Sports: Two of a kind • Page 5
Opinion: Prosecuting the undeserving • Page 9
Volume 110 • Issue 18 • 10 pages
JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Bill Kibler (left), talks with
A&M President Robert M. Gates (right), before speaking at an
open forum discussing increasing spring tuition Monday night.
BATTALION
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Gates: Tuition raise necessary
By Rebekah Kratochvil
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M President Robert M.
Gates told students at a forum
Monday that cuts in state funding
and a need for more faculty have
spurred the University’s decision to
increase tuition.
The Texas Legislature’s deci
sion to uncap the university
authorized tuition paved the way
for the $4 per credit hour tuition
increase this fall and the $9 per
credit hour increase approved for
next semester. Gates said.
Other universities have
approved greater tuition hikes.
Gates said, such as the University
of Houston, which raised its
tuition $19 per credit hour.
“Student Government played a
fairly significant role in keeping
tuition and fees lower at Texas A&M
for this academic year,” he said.
Despite these efforts. Gates
said there will be increases in
tuition for the next several years
and a computer usage fee increase
next semester.
The decision to increase tuition
was greatly influenced by a need to
compensate for the $1.4 million cut
in funding from the state Legislature
and the need for $5.6 million to bal
ance the budget. Gates said.
A&M has been losing 1.5 percent
per year in general revenue for
approximately the last decade, he said.
“Despite this, Texas A&M is
still counted in the top 100 best
bargains for colleges and universi
ties in Kiplinger’s Magazine,”
Gates said.
While other public universities
such as Ohio State have a 13-to-l
student-faculty ratio, A&M has a
22-to-l ratio, Gates said.
“The bottom line is that we
need more faculty,” he said.
Eliminating administrative
staff while hiring more teaching
faculty as a part of Vision 2020
will aim to help A&M achieve its
goal of an 18-to-l student-faculty
ratio, he said. Gates said the
University plans to hire about 100
new faculty members each year
for the next four years.
Sarah Berry, a sophomore
computer engineering major, said
she understands the need for the
fee increases.
“I think that the administra
tion has really tried to minimize
the impact on our fees,” she
said. “Having been to this ses
sion, 1 can tell that the budget
shortfalls that they’re trying to
make up for are more than just
See Tuition on page 2
Koldus garage free
parking eliminated
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
Transportation Services is
no longer offering free evening
parking in the University
Center Garage for blue permit
holders, leaving students who
have evening meetings in the
Memorial Student Center area
searching for other options.
The change has been unwel
come for many
commuter stu
dents, who last
year were allowed
to park for free in
the garage, located
in Koldus,
Monday through
Thursday if they
entered and exited
between the hours
of 5:30 p.m. and
11:30 p.m.
Transportation
Services Director
Rodney Weis said
commuter park
ing validation
was allowed from
Fall 2001 to May 2003 because
it was recognized that students
would need to access the MSC,
Rudder and Koldus for meet
ings during the evening hours.
“The practice was discontin
ued because the West Campus
Garage is now completed, Lot
PA 49 just west of Cain Hall is
now available for commuters
after 5:30 p.m. and we have pro
vided better access to all stu
dents after 5:30 p.m.,” Weis said.
Off-Campus Aggies President
Ashley Cassel said some mem
bers of her organization had
planned to hold meetings in
Koldus where their office is locat
ed, but will now meet in restau
rants or apartment lobbies instead.
“It is a big pain for off-cam
pus students to have to pay to
park there or
park at Cain
or the drill
field and walk
over,” she
said. “We’re
not real happy
with (the
change) as an
organization.”
Weis said
it had been
clearly com
municated
that validated
parking in
the garage
was a tempo
rary accom
modation that would be discon
tinued when the new West
Campus Garage and pedestrian
passageway were complete.
Sally Wright, a sophomore
political science major, said it
is unfair that students attending
See Garage on page 2
a
It is a big pain for
off-campus students to
have to pay to park (in
the West Campus
Garage) or park at
Cain or the drill field
and walk over.
— Ashley Cassel
Off-Campus Aggies president
Drill time
Company B-l freshman aerospace engineering major Christian Ortiz, a member of the Fish Drill Team, drills for the first time with a demilitarized 1903
Springfield rifle in front of the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center Monday afternoon. The drill team's national competition will be held at Tulane University in
New Orleans this spring.
Hurricane-ravaged residents return
to work, 1.5 million still without power
By Bill Baskervill
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. — Four days after
Hurricane Isabel barreled into the East
Coast, thousands of people went back
to work Monday without the benefit of
home-cooked meals or hot showers,
and encountered miles of blank traffic
lights and downed power lines.
