Aggielife: Discipline and Challenge • Page 3
Opinion: Budget cut accountability • Page 5
THE BATTALIOi
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blume 109 • Issue 161 • 6 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Divided legislature tackles redistricting plan
By Kelley Shannon
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Partisan bickering broke out as
quickly as the Texas Legislature convened
Monday, with House Democrats claiming
Republicans were acting as puppets in a congres
sional redistricting “power grab.”
Republican Gov. Rick Perry ordered state law
makers to return to work to consider a GOP-
backed redrawing of congressional district lines,
effort pushed by U.S. House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay.
“This week is independence week, and we’re
• THE BATTALION
ields. A&M (in
going to find out this week whether the Texas
Legislature is still independent from the partisans
in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco,
House Democratic Caucus leader, said just before
Monday’s special session started.
About two dozen Democrats gathered with him
and said Texans made it clear in a series of public
meetings across the state the past few days that
they don’t want the Legislature to take up con
gressional redistricting.
Later, Republicans on the House Redistricting
Committee acknowledged that most public testi
mony at the meetings opposed revising congres
sional lines but some suggested Democrats had
organized the opposition.
“It was almost like a political rally,” said Rep.
Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, of a meeting in
Houston. “It was something that was an organized
effort, I assume, to intimidate us.”
Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said ear
lier that the districts Republicans want would hurt
minority and rural voters.
“We have a clear message for Tom DeLay,”
Coleman said. “Stop lying about what you’re try
ing to do.”
DeLay’s office had no immediate response to
the Democrats.
In the past, DeLay, a Republican from Sugar
Land, has said he wants more Republican con
gressmen from Texas.
Democrats hold a 17-15 advantage in the con
gressional delegation, even though all statewide
elected officials in Texas are Republicans. A map
that was backed by DeLay during the regular ses
sion in the spring would have likely given
Republicans as many as 20 seats in the U.S.
House.
Redistricting was so divisive in the 140-day
regular session that 51 House Democrats secretly
fled to Ardmore, Okla., to block a quorum and halt
See Legislature on page 6
Lack of jobs forces
grads back home
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By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
The declining economy has led
ly 33 percent of Texas A&M’s
iy 2003 graduates to find
employment, said Marti Boerema,
director of experiential education at
the A&M Career Center.
According to CNN.com, a sur
vey taken this spring on
Monster.com reported that 61 per
cent of college graduates plan to
return home after graduation.
“Students are graduating in eco
nomic times that are dramatically
different from the economy in
i they entered A&M,”
Boerema said. “Perhaps, they —
ind their parents — see it as a
liable strategy to save money, pay
down educational loans or credit
caridebt and gain a sound financial
footing before moving out.”
This year’s class is not the only
e that is moving back home.
Thomas Foster of Harker Heights,
Texas, who graduated in May 2002
with a degree in computer science,
said he deliberately sought out a job
near his family’s community so he
could live at home.
Foster said although he has
found a job and started working last
December, he still lives at home. He
said he invests the money he earns
and contributes some of it to his
family.
“(My parents) are happy to have
me so long as I pay rent,” Foster said.
Brian Moshier of Flower
Mound, Texas, who graduated in
May with a degree in management,
said he moved home after gradua
tion because he had not secured
employment.
Moshier said he has not heard a
reply from any of the online
resources he sent his resume to,
which included Monster.com,
hotjObs.com and careerbuilder.com.
Moshier said he also used the
Career Center while on campus, but
to no avail. He said he has been
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33 percent of A&JVL IMay 2003 graduates have
accepted offers of employment
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graduates reported they were employed or had
been accepted to graduate or professional school
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EVAN O'CONNELL • THE BATTALION
Senior economics major Mike Petr (right) and senior civil engineering major Logan McWhorter play handball at the
Student Recreation Center on Monday morning for a kinesiology class.
SOURCE: A&M CAREER CENTER
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
System cuts 3 departments. Bryan to enforce noise ordinance
Staff & Wire
The reduction in state funding led the Texas
A&M University System to lay off eight
employees last Wednesday.
Funding to the A&M System was cut from
$29.8 million to $25 million due to state budg
et cuts. Three departments were eliminated in
the cuts that are expected to save the $450,000,
said Bob Wright, System communication
director, according to the Bryan-College
Station Eagle.
