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Acgielife: Where have all the howdies gone • Page B
Opinion: Big brother is watching • Page 7
THF RATTAT TON
A LLJu AJZjl X X-TLXjXVyii
Volume 110 • Issue 62 • 8 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net
Monday, November 24, 2003
SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION
Student bonfire burns
By Sonia Moghe
THE BATTALION
The centerpole in this year’s off-campus stu
dent bonfire collapsed at 3:13 a.m. Nov. 22, pre
dicting that Texas A&M would beat the
University of Texas in next week’s highly antici
pated football game.
Traditionally, if the centerpole of bonfire col
lapses before midnight, it is predicted that A&M
will lose to Texas, but if it collapses after mid
night, A&M will win.
This year marks the second year a bonfire was
held off campus. Since the 1999 Aggie Bonfire
collapse that resulted in the deaths of 12 Aggies
and the injury of 27 more, Aggie Bonfire’s ties
with the University have been severed.
Approximately 13,000 people attended the bon
fire, which took place on the privately-owned
property of Brad Zimmerman, an Aggie support
er, said Mack Lampton, Unity Project director.
Paul Harding, a senior animal science major
who helped build the bonfire, said the atmos
phere Saturday night was one of anticipation
and excitement.
“People weren’t quite sure what to expect because
it wasn’t a cake design like old bonfire,” he said.
The event was a success, Harding said, bring
ing together new and old Aggies. This year’s
attendance exceeded last year’s.
“When it lit, there was a moment of silence,”
Harding said. “People were in awe at how amaz
ing it looked.”
One minor injury was reported at the bonfire,
which was treated on site. None of the ‘gray pots’
— students who were tending the bonfire — were
hurt, Lampton said.
Aggie yells were conducted on autopilot in the
absence of the yell leaders, as thousands of peo
ple waited at the site for about 7,000 who were
held up en route because of shuttle bus delays.
“We probably should have had more buses,”
said Aaron Stagner, spokesman for the Unity
Project. “We even had lots of people walking
down the road to get there.”
Shuttle bus delays were due to a surge of peo
ple heading to the bonfire around 7:30 p.m.,
Harding said.
“We knew it was going to be a long trip, but
the problem was that everyone showed up at the
See Bonfire on page 2
Far left: Senior agriculture major
Jim Bouse leads the crowd in
Aggie yells during Unity Project's
off-campus bonfire held
Saturday night off Dilly Shaw
Tap Road in Bryan. The lighting
of the bonfire was originally
scheduled for 8 p.m. but was
postponed for nearly two hours
due to the large amount of stu
dents waiting to get in. At least
10,000 Aggies came out to
show off their burning desire to
beat the University of Texas.
Near Left: Students take a knee
during the off-campus bonfire
Saturday. The bonfire was
approximately 50 ft tall with a
bright orange outhouse on top.
This year was the Unity Project's
second year to build and burn a
student-run off-campus bonfire.
SHARON AESCHBACH* THE BATTALION
Two American soldiers
pummeled by Iraqi teens
By Mariam Fam
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi teenagers
dragged two bloodied U.S. soldiers from a
wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with
concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said,
describing the killings as a burst of sav
agery in a city once safe for Americans.
Another soldier was killed by a bomb and
a U.S.-allied police chief was assassinated.
The U.S.-led coalition also said it
grounded commercial flights after the mili
tary confirmed that a missile struck a DHL
cargo plane that landed Saturday at
Baghdad International Airport with its
wing aflame.
Nevertheless, American officers insisted
they were making progress in bringing sta
bility to Iraq, and the U.S.-appointed
Governing Council named an ambassador
to Washington — an Iraqi-American
woman who spent the past decade lobbying
U.S. lawmakers to promote democracy in
her homeland.
Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gun
men shot two soldiers driving through the
city center, sending their vehicle crashing
into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division
said the soldiers were driving to
See Soldiers on page 8
Attacks continue
Gunmen shot and killed two
American soldiers driving in Mosul
on Sunday. A crowd then looted
their vehicle and pummeled their
bodies with concrete blocks.
Elsewhere, one American soldier
was killed by a roadside bomb,
just outside Baghdad.
TURKEY
Two American
soldiers shot
and killed
SYRIA T
IRAQ
SAUDI X
ARABIA
0100 mi
0 100 km
Kirkuk
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uk /
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ad
American
soldier
killed by
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SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
Aggie soccer ends season in Sweet 16
Staff & Wire
THE BATTALION
Penn State used a goal and two
assists by Heidi Drummond in
Saturday’s NCAA third-round game to
defeat the No. 17 Texas A&M soccer
team 3-0 at Jeffrey Field in State
College, Penn.
A&M ended its season with a final
record of 13-6-3. The Aggies are one
of six teams in the nation to advance to
the NCAA Sweet 16 each of the last
five seasons.
No. 5 Penn State improved to 19-2-3
and will play the University of
California-Los Angeles in the NCAA
quarterfinals next
weekend.
“If you are not
going to win, you
want to get knocked
out by a better team,”
said A&M coach G.
