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Thursday, February 19,2004
The Battalion
Volume 110 • Issue 95 • 14 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
Sports:
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‘Defeat ignorance, support diversity’
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff attend rally to promote diversity
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By Anthony Woolstrum
THE BATTALION
“Aggies are diverse; we are
diverse.”
This statement and others were
chanted Wednesday afternoon as
hundreds of Texas A&M faculty,
staff, students and members of the
Bryan-College
Station community
gathered for a rally
sponsored by the
Faculty Committed
loan Inclusive Campus (FC1C) to
promote diversity on campus.
“We have to make sure that we
represent Texas A&M to the outside
community the way we want to be
represented," said James Anderson,
vice president for diversity.
The FCIC was created in the
wake of the YCT bake sale last
November, said Rogelio Saenz,
professor of sociology. The FCIC i s
dedicated to showing minorities in
Texas that A&M is not against them.
Members of YCT said the bake
sale was not supposed to be
indifferent.
“I don’t see the bake sale as
portraying a negative image.” said
Mark McCaig. a senior marketing
major and communications direc
tor for YCT.
After Anderson spoke, the crowd
marched to the Academic Building
and around campus chanting.
“I feel like this is just the first
step and definitely not the last
step,”said Natasha Eubanks, a sen-
iorpolitical science major and offi
cer in Student Senate. “There is
da lot of work to he done.”
Larry' Oliver, associate dean of
tie College of Liberal Arts and one
oftiie leading members of the FCIC,
was the case.
said the community needs to work
harder to increase diversity in every
respect, but that if that is going to be
achieved it needs to work together.
“Previous coverage of (the
diversity rally) implied that there
was a conflict between the admin
istration and FCIC. That never
Oliver said.
The office of
the president, the
office of the
provost, the
office of the
assistant provost and various fac
ulty and student organizations all
supported the event, Oliver said.
The A&M Student Government
Association pulled the plug on its
support of the rally at its meeting
last Wednesday because of the
FCIC position supporting affirma
tive action.
Oliver said this rally was not
about affirmative action but diver
sity as a whole.
Nonetheless, McCaig said he
vehemently disagrees with the
FCIC positions on affirmative
action and quotas and thinks the
University should base admissions
on merit and not race.
Harry' Berger, associate profes
sor of music and performance
studies, said different groups may
have different ideas on how A&M
can become more diverse, but to
move forward A&M must make
this movement more inclusive and
more diverse.
Josh Peschel, president of the
Graduate Student Council, com
pared the diversity rally to the hon
ored tradition of Elephant Walk.
“Today wc showed our support
for D-walk. diversity walk, like we
do for E-walk,” Peschel said.
Above: Supporters of the
"Compelling Interest: Diversity
at Texas A&M" rally participate
in the "Aggie March for
Diversity" Wednesday after
noon just outside the
Psychology building. The
march, which started at Rudder
Fountain, continued through
campus around the Academic
Building and back to the
Rudder Fountain area. Left:
Michael Jackson (left), class of
1988, and Thomas Spellman,
class of 1986, hold hands in
front of the Academic Building
in support of the march
Wednesday afternoon. The
march through campus was
organized by the members of
the Faculty Committed to an
Inclusive Campus and included
a rally at Rudder Fountain.
Photos 'by John C. Livas.
Corps elects new commanders kprc investigates
A&M regents’ flights
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
John Huffman and Kyle Tobin were cho-
a Tuesday to lead the Corps of Cadets
during the 2004-05 school year.
will serve as Corps command-
Tobin will serve as deputy Corps
commander.
The two were chosen by a board com
prised of current cadet leaders and military
Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. John
VanAlstyne received the recommendation
from the board and made the final decision.
a junior finance major, was
bom and raised in College Station and will
the highest-ranking cadet in the
Corps. He said he will be the face of the
Corps, the liaison between different levels of
and have the final say in most of
HUFFMAN
TOBIN
the policy decisions.
Tobin, a junior electrical engineering
major from Richmond, Texas, will help
Huffman lead the Corps and act as com
mander in his absence.
Both cadets said academics is their top
priority for the upcoming year.
“We want to make sure the Corps fresh
men and the rest of the cadets post averages
that we would be proud of,” Huffman said.
Tobin said the goal for freshmen grade
point averages next year will be 2.75.
“Scholastics is going to be the bench
mark of our administration,” Huffman said.
