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A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
Volume 110 • Issue 12 • 10 pages www.thebattalidn.net Monday, September 15, 2003
Chancellor Graves, 64, loses fight to cancer
By Sarah Szuminski
THE BATTALION
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
Chancellor Graves announces, in an informal press conference on Tuesday, January 30, 2001, that he had been
diagnosed with sarcoma cancer.
Howard Graves, fonner chancellor of the
Texas A&M University System, died peacefully
in his home Saturday, ending a two-and-a-half
year battle with cancer.
The 64-year-old resigned from his post as
chancellor just two weeks ago on Aug. 31. having
held the position since August 1999. Friends and
colleagues regard Graves as a man whose dedica
tion to service stayed with him to his dying day.
“He spent every day
thinking of how he could
serve other people rather
than him sell
Wright, director of commu
nications for the System.
“He even tried to serve oth
ers by being an example in
the dignified way he went
through his illness and
faced death.”
Graves stepped down as chancellor due to his
failing health, saying he wanted to spend more
time with his family and at church. Pastor Dwight
Edwards of Grace Bible Church said Graves and
his wife, Gracie, were active and faithful mem
bers since moving to College Station in 1999.
“He was completely at peace right up through
the end,” Edwards said. “He (Graves) said, ‘I’m
going home to be with the Lord.*”
Graves had undergone chemotherapy treat
ments to his abdomen and lungs after being diag
nosed with a rare form of sarcoma in January
2001. At the time, he decided to remain dedicat
ed to serving the A&M System.
“I would like to continue to serve Texas and
Texans,” Graves said in January 2001. "1 will stay
as involved as possible.”
In early August of this year, Graves decided to
abandon treatment and let the cancer t;ike its course.
University President Robert M. Gates said he
met Graves 15 years ago in the White House situa
tion room when Graves was the assistant to the
chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff. Gates was then
deputy director of Central Intelligence. He said
Graves brought the same sense of duty and integri
ty to his role in Washington as here to the System.
“He was someone who brought people togeth
er,” Gates said. “He will be greatly missed.”
Gates said the greatest long-term impact
Graves helped institute is the progress he made in
bringing the System schools together.
As chancellor. Graves worked with the state
Legislature to create the Central Texas and San
Antonio A&M campuses, and oversaw the
growth of A&M’s Health
Science Center to what it is
now. It includes five A&M
System institutions and
colleges of nursing at five
A&M System universities.
“(Graves) has a great
amount of courage and
character to have run the
System so effectively since
his illness arose,” said
Lowry Mays, chairman of the A&M Board of
Regents, when Graves announced his resignation.
“He will always be remembered for his dedica
tion to the System through his period of health
problems.”
Graves also implemented an initiative to help
meet the state’s growing demand for public
school teachers. The initiative outlines a path for
System universities to follow that will increase
the quality and productivity of programs that pre
pare future teachers.
“Howard Graves was the epitome of public
service, a man who dedicated his entire life to
giving back to others,” said Gov. Rick Perry in a
news release. “From serving our country in the
U.S. Army to serving our state as chancellor of
The Texas A&M University System, his life was
always about helping others and never about him
self. I was honored to have called him a friend.”
Graves, a native of the Texas Panhandle town
of Roaring Springs, graduated from the U.S.
Military Academy in 1961, according to a release
from the A&M System. He later attended Oxford
University in England as a Rhodes Scholar,
where he earned Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts
and Master of Letters degrees.
Graves served as superintendent of the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point in New York and
commanded the U.S. Army War College at
Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. In 1996, he
retired from active military service.
Prior to his appointment as A&M System
chancellor. Graves was the Visiting Tom
Slick Professor of World Peace at the
University of Texas.
“Howard is one of the finest men I’ve ever
known,” Edwards said. “He’s also one of the hum
blest men I’ve ever known. You’d never have known
of all the positions he’s held throughout his life.”
Graves’ family issued a statement after his
death, according to the Bryan-College Station
Eagle: “We would like to thank those who have
prayed for Howard and have expressed their sup
port and concern for him and for our family. He
died peacefully, and we know that he is now
rejoicing with his Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he
will be for eternity.”
Graves is survived by his wife, two children,
Gregory Howard GraVes and Gigi Renee Kail,
and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Grace
Bible Church at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
Graves will be buried at West Point.
u
, said Bob
/ was honored to
have called him a
friend. ”
Affirmative action policies
still hazy for Texas schools
By Eric Ambroso
THE BATTALION
Following the Supreme Court’s June decision
that race can be considered in a university’s
admission policies. Big 12 schools in Texas are
taking stances on affirmative action policies.
“(Texas A&M) President (Robert M.) Gates
would like to see the student body be more repre
sentative, but we are not going to lower any stan
dards,” said Rodney McClendon, chief of staff for
Gates. “We are not going to give preferential treat
ment to any one group of people, and we will pro
tect the fundamental values of Texas A&M
University.”
Gates appointed a task force in August, headed
by Karan Watson, dean of faculties and associate
provost, to research the University’s admissions
policies. The task force completed its work earlier
this month and submitted its recommendations to
Gates. He will review these recommendations
before any final decision will be made about
whether the University will change its admissions
policies, McClendon said.
The administration is still in the information
gathering stage, and Gates has indicated that he
will give students, faculty and staff an opportunity
to give input on his decision.
However, the implementation of any changes
made to the University’s admissions policies will
be delayed for at least a year. According to the
Texas Education Code, a university must publish
its admissions requirements at least one year prior
to the date that applicants for admission are con
sidered using the new guidelines. The statute
requires delaying implementation of any new
admissions policies until Fall 2005.
Unlike A&M, the University of Texas has been
vocal in its plans for alterations to admissions
policies.
“We support the use of race in admissions poli
cies,” said Augustine Garza of the Office of
Admissions for the UT. “We need to go much fur
ther, we are not as diverse as we would like to be.
If changed, we would want a new policy to be in
place by the summer so that we can start to publi
cize and inform students that are interested in us
for the fall 2005 semester.”
UT plans to challenge the requirement that any
change in admissions policies must be published
one year in advance. The university had planned to
implement changes in fall 2004 but was hindered
by the state law. UT President Larry R. Faulkner
hopes’to work with the state legislature to put affir
mative action procedures into action as soon as
possible.
Officials are excited about the chance to
reassess admissions policies, said Frank Ashley,
Diversity Statistics
A&M will decide whether to alter its admissions
policy. Here's how A&M's student body compares
with other schools in Fall 2002.
White ■Hispanic |
Black j p Asian ’ Other
Texas A&M University
Texas Tech University
Total: 45,083
Total: 27,569
11^
079.0%
University of Texas
University of Oklahoma
Total: 52,261
Total: 23,813
1^
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
SOURCES: WWW.TAMU.EDU,WWW.IRIM.TTU.EDU,
WWW.UTEXAS.EDU,WWW.OU.EDU
acting assistant provost for enrollment at A&M.
Many believe the Supreme Court’s ruling will give
A&M the ability to achieve diversity.
“One thing that we always talked about was
that we would like the student body to represent
the population of Texas,” Ashley said. “We try to
enroll racially, geographically and economically
See Policies on page 2
Perry praises
the passage of
Proposition 12
By Natalie Gott
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — The passage of a constitutional
amendment to allow limits on some civil lawsuit
awards means that medical students from the
Rio Grande Valley can return home after school
and serve the community that they love. Gov.
Rick Perry said.
They will “not have to look everyday behind
their back for that frivolous lawsuit that could
run them out of business or run them out of their
hometown, the part of the state that they love,”
said Perry, who had toured the state urging vot
ers to support the amendment.
Voters on Saturday approved Proposition
12, which permits the Legislature to place caps
on non-economic damages such as pain and
suffering.
Supporters of the amendment included
business groups and doctors, who said their
medical malpractice liability insurance has
skyrocketed because of large jury awards and
frivolous lawsuits.
See Proposition 12 on page 2
Wehner expansion brings
trading center to A&M
By Nicole M. Jones
THE BATTALION
The Wehner Building, home of
Texas A&M’s Lowry Mays College
and Graduate School of Business,
has recently expanded to include the
Jerry and Kay Cox Graduate
Business Center.
Dedicated on Sept. 6, the new
facility totals 66,000 gross square
feet and includes seven classrooms,
eight team-learning rooms and the
Reliant Energy Securities &
Commodities Training Center.
“The idea for the center came from
needing space,” said Jerry Strawser,
de^m of the Business School.
The new center provides addition
al classroom space, small group
breakout space and extra rooms for
corporate companies to come in for
interviewing and interaction with the
students, Strawser said.
A state-of-the-art trading center,
sponsored by Reliant Energy, will
give students real-life experience
in trading similar to the business
that takes place on Wall Street,
Strawser said.
Jerry and Kay Cox of Houston,
classes of 1972 and 2002, helped
raise private contributions to finance
the building of the new graduate
center, in addition to donating $1.5
million to the cause.
The Cox Center will be used by
undergraduate and graduate busi
ness students.
Bats migrate south through College Station
By Rebekah Kratochvil
THE BATTALION
This October, hundreds of thousands
of bats will migrate through College
Station en route to Mexico for the win
ter, said John C. Patton, a research sci
entist with Texas A&M’s department of
wildlife and fisheries science.
This drastic increase in the bat popula
tion, though only temporary, will
inevitably multiply the number of student
and staff encounters with bats, Patton said.
“The thought that there are bats liv
ing in areas around campus that stu
dents frequent, that I frequent, and that
a good portion of them could be carry
ing rabies, is alarming,” said sopho
more biomedical sciences major Steven
Goodman.
Only about one in 1,000 bats carries
rabies, and other mammals such as rac
coons are much more likely to be rabid,
Patton said.
“I don’t think we have to do any
thing to avoid the bat population,” said
Chris Meyer, director of
environmental health and
safety.
Patton said bats don’t
want any more to do
with humans than
humans do with them.
“Just give it respect —
give it space,” Patton said.
Three years ago,
roosts of bats lived in
Sterling C. Evans
Library, the Business
Management Services
Building (now occupied
by Financial Services)
and Kyle Field, Meyer
said. During this time,
only a handful of students had direct
contact with the bats that lived on cam
pus, Meyer said.
In 2001, a female student was bitten
by a bat while studying in Evans
Library. The bat crawled inside her shoe
after she had taken it
off, and bit her in self
defense when she
tried to put her shoe
back on.
Meyer said the bat
tested negative for
rabies, but died
because of an injury
that resulted from the
encounter. Had it test
ed positive, the stu
dent would have
undergone treatment
for rabies. The treat
ment no longer
involves 13 shots in
the stomach, but a
round of five shots in the arm and one
in the hip, Meyer said.
See Bats on page 2
a
The thought that
there are hats living in
areas around campus...
and that a good por
tion of them could he
carrying rahies y is
alarming.
— Steven Goodman
sophomore