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Volume 109 • Issue 125 • 16 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Thursday, April 3, 2003
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Perry appoints Nye, White as A&M regents
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
ov. Rick Perry appointed Houston attorney
John White and reappointed Erie Nye to the Texas
A&M University System Board of Regents on
Wednesday.
■Nye, first appointed in 1997, has served as
chairman of the board since 2001. Nye is the
chairman and chief executive officer of TXU
Corp., a Dallas-based energy conglomerate.
White, a 1970 A&M graduate
and a 1972 graduate of the
University of Texas Law School,
is an attorney with the Jones
Walker law firm and serves on the
board of directors of the
Association of Former Students.
Glenda Mariott, a College
Station businesswoman and past
president of the Association of Former Students,
said White would bring the integrity, commitment
and love of A&M he demonstrated on the board of
NYE
the Association to his work as a
regent.
“He’s been wonderful to work
with, and we’ll miss him, but
we’re thrilled for him,” Mariott
said.
As a student, White was a
member of the Ross Volunteer
Company and a wing commander
in the Corps of Cadets.
Nye received a bachelor’s degree in electrical
engineering from A&M and a law degree from
WHITE
Southern Methodist University. Nye is also an
active Republican Party fundraiser. According to
Texans for Public Justice, a political watchdog
group, TXU gave $168,000 to Perry’s 2002 bid for
governor, making it the 14th largest donor to the
campaign. Nye was also a “Pioneer” for the 2000
George W. Bush presidential campaign, an elite
fundraising group that each raised at least
$100,000 for Bush.
The terms of Anne Armstrong and Dionel
See Regents on page 2A
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M football team stretches before practice in a
shot taken from a Cessna Airplane piloted by senior Texas
A&M Flying Club president Andy Fay. The team is in the heat
of spring training under Head Coach Dennis Franchione.
exploration
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huttle crew we
eball park's
Bonfire site
to open in 2004
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
Construction on the Bonfire
Memorial will begin in Fall
2003 with a scheduled comple
tion date of Nov. 18, 2004.
University President Robert M.
Gates has also set aside Nov. 18
on the official University calen
dar as Bonfire Remembrance
Day for Fall 2003.
Texas A&M has set aside $5
million for the Bonfire
Memorial, said Dr. Wynn
Rosser, assistant vice president
for student affairs.
The projected figure includes
both design and construction.
Overland Partners, a San
Antonio-based design firm, won
the design competition in Spring
2002 and was put under contract
that fall, said Bob Shemwell,
team leader and Class of 1984.
Overland Partners has worked
with an advisory committee to
bring the project to where it is
today, Rosser said. Students on
the advisory committee include a
representative from the
Residence Hall Association, the
Traditions Council, the Student
Government Association and the
Corps of Cadets, Rosser said.
The memorial will consist
of 12 portals representing each
student who died in the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse, and
the portals will face each stu
dent’s hometown.
The doorways are larger
than life, standing 16 feet tall,
each with a smaller bronze
doorway inside. Inscribed on
each doorway will be a quote
by or about the student, chosen
by the family, as well as the
student’s name and a cameo
from the shoulder up.
Shemwell said two individ
uals in the College of
Architecture, Dr. George
Rogers and Dr. Martha Rani,
have been deeply involved in
the design process.
Rogers said the design team
felt the representations of a per
son’s face, name and the words
See Memorial on page 2A
VP for diversity search to intensify at month’s end
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
family membe
tears as tbf
ages.
will we;
ssion patch £ A search committee will begin narrowing
right sleeves f (i own candidates for the new position of Texas
season. A&M vice president and associate provost for
diversity on April 28, with a final decision being
t land- mat ^ e * n July-
, The person appointed to the position will begin
atl6aSt work in August, said search committee co-chairs
Linda Parrish and Rodney P. McClendon.
Indonesia The new vice president and associate provost
gered by ft for diversity will articulate a vision and provide
tern Indones , n designing and implementing a cam-
' people andt p US _ w jd e p r0 g ram support diversity, said
>ing, police si McClendon, A&M’s chief of staff.
; i “We want someone who has a proven record
of success and who is a facilitator and knows the
skills to build an alliance,” he said.
The search committee placed advertisements in
and landslip
louses on Floii
100 miles east;
Jakarta, si
lead of the loc
higher education reports and began accepting
nominations two weeks ago.
McClendon said the committee will conduct an
extensive review of academic qualities and
records of success in academic areas, and will
check references thoroughly when choosing final
ists. The committee will then compile a list of 10
to 15 qualified candidates who it thinks should be
examined further and who would be interested in
visiting campus, McClendon said.
“We don’t really care what the person looks
like as long as they will lead us aggressively to
success,” he said.
