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HE BATTALIO
Sports* A&M faces off with Longhorns in Texas Cup • Page 1 B Accieufe: Addicted to reality • Page 4A
THE BATTALIO
Volume 109 • Issue 85 • 18 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Thursday, January 30, 2003
retuses to release records
By Lauren Smith
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M officials
responded swiftly to inquiries
about security cameras, even as
the other flagship university in
Texas has become embroiled in a
legal battle with the state attor
ney general about whether such
information should be available
to the public.
In October 2002, a Daily
Texan reporter requested open
records on the geography, times
of operation, technicalities and
costs associated with surveillance
cameras located on the University
of Texas campus. UT officials
denied the request, citing “protec
tion of national security.”
When a Texas institution
denies an open records request,
the state attorney general must
issue an opinion about whether
the institution’s reasons for with
holding information are valid.
After UT officials refused to
answer the reporter’s questions
in October, they turned over that
same information to the attorney
general “in an effort to influence
his decision” on the case,
according to The Daily Texan.
On Jan. 6, newly elected
Attorney General Greg Abbott
rejected UT’s claims that disclo
sure of the information was an
issue of national security and
that there was an alleged proce
dural error in the request.
On Jan. 15, the UT System
filed a lawsuit against Abbott to
dispute his ruling, citing the
USA Patriot Act, a law passed in
October 2001 in response to the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
UT general counsel Patricia
Ohlendorf consulted UT
President Larry Faulkner before
hiring an Austin firm to file the
suit on the university’s behalf,
according to The Daily Texan.
UT officials continue to assert
that disclosing information
about surveillance cameras
would leave the school vulnera
ble to terrorists and terrorist
attacks, according to the Austin
American-Statesman.
toy©
See Lawsuit on page 2A Source: The Daily Texan
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
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Internet hoax sweeps A&M
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Three-year-old Grace Bible Church Pre-school student, Isaac Womack,
looks through a pair of binoculars while playing at the Children's Museum
of the Brazos Valley on Wednesday afternoon. The Museum, located in
downtown Bryan, is open to all children and allows them to paint, play,
and pretend to be whatever they like. It is open Monday through Saturday
and admission is four dollars per person.
A&M athlete
drug policy
explained
By Hedish Connor
THE BATTALION
On the heels of the suspension of a Texas
A&M athlete for alleged possession of steroids,
the Athletic Department is reiterating its drug pol
icy, saying A&M student athletes are educated on
drug use and tested within the first week of their
arrival to campus.
From the moment a student enters the pro
gram, all student athletes are required to partici
pate in an educational seminar on the use of drugs
and give a sample for a drug test, said Alan
Cannon, A&M assistant athletic director.
The A&M Athletic Department has a three-
offense-consequence system for students who test
positive for drug use. The department does not
condone use of illegal or performance-enhancing
drugs, Cannon said.
“We are trying to educate young people to
these problems and we will not put up with the
use of illegal substances,” Cannon said.
Senior center Andy Slocum was arrested this
past week for possession of a controlled substance
and was suspended from the team by Melvin
Watkins, A&M men’s head basketball coach.
Slocum, a junior agriculture development
major, has been charged with two counts of pos
sessing a controlled substance.
In addition to the Athletic Department’s educa
tional seminar and drug test, students are asked to
sign a release form allowing the department to con
tact their parents if an offense occurs, Cannon said.
If students choose not to sign the release form,
See Policy on page 5A
By Melissa Fowler OlseU twIttS HOt attending
THE BATTALION » ^
An article circulating
brough e-mail since Monday
claiming the Olsen twins have
announced plans to attend Texas
A&M is a hoax, said a spokes
woman for Dualstar
Entertainment Group, the girls’
production company.
“The girls are juniors and tak
ing their SATs now, but still have
an entire year of high school left,”
the spokeswoman said.
The forwarded article appears
to be a post on the CNN Web site
(CNN.com). It is formatted like
other articles on the site and is
complete with a picture of the
twins and menu bars that link to
the official CNN.com site.
The article, which claims
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
want to live on the Northside of
campus in Fall 2003, cannot be
found on CNN.com even by
searching through archives.
