1
THURSDAY
November 16, 2000
Volume 107 ~ Issue 60
2 Sections
A 8 pages
B 8 pages
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'oth candidates call for
nd to election disputes
(AP) — A1 Gore
bade a surprise pro
posal for a statewide
pand recount of
Florida’s 6 million
jlallots Wednesday
pight and George W.
lush swiftly reject
ed it, calling the ef
fort under way in
peveral Democratic-
Beaning counties an
■'arbitrary and chaot
ic” way to settle the
^residential race.
With their futures
'lied up in a knot of
[legal battles, the
^residential rivals
BUSH
me as a to
i other ansi
nber,
ear a ran
; to sigoif
made dueling appearances
ion national television, call
ing for a quick end to the
contested election but dis
agreeing on how to do it.
“Our goal must be what is
right for America,” the vice
■president said at his official
t^^eusimansion in Washington,
itemusi t “This process must be
iths / I^ r > l hi s process must be ae
ry Mikt' | cural e, and this process
vne.Thn mu ' st he final,” Bush said
ioliewouffrom the governor’s man
sion in Austin.
:d Estrada| Their evening addresses
nonthinpl capped a whirlwind day of
raft andcii' e gal activity that gave both
i in toi
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mtcontrac
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g
refused!
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weary camps tastes of victo
ry and defeat — but no clear
road to completion.
The Florida Supreme
Court, all Democratic ap
pointees, rejected a request
from Republican Secretary
of State Katherine Harris to
block any manual recounts
while the courts decide
whether the process is legal.
The high court’s ruling,
though far from the final
word, gave Democrats new
vigor in their ballot-by-ballot
^bid to trim Bush’s 300-vote
I lead in the state. Officials in
Broward and Palm Beach
'counties hunkered down for
an excruciating hand count
of 1 million ballots.
The secretary of state
also announced she would
not accept the hand-counted
ballots, calling the counties’
reasoning “insufficient.”
Harris vowed to certify the
Florida election results Sat
urday without the hand re
count totals. Gore’s lawyers
said they will chal
lenge her decision
today.
In another front,
Bush’s lawyers filed
a 182-page appeal in
a federal appeals
court in Atlanta. The
Texas governor lost
a round Monday on
his move to shut
down the recounts in
Palm Beach, Miami-
Dade, Broward and
Volusia counties.
Legal matters
aside, both presi
dents-in-waiting
launched fierce
public relations campaigns
in the court of public opin
ion. They wanted to look
prepared to serve, but not
hungry for power.
“This is the time to re
spect every voter and every
vote,” Gore said from his of
ficial residence, framed by
pictures of his family.
Gore pledged that, if Re
publicans allow manual re
counts to continue in Flori
da’s Broward, Palm Beach
and Miami-Dade counties,
he would accept without
challenge whatever tally
those recounts should yield
— added to certified results
from 64 other counties and
overseas absentee ballots-
due by midnight Friday.
“I will take no legal ac
tion to challenge the result,
and I will not support any
legal action to challenge the
result,” Gore said, offering
to drop the threat of major
Democratic litigation that
has hung over the proceed
ings for days.
He suggested a meeting
with Bush before state offi
cials certify the results “not to
negotiate, but to improve the
tone of our dialogue in Amer
ica.” And he said both candi
dates should meet again after
a winner is declared “to close
ranks as Americans.”
Bush dismissed the no
tion. “The outcome of this
election will not be the result
of deals or efforts to mold
public opinion,” he said.
“The outcome of this elec
tion will be determined by
the votes and by the law.”
“For all us Longhorns who discount A&M... we need to realize one
thing. Aggieland is a special place, with special people.”
— Eric Opiela, former University of Texas student body vice president
! (i f? I n p t] | p f | p f ft | |
Leaves ongoing legacy
FILE PHOTOS/The Battalion
Top left: Students attach flowers to the fence around
the collapse site; Top right: Aggies walk in masses to
attend the candlelight vigil at the site on Nov. 24,
1999. Bottom: Crosses were erected for the 12 Aggies.
A&M, UT lay aside rivalry,
remember 12 fallen Aggies
By Mariano Castillo
The Battalion
Tremors from the
tragedy of the 1999 Aggie
Bonfire collapse were felt
across the state and remain
in the thoughts of univer
sity students throughout
Texas one year later.
