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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 2002)
Aggielife: Aggie code of honor * Page 3 Opinion: Maintaining the faith • Page 5 ATTAT TO jlIl Jl JL f \ I j I V-/ Volume 108 • Issue 156 • 6 pages 108 Years Serving Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Tuesday, June 25, 2002 Deep diving BRIAN RUFF • THE BATTALION Emma Nickerson, Class of 1992, videos College Center on Monday afternoon. The submersible will Station resident and Flower Garden Banks Sanctuary be used at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine manager G.P. Schmahl maneuver the Deep Rover in Sanctuary, a coral reef 100 miles south of the Texas- the wave pool at the Offshore Technology Research Louisiana border. Bush urges change to achieve peace WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush urged the Palestinians on Monday to replace Yasser Arafat as their leader and adopt “a practicing democracy” that could produce an independent state within three years. “Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership so that a Palestinian state can be born,” Bush said at the White House. In his long-anticipated speech. Bush said “reform must be more than cos metic changes or a veiled attempt to preserve the status quo” if the Palestinians are to fulfill their aspira tions for a state alongside Israel. Elections should be held by the end of the year for a legislature with normal authority and there also must be a con stitution, Bush said as he set stiff condi tions for a Palestinian state. “When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neigh bors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state, whose borders and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settle ment in the Middle East,” Bush said. Senior administration officials said they envision the Palestinians being able to reach provisional statehood within 18 months and full permanent statehood in as soon as three years. “With a determined effort, this state could rise rapidly — as it comes to terms with its neighbors on practical issues, such as security,” Bush said. Israel also has a large stake in the success of a democratic Palestine, he said. “A stable, peaceful Palestinian state is necessary to achieve the securi ty that Israel longs for,” Bush said. Touching delicately on the thorni est issues, the president said Jerusalem’s future and the plight of refugees must be addressed. But he offered no prescription. “You have lived too long with fear and funerals,” he said. Addressing the Palestinian people. Bush said he understood how they could feel like pawns in the Middle East conflict. “You deserve democracy and the rule of law,” he said. “You deserve a life for your children and an end to occupation.” The president made his remarks in an afternoon speech in the Rose Garden, where he had announced in April that his administration would try to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Bush leaves Tuesday for a meeting in Canada with leaders of the world’s other major industrialized democracies. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the president’s national security adviser, stood alongside the president in stifling early summer heat. Bush and his advis ers staked out a shady area. Bush also demanded that Israel withdraw to positions it held on the West Bank two years ago and to stop building homes for Jews on the West Bank and in Gaza. Incoming freshman dies en route to Bible study By Melissa Sullivan THE BATTALION Heather Marie Folden, an incoming freshman, died June 18 while riding in a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe with three women on their way to a Bible study in Tyler. While stopped at a red light at the intersection of Highway 69 North and Farm Road 344, their vehicle was rear-ended by a 1998 Dodge pickup. Two oth ers remain hospitalized. “She was very excited about a t t e n d i n g Texas A&M,” said Terri Folden, Heather’s mother. “She had just attend ed her new stu dent confer- folden ence a few weeks ago. She has several friends attending now and many who will attend in the fall.” Heather wanted to go into the medical field, but had not decid ed on a major, her mother said. Heather’s dream to attend A&M began with her grandfa ther, who graduated in the 1950s. “She went and toured the campus this past summer and upon returning she said ‘this is where I want to go,”’ said Terri. Heather recently graduated from Jacksonville High School, where she was active in sports. “She loved athletics and played for two years on the varsi ty basketball team and helped lead them to the playoffs,” Terri said. In addition to her athletic ability, Heather was a a member of National Honor Society, pres ident of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and received numerous honors, including being named a member of the Texas Girls Association Academic All-State team for her achievements on the court and in the classroom. “She received several awards for having one of the highest GPAs among female athletes,” her mother said. Heather was known for being competitive in everything she did, from snow skiing to water skiing, her mother said. “She was a strong, independ ent person who tried hard at everything,” her mother said. “She was very good to be honest, not the very best, but good. She could beat her dad snow skiing down a mountain even though he would not want to admit it.” Heather was an active member of her church. Central Baptist Church in Jacksonville, where she sang and attended Bible study. “She was a wonderful person and her Christian faith was very important to her,” Terri said. Friends of Heather remem ber her as an admirable person who could light up any room she entered. “I have known her my whole life,” said Brad Brewer, incom ing freshman and business administration major. “She was real good-hearted and genuine, she loved people and was fun to be around. She was always smil ing and laughing.” In the Jacksonville Daily See Folden on page 6 Church charter bus crashes into pillar PTTS makes changes for summer ^.iNew.directorT.three finalistj - Patrick I. Kass - Gary S. Graham - Rodney Eugene Wets • 24 New buses !>> - Longer routes - More seats - Less standing space ' gggj fp§| 4-* IH; *tfer ™»>" “v* iNewiCommunications Coordinator - Help with route planning - Determine service hoars - Determine pick up points ther improvmenu MM i 50 amp ItV :1 —^ ~ iH"' ' TRAVIS SWENSON •THE BATTALION By Christina Hoffman THE BATTALION Parking, Traffic and Transportation Services (PTTS) will be making a num ber of structural changes this summer including choosing a new director, hir ing a bus operations communications coordinator and filtering in new buses. Jane Schneider, assistant vice presi dent for administration and chair of the search committee for a new PTTS director, said the committee has been hosting on-campus interviews with three candidates for the vacant position. The search committee’s three final ists are Patrick J. Kass, current director of parking services at the University of Arizona; Gary S. Graham, current director of parking services at Louisiana State University and A&M College; and Rodney Eugene Weis, cur rent director of parking services at Georgia Institute of Technology. “The search committee will put rec ommendations together and determine what we see as the strengths and weak nesses of each candidate,” Schneider said. She said the search committee will meet sometime this week to make rec ommendations. Robert Bisor, assistant vice presi dent for administration and interim director for PTTS, and Charles Sippial, See PTTS on page 6 us Ops informs students of route changes By Ruth Ihde THE BATTALION Due to the construction on Bizzell, New Main and Houston Street, Bus Operations are seek ing alternate routes for campus buses. Assistant Director for Bus Operations Gary Jackson said. The Replant bus, which is the counterclockwise version of the Bonfire bus route , will not be running. To compen sate, Bonfire will leave Rudder Tower every 10 min utes and will have three buses on route, he said. “Those are really the only two changes for the summer,” Jackson said. Last spring, construction started on New Main, affecting the Excel bus route. Like the Howdy route. Excel now makes two on-campus stops near the Memorial Student Center and by the Bizzell West building and continues cm its normal route. The route still makes its main campus stop on Asbury Street. Jackson said it works well because it minimizes the time spent on University Drive, thereby making the route more efficient. The construction has not complicated the bus routes too much, Jackson said. Other changes being made to off-campus routes this sum mer and continuing into the fall include dropping the Oaks Apartments from the Gig ‘Em bus route due to lack of pas sengers and dividing the Hullabaloo bus route in half. Instead of having Hullabaloo run the normal route. Bus Operations has brought the Tradition bus back to cover Holleman Street. Jackson feels this will make the route more effective and will serve the passengers better. In recent years. Bus Operations has made an effort to communicate the changes being made to the students more efficiently. Now, when a route change is planned, it must be advertised for one week before any changes start, he said. Jackson said they get help ful student input from the driv ers and trainers at Bus Ops about which routes need to be changed. This fall, Jackson said that Parking, Traffic and Transportation Services (PTTS) hopes to hire a consultant full time in order to make the bus See Bus Ops on page 6 TERRELL, Texas (AP) — A chartered bus taking youngsters to a church camp crashed into the concrete pillar of an overpass Monday, killing the driver and four passengers, authorities said. At least 36 other people were injured in the accident about 30 miles east of Dallas. The bus was carrying more than 40 peo ple and had departed from the Dallas suburb of Garland. The bus became wedged between the pillar and a grass embankment, its left side nearly sheared off. The scattered debris included a shoe and a tat tered black Bible, along with a pile of bus seats and twisted pieces of metal. Family members gathered under the bridge on the other side of the interstate, hugging and crying as emergency offi cials worked to clear the man gled wreckage. Passengers said the eastbound bus on Interstate 20 swerved just before it veered into the pillar. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately determined, said state Department of Public Safety Cpl. Joe Applewhite. The wrecked bus was loaded onto a trailer and taken to a site where it will be inspected. The bus was one of two tak ing middle and high school stu dents and some adult chaper ones to a church camp in Ruston, La. “I was able to pull some of the children out from the chairs that were all mangled up and tore up,” said Ruben Vasquez, a passer-by who was among the first on the scene. “These kids were screaming and hollering for their moms and dads.” Todd Von Helms, a youth minister with First Baptist Church of Cedar Hill, was trav eling with another group headed to the same camp when they came upon the accident scene. 15 mt 15 km Lake Garland -43^ _ Hubbard TawakiMT Bus carrying school students crashed, killing at least five OKLAHOMA ARKANSAS Ruston TEXAS LOUISIANA 75 mi 75 km SOURCES: Associated Press; AP ESRI; GOT