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THE BATTALION
Volume 110 • Issue 15 • 14 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattaIion.net
Thursday, September 18, 2003
New T-Shirt Sales Policy
After losing funds due to the previous
[ year's chaotic Maroon Out T-shirt sales
procedures, Class Councils has
implemented numerous changes.
f Shirts will be counted upon delivery
w and tracked using a bar code system.
a "Buy one, get one free" T-shirt sales
w will now be expressly prohibited.
a Online T-shirt sales are no longer
* being handled by Class Councils.
^ Money will be counted at the end of
* every sales day and several times on
game days.
MSC revamps accounting practices
ANDREW BURLESON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE • MAROON OUT ACTION PLAN
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
The Maroon Out T-shirts sales
mystery that left some combination
of cash and inventory — at a mini
mum value of $48,000 and a maxi
mum of more than $61,000 — unac
counted for has caused the
Memorial Student Center, whose
advisers oversee the independently-
run Class Councils, to tighten its
controls over inventory, cash han
dling and Financial documentation.
In response to the Texas A&M
internal auditor’s report, the Class
Councils committee has drawn up
and implemented an action plan to
correct several handling problems.
Sales now occur through the win
dows at G. Rollie White Coliseum,
where students can purchase tickets
that are then taken inside the build
ing to redeem for T-shirts.
Carol Smith, the state auditor
who oversees A&M, said this segre
gation of duties is important to pre
vent volunteers or leaders from
becoming tempted to tamper with
documents and inventory or steal
funds.
Public schools and universities that
run independent student organizations
such as Class Councils, where volun
teers have no financial training, fall
prey to theft occasionally, Smith said.
“I don’t think it’s unusual,” she
said. “When you have the ability to
handle cash and inventory and rec
oncile accounts, there are many peo
ple who would see the opportunity
and are in Financial need for some
reason at that time.”
The A&M internal auditor’s
report has been forwarded to the
state audit office. A discrepancy of
more than 12,000 missing T-shirts
was discovered in November by a
former Class Councils adviser. In
January, auditors began an investiga
tion that lasted until June.
Bill Kibler, interim vice president
for Student Affairs, said since stu
dent handlers have started hand
counting the shirts in each box deliv
ered by the vendor this fall, they
have discovered that there are 10 to
12 fewer shirts inside each box than
is written on the outside.
“We called the vendor and dis
covered the number on the outside
of the box is a general target,” he
said. “They do it by weight. It’s not
guaranteed.”
So far this year, Maroon Out has
amassed around $100,000 in sales,
and only $119 has been unaccounted
for so far.
“That’s essentially on target,”
Kibler said.
Problems listed in the auditor’s
report include:
• no inventory accounting
• security problems in the MSC
• no financial training for advisers
• an unauthorized “Buy one, get
one free” policy
• no documentation of who was
handling cash and when
• the loss of all monthly
See MSC on page 7A
ECIAL
CIALTY
ANY
LARGE
SPECIAL^
;k Prairie
Rock Prairie
680-0508
Aggie Code to reflect
academic initiatives
Sign here
By Dan Orth
THE BATTALION
The Academic Integrity Task Force
has announced a new honor system
effective Spring 2004 to more strictly
enforce the Aggie Code of Honor.
The changes will include the for
mation of an honor council, which
will "investigate and adjudicate alle
gations of academic misconduct,"
according to a summary of the pro
posed honor system.
Martha L. Loudder, chair of the
Academic Integrity Task Force, said
'< I IN-
The honor council was created by the
Academic Integrity Task Force to Investigate
and adjudicate allegations of academic
misconduct.
• 50 members will make up the council; five
members from each college at a ratio of
three students to two faculty.
■ Students caught cheating can face
punishment from their professor or the
honor council.
• Cases will be heard by five
members.
50 members will make up the honor
council, including roughly Five mem
bers from each college at a ratio of
three students to two faculty.
Other proposed changes include
expanded deFinitions of academic
misconduct, more student involve
ment in promoting the honor code,
clarified penalties for violation and a
remediation program for first-time
offenders.
This change was Texas A&M
President Robert M. Gates’ initiative
and was mentioned in his September
2002 convocation speech. Gates said
some former students who are now
politicians or businessmen have set an
example of lying and cheating outside
of A&M and the University that
"needs to take a more aggressive
stand on this."
Loudder credits Gates for pushing
to promote academic integrity but
said professors and students have also
been in favor of change.
Focus groups and student surveys
show the honor code's importance
has dropped, and Loudder said she
gets a sense from students that it has
lost its luster.
Robby Swanson, a sophomore
aerospace engineering major, said
cheating is not part of the Aggie way
SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION
Senior geology major Wayne Adamcik signs a mock U.S. Constitution at the George Bush Library and Museum Wednesday after
noon in celebration of Constitution Day. Students from all across Bryan-College Station came to listen to a George Washington
impressionist speak about the framing of the U.S. Constitution.
SETH FREEMAN • THE BATTALION
SOURCE •ACADEMIC INTEGRITY TASK FORCE
See Code on page 2A
Lawmakers confident about redistricting
Maps drafted, but Republicans
still bickering over West Texas
Bush denies GOP scheme
in Texas redistricting push
RHA rejects TS
garage proposal
By Eric Ambrose
THE BATTALION
By April Castro
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Republicans in the
Legislature finally have enough
Democratic members in attendance
to vote on congressional redistrict
ing maps, but new roadblocks are
emerging from within the GOP.