The vice president and associate provost will
report directly to A&M President Robert M.
Gates for the first two years to formulate work
with organizations that have diversity interests
in their name, Parrish said.
After two years, the new vice president will
then give any ideas to Gates of what will happen
after they have been at the University for a few
years, she said.
“They will always have direct
access to the provost as well as
work with the deans, faculty and
students,” McClendon said.
The job also includes provid
ing regular reports on progress
made toward reaching the
University’s diversity goals.
Committee members looked to
other universities, such as the
University of Indiana and the
University of Michigan, as mod
els because of their successes in
achieving diversity, but
McClendon said A&M has a spe
cial culture.
“You have got to make sure the person applies
values, traditions, patriotism and honesty to the
job,” he said. “We can’t just pick up someone
Vice president and associate provost
for institutional diversity
Job description:
Provide leadership in establishing campus-wide
programs supporting diversity
Work with existing offices to infuse diversity
goals into every aspect of A&M
Provide regular reports on progress toward
reaching diversity goals
Work with the president and provost in assessing
future resources for meeting diversity goals
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
else’s model.”
TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION
See Diversity on page 2A
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By David Espo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a day of advances and losses,
U.S. forces fought their way to within
sight of Baghdad’s skyline
Wednesday, but Iraqis shot down an
American helicopter and warplane. At
least seven soldiers were killed, the
Pentagon said.
U.S. officials claimed the destruc
tion of a pair of menacing Republican
Guard divisions and said other Guard
units were moved to the south in an
apparent effort to shore up Iraqi
defenses.
Bombs shook the capital as Army
and Marine armored columns took
separate, converging paths toward the
city from the south. “The dagger is
clearly pointed” at the heart of
Saddam Hussein’s regime, said Brig.
Gen. Vincent Brooks.
The rapid advances brought thou
sands of troops within the so-called
red zone — an imaginary
line on the map near the
capital where Iraqi use of
weapons of mass destruc
tion is most feared. Troops
in some lead Army units
donned chemical protection
suits, and Marine helicopter
pilots were ordered to be
prepared to do so.
An Army Black Hawk helicopter
was downed by small-arms fire near
Karbala, site of fierce fighting
between the Army’s 3rd Infantry
Division and Iraqi troops, including
Republican Guard forces. Seven sol
diers were killed and four were
wounded and rescued, officials said.
Iraq shot down a one-seat Navy
F/A-18 Hornet with a surface-to-air
missile Wednesday, military officials
said. There was no immediate word on
the fate of the pilot. It was the first
American fighter jet shot down during
the war.
The military campaign unfolded as
WHO investigates illness
KRT CAMPUS
U.S. Marines take Iraqi prisoners as the troops
advanced north on Tuesday.
Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old pris
oner of war freed in a daring nighttime
rescue, was flown to Germany for
medical treatment.
But the joy over her freedom was
tempered by word that the special
forces who rescued her also found 11
bodies. “We have reason to believe
some of them were Americans,” said
Navy Capt. Frank Thorp.
Increasingly, there were signs that
Iraqi civilians were eager for the
arrival of invading forces. Some
smiled and waved as Marines
See Baghdad on page 6A
By Audra Ang
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — Under escalating global
pressure, China agreed Wednesday to
let international health investigators
visit the place where the mystery illness
apparently began the southern province
of Guangdong.
Officials also updated the nation’s
death toll by a dozen to 46 as they
revealed the illness had spread to other
regions and sickened far more than they
initially reported.
China’s move comes after days of crit
icism over its secretiveness about the dis
ease. Worldwide, at least 78 people have
died and more than 2,200 are believed to
be sick with severe acute respiratory syn
drome, SARS, the World Health
Organization said.
There is no medicine to treat the ill
ness, and scientists still have not con
firmed which virus causes it. The WHO
health investigators believe Guangdong
offers valuable clues to the disease.
As China agreed to more openness,
the Geneva-based WHO advised travel
ers not to go to Hong Kong and
Guangdong — the first time the agency
has issued such an advisory in at least a
decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention already recom
mended postponing nonessential trips to
mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Hanoi, Vietnam.
For months after the disease began
sickening people in Guangdong in
November, China kept the details quiet.
On March 16, as the WHO was issuing a
global health alert, the China Ministry of
Health reported “the epidemic situation
has been controlled and the patients are
being cured one by one.”
Initially, the government reported only
five deaths and 305 cases. On
Wednesday, the number of reported
Chinese cases swelled to 1,190.
U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy Thompson said
Tuesday that “more pressure” would be
applied on China and he hoped to talk
with China’s health minister soon.
The same day, The Wall Street Journal
ran an editorial under the headline,
See SARS on page 6A