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MONDAY
February 19, 2001
Volume 107 ~ Issue 97
12 pages
talion News Radio: 1:57
itheim eveille VII takes a bow
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4 ^ ii I k T iliJ ^ I ^ r W i t'i
www.thebatt.com
Reveille VII, along with mascot corporal Bo
..JA/ilson, a sophomore business administra
tion major, made her Texas A&M debut at
CHADS ADAMS/The Battalion
Saturday's men's basketball game against
Missouri. She will replace Reveille VI at the
end of the semester.
ating Disorders Week
ims to teach students
I5(
oo
TS
^Jrandie Liffick
Battalion
an effort to address an ill-
els that affects 5 million peo-
1^ each year, Student Health
err ices Health Education, Stu-
ent Counseling Service and
iggie Representatives Educat-
vg, About CoWege Hea\tb
ACH) are coordinating Eat-
ig Disorders Week.
Peginning today, the week
all teach Texas A&M students
bout types of eating disorders,
pnptoms, how to help a friend
tid where to go for help. Infor-
lation tables will be set up in the
emorial Student Center from
.m. to 2 p.m. today through
tursday.
JThe worst thing you can do
Bomeone you think has an eat-
ig disorder is to label them,”
|id Dr. Mary Ann Covey, a psy-
tiologist with Student Counsel-
ig Service. “That just makes a
erson defensive.”
jCovey said there are certain
/lys to helpfriends who are suf-
elng from eating disorders.
j‘People tend not to be real
ensitive to eating disorders,” she
They often will look at
someone with anorexia and say*
‘Just eat,’ but it’s not that simple.
This is a mental illness.
“Just like you can’t expect a
person with a fear of heights to
go to the top of Rudder Tower
and look down, you can’t expect
a person with an eating disorder
to all of the sudden eat more or
stop binging,” Covey said.
A discussion panel will be
held Tuesday at 7 p.m. in 301
Rudder. Speakers include Covey;
Dr. Ann Reed, associate director
and head of clinical services at
A.R Beutel Health Center; regis
tered dietitian Amy Chapman
and Michelle Corove from the
psychology clinic.
According to the National
Eating Disorders Screening Pro
gram (NEDSP), an eating disor
der is an illness associated with
disturbances in eating behavior,
severe body image distortion and
an obsession with weight.
Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in
281 Student Recreation Center,
representatives from Student
Health Services will lecture
about prevention, treatment and
risk factors of eating disorders.
Although anorexia nervosa
and bulimia nervosa are the two
most widely recognized types of
eating disorders, the lecture will
also discuss binge-eating disor
der and how to recognize early
signs of eating disorders.
“New studies are now show
ing that [eating disorders] are
starting at younger ages than in
the past,” Covey said. “But often,
patients do not seek treatment un
til they become of college age.”
College, Covey said, provides
an opportunity for people to face
this illness and get help.
Both physical and mental
evaluations are necessary to di
agnose an eating disorder, Reed
said.
“Often a person will come in
with symptoms, such as depres
sion or fatigue, but they don’t re
alize that these are related to an
eating disorder,” Reed said.
“Both a physical and a mental
evaluation are important to form
a plan for treatment.”
The Student Counseling Cen
ter provides one-on-one therapy
and group sessions for those suf
fering from eating disorders. Ac
cording to NEDSP, as many as
one in every 10 college-age
women suffer from clinical eat
ing disorders.
Lack of funding causes
unfilled staff positions
Physical Plant unable to provide same service level
By Courtney Stelzel
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Physical
Plant has lacked the money to
hire enough people since last
year. An estimated 200-250
slots for local and state posi
tions are vacant due to the
lack of money.
Vacant positions remain in
such'areas as the custodial de
partment, landscaping and fa
cility maintenance.
Richard Williams, inter
im assistant vice president
for the Physical Plant, said,
“We don’t provide the level
of service that we have in
the past.
“The impacts (of this
shortage) may not be known
for years to come,” he said.
The inadequate number
of employees is due to a
shortage in the budget and
an inability to stay competi
tive in the local job market.
The Physical Plant is not
able to offer the same
amount of money as other
businesses in the Bryan-
College Station area. How
ever, Williams said no em
ployees have been fired due
to the lack of money.
“Slots just haven’t been
refilled after employees have
left,” Williams said.
Williams said he initiated
the hiring freeze, but that the
decision is subject to the
University’s chain of com
mand, and is not entirely up
to him. He said employees
should rest assured that their
jobs are not in danger.
“[Termination of employ
ees] will never happen as
long as I’m interim,”
Williams said.
The Physical Plant has a
budget of $14 million for
salaries of state employees
under the education and gen
eral (ENG) budget, and an es
timated $7 million for local,
non-ENG employees. Physi
cal Plant has an estimated
1,200 employees.
ENG workers hold posi
tions in state-regulated areas,
such as custodial services for
classrooms and libraries. Non-
ENG employees provide such
services as cleaning the sports
facilities. Both ENG and non-
ENG employees are entitled
to the same benefits as regular
state employees.
Williams said he attribut
es the insufficient budget to a
habit of overspending.
“We are within budget this
year, so we are attempting to
get people back on board at
this time,” Williams said.
INVESTIGATI
College living arrangements
Many students choose off-campus housing as dormitory
rates continue to rise, communities compete for business
By Sommer Bunce
The Battalion
With the various housing options
available to Texas A&M students, in
coming freshmen and their parents are
a commodity in the residence hall mar
ket, said Mack Thomas, assistant di
rector of housing assignments for
Texas A&M.
