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Opinion: Pilots should carry guns in the air • Page 7
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Volume 108 • Issue 167 • 8 pages
uilty plea spares Lindh from life in prison
108 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — John
i Tilker Lindh, the young convert to
Tlam who left California to fight
longside the Taliban, pleaded guilty to
|vo felonies Monday in a surprise deal
that spares him life in prison and
ensures his cooperation with terrorism
ihvestigators.
I Lindh faces a maximum of 20 years
Ii prison under the agreement struck
; Between prosecutors and defense
Ijftwyers after a weekend of negotiations
|Biat ended after midnight — just hours
I Before he was set to appear for court
I learing.
I I “I provided my services as a soldier to
Wood project
the Taliban last year from about August
to November,” Lindh told U.S. District
Judge T.S. Ellis III, recounting the two
crimes to which he pleaded guilty.
“During the course of doing so I car
ried a rifle and two grenades. And I did
so knowingly and willingly,” he said.
In accepting the plea, prosecutors
foreclosed the chance for the public to
see evidence in the first major trial
scheduled from the war on terrorism.
U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said pros
ecutors had a strong case against Lindh
but wanted to reserve “limited and very
vital resources” for other terrorism cases.
“This is a tough sentence. This is an
appropriate punishment and this case
proves that the criminal justice system
can be an effective tool in the fight
against terrorism,” McNulty said.
Chief defense lawyer James
Brosnahan said Lindh joined the
Taliban because he was a devout
Muslim. He never fired his rifle and
never intended to hurt Americans, the
lawyer said.
“This is not Rambo we’re talking
about here,” Brosnahan said.
Lindh’s mother, Marilyn Walker,
broke down outside the courthouse as
she called him an “honest, kind, hum
ble and a loving son.”
Lindh was set to be tried Aug. 26,
and now will be sentenced Oct. 4.
Monday’s events leaves Zacarias
Moussaoui, the Frenchman charged
with conspiring with the Sept. 1 1
hijackers, as the lone marquee defen
dant awaiting trial on terrorism charges.
His trial is to begin at the end of
September.
Lindh, 21, entered the courtroom
wearing a green prison jumpsuit and
offered a quick smile to his parents,
older brother and younger sister sitting
in the second row.
The judge had planned to hold hear
ings this week on whether Lindh’s
statements to investigators and the
news media in Afghanistan should be
kept out of his trial.
Ellis, who learned of the plea deal
shortly before the hearing began,
opened court by discussing arrange
ments for the hearing before Brosnahan
interjected, “There is a change in plea.”
An hour later, Lindh entered his two
guilty pleas and ended talks that went so
late Sunday that Lindh’s lawyers had to
make special arrangements to return to
his cell so he could sign off on the deal.
President Bush was told of a possi
ble deal last Thursday, administration
officials said.
THE BATTALION
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Woodshop assistant and psychology major, Chad Waller,
trims a piece of wood for the making of Japanese joints in the
woodshop next to the Langford complex. Japanese joinery is
used to piece wood together without the use of nails. The
pieces he makes will be used as test models for a course on
building furniture in the fall.
Stroustrup accepts
endowed chair
By Mariano Castillo
THE BATTALION
Bjarne Stroustrup, the world-
renowned creator of the C++
programming language, will
move his research to Texas
A&M after accepting the
College of Engineering
Endowed Chair in Computer
Science. Stroustrup officially
began the job July 9.
Stroustrup said Vision 2020,
a University-wide blueprint to
make A&M a top 10 public
school, helped lure him to
Aggieland.
“(Vision 2020’s) level of
ambition and its honesty about
weaknesses to be addressed
were among the factors that con
vinced me that Texas A&M was
a place in the process of rapid
progress,” he said. “TAMU is a
place where I can contribute to
serious positive change.”.
His research will encompass
C++, program transformation.
distributed programming, and
the general area of programming
languages, tools and techniques.
See related story on
Page 2
His initial focus, Stroustrup said,
will be on distributed program
ming, where he hopes to make a
contribution.
“More and
more applica
tions involve
many proces
sors and our
tools and tech-
STROUSTRUP
mques
writing
testing
systems
for
and
such
are
not up to the challenges that face
us,” he said. “We need something
that makes programming-distrib
uted systems simpler, safer and
more easily demonstrated to be
See Chair on page 2
Bush School offers
distance education
Study says MBA offers no career advantage
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
ate.
: that if a mad
at the presid
^was"from Business 2.0 magazine’s July
' I e Pen said ;£ 0Ver story “What’s an MBA
ton Chirac coif eal, Y Worth ?” examined two
coini | lew controversial reports from
sf 16 Stanford University
Jjpraduate School of Business
iropean
esurgence in
^ won votei anc ^ the Association to Advance
ive Collegiate Schools of Business,
oth which claim an MBA pro
vides no real advantage in career
advancement.
