THE BATTALI®
Sports: 'Clydian Curse' still haunting Rangers • Page 3
Opinion: Funding public education • Page 5
THE BATTALI0
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
[Volume 109 • Issue 160 • 6 pages
System employees await ruling
Monday, June 30, 2003
l_oc|i?ilr»t:iori iifffoc:tincj A&IVI
MRLOYEE BENEFITS
By Karen Yancey
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M University System
employees are awaiting a ruling
from Texas Attorney General
Gregg Abbott concerning their eli
gibility to receive state insurance
benefits after retirement.
The Texas Legislature passed
two bills this session that change
age and years of service
requirements for A&M System
employees who want to retire with
full insurance benefits. Only the
A&M System will be affected by
these bills.
Under the old law, employees
who are at least 55 and have at least
five years of state service can retire
by Aug. 31 with full health bene
fits. But under the new law, any
employee who wants to be eligible
to receive full health benefits and
retires after Aug. 31, must be age
65 and have at least 10 years
of state service.
A memo from the Human
Resources Department sent out to
A&M employees last week said
that the new bills have not been
signed by Gov. Rick Perry, but
could have an impact on A&M
employees who plan to retire in
the future.
Bob Wright, director of commu
nications for the A&M System,
said one of the new bills has a
grandfather clause that allows cur
rent A&M System employees to
remain under the older law even
after Aug 31.
is can
nent!
pled!
n limits
Israeli troops set to withdraw
as Mideast truce announced
By Ibrahim Barzak
1HE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza
Strip — The militant
Hamas and Islamic Jihad
groups and Yasser Arafat’s
Fatah movement declared
immediate suspensions of
attacks against Israel on
Sunday, and Israel began
pulling troops out of
Gaza, breakthroughs in
attempts to end almost
Hiree years of fighting.
The militant groups
announced three-months
Iruces and Fatah’s cease
fire was for six months.
At sundown Sunday,
Israeli troops and tanks
began pulling out of
northern Gaza, in keeping
"'ith an agreement to hand
ftsponsibility for security
■n Gaza over to the
Palestinians.
An Israeli pullout is a
condition of the U.S-
backed “road map” to
peace and a Palestinian
state by 2005.
The Bush administra
tion welcomed news of
the cease-fire, but said it
wants to see more
progress.
“Anything that reduces
violence is a step in the
right direction,” White
House spokeswoman
Ashley Snee said. “Under
the road map, parties have
an obligation to dismantle
terrorist infrastructure.
There is still more work to
be done.”
The truce was first
announced by the two
militant groups. The tim
ing came as a surprise,
after Palestinian officials
said it would be delayed at
least until Monday
because of political
infighting in Arafat’s
Fatah movement, a part
ner in the three-way deal.
Hamas and Islamic
Jihad apparently did not
want to wait for Fatah to
resolve its internal agree
ments.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a
Hamas leader, read the
truce announcement in a
phone call to The
Associated Press.
“The two movements
(Hamas and Islamic
Jihad) decided to suspend
military operations
against the Zionist enemy
for three months, starting
today,” Rantisi said.
Islamic Jihad leader
Mohammed al-Hindi con
firmed that the truce took
effect Sunday.
“This is a joint declara
tion between Islamic
Jihad and Hamas and I
think our brothers in Fatah
are going to declare their
Mideast truce
The militant Hamas and Islamic
Jihad groups and Yasser Arafat’s
Fatah movement declared a
suspension of attacks against
Israel on Sunday. Two of the
militant groups announced three-
month truces and Fatah’s cease
fire was for six months.
© Timing
The truce was first
announced by the
militant groups Hamas and
Islamic Jihad. It came as a
surprise after Palestinian officials
said that it would be delayed
until Monday because of political
infighting in the Fatah
movement.
Troops pullback
Sunday night Israeli
troops began the
pullout from northern Gaza,
according to the agreement
giving responsibility for Gaza
security back to the Palestinians.
The demands
Hamas and Islamic
Jihad want Israel to
halt all military strikes, including
targeted killings of wanted
militants and the release of
Palestinian prisoners. Also,
Palestinians are to have the
freedom to travel the length of
the main road in Gaza occupied
in parts by Israeli forces.
SOURCE: Associated Press AP
position soon,” al-Hindi
told the AP.
See Truce on page 2
However, Wright said, A&M
officials are waiting for a decision
from Abbott on whether the grand
father clause applies to both bills.
Wright said there are several
hundred potential retirees in
College Station and several thou
sand in the TAMU system.
“A lot of people are trying to
figure out what they want to do and
time is running out,” he said.
Sen. Robert Duncan, the pri
mary author of one of the bills,
could not be reached for comment.
