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Acgielife: Working hard for the money • Page 3 Opinion: Coke building should be renamed • Page 11
THE BATTALIO
olume 109 • Issue 53 • 12 pages
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
IValton president appeals censure
By Richard Bray
THE BATTALION
The president of Walton Hall is appealing his
[pulsion from campus as punishment for allowing
I lalton residents to shout inappropriate yells at a
ifll practice earlier this year.
I If Walton President Justin “Chuck” Faith is
licked off campus, he will no longer be a
lesidence Hall Association (RHA) member and
■ill no longer represent Walton in the RHA
|leneral Assembly, said RHA President John
lasares.
I Faith’s appeal is going through Student Conflict
Jesolution Services.
Since University President Dr. Robert M. Gates’
[rival, Gates has stressed the importance of main
lining the University's reputation and ensuring a
[mily-friendly, positive atmosphere at all Texas
events, said Craig Rotter, the coordinator for
:adership development in the Department of
Residence Life and the RHA adviser.
At one of the first yell practices this semester,
Walton Hall residents shouted obscenities as part of
their hall yells. After the first inappropriate yell,
police began to congregate near the Walton resi
dents, Faith said. The second yell, Walton’s grode
yell, attracted the attention of several University
officials, including Rotter. Two Walton residents
were escorted out of Kyle Field, Faith said.
Faith, already on conduct probation with Student
Lite, was about to leave the stadium, but changed
his mind when Rotter asked him to stop the Walton
residents from continuing their yells. He stopped
the obscene yells, but after he left, Walton residents
shouted, “Beat the hell outta Craig Rotter,” Faith
said.
He received no warnings that he might be pun
ished tor Walton residents’ behavior. Faith said.
Faith is appealing his expulsion because he does
not believe he should be responsible for the actions
of Walton residents after he left Kyle Field, he said.
The first yell practice was an issue for the
University due to the behavior of several groups,
said Assistant Director for the Department of
Student Life Michael Collins, who oversees
Student Conflict Resolution Services.
Collins said every student who has a hearing has
a right to appeal the decision. Any sanction that is
deferred suspension or above goes to the University
Appeals Panel. Students are only allowed one
appeal.
A&M officials spoke with several Walton resi
dents following the incident, Walton Hall Director
Shannon Ensom said.
Another Walton resident was also punished in
the incident, but he won his appeal and remains
housed in the hall.
Rotter said behavior at yell practices has been
better than in recent years.
“Our students are expected to uphold themselves
as Aggies,” Rotter said. “This year has had the best
yell practices I’ve seen at A&M since the early
1990s. It’s been good to see the current student
body uphold A&M’s values.”
DURING YEL.L. PRACTICE,
WALTON RESIDENTS USED
OBSCENTITIES IN THEIR
HALL YELLS
ONE RESIDENT AND THE
HALL PRESIDENT WERE
TOLD THEY WOULD HAVE
TO MOVE OUT OF WALTON
AS PUNISHMENT
THE RESIDENT WON HIS
CASE ON APPEAL; HALL
PRESIDENT CHUCK FAITH
IS STILL APPEALING THE
DEC I SION
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JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Freshmen business administration majors Grant Nicolaev basketball players in Reed Arena Monday
Longmire (left), Ian Rudebusch (center), and the night. The Aggies opened up the exhibition season
rest of the Reed Rowdies, heckle Ukraine's MBC with a 86-73 victory in front of 2,831 fans.
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MANDY ROUQUETTE • THE BATTALION
Iraqis reject dishonest
inspection resolution
HUSSEIN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi law
makers denounced a tough, new U.N.
resolution on weapons inspections
Monday as dishonest, provocative and
worthy of rejection — despite the risk of
war. But parliament said it ultimately
will trust whatever
President Saddam
Hussein decides.
One after the other,
senior lawmakers
rejected the resolu
tion, the latest in a
long effort to ensure
Iraq scraps its
weapons of mass
destruction. This time,
however, the United States and Britain
have made clear they will attack Iraq ff
it does not fully comply.
Parliament speaker Saadoun Hamadi
said the resolution was stacked with “ill
intentions”, “falsehood”, “lies” and
“dishonesty.” Salim al-Koubaisi, head of
parliament’s foreign relations committee,
recommended rejecting the resolution
but also advised deferring to the “wise
Iraqi leadership” to act as it sees fit to
defend Iraq’s people and dignity.
“The committee advises ... the rejec
tion of Security Council Resolution
1441, and to not agree to it in response to
the opinions of our people, who put their
trust in us,” al-Koubaisi told fellow law
makers.
Saddam has used parliament’s action
as cover for difficult decisions in the past,
and harsh rhetoric does not necessarily
mean parliament will reject the proposal.
Saddam ordered parliament to recom
mend a formal response, and lawmakers
were expected to vote on recommenda
tions for the Iraqi leadership Tuesday.
According to the resolution, Iraq has
until Friday to accept or reject the resolu
tion, approved unanimously last week by
the U.N. Security Council.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said
there are numerous interpretations for the
deadline — the minute the resolution was
adopted, the minute Iraq was notified, the
end of business Friday, or midnight on
Friday. It is up to the Security Council to
interpret its own resolution, Eckhard said.
