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Aggielife: Business as usual • Page 3
Opinion: Governor Arnold • Page 7
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THF RATTATTON
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109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
Volume 109 • Issue 158 • 8 pages www.thebatt.com Thursday, June 26, 2003
Student admits to thefts, awaits
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
A Texas A&M student turned himself in to
police Wednesday in connection with several
campus burglaries that occurred during the past
month where the items taken were worth
$135,000.
Jonathan Wesley Mayfield, a junior speech
communications major, is out on $7,000 bond and
is awaiting a court date, according to the Brazos
County Sheriff’s Office.
University Police Department Director Bob
Wiatt said Mayfield faces a second-degree felony
theft charge for the burglary of a KAMU-TV van
June 6, which is punishable by two to 20 years in
jail and a $10,000 fine.
Mayfield also faces two counts of burglary to a
building, which is a state jail felony charge pun
ishable by six months to two years in jail and up
to a $10,000 fine, Wiatt said.
“It is a shame’’ he said.”He is in a lot of trouble.”
KAMU employees discovered the van was
burglarized 48 hours after the last time it was
driven, which was June 4. Wiatt said Mayfield
broke through the passenger side door and
crawled through a very small
space to get into the back of the
truck.
On June 11, Mayfield broke
into Rumours Cafe, knocked over
a wall that separated the cafeteria
from the entertainment area and
took $10,000 worth of stereo and
lighting equipment, including a 42-
inch flat panel television.
Wiatt said a College Station citizen called
police the night of June 17, the same day an arti
cle ran in The Battalion about the burglaries, to
court date
inform them that, after reading the article, he
thought his son may have purchased the stolen
equipment for a video studio.
The police identified the equipment as stolen
and returned it to the proper management.
Wiatt said Mayfield was also responsible for
a break-in at Kyle field in April in which he took
an LCD projector. He was also involved in a
burglary at the Langford Architecture Building
on June 13, in which he took computers, key
boards and a desk chair.
All equipment from those robberies has also
been recovered and returned,Wiatt said.
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Olympics help
Corbelli to lead
A&M volleyball
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
L aurie Corbelli has never
been one to walk away
from a challenge.
When she came to Texas A&M
in 1993, she inherited a volleyball
team that had not finished more
than three games above .500 in five
seasons and had not broken the 20-
win barrier in seven.
Corbelli wasted no time making
her mark on the A&M record book,
running off 27 wins in her first sea
son and starting what is now a 10-
year streak of postseason NCAA
Tournament play.
It all started with a phone call
more than 25 years ago after she
was named MVP at a junior nation
al tournament.
“Arie Selinger called and said he
wanted me to come be on the
team,” Corbelli said. “And it scared
me to death.”
Selinger, one of the heavy hitters
in the volleyball world in the 1970s
and ‘80s, was the head coach of the
U.S. national team. After a five-year
stint as coach of the Israeli national
team, Selinger moved to America,
and he wanted Corbelli to come be
with the group that was preparing for
the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Selinger’s demands to Corbelli
were high: give up her college life,
devote as much as eight hours a
day to practice and move to the
team’s training facility in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
After repeated phone calls from
Selinger, Corbelli decided to give it
a shot. It was something she says
now was the hardest decision she’s
Coaching success
TERESA WEAVER • THE BATTALION
Laurie Corbelli, Texas A&M’s volleyball coach, competed on the U.S. women’s national team at the 1984 Olympic games in Los
Angeles, bringing home a silver medal. She credits that experience for helping her succeed as a coach.
ever made.
“The main thought was that if I
didn’t take this opportunity, how
would I ever look at myself,” she
said. “As scared as I was, I thought
how stupid I would be if I didn’t try.
It would have been my own fears
and my own fault for not trying, and
I didn’t know if I could face
myself.”
After joining the team, Corbelli’s
fear of not being able to face herself
soon turned to a fear of Selinger. His
practices were brutal: three practice
sessions six days a week, film ses
sions that lasted as long as five
hours, and an international travel
schedule that included as many as 70
matches every year. Despite his
team’s relative success (including a
surprise fifth-place finish in the 1978
World Championships), Selinger
never relented and pushed the team
to the physical edge daily. It didn’t
stop there. Corbelli vividly remem
bers the verbal abuse Selinger dished
out to the team.
“He was 100 percent focused
toward the gold medal, but the way he
wanted to go about it was very diffi
cult,” Corbelli said. “It seemed we
never gave enough, we weren’t com
mitted enough in his eyes. We con
stantly had to prove and show our
dedication about how tough we were.”
The intense practices eventually
wore Corbelli thin to the point where
she thought about packing up and
leaving.
“It was so mentally demanding,”
she said. “I would call home crying
and tell my dad that it was too much,
that (Selinger) was crazy, even that I
hated it.”
Ironically, it was from those
phone calls during the worst of times
that Corbelli found the best of reme
dies.
“The closer I got to the girls on
the team, the more I realized I could
n’t just leave them,” Corbelli
remembers. “They were really an
inspiration to me, and that was a sit
uation where you had to look for all
See Corbelli on page 2
GSC nixes
insurance
meeting
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
The Graduate Student Council will not
call an emergency meeting in response to
the rising health insurance costs unveiled
by Texas A&M last Friday.
GSC President Josh Peschel said the
executive committee met Tuesday night
and decided against calling an emergency
session. For an emergency meeting to take
place, it must be ordered by the GSC’s
executive committee.
“The committee unanimously decided,
based on the favorable responses to our
recommendations from (A&M President
Robert M.) Gates, that an emergency GSC
meeting will not be called at this time,”
Peschel said. “It does not rule out later
meetings during the summer should they
become necessary, but at this point there
will not be a meeting.”
Peschel said he has already presented
the GSC’s position to members of the
administration, including Gates, Executive
Vice President and Provost David Prior
and John Giardino, A&M’s dean of gradu
ate studies. Peschel said the GSC’s recom
mended position is for the University to
pick up enough of the tab to reduce the
monthly costs to where they are now.
“Even if the University does not imple
ment our exact recommendations, any
assistance by the University to significant
ly improve the current situation will be
supported,” Peschel said. “Our solution is
probably one of many. We sincerely
encourage and strongly recommend it.
However, we just want the best outcome
for all graduate students.”
University administrators have said
they will do everything they can to help
alleviate the costs for graduate assistants,
but that they are at a stalemate because the
University has not yet released its budget
for 2004.
All part-timers in the A&M System
who purchase health insurance are subject
to an increase of at least $145.60 per
month. Some employees with families will
be faced with as much as a $379.48 per
month increase in their monthly health
insurance bills.
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12th Man Foundation aids
future Fish Camp attendees
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
The 12th Man Foundation has
donated $5,000 to Fish Camp for fresh
men needing financial assistance to
attend camp this summer.
“Everybody that comes to (Texas)
A&M is an Aggie, but the students who
go through Fish Camp form special
bonds early on in their time at A&M,”
said Miles Marks, executive director
and CEO of 12th Man Foundation.
Marks made the decision to donate
the money after he visited Fish Camp
last summer and discovered some peo
ple were not able to attend because of
the $125 fee. The fee includes food,
transportation and three nights of dis
cussion and group activities.
Fish Camp allocates $3,000 each
year from its own budget for freshmen
scholarships, said Dave Stanfield,
assistant director of public relations
for Fish Camp.
The $3,000 that Fish Camp allocates
for financial assistance comes from the
membership fees from approximately
900 camp counselors, he said.
Stanfield said that the primary bene
fits of Fish Camp are meeting other
freshmen and upperclassmen and learn
ing about the Aggie way of life, includ
ing wildcats, yells and traditions.
Last year, about $16,000 was
requested from freshmen wanting to go
to Fish Camp, Stanfield said.
In the past, Fish Camp has used
other means to raise money for fresh
man scholarships. Stanfield said that
Benjamin Knox has donated Fish
Camp pictures that they were able to
sell to make extra money, but this is
no longer done.
Stanfield said Fish Camp is entirely
self-funded and does not receive any
financial assistance from the University.
“Only at A&M would people volun
teer six months of their lives and pay
$ 100 to do it,” he said.
Fish Camp is held in Palestine,
Texas, and has several different camps
freshmen attend all Summer.
“(Lakeview) is pretty much the only
camp within a reasonable distance
that’s big enough for Fish
Camp,’’Stanfield said.
Last year, more than 70 percent of
the freshman class, about 4,800, signed
up for Fish Camp, Stanfield said.
New center to study air pollution
Fish Camp allocates
from its own
budget
Last year
requested from
freshmen wanting
to attend camp
Fish Camp
12th Man Foundation
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: 12TH MAN FOUNDATION
Stanfield said they are expecting
more freshmen than ever to sign up
this year.
Marks said the 12th Man
Foundation would like to donate more
money in the future if the budget
allows for it.
“We think the folks at Fish Camp are
doing a wonderful job. We hope this
helps them do what they’re trying to do
to benefit A&M,” Marks said.
By Megan Orton
THE BATTALION
A new Center for Atmospheric
Chemistry and the Environment was
established by the Texas A&M Board of
Regents to study pollution and other
environmental issues, said John Bevan,
the center’s new director.
The establishment of the center was
facilitated by funding of $3.5 million
from the Environmental Protection
Agency for the formation of a
research consortium between the
University of Houston, the
University of Texas and A&M, to
study air pollution issues in Houston.
A&M will receive $8.9 million dol
lars over three years to do research.
“The Houston-Galveston area is
recognized as one of the most pollut
ed areas of its size in the United
States,” Bevan said.
Regional emissions from major
urban areas, large power plants,
woodlands and the largest petroleum
refining activities in the world com
bine to affect environmental sustain
ability in Texas. John Neilson-
Gammon, a faculty member partici
pating in the meteorological studies
at the center, said federal regulations
are becoming more exclusive regard
ing how much pollution is acceptable by
ERA standards.
A&M’s research center will look at
other pollution factors by specializing in
areas different from the other research
facilities. Although each campus studies
different aspects of the environment, all
See Center on page 2
SOURCE: CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CENTER FOR'ATtO’SPHERE
chemistrQnd the environment
/ill be funded with $8.9 million
over three years
Creation involved four colleges,
24 faculty groups and 50 graduate
students
A $3.5 million grant from the
ERA will create a research
consortium between A&M,
UH and UT
Similar centers exist at schools
such as Harvard and Berkeley
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION