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THE BATTALIO
Volume 109 • Issue 38 • 8 pages
www.thebatt.com
Titesday, October 22, 2002
Group to protest Chinese president’s visit
k
*11
„ Thursday, Oct. 17,
Presidential Conference
Center
^ 3 a.m. - lO a.m.
* Falun Gong will meditate
and protest
11:15 a.m.
Chinese President. Jiany Zemin
will speak
MANOY ROUQUETTE • THE BATTALION
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
Members of Falun Gong were
on campus Monday handing out
pamphlets to share their objections
to the Chinese president's visit to
the George Bush Presidential
Library this week.
Falun Gong is a group of practi
tioners of healthy living and medi
tation who are typically dissenters
of the Chinese government.
Members based in Houston will
protest with a meditation outside
the site of People’s Republic of
Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s
speech Thursday morning. The
group has been barred from practic
ing in China since 1999.
Liang Lihua, a graduate interna
tional affairs major and an
exchange student from Beijing,
said she feels Falun Gong is a cult
whose members set themselves on
fire. Liang worked at a state-run
television station in Beijing before
coming to the United States.
‘The government has banned
them for a reason,’’ she said.
Falun Gong activist Lilian Tee
Chan of Houston said the Chinese
government fabricates stories
about what Falun Gong is and
what it does.
“The police don’t treat people
right. People have the right to speak.
They just shut you up,” Chan said.
Chan pointed to several pictures
in the magazine, A Witness to
History which capture instances of
violence against protesters and false
representations of the group that the
Chinese government propagates.
“We just want to get the truth out
there, for people to realize what’s
going on,” Chan said.
Pamphlets and magazines Falun
Gong members handed out include
graphic pictures of the results of
imprisonment and torture of mem
bers by the Chinese government.
Robert Nappi, a Falun Gong
member from Washington, D.C.,
participated in a protest in
Tiananmen Square recently and
was confined in a room with 20
other protesters while being closely
See Protest on page 2
[Police question two
men in sniper case
RICHMOND. Va. (AP)
’olice trying to establish contact
niththe Washington-area sniper
aid Monday that a phone call
liad come in but was too mud-
led for authorities to under
hand. They pleaded with the
lerson to call back.
“The person you called could
mi hear everything you said.
Die audio was unclear and we
rant to get it right. Call us back
io that we can clearly under
stand." Montgomery County.
'Id.. Police Chief Charles
tee said.
Moose said he could not dis
miss the message further.
Moose made no mention of a
levelopment in Richmond earli-
Monday in which police
two men for questioning
the attacks.
Hanover County Sheriff
tart Cqok said the nien were
|fa into custody about 8:35
i. at or near an Exxon station
[in suburban Richmond.
“The two people we have in
atstody are being questioned as
sgards the sniper shootings,”
Cook said. “When we have fur-
F r information that we can
give to the public ... that we’ve
concluded this case we’ll do so,
pt that’s not the case at hand.”
He refused to describe the
fe'en as suspects in the string of
■seized
shootings that have left nine
people dead and three wounded.
During an earlier news con
ference. Moose focused on
establishing a dialogue with the
unidentified person who left a
message and phone number
Saturday night near a Virginia
steakhouse where the latest vic
tim was shot.
On Sunday, he had publicly
pleaded with the note writer to
call authorities. On Monday, he
said: “The message that needs to
be delivered is that we are going
to respond to a message that we
have received. We are preparing
our response at this time.”
Moose did not specify
whether the message was a new
communication or the same
one they discovered at the
steakhouse. He refused to
answer questions.
The nature of the message
that investigators say was left at
the Ashland shooting scene was
not disclosed.
The flurry of activity raised
hope there had been a break in
the search for the sniper who has
roaming Virginia, Maryland and
Washington since Oct. 2.
Schools in Richmond and
nearby counties were shut
down Monday because of fears
raised by the sniper’s south
ward march.
Down for the count
Senior manufacturing engineering technology major Justin
Beutley (left) and sophomore mechanical engineering
major Samuel Robles (right) go through a starting exercise
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
Monday night at G. Rollie White. Both Beutley and Robles
are members of the A&M wrestling team, whose season
will start in mid-November.
