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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 2003)
WORLD THE BATTALION Jof4 irLake the home screaming inside had been shot, arles Rowell, who nei aid was out of town, i imediately return a ptai ge left at the Clear li; Aggielife: Getting high on life • Page 3 Opinion: The cost of illegal immigration • Page 5 nr<T TT' 1 Tfc A A T T/^\1AT THE BATTALION Volume 109 • Issue 173 • 6 pages 109 Years Serving Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Jniversity cuts 35 staff positions where neighbors said found his daughter and la still sitting on tit both with bullet or said Koloroutis »as face down in a p in front of the TV, ill on. Sanchez was round I the couch, also stioi ors said, nero said her nephew*; and didn't express am ns to her. struggled but he suo she said. “No trd he was trying he war he best to do good." :ella pleaded guilty ii 2001 to burglary of and was placed on pn for 18 months, t records, ador described Tiffam . who he has known sint; s 10, as a polite girl wk ause any problems, jroutis’ home ptioa; was unlisted and lie; could not be reachedfc nt Sunday. Sanchez afe an listed number. Houston Chronide .1 in Sunday’s edition well and Koloroutis to; orking at Club Exotica, t entertainment club, as •es. When the pair failed v up for work Frida; co-workers told llii aer they tried contactin; .. but got no answer. groups d and Hamas declared) fat’s Fatah movemer e stalled progress on Ik tich calls forendingw- linian state by 2005. srael, the decree issued ider Yasser Arafat bam ;es the use of violence A'ith foreign countries' be judged according i» is directed at militant ;gal organizations dial ause the public to bring e” and “incitement tliat ' t he agreements signed untries.” 'ency Wafa, which car- said it was issued by ban. The move folk Saturday pledging : Gaza Strip, fter the Sharon-Abl le decree, but repea Thirty-five faculty members were laid off londay due to budget constraints, said Texas AM President Robert M. Gates. In a statement July 8, Gates outlined plans to direct campus activities and increase program efficiencies. Gates announced the elimination of SO positions, 211 of which were currently ifilled due to the hiring freeze put into effect in miary, leaving about 40 jobs needing to be cut. “I urge everyone fortunate enough not to be rectly affected by the layoffs to extend every mrtesy and every feasible form of assistance to ose who through no fault of their own are losing icir jobs as a result of our budget constraints and organization,” Gates said in the statement. PLAYOFF! Due to budget restrictions' By Megan Orton THE BATTALION The Dwight Look College of Engineering was one college that was dealt a heavy blow, losing six employees. “Anytime you lose anyone like this it is a very bad feeling,” said Dr. George Bennett, dean of the engineering college. “But we understand that the University needs to reinvest where it needs to grow. I really don’t see that there was any way around it.” Bennett said he thinks everyone is doing the best they can given the situation. The layoffs affect six colleges and the Office of the President, the Executive Vice President and Provost’s office and the Division of Administration and the Division of Finance, Gates said. Gates said he did not anticipate any addi tional campus-wide layoffs during the coming fiscal year. His hope is that many of the individuals sched uled to be laid off will find suitable employment elsewhere on campus. “With that distinct possibility in mind, and as previously announced, I am lifting the current hir ing freeze effective August 1,” Gates said. Affected individuals will remain on payroll for 60 days, during which time they will be assisted in their search for future employment. Gates said. A&M’s Human Resource Department has established a temporary Career Transition Center to assist those affected, and an individual benefits counseling session will be provided for each laid- off employee. See Cuts on page 2 '35 staff members laid off Layoffs affected Office of President Office of the Executive VP and Provost Division of Administration College of Agriculture and Life Sciences College of Architecture College of Education and Human Development College of Liberal Arts Dwight Look College of Engineering RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Light it up i against militants, telis over the past three Id his counterpart that must act immediatel) > dismantle the terror mt said, setting sue! tlier Israeli moves. Minister Nabil Ami ealed to the U.S. gov ig Israeli implementa- t from our friends the A&M weighs affirmative action policies .Wd-Mul (979) 764-1844 mm wm m mm* IE, OIL : ILTER SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION Sophomore environmental design major Jason Gilbert draws a topography plan for his environmental design class. The drawing is the second stage of an ongoing project that will be presented with the initial model. Dotson charged in roommate’s murder By Gretechen Parker THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHESTERTOWN, Md. — The former roommate of miss ing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy was charged Monday with murder, authorities said. The warrant naming Carlton Dotson was issued by police in Waco, Texas, where Dennehy has been missing since mid- June, Chestertown Police Chief Walter Coryell said. No body has been found. As he left the court commis sioner’s office Monday night, Dotson told a reporter: “I didn’t confess to anything. Call the FBI.” Shortly after his arrest, Dotson had referred all ques tions to his lawyer. Dotson’s attorney, Grady Irvin Jr., said in a telephone interview that he had last spoken with his client over the weekend. He would not say what they dis cussed. “It is most unfortunate that police have come to the conclu sion that there is a death,” Irvin said. “I am uncertain as to how they came to that conclusion, that Patrick Dennehy is now dead.” Two officers escorted Dotson, in handcuffs, into the police station about 9:20 p.m. He emerged about 15 minutes later with Coryell, another offi cer and an FBI agent. Dotson was fingerprinted LJ and processed at the police department, Coryell said. He was then taken to the Kent County court commissioner’s office for an ini tial hearing. Coryell said Dotson was in Chestertown, about 55 miles dotson from his home town of Hurlock, on Sunday when