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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2002)
OESDAYAPRIL 16. 2002 VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 131 THE BATTALION S Andersen rescinds ome grad offers TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY Raw invades Reed M • THE BATTALIO', pit left in the fire. )er $ By Christina Hoffman THE BATTALION Last week Arthur Andersen LLP announced it rould begin layoffs of more than 70,()00 employees, ut status for A&M students with internships and emianent job offers with the company remains pos- ive, with only a few offers rescinded. Despite efforts by Andersen to continue as a iable company and retain its full workforce, l ■amors of mergers and takeovers of different sec- I »rs of Andersen surrounded the Big 5 accounting decision to release the employees. Also, '“*‘7 )avid Duncan, the former lead auditor for the * -nron case, pleaded guilty last week to charges of ibstruction of justice. Duncan, Class of 1981 and a member of the , J^owry Mays College of Business Graduate ind Shelle\ k® jc^ooi advisory board, was fired from the firm in Hays said, “tha: investigation il mg upon." erkins. a for® Shelley, said I* kid" who wentf Georgetown, m after gradualini school. Shelley’) I yearbook cafe he sweetest guv.'i: ally, had not repo: cycle stolen. Ask a ron . said Jim chief dept!' ■riff Satwty :r wouliWl ris' reas»« "s office. January after accusations that he ordered the destruction of key Enron documents. For A&M students, a few offers were rescinded in the consulting sectors, said Brent Amundson, director of recruiting in the Houston offices. “[Andersen] pulled back a few offers from stu dents who would begin working this summer and on, mostly in the consulting practice,” Amundson said. Many sectors of Andersen may separate or be taken over by other large companies, like Deloitte & Touche. This will allow some employees at Andersen and A&M students with permanent job offers to continue with the company, Amundson said. “Reality is, some students may work for us as a different firm,” Amundson said. Amundson said he hopes to inform students See Andersen on page 2A Drinking trends change among college students )N VTION mera... for you. n environment tors only) ctor icer 3T position 5 nly) -ter iter (fell on W ertainment ;r •ter umnist =r ;r r st 4:30 p-^ isement) deadline By Melissa Sullivan THE BATTALION It is not uncommon to see an Aggie spending large amounts of money in a night of bar-hop ping at Northgate or while participating in ring dunking this weekend, but the trend of college drinking has changed. In a study released last week, the federally- Wointed Task Force on College Drinking found that 1,400 students are killed each year in alco hol-related accidents. The study also found that more students in the 18-24 age range are drinking more often than their non-student counterparts. More than 400 academic institutions reported a decreasing number of college drinkers but an increasing number of college students who binge drink or are drinking in greater amounts. Texas A&M’s Alcohol and Drug Education Program (ADEP) recently concluded research for a study due next month that examines the affects of drink ing and alcohol-related activities on Aggies. Jennifer Ford, programming coordinator for ADEP, said she expects the results to show trends similar to those reported by colleges nationwide. “We see a trend of the number of people who do not drink increasing,” Ford said. “The total number of consumption has not changed, but those who are drinking, hke a particular group, has changed.” Organizations such as Caring Aggies are Protecting Over Our Lives (CARPOOL), organized in September 1999 to provide free rides for inebriated students. strive to eliminate such accidents from occurring in the Bryan-College Station area. “Since CARPOOL has started, we have given about 25,000 rides, and the number of rides given each semester increases, and we provide a safe ride home within the Bryan-College Station city limits,” said Chris Collins, a senior history major and CARPOOL team leader. In addition to bar-hopping, private parties pro vide an atmosphere in which alcohol is consumed in large amounts. The Website TamUt.com is devoted to discus sions about the common bond shared by A&M and the school’s traditional rival, the University of Texas-Austin. The site’s founders say alcohol and drinking stories are shared as part of the forum, and that alcohol-related activities are a strong part of the bond shared by the two universities. Since February, the number of visitors to the site has quadrupled, said co-founder and junior petroleum engineer major Brian Betik. “We are pleased, but we make the site just for entertainment and we are always happy to enter tain more people,” Betik