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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2003)
E ghSGA be a lawyer and wanisto rson to fight for the case ; a woman for preside! s, “ I have learnei good and positive atti- Aggielife: Meeting that special someone • Page 3 Opinion: Saving Private Lynch • Page 5 THE BATTALION Volume 109 • Issue 169 • 6 pages 109 Years Serving Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com ina Baker is a Id like to join theSGA, not know what to do but she wants to be a he announces, “ 1 want : my options.” Robinson, a freshman, i about the SGA, He a very good opportune e a difference. II be very fun to have id have the power." n to get greeks munity service project r included a project ,lpha Chi Omega and Pi Phi joined together d refurbish a local res Officials: Students still have options Tuesday, July 15, 2003 Journalism Student By Justin Smith THE BATTALION Incoming freshmen and current students enrolled in the journalism department at Texas A&M will receive a quality education despite a recommendation to close the pro gram, said Dr. Edward Walraven, senior lecturer and undergraduate adviser. “A&M has made a commitment to these students and they will honor that commitment,” he said. Even though incoming freshmen and transfer students from other schools will be the last students to enter the program, there will be a n r projects money for many s. Since the Greei nity tries to importance ofeduca- e Order Of Omega is nt to all the members, m academic ely for the top3M i and sorority >f Omega recognizes n and women ained a high leadership ernity activities ges them to contin oath to success. ' people are unsurt dning the Greek if it the 4,000 Creel are happy with (to and many of them regrets. of them say that the horn you meetandtie 'ou do have helped m better people. ie words of Greei dor Cherie Norma friends that you make you throughout life iclps make the expen- ly fun.” r Aggies pus Kragh from s Point Apartments ny different kinds of ts every day. There y things to do i Point such as go ub room, swimminf the two pools, rkout room, or 5, basketball, or vol- fhey have >eque grills, three bus mts, and a computet open 24 hours, ine Robinson hose to live on ( se it was part oi perience. Other slit- d that their i to live on it would be saf an will be living ng her college years : is very links that it will be Brooks will beliv- ipus for two semes- aen will be movitip ak I will like livinj s better because il auch easier to gel •e,” Scott says- i Sheffield is going nor at Texas A&M. las been living on r her past years ai will be moving off ear. . I will like living s better because I ban most people in and I will have iom,” says Kath) in Aggie land, it is to make sure tbai ng where you want you can make you! aerience as fun as hile still getting a Tion. window of opportunity for current students in other majors to transfer into journalism, Walraven said. He said that even if students take longer than expected to graduate, they will still be guaranteed a journal ism degree. According to the College of Liberal Arts Web site, the college will be available to aid any current jour nalism students who might choose to pursue a degree outside of journal ism, even if it is not within the College of Liberal Arts. The Web site says no new grad uate assistantships will be award ed, but that as long as a graduate student’s performance has been satisfactory, their assistantships will still be honored. No current journalism faculty or staff member will lose his job and if he chooses to leave the department he will still be employed by the University, although he will be in a different department, Walraven said. Walraven said he was surprised and disappointed by the decision. “Journalism is my first love after my family,” he said. “I was surprised because I expected (the College of Liberal Arts) to just merge us into another department.” Michael Ho-Lung, a senior journalism major, said if the jour nalism program has too many stu dents, there should be a more strict method of screening students who want to get in. “If they don’t have the money to hire faculty, then make journalism more selective and require students to get higher grades in their classes or on the (Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation Test),” he said. Walraven said regardless of the decision, there will not be a degrada tion in the quality of the classes. “As long as journalism is still being taught, we will do the best we can,” he said. For more information, log on to the College of Liberal Arts Web site at http://clla.tamu.edu/joumalism. Students not wishing to remain in journalism will be able to explore other majors Students have varied options if they wish to continue to pursue a journalism-style degree, such as English or history College of Liberal Arts will work with students who want to transfer to other majors, regardless of the number of credit hours RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE: COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS Claudette closer to reaching land Position: 27.5 N, 93.1 W Sustained winds: 65 mph Movement: NNW 7 mph As of 5 p.m. EOT Monday ■i Potential area of landfall Okla. concern over Claudette shifts o mid-Texas By Mark Rabineck THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEADRIFT, Texas — Texans along a 200- mile stretch of coastline braced for hurricane- force winds, torrential rain and pounding tides as Tropical Storm Claudette plodded toward land, heading north of where forecasters initially anticipated. The National Hurricane Center issued a hurri cane warning from the sparsely populated area around Baffin Bay, 30 miles south of Corpus Christi, to High Island, east of Galveston some 75 miles i of Houston. Forecasters believed Claudette could become a hurricane late Monday and expected to turn to the west before arriving under the cover of darkness Wednesday morning. Coastal residents in low lying areas along Texas’ coast under the hurricane warning were being asked to evacuate Monday evening, emer gency management officials said. “All the way from : Galveston/High and area south everybody is asking people in low-lying areas to leave,” said Rick Perry, Brazoria County’s emergency management coor dinator. “This is a minimal storm but you need to move inland to high ground.” Galveston County emergency management officials asked residents of the west end of the Bolivar Peninsula to consider leaving in anticipa tion of the storm, since anything above 4-foot tides would cut off evacuation routes. “We are a little bit more under the gun,” Galveston Mayor Roger “Bo” Quiroga said. Tropical storm warnings stretched east to Intracostal City, La., anticipating complications the so-called “dirty” side of the storm. The lower Rio Grande Valley, considered the most See Claudette on page 2 Splash into summer Texas Ark. La. Tenn. I Miss j Ala. Houston '%~ wu '$<!h '‘Pol Gulf of Mexico Brownsville Potential ! area of MEX. i movement 0(150 mi 0 fSOkm f~ 100” \ 95” /90' 25° SOURCE: AccuWeather AP SHARON AESCHBACH • THE Senior accounting major John Hawley shoots down a slide at the Bryan Aquatic Center Monday The aquatic center is open for general swimming from 1 to 7 p.m. daily. Bush says Liberia aid will be limited in size By Scott Lindlaw THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush said Monday that any deployment of American troops to Liberia would be limited in size and duration and would depend on Liberian President Charles Taylor stepping down and leaving the country. Bush gave no indication he was close to a decision, and aides they didn’t expect one this week. He offered no hint of whether any U.S. contingent would comprise military advisers, humanitarian experts or soldiers. Bush commented after meeting the White House with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who appealed for help in bringing Peace to Liberia. The president said he was awaiting reports from two teams he sent to assess the situation in Liberia, one reviewing the humanitarian needs there, the other the military situation. “I think everybody under stands, any commitment we have would be limited in size and lim ited in tenure,” Bush said. “It may require troops. We don’t know how many yet,” Bush said after meeting with Annan. “Therefore, it’s hard for me to make a determination until I see all the facts.” Bush said he had pressed advisers in a meeting of the National Security Council on when the assessment teams would report back. :The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it had sent aircraft to neighboring countries in case members of the Liberia assessment team need to Ewing: Domestic security tops research agenda By Megan Orton THE BATTALION Texas A&M will make homeland security a priority in research, said Dr. Richard Ewing, A&M’s vice president for research, at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting. The main idea of the Integrated Center for Homeland Security is to bring together the city’s emergency centers and coordinate them to work toward a better and safer society, Ewing said. The agencies A&M employs in homeland security, such as Texas Engineering Extension Service, give A&M a breadth that other uni versities don’t have, Ewing said. Ewing said a memorandum was part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which moved to establish one university-based center to tar get 14 areas of homeland security, including the training of first responders, animal and plant health and diagnostics, food safety and engineering. The memorandum was signed in 2002 to develop a cooperative plan among the University systems in Texas, including University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Texas Tech University, University of North Texas and A&M. Ewing said this goal will be achieved in the integrated center by combining research expertise across the campus. As far as immediate threats in this area, Ewing said the center is interfacing extreme ly well with civil defense and the state. The main concerns will be cyber security and cyber threats, which the center is working on securing. “We also have the nuclear center here at A&M which we have to be particularly careful about,” he said. Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Charles Johnson spoke about his recommendation to cut the journalism department during the meeting. Before concluding the meeting. Speaker of the Senate Martha Loudder presented a new Academic Integrity program that the Task Force on Academic Integrity hopes to imple ment by January 2004. In other business, the Senate approved graduate and undergraduate course changes, See Research on page 2 Chipotle set to open CHUCK KENNEDY • KRT CAMPUS U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan meets with President George W. Bush in the White House Oval Office Monday. Annan has been pushing for American intervention in Liberia. be evacuated. Three helicopters were sent to Sierra Leone and one MC-130 special operations trans port plane was sent to Senegal, according to Navy Lt. Dan Hetlage, a Pentagon spokesman. There are about 100 U.S. troops with the four aircraft, he said. The Pentagon had previously arranged for commercial aircraft to stand by in case an evacuation was required, but they became unavailable this week, so the mil itary planes were sent, Hetlage See Liberia on page 2 By Lindsay Broomes THE BATTALION College Station will soon be dishing out a new twist on burritos and tacos with a Chipotle Mexican Grill opening in September. Karen Henry, spokes woman for Chipotle, said she hopes that the fact College Station is a college town will help attract customers. “We have done well in Boulder (Colo.) and Austin among other college towns, and feel confident we will have the same success in College Station,” she said. Although some students eagerly await the kickoff of a new restaurant, some are not quite as overjoyed. “Freebirds (World Burrittos) is enough for this town,” said senior biochem istry major Nick Mimms. “Something different would be better.” Freebirds currently has three locations in the Bryan- College Station area and its management welcomes the competition. “We not only compete with Chipotle, but all other markets,” said Alan Hixon, Freebirds’ manager. Hixon said there are sim ilarities and differences between the two restaurants, and Freebirds plans to con tinue focusing on executing its line of business. Some Texas A&M stu dents welcome the arrival of the new restaurant and a new dining option. “Chipotle will add a little more variety to the town and give Freebirds a good run for their money,” said Michelle Byrne, a senior See Chipotle on page 2