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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2001)
2 SECTIONS • 14 PAGES THURSDAYSEPTEMBER 27, 2001 aMMHaaaH.. Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years ttip a tt 1 nJC/ HrL I 1 SERVING THE TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY SINCE 1893 te& lent bank Citibank no limits NEWS IN BRIEF Freshman election voting ends today on campus, online The Class of 2005 can vote for its leaders in the fresh man general elections today online at vote.tamu.edu or at locations in the Memorial Student Center, Sterlng C. Evans Library, the Blocker Building and the Commons. Freshmen will vote for class council positions and freshmen student senators. Results will be announced tonight from the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue in the Academic Plaza. Election Commissioner Caytie Sarandis, a senior recre ation, park and tourism sci ence major, will climb the statue at 10 p.m. to make the announcement. Dallas man on Survivor Africa’ DALLAS — A bartender from Dallas is among the contestants in the third round of the CBS television "Survivor” series. "Survivor Africa” debuts on Oct. 11. It is set in Kenya’s Shaba National Reserve. Brandon Quinton, 25, joined 15 other adventurers for the recently taped show. A native of Ada, Okla., he works for Throckmorton Mining Company, a Dallas nightclub. Texan Colby Donaldson competed in \ast season’s show, "Survivor: The Australian Outback.” PUBLIC EYE "mj Number of people who pulled tickets Monday for the Notre Dame game 11,800 TODAY Page 3A Breaking up is hard to do • Toadies are parting ways after 12 years, will perform farewell tour in Texas nssm Page 1B Drawing a line in the sand Where the U.S. and Taliban stand OPINION Page 5B Past due guilty as charged Nolan County Library presses criminal theft charges for overdue library books WEATHER TODAY HIGH T T 83° F HA LOW y,- 53° F RROW .■q y HIGH 86° F 1 iv LOW i 4 56° F Volume 108 • Issue 25 College Station, Texas www.thebatt.com y / FORECASTS COURTESY OF www.weathermanted.com Task force returns from New York By Elizabeth Raines THE BATTALION Members of Texas Task Force-1 (TX-TFl) returned yesterday after a 10-day deployment aiding in the relief effort at the World Trade Center (WTC) site in New York City. The 72-member elite urban search and rescue team under Texas A&M System’s Texas Engineering Extension Service was activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Sept. I l following the bombings of the WTC and the Pentagon. The team left for New York Sept. 17 and began work in 12-hour shifts at the trade center site. TX-TFl team members flew into Austin yesterday afternoon, taxiing through an honorary arc of water created by two Austin Fire Department fire engine hoses. Bryan Police Department Lt. Fred Taylor, a TX-TFl member, said that although the members were trained and prepared for the work ahead of them, there was no way they could be prepared for the devastation they saw in New York City. “It’s been a trip,” he said. “It was frustrating. It was interesting. It ran through the whole spectrum of feelings. It was unlike anything any of us have ever seen before.” Debbie Taylor took the day off from work to welcome her husband Fred home. She said her excitement at seeing him home and safe again compares STUART V1LLANUJEVA • THE BATTALION Top: Members of Texas Task Force-1 carry equipment off of their buses after they returned to the Brayton Fire School Wednesday. The task force was deployed to New York City to help the rescue efforts. Above: Kristin Guarino watches her sister, Jackie, embrace their father. Al Guarino is one of the task force members who traveled to New York. to the excitement of her wed ding day. “I woke up before the sun came out,” Taylor said. TX-TFl began work at the WTC site at 7 a.m. Sept. 19. The team was divided into two groups, a red group and a blue group, splitting the day into two 12-hour shifts. Task members searched “voids,” or air pockets within the rubble, using search dogs, telescoping microphones and See Task Force on page 6A. Gramm’s seniority needed GOP leader: Senator should reconsider AUSTIN (AP) — U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm should reconsider his decision not to seek re-elec tion because his leadership is needed in these uncertain times, the former chairman of the state’s Republican Party said Wednesday. The terrorist attacks of Sept. I I left the nation facing human loss and serious economic trou bles, said Tom Pauken, who chaired the Republican Party of Texas from 1994 to 1997. “I would hope that Sen. Gramm would reconsider and run for re-election,” Pauken said. Gramm, a Republican, announced in early September that he would not seek a fourth term. His current term expires in January 2003. Gramm's spokesman, Larry Neal, said Wednesday it is “thoroughly unlikely” that the senator would reconsider his political decision. “Sen. Gramm’s decision to leave at the end of this term was the product of a great deal of Giuliani, Democrats poised for runoff in mayoral races NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Wednesday