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Sports: Aggies upset No. 24-ranked Oklahoma team • Page 1 B Opinion: Where the wild things star • Page 3A
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Volume 109 • Issue 90 • 18 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Ross Volunteers suspended after disruption
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
FILE PHOTO • THE BATTALION
The Ross Volunteer Honor Corps association,
an organization within Texas A&M’s Corps of
Cadets touted as the Honor Guard for the governor
of Texas, has been temporarily suspended pending
an investigation, said Maj. Doc Mills, Corps
spokesman.
The Ross Volunteers attended the inauguration
of Gov. Perry in Austin in January, and also
marched in the inauguration parade for President
Bush in January 2000.
The cadets were suspended after the Office of
the Commandant received complaints from stu
dents and community members of harassment by
the Ross Volunteers at a candlelight prayer vigil
on Monday, Feb. 3.
The suspension comes just three months after
the University Police Department began investi
gating allegations of hazing in Parsons Mounted
Cavalry, a specialized Corps unit similar to the
Ross Volunteers, in November.
The candlelight vigil was held to protest the
possible war with Iraq and pray for peace near the
Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue in Academic Plaza
at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3.
Hugh Stearns, a vigil attendee and Class of
1992, said the behavior of the cadets was clearly
antagonistic.
“They ran around the area screaming and
yelling,” he said. “Our ministers had to stop
speaking. Some of the cadets glared (at us).”
Stearns said he was aware that Corps members
jog on campus on a daily basis, but this situation
was different.
Most of the Corps groups are extremely cour
teous, Stearns said.
From their actions Monday, however, “there
was no loss of understanding as to the symbolism
of their behavior” he said.
The A&M students at the vigil reserved the
plaza through the University, Steams said. The
University Complex Center allows University-rec
ognized student organizations to reserve the area
by Rudder Fountain, the West Campus mall area
and the area by Sul Ross in the Academic plaza, as
“free speech zones.”
See Ross on page 9A
Mays says business | Look out below
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By Melissa Fowler
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M alumnus L.
Lowry Mays, known in
Aggieland for his position on
the University System Board of
Regents and the Mays College
of Business, is facing congres
sional pressure to alter the radio
business as part of his other job
as chairman and CEO of Clear
Channel Communications.
The San Antonio headquar
tered Clear Channel
Communications, which owns
more than 1,225 radio stations
®4 37 television stations, has
beenthe target of lawsuits and
fyiskWt proposals by oppo
nents seeking to restrict its
power and allow more govern
ment regulation of radio station
dealings and mergers.
In a press release on Jan. 30,
said he was excited to
have the opportunity to testify at
the committee’s hearing on
media ownership issues and to
be part of any dialogue intended
to make radio even better for
consumers. Mays’ office said
that he was unavailable for com
ment Wednesday.
Mays’ presence at the hear
ing, headed by Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., was in
response to allegations that his
media conglomerate uses anti
competitive practices to over
power other radio stations and
concert promoters.
“During the last year and a
half, I have heard countless alle
gations about (Clear Channel)
leveraging its cross ownership
in an anti-competitive manner,”
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.,
said at the hearing.
Two days before the hearing,
Feingold reintroduced a piece of
proposed legislation from June
2002 called the Competition in
the Radio and Concert
Industries Act that would assist
small radio owners and concert
promoters by outlawing anti
competitive practices in the
industry.
“We think Sen. Feingold is
wrong. Dead wrong,” Mays said
to the committee. “The legisla
tion is built on the faulty prem
ise that the concert business and
radio business need to be fixed.
They don’t. They are healthier
than ever, delivering more and
better service to consumers.”
The senate committee is
See Mays on page 2A
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
United Forming Construction Supervisor Reynol Gonzalez takes
a break during construction of the new endzone facility at the
North end of Kyle Field on Wednesday. Gonzalez has worked
on the construction of the new multi-million dollar facility for
eight months. The new project is going to expand Kyle Field
seating, along and add a brand new athletic facility.
A&M helps in Air Quality Project A&M recruits one
of year s best teams
By Lecia Baker
THE BATTALION
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Texas A&M researchers are participat
ing in the “Joint Houston-Galveston Air
Quality Project,” a $3.5 million dollar pro
gram funded by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to find possible
solutions for curbing pollution throughout
much of Southeast Texas.
“Nobody knows how much airborne
pollution occurs in College Station,
because there’s not any regular monitoring
station here,” said Dr. John Nielsen-
Gammon, Texas state climatologist and
professor of atmospheric sciences
at A&M. .