Dan Naegeli, director of
Graduate Business Career
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Services disagreed and said
MBA’s do give students a jump-
start to their career.
“An MBA pushes you up a
few notches other students
skip,” Naegeli said.
The Lowry Mays College
and Graduate School of
Business, along with other busi
ness schools, require a mini
mum of two years work experi
ence before being admitted into
the program.
Upon receiving an MBA and
reentering the work force, your
success is ultimately based upon
performance, Naegeli said.
“You are ahead of the bache
lor’s degree students,” Naegeli
said. “If you continue to per
form [in the work force], you
are always given the benefit of
the doubt.”
The MBA program at A&M
lasts two years, but will change
to a 16-month program this fall,
he said.
With a bachelor’s degree, a
business student can expect to
have a starting salary in the
$30,000 range. After a mini
mum of two years work experi
ence and an MBA, a student can
expect to make around $74,000
on average, Naegeli said.
Dan Robertson, director of
the MBA program, said if he
were a student and saw the
Business 2.0 article, he would
question the opportunity cost of
paying for graduate school
while not working.
“People who have been
working would temporarily be
giving up income for a degree,”
Robertson said. “I would have to
See MBA on page 2
By Diane Xavier
THE BATTALION
The George Bush School of
Government and Public Service
at Texas A&M will provide
courses online through a new
distance education program that
will allow the opportunity to
learn about world affairs and
international relations via the
World Wide Web beginning in
Fall 2002.
Online course work for a cer
tificate in advanced international
affairs will also be available
beginning this fall.
The online courses will be
delivered through WebCT, an
interactive online classroom,
including communication with
professors, field experts and other
Bush School graduate students.
Students can enroll in the
certificate courses on their own
timetable, said Nancy Small, ■
coordinator of the Distance
Education Program.
Occasionally, guest lectures
by experts in their field may be
held via live online technology
such as a chat room or live
streaming audio/video. All
courses will be interactive,
requiring participants to discuss
issues with one another and with
the professor, but these courses
generally will be asynchronous,
meaning there will be no
required class times.
However, all distance educa
tion courses will be on a 15-
week semester schedule, includ
ing deadlines for written work
and tests.
Small said the school’s cer
tificate program in advanced
international affairs has grown
in popularity and this is the rea
son why the school is currently
implementing the program
online.
See Online on page 2
Undergraduate credit card ownership, debt on the rise
By Ruth Ihde
THE BATTALION
According to a study published in
%il 2002" by the Nellie Mae
Corporation, a leading national
Provider of student loans, the num-
ber of undergraduate students with
Cr edit cards is on the rise.
The study, “Undergraduate
Rodents and Credit Cards: An
^nalysis of Usage Rates and
rends,” analyzes the credit card
behavior of Nellie Mae loan appli
cants during the last calendar year,
bis is the third year the study has
been conducted.
In 1998, credit card usage among
college students was at 67 percent.
n 2001 it jumped to 83 percent, a 24
Percent increase.
The Nellie Mae Corporation ran
domly selected credit reports from
600 undergraduate students ages 18
to 24 that applied for a credit based
loan with Nellie Mae during the
summer and fall of 2001.
Bob Piwonka, director of finan
cial services at Texas A&M said that
typically the students at A&M are
more conservative than at other
institutions, therefore, student debt
at A&M seems to be lower.
He said that there has been a
strong concern about credit card
debt at A&M since the Aggie card
program was partnered with Wells
Fargo Bank in 1998.
A&M made an agreement with
Wells Fargo offering lower credit
limits to students aiming to prevent
students from falling into credit card
debt, he said.
The Nellie Mae study also found
that 54 percent of freshmen students
possess a credit card and 92 percent
of sophomores own at least one
credit card.
“It is interesting to note that
while 54 percent of freshman stu
dents own a credit card, only 23 per
cent have a student loan, (which is)
much less expensive debt that is
often considered to be a positive
investment in one’s future,” said
Nina Prikazsky, vice president of
operations at Nellie Mae.
Piwonka agrees with this senti
ment, said short term loans are great
ly underutilized by students at A&M.
While short term loans are
underused, Piwonka said the rate of
applicants for the Federal Stafford
Loan has remained at a steady rate
See Credit Cards on page 2
College students
with credit cards on the rise
1998 -1 87% of students had at least
one credit card.
2001 -1 83% of students had at least
one credit card.
- 54% of freshman own
a credit card
- 92% of sophomores have
at least one credit card
^ | Average Interest rate
I on credit cards is currently 13%
G iFederal Stafford Loans are at an
! ail-time low of 3.46%
*4%
Increase
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TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION