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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 2001)
ONDAYNOVEMBER 12, 2001 Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years 1 SECTION • 10 PAGES NEWS IN BRIEF lay, November! ion from the previous* s strong showiuj, on's M.|iiadslhis;;: .,VM gulfauiK. \pyiev The A<k\i invitaii Wood fire casts smoky pall over ouston, not smog OUSTON (AP) - The lid smoke that blanketed fts of Houston all weekend nothing to do with the men s race'infamous smog: It was jtrokefrom a wood mulching lity in northwest Harris unty, which has been -- since last Tuesda y- M y yrWhe blaze at the 20-acre ®odpile, which Harris County Marshal Fred Windisch id is 60 to 80 feet deep in lots, was under control inday but continued to burn, he smoke, which resem- a thick fog in some parts the Houston area through- t the weekend, was not con- lered toxic. However, it was uisance on what otherwise Id have been a clear day, it was recommended that flple with breathing prob- is use caution. .1 golf course, h Central Rea d the Aggie me: m their previous i to their No. Ir its beein at 9. o remain perfect nerican Airline' io game withT ] advantage into It * ho was 9-for-i: half and made a! 1-74 lead at the':;! ottense. sa ker Cte iez. “They can do y want. But even r weaknesses so e can exploit (Ikv e turnovers." backer Rocky C n the rock of if this season.These i Big 12 tacklesw \ ary a reall; said A&M head icum. "They are a ih a lot of speed o: They’ve got ei - where they don’t It •verythine perfectly 1 you bad plays." evelopments Sunday related to Jnthrax cases ■ I* Trace amounts of thrax discovered in five ore Senate offices in the me building where letter ntaining the bacteria was iened Oct. 15. Decontamination crews jean another post office in e Trenton area, even icugh final results of anthrax sts there were incomplete. Postal officials move ilashmton’s central post Office to another building ter finding widespread thrax contamination. PUBLIC EYE kf (Mu Number of citations issued by PITS for October 2000 ,545 TODAY AGGIELIFE Page 3 Helping the Hungry •A&M participates in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week m *1 irilf ’ <*ni.ny SPORTS Page 5 n|)l< Sooners corral A&M title hopes • Lack of offense spells disaster in 31-10 loss OPINION Page 9 U: ,ll ‘Sounds like Hell!’ Aggies should sing first verse of ‘War Hymn’ WEATHER TODAY HIGH 79° F LOW 55° F TOMORROW I I'. H* HIGH 80° F LOW 55° F FORECASTS COURTESY OF www.weathermanted.com ATTAT TO JL JhL» «JhL» mJBm. jlm. 3mm. rnJKLmmjt JLm SERVING THE TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY SINCE 1893 Volume 108 • Issue 56 College Station, Texas www.thebatt.com Top-10 policy for colleges same By NONI SRIDHARA THE BATTALION As the College of Business, College of Architecture and College of Engineering at Texas A&M continue to grow, the University is not revising a poli cy that guarantees the top 10 per cent of high school seniors auto matic admission into their first college of choice. Under Texas law, all public universities must admit those stu dents ranking in the top 10 per cent of their graduating class. However, the law does not speci fy that students must be allowed into the college of their choice. Recently, the Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin (UT) became the first of the uni versity’s colleges to break away from the policy, and more recently, the UT College of Communications followed suit, according to an Oct. 23 article in The Daily Texan. Joseph A. Estrada, associate provost for enrollment at Texas A&M, said that although there is some concern about A&M’s larg er colleges, students in the top 10 percent of their high school class will still be admitted into their college of choice. “We are a little bit concerned about the College of Architecture and College of Business having the top 10 percent dominate the college,” Estrada said. “We are closely monitoring these num bers, but at this level or juncture, we are not going to make any changes to this rule.” See Percentages on page 2. wm : Percentage of students admitted under Texas top-lO percent law c of Architecture College of Engineering e of Business SOj 7 °l 70 Source: Associate Provost for Enrollment ^ CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION Wings STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION Visitors at Wings Over Texas, an exhibition of remote-controlled model aircraft, inspect some of the planes participating in this year’s show. Model enthusiasts from across the state brought their planes, some worth thousands of dollars, to the Hearne Municipal Airport to show off their skills as craftsmen and pilots. Senate resolution could be repealed By Rolando Garcia THE BATTALION The Bonfire resolution passed by the Student Senate Oct. 31 is in limbo after opponents of the resolution filed a complaint alleging supporters violated procedures in bringing the resolution to a vote. The resolution reaffirmed students’ sup port for Bonfire and urged A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen to do everything neces sary to ensure Bonfire bums next year. “Its pretty shady when a group like Pro Traditions can railroad its agenda through without regard to senate rules,” said Paul Jackman, a senator and senior aerospace engineering major, who filed the complaint with the Student Government Association Judicial Court. The judicial court held a hearing Nov. 7 to consider Jackman’s allegations and sen ate officers’ responses, and it will reach a decision Tuesday. If the court finds senate procedures were violated, the resolution can be repealed. See Senate on page 10. 1 year later: Bush won (AP) —A vote-by-vote review of untallied ballots in the 2000 Florida presidential election indi cates George W. Bush would have narrowly prevailed in the partial recounts sought by A1 Gore, but Gore might have reversed the out come — by the barest of margins — had he pursued and gained a com plete statewide recount. Bush eventually won Florida, and thus the White House, by 537 votes out of more than 6 million cast. But questions about the uncounted votes lingered. Almost a year after the cliffhang- er conclusion, a media-sponsored review of the more than 175,000 dis puted ballots underscored that the prize of the U.S. presidency came down to an almost unimaginably small number of votes. The new data, compiled by The Associated Press and seven other news organizations, also suggested that Gore followed a legal strategy after Election Day that would have led to defeat even if it had not been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gore sought a recount of a relatively small portion of the state’s disputed ballots while the review indicates his only chance lay in a course he advo cated publicly but did not pursue in court — a full statewide recount of all Florida’s untallied votes. See Ballots on page 2. A&M conserves millions in energy expenditures By Justin Smith THE BATTALION Texas A&M recently has formed a committee on energy conservation to combat the ris ing cost of natural gas and electricity. Chairing the group will be Dr. Ronald Haden, dean of the College of Engineering, but the committee includes members from organizations and depart ments across the University. “We have only had one meet ing so far, but our objective will be to not only save the University money, but do it in a healthy and safe way,” said Chris Meyer, director of the environmental health and safety department. Charles Sippial, vice president of administraition, said the University has already begun implementing conservation meas ures with a continuous commis sioning program in that buildings across campus are examined for inefficient energy usage. “There hasn’t been a building we have checked out which we weren’t been able to make it run at least 10 percent more efficient ly,” said John Bryant, a program leader and construction science professor. These changes have already resulted in a savings of $10 mil lion to $12 million and only cost about $500,000 to implement, Bryant said. Bryant said sometimes a thorough cleansing of the sys tem and keeping doors closed See Energy on page 10. Women’s soccer wins Big 12 By Jeremy Brown THE BATTALION Freshman forward Linsey Johnson scored the game-winning goal as the No. 8 Texas A&M soc cer team beat the No. 11 Texas Longhorns 1-0 on Sunday to claim the 2001 Big 12 Soccer Championship. Johnson’s goal broke what was a defensive battle between A&M and the Big 12 regular-sea son champion Longhorns and earned her the Offensive Most Valuable Player award for the tournament. The goal ‘came on an unusual play. Senior midfielder Michelle Royal fielded a UT clear and took a shot at the UT goal. Her shot bounced of!' the crossbar, directly to Johnson at the edge of the goal area. Johnson kicked it immediately and her shot also hit off the bottom of the crossbar. However, the ball fell just inside the goal line to put the Aggies ahead. “I was just in the right place at the right time, I guess,” Johnson said. “It was real exciting, and I think it helped ease a lot of pressure.” Despite scoring the winning goal, Johnson gave credit to the A&M defense for holding UT scoreless. “The initial shot was a pretty good shot,” said Texas head coach Chris Petrucelli. “When it goes off the bar, who knows what is going to happen and they got on to it first. See SOCCER on page 10. Afghan opposition claims Taliban in full retreat north JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan (AP) — Opposition forces claimed to have the Taliban on the run across much of northern Afghanistan on Sunday, as the ruling Islamic militia abandoned stronghold after stronghold in a withdrawal south toward the capital, Kabul. The foreign minister of the northern alliance, Abdullah, claimed the opposition had seized half the country in the past two days and dealt the Taliban a severe blow as a fighting force. U.S. officials warned that a counterattack was possible. As Taliban fighters fled south. President Bush urged the oppo sition not to take Kabul before a new, broad-based government could be formed. However, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged See Retreat on page 2.