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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2002)
natii E BATTALli "ssur us on prevenfo. lyperbaric test ie first trimeste; lif y 93 perceni sure complicat!. develop syste- iven low dose, the 16th week wve yet to undr I duplicate cl© findings, '•ping a lot of [e regnancy,"saidi ncellor for he^ ississippi Med >ry Sports: Football offense bounces back • Page 1 B Opinion: Terrorist threats shouldn't be taken lightly • Page 5B t'xji? o a nr^r a t inur Irlli r>Al 1AL1UJN Volume 109 • Issue 22 • 14 pages www.thebatt.com Monday, September 30, 2002 Bennett approved despite faculty concerns By Sarah Szuminski THE BATTALION Improving the lives of Texans and advancing the frontiers of engineering research are goals of the newly appointed vice chancellor for engineer ing, said Dr. G. Kemble Bennett. The Texas A&M Board of Regents officially named Bennett for the position at its meeting Friday, despite a recent upset in the engineering faculty over the recommendation of Bennett as the finalist for the position. Some faculty and members of the search advi sory committee said they were frustrated by University President Dr. Robert M. Gates and Chancellor Howard Graves’ rec ommendation, who they said ignored the committee and fac ulty’s opinion. “Dr. Bennett has demon strated a keen understanding of the issues facing engineering today,” Chairman of the Board Erie Nye said in an A&M press release. “He is a strong aca demic professional, a highly motivated leader and a fine person.” As vice chancellor for engineering, Bennett BENNETT will serve as director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and dean of Texas A&M University’s Dwight Look College of Engineering. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to guide engineering education and research in the system, and am extremely eager to work with the out standing faculty and staff who are engaged in this important work,” Bennett said in a press release. Bennett has served as head of A&M’s indus trial engineering department and as associate dean of engineering since arriving at A&M in 1986. He has been director of the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) since 1992 and was* previously head of industrial and management systems engineering at the University of South Florida. Bennett received a bachelor’s degree in math ematics from Florida State University, a master’s degree in engineering mathematics from San Jose State University and a doctorate in industrial engineering from Texas Tech University. He replaces Dr. C. Roland Haden, who stepped down from the position Aug. 31. Tom Morley was named as interim director of TEEX to replace Bennett, and a search advisory committee will be formed to identify and recom mend candidates for the permanent position. Rolling along RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION Twelve-year-old College Station little league soccer player Chris Schulze pushes an inner tube in the Hershey Kiss Tube Race at the Aggie Soccer Complex Sunday night. The race was part of the halftime show for the women's soccer game and the winner received a bag of Hershey Kisses. One hour of exercise, more fiber needed Hispanic high school students trail in test scores despite improvements By Sarah Darr THE BATTALION Americans should get at least an hour of daily physical activity and increase their daily fiber intake, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Active people maintain their body mass index, which is one’s height to weight ratio, more than non-active peo ple, said professor of nutrition Dr. Joanne Lupton. “We’ve become an obese population and it is becoming a national problem,” Lupton said. “You don’t have to go to the gym an hour everyday, but you do have to be active.” Physical activity can include climbing stairs, playing golf, gardening, or any thing equivalent to walking at a rate of four miles per hour for an hour. The goal is for Americans to be more active, and not sit around watching tele vision, or playing on the computer, Lupton said. It has to be a priority, something you commit to doing every day, Lupton said. If you enjoy jogging, aerobics or something more strenuous, you can cut that hour of activity down to about half an hour a day, she added. Pedro Garcia, a senior industrial engi neering major, said getting an hour of daily activity would not be too difficult, especially when students walk around campus everyday. “It’s not too bad to find that time, but I feel that thirty minutes is enough,” he said. Other students think that an hour of physical activity a day is unrealistic with their busy schedules. “It is hard to plan to exercise when you go to school and work full time,” said senior marketing major Hillary Cawley. “I usually end up working oul late at night.” Others students said they think if there is time to party then there could also be extra time to exercise if one has good time management. “I know a lot of people who do work out an hour a day, so it is possible,” sen ior computer science major Mark Albright said. The report also states that Americans are not getting enough fiber in their diets. Men under 50 should get 38 grams of total fiber a day, and women under 50 should get 25 grams of total fiber a day, according to the report. Total fiber is a combination of functional fiber, which are non digestible carbohydrates that are beneficial for humans, and dietary fiber, which are non-digestible carbohydrates and lignin that come from plants, according to the report. FDA labels all fibers on nutrition panels as dietary fiber, but it can actually be count ed as total fiber, Lupton said. Many students believe their diet has a lot to do with their health, yet do not know how much fiber they consume each day. “Diet is definitely the most important part of your health, but I have no idea about my fiber intake,” Cawley said. Some foods high in fiber include whole wheat bread, brown rice, and cereal with three grams of fiber or more. Raspberries, blackberries, apples and red beans are also high in fiber, Lupton said. There are benefits