ONDAYOCTOBER 15, 2001
Texas A&M University
1 SECTION • 10 PAGES
Celebrating 125 Years
NEWS IN BRIEF
3 hysical Plant
ire knocks out
jir conditioning
An electrical malfunction
parked a fire at the Texas
iM Physical Plant shortly
ter8 p.m. Friday night.
A chiller housed in one of
he complex's buildings
lught fire. The blaze was
utinguished within 20 min-
tes and the building was
leclared safe at 9:30 p.m.,
aid Dick Williams, vice pres-
dent of the Physical Plant
iepartment.
No one was in the building
ihen the fire started,
iiams said. A Physical
>lant team cut power to all
he chillers to end the blaze.
Buildings on campus may
lave experienced some dis
comfort Friday night because of
iir conditioner problems relat-
dto the blaze, Williams said.
Student Senate
on campus for
Constituency Day
Texas A&M student sena-
irs will be on campus
Monday for constituency
ia^from 10 a.m.to 3 p.m.
listen to students’ com
ments, concerns and sug
gestions.
Senators will be available
for students at several loca-
on campus, including
the Commons, Sbisa Dining
, the Memorial Student
Center, Wehner and the
Richardson Building.
PUBLIC EYE
Unemployment
claims in Texas
Jan. 2001
69,777
May 2001
87,029
For
patriots’
pride
Centuries old, the
American flag still flies
as a symbol of
freedom and qlor\
luffs slide
Ags, 31-21
•A&M suffers familiar
loss to Colorado
Page 9
The eyes
of ESPN are
upon you
• Pro-Con: Is
[ Sidelines’ a damaging
misrepresentation
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FORECASTS COURTESY OF
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SERVING THE TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY SINCE 1893
Volume 108 • Issue 36
College Station, Texas
www.thebatt.com
Two Aggies die in car crash
Third student suffers minor injuries, remains hospitalized in stable condition
By Sommer Bunge
THE BATTALION
Two Texas A&M students were killed
and one was in stable condition after a
one-car collision outside Giddings early
Sunday morning.
A 1996 Toyota was traveling north
bound on US Highway 77 in Lee
County when the car struck a tree at
7:34 a.m.
Passengers Antonio Torres II, 18, a
Bonfire
loses
safety
firm
freshman business administration major
from Mission, and Xavier Monge Ortega,
20, a freshman agricultural economics
major from Guayaquil, Ecuador, were
killed in the accident. The driver, Jonathan
Steed, 19, a sophomore political science
major from Amarillo, was transported to
Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. He was
listed in stable condition with minor
injuries.
All three students were Delta Tau
Delta pledges.
A Delta Tau Delta member confirmed
Sunday night that the pledges were togeth
er for a fraternity-related activity. A
“Pledge Retreat” was listed for Saturday,
Oct. 13, on the Delta Tau Delta calendar
posted on their Website. No information
was given on what the retreat entails, and it
was not clear if all three pledges participat
ed in the event.
Members discussed what they could say
publicly about the accident during their
chapter meeting Sunday.
“It [the accident] has nothing to do with
hazing,” said the Delta member, who
requested anonymity. “As a fraternity, I can
say that we don’t haze.”
Delta Tau Delta president Joe Handy,
also the public relations representative for
the InterFratemity Council (IFC), declined
to comment.
Monge Ortego told friends he was
spending the night with a fraternity brother
See Accident on page 2.
By Sommer Bunce
THE BATTALION
The safety firm that was to help
design Bonfire 2002 backed out of
contract negotiations with Bonfire
planners this month, citing a lack
of involvement with students as its
main reason for leaving.
Jay Marak, of Marak Safety
Services in Houston, said he
informed University officials and
Joe Colaco of CBM Engineers,
the firm chosen to design Bonfire
2002, of his decision to withdraw
from negotiations by email
Oct.l. Marak’s main complaint
was that he would not be able to
meet with students until the
design was finalized in mid-
December and students were
back on campus in January.
“I felt like I needed access to
students beginning in October, and
they said I could not have access
until January” Marak said. “We
wanted to start talking with team
leaders, but their design is not cho
sen, and they [planners] said no
student is going to come to a meet
ing with us if there is not a design.”
Despite the setbacks, David
Godbey, assistant director of the
Physical Plant Department for
engineering and design services
and A&M’s point man in the
design phase of planning for
Bonfire, said it is “still a strong
possibility” that there will be a
Bonfire in 2002.
Marak said that losing three
months of student contact would
leave him pressed for time in the
safety aspects of Bonfire that his
firm would have been responsi
ble for.