• “No electricity, no water,” said
leanne Spahr, 39, of Dover, Pa., whose
power went off Thursday as Isabel
approached. “We’ve been pouring pond
water to flush the toilet. It’s not smelling
so good. I grew up using an outhouse
and I don’t want to go back to that.”
Isabel’s effects were still widely evi
dent Monday: Nearly 1.5 million cus
tomers remained without electricity.
Hot meals were in short supply. Elderly
residents had to be shuttled by boat
from their flooded homes. And hun
dreds of roads were shut because of
toppled trees and power lines.
At least 34 deaths have been
blamed on the storm, 19 of them
in Virginia.
North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland
and Delaware were declared federal
disaster areas, and President Bush trav
eled to Richmond to be briefed on the
recovery efforts.
Many residents were irritated that
electric companies and government
officials were unable to restore power
four days after the storm hit.
“I understand that people are frustrat
ed — I’m frustrated,” said Douglas M.
Duncan, the Montgomery County, Md.,
executive. “We’re working, of course,
with the power company to get power
Isabel sliced island
Residents of Hatteras said they’re
getting by with the help of relief
workers after Isabel isolated them.
The hurricane carved a new
channel between their village and
Frisco, N.C.
0 50 km
A 3ft Atlantic Ocean
Kill Devil Hills
NORTH ' Ti \t12)
CAROLINA "Vo* '-Hatteras
Frlscp
atteras«ii Cs p e
'3 x
JacksoiTvi^^' / j
Island
isco
' I Hatteras
Morehead
City
Village
isolated
after storm
VA.
Raleigh ★
N.C.
s.c.
0 100 mi
. 0 100 km
^T
Atlantic Ocean
See Hurricane on page 2 SOURCES: ESRI; Associated Press AP
Car bomb explodes near U.N. compound in Baghdad
By Steven R. Hurst
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide bomber, his
body wrapped in explosives and his car filled
with 50 pounds of TNT, struck a police check
point outside U.N. headquarters in Baghdad on
Monday, killing an Iraqi policeman who stopped
him and wounding 19 people.
A U.S. military spokesman at the scene said
the bomber, who also died in the 8:10 a.m. blast,
was trying to get into the U.N. compound at the
Canal Hotel, where a truck bomb a month ago
killed 23 people including the top U.N. envoy to
Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Monday’s attack
wounded two U.N. workers.
The attack, apparently timed to snarl attempts
by Washington to win U.N. legitimacy for the
U.S. occupation of this Arab country, could
diminish the world body’s willingness to become
more deeply involved in Iraq’s reconstruction.
The United Nations already sharply reduced its
work here after the Aug. 19 bombing.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that if
the situation continues to deteriorate, U.N. opera
tions in Iraq “will be handicapped considerably.”
“I am shocked and distressed by this latest
attack on our premises in Baghdad, Annan said at
the United Nations.
“We are assessing the situation to determine
what happened, who did it, and taking further
measures to protect our installations,” he said.
The blast, which could be heard over much of
the Iraqi capital, took place a day before
President Bush was to address the U.N. General
Assembly. He was expected to offer an expanded
U.N. role in rebuilding Iraq, a condition set by
many nations for contributing peacekeepers and
money to the reconstruction effort.
Annan has said he wants assurances of securi
ty for U.N. personnel in Baghdad along with any
expanded role.
The bomber in Monday’s attack was blocked
at a newly established police checkpoint on a
street in back of the compound. As police
inspected the bomber’s car, he detonated the
explosives.
Praising new security arrangements around
the hotel, a U.S. military officer at the scene
credited Iraqi police with preventing an even
greater tragedy.
“I reiterate that he was not through the check-
See Baghdad on page 2
Governor’s office
proposes West
Texas compromise
By Natalie Gott
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — In an effort to end a GOP stale
mate over congressional redistricting. Gov. Rick
Perry’s office has put together a West Texas com
promise that top House officials support but that
some Senate Republicans rejected.
One senator noted that the map showed only
how seven West Texas districts would be drawn,
but does not show how districts in central, east
and parts of far South Texas would look.
“When they only draw seven out of 32 (dis
tricts) it’s kind of hard to negotiate in good faith,”
said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor.
Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, said he could not
support a map that “needlessly dissects a commu
nity of interest in the Texas Panhandle.” The pro
posal divides that region into two districts.
Rep. Phil King, a Republican from
Weatherford who wrote the map the House
approved last week, unveiled the governor’s pro
posal Monday and said it was acceptable to him
and Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick.
“It has been put together and shopped by the
governor’s office as they’ve attempted to try to
help move along this process,” King said. “I hope
that the Senate will take a very hard look at this
work that the governor’s office has done.”
The new proposal places Midland and
Lubbock in two separate congressional districts,
as Craddick wants. A map approved by a Senate
committee last week that is set to be debated on
See Compromise on page 2