FRIDAY
February 16, 2001
Volume 107 ~ Issue 96
10 pages
iattalion News Radio: 1:57 p.m. KAMU 90.9
ViKk’i ft i tiJiM k’i
www.thebatt.com
■ ‘ .... . ; . .. ■ ... ; '
eveille VII will debut Saturday at Reed
vur-month-old collie to arrive with breeders from Florida
ANUEVATheB?
ihomore bi
of the moo
nts to view
te on whetf
n Courtney Stelzel
Hf/r Battalion
I Reveille VII will quickly reali/.e that
slic has big paws to fill when she arrives
■ College Station this afternoon. Her
affival in Aggieland marks the begin-
nlig of Reveille Vi’s last chapter as the
fijst lady of Texas A&M.
|The process of finding a successor
s not easy.
[Craig Serold, mascot corporal in
| t )8- , 99 and a senior computer engi-
oiring major, spent the last year and a
■f examining collie breeders through-
■ the country to find a suitable match
for the needs of Texas A&M.
H“Our No. I priority in this whole deal
■s to get a healthy dog," Serold said,
■alth is important because of the large
ne^tudent
iartv ies for
ageanfs
trown
'ictims, 24-j;
of a Bogota
ere seven
d in recreatii
of family it
1 and made
/en of the hill
1 two from H«
these wetel L,ZABE y H ,UlNFS
ereation andp Battalion
kind of con* his weekend, Texas A&M will try
:ly worrisofflhpld on to its state title of Miss Black
chief Gen tdiGold for the fourth year in a row.
vetoclarify tlf Diallo, a senior chemical engi-
erstanding(wring major, will compete for the ti-
robbery." !: in Waco Saturday,
tied the bodieftie Miss Black and Gold pageant
y, butittoollheld annually by the 15 Texas un
remains and Waduate chapters of the Alpha Phi
:rs initially Wia fraternity.
villagers i “This pageant is important because
its are an air shows Texas A&M’s commitment to
the 37-year v ers jty,” said Alpha Phi Alpha mem-
ist the milii Michael Broussard, a senior eco-
nilitary miliwjcs major. “In the past 14 years,
cuerssawi'| ce we've been on campus. Texas
clothing anf ^
..they real* .
iot from the| This pageant is
idommni fitiportant because it
Jhows Texas A&M's
d u en f ica ;l commitment to
i be found f .. „
. hikers baT diversity.
by a tattooi|
— Michael Broussard
Alpha Phi Alpha member
has sent four girls to the nation-
sparked p(tft eant ’ ar, d two have won.”
governme'ffliallo and 11 other women com-
istratorsjfed for the title of A&M Miss
?terred. ack and Gold in January. Selection
iywaspert| based on introduction, model-
owned byT taient and a question-and-answer
vhich hasiJ’K
J^^g^Drallo won the title and a $1,000
/ednesdawM^htP- If she wins Saturday, she
jp signs, 11 compete at the regional pageant,
p Satan arjidi will be held in March in Little
lis is right ck. Ark. The winner of the region-
tor, Marylojgeant will advance to the nation-
;ompetition in August.
-'“We are very optimistic about the
te pageant coming up this week-
| I’ said Evan Gentry, president of
L Ha Phi Alpha and a senior indus-
Rmgineering major. “Texas A&M
■won the state pageant the past
■ Ce years in row, which I think says
■ about the quality of students at
Ms A&M, specifically minority
■Han-American women.”
. , Hlpha Phi Alpha was founded in
(I and is the first historically
t an- American Greek-letter orga-
I6r
■ i ■
amount of traveling that Reveille must
do each year, he said.
Dr. Claudia Barton, the official vet
erinarian of Reveille VI, found an arti
cle about Dr. Cyndi Bossart, a collie
breeder and veterinarian in Fort Laud
erdale, Fla., Serold said. The article said
Bossart is a specialist in genetic engi
neering for collies. Her research in the
field is highly Reclaimed, and the Uni
versity was confident it had found the
right breeder, Sdrold said.
With the help of her husband, Jim
Efron, and Nancy McDonald, a collie
breeder, Bossart was able to engineer a
“perfect” collie. Collies bred by
Bossart, Efron and McDonald consis
tently rank among the top in the nation,
Serold said.
