o Sharon eaj
imentcank
!o\ernors.”
Women and the Corps
negotiate'
jt he said Id
Minkin An:- r-v , •, • 4 •
mespite integration
violence Sit W * ^
ibylsng MommerBunce
shot and u .■ TbiBatta/ion
)fasix-coni . lompany G-l cadet Rebecca Barron sees
anktoJori thetorps of Cadets as a task she started and
eand l \ one she will finish.
ingAbdulli; Barron, a junior general studies major,
clear unde began as a freshman in her unit with five oth-
mass destine fi r women cadets and watched each of them
en routet(" leave. For her, the decision to continue in the
i what thel Corps was simply one to “stick it out.”
ve answer “1 would feed off [it] when they quit, and
Abdul-IM k made me stronger,” Barron said. “I’m the
ndealingr only one left.”
tenting U.N ‘ F 01 rnost of the 120 female cadets, the de-
jconsiderati ti 8 ’ 011 to stay in the Corps may be similar, said
asthedii Maj- Becky Ray, the commandant’s assistant
for gender issues. On average, 50 percent of
ptionofjx freshman women leave the Corps after their
Jinn that Pi ^ lrst y ear - But once a woman remains in the
in April,
eel as he
lah, a caree;
ghters to an,
:opter and o
Corps beyond her first year, the retention rate
is high, Ray said.
“There is a whole different situation be
tween men and women,” she said. “For a
woman to come into the Corps and to remain
or net to is a personal choice.... It comes down
to how many women really want to do this all
four years. Women drop out who could really
do this.
“But then, it’s different for a young lady to
date a guy in uniform than for a young man to
date a lady in uniform.”
On the first day of Fall 2000 classes, 163
women were in the Corps, and 69 were fresh
men. This semester, the number has fallen to
37 freshman and 120 women in total.
Ray attributes the drop in numbers to sev
eral factors: Some freshmen do not return at
all, some are ineligible because of grades,
some leave for medical reasons and some sim
ply change their minds.
Most women continue in the Corps be
cause of contracts for military service and be
cause they are satisfied with their social lives,
Ray said.
But Barron said women must go the extra
mile to get the same credit as their male coun
terparts. A woman must prove that she is just
as tough and physically capable as her male
buddies before she can gain acceptance into
the male-dominated Corps culture, she said.
“I won my male buddies over,” Barron
said. “A lot of times females think they’re
going to be treated differently within the
Corps because they’re female. When they
don’t get that same respect we usually get
from the outside world, [they] go into female
mode and start crying. It gives all of us a bad
name after so many women have done things
like that.”
Some women’s classmates try to con
vince them to leave, but that starts with bad
See Women on Page 2A.
BUSH
hat does it
ean to you?
M diploma has various
were
disputes
Taiz.andfol
:d m cross'd
3rs of the ™ r -j . -j ~
isiaKr Agrees of worth in workforce
leople have
nee Tuesda
i and refeiei
I reform.
\ttaf, heado]
ions Commij
e been onl
sis the lirsi of a Ihree-
l series on Hie value
i Texas AhM degree.
1 !o< us of Pat I II will
the Aggie Network
I Pail III will be on
ilary reputation, to
S locus is AAi M's in
inhou.il present e.
to Castillo
fiattalion
te steady rise of Texas
’s academic reputa-
■has increased the value
p A&M diploma, ac-
irding to many former stu-
nts and employers. Al-
|gh no precise price tag
Ibe placed on an A&M
Intemation-
lly, there are
lot of [A&M
duates] in
engineering,
igriculture and
vet medicine.’’
|— Ray Hannigan
Class of '61
loma, graduates are en-
Hhg the workforce with
■ly marketable skills and
Brtise.
Consulting firms and en-
leering companies recruit
|yily at A&M, said Paul
usky, assistant director
■ormer student career
I pees.
Aggies have a reputation
jtister ‘.oda’ fbeing personable,” he
■ “The [Aggie] Code of
^ 5-Februawr is also well known.
19-Februaryployers trust that Aggies
19-Februah iecp stuff in confidence.”
ary 26-MaAgineering firms also
rch 26—ApW>ut A&M graduates for
.arch 26-Ap f fr practical knowledge,
arch 26-Ap f ! s ky said,
arch 26-#;
*sing date. §t-
flyer /c/#j
sgistration (ft
“Employers have said
that Aggies have a taste for
what’s real,” he said.
