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Opinion: Texas county may ban books • Page 9
Aggielife: Not your typical beer bash • Page 3
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I Volume 109 • Issue 18 • 10 pages
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
A&M collaborates with Navy for underwater vessel
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
^â– exas A&M collaborated with the
United States Navy to build a prototype
of an autonomous submarine that is
taking the science of engineering to a
new level, said associate professor of
aerospace engineering Dr. Othon
Rediniotis.
^â– he submarine propels itself
through water by moving like a fish. It
is constructed with metal alloys that
remember shapes and is held together
with fish-like vertebrae that contract
and expand as they are heated and
cooled. This allows it to move forward
as the body of the submarine bends and
contracts.
“We (Texas A&M) were involved in
the basic research and development,”
Rediniotis said. “The Navy will decide
how they want to take advantage of this
new technology.”
The submarine will be completely
self-directed and will replace today’s
existing Remotely Operated Vehicles,
(ROVs).
This vessel is part of a new type of
engineering designed to integrate bio
logical mechanisms into man-made
machines. Rediniotis said.
The major benefit from this new
technology is that no ripples can be
seen on the water’s surface above the
submarine, making it superior to sub
marines in use today, he said. A full-
scale version of the submarine could be
as long as 10 to 13 feet and would be
used for underwater recovery missions
or exploration, Rediniotis said.
A&M could collaborate further with
the Navy in order to build the actual
version of the submarine.
Civil engineering major Greg Dykes
said the prototype vehicle is making
use of emerging technology.
“This machine has mechanical parts
that are able to replicate the structure and
motions of a living thing,” Dykes said.
“The possibilities of this type of machine
and its technology seem to be limitless
and full of remarkable potential.”
A&M got involved with the project
in 1997, Rediniotis said. The Navy
detailed its certain specifications and
cost requirements. A&M submitted a
technical proposal and was given
money to start research for building
the prototype. The vessel was com
pleted in 2000.
The cost for the whole project
totaled $500,000, Rediniotis said. But
the main issues in the development
and cost of the project had to do
mostly with resolving technical
issues.
“The machine’s muscles are made
out of shape-memory alloys,”
Rediniotis said. “So one of the central
issues was to figure out how to control
body shape.”
See Submarine on page 2
Multicultural services hosts
third annual Awareness Week
By Lecia Baker
THE BATTALION
The Department of Multicultural Services is
hosting its third annual Awareness Week this week
to familiarize Texas A&M students, faculty and
stall with the programs and services that the
department provides.
The theme for the week is “Celebrating Fifteen
Years of Excellence,” symbolizing the depart
ment’s fifteenth year of operation at A&M.
Megan Paisa, assistant director of the
Department of Multicultural Services, said the
department is working to prepare leaders for a
multicultural world. She said the week will open
the department’s doors to new students, staff and
administrators and make them aware of all the
services the department offers, such as diversity
education and student success programs.
The department’s ultimate goal is to assist the
people of A&M in accepting others’ differences.
Paisa said.
“This is a wonderful campus and we need to
work hard in all areas to learn to better accept peo
ple that are different than ourselves,” she said.
Through the DMS Awareness Week, the depart
ment wants to open up the lines of communication
See Awareness on page 2
A&M task force researches
possible new department
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M is beginning to
build a base for research in child
development issues, as a recently
established task force takes steps
in establishing at A&M what
other universities already have.
The University Children,
Youth and Families (CYF)
Initiative Task Force held its
first seminar on Monday after
noon. The CYF Task Force was
appointed in June to address the
lack of a department of child
development at A&M, said Dr.
Jan Hughes, associate dean for
research in the College of
Education and professor of edu
cational psychology.
Hughes also serves as a co
chair for the task force.
“There is a lot of expertise
related to children, youth and
families within A&M faculty,”
Hughes said. “At the moment
no infrastructure exists, but we
intend to aggressively establish
links across colleges and
departments.”
An evaluation of A&M's
research capabilities in child
development began in the fall of
2001, Hughes said. The provost
asked the dean of education to
identify faculty in fields related
to children, youth and family,
and 54 faculty members first
met and began discussions in
January 2002.
At Monday’s seminar, Vice
President for Research Dr.
Richard Ewing unveiled the
new CYF logo, designed by
graduate architecture student
Carrie Greene.
Ewing said the task force was
created in an effort to bring
together expertise so that people
could talk about issues that have
never before been discussed.
“We want to maximize
research in areas that directly
impact humankind,” Ewing
said. “Federal funding is
increasing (and) there is enor
mous potential for research on
this critical issue at Texas A&M.
We may not be the first, but we
do want to be the best.”
Hughes said students at
A&M will also benefit from
the program from better educa
tional opportunities in child
psychology, child and family
sociology, and research oppor
tunities related to childhood
and the social sciences.
