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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2003)
Aggielife: Gridiron grudges • Page 3 Opinion: Danger on the high seas • Page 1 3 toricj' 'ji/r co% |olume 110 • Issue 59 • 14 pages A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893 www.thebattalion.net First VP of diversity takes office Conservative student group opposes Anderson’s position ■ Wednesday,j|ovember 19, 2003 Anderson Takes On New Job Associs: (ees cat vesst evardis of Bir leived a id Wat afore (E ans, lace ode a irset-R:’ ie (Aw ada((te: ; IntheZc’: i stores. n). m thefte theAAR : By Lauren Smith THE BATTALION Dr. James Anderson is officially moving into Texas A&M’s newly firmed position of vice president lid associate provost for institution- | assessment and diversity today. Anderson will also join the 'ollege of Liberal Arts as a profes sor of psychology. His office is icated at 607 Rudder Tower Julian Lopez, a junior manage- ent major, has helped organize a ovement to demonstrate the sup- rt of the student body in the niversity’s attempts to become lore diverse and increase awareness of diversity issues. Lopez said he called several organizations to help in the collabo rative effort to pass out fliers about Vision 2020, the Student Government Association’s commit ment to diversity and free Little Debbies desserts Wednesday. The welcoming efforts are not the only events surrounding Anderson’s arrival tomorrow. The A&M branch of the Young Conservatives of Texas is protesting the initiation of the position it calls the “VP of discrimination.” Mark McCaig, junior marketing major and communications director of YCT, said Anderson’s salary alone, $170,000, could cause fund ing for academic programs and stu dent programs to be cut. The organization is putting on an affirmative action bake sale tomor row at the Academic Plaza in which the price of baked goods is based on the race of the person purchasing, with whites paying the most. “We are trying to show the ludi crous nature of racial preferences in not only higher education, but also in society in general,” McCaig said. Lopez said people should not be scared of diversity, which he said has little to do with minorities, but rather is concerned with other things such as being from a small or big town, being Catholic or Baptist, Jewish or Muslim. “Diversity is so much more than race,” Lopez said. “The new VP of diversity is not mentioning affirma tive action. People should consider what they are doing before protest ing something like this, and making people feel unwelcome is not what Aggies do, because minorities do feel uncomfortable because of things like this.” YCT is also starting a pledge drive in which a white student can volun tarily give up a spot at A&M to give to someone who is more “diverse.” “They (YCT) have the right to say or do what they want,” Lopez said. “We are not going against them, just supporting the administra tion and Vision 2020.” See Diversity on page 2 Previously served as vice provost for Undergraduate Affairs and professor of counselor education. Holds a B.A. in psychology from Vellanova University and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University. Anderson will also serve as a professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts. SETH FREEMAN • THE BATTALION SOURCE : TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY Gone to the dogs ug costs pocket jt-of- isurance equires ewai$ /ear. 16, up It nployers •ees. idicted . nor S® dm ic, prices I ■ee ® ig com iocs yiDJ RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION Recreation parks and tourism sciences majors junior Ben Morton and sophomore Adam Mayard walk their dogs through Research Park late Tuesday afternoon. Mayard's dog, Dodger, is a Rhodesion Ridgeback, originally bred to hunt lions. The Ridgeback has increased in popularity as a recre ational dog. A&M advisory board focuses on marketing SLOCUM By Justin Smith THE BATTALION Marketing was the key at the Texas A&M Communications Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday. The committee hosted former A&M head foot ball coach R.C. Slocum, now serving as Special Adviser to the University presi dent. Slocum out lined the goals of the A&M Communications Steering Committee, which he chairs, emphasizing that promoting the University’s strong suits while squashing old, negative stereotypes can only help to build the University’s reputation. “(A&M) has grown rapidly, but the average person outside of College Station won’t know that,” Slocum said. By marketing the University and highlighting its positive aspects, Slocum hopes to do several things. “We hope to continue to attract quality students.We have an initiative right now to hire over 400 new facul ty, so we want to be able to go out and get quality people to come and work for Texas A&M. We want to continue to pull in research dollars,” he said. “We want to make sure the Texas Legislature has a good opinion of the work we are doing here at Texas A&M so when it comes time to appropriate funds to sustain or efforts here, we are seen favorably.” Slocum said the Communications Steering Committee has three sepa rate task forces working under it to accomplish these goals. The first is the task force on mar keting, which Slocum is chairing. This group knows A&M is lack ing an infrastructure for marketing and is researching peer institutions to see how they market themselves, and how tho'se institutions think A&M could market itself better, Slocum said. To do this, the group has sur veyed Purdue, the University of Texas, Kent State, University of California-LA and Pennsylvania State. The second task force is on organization for marketing commu nications. This group will look more closely at A&M and its marketing flaws, striving to solve some of those flaws from within. The final task force is the Web management task force, which is try ing to cut frivolous Web page mainte nance costs