ir ■ ^ Tuesday, April 13,2004
The Battalion
olume 110 • Issue 127 • 12 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
OPINION:
Child-care
center needs
more money.
Page 11
www.thebatt.com
PAGE DESIGN BY: EMILY HENDRICKSON
ildebrand’s financial report questioned
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By Kyle Ross
THE BATTALION
Aaron Kinsey, a senior accounting
major, has accused the Election
lommission of improperly disclosing
lected president Jack Hildebrand's
Judget of campaign expenses.
At a hearing Monday night,
Hiathan Platt, a member of
McAdams’ campaign staff, said
Hildebrand failed to disclose shipping
l|id handling expenses and inappropri
ately disclosed the expenses of stickers
and wristbands used.
During his campaign, Hildebrand
used wristbands and stickers to adver
tise his candidacy and political
stances. The items were purchased at
bulk prices.
According to campaign financial
reports, Hildebrand bought 1,000 wrist
bands for 22 cents apiece and 1,000
stickers for 6.89 cents apiece from
Scarborough Specialties Inc, based in
Lubbock, Texas.
However, Hildebrand did not use all
of the wristbands or stickers, Platt said.
Only 750 of the wristbands were used
and only 704 of the stickers were used.
When the items were dispensed,.
Hildebrand requested that they be pro
rated to the amount actually used.
Platt said prorating the unused items
allowed Hildebrand to use the 1,000
sticker and wristband amounts, but not
have to account for them.
“If he used them or not he, still needs
to give record for the entire expense,”
Platt said. “If he had chosen to buy only
500 wristbands they would have cost 26
cents per wristband, and if he had chosen
to order only 500 stickers it would have
cost 11.04 cents per sticker. For the
amount Jack actually used and at that
rate the wristbands and stickers would
have cost, it would have caused him to be
$51.31 over budget.”
Hildebrand also assumed he didn’t
have to pay for the shipping and handling
expenses when he bought the wristbands
and stickers from Scarborough
Specialties, Platt said.
“If he had to include shipping and
handling he would have gone over the
$1,000 budget limit even without the
prorating,” Platt said.
This year, the Election Commission
allowed candidates to prorate the items
they used during their campaigning, said
Brittany Golden, a sophomore business
administration major and finance chair
of Election Commission.
“It was an option given by me, and I
See Hildebrand on page 2
A country welcome
esident George W. Bush, left, escorts Egyptian President Hosni
ubarak after he arrived at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas Monday,
yonS®!
Eric Draper ■
April 1 2 to talk about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for a
unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
A&M’s top lawman,
Wiatt, steps down
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
In his more than 50 years in law
enforcement. Bob Wiatt has been
shot, stabbed and held hostage, but
he said that all-in-all he is thankful to
still be alive.
After 21 years as director of the
University Police Department, Wiatt
will step down to travel with his wife
Ann and spend more time with his
grandchildren.
“I am thankful that I am in rea
sonably good health and so blessed
to have been here,” he said.
Wiatt said his ailing health over
the past two years has forced him to
work half days, and it is time to let
someone else handle the job.
“I can’t chase or shoot anybody
anymore, so I figure I might as well
let some younger people have a shot
at it,” he said.
Wiatt said he had many memo
ries while working at A&M, but
the 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse is
the worst one.
Wiatt said he is proud that Texas
A&M has been ranked the least vio
lent campus in the nation.
Wiatt said he remembers two
cases occurring after 1995 involving
WIATT
the rape of two
women, but A&M
is now the most
secure and safe
campus in the
country.
Matt Josefy,
student body pres
ident and a senior
accounting major,
said most students take for granted
that A&M is one of the safest cam
puses in the nation and that Wiatt is
responsible for it.
’’Most students don’t know that
(Wiatt) is working on their behalf,”
Josefy said.
Wiatt began his career in 1951 as
an FBI agent serving in places such
as Atlanta, New York, Puerto Rico
and Houston, before transferring to
Bryan in 1958. He served two years
as chief investigator for the Brazos
County District Office in Bryan
before coming to A&M.
Wiatt received the spotlight for
his role in a 1974 prison siege at
Huntsville, where three convicts
held 16 people hostage for 11-and-
a-half days, resulting in a gunfight.
Wiatt said he killed one of the
See Wiatt on page 10
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\&M honored as
School of the Year
it RHA conference
By Carrie Pierce
THE BATTALION
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The Residence Hall Association has taken many strides in dif
ferent areas, dubbing this year one of its most successful years in its
story at Texas A&M, said Chris Mahaffey, RHA president and
mior civil engineering major.
Last month, the RHA received several honors at the Texas
esidence Hall Association Annual Conference held at A&M
niversity-Kingsville.
