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SPORTS: Aggies prepare for challenging second half • Page 7 OPINION: A doomed undertaking • Page 11
THP TfcA'T'TAT
i in Jc J- jl xx-L
Volume 109 • Issue 33 • 12 pages
www.thebatt.coin
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
B-CS named one of most prosperous areas in country
Top 12 Lowest UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
By C.E. Walters
THE BATTALION
Bryan-College Station is one of the
12most prosperous areas in the country,
according to the Oct. 14 issue of
Business Week.
Of these 12 cities. Bryan-College
Station has the lowest unemployment
rate at 2.1 percent, said Gary Basinger,
vice president of business development
the Bryan-College Station Economic
Development Corporation. Bryan-
College Station has had the lowest
unemployment rate in Texas for the last
81 months. At times the unemployment
rate has been as low as 2 percent,
Basinger said.
lexas A&M and Blinn College pro
vide a large boost to the local economy,
he said. With 13,000 employees.'A&M
is “a huge stabilizer” Basinger said.
"A&M is by far the largest employer
in the county,” he said.
Calling the schools a safeguard
against the economic woes of recession,
Basinger said that students contribute to
the local economy and Blinn's growth
has provided more students with dis
posable incomes. But growth has
slowed in recent years, Basinger said,
due to A&M\s enrollment cap in the
early 1990s.
Companies, he said, have also
stepped up recruiting operations in the
Bryan-College Station area and local
companies have grown along with the
rest of the area.
Basinger said the amount of seniors
living in Bryan-College Station has
also increased in recent years as for
mer students return to retire in the
community.
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A&M named
a top research
university
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
embarrassint
in “Stealing
Texas A&M has ranked among the top 25 pub-
licresearch universities in six out of nine criteria,
according to a recent report compiled by The
Center at the University of Florida.
The report, “Top American Research
Universities 2002," gauges rankings h\ compar-
ng the amount of research dollars a school brings
it to that of its contemporaries, schools of similar
iizewith about the same number of faculty pursu
ing research.
The report includes institutions with more than
S20 million esearch expenditures per
ear and focuses on nine areas of achievement,
ncluding total research, endowment assets, annu-
disappear.Itws il giving, national academy members, faculty
wards, doctorates granted, postdoctoral
appointees and median SAT scores,
institutions are then grouped according to how
any times they rank in the top 25 on these nine
criteria.
A&M was ranked first in total endowment
>ssetsamong public universities and ninth overall,
anking higher than schools such as the University
rfTexas at Austin and the Georgia Institute of
fechnology. A&M was also ranked in the top 10
mblic universities on total research expenditures,
^king 14th nationally, higher than private insti
tutions such as Harvard and Yale.
We have a large research operation here due to
tue quality of faculty and the research they do,”
Bill Perry, executive associate vice president
undprovost. “If you have smaller universities with
acuity just as good, the bigger university is more
’kely to have more expenditures.”
The quality of faculty is an important factor in
e University’s performance. Perry said.
According to The Center's report, 17 faculty
See Research on page 6
Big guns
Junior sociology major Ray McPadden looks on
as junior poultry science major Daniel Laakso
inspects his reassembly of an M-16 A-2 rifle.
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
McPadden and Laakso are members of the
Ranger Challenge Team which will compete this
weekend in various timed drills at Fort Hood.
MANDY ROUQUETTE • THE BATTALION
Authorities look
for link to sniper
in latest shooting
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A woman was
killed outside a Home Depot store Monday night,
and police are trying to determine whether the
shooting was related to the sniper spree responsible
for eight deaths in the region in the past 12 days.
“A female has been shot and killed,” said
Fairfax County Police Lt. Amy Lubas. The woman
was felled by a single shot at about 9:30 p.m.,
authorities. All the other deaths were also caused
by one shot.
A police spokesman said roads were being
closed in the area, about 10 miles west of
Washington, D.C. The Maryland task force inves
tigating the sniper attacks was conferring with
Fairfax authorities to see if Monday’s victim was
the sniper's ninth.
Virginia State Police said they were on the
lookout for a white Chevrolet Astro van, last seen
traveling east on Route 50 from Falls Church.
Interstates 66 and 1-95 are nearby. Witnesses at
some of the earlier shootings said a white van or
truck left the scene.
The Home Depot is in the Seven Corners
Shopping Center, a 450-thousand-square-foot
strip shopping center with a parking garage. The
center also has a grocery store, an electronics
retailer and a pet supply retailer.
The body of the victim lay under a sheet is in
the parking lot in front of the Home Depot, on the
first floor of a two-story structure, 30 yards from
the store entrance.
Kristin Reed, a supervisor at the Barnes &
Noble bookstore in the sprawling strip mall, said
six employees were locked inside the store with
an FBI agent.
“Cops and cops and more cops,” Reed said
of the scene outside. “There’s a lot of people
walking around.”
Reed said no one heard the shot inside her store.
But “a customer had just walked outside, then
came back in and said T think I heard a shot.’”
See Sniper on page 2
Professor speaks about the other 1492’
Speech kicks off the Comparative Border Studies lecture series
By Brad Bennett
the battalion
History should be seen from the
Dg ° 1 rn UP’ f rorn the perspective of the
(o* 5 , 6 didn't get to write the his-
LoJ : 0oks ’ University of California at
Rui? n ??* es history professor Teoftlo
’I'gxas^'^i^Hday during a lecture at
kir^°« people attended the
i°* t * le Comparative Border
es lecture series, with Ruiz’
speech discussing Spanish events of
1492, the year that Columbus landed
in South America.
Ruiz, chair of the Department of
History at UCLA and an expert in
Spanish history, spoke about the
conquest and expulsion of Islam and
Judaism from the Iberian
Penninsula.
Ruiz mentioned Columbus during
his Columbus Day talk, but only to
show how other events were just as sig
nificant as Columbus’ famous voyage.
“Columbus was crazy. Everyone.
f ahn t0 / Y professor Teofilo Ruiz
loritie^H t° ciet y' s persecution of
dating back to 1492 during
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
a lecture Monday night. Ruiz is a
native Cuban who
Spanish history.
specializes in
at the time knew the earth was round
except for him,” Ruiz said. “The
most significant voyage of the 15th
century was Vasco De Gamma sail
ing to India.”
Ruiz said it was merely a coinci
dence that his speech occurred on the
observance of Columbus Day.
“I sent professor Bornstien a list of
five topics ranging from witchcraft to
festivals and he choose ‘The Other
1492,’” Ruiz said.
Isil Durma, a sophomore computer
engineering major from Turkey, said
Ruiz gave a good depiction of
Muslims, but said Muslims are toler
ant of other religions.
“Most Muslims have always been
tolerant of all people,” Durma said.
Ruiz related the problems of 15th
century Spaniards to modern day by
pointing out present persecution of
minority groups. Laws at the time
were similar to 20th century American
Jim Crow laws that discriminated
against blacks.
“There is always someone to blame
for problems. Now, who is to blame
for economic problems? Immigrants,”
Ruiz said.
Professor Daniel Bornstein, A&M
history professor and organizer of the
lecture series, said he choose Ruiz
because he had heard him speak and
knew of his reputation.
“I knew he was a good speaker and
also a talented scholar and teacher,”
Borstein said.
Faculty senate votes
to eliminate computer
science requirement
By Sarah Walch
the battalion
Elimination of the computer science
graduation requirement passed in the
Faculty Senate Monday after some dis
cussion for consideration by the
administration.
“This requirement did make more sense
in the 80s when it was first implemented,”
said Dr. Pierce Cantrell, associate provost
for Information Technology (IT). “Do we
want IT literacy at Texas A&M to be
removed while other universities are
strengthening their courses in this area?”
The University of Colorado at
Boulder and the University of Missouri at
Columbia are two universities Cantrell
said have recently implemented more
stringent requirements.
“As it exists, this requirement is really
almost trivial; it would make more sense
for each department to determine their
own requirements,” said Dr. Cady Engler,
co-chair of the Academic Affairs commit
tee and agricultural engineering professor.
The measure passed without the need
for a show of hands.
The minority report which ignited so
much debate at the senate’s last meeting
in September was handed to this year’s
Minority Conditions Subcommittee for
addition and review, said Dr. Robert
Strawser, speaker of the Senate and
accounting professor.
Instead, a one-page “Resolution on
Diversity” was introduced, and caused
more than an hour of heated debate
before it passed.
A paragraph which inspired the pro
posal of four amendments described “the
perception by numerous prospective stu
dents, faculty, and staff of an inadequate
commitment towards diversity at Texas
A&M University and the apparent nega
tive effects of the Hopwood decision” as
a factor which has hampered “recruit
ment and retention of a diverse body of
students, faculty, and staff.”
Early in debate. Dr. Bedford Clark,
professor of English, proposed striking the
paragraph from the record. He questioned
the resolution’s audience and puipose.
Dr. Paul Parrish, co-chair of the
Academic Affairs committee and English
professor, said the statement was merely
an assertion of truth.
However, there is no way to offer such
a statement as truth without support, said
David Myers, an English professor.
“Other factors not addressed are that
A&M was an all-male military campus in
the South,” Myers said. “This paragraph
See Senate on page 6