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Accielife: Memorabilia makes a come back • Page 3 Opinion: School should teach all creation stories • Page 9
THE BATTALION
Volume 109 • Issue 32 • 10 pages
www.thebatt.coni
Monday, October 14, 2002
Integrity surveys reissued in electronic form
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
Four thousand Texas A&M students
ivill receive an e-mail Monday asking
ihemto fill out an electronic survey to
ipdate current statistics on A&M's aca
demic integrity.
It should only take about 10-15 min
utes to fill out, said Bill Kibler, associ
ate vice president for Student Affairs.
“Students who are lucky enough to
receive this e-mail can take the sur-
ey, click on one button and it's
done, he said.
The effort comes after an attempt to
poll students in the spring semester
using paper surveys fell short of being
statistically significant. The minimum
requirement for an accurate poll is 380
surveys. In April, only 180 surveys of
the 4,(X)0 mailed out were returned,
said Robbie Blakely, senior manage
ment information systems major and
co-chair of the Academic Integrity
Assessment Committee.
Blakely said feedback is necessary
to make good recommendations for
changes within the University.
Anonymity is respected with the
survey, which questions students on
amounts and kinds of cheating, Kibler
said.
“Since the questions are of a sensi
tive nature, we make sure there is no
way to trace response back to any indi
vidual,” he said.
There are some limits on who can
respond, Blakely said. First-time stu
dents are excluded because transfer stu
dents and freshmen are less likely to
have as much experience with the
A&M environment.
This requirement prevents the
assignment of the surveys to specific
classes and the rewarding of any extra
credit, Kibler said.
The results from 1997's academic
integrity survey were disappointing,
Kibler said. The survey found that 88
percent of students cheated in some
form, ranging from sharing home
work answers to using crib sheets on
an exam, during their time at A&M,
well above the national average of 80
percent.
“We were a lot more typical than we
would like to be,” Kibler said. “We
came out on the upper end of the data
for large public universities.”
The timing issue was a problem with
getting enough responses in the spring,
Kibler said.
The committee is also revisiting a
faculty survey on academic integrity
after an equally disappointing response
in the spring semester, he said.
“The results will enable us to
demonstrate the gravity of the situa
tion” Kibler said. “Our guess is that
(the results) will be consistent with the
1997 results. We have no reason to
think the results will change. The
University hasn’t done anything differ
ent in the past five years to change the
way academic integrity is addressed.”
After the results are announced, the
committee will be rolling out recom
mendations on things that might affect
student’s academic honesty, Kibler
said.
“From New Student Orientation to
graduation, we will be looking at
changing current policies to make a dif
ference,” he said.
Bumping along
Campus
lattalion
Week
rchase
Waco native Sam Mangram waits in line for a photo opportunity
with his 1926 Ford Model T Touring in front of the George Bush
Presidential Library Complex Friday afternoon. Mangram and
JOHN C. LIYAS • THE BATTALION
other members of the Texas T Party drove into College Station
from various Texas cities for an annual convention and a tour of
the Bush library.
1
Archeologists use artifacts for food facts
B Y Kini Weatherly
the battalion
Alston V. Thomas, assistant pro-
°* ■ antl i ro Pology at Texas
. , ’ sa ' c i he and his team of
w aeo * 0 £i s ts can determine the
uJi u w hich Native Americans
,, e ' anc i to acquire and prepare
Y studying their artifacts.
T onias w as invited to celebrate
anrl , rc h e °logy Awareness Month
India ° f. ciuc ate the public about
n hfeways in his speech.
‘Indian Lifeways in the Post Oak
Savannah.” He spoke in detail about
past land-use systems, his primary
research interest, at the Star of the
Republic Museum at Washington-
on-the-Brazos Saturday.
Thomas said the Brazos Valley is
overflowing with artifacts dating
back to the North American Indians.
In addition to the Indians,
Thomas said elephants roamed the
area several thousand years ago.
Some remains have been found,
and several digs are now in
progress in and around Lake
Somerville to find more remains
and more evidence of Indian life-
ways, he said.
Sandra Vega, an employee of
the Star of the Republic Museum,
attended the speech.
“It was brief but very informa
tive,” Vega said. “He talked about
how the average person can perform
his or her own archaeological dig.”
Sarah J. Keil, the Public
Programs Coordinator for the
museum said Thomas was invited
to speak because his topic was
closely tied with the focus of the
museum.
“We are here to represent, inter
pret, and preserve the Republic
period of Texas, from 1836 to
1846,” Keil said. “American
Indians and their lifeways are an
integral part of that history.”
For more information, visit the
Star of the Republic Museum at
Washington-on-the-Brazos or speak
with Thomas in the Anthropology
department on campus.
