Listen to KAMU 90.9 FM at 1:57 p.m.
for details on College Station Indepen
dent School District removing three
buses from service.
• Check out The Battalion online at
battalion.tamu.edu.
• Longhorns not alone In the
Big 12 South race
Aggies, Sooners should be worthy
opponents to the vaunted,
untested UT lineup
Page 1 B
Weather:
Partly cloudy with a high
of 103 and a low of 73.
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September 5, 2000
Volume 107 ~ Issue 8
2 Sections
Section A - 8 pages
Section B - 6 pages
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The Battalion
An accident involving a motorcycle and a
iport-utility vehicle occurred e.arly Sunday
morning, killing one and leaving another in
the intensive care unit.
According to a release issued by the Col
lege Station Police Department (CSPD).
Jonathan Hatfield, a Baylor University
eshman, and Heath Davis, a Texas A&M
reshman electrical engineering major,
ere riding a motorcycle southbound on
Marion Pugh Drive when it collided with a
Ford Explorer driven by Scott Barrow, a
sophomore at Texas A&M.
The release said Barrow was turning
out of the driveway of Treehouse 2 Apart
ments when his Explorer and the motor
cycle collided.
Davis and Hatfield were transported to
College Station Medical Center. Hatfield
was later pronounced dead by a doctor.
Davis is currently in stable condition,
but he remains in intensive care. He has un
dergone several surgeries, said Ann Good
man, associate director of student life.
a
The [rehabilitation]
process is going to be
pretty lengthy”
— Ann Goodman
associate director of student life
‘The [rehabilitation] process is going to
be pretty lengthy,” Goodman said.
The news release said Barrow fled from
the scene on foot after the accident, but lat
er agreed to meet with CSPD officers.
Barrow was not available for comment.
One of the first vehicles to arrive on the
scene was a car on duty for Caring Aggies
“R” Protecting Over Our Lives (CAR-
POOL). The CARPOOL car had picked up
a passenger at Melrose Apartments and was
driving down Marion Pugh when the dri
vers saw the accident, said Brooke Mau-
ritzen, one of the two CARPOOL volun
teers and a junior biology major.
“It was kind of like-a big dream,” Mau-
ritzen said.
Mauritzen said they arrived between 30
seconds and a minute after the accident
occurred.
Mauritzen said her partner, Patrick
Blocker, a senior management information
See Accident on Page 6B.
Campus activii
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STUART VILLANUEVA/Thh Battauon
Unknown "chalkers" continue sidewalk chalk campaigns
attacking the University for an anti-discrimination rule
they believe to be too weak regarding the issue of sexual
orientation. This sign read "Why did Bowen lie?" in front
of the Academic Building. To the side, another sign read
"Fight 4 Gay/Lesbian rights."
Opponents to talk
against 2000 bonfire
Kerlees parents among speakers
By Sommer Bunce
The Battalion
Key figures in the Bonfire controver
sy are speaking to residence halls in sup-
port of President Dr. Ray M. Bowen’s
Bonfire decision. The Spence/Briggs
Residence Hall Council will meet tonight
with residents, student leaders and ad
ministration to discuss Bonfire issues.
At 8:30 p.m. in Corps Lounge A,
Spence/Briggs residents will listen to
speakers such as Tim and Janice Ker-
lee, parents of Bonfire collapse victim
Tim Kerlee Jr.; Head yell leader Ricky
Wood and Rusty Thompson, assistant
director of Student Programs for the
Memorial Student Center.
The Kerlees met with a group of 50
Underwood residents Sunday night, said
Underwood graduate hall director Jnani-
ka Wijayarante. They plan to meet with
students from Krueger on Wednesday.
The discussion will center on Texas
A&M’s policy and the decision to place
Aggie Bonfire on a two-year moratorium,
said Spence/Briggs graduate hall director
Tricia Schwery. Bonfire is a University is
sue that students want — and need — to
know more about, Schwery said.
Keep the Fire Burning (KTFB), a
student group seeking to build an off-
campus bonfire to burn in late Novem-
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13 Aggies to be honored at Silver Taps today
By Maureen Kane
The Battalia?!
Thirteen Aggies will be honored Tuesday
night at one of the largest Silver Taps ever
held on the Texas A&M campus, and the Ag
gie family will be there to remember them.
Christy French, the Silver Taps subchair
on Traditions Council and a junior psychol
ogy major, said the first Silver Taps in the
fall is usually the largest because it honors
every Aggie who has died since April.
“This is a final tribute to fallen Aggies,”
French said. “It’s a way for families to see
how special their son or daughter is to A&M.”
