HURSDAYNOVEMBER 29, 2001
Texas A&M University
2 SECTIONS- 16 PAGES
Celebrating 125 Years
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NEWS IN BRIEF
&M rooting out
ersonal mail from
n-campus service
I COLLEGE STATION (AP) -
Citing increased volume and
* e risk to handlers of its
jjjjniversity Mail Service, Texas
,&M has asked employees not
send personal mail through
le campus mail service.
The request came in a
nemorandum this month
from Charles A. Sippial, vice
resident for administration,
e said only mail in appropri-
ite departmental envelopes
Jnd clearly identified as orig-
Inating from the university
Tystem or its affiliates should
pe sent through the service.
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mt that hurdle frerry hands out
fiigher education
awards Wednesday
AUSTIN (AP) - Gov. Rick
d the latestattii ferry handed out awards
to see well-bal
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Wednesday to five higher
education programs for their
efforts to close educational
gaps in Texas.
■ The “Texas Higher
Education Star Awards”
^ere given to Southwest
fexas State University for its
athworks summer pro
ram; Texas A&M University
t Corpus Christi for its First-
Vear Learning Communities
rogram; Texas Association
if Community Colleges for
s Virtual College of Texas
rogram; Texas Tech
'niversity’s writing center
nd University of Houston-
owntown’s Jesse H. Jones
cademic Institute.
PUBLIC EYE
F.V.I.
NFL teams that
have at least one
Aggie on its
current roster
!22 of 31
TODAY
Page 3A
To fiy or
NOT to fly
SERVING THE TEXAS A&M C OMMUNITY
N C E 1 8 S 3
Volume 108 • Issue 67
College Station, Texas
www.thebatt.com
State upholds records decision
MSC meeting votes, minutes kept secret
By Sommer Bunge
THE BATTALION
The Texas Attorney General’s office
upheld the decision of Texas A&M offi
cials Monday to keep secret the records
and minutes of the Sept. 3 closed session
of the Memorial Student Center (MSC)
Council, which resulted in the removal of
MSC Council President Josh Rowan.
The attorney general’s office issued the
opinion Monday in response to three open-
records requests filed by The Battalion and
the Btyan-College Station Eagle.
Rowan, a senior agricultural develop
ment major, was investigated by the
University and later removed from his
position by the MSC Council after allega
tions of alcohol abuse, drug use and inap
propriate sexual advances on a
University-sponsored trip to Italy last
summer. Rowan was a student leader on
the two-week Champe Fitzhugh, Jr.
International Honors Leadership Seminar,
an MSC-affiliated program.
The council, composed of students
and MSC staff, reviewed the Department
of Student Affairs investigation and, in
the closed meeting, voted to remove
Rowan. He appealed the decision, but
later resigned.
The University refused to release
records of the meeting to members of
the media, claiming that the informa
tion related to Rowan’s student records
Bonfire designs announced
Cole unveils proposed
plans to Student Senate
By Sommer Bunge
THE BATTALION
Bonfire 2002 planners unveiled the three potential
designs for the stack that could burn next November
at the Student Senate meeting Wednesday.
One design is a classic teepee, one design stacks logs
of equal height against the interior framework and one
design holds true to the recent Aggie Bonfires— a stack
with logs of three different lengths that resemble previ
ous Bonfires’ wedding-cake structure. All three meet
A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen’s parameters of a
single tier in which all logs touch the ground, and each
stack will collapse inward as it bums, said Steering
Committee Facilitator Dr. Bryan R. Cole.
Each design stands 45 feet tall, is made of wooden logs
and topped with an orange “t.u. frathouse” outhouse.
Designs are posted on the Bonfire 2002 Website, at
http://studentaffairs.tamu.edu/bonfire02, and at the
Memorial Student Center and the Sterling C. Evans
Library complex.
The infrastructure of the three proposals is the
same: four 40-foot central poles in the middle with a
cross-bracing framework that creates a support system
for the center of the stack. Four 30-foot independent
logs will stand outside the central poles, and four more
poles will stand outside those at the 15-foot level. All
will be trussed and linked together, continuing the sup
port system from the middle. Cole said.
Professionals will put the 12 poles in place, bury
ing them approximately 12-15 feet in the ground at
the fenced-in site.
A centerpole exists in each design, but that pole will
not support the stack and will only support the weight
of the outhouse. Cole said. Students, not professionals,
will put in the center pole and fill in all the existing
framework and logging, he said.