University of Virginia Curry
School of Education professor
and keynote speaker Dr. Robert
Pianta said the issue of institu
tional research affecting the
public and public policy “sits in
the fault lines of our culture.”
“The discourse between the
public and the researchers has
not been worked out yet,” Pianta
said. “It will be a very large role
to fill, to educate Texas about
research on child development
in an informative way.”
Pianta was instrumental in a
large developmental research
program funded by the
National Institutes of Health.
His presentation addressed
numerous issues that faculty
from all related disciplines
might consider. Pianta recom
mended multi-level, long-term
studies to most effectively ana
lyze the current programs.
“You need an interdiscipli
nary approach to address com
plex questions,” Pianta said.
See Department on page 2
Improvements to WebCT allow
students access to more courses
By Eric Ambroso
THE BATTALION
Improvements in the WebCT Internet course
management system at Texas A&M will allow stu
dents to access a greater number of courses and
faculty to offer more information online, said Jan
Richards, assistant director of the Office of
Distance Education.
The WebCT system supported by A&M is an
online, password-protected course template that
gives faculty an automatic place for course material,
grades, homework, discussion boards and e-mail.
Students can use WebCT to communicate with their
professors and other students easily online.
This fall, 230 courses will be active on
WebCT, along with more than 350 sections and
11,500 students, Richards said.
Starting this fall, faculty members and students
will be able to log in to WebCT using their Neo
username and password. Every student and faculty
member is automatically given a Neo account when
they join the University, which is used for registra
tion and official e-mail services. In years past, stu
dents have had to collaborate with their professors
in order to create a username and password when
using WebCT.
Students will simply log in with their preferred
Neo username and go directly to their courses.
Students will use their ID’s and passwords like a
bank account to access their courses.
New features in the system will provide
increased security and easier use for faculty and
students. Allowing users to have predetermined
usernames and passwords will provide increased
security for the WebCT, Richards said.
“Using the Neo usernames and passwords will
provide external authentication to the WebCT,”
she said. “It should be far more secure and easier.”
Faculty members will automatically have their
classroom roster placed in their course listing,
which will allow professors to control access to
their course material without entering each of their
students in separately. This becomes important
when students use WebCT to turn in assignments
and professors post grades.
See WebCT on page 2
WebCT Improvements :
Students will now be able to log in to
WebCT using their Neo username
and password.
WebCT has:
• Over 230 courses active
* More than 350 sections available
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
WebCT
Web Come Toot
Gore: Bush’s Iraq war push makes world more dangerous
■SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A1
Gore harshly criticized President
Bush’s push for war against Iraq, say
ing it has hurt the United States’ stand
ing and could dangerously undermine
the rule of law around the world.
■“After Sept. 11, we had enormous
sympathy, goodwill and support around
the world,” Gore said Monday. “We’ve
squandered that, and in one year we've
replaced that with fear, anxiety and
uncertainty, not at what the terrorists
are going to do but at what we are
going to do.”
In his first major speech on the Iraq
situation, the once and possibly future
Democratic presidential candidate
accused Bush of abandoning the goal of
a world where nations follow laws.
“That concept would be displaced
by the notion that there is no law but the
discretion of the president of the United
States,” he said.
“If other nations assert the same
right, then the rule of law will quickly
be replaced by the reign of fear,” and
any nation that perceives itself threat
ened would feel justified in starting
wars, he said.
Gore also told an enthusiastic
Commonwealth Club crowd he would
decide in December whether to chal
lenge Bush again for the presidency
in 2004.
Gore always has supported over
throwing Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein and was one of the few Senate
Democrats who voted in favor of the
Gulf War resolution after Iraq attacked
Kuwait. He said he felt betrayed by the
first President Bush’s “hasty withdraw
al from the battlefield.”
But like other leading Democrats,
Gore has expressed reservations in
recent months about military action
against Iraq, suggesting the diplomatic
costs would be extremely high.
His speech Monday was much more
critical, warning of ominous and
untold consequences, ranging from a
short-term power vacuum that could
increase the danger of chemical and
biological attacks, to the creation of
legions of enemies angry and fearful
about U.S. domination.
“If we end the war in Iraq the way
we ended the war in Afghanistan, we
could easily be worse off than we are
today,” Gore said.
Gore described his speech as an
effort to lay out an alternative to the
course of action pursued by the Bush
administration.
Even before securing United
Nations support for a multinational war
against Iraq, Bush asked Congress to
approve the use of “all means that he
determines to be appropriate, including
force,” in a unilateral effort to topple
Saddam Hussein.
Gore urged Congress not to give the
president such a broad mandate.
“It needs to be narrowed,” said Gore,
See Gore on page 2