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Sports: All-Star game still meaningless • Page 3
; Separating church and state • Page 5
THE BATTALION
Volume 109 • Issue 166 • 6 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Wednesday, July 9, 2003
Prairie View, TEEX heads named
By Rob Munson
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M System Board of Regents
filled top positions at Prairie View A&M and the
Texas Engineering Extension Service Tuesday
in a special telephone meeting.
Dr. George C. Wright was named Prairie
View’s president, and Robert L. “Lanny” Smith
was named TEEX director.
Wright will take over at Prairie View on
August 15, and Smith will begin as the new
TEEX director July 14, Board Chairman Lowry
Mays said in the meeting.
“Dr. Wright’s experience with higher educa
tion in Texas and his knowledge of academic
affairs made him stand out among the top candi
dates for this position, and I believe he will
make an excellent president,” said Howard
Graves, A&M University System chancellor, in
a statement. “I look forward to his leadership as
president of Prairie View A&M.”
Wright served as executive vice president at
the University of Texas-Arlington since 2000
and has been the university’s provost since 1995.
Prior to joining UTA’s administrative staff,
Wright was a vice provost and professor at Duke
University, and a vice provost and professor at
the University of Texas-Austin.
“Institutions like Prairie View are very
important in American society and Texas socie
ty in educating black leaders in all walks of
life,” Wright said in a June 12 interview with
The Battalion. “I want to make sure students are
reminded of that history and the historical con
tributions Prairie View has made.”
Wright succeeds interim Prairie View
President Willie Tempton.
Smith is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army
and former chief of staff/deputy commandant of
the U.S. Corps of Cadets at West Point.
“Lanny Smith is an excellent choice for the
director of TEEX,” Graves said. “He is a highly
respected proven leader with experience in
national security and business management. His
leadership will enhance TEEX’s outstanding
service to the citizens of Texas and beyond.”
Smith received a bachelor’s degree from the
U.S. Military Academy and master’s degrees
from the University of North Carolina, the Naval
War College and Salve Regina University.
TEEX oversees Texas Task Force One, the
urban search-and-rescue team, and other law
enforcement and public service training cen
ters.
See Regents on page 2
Board of Rogonts
TELEPHONE MEETING
Dr. George C. Wright
• Appointed president of
Prairie View A&M
• Replaces Willie Tempton,
interim president
• Begins August 16
Robert "Lanny" Smith
• Named TEEX Director
• Succeeds Dr. G. Kemble
Bennett
• Begins July 14
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: TAMU BOARD OF REGENTS
Aggies aid in WTC
victim ID project
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
Four Texas A&M graduate
students from the anthropology
department have been aiding
workers in New York City on the
World Trade Center investigation
[and identification of victims of
I Sept. 11. While working on the
; Anthropology Verification
| Project, Jason Wiersema and Eric
Bartelink examined nearly
20,000 individual pieces of
: human remains extracted from
Ground Zero.
| “The number of identified vic-
tifas-continues-to rise,” Wiersema
said. “Numerous previously
unidentified individuals have
been identified as a direct result
of the Anthropology Verification
Project.”
Bartelink said working on a
project like this can be difficult
and is exhausting, but the hard
work pays off.
“This kind of work can be
very physically and emotionally
draining, but the feeling that you
are contributing something to the
victims and their families makes
it very worthwhile,” he said.
Wiersema said pathologists
were key to the project, because
pathologists rely on soft tissue for
identification, but the impact of
the planes, the collapse of the
towers and exposure to fire had
ANTHROPOLOGY
VERIFICATION PROTECT
Began May 28, 2002
Identified nearly 20,000
pieces of human remains
Four A&M graduate
students participating
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: JASON WIERSEMA, ERIC
BARTELINK, NOVA DEVELOPMENT
caused the tissues of individuals
to mingle together.
Wiersema and Bartelink were
offered jobs on the project by
Amy Mundorff, the sole anthro
pologist employed by the city of
New York.
Wiersema said he took over
Mundorff’s job for two weeks in
December 2001 because she had
worked every day since Sept. 11,
See WTC on page 2
Giving life
Junior education major Katy Siebert donates blood near Rudder process that withdraws a pound of blood for use in emergencies and
Fountain Tuesday as American Red Cross collections technician blood transfusions. Siebert said a relative died in a drunken driving
Candido Gonzales labels her blood bags. Donation is an 8-minutes accident in January, convincing her to donate any chance she gets.
!e apt
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nent!
ipM
h limits!
Lockheed Martin gunman kills 5, himself Sudanese
plane crash
kills 116
By Matt Volz
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MERIDIAN, Miss. — A
factory worker known as a
racist “hothead” who talked
about killing people opened
fire with a shotgun at a
Lockheed Martin plant
Tuesday, leaving five fellow
employees dead before com
mitting suicide.
Dozens of employees at the
aircraft parts plant frantically
ran for cover after assembly
worker Doug Williams,
dressed in a black T-shirt and
camouflage pants, started fir-
during a morning break.
As many as eight people were
wounded in the nation’s dead
liest workplace shooting in 2
1/2 years.
“At first I thought it was
something falling on the
ground. Then I walked to the
aisle and saw him aiming his
gun. I took off. Everybody
took off,” said Booker
Steverson, who was helping
assemble airplane parts when
he heard the first shot.
Exactly what set Williams
off was not immediately clear,
but co-workers said he had
had run-ins with management
and several fellow employees.
“Mr. Williams was mad at
the world. This man had an
issue with everybody,” said
co-worker Hubert Threat.
“It’s not just about race. It
was just the excuse he was
looking for.”
Williams was white, and
four of his victims were black;
the fifth was white.
Nevertheless, Sheriff Billy
Sollie said it appeared
Williams fired at random with
the shotgun and the semiauto
matic rifle. “There was no
indication it involved race or
gender as far as his targets
were concerned,” Sollie said.
Several co-workers said
they were not surprised when
Williams was identified as the
killer.
“When I first heard about
it, he was the first thing that
came to my mind,” said Jim
Payton, who is retired from
the plant but had worked with
Williams for about a year.
Steverson said Williams
was known as a racist who did
not like blacks. And Payton
had said Williams had talked
about wanting to kill people.
“I’m capable of doing it,”
Payton quoted Williams as
saying.
One of those killed was
Lanette McCall, a black
woman who had worked at the
plant 15 years. Her husband,
Bobby McCall, said she
See Gunman on page 2
U.S. funds birds’ destruction to combat poultry disease
By Mark Sherman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Fighting a dev
astating poultry disease, federal offi
cials in California paid premium prices
to destroy birds probably used as fight
ing cocks. Halting the infestation far
outweighed concerns about dealing
with outlaws, they said.
The Agriculture Department spent
$11.5 million from October to May to
destroy 144,000 birds characterized
mainly as game fowl, including thou
sands of roosters and brood cocks that
agriculture officials believe were used
for fighting.
Those payments averaged $79.31
each, with some roosters and brood
cocks valued as high as $500, accord
ing to the records obtained by The
Associated Press.
That average was over 27 times the
average per bird — $2.89 — the gov
ernment paid to kill 3.7 million com
mercial birds, virtually all egg-laying
chickens.
Overall, $22.3 million was paid to
chicken ranchers and owners of back
yard flocks in the effort to eradicate
Exotic Newcastle Disease. Newcastle
can wipe out entire flocks of poultry
but is harmless to humans.
The payments drew criticism from
the Humane Society and lawmakers
who have sought to clamp down on
See Poultry on page 2
U.S. pays owners of destroyed birds
In an effort to stop the spread of Exotic Newcastle Disease that
infected California's poultry industry, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture paid $22.3 million to nearly 4 million owners of destroyed
birds, including thousands believed to be fighting cocks.
Poultry found in backyard flocks and chicken ranches:
M Average value gg USDA compensation for each destroyed bird
Egg-laying chickens
E $2.89
i
Gamecocks.
mmwm $500
SSMM
Red jungle fowl
Can live 10-15 years, but
most don't
Environment Extremely close Mostly tethered apart from
i $2.89
Ancestor
Life span
Red jungle fowl
18 months
History
other cocks until in fighting pit
Animal rights groups object
to cockfighting as a form of
animal
cruelty. It is
legal in
Louisiana
and parts of
New Mexico.
By Mohamed Osman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A
Sudanese airliner plunged into a
hillside while attempting an emer
gency landing Tuesday, killing 116
people and leaving one survivor —
a 3-year-old boy found injured but
alive amid a scene of charred
corpses.
The Sudan Airways plane,
headed from Port Sudan on the
northeastern coast to the capital,
crashed before dawn in a wooded
area just after takeoff. The Boeing
737 wreckage was badly burned,
and authorities decided to rapidly
bury all bodies, including eight
foreigners.
“The bodies were buried in a
mass grave after performing the
Muslim prayer because the condi
tions of the bodies would not allow
transporting and delivering them to
the relatives,” the Red Sea State
governor, Hatem el-Wassila, told
the official Sudan News Agency.
The governor said the sole sur
vivor, 3-year-old Mohammed el-
Fateh Osman, had lost his right leg
and suffered bums. The boy was in
intensive care at the Port Sudan
hospital, and doctors said he was in
stable condition, el-Wassila said.
Eleven crew members and 105
Crash kills 116
A Sudanese airliner crashed
shortly after takeoff from an
airport on the northeastern Red
Sea coast Tuesday, killing 116
passengers and crew.
100 mi
Port Sudan
Red Sea
SUDAN
Plane crash
.Khartoum
ERITREA
SAUDI
ARABIA
EGYR-
•YEMI
ETHIOPIA,
SOURCE: ESRI
passengers died, including three
people from India and one each
from Britain, China, Ethiopia, and
the United Arab Emirates. There
was also a woman whose nationali
ty was unknown, state radio said.
A senior air force official and a
member of Parliament also died in
the crash, it said.
A team of experts flew to the
debris-covered scene to investigate
the crash, and recovered the black
box flight recorder. Initial reports
cited a technical problem.
Boeing has provided technical
information about the jet to investi
gators but has not yet been invited
See Crash on page 2