On Nov. 17 and 18, the
UT Tower at the Universi
ty of Texas-Austin (UT)
will remain dark in re
membrance of the 12 Ag
gies who lost their lives in
the accident.
Snow Montesinos, stu
dent relations assistant at
the UT Ex-Student’s As
sociation, said that ob
serving the tragedy is
natural.
“We wanted to make a
special statement,” he said.
The darkening of the
tower is a rare occurrence,
said Peggy Kruger, direc
tor of the Office of Public
Affairs at UT. The tower
has been darkened onjly
three times.
In a letter to A&M Pres
ident Dr. Ray M. Bowen,
UT President Larry JL
Faulkner wrote that Bon
fire is still in the thoughts
of the students.
“As we approach Npv.
18, the Bonfire accident! at
College Station a year ago
See UT on Page 6jA.
Donations allowed for creation
of two Bonfire memorial funds
By Andrew Stephenson
The Battalion
In the wake of the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse, Ag
gies and other concerned in
dividuals responded with a
Hood of support, resulting
in the creation of two Bon
fire memorial funds.
“The outpouring of
sympathy and concern has
been overwhelming,” said
Eddie J. Davis, Texas
A&M Foundation presi
dent. “People have sought
to give in a variety of
ways, so we’ve created
two Bonfire funds to help
focus the many ideas.”
The Bonfire Relief
Fund, managed by the As
sociation of Former Stu
dents, and the Bonfire
Memorial Endowed Fund,
managed by the Texas
A&M Foundation, have
already received hundreds
of gifts.
“The majority of Ag
gies who phoned and
emailed the Association
wanted to immediately
help the families of the
victims,” said Jerry Boles,
president of the Associa
tion of Former Students.
The Bonfire Relief
Fund was created to allow
the University to assist the
See Funds on Page 6A.
'T’his is the fourth in
1 series in memory
a week long
of the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse.
The series will
conclude fridey wit
h a special
memorial sec tion.
By Eric Dickens
The Battalion
Listening to Dr. Sylvia Grider, asso
ciate professor of anthropology, speak
of “high degree of repetition” and “ad
ditional coding and reference num
bers,” one might get the impression of
being in class. The setting — an envi
ronmentally controlled laboratory half-
filled with white cardboard boxes
stacked floor to ceiling — does nothing
to change that impression. However,
contained in those boxes and covering
shelves and tables of the laboratory are
the physical manifestations of grief.
In the weeks after the the Aggie
Bonfire collapse, students and members
of the extended Aggie family traveled
to the Bonfire site and several other
campus locations to leave tributes to the
victims. Starting in December, a team
of volunteers and student workers in
A&M's anthropology department gath
ered and archived the tangible pieces of
memories.
Grider has overseen the effort —
which she describes as “student-dri
ven” — since the beginning. In De
cember, with inclement weather and
the impending semester break, student
workers were under pressure to per
form their best in the collection phase.
“We were working under emergency
conditions nearly the whole time,” Grid
er said. “In three days, workers gathered
nearly all items left out at the site — ap
proximately 1,500 items.
“The students made it really clear to
me how important, how precious, those
artifacts were to the student body,”
Grider said. “So I assured the kids
everything would be treated with re
spect, and we wouldn’t throw anything
away — and we haven’t.”
The workers are now double-check
ing artifacts and inventory numbers
against a catalog and creating a com
puterized database of artifacts. After
that, the workers will move into the cu
rating phase to stabilize all artifacts that
need additional preservation. Grider
said some tough decisions will have to
be made during the curating phase.
“Students will have to agree to let us
wash the grodes,” Grider said. “We
can’t conserve the mud, the sweat and
the blood because the chemicals —es
pecially in sweat — will cause [the
grodes] to decay.”
