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Sports: Each year tougher for Armstrong • Page 3
Opinion: Administration's view of journalism • Page 5
THE BATTALIO
Volume 109 • Issue 176 • 6 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Monday, July 28, 2003
Armstrong grabs 5th straight Tour
By John Leicester
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS — Never did his reign look so
uncertain. Never did he savor a victory
quite like this one.
Only with his Tour de France title
finally assured during the last leg on the
cobblestoned Champs-Elys6es, did
Lance Armstrong celebrate by lifting a
flute of champagne to a resounding
“Cheers!”
Overcoming crashes, illness, hard-
charging rivals and plain old bad luck,
the Texan won his hardest but sweetest
Tour on Sunday — a record-tying fifth
straight that places him among the great
est cyclists ever.
Unlike previous years, when he won
by comfortable margins, the grueling 23-
day, 2,125-mile
clockwise trek See P a S e 3 for more
around France Tour de France covera g e -
pushed
Armstrong to the limit.
“Before the Tour started I was very
confident about winning. But before next
year’s Tour, I won’t be so confident,” he
said.
Armstrong joined Spaniard Miguel
Indurain as the only riders to win
cycling’s most brutal and prestigious race
five times consecutively — a record
Armstrong plans to break in 2004.
“It’s a dream, really a dream,”
Armstrong said in French after climbing
the podium while “The Star-Spangled
Banner” rang out.
“I love cycling, I love my job and I
will be back for a sixth. It’s incredible to
win again.”
So action-packed was this Tour that
Armstrong was prepared for the unex
pected — even Sunday, on the largely
processional final stage.
“If a plane landed in the race I would
n’t be surprised,” he said before setting
off from the Paris suburb of Ville d’Avray
on the 92.4-mile ride through streets
packed with cheering spectators, many
waving American flags.
Armstrong shared the podium with
five-time runner-up Jan Ullrich and third-
place finisher Alexandre Vinokourov,
holding their hands above his head in a
fitting tribute to the two men who battled
him to the end.
Armstrong’s fierce duel with Ullrich
made this centennial Tour the most grip
ping in years, drawing millions of fans
who thronged winding mountain climbs
and adorned villages along the route with
banners for the riders. “Lance is God,”
said one sign in the Pyrenees.
Armstrong’s 61-second victory hardly
resembled the previous four Tours, when
See Tour on page 2
Armstrong
wins Tour
Lance Armstrong
won a record-tying
fifth Tour de France .
title Sunday. The Arms,ron3
31-year-old cancer survivor and
Miguel Indurain of Spain are the
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YEAR
RANK
STAGE VICTORIES
2003
1
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2001
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2000
1
1
1999
1
4
SOURCES: Associated Press;
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Urban forester maintains A&M landscape
Koby Weatherford trims a branch in safety and style as Texas A&M's urban forester. Weatherford serves as both
doctor and barber for the campus' more than 11,000 trees. Below: Weatherford assesses campus vegetation as he
considers how to aesthetically improve and repair the area.
Management of an 11,261 tree
database is just part of Koby
Weatherford's job as Texas A&M’s
urban forester.
The daily agenda includes tree
evaluations, diagnoses, fertilizing,
pruning and cutting down trees,
Weatherford said.
“Most people drive through cam
pus and see the trunks of the trees, and
the bottom, but I’m just looking up,”
he said. “Sometimes it can be danger-
olis, but I’m just gawking at the trees.”
Weatherford’s interest in trees was
sparked by an apprenticeship with a res
ident tree expert.
After graduating from Abilene
Christian University in 1998,
Weatherford moved to College
Station and took a position as a tree
maintenance specialist under Todd
Watson, Weatherford’s predecessor
as urban forester.
“Working for him and being
involved in the work on a daily basis
was like going to school for four
years,” Weatherford said. “He knows
just about everything there is to know
about urban forestry and how to take
care of the trees on campus.”
Weatherford was an interim for
Watson, and nine months later he
found himself as the new urban
forester.
“I spend a lot of time actually find
ing the work that needs to be done,”
Weatherford said.
It would take his staff, which con
sists of three maintenance specialists
and himself, several years to visit
every tree inventoried, he said.
“The business of landscape is
sometimes seen as menial, and those
of us who do it know that’s not true,
so it’s kind of a common bond we
share,” Weatherford said. “If it was
n’t for the guys that work for me and
the guys I work for, none of it would
be happening.”
Weatherford and his team operate
using a database that categorizes com
plaints and problems involving trees
on campus and what kind of trouble
they cause, such as a branch scratching
on a windowpane or dead wood that
has fallen in the way of traffic.
“My number one main concern for
this campus concerning trees involves
their safety,” Weatherford said. “We
don’t want a limb falling on a student,
falling on a car, or damaging people’s
property.”
A tree’s health and its aesthetics are
two other concerns that make visiting
a tree necessary, Weatherford said.
“Some people think that just
because a tree is green, that it is
healthy, which is not always the case,”
he said. “Although lots of times you
may not know what’s wrong with a
tree, there are steps you can take to
deduce the problem.”
The landscape team tries to save
every tree it can, Weatherford said, but
it cannot save all of them.
“A tree is just like any living organ
ism in that it does have a lifespan. I
wish every one could be saved and be
there forever, but the fact of the matter
is that they won’t,” he said.
Weatherford said when he and his
team go out to cut down a tree, they
are not just hacking away at it.
“Urban forestry and tree care have
come a long way in recent years,” he
said. “Its more of a science than peo
ple realize.”
How you cut it, where you cut it
and why you cut it that way are all
very important, he said.
“The thing about managing such a
large number of trees is that there’s so
many of them and each one is an indi
vidual,” Weatherford said
The trees on A&M’s campus are
mostly live oak, Weatherford said, but
there are 91 types of trees inventoried
on campus.
A&M’s most famous tree is the
large oak tree located in the Academic
Plaza, commonly called the “Century
Tree,” known for its Aggie wedding
ceremonies and proposals.
The Century Tree is more than
100 years old, which Weatherford
said is ironic, because it adopted its
name long ago, probably due to its
immense size.
See Trees on page 2
Regents up
spring tuition
$9 per hour
By Jodi Rogers
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M University System
Board of Regents approved a $9 per
class-hour tuition increase Friday dur
ing its meeting at Texas A&M-
Commerce after hearing student input.
The increase will set the University
authorized tuition rate at $55 per
semester credit hour. That amount is in
addition to the $46 state-mandated
tuition. The state-mandated and
University authorized rates each
increased $2 per semester credit hour
for the fall semester.
Student Body President Matt Josefy
said he and three members from his
executive committee were the only stu
dent representatives in attendance at the
meeting from any of the A&M System
schools.
Josefy said he told the board that
students at A&M are concerned with
how the extra funds will be spent.
“If tuition is raised, it is being sold
to us based on the added value that it
will bring to our education” he said. “I
implore you and (A&M President
Robert M.) Gates that if it is additional
faculty interaction that we are paying
for that these benefits are actually real
ized. If faculty are not used to reduce
class size and increase student-faculty
interactions, then reducing the
See Regents on page 2
TUITION INCREASE FOR
SPRING AND FALL
(Board of regents approved
the $9 per credit hour increase
for spring
► The increase sets the
authorized tuition rate at $55
per semester
• The state mandated and
university authorized rate each
increase $2 per semester credit
hour for the Fall 2003 semester
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
crvl TDr' , 17. AZtKA DDPCinPMT'^ OFCirF
US. urges end to Liberia’s
rebel attacks, blasts kill 16
Body found near Waco
may be missing player
ALISON WOODWORTH • KRT CAMPUS
Emergency personnel search a dense field where a body, believed to be
that of missing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, was
found near the campus in Waco on Saturday.
By Angela K. Brown
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO — Investigators con
tinued combing through chest-
high weeds Sunday, collecting
evidence in a field where they
found a body that may be that of
missing Baylor University bas
ketball Patrick Dennehy.
For the second straight day,
authorities used farm equipment
to cut down
See page 3 for more tal | weec is
Dennehy coverage. and grass?
some as
high as 7 feet tall, in a rural area
about five miles south of Waco.
A decomposed body was
found Friday night and was
taken on Saturday to the Dallas
County Medical Examiner’s
Office for autopsy.
Officials said identification
could take several days. An
investigator at the medical
examiner’s office said Sunday
night there was no information
to release on the case and said
all material would be released to
McLennan County authorities.
A sheriff’s dispatcher said no
one was available to comment
on whether any information had
been received.
The site where the body was
found is north of gravel pits
where authorities searched last
week after the arrest of Carlton
Dotson, who played basketball
at Baylor last season and had
been living with Dennehy since
spring.
Dotson, 21, was arrested last
week in his home state of
Maryland on a murder charge
from Texas in Dennehy’s death.
He remains jailed without bond
awaiting extradition to Texas.
Dotson was arrested July 21
after calling 911, saying he
needed help because he was
hearing voices, authorities said.
Waco police said Dotson told
FBI agents in Maryland that he
shot Dennehy after the player
tried to shoot him. But after his
arrest, Dotson told The
Associated Press that “he didn’t
confess to anything.”
On Sunday, an investigator in
a cowboy hat was placing small
yellow flags around the site
indicating pieces of evidence. At
times, as he moved around, the
grasses obscured all but the top
of his hat. Throughout the day
authorities in crime scene vans
and other vehicles traveled the
dirt road back and forth to the
site.
McLennan County Sheriff
See Player on page 2
By Alexandra Zavis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONROVIA, Liberia —
Explosions rocked Liberia’s
capital Sunday as rebels and
government forces battled at key
crossings leading to President
Charles Taylor’s downtown
stronghold and at least 16 peo
ple died when mortar shells hit
their homes.
The U.S. ambassador to
Liberia appealed to insurgents to
lift their bloody eight-day siege
of Monrovia and withdraw —
even as government command
ers and residents reported that
the rebels were stepping up their
drive into the city.
Rebels are pressing forward
in their third attempt in two
months to take Monrovia, an
isolated and disease-ridden city
of at least 1.3 million hungry
residents and refugees. Their
goal: driving out Taylor, a for
mer warlord behind nearly 14
years of ruinous conflict in the
once prosperous West African
nation.
The main rebel movement
“needs to show that they have
regard for the people of Liberia,
that it is not indifferent to the
great human suffering that is
taking place here,” Ambassador
John Blaney told reporters at the
heavily guarded, high-walled
U.S. Embassy.
The U.S. ambassador urged
the Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy
(LURD) movement to pull back
to the natural boundary of Po
River, six miles outside the cap
ital. The withdrawal would open
See Liberia on page 2