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Vidnnie 109 * Issue 58 • 10 pages
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
tudents observe third Bonfire anniversary
By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
When Albritton Tower chimed 12 slow
Ills at 2:42 a.m. Monday, the crowd of
[boiit 3,000 assembled around the site of the
599 Aggie Bonfire Collapse fell silent.
By the time the bell tower finished play-
lig '‘Spirit of Aggieland." the crowd had
intered the ring of electric lawn lights sur-
lunding the site where three years earlier
Ke 60-foot stack tumbled to the ground
ping 12 Aggies and injuring 27 others.
■pniverSity-sponsored remembrances
Lere held Sunday afternoon, but impromptu
inembrance events emerged early
(today.
After a moment of silence, the group
huddled around the 12 crosses in the center
of the site and sang a solemn rendition of
“The Spirit of Aggieland”, followed by
“Amazing Grace.”
Janice Kerlee, mother of Bonfire victim
Tim Kerlee Jr., led a response. After each
line, the crowd repeated the words, “We will
remember.” Kerlee then read a roll call of
the absent, similar to the lists read at Muster,
with people answering for each of the fallen
12.
Most of the crowd arrived after 2:00
a.m., many wearing Bonfire pots and sever
al being supported by friends as they shared
their grief. One Corps of Cadets company
approached the site side-by-side in 10-man
long lines with their arms over the shoulders
of the cadets next to them.
Richard Braus, whose son Dominic was
injured in the collapse, arrived from
Houston for the unofficial observance.
Dominic, a senior member of company L-l,
also had a friend killed in the collapse.
“I am here to remember those who died,”
Richard Braus said. “It is an anniversary I
remember all year.”
Josh Maxwell, a senior agriculture devel
opment major, came at 12:30 p.m., arriving
early to remember on his own.
“I heard the collapse from outside my
apartment,” Maxwell said. ”1 hope that none
of the younger classes have to feel this way.”
Maxwell and other upperclassman said
more education is needed for the members
See Bonfire on page 2
JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Students gathered at the Polo Fields at 2:42 a.m. Monday morning to
observe the 3rd anniversary of the 1999 Bonfire Collapse that killed 12.
Freeze frame
Chemistry graduate student Steve Furyk fills a dewer tank with liquid
nitrogen to use in kryogenic degassing. Furyk is taking part in a 20-
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
year ongoing research project of polymer bond catalysts that is fund
ed by the Welsh and National Science Foundations.
Performance
review of Duke
underway
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
A top student leader who concocted a story
that he had been kidnapped and robbed and later
admitted he had lied to police may be removed
from his position after the Memorial Student
Center Council began disciplinary procedures
Monday.
Chris Duke, the MSC executive vice president
for marketing, is now the subject of a formal
investigation and sanction process that has only
been invoked a handful of times in the 50- year
history of the MSC. The performance review was
initiated at the request of MSC Council President
Barry Hammond.
Hammond shared with the council a report
from Dr. Dave Parrott,"dean of Student Life, who
investigated the incident. Hammond said the
report includes a summation of facts gathered
from police reports and Parrott’s analysis of
whether Duke’s actions violated student rules or
the MSC constitution.
Hammond declined to discuss the contents of
the report, but did say that Parrott concluded Duke
did not violate student rules or MSC rules. The
investigation will examine how Duke’s behavior
impacts his performance as an MSC officer and
decide whether any sanctions are warranted,
Hammond said.
Duke’s senior position within the organization
requires that the council deal head on with Duke’s
See Duke on page 2
Bin Laden recording Rotter: Bonfire not end of all A&M traditions
authenticated by U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
U.S. intelligence have conclud
ed that a new audiotape of
Osama bin Laden is an authen-
: dc, unaltered and recent record-
| m 8 of the al-Qaida leader, U.S.
officials said Monday
j “Intelligence experts do
believe that the tape is genuine,”
! White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said. “And it is clear
that the tape was made in the
last several weeks as well.”
The technical analysis of the
tape furnished the first proof in
almost a year that bin Laden is
alive.
The audiotape, broadcast on
the al-Jazeera Arab language tel-
ovision network, is what it
sounds like: bin Laden himself,
reading a prepared statement
Promising new terrorism against
the United States and its allies, a
U.S. intelligence official, speak-
in 8 on the condition of
anonymity, said earlier Monday.
The analysis of the tape was
Performed by technical experts,
linguists and translators at the
UlA and National Security
Agency, who compared the
message to previous recordings
°1 bin Laden. While no analysis
18 100-percent certain, the
e *perts are as certain as they
c an be that it is genuine, the
°fficial said.
