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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 2000)
iU >pa licure Solar Nails |w/white powder' Reg. s 35 every service. iA' CiiAi'Mixt lo '/iunLitii opting Aggie Bucks! . J 'I ! idwich Expires 08/15/00 ?xas Ave. Shopping Center • iroger’s) KING *1 extra >s 08.31.00 m-10:00pm M-F i Sat Il:00am-10pm Sun ;er center VEST PARKWAY 96-5464 m. - 10 p.m. Listen to KAMU 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m. for details on the College Station teacher pay raise. Pets are allergy sufferers too uture of bonfire logs still under consideration * ""I ^ Chris Cunico The Battalion To avoid damaging the logs from the 1999 Aggie Bon- collapse, the removal of the remnants of the fallen ifire has been carefully conducted. Genevive G. Stubbs, senior associate general council Lvyer) for Texas A&M, said the district attorney's office >0i $ 3*i forced the removal process to progress slower than my College Station residents consider ideal. She said the le of spoliation," the law designed to keep one party in Igation from destroying crucial evidence of the oppos- party's case, prevents A&M from transferring the re ining logs to a less conspicuous place than bonfire site. "This tragedy has been an unprecedented event for ite agencies and universities," Stubbs said. "We're go- theextra mile or two to ensure we are as careful as we i be and everything is done right. The [district attor ney],advised us to preserve the logs until the statute of limitation is over, which, in a civil case, is two years." Stubbs said several of the most important logs, in cluding the centerpole, have been relocated to a ware house located on West Campus. Experts continually per form structure tests on these logs. A plan has been devised and will be presented to the district attorney to transport the logs to a former sewage treatment area near Easterwood Airport. Stubbs said the land described in the proposal is much more discrete than the logs' current location and contains ample space to house the logs. In his press conference last month, Texas A&M Presi dent Dr. Ray M. Bowen said that after all investigations are completed and A&M is given permission to move the logs, the school will consider donating the logs to a communi ty organization such as Habitat for Humanity. "We hope to have an answer fairly soon," Bowen said. "We're anxious for the site to be restored to a polo area, a grass area, and we think that the images which are pro voked every time our community looks at the area, they'd like them not to be there." "Speaking as a person and not as an official, everyone who lives here in town is forced to drive past the logs every day, so I'm sure it has a negative effect on students, because it does on me," Stubbs said. "We do have an obligation, though, to follow the proper procedures and not rush the process." Many students and residents, regardless of the rule of spoliation and proper procedure, feel that the piles of logs represent painful memories of a time when friends were lost and a great tradition was forever altered. See Logs on Page 4. Mandi Moore, a freshman history major, and Shawn Michaelson, a freshman computer engineering major, reflect at the site of the 1999 Aggie Bonfire after hearing the reports. Iron man * Online registration maybe complicated Martin Cruz, an iron worker in Bryan, welds a fence in the workshop of Pfeffer Ornamental Iron on Tuesday. After completion, the fence will surround a local swimming pool. r ater system improvement project underway Tex-Con contracted to build new water tank and extend waterlines on campus F _ ]V1aureen Kane The Battalion An upgrade of the waterlines that run through the A&M campus sbeen ongoing for the past four onths, and should be completed mid-December 2000. The waterline construction is part of the Domestic Water System Improvement Project that is being conducted by Tex-Con, a construc tion company in College Station. I The project has been contracted to Tex-Con for $3,621,000. I Charles Frosch, project manag er for Tex-Con, said one of the ma jor aspects of the waterline up grade project is the construction of anew water tank that will be used for underground storage. I "We're building a new 3-mil- [lipn-gallon tank, and that involves ^connecting waterlines tying into the system," Frosch said. "We're .extending a 30-inch diameter wa terline along Wellborn Road and tying onto an existing line at F&B ■oad. The line is 4,465 feet from tie point of tie-on, along the rail road, under University Drive, onto the south side of University Drive, to the existing two 24-inch lines." The Domestic Water System Improvement Project is in the process of upgrading the wa terlines that run through campus. In addition to thfe new water tank, a new 30-inch transmission waterline is being built between F&B Road and main campus - the largest waterline in Brazos County, according to Jim Boswell, civil con struction supervisor. "We are putting in new lines all over campus to increase supply to our cus tomers," Boswell said. "One is out by the golf driving range - that is already in place." Frosch said water- lines are being