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Sci-Tech: Aggies feel the HEAT • Page 6A
Opinion: Terror in the skies • Page 5B
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Volume 110 • Issue 45 • 16 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net
Thursday, October 30, 2003
New TS software provides students access
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
Parking permit sales, online ticket appeals and
tracking of towed vehicles will be available on the
Web for the Texas A&M community after
Transportation Services implements new software
Dec. 10.
The software will streamline operations and
serve as the backbone for Web-based services that
will be unveiled over the next year, said TS Director
Rodney Weis.
“By better managing our existing facilities,
we will be able to minimize permit price
increase over the next five years,” Weis said. "It
will also allow us to create a better space alloca
tion system that will maximize the use of avail
able space and reduce the need to build more
Thunderbirds
costly garages over the next 10 years.”
The software, PowerPark, was purchased for
$261,000 from T2 Systems Inc., an Indianapolis,
Ind., company, and was paid for with general park
ing funds, Weis said.
“While this may seem high, it is reasonable
when compared to what it would cost to develop a
program internally with the functionality that
PowerPark has,” Weis said.
Weis said the same software was purchased
when he served as director of transportation
services at both the University of Illinois and
Georgia Tech.
“The (Georgia Tech) system has become a model
for other universities to follow when implementing
system changes that enhance efficiency and increase
the utilization of space,” Weis said.
Charles Bass, Georgia Tech parking system sup
port specialist, said the software runs all of the
school’s transportation operations, including ticket
ing, letter-writing and permit sales.
"Anything that we do in parking is done through
PowerPark now," he said.
TS is currently preparing for implementation by
installing the software on 125 computers and train
ing staff to use it, Weis said.
“Our current software was developed in-
house a number of years ago and does not pro
vide the flexibility and access to information
that is needed to provide good, consistent cus
tomer service," Weis said.
One feature of the software is RoVR (Retrieval
of Vehicle Registrations), which is intended to
reduce the number of untraceable, unpaid citations.
TS employees in the field will be equipped with
new palm pilots for writing tickets. The current elec-
NEW TS SOFTWARE
Transportation Services will implement new
software,, allowing students, staff and faculty
increased online access.
Ti
• Parking permit sales, ticket appeals
and tracking of towed vehicles will
be available online
• The new software will be implemented Dec. lO
• The $261,000 software was paid for with
general parking funds
Ruben Deluna • THE BATTALION
Source : TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
tronic ticket writers are 17 years old, Weis said.
See TS on page 9A
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After waiting in line for 30 minutes, Rachel Pratt, 3, of Bryan, gets her auto
graph book signed by Lead Solo Thunderbird Pilot Major Todd D.
Canterbury (left) and #5 Crew Chief staff Sgt. Jason Cooper in the musuem
JP Beato III • THE BATTALION
at the George Bush Presidential Library Wednesday afternoon. Pratt watched
Wednesday's performance over the library. The Thunderbirds will perform
today at 10:15 a.m. at the George Bush Presidential Library.
Food festival aids
India’s villages
By Nicole M. Jones
THE BATTALION
Two villages in western
India received electricity for
the first time last year,
thanks in part to proceeds
from the 2002 SWAAD food
festival, hosted by the
Association for India’s
Development (AID), a stu
dent organization at Texas
A&M.
The A&M chapter of
AID, established in March
2002, along with the AID
chapters in Austin, Md., San
Diego, Calif, and Ann
Arbor, Mich., jointly funded
a micro-hydroelectricity
project to the villages of
Bilgaon and Maal in
Maharashtra.
Since its inception last
year, the project has been
completed and electricity is
being provided to these vil
lages from a renewable
source, said Prasenjit
Sengupta, a volunteer in
AID and a publicity coordi
nator for SWAAD, the orga
nization’s food festival.
SWAAD, a word from
the Sanskrit language of the
ancient Hindu texts, means
“taste” or “flavor.”
“Though the 15 kilowatts
SWAAD Festival
The SWAAD festival will be held at 6 p.m.
tonight on the second floor of the MSC
and is sponsored by the Association for
india's Development
Registered U.S. non-profit organization
Supports variety of social development
projects
43 chapters in U.S.
First festival held in 2002
472 tickets sold last year
More than 100 volunteers involved
in planning
Ruben Deluna • THE BATTALION
Source: AID
of electricity produced may
seem a pittance by the stan
dards of even a small town,
one must keep in mind that
these villages had no access
to electricity prior to this
project,” Sengupta said.
“Now, life has been trans
formed there.”
Tonight from 7 to 10 p.m.
See Festival on page 9A
to help reestablish Iraq’s agricultural economy
By Dan Orth
THE BATTALION
le
tic
Texas A&M will be leading the way in helping to
rebuild Iraq’s agricultural economy by implement
ing a system to increase the country’s agricultural
production.
A&M has partnered with Development
Alternatives, Inc. on the project, which will receive
a U.S. Agency for International Development grant
worth $107 million during the next three years.