“1 take great consideration that
nothing goes wrong [with
Bonfire]” Marak said. “When it
1 pledge allegiance
A third grade class at Rock Prairie Elementary School recites the
pledge of allegiance in front of the American flag in their classroom
Friday. Rod Paige, U.S. secretary of education, asked more than
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
100,000 public and private elementary and secondary schools to
participate in Pledge Across America, a nationwide synchronized
recital Friday at 1 p.m.
ASB may lose University recognition
Organization not allowed
to choose its own adviser
By Maureen Kane
THE BATTALION
See Bonfire on page 2
Alternative Spring Break
(ASB), a student service organi
zation, may lose its University
recognition if it refuses to accept
a new adviser chosen by the
Department of Student
Activities, ASB leaders said.
Beth Guyton, chair of ASB
and a senior biomedical engineer
ing major, said the organization
has until Wednesday to accept
Angela Gray, the student activi
ties adviser designee, as its new
adviser to complete the re-recog
nition process on time. In a meet
ing with Monica Latham, assis
tant director of student activities,
Guyton said she was told that
ASB must replace their current
adviser, Emil Luza, with Gray.
“On Oct. 1, I was told that
they (student activities) were
going to replace our adviser,”
Guyton said. “Emil (Luza) was
out and we will not be recog
nized with Emil as either pri
mary or secondary adviser. They
felt that a candidate from their
department would be better suit
ed to the task of advising ASB
and [Gray] would be the only
acceptable adviser for ASB.”
Emil Luza is currently the
adviser for ASB.
All student organizations
must undergo a re-recognition
process in which student activi
ties evaluates the operation and
activities of an organization, as
well as the qualifications and
training of its advisers.
Official documentation for
re-recognition was due by Oct.
1, but ASB was given a two-
week grace period.
Kevin Jackson, director of
Student Activities, said Gray is
the best choice for the position
of adviser for ASB, and is the
“most effective fit” with the
goals and purpose of the
organization.
“It’s the responsibility of the
Department of Student
Activities to assure the best fit
between an adviser and a stu
dent organization,” Jackson
said. “We look very closely at
who the adviser is going to be to
assure that that group is getting
the best level of advising. As an
affiliated group, they (ASB)
See ASB on page 5.
Taliban escorts journalists through bombed cities
KARAM, Afghanistan (AP) —
Waving shovels and sticks, enraged vil
lagers surged toward foreign journalists
brought there Sunday by Afghanistan’s
ruling Taliban militia to see what offi
cials say was the devastation of a U.S.
air attack.
“They are coming to kill us! They are
coming for information, to tell the planes
where to bomb!” angry and terrified vil
lagers shouted as they charged the
reporters. Taliban escorts held them back.
Sunday’s trip to the village of Karam
in Afghanistan's eastern mountains
marked the first time since the U.S.-led
air campaign began Oct. 7 that the Taliban
have allowed international journalists into
areas controlled by the Islamic militia.
The Taliban, who escorted journalists
to the village, claim nearly 200 people
were killed here Thursday. If true, it
would be the deadliest single strike by
U.S. and British warplanes.
“They are innocent people living
here,” one villager, Gul Mohammed, said.
“There is no military base. What is it they
are looking for in Afghanistan? Where is
Osama bin Laden? He is not here. Why
did they bomb us?”
The small village had clearly been hit
by explosions. A number of houses were
damaged or reduced to rubble, and sever
al bomb craters were dug into the rocky
landscape. Dozens of sheep and goat car
casses were strewn about, the air thick
with a rancid stench.
But it was difficult to assess claims of
casualty figures three days after the
attack. Muslims traditionally bury their
dead quickly. Villagers pointed out what
they called traces of the attack’s deadli
ness, including a bloodstained pillowcase
by a house and what appeared to be a rot
ting human limb.
Washington has expressed regret for
any civilian victims in its airstrikes, say
ing it doesn’t target noncombattants. It
has acknowledged a stray bomb hit homes
outside Kabul last week but has said it can
not verify the alleged Karam attack.
In the hospital in Jalalabad, 25 miles to
the east, doctors treated what they said
were 23 victims of bombing at Karam —
one, a child barely two months old,
swathed in bloody bandages.
Another child, Samina, played with
See Attacks on page 2.
Number of anthrax cases rises to twelve
NEW YORK (AP) — A police offi
cer and two lab technicians involved in
the NBC anthrax investigation have test
ed positive for the bacteria. Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday. Nevada
officials said four people who may have
come into contact with a contaminated
letter at a Microsoft office tested nega
tive, while results were not known for
two others.
In Washington, meanwhile. Health
and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson said he considered the
anthrax cases in New York, Nevada and
Florida to be instances of bioterrorism.
“It certainly is an act of terrorism to
send anthrax through the mail,” he said
on Fox News Sunday.
And Attorney General John
Ashcroft said it was premature “to
decide whether there is a direct link” to
Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network,
but “we should consider this potential
that it is linked.”
See Anthrax on page 5-