EDNESDAYAPRIL 24, 2002
VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 137
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TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
By Brandie Liffick
THE BATTALION
■Texas A&M Board of Regents members
haVe received dozens of emails, faxes and
lejteis asking that Sen. Phil Gramm be con-
sijered as the next president of A&M, said
Rigent Chairman Erie Nye.
T ye said he has received somewhere
GRAMM
between 300 and 400 emails and faxes concerning the presi-
defiiial position.
‘I have read or skimmed each of them. I would say the
majority of them are in support of
Senator Gramm,” he said. “The
number has increased daily as the
issue has gotten closer at hand.”
Gramm’s wife, Wendy, serves
as a member of the Board of
Regents and is a director and
board member for the Houston-
based Enron Corporation.
Nye said the letters do not fit
Support OJ Senator the typical “write-in campaign”
/ have read or
^skimmed each of
\them. I would say
I the majority of
them are in
Gramm.
99
— Earl Nye
I Board of Regents Chairman
format, as each is different.
“They each seem to be inde
pendently written. Some are
handwritten, some are typed.
Some are from members of the
Class of ‘38 and others are from
freshmen,” he said.
;*?£^M- arr y Neal, spokesperson for the senator, said Gramm knew
r'|l nothing of the campaign until members of the press contacted
his office Monday.
■‘As much as I know about this I read in the newspaper,”
I Neal said. “It’s flattering, but we’re not behind it. We’re simply
infront of it.”
^■Neal said Gramm plans to fulfill his term in office, which
ends in January.
■The Presidential Search Committee suggested three candi-
dMeto the Board of Regents earlier this month. Nye previous
ly Lis stated that the Board also is considering two undisclosed
jBdidates for the position.
■Under state law, board members must make their decision
publicly known no less than 21 days before Bowen steps down
,.„d, r F»*>>" nl " ne3() -
See Gramm on page 2
rs
ps)
epted.
Built for speed
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION’
Senior mechanical engineering students Jon Wade and Tyler Herring perform final
inspections on their high-powered race car in the mechanical engineering laboratory. The
car, designed to go up to 90 mph and 0 to 60 mph in 3.61 seconds will be tested this
week and then used in a worldwide competition in Detroit this May. In the past three
years the A&M car has placed 12th, 1st and 5th, respectively, out of 125 cars.
Housing
limitations
approved
in Bryan
By Anna Chaloupka
THE BATTALION
The Bryan City Council responded
to residents’ complaints about raucous
and messy college students by approv
ing an ordinance Tuesday limiting the
number of unrelated people allowed to
live together in one house to four.
The ordinance, approved unani
mously with Councilman Mike Beal
abstaining, attempts to reduce park
ing and noise violations in residen
tial neighborhoods, but contains a
“grandfather clause” amendment
that exempts current leases with
more than four unrelated people
until Sept. 1, 2003. All leases
signed after 8 p.m. April 23, 2002,
are subject to the ordinance.
Two other amendments were
added to the ordinance: Foster
homes are exempt from the ordi
nance, and a second family tem
porarily may live with another for a
period of six months. Several resi
dents spoke in favor of the ordinance
at the council meeting, saying they
hoped it would alleviate problems
that arise with a high number of col
lege students living together.
Residents said students’ failure to
maintain their homes has reduced the
property values of their houses.
These residents said students keep
their yards unmowed, block streets
and driveways with their vehicles and
leave trash unattended to, making
adjacent and nearby properties unat
tractive to prospective buyers.
“We’re being invaded by students,
and it’s ruining our property,” said
See Bryan on page 2
Isen family sues A&M Foundation over estate
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M Foundation is fight-
the family of the late C.E. “Pat"
Ten over the multi-million dollar
^ate the foundation says the 1923
graduate left to the University.
1 James Palincsar, vice president of
development for the foundation,
declined to discuss the case, which is
being disputed in Harris County pro
bate court, but said Olsen, a long-time
donor to A&M, did arrange in his will
to leave his estate to the University.
Olsen, for whom the University’s
baseball facility Olsen Field is named,
died last May at the age of 97.
“The foundation wants to see that
Mr. Olsen’s wishes are carried out,”
said Liska Lusk, general counsel for the
foundation.
