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WORLD THE BATTALIOI Aggielife: Welcome to the jungle • Page 3 Opinion: Too much work, no credit • Page 11 t rl "w* ‘W' tti iHh Volume 109 • Issue 132 • 12 pages Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Monday, April 14, 2003 op 10 percent plan under fire 3t a flag that cove! toe, during hisfi^ Cemetery. oe was mannk it in Iraq when ap an jumped from a : in fear. The sold the car and killing Rippetoe. tiers, the woman r, according lo )epartment. mtagon said Thun U.S. servicemen! since the war besr erica mg eep him in ShenzL: his family, we mo chore he died,” ZD iemiologist at te of Respirati dong’s capital, 6 ers in Beijing, isbury’s 6-year-i lickey, is hospital:: ng Kong where Itf observation , a family mem He is being lool oy church friends | nily. boy’s mother g plans to travel h ig him home when enough, accordii lie Salisbury. ■ flu-like illness aj to spread in and the ma ds on Thursday t4 / to control it, inf| rantines for about ■ recently infected I previously iple from a »ut some of them"' day. isease, believed it causes the con®] II lives. More infected with By Janet McLaren THE BATTALION If the U.S. Supreme Court rules racial prefer- nces in university admissions unconstitutional, he top 10 percent plan in Texas could become a lueprint for states trying to ensure racially iverse college enrollments. But the policy has ome under fire from those who say it is a poor ubstitute for affirmative action and those who :ay it amounts to backdoor preferences and low- rs the quality of the student body. Since 1996, when the U.S. 5th Circuit ourt of Appeals banned Texas public univer sities’ use of race in admissions and financial aid with its Hopwood ruling, Texas has used a plan that guarantees students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class automatic admission to public universities. Texas A&M Director of Admissions Dr. Frank Ashley said the top 10 plan cannot be effective in attracting more minorities to the University unless it is combined with racial preferences in financial aid. “Hopwood’s greatest effect was not allow ing financial aid to be given based on race,” Ashley said. “If you can’t target minority stu dents for financial aid, then you’re not using the (top 10 percent) tool very effectively.” Minority enrollment at A&M remains slightly below its pre-Hopwood numbers. In the fall of 1996, 80 percent of A&M’s fresh men were white, 11.2 percent Hispanic, 3.6 percent black and 2.8 percent Asian- American. In the fall of 2002, 82 percent were white, 9.6 percent Hispanic, 3.4 percent Asian- American and 2.6 percent black. While the percentage plan has helped increase diversity at A&M, Ashley said it is not the long-term solution needed to remedy the problem of minority underrepresentation. See Plan on page 6 Freshmen SAT scores less than 1000 points ITiTiTI Blacks 32% 43% Hispanics 23% flB 23% Asians 11% 13% Whites 7% 9% TRAVIS SWENSON •THE BATTALION SOURCE: TEXAS A&M MEASUREMENT AND RESEARCH SERVICES Just relax Texas Gov. Rick Perry gets a massage by Tamara Crabb of Caring Hartz Alternative Health Spa, after completing a 10K run in a time of 46:10, a personal best. The "Run Through the Vines" at Messina Hof Winery JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION and Resort was put on by the Texas A&M University Roadrunners Group. More than 500 runners competed in the 20th Anniversary of the festival held in Bryan Saturday morning. Marines take Tikrit after being met by resistance By Calvin Woodward THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. forces met sporadic resistance Sunday in their move on Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein, after spiriting to safety seven missing American soldiers unexpectedly released by a leaderless band of Iraqi troops. Marines assembled on Tikrit’s outskirts and sent units in and out of the city, drawing occasion al small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, not the intense battle that once seemed likely there. Even so, U.S. forces did not try to occupy Tikrit right away, Pentagon officials said. The city is the last center of Saddam loyalists known to the allies, who are already turning their attention to the task of scouring towns they skipped in the race to Baghdad. “We have simply bypassed villages and towns and so forth,” said Gen. Tommy Franks, the war commander. “And now we will go to each and every one of them, and be sure that we don’t have some last, small stronghold in that coun-try.” Three weeks after Iraqis seized them and put them on TV, the seven ex-POWs were escorted to a Marine unit on the road to Tikrit by a group of Iraqi soldiers who had given up the fight and been abandoned by their leaders. See War on page 2 A&M study abroad students witness Europe s largest protest By Sarah Szuminski THE BATTALION N CASTIG L I O you smoked at leflORENTINO, ITALY — you now smoke whitney Morriss and Ross fcnnond, studying in Italy :ent said they smoD throu 8 h A&M ' S stud y abroad program, were traveling number lor oca* “ Mun D h ' < ? en, ! any ^'‘"r 8 , “Tu , •.ipring break when the United low a ram ^ IC ri pates began