m
I HE HATTALl!
Aggielife: Leaving on a jet plane • Page 3A
Opinion: The U.S. injustice system • Page 5B
THE BATTALION
[Volume 110 • Issue 8 • 14 pages
MINORITY STUDENT
RETENTION
Multicultural Services' new
assistant director will be in charge
of student success programs.
• 16 percent of A&M's student body
is composed of minority students
• 65 percent of minority students
entering A&M graduate
• 77 percent of white students
entering A&M graduate
■lail
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCE MULTICULTURAL SERVICES
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
New position to aid student retention
By Bart Shirley
THE BATTALION
Multicultural Services is seeking to fill the posi
tion of assistant director, formerly known as coor
dinator of student retention, who will be in charge
of student success programs.
Student success programs are efforts by the
Multicultural Services office to aid all freshmen in
their pursuit of graduation, said Megan Paisa,
assistant director of Multicultural Services. They
offer a year-long program that provides transition
al help to new students.
“(The new administrator will) look at all the
data to see where we’re headed, “ Paisa said.
Retention has long been a concern for Texas
A&M. Though 16 percent of the student body is
composed of minority students, A&M still has
trouble shedding its homogenous image in the
minds of prospective students, said Mark
Weichold, associate provost for undergraduate pro
grams and academic services.
“Historically, from retention and graduation
rates, students of color are lower,’’ Paisa said.
Minority students are statistically more at
risk than white students of never crossing the
stage at Reed Arena, Paisa said. Sixty-five per
cent of minority students entering A&M even
tually graduate, compared with 77 percent of
white students.
“Clearly, there’s no one answer,” Weichold
said. “Some of the answers are not just academ
ic. It’s going to take the collaboration of many
offices on campus.”
Weichold said his office is working to get an
indication of students who are at risk for not return
ing for their sophomore year. His office is using
several assessment tools, such as the CSI and the
NSE, to make that determination. Many programs
exist to assist in retention alongside the
Multicultural Services office, he said.
“The Multicultural Services has been a big part
of our retention efforts,” Weichold said.
The discrepancy in student retention is also
one of the reasons for the hiring of the new vice
president for diversity. Dr. James A. Anderson,
Paisa said.
“Dr. Anderson will work with Multicultural
Services,” said Rodney McClendon, chief of staff.
“He will (also) be working with all colleges in
regard to retention.”
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WACO, Texas (AP) -
Five Baylor University
[regents called Monday for the
[ouster of university President
gRobert Sloan, saying a
[change in leadership is need
led for the beleaguered school.
“Baylor has been given a
■black eye that will require a
ilong time to heal,” the regents
■said in a letter obtained by the
Waco Tribune-Herald on
■Monday. “We feel a major
step in the process of healing
jwould be a change of leader-
[ship at the top.”
The letter sent by fax and
le-mail to the regents’ 31 col
li leagues requests a vote of the
[full board on Sloan’s future.
|The regents are set to meet
[Thursday and Friday.
The school is trying to
| recover from the death of bas-
.ketball player Patrick Dennehy
land the resignations of basket-
ball coach Dave Bliss and ath-
letic director Tom Stanton
‘after the discovery of serious
I rules violations.
But Regent John Wilkerson
said the call for resignation
(isn’t about the basketball pro
gram’s problems or questions
over the school’s building ini
tiative to move Baylor into the
top tier of American universi
ties by 2012.
Wilkerson told the news
paper he has concluded Sloan
cannot effectively lead the
“Baylor family” through the
issues that have divided it.
“It’s not about Bliss or
Dennehy and it’s not about
2012,” he said. “It’s about
leadership and the lack there
of of our president.”
The Tribune-Herald report
ed in its online edition Monday
night that Carl Bell, Mary
Chavanne-Martin, Toby Druin,
Jaclanel McFarland and
Wilkerson were calling for
Sloan’s firing. Bell, Druin,
McFarland and Wilkerson had
a conference call with Sloan
before releasing the letter.
Baylor spokesman Larry
Brumley said Sloan, who has
been president for eight years,
has no plans to step down.
“The board of regents
determines the leadership of
See Sloan on page 2A
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JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Andy Deuel, owner of a local hobby shop, works on the suspension of a store. The shop sells hundreds of different models and everything from
4x4 EMAX Radio Controlled off-road vehicle Monday afternoon at his trains, planes, games and puzzles.
i on Sept. 8th:
$ 10/team
$45/tear('
FREf
lush Library hosts
‘Treasures of China’
By Nicole M. Jones
THE BATTALION
“The Treasures of China,” an exclusive exhibit at the George Bush
Presidential Library and Museum, is open to the public this week.
