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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2002)
6 Wednesday, July 24, 2002 THE BATTal; Law, graduate school applications soar amid weak markei A i PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Law school applications are up dramatically in the biggest rise in at least two decades, and business schools and other graduate programs are also seeing an increase as students decide to stay in class rather than take their chances in a shaky job market. It’s a big difference from late 1990s, when students skipped graduate school for high-paying jobs and big signing bonuses at dot-coms. “With the way the economy is, there’s really nothing I can do right now except go to graduate school and hope that in another three or four years some thing will change,” said Brett Tishler, 21, who is entering his senior year at Temple University and applying to law school. Law school applications are up 17.9 percent for 2002-03, the biggest spike in more than 20 years, according to the Law School Admission Council. As of July 5, the council counted 88,418 applications nationwide, compared with 74,994 at the same time last year. A record 2,914 applications poured into the University of Connecticut law school in Hartford, up 46 percent from the previous year. The school expects to enroll about 240 people, up from the usual 210. “It got very crazy,” said admissions director Karen DeMeola. “Any given applicant could be a perfectly good attorney, or a great attorney, but there’s just no room at the inn.” Columbia University’s business school received 7,400 applications this year, up about 26 percent. Some 1,700 applied to the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate school of edu cation, a 38 percent increase. “There might be a little bit of a dot com backlash,” said Tom Kecskemethy, associate dean of the education school at Penn. “Graduate education tends to be a haven for students when you’re choosing between a lousy job market and the prospect of increasing your education, even if there is a price tag attached.” In a spring survey of 415 members by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies estimated they would hire 36.4 percent fewer graduating seniors this year than last. Starting salaries also are down. Computer science graduates saw their offers drop 5.9 percent to $49,957, slid ing under $50,000 for the first time since the fall of 2000. Undergraduate psychology majors saw their offers fall 12.8 percent to $26,456, according to the association. Medical school applications have been falling since 1996, and interest remains low. Experts said those num bers may take longer to rebound in a slow economy. Most students cannot decide on the spur of the moment to go to medical school; they need a premed education as undergraduates. Med school applications climbed from 37,402 in 1992 to 46,965 in 1996 before starting sliding to 34,859 in Volume 2001, a drop-off attributed to the dens of managed care and the money to be made in business, ted ogy and other fields. The 2002 ti, are not yet available. “It may be bottoming out. That impression we have,” said Dr. f Cohen, president of the Associate American Medical Colleges. Stacy Heenan, a 26-year-old n producer in Philadelphia, will stan school next month at Temple, w| applications soared 32 percent year. The Sept. 1 1 attacks conviit her it was time to get moving. “It gave me the sense that liftR”defendai short, and you’ve got to make the [ ms 0 f the happen — follow your dreams-a: US Di you can,” Heenan said. | ent ' rlllin , Bity appliei I FORT \N federal jut I&M Univ< HOWDY AGS! Volunteer NOW for Freshmen Welcome Day! Wednesday, August 28, 2002 Volunteers are needed in all campus residence hall areas to help unload cars, carry things to rooms, and assist parents. Get a free t- shirt to wear on Welcome Day, and help welcome the Class of ’06! For information and an application (due Friday Aug. 9), visit reslife.tamu.edu contact Residence Life at 862-3158 or email housing@tamu.edu. 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Revleed «/2O/02 1 —• f •Raairtollon* Apply -Phaae I Only Office Hours: 0-6 Ivfon-Fri 1.0-5 Sat 1.-5 Sun 1NG UNIVERSITY ( o M t j i i t ( It M i d t n t t i 979/696-5711 1 • lie claims. Enron legal tab growinfc;.;; HOUSTON (AP) — An investigation of fallen energy trading giant Enron Corp.’s financial meltdown, ordered by the court overseeing its bank ruptcy reorganization, includes work by more than 50 lawyers that is adding to millions of dol lars in monthly fees, according to documents released Monday. The records show that the Atlanta-based examiner in Enron’s bankruptcy submitted bills totaling $1.9 million in professional fees and expenses for work between May 28 and June 30. Examiner Neal Batson’s bills include work by 79 employees at Batson’s firm, Alston & Bird, who are preparing an initial report on the causes of Enron’s demise, particularly its compli cated financial partnerships. Billings by the examiner indicate that 15 of the lawyers worked at least 100 hours on the Enron case in June. The docu ments show that another 26 lawyers and paralegals spent at least one-quarter of their time on the investigation. Batson, at $546.70 an hour, had the highest billing rate for the firm’s participating lawyers. Enron’s total professional fee bill was raised to at least $25 million per month with the examiner’s expenses. Total fees, experts say, could exceed $400 million. The Alston & Bird report, due to the bankruptcy court by mid-September, may provide the clearest picture yet of the transactions and is expected to help determine who creditors of Enron should sue for the compa ny’s downturn. Enron has so far paid the lawyers out of proceeds fet- day-to-day business and ail I sales, and has not needed; draw upon a $250 millionb of credit. Batson, in additions: power to compel testimony,c waive Enron’s attorney-efe privilege to interview law™ including Vinson & Elkins.L law firm advised the compiv when it was creating someoi partnerships. Earlier, several employees Houston-based Enron cancel::; meetings with a bankrupt;'; examiner after court-appoino attorneys advised them again/ discussing company finances, f U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Artie ► Gonzalez has ruled that Enn- could not pay a Washington! D.C.