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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2002)
M BATTAI the 12 th Vj ar ious si 1 the van; t’Pearance across the c movie (a Sports: Branch named assistant coach • Page 3 Opinion: ICC endangers Americans • Page 5 THT7 R A 'T'T AT TOM Jl JtIJlL JdxjlJL AxjlA^XvAJlN n Found; ■ather W > gather;-. southeJ iuld durft| t centre of the: ?lmed h j/vtr's) in ial 5 lerm- sion it fad*' 5 Total Tan CD jns.com Station [enter It inN rtljr- ir!i \ i i i i i / iv. jver 9 108 Years Serving Texas A&M University Volume 108 • Issue 163 • 6 pages www.thebatt.com Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Wehner construction set to finish in 2003 By Jessi Watkins THE BATTALION Construction on the addition to the Wehner building on West Campus is progressing as expected and scheduled to be completed in July 2003, said Jerry Strawser, dean of the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business. Construction on the 58,000-gross square foot center began Jan. 7. Strawser said students should be able to use the new Jerry and Kay Cox Graduate Business Center by Fall 2003. The new building will help relieve the space shortage in the existing Wehner building, which opened in late 1994. “The new building will have more classrooms, breakout rooms for our graduate students’ team projects, a computer lab and a trading center with state-of-the-art technology sponsored by Reliant Energy,” Strawser said. Don Hellriegel, a management pro fessor in the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business, said the trading center will simulate similar tasks associated with trading in busi nesses. “The trading center will give stu dents real life experience,” Hellriegel said. “It will replicate decisions and tasks that someone involved in trading would go through in the real world. Students will have access to a lot of the same databases that those in trading have access to.” The trading center will also have a small replica of a trading floor. Strawser said the funds for the new graduate business center were provided by both the University and by college donors. Mr. and Mrs. Cox made the pri mary contribution to the project. Hellriegel said the project cost is estimated at $15 million. After comple tion, an additional $1.5 million will be added to the original cost for a telecom munications center on the ground floor of the new building. The telecommunications center will be a hub for Internet and telephone connections. Bush Museum features new exhibits 'Kuwait' shows oil disasters By Christina Hoffman THE BATTALION July 31 will be the last day for visitors to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum to see the photograph and video exhibit “The Fires of Kuwait.” The exhibit opened June 3. When first walking through the exhibit, visitors see devastat ing photos of burning oil wells covering the ground with oil, and the sky masked with fire and smoke, museum volunteers said. Near the entrance a caption reads, “(The Fires of Kuwait) was the direct result of sabotage b Y Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army.” The exhibit holds a collection of images depicting oil well firefighters who spent seven months after the Persian Gulf War in 1991 regaining control of over 732 burning oil wells and cleaning up the environmental oil disasters. According to information provided at the exhibit, three oil well firefighting teams from Texas and one from Canada were responsible for 70 percent of all capped wells and clean up. The teams pictured at the exhibit are Boots and Coots, Inc., The Red Adair Company, Inc. and Wild Well Control, all from Houston, and Safety Boss LTD of Canada. Brian Blake, the library’s public relations specialist, said the photos are part of a perma nent collection at the Bush Museum, but they chose to dis play it in July during A&M’s annual fire school training. See Kuwait on page 2 JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION Ana Mendoza and her mother, Yvonne Mendoza, of Lubbock examine the Fires of Kuwait exhib it at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. The exhibit will be on display until July 31. Display compares presidents By Melissa Sullivan THE BATTALION The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum’s exhibit “Fathers and Sons: Two Families, Four Presidents,” will be available for viewing until the end of the month. The exhibit explores the relationship between the only sets of fathers and sons to serve as United States presidents. The exhibit features George Bush and his son, George W. Bush, as well as John Adams and son John Quincy Adams. “It was natural to do this exhibit when George W. Bush was elected as president, then we thought to extend it to include the Adams,” said Brian Blake, public relations specialist for the Bush Library. “There are so many similarities and differences between them.” Former Presidents George Bush and John Adams both worked as vice presidents under very popular presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Washington. Former President John Quincy Adams and current President George W. Bush both did not receive the majority of the popular vote, rather they were elected by the electoral college, Blake said. The idea for the exhibit came from the museum curator. Dr. Douglas Menarchik, and took almost 10 months to complete. “We hope people get a tremendous sense of history here,” Blake said. “ We have so many incredible documents on display such as the original copy of the Treaty of Paris, which declared peace between Great Britain and the United States and the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812.” Blake said there are certain things people did not know about the presidents that they can learn by seeing the exhibit. Many people are unaware that John Quincy t See Exhibit on page 2 A&M-Galveston student battles leukemia By Courtney McDonald THE BATTALION Wes Bright, a member of the Class of 2003, has found him self facing a difficult battle against cancer for the second time in his life. Bright is enrolled at Texas A&M-Galveston as an ocean and coastal resources major since A&M-Galveston is the only directly linked campus of the A&M system and is set aside for maritime studies. In May 1992, at the age of 11, after weeks of continuous illness and fatigue, doctors dis covered that Bright’s bone mar row was failing to regenerate. After further testing, he was diagnosed with leukemia. After the first chemotherapy treatment on his spinal area, Bright’s health improved and ho began walking again. He was at a