J .XC'.J /-.V X
June 28, 2001
iume 107 ~ Issue 163
6 pages
wvs in Brief
Campus
EVA Tw BAnuic*
ionservation
j86 and was
e it is being
then
jicials warning
rnational Ags
uition, fee scam
xas A&M officials have
notified of a scam involv-
hdividuals promising po-
tfil international students
/er fees and tuition rates at
K/1. The individuals, who
m to be affiliated with the
v< rsity, may collect $6,000
■ore from victims,
labile we are currently
are of this in connection
■ Pakistan, it also could in-
d< students from other ar-
I of the world," said
sinne Droleskey, executive
ector of International Pro-
Bis for Students.
■roleskey said currently en-
lle I or potential interna-
ftl students should contact
international Student Ser-
|s Office by email at
i>tamu.edu to authenticate
individual claiming to be
ated with the University.
State
irents would
i thumbtack
an sentenced in
nimal cruelty case
MAN ANTONIO (AP) — A
ccording to econd man accused of set-
iworkeronfc in 9 a cat on fire earlier this
en handcuir earw iH spend seven months
lishmentf 1 ) a '' an( ^ P a V a ^ ne in
ase a judge called "coward-
/and despicable."
Punishment for Brian Tarv-
-ncame Tuesday. He showed
chherwk; 10 visib|e reaction when
udye Wayne Christian read
said the t: hispentence.
nd blister; • A six-member jury on Mon-
Id a doctor; lay convicted Tarver, 19, on a
s of her feed lisdemeanor charge of cruel-
ndcuffed. ' to animals. Tarver must also
mistreatingtl a y a J4,000 fine for helping
icipline her,k# 1 a cat on fire,
she was disoirtf arver ancl his co-defen-
iprobleracylf' K ® n , ne1;h Matt / were ac '
jg Bd of dousing the cat with
Pmable liquid and igniting
Banimal with a cigarette
■er on Jan. 23 at a San An-
1^1 Q ffj" 1 ! 0 apartment complex.
Ofrnily sues course
tO te /er boy who was
evolution and'j ruck by lightning
raOUSTON (AP) — Thefam-
d that he neve: of a boy struck by lightning
tended to be or|le playing golf is suing the
tied money.Btjf course, alleging the injury
at Trofimoit ,u 'd not have happened had
t was a coinciif L° urse installed lightning
ible to name!# 1 '® 0 equipment.
.henshowTiJ lndrose 5 ol [ Club in
erFBIagentpl 9 °P ened abo ^ three
,■ . 5 ars a go and should have
'l 1 <>inat- fehe equipment, especial-
:man Mark s iJ, ce Houston is prone to
e vote wasn-yere lightning storms, said
ed Trofimofi n favormina, the family's
dewing a videVyjer.
bribing his siMiristopher Brehm, then
)eliberations^ |uffered a severe, perma-
irs. U brain injury when he
ink someone' 5 hit by lightning while
” King saidfo^ 11 '9 9 olf on Au 9- 2000 /
let. “Heclai/j mina said -
can, that he -
or die pastel
someone W\
i the countn
became a l-|
joined the $
as honorabk
ee years late
a civilian in-1
in 1959.
INSIDE
Aggielife
• Reel Critique
The Fast mul
the Furious
reviewed
: NBA to o 1
:ies in ball
nge shooting
dace of Ala
if Houston k 1
d their fres
entirely,
i the flurry of;
e. 'The only
Draft is that
science, te
ley have a si
iey can do is
n the Clipped
(ie/ Balhoffisi
journalisin'
ww.thebatt.com
Admissions to implement
quicker^ paperless process
Elizabeth Raines
The Battalion
Most Texas A&M students probably
remember the anxiety that accompanies
waiting for an official acceptance letter.
To shorten the wait, officials at A&M
have decided to implement a new paper
less system that will speed up the applica
tion process and decrease response time.
