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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2000)
Tuesday, October!' with states’ rights. Sectoral College support: t the framers had in mind he writers of the Constitni ormed masses from direci WEDNESDAY October 18, 2000 Volume 107 ~ Issue 39 16 pages Section A: 8 pages Section B: 8 pages en well documented and throughout the years.! olution that fit 18th-centi (•>*4 *J AI ftlik'IPi ^ ;W I it is now easily accessible'; , newspapers the Internet; electoral process shouldii ,)f the “ignorant masses" e masses have been in tit Bat bites girl in Evans Library know for quite a r now. America has notfe need to stick to the fa intentions when itcomei other areas. If it had, the oming election’s constii ould consist entirely of»i operty-owners. The Constitution is a :ument. What the foreft ly had in mind wasadoa nt that could be adapted Iress new issues as theli Jy Brady Creel The Battalion ATexas A&M student was bitten tn the toe of her left foot Tuesday by bat that is part of a colony of sev- ral hundred bats residing in the ixth floor of the Sterling C. Evans ibrary. According to a report issued by Lane Stephenson, deputy director of University Relations, the student vas bitten by a Mexican freetail bat about 1:45 p.m. while studying on the fourth floor of the library. The student was taken by li brary staff members for treatment at the A.R Beutel Health Center, and subsequently to St. Joseph’s Regional Health Center in Bryan. The name of the student has not been released. Stephenson said the bat involved in the biting was captured and taken to the Small Animal Clinic of the College of Veterinary Medicine for rabies testing. It has not been deter mined whether the bat is infected with rabies. The report stated that the first re port of bats came Monday, and that 200 to 400 bats were spotted. By Monday evening, Physical Plant Pest Control had removed between 300 and 350 bats. Charles Gilreath, associate uni versity librarian for advanced stu dents, said in a press release that the problem has been reported to the of fice of Vice President for Adminis tration Charles Sippial. Gilreath said that the library’s first goal is to seal the avenues into the building to stop the bats from en tering, and then do an environmen tal clean up to remove smell from the sixth floor. The University Relations press release said Brent Maddox, manag er of the environment health and safety department reported that no public health hazard existed. Removal of the bats resumed Tuesday morning and about 50 were caught before the student was bitten. Stephenson said he did not be lieve the arrival of bats was associ ated with the recent completion of renovations to the library. “The renovation is completed, but I don’t think there is any rela tionship, but I am not an authority on that,” Stephenson said. _ , See Bite on Page 2. ites evolved over time. The principles establish r 89 were the beginnings!! iew nation, not the finalft print. In the end, the Electoral it is an antiquated systeii ion and distorts the willd , it was good idea. Toda; hed by its drawbacks. :an form of govemmenl re. il elites to relinquish tta senior political sciences o the editor. Letters must be 300' rte. class and phone number. ight to edit letters for length, sM in person at 014 Reed Me Dor* be mailed to: on - Mall Call 1 McDonald VI University .TAMU m, Texas 77843 Mall: 1111 ) 845-2647 5rs@hotmall.com The Battalion express the opinion 1 Student recycle effort lacking Group erations! By Courtney Stelzel The Battalion Collecting recyclable material from more than 130 buildings, and spending $65 to $70 a ton to have the it hauled out to a land fill site, is not enough to get Texas A&M students motivated about recycling. Initiated in 1990, the Recycling Of fice became a permanent fixture in 1991 and is currently under the man- sfiect the opinion of otherBattaiior ; agement of the Physical Plant Uti 1 ities i regents, administrators,facultyorr Divisioni solid waste prograrn and the wnstewuter treatment program. Though (he Recycling Center is not an awareness or educational organiza- ion, organizations such as the Student overnment Association’s Environ- ental Issues Committee (EIC) and the esidence Hall Association (RHA) ork with the Recycling Office. The roups collect aluminum cans, white aper, cardboard, newspapers, excess earhooks, old media guides and col- red paper. A routine pickup schedule akes one week to complete with no tops at residence halls. They also are orking together to design and imple- ent a program to inform students bout recycling. Daniella Hiche, EIC chairwoman, an intern at the Recycling center and a unior renewable natural science re sources major, said she is trying to es tablish a link between the Recycling Office and the student body. “The issue is that the University au thorities do not consider recycling a major issue, and that attitude is passed on to the students. 77 — Daniella Hiche Environmental Issues Committee chairwoman “The main reason why the recycling program has not been more successful on campus in the past is due to the lack of student awareness,” she said. Various organizations and commit tees have previously tried to work with the Recycling Office to publicize recy cling among the student body, but they failed because of a lack of support, Hiche said. “The issue is that the University au thorities do not consider recycling a major issue, and that attitude is passed on to the students,” she said. She added that the recycling Dump sters are usually behind the buildings at the service exits. This location al lows for quick and easy removal of the recyclable materials. However, she said that it keeps fac ulty and students from realizing how much waste is picked up by the Recy cling Office; and that they just see the trash disappearing and do not seem to wonder where it goes. The EIC hopes to establish a pro gram, with the help of the RHA and the stributor of nerates nearly >n 8 oz. e. events: 'ember 7th See Recycling on Page 6. Night light BERNARDO GARZA/The Battalion A storm system rolled into College Station Monday creating a large electrical disturbance with lightning across the skies. Campus participates in breast cancer awareness By Courtney Stelzel The Battalion The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that 182,800 women in the Unit ed States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and that more than 40,500 will die this year. In response to these startling numbers, October has been designated by the ACS as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), a time for both men and women to be conscious of the