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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2002)
AGCliUFiJ My big fake Greek fraternity • Page 3A Opinion: Stem cell research given a chance • Page 5B THE BATTALION Volume 109 • Issue 27 • 10 pages www.thebatt.com Tuesday, October 8, 2002 Computer error causes faulty election results By Sarah Walch THE BATTALION The results announced in last veek’s first round of freshman ilections were tallied incorrect- y by the computer program lesigned to count votes, leaving me student who thought he was jresident out of the running. Three students who were told ihey were freshmen senators were also victims of the com puter glitch, which was correct- :d on Friday after the election lommission took a second look at the number of voters who abstained from voting in each of the races. 1 he revised results mean that Venton C. Jones is not the presi dential winner. Instead, two other candidates will compete in the runoff election for president this Wednesday and Thursday: James Lloyd, a freshman bio medical sciences major and Grant Soderberg, a freshman business major. In freshman senator race results, Kerri Ward, Jerred Crumley and Aaron Boudreau will be serving instead of Matthew Luensmann, Tucker Redding, and Askia M. Toure. Jordan Nalle will still be serving as senator. The computer program that was run through Measurement and Research Services was missing a line of code, said Yui- Sing Fann, systems analyst. The first candidate on the list, Jones, in the case of the presidential candidates, benefited from the computer error, Fann said. The problem counted 57 per cent of the votes for president as abstentions. With those numbers tallied back in, the true results gave candidates in every race more votes. The senators and president were the only races affected by the increase in votes. “There are things that send triggers off in our heads when we review results,” said Bobby Tucker, adviser to the election commission. “It is unusual but not impossible for one candidate to win the office of president when there are seven candidates. “The number of abstentions in each race was dramatically higher than expected ” he added. ’That’s when we realized there See Error on page 2A EsfClass of 2006 President • Computer glitch gave erroneous yf •fyf' |yf ttyf miual results *"• jf Initial report True result* Number of voter* 795 795 Number of abHtention* 452 91 Vote* fbr Venton Jones 189 74 Vote* fbr Grant Soderberg 30 100 42 250 4 • Soderberjif and Uoyd wUl compete in a nm*off thin Wedumtay and Thursday .Sowrt'tM TAMU Election Comniision TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION Very glassy Quint Foster of Foster Glass fits together various stained glass segments before soldering. Foster has been making JOHN C. LIVAS ♦ THE BATTALION stained glass windows for churches across the state for seven years at his Bryan location. MBA test developed to confirm skills By Jeremy Osborne the battalion Proponents of a new certification exam (Mr aStCrS ® us ' ness Administration 1 BA) students say they want the test to similar to the bar exam law students must pass before they can practice. Ihe CMBA, developed by a faculty ember at the University of North arolina at Greensboro, will be offered ext s P r ing to students in MBA programs ctoss the nation. Developer W. Michael e ane and Dr. Bern Beatty, director of dpi nternat i° na l Certification Institute )> created the test hoping it will c °me a standard for corporations hiring b usiness graduates. to I e ^ ane an< ^ Beatty developed the test sp,,, Playing field for students in se cond-tier programs. MBA 1 b ecame dear to us that MBA’s and employers needed an objective asurement tool for differentiation — a tool to confirm that the basic business skills expected of MBA have been acquired,” Beatty said. Reaction to the exam by academia has been mixed. “When the CMBA objectives are clear ly communicated, response from acade mia has been pretty positive,” Mebane said. “Otherwise, representatives from business schools who are asked to com ment seem to have the misperception the CMBA will measure programs.” Dr. Dan Robertson, director of Texas A&M’s MBA program, said the test is a bad idea. “For reputable, accredited programs, 1 see this as a very bad idea,” Robertson said. “I believe these funds could be used more effectively in other areas such as ethics training.” Robertson said the exam might give credibility to non-reputable programs. “We know some programs you just send them the money and they send you the degree. This test could legitimate those programs,” Robertson said. Mebane said the test is not designed to legitimate MBA programs. “The CMBA is a tool for MBA candi dates/ graduates from all types of pro grams and schools ‘to level the playing field’ when competing against other MBA candidates/ graduates who are relying on program prestige or ‘brand reputation’ to get a job,” Mebane said. Robertson said the exam is a topic of discussion among MBA program directors across the country. Robertson said he and his colleagues consider a test to measure an MBA graduate’s performance a bureau cratic barrier for students. The IC1 will conduct a pilot exam trough Nov.l to Dec. 21. Mebane said this will allow them to establish a score standard for the test. The ICI is cur rently accepting applications for MBA See MBA test on page 2A Regents approve new distance education By Melissa McKeon the battalion adnii* 38 A&M is adding educat ni a st ni ? trat * on an d educational psychi easie^/ c ' e ^ ree programs online to in “Th° r StUt * ents to ea rn another deg Texas Cre * S a teacher shortaj and S ? P eo P^ e ca n continue tea< even- 01 * on this (their degree) ii cooiyt®’ Sa ^ Preston DuBose, mark CS 0r .4 r ,he °, fflce “f Dis taki n - The people who woul g classes are already in the systc intern Can accessed througl ec iuinn 01 ^ lrou 8h video conferei dents t lent a ** ow ' n g distance educatioi “Sti°H nteraCt an on -campus cl teach P „ entS can S et together with and ask questions,” Du said. “They can also see one another. A student could be in the next room or across the state.” The courses can be accessed through the Internet at all times, making the pro grams more flexible around work sched ules, DuBose said. Leo Sayavedra, vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs for the Board of Regents, said the degree pro grams are identical to those offered on campus because state regulations require them to be the same, including the credit hours required to earn the degree. “The difference is in the delivery of the programs,” Sayavedra said. “There won’t be a professor standing right in front of you.” The System Board of Regents voted this month to approve the degree pro grams, but the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board still has to vote on the plan. A thousand students are currently reg istered to take distance education classes through A&M, DuBose said. Several other degree programs may be added to the distance education track, including a master of agriculture in some specialization, and another in poultry science. Senior psychology major Catherine Wilson said she thinks the distance educa tion option is a benefit to students. “Not everyone can go to class full-time in the day ” Wilson said. “By the time a lot of people decide they want another degree, they’ve got a lot more to worry about besides making it to a traditional class on time.” Bush warns Iraq to disarm or face consequences CINCINNATI (AP) — FYesident Bush, seeking support for war against Iraq, called Saddam Hussein a “murderous tyrant” Monday night and said he may be plotting to attack the United States with biological and chemical weapons. Saddam and his “nuclear holy warriors” are also building a nuclear weapons program and could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. Bush said in prime-time address. “If we allow that to happen, a ter rible line would be crossed,” the president told civic group leaders at the Cincinnati Museum Center. “Saddam Hussein would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression.” “I am not willing to stake one American life on trusting Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. His address opened a week of debate in Congress over resolutions giving the president authority to wage war against Iraq. The House and Senate planned votes for Thursday, and the Bush-backed res olution was expected to pass by wide margins. Still, doubts lingered at home and abroad about Bush’s plans. Even as he spoke, new polls revealed lingering unease among voters about going to war, particu larly if casualties were high or fighting distracted attention from America’s sagging economy. Democrats criticized Bush’s insis tence upon confronting Iraq alone if the United Nations failed to act. Bush hopes an overwhelming vote in Congress will persuade reluctant allies in the United Nations to adopt a tough new reso lution forcing Saddam to disarm — by force, if necessary. The president said U.S. intelli gence shows Iraq to be building manned and unmanned aerial vehi cles that could be used to target the United States with chemical or bio logical weapons. He said Iraq had trained mem bers of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist group, and that a “very sen ior al-Qaida leader” has received medical treatment in Baghdad. “Iraq could decide on any given day to pro vide a biological or chemical weapon to a ter rorist group or individual terror ists,” Bush said. “Alliances with ter rorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.” On the anniversary of the first U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan, Bush tried to explain why Iraq should be the next front in the war on terror. He hoped to dispel doubts of domestic critics and to persuade other nations to support a U.N. resolution ordering Iraq to submit to tough new weapons inspections. Advisers said the biggest ques tions Bush hoped to answer were: Why now? Why Iraq? “While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place,” Bush said. Architecture students present church designs By Eric Ambrose the battalion After losing their church three years ago in a fire. Singleton res idents will build a new church with the help of Texas A&M architecture students. Seventeen students in an architecture class taught by Professor George Mann have worked with the Singleton com munity, the construction science department and professional architects in order to design plans for a new church. The final designs were presented to the congregation Monday night at the Singleton Bible Fellowship. The project was started when Jim Singleton, a practicing architect in College Station and A&M graduate, heard that the old church in Singleton had burned down and expressed interest in donating his services to build a new one. “Basically, Mr. Singleton needed a fence built around his house and l own a fence compa ny,” said Victor Hutches, a Singleton resident that was mar ried in the church 20 years ago. “We got to talking and I told him that our church burnt down two years ago. He offered to donate his services to help us build a new church, and the project started from there.” Singleton then contacted Mann about getting the University involved in the proj ect, who jumped at the chance to give his students this opportunity. “Texas A&M is a land-grant school and it’s our job to reach out into the community,” said Mann, a Ronald L. Skaggs Endowed Professor and leader of the project. “This is the most motivated class that I’ve ever seen. The students had a real client, a real site and a real architect for this project.” The students were given three weeks to work with the community in order to come up with their final designs for the church. The church congrega tion will decide which design to See Church on page 2A
