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Sports: A&M chosen for NCAA meet • Page 3
OPINION: A national neighborhood watch • Page 5
TH
)lume 108 • Issue 172 • 6 pages
Bonfire lawsuit assigned to district court
108 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
■ COLLEGE STATION, Texas
(AP) — The first of several
wrongful death lawsuits related
o the 1999 Bonfire collapse at
Texas A&M University that
wfere transferred to Brazos
Ibunty has been assigned to a
late district court.
■ A case originally filed in
Bexar County probate court by
the family of 19-year-old Bryan
McClain, one of 12 Aggies
killed in the Nov. 18, 1999 col
lapse, moved earlier this month
to Bryan, was assigned Monday
to Judge J.D. Langley’s 85th
District Court.
Similar lawsuits filed in
probate courts in Tarrant and
Harris counties, as well as one
filed in Ward County by one of
27 students injured in the acci
dent have also been moved to
Brazos County.
Attorneys for the 60 defen
dants, including A&M officials
and former Bonfire student
leaders, asked that the cases be
transferred to Brazos County,
arguing state law requires the
trials take place where the acci
dent occurred. They also said
trials in other counties would
be too inconvenient for defen
dants who don’t live where the
cases were filed.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the pro
bate court cases have argued that
the law allows survivors to file
suit in the county of residence.
Darrell Keith, who represents
several of the victims’ families,
said his clients can still request
that the trials be moved out of
Brazos County. Two of three
district judges, including
Langley, are A&M graduates.
“Obviously I’m concerned
about pro-Aggie sympathies and
biases that would keep jurors
from being fair and impartial,”
Keith told the Bryan-College
Station Eagle for its Tuesday
editions.
rice
BRIAN RUFF • THE BATTALION
Physics graduate student Joel Means checks a dilution refriger
ator in the engineering and physics lab Tuesday afternoon. The
device cools samples close to absolute zero in order to look at
the materials' properties at low temperatures.
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Beutel makes exceptions for tetanus vaccine
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By Lecia Baker
THE BATTALION
=; The United States is currently experienc
ing a shortage of the tetanus diphtheria (Td)
vaccine, causing Texas A&M’s Beutel
Health Center to waive the vaccine require
ment and turn away some students who
w ant the vaccine.
According to the Centers for Disease
^ontrol and Prevention (CDC), the shortage
tagan in 2000 when two manufacturers,
wyeth Lederle and Baxter Hyland Immuno
racemes, stopped producing the Td vaccine.
jThis left one remaining company, Aventis
Pasteur, to distribute the demanded supply
cross the country.
In the last several months, patients have
ad to fall within a set of standard require-
ents set by the CDC to be eligible for the
accine.
The requirements include people travel-
j mg to a country where risk is high, requiring
Pc vaccine for prophylaxis in wound man
agement, not receiving at least three doses
of vaccine in the past, or pregnant women
who have not received the tetanus vaccine in
the past 10 years.
All routine Td boosters for adolescents
and adults have been delayed during the
shortage.
Despite the low availability of the vac
cine, the number of tetanus cases per year
has not increased.
Beutel has acquired a limited supply to
begin accommodating some students who
are due for the vaccination or simply
desire to have it, said Janet Wickline, head
nurse at Beutel.
“Texas A&M has waived the tetanus
requirements for all students attending the
University in either the summer or fall,”
she said.
Wickline also said most Texas A&M stu
dents have had the Td vaccination within the
last 10 years and are not in any need to
acquire one at this time.
Shirley Costohriz of the Brazos County
Health Department, said the CDC issued a
statement concluding the Td vaccine shortage
had been resolved as of July 17.
Although Aventis Pasteur increased pro
duction of the vaccine to accommodate the
country’s needs, Costohriz said it is impor
tant to remember there is still a shortage.
“Supplies will be taking an undetermined
amount of time to be distributed,” Costohriz
said. “Every provider does not have the vac
cine.”
Although production has increased, the
Td vaccine is becoming available but only in
limited quantities; therefore, all holds and
restrictions that applied to the Td vaccine
during the shortage are remaining in effect
until further notice, she said.
Both Beutel and the Brazos County
Health Department are reserving supplies for
emergencies. All hospitals in the area remain
in the same condition and abide by the same
standards as Beutel and other clinics.
It is very important, especially in hospi
tals, for the supplies to be available in the
need of an emergency. A person of any age
group is susceptible to tetanus without prop
er vaccination, Costohriz said.
Israeli air strike
kills 15 Palestinians
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
(AP) — Palestinians held up the
flag-wrapped body of a two-
month-old baby, as tens of thou
sands marched Tuesday to bury
their dead and Hamas vowed
revenge after an Israeli air strike
killed a top militant leader and 14
others, including nine children.
