Aggielife: Sins of the father • Page 3
Opinion: Florida dog running for Congress • Page 5
/olume 108 • Issue 163 • 6 pages
108 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, July 9, 2002
Faculty senate approves college name changes
By Jessi Watkins
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M Faculty
senate approved name changes
for the Lowry Mays College and
iraduate School of Business
land the College of Education on
|Monday afternoon.
The Senate approved a name
change from Lowry Mays
College and Graduate School
of Business to the Mays
Business School.
Jerry Strawser, dean of the
College of Business, said the
reason for the name change was
to help in marketing the college.
“Other universities are using
the moniker ‘business school’
not ‘school of business,”’
Strawser said.
The Senate also approved a
name change from the College
of Education to the College of
Education and Human
Development.
Bruce Thompson, professor
of educational psychology, said
this name change shows that the
college has programs other than
teacher education.
“We have programs that have
nothing to do with teaching.
This is a motion to communicate
that we have a broader range of
programs than teacher educa
tion,” Thompson said.
The Faculty Senate also
approved a change in curriculum
for two undergraduate programs
in the Department of
Educational Psychology.
The changes add three new
courses to the undergraduate
program in generic special edu
cation and four new courses to
the undergraduate program in
Hispanic bilingual education.
The purpose of both of these
programs is to help meet
demand for teachers in Texas,
specifically the high demand
for teachers who are qualified
to work with special education
and bilingual students, senate
members said.
Carol Wagner, an academic
See Senate on page 2
Circus animals
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey elephant trainers
escort elephants down Olsen drive during Monday
evening's circus entrance. The circus departed from
its train and walked from Agronomy Drive to Reed
Arena, which is where the circus will perform Tuesday
and Wednesday.
AggiE-Pay allows
fee payment online
By Molly McCullough
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M, through an agreement
with Texas Online, introduced a new
Internet based payment system, called
AggiE-Pay, that allows students to pay
all registration and tuition fees online
in hopes of making payments more
convenient for students and improving
customer service.
The AggiE-Pay project is a division
of finance initiative, directed by
Student Financial Services. A&M is
the first university in the state to use
this system. Other universities are
examining A&M’s network to deter
mine if the new technology will suc
ceed or not, said Kathy Symank, finan
cial manager of Student Financial
Services.
“Students may want to pay at two in
the morning and we wanted to make that
option available to them,” Symank said.
According to Symank, since AggiE-
Pay started July 1, an estimated 300
students have taken advantage of the
new system.
“It’ll be more convenient and faster,”
said Julie Davis, a freshman industrial
distribution major. “Now I can pay any
where I have access to the Internet.”
Students can pay by e-check from
their personal checking account or by
credit card.
For students paying by e-check, a
convenience fee of $2 is charged in
order to help pay the costs of process
ing the check.
For Mastercard, Discover, or
American Express users, a convenience
fee of 2.5 percent of the total bill with a
minimum of $3 is added to the pay
ment. The convenience fee is added so
A&M is reimbursed for the fee charged
to A&M by the credit card companies.
Visa card users are excluded
because Visa does not allow a percent
age of the payment to be added to the
total bill.
A&M does not want to use the flat
dollar rate because it would be difficult
to estimate the cost it would be charged
to use each particular Visa card,
Symank said.
Symank also said A&M does not
want to make a profit by charging stu
dents too much for using a credit card,
but would rather break even between
the fee charged to the Visa user and the
fee charged to A&M.
“Students who would like to use
their Visa card should contact Visa
directly and suggest to them to allow
the percentage rate to be charged
instead of the flat dollar rate fee,”
Symank said.
The convenience fee was originally
set by Texas Online, the company who
processes the e-checks and credit cards,
based on the estimated number of stu
dents and staff who use the website.
“As soon as more people use this
website we hope to negotiate with
Texas Online to bring fees down,”
Symank said.
“I think it is a good thing,” said
Chinelo Nwawka, a senior psychology
major. However, Nwawka also
expressed concern for the safety of her
credit card number.
Students or staff planning on using
credit cards to pay bills will have their
credit card number protected by
Verisign, a company known for provid
ing credit card confidentiality. Verisign
has a good reputation and is used by
other enterprises such as Bank of
America, Texas Instruments, and
See AggiE-Pay on page 6
Trailer brings Aggie
football to big screen
By Doug Fuentes
THE BATTALION
Lights, camera...Texas
A&M football?
A&M football is the action
this summer at movie theaters
thanks to a movie trailer put
out by the 12th Man
Foundation.
