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V Sports: Matijevic looks for tennis success • Page 5 Opinion: Coalition for Life's threat a poor motivator • Page 9 THE BATTALION Volume 109 • Issue 39 • 10 pages www.thebatt.com Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Professor resigns from minority subcommittee By Sarah Walch THE BATTALION Dr. Ruth Schaffer, professor emeritus of sociology, resigned from the Minority Conditions Subcommittee of the Faculty Senate after the senate twice failed to pass her annual report. Schaffer said she received an e-mail from Dr. Robert Strawser, speaker of the Faculty Senate and professor of accounting, stating he did not accept her resignation. However, Schaffer said, it was a firm resignation. Schaffer has worked on the annual report tor more than 20 years. She chaired the first Minority Conditions committee under the president’s auspices in 1981, before the Faculty Senate became a reality, she said. This report included a longitudinal com parison between 1981, 1991 and 2001, pro viding the opportunity to assess long-term changes. Schaffer listed several issues she felt were unnecessarily dismissed. The^ underrepresentation of two primary minority groups in Texas, African Americans and Hispanics, was a key point some senators felt were discriminatory. Schaffer said for Texas A&M, this emphasis is appropriate. “A very small percentage of the popula tion is Asian American or other. These stu dents are usually international students, and in my original report I addressed this prob lem in my study of A&M’s graduate schools,” she said. Furthermore, Schaffer included in her study the drastic increase in students while faculty has shrunk. See Schaffer on page 2 RUTH SCHAFFER'S CONCERNS: |uail«r$klp Has been lacklag [Between 1981 and 2001: FacRltf shrank 13%, statfeat population grew 28% [Facility salarlos are frozta African American anil Hispanic stndents [are nnderrepresented international students overrepresented in graduate school Sourcot Ruth Scheffer, professor of sociology Bin i RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION Physicists help fight bioterror By Lauren Smith THE BATTALION If terrorists decide to strike !he United States with biological weapons, a team of physicists at Texas A&M is currently devel oping a method that could iden tify what type of airborne bacte ria is being used more quickly. The rate at which scientists could detect the particular form ofbacterial spore presents a life or death issue for an indetermi nate amount of victims, and A&M physicists are working towards faster identification. The Femtosecond Adaptive Spectroscopic Techniques I Coherent Anti-Stokes ISpectroscopy (FAST CARS) L®!, a collaboration of Texas I A&M physicists, is led by Marian 0. Scully and includes department of physics staff members George Kattawar, Robert Lucht, Toman Opatrny, Mark Pilloff, Alexei Sokolov and Muhammed Zubairy. Usually airborne contami nants, such as bacterial spores, are analyzed through time-con suming microscopic, chemical and biological examinations, Scully said, but the FAST CARS technique would use lasers to detect and identify the different strains of bacteria in record time. The beginning results of the teams research have been reported in the Proceedings of See Bioterror on page 2 The itsy bitsy RANDAL FORD •THE BATTALION Freshman speech communications major Elizabeth Arts Gallery Tuesday. The gallery is hosting an exhibit Jurewicz adjusts a piece of artwork in the MSC Visual which displays the work of artist John Cunningham. Archeologists expect debate on burial box WASHINGTON (AP) — Archaeologists are expecting a long-running debate over the reported discovery of a first-century inscription naming Jesus of Nazareth. Writing in the new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Andre Lemaire of France’s Practical School of Higher Studies says it’s “very probable” that an inscription on a burial box for bones refers to Jesus of Nazareth and was written around A.D. 63. The inscription reads, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” That would fit the New Testament account that Jesus had a brother named James, and the tradition that James was the son of Joseph, the husband of Jesus’ mother Mary. The sensational claim, if true, could become one of the great archaeological discoveries in modern times. But there’s this major question: Did this box name Jesus of Nazareth or some other Jesus? After all, that name was common in the first century, as were James and Joseph? Lemaire pins his circumstantial case on the unusual naming of both the father and brother on a burial box, known as an ossuary. There’s only one other known example with three names, so he figures something about the brother must have stood out. Jesus would certainly qualify. However, archaeologist Kyle McCarter of Johns Hopkins University noted at a news conference Monday that the brother might have been named because he conducted the burial or owned the tomb. Under Christian teaching that would rule out Jesus of Nazareth, who rose from the grave and ascended into heaven decades before James was stoned to death as a Jewish heretic in A.D. 62. Two reactions quickly emerged Monday. Rev. Ben Witherington III of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, another news conference speaker, sided fully with Lemaire’s claim. He’s a conservative evangelical who takes the New