At issue is a West Texas district
that includes the area from Lubbock
to Midland.
Republican House
Speaker Tom
Craddick, a Midland
native, wants his
home district to be
represented in
Congress separate
from Lubbock.
Sen. Robert
Duncan, R-Lubbock,
chair of the Senate
Jurisprudence
Committee charged
with redistricting,
wants to keep
Midland in the district now repre
sented by U.S. Rep. Randy
Neugebauer, R-Lubbock.
Each side has shown little will
ingness to budge.
“It’s hard to negotiate when I
haven’t seen anything from the
Senate,” Craddick said. “I’ve seen
10 different versions people have
drawn, but they haven’t passed any-
Tveseen 10
different versions
people have drawn,
but they haven't
passed anything
yet.
— Tom Craddick
Republican House Speaker
thing yet. We had a meeting last
week but didn’t get anywhere.”
Duncan said he can’t vote on a
map that his constituents strongly
oppose.
The House map, set to be debat
ed Tuesday, would give Midland a
separate congressional district.
Craddick said he expects the House
to pass that map the same day.
Senators have already said the
House map wouldn’t pass muster in
the Senate. That
would leave the issue
to be hashed out in a
conference committee
made up of delegates
from both chambers.
“They can’t afford
to be in conference
five or 10 days before
the end of the ses
sion,” said Rep. Rick
Noriega of Houston,
one of the 51 House
Democrats who fled
to Ardmore, Okla., in
May to avoid con
gressional redistricting during the
regular session.
“Here you have these very
strong-willed persons and it’s silly
we’re wasting taxpayers’ money
when Republicans can’t agree in
their own greed,” Noriega said.
The Legislature on Monday
See Maps on page 2A
AP — President George W. Bush
said Tuesday he is confident Texas
lawmakers will eventually settle the
contentious congressional redistrict
ing issue that has led to three special
sessions this summer.
“I’m sure they’ll work it out,”
Bush said. “They are all working
hard to get it resolved.”
Redistricting and Bush’s contro
versial judicial nominations were
among the national and regional
issues he discussed during a meet
ing with a dozen
reporters at the
White House.
During the 45-
minute interview,
Bush also talked
about the econo
my, energy and
conservation poli
cy and the Iraq
war. The reporters
who attended were from newspa
pers nationwide, including the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram and the San
Antonio Express-News.
Bush briefly touched on Texas
redistricting, describing it as state
issue that should be handled by
state leaders.
On Tuesday, the Texas House
gave preliminary approval to a
Republican-drawn congressional
redistricting map during the
Legislature’s third special session.
The special session began
BUSH
Monday after the return of a group of
Democratic senators from
Albuquerque, N.M., where they
stayed for six weeks to protest a
Republican-backed redistricting map.
Democratic House lawmakers
successfully thwarted a redistricting
vote during the first special session
when they fled to Ardmore, Okla.
The president dismissed accusa
tions by Democrats that he’s behind
the GOP redistricting plan that
could give Republicans Five to six
more seats in the House of
Representatives.
“I get blamed for a lot of things,”
Bush said, adding that he doesn’t
“take it personal.”
Bush also touched on his judicial
nomination of Texas Supreme Court
Justice Priscilla Owens to the 5th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New Orleans. Owens’ nomination
has been blocked by Senate
Democrats who accuse her of being
pro-business and anti-abortion.
Bush renominated her this year and
she moved out of committee, but
Republicans three times were unable to
get the 60 votes needed on the Senate
floor to confirm her nomination.
“She is a great lady. She ought to
be a judge. She ought to be con
firmed,” he said in story for
Wednesday’s editions of the
Express-News.
See Bush on page 2A
The Residence Hall Association will not sup
port the Department of Transportation Services'
proposal to eliminate reserved spaces in the
Southside Parking Garage.
Students with parking spots in the Southside
garage pay up to $390 to have a reserved space.
TS is considering changing the garage’s status
from reserved parking spaces to an open lot.
On Sept. 9, an e-mail was sent to students who
purchased a parking spot notifying them of a pos
sible change of plans. The e-mail asked the stu
dents to vote by Sept. 15 on whether the change
should go into effect immediately or in the fall of
2004. However, another e-mail was sent to the
students Sept. 11 notifying them of a a task force
created to evaluate the situation and make an
independent decision.
“The manner in which students were notified
of the possibility of change was inappropriate
and very abrupt,” said Michael Vargo, president
of Aston Hall. “The Department of
Transportation Services affects everyone who
wishes to park anywhere on campus and it is not
acting in a manner of a Texas Aggie.”
RHA hopes to discourage TS’s proposal by
adopting a resolution against the change and
starting a petition to let TS know how the stu
dents feel.
So far, more than 1,000 students have signed
the petition, Vargo said, and he hopes more step
forward to voice their opinion.
“A bunch of people paid a lot of money to
have a guaranteed parking space,” Vargo said.
“We just want to get them what they paid for.”
Students interested in signing the petition can
contact Vargo at 847-7088.