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Aggielife: Easing the pressure • Page 3
Opinion: Mental health crisis • Page 7
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Volume 109 • Issue 183 • 8 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Thursday, August 7, 2003
University ends hiring freeze, travel restrictions
By Jacquelyn Spruce
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M President Robert M.
Gates lifted the hiring freeze last
Friday, hoping to find employment
for the 39 people laid off last month.
Gates said the freeze, issued Jan.
28, was in response to the state’s
budgetary shortfalls and was to last as
long as necessary. It applied to the hir
ing of all staff positions, excluding
faculty, and restricted most employee
travel on state appropriated funds.
According to the A&M human
resources Web site, Gates said both
freezes were effective.
“They have been instrumental in
addressing our budget reductions,”
Gates said.
David Prior, executive vice president
and provost, said attempts to end the
freeze had been going on for a while.
“No one was sure how budgets
would work out in terms of the
Legislature,” he said. “We’ve now
progressed from a lot of uncertainty.”
Now that the hiring freeze has
been lifted, Prior said
he hopes it will pro
vide more opportuni
ties for those who lost
their jobs.
“We’re trying des
perately to help them
in every possible way,”
Prior said.
In July, Gates announced that 250
positions would be eliminated; but,
because of the hiring freeze, 211 of
those positions were already vacant.
Susun Irza, director of human
PRIOR
resources, said the Human Resources
Department has been doing all it can to
help individuals who lost their jobs. It
set up a temporary career center, pro
vided access to human resource classes
and helped individuals prepare resumes
and prepare for interviews.
As of last Friday, the Human
Resources Department has seen only
a slight increase in the number of jobs
available as well as the number of
applicants, Irza said.
“Now what we are waiting for is
the departments who want to actually
list available positions,” she said.
“We’re not seeing a great flood of
positions coming in as of now.”
Irza said the number of vacant jobs
is unknown.
“All of that is dependent on each
department,” she said. “Some depart
ments found other ways to fill those
positions so they won’t be the same as
before.”
Irza said individuals within the
University System that were laid off
would have priority over individuals
outside the University.
Car break-ins
foil CS police
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
College Station police said they do not
plan on making an arrest in the near future
after a spree of car robberies hit College
Station last weekend.
More than 10 cars in different College
Station locations were broken into between
Friday night and Sunday morning, said Lt.
Mark Langwell, public information officer for
the College Station Police Department.
“With people visiting and with all the tour-
tiaments we had in town, it left more potential
for breaking into vehicles,” he said.
Langwell said police believe this is the work
ofseveral different people, not just one person.
“In some cases, the passenger window was
broken and in others the car was left unlocked,”
Langwell said.
Langwell said the weekend spree of break-
lis not the first for College Station. College
towns are more susceptible to car robberies; it
(gets worse from time to time, Langwell
d.
He said with football season and residence
il move-in around the corner, police want to
pet the word out so people can protect
their cars.
“You gotta lock your car and don’t keep
valuables in them,” Langwell said.
Langwell said wherever you go, park in well-
areas or in areas where the car can be seen.
“Just be weary of any suspicious activity,” he
See Break-ins on page 2
How to prevent motor vehicle theft
When you park your car, close the
windows, lock the doors and take the
key with you.
Install and use anti-theft
devices, whether an alarm or
a protective device such as a
club or a collar. Be sure to
activate the device every time
you leave your vehicle.
Keep valuables out of sight,
preferably locked away in the
trunk.
If you have two cars and one of
them is easy to break into,
park it in your driveway so it's
blocked by the other car.
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE: COLLEGE STATION POLICE DEPARTMENT
Aggies start first practice under Fran
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M football team began
its first fall practice under A&M football
coach Dennis Franchione Wednesday
afternoon on one of the hottest days of
the year.
The heat index soared to nearly 110
degrees, but it did little to dampen the
enthusiasm of the players who were still
screaming and hollering three hours into
practice.
Franchione said the heat was a factor
but that it would help the players devel
op a mental toughness they have been
lacking.
“We can’t worry about (the heat),” he
said. “We may have to play at these tem
peratures sometimes. We just have to get
mentally tough enough to handle that
and handle the ability to focus when we
get tired. I think we have the physical
toughness, we just need to have the grit
and mental toughness.”
Mental toughness is on the top of
Franchione’s repair list this year for the
Aggies. Last year’s team lost leads late in
the fourth quarter, a problem Franchione
said he believes can be solved.