built in three other locations. "Along Bizzell Street, there's a 12- inch, 1,400-foot-long waterline going in. The West Campus pipeline going in will be about 2,100 feet long, and the Reed Arena Loop is anoth er 12-foot line that is about 1,425 feet long," Frosch said. "These will all be connected to ex isting waterlines on campus. An other component of the project is that we are adding cathodic pro tection (protects pipeline from cor rosion) to the water supply lines that come from the water supply out on Highway 21, all the way to the storage tanks on F&B Road." Cecil Smith, master utilities plumber, said the new water tank will be located at the intersection of F&B Road and Pinfeather Road. "From this facility (new water tank), we are adding a new 30-inch water main that fills the water tower and fills the distribution center," Smith said. He said the water system up grade is being done in conjunction with an electrical upgrade. "We are adding infrastructure to allow us to serve our customers better," Smith said. "Students, fac ulty, anybody that uses utilities on campus will benefit from it." See Construction on Page 4. Chris Cunico The Battalion For many Aggies, registration night can be the pinnacle of a stressful se mester. Nothing is more frustrating than hitting the redial button for what seems like days and being bombarded by busy signals between each call, only to find the needed class section filled. Texas A&M students seeking an eas ier way to register may be pleased to know the University is reviewing the current student data system and has plans to replace it in upcoming years. Donald Carter, registrar, said that, along with the replacement of the data base, a Web registration software pro gram would be added. He said the computer services center recently conducted an evaluation con cerning the feasibility of creating and implementing Web registration and. several complications were discussed. Carter said the complications are to be expected when a university the size of A&M utilizes a Web-based system. He said the majority of A&M's cost, will come from the mandatory pur chase of additional hardware and the probable upgrade to the mainframe. Carter said the cost of constructing and maintaining a Web registration sys tem to meet the needs of more than 40,000 students is too expensive for im mediate installment. "We have looked at Web registration, but the cost is too prohibitive right now," Carter said. "Many cost factors must be considered in a project like this, and we cannot financially support it at this time." Since Fall 1997, the University of Texas-Austin (UT) has been using Web registration along with touch-tone phone reg istration like the system A&M currently uses. Mike Allen, associate reg istrar for UT, said the univer sity employs a staff of 20 full time programmers and system analysts to write, mon itor and update the systems. He said anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 students can access the system simultaneously. "We have interactive sys tems for registration, hous ing, financial aid and various other fields," Allen said. "Over the past 15 years, we have assembled a core of pro grammers whose sole job is to work on the system." Carter said that although cost is the major limiting factor, other outside limita tions may inhibit the regis tration system, such as the phone company choosing to restrict the number of stu dents who can be online at any given time. "I don't know how much easier Web registration will make the lives of the stu dents," Carter said. "The advantage with the Web is enabling students to view the available classes while registering. Only 2,000 lines are able to access the phone registration at a time; keeping lines busy for students up to an hour and a half. We're not sure how many computers will be able to access the registration lines or if it will lessen the hassle of registration." Carter said many students may believe that any student can register at any time throughout the semester. However, online registration will operate in a manner sim ilar to phone registration in which stu dents have scheduled registration dates based on their classification and last name. Blinn College in Bryan recently es tablished a Web-based online registra tion center for both Summer 2000 ses sions and will continue to use it for future registration. "Web registration has already proven itself to be the most popular form of reg istration among Blinn students," said Gena Parsons, public information officer for Blinn College. "In both summer ses sions, approximately 70 percent of stu dents registered online." Parsons said the Web registration system has been a success so far. The only problems with the new system in volved a few situations where prerequi sites failed to show up in students' files. A&M senior marketing major Mari na Streltsova, said she likes the concept of Web registration. "Online registra tion sounds like a good idea and will speed up the process," Streltsova said. "Hopefully, it will also be easier to ac cess than the current phone method." Blinn College in Bryan has established online regis tration for both 2000 summer sessions.