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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2004)
«TA[ i The Battalion /uUime f (0 • Issue • 10 pages A Texas A&M T radition Since 1893 Sports: Women’s bas ketball team wins. Page IB www.thebatt.com PACE DESIGN BY : EMILY HENDRICKSON Fake Fives ■he Bryan Police Department ftcommends checking bills for Me iiifHuthenticity by looking at these iwersvBiaracteristics: Sonl^ TheCOlor of the bilL can* The cut the bil1, ^ «n DUH shouldn't be crooked or too ,, I small. there m ave On bills larger than $1 there Mf should be a watermark and a security strip. money,® ulso an®) The color should not run COmpklH"^ when the bill is wet. 1^ Andrew Burleson "THE BATTALION Source : WALT MELNYK, BRYAN P.D. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER B-CS hit with forged five dollar bills By Sonia Moghe THE BATTALION Area vendors are being warned to check all incoming bills after four reports of counterfeit $5 bills were made by local businesses last week. “At the last count we’ve had 20 $5 bills turned in,” said Walt Melnyk, public information officer for the Bryan Police Department. Will Lee Sims was arrested on Jan. 25 outside of King Mart on 8(H) E. MLK after being caught using counterfeit bills, Melnyk said. Reports of counterfeit bills were made on Jan. 29 at the Sonic and the Preference Inn Motel, located on South Texas Avenue. Tobacco Barn also reported a counterfeit five on Jan. 30. On Jan. 31, another report of counter feit $5 bills was made by the Appletree on 2001 E. State Hwy 21. Melnyk encourages those dealing with cash to invest in counterfeit detection pens which are available at most office supply stores. “(The pens) work off of a color coding system,” said Monty Northern, assistant store manager for Office Depot. “If a bill is marked by a pen and the mark turns yellow or clear, then it’s a legitimate bill; if the mark turns grey or brown then the currency is suspect.” Shirley Stratta, store manager for Appletree, said counterfeit pens helped her store detect forged bills. “We used the counterfeit pen,” Stratta said. “But the $5 bill was obvious; the ink was running and it was smaller.” Stratta says the store rou tinely checks $ 100 bills and $50 bills with the pens, but in light of the recent circumstances, it will start check ing $5 bills as well. Chris Johnson, assistant to the special agent in charge of secret service in Houston, said he does not feel that the pens are accurate. “The only things those pens do is iletect calcium that’s See Forged on page 2A ice lily idividm 'lamlarcl nd cli )f the 1 I sound'] [here a The j tod usej e of [>.| i a small tie of thl ;ople q oss Street construction clayed due to problems By Erin Price THE BATTALION ihough i :s and:. I. Finally imeplay: id in th ics don' null the- Ever since Erin Weigle came to Texas A&M n the fall of 2001, she has seen the cones on loss Street but has yet to watch any construction King done. I "I really think they need to hurry up with the ■instruction, said Weigle, a junior marketing iajor. “Ross Street is an inconven- k ce to everyone who uses it." I Dick Williams, assistant vice resident for Physical Plant, said tl ere is a plan for Ross Street, and tlat funds and other priorities ^^lave postponed the street’s rebuilding. “About six years ago, the cones i were placed as a safety precaution to block off a portion of the north side of the street,” Williams said. p au “We started the planning of w hat we Beedal to accomplish in Ofdei to iHermanently fix the street." I Williams said the reconstruction |f Ross Street was initially part of e Main Campus Roads and rainage project, which began in X)l. The highest priority at the time was to eor- ct the major flooding problems on Bizzell reel and New Main, as requested by the city of liege Station, he said. “We delayed the Ross Street issue because of present construction of the new Brown emical Engineering Building,” Williams said, ^e could not close Spence and Ross streets at ic same time.” William said the delays were also caused by — —abundance of utility lines that lie beneath Street. A 10-by-10 foot tunnel for water, dKC*electrical and telephone lines will have to be f r MC0[ itfltfWj eystohu- built underneath the street to avoid service interruption. “The hardest part of the project is going to be continuing (utility) service to the buildings along Ross Street,” Williams said. “Another major concern is protecting the surrounding trees.” Liz Adams, a junior psychology major, said she has almost given up hope that construction will ever start. “To me. Ross Street symbol izes laziness which in turn reverses productivity,” Adams said. “1 don’t think we are pro moting a productive environ ment.” Megan Fincher, a student bus driver and a sophomore interdisciplinary studies major, has also noticed the problems on Ross Street, but it does not bother her “It's not hard to maneuver (the buses)," Fincher said, “It’s usually the other cars and pedestrians that cause the traf- fie jams, but it’s usually not that bad.” Fincher said the sooner Physical Plant fixes all the potholes, that the better the driving con ditions will be. “As long as they're working on it to the best of their ability, that’s fine with me.” Fincher