es resoi md that tnewabki te is also, and ti wofalw titiveacli lime Nads presides Jidate ii )' candi ie lastela fromh ited forte ies in tbe for praya lenseandt one inyol teep even Hendons, aeep thep it in? stm 1002 3onfire oetition zrows tails for increased it mitt ! bk ' a kudent involvement L enter for oba® Sommer Bunce _______ i il I OnAe Battalion said ArsJ [) r p a y m Bowen’s restrictions a andaseft the 2002 Aggie Bonfire have pro- yoked more than 2,000 signatures, nedia ouiMjd Becky Bartschmid, the petition’s an the \1: organizer. ijunctioml Since mid-October, Bartschmid has ociation. *en collecting signatures in an effort :o educatta beseech Bowen to change the re- IslamAv strictions on Bonfire 2002. ^ue said I Following the release in May of the ntirely K Special Commission report on the 1909 Aggie Bonfire collapse, Bowen /. 13 to llftposed a two-year moratorium on the theme e h aze. He created special provisions tocontim for Bonfire’s continuation in 2002, in- Middlel quding the elimination of cut, the use of pre-cut lumber, a one-tiered teepee ,t Muslr designed by professional engineers and rs living increased University supervision. .sc to h(!r|:; The petition calls the limited student sedtol involvement, cancellation of cut and itinual; two-year ban on the tradition unneces- ; said. "®ry limitations on the future Bonfire, hat lives* “I'd heard a lot of people talking r butieA 30111 w hHt they’d like to see done and ecausetfe what should happen with Bonfire. And | the one thing I wanted to do was work i atxwilWjphhtheadministration by sending a pe- the.ffl- hhonuptothem, to really see something ir accomplished for the students who want '. Bonfire hack,” said Bartschmid, a Isophomore journalism major. Reinstatement of cut and maxi- IniZation of student involvement and leadership is needed to make the next ‘Bonfire a true Aggie Bonfire, Bartschmid said. Signers agree that Ihere is adequate time to design and |)lan for Bonfire to be built in 2001, the petition states. The purpose of the petition is to lake clear to the administration that a umber of current and former students [do not agree with the stated limita- ons Dr. Bowen has placed on Bon- re,” and to “encourage the adminis- ation to rethink their decision.” “Different people have different asons for wanting this petition and r signing it,” Bartschmid said. “For [ome, it’s more important to see a Bon- re next year in 2001. And it seems like lie only reason for waiting two years * to get rid of all the people who know |hat Bonfire is really about. But it’s Iso about getting cut back, and even if takes two years to get it, I will wait.” Luke Cheatham, a sophomore civil ngineering major who is aiding artschmid’s drive for signatures, ided logs with Walton Hall last fall and I’ould have been a crew chief this year. 1 The greatest bond an Aggie can feel tomes from participation in cut, he said. I “No matter what we’ve supported in she past, whether we think we should [ollow Bowen’s guidelines or we Ihought we should build our own bon- fre, this is one thing we can all agree tn,” he said. “To preserve the spirit of iJponfme, we have to have more than the H 1 idministration is giving us. Without ® Cut, you take the entire spirit away.” After he participated in Bonfire and bund out what being involved and tak- ng a leadership role are about, -neatham said, Bowen’s proposal for See Petition on Page 5. Railroad agreement reached Trains to continue through town, stop for emergencies only By Richard Bray The Battalion Texas A&M has reached an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad that will prevent trains from stopping as they move through campus, except in the case of an emergency. The agreement was motivated by an inci dent in which a student tried to pass beneath a stopped train with his bike. He made it through before the train began to move, but his bike did not. Mary Miller, associate vice president of ad ministration, said another incident with Union Pacific that had not been revealed to the public file photo/the battalion served as a catalyst for reaching the agreement. An agreement between A&M and Miller said that about four weeks ago, two Union Pacific Railroad will end trains students approached the tracks at a location stopping on campus unless it is an without a crossing when a train was moving emergency. through campus at about 30 miles per hour. “The conductor said it looked like they were debating whether or not they could make it across the tracks in time, and they decided they could, so they darted in front of the engine to get across and the girl tripped and fell on tfoe tracks,” Miller said. “The conductor lost sight of the girl, and he panicked and called his head quarters and told them he thought he had run over a student.” The conductor stopped the train and walked back to check on the girl and found nothing. Moving trains are not the only problem, said Bob Wiatt, director of the University Police De partment (UPD). He said crossing the railroad tracks while a train is stopped can constitute criminal trespassing if Union Pacific decides to press charges against violators. “The railroad and right-of-way belong to Union Pacific,” he said. “If we have signs up and students are caught by us, they could be charged with a criminal trespass. They are tres passing on property of Union Pacific that they are not entitled to do so.” Wiatt said trespassing on railroad tracks qualifies as a Class B misdemeanor, which car ries a maximum of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine, though it would be unlikely for stu dents to receive the maximum punishment. Miller said Union Pacific asked to meet with A&M representatives after it saw pic tures of students breaking the law to get past stopped trains. “They had initiated the meeting because they had seen the pictures on the PTTS Website, in which students were crawling over and under