said. “But we definitely do not promote drunk driving and other evils of See Drinking on page 3A COLLEGE STUDENTS AND ALCOHOL ABUSE * 41% of fuis timo itadenf® i&Ttl) rn average haw had 3 or mor® drinks on on® occasion in th® Im* month * Motor vehicle fatalities are the most common form of deaths caused by alcohol In college students Source: Task force on college drinking CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION Mr. Perfect, right, forces Steven Richards, left, into the corner of the ring at the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw at Reed Arena. Internet outages rise By C. E. Walters THE BATTALION The most recent in a series of Internet outages, on-campus computers Sunday night were denied access to off-campus Websites. Caused by a firewall, which funnels traffic in and out of the University, the outage stopped Internet traffic from passing through. In addition to prevent ing on-campus computers from gaining access to off-campus computers, it stopped off-cam pus computers from gaining access to on-campus computers. The firewall was rebooted in 10 minutes, said Associate Director of Computing and Information Services (CIS) Willis Marti, but they do not know what caused the system failure. Marti said CIS felt it was more important to restore serv ice before finding the cause of the problem. The University sends and receives 400 million bits a second, he said, and there is a great deal of information to search. CIS is looking through computer logs to find the cause of the problem. This latest ouUige follows a series of outages on April 2, 3 and 4. Each of these incidents, CIS director Thomas Putnam said, were isolated incidents despite occuning three days in a row. Two of the episodes involved connection failures, and the third was caused by a Denial Service Attack, which is caused by an email virus. Putnam said attacks and Internet outages are a routine part of managing the service, and they usually are solved quickly. “It’s such a non-event that I don’t even pay attention to it,” Putnam said. See Outages on page 2A Students start book trading Website By Melissa McKeon THE BATTALION Two Aggies are offering fellow students an alterna te to long bookstore lines this year, with textbook- tder.com, a new Website that allows students to buy a nd sell textbooks online. Rylan Barnes, a sophomore computer engineering Wajor, and Huan Do, a junior engineering technology ma jor, said they started textbook-trader.com this semes ter in response to their aggravation with area bookstores. ‘Book prices are extremely high and they don t Lave to be,” Barnes said. “I thought somebody should do something like this (Website). I wanted to create a solution to the problem.” There is no fee to join or use the site. “Students can post their books, search for books and sellers and find contact information,” Barnes said. He said students can then use the contact infor mation provided to set up a time to meet and exchange books with other students. Currently, the Website only can be accessed by stu dents at on-campus computer locations. “We are hoping to fix that problem soon,” Barnes said. Marc Eckhart, general manager of the Texas A&M Bookstore, said students will always find different ways to buy and sell books, but regular bookstores offer more services for students. “We take into account the fact that students add and drop classes, therefore we have an open return policy,” Eckhart said. “We return any book, no questions asked. We also carry every book for every class. We are here to serve the student’s needs.” General Manager of the College Avenue Rother’s Book Store Paul Patti said there is more risk involved See Textbooks on page 2A Israel rally Thousands lake part Israel supporters demonstration in front of Monday. KRT CAMPUS Capital on Math department places 16th, best showing ever By Sarah Darr THE BATTALION The Texas A&M Mathematics Department had its best showing ever this year in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition, placing 16th out of the 300 schools that competed. The three-member team chosen to compete by professor of mathematics Doug Hensley were veterans to the com petition that has taken place for the last 62 years. Junior mathematics major Cody Patterson placed 69th out of the 2,954 contestants and has competed all three years he has attended A&M. The other team members, Scott Armstrong and Matthew Mendicino, ranked among the top 300 competitors. The team members are chosen by Hensley, who said it is good to have those who have taken it before, but he chooses those he thinks will answer correctly. See Math on page 2A Sports Pg. 1B Ags host Bearkats in non conference tilt WI£AVK13v TODAY 30%^ HIGH 82° F oooooooo LOW 67° F WEDNESDAY j HIGH 85° F LOW 67° F FORECASTS COURTESY OF www.collegeweather.com