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Volume 109 • Issue 61 • 10 pages
www.thebatt.com
Friday, November 22, 2002
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’bony handicap placards plague campus lots
JPD cracks down on students misusing handicap parking tags
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By Sommer Bunce
THE BATTALION
I The University Police Department
|PD) has cited 37 students in the past
lonth who were using handicap hang-
■gs under false pretenses while parking
on campus, especially in the Zachry
|arking area.
™ After hearing enough complaints
about spry-looking 18-year-olds parking
ir handicap spots and then jumping out
of their vehicles to get to class, UPD
director Bob Wiatt said his officers
Ijegan comparing the driver’s license list-
eased ta
is yeariL
ay up.
ed on the placards to the individual who
parked the cars.
Since Oct. 16, nearly 40 of the plac
ards UPD officers examined contained
the license numbers of elderly men and
women, sometimes members of the
offender’s family, some from as far
away as Montana. In a few cases, the
placards belonged to the students but
were expired.
In one instance, Wiatt said a student
told the officer questioning him that the
placard was his mother’s, and that he
kept it in his car to drive her. When the
student admitted his mother lived in San
Antonio, the officer confiscated the plac
ard and issued the student a citation,
Wiatt said.
“There was always speculation —
maybe they look like they’re healthy, but
they’ve got a broken leg. You never
know,” Wiatt said. “But when it’s just a
matter of ‘my time is so precious, I can’t
waste time looking for a parking spot,’
then it’s a total and flagrant misuse of
handicap spots.”
The minimum fine for each citation
issued is $250 for a first offense. For a
second and third offense, the numbers
climb: $500 and $1,000, respectively.
money that all flows into Brazos
County coffers.
So far, every offender has paid $250 in
Judge George Boyett’s Precinct 3 Justice
of the Peace court, Wiatt said. Boyett was
unavailable for comment Thursday.
But the message is clear, Wiatt said:
Don’t park where people with real dis
abilities need to park.
“We are not going to tolerate misuse of
handicap placards,” he said. “We’re going
to crack down from here and forever
more. There are people who are handi
capped, and they have no place to park.
We’re not going to stand for it anymore.”
Handicap hang-tags
■A person caught using
a handicap placard that
does not belong to them
faces up to $1,000 in fines
• First offense— $250
•Second offense= $500
•Third offense= $1 ,OQO
-The hang-tag will also
be confiscated and
sent to the county that
issued it
Source: Univordty Police Department
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
ROHM
Student
Senate
[wants more
evaluations
By Eric Ambrose
THE BATTALION
I Students may be evaluating
their professors at mid-semester
if a bill ratified by the Student
Senate is met with equal
approval from the Faculty
Senate next semester.
I The bill, intended to allow
students to critique their profes
sors before the current end-of-
semester evaluation time, will
make its way to the Faculty
Senate and then to Texas A&M’s
l^ffl/n/stration before it can
Become a reality. Students need
to be able to evaluate their pro
fessors’ performance at mid-term
before grades are finalized, said
Natasha Eubanks, chair of the
Ikcademic Affairs Committee.
I The new bill encourages all
fk&M instructors to design their
|> w n evaluations and distribute
them between the 20th and 30th
llass day of each semester.
1. University President Dr.
Robert M. Gates addressed the
Student Senate Wendesday
night, giving a report on his cur-
ent projects and outlining
spects of the University that
eed to be improved.
We need to focus on key
ssues that will bring us ahead,”
Gates said.
Gates said his concerns are
bout diversity, an area which
the University has notoriously
ad a bad reputation. While it is
LouisvilM the administration’s responsibil-
>irWingW y t0 attract minority faculty
Members and students. Gates
Sa id it is the student body’s
responsibility to make minori
ties feel comfortable on campus.
“This means not only accept
ing minorities, but making them
[eel welcome,” Gates said. “The
University is challenged in this
'area.”
i . hr sending students into a
diverse world. Gates said it is
nriportant to create an equally
diverse atmosphere on campus.
Practical politics also play a role
■n creating diversity at A&M, he
s aid. If the University is unable
See Senate on page 2
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Junior industrial engineering major Trey Cushman
tees off on the last hole of disc golf at Research Park
Thursday afternoon. Cushman and his roommate
have become frequent players in the last year and
enjoy taking advantage of nice weather on the disc
golf course.
NATO leaders
promise to
disarm Iraq
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — Heeding
President Bush’s call, NATO leaders pledged
Thursday to help the United Nations “fully and
immediately” disarm Iraq. They also redrew the
political map of Europe, reaching behind the for
mer Iron Curtain for seven new members.
Barely a decade after winning independence
from Moscow, the Baltic nations of Latvia,
Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist
states Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia
as the next wave of NATO states.
“Events have moved faster than we could pos
sibly have imagined,” said Estonian Prime
Minister Siim Kallas.
On the summit sidelines. Bush and his foreign
policy team lobbied feverishly for an anti-Iraq
NATO statement while urging individual allies to
ante up troops and other military assistance for
possible war against Saddam Hussein.
