V
WORLD
Sports: Aggies dominate Iowa State 66-54 • Page 1 B ACGlEUFi; Bartender, pour the wine • Page 3B
THE BATTALION
:ills 120
rushed to the scene after b
Vlin Shim-eun, called hei
suffocating. Then the line
TUI7 UATTATTnW
1 illi JdAI 1 ALlUiN
^lume 109 • Issue 100 • 16 pages Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Thursday, February 20, 2003
any problems. She was a
his have to happen hef r
ic pavement near the scent.
, she’s probably dead"
were interrogating Kin
S6, who witnesses said car-
iilk carton into the subway
ding to Kim Byong-hab
itenant in Daegu. Another
icial said the suspect had
x\ for mental illness,
i the man tried to useaciy-
ter to light the box, somt
s tied to stop him.
y a scuffle erupted and the
led into flames,” the officer
ities said the fire was pal
,m.. about three hours after
but toxic gas in the tunnel
esc ue efforts, the Yonhap
cy said. The acrid odor of
astic still wafted over the
hours after the flames had
>ut.
the fire began, thick blad
entilator shafts of thesnh
ime to a standstill as amhti'
me. Orange suit-clad fire-
tanks rushed into the sub
YTN aired footage of the
ospital reportedly shown?
d to by nurses. The mansai
•ing a hospital smock, hit
from soot from the fire.
m Depressed milk prices and increased operational
costs forced center past budget during
last fiscal year
l Will shut down effective Aug. 31, Z003, though
Dairy Science Academic Program will continue
0 Built in I9$2 • updated in 1980 and 1987
^ 400 acres • has 11s milk cows
RANDAL FORI) AND TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
Source: A&M Dairy Center, AP
Senate
opposes
deregulation
here 21 people were killed
ampede, because a court
irdered the club to be
Mayor Richard M. Daley
esday.
/ rejected the contention
nets of the E2 nightclub
ey had a deal to stay open,
; a list of building codevio-
including failure to pro-
tough exits,
freds of people packed
te second-floor E2 club
eded down a stairwell
y after guards broke up a
id someone sprayed pep
; or Mace.
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
The Student Senate approved a resolution
Wednesday expressing opposition to tuition
deregulation.
no debate, the resolution, introduced by
Senator Kevin Capps, sailed through with
nosenators voting in opposition and five absten-
, Under a deregulation plan, caps on tuition
d be removed and the Board of Regents
1 raise tuition without approval from the state
Legislature.
The purpose of the Legislature is to detemiine
4t price the people can afford to pay,” Capps
"As unelected representatives, there are no
ttfor people of Texas to hold them directly
accountable for the cost of education.”
Although the Legislature has not yet taken up
deregulation measure, Capps said the senate
mist act now so that the voice of students are
hrd in the upcoming debate on the issue.
While the resolution opposes the state
xgislature giving complete authority to regents
set tuition rates, it leaves open the possibility
it the student senate will support a limited
deregulation plan, such as for summer school or
graduate school, and recommends legislators
)uld maintain at least some contraints on how
ichthe regents can raise tuition.
“The reality is they don’t have the money in
Austin (to adequately fund A&M), and we’re
ing to have to address a way to pick up the
ck,” Capps said.
The resolution also recommends legislators
See Senate on page 7A
A&M Dairy Center shuts its doors
By Melissa McKeon
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M’s Dairy Center which has been
housed at A&M since 1886, will close its doors
this August after more than 50 years, leaving dairy
workers out of a job and putting A&M’s dairy sci
ence program in jeopardy.
Twenty-five people will lose their jobs because
of the closing announced Wednesday, and many
say this could be the end of the dairy science pro
gram at A&M.
Laura Hamilton, calf manager at the center,
said the mismanagement that has been cited as a
reason for the closing could have been prevented.
“There are plans for a new Dairy Center dating
back to 1980 that was never built,” she said.
“There weren’t any improvements made to the
existing center or equipment with the money that
was set aside.”
The current center has not had major renova
tions since 1952, when the center was first built,
she said. To help pay for improvements, the Dairy
Center sold several cows in 1996 to replace
asbestos shingles on the buildings.
“The money from those cows did not go toward
improvements like it should have,” Hamilton said.
Dr. John McNeill, head of the animal science
department, said the center will still be selling
cows and equipment until it closes.
Financial reasons are to blame for closing the
center. College Station is not a good place to milk
cows because of the weather, McNeill said.
“We are not reducing our commitment by
these actions — we are simply going to cease
milking cows in College Station,” according to
The Associated Press.
“Current state budget recissions just accentuat
ed the need to close the center,” McNeill said.
Cody Martindale, head feeder at the Dairy
Center, said the financial and environmental rea
sons McNeill gave for closing the facility are
unfounded.