to eating fiber such as the delayed digestion of food which can make one feel fuller longer, she said. Dr. Lupton will give a presentation on exercise and nutrition Tuesday at 4 p.m. in room 108 of the biochemistry building. By Rob Phillips the battalion Hispanic high school students in exas have significantly improved scores on the Texas Academic Assessment Skills (TAAS) test but continue to trail white students, according to a report released by the exas Educational Excellence Project (TEEP). According to the report, the aver- ?nnf aSS rate ^ OI Hispanic students in was 75.6 percent, a significant •ncrease from the 41.5 percent pass rate a decade ago. Hispanic students’ scoies trail those of white students by approximately 15 percent. Dr. Robert D. Wrinkle, a TEEP csearcher and a political science pro- f ss °r at the University of Texas Pan Tierican, said every school district n If state st Hl has work to do. It is certainly not what it should ° e ’ Wrinkle said. “While they’ve arrowed the gap between Anglos and Latinos, there’s still a pretty big gap remaining.” TEEP’s report is based on a set of evaluations from 1998-2001 that looked at how Hispanics were being educated in Texas. The main purpose of the project is to research and rec ommend how to improve the quality of education in Texas high schools, said Dr. Kenneth Meier, TEEP direc tor and political science professor at Texas A&M. TEEP is the only group that specif ically studies how Texas schools are working with disadvantaged students, Meier said. TEEP ranks the districts based on a district’s predicted performance compared to its actual performance. TEEP predicts a district’s perform ance based on factors such as the dis trict’s level of operating expendi tures, percent of low-income stu dents, poverty level, education level of Hispanics and various educational policies. Nick Theobald, associate researcher for TEEP, said the report’s goal is to identify schools that have excelled at educating Hispanic stu dents and to use their methods for the districts that are struggling. Bangs ISD, ranked by the report as the best school district for Hispanic students, cited strong community sup port and a strong English as a Second Language program as contributors to its success. Ysleta ISD, a much larger district, was ranked in the top 25 school dis tricts for educating Hispanic students. The district’s accomplishments could be credited to its expectation of stu dents to graduate as bilingual regard less of native language, Theobold said. Meier recommends “high stan dards, early intervention, never changing curriculum and a lot of hard work” for the districts needing improvement. He said, however, that progress is not likely to occur overnight. Residence Life faces cuts due to deficit By Ruth Ihde THE BATTALION Texas A&M’s Department of Residence Life, which is held afloat by room rent charged to on-campus resi dents, is facing a $44,000 deficit this year. With plans for Fowler Hall to close for renovations, leaving 240 rooms empty, and with higher costs for mainte nance, cable service and staff salaries, the small deficit is expected, said Director of Residence Life Ron Sasse. The department has not seen a budget shortfall in recent years, Sasse said. The deficit means Residence Life will have to cut services and increase some of the charges for living on campus next year, Sasse said. If rates change, students will have a chance to voice their opinion and offer suggestions at resident’s forums in the spring. The estimated budget this fiscal year is $30,241,432 and the estimated expens es are $30,286,402. The department pre pares the budget in the beginning of the spring semester and starts gathering information for an estimated budget in November. Since the budget and infor mation are put together so far in advance. Residence Life Associate Director Jerry Smith said things change and more cur rent information can appear which can cause the department to come up over or under the budget for the next year. The only revenue Residence Life accumulates is from the rent that students are charged and the conferences that are held on campus. All utilities, standard cable, Ethernet and basic telephone serv ice is included in the rent for the residence halls. Sasse said none of the new student fees that are being charged this year make their way into Residence Life’s pocket. Smith said the department should be breaking even again by January. Beat the hell outta stress day’ helps students feel relieved By Sara Runnels the battalion D ^° n day is “Beat the Hell Outta Stress ay ’ designed to help students take the ess out of their semester and get acquaint- with Student Counseling Services. Students, especially at this time of s • ar ’ are beginning to hit the stress wall,” out Andy Smith, associate director of StiH 630 * 1, consu l tat ion and training at uctent Counseling Services. “Most stu nts have received their tests back and eve rything has hit reality.” Smith said the biggest issue that bring students to SCS is stress. “We wanted to do something early in the year to let students know that Student Counseling Services is here to help them,” said Smith, the overall coordinator for the event. The event is designed for anyone at Texas A&M, but Smith said freshmen usu ally have the most stress as they adjust to college life. “In high school, things were much more structured and you had someone looking over your shoulder all the time. Here your support systems are different,” Smith said. “You are facing new challenges, new ideas, new relationships and learning how to manage time.” Stress varies for different students, said Dr. Ann Reed, a physician at the A.R Beutel Health Center. Everyone is under stress at some point or another, but some people deal with it better than others, Reed said. “Being in engineering gives you such an enormous amount of work,” said Clint See Stress on page 2A Beat the Hell Outta • Monday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m • Rudder fountain an • Free masaagea, computer rubber duck races, coloring and creativity center TRAVIS SWENSON THE BATTALION