he called police from a grocery store. “He said he needed help,” Coryell said. “We took him to the hospital for an evaluation. During his stay there he contact ed the FBI.” The police chief said Dotson stayed overnight at a Chestertown hospital, then left early Monday afternoon with FBI agents. He was interviewed by the FBI and “as a result of that inter view, this warrant has been issued,” the chief said. Irvin said he did not know what Dotson told authorities. “I don’t know if the arrest warrant is based on statements he (Dotson) made or informa tion gathered through law enforcement agencies and their investigations,” Irvin said. “I’m sure that when I read the war rant, I am 100 percent certain that there will be information not previously available to my See Dotson on page 2 By Natalie Younts THE BATTALION Following the University of Michigan affirma- live action rulings in June, the next move for Texas A&M is to hire the new vice president and associate Provost for institutional diversity, said University President Robert M. Gates. “We’re in conversations with several of the can didates at this point and I would hope that we could "'rap that up in the next few weeks,” Gates said. He said A&M officials are looking to the College Board and Attorney General Greg Abbott for advice about affirmative action policies and Procedures. The University of Texas has already begun "nplementing new admission requirements designed after the ruling, which will be enforced for die 2004-2005 school year Frank Ashley, A&M director of admissions, said lawyers emphasized the importance of evalu- each application to see how a person may Contribute to institutional diversity at a national College Board meeting in Chicago this month. The lawyers also said each school needs to deter mine what its critical mass of minorities is for other minorities to feel comfortable, Ashley said. “They gave the situation where a student may be die only minority living in a dorm or the only minor ity in class and they are scared to speak up, because diey feel like if they say anything they’re speaking for their whole race,” Ashley said. Although the Supreme Court did not address financial aid in the June rulings, it can be inferred AFFIRMATIVE ACTION I Texas A&M officials are consulting with others before making a| stance on affirmative action Deputy Chancellor Dr. Jerry Gaston met with other Texas chancellors in Austin Director of Admissions Dr. Frank Ashley met with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Officials have also consulted with Attorney General Greg Abbott and various college boards RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT that race can be considered in determining if a per son gets financial aid, he said. Ashley said people in Michigan are already try ing to bring state mandates against affirmative action, and that it will probably happen in other states. Ray Brown, the Texas Christian University director of admissions who attended the College Board meeting, said the meeting was successful. “Everybody in the room was very pleased with the outcome, but we were made painfully aware that this is just signaling a new effort that’s going to have to come about,” he said. Jerry Gaston, A&M deputy chancellor, met with other Texas chancellors to discuss the effect of the rulings. Gates said. “We definitely need a few more ears to go and try to gather information,” Ashley said. Ashley will be attending another College Board meeting in Houston next month to further discuss the ruling, and will take other A&M rep resentatives with him. Spring tuition increases $9 per hour By Karen Yancey THE BATTALION University tuition will increase $9 per credit hour starting January 2004, said Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates at one of three public hearings on tuition increases Monday. Gates said with the investment in faculty, tuition will again increase in the fall of 2004, and it will be larger than the current one. “I don’t see a change in the track coming, the burden of education is shifting more and more from the state to the student,” he said. Gates said the University plans to hire 400 new tenured and tenure-track faculty over the next four years, because the University has the lowest percentage of classes with less than 20 students and the highest percentage of classes with more than 50 students in Texas. Gates said the University wants to change the student-teacher ratio from 22-to-1 to a ratio of 16- to-1. With the $1.4 million reduction in general rev enue from the state, A&M will start the fiscal year 2004 with a debt of $38.7 million. Gates said. Despite that. Gates said he did not want to make across-the-board cuts. “That is a formula for mediocrity,” he said. Gates said University administration received the largest cuts with himself receiving the largest cut in salary. He also said the computer usage fee will not increase because of student input requesting it stay the same. He also said that the tuition increase is significantly smaller than that of other See Tuition on page 2 Century Scholars help raise retention By Justin Smith THE BATTALION Texas A&M was honored last week with a Retention Excellence Award at the National Conference on Student Retention. The award was given July 14 in San Diego by Noel- Levitz, a division of Sallie Mae, a consulting firm special izing in higher education stu dent recruitment, financial aid, student retention and market research. Shasta Porchia, interim assistant director of the Department of Honors Programs and Academic Scholarships , said A&M was selected because of its Century Scholars Program. “The Century Scholars Program aims at 41 under-rep resented high schools in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston where we encourage students to come to A&M,” she said. “We try to keep them here so they eventu ally can go back to their high schools and recruit more stu dents from those schools.” The Century Scholars Program, started in 1999, has a current retention rate of 95 per cent and A&M has a retention rate of 88 percent, Porchia said. There are currently 100 stu dents in the Century Scholars Program and 43 will join in the fall, Porchia said. To encourage students in the program to stay in school, they are given scholarships as well as the chance to participate in unique programs and events. “Last year we took many of our freshmen on a trip to London. See Retention on page 2