University
recognizes
on campus
Bonfire group
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
A new student group committed to reviving the
tradition has begun what could be an uphill battle
in hopes that a strong show of support from stu
dents in favor of returning Bonfire to campus will
help sway University administrators.
The Bonfire Coalition for Students, which
gained official University recognition as a stu
dent organization last week, is allied with the
Bonfire Coalition, a broad umbrella group
including students and .former students commit
ted to working with University officials to bring
Bonfire back on campus.
Brad Shipman, chairman of the student
group, said maintaining interest among a grow
ing number of students who have never worked
on Bonfire or seen it burn is key to returning the
tradition to campus.
“We just need to get people thinking about it
again and educate students about the meaning and
history of Bonfire,” said Shipman, a sophomore
environmental design major.
Plans for a high-profile pro-Bonfire campaign
are still on the drawing board, Shipman said. They
may include T-shirts, signs, rallies and presentations
about the history and myth surrounding Bonfire.
“If students demonstrate that they really want
to see Bonfire return quickly and safely, I think
the administration will have to take that into con
sideration,” Shipman said.
In February, then A&M President Dr. Ray M.
Bowen canceled plans for a 2002 Bonfire, citing
cost and liability concerns. Current president Dr.
See Coalition on page 2
Goals for 2003:
Returning Bonfire to campus
A memorial on Novomtior 17
at 7 p.m.
Lifting the moratorium on the
sale or Bonfire-related
merchandise
Designating November 18 as
"Bonfire 1999 Bomembronco Dag"
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
Scholarly journal seeks to publish
student entries on European Union
B Y Sarah Darr
THE BATTALION
housed • ^ lIOpean Union Center,
Ce n t e r Ir !u le Presidential Conference
Notes graduate assistant and master’s
student Elke Blodau.
The opportunity to have a paper
published is open to all undergraduate
and graduate students at Texas A&M,
Ce n t ; uie ^residential Conference and graduate students ai icacu, /ao^v.,
Found 0t the Geor S e Bush Education Blodau said. Students who are inter-
pani 10n ’ is looking for scholarly ested need to e-mail their papers to the
, COmme ntaries and book EU Center, where it will be proofread,
their4 l0m stL, dents to publish in
rmi' ol uuems to publish in
ne academic journal, said EU
SllTT
Win
pwbii^h Student papers in the
F.. ,ae Undergraduate Journal of the
^ ur ©pean Union
sehot?**? for * :u *~opean Union-centered
P a Pers, commentaries and
**eviews
I raM in,w TOaliofl.
IE*** Medan at U2-4701 or visit
The only requirements are that the
papers must be relevant to the
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
European Union,
and they must be
academic in some
way, Blodau said.
“Although the
papers must be
scholarly, students
can use a casual
writing style,”
Blodau said.
The first edition
of EU Notes was
published last
spring and due to
little student
response they are planning only one
edition per semester, said Lucero
Carranza, the assistant director of the
EU Center. Only five students have had
their work published in the journal,
Carranza said.
If student interest increases, the
center plans to publish more editions
per semester, Carranza said.
The goal of EU Notes is to allow
students the opportunity to have a
work published so that anyone online
can read the student’s papers,
Carranza said.
“By having their works published,
students will be able to let everyone
know what they are interested in,”
Carranza said.
EU Notes is one of the projects
funded by the center, whose main goal
is student outreach, Carranza said. As
long as there is student interest, EU
Notes will be available.
See EU Notes on page 2
Investigators release little
information in sniper case
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) —
Investigators hunting an increasingly
brazen sniper defended their meager
release of information, saying Sunday
they don't want the killer to know what
they know.
Authorities pointed to the danger
ous balance between pleading for pub
lic help and revealing too much.
“We don’t want to release anything
that may cause anyone to think they’re a
suspect,” said Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms agent Mike
Bouchard.
Montgomery County police Chief
Charles Moose, meanwhile, has cut back
on his news briefings while saying he
wishes there was more he could reveal.
“I wish we could give you a name,
a mug shot and an address but we’re
not at that point,” he said in one of four
appearances he made Sunday on
national TV talk shows.
Moose has become the public face
of a massive task force investigating a
random shooter who has fired a single
round into each of 10 victims, killing
eight, in suburban Washington since
Oct. 2.
The last killing occurred Friday
morning, when a 53-year-old father of
six was shot while fueling his sedan in
a gas station just south of
Fredericksburg, Va. At the time, a state
trooper stood just 50 yards away,
investigating a traffic accident.
Also Sunday, calls continued to
flood tipster hot lines with information
about white box trucks and a second
white vehicle, a Chevrolet Astro van,
seen at two or more of the killing sites.
And authorities began describing
the serial sniper as not just a local
threat, but an attempt to terrorize an
See Sniper on page 2