Reveille VII is being donated to the
University by Bossart, Efron and Mc
Donald. Her value as a show dog is an
estimated $ 1,500 to $2,000.
Efron said they decided to give
away such an expensive collie because
of the myth and folklore surrounding
the Aggie mascot.
“We were absolutely impressed in
the tradition with this collie. We are very
excited for her, and she is looking for
ward to her new home,” Efron said.
It took eight months and two litters
before breeders had the perfect dog,
Serold said. Reveille VII was the only
puppy in a litter delivered Oct. 9,2000,
by a collie owned by McDonald.
Kevin Graham, 1999-’00 mascot
corporal and a junior marketing major.
said the University normally gets the
new mascots when they are younger.
“They come on campus when
they’re three weeks old, as little fuzz
balls, and they’re real cute, and every
body loves them,” Graham said. “But,
we’ve kind of had the dilemma of
whether we wanted to have that.”
After consulting with the veterinari
ans in Florida, Corps of Cadets Compa
ny E-2, the outfit that handles Reveille,
decided to let Bossart keep the puppy
for a few extra months and begin some
basic obedience training.
“For the past several months down in
Florida, they’ve had her through some
extensive training, obedience training
See Reveille VII on Page 6.
COURTESY OF COMPANY E-2
Reveille VII arrives from Florida today and will make her Ag
gie mascot debut at Saturday's basketball game.
All that jazz
Jazz saxophone players and members of the Texas
A&M Jazz Society David Simmons, a senior biol
ogy major; Derick Sager, a graduate student; and
STUART VILLANEUVA/Thi: Battalion
Lindsay Lambourne, a freshman general studies
major, perfect a jazz number during jazz ensem
ble rehearsals on Thursday night.
Opening delayed again
PTTS sectioning lot into student, event parking
By Amanda Smith < .
The Battalion
The opening of a new parking lot adjacent to the George Bush
Presidential Library and Museum has been delayed for the sec
ond time in three weeks. The additional parking spaces will be
available to students with commuter tags on a limited basis.
PTTS decided Tuesday not to open the lot today because
of damp weather.
Providing a total of 327 spaces, the parking area is divid
ed in four sections.
ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion
The opening of the parking lot adjacent to the George
Bush Presidential Library to students has been delayed.
Sherry Wine, executive associate director of Parking, Traf
fic and Transportation Services (PTTS), said the conference
center’s demand for additional parking prompted the con
struction of the parking area.
“In the past, there has not been enough parking to support
[the conference center],” Wine said. “Generally, we are trying
to dedicate quadrants two and four to the museum and quad
rants one and three to conferences and student parking.”
Conferences at the complex will be given priority usage
of the new parking lot. Previously, PTTS has encouraged rid
ing buses to the conference center to handle the parking de
mands for large conferences.
The largest conferences draw approximately 800 attendees,
who usually bring between 200 cars and 250 cars.
Currently, there are 267 staff spaces in Parking Area 111,
the yellow lot at the Academic Building West. Wine said the
50 to 75 spaces that are usually vacant in the lot are reserved
for conference center events.
“It is a shared facility,” Wine said. “First of all, it is an ex
ceptional area because of the multiple uses: the University
users, the state users and the federal users included. The way
it is set up is unique to the entire complex. This is another park
ing situation where it will be more art than science.”
When quadrants one and three of the new lot are not being
used by guests of the conference center. Wine said, PTTS will
encourage commuter students to use the parking area.
See Lot on Page 2.
ienate encourages Aggies to vote for transportation fee
Haneite Simpson
Cmiattalion
.i ; Hsapport of its own bill that created
Si Cl! Hansportation Fee Referendum, the
‘ H A&M Student Senate approved a
— .itnFrirtlS'to Wednesday urging the student
toyote in favor of the fee during
s Deli) ■ecial elections next week.
t He special elections will be held
■ay and Wednesday so that the fee.
if approved by the student body, can ap
pear on the Board of Regents' agenda for
its March meeting.
Online and on-campus voting will be
available for the special election.