Testament as reliable history. A&M students anticipate consequences of war with Iraq By Jeremy Osborne the battalion Dennis Crawford, a sophomore civil engineering major, is one of many e xasA&M students currently enlisted military reserve member that may wiled to active duty if the United at( js goes to war with Iraq, b , on t really care to get activated, lb m not going to be disappointed if o. know it’s eminent, but I try not to sa H “ CCt 111 y ever yday life,” Crawford 1 • There’s a chance that it could PR fhen there’s a chance that I be just worrying myself about it.” said if he is called up, he be moved within 72 hours. He , e bas already made arrangements •'ft the dean's office. epending on how far along in the semester, I might receive all Q drops or receive incompletes,” said Crawford, “Then I’d pick up where I left off after six months to two years (of service).” On Oct. 16, President Bush signed the congressional Iraq war resolution in a ceremony at the White House sur rounded by congressional supporters. The bill, granting Bush the neces sary authority to disarm Iraq, was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on Oct. 10. This follows an address the president gave in Cincinnati, Ohio on Oct. 7, detailing the threat Saddam Hussein poses and the United States’ intention of removing possible weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. “For the young guys fighting this war, it’s a very scary thing, but I believe it’s something that has to be done, said Oct. 1997 Iraq demands Americans working on the inspection team leave. Americans leave. Nov. 1997 Jan. 1998 Americans return Iraq temporarily withefraws co-operation, later bans access to presidential Oct. 1998 Iraq ends cooperation with UNSCOM. Nqv. 1998 Inspections resume 2000 & 2002 Source: Foxnews.com Iraq refects inspection I proposals. Sep, is 2002 Iraq agrees uncon- ditionaity to return U.N. inspectors. TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION Ben Cairns, sophomore animal science major and Corps member. Cairns said the war would alter everyday life. “Friends having to go (fight) would definitely disrupt everyday life. Family members of mine are in the military too,” Cairns said. “Living this lifestyle, though, it’s something that you learn to live with.” Triwahyu Widodo, senior industrial engineering major from Indonesia and the International Student Association’s vice president for public relations, said he too would be affected. “As one of the international students from Indonesia, I feel worried about the war,” he said. “I totally understand the standpoint of the United States here, but my concern is how the decision will impact countries other than Iraq.” Widodo said foreign students will be affected by related events which take place in their home countries such as the bombing in Bali, Indonesia on Oct. 14. Dr. Lynne Walters, international studies department head, believes the war will encourage students to become better aware of foreign cultures and events. She said the war will likely cause more courses to have an interna tional perspective or focus. “I think it’s absolutely critical that if we are ever going to have anything See War on page 2 JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION - University professor Dr. Robert Davis addressed stu- Rudder Tower Monday night. Davis presentation, ^8 Slavery," examined recent research on the slavery o Christians during the late 1400s and early 1700s. Slavery extends beyond American borders By Eric Ambroso the battalion A million to a quarter of a million European Christians were enslaved by Muslims of the Barbary Coast from 1530 to 1780, said Robert Davis of Ohio State University in a lecture about “Celebrating Slavery” Tuesday night in Rudder Tower. The lecture was the second in a series of three to examine cultural issues across Europe’s southern boarder. Davis offered information featured in his new book about European Christian slaves in North African ports. Most of the slaves were taken from Spain, France and Italy. It is estimated that half of the slaves died in captivation due to miserable rations, hard work, beatings or plagues, he said. “Starting in 1500, the idea of slavery became a strategy of warfare,” Davis said. “It became a standard operation between countries around the Mediterranean.” Davis said many slaves were taken due to war between the Turks and the Spanish, who fought to a standstill for almost 200 years. Slavery around the Mediterranean was dif ferent than American slavery, but the prac tice started about the same time. Nations at war started systematically taking thousands of people as slaves around 1500. The tactics were used specifically by Algiers and Tunisia, two nations that were known for staging slave raids. Oar-driven galleys were used to raid fishing and mer chant boats around European coasts. Christians were taken in shore raids, which meant they were taken from their houses. Algerians conducted raids in Britain, America, Russia and Japan. Davis said the practice was referred to as “fishing for Spaniards” and there was a saying in Algiers that one could trade Christians for onions. By the late 1600s, European organiza tions began ransoming slaves to bring them back to Europe. The Trinitarians, a Catholic order based in Italy, had unusual success in freeing slaves by coordinating with Muslims in North Africa. The sect collected money to See Slavery on page 2