-based law firm to advise employees while being ques tioned by the examiner. San Francisco will ask voters should begin growing marijuana SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Frustrated by the government's determination to shut down medical marijuana clubs, San Fraricisco'is thinking about growing its own. The Board of Supervisors voted late Monday to put a measure on the November ballot that would have city officials explore the possibility of grow ing marijuana on publicly owned lots and distrib uting it to ill patients. Supporters said the program could double as job training for the unem ployed. “I don’t think it would be all that dramatic a ven ture,” said Supervisor Mark Leno, who pro posed the idea with three colleagues. California was the first state to approve the use of marijuana for medical ailments, in 1996. San Francisco already issues medical marijuana use cards to patients who have a doctor’s permis sion. Police have refused to participate in any raids and last year city leaders declared San Francisco a sanctuary for medical cannabis use. Leno said the city health department or another agency could distribute city-grown pot. He said he drafted the proposal because the Drug Enforcement Administration remains determined to close down medical marijuana clubs across California. u Unless Congress changes the law and makes marijuana a legal substance, then we have to do our job and enforce the law, whether or not it’s popular. — Richard Meyer DEA spokesman When DEA Administrator Asa spoke here in February, Leno was protesting ^ front with a bullhorn. “If the federal government is going to conii® to harass and shut down these clubs, then I th® it’s the city’s responsibility to take action, » said. “If 60 or 70 percent of voters say ye s ’ * supervisors would be on very solid ground know ing that voters would be with us.” Cultivating, possessing and distributing mar. juana are illegal underlet eral law. DEA spokesim Richard Meyer said if Sa Francisco began grown-) marijuana, it could expect crackdown. “Unless Congre changes the law and mw marijuana a legal su stance, then we have to our job and enforce the a* whether or not it’s popu® he said. .. San Francisco Distn Attorney Terence Halnf who has supported medical marijuana clubs." unavailable for comment Tuesday. Medical marijuana advocates lauded the measure. . ., “The real fight we’ve been having is distn ■ tion,” said Wayne Justmann, who’s been HI r itive for more than 15 years, carries the first issued ID card and operates one Francisco’s 1 1 remaining pot clubs. Texas A& C of St Bx Texas Tim Cas him that ters. Afte coaching mater, th Cass is i he consic chapters He ho with an f “It’s i campus our goa champic cult for dition a jCfT Presidential approval ratings drop into 60s WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush’s job approval ratings dipped into the 60s this week, dragged down by worries about the stock market and the economy after nearly a year of sky-high post-Sept. 11 ratings. A bit of a fade was inevitable, analysts said. “One way to put it is that the law of gravity wasn’t repealed,” said political scientist David Rohde of Michigan State University. Bush’s ratings had hovered just above 70 percent in most polls for the past few months. Now a Newsweek poll shows his job approval at 65 percent. He’s at 67 percent in an Ipsos- Reid poll done for the Cook Political Report and in an NBC- Wall Street Journal poll. “There’s been unrelieved bad news for the past several weeks,” said Thomas Riehle, president of Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs, “so a lot of what’s happened has occurred in the weeks from the end of June until today.” The timing of Bush’s return to a more normal — though still high — rating was predicted months ago by Matthew Dowd, pollster for the Republican National Committee. Dowd sent a message to Republican activists during the spring predicting the president’s rating “should return to a new normal” — possibly in the 60s — by the end of July, if histori cal patterns proved true. Republican strategist Rich Galen said the current polls aren’t that important but the trend over the next few months will be. Galen said what will matter politically in an election year is “if these approval ratings are less than the high 60s or mid 60s in late October and November.” Bush’s ratings soared to 90 percent and stayed high for an extraordinary period “because the war on terrorism was going pretty well as far as people could tell,” political scientist Rohde said. NEWS IN BRIEF hemical leak kift least 80,000 fi^ JRBANA, III. (AP) ' A ! ist 80,000 fish were km len workers cleen'fjf* , iler at the Um v ® rslt Y i -iois flushed toxic level o imonia into the Ur Tver system. , . he fish were found alo 10-mile stretch of a k River tributary in ce iois. It took more tn iek to count the bodi ; fish. children found i trunk of car iEIZER, Ore. (AP) ' ? ults were charged v/ kless endangerment a ir children were left ' ^ : trunk of an overcrow for 30 minutes, P°^ ce ( *L •assengers said IbeV .^ tof room in the car wh { Tied 12 people, Sgt ^ hns said. 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