NATIO
THE BATTALIO
ry
By Ravi Nessman and Devid Espo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KRT CAMPUS
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SciTech: Note-taking goes high tech • Page 6A Opinion: Tune them out • Page 7B
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Volume 109 • Issue 130 • 18 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Thursday, April 10, 2003
oalition soldiers liberate Baghdad, tear down statue
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Their hour of free-
lom at hand, jubilant Iraqis celebrated the
ollapse of Saddam Hussein’s murderous
egime on Wednesday, beheading a toppled
tatue of their longtime ruler in downtown
Baghdad and embracing American troops as
iberators.
“I’m 49, but I never lived a single day.
Dnly now will I start living,” said Yussuf
ftbed Kazim, a mosque preacher. A young
raqi spat on a portrait of Saddam. Men
tugged Americans in full combat gear, and
vomen held up babies so soldiers riding on
anks could kiss them.
Iraqis released decades of pent-up fury as
J.S. forces solidified their grip on the capi-
al. Marine tanks rolled to the eastern bank
>f the Tigris River; the Army was on the
vestem side of the waterway that curls
hrough the ancient city.
Looting broke out in the capital as Iraqis,
shedding their fear of the regime, entered
government facilities and made off with fur
niture, computers, air conditioners and even
military jeeps.
“We are not seeing any organized resist
ance,” said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp at the
U.S. Central Command. “The Iraqi military
is unable to fight as an organized fighting
force.” And Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III,
commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry
Division, told reporters that “the end of the
combat phase is days away.”
At a Pentagon briefing, Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saddam
“is taking his rightful place” alongside such
brutal dictators of the past as Adolf Hitler,
Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.
And while Rumsfeld and other American
officials cautioned that combat may lie
ahead, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador told
reporters that “the game is over, and I hope
peace will prevail.” Mohammed Al-Douri’s
comments to reporters in New York were the
first admission by an Iraqi official that
Saddam’s forces had been overwhelmed.
There was continued combat in cities to
the north, though, where government troops
were under attack from U.S. and British
warplanes.
The scenes of liberation in Baghdad and
celebrations in scattered other cities unfold
ed as the Pentagon announced that 101
American troops had died in the first three
weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Eleven
others are missing and seven are listed as
captured. The British said 30 of their troops
were dead. There are no reliable estimates
for Iraqi casualties, although an Army
spokesman said 7,300 prisoners had been
taken.
The medical system was overrun with
civilian casualties in Basra and Baghdad,
cities where some of the fiercest fighting has
occurred. Doctors said 35 bodies and as
many as 300 wounded Iraqis were brought
Tom Pennington • KRT CAMPUS
See Iraqis on page 2A
Iraqi Kurds celebrate in the streets of Sulaymaniya, Iraq, after
hearing that U.S. troops have taken control of the streets of
Baghdad Wednesday. Saddam is responsible for killing more
than 5,000 Kurds during a chemical attack in a small village near
Sulaymaniya years ago.
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Randal Ford • THE BATTALION
Senior landscape architecture majors Megan Holder, right,
and Cassie King, work on schematic landscape drawings
for a competition among other landscape architecture stu
dents. The competition involves designing a landscape
park that will be set in West University Houston. Next
Monday, about 20 students will present their final
designs to the West University City Council, who will
judge their work for the final competition.
Board of Regents
to elect chairman
By Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
Two appointees to the Texas
A&M System Board of Regents
will be sworn in today and the
board, still one member short, will
also elect a chairman.
Gov. Rick Perry reappointed
Erie Nye to the board and appoint
ed Houston attorney John White on
April 2. Both testified before the
state Senate nominations commit
tee Monday and were approved by
the full Senate Tuesday. White will
replace outgoing Regent Dionel
Aviles.
Perry has not yet announced a
replacement for outgoing Regent
Anne Armstrong.
Nye, the CEO of TXU Corp., a
Dallas-based energy conglomerate,
was appointed to the board in 1997
and has served as chairman since
2001. Nye said one of his top pri
orities for his second six-year term
is to make A&M more accessible
by keeping tuition affordable and
reaching out to minorities to make
the University more diverse.
With state budget cuts looming,
A&M University System officials
are supporting a legislative bill that
would permit the Board of Regents
to raise tuition as much as three
times what is currently charged
without approval from the state
Legislature. Nye said regents
would take students’ interests into
consideration before exercising
their tuition-setting authority.
“We have to seek additional
funding sources for the University,
but it can’t all be on the backs of
students,” Nye said. “And we need
to fold, a fair amount (of revenue
from tuition hikes) back into schol
arships and grants.”
White, a fifth-generation ranch
er, said he has an appreciation for
the importance of A&M’s agricul
tural programs. He said the priori
ties A&M President Robert M.
Gates has established for the
University could be used as a blue
print for other schools in the sys
tem. Gates has said he will focus
on four of the 12 Vision 2020
imperatives: elevating the faculty,
improving undergraduate and grad
uate programs, increasing space
and improving diversity.
Nye and White remained non
committal on the question of
whether they would support racial
preferences if the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled race could be a factor
in admissions and financial aid.