The results were mixed: Bush won partial vic
tory on the Iraq statement while the war solicita
tions received lukewarm responses from allies
inside and outside NATO.
In a four-paragraph statement, the 19-member
alliance unanimously echoed the U.N. call for
“severe consequences” should Iraq insist on
retaining weapons of mass destruction.
The phrase is Bush’s license to wage war as a
last resort, the White House said.
But the statement did not threaten collective mil
itary action by the 19-nation alliance nor did it pre
vent some allies — particularly Germany and
France — from distancing themselves from Bush’s
zero tolerance position and even the document itself.
It did commit the alliance to taking “effective
action to assist and support the efforts of the
U.N.” That pledge was designed to make NATO’s
logistical and diplomatic assets available to the
United Nations, though it could be read as offering
the alliance’s military support, said a senior Bush
administration official.
See NATO on page 2
Two U.S. soldiers wounded in Kuwait Sold : ers shot
ms.:
KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A Kuwaiti
policeman shot and seriously wounded two
American soldiers on a desert highway
Thursday- in the latest violence against U.S.
troops who are preparing for a possible show
down with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The soldiers, in civilian clothes, were
shot as they traveled in an unmarked car
from the U.S. base at Camp Doha toward a
garrison near Oraifijan, about 35 miles
south of Kuwait City.
The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said a jun
ior patrol officer shot the men and fled to
neighboring Saudi Arabia, where he
remained at large. The statement did not
indicate the assailant’s motive.
Anti-American sentiment is on the rise
in the Mideast as military action against
Iraq looms. The shooting raised concern
about the safety of some 10,000 U.S.
troops stationed in Kuwait, a country that
would serve as a key staging ground in any
conflict with Iraq.
U.S. troops drove Saddam’s army from
Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, and most
Kuwaitis now support the U.S. military’s
role here. But the latest shooting, follow
ing an attack last month that killed a U.S.
Marine, could be an indication of rising
resentment.
The patrol officer apparently flagged the
Americans’ car down, possibly for speeding,
before the shooting, a Kuwaiti official said.
But other reports indicated the attacker fired
from his car as the Americans passed.
One of the Americans was shot in the face
and the other in the shoulder, the Pentagon
said; both were expected to survive. Their
names were not released by U.S. officials.
Geraldine Thomas said an Army sergeant
told her by phone that her husband, Larry
Thomas, 51, had been shot in the upper chest.
Two U.S. soldiers were shot in
Kuwait Thursday while traveling
from Camp Doha to Oraifijan.
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IRAQ KUWAIT
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Camp Doh
,/ Kuwait City
SAUDI ARAB IA ‘ ° raifl ^ an
0 25 mi \
0 25 km
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
Members of diversity panel come together to share all sides of issues
on
.2
THE BATTALION
jesig”®
ALISSA HOLLIMON
"Beal World" cast member Danny Roberts and director of work
force diversity and development for HEB Cynthia Rodriguez listen
to work force diversity expert Dr. Frances E. Kendall Thursday night.
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
Danny Roberts, cast member
of MTV’s “Real World New
Orleans,” said he is on both sides
of America’s societal divisions
of majority and minority: he’s a
white male, but he’s also gay.
Speaking at the Texas A&M
Diversity Symposium Thursday
night, Roberts said seeing the
world from both perspectives
leaves him caught in the middle.
“In society today, people will
tolerate but not accept gays and
lesbians,” he said.
Pablo Rodriguez, vice presi
dent for diversity in the Student
Government Association (SGA),
urged the audience that filled
Rudder Theatre to be active lis
teners and launch a dialogue that
would present solutions to creat
ing an inclusive environment at
A&M.
The panel was moderated by
A&M’s Dean of Faculties and
Associate Provost Karan Watson.
“We’re not here to promote a
side. We’re here to share infor
mation and learn from each
other,” Watson said. “Dialogue
involves respect and more than
trying to prove your point.”
Panel members explained
what diversity meant to them, and
how that definition should be
applied to race relations and the
push for more minorities at A&M.
“For me, diversity relates to
addressing issues of systemic
inequality,” said Dr. Francis
Kendall, a consultant on organi
zational change and communi
cation specializing in issues of
diversity. “Racism, sexism (and)
heterosexism affect society. And
the ways we are different have
consequences.”
Other issues detailed the pos
sible effects of Vision 2020, the
university's plan to push A&M
into the top 10 public schools by
2020, including a subgoal that
focuses University resources on
increasing diversity.
“The A&M community must
move away from tolerance and
multiculturalism,” said Dr.
Finnie Coleman, associate
director for the office of honors
programs and academic scholar
ships. “It has to be inviting, not
just accepting.”
One plan for diversity, which
involved granting automatic
admission to the top 20 percent
of qualified students of lower-
income, inner-city schools in
Texas, surfaced last year in the
University System’s Board of
Regents. The plan was put on
hold after further discussion.
See Diversity on page 2