its first air strikes e number of occasi J at began the wa) . with lraq 1996 to 28 percen* came U p f rom sub . Nevada, 10 percen Wa y an( j were r jg bt j n tbe ercent. The District-di e 0 f a bu g e an tp war protest,” ers who said theyc said Morriss, a junior journalism major. ' Pechacek said. ' Although both described the try to reduce ttieM|clemonstration as non-violent, oking." they said the anti-war signs, riot liolice and masses of people chanting slogans were enough to " ^ make them feel uncomfortable. j -J Katie Hogan, also on spring i ter national stum was t r yj n g on clothes at a 00 students and i store in London when a sales- ational cultural person asked everyone to leave exasA&M campui the store because an anti-war ‘/ally was about to begin. Outside, she and some friends encountered the crowds. “People were throwing things |t the police,” said Hogan, a jun ior biomedical sciences major. “We got out of there as fast as e could.” Incidents such as these have become fairly common stories imong students at Santa Chiara, A&M's campus in Castiglion iorentino, Italy, as anti-war entiment among Europeans scalates in response to govem- Courtesy of: KEN JOHNSON Protesters make their way through the streets of Rome carrying banners and rainbow-colored peace flags during a million-peo ple anti-war protest. ons available: ^resident f Operations of Finance temal Programs temal Programs if Marketing iman Resources (nation Technology nts also encouraged ment leaders turning a deaf ear to public opinion. Opposition to the war has been peaceful in Italy, with many citizens hanging rainbow- colored peace flags from win dows and balconies throughout the country in a continuous silent protest. Marches, demon strations and rallies of varying magnitudes are a regular occur rence as citizens attempt to make their voices heard. Although Italy is a member of the coalition that supports the United States and Britain, a majority of the public opposes the war, leaning on Italy’s con stitution for their justification. Article 11 of the constitution gives the country’s position on war, stating, “Italy shall repudi ate war as an instrument of offense against the liberty of other peoples and as a means for settling international disputes.” This is where Italians butt heads with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, local profes sor Monica Capacci said. “He says being anti-war means being pro-Saddam, which isn’t the case,” she said. Because Berlusconi privately owns three of the six major tele vision networks and oversees the remaining three public net works as prime minister, the public questions the credibility of the information it receives through the news. See Protest on page 2 American POWs return By Patrick McDowell THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KUWAIT CITY — Iraqi troops south of Tikrit handed U.S. Marines a stunning surprise Sunday: seven American POWs released in rela tively good condition after three weeks of cap tivity. They said they were treated roughly when captured, but given medical care, and some believed they were doomed. “I thought they were going to kill me,” Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, of Park City, Kan., told two reporters who interviewed the POWs on a transport plane. “That was the first thing I asked when they captured me: ’Are you going to kill me?’ They said no. ... I still didn’t believe them.” Freedom brought hugs, applause and slaps on the back from smiling Marines before the seven were flown to Kuwait for a medical checkup and debriefing. Back home, their fam ilies and friends burst out in jubilation. Five of those returned Sunday were mem bers of the 507th Ordinance Maintenance Company that made a wrong turn near the southern Iraqi city Nasiriyah and was ambushed March 23 — the same incident in which rescued POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch was captured. The other released prisoners were crewmen of an Apache helicopter downed the next day. “It’s just a good way to start off the morn ing, to have been notified that seven of our fel low Americans are going to be home here pret ty soon in the arms of their loved ones,” President Bush said in Washington. Among the former POWs was Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas, a single moth er of a 2-year-old. Johnson, the only woman among them, had been shot in the ankle, and Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas, had been shot in the elbow, according to See POW on page 6 Wounded, but in good condition, POWs released by Iraqis Iraqi troops released seven U.S. soldiers on Sunday. Five were from the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company that was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. Two were pilots of an Apache helicopter that was grounded on the same day near Karbala. Spc. Edgar Hernandez Spc. Joseph Hudson Spc. Shoshana Johnson Pfc. Patrick Miller Sgt. James Riley Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr. AGE 21 23 30 23 31 30 26 HOMETOWN Mission, Alamogordo, Fort Bliss, Park City, Pennsauken, Orlando, Lithia, Texas N.M. Texas Kan. N.J. Fla. Ga. SOURCE: Associated Press AP