Guerrieri. “Penn State
is a great team, both
physically and tacti
cally. The three goals they scored were
all excellent goals.”
Penn State took the lead in the 13th
minute on the 19th goal of the season by
Herrmann Trophy finalist Joanna
Lohman. Lohman scored from inside
the six-yard box, beating sophomore
A&M goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak low
GUERRIERI
and to the right. The goal was set up by
consecutive passes from Tiffany
Weimer and Drummond, who were both
credited with assists.
The Nittany Lions continued applying
offensive pressure to the Aggie defense,
and Drummond scored her 15th of the
season five minutes later when she fin
ished a cross from Ali Krieger to give
Penn State a two-goal lead.
Early in the second half, Wiemer,
also a Herrmann Trophy finalist, scored
her 21st goal of the season to give Penn
State a 3-0 lead.
A&M’s lone senior, midfielder
See Sweet 16 on page 8
Liberal Arts college
reviews Dean Johnson
By Rhiannon Meyers
THE BATTALION
Faculty in the College of Liberal Arts
continued a review of College of Liberal
Arts Dean Charles A. Johnson Friday
afternoon in a confidential meeting.
Faculty members met
with Associate
Provost and Dean of
Faculties Karan
Watson and Provost
and Executive Vice
President David Prior
to evaluate Johnson’s
performance as dean.
This meeting
marks the second
phase in an ongoing review of
Johnson, beginning with a faculty
questionnaire about him.
“Faculty members filled out a ques
tionnaire evaluating Johnson’s leader
ship, promotion of the college to the
University and outside public and
managerial style,” said C. Jan
Swearingen, professor of English and
Liberal Arts Caucus leader.
Watson said this midterm review is a
mandatory process in accordance with
University Rule 12.99.99.M5 section
3.4.1, “the provost shall initiate a pre
liminary review of new deans within the
first 24 months of service.” Reviews of
deans are University-wide occurrences.
In the review, faculty members
evaluated Johnson’s strengths and
weaknesses and made suggestions,
which will then be passed on to
Johnson following the review.
“This review is a way of taking the
pulse of the faculty,” said Dr. Douglas
Starr, a professor of journalism.
“Some like the things he is doing, and
some don’t.”
Several professors said some of
Johnson’s actions within the college
have been controversial.
“Some policies having to do with
exemplary merit raises are controver
sial,” said Janet McCann, professor of
English and a member of the Liberal
Arts Caucus.
Other actions, including Johnson’s
recommendation to close the
Department of Journalism and his poli
cies concerning teaching versus
research have caused a stir within the
college.
However, several professors
expressed satisfaction with Johnson’s
performance as dean.
“Dean Johnson is doing exactly
what he should be doing,” said Kim
Hill, a professor of political science. “If
we want to be a better college and a bet
ter University, we are headed in the
right direction with Dean Johnson.”
Swearingen said an announcement
is expected in two weeks regarding the
results of the review. University action
towards Johnson will depend upon the
results of this review.
“It’s just a lot of discussion right
now,” Swearingen said.
JOHNSON
Date for annual Elephant Walk approaches
By Jenna Jones
THE BATTALION
Whitney Walker, a senior
education major, has to skip
class to attend Elephant Walk
this year. She attended Junior
E-Walk last year as well but left
early because of “cold and
nasty” weather.
“I am going with some
friends that I have known
always and some that are new
from school, which represents
my time here well” Walker
said. “It is a time of closure,
some of your final moments
with your friends here in your
last year of school. I definitely
think it will be a memory that I
will always keep with me.”
In the fall of 1922, the Texas
A&M class of 1926 decided to
take one final walk around the
campus to remember their time
spent in Aggieland and the
friends and memories they had
made. As they walked single
file, each man with his hand on
the shoulder of his friend
before him, an observer noted
that they “looked like ele
phants, about to die.”
Thus the second-oldest
standing tradition at A&M was
born: Elephant Walk. In subse
quent years, this became a tra
dition reserved for seniors that
takes place before the last foot
ball game of the season each
year, according to A&M Class
Councils.
“It started revolving around
a particularly bad football sea
son, so one of the things that
Elephant Walk signifies is that
the seniors are no longer part of
the Twelfth Man, representing
their ‘death,’” said Heather
Louder, co-director of Elephant
Walk and a senior international
studies major. “That’s why it
happens before the t.u. game
every year.”
As the years progressed,
Elephant Walk became a much-
anticipated celebration.
“It is meant to be a time of
remembrance, unity and class
togetherness,” Louder said. “It
is one of the last times for the
senior class to come together at
an event specifically for the
senior class.”
See Elephant on page 2
Elephant Walk 2003 -Nov. 25
• Began in 1922 as a way to help
the football team
• Symbolic of the end of the senior
class' worth to the student body
• Class of 2005 starts Jr. E-Walk at
2:06 p.m. and Class of 2004
starts at 2:04 p.m. at Kyle
Field
For more information, see:
http://classcouncils.tamu.edu/elephantwalk
CRACIE ARENAS • THE BATTALION
SOURCE : CLASS COUNCILS