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Sports: Archery coach leads Olympic team • Page 3 Opinion: Perry: Don't sign deregulation • Page 5
THE BATTALION
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
Volume 109 • Issue 152 • 6 pages www.thebatt.com Monday, June 16, 2003
A&M launches joint enrollment program
By Karen Yancey
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M and Texas A&M-
Kingsville recently launched a joint
enrollment program between their
agriculture colleges to provide edu
cational opportunities for the
expanding minority population in
South Texas.
The South Texas Joint Enrollment
Program allows agriculture students
to transfer to A&M after spending
their freshman and sophomore years
at A&M-Kingsville. Students must
have a 3.0 grade point ratio to trans
fer. After completing 75 class hours,
they must leave the program and
enroll at A&M. However, partici
pants may not change majors outside
the College of Agriculture.
Fifty freshman will be admitted
into the program this fall. Next
year’s enrollment will increase to
100 freshmen and 300 should be
accepted into the program in 2005.
Dick Creger, associate dean of the
College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences at A&M, said Ronald
Rosati, the dean of college of
Agriculture and Human Sciences at
Kingsville, approached him with
the idea.
“1 think it’s great,” Creger said.
“It gives kids access to A&M who
want to come here but who may need
more preparation.”
Creger also said the program aims
at increasing diversity at A&M.
“We hope to do this with other
A&M System universities or univer
sities that aren’t part of the system,”
he said.
The University runs similar trans
fer programs with Blinn College and
San Antonio’s Palo Alto College.
“From our University’s perspec
tive this is a major new develop
ment,” Rosati said.
The college of agriculture has two
other joint enrollment programs with
A&M but neither are as encompass
ing as the South Texas Joint
Enrollment Program.
Rosati, who came up with the
idea a year ago, said both campuses
were supportive and getting the pro
gram started was not difficult.
“We have a history of close coop
eration among the agriculture pro
grams in Texas A&M System univer
sities,” Rosati said.
A&M’s current Agriculture
Program is an agreement between
the Texas Cooperative Extension and
agriculture colleges in the A&M
University System to deliver pro
gramming to the people of Texas.
The Texas Cooperative Extension is
a state agency that provides research
information to the public.
Allows agriculture students to
transfer to A&M after two years
at Kingsville
Students cannot change majors
outside College of Agriculture
Students must have a 3.0 GPR
Joint enrollment with
Texas A&M-Kingsville
50 freshmen to be admitted in
Fall 2003
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: AGRICULTURE & LIFE SCIENCES
Egyptians
work for
Mideast
cease-fire
By Ravi Nessman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —
Egyptian mediators asked
Palestinian militants Sunday to
halt attacks on Israel in an effort
lo rescue a U.S.-backed peace
plan that foundered after more
than a week of violence. Israel’s
prime minister suggested he
might accept a limited truce.
Palestinian officials said
(here were expectations that the
current cease-fire efforts might
succeed where others had failed,
despite militia leaders’ renewed
assertions they will not lay
down their amis.
In Maine, President Bush
said he was confident of eventu
al peace between the longtime
enemies, with a Palestinian state
existing in peace beside Israel.
After a weekend meeting
between Israeli and Palestinian
security officials, both sides said
Israel was considering a gradual
withdrawal from Bethlehem and
parts of the Gaza Strip, leaving
security to the forces of
Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas and security
chief Mohammed Dahlan.
Addressing a Cabinet meet
ing Sunday, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said that
if militants agree to a cease-fire,
Israel would, for the most part,
respect it.
“If no one fires on us, we
will not return fire, except in
See Mideast on page 2
Junior industrial distribution major Brian Cole spins hobby is known as Poi and has become increasingly
flaming balls of teflon connected to metal chains popular during the past five years,
behind Easterwood Airport on Saturday night. Cole's
Rochon vies
for diversity
By Justin Smith
THE BATTALION
Bringing together the surrounding communi
ties, local schools and students of a university is
the best way to encourage diversity at a place like
Texas A&M, said Dr. Ronald Rochon.
Rochon, the last of three candidates visiting
A&M vying for the new position of vice president
of diversity and associate provost for institutional
diversity, made a presentation Friday describing
how the University can become more diverse.
“The first step for the
University is to gain the trust of
families in the community,” he
said. “And then in connection
with the University students and
area (kindergarten through high
school) teachers and students,
they can create appropriate pro-
rochon grams.”