After a final design is chosen and potentially
approved by Bowen in late January, planning for 2002
will continue. A staff Bonfire director will be chosen,
the design will go through extensive reviews, top-level
student leaders will be selected and a prototype of the
design will burn in May. If all goes well. Cole said.
Bonfire construction will take place Nov. 11-24
between 6 a.m. and midnight each day.
Each design uses 25,000 logs that will be cut and
delivered to the site by professionals. Cole said.
Students will vote and provide feedback on the
designs Jan. 16-18. This period will be key to the success
or failure of Bonfire 2002, Cole said. The feedback will
serve as a gauge of student interest, and if not enough
students respond. Cole said the committee will reevalu
ate if students want to see a Bonfire bum in 2002.
Students will receive notification and provide feed
back through Neo, the University’s official email system.
Lack of student support is one of the three poten
tial obstacles to seeing a Bonfire burn next
November, Cole said. If the safety firm does not sign
off on the final design after the student feedback time
this January, and if the cost becomes prohibitive,
Cole said. Bonfire could be potentially stalled or
stopped entirely for 2002.
and was protected under the federal
Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act of 1974 (FERPA). Officials said
they withheld the meeting minutes
because the MSC Council dealt with the
investigation and included it as part of
the meeting records.
In a letter addressed to A&M Deputy
General Counsel Scott Kelly, Assistant
Attorney General James Morris said the
Attorney General’s office agreed with
A&M’s decision to withhold the records.
See Records on page 6A.
Hopgood
announces
retirement
| I -
DESIGN C
GRAPHICS COURTESY OF BONFIRE 2002 STEERING COMMITTEE
Senate endorses services fee proposal
By Elizabeth Raines
THE BATTALION
ADRIAN CALCANEO • THE BATTALION
The Student Service Fee Advisory Board
rejected the proposal from Vice President for
Student Affairs Dr. J. Malon Southerland to
spend the $1.1-million Student Services Fee
surplus on a student leadership retreat center.
In a plan unveiled to the Student Senate
Wednesday, the board, comprising nine
students, recommended reallocating the
surplus among departments already receiv
ing student service fee money, such as the
Memorial Student Center and Student
Health Services.
“We didn’t feel like the student service
fee should be used to build buildings,” said
Suzanne Bolduc, SSFAB chair and senior
mechanical engineering major.
But the SSFAB suggested a separate fee
to fund the construction of the proposed
$37-million leadership center.
The board also recommended main
taining the current Student Service Fee
rate of $11.86 per semester credit hour for
See Senate on page 7A.
HOPGOOD
By Emily Peters
THE BATTALION
Maj. Gen. M.T. “Ted”
Hopgood, the 37th commandant
of cadets, announced Tuesday
that he will retire May 31,2002.
The man in charge of Texas
A&M’s Corps of Cadets will step
down after six years at A&M.
Hopgood will also step down as
head of the A&M School of
Military Sciences.
“When . I
retired from the
Marine Corps to
become com
mandant here, I
anticipated five
years of serv
ice,” Hopgood
said Tuesday.
“I decided to
stay an additional year in order to
move several projects forward
and to celebrate the Corps of
Cadets’ 125th anniversary.
“Mentoring and teaching Aggie
cadets have been privileges I shall
treasure forever,” Hopgood said.
Under Hopgood, whose
motto is “recruit, retain and
graduate,” the Corps placed an
emphasis on academics that has
resulted in the highest level of
cadet grades ever. He improved
cadet recruitment policies,
establishing a constant recruit
ment rate during a nationwide
period of decline in military
See Hopgood on page 7A.
Anti-war
sentiment
not present
at A&M
By Rob Phillips
THE BATTALION
Despite reports by a nonprofit
educational advocacy group that
universities are responsible for
much of the anti-war sentiment in
America, political science profes
sors at Texas A&M believe the
University is not among those
opposed to the war.
“There’s no hotbed of opposi
tion over here, by any means,”
said Dr. Edward Portis, a political
science professor.
Results from a study conduct
ed by the American Council of
Trustees and Alumni (ACTA)
show that college and university
faculty are the “weak link” in
America’s response to the terror
ist attacks on Sept. 11. Although
92 percent of the population is in
favor of military force, academia
is cited as the major sector show
ing opposition.
The study cited more than 100
statements by faculty and students
on college campuses across the
See War on page 7A.