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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2002)
WEDNESDAYJANUARY 16, 2002 VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 74 THE BATTALION TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY tudents give feedback at Bonfire forum r*Tr<- m ■irefighter Dwight Rabe expresses his ■iew at one of the Bonfire 2002 MEREDITH CLINTON • THE BATTALION forums held Tuesday in the Memorial Student Center. By Rolando Garcia THE BATTALION Students expressed support for Bonfire 2002, but enthusiasm for the drastically revamped tradition was muted at three open forums held Tuesday to get student feedback on pro posed Bonfire designs. “The design is probably the best we could hope for considering Bowen’s parameters,” said Matt Giese, a junior marketing major. “We need to get some thing started now or else Bonfire will never come back, and maybe it will grow and change into something better.” Members of the Bonfire 2002 Steering Committee and representatives from CBM Engineers and Turner Construction, the engineering and safety consultants for the project, briefed stu dents on the three proposed stack designs and what role students will play in building Bonfire. Among the safety measures mandat ed by A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen are the elimination of cut, the use of professional design plans and a one-level stack structure in which all logs touch the ground. Steering Committee Coordinator Dr. Bryan Cole said the proposed Bonfire designs could accommodate up to 2,500 students, but each student would be limited to only a few hours working on the project. Also, work on Bonfire will be limited to 14 days. Despite the restrictive guidelines. Cole Walsh, a freshman civil engineer ing major, said he is eager to participate in the hallowed Aggie tradition of building Bonfire. “I really want to see this happen and I’ll definitely help and do what ever it takes so that Bonfire is a suc cess,” Walsh said. Attendance was sparse at the first two forums, but the third, scheduled in MSC 292, was moved to Rudder Theater to accommodate an overflow crowd. Students also will be able to partici pate in a survey today through Friday to gauge support for Bonfire under the safety parameters. A link to the survey, available at http://vote.tamu.edu, will be sent to all students through the Neo email system. In addition to a vote on which design students prefer, the survey will explain the new safety measures and ask students if they are willing to attend and participate in building Bonfire. The See Forums on page 2 ompames relocating to Research Park By Tanya Nading THE BATTALION I The newest addition to Texas A&M's Research Park, a 69,(XK) 4|uare foot building, will house Compaq’s testing and develop- itient center and Schlumberger, an oil and gas company. I “This is a $7 million capital investment,” said Kim Foutz, director of economic development with the College Station City Council. “It is the city's perspective that the new building will be completed Dec. 31, 2002.” I Located on Research Parkway on West Campus, employees of Compaq and Schlumberger, which both hire student interns in testing and development, engineering and accounting, respectively, will have an easier time getting to and from work. I “We are moving to Research Park because we are hoping to glow eventually,” said Peggy Cruse, staffing and operation fanning analyst and intern manager of Compaq. “We want to bt closer to A&M because of our year-long internship pro- aam. This move is both beneficial to us and the students.” I The Compaq Testing Center will hold 30,000 square feet of t|e new building for both labs and offices and will continue to provide testing and development resources. Lynntech Inc., which had planned to expand into the s|me building as Compaq, has decided to build a second building in the same area. “We are planning to have a building built in the A&M Research Park and hope to move into it by the end of the year,” said Oliver Murphy, president of Lynntech Inc. “We will be using approximately 19,000 square feet of the building and we [will be sharing it with other companies.” The Coastal Engineering Research Lab building is also [under construction in the Research Park area. “The Coastal Engineering Lab is designed to test and |r|search tidal action on the coast,” said Phil Haas, architec tural project manager for Texas A&M Facilities Planning , and Construction. According to the Facilities Planning and Construction [Website, the contracted construction amount for the Coastal [Research Lab totals $4.2 million and is slated to be completed [in late 2002. Spring fever Paul Hensen warms up with Kyle Houser during the first day of Spring Training for the JOHN LIVAS • THE BATTALION Texas A&M baseball team. The Aggies will have their season opener Feb. 8. Retired oceanography professor