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OPINION* Georgia colleges push students out • Page 5
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THE BATTALION
lume 108 • Issue 160 • 6 pages
108 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
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COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE
This is one of 10 health service models on display
today in the MSC from 3:30 to 5:30.
By Lauren Bauml
THE BATTALION
The College of Architecture and
Student Health Services are work
ing together to propose and plan an
optimal physical, mental, and spiri
tual health program and facility for
the future students of Texas A&M
University.
Ten health service models, creat
ed by groups of two students each,
will be on display today in 226
Memorial Student Center (MSC)
from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
“It’s more meaningful to work on
real life-related projects,” said Dr.
George Mann, AIA, the Ronald L.
Skaggs Endowed Professor of Health
Facilities Design and project director.
Each model makes up phase
one, which is designed to reuse and
modernize the existing Beutel
Health Center.
Phase two will take place in the
future, with a longer, more time ori
ented view of student’s needs.
In past years, the architecture
center has completed over 350
health projects on national and
international levels.
“Beutel Health Center does not
serve the growing need of a diverse
campus,” Mann said. “The current
location lacks privacy, is difficult to
park at and has steps that are diffi
cult for those with crutches.”
The proposed designs all share
common characteristics of counsel
ing, increased privacy, health educa
tion, comfort, a greater efficiency of
patient flow and a place for students
to go for down time and relaxation
from stressful experiences of life.
Lily Huang, a senior environmen
tal design major, and Rachel
Anderson, a junior agricultural devel
opment major, who are married
mothers enrolled in the class, added a
pediatric center where families can
seek medical attention together with
an increased amount of ease.
Senior engineer design and graph
ics majors David Sekaquaptewa and
John Wirth added unlimited expand
ability through a satellite approach
for each clinic included in the Beutel
Health network.
Student reactions to the overall
experience of producing a possible
real-life design were mainly positive.
“I really enjoyed [working on the
project],” Huang said. “I have been
to the health center, and never really
liked it, and have always preferred
See Future on page 2
ire.
;rt
Research, technology
improve forecasting
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
i Due to increasingly powerful com
puters, modern weather forecasts and
climate models are two and a half times
more accurate than they were 25 years
ago, said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas
state climatologist and professor of
atmospheric sciences in the College of
Geosciences at Texas A&M.
i “Today’s five-day weather forecast
is as accurate as a two-day forecast of
a quarter century ago,” Nielsen-
Gammon said.
Increasingly accurate forecasts
result from increased computer pro
cessing power and memory that helps
in understanding more details about the
atmosphere and a better understanding
o) current conditions found by observa
tions made from satellites.
lr Dr. Jerry North, head of the meteor
ological department, said that A&M is
also making new discoveries in areas
like weather forecasting and climate
changes using satellite and radar.
We (the A&M meteorological
Bpartment) have a huge devotion to
t perimeislocal weather forecasting research,”
North said.
rtvaau K Nielsen-Gammon’s current projects
1 ^ include working with associates at A&M
ami other universities on projects such as
analyzing past floods, predicting future
droughts and monitoring air pollution.
■ Nielsen-Gammon’s students have
■ been using computer models to simu
late Tropical Storm Allison, to discover
what made the storm develop so quick-
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ly and cause millions of dollars in flood
damages to Houston and surrounding
areas last summer.
Models like the ones used in his
meteorology classes simulate atmos
pheric conditions as they existed at the
time of specific weather events.
Nielsen-Gammon also works with
transformative models, which input
hypothetical weather data and simulate
their likely effect on things like soil,
crops and plant life.
The meteorological department has
received grants from several agencies
such as National Aeronautics Space
Administration (NASA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The A&M meteorological depart
ment is also concerned with the impact
of weather on a global scale and is using
satellites in its ongoing research.
North said A&M is making
advances in technology with mobile
radar devices on trucks that will moni
tor and research severe storms in the
Great Plains area.
Nielsen-Gammon is also part of a
joint study of Houston’s air quality pro
posed to the EPA by the University of
Texas, the University of Houston (UH)
and Texas A&M.
“Texas A&M and UH will be setting
up a modeling facility to simulate
Houston’s air problems,” North said.
“We want to focus on forecasting the
fate of chemicals such as ozone and
nitrogen oxide. We want to learn about
See Forecasting on page 2
Puppy love
Senior animal science major and Brazos Animal Shelter
employee Andrea Bahlo gives vaccinations to two
labrador puppies at the shelter Monday. The Humane
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Society holds animals for 72 hours in hope their own
ers will reclaim them. If not claimed, the animals are
available for adoption.