The trailer, which is the
centerpiece of the 12th Man
Foundation’s advertising
campaign and unique in col
lege athletics advertising,
stars former A&M linebacker
Antonio Armstrong and is
narrarated by Ashton Smith,
Class of 1984.
Smith, who has done
numerous trailers, including
Men In Black and Mission
Impossible, has tentatively
agreed to donate his royalties
back to the Capital Campaign.
The trailer is being shown
at AMC Theaters in Houston,
Dallas and San Antonio on
377 screens.
Every movie on every
screen will show the trailer
except Walt Disney produc
tions due to a no advertise
ment clause.
“We had set up our mar
keting budget this year and
we felt that this was some
thing that we could consider,”
said Miles Marks, president
of the 12th Man Foundation.
“We were brought three ideas
and the two others were not
real appealing to us. We
thought the movie trailer was
a real home run so we decided
to go with that.”
The trailer begins with a
trip through a science-fiction
type tunnel, narrarated by
Smith. When the tunnel ends,
it shows Armstrong looking
down on someone he just
tackled and he says, “I told
you not to come over the mid
dle anymore, not in my
house.”
The trailer then cuts to the
12th Man Foundation logo as
the Aggie War Hymn plays in
the background.
Armstrong, was an All-
American in 1994 and defen
sive MVP of the 1994 Cotton
Bowl, said he thoroughly
enjoyed working on the trailer.
“When they asked me to
do it, there was no doubt in
my mind,” Armstrong said.
“A&M has been very good to
me and instrumental in my
life. They have taught me a
lot. If I need anything I can
call on anyone from A&M
and they will help.
“It’s not just the football
players either. Anytime I meet
anyone, there is an automatic
camaraderie. So, of course I’d
love to give to give back to the
school."
See Trailer on page 6
Candidates named for vice chancellor
By Christina Hoffman
THE BATTALION
A list of five candidates for the
position of vice chancellor and dean
of the Dwight Look College of
Engineering at Texas A&M was
released Monday after a search advi
sory committee began a review
process on Feb. 15.
The search committee will now
schedule campus interviews with the
five candidates.
The candidates are George K.
Bennett and John Junkins from A&M,
Mark Kushner and Daniel Reed from
the University of Illinois-Urbana-
Champaign, and Jeffrey Vitter from
Duke University.
The search committee chaired by
Dr. Edward A. Hiler, A&M’s vice
chancellor and dean of agricultural
and life sciences, began accepting
applications for the position in
January when current Vice Chancellor
and Dean Dr. Roland Haden
announced he would retire.
He is scheduled to retire Aug. 1,
said Ann Kellett, spokeswoman for
the Texas A&M University system.
According to Kellett and the A<&M
website, the vice chancellor and dean
is a leadership role in management to
enhance leadership and strategic
direction toward Vision 2020.
The dean is also responsible for
See Candidates on page 2
Search for Dean/Vice
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md Director, TEEX
"exas A&M University
Chancellor
rector, TEES
of Engineering
John Junkins
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Texas A&M University
Mark Kutthnor
apartment of ElectrIca 1
and Computing Engineering
^University of Illinois at U r b a na - C h a m p a I % n
Daniel Rood
Irector, National Center for
• upercomputlng Applications
inlverslty of Illinois at Urbana>Champaign
loparti
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luke University
Computer Science
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
College Board adds several changes to SAT
Ja- j Jj JLi 2li JLl til
^ Writing section added
Analogies replaced by
CT critical reading questions
Verbal Reasoning Test
now titled Critical Reading
Test
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^ Math Portion includes
Algebra II
Quantitative comparisons
^ eliminated
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
The Board of Trustees for the College
Board debated and voted for several
changes to the Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT), the world’s most widely used
admissions test. As a result, students
applying to A&M in the fall of 2006 will
face a more challenging admissions test.
Kristin Carnahan, associate director of
public affairs at the College Board said
the College Board has changed the SAT I
several times over the course of its 76-
year history.
Recently, the SAT I came under scruti
ny after the University of California (UC)
debated whether to require only the SAT
II because they felt the SAT I was no
longer an accurate predictor of an incom
ing college student’s academic success,
Carnahan said.
“President Atkinson announced his
proposal that UC use only the SAT II for
admissions about a year and half ago,”
she said. “[The controversy this created]
was certainly a factor in the current revi
sions. The ideas laid forth underwent a lot
of discussion, and we were definitely
more focused on making the changes
sooner than otherwise.”
Joseph Estrada, assistant provost for
enrollment at A&M and a member of the
College Board advisory committee said
that the measure of young people’s suc
cess is an ever-changing process.
“The Board wants to ensure that the
examination is testing the right skills,” he
See SATs on page 2