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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2000)
TUESDAY December 5, 2000 Volume 107 ~ Issue 71 Section A - 8 pages Section B - 8 pages • f k’i a( I i* upreme Court sets recount decision aside Gore continues to seek overturning of Bush’s 10-day-old winning certification in Fla. bosses.! ;| nd pru ’ Margin, but than vv 'ho u • lai1 MByASH [ NGTON preside,f) “ Jhe U.S. s eaolr ■ )reme Court on , j n I^Hnday set aside a state higli court ruling that al- . a ]| fcwed selective manual Ip J ^Bounts in Florida’s .j. contested presidential j 'election between A1 . mne |, 6oiv and George W. Bush and sent the case back “for further proceedings.” ■Within hours, the state court uslim students Kind he - 'lUiyed word it was back at , 'n Mrk on the case. |CCt to if n." edtosc N. hid. uin rid: mote hur. organize, aim M ■eaten pi Idonotfcl nds rare ir schools : gas. Wamadan a small fM id ^Masting to represent !"Z- : suffering of others Br Maureen Kane aid topK H"’ Battalion Banja'a A month of fasting and prayer he lm Nov. 27, and 1.25 oillion Muslims . lound the world will be abstaining "''■bm food and drink between sunrise and sunset until the celebration of Eid Fitron Dec. 26. “Ramadan is the ninth month in the nar calendar that Muslims follow, in jtuch adult Muslims are required to st from dawn to dusk and engage in ejttra worship and contemplation,” said rsalan Haque, president of the Mus- Student Association and a senior biochemistry major. I Haque said fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, which constitute the foundations of the Islamic religion. He paid Muslims throughout the world . 7 / fast, and it is unifying because all Mus- yJXj llms fast during the same month. ' l Hisham Youssef, the president of the llamic Community of Bryan-College .4^1 IN: Station, said Muslims are supposed to I Vile aware of the suffering of others by i giving money to those in need. I “Not eating and drinking is a way to JkoI the suffering of others who are de- 1 4pnved of food and drink and go C d \A through hardship in life,” he said. J Clil| Youssef said the purpose of fasting luring Ramadan is to acquire piety 1 TCn and righteousness by bringing God’s ' :onsciousness to one’s heart and -7p]i nind. Muslims are allowed to break U^l\ heir fast after sunset every day, but ;ating a lot of food is discouraged. Haque said that by fasting, people are tetter able to serve their community tecause they better understand what «, it is like to be needy. fflCf: ® ot b Youssef and Haque said an- 1 * other purpose of Ramadan is to train oneself to control anger and personal desires. “When you give up physical and material things for a while, you are more able to focus on the spiritual, to renew commitments, self-evaluate and renew your self-resolve that you’ll be better than the year before,” Youssef said. “Giving money, food, physical help — bringing relief to others in their time of need — are all actions included in Ramadan. Being involved in good See Ramadan on Page 2A. “The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. We do not ig nore what they tell us,” said spokesman Craig Waters, stand ing on the steps out- gore side the State Supreme * Court building in Tallahassee. The high court’s ruling also reverberated in the Flori da trial court where Gore was seeking to have Bush’s certi fied victory in Florida over turned. There, Judge N. Sanders Sauls served notice he would delay his own ruling while he determines whether the opinion has any impact on the case before him. In a seven-page unsigned, unanimous opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court said it was “un clear” what reasoning the state justices used in a ruling last month that granted Gore’s re quest for manual recounts to proceed in a few Democratic- leaning counties. The court said it had “sufficient reason for us to decline at this time to review the federal questions asserted to be present.” The court said the state Supreme Court’s ruling was “va cated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.” In reply a few hours later, Waters told reporters in Flori da that “the court now has the matter under advisement and will determine how it will proceed.” He said he had no addition al details. His comments underscored the breakneck pace of legal de velopments in a dispute at the heart of the extraordinary race for the White House. The practical impact of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was unclear in Florida, where Bush was certified the winner by 537 votes 10 days ago, and where Gore has been waging a battle ever since to overturn that certification. Gore attorney Laurence Tribe said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling simply preserves the status quo, though time is running short for the Democrat. “Although it is a slowdown, it is not critical if the ultimate decision is to start to count,” Tribe said. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, speaking for the Bush team, later said the rul ing was a win for them. He said the nation’s high court had re turned the case to the state courts. to be reviewed along the lines of “precisely what we argued.” The action was not a ruling for Bush on the merits of his ap peal. By setting aside the Flori da Supreme Court’s ruling, it could place in doubt the gains Gore made through the hand re count in the days after Nov. 14. That was the original deadline for certification set by Secretary of State Katherine Harris before the state Supreme Court or dered her to accept updated re sults for several more days. Christmas poinsettias STUART VILLANUEVA/Thk Battalion Dr. Michael Sweatt, manager of the floriculture greenhouse, waters poinsettias in the greenhouse on Monday. The traditional holiday plants require careful attention. The amount of light they receive must be carefully controlled in order for them to produce their brilliant red color. SGA gets student feedback The Battalion, email most effective communication tools ’-1 By Brian Ruff The Battalion The Texas A&M Student Govern ment Association (SGA) distributed a sample survey to A&M students to de termine what students know about the SGA and what they think about SGA’s performance. Of the 2000 surveys sent out, 342 Preliminary Results of the SGA inary! Of 342 students surveyed SELSO GARCIA/The Battalion were returned. “I think it [the survey] was pretty representative of the student