“I’m not really getting on them too
much. I’m just trying to take them to a
level they need to be mentally tough
enough to play this game,” he said. “We
gotta find 11 guys that are mentally
tough on both sides of the football.”
After 31 years of coaching,
Franchione said, there is no gauge to
measure the ability of players to fight
through the heat of two-a-days, but he
said he has always had a knack for that
kind of thing.
“I can watch them practice and 1 can
see who can focus through fatigue,” he
said. “You can see mental toughness as
you watch your players. You can see
who’s got it and who can push through
pain and see who can’t.”
Senior animal science major Paul
Harding said he’s glad Franchione is
putting mental conditioning at the top
of his list.
“That’s one thing we needed,” he
said. “In the mid to late 90s the fourth
quarter was ours, there was no slowing
them down. But it’s been lacking in the
last few years.”
Wednesday was also the first action
sophomore quarterback Reggie McNeal
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Head Coach Dennis Franchione talks to the Aggie football team before the first practice Wednesday afternoon. Below:
The team puts their hands together before the start of Wednesday's practice. The season starts Aug.30.
has seen since having surgery for a sports
hernia in July.
“I’m sure he’s going to have some
soreness but that’s a natural thing to hap
pen through fall camp after surgery, but
that’s just part of it,” Franchione said.
“He’s not hurt; its just part of his rehab.”
McNeal will compete with junior
quarterback Dustin Long for the starting
quarterback spot this fall.
Unlike many Aggie faithful who have
already picked the quarterback they
would like to see lead the Aggie offense
this year, Harding said he doesn’t know
who he would pick.
“If Reggie can perform the way he did
against OU last year I think he’s by far
the number one selection,” he said. “But
Long put up stats every game.”
Coaches have remained tight-lipped
as to who will be No. 1 on the depth
chart at quarterback, nor have they
given an estimate as to when that deci
sion will be made.
The Aggies will kick off the 2003
season on Aug. 30 against Arkansas
State at Kyle Field. randal ford • the battalion
Light in August
If
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
College Station Fire Department Lt. Timmy Fickey (left) and Lewis Clinkscales respond
to a two-alarm fire in the 9000 block of Sandstone Drive Wednesday afternoon. The
blaze engulfed five acres belonging to Texas A&M mechanical engineering professor
Leroy “Skip" Fletcher. A possible out-of-hand controlled burn is under investigation as
the fire's cause, firefighters said.
Marine advisory team lands in Liberia
By Glenn McKenzie
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONROVIA, Liberia — A team
of U.S. Marines landed in Monrovia
on Wednesday, flying in on olive-
green helicopters that passed almost
unnoticed over a ruined city where
people are preoccupied with searching
for food after weeks of fighting
between government and rebel troops.
The seven Americans came to
coordinate U.S. logistical support for a
steadily building peacekeeping force
of West African soldiers at the airport
30 miles from the capital. The force’s
Nigerian commander said he would
have enough troops by Thursday to
send some into Monrovia itself.
The U.S. team flew in from a three-
ship Navy group carrying 2,000
Marines off Liberia. But President
Bush said Wednesday that no larger
American force will go ashore until
warlord-turned-president Charles
Taylor leaves the country.
Repeating a U.S. demand, Bush
declared during his vacation in
u
An elected
president can't leave
in a hurry.
— Daniel Chea
Liberia's defense minister
Crawford, Texas, “We would like
Taylor out.”
Nigerian officials told The
Associated Press the Liberian leader
was talking of leaving Aug. 16 or 17,
and was holding out for a full airport
sendoff with pomp and ceremony fol
lowing his promised resignation
Monday.
“An elected president can’t leave in
a hurry,” Taylor’s defense minister,
Daniel Chea, told AP.
But the Nigerian officials, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said they
and others were trying to speed
Taylor’s exit.
Taylor, a Libyan-trained former
guerrilla fighter blamed for 14 years of
conflict here, is pinned up in central
Monrovia after a two-month rebel
siege.
More than 1,000 civilians have
been killed, and hunger and sickness
are widespread among the 1.3 million
residents and refugees crowding the
capital.
In the government-held part of the
city, market stalls offered little more
than potato greens and chili peppers.
Rice, the staple food, was nowhere to
be found.
Thousands of civilians streamed
out of Monrovia’s rebel-held port car
rying bags of rice on their heads.
Rebels had commandeered shipping
containers there and gave out the rice,
people said.
“They gave me two persons’ share
because I helped them carry,” said
Prince Maxwell, a 22-year-old stu
dent.
The U.S. helicopters carrying the
Marine liaison team roared in out of
See Liberia on page 2