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Opinion: Gun control laws • Page 11 Sports: Baseball team looks to sweep SHSU • Page 7
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Volume 109 • Issue 137 *12 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
‘They are with us in spirit*
By Janet McLaren
THE BATTALION
Darkness covered Reed Arena as
the names of Aggies who have
passed away since April 21, 2002
were read aloud at Muster 2003
Monday night. After every name,
friends or family members shouted
“here” from the crowd of more than
12,000 people gathered at the 81st
ceremony to honor the memory of
former Aggies and celebrate the
Aggie Spirit.
Ed Cooper, the main speaker at
Muster 2003, said Aggie Muster is
“the defining moment in the long
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maroon line of Aggie tradition.”
Cooper, Class of 1953, said
Texas A&M has changed in many
ways since he and his classmates
were students.
“We entered under strict require
ments,” Cooper said. “To get in, we
had to be at least 16 years old, a
graduate from high school and be
free from infectious and
contagious diseases.”
Muster this year hon
ored the class of 1953
whose time at A&M was
marked by such land
mark events as the build
ing of the Memorial
Student Center and the
adoption of the first offi
cial Reveille mascot.
Cooper said his class
had become part of
Aggie mythology.
“When I was a stu
dent, we referred to
something called Old
Army,” Cooper said.
“Now I look around and
we are Old Army.”
Andrew Gomez, a
senior environmental sci
ence major, read the first
half of the Roll Call.
“The answer ‘here’
means the Aggie Spirit
will continue,” Gomez
said. “It symbolizes that
while he or she is no
longer here in body, they
are with us in spirit.”
The Roll Call for the Absent was
followed by a rifle volley by the
Ross Volunteers and a solemn rendi
tion of Silver Taps.
Volunteers holding lit candles
surrounded the members of the
class of 1953 who attended the
Muster as a tribute to the Aggie
Spirit passed on by each class.
“(The class of 1953’s) lives have
created a legacy for those of us who
have followed,” said Cindy Abbott,
a junior member of the Muster com
mittee.
Muster, which A&M President
Robert M. Gates called “the most
hallowed” of A&M’s traditions, is
held every year on April 21.
The Singing Cadets, the
Women’s Chorus, the Century
Singers and the Texas Aggie Band
performed at Muster.
“This year, there are more than
350 Muster ceremonies around the
world,” said Student Body President
Zac Coventry, a senior agricultural
development major.
Aggies gather “to remember, to
honor, and to celebrate,” Coventry
said, a tradition that officially began
in 1923 at a nationwide rally of for
mer students.
Aggies at the first Muster were
encouraged to come together to
“meet old friends again and live
over the old days in College
Station.”
Shawn Harroff, Class of 1988, holds a
candle and answers "here" for his wife,
Cindy, Class of 1990, during Roll Call for
JP Beato III •THE BATTALION
the Absent, during the Texas Aggie
Muster held at Reed Arena here in
College Station on Monday.
JP Beato III • THE BATTALION
Ross Volunteers fire the first of three rifle volleys after the Roll
Call for the Absent during the Texas Aggie Muster. Names of
those who have died in the past year were read, as each name
was called and family members and friends answered "here."
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Search narrows
for next VP for
student affairs
By Rob Phillips
THE BATTALION
The advisory search committee for the new
Texas A&M vice president for student affairs
anticipates a final decision by the end of the
spring semester, said committee co-chair
Brandon Hill.
University President Robert M. Gates will
select a new vice president from one of four final
ists selected by the committee: Dr. William
Kibler, current associate vice president for student
affairs at A&M; Dr. Leelen Brigman of the
University of Wyoming, current vice president for
student affairs; Dr. Charles Fey of the University
of Maryland, Baltimore County, current vice pres
ident for student affairs and Dr. Juan Gonzalez of
Georgetown University, current vice president for
student affairs.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland will retire as vice
president for student affairs at the end of the cur
rent academic year. Southerland held the position
for nine years.
Gates requested that the 22-member search
committee narrow down a lengthy national list to
an unranked list of three to five candidates,
Hill said.
The committee settled on four candidates dur
ing the first week in April and immediately began
scheduling campus visits for each of them.
Gonzalez visited A&M April 9 to 11, and
Brigman and Fey will travel to College Station
during the next two weeks, Hill said.
The committee now has purely an advisory
role in sharing with Gates the strengths and weak
nesses of each candidate. Hill said.
Gates selected Hill, a senior agribusiness
major, to co-chair the committee with A&M Dean
of Education and Human Development Jane
Close Conoley.
Five students including Hill serve on the search
committee. Hill said the committee’s student rep
resentation shows that the administration places
importance on student opinion.
Hill said he wants the new vice president to
serve as a voice for students.
“Personally I’m looking for a very strong
See VP on page 2
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Progress reported despite new deaths
Hong Kong's leader said Monday that the territory is gaining
ground in the fight against SARS despite reporting 22 new cases
and 13 deaths —seven in mainland China and six in Hong Kong.
CD SARS cases worldwide: 3,861 Hi Deaths: 217
Reports progress in fight against SARS
& '.sr
AMERICAS * ^
Canada 132 12
Brazil 2 0
United States 39 0
AFRICA
South Africa 1 0
MIDDLE EAST
Kuwait 1 0
EUROPE
Britain
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Romania
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
.International figures as of April 21, 5 p.m. GMT
ASIA/SOUTH PACIFIC
Australia 3 0
China 1.959 86
Hong Kong 1,402 94
India 10
Indonesia 1 0
Japan 5 0
Malaysia 6 1
Mongolia 3 Q
Taiwan 29 0
Thailand 7 2
Philippines 2 1
Vietnam 63 5
Singapore 178 16
SOURCES: Associated Press; World Health Organization
By Dirk Beveridge
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s
leader said Monday that the territory
is gaining ground in the fight against a
deadly respiratory virus sweeping
Asia, even though the death toll con
tinued to rise and there was still no
known cure.
Thirteen new SARS deaths were
reported Monday — seven in main
land China and six in Hong Kong. Yet
Hong Kong’s deaths and 22 new cases
Monday were fewer than the jumps of
40 and 50 cases a day that the World
Supreme Court agrees to hear
death row inmate’s appeal
By Anne Gearan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
The Supreme Court said
Monday it will take a
fresh look at the quality of
lawyers assigned to repre
sent murder defendants
and what happens when
overworked, lazy or
incompetent attorneys fail
to do all they can to keep a
client off death row.
The court agreed to
hear the case of one of
Texas’ longest-serving
death row inmates. The
court stepped in to tem
porarily spare Delma
Banks’ life minutes before
his scheduled execution in
March, and will now hear
his full appeal.
Banks claims an inept
defense lawyer and under
handed prosecutors denied
him a fair trial 23 years
ago. he was convicted in
1980 of killing Richard
Whitehead, a 16-year-old
former co-worker at a fast-
food restaurant. Banks
maintains his innocence.
He’d never
been in trouble
before. He was
not violent.
— George Kendall
NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund
“He’d never been in
trouble before. He was not
violent. This is not a death
row inmate out of central
casting,” said one of
Banks’ new lawyers,
George Kendall of the
NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund.
Banks claims his origi
nal lawyer failed to pres
ent evidence about Banks’
family and background
that might have persuaded
a jury to spare Banks a
death sentence, and that
prosecutors improperly
withheld evidence that
could have undermined
the testimony of a key wit
ness for the state. The wit
ness later recanted parts of
his testimony.
Banks’ new lawyers
also claim that prosecutors
hid the fact that another
trial witness was a paid
informant.
The court will hear
Banks’ case next fall. The
justices could use the case
See Court on page 2
Health Organization had reported
recently.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung
Chee-hwa said quarantine measures
and efforts to find people who came
into contact with those infected seem
to be working. Hong Kong and China
have been hardest hit by SARS.
