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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2003)
NATKj 1 THE BATTALIC illb ranc f V Accielife: The beat of a different station • Page 3A Sports: A&M kicks off series with Mizzou • Page 1 B THF RATTAT TOW I nil JD/V1 1AI-<IV-Ili 'Ulil; presit tice favors suspeni ions, which ies that they coul ions should be said. “The It should be eed to get together how to do that." i overall relations!; said “having ts like this in ountt ioesn’t change the v e allies.” epin said en -ranee would contis >ld its princi| out the Iraq ong with a very of the intematu y. acted in confer: mvictions and its defend intematu lid. 1 continue to dose istances,” the id. outlined in the how de Villepintr; i second U.N. resc; After serving as interim executive ice president and provost for nine •months, Dr. David B. Prior was named Texas A&M’s new executive vice presi- lent and provost Thursday. Prior’s appointment was announced itie||byA&M President Robert M. Gates fol- owing a national search to select a suc- :essor for Ronald G. Douglas, who itepped down last year. A&M’s Dean of the College of Education and Human Development ane Close Conoley was the other finalist. Prior said he will work closely with all deans, faculty and Gates. Gates said he was impressed with vii a: sT sk Frr: : E Volume 109 • Issue 140 • 14 pages Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Friday, April 25, 2003 Prior named executive vice president and provost By Melissa Sullivan & Rob Phillips THE BATTALION PRIOR Prior’s work with faculty and students during the past nine months as well as his competence and integrity, two qualities Gates said he looks for in his peers. “Then what I look for is people who take the work seriously but not themselves and who have a great sense of humor,” Gates said. “David fulfills all of that.” Dr. Edward Hiler, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said Prior brings energy to the position and has a great relationship with Gates. Prior said he looks forward to work ing to achieve the goals of Vision 2020. “We have begun to identify the criti cal areas over the past few months to hire new faculty and take care of student issues,” he said. Prior said with the recent budget cuts looming, it is still uncertain what future cuts might be because the state Legislature is still in session. No decisions have been made regard ing specific cuts at this point, he said. No tuition increases have been approved. Deregulation is still “under construc tion,” Prior said, and nothing has been decided at this point regarding tuition hikes. Diversity, Prior said, is not just a concern for the provost, but for all faculty members. He said he will specifically working with the deans to hire a diverse faculty. Prior said he looks forward to the opportunity to serve in the University’s second ranking and top academic position. “It has been wonderful and challeng ing and I have enjoyed it greatly,” he said. “Bob Gates is a great guy to work for.” Dr. Herbert Richardson, chairman of the search advisory committee, said Gates asked for a short list of candidates and the committee decided not to choose a finalist outside of A&M. “We had a number of excellent candi dates, but in the end we felt the two inter nal candidates were the best choices,” said Richardson, director of Texas Transportation Institute and associate vice chancellor for engineering. Richardson said Prior has a strong professional reputation and possesses strong research credentials. “As A&M moves ahead, he has the kind of expertise to move us forward in research,” Richardson said. “He’s also a charismatic, exciting, motivated indi vidual, and that’s what we need in this environment.” Prior joined A&M’s College of Geosciences faculty in 1996, holding professorships in geology, geophysics, geography and oceanography. He served as deputy dean of geosciences and mar itime studies, becoming dean in 1997. Before coming to A&M, Prior served as director of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography’s Atlantic Geoscience Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has held teaching and research professorships at Louisiana State University and the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Prior said coming to A&M, has been an adjustment. “This is a very big institution, and there is a lot to learn,” he said. “Learning about (the traditions) is a big challenge.” wing the use of foe Iraq, said the French fc ent to the three Afe that had votes on Council — Anj and Gabon — to against the resolui said he countf hone calls before llepin’s three s sure that he die iree votes. ie resolution dit a vote. “France hing you can writeii Ft veto,” Powell saii ’s veto threat y resolution. extending nspections instead: rce. Germany s ;o opposed war»' Ui )F IDS AMONDS EGL Cert ' EGL Cert. North Korea talks tough By Christopher Bodeen THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING — North Korea accused the United States of leading the region toward war Thursday in an apparent attempt by the communist nation to increase pressure on negotiators holding a second day of talks on its nuclear programs. There was no indication whether any progress had come i the second day of meet ings Thursday. The chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, declined to answer questions upon returning to his hotel in the afternoon, saying only that the sides “had talks.” Discussions were scheduled to end Friday. Kelly was to fly to Seoul the same day to meet with South Korean officials. North Korea continued to try to ratchet up the pressure and is believed to want economic aid in exchange for concessions. Its leaders are outraged over U.S. moves to cut off oil ship ments because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, and fears it is next on Washington’s list for military action. “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a war may break out any moment due to 'the U.S. moves,” the North’s KCNA news agency. It said relations with the United States had hit “rock bottom” because President George W. Bush named North Korea as part of an “axis of evil,” along with Iran and Iraq. KCNA said the war in Iraq had shown the only way for a country to protect itself was to have a strong military deterrent. Officials from Seoul and Washington say the swift U.S.