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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2000)
I November 27, 2000 Volume 107 ~ Issue 65 8 pages m ] rl\ e what «said, talking,': es.Thb Jush ertified Florida nner ed off os 'at No.. 1 matchfl pitSDl) -jr • J kimMore, Lieberman -nee’s M | tekfo contest results o Bp’- 1C0| i_B(AP) — Florida’s secretary of state . certified George W. Bush the winner iwmgl over A1 >us feci Gore Sunday night in the state’s near-dead- locked presidential vote — but court challenges left in doubt which man will be the ultimate victor and 43rd president of the United States. Moments after publican Katherine Harris declared Ish the winner of Florida’s 25 elec- . ftflal votes at a ceremony in Tallahas- ffl Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democra- .fj JiByice presidential nominee, said she hah certified “an incomplete and inac- clate count” and that he and Gore had no choice but to contest the election. t * 1e cert ifi c ation of a 537-vote ' Bi sh margin stands, the Texas gover- 0,1 nor would win 271 electoral college vo cs — one more than necessary for , vii lory — compared to 267 for Gore. iUSt:F‘ Harris said Bush had 2,912,790 votes and Gore had 2,912,253. That gave Bush the 537-vote lead out of 6 million cast, although Harris rejected panial returns from Palm Beach Coun- ■ An unofficial AP tally including re- d. ipei. eld, ■ Ja'Msdoj isA&Mtl counted Palm Beach County votes showed Bush ahead by 357. ■ The secretary of state’s formal dec- freceiv»B at ' on ’ which set off GOP cheers out- Roy til 4i e the Florida capital and at the state ruitedh ffpitol in Austin, Texas: ianHisi® “Accordingly, on behalf of the state is for tactions canvassing commission and kfield, if accordance with the laws of the state , U nd flfi Florida, I hereby declare Governor George W. Bush the winner of Flori- J’s25 electoral votes.” ndisfffif Lieberman said, “The integrity of voritflw r self-government” could be cast into fl, H)ubt without democratic steps to get Be most complete and accurate count possible. Gore’s lawyers were to file tl|cir challenge in the courts of Leon j County, site of the state Capitol at Tal lahassee, today. ■ James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state speaking for Bush who was making his own state- ni|h|ent later Sunday night — said that 1 /Bunt already has been delivered, rlpeatedly. ; teait’ir He said Bush “won this election” aintedsftder the rules set by law before Elec- tibn Day, Nov. 7 — and under rules t discoBanged after the election. Baker de- jlayedoBunced Gore’s lawyers for what he jiaveMklled an extraordinary resort to the jmjsitafcourts — although Bush has his own set of lawsuits, including the appeal to victor me U.S. Supreme Court, which hears tfadoiBal arguments on Friday. [erLiz'fi “At some point there must be clo- i playeiBire,” Baker said. “At some point the JontribBw must prevail and the lawyers must r Colitis 0 home. greatjl “We have reached that point. It is gilt,” [ tine to honor the will of the people.” D tiaveB For all that. Baker said Bush will , e touffiabsolutely” go ahead with his case in istyC'i the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging cjcuswo state Supreme Court ruling that led B) the extended certification deadline .jngtoi’Bhd hand recounts of ballots cast by realiBachine in four disputed Democratic- got to fyaning counties. iierti ’ ;■ See Election on Page 2. Kom'i * I *11 ftiKl i'i l ;Li kiV Lite brite ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion Charles Rowley and John Coyle raise and se cure winter holiday light fixtures in front of the Administration Building last week. The fixtures were funded by the A&M Physical Plant. Student dies in car accident A&M, UT freshman applications increase for Fall ’01 enrollment Top 10 percent, graduation rate contribute to high numbers AUSTIN (AP) — Applications to the University of Texas-Austin (UT) and Texas. A&M are coming in at record pace as students comply with requests to meet early deadlines. The state’s two largest public univer sities are again expecting record-break ing numbers of applications for next school year. Consequently, officials have asked prospective freshman to get their applications in early. Students have heeded. Compared with this time last year, ap plications are up 42 percent at UT and up 20 percent at A&M. UT’s deadline for fall admission is Feb. 1; A&M has set Feb. 15. Last year, UT received 21,200 freshman applications, and the A&M lEllflilllffllfi IlHIHHUB