After the $9.9 billion state budget deficit
was announced, lawmakers said massive fund
ing cuts would be necessary.
“The decision is not a reflection on the per
formance of any individual employee or
department,” said System Chancellor Howard
Graves in a statement. “Our state is experienc
ing critical budget shortfalls that have affected
almost every state institution and agency.”
Community development, distance learn
ing, and planning and system integration
offices were eliminated as a result of budget
cuts.
Daniel Hernandez, who heads the commu
nity development department, could not be
reached for comment-Monday.
The names of those laid off were not
released.
Wright said the layoffs should be the only
ones at the central offices unless funding is
reduced again.
A&M officials have attempted to cut the 7
percent of the overall 2003 budget requested
See System on page 2
Israel offers to return Bethlehem
By Alexandra Zavis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israel
reed to return the West Bank
town of Bethlehem to
Palestinian control after its pull-
Monday from the Gaza
Strip, crucial steps that advance
U.S.-backed “road map” to
Palestinian statehood and raise
es that 33 months of vio
lence may be nearing an end.
The two sides’ prime minis
ters also set a meeting to plan
tbeir next moves, as bulldozers
tore down Israeli checkpoints
and traffic flowed freely in Gaza
for the first time in months.
Palestinian police took control
of the Gaza town of Beit
Hanoun on the heels of the
departing Israeli troops.
The developments followed
declarations of a temporary halt
to attacks by three main
Palestinian groups, but there
were still trouble spots.
The first full day of the
truce was marred by a
Palestinian shooting that killed
a Bulgarian construction work
er on an Israeli road project
near the West Bank town of
Yabed. Renegade members of
the A1 Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,
loosely linked to Yasser
Arafat’s Fatah movement,
claimed responsibility.
However, Palestinian
Information Minister Nabil Amr
said it was not clear Fatah was
involved. “It was an individual
attack that should not affect the
truce declaration,” he said,
adding that “the Palestinian
See Mideast on page 6
By Rob Munson
THE BATTALION
The Bryan Police Department will begin
enforcing a zero-tolerance policy on the city’s
noise ordinance today by giving officers a more
powerful role in determining what constitutes
unreasonable noise, police officials said.
Bryan Assistant Police Chief Pete Scheets said
the city’s noise ordinance has not changed. The
change is in how police officers will enforce the
ordinance.The policy also applies to vehicles.
Previously, Bryan police responded to noise
complaints with verbal warnings.
“What’s a nuisance in one part of town might
not be in another,” Scheets said. “We’re using our
officers’ reasonable standard, which is based on
the community’s input through neighborhood
meetings.”
Now, Bryan officers will use their own judg
ment to determine if a source of noise merits a
citation.
“When we got a call in the past and the officer
deemed the source unreasonable, the officer
would issue a warning,” Scheets said. “Now if
they deem the noise unreasonable, the officer
issues a citation.”
Scheets said crushing an aluminum can and
dropping it on bare concrete registers 85 decibels,
which is considered an unreasonable level in some
towns that enforce noise laws. Scheets said deci
bel meters will not be used by officers to deter
mine if a source of noise is too loud, because read
ings can be misleading.
“Having bass so loud that it can rattle pic
tures off the wall might not register at 85 deci
bels,” he said.
Unreasonable noise levels are part of Bryan’s
nuisance ordinance, which has been in place
BRYHN:
Zero Tolerance Policy
In 2002, Bryan received 2,350 complaints
of noise
To date, 1,110 complaints of loud noise
have been reported
First offense - class C
misdemeanor
punishable by
fines ranging
from $1 to $2000
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: CITY OF BRYAN
since December 1975.
“Nowadays, we’re addressing more and more
complaints about the kind of loud music that dis
turbs people’s sleep or disrupts their lives at home
or work in some way,” Scheets said. “The number
of complaints about crime, disorder and decay is
dropping.”
Scheets said the need for noise control stems
from an increase in the number of complaints
from Bryan residents.
Last year, Bryan police received roughly 2,350
complaints of noise. To date, approximately 1,110
complaints of loud noise have been reported by
See Noise on page 2