TUESDAY
December 5, 2000
Volume 107 ~ Issue 71
Section A - 8 pages
Section B - 8 pages
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upreme Court sets recount decision aside
Gore continues to seek overturning of Bush’s 10-day-old winning certification in Fla.
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further proceedings.”
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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