Texas A&M University University of Texas • Number of Applications Up 20% from this time last year Up 42% from this time last year • Total Fresbman Applications Fall 2000 18,894 21,200 • Fresbman Applications for Fall 2001 8,110 so far 4,963 so far • Beadline for Admission Feb. 15 Feb.1 \ si agtsHe rre sttman class of 6,4110 te 8,588 RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion campus received 18,694. Both univer sities predict the current rush of appli cations will taper off, but UT expects an overall 10-percent increase in ap plications over last year. A&M is pro jecting a 5-percent rise. The increase can be attributed to several factors. First, more students are graduating from high school, and there are more college-age students in the population. Also, high school seniors who grad uate in the top 10 percent of their class are guaranteed admission to the Texas public university of their choice under state law. With those students automati cally admitted, the stakes increase for those not in that select group. In many cases, the perceived compe tition is spurring students to act sooner. Each institution has set a preferred-en rollment for Fall 2001 freshman class of 6,400 to 6,500 students. See Enrollment on Page 2. By Mariano Castillo The Battalion A Texas A&M student was killed Tuesday after her car struck an 18-wheeler on Highway 79, three miles west of Palestine. Kimbra Leigh Cates, a junior marketing and management major, was head ing to her home in Tyler for Thanks giving. At about 5:15 p.m., her 1993 Jeep Chero kee drifted into oncoming traffic and hit the rear end of the truck’s trailer. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 6 p.m. Nei ther of the vehicles were carrying passengers. Trooper Bryan Becton, who responded to the acci dent, said the cause of the crash remains undetermined. “Anything is possible,” he said. “Fatigue may be a factor. We’ll never know.” The driver of the 1989 Volvo truck trailer, Billy Joe Smith, is a convict at the Wynne Unit at Huntsville. He was driving the truck under the supervision of Douglas Whitting, a correc tional officer who was dri ving behind him. When Smith saw Cates’ Jeep cross the center line, he swerved onto the right shoul der as far as he could without running off the road, Becton said. Cates collided with the 18-wheeler about six feet from its rear. Becton said the car was crushed by the wheels of the trailer. “It just totally destroyed the Jeep,” he said. Smith did not suffer ma jor injuries. However, Bec ton said, “Smith was clearly shaken up.” He was taken to a hospital "in Palestine for tests to “cover all the bases.” The tests indicated that al cohol was not a factor. Smith is a “trustee in mate” — a less violent ofr fender who can be taken out into society with supervision Becton said trustee inmate programs are worked out on a case-by-case basis. Smith’s Class A driver’s license made him a good can didate for the truck driving assign ment, Becton said. An autopsy of Cates was request ed by Precinct 3 Judge James Todd; results are expect ed to be available today. As a student, Cates was on the dean’s list for Fall ’99 and Spring ’00, in the marketing society and in Fish Court as a peer leader for freshman. She was going to participate in an internship program with Gap, and she worked on campus for the purchasing department as a receptionist, a position she held for more than a year. Lenna Matz, Cates’ room mate and a sophomore gen eral studies major, said Cates had a great personality and easily cheered people up. “She was very intelligent, beautiful, funny and an ex cellent cook,” Matz said. “She loved being at A&M.” Cates was excited about ordering her Aggie ring in January, Matz added. Purchasing department Assistant Director Paul Barzak said the staff was devastated by the accident. “She was a wonderful person,” he said. “She was always even-tempered. Re gardless of the workload, she never got rattled. We were hoping to have her for anoth er year until she graduated.” Cates’ funeral was Satur day afternoon at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Tyler. She is survived by her par ents, Scotty and Karen Cates, and her younger sis ter, Carmen. Alcohol task force may continue next fall By Richard Bray The Battalion With the success of a seven-weekend alcohol task force, which issued about 850 citations, the College Station Police Department (CSPD) and the University Police Department (UPD) are considering continuing the task force next fall. The task force