Renee Gillman, a sophomore busi
ness major, spends close to 15 hours a
week in the laboratory, and she said
her job can be emotionally straining,
See Memorabilia on Page 2A.
y
A&M holds
diversity
conference
By Ei izabi tm Raines
The Battalion
Students, faculty and staff from
throughout Texas who are interest
ed in increasing diversity will attend
the Texas A&M Department of Mul
ticultural Services’ Texas Higher
Education Diversity Conference
(Tl IHDC) today and Friday.
“The purpose of this conference
is to provide participants with a
greater understanding of their roles
in creating an institution where di
versity and excellence are para
mount.” said Megan Falsa, assistant
director of Multicultural Services.
“We hope that after the conference,
the students and faculty that attend
from Texas A&M will take what
they learn and apply it to making Vi
sion 2020 happen.”
See Diversity on Page2A.
A&M System works to improve performance
By Rolando Garcia
The Battalion
An unskilled workforce, high
crime rates, more spending on social
programs and a lower quality of life
are in store for Texas in the 21 st cen
tury unless it educates its growing
population, demographers say.
In an effort to meet the higher-ed
ucation needs of the state, the Texas
A&M University System has pro
duced an integrative plan — a set of
long-range objectives for the nine
universities that constitute the sys
tem. Among the goals are improv
ing collaboration among the system
campuses, improving academic pro
grams and closing the minority en
rollment gaps.
“We would like to be a leader and
partner in the transformation of
Texas,” said Dr. Walter Wendler, the
vice chancellor for planning and
system integration. “This plan iden
tifies key issues and looks ahead to
what higher education should be do
ing in the next 15 to 20 years.”
The plan is intended to help each
“We would like
to be a leader
and partner in
the transforma
tion of Texas”
— Dr. Walter Wendler
vice chancellor for planning
and system integration
system university realize its unique
role, Wendler said.
For Texas A&M, the system’s
flagship university, priorities in
clude expanding research and in
creasing the graduate student popu
lation. Questions such as whether to
build on current research excellence
or open new areas of research are
left to the University, and the plan
sets a goal for A&M to become one
of the top five universities in the
country in total research funding.
The long-term agenda for A&M
has already been outlined in Vision
2020, said Dr. Ronald Douglas, ex
ecutive vice president and provost.
“Vision 2020 is our marching or
ders, and it fits in with the more
broad strategy set forth in the inte
grative plan,” Douglas said.
A&M has already started working
to increase collaboration with other
system universities, such the new
joint doctoral program in horticulture
with Texas A&M-Kingsville and a
joint doctoral program in education
See Vision on Page 6A.
EMS uses new technology to increase chances of survival
By Noel Freeman
The Battalion
Emergency medical teams in rural areas will
enter the realm of cyberspace as Texas A&M
became part of a group developing technology
that will bring level-one trauma centers into
ambulances. Along with A&M, the University
of Texas-Houston Health Science Center and
the U.S. Army are working toward that goal.
Disaster Relief and Emergency Medical
Services (DREAMS), also called Digital
EMS, is designed to improve the chances of
survival for trauma patients in rural areas by
incorporating digital audio and videb technol
ogy into ambulances.
Dr. Jim Wall, a professor with the Texas
Center for Applied Technology .at A&M, said
accidents often occur in places like West Texas,
where the nearest level-one trauma center is an
hour away. Wall said he is confident that tech
nology can close that distance.
The technology brings into ambulance
bays three digital cameras that broadcast pic
tures of patients via satellite to the nearest
emergency room. Emergency technicians can
also wear a head-mounted camera for mobile
response at accident scenes or house calls.
“Digital EMS is designed for rural areas to
allow physician intervention sooner,” Wall said.
Other aspects of the project include an In
ternet uplink allowing emergency technicians
to transmit vital signs and personal contact in
formation to physicians.
Wall also said that in Texas counties, mor
tality-by-injury rates are much higher in rural
See EMS on Page 6A.