“On the whole, I think we are
slowly but surely getting the figures
stabilized,” Tung told reporters. Still,
he declined to take questions and
would not predict how long it will be
before SARS is brought under
control.
About 3,900 people have now been
infected by SARS around the world.
The 13 new deaths — reported by
China’s Health Ministry and in a
Hong Kong government statement —
brought the global death toll to at least
217, according to the World Health
Organization.
World Health Organization
spokeswoman Maria Cheng said the
latest figures out of Hong Kong were
encouraging because the territory has
n’t seen the sharp spikes in cases. She
also said that in Hong Kong new cases
can be traced back to other reports of
SARS and aren’t appearing in unex
pected places.
“Hong Kong has been taking the
right infection containment meas
ures,” Cheng said. “Every new case
we’re still able to track to someone
who is known to have had SARS.”
There is no known cure for the ill
ness, though people treated early
enough usually recover, and most of
those who have died in Hong Kong
were elderly or were sick with some
thing else as well. Symptoms include
a fever of more than 100, a cough and
difficulty breathing.
In China, where SARS appears to
have originated, the government again
sought to show it was taking the ill
ness seriously enough after playing
down the crisis — and apparently
covering up the number of cases —-
for weeks.
Rebuilding effort begins in Baghdad
By Charles J. Hanley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Glimmers of a new Iraq were evi
dent Monday, as the American charged with rebuilding a
ravaged country came to Baghdad, and Muslim multitudes
converged on holy cities for a ritual long suppressed by
Saddam Hussein’s regime.
But the work of rooting out the old Iraq went on.
Military officials announced the arrest of a key figure in
the bloody suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of
1991 — Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, the “Shiite
Thug” they promised to try on charges of war crimes or
crimes against humanity.
U.S. officials also revealed that American experts had
discovered ingredients and equipment that could be used
to make a chemical weapon.
Efforts to bring electricity to Baghdad progressed. Iraqi
engineers started a turbine at the city’s biggest power
plant, and a few lights flickered in the capital for the first
time since April 3. It was expected that Baghdad would
have 90 percent of its prewar power in a day or two.
This, said retired Lt. Gen. Jay Gamer, was his top
priority as Iraq’s postwar administrator — to restore
power and water “as soon as we can.”
Garner’s arrival in Baghdad was itself a historic
THE AFTERMATH OF WAR
American administrator arrives in Baghdad
Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the American charged
with overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, arrived in
Baghdad Monday. He visited a hospital that has been
Mosul/" *?i®
, a , fantnp
overrun by casualties and depleted by looters.
Central Command
reported the capture /
of Muhammad
Hazmaq al-Zubaydi,
who played a key
role in the brutal | R
suppression of the
Shiite Muslim - Tikr ' t ®
uprising of 199V Qai _„ rra ,
® * Irbil
Dibagah
A Q
! v
Kirkuk
U.S. troops were
attacked near a
Mosul airfield. In
the ensuing
firefight, one
Marine was
wounded. The
attackers
escaped.
Khaneqin,
JORDAN
The U.S. Army controlled
Baghdad after days of
looting and arson. Coalition-
run radio announced an 11
p.m.-6 a.m. curfew.
In Basra,
__ | teachers and
S. '' ' students
Ba Qubah* returned to
Baglidimm Rashes) damaged
Airport'0^'Airport schools to
— (Baghdad ^Zubaydiyah resume
«#0/ -fjsjirv classes.
Karbala fvlumaniyah
Najaf ® Diwaniyah ^arah
Samawah ®
Thousands of Shiite Muslims converged on
the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf on an
annual religious pilgrimage that was repressed
for decades by Saddam Hussein.
Under coalition control
NasiriyahQumah
' ... ... /S’.
Ur®' r Basra
Rumeila ® (f’r 1
Safwan ® ,
Umm Qasr
Kuwait City©
7,.
O^^IOOmi
See Rebuilding on page 2
Source: CIA; United Nations; Associated Press; National
Imagery and Mapping Agency