TUESDAY
January 30,2001
Volume 107 ~ Issue 83
12 pages
ttalion News Radio: 1:57 p.m. KAMU 90,9
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www.thebatt.com
ining halls change hours
dSUo Dininq Halls Sunday dinner replaces Saturday meal
imnons an
. - F>i.
ftpcakfast 7-10:15 a.m.
Huncli 10:15-3 p.m.
Vinner 4:30-7:30 p.m
Bfli.
Kc t'jMasf 8-10:30 a.mllr
wg
Bundi 10:30-2 p.m 1
Vinner closed
preakfasl 8-10:30 o.m.
ftiinck 10:30-2 p.m.
Vinner 5-7:30 p.m.
Vommons closed for dinner f ri. f eb. 2
KATIE EASTERLING/The Battalion
By Maureen Kane
The Battalion
With hundreds of students
herding into the Sbisa and Com
mons dining halls Sunday
evenings, officials said the re
vised dining schedule has been a
success.
Beginning this semester, Food
Services Department has offered
an evening meal on Sunday and
eliminated the Saturday evening
meal. The increased numbers of
students eating in the dining halls
on the weekend shows this
change appears to be popular.
Ron Beard, director of Food
Services, said that 1,000 people
were served at Sbisa during the
evening meal Sunday — a much
larger crowd than the average 300
people served at the evening meal
on Saturdays.
Beard said the low numbers of
people served by Food Services
on Saturday nights reflects the
fact that many students go out on
Saturdays.
Cynthia Zawieja, associate di
rector for Food Services, agreed
that the new hours at Sbisa and the
Commons will benefit students.
“This is the time to make a
change to provide better service to
students,” Zawieja said. “Only
200-300 students eat on Saturday
evenings — that’s almost not
worth opening the dining halls.
But many students are coming
back into town on Sundays, and
we thought it would be a better
idea to trade our low-night service
for Sunday service.”
Beard said the new hours of op
eration are an attempt to respond
to student needs. He said he be
lieves the hours will be more con
venient for students.
“We regularly meet several
times a semester with the Resi
dence Hall Association (RHA) and
Student Body President Forrest
Lane to discuss student requests,”
See Sbisa on Page 2.
STUART VILLAIMUEVA/The Battalion
College Station residents James Johnson and Jamey Kaiser smoke at a local
restaurant.
Phi. Batk
intasi
Practice makes perfect
BERNARDO GARZA/The Battalion
ML
Todd Reinders, a member of the men's pole vaulting team and a freshman business administration major, runs through
exercises at Anderson Track on Monday.
Student
leaders
increase
|y Rolando Garcia
The Battalion
VNew-risk management guide-
ines will change the way many
tudent organizations plan their
‘-vents by requiring safety as a top
:ohcern.
| To educate student leaders
ibout the new guidelines, Student
ation Activities will host eight work-
lops for organization leaders that
vill tackle many of the safety is-
ues that confront student organi-
■ions.
• ■' We want to make sure they un-
tatlOfl lerstand the direction the Univer-
3 w is taking with regard to risk
aanagement. This will be a facili-
ated relationship in which we
vork with groups to plan their
vents,” said Kim Novak, Student
Activities risk coordinator.
I The eight workshops will be-
;in today and run until Feb. 22.
Ibey will cover topics such as
isk management, legal liability,
ravel guidelines, event planning
nd alcohol.
A few student organizations are
Iready implementing the new
irns afety restrictions, and their feed-
ack has influenced the topics in
he workshops, Novak said.
See Safety on Page 2.
1
Probe into misplaced
voter cards continues
By Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
After nearly three months, the
Brazos County District Attor
ney’s office is still investigating
the missing voter registration
cards of Texas A&M students.
Students who registered to
vote in Brazos County with the
Texas A&M College Republi
cans were unable to vote on Elec
tion Day because their voter reg
istration cards were not processed
by the office of Buddy Winn,
Brazos County’s voter registrar
and tax assessor-collector.
Neither Buddy Winn nor the
College Republicans said they
lost the voter registration cards.
When students went to Winn’s
office on Election Day with re
ceipts showing that they had reg
istered, Winn said he never re
ceived their applications.
Winn said he thought that the
applications were lost when they
changed hands among the Col
lege Republicans.
Jack Long, president of the
A&M College Republicans and
a junior political science major,
said that he turned in more than
1,500 voter registration applica
tions and watched an employee
of the voter registrar’s office
hand-check each of the applica
tions. He later learned that some
of the applications were thrown
out because of incorrect infor
mation on the cards.
Other students filled out the
registration cards before the
deadline,which would have al
lowed them to vote in the 2000
presidential election, but they re
ceived the cards back stating they
could begin voting on the day af
ter the election.
The office of county tax as
sessor-collector is an elected
position. Winn, a Democrat, ran
against Republican candidate
Art King on Nov. 7, 2000, win
ning by a 2 percent margin.
A student who registered
with the College Republicans
was told his application never
made it to Winn’s office. He
found out that his name was
taken off of the voter registra
tion list in his hometown, and
the only way a name can be re
moved from the list is when a
voter registrar removes it.