“Fundamentally, the main goal is to
save lives by making it clearer what needs
to be done to reduce air pollution,”
Nielsen-Gammon said.
With the computer simulations,
researchers can get a better idea of what
the local situation is, he said.
“The wind sometimes blows from
Houston to here, so whatever helps
Houston will help us,” he said.
The project will develop joint research
facilities among the University of
Houston, the University of Texas at Austin
and A&M, said Simon W. North, assistant
professor in the A&M Department of
Chemistry.
Air, car emissions, power plants and
the largest concentration of petrochemical
refining activities in the world have all
contributed to Houston’s long-standing
pollution problems, Nielsen-Gammon
said.
Part of the project is the construction of
up to three 60-feet tali observation towers,
Nielsen-Gammon said. The towers will
contain instruments to monitor air pollu
tion and will be located along the
Southeast Texas coastline, in urban
Houston, and in the Piney Woods, he said.
“With the towers, we hope to measure
the transformation of pollution as air pass
es over Houston and moves downstream,”
Nielsen-Gammon said. “We will measure
the exchange of pollutants with the
Southeast Texas forests to see how much
pollution is taken up by the ecosystem and
how much remains in the air.
“One key area we want to look at is air
that comes into Houston and then leaves
the city and goes elsewhere,” he added.
Residents of other Texas cities and
towns believe their pollution problem is
caused by cities upwind, such as Houston,
he said.
“With better meteorological and air
quality models, we can help determine
how much pollution is created locally and
how much moves in from afar,” Nielsen-
Gammon said.
“Most of what we do will have direct
relevance to Houston,” he said, “but the
See Air on page 9A
Blinn College hosts bone marrow drive
By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
The Scott and White Morrow
Donor Program and the Blinn
College Vocational Nursing
Students Association are sponsoring
a bone marrow registration drive to
find a donor for Blinn graduate
Kristen Reed, who has Non-
Hodgekins lymphoma.
Reed, a 21-year-old Caldwell res
ident, was diagnosed with cancer of
the lymph nodes, in Fall 2001 and
has been undergoing chemotherapy
for the past year.
“It (Reed’s lymphoma) is life-
threatening and she isn’t going to
get any better unless she gets a
transplant,” said Corolyn Reese,
vocational nursing school instructor.
Those participating in the drive,
being held today from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. on the Blinn campus, will have
a pin prick of blood taken to deter
mine tissue type.
Tissue typing classifies one’s
white blood cells, said Debbie
Maybry Manager of Scott and White
Marrow Donor Program.
See Marrow on page 2A
Kristen Heed
Bone Marrow Drive
Thursday, Feb. 6,2003
A » ajft - 4 p.m.
6
Blinn Main Campus
Health Building 131
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
Source: Blinn College
By Michael Crow
THE BATTALION
The battle for Southern
supremacy in collegiate football
recruiting just got more
interesting.
No longer are Texas A&M
football fanatics sitting idly by in
the offseason, watching Texas’
top high school recruits get
snatched up one at a time by the
likes of Mack Brown and Bob
Stoops. Instead, thanks to the
toils of former A&M Head
Coach R.C. Slocum and his suc
cessor Dennis Franchione, the
Aggies boast one of the nation’s
top recruiting classes this year.
Franchione announced the list
of newcomers on Wednesday,
college football’s official signing
day, and invited the student body
to witness the press conference
on the Jumbotron at Kyle Field.
The Aggies added 24 players
to create a new class that
Rivals.com ranks eighth in the
country.
“This is the culmination of a
lot of time and energy,”
Franchione said. “The previous
staff gave us a great start, which
was certainly pivotal. I’m really
proud of these young men.”
The group consists of Slocum
and Franchione recruits with an
emphasis on improvement in the
trenches at the offensive and
defensive lines. Five linemen
were added on each side of the
ball to help an area that
Franchione said he and his staff
24 s$gnees //ere
ranked • t e
United States
I Three made USA
Today All-American
Teams
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: WWW.RIVALS.COM
saw as needing to be
addressed most.
The arrival of 275-pound
offensive lineman Jorrie Adams
should quickly ease some of the
burden. The first-team USA
Today All-American out of
Jasper was listed as the No. 2
recruit in the state and No. 8
nationally by Rivals.com.
“(Adams) is considered one
of the top young men in the
country,” said A&M Assistant
Coach Jim Bob Helduser. “He
has outstanding athleticism and
great flexibility for such a tall
offensive lineman.”
See Team on page 9A