statistically low risk for a leukemia relapse in November 1993 and finished his last chemotherapy treat ment in February 1996. “His doctors nicknamed him Wesley ‘T’ for trouble,” said Beverly Bright, Wesley’s mother. “He never did anything the way that the doc tors expected him to.” Things improved for Bright after he completed his treatments, and his main goal in college had bright been focused on earning his Aggie ring until last February. “I had been having headaches for a couple of months, and one day when I was leaving campus, I forgot how to get home,” Bright said. “My arm also became numb, so I called my mom and we went to the hospital for an MRI.” Two days later, on Valentine’s Day, Bright was in a hospital bed at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston scheduled for brain surgery. “Wesley had surgery exactly six years to the day [after] he finished his last chemotherapy treatment,” Bright’s mother said. Bright has glioblastoma brain cancer. After the surgery and six weeks of radiation, the tumor continued to grow. According to the Brain Cancer Society, glioblastoma multiformed tumors grow rapid ly, invade nearby tissue and con tain cells that are very malig nant. It is among the most com mon and devastating primary brain tumors that strike adults. Bright is currently undergo ing two different types of chemotherapy that appear to have stabilized the tumor. “Prognosis is not good, but we have hope that he’ll beat it or that a new way to fight [his can cer] will be found,” Beverly said. “Besides, we don’t believe in statistics anyway.” Bright had to withdraw from his spring semester of classes. His goal is to be back in school by Spring 2003. “It’s important for Wesley to have goals, and right now he wants his Aggie ring more than anything else,” Beverly said. “It has given him a purpose because he knows what it means to earn it.” Bright keeps busy around his chemotherapy schedule. He par ticipated in trips with the Sunshine Kids, an organization for children with cancer. He was also personally invited by Lance Armstrong, a cancer patient sur vivor and Tour de France win ner, to the annual Ride for the Roses race in Austin. Personal meetings with Pat Green and Robin Williams have brightened Bright’s travels as well. Bright has been a S.A.L.T. Camp counselor, the equivalent of FISH Camp, member of the Bonfire crew, and active in intramurals. “Wes is a very selfless person who’s never been big on materi al things or cared what other people thought of him,” said Ty Ta, a senior ocean and coastal See Bright on page 2 Professor given fellowship for deep-sea biology By Diane Xavier THE BATTALION Kim Larsen, a post doctoral member with the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, will spend the next three years as part of the deep-sea biology group led by oceanography professor Gilbert T. Rowe. Larsen was awarded a research fellowship in deep- sea biodiversity from the department. In the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, the group will study the systematic and comparative biodiversity of tiny crustaceans called tanaids, which are inver tebrate sea creatures with exoskeletons that resemble shrimp. “Compared with the situa tion in more familiar water — shallower water depths, very little is known about biodiver sity and physical and ecologi cal controlling processes in these deep water environ ments,” Larsen said. “These creatures are important in the food web of the ocean and there is an urgent need to improve the scientific knowl edge base in order to provide confidence in our ability to predict and measure environ mental impact. “A better understanding of deep-sea species will improve our ability to assess the poten tial impact of man’s activities and to devise effective man agement plans for the explo ration and development of deep-sea resources.” Larsen’s fellowship is one of two funded by the British Petroleum (BP) oil company, which is sponsoring two deep- sea biodiversity research fel lowships as part of its commit ment to improving knowledge of biodiversity. The second fellowship was awarded to Tammy Horton at the Southampton Oceanography Center in the United Kingdom. The research group will work closely together to improve knowledge of the seabed fauna in the deep Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Larsen said recent work suggests the oceans may be more diverse than other envi ronments. “The total number of species in the oceans probably exceeds ten million, and to put this in perspective, only around See Larsen on page 2 Gap in religious attitudes growing in Northern Ireland BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland are increasingly divided in their outlook and less willing to live and work together, a sur vey published Tuesday found. The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, based on interviews with 1,800 adults conducted in October- December 2001, documented substantial Protestant antago nism to the 1998 peace deal. The study, which has a mar gin of error of around 1 percent, found strong majorities on both sides of the community did share one key belief — that the distinction of British Protestant and Irish Catholic would split their society forever. Among Catholics surveyed, 54 percent said they were happy with the peace process, while just 26 percent of Protestants shared that opti mism. Many more Protestants registered their feelings as either “mixed,” “unhappy,” “disappointed” or “betrayed.” While two-thirds of Catholics said they felt confi dent or optimistic about the future, as high a proportion of Protestants said they had mixed feelings or fears. And while 65 percent of Catholics said they believed both sides of the community had benefited equally from the peace process, 63 percent of Protestants countered that Catholics had benefited more. Perhaps most surprisingly — given that the core of the peace deal involves a joint Catholic-Protestant govern ment formed in 1999 —- both sides of the community increasingly say they would prefer to live, work and send their children to schools exclu sively among their own. While majorities still prefer to mix, the survey found that 32 percent of Protestants and 22 percent of Catholics favor single-religion neighborhoods. Northern Ireland’s sad legacy More than 3,300 people have been killed in Northern Ireland since conflict over the British- linked province erupted in 1969. i.._J Civilian ■MIM Police and reserves 350 ■ 300- I 250 - 200 • 100 . |l I I |(lt| II tjI ! I |l I I | 70 74 78 82 86 ’90 /94 ’98 ’01 SOURCE: Police Service of Northern Ireland AP