The Brazos County District
Attorney’s office has been in
vestigating the case since Elec
tion Day. District Attorney Bill
Turner would not comment on
the investigation, except to say
that his office is still looking into
the matter.
Commode explodes in Fowler
By Mariano Castillo
The Battalion
Jessica Mendoza got more than she bargained
for after flushing her Fowler residence hall room
toilet Monday afternoon.
Shortly after flushing the commode, Mendoza,
a freshman business major, heard a small explosion
immediately followed by a gush of water.
“It just poured and poured,” she said. “It was all
nasty toilet water.”
The water flowed continuously for 15 minutes
before a Physical Plant worker arrived to shut it off,
Mendoza said. By the time the toilet was stopped,
Mendoza’s and her suitemates’ floors were covered
with two inches of water.
She swept the water out with a broom with the
help of her resident adviser (RA). Nothing was
damaged by the flooding.
The toilet had shown signs of trouble for a week,
Mendoza said. She reported the problem to her RA,
who contacted maintenance workers. Their re
sponse was that “there was nothing they could do,”
Mendoza said.
Mendoza said her plumbing problem was not an
isolated incident. Last week, other Fowler resi
dents had a similar problem with their showers.
Physical Plant personnel were unavailable for
comment Monday night.
As for the cause of Mendoza’s toilet explosion,
she said, “the University employee who shut it off
told me, ‘It’s dorm life.’ ”
B-CS may see
smoking ban
in public places
By Bryan Blanton
The Battalion
A joint legislative committee from
the cities of Bryan and College Station
will meet today at 4:30 p.m. to discuss
an ordinance that would restrict smok
ing in public places.
The discussions at the joint legisla
tive committee meetings stated that the
new ordinance will be adopted only if
both cities agree on it.
A public place is an enclosed, in
door area to which the public has ac
cess, such as commercial establish
ments, public and private secondary
schools, colleges and universities,
hospitals, city buses, city buildings
and restaurants.
“If passed, there will be a complete
ban on smoking in all restaurants be
tween the times of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.,”
said Brooke Brandenburg, assistant to
the city manager of College Station.
“Bars will be excluded from this ordi
nance, but bar areas within a restaurant
will have to adhere.”
A bar, according to the draft ordi
nance, is an establishment physical
ly separated from a food-serving
area that is dedicated mainly to serv
ing alcohol.
College campuses would also be
affected by the new ordinance, said
Harvey Cargill, city attorney for Col
lege Station.
“Students at Texas A&M will be
able to smoke on campus while walking
to class, but will have to obey the ordi
nance (if passed) of not smoking in pub
lic buildings and being at least 20 feet
away from the exterior of the building,”
Cargill said.
The administrator in charge of a pub
lic building will have to designate areas
as smoking or nonsmoking, Cargill
added.
Refer to related article on page 9.
“The city of College Station and
the city of Bryan currently provide
that the owners are not responsible to
enforce the smoking ordinance,” said
Tom Brymer, College Station city
manager.
Violation of the ordinance would be
a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine
of up to $2,000. Each time the offense
is committed, it will be considered a
separate offense, according to the draft
ordinance.
The ordinance will become effec
tive 10 days after its approval if it is
adopted.
Engineering career fair
to host 100 companies
By Emily Hendrickson
The Battalion
More than 100 compa
nies from across the na
tion will come to Texas
A&M today for the Stu
dent Engineers Council
(SEC) Career Fair.
The companies, which
include NASA, Microsoft
and IBM, will recruit em
ployees and interns.
The event will take
place in the Memorial
Student Center (MSC)
from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
Andrea Theriot, mar
keting director for the
career fair and a senior
industrial engineering
major, said students
should take advantage of
the career fair.
“We want as many
students as possible to
show up so companies
know we are serious,”
Theriot said.
“It is a good opportu
nity to find out all op
tions available to engi
neers,” Theriot said.
Daniel Orozco, assis
tant director of the Career
Center, said going to a ca
reer fair is a big step for
engineers who want to get
their foot in the door at
major companies.
“Students are begin
ning a presentation of who
they are,” Orozco said.
“Companies get a chance
to meet a lot of students
who are willing see what
they have to offer.”
The companies will
be handing out fliers,
collecting resumes and
making appointments for
interviews.
To get an interview
during the career fair, stu
dents must make an im
pression and show initia
tive, Orozco said.
Justin Kugler, a senior
aerospace engineering-
major, is among many;
students hoping to medt
potential employers.
“I’m trying to network
with companies to set ujpf
interviews for intend
ships;'’ Kugler said. U
Orozco advises stu
dents to look presentable ifi
they plan to make arrange**
ments for an interview, v
He said slacks and;
shirts are acceptable, but
suits are not necessary. ■'
Because of their ii|C>
creasing size, future ca£
reer fairs will be held in
Reed Arena. This year,
the SEC had to decline
offers from 30 companies
who wanted to attend, be
cause of limited space.
Companies pay to re
serve their spaces and
benefit by being able to
recruit students and ad
vertise for their business,
Theriot said.
The SEC and the Of
fice of Cooperative Edu
cation host an engineering
career fair during the
spring and fall semesters.
Today’s event will be the
second-largest student-mn
career fair in the nation.
A bus route will be
running from the Zachry
Engineering Center to
the MSC.
i