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Sports: 'Stros finish first half atop NL Central • Page 3
Opinion: End of an era • Page 5
Volume 109 • Issue 168 • 8 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Monday, July 14, 2003
“The bottom line is how we can serve students’.’
— Charles Johnson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts
Journalism gets the ax
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Johnson
recommends
eliminating
journalism
By Rob Munson
THE BATTALION
Dean of Liberal Arts
Charles Johnson sent a rec
ommendation to Texas
A&M administrators
Thursday asking that the
Department of Journalism
and all associated degree
programs be
cut during
the next few
years.
“After
more than a
year and a
half of work
ing in issues
related to Johnson
journalism, and after the
past legislative session, it
has become apparent that
the most effective way to
address our students’ needs
in journalism is to make a
change in the current situa
tion,” Johnson said in a
statement.
The journalism depart
ment was formed in 1948
and has been an accredited
program since 1956. About
500 students are enrolled in
the program and the depart
ment houses eight full-time
faculty.
No students currently
enrolled in the journalism
department will be forced
out of the major, and no
tenured, tenure track faculty
or permanent staff will be
laid off, Johnson said.
If the recommendation is
approved by A&M officials,
current faculty and staff will
be shifted to other depart-
TP'i
L‘>
Students and professors question
reasoning behind department’s loss
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Fallen debris from a second story ledge is blocked off Sunday evening outside the Reed McDonald
building, in which the journalism department is housed.
ments.
“Cutting a program is
never easy, that is not the
bottom line,” Johnson said.
“The bottom line is how we
can serve students.”
Johnson said 55 students
entering A&M’s journalism
program this fall will be the
last class to major in jour
nalism pending approval by
Executive Vice President
and Provost Dr. David
Prior, A&M President
Robert M. Gates and the
A&M University System
Board of Regents.
Gates said he defers to
deans on matters concern
ing operations within
each college.
“I felt it was important to
find an alternative by which
we can have Aggies going
See Johnson on page 2
As news of Liberal Arts
Dean Charles Johnson’s
recommendation of the
journalism department
reached current journalism
students and faculty, ques
tions still remain as to how
the program reached the
chopping block.
Students currently in the
program said they under
stand where the administra
tors are coming from, but
they still cannot believe the
journalism department will
not exist in a few years.
“I think the fields of
journalism and communica
tions are so vital in today’s
world that something else
could have been done,” said
senior journalism major
Abby Woller. “I know
Vision 2020 is such a big
thing, but I don’t see how
cutting a department can be
a step in the right direction.”
Some students said when
they first enrolled in the
department there was no
indication there was a problem and
they -continued to pursue- a degree
from Texas A&M.
“I never thought they were going to
do away with it,” said Courtney Potter,
a sophomore journalism major.
“When I visited A&M during my sen
ior year (of high school), I visited the
journalism department and they said
the College of Liberal Arts is the
fastest growing college at A&M and a
lot of students want to do journalism.”
Potter said if she could have fore
seen the department’s closing she
would not have majored in journalism.
Dr. Douglas Starr, professor of
journalism, said despite the troubles
the department has been facing, he did
not expect Johnson’s decision.
Starr said courses will still be
(Formed in 1948, with aprox. 500
students and eight full-time faculty
(Dean Charles Johnson sent
recommendation to administrators
Thursday asking the journalism program
to be cut over the next few years
(No students will be kicked out, nor will
any faculty be laid off
(Dr. Julia Kirk Biackwelder will assume the
title of department head
■ 55 students were admitted into the
program for the fall
i
ffuftcling
The
Services Depa
» Student Media
f Department of
Journalism
RUBEN DELUNA & JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF LIBERAL ARTS
taught in journalism and from what
Johnson said, the department will pro
vide a background to supplement
another major.
“It is entirely possible, feasible and
not unusual,” Starr said. “I don’t need
an administrative office to teach.”
Students preparing to graduate
have expressed concerns about finding
a job, now knowing the future of the
department.
“A journalism degree from this
University is still accredited,” Starr
said.
Johnson said a journalism degree
from A&M leads to successful
careers and the action is not meant to
detract
See Reaction on page 2
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Fall football shuttle service
expanded to Post Oak Mall
By Jodi Rogers
THE BATTALION
Transportation
Services will offer a free
express shuttle route from
Post Oak Mall to Aggie
football games at Kyle
Field this fall.
Eleven “Get to the Grid”
express shuttles will run
continuously from the park
ing lot near the Sears
entrance and Throckmorton
Street 2 1/2 hours before
game time and two hours
after, said June Broughton,
communications director
forTS.
