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• Listen to KAMI! 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m.
for details on the Texas A&M College of
Veterinary Medicine transfer admissions.
• Check out The Battalion online at
battalion.tamu.edu.
TPlOil?
1 rlMj
Testing the waters
Drug examinations
ensure accuracy
Page 5
Weather:
Partly cloudy with a
hiqh of 95 and a low
of 71.
WEDNESDAY
July 5, 2000
Volume 106 ~ Issue 162
8 pages
e sanctions committee
ary uses. The United Stale
ictive among sanctionstt
at blocking supplies to
>osed after Iraq's 1990invi
rippled the Iraq econonr
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F A i M&TXm 1IJC U’i =1 r WI
TTS confiscates, stores abandoned bicycles
Anna Bishop
The Battalion
With more than 17,000 places to park bicycles on campus,
ultitude of students can be found methodically whizzing
swerving through the crowds at any given moment.
However, bikes will run a greater risk of being confis-
d and bike traffic will become more congested with
closing of the Northgate parking lots said Doug
liams associate director of Parking, Traffic and Trans
lation Services (PTTS).
"At the end of each semester, PTTS purges the campus of all
idoned bicycles—bikes that are in need of repairs and have
nleft to rust. These bicycles are taken to a storage facility un
student makes a claim on his or her bike," Williams said.
Williams said these confiscated bikes become state
iperty after 120 days.
The storage facility, located on West Campus, is home
to more than 700 orphaned bicycles and other unclaimed
property," Williams said.
Sergeant Allan Baron of University Police Department
(UPD) Crime Prevention unit said UPD also confiscates
bicycles and when these bikes are no longer needed in a
court case or have no claims made upon them, they be
come property of the West Campus bike shelter.
The unclaimed bikes are sold at an annual auction held
in September.
This method of confiscating bicycles and auctioning
them causes grief for students like junior zoology major
Jason Graves.
"What if students have left their bikes on campus and
they are accidentally confiscated? Making a clean sweep
of campus to rid it of all bicycles, unsightly ones or oth
erwise, is a poor decision/'Graves said. "Some students
invest a great deal of money on a bike and then find them
in a heap on West Campus? It's a conspiracy."
Barron said students who believe their bicycles have been
confiscated or stolen should contact the UPD dispatch office.
"When students do not claim their property, it indicates
an indifference of whether or not they want [the unclaimed
property] anymore. An auction is a way to control an ex
cess build-up of such unwanted possessions," Barron said.
On the other hand, senior geography major Trey Dietrich
finds the auction too good to be true.
"I have been told that I could pick up a nice bike at the
auction for a really good deal," Dietrich said. "I would
buy a confiscated bike at the public auction. I think it is a
great thing to offer to a community of college students.
Confiscating abandoned bikes makes the campus look
clean and orderly... auctioning the bikes off will give stu
dents who really want, and perhaps need, a bicycle an af
fordable opportunity to do just that,"
In order to avoid having their bikes confiscated, UPD
recommends students engrave a drivers' license number
somewhere on the frame of the bicycle and keep the bike
serial number in a safe place. Students also can register
their bikes with PTTS.
-CS has low
obless rate
:; ; r
ms
369
person
month
)PEN
OUSE!
XA5 MM
?th“June 2nd
: 5th 9th
19th-23rd
26th-28th
10th-14th
17th-21$t
t 21st-23rd
Brazos Center)
14th <& 21st
ily 19th
t 2nd & 9th
wnshire Campus)
jne 8th
3th A 27th
I KimTrifilio
The Battalion
I Texas A&M University
holds an unrecognized asset
tov the community of Bryan-
Co/Jege Station in providing
any job opportunities that
suited in B-CS being
Inked lowest in Texas un-
inployment rates.
J The Texas Labor Market
le\iew surveys 27 metropol-
n areas in Texas each
|onth and ranks the cities'
iployment rates. In May, B-
had a 1.5 percent unem-
loyinent rate. In May 1999
ICS rated 1.7 percent. Other
lies studied in the survey
I re Dallas that rated 3.0
rcent and Houston that rat-
4.2 percent.
Clayton Griffis, an econo-
st at the Texas Workforce
mmission, said B-CS has
pt the lowest unemploy-
nt rate for many months.
"That is nothing new.
[yan-College Station has had
|e lowest unemployment
:eoutof the 27 metropolitan
as for quite some time
w," Griffis said.
Griffis said there are two
imary inputs into the calcu-
aions to determine a city's
[^employment rate.
