Opinion: Breaking the glass ceiling • Page 11
SciTech: West Nile threats continue • Page 5
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\olume 109 • Issue 123 • 12 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Police release racial profiling report
By Janet McLaren
THE BATTALION
I Officials with Texas A&M’s
■niversity Police Department say offi
cers do not conduct racial profiling dur
ing stops, but some minority students
remain skeptical despite the exonerat
ing results cited in the department’s
annual racial profiling report released
in March.
I “The policy of any police depart
ment on racial profiling is absolutely
n»' said Bob Wiatt, director of the
IH’D. “It’s forbidden."
The College Station Police
Department also submitted its racial
profiling report to the City Council last
week. Both reports detail the racial
demographics of traffic stops and
arrests for 2002.
According to the UPD report, whites
made up 83 percent of the total traffic
stops for the year while Asians made up
7 percent, blacks made up 5 percent
and Hispanics 5 percent.
Compared to the demographics of
the student population provided by the
A&M Office of Institutional Studies
and Planning, whites, and Asians are
pulled over on campus more frequently
than other races. Whites currently make
up ih percent of the student population
and Asians comprise only 3 percent.
The CSPD reported similar statis
tics, citing whites as the most frequent
ly stopped ethnicity, followed by black
and Hispanic drivers. In proportion to
the percentage of College Station
households faith access to a vehicle,
whites and blacks were ovenepresented
in police stops, while Hispanics and
Asians were underrepresented.
Sophia Lecky, a junior information
and operations management major, said
that while the reports seemed to show a
fair ethnic representation by the UPD,
they did not prove that racial profiling
is not a problem in the area.
“These reports can’t be the final
word,” Lecky said. “This doesn’t mean
that discrimination does not exist.”
Wiatt said complaints of racial dis
crimination in the UPD are uncommon.
“Over a period of years, we have
had one or two complaints, but very
few overall,” he said. “We generally
have video cameras that refute any
accusations.”
Wiatt advised students with any
complaint of racial discrimination to
See Profiling on page 2
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
University Police Department
Racial Profiling Report 2002
UPD traffic stops
■ 83% White
S 5% Hispanic
□ 5% Black
H 7% Asian
A&M student body
t
H 76% White
H 8% Hispanic
□ 2% Black
H 3% Asian
Travis Swenson • THE BATTALION
SOURCE • UPD, Office of Institutional
Studies and Planning
Fighting Fire
John C. Livas* THE BATTALION
College Station fire fighters walk down the stairs of The
Zone Apartments after putting out a fire that broke out
late Monday night. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The fire destroyed a four-bedroom apartment and
caused smoke damage to two others. There were no
injuries and officials are investigating the cause of the
fire, said College Station Fire Department spokesman
Bart Humphries.
Byrne names new
basketball coach
By Michael Crow
THE BATTALION
BLAIR
On Monday, Texas A&M
Director of Athletics Bill Byme
named his second head coach
replacement since being appointed
in December of
2002, announcing
that renowned
women’s basketball
coach Gary Blair
would leave the
University of
Arkansas to take
over the vacancy at
A&M left when Peggie Gillom’s
contract was not renewed.
Byrne, formerly the director of
athletics for the University of
Nebraska, was largely influential in
the hiring of Dennis Franchione as
the Aggies’ head football coach.
According to The Associated
Press, Blair was reportedly offered
$400,000 a year by A&M, which
doubles his annual salary at
Arkansas.
Like Franchione, who built a
name for himself at Texas Christian
University before taking over at the
University of Alabama, Blair will
be returning to the Lone Star State.
Blair compiled a 210-43 record at
Stephen F. Austin University prior
to his 10-year stay at Arkansas.
Byrne said that Blair’s roots
should ease his transition to
Aggieland.
“Gary is an outstanding coach
with tremendous success in
women’s college basketball,”
Byrne said. “He’s a native Texan
and so is his wife, and I think they
will fit great into the Aggie family.”
During his 18-year career,
Blair’s teams have gone 408-163,
making him one of the 25 win-
ningest coaches in women’s colle
giate basketball. He has taken
teams to the NCAA Tournament 11
times, including a trip to the Final
Four in 1998. Last season, he took
Arkansas to the second round of the
NCAAs.
Blair said that some might ques
tion why he chose to leave a suc
cessful program.
“I wasn’t looking for a job, but
sometimes a great job comes look
ing for you,” he said. “Texas is my
home state, and I’ve been familiar
with Texas A&M for a long time. I
know what kind of program A&M
can be, and I want to be the archi
tect to get it done.”
Gillom’s contract expired at the
end of the 2002-2003 season,
which ended with a loss to Baylor
University in the Big 12
Tournament on March 11.
Still, despite Blair’s hiring with
in the month. Assistant Director of
Athletics Steve Miller said that
See Coach on page 2
SBP candidates woo undecided voters
By Esther Robards-Forbes
THE BATTALION
With students almost evenly split among a crowd-
1 sd field of student body president candidates in the
initial round of voting, runoff contenders Stoney
feurke and Matt Josefy honed their campaign pitches
to woo undecided voters at a debate Monday.
The two faced off before about 100 students in the
Memorial Student Center Flagroom, but there was lit
tle disagreement between Burke and Josefy on any
issue.
