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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
Aggielife: Posh Pads • Page 3A Opinion: Baseball made right decision • Page 5B IM EKWi 1 he b.ai mir 'TUI7 T> A HP HP A I IfXT'J 1 rlJi 15AI IAL1UJN Join me 109 • Issue 6 • 14 pages 109 Years Serving Texas A&M University www.thebatt.coni Friday, September 6, 2002 [Task forces look at student access to majors By Melissa Sullivan THE BATTALION I An administrative task force aimed It helping more students get into their itiajor of choice is taking the first step toward altering admission require- lients. Meetings began this week for task forces focusing on academic limita tions and student-athlete concerns, former Provost and Executive Vice sident Ronald Douglas, along with »ociate Provost Dr. Mark Weichold. began looking into the issue this spring and summer. Weichold said, the idea is to simplify the process of transferring students out of the general studies pro gram and other unwanted majors. “We want to make the process easi er.” Weichold said. “We were seeing more and more students having diffi culty trying to get into the majors they wanted and would complain to me or to the dean of their college.” An imperative of the University’s Vision 2020 plan is to improve the undergraduate experience. Right now. that imperative is stuck in a holding pattern the task force wants to help stu dents get out of, Weichold said. The academic access task force con sists of two subcommittees, which are just beginning their work, Weichold said. One committee will look at admit tance barriers for certain colleges, such as required grade point ratios, number of hours a student must have to enter a major and required courses. Another committee will compile a list of univer sities in the area to compare A&M’s policies with. Before A&M can evalu ate and alter the access its students have to certain popular majors, this subcom mittee will find out what other major universities do in similar situations. There just aren’t enough seats in architecture classes to admit every stu dent who wants to be an architecture major, said Mardelle Shepley, associate dean for the College of Architecture. “When we assign classes we have to have a place for each student to sit, lit erally,” Shepley said. “Compared to the Colleges of Business and Engineering, we are pretty small. The number of those who are accepted changes from semester to semester.” Architecture has 140 new freshmen enrolled this fall. Most of those fresh men were in the top ten percent of their high school class and have high scores on the SAT, Shepley said. A student wanting to transfer into architecture from another university needs to have a GPR above a 3.0, she See Task Forces on page 2 enators sent for raining in diversity Floriculture uis a ist expert nr c ig miradsCft cs and otiw f mpresswt we ms “that » j 1c in all a*£ T rack ?ster: era Castano sity prof e "j he protests " sentiment ve s to :he r.. he st By Brian Harrison THE BATTALION The Student Senate pproved a plan this week to nsure all members of student overnment are trained in diversity. Senators say all com mittee members will be made aware of the value of every individual, regardless of race, religion or place of origin. Senate Speaker Brooks Landgraf. a senior political sci ence major, said training will involve a four-step program being integrated into every committee. The senate has yet to decide when and exactly how the training will occur. Included in the bill is a requirement for all future SGA committee applications to include the “Bold Promise to Diversity,” which says student government “recognizes and values the distinct contribu tions each person makes.” Pablo Rodriguez, the sen ate’s vice president for diversi ty and a junior speech commu nications major, said this is an effective way to introduce the concept of diversity. “This is a good, proactive way to show an organizational commitment to addressing diversity,” Rodriguez said. The bill passed by a margin of one vote and was not with out its share of opponents. Most vocal was John Mathews, a sophomore general studies major. He said diversity training would only put race, and not qualifications or abili ties, in the front of people's minds. “This is another case of political correctness gone amuck,” Matthews said. “They gave no specific means by which to accomplish their goals, and 1 don't know if there is even any legal way for them to do it.” Rodriguez is authoring a survey to gather data that describes the demographic breakdown of student govern ment. “Diversity is not about meeting numbers, but about respecting each and every per son in our community,” he said. In other business, the Senate approved a bill support ing the efforts of the Fall Activities Council. Fall Activites Council seeks to pro mote unity among the student body and perpetuate traditions at Texas A&M during the fall semester, when students used to be involved in building Aggie Bonfire. Also, Elizabeth Sala^kwas elected Academic Whq^and Lucy Huerca was elected Residency Whip. Student group keeps plans for bonfire under wraps By Rolando Garcia THE BATTALION A group hoping to build an off-campus bon fire this fall made its public debut Thursday, but members are keeping the details of their plans under wraps for now as they try to raise $100,000 for the project. About 100 students gathered in the parking lot outside Hurricane Harry’s to listen to a pres entation from a group calling itself the Unity Project, which is not affiliated with Texas A&M. Luke Cheatham, the organization’s leader and a senior civil engineering major, said the group plans to hold a public bonfire that will be open to all Aggies who want to participate. “Students are tired of seeing this void every fall, and we need to fill that void with Bonfire,” Cheatham said. “We need the leadership and camraderie that Bonfire helps to build.” Safety will be the top priority, Cheatham said, and participants will have to undergo safe ty training, as well as more extensive training for students in leadership roles. Professional safety experts will oversee the project, and med ical emergency personnel and security will also be on hand at the work site. Students will cut the logs and burn the stack, but the logs will be piled with machinery. There will be zero tolerance for alcohol, Cheatham added. Planning is underway and land has been selected, Cheatham said. He declined to release any details. Following a brief sales pitch, the group made an urgent plea for money and said it needs 2,000 Aggies to donate $50 each to have sufficient funds for the project. Cheatham said the goal is to raise the money in a week, but that no dead line for deciding whether to move forward has been set. Students at the rally said they want a bonfire this fall, and are willing to give the Unity Project a chance. “Bonfire represents the best of the Aggie spirit, and we want to see it burn,” said Patrick Vinas, a sophomore computer science major. While eager to participate in building a bon fire, Vinas said he was not quite sure about kick ing in $50. William Benson, a senior accounting major, said he supported building an off-campus bon fire, but also was not sure if he would donate $50 to make the make the project a reality. “Its a great thing what they’re trying to do, but I'll have to take some time and think about it,” Benson said. Former A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen cancelled plans for a 2002 Bonfire, citing lia bility and cost issues. Cheatham said the Unity Project has taken care of liability issues, but would not elaborate. He added that the group had already secured some funding and support, but was not yet ready to release that information or tell the number of students participating in the group. The group is considering becoming a limited liability corporation. Cheatham expressed concern that the University would try to intimidate and discour- See Unity Project on page 2 Sophomore horticulture major Joanne Barker cleans up a group of pink Perennial Hibiscus RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION flowers in the Cashion area of the horticul ture gardens in College Station. Memorial open for anniversary By Jeremy Osborne THE BATTALION A monument memorializing the students who were killed and injured in the 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse should be open by Nov. 18, 2004, the fifth anniversary of the collapse. “I’m glad we will finally have something that celebrates the memory of those who spent so much of their time and effort on Bonfire,” said Lindsay Leach, a senior interna tional studies major. “Many Aggies have held their personal memorials, but now we will have something to share.” The A&M System Board of Regents appropriated $550,000 for costs of developing the Bonfire Memorial. The total cost of the proj ect sits around $5 million, said Dr. Wynn Rosser, assistant vice president of student affairs. The design concept phase began with the College of Architecture’s competition for designs and concluded with the Bonfire Memorial Committee selecting the finalist, Robert L. Shemwell. Philip E. Rolling, College of Architecture communication specialist, said the col lege is now effectively out of the process. The preliminary design features 12 stone portals, See Bonfire on page 2 Bonfire Memorial Total cost near $5 million $550,000 comes from A&M Construction should begin Fall 2003 Memorial expected to open by November 18, 2004 Institute for Applied Creativity offers a chance for innovation By Sarah Darr THE BATTALION A new director and staff have been named to the Institute for Applied Creativity, A&M’s newest outlet for cre ative thinking. The institute will offer cours es dealing with creativity in all areas of education and will be a place where students can find information about creativity courses and the professors who teach these courses. “Students will interact with experts and scholars known for their research and applications of creative thinking in real-life settings,” said Jane Close Conoley, dean of the College of Education. “The institute will expand the current core of loosely aligned creativity cours es into an undergraduate and graduate curriculum allowing Texas A&M students to become the creators and innovators of tomorrow.” Now that the director staff is in place, partnerships will eventually be formed to give students the opportunity to work with local schools, governments, non-profit organizations, and business es, Conoley said Franz B. Ehrhardt is executive director, and Rodney Hill of the Department of Architecture was HILL named director of University partnerships. Dr. Joyce Juntune of the Department of Educational Psychology will serve on the director staff also, as director of educational part nerships. Ehrhardt will serve on a pro bono basis during the beginning stages of the institute, Conoley said. Ehrhardt will be in charge of developing external partner ships and securing long-term funding for the Institute for Applied Creativity. Ehrhardt is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology, and he is a member of the Board of Directors for the International Research Exchange (IREX) as well as a past director of the American Creativity Association. “We can put A&M on the map in a dominant position as far as supporting applied cre ativity with this institute,” Ehrhardt said. “I am looking forward to getting directly involved with the institute, help get it rolling, and making it a real-life institute.” Hill will coordinate and expand undergraduate and grad uate courses in creativity and innovation. He will also be responsible for enlisting partici pation from all colleges in the institute’s activities, including the A&M System agencies. The institute, which will be part of the College of Education, See Creativity on page 2