Lusk declined the discuss the exact
amount of Olsen’s gift to the
University, but said it was the bulk of
Olsen’s multi-million dollar fortune.
The Houston Chronicle reported
April 22 several witnesses testified
Monday that Olsen was mentally com
petent in his later years and wanted to
leave his estate to A&M. Olsen, who
played baseball at A&M, went on to
play in the New York Yankees’ minor-
league system but failed to make it into
the big leagues. He started a Houston-
based oil exploration equipment com
pany that earned him his wealth. He
moved to the Bryan-College Station
area in the early 1990s.
Beatrice Chandler, the widow of for
mer A&M baseball coach Tom
Chandler, testified of their longtime
friendship with Olsen and said Olsen
had presence of mind even when he
was bedridden, the Chronicle reported.
“Pat just said because A&M had
always been so good to him he wanted
See Olsen on page 2
ngineering patents new flow meter
re
□lons.com
'7a*'
By Marianne Hudson
THE BATTALION
The Dwight Look College of
ngineering recently contracted
Nh a Houston-area company to
pH the patent to its newly-
lesigned flow meter, which will
P n g royalties to the college,
Allege officials said.
Dr. Gerry Morrison, head
J [ eve loper and professor of
I Nchanical engineering, said
low meters measure sub-
fances that go through
I PPelines such as natural gas,
I later and steam. The sub-
lances are measured during the
Induction process and then
|ackaged for distribution.
Morrison said this flow meter
measures substances more accu
rately than the currently-used
Orphus meter. The new meter
works well if there is a mixture
of liquid and gas in the pipelines,
he said, and it has the potential of
being one-fourth of a percent
more accurate than the Orphus
meter in the same conditions.
Morrison said the meter’s
development took about nine
years, involving six graduate and
four undergraduate students.
Development was funded prima
rily by the State of Texas
Advanced Technology Program.
The meter’s patent was sold
to Flowline Meters Inc. because
the state cannot partake in com
mercial ventures, Morrison said.
The meters will sell for about
$5,000 for a two-inch line, he
said, and the college will receive
royalties from each meter sold.
The meters will be used for
industrial purposes in places
such as petrochemical plants. He
said some of the meter’s initial
applications will be in South
America.
Dr. Ken Hall, the Jack E.
and Frances Brown chair of
chemical engineering, said the
meters will sell because the
marketplace needs a more
accurate meter.
“The marketplace is trying to
find solutions to the problem,
and alternatives haven’t worked,
so it will give us an advantage,”
Hall said.
Morrison said the meter even
tually will be used in production
plants worldwide.
:ition
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS*^
voting continues through April 30
• Positions open include College Station mayor and council
positions for both cities . „ . ..
• Voting locations can be found at www.ci-college-station.tx.us
and www.ci.bryan.tx.us
■ ii ~ , p —--
.3^ Source: The cities of College Station and Bryan
Election day is May 4
Evans Library
offers e-books
30,000 books available online
By Amy Dosch
THE BATTALION
For students who regard the library as hostile ter
ritory and find searching the stacks a daunting task,
a limited selection of books are available electroni
cally, and A&M library officials have started a pro
motional campaign to alert students of this resource.
Since 1999, the library has subscribed to Netlibrary,
a database containing more than 30,000 e-books.
“A&M is upfront as far as access to electronic
resources. We are the leader in the country as far as
number of databases we have. Our interest in fur
thering efficiency as far as bringing resources to the
student’s desktop caused our interest in the e-book
option,” said Diana Ramirez, a reference librarian at
Sterling C. Evans Library.
The system works like a regular library, in which a
student must open an account to check out a book. If
a book is checked out, it is unavailable to other users.
Ramirez said this is an experimental period for the
program, and the demand for it is being monitored.
“We have ways of monitoring the number of
accounts created, determining which subjects are
demanded the most and even tum-away statistics,”
Ramirez said.
Turn-away statistics are a feature that allow the
librarians to determine how many times a person
has attempted to “check out” an e-book and has
been denied because someone else already has
AggieLife Pg. 3
A domino laid ...
is a domino played
Aggies spend time, earn
money playing in domino
tournaments
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■«.
CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION
See E-books on page 2