Aggielife: Gridiron grudges • Page 3
Opinion: Danger on the high seas • Page 1 3
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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
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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
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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
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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