Because it mentions recent
terrorist attacks, officials con-
eluded the tape was made in the
ast few weeks, the official said,
t had been a year since U.S.
intelligence received any defini
tive evidence that bin Laden
had survived the U.S. attacks
on Afghanistan in the months
after Sept. 11.
Asked about the tape at the a
White House briefing,
McClellan said that while “ it
cannot be stated with 100 per
cent certainty,” intelligence
experts were still certain bin
Laden’s voice on the tape.
“They do believe it is. It’s a
reminder that we need to contin
ue doing everything we can to
go after these terrorist networks
and their leaders wherever they
are, and we will,” McClellan
said.
The tape gives little clue to
bin Laden’s location or his
health, officials said. Although
his whereabouts are unknown,
U.S. officials believe he is
probably hiding in a remote
mountainous region in the bor
der between Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
American officials have
never confirmed rumors that
bin Laden was wounded or
suffering some kind of kid-
iiey ailment.
The message also was a
determining factor in a new
spate of terror alerts in the
United States and elsewhere last
week. Previous public state
ments from bin Laden have
served as preludes to terroiist
attacks, officials said.
By Lauren Smith
THE BATTALION
Though the student body should not for
get the legacy of Bonfire, it should not over
shadow remaining traditions, said Craig
Rotter, coordinator of leadership develop
ment and adviser for Residence Life.
“Aggies are mourning the students
whose lives were lost in the 1999 Bonfire,
but they are also mourning the passing of
the greatest tradition at A&M. Don’t get
caught up on one path so 4 much that you for
get the other traditions of this University,”
Rotter said Monday at a Bonfire history
forum.
The building and burning of Bonfire was
the one thing that former students could
count on to be the same when returning to
the A&M campus, he said.
“A&M changed so much that early students
could not even recognize the campus, but
the old Aggies still had that symbol of
Bonfire to connect them back to the cam
pus,” Rotter said.
An up to date chronology of Bonfire was
never kept up, he said, because Aggies
thought the tradition would always contin
ue. The only true Bonfire expert is a
deceased truck driver for H.B. Zachary
fondly nicknamed ‘Preacher’ by students
who worked with him for over 20 years on
Bonfire.
It is impossible to talk about Bonfire
without taking a look back into the past,
present, and future. Rotter said.
The 1960s were a time of great change
for A&M as women, minorities and ‘non-
regs’ flooded onto campus. Rotter said.
From 1970 to 2000, the student popula
tion tripled, causing the University
become more mainstream and depart from
the traditionalism and conservativism A&M
had always known. Rotter said.
The Aggie Bonfire was broadcast on
satellite for the first time in 1986, and
Monday’s audience witnessed the occasion
in a recording Rotter shared.
From the picture of the Aggie Bonfire in
1969 that set the world record for the
tallest burning fire to the 1948 Bonfire
made of mostly outhouses and scraps.
Bonfire has not always been the wedding
cake design of 1999.
These little fires begin to happen more
and more in the early 1900s among the all
male, all military student body before
Bonfire became the big symbol for A&M
that it is today. Rotter said.
Rotter, Class of 1992, taught many of the
See History on page 2
Chief of Staff speaks on job duties
See Bin Laden on page 2
By Jeremy Osborne
THE BATTALION
Despite America’s ongo
ing tension with Iraq and the
looming possibility of war.
White House Chief of Staff
Andrew H. Card, Jr. chose
pot to discuss policy issues
Monday in his talk at Texas
A&M and instead spoke to
the crowd of high school and
college students about his
job responsibilities.
Speaking at the George
Bush Presidential
Conference Center, Card
said the structure of the
White House and the way it
functions is determined by
the chief of staff.
Card has served as spe
cial assistant to the President
for intergovernmental affairs
for President Reagan,
deputy chief of staff to for
mer President Bush and
chief of staff to current
President Bush. He said
through his years of experi
ence at the White House he
observed that different
chiefs of staff create differ
ent White Houses.
“You don’t really apply
to be a president’s chief of
staff,” Card said. “It’s an
invitation that you cannot
turn down and it’s an invi
tation that carries much
more responsibility than
even the person who made
the invitation understands.”
Despite the noticeable
impact of the job, Card said
he holds a humble view of
his position at the White
House.
“Because of the experi
ences I had working with
other chiefs of staff, I view
my job as the following: I
am to be the president’s
staffer who is responsible
for the rest of the staff,”
Card said. “I am not the
prime minister or the presi
dent in waiting.”
Card also said the presi
dent’s time is incredibly
See Card on page 2
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. spoke at
the George Bush Presidential Conference
Center on Monday.