“It’s going to be the telling factor of whether
or not we’re doing our job effectively. After
all, the cadets are here to be students first,
and cadets second.”
Huffman and Tobin said they will also
focus on getting cadets to participate in a
variety of student organizations and hold
leadership positions.
“We would like them to get involved in
organizations in which they can shine, in
which they can show the traits and the char
acteristics that we’re trying to instill in them
in the Corps,” Huffman said. “We’d like
them to learn how to be a leader inside the
Corps and then go and really show that to
the rest of the University.”
See Corps on page 2A
Tuition deregulation prompts audit
By Jason Hanselka
THE BATTALION
The Legislative Budget Board for the
ite of Texas has called for an audit of
expenditures made by the Texas A&M
University System.
After the state Legislature ruled to dereg
ulate tuition last year, substantial increases
intuition at A&M and the University of
Texas prompted lawmakers to investigate
spending at both universities.
Cathy Smock, chief auditor for the A&M
System, said she does not believe the audit
was prompted by the
discovery of any
wrongdoings at the
institutions.
“They just want to
see if there is anything
they can do to help the institution manage its
spending,” she said.
Smock said a similar audit was done a
few years ago at Texas Southern University
when the task was delegated from the state
comptroller’s office.
“It was helpful,” Smock said. “It gave the
university some good ideas.”
Smock said many audits have
been done on public school sys
tems and very few on institutions
of higher education.
The Texas A&M Board of
Regents internally audits the A&M System
and publishes a yearly report on its findings.
See Audit on page 2A
By Rhiannon Meyers
THE BATTALION
Members of the Texas
A&M System Board of
Regents took 120 trips on the
System-owned
plane costing a
total of
$250,000 since
fall of 2001,
according to a
Feb. 10 KPRC-
TV Channel 2
Houston report.
In an official
statement
released Feb.
11, System offi
cials said the
System and
state aircraft is
used within
state law guide
lines and is nec
essary for the
regents, who are
unpaid volun-
teers, to con
duct state and University busi
ness.
The statement said no gen
eral revenue, student tuition or
fee money is used for travel
expenses.
“The fund used for travel is
the Available University Fund
(AUF), and that money comes
As a legislator I
would like to know
the details, and I'm
sure there's an
explanation for it.
— Fred Brown
District 14 Texas state
representative
from investment earnings from
land endowments that were set
aside back in the 1800s,” said
System spokesman Bob
Wright.
Wright said the cost per
flight is figured out in an
hourly rate.
“Our
billing rate
includes not
only gasoline
for the flights,
but maintenance,
salaries (of co
pilots and
pilots), benefits,
insurance, facili
ties and hangar
rental, radar and
some other air
craft expenses,”
Wright said.
“These costs are
prorated on an
hourly basis.”
KPRC report
ed only a few of
the nine regents
used the plane,
while others used commercial
airlines, drove or did not charge
the System for travel.
A&M Regent Susan Rudd
Wynn, M.D, had the highest
tab, according to the KPRC
report. In a Feb. 3 letter to
See Regents on page 2A
Students design safer, sustainable school buses
Evan O'Connell • THE BATTALION
Uniorenvironmental design major Vanessa Ortega shows off
tamodel bus Wednesday afternoon.
By Pa in my Ramji
THE BATTALION
Virginia Traweek said she spent so much
time in a school bus that she wishes she could
curl up and go to sleep in one while on a trip.
So, she designed a school bus that includes
12 fold-down beds, a bathroom, padding for the
bed in the storage on the bus and many other
facilities.
Tpiweek’s and other student’s designs were on
display Wednesday in the Langford Architecture
Building as part of the College of Architecture’s
presentation of the 28 Phase I Exploratory
Research and Design Project for “A Safer,
Sustainable, and User-Friendly School Bus.”
Traweek, a junior architecture major, calls her
bus “the Weekender” because the seats fold into
beds, which can be used on road trips. This way
school districts or students who go on overnight
trips do not have to pay for hotels, she said.
“The idea happened by accident. I was on the
debate team and spent a lot of time traveling on
the bus and sleeping on the bus for the most part.
Many students didn’t have the money (for a
hotel) so they couldn’t participate in activities,”
she said.
Traweek said it took her about 40 hours to
complete her design.
George Mann, endowed professor of health
facilities design at Texas A&M, said the project
is being undertaken to provide an actual learning
experience for students. They are undertaking an
unfunded interdisciplinary discussion, inquiry
See Design on page 2A