob Ellis said. “It’s going to give us a Nick-
laus-championship-designed golf course and
some first class practice facilities, all within two
miles of campus. This has the potential to be a
tremendous tool for our teams.”
Nicklaus, who has over 70 tour victories
18 wins at “majors,” is widely consid-
:d in the golfing community as the
golfer of the century,” being named
such by Golf Magazine, among others.
Since his illustrious pro career, the
golfer has become one of the pre
miere course designers in the
world, with his courses hosting
over 300 stops by pro-circuits
worldwide.
“Jack Nicklaus is arguably the
best designer in the world and,
without argument, the greatest
golfer of all time,” Ken Kasten, a
senior vice president with Club-
Corp, said.
Currently Nicklaus and his son have only
eight co-designs.
Despite the signature design of the course, the
size of the project and the future opportunities for
Traditions Golf & Country Club
FEATURES:
Signature 27 hole course designed by Jack Nicklaus and Ns son Jack Nicklaus II
• Variable elevation, mature trees, and unique water features
• 180 room hotel & 15,000 sq. foot conference center & 1000 + homes
Separate practice center, offices, and locker room for A&M golf team
Expected to open in fall 2001 with
1 - Golf Club
2 - Hotel yfi
3 - Toimn Center
construction beginning this summer
• Estimated value at 275 million
• Focused membership to A&M
alumni along with Brazos Valley
residents
• Comparable prices to current dubs
INSIDE
Story-
Wedding
The A-Z
guide on
he big day.
• Men's and women's
swim teams prepare for
LSD
Page 7
RUBEN DELUNA/I iik Battalion
the community, A&M and the Aggie golf team
remain the focus for Traditions.
The course will feature exclusive practice fa
cilities for the A&M golf team including a driving
range, practice holes, training stations, offices and
locker rooms. Meanwhile the 27 holes will pro
vide a challenging environment that should help
make the Aggies one of the best prepared teams
in the NCAA.
The Nicklaus design will also serve as an in
valuable recruiting aid for future Aggie teams.
“It helps from a recruiting standpoint,” Ellis
said. “But even more it helps from an experience
standpoint because our practice facilities would
be so demanding — making competition on oth
er courses less of a challenge.”
The excitement about the possibilities Tradi
tions will bring to the Bryan-College Station com
munity, the University and Aggie golf is begin
ning to simmer throughout the Brazos Valley.
“The team is so excited about the prospect [of
a home course] and it is really helping recruiting
already,” A&M women’s golf coach Jeanne
Sutherland said. “It’s excited everybody.
“It will be even better when we see it start to
take place.”
While A&M currently utilizes a number of the
courses and facilities throughout the community,
it has no permanent home with separate facilities.
See Golf on Page 10.
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