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Sports: Aggies travel to Norman to face No. 7 OU • Page 7 Opinion: Cost of war high for Iraq • Page 11
THE BATTALION
Volume 109 • Issue 83 • 12 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Officials say A&M needs racial preferencing
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
Despite efforts by Texas A&M President
Robert Gates to increase minority enroll
ment by promoting a more welcoming cam
pus environment, some University officials
suggest that without racial preferences.
Gates’ plan will do little to entice more
black and Hispanic students to A&M.
Gates, who has made increasing the eth
nic diversity of the student body a top prior
ity, has said the perception that A&M is hos
tile to minorities may prompt minority stu
dents admitted to A&M to opt for another
school. Although Gates has emphasized that
his plan to promote diversity does not
involve quotas or preferences, those on the
front lines of the admissions process say the
primary obstacles to increasing minority
enrollment are the legal constraints prevent
ing the University from offering minority
scholarships.
“We need to have more freedom in dis
pensing scholarships and to be more target-
specific,” said Joe Estrada, assistant provost
for enrollment.
Since the 1996 Hopwood decision, Texas
schools have been prohibited from consider
ing race in admissions and financial aid.
A&M is at a disadvantage when out-of-
state schools can offer minority students
more scholarship money, said Frank Ashley,
director of admissions.
The lure of better financial packages
from other schools is one of the primary rea
sons why only 53 percent of Hispanic appli
cants and 47 percent of black applicants
who were admitted to A&M in 2002 chose
to enroll. By comparison, 64 percent of
white applicants who were admitted decided
to come to the University.
“It’s hard to compete when all we can tell
(minority applicants) is ‘apply, and if you
get accepted, we’ll see what we can do,’ but
another school can come and guarantee
them a scholarship,” Ashley said.
Unable to offer financial incentives.
University officials believe a better sales
pitch will convince more minority students
to choose A&M. As part of the recruitment
See Diversity on page 2
Racial Admission Numbers
SfllflPSl
Source: Office of Admissions
mod
47%
Travis Swenson • THE BATTALION
Cloning at
A&M still
limited to
animals
By Lecia Baker
THE BATTALION
Despite one religious sect’s claims
to have produced a successful human
clone, Texas A&M’s cloning efforts
will be limited strictly to animals due
to moral and ethical issues, said Dr.
Mark Westhusin, associate professor
of the veterinary medicine department.
“Texas A&M is not at all interested
(inhuman cloning),” Westhusin said.
Clonaid, a human cloning compa
ny founded in 1997, announced in
December the birth of the first human
clone, a baby girl named Eve.
Westhusin said although Clonaid’s
claim that it has produced more than
one human clone is as yet unsupport
ed, it is technologically possible
“It’s hard to know if Clonaid’s
claim is true or false, but we will see a
human clone in our lifetime,” he said.
A&M does have the technology to
produce a human clone but does not
have access to human eggs,
Westhusin said.
The complexity of the issue
remains in finding volunteers, he said.
The cloning process is the same
|for all species. The component’s
I needs are eggs and a technician with
| the skills to complete the transfer,
:: Westhusin said.
Westhusin said A&M’s current
focus is cattle cloning.
“We want to know how and why
some (clones) do not develop normal-
[ ly,” he said.
Bret Evers, a junior biochemistry
and genetics major, studied the effi-
i ciency of cloning in a lab last year.
Evers agreed that cloning humans is
possible, but said it is not an efficient
process yet.
See Cloning on page 10
Welcome to my lab
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Agronomy graduate student and teacher, Casey
Cook prepares a group of plants for an
Agronomy 105 lab in Minnie Belle Heep center
Monday afternoon. The plants include wheat, rye
grass, cotton, and many others which his class
will germinate in an ongoing experiment.
Hiring freeze
affects staff,
not faculty
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
GATES
A&M President Robert M.
Gates announced a staff hiring
freeze Monday and said more
spending cuts were on the way as
the state government copes with
a fiscal emergency.
To avoid a budget shortfall
this year. Gov. Rick Perry has
requested that all state agencies
impose a 7 percent budget cut. A&M, which
receives approximately a third of its budget from
state funds, must cut $16 million from the 2003 fis
cal year budget, which ends in September.
The hiring freeze, which will not affect faculty,
will last at least until the end of the state legislative
session in May and possibly until the end of the fis
cal year. He said.
“We need a better picture of what the fiscal
future will look like,” Gates said.