A representative from CNN
could not be reached for com
ment Wednesday.
Junior education major
Melissa Zulinski said she read
the e-mail and believed it was
real until a co-worker searched
CNN.com and discovered the
article was fake.
Ben Zurbrugg, a junior
chemical engineering major
and Student Computing Center
employee, said creating such
an e-mail would not be diffi
cult. Circulating an e-mail
such as this is easier for stu
dents because neo e-mail
addresses are accessible
through a public domain,
Zurbrugg said. Addresses are
set up this way to enable pro
fessors and teaching assistants
to reach all students.
The origin of the e-mail
remains unknown.
Zurbrugg said the University
could track the e-mail and see
where it began if it started within
the University e-mail system.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
are among the wealthiest
teenagers in America. They start
ed their acting career when they
A&M Health Science
Center accredited
MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY OLSEN
Source: www.angelfire.com
were 9 months old playing the
role of Michelle Tanner on eight
seasons of the sitcom “Full
House.”
Today the twins have their
own clothing line, video games
and a Mattel doll that is second in
sales only to Barbie.
Their straight-to-video
movies including “Our Lips Are
Sealed,” “Holiday in the Sun”
and “When in Rome” have sold
more than 27 million copies.
The 16-year-old Olsen girls
attend private school in Los
Angeles and have not declared
any college plans.
Firms settle charges of violating privacy
By Siobhan McDonough
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Two companies
that distributed questionnaires to millions
of students, promising to use the data for
educational purposes, have agreed to settle
federal charges that they broke privacy
laws by selling the information to credit
card, insurance and other companies, the
government said Wednesday.
Educational Research Center of
America of Pittsburgh and Student
Marketing Group of Lynbrook, N.Y., were
ordered by the Federal Trade Commission
to destroy any information they acquired
from children under 13.
Since at least 1999, the companies have
surveyed millions of high school students
and more than 300,000 middle and junior
high school students, the FTC said.
Under the agreement, the companies
are also barred from using previously col
lected student information for noneduca-
tional marketing and from using any data
gained in the future for similar marketing
unless they specify before distributing
questionnaires how the data will be used.
The settlement contained no financial
penalty.
“The lesson in this case for marketers is
that it’s deceptive to promote a student sur
vey as purely educational, then use it for
commercial marketing,” said Howard
Beales, director of the FTC’s Bureau of
Consumer Protection.
The FTC charged that the companies
shared survey data with commercial mar
keters including banks and retail stores. By
settling, the companies did not admit
breaking any law.
Jan Stumacher, president of Student
Marketing Group, said, “We believe that
the settlement reflects our view that there
was no attempt to mislead students, but
simply a disagreement over the level of
detail that should be provided in connec
tion with the collection of information.”
See Charges on page 2A
By Allyson Bandy
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M University
System Health Science Center
received full accreditation for
10 years from the Southern
Association of Colleges and
Schools.
The SACS is a federally rec
ognized agency that accredits
universities, said Dr. Elvin
Smith, executive vice president
of the Health Science Center.
“This (accreditation) is so
important in order to maintain
the standards of excellence,”
said Nancy W. Dickey, M.D.,
president of the Health Science
Center and vice chancellor for
Health Affairs.
“This is in the students’ best
interest, considering most schol
arships and federally funded
loans only apply to accredited
schools,” Dickey said.
The SACS evaluates apply
ing institutions on several crite
ria, including student services,
curriculum, technology and per
formance, Dickey said.
The SACS accredits more
than 12,000 public and private
educational institutions, from
prekindergarten through univer
sity level, in 11 states of the
Southeastern United States and
in Latin America.
Smith said the accreditation
from the SACS is important
because “it is peers around the
country evaluating the quality of
your institution.”
In 1999, the Health Science
Center made itself a separate
body no longer affiliated with
A&M. It shares the same Board
of Regents and the same chan
cellor with A&M but has a sep
arate student body and separate
facilities, Dickey said.
Currently, the only building
See Center on page 2A
+lHealtli Science CenterAccreditationl
- Scholarships, federally funded loans now apply
- Includes College of Medicine and five
other schools
- The center awards 300 degrees per year
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSTIY HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER