Tuesday, June I;
Lisjten to KAMU 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m
or details on HIV testing at the
Memorial Student Center.
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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
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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*
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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-
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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:
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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.