Aggielife: Aggie code of honor * Page 3
Opinion: Maintaining the faith • Page 5
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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
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- Longer routes
- More seats
- Less standing space
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“v* iNewiCommunications Coordinator
- Help with route planning
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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