stopped trains, and that was of great concern to See Train on PageS. Close call PATRIC SCHNEIDER/The Battalion Linebackers Jarrod Pennright and Harold Robertson team up to break up a pass in Texas A&M's 21 -16 win over Oklahoma State on Saturday. The Wrecking Crew shut down the Cowboys' passing offense and avoided a near-fourth quarter comeback for the win. See game coverage on Page 7. A&M students designing peace sculpture for Jasper By Noel Freeman ■ , The Battalion When James Byrd Jr. was killed in June 1998, the town of Jasper was torn. The town will try to heal some of those wounds and unite the commu nity with a little help from some Texas A&M land scape architecture students. Proposed landscape architecture designs for the Circle of Peace Sculpture Gardens to be created in Jasper were unveiled Wednesday in the Langford Architecture Center Gallery. The project began this summer when Circle of Peace Foundation Inc., a private, nonprofit organization, devised plans for a “circle of peace” to be created just south of Sandy Creek Park in Jasper. Jody Naderi, professor of landscape architecture, said the project was designed to create a place where the community can come together and reinforce the unity that existed prior to Byrd’s murder. Naderi said the landscape and construction design offer was extended to A&M landscape architecture students at the beginning of the fall semester. Dr. Michael Murphy, professor of landscape ar chitecture, said the land was donated to the organi zation with community plans in mind, specifically See Jasper on Page 5. Local, national races approach B-CS residents / t prepare to vote in local elections By Courtney Stelzel The Battalion As Election Day approaches, eli gible voters everywhere eagerly wait to see whether their favorite presi dential candidates will be chosen to lead the United States into the 21st century. However, the presidential elections are not the only topic of po litical discussion in Brazos County. Registered voters in the Brazos Valley area will vote for local posi tions, such as county commissioner, and a special election bond proposi tion for a new coliseum. These issues and positions are just as important as the presidential elections, despite the lack of emphasis placed on cam paigning within the county, said Mary Anne Ward, Brazos County clerk. “The local elections are not be ing run by the city of Bryan or Col lege Station, but it is a general elec tion and is therefore run by the county clerk’s office.” Positions on the ballot of particu lar concern to Brazos Valley citizens See Local on Page 10. Governorships, House and Senate seat races in the air By Kristin Rostran The Battalion The presidency is not the only po sition up for grabs Tuesday. Several seats in the House of Representatives and Senate are open, along with 11 governorships. Democrats hope to gain control of the Senate, which is a possibility con sidering the number of close races. The most publicized senatorial contest is that of first lady Hillary Clinton (D) and Rep. Rick Lazio (R) for the New York Senate seat. De bates between the two have been la beled “rowdy” by the media. Lazio has not shied away from calling Clin ton untrustworthy and a public poli cy disaster waiting to happen. Clinton’s spokespeople have characterized Lazio as a bully and use Vice President A1 Gore’s slogan for presidency, “You can trust me to fight for you.” In most polls Clinton has held a slight lead over Lazio since the beginning. See Elections on Page 10. Strife PDprcsentdUvo Positions United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Republican Gene Kelly Democrat Mary L Ruwart Liberal Douglas S. Sandage Green County wide Positions United States Representative, District 5 Pete Sessions Republican Regina Montoya Coggins Democrat Ken Ashby Liberal £oun ty Tax Assesso r Aggie TV adds free programming Tate EraTmarifrceordt : nrokenfBinoe . a IT) ursd avidlf, . .if. a RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion By Richard Bray The Battalion Following the College Television Network’s (CTN-TV) failed bid this summer to provide student program ming to Texas A&M-owned stations, Aggie TV has stepped up to the camera to try to become the first successful stu dent-run television station at A&M. For years, the Residence Hall Associ ation (RHA) has tried to begin a student- run station, but it has been unable to do so in the past because it lacked resources. Last year, RHA assigned the re sponsibility of organizing such a pro gram to Cameron Cushman, a junior political science major. After receiving information from a variety of compa nies offering to provide A&M with pro gramming, Cushman said, he decided on CTN-TV, which would provide tele visions and programming in all of the residence halls and dining halls. “When I assumed this job, I received materials from several different corpo rations that help students start their own television stations, and one of them was CTN,” he said. “They would provide MTV-style programming to campus, but the beauty of it was that it was free.” Cushman said the proposal for CTN- TV failed over the summer during con tract negotiations. “I left it over the summer with a lawyer from the contract department, and all I ever heard was that it was a ‘no go’ because they didn’t allow the com mercialization of campus, meaning they wouldn’t allow us to show commercials on campus,” he said. Ron Sasse, director of Residence Life, said the contract negotiations broke down when A&M realized it would have no control over the advertising content. “The University really has a prohibi tion on commercial advertising on this campus,” Sasse said. “Except for the football stadium, commercial advertis ing is not permitted on campus.” Annabell Cortina, the Aggie TV pro gram director and a junior speech com munication major, said Aggie TV will not have the outside advertising that See Aggie TV on Page 2. -9