The resolution urged the Election
Commission to advertise the special elec
tion and applauded Bus Operations and
Parking, Traffic and Transportation Ser
vices (PTTS) for working with the student
body. The proposed $50 transportation fee
would provide extended bus services for
students both on and off campus and pro
vide for the purchase of new buses.
In other business, the Student Senate
passed a resolution demonstrating appre
ciation to Patrick A. Williams, Class of
’92, for his work with student govern
ment as the campus programs director for
the Association of Former Students.
Wednesday was Williams' last day at the
Association; he has taken a job in Dallas.
Finally, the Senate approved a reso
lution expressing its concern about the
situation in which students’ voter regis
tration cards were allegedly misplaced
or discarded by the Voter Registrar’s Of
fice of Brazos County during the regis
tration process for the November 2000
presidential election.
Task forces
hear Aggie
concerns
Committee stresses safety
By Sommer Bunce
The Battalion
Students looked to Bon
fire 2002 committees Thurs
day to explain how the void
caused by Bonfire’s absence
on campus could be filled.
In an open forum held
Thursday afternoon in the
Memorial Student Center,
task force representatives met
with students to reiterate the
goals of Bonfire planning and
hear the students’ concerns.
Bonfire Steering Com
mittee co-chairman Dr. J.
Malon Southerland, vice
president for student affairs,
a
It wasn't the
love of waking
up at 4:30 every
morning to go
cut wood that
got you to go
out [to cut]....
That's what we
want to
preserve.”
— Josh Kaylor
co-chairman of Student
Readership and
Participation Task Force
said he recognizes that
changing Bonfire means
changing the way students
relate to one another.
“When this enormous tra
dition and event was not
there, the vacuum [it left] was
enormous, absolutely enor
mous,” Southerland said.
“Maybe for student leaders
and the staff of residence
halls, that was 100 percent
clear. But as far as the reac
tion time of filling that void
is concerned, we’re not all
the way through that [time]
yet. We still need to be hav
ing these conversations.”
Students who are con
cerned that Bonfire has taken
on a negative meaning on,
campus asked the committees
what could change that and
asked when the idea of Bon
fire would no longer be taboo.
Southerland said students
should think of Bonfire in a
positive light, beginning now.
“In the Bonfire commit
tees, it’s our goal [to be] ex
tremely connected to the
past,” Southerland said. “We
have to remember this enor
mous tragedy as we move
forward so that we can move
forward in the right way,
[but] we also have to keep
the positive aspects of Bon
fire with us.”
A top priority of the Stu
dent Leadership and Partici
pation Task Force is to create
a plan that will allow the
same amount of camaraderie
from the past in 2002.
“It wasn’t the love of
waking up at 4:30 every
morning to go cut wood that
got you to go out [to cut],”
said co-chairman Josh Kay
lor, a junior agricultural de
velopment major. “It was
going out there with the 15
or 20 people from your
dorm that you had built a
bond with. That’s what got
you out of bed, because you
didn’t want to let them
down. And that’s what we
want to preserve.”
Student involvement in
Bonfire is paramount to the
committees’ plans, Kaylor
said.
However, so is keeping
those students safe, said
Safety Task Force co-chair
man Chris Meyer, director of
Environmental Health and
Safety at A&M.
Meyer said the design of
Bonfire 2002 must be safe
for students. He said he will
challenge the engineering
team chosen to design the
structure to create a stack
that is “inherently collapse-
proof.”
“We need to build safety
in from the ground up, not
have it as an afterthought,”
he said.
Risk is present in any sit
uation, said Design and Con
struction co-chairman Jim
Smith. The safest way to
move a log between two
points is with a crane — but
a design plan will have to in
clude a safe way for students
to move the log, he said.
“There’s no way 20 Ag
gies can’t pick that log up
and move it from point A to
point B,” Smith said. “The
designer is going to be chal
lenged to come up with max
imum student participation
to make it safe for 20 Aggies
to move a log or to do what
ever needs to be done. I am
confident in this next Bon
fire. It will be different, but it
can be made safe. We’re ob
viously looking for a firm
that’s got some imagination
and ideas about how they can
make this next Bonfire truly
unique,” he said.
Thinking of Bonfire as a
symbol for A&M, one must
also see Bonfire’s collapse
as a signal to the University
that it is time to change the
See Forum on Page 2.