Anne Power, a spokeswoman with the
British mission at the United Nations,
said Britain intepreted the deadline to be
seven 24-hour periods from the minute
the resolution was adopted. That would
mean that Iraq has until 10:17 a.m. EST
Friday, Nov. 15 to respond. Other
Security Council members could have
different interpretations however.
Chinese deputy ambassador Zhang
Yishan, the current council president,
said he was checking on the exact dead
line.
If Saddam fails to follow through, a
Pentagon plan calls for more than
200,000 troops to invade Iraq.
Parliament’s advice on the new U.N.
resolution, which demands Iraq cooper
ate with U.N. weapons inspectors or face
“serious consequences,” will go to the
Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq’s
ruling body headed by Saddam.
Should parliament recommend
acceptance, it would allow Saddam to
claim the decision was the will of the
Iraqi people and more smoothly retreat
from previous objections to any new res
olution governing weapons inspections.
In Washington, President Bush’s
national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, rejected the legitimacy of the par
liament debate.
“One has to be a bit skeptical of the
independence of the Iraqi parliament
from Saddam Hussein,” she said. “I
don’t think anyone believes this is any
thing but an absolute dictatorship and
this decision is up to Saddam Hussein.”
She also said Iraq has no right to accept
See Iraq on page 2
n!
Class dismissal on Labor Day
discussed at Senate meeting
By Sarah Darr
the battalion
L proposed academic calendar
°rthe 2003-2004 school year cap-
w ate d most of the attention during
Tday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
Most of the discussion revolved
ar °und the request for no classes
0,1 Labor Day.
Sen. Mike Greenwald from the
0| lege of Liberal Arts brought
Pthe topic while the Senate was
j ,s cussing the proposed academ-
£ calendar. Greenwald suggested
at another holiday on the calen-
aar be substituted for Labor Day,
lr >ce state law requires a certain
u mber of days that students
mus t attend class.
Greenwald said he feels that
a or Day is a “rite of passage”
^ the last day of summer. He
gued that there are many events
at occur around the community
nh at dial students and facul-
y do not get to attend.
to K Ubor Da y ' s a day that needs
e set aside to honor the work
ing men and women of America,”
Greenwald said.
Sen. and chemistry professor
Kenn Harding expressed concern
about amending the calendar
because it would mess up the
redefined days. Harding said that
having a day off would cost him a
week of lab classes and would
cause a problem with trying to
have an equal number of days in
the fall and spring semesters.
“This is not a simple solution of
changing one day,” Harding said.
A vote to have the semester
begin on Friday, Aug. 29, 2003
instead of Monday, Sept. 1 to
allow Labor Day a vacation day
was taken by the Senate, but
failed. Because the day has to be
substituted for another holiday, the
Senate took a vote to reevaluate
the calendar and find a day to sub
stitute so that classes would not be
held on Sept. 1.
This vote passed 26-25, and
the proposed calendar will be
reevaluated.
In other business, the Personnel
and Welfare Committee requested
that changes be made to the rules
for faculty participation in the selec
tion, evaluation and retention of
deans in order to have more faculty
voice in the process. The faculty
will be asked to rank the candidates
and make known any candidates
See Senate on page 2A
Proposed Curriculum Changes
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ruAvis Swenson • THE BATTALION
Attorney: Court should bar
John Malvo’s confession
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for the
sniper suspects criticized the police interro
gation of 17-year-old John Lee Malvo and
said they would seek to bar his alleged con
fession from court.
Malvo reportedly confessed to being the
triggerman in several of the Washington-area
sniper shootings, including the Virginia slay
ing in which his alleged accomplice, 41-
year-old John Allen Muhammad, is charged
with murder.
Malvo’s lawyer, Michael Arif, criticized
police for questioning Malvo without his
court-appointed guardian or attorney and for
leaking the alleged confession to The
Washington Post.
“The police are flooding the media and
poisoning the jury pool with their own para
phrasing and subjective interpretations of
statements made during an unconstitutional
interrogation,” Arif said.
He said the leak “suggests an insecurity
on the part of the commonwealth with the
admissibility of these statements.”
Malvo talked to investigators for seven
hours after he and Muhammad were handed
over to Virginia authorities Thursday for
prosecution on death-penalty murder
charges. Sources told the Post that Malvo
was talkative and even bragged in some of
his responses, but kept quiet about
Muhammad. ✓
For a murder conviction, prosecutors must
show that the defendant was the triggerman.
However, under the state’s post-Sept. 11 anti
terrorism law, Muhammad could face the
death penalty even if he is not found to be the
gunman.
A Fairfax County police spokesman
declined to comment on the interrogation,
and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s
Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. did not return
calls.
One of the shootings for which Malvo
reportedly took responsibility is the Oct. 14
slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin.
Fairfax County prosecutors charged Malvo
with capital murder in that killing.
Muhammad is being prosecuted in Prince
William County for the Oct. 9 slaying of
Dean Harold Meyers. It is unclear how
Malvo’s alleged confession to that crime
might affect Muhammad’s case.
Muhammad’s attorney, Peter Greenspun,
declined to comment on the case directly, but
See Sniper on page 2A