Both candidates said they opposed tuition deregu
lation, but conceded there was little they could do to
dissuade the state legislature from passing it.
However, if the Texas A&M University system Board
of Regents is given tuition-setting authority, a student
representative should be added to the Board to ensure
students’ voices are heard, Burke said.
Josefy said any effort to put a student representa
tive on the Board would be unlikely to succeed, and
added that it would be difficult to choose one student
to represent the entire student body to the Board of
Regents.
Both of the candidates touted their extensive stu
dent government experience and their ability to work
well with faculty and administrators, as well as stu
dent organizations.
Burke and Josefy stressed the need of the student
body president to hear the voices of the students
and increase student involvement with student
government.
“One of the things that makes this University dis
tinct is that if you as a student have an idea, you
should be able to run with that and put that in place,”
said Josefy, a senior accounting major.
Burke emphasized the need to target specific stu
dent leaders for involvement in projects and suggest
ed offering academic extra credit to students who
attend forums and focus groups for the Student
Government Association.
Both candidates support the diversity initiatives
that have been set forth by the administration.
“Every student pays the exact same amount of
tuition and fees here at Texas A&M, but they don’t
receive the same amount of respect. And that hurts
being an Aggie,” said Burke, a senior international
studies major.” We are the only school in the Big 12
conference without an African-American studies pro
gram, and we are the largest school in the nation without.
See Candidates on page 6
juniN v.. i_/i v/\c> - lilt orv i irvtiv-/i'
SPB candidates (front) Matt Josefy and
Stoney Burke.
A&M bolsters local economy
By Lauren Smith
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M, with its hefty payroll and
well-heeled student body, helps insulate
Bryan-College Station from the nationwide
economic slowdown, local business leaders
said.
With an unemployment rate of 1.7 per
cent, Bryan-College Station boasts the low
est unemployment of any metropolitan area
in the country at a time when other cities are
experiencing rising jobless rates, according
to the December 2002 data report of the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national
average is 5.7 percent.
“We have not been impacted overall as
much as the nation in general,” said Royce
Hickman, president of the Bryan-College
Station Chamber of Commerce. “A number
of the jobs in this area are related to the gov
ernment, with Texas A&M University, the
Texas A&M system, two large school dis
tricts, and health care centers.”
More than 21,000 local residents work
for the University and for A&M System
offices located in College Station, with a
total payroll of $603 million.
In the Oct. 14 issue of Business Weekly,
Bryan-College Station was named one of the
twelve “pockets of prosperity.” Like Bryan-
College Station, most of the other cities on
the list were located near a major university
or another large government entity.
“The University is a major economic
engine, providing educational and research
opportunities, as well as being the largest
employer for this area and the more rural
surrounding areas,” Hickman said.
In addition to being a large employer,
A&M is also a more steady employer than
the private sector, said Garry Basinger, vice
president of development for the Bryan-
College Station Economic Development
Corporation.
“It also helps employment rates that the
University is a government entity; therefore,
mass layoffs are simply not an option,”
See Economy on page 6
Street fighting 50 miles from Baghdad
By David Espo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
American forces battled Iraqi
defenders in fierce street fighting
50 miles south of Baghdad on
Monday, pointing toward a drive on
the capital. Army guards shot seven
Iraqi women and children to death
when their van refused orders to
stop at a checkpoint, officials said.
U.S. troops and tanks encoun
tered rocket-propelled grenades
and small arms fire in a dawn raid
against Republican Guard defend
ers of Hindiyah, a key city astride
the Euphrates River. Other units
fought to isolate Najaf to the
south and prevent attacks on U.S.
supply lines.
“There are maneuvers going
(on) to try to destroy those divi
sions that stand in our way” of
Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Stanley
McChrystal said at the Pentagon.
He added that more than 3,000 pre
cision-guided bombs have been
dropped on Iraq in the past few
days, out of 8,000 in the entire war.
In the northern part of Iraq,
commanders said an assault on a
compound controlled by an Islamic
Iraqi group turned up lists of names
of suspected militants living in the
United States.
And heavy bombing was report
ed during the day, from areas near
the northern oil fields to downtown
Baghdad to Republican Guard
defensive positions south of the
city. Bombing south of the capital,
probably against Republican Guard
positions, resumed at daylight
Tuesday.
On the 13th day of Operation
Iraqi Freedom, British officials
claimed that 8,000 Iraqis have been
taken prisoner so far.
But a defiant Iraqi foreign min
ister said invading forces face the
choice between death or surrender.
“Every day that passes the United
States and Britain are sinking deep
er in the mud of defeat,” said Naji
Sabri.
Iraqi television aired footage of
President Saddam Hussein and his
sons Odai and Qusai, but there was
no way of determining when the
video was shot. Gen. Peter Pace,
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said on PBS that U.S. intelli
gence sources have been unable to
confirm that Saddam survived the
March 19 strike on a bunker where
he was believed to be staying but
said, “That doesn’t mean he’s
dead.”
For his part, President Bush
warned that Saddam “may try to
bring terror to our shores.” The
United States is acting to prevent
such threats, he said as he issued
his latest forecast of victory. “Day
by day we are moving closer to
See Baghdad on page 2