Director of Information Technology
for the Office of Admissions and Records
Monique Snowden said that, in the past,
the A&M Office of Admissions and
Records has used paper files to review
student applications. She said it was an
unduly slow process, and die implemen
tation of the new paperless imaging sys
tem will speed up the process by weeks.
The $2 million Document Imaging
and Workflow System (DIWS) will be
implemented this fall as a joint effort be
tween the Office of Admissions and
Records and the Department of Finan
cial Aid.
The DIWS, created by BCS Systems
of Houston, is designed to put all student
application documents and student fi
nancial aid documents online.
Snowden said the new imaging sys
tem is replacing the physical filing sys
tem with a Web-based system. She §aid
that although the students files will be
online, the security will be very high, and
access will be limited.
“Even though this system has a Web
interface, it is not accessible to just any
one,” Snowden said. “[The system] is
highly secure and behind many firewalls.”
The DIWS will be implemented in
four phases during the next year and a
half. T he first phase, which will begin
Fall 2001, will consist of transferring the
freshman application and financial aid
files from a paper document to a Web-
based document. The second phase,
scheduled to begin Spring 2002, will
convert all other current student files
into microfilm that can be viewed on the
new system. Phase three will consist of
implementing phases one and two for
the Corps of Cadets, A&M Honors Pro
gram and graduate programs. Phase four
See Admissions on Page 6.
IMPLEMENTING
P'a p'eVd'cVsJa'’d rffis’s I’o' nfs’^’s t eTrii
m
PHASE
Freshman application and financial aid
files transferred from paper to
electronic format
PHASI
Convert all other student files to
microfilm
PHASI
Phases 1 and 2 applied to Corps of
Cadets
lilimi
Phases 1 and 2 applied to Texas A&M-
Galveston
RUBEN DfLUNA/7h£ Battalion
Fish camp preparations
JP BEATO/77y£ Battalion
Fish Camp counselors for Camp Smith paint a banner in the hallway of the Langford Architecture Center
Wednesday. Counselors for Camp Smith meet every Wednesday during the summer to prepare for camp
which begins August 7 and runs through August 25.
Future
teachers
explore
program
Robin Lewis
The Battalion
UH selects new police chief
HOUSTON (AP) — A new
University of Houston police
chief has been named to re
place the man who contends
he was fired last year for press
ing criminal charges against a
UH football player.
Robert B. Wilson Jr., former
police chief at the University of
Utah and three other higher
education institutions, will take
over on July 23 as police chief.
George Hess said he was ter
minated on Nov. 8, one week af
ter Cougars player Mike DeR-
ouselle was found guilty of forg
ing a government document —
a diird-degree felony— and giv
en a four-year prison sentence.
Since Hess was fired, John
Martin — UH associate vice
president of administration —
has served as interim police chief.
From the beginning of his
police career as an officer in
Oakland, Calif., in 1964, Wil
son has more than 30 years of
experience in law enforcement,
according to a prepared state
ment. Wilson chairs the Salt
Lake Regional Gang Task
Force in Utah and is regional
chair of the University Police
Section of the International As
sociation of Chiefs of Police.
A starting defensive tackle,
DeRouselle was convicted in
1999 of forging the signature
of an athletic department co
ordinator on a book requisi
tion form and then selling the
books for cash. Hess, 60,
claimed publicly that he was
fired for not cooperating with
the university’s desire to keep
the matter “in house.”
A letter of termination pro
vided by Fless indicated his crit
icism of the administration over
the DeRouselle case played a
role in his dismissal. But Arthur
Smith, UH president, has
called Hess’ charges the prod
uct of a series of “unsubstanti
ated allegations by disgruntled
employees.”
The desks are only knee-high,
the bathrooms are unfit for the
average adult and the majority of
the people walking around are
less than 4 feet tall.
These are the students of
Southwood Valley Elementary
where the Texas A&M summer
camp, Exploring Leadership
Opportunities and Reward in
Education (ExpLORE), spent
Wednesday morning observing
the daily routines of an ele
mentary class.