The exhibit, curated by Patricia Burchfield, was in the
works for about a year and a half and coincides with the China
conference that will take place at A&M in November, said
; Brian Blake, the public relations official for the museum.
The museum, which is a part of the American
| Association of Museums, acquired 200 artifacts from 40
different lenders, Blake said.
‘“Treasures of China’ offers a rare journey into the Middle
| Kingdom’s past, a past that has heavily shaped China’s present
| and future,” said Douglas Menarchik, director of the library.
One of Menarchik’s favorite (a Director’s Choice) artifacts
: is a three-foot-tall clay horse dating back 3,000 years to the
Tang Dynasty.
U.S. presidents were popular in the People’s Republic of
Museum Hours and Admission Rates
The new "Treasures of China" exhibit can be viewed
through January.
Hours:
iMonday - Saturday
[Sunday
9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
12 p.m - 5 p.m.
Admission:
TAMU and Blinn Students with valid I.D.
FREE
Adults ages 18 to 64
$7
Senior Citizens ages 65 and older
$5
Children ages five and under
FREE
Children ages 6 to 17
$2
Texas, Florida senators
criticize GOP Three Rs’
ANDREW BURLESON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE : GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
China as many received exquisite gifts from China’s leaders.
One of the gifts on display is a pale green porcelain jar
adorned with leaves and vines, given to General Ulysses S.
Grant by Prince Kung, Regent of China, during his post-presi
dential tour around the world in 1879.
Lenders with items on display in the exhibit include the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, the Smithsonian
Institution and private collectors in Bryan, College Station and
Houston.
By Rachel La Corte
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — Three
Texas legislators visited South
Florida on Monday to say
Republicans have shown a “national
pattern of abuse of power” by trying
to scrap Democratic congressional
districts and overturn elections the
GOP lost.
Texas state Sens. Mario Gallegos,
Eliot Shapleigh and Gonzalo
Barrientos, who left their state to
block a vote on a Republican-backed
congressional redistricting plan,
were joined by several Florida
Democratic legislators, who each
wore small Texas flag pins.
Monday’s visit comes one day
before President Bush visits
Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale.
Several of the other 10 senators who
went to Albuquerque, N.M., spoke at
a similar event Monday in
Philadelphia. Other events are
planned over the next few weeks in
New York, Chicago, Denver,
Phoenix, Los Angeles and San
Francisco.
“We’re here to tell the story of
recount, recall and re-redistricting, the
new three R’s of Republican extrem
ism,” said Shapleigh, of El Paso.
Shapleigh said that the recount in
Florida during the 2000 presidential
election, redistricting conflicts in
Colorado and Texas and the
California gubernatorial recall are all
See Democrats on page 2A
THE BATTALION
7 Nov. 26-30
1 Jan. 11-17
12 March 14-21
3mber 8th. Don't
> Wall.
orientation class?
’hursdays at 3:30
The Battalion invites
you to submit personal
remembrances and
thoughts as the nation
approaches the second
anniversary of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Please submit your
250-word letters to
mailcaIl@thehattaIion.net
or stop by 014 Reed
McDonald.
September 11, 2003
Gates reveals hiring strategy
By Justin Smith
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates pre
sented a report on the status of A&M’s financial
situation and a forecast for the next few years on
Monday to the Faculty Senate.
With the hiring of 447 teachers over the next
five years, tuition increases are likely for the next
several years, Gates said.
Gates also summarized one of the methods in
which faculty will be hired.
A college will initially hire a “superstar” of a
certain field, such as a Nobel Laureate, and then
hire junior faculty.
There was also discussion about if the current
foreign language requirement for applicants want
ing admission to the University should be lowered
from three years in high school to two years.
This’ idea was originally posed to the Faculty
Senate in 2000 but was deferred for three years.
During Monday’s meeting, the decision was
deferred for another three years.
Also in the meeting, the Faculty Senate
approved 16 new courses, nine of which are in the
Educational Human Resource Development
degree program.
It also approved Chemistry 107 - General
Chemistry for Engineering Students, Agricultural
Journalism - Communicating Agricultural
Information to the Public and Accounting 320 -
Accounting Communications, which will be core
curriculum classes within their respective majors.
: George Wesley Cartwright
Computer Engineering
Wayne Robley nails
Landscape Architecture
Leslie Ann Snell
Business Administration
10:30 p.m.
Academic Plaza