Faculty, staff and former
students agree that while
employers have a generally
favorable view of A&M
graduates, Aggies are often
handicapped by a narrow
worldview in an increas
ingly international work
place.
However, A&M gradu
ates are gaining a reputation
for being unwilling to leave
Texas and live abroad.
Ray Hannigan, Class of
’61 and recently retired
CEO of Kinetic Concepts,
worked 19 years abroad
and lived in nine different
countries. Many Aggies
work abroad, but he said in
general, there is a reluc
tance to leave the United
States.
“There is a lot of resis
tance, a ‘why should I do
this’ attitude,” Hannigan
said.
The number of Aggies
living and working abroad is
rising, but the majority of the
jobs are concentrated in a
few fields.
“Internationally, there are
a lot of [A&M graduates] in
petroleum engineering, agri
culture and vet medicine,”
Hannigan said.
The number of Aggies in
international corporations
include international stu
dents who studied at A&M
and returned to their home
countries.
.However, some A&M
graduates are not prepared for
international situations.
“It depends on the indus
try and discipline,” Hanni
gan said. “Business and lib
eral arts are not necessarily
as common abroad.”
A&M’s core curriculum
currently does not require
any international courses,
See Diploma on Page 6A.
Medieval motion
Ashley Richards, a member of the Society of Cre
ative Anachronism, dances across the floor of the
STUART VILLANUEVA/The BArrAi.ioN
MSC Flagroom. The group, which specializes in Me
dieval arts, performed a dance at the MSC Monday.
Tax-free season may be extended
By Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Ry-
lander has proposed expanding the tax-
free season from three to five days, saving
Texas taxpayers an estimated $46 million
more in sales tax during the back-to-
school shopping season this summer.
“The sales-tax holiday is a tremen
dous help to hard-working Tgxas fami
lies,” Rylander said. “By expanding the
holiday from three days to five and
adding [more tax-exempt] items, JHl
the sales-tax holiday will be less '
of a traffic jam and save Texans
more of their hard-earned dollars
for their families.”
“Whether the tax-holiday extension
will be effective depends on the Legis
lature,” said Will Flolford, press secre
tary for the comptroller’s office. “If it is
approved by the Legislature, we hope
that it will be effective immediately for
this 2001 tax holiday.”
State Sen. Rodney Ellis and state
Since the tax exemption pro- \
\
gram began in 1999, Texas tax
payers have saved $69.6 million.
Rylander’s office is hoping the
legislation will pass this session so
taxpayers can reap the benefits during
the 2001 tax holiday, which is scheduled
for the first weekend of August.
Proposec to be exterceG
from three to f’ve cays in August
State sales tax would be exempt
for:
clothing items
school supplies
child-safety seats
bicycle helmets
sewing items
RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion'
Rep. Renee Ahlaveda are sponsoring the
bill in the Texas Senate and House of
Representatives.
The comptroller’s office has added
items to the tax exemption list including
school supplies; child-safety equipment,
such as safety seats and bicycle helmets,
and any sewing item that can be turned
into clothing.
Holford said Rylander is placing
heavy emphasis on exempting child-
safety seats.
Last year, local taxing entities
could choose whether to waive
the local sales tax during the tax
holiday. All but one community,
Sunset Valley, waived the local
tax for the weekend. It is not
known yet whether all local en
tities will waive the local tax ex
emption for all five days if the ex
pansion of the tax holiday passes
through legislation.
Kelley Cole, director of marketing
See Tax on Page 2A.
WASHING-
TON(AP)— Presi
dent Bush goes be
fore the nation
tonight with his first
major challenge:
sell a program of
tax cuts that Ameri
cans are lukewarm
about and spending cuts that many
will not like.
It would be a tough assignment for
any president, but this new leader has
hurdles all his own. Elected without a
clear mandate, Bush gets only mid
dling marks for his public speaking,
has yet to build enough support in Con
gress and has had to make his argu
ments heard in the midst of the din over
the Clinton pardons, a spy scandal, a
White House shooting and an airstrike
against Iraq.