Rochon has put this theory to the test at the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he
heads the Research Center for Cultural Diversity
and Community Renewal. Rochon and the CDCR
received the largest grant in the history of UW-La
Crosse — $5 million. The center was able to edu
cate many members of the Hmong community, a
large Asian community in Wisconsin, many of
whom have since gone on to teach among other
things.
Since its success at UW-La Crosse, the CDCR
has worked with Hmong and others at many of the
UW branches in the state.
Rochon said another way to increase diversity
is to work abroad.
Rochon worked with schools and communi
ties in Ghana while at UW-La Crosse.
“Teacher exchange between countries can be a
very useful tool,” he said.
Rochon said that a goal of the University should
be to provide equitable opportunities for all.
“Diversity encompasses acceptance and respect
for differences among all individuals,” he said.
Rochon was formally educated at Tuskegee
University and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
He has since taught education at several
See Rochon on page 2
Saudis raid Mecca,
find al-Qaida links
By Faiza Saleh Ambah
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MECCA, Saudi Arabia —
Police fought overnight gun-
battles with suspected al-
Qaida militants who were
planning an imminent terrorist
attack, killing five and arrest
ing others believed linked to
last month’s suicide bombings
in Riyadh, a Saudi officials
said Sunday.
One security official,
speaking on condition of
anonymity, said two police
officers were killed in a
shootout at a checkpoint short
ly before a fierce gunbattle
erupted during a raid on a
bomb-filled, booby-trapped
apartment late Saturday.
The Saudi Interior
Ministry released a statement
saying the raid took place at
an apartment building in the
al-Khalidiya district, about
three miles from the main
Mecca mosque, at 9:30 p.m.
The statement said police
clashed with a “group of ter
rorists...(who) were preparing
an imminent terrorist act.” No
details of the alleged plot were
given.
Five suspected militants
died in the gunbattle initiated
by the “terrorists,” the state
ment said without giving their
nationalities. Five security
agents and four bystanders
were slightly injured.
The statement said the
apartment was booby-trapped
and ready to explode. Some 72
bombs of different sizes were
found with numerous other
weapons, including semiauto
matic rifles and knifes, com
munication devices, bomb
making materials and masks.
The Interior Ministry
statement said two Chadians,
an Egyptian and a Saudi were
among at least five people
arrested in the raid. The fifth
was not identified. Numerous
other suspects were arrested
later in Mecca. It did not
elaborate.
Police raid
apartment in Mecca
Saudi security agents raided a
bomb-filled, booby-trapped
apartment in the holy city of
Mecca Saturday night, where the
Saudi goverment said “a group
of terrorists ... were preparing
an imminent terrorist attack.”
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Police raid apartment,
killing five terror suspects
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
The official told The
Associated Press that he
believed the suspected mili
tants were “members of al-
Qaida cells” because of simi
larities between weapons they
used and how they “immedi
ately shoot at the police when
cornered.”
He also believed those
killed and arrested were
See Mecca on page 2
Storms test campus lightning system
By Megan Orton
THE BATTALION
As fierce storms swept
through Brazos Valley this week
end, reports of dangerous light
ning and funnel clouds alarmed
area residents.
Patrons at the Memorial
Student Center were ushered into
the basement restaurant as the
storm made its way through
College Station Friday night.
Texas A&M’s Deputy Director
of University Relations Lane
Stephenson said 200 to 300 peo
ple were crowded in the basement
for 20 minutes until the danger
passed. No damage was reported.
As summer storms become
more frequent, a new lightning
system implemented last year is
being used to forewarn members
of the A&M community when
conditions are ripe for cloud-to-
ground lightning strikes.
The new system uses two
ThorGuard systems on 11 loca
tions around campus, including
the Student Recreation Center
and the A&M golf course, to
ensure the safety of those out
doors during storms.
“Texas receives a fair amount
of lightning across the state,” said
Scott Steiger, head of A&M’s
storm chasing team. Steiger was
part of a 12-year study that led to
the naming of Houston as the
“lightning capital of Texas.”
Houston experiences about
four flashes of cloud-to-ground
lightning per square kilometer per
year, the highest rate of lightning
in Texas, Steiger said.
Nationally, Tampa Bay, Fla., has
the highest rates, with 11 flashes of
cloud-to-ground lightning per
square kilometer per year.
A&M isn’t the only school that
has implemented the ThorGuard
system. Texas Christian
University, University of New
Mexico and Clemson University,
along with many municipalities,
use the ThorGuard system to warn
their residents of impending light
ning danger.
Steiger said certain areas on
See Lightning on page 2
THOR6UARP: Lightning warning systei
JOSHUA HOBSON & RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: A&M STORM CHASING TEAM