and create some uniformi ty in the Web pages hosted by A&M. See Marketing on page 2 itic le»i wete^ lie ns’sp® epubl' C; [trillion i refits' 01 UT system approves tuition increases By April Castro THE ASSOCIATED PRESS sW 1 AUSTIN — The University of pllafi k'Mexas System Board of Regents on Tuesday approved tuition jtiteU increases at all nine campuses, . using new rate-setting powers ^nonrgranted by the Legislature to off set state budget cuts beginning in the spring semester. “The cuts we have suffered are astounding,” UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof said. ■‘It’s clear to every- 'ody that tuition is ;oing to have to go up significantly.” After slashing Appropriations to ligher education, the -egislature in June ?ave public universi ties in the state per mission to set their nwn tuition rates. Yudof and the UT System have advocated deregulat ing tuition . long before it was known how deep the budget cuts would be during the most recent legislative session. The increases will affect about 178,000 students at campuses in Arlington, Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, Edinburg, El Paso, Odessa, San Antonio and Tyler. The -flue Brownsville and Edinburgh cam puses will not institute increases until the fall 2004 semester. At UT-Dallas, for example, an undergraduate currently pays $2,140 in tuition and fees for 12 hours. In the spring, that figure would increase 11 percent to $2,380. For fall 2004, tuition and fees would be $2,668, an increase of 25 percent over the fall 2003 rate. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst last week asked Texas universi ties to wait to implement tuition increases until lawmakers could review their impact. He said many of the proposals were higher than he anticipated. “I will ask the Legislative Oversight Committee on Higher Education to convene in December to review accountabili ty, affordability and accessibility at our public universities,” Dewhurst said in a statement Tuesday. “I will ask the oversight committee to review current and future tuition See Tuition on page 2 '•IIM a M MavaShock" What: A poetry slam Where: P. David Rome! Center for the Arts When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. ►A two-round competition with a $25 first prize ► There will be an open mic for poets who do not wish to compete ► No cover charge Javashock unites county poets By Sonia Moghe THE BATTALION RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION SOURCE : P. DAVID ROME As a published poet who earned his doctor ate in medieval history, P. David Romei, execu tive director of the Arts Council of Brazos Valley, said he is interested in bringing order from chaos. In his poem titled “Stockholm” from his book “A Thousand Feathers,” he writes: “Bring the many to the one.” This Thursday, he will be doing just that as he allows slam poets and those interested in the art to gather at the P. David Romei Center for the Arts at Wolfpen for Javashock, the first of a series of quarterly poetry slams that will take place in dif ferent locations throughout the county. “I am a firm believer that we need to support poetry and literature — they are underserved, underfunded and underappreciated around the world,” Romei said. “But I think appreciation of the arts here is at a zenith. Brazos County has become a mecca for the arts, taking in groups from surrounding areas.” Javashock will present the county with a slam poetry contest, complete with a first place prize of $25. “We’ve gotten a lot of community sponsor ships,” said Kelli Hollinger, MSC Literary Arts Committee adviser. “We want to move the venue around to attract different poets.” See Javashock on page 2 a t Its clear to everybody that tuition is going to GSC admits new gay student association have to go up^ significantly. — Mark Yudof UT system chancellor By Eric Ambrose THE BATTALION The Rainbow Graduate Student Association was admit ted as a non-departmental organization (NDO) at the Graduate Student Council meeting Tuesday night. The group, which represents gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans gender students, is the second NDO to be admitted to the GSC. The International Graduate Student Association was the first organization to be admitted last year to represent all inter national graduate students. “Non-Departmental Groups were created because there was a concern that there were groups of people that were not being adequately represented for whatever reason,” said Matt Wilkins, legislative affairs offi cer for GSC. “There are certain broad categories of people that supercede departmental issues.” The GSC constitution was changed in 2002 to allow NDOs to participate in the GSC. The purpose of these groups is to deal with issues outside of departmental con cerns, said Josh Peschel, GSC president. “It attempts to ensure that groups within the University have representation and that those issues are brought up in the GSC forum,” Peschel said. Texas A&M was rated the 12th least gay-friendly campus in the United States, according to the most recent Princeton Review survey. Only about 10 percent of the student population is gay, les bian, bisexual or transgendered (GLBT), and it is difficult to represent GLBT issues among a larger constituency such as a departmental representative, said Michael Moore, financial officer for the Rainbow Graduate Student Association. “GLBT students are often concerned with being outed,” Moore said. “Even if someone GLBT is a departmental repre sentative, they may say nothing for fear of being exposed.” The Rainbow Graduate Student Association will also serve as a median to bring GLBT issues to the attention of University officials. Whereas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Aggies is primari ly a social group composed of mostly undergraduates, the graduate association will address issues that concern GLBT graduate students. The first topic that will be addressed by Rainbow See GSC on page 2