The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 09, 2002, Image 1

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Sports: Volleyball ready for showdown • Page 1 B Opinion: Corps must discuss hazing with community • Page 5B
THE BATTALION
Volume 109 • Issue 29 • 16 pages
Fund drive
not hurt by
drop in rank
www.thebatt.eoin
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
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By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M's recent drop in
US News and World Report's
rankings of Best American
Universities will not hurt the
The One Spirit One Vision”
campaign drive to raise $2.3 bil
lion dollars by 2020, said Rose
Ann McFAdden, head of the
"One Spirit One Vision” cam
paign drive.
A&M’s admittance last year
into the American Association
of Universities will offset the
effects of the lower rankings.
McFadden said.
“It is a challenge to all sup
porters of Texas A&M
University,” McFadden said.
"(But) most people will take one
ranking with a grain of salt.”
Started in January 2000. it is
the first of two campaigns out
lined in Vision 2020 to raise
A&M’s private endowment
from $700 million to $3 billion
by 2020. It is the first campaign
indirect support of Vision 2020,
the plan to put A&M in the top
10public universities by 2020.
The seven-year “One Spirit
One Vision” campaign is
designed as a cooperation
between The Association of
Former Students, 12th Man
Foundation and Texas A&M and
the campus community cam-
pa/gn. It includes faculty, staff
and student donations to the
University.
Student members of the
Memorial Student Center's
OPAS have pledged $ 10,000 to
the campus community cam
paign, the student part of the One
Spirit One Vision
, faces 10 yes]
conspiracy ch
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e SEC also ®
jainst Yates for
■ spirit One Vision campaign
'H 1 ^6 seal t * r ' ve - sa >d Bill Perry, associate
ecutive to pi assistant P r ovost and chair of the
steering committee for the cam
pus community campaign.
The campus community
campaign officially begins in
November, but includes all gifts
given to the University by stu
dents, faculty, or staff since
January 2000.
“It will be interesting to see
how student involvement in a
capital campaign will work. We
think it will be focused around
student groups,” Perry said.
A&M’s last capital cam
paign, “Capturing the Spirit”,
included a faculty and staff cam
paign which raised $5 million.
So far the campus cofnmunity
campaign has raised $6 million.
Nick McGuire, head of
Championship Vision, the 12th
Man’s $100 million pledge to
the campaign, said One Spirit
One Vision is an important fund
raiser for the University.
“Any donation to
Championship Vision counts
toward 'One Spirit One
Vision.”’ McGuire said.
“The One Spirit One Vision”
campaign will fund chairs and
professorships, which will in
future years strengthen A&M’s
academics and improve the
school’s overall rankings with
US News, she said.
McGuire said the 12th Man
Foundation currently receives
$12 million a year in donations,
but would benefit from high-
profile A&M athletic victories.
“Our donors are dedicated,”
he said. “But for the most part,
victories just make our donors
dig a little deeper into their
pockets.”
The campaign encompasses
all private gifts, money or gifts-
in-kind, given to the University.
The only money not counted
toward “One Spirit One Vision”
is research grants with contrac
tual requirements.
Donors to the A&M
Foundation and the 12th Man
Foundation may decide what
programs their donations bene
fit, but the destination of money
given to the Association of
Former Students is determined
by The Association’s Board of
Directors.
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Senior education major Katie Hastings and sophomore
biomedical science major Amanda Amador finger paint
on an easel in front of the MSC Tuesday afternoon. The
painting opportunity was part of Art Awareness Week,
sponsored by the Visual Arts Committee. The theme of the
week is "pop art."
Professors develop model on ag terrorism
By Jeremy Osborne
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M professors developed a new
model detailing potential agricultural terror
ism targets and emergency response proce
dures to be used in local jurisdictions across
the country.
The project includes two phases, said Dr.
Donald B. Lawhorn, a veterinary medicine
professor and extension specialist. First, the
plan provides local jurisdictions with a
generic list of potential terrorist targets.
Potential targets include grain elevators,
food processing plants and cattle ranches,
said Dr. Travis Miller, a soil and crop sci
ence professor and extension specialist. The
plan will then provide training to local
response teams in case of an attack.
“This doesn’t have a lot do do with
inventing technology or developing technol
ogy to prevent attacks,” Miller said. “All it
says is, ‘What do I look for to see whether I
have a high potential target to attack and
how do I use local resources if one (an
attack) did occur?”’
County and municipal officials will assess
their jurisdictions for risks. Then officials
will need to determine what resources they
poses to counteract such attacks.
“Some jurisdiction will have to depend
on area or state wide teams in case of an
attack,” Lawhorn said.
A&M was selected to help develop this
model because funding for the project came
from a grant by the U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) and the USDA to the Texas Engineering
Extension (TEEX), a service of A&M.
Originally, the DOJ asked the National
Emergency Rescue and Response Training
Center, a division of the TEEX, to put
together a plan to assess the vulnerability of
terrorist attacks in the United States.
“They’re the ones that do emergency
response training. So they have all that
background, and they were involved in 9-
1 1 ” said Kathleen Phillips, TEEX commu
nication specialist, on why the Training
Center was chosen.
Philips said once the initial report was
finished, TEEX was charged to work with
the University to develop a plan to combat
agricultural terrorism and protect the nation
al food supply.
