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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