The first Silver Taps honored Lawrence
Sulliv an Ross, the president of Texas A&M
College, in 1898. The only other non-student
ever to be honored at a Silver Taps ceremo
ny was Pinky Downs, class of 1906, who
was “so influential and so loved by the stu
dents,” according to French. Downs is also
credited with creating the Gig ‘Em tradition.
When the tradition of Silver Taps began,
it was held immediately after a student‘s
death, but as the student body continued to
grow, the scheduling of the ceremony was
changed. Since 1979, it has been held on
the first Tuesday of each month, as needed.
Throughout the day Silver Taps is held,
flags are flown at half-staff and the Corps
of Cadets wears “midnights” — a more
formal uniform — in respect for the Ag
gies being honored.
“The day of Taps, we put a card on the
Silver Taps Memorial at the base of the flag
pole by the Academic Building that men
tions the student’s name, major, class and
hometown,” French said. “That way cam
pus knows who is being honored. Then the
card is given to the family after Silver Taps.”
At 10 p.m., the lights in the area around
the Academic Plaza are extinguished, and
See Silver Taps on Page 6B.
Dinette Se
* Record-breaking heat boils down to fire hazards
This is part two of a five-part water series
about the ongoing drought and how its im
pact can be felt locally and regionally.
wiw.e/ rj^a
By Rolando Garcia
The Battalion
Daytime temperatures are expected
to remain in the three-digit range for
the next few days, the National Weath
er Service reports.
In its statement covering much of
East Texas and the Brazos Valley, the
relational Weather Service reported a
heat advisory would be in effect
through Tuesday and predicted record-
smashing temperatures in many areas.
This short-term forecast is in keep
ing with what has been an unusually
hot summer throughout Texas, said
John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state
climatologist and a meteorology pro
fessor at Texas A&M.
‘ ‘We have warm days in Texas every
year at this time, but it takes two in
gredients to make it really hot — sub
sidence and lack of rain,” Nielsen-
Gammon said.
Subsidence is the downward move
ment of air, which causes the atmosphere
to warm and clouds to evaporate, allow
ing more sunlight to reach the ground.
“Sunlight passes through the atmos
phere to heat up the earth and other sol-
“We have warm
days in Texas
every year at this
time, but it takes
two ingredients to
make it really hot
— subsidence and
lack of rain”
— John Nielsen-Gammon
Texas state climatologist and an
A&M meteorology professor
id objects on its surface, so the ground
gets hot and heats up the air. Our envi
ronment gets hot from the bottom up,”
Nielsen-Gammon said.
‘The lack of rain, he added, dries the
soil and heats the surface.
“Since it takes energy to evaporate
water, if there’s less water to be evap
orated, more energy is available to heat
up the ground,” Nielsen-Gammon said.
The hot, dry summer has left cities
throughout the state grappling with
record temperatures. According to the
National Weather Service, if forecasts
through Thursday hold up, Austin will
have 40 days of at least 100-degree
heat this year, making it the city’s
hottest summer since 1925. In Dallas,
temperatures have hit triple digits for
42 days, and the tally is still climbing.
The drought and scorching heat also
have created an extreme fire hazard. Bart
Humphreys, public information officer
See Heat on Page 6B.
her, has been the main opposition to
Bowen’s decision.
Once Bowen announced his deci
sion, all students should have respect
ed it, Tim Kerlee Sr. said.
“I am violently opposed to the off-
campus bonfire,” he said. “It’s a slap
in the face of the Aggie spirit, and it
disrespects the unity of that spirit. This
gives a black eye to the Aggies.”
Kerlee intends to share his opinion
with other Southside residence halls.
“The students ought to do what has
been recommended,” he said. “Just be
cause some are taking their bats off the
field and vowing to play elsewhere
doesn't mean we can't follow the
guidelines the University gave.”
Schwery and the Spence/Briggs Hall
Council accepted Kerlee Sr., Wood and
Thompson’s offer to speak during resi
dent adviser training early this semester.
“As a University official, I feel a re
sponsibility to inform our students, to
bring in the key players so students can
form their own opinion to choose
whether or not to participate [in KTFB’s
off-campus bonfire proposal],” Schw
ery said. “I want [the residents] to get a
more realistic perspective of Bonfire.”
See Speakers on Page 6B.
Courtney Elizabeth Brymer
(Sociology major)
Joshua Davis Gray
(Industrial Distribution major)
Abigail Marie Keatts
(Biological Systems Engineering major)
Rodney P. Laskowski
(Business Administration major)
Jungki Min
(Electrical Engineering grad student)
Terry Ramon Nichols
(Agriculture and Life Sciences major)
James Howland Ratterree
(Fisheries Science grad student)
Amanda Clarice Rodriguez
(Microbiology major)