“We want to take a
proactive approach to the
game-day parking and traf
fic challenges by offering
fans an alternative to
searching for a parking
space near Kyle Field and
fighting the traffic,” she
said. “This will also help in
alleviating some of the
traffic congestion for those
fans who have reserved
spaces on campus.”
Broughton said Texas
A&M shuttle buses do run
to the mall but make sever
al stops and are not specif
ically express game-day
shuttles. TS will adjust
how many buses run the
express route based on how
many people ride them.
Broughton also said the
express service isn’t a part
of students’ transportation
fee.
“It’s good for people
who don’t already live on a
bus route,” said Molly
Mlod, a senior economics
major. “It would be good
for people who are from
the visiting team and don’t
know where to park.”
Broughton said TS, Post
Oak Mall management and
the Athletics Department
will work together to pro
vide the new service.
“Shuttle riders will have
the opportunity to register
for mall gift certificates
See Shuttles on page 2
GET TO THE GRID'
EXPRESS SHUTTLES
Direct route from Post
Oak Mall to Kyle Field
Leave from Sears
parking lot and drop off
at Throckmorton Street
Shuttles run two and a
half hours before the
game, and two hours
after
u
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
Legislators support A&M’s employee retirement stance
By Karen Yancey
THE BATTALION
Sen. Steve Ogden and Rep. Fred Brown
expressed support for Texas A&M’s position
on the question of new requirements for A&M
and University of Texas employees seeking
retirement, said Mike O’Quinn, A&M’s vice
president of governmental affairs.
The office is hopeful that Attorney General
Greg Abbott will quickly rule in its favor to
help employees make informed decisions
regarding their retirement, O’Quinn said in an
e-mail.
“I do know that Rep. Fred Brown has sent
a letter to (Abbott) expressing his support for
the A&M position,” he said. “Sen. Ogden
has also expressed support in favor of our
interpretation of the statutes. At the end of
(last) session, we felt that Senate Bill 1652
grandfathered our employees. However, the
UT System lawyers feel differently, and
since the statute being affected only deals
with A&M and UT Systems, clarity is need
ed to administer the retirement programs
according to the law.”
In June, A&M sent a letter to Abbott ask
ing him to decide whether a clause that
appears to grandfather A&M employees from
the new requirements overrides another law
that does not contain a grandfather clause but
makes the same changes. The two laws were
passed during the spring session of the Texas
Legislature. The bills change eligibility
requirements for retirement benefits for work
ers in the A&M and UT Systems to make them
more consistent with other state agencies.
Both bills change the minimum retirement age
from 55 to 65 years and the number of years of
service to the state from five to 10 years.
Mike Gross, vice president of Texas State
Employees Union, a lobbyist group for state
workers, said three systems of healthcare exist
in Texas. There is one for A&M, one for UT
and one for the rest of the state.
In the past, all Texas universities had sepa
rate health care systems, but they were merged
into the Employee Retirement System.
SB 1652 was authored by Sen. Florence
Shapiro and is the bill with the grandfather
clause.
The other bill, SB 1370, was authored by
See Legislators on page 2
Hurricane watch
posted as
heads for
By Lynn Brezosky
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH PADRE
ISLAND, Texas — A hurri
cane watch was posted
Sunday along the South
Texas coast as Tropical
Storm Claudette crawled
across the Gulf of Mexico,
and campers packed up and
left low-lying South Padre
Island.
The storm was expected
to make landfall at near hur
ricane strength as early as
Tuesday, said Miles
Lawrence, a forecaster at the
National Hurricane Center
in Miami.
A hurricane watch was in
effect along the Texas Gulf
Coast from Port O’Connor,
about 70 miles northeast of
Corpus Christi, to
Brownsville and south along
the Mexican coast to Rio
San Fernando.
By 7 p.m. CDT, the cen
ter of Claudette was about
330 miles east of
Brownsville, with maximum
sustained wind blowing at
60 mph, 14 mph shy of hur
ricane strength. Slow
strengthening is expected
over the next 24 hours.
It has been almost sta
tionary, but is expected to
resume moving toward the
west-northwest on Monday,
Claudette
S. Texas
Claudette stronger
in Gulf of Mexico
Position: 25.3 N, 92.4 W
Sustained winds: 60 mph
Movement: Stationary
As of 5 p.m. EOT Sunday
SOURCE: AccuWeather AP
the hurricane center said.
The National Weather
Service said swells were
approaching the Texas coast
and could create dangerous
surf conditions.
“The circulation is
strengthening,” meteorolo
gist Jesse Haro said at the
National Weather Service in
Brownsville. “That doesn’t
mean it’s going to move any
faster toward us, it simply
means that it’s becoming a
stronger storm.”
Owners of about 900
See Claudette on page 2