The A&M College of Edu
cation is hosting ExpLORE in
support of the Texas Education
Agency’s attempts to recruit
high school students into the
field of education. The reason
for the visit to Southwood Val
ley Elementary was to give
these high school students a
glimpse into the work of an el
ementary school teacher.
The high school students sat
and watched the interaction be
tween the elementary students
and the teachers, absorbing the
learning process firsthand.
“It was the kids that actually
motivated me,” said Ivan Gal
van, a 16-year-old high school
junior from Brownsville.
Galvan is a kickball coach for
a pee wee league in Brownsville,
and he said he loves interacting
with kids.
See Teachers on Page 6.
Funerals held for five drowned children
HOUSTON (AP) — Russell Yates
found it hard to say goodbye.
Wandering around the tiny white cas
kets holding the bodies of his slain chil
dren, the proud father talked about his
four sons and daughter for 50 minutes
Wednesday before realizing he had pre
pared some notes.
“I wrote all this down on a card and
there’s not much left,” he said. “I’m go
ing to miss these kids.”
Then he carefully tucked a favorite
blanket next to each child before closing
each casket.
“Noah gave his to Mary, but I remem
ber it with him,” Yates said as he placed
the ragged, white baby blanket with his
oldest son, who was 7. A new, pink blan
ket went in with 6-month-old Mary.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you grow
up,” he told the lifeless child, who re
sembled a doll, as he wept.
Yates followed his five children to a
nearby cemetery, where he again cried as
he tapped on each of the caskets to end
a 10-minute burial service.
Calling the eulogies “the hardest
thing I’ve ever had to do,” Yates ad
dressed about 300 mourners at the
Clear Lake Church of Christ, just a few
blocks from the home where their
mother allegedly drowned them in a
Ft
The Lord giveth, and
the Lord taketh away.
That's exactly what he's
done. He gave me all
these children, and now
he's taken them away.’’
— Russell Yates
victims' father
tub following a long struggle with post
partum depression.
“I can’t possibly tell you everything
there is to know about each one of
them,” Yates said. “But I can give you a
glimpse of who they were.”
Mary was dressed in a pink sleeper.
Her 3-year-old brother Paul was to her
left and 2-year-old Luke to her right.
Noah wore a multicolored sweater em
blazoned with a truck. John, 5, wore an
orange and black sweater.
He described Noah as intelligent, in
dependent and a lover of bugs; John
rough and tumble with a great smile;
Paid the most well-behaved; Luke the
troublemaker, the one most likely to
challenge boundaries; and Mary, the
“princess” of the family.
“The Lord giveth, and the Lord
taketh away,” Yates said. “That’s exactly
what he’s done. He gave me all these
children, and now he’s taken them away.
“I was sitting at the dinner table the
other night telling stories and that’s how
I would like to tell you,” he said. “I tell
you every minute I had I was with them.
It wasn’t like they were just some gener
ic children that happened to be mine.
They were my friends.”
He went to each casket, pausing be
fore it as a picture of the child appeared
on a large projection screen behind and
above him.
“That’s him,” Yates said, pointing to
the image of Noah. A tear fell from the
father’s eye.
Noah once caught a caterpillar that
became a butterfly when the family was
on a road trip, Yates recalled. The fami
ly quickly stopped on the side of the road
and freed the butterfly as it emerged
from the cocoon. Yates gazed down at
Noah’s casket: “That is kind of how I
look at this. We’ve set you free.”
While discussing Mary, he said could
n’t believe his wife, Andrea, bore a girl.
“I thought boys were all we’d ever
have,” he said. “I told her I wanted a
basketball team first, then we’d talk
about girls.”
But over the last six months, Yates said
Mary became his little princess.
“Given this tragedy, I am so glad I had
a girl,” he said.
Posters covered with pictures of the
children lined a table in a church hallway.
One picture showed a smiling Noah in
the bathtub with sections of wet hair
sticking up.
See Children on Page 2.