A&M and the International Ag Programs office
will lead several universities, international agricul
tural organizations and agricultural experts in
increasing Iraq’s agricultural production, agricultur
al research and improving its agriculture extension
service.
Ed Price, associate vice chancellor for
International Agriculture and Federal Relations, led
the charge in getting the grant.
“In Iraq, we hope to introduce agricultural tech
nologies, distribute these and help existing farms in
their production,” Price said.
A&M will have a key role in sharing technology
with Iraqis and providing faculty to assist in estab
lishing these plans and sharing their expertise.
Edward A. Hiler, vice chancellor and dean of the
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said he
believes this will be beneficial for Iraq and reflects
well on A&M.
“This is a great opportunity to help stabilize Iraq
by improving the economic well-being of its people.
It is also a recognition of the extensive international
expertise of our partners as well as our faculty here,”
Hiler said.
Price said that in other projects similar to this,
faculty and students are sent to countries to help
implement their plans, but that safety has been an
issue.
“Safety is a concern in working in Iraq, but we
will only invite students and^aculty to work in only
those areas declared safe by the U.S. government in
accordance with University policy,” Price said.
Price’s ideal plan is to send in nine groups of
three individuals to set up 40 demonstration farms
each. Demonstration farms will be displayed for
government officials and people interested in started
their own farming.
Seed for many agricultural products will be dis
tributed through various channels, providing agri
cultural and economic benefits. This will give qual
ity seeds to Iraq farmers but will also help entrepre
neurs get started in selling seeds.
“We are trying to avoid problems that occuned in
Afghanistan where seed giveaways hurt individual
entrepreneurs,” Price said.
Price said he believes that if agriculture can be
built up significantly, it will stabilize Iraq’s econo
my. Economic stability will lead to a more peaceful
Iraq and will bring American troops home, he said.
See Iraq on page 2A
Chiang remembered as "worthy 5 Senator Subject to recall petition
By Erin Price
THE BATTALION
Li-Wei Kuo met fellow Texas A&M
graduate student Cheng-Hsien Chiang at
the international airport in Taiwan this
summer. His first impression of Chiang
was that he looked reserved, but Kuo said
he came to realize over the fall semester
what a wonderful and faithful friend
Chiang was to him.
“Hsien was a worthy friend to have,”
Kuo said. “When you were in trouble, he
tried to help you out. When you were in a
bad mood, he’d encourage you and make
you happy.”
Chiang, 28, died Saturday at the Scott
and White Hospital in Temple from injuries
sustained in an automobile accident.
Edward Frank Sullivan V, 16, was also
killed in the wreck.
Kuo said he will
always remember Hsien,
as friends called him, as
a passionate and caring
person.
Kuo, an industrial
engineering graduate stu
dent, said Chiang was
CHIANG always there to lend a
hand. Chiang was plan
ning to help build a church and tutor needy
children in College Station during his win
ter vacation, Kuo said. Chiang was also an
active member of the First Baptist Church
in Bryan.
Kuo said Chiang encouraged him to
not become stressed about grades and to
learn more about their new lives in
American culture.
“Hsien liked to explore and discover
See Chiang on page 2A
By Sarah Walch
THE BATTALION
For the first time in the recent his
tory of the Student Government
Association, a Texas A&M student
has started a petition campaign to
recall a student senator.
In response to sophomore market
ing major Mark McCaig’s petition
for the recall of junior political sci
ence major Dustin Teems, sopho
more communications major Emily
Burden filed a motion late Monday
with the SGA’s judicial court to
appeal for an injunction to dismiss
the recall. Burden’s motion was filed
on the grounds that Teems has broken
no constitutional rules and that the
situation does not warrant taking
such extreme measures.
The Judicial Court will hear the
case, Emily Burden v. Mark McCaig,
Thursday in Wehner 103 at 7 p.m.
Chief Justice and sophomore busi
ness major Daniel Jones said each
side will have an opportunity to pres
ent its case and call witnesses at the
hearing before the court deliberates
and delivers its verdict.
McCaig, president of SGA Watch,
filed his request to petition for a recall
on Oct. 23, after an open-access
budget bill he pushed for passed by a
narrow margin of 27 to 21 in the
Senate. At the Oct. 22 meeting,
Teems spoke in opposition to the bill.
Before filing the petition, McCaig
spoke to Teems to clarify the student
senator’s position.
“He does not support alternative
channels to access budget informa
tion,” McCaig said.
McCaig said he believes people
who want to prevent easy access to
how students’ money is spent do not
make good representatives.
“Students want their representa
tive to represent them, not the SGA,”
McCaig said.
McCaig began his campaign for
more student government accounta
bility at the Oct. 8 Senate meeting,
after he discovered he was unable to
look at the line-item budget for SGA
committees before the budget went
before the Senate for approval.
“Students need to show student
government in a very clear manner
that they want easy access to budget
information,” he said. “What hap
pened to me when I requested the
budget from SGA officials is unac
ceptable.”
Senators who sympathized with
McCaig’s frustration wrote the Open
Access to Budget Bill as emergency
See Senate on page 9A
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