Bush renews fight for school vouchers
—-—President
CLEVELAND (AP) —
Bush stepped
3ack into the battle over
at he "school vouchers Monday,
his CenfjRying the Supreme Court’s
i ters b iecision upholding govern-
r, althou-pent funding of private
lot to. school education was as his-
•oughly boric as one that outlawed
—• W separate schools for blacks,
ern shot® a year after his proposal
•j n g Sa«:ollapsed in Congress,
suited IBush asked lawmakers to
Iraq, ^consider it.
||The president's promo
tion of such programs
Monday also was notable
for his use of the word
“vouchers,” which after
becoming synonymous with
bitter debates over the topic
had been avoided by Bush
speechwriters.
There was no distance
between Bush’s support for
vouchers and that of his bois
terous audience in hot, his
toric State Theatre in down
town Cleveland. Many in his
audience had come from the
inner-city communities that
supporters of vouchers con
tend would benefit from a
taxpayer-funded school-
choice program that was the
subject of the high court’s
ruling Thursday.
The 5-4 decision upheld
a program that gives mostly
poor parents a tuition sub
sidy of up to $2,250 per
child at parochial or other
nonpublic schools.
An animated Bush, fre
quently waving his hands
before the 3,000 people sit
ting in the red-velvet seats of
the ornate theater, said to
great applause that the
Supreme Court “gave a great
victory” to students across
America. The event had an
unusually intimate feel, with
one listener yelling out
“Love you, Mr. President!”
as he took the stage, and oth
ers occasionally murmuring
See Bush on page 2
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I RAVIS SWENSON
THE BATTALION
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
Mark Lemmon, a research
scientist with the Department of
Atmospheric Science, has con
ducted an experiment chosen to
be part of the 2003 Mars
Exploration Rover Mission
scheduled to launch June of
next year.
The mission consists of two
identical robotic rovers that
arrive at separate destinations on
Mars in January 2004. These
rovers will provide a better han
dle on the nature, accumulation
and dissipation patterns of
Mars’ signature red dust.
“The purpose of the mission
is to understand and tell of
Mars’ history and see if it had
water long ago,” Lemmon said.
“We will also study local geolo
gy and its atmosphere to under
stand why it is different from
Earth today.”
Most scientists who study the
Mars dust say it is the defining
feature of the planet’s atmos
phere and constitutes the major
force eroding the planet’s sur
face, just like the role of water
on Earth.
“Mars has a lot of dust in the
sky and the surface which may
have created water,” Lemmon
said.
A panoramic camera will
look at the landscape and sky of
the planet and possibly get a
glimpse of Martian dust storms
and dust devils, he said.
Lemmon was on the Mars
Pathfinder imaging team in
See Lemmon on page 2
A&M researchers to
alleviate arsenic crisis
By Christina Hoffman
THE BATTALION
Researchers from Texas A&M will
team up with other agencies to help
alleviate an arsenic crisis in
Bangladesh, which effects millions of
people and agricultural production.
Arsenic is a poisonous oxygen com
pound used in making insecticides.
Dr. Richard Loeppert, a professor
from the soil and crop science depart
ment of A&M, said they hope to alle
viate the crisis by researching and
developing new methods that will
decrease arsenic levels in ground and
surface water to ensure safety and sus
tainable agricultural production.
The crisis originates from the contam
inated Ganges-Meghma-Brahmaputra
aquifer, the water source for approxi
mately 110 million people in Bangladesh.
The aquifer also provides water for
irrigation.
The high levels of arsenic in irriga
tion water can reduce crop production
and allow arsenic to enter the food
chain, causing arsenical cancers and
related diseases.
Loeppert said cancers can range
from skin cancers to bladder and liver
cancers. Arsenic can also effect the
vascular system, inhibiting blood flow
to small veins. The loss of blood flow
can in turn initiate gangrene causing
people to lose fingers and toes.
A&M researchers will work in con
junction with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station to find ways of
minimizing arsenic levels in order, to
provide sustainable agriculture,
Loeppert said.
“We will work with agricultural
agencies to come up to speed on
arsenic issues,” he said. “The goal is to
minimize hazardous arsenic levels.”
He said some traces of arsenic will
naturally be found in the water supply
and people have developed natural
defenses against it.
“We can’t eliminate the arsenic, but
we can help it become less haz
ardous,” Loeppert said.
The levels in Bangladesh are
extremely high compared to U.S. lev
els. There are approximately 10 parts
per billion in the U.S. water supply
compared to one part per million in the
Bangladesh water supply.
“That is almost 100 times higher
than the U.S. standard,” Loeppert said.
The threat is so high that almost 50
million people in Bangladesh face a
potential threat of arsenic cancer or
disease, he said.
Loeppert and Bhajan Biswas, a
research associate in the department of
soil and crop sciences, are working in a
collaborative effort on an international
and national level, Loeppert said.
At the international level, A&M
researchers will be working with CIM-
MYT, an international wheat and
maze breeding center, Cornell
University and federal relief agencies.
See Arsenic on page 2