At the conference, all the RHAs in the state came together to
lare ideas and programs and compete for various awards,
lahaffey said.
This year, A&M’s RHA, the largest RHA in the state, received
vards for School of the Year, Most Philanthropic and Best Roll
all, as well as numerous individual member awards, Mahaffey
id.
“The School of Year award is the most prestigious award at the
inference,” said Chanille Dunbar, RHA national communications
iordinator and sophomore biomedical sciences major.
To receive the School of the Year Award, the RHA had to com-
)se a 30-page bid paper detailing why it was qualified to receive
e award, Mahaffey said.
“A major determinant was focusing our attention and energy on
dividual halls,” Mahaffey said.
The RHA’s involvement with on-campus residence halls has
ayed an important role with the bid, said sophomore journalism
ajor Emily Allen, director of public relations for RHA.
The RHA received the Most Philanthropic award for having the
■ See RHA on page 10
R IA Awards
Texas A&M’s RHA was recognized for its various
Bhievements during the 2003-2004 school year at
le Texas Residence Hall Association conference
. (Jfl last month.
• School of the Year
)W |il Iflost Philanthropic School
:insilt3est Roll Call
on five of the top 10
SSssfes. High-speed rail expected
House of Representatives that * • -g
m approximately 20 years
Trains could be set 20 feet
above the ground.
Trains could run between
300 and 400 miles per hour.
The rail line would connect
the south-central corridor,
which connects San
Antonio, Austin and Dallas,
to the Gulf Coast Corridor,
which runs from Houston
through New Orleans and
Mobile, Ala.
Andrew Burleson • THE BATTALION
Source : TEXAS HIGH SPEED RAIL
CORPORATION
By Jason Hanselka
THE BATTALION
The ability to go from College Station to
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport
in less than 20 minutes could be a reality with a
high-speed rail project that is expected to come
through the area in about 20 years.
A $284 billion transportation bill, recently
approved by the U.S. House of Representatives,
includes a proposal to study the feasibility of
building a high speed rail from Killeen to
Houston that would run through the Bryan-
College Station area.
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, chair
man of the Texas High-Speed Rail and
Transportation Corporation (THSRTC), said the
rail line would connect the south-central corri
dor, which connects San Antonio, Austin and
Dallas, to the gulf coast corridor that runs from
Houston through New Orleans and Mobile, Ala.
“This would be an opportunity for people in
Houston to have better access to the research
facilities at the George Bush School and Texas
A&M,” Eckels said.
Eckels said people at A&M, in turn, could
have better access to the business and academic
environment in Houston.
Ernie Wentrcek, THSRTC board member
and Bryan city councilman, said the primary
benefit will be mobility for the community to
quickly travel to Dallas, San Antonio or
Houston.
“This would also benefit Texas A&M in
that more students could reside outside of
Brazos County and attend the University,”
See Rail on page 10
Universe expansion is accelerating, astronomer says
By Rhiannon Meyers
THE BATTALION
Robert Kirshner, president of the
American Astronomical Society, said
Monday afternoon that the expansion of the
universe is accelerating
over time.
A group of 150 scien
tists, professors and stu
dents packed into a
small room in Rudder
Tower to listen to Kirshner’s speech,
“Supemovae and the New Cosmology.” The
audience chuckled as Kirshner, a world
renowned astronomer and author of “The
Extravagant Universe,” cracked jokes and
featured handmade drawings in his presenta
tion to explain his research.
Kirshner said that through the observation
of supemovae, or exploding stars, it has been
possible to determine that the expansion is
speeding up. Kirshner said this evidence
refutes the early scientific opinion that the
universe was static.
Kirshner said he hopes to revive Albert
Einstein’s idea of a cosmological constant, or
a term in his theory of general relativity asso
ciated with empty space which, over time, has
been dubbed Einstein’s “greatest blunder.”
“I call it the blunder undone,” Kirshner
said. “I want to dive into Einstein’s dumpster,
pick up his crumpled idea,
smooth it out and make it new
again. My proposal is to fix his
equation by sticking the cos
mological constant back in.”
Kirshner also refuted the
early idea that the universe was mostly made
up of matter, showing research that the uni
verse is comprised of 73 percent dark energy,
23 percent cold dark matter and 4 percent
atoms. Kirshner said this large percent of dark
energy is the main reason that the expansion
of the universe is accelerating.
“This is not your father’s universe,”
Kirshner said. “This is a very odd picture of
See Universe on page 2
Sharon Aeschbach • THE BATTALION
Robert P. Kirshner from the Harvard-Smifhsonian
Center for Astrophysics spoke about cosmology
Monday afternoon in Rudder.