“We lost $40,00 last year but we made it all
up,” Martindale said. “We have passed all state
See Dairy on page 2A
Does a tiger good
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
ZooCats Zoological Systems employee Nia Segovia feeds milk to a 5- the advertising for the Housing Fair at the MSC. The non-profit organ-
month-old Bengal Tiger Nikita in front of the MSC on Wednesday after- ization was there on behalf of Cambridge housing. The organization
noon. Students were allowed to take pictures with the tiger as part of houses 23 tigers and works with Save the Tiger fund.
City council considers age increase
Filing for local office
laties of College Station and Bryan accepting
candidates Feb. 17-March 19
[college Station City Council considered raising
candidates required age from 18 to 21 on Feb. 10
If interested, contact:
-CollegeStation: 764-3541 ^ ^
-Bryan: 209-5120 W W W
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
Source: CITIES OP BRYAN AND COLLEGE STATION
By Hedish Connor
THE BATTALION
The College Station City
Council has suggested raising the
age requirement to run for a city
council position from 18 to 21.
Connie Hooks, College
Station city secretary, said coun
cil members mentioned the pos
sible change to the city charter
last week, and will consider the
matter further this summer.
A new age requirement was
suggested because, in the past,
younger potential candidates
who waited until the last minute
to file for office were not aware
of the complete running process,
Hooks said.
She said council members
want candidates who understand
how the council runs and know
about current issues.
The majority of 19 and 20-
year-olds who ran for city office
in the past did not even know
what a council meeting was,
Hooks said.
“Someone who is 21 will
make decisions based on the
importance of the role, not nec
essarily (the importance) of
(Texas A&M),” she said.
Any changes made to the city
See Council on page 2A
Powell waits for Turkey’s support in war
By Barry Schweid
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State
Colin Powell interceded Wednesday with
Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul in an
apparently unsuccessful effort to break a
deadlock over a U.S. aid package designed
to secure Turkey’s help in war with Iraq.
At stake is the stationing of U.S. troops
iuTurkey and the use of bases there.
Powell gave no indication the tele
phone diplomacy produced a break
through. A Turkish official in Washington
s aid Turkey wanted more than the United
States had offered but the American side
"'as holding firm.
CNN reported that the United States gave
Turkey 48 hours to respond to the proposed
aid package, but U.S. officials had no con
firmation of the report.
“We are waiting to hear back from the
Turks,” Powell told reporters. “I think they
understand the importance of this issue to
us, and to our efforts, and they’ve got it
under consideration now.”
Powell added: “Time is moving, but I
don’t have a deadline I’d like to announce
right now.”
A senior U.S. official, also asked about
the report, said the United States wants an
answer right away but said he was unaware
of a specific deadline.
The dispute with Turkey is only one of
many problems the Bush administration is
having as it tries to line up support for a pos
sible war with Iraq.
A new U.N. resolution demanding Iraq’s
disarmament — and testing the Security
Council’s resolve — will be introduced
soon, Boucher said.
He dismissed two days of speeches by
other governments at the council disapprov
ing of force to disarm Iraq.
“It’s a matter of the Security Council
taking its responsibility,” Boucher said. “I
know that a lot of speeches are being made
by a lot of people.”
Powell, in his conversation with Gul,
“stressed the importance of reaching a deci
sion very soon,” Boucher said.
See Turkey on page 2A
Terrorist receives
15-year sentence
By David Rising
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAMBURG, Germany —
A Moroccan received the max
imum 15-year sentence
Wednesday for helping the al-
Qaida hijackers who carried
out the Sept. 11 attacks —- the
first conviction anywhere of a
suspect in the terror plot
against the United States.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 28,
showed no emotion but occa
sionally shook his head or
checked his watch as he lis
tened to the verdict finding
him guilty of more than 3,000
counts of accessory to murder.
El Motassadeq helped pay
tuition and rent for members
of the Hamburg-based al-
Qaida cell —- allowing them to
live as students as they plotted
the attacks, prosecutors said.
Judge Albrecht Mentz said
el Motassadeq lied when he
testified he was unaware of the
plot despite being close friends
with suicide hijackers
Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-
Shehhi and other cell members.
Mentz said he agreed with
prosecutors who earlier
described the defendant as “a
cog that kept the machinery
going.”
He “belonged to this group
since its inception. ... He knew
and approved the key elements
of the planned attacks,” the
judge said.
Sept. 11 victims’ relatives
who participated in the trial as
co-plaintiffs — some offering
emotional testimony that
Mentz said prompted him to
impose the maximum sentence
— praised the verdict.
Joan Molinaro of New York
City said she was “thrilled.”
“It’s the first small victory
we’ve had since 9/11,” said
Molinaro, whose firefighter
son Carl was killed at the
World Trade Center. “I kind of
feel like, ’OK, Carl, we got
one,”’ she said. “I think my
son is smiling.”
Another New Yorker, Kathy
Ashton — whose son Tommy
was killed at the World Trade
Center — called the 15-year
sentence “a drop in the bucket,
especially for a young man,
but at least it’s something.”
Interior Minister Otto
Schily hailed the verdict as a
“success in the fight” against
terror. “It is a warning to all
those who think they can toy
with the idea of aligning them
selves with terrorist networks.”
See Trial on page 2A