Dorm-style apartment communi
ties, such as the Callaway House and
The Tradition at Northgate, pose a
threat to the occupancy rates of campus
residence halls, Thomas said. But, he
said, the threat is small because of the
large numbers of students campus halls
can house.
As more housing options become
available off campus, the num
ber of freshmen living on cam
pus, currently 4,500, may be af
fected, Thomas said. Callaway
House, with an occupancy of
500, and Tradition, which could
house as many as 795 students
when construction ends this
summer, could decrease the oc
cupancy rates on campus by 9
percent, he said.
“We are in competition, but
most apartment-style resi
dences are in competition for
upperclassmen, and we deal
mainly with freshmen,”
Thomas said. “For the most
part, freshmen live on campus and are
strongly encouraged to do so by their
parents.”
Of the average 6,500 freshman ad
mitted each year, 5,200 live in resi
dence halls. Residence Life has overas
signed its housing for five of the past
10 years.
The Housing Office uses the rent
from on-campus halls to help pay for
utility costs and mortgage-like bills,
such as the $6.25 million debt it owes
for the construction of the modular halls,
Thomas said. The main area where the
Housing office invests money in the res
idence halls is replacement, not addition,
he said, as the housing office builds new
halls and retires old ones.
The average cost of building a res
idence hall is about $50,000 per bed.
A large modular-style hall such as Ap-
pelt would have cost $ 14.9 million to
construct. .
Jennifer Cowley, assistant research
scientist at A&M’s Real Estate Cen
ter, said on-campus housing does not
represent the true costs of real estate.
On-campus residents are paying a
bargain price for what they get, Cow
ley said.
“In most cases, you’re paying the
cost of service and some profit to off-
campus communities that have just
been built,” she said. “The prices you
find off-campus for the same types of
things may be just a bit higher, but they
represent the real costs of business. It’s
simply up to the student and parents
whether a'higher price is ex
cessive or acceptable.”
Occupancy rates were as
high as 104 percent in 1995, a
result of the “guessing game.”
Thomas said Residence Life
plays when calculating how
many students to accept and
how many upperclassmen will
remain in halls. Last year, occu
pancy decreased to 96 percent.
Thomas said every student
who applies for on-campus
housing this fall will be offered
See Living on Page 2.
ills •eeasaaey Mresmaas Bata
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998 1999 Average
RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
News in Brief
wo police officers injured
in hit-and-run car accident
‘I Early Sunday morning, two College Station police
officers were involved in an auto accident that left one
[fficer seriously injured. Just after 3 a.m., officers Kar-
Wiesepape and Bobby Branch were driving in an un-
arked police car on Wellborn Road south of 2818
hen their vehicle was struck from behind.
Both officers were taken to the College Station
[ledical Center. Branch was treated and released, but
iesepape remains hospitalized with injuries to her
leg, hip and shoulder.
■ Officer Walter Sayers of CSPD said the suspect’s
Vehicle was found Sunday near the Southgate Village
Apartments. Sayers says a warrant wHI be issued for
the suspect later today. The suspect could face felony
it-and-run charges.
Attack on Iraq may complicate U.N. negotiations
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
— The latest allied airstrikes
near Baghdad are likely to com
plicate upcoming U.N.-Iraq
talks aimed at breaking a stale
mate over U.N. sanctions and
getting weapons inspectors back
into the country.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan is to meet with Iraqi For
eign Minister Mohammed
Saeed al-Sahhaf on Feb. 26-27
for talks that had been seen as a
chance to start a dialogue on the
intertwined issues of sanctions
and weapons inspections.
In a letter to Annan and the
Security Council, al-Sahhaf said
the U.N. chief should “condemn
the dangerous aggression and
the increase of tension” and
should take “speedy steps to pre
vent such attacks from taking
place again,” the official Iraqi
News Agency said Sunday.
Iraq wants the U.N. to lift
crippling economic sanctions
imposed after it invaded Kuwait
in 1990.
The United Nations says Iraq
must first let inspectors back in
to make sure President Saddam
Hussein is not developing
weapons of mass destruction.
Though a major break
through had not been expected
from the meeting, the fact that
Baghdad requested it and sent
such a high-level delegation was
seen as positive.
Iraq’s supporters on the Se
curity Council — Russia, China
and France — had been hoping
the United States and Britain
would help their efforts to nudge
Iraq into cooperation with
weapons inspections.
Instead, U.S. and British war
planes launched their most seri
ous attack on Iraq in two years,
hitting air defense and radar sites
south of Baghdad Friday night.
The Pentagon said the attack
was meant to thwart Iraq’s im
proving capability to target U.S.
and British planes that patrol a
no-fly zone set up over southern
Iraq after the Persian Gulf War.
But the raid drew widespread
condemnation, some of it from
key U.S. allies in the Middle
East and Europe who said it was
time for Washington to recon
sider its policies toward Iraq.
Russia, France and China all
said the airstrikes were unpro
voked and would damage inter
national efforts to resolve the
sanctions issue. All three coun
tries want the sanctions lifted.
China called on the United
States and Britain on Saturday to
stop military action in Iraq im
mediately to create a favorable
atmosphere for the upcoming
talks, said Foreign Ministry
spokesman Zhu Bangzao.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eck-
hard said Annan hopes the meet
ings will go ahead as scheduled
“because all the major issues re
main unresolved and unless we
talk out these differences we
don’t think they can be re
solved.”