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',
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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ive, with only a few offers rescinded.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*
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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For A&M students, a few offers were rescinded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
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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
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