dies from stroke By Melissa Sullivan THE BATTALION Richard A. Geyer, emeritus professor of the Jceanography department, died from a stroke in Ihis home Jan. 9. He was 87 years old. J Geyer served as head of the Department of (Oceanography from 1966 to 1976. He retired |from the University in 1980 but returned in 1989 a Ten years is a long time to serve as head of the department. He was the second permanent department head weWe had. — Ed Shaar oceanography department assistant head for the construction of a three-dimensional wave bnsin that was a joint project with the University of Texas. He again retired in 1993. I “Ten years is a long time to serve as head of the department,” said Ed Shaar, assistant head of the oceanography department. “He was the sec ond permanent department head we’ve had.” Geyer was born in New York, graduated from New York University and received his doctorate in geophysics from Princeton University. “He was very entertaining and had lots of friends,” said Dr. Richard Rezak, emeritus pro fessor of oceanography. David Brooks, associate dean of research in the College of Geological Sciences, said Geyer was a “valued contributor” to the area of oceanography. Geyer served four years as an exploration geophysicist and geologist with Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey and worked four years with the Bureau of Ordinance for the U.S. Navy. He spent a year as a senior field instructor at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and served on several committees, advisory boards and similar industry and governmental groups. “He was a terrific guy to work for; you knew where you stood, and he tried to help all his employees as much as he could,” Rezak said. “I remember when he hired me in 1967, I moved here with my whole library of books and there was no one to help me carry them up to the third floor, but he chipped in and helped me carry them. It was quite a job.” “We then became good friends,” he said. The Geyer Banks in the Gulf of Mexico is named in his honor, as is the A&M research ves sel RV Gyre, which is intentionally misspelled in accordance with state regulations. A&M professor finds sea creature Mystery squid has ten arms By C.E. Walters THE BATTALION They were not 20,000 leagues under the sea, but while on a research dive expedition last October, Texas A&M Professor William Sager and other crewmembers located and took pictures of an unusual organism in the Gulf of Mexico, a rare squid-like creature that scientists have yet to classify. The sea creature is something between an octopus and a large squid, Sager said. The discovery was made by luck while the crew was look ing for other organisms and gas hydrate, Sager said. While the sea creature looks like a squid, Sager said there are many key differences. The organism has large fins along with tentacles and arms that are up to 10 times its size. Normal squid are also a brownish color and can change, while this one was “ghostly white” in color. Sager said that unlike a normal squid, which would have fled, this squid just “hung there.” While most octopods have eight arms and squids typically have eight arms and two tentacles, A&M biology professor John Warmath said the mystery squid has 10 similar appendages. “[The organism] looks like an ambush predator,” Warmath said. He added that this means it probably preys on small fish, shrimp or crab type creatures. While this was one of the only times the squid was seen in person, pictures of it have been taken by several remote- control vehicles. The French vessel Nautile, Sager said, also spotted the organism about 10 years ago. Two teens wounded in school shooting NEW YORK (AP) — A teen ager opened fire in the hallway at a high school near Lincoln Center on Tuesday, seriously wounding two fellow students in what may have been a gang- related shooting, authorities say. The shooting on Manhattan’s Upper West Side occurred at Martin Luther King Jr. High School on what would have been the 73rd birthday of the apostle of nonviolence. The public school has 3,000 students. Authorities did not immedi ately give a motive, but School Chancellor Harold Levy said the shooting may have been gang- related. He said the suspect was an 18-year-old who had not been attending school. Police spokesman Lt. Brian Burke said a young man outside the school was questioned, but no one had been arrested by Tuesday evening. “We were in school and we heard two gunshots,” said senior Romain Morrison, 17. “They were telling everyone to get out of the hallways.” Authorities said Andrei Napper, 17, and Andre Wilkins, 18, were shot from behind in a fourth-floor hallway. One was shot in the back and the other in See Shooting on page 2 IKSi Opinion Pg. 7 A senseless surprise Top 20 plan will not solve diversity problem HIGH 70° F LOW 40° F THURSDAY HIGH 68° F LOW 50° F FORECASTS COURTESY OF www.weathermanted.com