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hancellor announces cancer diagnosis
wraves will continue with most responsibilities during treatment
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Btxas A&M University System Chan-
lor Gen. Howard D. Graves an-
leed Tuesday that he has been diag-
iptl with soft-tissue sarcoma cancer,
laics plans to delegate much of the
stem's management to his team of
■chancellors as he begins treat-
nt for what doctors are calling a
T>le disease.
■he long-term expectation of the ^
|>r is that this will be a cure,”
lies said. “This is not something
t v ould just extend my life by a few
^nths. They would be able to take it
tftnd excise it, and that would be it.
len I could get back to full health
p get back to work.”
Braves, 61, has been chancellor
ice August 1999, when the posi-
as left vacant by the System’s ’
hancellor. Dr. Barry Thomp-
Tie chancellor oversees all uni-
irsities and agencies in of the Sys-
m, including Texas A&M.
Braves’ sarcoma is a soft-tissue
ass located on his renal vein, above
s left kidney. It surrounds approxi
ately 3 inches of his aorta. Approxi
mately one-half of 1 percent of all can
cer cases are sarcomas.
cember. Graves visited his family doc
tor, whose examination eventually led to
a Jan. 15 CT scan, which revealed the
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Prairie View A&M y
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Tarieton State University
Texas A&M International
University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University-
Commerce
Texas A&M University-
Corpus Christi
Texas A&M University-
Kingsville
Texas A£M University-
Texarkana
West Texas A&M
University
• Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station
• Texas Agricultural
Extension Service
• Texas Engineering
Experiment Station
1 Texas Engineering
Extension Service
«Texas Forest Service
• Texas Transportation
Institute
• Texas Veterinary
Medical Diagnostics
Laboratory
• Texas Wildlife Damage
Management Service
RUBEN DELUNA/Tm; Battalion
Graves said the first symptoms were
thought to be-indigestion pains in De-
11
cancerous mass.
Graves said he was given a worst-
case scenario by his doctor: often-fatal
pancreatic cancer. Then his doctor
recommended Graves see a specialist,
at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
in Houston.
Dr. Robert S. Benjamin, chairman of
the M.D. Anderson Department of Sar
coma Medical Oncology, is the surgeon
who diagnosed Graves’ sarcoma last
week and dismissed the possibility of
pancreatic cancer.
Graves said Benjamin was optimistic
that he would have a full recovery.
“I felt good when he said ‘I’ve shrunk
sarcomas a lot bigger than yours,”’ Graves
said with a laugh. “When he said that, it
was uplifting and confidence-building.”
Benjamin was unavailable for com
ment, but Valerie Stiener, a nurse on Ben
jamin’s staff, said Benjamin’s optimism is
always a good sign for his patients.
Graves said that once he is healed, he in
tends fb return to work.
“I would like to continue to serve
Texas and Texans,” he said.
GASTON TO LEAD SYSTEM
During the next 12 months, Graves’
work schedule will be hit-and-miss as he
receives treatment and continues to
manage the System through his team of
vice chancellors.
“There will obviously be some draw
down in my ability to work day by day,”
Graves said. “But I’ve got a team that I
am incredibly proud of that I can dele
gate the leadership to.”
Graves said he mentioned retirement
to the Board of Regents, which wanted
him to remain in his position. Graves
said the regents urged him to take time
for himself.
“I will stay as involved as possible,
but the regents have said my first prior
ity is to get well,” Graves said. “I expect
the proficiency of this organization to
.continue.”
During the past 15 months, Graves
said, he has been working with Dr. Jer
ry Gaston, deputy chancellor, in agree
ment that Gaston has full authority of the
System if Graves is unavailable. Graves
said he has no reservations about dele
gating authority to his team.
STUART VILLANUEVA /The Battalion
Chancellor Graves announces, in an informal press confer
ence on Tuesday morning, that he was been diagnosed
See Graves on Page 8. with sarcoma cancer.
Hard hitting
PATRIC SCHNEIDER/The Battalion
Simon Canavess, a sophomore general studies
major, works out on the punching bag. Cavaness
has been using the bag for four years to improve
his arm muscles.
KTFB will disband
By Sommer Bunce
The Battalion
'1
Smoking ban nearing approval
'JSrk: Dickens
1 CAR ^kattalion
fi In a joint meeting with the Bryan City
j >ui cil Tuesday, the College Station
Council unanimously approved
■ing smoking in public restaurants
im 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
|Hhe Bryan City Council, which had
s 03/31 jijfchtly different version of the pro-
^sal. voted to review College Sta
n’s ordinance at its next two meet-
S before voting.
College Station will riot officially
adopt the new ordinance unless Bryan
does because both councils had previ
ously agreed that neither would adopt
the ordinance without the other.
During the discussion, Bryan Coun
cilman Mike Beal pointed out what he
called a “gaping loophole” in the pro
posed ordinance. Bryan’s draft of the
proposal exempted “bar areas” in restau
rants from the new ordinance. Beal pro
posed that smoking in bar areas be pro
hibited and that the ordinance also pro
hibit smoking in bars.
College Station’s version of the ordi
nance already prohibited smoking in
restaurant bar areas; Bryan’s did not.
College Station Councilman Den
nis Maloney opposed extending the
ban to bars.
“I have a problem with telling people
that they ought not to be smoking in bars
because I see the smoking ordinances as
See Smoking on Page 2.
Facing mounting bills, lack of
v$upport and a few regrets. Keep
the Fire Burning (KTFB) will dis
band at its next meeting in March,
said board member Joe Dyson.
The group, which canceled its
plans to build an off-campus
bonfire last fall, has returned do
nations to contributors, will close
out its bank account and will re
move itself from the state’s list of
nonprofit organizations.
“We’re trying to end this qui
etly — hopefully no damage was
done,” said Dyson, a junior ge
ology major.
KTFB was originally formed
in defiance of the two-year hiatus
imposed on Bonfire after the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse. The or
ganization claimed the support of
thousands of students and alumni
in its effort to build an off-campus
bonfire against the wishes of the
Texas A&M administration.
However, a-lack of funding for
safety insurance ended the plan.
“People have a big miscon
ception that we had money,”
Dyson said. “In reality, there
wasn’t enough interest to have
enough money. What we proba
bly should have done is called for
an end — the stack we saw be
fore it fell in ’99 was the last
Bonfire we’re going to see.”
Since the beginning, when
founding member Will Clark
purchased KTFB T-shirts from a
supplier with personal funds, the
financial situation of the non
profit organization seemed
doubtful, Dyson said.
The first T-shirts were given
away for donations. The approx
imately $1,000 the group raised
from the sales was used for a new
order of T-shirts, which were
sold for $10. KTFB’s only other
major fund-raiser came from
selling 1,000 pens for $1 each.
Two hundred unsold shirts re
main stacked in Dyson’s garage.
Dyson estimates that KTFB is/
$500 in debt. v
“And that doesn’t include our
bills,” he said, including cell
phones and travel expenses.
Dyson returned all equipment
donated to KTFB, from new.
steel chainsaws to axes, files and
other building supplies. The only
donation the group kept was a
$ 1,000 check from James Fuqua,
a former redpot and cattleman in
Quanah. Fuqua’s donation was
used to pay bills last semester,
Dyson said.
Fuqua said he was satisfied
that his donation was used
properly.
“[KTFB] had the best oppor
tunity at keeping the traditions
I’m familiar with,” Fuqua said.
He and other former redpots
guided the board members in
their plans to build a bonfire.
“They did their jobs, and they
did them well,” he said. “But there
just wasn’t enough money and
probably not enough support from
the student body. We told them to
pull the plug just when they were
deciding they’d need to.”
All other money donated to
KTFB was returned to donors,
said board member Will Clark.,
No money was used for person
al expenses, he said.
KTFB’s goal was the main
tenance of the Bonfire tradi
tion, Clark said. When people
donated money to KTFB, they
knew they were giving to more
than just a bonfire-building ef
fort, he said. However, because
the organization is nonprofit
and the plans for ah off-campus
bonfire fell through, Clark re
turned the money.
“We never said, ‘Give us
money, and we’ll build you the
biggest bonfire we can,”’ he said.
“In truth, there was no way we
could foresee that we wouldn’t
be able to do that. We were just
going till we couldn’t go any
more. And God knows we want
ed to build this thing.”
In retrospect, Dyson said,
KTFB’s efforts may have been
misguided.
“A lot of people don’t have a
clue what it takes to do some
thing like this,” he said. “Other
than it being a good learning ex
perience, I don’t know that I
would have tried this. Hopeful
ly we did something positive,
but it was a good time to end it
and to start enjoying the memo
ries of Bonfire and the people
we lost.”
FILE PHOTO/Thh Battalion
T-shirt and pen sales were the only fund-raisers held by KTFB. The
group will disband due to financial problems.
&M chosen as test college for half-price tuition pilot program
Sarah Goedston
'^Battalion
A bill under consideration by the
Xas Legislature would substantially
nee tuition for summer classes at
ite universities.
Sponsored by state Rep. Fred
ow n, R-College Station, the bill is
ended to help students earn under-
aduate degrees in less time by halv-
githe state minimum tuition for
■Tier classes.
|The problem is the average full-
de
ish a four-year degree,” Brown said.
“And two-thirds of the students
statewide are not
taking summer
school and not us
ing the facilities
available. You
have to air-condi
tion a building
whether there are
30 or 300 students
in a classroom.
We want students
to be able to take
BROWN
ne student takds 5 1/2 years to fin- advantage of the resources.”
Brown said, if students took six to
nine hours during summer school,
they could finish on time and make
room at state universities for new stu
dents and transfer students.
“UT cut back 50 percent on ac
cepting transfer students in the fall and
was not able to admit any transfer stu
dents in the spring,” Brown said. “Par
ents that are Aggies are calling me and
telling me their students can’t attend
Texas A&M, and I’ve found it’s not be
cause the student is not qualified, but
because there is no classroom space.”
Ron Douglas, A&M executive
vice president and provost, said the
University shares Brown’s goals and
is working with him.
“We want to encourage students
to take summer school so they can
finish their degree on time,” Douglas
said. “We are able to admit a reason
able number of students to Texas
A&M, but we can admit more stu
dents to the more populated schools
of business, architecture and engi
neering if more students were able to
finish school on time.”
Kris Reyes, Brown’s legislative
director, said that the bill would also
help students reduce the debt they ac
cumulate, if they complete their de
grees on time.
Brown said the program would
help offset the cost to the state, which
already subsidizes tuition.
“If we are able to send more stu
dents into the workforce, they will
become taxpayers and less of a fi
nancial burden on their parents and
the state,” he said.
Brown said Rob Junell, chairman
of the House Appropriations Com
mittee, supports the idea and will al
locate $5 million for a two-year pilot
program at A&M and A&M-
Kingsville.
Brown chose A&M as a site for
the pilot program, and A&M-
Kingsville was chosen by Higher Ed
ucation Committee Chairwoman
Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville.
A&M President Dr. Ray M.
Bowen wrote in a Jan. 3 letter to
See Tuition on Page 8.