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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2002)
erna E BAH ^eel -CHURSDAYAPRIL 25, 2002 VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 138 npTTt; 1 lIEj TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY 8dVL Regents split on Gates, Gramm By Sommer Bunce THE BATTALION he Texas A&M System Board of Meats is close to voting on who the ■ president of the system’s flagship icftol will be. Bive of the nine regents preferred :andidate Robert Gates while three jvould vote for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, Me\as, according to three sources t vil| ties to the Republican Party, the )ciated Press reported Wednesday, abers of the Board of Regents con tinued Wednesday to keep the Board’s deliberations private. According to The Associated Press, Regent Wendy Gramm, Phil Gramm’s wife, has abstained from voting on the matter. Three names were announced in March as likely candidates for A&M’s top post, which will be vacated June 30 by Dr. Ray M. Bowen after eight years of service, the fourth-longest term the University has seen. Days after the announcement. Board of Regents Chair Erie Nye revealed the Board was con sidering two other candidates, whose names have not been disclosed. Guesswork on who the darkhorse candidates were began immediately, and one name has flown to the surface among the media: Gramm. Since the long-time Texas senator announced his retirement in August, speculation flourished that Gramm would return to A&M where he taught economics in the 1980s, and where his wife, Wendy Gramm, is a regent. Gramm has been reported as say ing on more than one occasion that he would love to return to Aggieland. Another widely-rumored political matter says that if Gramm, whose term ends this November, were to step down to take the A&M presidency, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make some key appointments to fill the general elections in November with Republican leaders and help Congress hold on to a majority of Republican seats. Gramm’s early departure would leave a vacancy in his congressional seat, enabling Perry possibly to appoint current Attorney General John Comyn, who is running for Gramm’s vacancy in November. The appointment would give Cornyn an incumbency advantage in the general elections and leave the attorney general’s position open for another Perry appointment, possibly of Greg Abbott, who is running for the attorney general post in November. Cornyn faces strongly-supported Democratic candidate Ron Kirk, a for mer mayor of Dallas. The rumors have weight enough for See President on page 2A irst lady calls for education ilehem's k he alleges: ound fe: Christina Hoffman THE BATTALION irst lady Laura Bush ked Aggies for the spectac ular patriotism students por- trajed after the Sept. 1 1 terror ist attacks, when football fans wore red, white and blue shirts at Kyle Field, raising about $200,000 for the New York Firefighters 9-11 Relief Fund and the World Trade Center Police Disaster Fund. ■‘Patriotism swept across Texas and across Kyle Field one Saturday afternoon in late September after the attacks,” Bush said. “Fans responded, and the result was an incredible display of America’s colors in the stadium, showing that we Americans first and fbte- |st. Thanks Aggies.” Bush spoke to a packed Rudder Auditorium yester day after being introduced by former President George Bush. She spoke about her feelings on Sept. 1 1 and called on Americans to help focus energy on helping oth ers through volunteer and teaching programs. Bush focused her attention on the actions of heroes across America, including teachers and those who give back to communities. “Kindness and heroism can’t always be drawn in a picture,” Bush said. “Many acts of kind ness never make the evening news or the morning paper.” But some community events do. See Bush on page 8A Charity ball JOHN LIVAS •THE BATTALION Kristen Carey, a sophomore Recreation Parks & Tourism Hall Wednesday. Sigma Phi Epsilon organized the signing that Sciences major signs, a 4-foot ball for charity near Sbisa Dining is expected to encourage donations from students. A&M’s graduate college rankings drop _ STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION First Lady Laura Bush accepts an Aggie T-shirt and other E s from junior political science major Sean Cullen on ialf of the Corps of Cadets. By Tanya Nading THE BATTALION Texas A&M’s individual graduate college rankings have dropped among America’s top universities in the 2003 edition of the Best Graduate Schools, published by U.S. News and World Report. The publication shows the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business dropping from its rank of 45 in 2002 to 49 out of 125 surveyed schools in the category of top business schools for 2003. For the second year in a row, the College of Education placed 39 out of the 125 schools surveyed in the top schools of education. The Dwight Look College of Engineering dropped, from 11th in 2002 to a tie with one other school for 12th out of 145 surveyed schools. For specialty graduate pro grams within the College of Engineering, petroleum engi neering ranked second, nuclear engineering ranked fifth and industrial and manufacturing ranked sixth. Dr. Jerry Strawser, dean of the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business, said students should not feel discouraged about the business school’s drop in ranking. “Most of our numbers are comparatively better than last year’s numbers,” Strawser said. “The problem is that the schools are so tightly bunched together. We are as close to being number 39 as we are to being 51.” Strawser stressed that the ranking measures a lot of differ ent things, and students need to look at what companies are hir ing and what salaries they are offering when trying to choose a graduate school. “That’s what most students care about, the company’s hiring and salaries,” he said. “Of See Graduate on page 8A ates increase, roads to close By Sarah Szuminski h THE BATTALION ■ The Department of Parking, ■affic and Transportation Services is ^creasing rates for parking permits for the first time in two years, effec- foe Sept. 1, 2002, for students and iarch 1, 2003, for staff. ■ “An across-the-board permit increase is necessary at this time to cover our total debt service for multiple parking-related projects,” said PTTS information specialist Angela Newman. The projects include construction of the West Campus Garage near the Student Recreation Center and the underground passageway under Wellborn Road. Additional parking projects are the renovations to the lot at Olsen Field, the paving of the lot p3f*lcin§ Rate Increases NEW RATE pommuter (blue) $125 |Resident (red) $125 parage-reserved $348 Night $48 Motorcycle $48 Staff Lot $132 jgted Staff Lot $193 ^tident permit rate changes effective Sept* l y 2002 $133 $133 $366 $54 $54 $141 $210 Staff permit rate changes effective March 1, 2003 n Parking Traffic ami Transpor tation Service* CHAD MALLAM ‘THE BATTALION near the tennis complex and a new lot being constructed west of Reed Arena. Because staff permits are renewed in the spring each year, the rate increase for the staff will not go into effect until that time, Newman said. Price hikes will be minimal, with student and staff permits increasing approximately 6 percent. Student commuter and on-campus resident permits will cost $133, up from $125. Changes are being made to accom modate dorm resident move-out among the increasing traffic closures because of continuing road construction on New Main Drive and Bizzell Street. Effective May 5 through May 12, the Southside Parking Garage — cur rently available only to students hold ing permits for the garage — will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis at no charge. The change is an effort by PTTS to enable students moving out of the dorms to park in a more accessible location. Garage permit holders who may be displaced because of the change will be permitted to park in red resident lots during that time. See Parking on page 2A Students encouraged to save for the future By Anna Chaloupka THE BATTALION As the end of the semester nears, many students are beginning to search for the perfect summer job to earn extra spending money. But after Sept. 11 and the Enron col lapse, investment professionals say money would be better left in the bank. Thor Hoppess, financial consultant of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. of Bryan- College Station, said students should begin saving for their futures as soon as they can, and there are a number of ways to do that. Hoppess said students should establish some type of investment plan, whether it be a traditional savings account, mutual fund or individual retire ment account (IRA). “It’s very difficult to save when you’re in college because you don’t have a lot of income to put away,” Hoppess said. “One great way to get going is a Roth IRA.” See Future on page 7A IKSIUIE Sports Pg. 1B Redemption is key for Ags in Big 12 tourney Sci|Tech Pg. 3B Try the shade instead Skin cancer serious problem in Texas imawm FORECASTS COURTESY OF saltier, cpjj).