WORLD
THE BATTALIOI
Aggielife: Welcome to the jungle • Page 3 Opinion: Too much work, no credit • Page 11
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Volume 109 • Issue 132 • 12 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Monday, April 14, 2003
op 10 percent plan under fire
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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