" "First, information is tak-
® from a monthly survey,
ijrrent population survey, in
hich we use the week of the
Ith as a reference week. The
iusehold survey asks if you
ork and if yes, then you are
counted as employed. If
then you are asked if you
|e able to work and actively
oking for work and that is
unted as unemployed. Be
ing unemployed is still con
sidered as being in the labor
force," Griffis said. "Another
key input comes from unem
ployment insurance claims.
We look at that to see if they
go up or down."
Griffis said the B-CS rating
is influenced by the kind of
market in the area.
"The Bryan-College Sta
tion rating has to do with
the unique labor market. It
is an extremely stable area,"
Griffis said.
Griffis said the stability of
the area is due to Texas A&M
University.
"Texas A&M has good em
ployment and the agriculture
and farming around there is
continually steady. Many
businesses rely on the univer
sity for consumers of their
products," Griffis said.
Gary Basinger, business
developer at Bryan-College
Station Chamber of Com
merce said Texas A&M pro
vides the labor force part-time
workers and a stable employ
ment source because schools
are not affected by layoffs.
"Overall, A&M stabilizes
the economy because there
are not going to be any big
layoffs. It provides a labor
force and a lot of job oppor
tunities. It provides part-time
workers for retail and jobs for
new graduates any time of
the year," Basinger said.
"We are also seeing a lot of
former students who want to
come back here. We are creat
ing a combination of new jobs
and keeping more graduates."
"Bryan-College Station has
See Jobless on Page 6.
Fire in the sky
More than 700 abandoned bicycles were confiscated
and stored in a storage facility on West Campus.
Aggies
witness
PRI loss
Fireworks celebrating Independence Day glittered across
the sky over the George Bush Presidential Library Com
plex Tuesday night. Earlier in the day there were games
and activities held to commemorate the Fourth of July.
Mariano Castillo
Special to The Battalion
MEXICO CITY — Approximately 50
Texas A&M students studying abroad
in Mexico experienced first-hand what
Mexicans consider their country's most
significant elections in history.Vicente
Fox's victory Sunday Over Francisco
Labastida brought an end to the 71-year
rule of the Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI) in an election scrutinized by
international observers.
A&M students studying abroad in
Mexico City, Puebla and Cuernavaca
witnessed and immersed themselves
in the tense political atmosphere. Go
ing into election day, polls for the pres
idential race showed Fox of the Na
tional Action Party (PAN) and
Labastida of the PRI only two percent
age points apart.
A group of students interning in
Mexico City with the public relations
firms Gcom-Kaufmann and GCI
worked with a project called Democra
cy Watch to ensure fair voting. Various
interests in Mexico funded the Democ
racy Watch project to conduct surveys
and exit polls to combat corruption in
the electoral process. Elections in pre
vious years had been tainted by vote
buying and fraud.
Ashley Carmona, a senior journal
ism major with Gcom-Kaufmann, said
the moment before the preliminary re
sults came in was the busiest and most
exciting.
See Elections on Page 6.
METROPOLITAN AREAS j
lieiaglsynenf Rate:
• May 2000 |
Bryan-College Station
Austin-San Marcos
Dallas
Waco,
University housing to have new center
A&M-owned apartment complex offers residents new community features
m
Joseph Pleasant
The Battalion
Residents of the University owned
apartments will have a new community
center by Spring 2001. The center, worth
an estimated $2 million, is under con
struction in the central part of the apart
ment complex is scheduled to be com
pleted by March 7, 2001.
John Sodolak, assistant director for the
University apartments, said residents have
requested a new community center in the
apartment complex.
"This community center has been five
years in the making; it's partly in response
to resident input," Sodolak said.
Sodolak said the new center will re
place an older, smaller building current
ly in use.
"A 1947-model metal building is being
used now for the apartment's community
center, and with our programs, it is used
almost every day a week," Sodolak said.
Tine University housing programming
office will use the community center for
activities throughout the year.
Sheetal Desai, graduate assistant in the
University apartment programming office
and an education administration graduate
student, said the complex has a large num
ber of international students and the pro
gramming office's activities are geared
mainly toward them.
"Our complex is 95 percent interna
tional, and our office, through activities
and programs, tries to help those students
See Housing on Page 6.
*of| i roc
HpLiju \ w C
xfnmunity Center Re
* L a u n d r y R o o m
* 3 Meeting Rooms
* Mailbox Facility
Ft e c r e a t i o n a I R o o m
R e I o c a t e d University
Appart me nt Housing
Computer Acess Lab
Study R o o m s
v »>* mm • J mmm v*.^
PATRIC SCHNEIDER AND STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion