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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2000)
Tuesday, June I; Lisjten to KAMU 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m or details on HIV testing at the Memorial Student Center. Secure Digital Music Initiative Did Cesar Perm in, flagged 4 /ided gasoline, but the] art. Hired gasoline directly into! d the passenger compare ssengers were asleep, i nen ignited the fumes, ar ies, they said. • Check out The Battalion online at » battalion.tamu.edu. Weather: Mostly cloudy with a hiqh of 93 and a low of 75. WEDNESDAY June 21,2000 Volume 10.6-Issue 156 6 pages t ft i dHltX&Xm IHM M =< rW i ommittee begins ork on memorial Fight club Joseph Pleasant The Battalion I Finding the most effective way to memorialize the 12 Aggies who were killed and the 27 others who |ere injured in the 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse will the task of the Bonfire Memorial Committee when its meetings begin June 29. ■ The 20-person committee was selected to decide the location and form of a bonfire memorial. I Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for stu- |Jent affairs, said discussion of a bonfire memorial has taken place since the collapse. I "It was clear early on that we would want to have an appropriate memorial for those students (who were harmed in the collapse)," Southerland said. I Southerland said Texas A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen asked him to chair a committee that would choose a memorial for the students. ■ IE KING ONFIRE Memorial Committee ■lx •Dean Thomas Regan •Ms Cathy Hastedt •Mr, Rusty Thompson •Mr. Mike Goldwater •LTC Keith Stephens ‘Ms, Ellyn Perrone •Dr, Rick Floyd •Ms. Sheran Riley •Dr. Chang-Shan Huang •Mr, Forrest Lane ■Mr, Mark Welsh 'Mr. Ricky Wood •Mr. Austin Townsend •Mr Josh Kaylor Ms Schuyler Houser Ms Kathryn Hughes (Ex-officio) Ms. Barbara Kasper (Ex-officio) Ms. Cindy Lawson (Ex-officio) Ms. Ruby Sanders (Ex-officio) ■F ! 1B Southerland said the committee was chosen based upon input from administrators and various student leaders, including Student Body President, Forrest Lane. Southerland said the committee has already re ceived ideas from outside sources. "Thus far, all ideas have come to the University unsolicited," he said. Southerland^said the committee will ask for more ideas as it considers possible sites and types for the memorial. Southerland said after the committee decides bn the process for its work, it will set up opportunities for students to voice their opinions. Lane said student input will be important in de termining the memorial's form. "Everyone has a part of this. It will live in all of our memories," he said. Southerland said the committee has to decide what the memorial will be before it can decide on a site for the memorial. He said it is too soon to predict where the memo rial will be because the first meetings will discuss or ganization of the committee. "The committee needs to consider what type of memorial it will be — a park for students to come to, a statue, or any other number of possible memorials," he said. Southerland said the committee plans to start working on the memorial's selection in September, and it hopes to have a groundbreaking on the memo rial by Nov. 18, 2001. Ricky Wood, senior yell leader and a senior the ater arts major, said the bonfire memorial should stand as a constant reminder of bonfire's place in Ag gie tradition. "This memorial should embody everything bon fire stood for," Wood said. He also said the memorial should be a uniting symbol for the University. "It will be something that will show what bonfire means to all of us," Wood said. Mark Mathis, an assistant instructor at the American Institute of Self Defense in Bryan, delivers a crushing, flying elbow to the back of Chris Corbin's head during a Muay Thai kick boxing class Tuesday. thie* any extra Expires 08.31.00 7:30am-10:00pm M-F )0am-10pm Sat 11:00am-1 Opm Sun KROCI.R ( I N H R OUTHWEST PARKWAY 696-5464 Risk management team to examine safety issues Stuart Hutson The Battalion As the University continues to examine fety issues surrounding Aggie Bonfire, Vice ’esident of Student Affairs Dr. J Malon utherland has appointed a risk management 1 am to examine safety issues concerning oth- stiident-run activities. The team will be composed of officials who ill examine the Special Commission on the 99 Aggie Bonfire's report and the ways its indings may be applied to the more than 700 )ther student organizations. The basic task is to create a basic frame- COMPUTERIZED ALIGNMENT 5% OFF Must present coupon :: Front caster, camber & toe set facturer's specifications, pplicabie. lid w/any offer. Expires 01/10/01. work for safety at A&M that can be applied in dividually to each student group on campus," Southerland said. The team will be chaired by Tom Reber, di rector of the Student Recreation Center, and will also include representatives from the Corps of Cadets Commandant's office, the Department of Residence Life, the Department of Greek Af fairs and the Memorial Student Center, along with bonfire advisor Rusty Thompson and- Kevin Jackson, special assistant to the vice pres ident of Student Affairs. Southerland said a secondary task force of student leaders and faculty will