Bofore August 31, 2003
To receive full health benefits,
must be:
• 55 years of age with five years
State service Oft mmmmmmmmm
• Meet Rule of 80, where years
of service added to age is
equal to 80
Aftsr August 31, 2003
Must be 65 years of
age with 10 years of
state service credit to
receive full benefits
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
Baylor campus awaits
word on missing athlete
By Angela K. Brown
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO, Texas — As the FBI jdins the
search for a missing Baylor basketball play
er, some of his friends say their fears that he
won’t be found alive are growing.
Patrick James Dennehy, 21, hasn’t been
heard from in more than two
weeks, and police suspect
that he was killed in the
Waco area. His sport utility
vehicle, its license plates
missing, was found aban
doned in a mall parking lot
in Virginia last week.
John Cunningham, a
speech communications professor at Baylor,
said Dennehy was working on an independ
ent study project for his class this summer.
He said Dennehy was a “solid B student”
who dreamed of playing for the NBA and
then working in public relations for his
favorite team, the Sacramento Kings.
“It’s been unbelievably hard,”
Cunningham said Sunday. “Right now, the
hardest part is not knowing. We’re trying to
stay positive, but it’s been hard as more
DENNEHY
time passes.”
Waco police say Dennehy’s teammates
and others have been questioned about the
disappearance of the 6-foot-10, 230-pound
center and junior speech communications
major from Santa Clara, Calif. Police
declined to comment Sunday, saying a
news conference was planned for Monday
afternoon,
Rene Salinas, a spokesman in the FBI’s
San Antonio office, said Sunday that the FBI
was helping Waco police in the investiga
tion. He declined further comment.
Dennehy often sat in the front row so he
could concentrate and didn’t talk much to
his teammates, who sat in the back,
Cunningham said. But the professor said he
was surprised about reports that basketball
players may be suspects.
“I’ve taught those guys, and there’s no
way in my mind that any of them are capa
ble of doing anything like that,”
Cunningham said.
Dennehy’s stepfather, Brian Brabazon,
told the Waco Tribune-Herald someone had
See Baylor on page 2
Africana Studies approved
By Lindsay Broomes
THE BATTALION
This spring, the College
of Liberal Arts approved an
undergraduate minor in the
field of Africana Studies to
increase the globalization of
the curriculum of the
College of Liberal Arts, said
Julia Kirk Blackwelder,
associate dean of the
College of Liberal Arts.
“The minor will con
tribute to the cultural under
standing among our stu
dents,” she said.
Africana Studies is an
interdisciplinary area that
focuses on Africa, the peo
ple of Africa and the cul
tures and experiences of
Africans who have migrated
around the world,
Blackwelder said.
“History, literature, soci
ology, anthropology, the arts
■ Must complete 18 hours
i.,,
■ Courscwork in classes
5 such as:
♦ African American History
V • Modern Africa and
Sociology of Black Americans
• Rhetoric of the Civil Rights
Movement
|I | ”'■
■ First courses offered in
Spring 2004
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS, NOVA DEVELOPMENT
and other disciplines con
tribute to Africana Studies,”
she said.
Blackwelder said the
minor is comprised of 18
hours of course work with
classes such as African
American History, Modem
Africa, Sociology of Black
Americans and Rhetoric of
the Civil Rights Movement
as some points of focus.
In addition to courses
already offered, three
See Africana on page 2
Chicago porch collapses, 12 killed
By Brandon Loomis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — Natalie Brougham was
crowded onto a third-floor porch with
dozens of friends early. Sunday when the
floor dropped out from under them, sending
wood and bodies crashing through two other
decks to the ground. Twelve people died,
most of them crushed on the porches below.
At least 57 others were injured, authori
ties said.
“There were people covering me. It was
pitch black and people were yelling, Tm
dying.’ I was assuming I was going to die,”
Brougham, 22, said. “I guess I got lucky and
only had two or three people on top of me.”
Brougham walked away with injuries to
her hip and shoulder, in pain but alive.
As many as 50 people, most of them in
their early 20s, had crammed onto the apart
ment porch for a party in the city’s affluent
Lincoln Park neighborhood when the floor
fell at about 12:30 a.m., police said. Seven
men and five women, most of them appar
ently on the porches directly below, were
crushed between the falling floors and
killed, said Larry Langford, spokesman for
the city’s Office of Emergency
Management.
“There was no warning,” said Simon
Rasin, a University of Chicago law student
who attended the party. “I fell through both
the second and the first floor decks into the
basement area in just a pile of bodies.”
His friend Henry Wischerath was among
those killed, he said.
“There was chaos,” Chicago Fire
Commissioner James Joyce said. “There
were people screaming and crying in the
alley.”
Partygoers who had been safe inside the
apartment said they tried to rescue their
friends from the pile of lumber and bodies,
while people poured out of a nearby tavern
to help.
“They were bloodied and covered in rub
ble, their clothes were ripped. Women were
looking for husbands, men were looking for
wives. It was horrible,” said Geraldine
Schapira, 33, who lives nearby.
Eleven people were pronounced dead at
See Chicago on page 2