He also imposed a freeze on anyone at the
University using state funds for travel.
Gates said he must approve any exceptions to
both the hiring and the travel freeze.
A newly formed finance council, chaired by Dr.
Jerry Strawser, dean of the Mays Business School,
will recommend other cost-saving measures by
next week. Gates said. It is not yet known how
much money the hiring freeze will save, and possi
ble spending cuts include postponing capital
investments, such as equipment, and cancelling
consulting contracts. He said.
“We’re going to do our very best to minimize
the impact on students, faculty and academic pro
grams,” Gates said.
The finance council will report to the 35-member
Academic Programs Council (APC), which includes
college deans and top administrators. The APC will
make final budget cut recommendations to Gates.
Strawser said his committee, which is operating
under short notice, would work quickly to calculate
the precise savings possible cuts would bring.
“It’s too early right now to say how much (the
hiring freeze) will save,” Strawser said. “We just
need to see how many positions are open and what
they’re valued at.”
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Unity Project leaves $4,000 debt
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M students who directed and
built the Unity Project bonfire this past semester
are in personal debt for more than $4,000.
Luke Cheatham, Unity Project spokesman,
UNITY PROJECT
EXPENDITURES / REVENUES
1 2002 - 2003
EXPENDITURES
Land lease/insurance
Bus rental
T-shirts
CD’s
Supplies
Activities prior to bonfire
REVENUE
Sales: T-shirts, CD’s, $16,377.75
photos, admission,
parking and concessions
Donations $5,072.24
Source: www.bonhrf.2002.com
Ruben Deluna • THE BATTALION
said the losses were anticipated because this was
the Unity Project’s first year, and losses are
expected as with any other business.
“We had start-up costs and people weren’t sure
it (bonfire) would happen until the day it hap
pened,” Cheatham said. “But now we have a year
of experience. We know what we did wrong and
what we did right, and we expect our numbers to
be in the positive next year.”
Cheatham said the Unity Project directors
hope to be out of debt by the end of spring.
The bonfire was initially funded out of their
own pockets, Cheatham said.
Cheatham said bonfire will happen for sure in
2003 and they are planning to have it on the tra
ditional date, before the last football game of the
season against the University of Texas.
The Unity Project leaders hope to buy land to
build this year’s bonfire on, but those details are
not definite yet and depend on donations between
now and the end of spring, Cheatham said.
“We’re not locked down on where it will be
and at what time. If we aren’t able to buy land, we
have the option of having it at the same place,”
Cheatham said. “We will have the details by the
end of spring, especially our first and second
option on the location.”
See Project on page 10
$5,500
4,500
3,300
2,100
723
4,000
Gates proposes tuition increase
to lower faculty to student ratio
By Allyson Bancy
THE BATTALION
At an open forum Monday,
President Robert Gates pro
posed an increase in University
Authorized Tuition (UAT), a
move that will bring the UAT
from $44 per semester credit
hour to $46, the maximum
allowed by the state legislature.
Gates justified the increase
with a list of areas in the
University that need improve
ments, including faculty, diver
sity, students and space.
The most critical change
must come in faculty. Gates
said. He said the University
must hire more faculty and
increase faculty salaries.
The amount of faculty at
A&M has decreased by 13 per
cent in the past 20 years, while
A&M’s student population has
grown by 28 percent.
Gates said his primary
objective is to decrease the stu
dent/faculty ratio from 22 stu
dents per faculty member to 16
students per class. The increase
in tuition would generate $2.2
million that would be used to
hire 300 more faculty mem
bers, increase faculty salaries,
and make adjustments to edu
cational programs.
Gates also mentioned
A&M’s drop in 2002 from the
top tier of the annual rankings
published by U.S. News and
World Report.
Gates mentioned another
publication, Kiplinger’s
Magazine, that ranked A&M
number 51 in the category of
‘TOO Best Buys for public col
leges and universities.”
The need to increase tuition
has been brought about by
decreasing state support, Gates
said.
“State funding hasn’t kept
up with our needs,” Gates said.
Tuition and fees have
increased, while general rev
enues have decreased.
Gates said that if no changes
are made in the future, A&M
students will bear a greater por
tion of University costs than the
state. He also said A&M’s
administrative costs are the
lowest of any Texas public uni
versity.
Gates said that with declin
ing state support, the
University has to seek money
elsewhere.
“Right now we are going to
squeeze money out of the pro
grams and resources we have.
See Tuition on page 2