UESDAYOCTOBER 30, 2001
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Perry expresses
optimistic outlook
on Texas budget
AUSTIN (AP) - Gov. Rick
Perry said Monday he is not
overly worried about the
Texas budget despite the
comptroller’s prediction
September figures will
show a $90-million “body
to sales tax receipts
after the terrorist attacks.
He made the remarks to
reporters before casting his
in early voting for the
Nov. 6 constitutional amend
ments election.
The state and its $114 billion
budget are still in sound fiscal
shape, Comptroller Carole
Keeton Rylander said.
She is expected to release
precise data Thursday on the
state's September sales tax
collections.
FDA approves
additional drug in
fight against AIDS
WASHINGTON (AP) - A
new anti-viral drug is being
added to the arsenal of anti-
DS medications.
The Food and Drug
Administration said Monday
has approved Viread for
use in combination with
other drugs in fighting HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS.
The drug blocks reproduc
tion of the virus, the agency
said. Its technical name is
tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.
AIDS survival rates have
vcreased in recent years as
combinations of drugs are
to battle the virus.
PUBLIC EYE
Number of student
workers employed
by Bus Operations
350
TODAY
Page 4
Rollin’ On
mm3
• Rolling Stone
magazine brings
‘Rolling Stone
Unleashed’ to Texas
A&M campus
Tyler pipeline
paying off for
Aggies in 2001
Misleading
and unfair
• Pro-life
advertisement a
disservice to its cause
WEATHER
TODAY
)
TOMORROW
HIGH
77° F
LOW
48° F
HIGH
79° F
LOW
52° F
FORECASTS COURTESY OF
www.weathermanted.com
Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years
SERVING THE TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY SINCE 1893
Volume 108 • Issue 48 College Station, Texas www.thebatt.com
Bus Ops rule agitates drivers
By Amanda Smith
THE BATTALION
As Parking, Traffic and
Transportation Services
(PTTS) begins its search for a
new director and vows to take
a renewed interest in customer
service, student bus drivers are
asking Bus Operations to take
care of its employees.
Bus Operations management
recently invoked a rule requir
ing drivers to work a minimum
of 12 hours per week. A&M bus
driver Matt Rooney, a junior
management information sys
tems major, said mismanage
ment has led him to be unfairly
reprimanded for the number of
hours he has worked.
FTTS officials say the proce
dures for hours have been made
clear to student workers and
other employees in Bus
Operations. Kathie Mathis, asso
ciate director of PTTS, said driv
ers were given advance notice to
take care of scheduling changes.
“There are some drivers that
are signed up for less than 12
hours driving time each week,”
Mathis said. “This is acceptable.
However, they are required to do
something to work their
required 12 hours. We gave all
drivers a three-week period to
get their shifts adjusted. Since
that time, if they have not driven
their 12 hours, they have
received letters and will contin
ue to do so because they are not
meeting their minimum.
“Do not confuse this situa
tion with drivers whose sched
uled hours dropped below 12
hours because of the resched
uling,” she said.
Rooney, who started driv
ing buses last year, said he
loves the work, but cannot tol
erate the unfair reprimands he
has received for falling short
of the 12-hour minimum on
two of the recent paychecks he
has received.
“I love driving the bus, but
there are some problems that
See Grievances on page 9.
Ridership increases since last year
By Amanda Smith
THE BATTALION
Expanded on- and off-campus bus services, the result of a
$50 transportation fee this fall, may have contributed to an
increase in ridership and heightened demand for student driv
ers at Parking, Traffic and Transportation Services’ (PTTS)
Bus Operations, department officials said.
Passenger counts taken several weeks ago for Monday-
through-Thursday ridership averaged 29,118 riders daily,
compared to just more than 23,000 riders per day during the
2000-2001 school year.
Ridership increased last year from the 1999-2000 school
year, when averages reflected an average of 17,000 to 18,000
riders per day.
See Ridership on page 2.
Jury searches for memorial site
Nine-member group looking
for ‘blended’ memorial design
By C.E. Walters
THE BATTALION
The nine-member Bonfire Memorial Design
Competition jury toured proposed sites and began nar
rowing down possible designs as it met for the first time
Monday.