also be formed 6<ii Let's not wait for something else to hap pen before we actually take a step back and make sure that what we are doing is safe 7’ — Forrest Lane student body president to discuss general safety issues associated with the organizations and activities on campus and then give feedback to the risk assessment team. "There is a lesson to be learned from bon fire," said Forrest Lane, student body president and a senior political science major. "Let's not wait for something else to happen before we ac tually take a step back and make sure that what we are doing is safe." Southerland said the team has been meet ing for the last three weeks but remains in the beginning steps of analysis. Southerland said the process is likely to oc cur annually, requiring individual organiza tions to begin compliance before they are al lowed to renew for the fall semester. Jeff Lewis, former vice president of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and a senior agricultural de velopment major, said that while he thinks the team may offer a valuable service by increasing safety, he urges it to work closely with the student organizations during the analysis process. "We have had problems isi the past where a miscommunication or misunderstanding be tween us and the University has caused some problems," Lewis said. "Sometimes it is diffi cult to understand something unless you have See Risk on Page 6. Student loan interest rates to increase ,oan holders have the option to maintain current rates Gyros Baklava Adrienne Ballare The Battalion j Student loan interest rates will increase next month because of an increase in the Jconomy's national interest rate, but there ! |s n way for student loan holders to main- | bin their current interest rate. ’ ■ The U.S. Department of Education's I llffice of Student Financial Assistance PfA) is encouraging borrowers to apply for loan consolidation. ■ Loan consolidation occurs when mul tiple outstanding student loans are com- I billed into a single loan and the interest fare is fixed for the life of the loan. I Jane Glickman, media specialist for pub- licjaffairs for SEA, said extended consolida tion is available in direct loans and loans Bm private lenders who participate in the ^Jpjleral guaranteed student-loan programs. On July 1, Stafford loan rates will in crease from current low rates ranging be tween 6.32 and 7.72 percent to between 7.59 and 8.99 percent. The rates on the Fed eral PLUS (Parent Loan for Undergradu- As of Inly 1st: fawn 'eewwl ‘l©«v nits iMUfru frm 3 WA1® It ibfctwfctri IM% mA s.m RyS nc>w raTrgtwg %wi ll.WIA T® 7.98% will mcrtase to betwefen 8 99% and 9.48% ate Students) loans now ranging between 7.72 and 7.98 percent will increase to be tween 8.99 and 9.48 percent. "We're encouraging everyone to con solidate their loans before interest rates kick in on July 1," Glickman said. Greg Woods, chief operating officer for SPA, said borrowers are allowed to apply for loan consolidation as late as June 30 so they can take advantage of current student loan interest rates "This seems only fair because the ap plication date is the one step a borrower can control in the loan-consolidation process," Woods said. Chasidy Allen, a senior environmental design major who recently applied for a Stafford loan, said the University should See Loans on Page 6. Renovations offer new services Cyra Gatling The Battalion The 14-month-long renova tion of Sterling C. Evans Library is on schedule and will be com pleted by mid-August. Students can expect several new services this year. The Food Services Depart ment is working with the library to add Poor Yoricks, a coffee shop located at the entry of the library, said Charles Gilreath, associate University librarian for advanced studies. Poor Yoricks will serve Starbucks coffee, along with cold sandwiches and snacks. The library is also creating a service that will separate refer ence materials by subject lines. ^ "Rather than having one ref erence section, there will be sepa rate locations for individual ref erence centers, such as a Human ity and Social Science reference center, which will be located at the back of the first floor," Gilreath said. Other reference sections will remain at their previous locations. The first and second floors of Evans Library have been com pletely renovated. The construc tion included the addition and subtraction of rooms and modi fications to the furniture styles and patterns. "We are improving the furni ture and the general look of the li brary," Gilreath said. The staff at Evans Library also hopes to offer students a more studious environment. "We are improving instruc tional space to provide students with a more pleasant reading en vironment," Gilreath said. Other new services Evans Li brary will offer include a technol ogy center for students with dis abilities, individual study rooms, additional conference rooms and a new copy center. Evans Library is also working with the Student Government As sociation to create a textbook sec tion so students can check out copies of required course texts. The total budget of the reno vation is about $7 million. The budget also includes an upgrad ed fire-safety system for the six floors of Evans and four floors of restroom renovation. In order to See Library on Page 6.