said. Williams said that once the final design is approved, construction on Ross Street will most likely begin in the spring of 2005. The project will cost about $6 million and take nine months to a year to complete, he said. “We will do our best to inconvenience the fewest number of students, faculty and staff as possible,” Williams said. We will do our best to inconvenience the fewest number of students, faculty and staff. — Dick Williams assistant vice president for Physical Plant The Wright stuff THE BATTALION )P Beato Charles Holt performs "Black Boy" in Rudder Theater on Wednesday evening. The play is based on a book by Richard Wright that depicts the troubles of a young African American from the South. eac 7, ilson named SC president By Rhiannon Meyers THE BATTALION Lindsey Wilson was named Memorial StULlent Center MSC) president for the 55th MSC Council late last month after n interview process with seven council members and staff. Wilson, a senior education major, will continue serving as xecutive vice president for human relations for the MSC ouncil until her official inauguration on April 19, 2004. As president, Wilson will be responsible for overseeing he council, speaking with University administrators and eaders of student organizations and handling all internal and xtemal MSC affairs. Wilson, who has been involved with the MSC Council for years, decided to get invoWed because of the council’s ,reat values. “It is a place where I found out I really fit in,” she said. Wilson decided to apply for president because she felt it as the best way she could serve the students. “1 put a lot of thought into where I wanted to be my last ear at A&M, and I know how much passion 1 have for the SC council,” Wilson said. Current MSC Council President Elizabeth Dacus said ilson was chosen because she is highly qualified for the osition. “She worked directly under me for two years and has done fabulous job,” Dacus said. “I expect that she will deal well ith any problems that come up and manage the council well.” After inauguration, Wilson plans to maintain the new SC Council structure, continue the commitment to diversi on campus and provide quality programming for students, ilson also plans to write out a code of ethics for the MSC or the first time in MSC history. “1 want to show the University and students involved in the SC that we value ethic behavior and that we are fully com- itted to making this an ethical organization,” Wilson said. tour Busting feminist stereotypes By Carrie Pierce THE BATTALION Women have come a long way since the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, said Jennifer Baumgardner in front of a crowd of about 100 people Wednesday night at the Memorial Student Center. The lecture is part of the “Can I Be a Feminist and Shave, Love My Boyfriend, Make Money, Get Married, Be Pro-Life?” campus tour. “Women used to have to sneak into the Boston Marathon,” Baumgardner said. “We’ve had so many opportunities in our lifetime to see that women are strong. Today we define feminism as having access to enough information to make informed choices about your life.” Baumgardner, along with Amy Richards, spoke to promote the book they co-wrote in 2000, “Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future.” This book discusses Generation X’s view of feminism and dismisses stereotypes that feminism has come to be associated with. It also questions what feminism is today and where it is as a movement. Richards said. A woman can still be herself and be a feminist, Richards said. The third wave of feminism exists today and this wave has its own characteristics. The main difference is the recent issues concerning reproductive rights. See Feminist on page 2A Evan O'Connell • THE BATTALION Jennifer Baugardner speaks about feminism and promotes her new book, "Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future," Wednesday night in the MSC. fljl See Wilson on page 2A Bonfire memorial progressing Evan O'Connell • THE BATTALION Roberto Solis (left) and Baldemar Hernandez nail beams in place for the "spirit ring" on Wednesday afternoon. The "spirit ring" will have 12 portals. By Pam my Ramji THE BATTALION Construction on the Bonfire Memorial, slat ed to be competed this fall, is making progress as the first delivery of granite panel stones arrived from China late last month, Texas A&M officials said. Preparations for the memorial to honor the 12 Aggies killed and 27 injured in the Nov. 18, 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse began last year. The granite panel and stones, part of the tra dition plaza and history walk, are going to be installed this month, said Martha Raney, administrative assistant for the Bonfire Memorial In May, the granite portals of the spirit ring will be installed. In August the bronze portals of the spirit ring will be installed, and the construction will be completed in October, Raney said. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 18, 2004, the fifth anniversary of the collapse. Richard West, father of Nathan West, one of the 12 stu dents killed in the collapse, rec ommended a firm in Houston that could the ship the granite to College Station from China, said Bob Shemwell, who is with See Bonfire on page 6B