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Mume 110 • Issue 63 • 10 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattalion.net
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
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JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Members of A Company (from left) freshman aerospace engineer
ing major Reid Zevenbergen, freshman general studies major
Paxton Miller and junior BIMS major Sarah Calberg, enjoy free
time to exercise at Spence Park Monday afternoon. Last weekend,
fish participated in corps Brass Weekend and have received favor
among the upperclassmen as their symbolic journey into the Corps.
The fish get to take part in fun activities such as flag football and
foot races because the past few days are considered "good bull."
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College Station is bicycle friendly
By Pammy Ramji
THE BATTALION
College Station was recently named among 26 other com-
iownhouse ^unities as a bicycle-friendly community by the League of
merican Bicyclists.
In May 2003, 14 communities were given the Bicycle
nendly Community designation. The League honored anoth-
13 communities, including College Station, in October.
“This award is a way to recognize communities around
lie country that have done the extra work and that have built
Jupport to become bicycle friendly,” said Patrick
MBrianS McCormick, communications director for the League of
American Bicyclists.
The League of American Bicyclists is an awards program
Icknowledging cities that actively support bicycling. A bicy
cle-friendly community provides secure accommodations for
cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transporta
tion and recreation.
Cherie Norman, a junior marketing major who trained in
town for a triathlon, said she believes College Station is a
good city for bikers.
“I’ve noticed from traveling to different towns that this is
one of the only places that has bike lanes,” Norman said.
Jason Ballard, a junior vertebrae zoology major and
triathlete, said motorists elsewhere do not always give cour
tesy to bikers because the sport is relatively uncommon in the
United States. College Station, however, is more biker
friendly, he said.
“In town is great because there are a lot of bike lanes and
people are used to seeing a lot of bikers,” Ballard said. “Out
of town is great, too, because it isn’t very populated and the
roads have big shoulders.”
See Bicycle on page 2
FDA debates over-the-counter
Emergency contraception
Preventing pregnancy in an emergency
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By Lauran Neergaard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Federal health
Officials are debating if it’s time to put
imergency contraception — also called
6-6117.9>'^ e morn j n g-after pill — on pharmacy
helves right next to the aspirin, avail-
$59# Me without a prescription.
1 Peered Proponents say such a move would
reatly increase women’s ability to get
k pills in time to prevent pregnancy:
referably within 24 hours but no more
ian 72 hours after rape, contraceptive
[ailure or just forgetting birth control.
The Food and Drug Administration
ays emergency contraception is very
afe to use, but the question is whether
vomen will understand exactly how
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and when to take it without any profes
sional advice.
Indeed, the morning-after pill marks
the first in a series of ever more com
plex over-the-counter switch decisions
facing FDA. Next year, the agency will
be asked to allow nonprescription
Mevacor, one of the popular choles
terol-fighting statins; it expects to even
tually consider over-the-counter blood
pressure medicine, too.
And as OTC drugs evolve from
quick symptom relief to more complex
therapy, the FDA is mulling whether it’s
also time to change how some of them
are sold — perhaps beginning “behind-
the-counter” sales for certain nonpre
scription drugs, where the pharmacist
hands over the pills after giving health
The ‘■morning after pill"
boosts hormone levels
that can prevent
pregnancy. Scientists say
the drug may work in
different ways.
The drug
First dose is taken within
72 hours of unprotected
sex. Second dose is taken
12 hours later.
Availability
► Planned Parenthood clinics
► Several Web sites will for
ward a prescription to a nearby
pharmacy after a doctor
reviews a medical
questionnaire the woman has
filled out
► Pharmacists in Alaska,
California, Hawaii, New Mexico,
and Washington have authority
to dispense prescription
medication
The ovary
can delay
an egg’s
release
Fertilization may
be prevented in
the fallopian tube
May block a
fertilized egg from
implanting in the
uterus
Mucus around
cervix may
become thicker
and trap sperm Cervix
from traveling to
the fallopian tube
SOURCES: Food and Drug Administration; Women’s Capital Corp. AP
advice or, say, a cholesterol check.
Already, five states allow women to
buy the morning-after pill directly from
certain pharmacists without a doctor’s
prescription. The state programs — in
See Contraception on page 2
Journalism closure
is one step closer
By Sonia Moghe
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M Executive Vice
President and Provost David B. Prior
announced in a news release Monday
his acceptance, in principle, of a pro-
ppsal regarding alternate journalism
education options. This signifies a step
toward closing the A&M journalism
department.
“Students currently enrolled in the
program will be finishing their degree
as they planned,” said Charles A.
Johnson, dean of the College of Liberal
Arts. “This includes students that got
into the program this year.”
A plan proposed to Johnson by the
Committee to Recommend New
Initiatives in Journalism Education
suggested that the University offer a
new journalism minor and certificate
program and an interdisciplinary pro
gram that emphasizes journalism
studies and studies in another specific
field. This will affect students not
already in the journalism program
who wish to study journalism.
“(The proposed plan is) quite flexi
ble,” said Barbara Gastel, a committee
member and associate professor of the
Department of Journalism. “To me, good
preparation to be a journalist includes
preparation in journalism and concentra
tion in some other field of study.”
