The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 25, 2002, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    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).