he will talk to the city’s candidates for mayor and try to come up with a plan that would give him a continuing role in New York's recovery from the World Trade Center disaster. Giuliani was not specific about whether he was seeking some kind of extension of his term, considering a run for a third term, or merely looking for a role in the administration of his successor “I want to do something that unifies the city because I love this city,” said Giuliani, who is barred under the City Charter from serving a third term when his current term is up on Dec. 3 1. In yet another indication of Giuliani’s inten tions, the Republican mayor contacted the Democratic speaker of the state Assembly on Wednesday, seeking support for legislation that could extend his stay in office. Giuliani’s remarks came one day after New Yorkers voted in the primary election, handing billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg the GOP nomination for mayor and sending two Democrats, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and Public Advocate Mark Green, into a runoff next month. Green was the only Democratic candidate to meet with Giuliani Wednesday; Bloomberg refused to say whether he had met with the mayor. None of the candidates had any comment on Giuliani’s remarks. The mayor has been acclaimed for his steady leadership since the trade center attack and has been urged by many New Yorkers to stay on and See Giuliani on page2A. Student Service Fee up for grabs Fund allocation set for November By Amanda Smith THE BATTALION More than $1 million in stu dent fee money is up for grabs as the 10-member Student Service Fee Advisory Board (SSFAB) considers how to spend funds previously desig nated for Bus Operations. Students voted in Spring 2001 to add a $50-per-semester transportation fee to their schedules for increased on- and off-campus bus service, mak ing revenue from the Student Services Fee unnecessary. “The money given previous ly to Bus Operations has not been touched,” said Terry Pankratz, assistant vice presi dent in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and the acting director of Student Health Services. “It is on reserve, but our expectation is for a decision to be made on its allocation in November.” Despite the $1-million sur plus, President Dr. Ray M. Bowen said this month the University is facing serious budget constraints and con sidering adding a $10 or $30 Excellence Fee to alleviate the deficit. Suzanne Bolduc, the 2001- 2002 SSFAB chair and a senior mechanical engineering major, said the committee is review ing recommendations from A&M departments and expects to hear a presentation from the Department of Student Activities in early October. “We are trying to get all of our recommendations for allo cations,” Bolduc said. “We actually are still hearing budg et requests from all depart ments. We are going to take and consider all the allocations requests and we could allocate it to departmental requests entirely or for a larger project.” The SSFAB’s recommenda tion must be approved by the Student Senate, the Faculty Senate, A&M administrators and the Board of Regents before it is implemented. Students paid $11.86 per semester credit hour in student service fees for Fall 2001, compared to $11.62 per semes ter credit hour during the 2000- 2001 year. The surplus revenue accounts for about 10 percent of the $11.6 million collected in student service fees for the 2001-2002 school year. Juliette could threaten Baja peninsula LOS GABOS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Juliette, packing winds of 120 mph, tracked northwest along Mexico’s Pacific coast Wednesday, leaving behind flood ed homes and rivers. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami called the storm a “potential threat” to Baja California, but said computer models showed it was likely to skirt land, gradually weakening and turning west. Juliette was centered about 260 miles south of the resort city of Cabo San Lucas on the south ern tip of the Baja peninsula, heading northwest at about 10 mph. The threat of the storm further emptied the nearly deserted Los Cabos resort, which was already suffering a sharp drop in tourism after the Sept. 1 1 terrorist attacks in the United States. “We called our hotel ‘the ghost hotel, because nobody was there,” said Tracy Mercado, 31, of San Diego, who cut her vaca tion short and was at the airport looking for a flight back to the United States. Storms born off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast rarely cause major problems for the United States. Forecasters called the Category 4 storm “still danger ous” even though the winds had dropped from a peak of 145 mph. Juliette is a massive system with hurricane-force winds reaching 70 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds felt 260 miles from the vortex. Authorities said Juliette’s Hurricane Juliette Position: 15.7 N, 105.0 W Moving: WNW 7 mph Sustained winds: 120 mph Wind gusts: 150 mph As of 11 p.m. EOT U.S. 5 \ MEXICO Possible Mexico City\ 2 o° window of V, O movement v ~.., * See JULIETTE on page 2A. SOURCES: AccuWeather; ESRI