The committee was made up of six
faculty members from journalism, the
Department of English and the
Department of Communication, a stu
dent, three professional journalists and
an associate dean who served as an ex-
officio member. Its purpose was to take
into account that the current
Department of Journalism cannot cur
rently offer an adequate journalism pro
gram, that funding needed to improve
the program is not available and that a
journalism degree is not a necessary
component of journalism education in
devising an alternate degree plan.
“Our charge was simply to suggest
what would be a new plan for new path
ways for journalism education,” said
Richard Street, a committee member and
head of the communication department.
Aside from the proposed minor and
certificate program and the interdisci
plinary program, the committee pro
posed the addition of a journalist-in-
residence fellows program, as well as a
Journalism Update
a Dean of Liberal
Johnson endorsed
a plan to provide
students with a
eduation:
Create a minor and a
certificate program in
journalism
Form a journalism-in-
residence program
Develop internships
Create an advisory
organization of
journalists
rij Create an
interdisciplinary
journalism major
■ Close the journalism
department and
move the master's
program
ANDREW BURLESON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE : COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
journalism advising committee.
Individual advising to current journal
ism students will continue throughout
the course of their education.
“They’ll start the process of closing
the department at the same time they
start the process of implementing the
interdisciplinary program,” Street said.
The official-closure of the depart
ment will happen only after official
approval from the Board of Regents,
which will simultaneously be
processed as the implementing of the
interdisciplinary program- gets
approval. It may take two years to
develop a degree plan for the interdisci
plinary plan and to earn approval from
University officials and the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board.
In the meantime, Prior might allow
for a journalism minor to be an option
to students, Street said.
“I think this plan is a tremendous
change because it affords students more
See Prior on page 2
UT proposes inclusion
of race as entrance factor
AUSTIN (AP) — The University of
Texas at Austin has submitted a propos
al to begin considering race and ethnici
ty among the many factors to determine
acceptance in undergraduate, graduate
and law school applications.
The UT System, which in August
approved a policy allowing individual
campuses to decide whether to adopt
affirmative-action criteria in admis
sions, must review the proposal before
new guidelines can be implemented.
State law requires changes in admis
sions policy to be posted a year in
advance, so race and ethnicity probably
would be used as a consideration of the
2005 entering class.
In the freshman admissions process,
the proposal is to include the use of race
and ethnicity among about 15 factors in
addition to academic factors.
“In the individual review we are
looking for qualified students who can
benefit the most from or contribute the
most to the diverse and challenging
educational experience at The
University of Texas at Austin,” UT Vice
Provost Bruce Walker said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
June that colleges and universities
could use race as a consideration in
admissions, overturning the 1996
Hopwood decision, which barred the
use of race in college admissions,
scholarships and financial aid.
Cheryl Hopwood was one of four
white applicants who were turned away
by the UT law school and sued in 1992.
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Car sales irritate
consumers most
A recent survey asked consumer
protection agencies to list the
categories that generated the
most complaints in 2002. Buying
a car was the most frequent
complaint because of false sales
promotions, misleading
advertising, financing problems,
undisclosed damage and title and
registration issues.
COMPLAINT % OF AGENCIES
CATEGORY LISTING CATEGORY
Auto sales
70%
Home repairs
67%
Auto repairs
63%
Credit
60%
Advertising/
telemarketing
42%
Collections/
billing practices
26%
Household goods
23%
Internet/e-commerce
23%
Telecommunications/
cable/satellite
23%
Real estate/landlord-tenant
23%
SOURCES: National Association of Consumer Agency AP
administrators; Consumer Federation of America
Automotive sales top list of consumer complaints
By Jonathan D. Salant
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Suzanne Tejeda
needed transportation to college so she
bought her first car last February. But since
then she says she’s spent more time driving
to the repair shop than to her classes.
The car’s transmission has been
replaced. So have the windshield and
switches for the power windows. She com
plained to the Contra Costa County, Calif.,
consumer protection bureau and now is
preparing to go to court.
“I thought I was going to be able to have
my car and drive it and not take into the shop
every week,” said Tejeda, 20, a student at
Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Calif.,
about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Tejeda has lots of company when it
comes to car problems. Hassles related to
buying new or used vehicles top the 2002
list of most frequent consumer complaints.
That’s according to a survey released
Monday by the National Association of
Consumer Agency Administrators, which
represents government agencies that protect
consumers, and the Consumer Federation of
America, a consumer advocacy group.
The annual list reflects categories of
complaints most often made to state and
local consumer protection agencies. The 43
agencies responding to the survey reported
309,227 complaints in 2002, up 23 percent
from 2001, and helped consumers get $130
million in refunds last year, an 18 percent
increase over the previous year.
Complaints about automobile purchases
moved up from the No. 2 spot on the 2001
list. It replaced home repairs, which fell to
second place. Those categories have occu
pied the top two spots for the last five years.
Among the most frequent complaints
about buying autos were false sales promo
tions, misleading advertising, financing
problems, undisclosed damage and title and
registration problems.
See Consumer on page 2