The jury, led by professor Jaan Holt of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, will examine 194 proposals and
choose four for to the second stage of the competition.
The four winners of stage one will each receive $20,000
— $10,000 as a prize and $10,000 to use to prepare a
model of their idea.
Other jurors include student body president Schuyler
Houser, former A&M students, professors from around the
country, and Richard West, whose son Nathan was injured
in the collapse.
The jury is looking for a “blended” design. Holt said.
“We’re looking at the memorial aspect and the tradition
of Bonfire itself,” Holt said.
Competitors were given free rein on their designs,
with no restrictions on height or cost. The four proposed
sites include an area east of Houston Street, a spot north
east of the Jack K. Williams Administration Building,
Cain Park and the Polo Fields. However, applicants
were not restricted to these sites in their proposals.
CODY WAGES • THE BATTALION
Top: The Bonfire memorial jury surveys the Bonfire site as one of
the possible memorial sites. Above: Jaan Holt, jury foreman for the
Bonfire memorial design competition, addresses the media about
the selection of the Bonfire memorial site.
The final four designs will be announced pub
licly Nov. 18, two years after the 1999 Aggie
Bonfire collapse.
Ashcroft
issues new
terrorism
warning
No specific target,
method mentioned
WASHINGTON (AP) —
For the second time this
month, the FBI warned
Americans on Monday that
terrorists could strike here
or abroad, possibly this
week. The new alert was
based on intelligence
reports that Osama bin
Laden’s terrorist network
may strike, officials said.
The information was
deemed credible, said
Attorney General John
Ashcroft, but “unfortunately it
does not contain specific
information as to the type of
attack or specific targets.”
The FBI issued a terrorist
alert on Oct. 11, saying an
attack could come over a peri
od of several days. The new
warning specified a strike
could come this week.
FBI Director Robert
Mueller said the Oct. 11 warn
ing may have helped avert an
attack. Ashcroft said the
absence of an attack should
not lull people “into a false
sense of indifference.”
“It’s important for the
American people to under
stand that these (alerts) are to
be taken seriously,” said
Ashcroft.
He urged Americans to “go
about their lives.” But the
warning led him to cancel
plans to travel Monday to
Toronto to address a confer
ence of police chiefs.
Officials said the warning
was based in part on intelli
gence that Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qaida network may be agi
tating to strike again in the
aftermath of the U.S.-led
bombings on Afghanistan.
See Attacks on page 2.
$3 million grant furthers bilingual education
TAMU BILINGUAL
E DUCAT I
t,,.
DISTRICTS REACHED
IA DISTANCE
A. R Nl N G
2. TEMPLE
3. BELTON
4. BRYAN
5. COLLEGE STATION
6. JACKSONVILLE
7. GALVESTON
8. HOUSTON
9. CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS
10. ALDINE
I 1 • WALLER
ADRIAN CALCANEO • THE BATTALION
By NONI SRIDHARA
THE BATTALION
A $3-million grant from the U.S. Department of
Education is helping fund a program initiated by
Texas A&M’s College of Education to increase the
number of bilingual teachers in Texas.
The non traditional field-based bilingual teacher
master’s degree program is the first fully distance
education master’s program for bilingual education
in the nation. The program was created to meet the
state’s need for bilingual and Ehglish-as-a-second
language (ESL) teachers, said Dr. Rafael Lara-
Alecio, director of bilingual education programs in
the Department of Educational Psychology at A&M.
“The state population is going to demand
these education services,” Lara-Alecio said.
“We want to ensure that students have their
native language and culture in the classroom,
and make successful acquisition of English as a
second language in both the academic and social
arenas.”
The program aims to certify 1 10 bilingual
teachers over the next three to five years, Lara-
Alecio said. This semester, 106 students are
enrolled to be certified at the graduate level in
Jacksonville, Central Texas, Houston, Galveston
and Bryan-College Station areas.
The teachers take courses in their home districts
See Bilingual on page 9.