“Hopefully, all the focus on the past
is over with,” the president said at a
Cabinet meeting Monday. “It’s time to
move forward and (tonight’s) speech is
part of moving forward.”
The cornerstone of the joint address
to Congress, which aides said would
last about 45 minutes, will be Bush’s
pitch for a $ 1.6 trillion tax cut over 10
years. He is buffeted on all sides —
from Democratic partisans who say it’s
too big, GOP activists who say it’s too
small and voters who put a higher pri
ority on debt reduction and certain
spending programs.
A poll released by the Pew~R§'search
Center last week indicated that voters
narrowly support Bush’s tax plan — 43
percent in favor, 34 percent opposed —
with voters in favor of shoring up So
cial Security or paying for domestic
programs rather than tax cuts.
Bush must convince voters they
can have it all: lower taxes, lower pub
lic debt and bigger budgets for educa
tion, environment and other popular
programs.
“With a $5.6 trillion surplus, we do
have room for a lot of options,” White
Hopefully, all the
focus on the past is
over with. It's time to
move forward and
(tonight's) speech
is part of
moving forward. ”
— President Bush
House press secretary Ari Fleischer
said Monday.
Bush rarely stressed debt reduc
tion on the campaign trail, in part be
cause his massive tax-cut package
didn’t leave room for reducing red ink
under economic conditions at the
time.
But surplus projections have bal
looned. And the Congressional Bud
get Office estimates that up to $800
billion of the $3.4 trillion in publicly
held debt cannot be retired in the .
next decade because it is in savings
bonds or treasury bills that do not
come due soon or are held by foreign
governments.
Bush will be able to promise the
fastest, largest debt reduction in histo
ry: $2 trillion over 10 years, aides said
Monday.
edia appeals for access to
ecords in Dartmouth case
M^rchWoNTPELIER, Vt. (AP)
Ma'lp organizations took their case
=ses held Mfpmont’s highest court Monday
is designeeffr a judge refused to open
■tic safety. -Ords that might explain why au-
■ities have charged two teen-
ers with killing two Dartmouth
^JJ^jg/ljege professors.
-’’^KPwhe Associated Press, the Times
s p or If# the Rutland Herald, WCAX-
nd WPTZ-TV appealed to the
Vermont Supreme Court to reverse
the lower court ruling.
“Once they’re judicial records, we
say we should have a right to them,”
said AP lawyer Philip White.
It was not known when the
Supreme Court would hear the case.
The sealed records include affidavits
for search warrants and a request for
physical evidence from the suspects.
See Dartmouth on Page 6A.
Texas defensive end dies in car accident
AUSTIN (AP) — University of
Texas-Austin defensive end Cole
Pittman was found dead Monday
at the scene
of a one-car
accident.
State
troopers dis
covered
Pittman’s
pickup truck
on the side of
U.S. Route 79
near Easterly,
Pittman, a sophomore who had
played in 23 games in his two sea
sons at Texas, was returning to
school from his family’s home in
Shreveport, La.
Longhorns coach Mack Brown
told the team Monday afternoon at
a meeting that had been scheduled
to prepare for spring practice. The
workouts were supposed to begin
Tuesday but have been postponed.
No new date has been given.
“This is the hardest thing I have
faced in 29 years of coaching,”
Brown said. “We’ve lost a mem
ber of our family, and it really
hurts. Every member of our team
is like a son, and you can never
prepare yourself for something
like this. I don’t even know how
to begin.”
Before receiving the devastating
news. Brown met with the media to
discuss his plans for the spring, and
he immediately put to rest any spec
ulation about his quarterback plans:
Chris Simms is a firm No. 1 and
Major Applewhite is the backup.
“They will be competing, but
there’s no quastion Chris is the
starter,” Brown said. “We don’t
feel the need to alternate guys like
we did the first of last year.”
The 6-foot-5, 265-pound
Pittr^an played defensive tackle as
a freshman, then moved to end this
past season. He started the first
three games in 2000. He had 30
tackles, two sacks, five tackles for
loss, five quarterback pressures and
caused one fumble in his career.
Pittman enrolled at UT in the
spring of 1999 after helping
See UT on Page 2A.