risk of breast cancer. The NBCAM began 15 years ago as a week-long program and has become a na tional month-long event that draws support from politicians, celebrities and women’s groups from around the country. The NBCAM encourages women and men to actively participate in breast cancer pre vention by preforming self-examinations. Breast cancer is a tumor that devel ops from cells in the breast and is most often found in women, but effects men in some instances. The ACS reports there are 12 types of breast cancer, with infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) ac counting for about 80 percent of inva sive breast cancers. “Although breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, there is a very high cure rate if detected in the early stages,” said Jennifer Peacock, senior field representative for the College Station branch of the ACS. The ACS reports there See Awareness on Page 6. Presidential race enters final stretch Debate last encounter before election ST. LOUIS (AP) — Vice President A1 Gore attacked George W. Bush as an ally of the rich and powerful Tuesday night, but the Texas governor rebutted in climactic campaign debate that his rival was a “big spender” in the mold of Democra tic liberals who once sought the White House and lost. “He proposed more than Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis combined,” Bush said of two De mocratic presidential candidates rejected by the voters in 1984 and 1988. The Texas gover nor and the vice president, locked in a close race for the White House, argued domestic and foreign policy issues for 90 minutes in a town hall-style format. It was their third en- GORE counter in two weeks, and their last before they face judg ment at the polls on Nov. 7. In their final summations, the two men stripped their appeals to their essentials. “I have kept my word,” said Gore, who has served as Bill Clinton’s vice president for two terms. He mentioned his. service in Viet nam, a strong mar riage of 30 years. He said the nation has ex perienced record prosperity and re duced crime in recent years, and pledged to build on it. “I’ll make you one promise here. You ain’t seen nothing yet and I will keep that promise.” Under the rules, Republican Bush got the last word. “I think after three debates the good people of this country under stand there is a difference,” he said. “The difference between a big federal government and someone who is coming from outside Washington who will trust individuals.” Gore has slipped slightly in the polls since the first cam paign debate Oct. 3 in Boston, and from the opening mo ments, the vice president bore in on Bush as a defender of the privileged. He said the Texas governor was allied with in surance companies rather than patients, for example, and that his tax cut was tilted heavily to ward the wealthy. “If you want someone who will support ... the big drug companies, this is your man,” the vice president said of Bush, standing a few feet away from his campaign rival on a red- carpeted debate stage. “If you want someone who will fight for you... then I want to fight for you,” Gore added. Students, faculty participate in Debate Watch By Richard Bray The Battalion Vice President A1 Gore called college-age voters “idealistic.” Gov. George Bush said their perceptions of the candidates’ honesty would decide whether they choose to vote. During Tuesday’s presidential debate, while the candidates discussed, among other things, college-age voters, several interested students gathered in the Memorial Student Center (MSC) Flagroom to watch the debate and bet ter understand the candidates and their posi tions on national issues. The MSC Current Issues Awareness (CIA) committee presented the-program Debate Watch, in which faculty and students watched the final scheduled presidential debate and dis cussed the candidates’ performances. Adrian Whatley, a freshman English major who attended Debate Watch and had already decided she was going to vote for Bush, said she thought Bush had won the debate. “I think Bush did a very good job,” she said. “He did n’t address as many particulars as Gore did. I think he had a better persona of leadership; per sonally, I thought Gore was talking to us as if we were kindergartners.” However, within the predominately Repub lican campus, a few students took a step for ward to announce a preference for another See Watch on Page 2. Debate ends in tie, viewers say WASHINGTON (AP) — A1 Gore and George W. Bush were rated about even in their third and final debate, according to two network snap polls. Debate watchers leaned toward Bush by about 10 points before the debate and did ABC News Poll Bush 41% Gore 41 % Percentage of viewers who thought which candidate won the third debate not change their support, according to polls by ABC News and CNN-USA Today- Gallup. But when asked who won, 41 per cent said Democrat Gore and 41 percent said Republican Bush in the ABC News poll. In the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, 46 percent said Gore did a better job, while 44 percent said Bush. The Bush-leaning debate watchers would suggest more Republicans watched the debate. The error margin for the polls was 4 percentage points. Snap polls on de bates offer a quick picture of emotional re action to the debates, but that reaction can be short-lived. Tobacco use may go up in smoke TAMU, TDH unite in effort to diminish tobacco use in Brazos County By Sommer Bunce The Battalion , The Office of Tobacco Prevention and Control at the Texas Department of Health (TDH), in conjunc tion with Texas A&M, will be in Brazos County con ducting pilot study aimed at fighting the influence of big tobacco companies for the next six weeks. Of the $17.3 billion ob tained in a 1998 state lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the state legislature appor tioned $10 million from the first paid endowment to fund TDH research. The industry’s total payments will be paid during the next 25 years. TDK’s test area encom passes regions of South Texas, including suburban Houston, Longview/Tyler, Beaumont/Port Arthur and Brazos County. The programs began Sept. 25 and will con tinue through November. The study has four branch es; media, law enforcement, cessation, and schools and communities. In January 2001, the leg islature will analyze the re sults of the study to deter mine whether more funding should be granted to pro grams in the prevention of tobacco use among youth and adult populations. “This is really, truly a great experiment,” said Marcus Cooper III, TDH information specialist. “The state of Texas has never earmarked any See Tobacco on Page 6. BRADLEY ATCHISON/The Battalion