targeted Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights on six home football game weekends and the weekend before classes start ed in August. Bob Wiatt, director of UPD, said the goal of the task force was to make minors aware of the consequences of underage drinking. In those seven weekends, the task force is sued 605 minor in possession (MIP) citations, 212 citations for disorderly conduct and 26 miscellaneous citations, such as furnishing al cohol to a minor or possession of drug para phernalia. Ninety-five individuals were arrest ed for alcohol-related offenses such as public intoxication. The task force consisted of six officers, three each from CSPD and UPD. All of the of ficers volunteered to work overtime. Wiatt said no officers were removed from their usual duties to participate in the task force. “We had a pretty good turnout in so far as making people aware that if you’re under 21, you should not be drinking, because we issued 6< 7 don't know if it will keep me from drinking in the future, hut I'll certainly he more careful to he sure I don't get caught” — jon student who received an MIP a bunch of citations,” he said. “I would hope that those who are under 21, who know that they cannot consume alcohol until they get to be 21 and are going all out to either possess fake IDs or have their 21 -year-old friends slip them some booze, realize that, if they get caught, they are going to have to suffer the consequences.” Jon, a student who received an MIP and whose last name is not included, said he may continue to drink despite his citation. “I can understand where the officers are com ing from,” he said. “I don’t know if it will keep me from drinking in the future, but I’ll certain ly be more careful to be sure I don’t get caught.” Wiatt said he hopes the success of the cam paign will send a message to students. “From these statistics, it was a pretty thor ough campaign,” he said. “I just hope that we’re getting the message across: Alcohol is one heck of a danger to a lot of students.” See Alcohol on Page 2. FILE PHOTO/The Battalion Police officers force students to empty a keg at a party. Complaints about ResNet spark CIS to ask students to limit use of resources >y Richard Bray e Battalion In response to complaints from on-cam- us students concerned about the perfor- yP' nance of ResNet, Computing and Infor- nation Services (CIS) has distributed a nemo to ResNet users asking them to lim- t their use of ResNet resources. According to the memo, use of ResNet esources is disproportionate if it averages nore than 2 percent of a residence hall’s ca- acity each day for seven consecutive days. This limit allows individuals to download or serve as much as 1.4 gigabytes a day. Under Appendix V of the student rules, students are prohibited from excessive use of computing facilities if it prevents others from using these resources. Tom Putnam, director of CIS, said stu dents using too much of ResNet’s capacity have been contacted. “We don’t look to see exactly what each person is doing unless there is a potential violation of University rules or laws, but we do know that those servers are being used off campus instead of being used by A&M students,” Putnam said in a memo to ResNet users. “There are several dozen servers on ResNet that serve out over two gigabytes per day every day of the week, enough to fill an average hard drive.” Putnam said that if disproportionate use continues, CIS will collect information about the usage, submit that information to Student Conflict Resolution Services (SCRS) and cut off network access for the offending student until SCRS tell CIS to reinstate service. Students will be given a few days to stop their activities; however, Putnam said if that disproportionate use continues, the evi dence will then be sent to appropriate legal and disciplinary authorities for action. Putnam said heavy users can slow other users’ network connections because the net work can transfer a limited number of files at one time. . “If you think about this as being one highway in and out of town, and one person invites all his friends to use the highway at the same time, it becomes difficult for oth er people to use the highway,” Putnam said. “We’ve had lots of complaints from stu dents in residences that say the network is too slow and they can’t get anything done.” CIS recommends that students not have file-sharing programs, such as Napster, run ning all the time. CIS also recommends that campus Web servers limit the number of concurrent connections to two at a time.