body,” said Student Body President Forrest Lane, a senior political science major. “We wanted to give ourselves a self- evaluation.” The anonymous survey contained 44 questions on a variety of topics, such as basic knowledge of the SGA and ranking the importance of campus services, such as parking and Food Ser vices. The survey also asked the stu dents how satisfied they are with cer tain SGA online resources such as BookSwap and AggiEbay. Seventy-two percent of the respon dents reported they knew the student body president’s name, yet only 2 per cent knew the name of the speaker of the Student Senate. The speaker of the Senate leads the legislative branch of the SGA and is one of the key liaisons between the students and administra tion of the University. “The Student Senate prides itself on being the official student body opin ion,” said Chad Wagner, speaker of the Senate and a junior political science major. “I am not particularly worried that the students don’t know my name, but worried that the students do not know what the position entails. Of the 98 percent who don’t know my name, hopefully a smaller percentage of them don’t know anything about the student government, the Senate or the speaker of the Senate.” According to the surveys, the most effective way to communicate with the student body is through The Battalion. The second is email, followed by open forums and speakers at organizational meetings. “That is very encouraging for us, be cause our goal as an information source is disseminating information through out the campus and the community,” said Beth Miller, editor in chief of The Battalion. “Knowing that we are doing that well is encouraging for us.” Students responded that tuition and fee rates are the most important issues to them. Parking is the next most impor tant, followed by the availability of grade distributions on the Internet. Lane said that the SGA will continue to analyze the results of the survey to better serve the student body. “We realize there are things we can do better, and we think it is important for us to be accountable by doing something and finding out exactly where it is that we stand,” Lane said. “Ultimately, what we want to do is serve the students.” Students, faculty issued mandatory ID cards at BHS WT By Elizabeth Raines The Battalion l Bryan High School (BHS)has recently seen an on slaught of changes due to an increase in violence that caused faculty and administration to take precaution ary measures to ensure the safety of themselves and their students. “Being a student teacher, I participated in the facul ty meetings regarding the safety of BHS students,” said Seymour Brabo, a BHS student teacher and a senior education major. “The main concern of the meetings has been the increasing number of people found on campus who aren’t supposed to be there.” BHS Principal Robby McGowen said that, over the past few years, there has been an increase in tres passing by criminals on the campus. McGowen said this is causing teachers to become uncomfortable with the increased amount of people on campus and to wor ry about the safety of BHS students. The freshman class at BHS brought the student count to, 3,500 students, its highest ever. Including faculty and staff, about 3,800 people are on campus every day. BHS teachers wrote a letter to McGowen concern ing the issue of safety for the students and faculty be cause of the amount of trespassing that was occurring. Faculty and staff met to come up with a solution. In response to the increase in student population and the number of trespassing incidents, faculty and staff made ID badges mandatory for students and teachers. “We decided through recommendations from facul ty and staff at other schools who had the same problem that having visible identification cards would be a good precautionary measure to take,” McGowen said. Although wearing ID badges officially will not be mandatory until Jan. 3, 2001, students and teachers must wear badges for the remainder of the semester. “I have had no problem with wearing my badge,” See BHS on Page2A. Posthumous A&M degree proposed By Courtney Stelzel The Battalion The Faculty Senate recent ly proposed that students who die while enrolled at A&M should receive a posthumous degree at the spring com mencement ceremony for their graduating class. “The idea for the posthumous de gree first came when a professor from the mechani cal engineering de partment suggest ed giving degrees to the Bonfire victims” — Dr. Richard Cralson Chairman of Posthumous Degree Committee This resolution came af ter weeks of planning by the Posthumous Degree Com mittee of the Senate and will be sent to A&M Presi dent Dr. Ray M. Bowen for approval. “Our resolution is only a suggestion and will not be considered common proce dure until it is approved,” said Dr. Richard Cralson, chairman of the committee, deputy speaker of the Facul ty Senate and a professor of geology and geophysics. Cralson said ideas were taken from campus organi zations, including the Asso ciation of Former Students and Traditions Council. “The idea for the posthu mous degree first came when a professor from the mechanical engineering de partment suggested giving degrees to the Bonfire vic tims,” Cralson said. “We then took his suggestion and looked at it from a broader perspective.” Cralson said the criteria for a posthu mous degree would be the same as the re quirements for being recognized at Silver Taps — the student must be officially en rolled as an undergrad uate or graduate stu dent, or must have attended a new student conference or regis tered for classes prior to the first Silver Taps of the academic year. The degree would be a general diploma from the University, not one associated with a degree program. The diploma would be granted to students who entered A&M by the 1997-98 academic year. The program would be optional, and family mem bers could choose not to re ceive the diploma. Despite the fact that the students’ names would be listed on the commencement ceremony program, family members would have the de gree sent to them in the mail and would not be allowed to cross the stage at the com mencement ceremony. See Degrees on Page 2A. Kimbra Leigh Cates Junior Marketing and Management Major A box will be placed neai the lavvence S.ma.l Ross statue so students and taeuitv can leave notes and cards tor the friends and fnnsihes of the students honored at Siivei laps REUBEN DELUNA/Tme B attalion