- led victory in Iraq prompted North Korea to agree to the nuclear talks. The North’s Korea People’s Army vowed to put all people under amis and turn the whole country into a fortress and urged its soldiers to become human bombs and fighters ready to blow up themselves to protect North Korean Defense Minister Kim Jong 11. “If the U.S. imperialists and their followers intrude into even an inch of the inviolable sky, land and sea of the (North) ... the (army) will deal merci less deadly blows at the See Korea on page 2A Chop chop Joshua Hobson • THE BATTALION Sophomore civil engineering major, William Spencer, cuts cut down the bamboo, haul it off, and use it as a decorative down bamboo at a College Station senior citizen's house effect for upcoming events. Thursday afternoon. His local fraternity volunteered its time to )0 )0 >0 >0 10 10 10 GIA Cert. 10 0 EGL Cert 10 OLD EUROPEAN 0 0 GIA Cert. 0 0 * EGL Cert. 0 GIA Cert. 3 GIA Cert. 4DS Aussa Hollimon • THE BATTALION I Former speech writer for President Ronald Reagan, Joshua Gilder j speaks at the George Bush conference center on Thursday evening. Reagan speech writer shares experiences By Esther Robards-Forbes THE BATTALION Writing speeches for the leader of the free world is a rewarding though daunting task, former presidential speechwriter Joshua Gildner said, recalling his years with Ronald Reagan and his then-vice president. Gildner spoke Thursday at the George Bush Presidential Conference Center to a packed auditorium of students and faculty. Gildner, who was also a speechwriter for former Vice President George Bush, said his experiences in the White House consisted of the responsibility of writing numerous speeches for the president. Gildner said Reagan was a gifted speaker. “Reagan, who was labeled ‘The Great Communicator’ during his presidency, was great because he had great vision,” Gildner said. “He had a very natural ability to make every word his own.” Gildner said one particular challenge stood out while he was a speechwriter. He was asked to write a short speech for Reagan to present at the Bitberg Air Force Base in Bitberg, Germany. The task should have been simple and routine, he said, but it turned out to be anything but. Bitberg is home to a large World War II cemetery, and those buried there include thousands of Nazi soldiers and several dozen SS officers. The proposed visit to the base suddenly became a controversy, with veter ans and members of the Jewish community in an uproar, and Reagan’s junior speech- writer had been assigned to write the speech, Gildner said. “This was a possible (public relations) disaster,” he said. “People thought Reagan was driving the administration off a cliff.” Gildner admitted that he was against Reagan giving the speech at first, but that he came around in the end. The speech Gildner wrote was strongly influenced by the man who delivered it. “The man was unmoving in his principles,” See Writer on page 2A : 1 Garner aims for operating government next week I CUT O )0 10 EGL Cert ermis Bracelet By Charles]. Hanley THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s American administrator said Thursday he hopes to get government ministries up and run ning by late next week, and if necessary “we’ll buy the furniture” for them in this looted and burned-out capital. Jay Gamer said little, however, in his first Baghdad news conference about the potentially explosive issue of naming a top political leadership for Iraq. In a pos sible sign of trouble, an important Shiite Muslim cleric said that sect’s highest authority would refuse to meet with the Americans. U.S. troops, meanwhile, made a new catch in their pursuit of the top figures in Saddam Hussein’s toppled regime. Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and one of the most visible members in the leadership, was in custody, U.S. Central Command announced Thursday. Aziz’s capture meant 12 of the 55 most wanted members of the regime were now in custody, and Sen. Bob Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday night the arrest of another top Iraq offi cial, in Syria, would be announced shortly. See Garner on page 2A Efforts to contain SARS intensifed Efforts to contain the SARS virus intensified Thursday as a major Beijing hospital closed and put its patients and more than 2,000 employees under observation. In Singapore, a medical camp was prepared to hold anyone who violates home quarantine orders. iH SARS cases worldwide: 4,439 AMERICAS Canada Brazil United States 37 AFRICA South Africa 1 Bulgaria MIDDLE EAST Kuwait 140 15 prance 2 0 Germany Ireland Italy Romania Spain Sweden Switzerland 1,488 105 0 EUROPE Britain 6 0 Hong Kong India 1 0 Indonesia 1 0 Japan 2 0 Malaysia 5 2 Mongolia 3 0 Philippines 2 i Singapore 192 19 Taiwan 37 0 Thailand 8 2 5 ASIA/SOUTH PACIFIC Australia 4 0 Vietnam 63 China 2.422 110 Internationa! figures as of April 24,4 p m. GMT SOURCES: Associated Press; World Health Organization AP SARS closes major hospital By Audra Ang THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING — Authorities closed two hospitals and put patients and 2,000 workers under observation for the SARS virus, while across the city Thursday, anxious residents emptied grocery stores of rice, oil and frozen food in a bout of panic-buying. The closures were the latest action this week — along with the closing of public schools and plans for a quarantine — to try to contain severe acute respi ratory syndrome, which killed four more people, raising Beijing’s death toll to 39. Nationwide, 110 people have died from the disease, the Health Ministry said. On Friday, Beijing’s Ditan Hospital was sealed off, with no visitors allowed in, said an offi cial in the hospital’s administra tive office who declined to give her name. Medical workers were allowed to leave the build ing. Also closed, on Thursday, was the People’s Hospital of Peking University. The hospital was being disinfected, and a university official said an See SARS on page 2A