The project brought together officials from
the Institute for Countermeasures Against
Bioterrorism, the National Emergency Rescue
and Response Training Center at the Texas
Engineering Extension, and Texas A&M
faculty members Miller said.
TEEX assembled a panel of experts
See Ag terrorism on page 2A
Lecturer announced for workshop
By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
This spring, Texas A&M will be the site
°f physics discussions including a guest
lec ture from “Big Bang” theorist Stephen
Hawking as part of its newly approved
^orge P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute
w Fundamental Physics.
Christopher Pope, holder of the Stephen
Hawking Chair in Fundamental Physics,
s aid the upcoming Mitchell Institute work
shop will deal primarily with holography, a
theoretical field that explores the cosmolo-
§y °f the universe. Holography relates
str ing-theory, the use of one-dimensional
str ings, to explain interactions of quantum
Mechanics, to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The workshop, which will take place
bom Feb. 24 to o i o™.._
Physics
24 to March 21, is the first annu-
program put on by the George P.
and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for
Fundamental Physics. The Institute is fund
ed by a $2.5 million endowment from
Cynthia and alumni George MitcheH, the
CEO of Houston-based Mitchell Energy.
The institute will hold other non-annual
workshops, and $1 million of the $2.5 mil
lion donations will go toward the Stephen
Hawking Chair in Fundamental Physics.
A&M matches the $1 million endowment
for the Hawking Chair, awarded to Pope
this year.
Hawking, for whom the chair is named,
is holder of the Lucasian Professorship in
Mathematics at Cambridge University. He
gained world-wide acclaim in the 1970s
and 80s for his theories concerning black
holes.
Dr. Edward Fry, professor and head of
A&M’s physics department, said Hawking
is considered the most influential physicist
since Albert Einstein. Pope worked with
Hawking as a graduate student in the 1970s.
Hawking will visit College Station for
the duration of the month-long confer
ence and is scheduled to speak. He has an
increasingly severe case of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as
Lou Gehrig’s disease, which makes him
unable to walk. He cannot speak without
computer assistance.
Public appearances by Hawking are rare.
Ten additional renowned researchers will
be attending the workshop with Hawking to
speak about their research in string-theory.
Pope said their presence will put the insti
tute on par with Ivy League programs.
“This institute will be the place in the
southern United States for string-theory and
other research,” Pope said.
See Hawking on page 2A
Kuwaiti gunmen attack
U.S. forces, Marine dead
Mice reports indicate rise in car break-ins
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By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
A College Station Police Department report indicates car break-
Tty 6 lntrease d 26 percent from last year.
Is statistic, taken from a period between January^ to
5 Prevention Tin*
A
1 Lock your doors \
-• Fat k in u cll-lit \
*« Activate alarms
j Never leave valuables in plain sight
5- Immediately report suspicious activity.
Ik
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
September of 2002, shows an increase from 496 to 625 break-ins
reported during the same period last year.
Lt. Rodney Sigler, public information officer for the College
Station Police Department (CSPD), said most of the burglaries
happen at night in apartment complex parking lots.
The Texas A&M campus, which falls under the jurisdiction of
the University Police Department (UPD), also reported an increase
in car break-ins. The campus has experienced a 13 percent increase
from January to August of 2001, going up from 51 to 64 percent in
the same period, said Bob Wiatt, director of security and the
University Police Department.
Parking Area 88, a red lot near the Southside residence halls off
George Bush Drive, is where most of the vehicle burglaries on
campus took place, Wiatt said.
Wiatt said PA 88 is the most common target for thieves because
of its vicinity to George Bush.
“People can come in from out of town, just turn in off George
Bush and not have to go through campus,” Wiatt said.
The most common items stolen from vehicles, both on and off
campus, are CDs, car stereos and radar detectors, Wiatt said. One
See Break-ins on naee 2A
KUWAIT (AP) — Two
Kuwaiti gunmen in a pickup
truck attacked U.S. forces during
war games Tuesday on an island
in the Persian Gulf, killing one
Marine and wounding another
before they were shot to death by
U.S. troops. Kuwait called the
assault a “terrorist act.”
The Pentagon said the
assailants pulled up to a group of
Marines conducting urban
assault training on Failaka, an
uninhabited island off Kuwait’s
coast, and opened fire with small
arms. They then drove to another
site, stopped and attacked again
before being killed by Marines,
the Pentagon said.
Marines later found three
AK-47s and ammunition inside
the vehicle, according to a state
ment released in Washington by
the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth
Fleet. It said the injured Marine
was hit in the arm.
In a brief statement, the
Kuwaiti Interior Ministry con
demned the attack and identified
the assailants as Anas al-
Kandari, born in 1981, and
Jassem al-Hajiri, born in 1976.
It said both were Kuwaiti civil
ians.
U.S. intelligence has not
determined if the attackers had
any terrorist links, said an intel
ligence official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity.
An Interior Ministry
official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, described the two
men as fundamentalist Muslims.
More than 30 of their friends
and relatives were detained for
questioning, he said.
“The ministry announces that
this is a terrorist act,” the Interior
Ministry said in a statement. “It
will not allow anyone to under
mine the country’s security.”
Pentagon spokesman Lt.
Daniel Hetlage said the Marines
returned to their ships shortly
after the attack, but would
resume exercises on the island
Wednesday.
Failaka Island, about 10 miles
east of Kuwait City, was aban
doned by its inhabitants when
Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990,
and Iraqi forces heavily mined it
during their occupation.
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP