The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, December 07, 2001, Image 1

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    fRIDAYDECEMBER 7, 2001
2 SECTIONS • 16 PAGES
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Man pleads guilty
to killing teenage
murder witness
PROVIDENCE, R.l. (AP) -
One of three men accused of
killing a 15-year-old murder
witness last year as she
played outside her home
pleaded guilty Thursday to
second-degree murder.
Under a plea agreement
Miguel Perez, 20, will be
sentenced to between 15
years and 30 years in prison.
Perez, 20, said he drove
to the girl’s neighborhood
on May 21, 2000, with
Dennard Walker and
Charles Pona, intent on
silencing her as she got
ready to testify against Pona
in the murder of a 17-year-
old in 1999.
Pona was later convicted
in that slaying.
Prosecutors say Walker
shot the witness, Jennifer
Rivera, twice in the head.
Perez and Pona allegedly
stayed in the car.
Walker remains in prison
for robbing a man at gun
point last year.
Perez’s lawyer, John P.
Larochelle, said his client is
ready to testify against
Walker and Pona.
PUBLIC EYE
(W
1F.Y.I.
Percentage of
all automobile
accidents in
Texas caused
by drowsy
drivers
30
TODAY
Page 1 B
Home for
holidays
• Students discuss
their plans for the
break and holiday
traditions
Page 3A
battle
rith Badgers
in Sweet 16
No. 15 A&M hoping
to upset No. 6
Wisconsin
Page 7B
Get help
when you
need it
• Tutoring can be
helpful during finals
crunch time
WEATHER
TODAY
m-
)
TOMORROW
HIGH
80° F
LOW
64° F
HIGH
64° F
LOW
45° F
FORECASTS COURTESY OF
www.weathermanted.com
Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years
S E R VING THE TEXAS A&M COMMUNITY SINCE 1893
Volume 108 • Issue 71
College Station, Texas
www.thebatt.com
Rigsby gives
life lessons
to students
By Christina Hoffman
THE BATTALION
Dr. Rick Rigsby has become
known as the “character coach” of
the Texas A&M football team dur
ing the past six years. Rigsby is
the life skills development coordi
nator for the football team and
teaches courses in the Department
of Speech Communication at
Texas A&M.
Football head coach R.C.
Slocum created the position of life
skills coordinator in 1996 with the
attitude “that there is more to life
than just football,” Rigsby said.
Rigsby said he teaches the football
players four important life skills:
character, commitment, cooperation
and communication.
“I attempt to teach these skills so
that these young men will not just
be successful in football, but to
make them successful for the rest of
their lives in any field of life,”
Rigsby said. “All of these life skills
are taught with one goal in mind: to
challenge these young men to really
be the very best they can be.”
Rigsby stands on the sidelines of
each game and travels with the
team, acting as counselor, coach,
father, minister or anything else the
players need.
Rigsby said it can be very diffi
cult for players to manage being
watched everyday, handling stud
ies, and being apart of a major
football organization, especially as
a freshman.
“I help the players maintain per
spective,” Rigsby said.
Besides acting as life skills coor
dinator, Rigsby is a professor, min
ister, husband and father, and
founder of Impact Family
Communications, a business for
which he travels year round giving
motivational speeches at church
functions, men’s gatherings, family
camps and youth conferences,
Rigsby said.
Rigsby said the catalyst for start
ing this business was produced by
tragedy.
“My wife Trina of eighteen years
died after battling breast cancer for
six years,” Rigsby said. “I was just
lost, I thought my life was over.”
Rigsby said he never set out to be
a motivational speaker — it just
happened. He said after his wife’s
death, he made the decision to be
grateful for what he had.
“I wouldn’t have made it without
my two boys, who were 9 and 12 at
the time,” Rigsby said. “I found my
call in life is to be an encourager
born out of the ashes of tragedy.”
Rigsby’s business is an impor
tant aspect of his life, along with his
family today. He married his cur
rent wife Janet and she adopted his
first two sons Jeremiah and Andrew.
Later Zachary and Joshua were
born, he said.
Rigsby is a two-time winner of
See RiGSBY on page 2.
JOHN LIVAS • THE BATTALION
Students line up outside A + Tutoring at Northgate Tutoring sessions were offered for finals in basic
for last-minute study sessions during dead week. classes such as chemistry, physics and math.
Free coffee y hot
cocoa available
in dining halls
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
Food Services will be making on-campus
dining facilities, and complimentary coffee
and hot chocolate, available to students burn
ing the midnight oil studying for finals.
“Its something we do every semester to
meet students’ studying needs,” said Ron
Beard, director of Food Services. “I think it
helps students to have a nice quiet place to
study with free coffee.”
Commons and Sbisa Dining Centers will
be open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. from Sunday
through Tuesday with free coffee and bever
ages. Free coffee will also be available at
Rumours from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., the Sterling
Evans Library and the West Campus Library.
Duncan Dining Center will be open for
Corps of Cadets members to study from 8
p.m. until midnight.
Students up late studying rely on coffee to
keep them awake, and last year during finals
time, when the temperature dropped to 40
degrees, students were downing coffee at an
unusually quick rate. Beard said. Food
Services usually refills the 10 gallon coffee
container at the Evans library about every
hour. Beard said.
“The coffee goes pretty quickly,” Beard
said.
Free coffee will also be available at
Hullabaloo! Food Court from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Commons and Underground C-
Stores will be open each day during finals
from 7:15 a.m. to midnight to accommo
date students in need of school supplies and
Outbound meals.
Bookstores:
Sell hooks
back early
By Emily Peters
THE BATTALION
Bryan-College Station
textbook dealers agree that
students should sell their
books back as soon as possi
ble to get the best prices.
“Don’t wait until next
semester to sell back your
books,” said University
Bookstore manager Philip
Beard. “Take the 20 minutes
it takes to sell them before
you leave town, because you
will get more money back
for them.”
If a store has already
bought back its quota of a
certain book, the money the
student gets back drops dra
matically.
MSC Bookstore assistant
manager Jason Stocks said
students will never get back
more than 50 percent of
what they bought books for,
and only if all of the stu
dent’s books are going to be
used next semester.
He said buy-back prices
are set based on the future
demand and condition of a
book.
Bookstores consider a
book in “good condition”
when binding, pages, and
cover are intact. Stocks said.
“New condition” is a book
in good condition, but with no
dog-eared pages or ink marks.
If a book was ordered by
Texas A&M faculty for next
semester, a retail price is set,
and a student gets back 50
percent of what was paid for
the book, unless the bookstore
has already bought its quota.
Stocks said.
Otherwise, a national com
pany calculates a wholesale
price based on its demand.
The wholesale price is rarely
more than 30 percent of what
was paid for the book.
University Bookstore and
the MSC Bookstore are the
only two that differentiate
between the new and used
retail prices. If a book was
bought new and is in new
condition, the buy-back price
See Buy-back on page 2.
STUART VILLANUEVA* THE BATTALION
Jerry Strawser, dean of the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of
Business, watches as shovels are handed out at the groundbreaking ceremo
ny for the Cox Graduate Business Center on West Campus Wednesday.
Groundbreaking held for
Wehner building expansion
By Tanya Nading
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M officials kicked off construction
of the Jerry and Kay Cox Graduate Business
Center . at a ground-breaking ceremony
Wednesday.
“This is a dignified and special day,” said Jerry
Cox, president and chairman of Cox and Perkins
Exploration, Inc. of Houston. “We are fortunate
that the University granted us and our project pri
ority, and I am grateful to them.”
The 58,000-square-foot expansion of Wehner
will cost about $15 million, funded by private
donations from 36 individuals and corporations.
“This building represents a template for the
type of things that can be created when Texas
A&M University and corporations come togeth
er,” Cox said.
The new building will hold the Reliant Energy
Securities and Trading Center, a facility that will
provide students with simulated commodities-
trading experience.
“With this new addition, this college (Mays
College) is going to become greater and greater,”
said A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen.
The building will also hold six special-purpose
study areas, eight classrooms/seminar rooms, two
computer labs and the Benton and Dianne
Cocanougher special-events room.
Dr. Jerry Strawser, dean of Lowry Mays
See Expansion on page 2.