President Bush called the
Israeli missile strike “heavy-
handed,” joining other world
leaders in sharp criticism of the
attack, which leveled an apart
ment building and destroyed
other nearby buildings in a
crowded neighborhood of Gaza
City overnight.
In a rare U.S. criticism of
Israel, White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer said, “this heavy-
handed action does not con
tribute to peace.” The office of
U.S. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said “Israel has the legal
and moral responsibility to take
all measures to avoid the loss of
innocent life.”
The attack killed Salah
Shehadeh, 48, a founder and the
top commander of Hamas’ mili
tary wing, known as Izzadine el-
Israel kills Hamas
top commander
Hamas leader
Salah
Shehadeh and
at least 14 other
Palestinians
were killed in an
Israeli air attack
in Gaza City
early Tuesday.
Salah Shehadeh
Mediterranean
Sea
Hamas leader
and twelve
others killed
in air strike.
Jerusa:
■a “ aCi ^
s
Y ISRAEL
EGYPT'
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
Qassam, the group said. Israel
said Shehadeh was linked to the
* Islamic militant group’s deadliest
suicide bombings, including a
March attack at a Natanya hotel
that killed 29, and a June 2001
disco bombing that killed 21.
A&M supports high
speed railway study
By Ruth Ihde
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M University
recently joined Brazos County
and the cities of Bryan and
College Station in an agreement
to support an ongoing study of a
high-speed railway going
through College Station.
The railway, called the
Trans Texas Corridor, is under
the Texas Transportation
Enhancement Act, also known
as T21, will create safe high
ways and more efficient modes
of transportation for the state
of Texas. The corridor will be
4,000 miles in length and
approximately 10,000 feet in
width.
This June, Mayor Ron Silvia
and other College Station City
Council members went to
Washington, D.C. in order to
discuss transportation funds for
the city. Initially, Bryan and
College Station were not includ
ed in the plans for the Trans
Texas Corridor. Representatives
said College Station was able to
receive recognition by other
states and cities about its trans
portation and funding needs.
Kelley Cole, public commu
nications and marketing director
for College Station, said the con
tract to conduct the study ran out
at the end of June, and the only
difference now is the city is con
tinuing this study with the com
bined forces of Bryan, the
Brazos County and Texas A&M.
Chuck Sippial, vice president
of administration at Texas
A&M, said the University has
agreed to pay one-fourth of the
cost to continue the effort to
have College Station included in
the Trans Texas Corridor plans.
All the agencies involved had
to go before its commissioners
in order to be approved, Sippial
said, and as far as he knows, all
of them have been approved.
A&M will provide its sup
port through the City of College
Station, he said.
Since the Transportation Act
is up for reauthorization in one
year, he said the study should be
completed within that period,
and will give College Station
See Railway on page 2
—1 Graduation
* ; I By Ruth Ihde
THE BATTALION
or
’S /
■ — —
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lo Cover
-1999
I, Y ac * uat i° n ra tes among
I athletes, especially
■ootball players, have risen c
caiiy compared to a 10-yea
predominately low rate
leial graduation perce
1 1 be announced in the N
an nual report in September.
According to the reg
lce , A&M athletes are si
2 n ° vera ll improvement
/ graduation rate of 64 p
tu 111 Percent in 2001.
he A&M football gra<
rates among
rate has risen to 59 percent, a 23
percent increase from last year, the
largest increase among all A&M
sports.
With the NCAA’s annual report,
A&M officials will be able to com
pare graduation rates with other
Big 12 schools.
A&M head football coach R.C.
Slocum expressed caution in read
ing too much into the numbers.
“The numbers are accurate, but
it doesn’t really portray what is
going on,” he said. They aren t
graduating any better. We are just
graduating them sooner.”
Last year, A&M was tied with
A&M football players up from 2001 numbers
the University of Colorado for 9th
in the conference at 36 percent.
“No matter how good of a play
er you are, in some point in your
life you will no longer be a football
player,” Slocum said. “So, in order
of relative importance the academ
ics should get a whole lot more
attention than the football.”
According to the NCAA, stu
dent-athletes have nationally out
performed the general student body
by one to two percent. However,
last year’s report showed A&M stu
dent-athletes were behind the gen
eral A&M student body by 17 per
cent. The margin will most likely
be narrowed with the 2002 overall
graduation rate of 64 percent.
Associate Athletic Director for
Academics Stephen McDonnell
said incoming student-athletes have
made their degrees a real focus.
“I hope this increase will be
more of the norm rather than the
exception,” McDonnell said.
The NCAA graduation rate is
based on the number of student-ath
letes who graduate in six years’
however, only those student-athletes
receiving financial aid are included.
This can produce skewed
See Graduation on page 2
A&M athletic graduation
rates Increase In 2002
•81% of nil atttletee graduated
In a 10-year window
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION