THE BATTALION
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WS IN BRIEF
investigators
examining field
exas (AP) - After com-
dence collection in the
ere the decomposed
f Baylor University has-
ayer Patrick Dennehy
nd a few days ago,
; on Tuesday awaited
of an autopsy report,
i/aiting on the prelimi-
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it may come back as
•ecause of the condi-
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a justice of the peace
an County, where the
found Friday night,
ains of Dennehy, a fi
lter who had been
iout six weeks, wete
a few miles away from
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Carlton Dotson,
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after police said he
to shooting Dennehy
I lose jobs at
Loom plant
EN, Texas (AP) - Fruit
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conditions in order to
npetitive," corporate
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competitive in the
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ported apparel prod-
hina and the Far East
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le manufacturers."
le past two years,
>unty also lost its Levi
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ling factory grounds,
by high electronic
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Accielife: Curvy and beautiful • Page 3 Opinion: Attorney-client privilege attacked • Page 5
RATTAT TO
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109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
Volume 109 • Issue 179 • 6 pages www.thebatt.com Thursday, July 31, 2003
Police standoff ends peacefully after 11 hours
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Bryan Police, equipped with bulletproof vests and bullhorns, wait out
side the home of Jennifer Hawkins Wednesday afternoon.
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
A standoff between a 23-
year-old Bryan woman and
police ended peacefully
Wednesday night after 11 hours
of negotiations.
Jennifer Hawkins barricaded
herself inside her apartment
around 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Police said Hawkins possessed at
least two rifles, two handguns and
a knife inside the apartment. The
amount of ammunition she pos
sessed was not known by police,
but they did believe she had
access to various munitions.
Lt. Wayland Rawls of the
Bryan Police Department was the
incident commander and said all
police personnel worked together
toward the ending.
“In the end, everything came
together and all the units worked
as they were supposed to,” Rawls
said. “Negotiators were able to
make contact with the female and
negotiate a safe exit from her
apartment where she was taken
into custody.”
Despite being taken into cus
tody, no charges had been filed
against Hawkins, Rawls said. She
was taken to St. Joseph Regional
Health Center for evaluations.
“She’s been taken into custody
for her well-being so she can have
some mental evaluations to deter
mine whether or not she is a dan
ger to herself or others.”
City of Bryan spokesman Jay
Socol said the standoff began
when Hawkins’ boyfriend called
Bryan police just before 10 a.m.
According to Socol, the two had
been in a turbulent relationship
and were having problems.
“It was a deteriorating rela
tionship and it apparently led up
to today’s events,” Socol said.
Socol said that whatever hap
pened, Hawkins’ boyfriend felt
threatened and immediately left
the couple’s residence and
phoned the police.
“He didn’t have a shirt on, I
don’t think he had his keys, he
left and immediately contacted
Bryan police,” Socol said. “He
had to borrow a shirt from one of
our officers.”
A friend at the scene said the
couple had been dating for nearly
two years and had lived together
for about a year.
Police cut off Hawkins’ elec
tricity, gas and cell phone and
redirected her home phone to a
closed line where police could
control the channel of communi
cations to bring the incident to
an end.
Police also tried to establish a
channel of communication by
using a bullhorn to ask her to pick
up the phone.
“If what you have to say is
important, pick up the phone and
talk,” officers said to Hawkins. “I
want to reason with you. I want to
hear what you have to say.”
Socol said convincing the
woman to pick up the phone and
speak with them was the biggest
challenge.
Hawkins’ mother and sister
drove from their home in
Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah,
earlier this afternoon and
See Standoff on page 6
Alcohol safety
a top priority,
officials say
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M faculty and staff should help pre
vent alcohol abuse among students by talking with
them and setting a good example, said A&M exec
utive associate provost Bill Perry on Wednesday.
“As faculty, we forget the impact that we have
on students,” he said. “For good or ill, we are
role models.!’
Dave Parrott, dean of Student Life, encouraged
faculty to eliminate joking references to drugs and
alcohol, familiarize themselves with signs of drug
and alcohol abuse and talk about alcohol during
Alcohol Awareness Week, Oct. 20-24.
Beki Lovelady, a resident adviser at
Schumacher Hall, told the faculty and staff to
relate to students when talking about the dangers
of alcohol, at the Improving Undergraduate
Education by Addressing Alcohol Abuse on
College Campuses forum held in Rudder Tower.
“Try and make it fun and show you’re not try
ing to beat them over the head with it,” she said.
In additon to a panel, faculty and staff received
written recommendations at the forum that includ
ed holding class and scheduling tests on Friday to
reduce Thursday night drinking.
Faculty members were also encouraged to
mention alcohol safety at the end of Thursday and
Friday lectures beginning in the fall.
Dennis Gorman, associate professor of the
School of Rural Public Health, said that alcohol
abuse programs work only when the entire com
munity is targeted.
He said the community approach works because
it attempts to change the social, political and physi
cal environment, not the people themselves.
The community approach includes stricter
alcohol-related laws and increased local media
coverage of alcohol issues.
“Most people don’t know that they are being
intervened upon,” Gorman said.
A survey taken by the Class of 2005, showed
that 91.9 percent of Aggies believe the average
student consumes alcohol once a week or more,
but only 56 percent actually consumed alcohol.
University Police Department Sgt. Allan Baron
said he would like to encourage students to make
good choices by sticking together and looking out
for one another when drinking.
Baron said most public intoxication offenses
See Alcohol on page 6
A pet’s best friend
Despite roadblocks, Beaver became veterinarian, AVMA president
By Jodi Rogers
THE BATTALION
T hough a long way from her family farm in
Minnesota, pioneering woman veterinarian
Bonnie Beaver shares her love of animals
with people around the world as one of the pio
neering women veterinarians.
“I grew up on a small farm,” she said. “I did the
same kind of thing that every kid does. 1 took
swimming lessons and had horses so I got to ride.”
Beaver, a professor of veterinary medicine in
the Texas A&M Small Animal Clinic and world-
renowned animal behaviorist, said she grew up in
a rural community and came into contact with
various animals, so studying veterinary medicine
was a natural choice
“Animals were everything that I had an interest
in,” she said. “So I could not tell you when I con
sciously decided I would be a veterinarian. To me
it probably always was.”
Veterinary medicine was a difficult profession
for women to get into, Beaver said.
“There were at least one to two women per
class max,” she said. “It had nothing to do with
grades. I was told by my high school counselor
that women could not be veterinarians.”
Beaver said that classmates told her they
would not be friends with her once she reached
vet school.
“I knew that was a bunch of hocus pocus
because you don’t turn off and turn on friendships
like that,” she said.
She said at the time women had to fight to take
the place of male veterinarians and challenge the
idea that women should be married with children
as well as have a job.
Federal legislation declaring sex-based dis
crimination changed that, Beaver said, and more
women were accepted to veterinary schools across
the nation.
By the 1980s, women had more role models,
Beaver said.
“It’s appropriate that we have equal opportu
nities for men and women,” she said. “But if
veterinary medicine becomes an all-female pro
fession, that is no better than having it as an all
male profession.”
According to the American Veterinary Medical
Association Web site, Beaver is the first woman
to be elected president while on the association.
See Beaver on page 2
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Bonnie Beaver stands next to Loretta, a fourth-year veterinary student’s dog, in an operating room at
the Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Clinic. Beaver was recently named one of the first
woman president-elects of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Campus construction projects slated for fall finish
By Lindsay Broomes
THE BATTALION
Most of the construction around cam
pus will be completed at the end of
August before school starts in
September, officials said.
Construction on Coke and
Throckmorton Street that began in June
is scheduled to be completed soon,
according to the Transportation Services
Web site.
Construction on the two right lanes of
West Lamar in front of the Memorial
Student Center is scheduled to be com
pleted Aug. 15.
“Many campus streets have been
dosed or affected by construction in
some way over the past two years,” said
Doug Williams, associate director of
Transportation Services. “Ross Street
will continue to be closed to westbound
traffic and Spence Street is closed at the
intersection with University Drive to
accommodate construction of the
Chemical Engineering Building.”
Williams said commuters will soon
reap the benefits of the construction.
“There have been very few complaints
about the construction,” he said. “I
believe that we have done a good job
communicating with the public. People
seem to accept the construction as long
as they are aware of the work prior to
implementation.”
The only lingering problem involves
the relocation of the gates at the Central
Campus Parking Garage. The traffic creat
ed by the change has created challenges.
See Construction on page 2
SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION
Road construction on West Campus has Old Main Drive narrowed to a
single lane of traffic.
Iraqis name first
council president
By Steven R. Hurst
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — After weeks of struggling
to choose a leader, Iraq’s U.S.-picked interim
government named its first president Wednesday
— a Shiite Muslim from a party banned by
Saddam Hussein. U.S. troops, meanwhile,
pressed the hunt for the ousted dictator and offi
cers said it was “just a matter of time” before he
is caught.
“He’s going to start making mistakes, and
we’re going to catch him,” a 4th Infantry Division
spokeswoman, Maj. Josslyn Aberle, told The
See Iraq on page 2