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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2000)
CSPD evicted from Northgate station ntrol. view that no ivory tn ider any circumstai in effective monitorii and is operational," ian circus RO, Brazil (AP) d a 6-year-old boy from ;ed him through the i in northeastern Brar os Fonseca and hiss o close to the lions' »ht show ofthe VostokCi e police said, y son away, and when 11 ; mouth," a weepingF t interview. js employees were uni romthe cage, which te: i then fired on the liors ns, killing three, yee who declined to Ik interview that the liotl not been fed since This ^ ^ SAT ... it. f : ■v*i : ■ v ’VT, wA ptaf .., ** 4 ^ ^ JP BEATO/Thi: BaitaUon [M /Wens /acrosse team members Bobby Jee, a sophomofe mechanical engineering major, attacks the cage H while fVlanuel Hernandez, a junior international studies major, defends in a one-on-one dodge drill. League semifinals will be held in Austin against Texas Christian University, with finals against the Univer sity of Texas-Austin. The men’s lacrosse team practices four times a week. embers appointed to Vision 2020 council BY ROLANDO GARCIA The Battalion The eviction of the College Sta tion Police Department from its of fice on Northgate is a selfish politi cal ploy to protest the city’s removal of on-street parking on College Main, said one city council member. In a letter dated March 22, Susanne Pledger, the special projects director for Loupot’s Bookstore, gave the po lice 30 days to vacate the office space at the Loupot’s building on 105 Col lege-Main Street where the police de partment has housed its Northgate substation rent-free for nearly a year. The action comes on the heels of the city’s decision to eliminate store front parking on College-Main St.,be tween University Dr. and Church Rd., which some Northgate merchants said will hurt their businesses. Pledger said the arrangement had become too burdensome for Loupot’s. According to her calcula tions, the bookstore was subsidizing the police department to the tune of $ 15,000, and not having full operat ing space had become a problem during book rush days. But City Councilman Dennis Maloney said the eviction is a retal iation against the city on the part of Northgate businesses unhappy with the new parking policy. “That’s what’s known as a tem per tantrum. What they’re saying is ’We don’t care about safety here, we don’t care about people throwing beer bottles or women getting as saulted, we just want our parking spaces,’ ’’ Maloney said. Mayor Lynn Mcllhaney said the Northgate substation, one of three in the city, is a critical component ofthe city’s community policing efforts. “The police are there to help, and the best way to do that is to get to know the individuals and businesses they’re protecting,” Mcllhaney said. Mcf lhaney said that she hopes pol itics is not behind Loupot’s decision. “We have worked with all the en tities in Northgate for the revitaliza tion project, and we will continue to work with them. We all want to see it prosper and develop, but they’ve got to realize that it’s a process of give and take,” she said. Maloney said that so far, Northgate merchants have done a lot more tak ing than giving. “When it’s all done, we would have put $ 14 million into Northgate, and for them to complain about los ing a stinking 27 parking spaces, I just don’t get it,” Maloney said. However, some Northgate mer chants argue that eliminating the free parking on College Main will hurt businesses who rely on customers who do not plan on staying long. “People aren’t gonna pay to park two blocks away to bring in their dry cleaning, and that puts us at a severe disadvantage,” said Bernie Gessner, owner of Aggie Cleaners. Gessner said Loupot’s is justi fied in evicting the police depart ment in light of the city’s unwill ingness to work with Northgate businesses to solve the long-run ning parking dispute. “We haven’t been given the prop er opportunity to present our case. If they don’t want to listen to us, why should they be receiving this free gift,” Gessner said. “We like the po lice there, but we need to get the city’s attention.” Gessner added the city’s main reason for removing the free parking on College Main is to direct North- gate customers to the soon-to-be- built parking garage. Maloney said in addition to mak ing the parking garage feasible, the new parking policy will make the Northgate area safer for bicycle and pedestrian traffic. “We have to make this area safe and attractive for the people who use it most—the students,” Maloney said. The parking on College-Main, Maloney said, made it difficult for large emergency vehicles like fire trucks to access the Northgate area. But Pledger said the city has been unresponsive to the parking concerns of Northgate businesses. Pledger also expressed dismay at comments by some city officials suggesting Northgate merchants were putting personal interests ahead of community safety. “When I told the police chief about our decision, he said would have to go to the press with this and it could get ugly,” Pledger said. “I’m tired of dealing with callous city of ficials. 1 think those comments were very childish of them.” JP BEATO/The Bati ai.ion The College Station Police Department was asked to leave the free space it was occupying on Northgate (above). They were giv en the area with permission from Loupot’s. r’t d-Mm Ht v''! f * V u f BY JULIE ZUCKER The Battalion Texas A&M University President Dr. iy M. Bowen has designated the 18 mem- tsof the University Planning Council, an sory board whose mission is to assist in evelopment of Vision 2020. owen implemented Vision 2020 three s ago, and now his appointed commit- consisting of A&M faculty, staff, stu nts and alumni — will meet to ensure ’s success in becoming a top 10 uni- r eisity by the year 2020. (Bowen said the 250 people involved Hi Vision 2020 will tackle the entire pro- raat once. fNo area is more important than an- Br,” Bowen said. “There are no short- goals. This will all come together by ear 2020.” he goals of Vision 2020 are not with- HBcriticism. The plan has come under fire MBi the Texas A&M gay and lesbian com- ■Hity for not including the progress of gay ®d lesbian acceptance at A&M. B'pTie progress of gay and lesbian ac- Hptancc] is not included into the plan, and 1 Iniversity Planning COUNCIL Co-Chairs •Michael Hitt •Jon Hagler Sn-Campus Reps. IJohn August •G.P. Peterson <Will Hurd •Daniel Sui fHoward Kaplan •Thomas Wehrly ^Patricia Larke •Walter Wendler •Mary Miller |ff-Campus