White said the top 10 percent
See Regents on page 2A
Fish Drill team reinstated
By Rob Phillips
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M Corps of
adets Commandant Lt. Gen.
John Van Alstyne lifted the
temporary suspension of the
Fish Drill Team and allowed it
to practice Wednesday after
noon, said Anthony Groves, the
\ Corps’ assistant commandant
for operations and training.
Van Alstyne halted the
mt unit’s drill practices Saturday
gland allowed Corps officials to
.■investigate an alleged alterca-
vl tion between several freshmen
J cadets Friday afternoon.
“The investigation indicated
it was not a Fish Drill team
problem; it was an individual
problem,” Groves said. “The
Fish Drill Team is back in
operation.”
In a statement released by
the Corps Thursday morning,
“A personal dispute between
two freshmen cadets escalated
to involve other members of the
team.”
The unit has been author
ized to resume practice in
preparation for a Parents’
Weekend performance on
Sunday, according to the
statement.
The drill team is scheduled
to perform in Kyle Field,
Groves said.
Groves said there will most
likely be disciplinary action
taken against seven individuals,
six of whom are Fish Drill team
members. The seventh individ
ual is not a member, he said.
Officials were notified of an
incident Friday in which a
group of cadets allegedly van
dalized another cadet’s dorm
room. Five freshmen cadets
allegedly confronted another
drill team member who was not
getting along with other mem
bers. The cadets ransacked the
member’s room when the cadet
was gone, removing all his
belongings from the closet and
drawers and leaving them scat
tered on the floor.
The freshman precision rifle
squad was reinstated last year
after being disbanded in 1997
due to a hazing incident in
which a freshman cadet
accused older members of
physical abuse. Criminal
charges were brought against
nine students.
In March, the drill team fin
ished second out of 50 teams in
the annual Tulane University
Individual Drill Meet. The unit
was the only team composed of
all freshmen.
Bloc wins student senate speaker
By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
A newly-elected Student Senate bloc that
campaigned to make student government more
responsive to students flexed its muscles
Wednesday, capturing the top two leadership
positions in the body.
In its first meeting, the 56th session of the
Student Senate elected Matthew Wilkins, a
Northside senator, as speaker, defeating long
time student senator Kevin Capps 31 to 21.
Wilkins, a sophomore philos
ophy major, characterized him
self as the candidate of change,
and said that Capps was a senate
insider too steeped in student
government culture to make the
organization more responsive to
students.
“(Capps) is so entrenched in
Senate and has been around for so long that
nobody would dare run against him; he’s become
See Bloc on page 2A
WILKINS
Students celebrate UniDiversity Day
By Bernhard Hall
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M students and faculty will congre
gate in Rudder Tower Thursday for UniDiversity
Day, an event focused on creating a more diverse
campus.
The focal point of the event is an open discus
sion to be held at 10:15 a.m. for a plan to improve
diversity, moderated by Dr. Howard Kaplan, distin
guished Department of Sociology professor.
“We want to provide a platform for dialogue,”
said Roemer Visser, vice president of the
International Graduate Student Association. “The
purpose of the meeting is to basically say, ‘Where
do we want to go, and how do we want to get
there?”’
Organizers of UniDiversity Day said they have
put together an event that will bring together many
student groups focusing on a variety of diversity
issues.
“We have one of the most diverse groups ever,”
Visser said.
At 8:20 a.m., University President Robert M.
Gates will start the day’s events with an address
entitled “Diversifying Texas A&M University.”
Gates will speak again at 1 p.m. about the chal
lenges of increasing diversity during a general ses
sion in Rudder 601.
Beginning at 1:15 p.m., four workshop sessions
held by a diverse set of campus organizations will
teach students about the dangers of stereotypes,
Visser said.
Among the organizations represented are the
Black Graduate Students Association, the Hispanic
Graduate Students Association and the Rainbow
Graduate Students Association. The Corps of
Cadets and the InterFraternity Council and
Collegiate Panhellenic Council will also hold
workshops.
Corps of Cadets public relations officer Burke
Wilson will discuss diversity issues facing
the Corps.
“We are struggling with the diversity goals of
the University as well,” he said.
Wilson said he will provide a history of the
Corps and discuss reasons behind some Corps
activities, followed by an open discussion intended
to allow students to discuss Corps stereotypes.
The morning session of UniDiversity Day will
target faculty and graduate students, while the
afternoon session is intended for undergraduates.
“We need help from the student population; we
need them to attend, and we need them to
See UniDiversity on page 2A
{Diversity Day
7:30 a.m. 4 p.m.
Rudder, 6th floor: Registration
8:20 a.m
"Diversifyimg Texas A&M"
Robert M. Gates
10:15 a.m
"Taking Action: Sharing
Responsibility for Creating
a More Diverse TAMU"
Open Discussion
12 p.m. - 1:05 p.m.
General Session: Why Diversity?
Rudder 601
Minor Workshops
1:15 p.m.
3:30 p.m. 4:50 p.m
Closing Session - Rudder 601
SOURCE: COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS • Ruben DeLuna