A&M considers branch campus in Arab state of Qatar
Jowibie location tor A&M
wmch campus In tho Middle East
Turkey
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Y Syna
Iraq
Iran
’Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
By Rob Phillips
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M is taking under
advisement the creation of a branch
campus in the Arab state of Qatar
that would provide research, intern
ship and degree programs for engi
neering students.
The program would give A&M
students increased opportunities for
study abroad programs and intern
ships in the oil and gas industry, said
Dr. Ronald Douglas, counselor to
A&M President Dr. Robert M. Gates
and former provost.
Research programs pertaining
mostly to oil and gas also would be
offered to graduate and undergradu
ate students on both campuses,
Douglas said.
Qatar is among the world’s lead
ers in producers of natural gas. The
Qatar Foundation, an institution sup
ported by the nation’s royal family, is
seeking to establish a university con
sisting of branch colleges of
American universities.
A&M has been targeted by the
foundation because of its strong
engineering program, Douglas said.
The branch program would cost mil
lions of dollars a year and would be
funded entirely by the Qatar
Foundation, Douglas said.
Dr. David Prior, A&M’s interim
provost and executive vice president,
said there are no commitments to the
program. A&M officials are continu
ing to explore what the University’s
responsibilities and benefits would
be before a contract is signed.
Douglas and several A&M offi
cials visited Qatar University last
June. The group met with Qatar
branch colleges of Cornell University
and Virginia Commonwealth.
“I was very much impressed by
the vision shown by Qatar to create
this world-class university and to be
the educational center of the Middle
East,” Douglas said.
Once a contract is signed, a bridge
program would be established to
make certain the high school back
ground and English-speaking capacity
of Qatar students is satisfactory. A
regular freshman class would begin in
September 2004, Douglas said.
Qatar students would spend the
summers of their sophomore and
junior years at A&M, Douglas said.
Prior pointed out that globaliza
tion and diversity is one of the
imperatives of A&M’s Vision 2020,
a plan to push A&M into the top 10
public universities by 2020.
“This (program) will certainly
extend our outreach and relationships
with another country,” Prior said.
Aerospace research project kicks off
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“The work of this institute
will slice deep into the
unknown,” Gates said.
Tii MS is a cooperative
research project including
A&M, Rice University,
University of Houston, Prairie
View A&M University, Texas
Southern University and NASA.
“(TiiMs) is about developing
technology solutions to address
real vehicle systems in use,” said
Dr. Darrel V. Tenney, director of
Aerospace Vehicle Systems
Technology Office for the
NASA Langley Research Center.
TiiMS research will focus
on blending microscopic
NANO systems, bio materials
and multifunctional intelligent
systems, such as aircraft bodies
that change shape and sense
problems.
Dr. Michael M. Reischman,
special assistant for the Office of
See TiiMS on page 2
BRIAN RUFF • THE BATTALION
Dr. Darrel V. Tenney, director of the NASA Langley Research Center
Aerospace Vehicle Systems Technology Office, speaks to other profes
sionals and guests at the George Bush Presidential Library Monday.
TWRI to fund A&M
research, programs
By Eric Ambrose
THE BATTALION
The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) at Texas A&M
announced that it will fund 10 research projects and 13 exten
sion programs dealing with soil and water conservation.
“The Texas Legislature gives Texas A&M around $250,000
in order to fund these kinds of projects,” said Ric Jenson, com
munications manager for the Texas Water Resources Institute
(TWRI). “Our institution works with individual researchers to
support their studies.”
TWRI has been located at A&M in the College of
Agriculture since 1964. Each year the institute gives grants to
A&M faculty members who want to research soil and water
conservation.
• TWRI announced the projects that will be funded from
September 2002 to October 2003 and almost every one of these
projects that will be given grants this year are new, Jenson said.
The grants last for one year.
One study this year involves developing new kinds of cotton
and soil that will use less water. If successful, the results could
See Grants on page 2