Reps. •Carlos Cantu .A1 Simmons •Bob Harvey .Paul W. Toler •Patty Mueller .George Williams •Rob Robinson PI on April 10th, 2000 d a copy of the Official istakes is open to legal inions must have valid liates, subsidiaries, VISION 2 O 2 0 RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion it shouldn’t,” Bowen said. “It is a valid and legitimate cause, but the plan is meant to fo cus on the advancement of academic affairs of A&M, and so it isn’t expressly included.” The board plans to meet this summer to plan a schedule of meeting times and final ize a five-year mission statement. Dr. Michael Hitt, co-chair for the com mittee and a management professor, said the committee will be a positive force behind the program by reviewing the plans of dif ferent groups and colleges on campus. Hitt said the committee will serve as fa cilitators to the A&M departments while they strive to meet the 12 imperatives out lined in the Vision 2020 statement. According to the Vision 2020 handbook, the 12 goals are: •Elevate faculty and their teaching, re search and scholarship •Strengthen the graduate program •Enhance the undergraduate academic experience •Build the letters, arts and sciences core •Build on the tradition of professional education •Diversify and globalize the A&M community •Increase access to intellectual resources •Enrich the campus •Build community and metropolitan connections •Demand enlightened governance and leadership •Attain resource parity with the best pub lic universities •Meet the commitment to Texas A&M is currently ranked as the 15th best public university by U.S. News and World Report. The University of Texas- Austin ranked 17th, and the University of California- Berkeley is No. I. Dr. Howard Kaplan, committee member and a sociology professor, said the members of the committee will succeed at helping the University reach its goal of being ranked within the top 10. “We are chosen for our ability not to look at this project through self-serving eyes, but at the University as a whole,” Kaplan said. “We need the students’ participation now and more importantly, after graduation, to make A&M worthy of being the best.” RHA to address food services BY STUART HUTSON The Battalion Members of Texas A&M’s Resi dence Hall Association (RHA) will have food on their minds at Wednes day’s meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Koldus. Among other actions, the RHA will vote on a bill requesting research into placing community kitchens into residence halls, hear an update on Sbisa construction from the Depart ment of Food Services and discuss this week’s activities for RHA Week, in cluding a free barbecue Thursday. “We found out that a lot of the stu dents who leave campus mark on their exit surveys that the ability to have a kitchen is one of the major reasons for leaving,” said Julie Cast, president of RHA and a junior mar keting major. “This bill would basi cally ask for RHA to work with De partment of Resident Life to research into if it would be feasible to put these kitchens in.” Cast said that if the kitchens are ap proved by the University, they would most likely be installed into a variety of different types of residence halls with different resident makeups. “We would need to see first how a kitchen would work in lots of dif ferent types of residence halls before continuing to put them in each and every one,” Cast said. “This would just be an awesome thing that would really improve the atmosphere on campus, and at the same time in crease on-campus retention.” The RHA will also hear from Cindy Zawieja, the associate director of Food Services, who will speak on the current status of the construction on Sbisa Dining Hall. “She is just going to give us an up date on what is going on,” Cast said. See RHA on Page 2 Class presidents aim for unity % INSIDE BY BRANDIE LIFFICK The Battalion Collin Poage and Beth Weems will return as class pres idents for the classes of 2001 and 2002, respectively. The class of’03 will be represented by Misty Cook, a freshman agricultural development major. “Collin and Beth are returning for the second year, so they know what to do from the beginning,” said Peggy Holzweiss, class council adviser. “And they have already joined together to make the transition for Misty so much easier. They are already starting to work together to better the class councils for next year.” Poage, a junior information and operations manage ment major, said that the class council is ultimately re sponsible for bringing together members of the class. “Class council is all about promoting unity,” Poage tlSS PRESIDENTS Collin Poage INFO & OPERATIONS MGMT Beth Weems BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE said. “Our main objective is to make this process more ef ficient.” “I really feel humbled and honored to be in this posi tion again,” Poage said. “I sit down and think ’Wow! Peo ple really want me to do this.’ It’s a great feeling!” For Cook, deciding to run for Class of ’03 president was difficult. “I had a lot of people that really encouraged me to run. But the driving force happened the Tuesday before filing,” Cook said. “I went to Breakaway, and 1 felt God talking to me, telling me that running for class president was the right thing to do.” Weems echoed Poage’s emphasis on unity. “My reasoning for running for class president is a little odd. I decided to run after attending Silver Taps. I looked around and saw all these different people — non-regs, Corps members, Northside, Southside — all gathered to gether to honor and mourn fel low students. The unity that was present there was remark able,” said Weems, a biomed ical science major. Holzweiss said each class president is responsible for his or her own class council. The senior class president is con sidered the leader of the class council as a whole. “While each class presi dent oversees their council, they all work together to ac complish common goals,” Holzweiss said. “For in stance, Maroon Out is not sponsored by any one class council. But they all work to RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion make it a SUCCCSS.” Misty Cook AG DEVELOPMENT The art of laughter Page 3 • Baseball falls to Bobcats, 6-4 Aggies lose five straight games for the first time in 1 3 seasons Page 9 • The burdens of srflik being wealthy The drawbacks of income growth deserve attention not ridicule. •Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57 p.m. for details on a uninsured motorists proposal. •Check out The Battalion online at battalion.tamu.edu