Friday, April 23, 2004
he Battalion
v'olume 110 • Issue 135 • 10 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
Opinion:
Dishonest blood
donors deserve strict
punishment.
Page 9
www.thebatt.com
PAGE DESIGN BY: EMILY HENDRICKSON
lix shares views about war in Iraq
HANS BUX
Hans Blix, former chief U.N. weapons inspector,
will speak to students and faculty Friday night
about his experiences as weapons inspector in
Iraq.
By Rhiannon Meyers
THE BATTALION
Hans Blix, former chief U.N.
leapons inspector, will speak to Texas
l&M students and faculty Friday
light about his experiences as a
kapons inspector in Iraq.
I Blix was appointed in 2000 to head
ie U.N. Monitoring, Verification and
nspections Commission. Blix will be
at A&M as part of the Wiley Lecture
Series and will be discussing the events
leading up to the war with Iraq and
promoting his first book “Disarming
Iraq,” released in March 2004.
Steven Pena, MSC Wiley Lecture
Series media contact, said Blix was
chosen to speak because his topic is
timely and supplements the current
debate and congressional investigation
on whether the United States was justi
fied in going to war with Iraq.
“It will be interesting to get all sides
of the story, and this speech can bring
to the table a unique perspective on
what was going on in Iraq,” Peiia said.
Pena said Blix will focus on his
work in Iraq, his experiences working
with President Bush and the Saddam
Hussein regime, and that he will give
insight into how the weapons inspec
tors went about looking for WMDs.
Pena said he doesn’t expect protests
at the speech, but encouraged students
to turn in written questions before the
speech that Blix will respond to in a
question-and-answer period following
the speech.
“(Blix) didn’t get where he is by not
being thrown in the fire before,” Pena
said. “We welcome anyone from the
See Blix on page 2
Ruben DeLuna • THE BATTALION
Source : STEVEN PENA, MSC WILEY LECTURE
SERIES MEDIA CONTACT
Ring power
Columbia loss
hard on NASA
WIDNALL
Evan O'Connell • THE BATTALION
conomics major Andrew Perry, (from left to right) biology major Benjamin
Wilson, aerospace engineering major Jacob Bonnot and political science
hajor Nicholas Taylor, show off their new Aggie rings inside the Clayton W.
Williams Jr. Alumni Center Thursday afternoon. 2,872 Aggies received their
rings Thursday, making it the largest distribution ever. Rings that were not
picked up will be mailed.
By Elizabeth Knapp
THE BATTALION
The unex-
p e c t e d
becomes the
expected,
which then
becomes the
accepted, said
Sheila
W i d n a 1 1 ,
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology professor
for aeronautics and astronautics.
Widnall, secretary of the Air
Force from 1993 to 1997, and
the current vice president of the
National Academy of
Engineering, Thursday spoke in
Rudder Theater evening about
the Colombia accident that
occurred last spring. Widnall
was one of 13 people who
served in the board that investi
gated the Columbia incident.
“This incident was extreme
ly hard for everyone on the
organization,” Widnall said.
Widnall described the inci
dent as an organizational system
failure and said it had shared
many similarities with the
Challenger incident.
“The launch videos estab
lished that a sizable piece of
foam left the external tank and
impacted the orbiter near the
leading edge,” Widnall said.
“Almost immediately after the
launch, people knew that some
thing had happened.”
The piece of foam that had
come off weighed about two
pounds, and the rest of the
debris that spread across Texas
contained large amounts of
information, Widnall said.
The most important piece of
evidence that was found was the
flight data recorder around
March 20, which was about two
months following the incident
and gave the investigation board
100 times more data.
Many tests were performed to
see if the board’s conclusions
about the accident were plausible.
“By far the most spectacular
was our test where we shot foam
at the leading edge to see
whether or not the leading edge
was strong enough to withstand
the foam impact,” Widnall said.
“The question of the size of the
foam and the velocity was an
important issue.”
Scientists and committee
See Columbia on page 10
shirt
A&M fencing
looks to win
SWIFA Saturday
dominate
By Natalie Younts
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M Fencing
Club is determined to win the
Southwest Intercollegiate
Fencing Association
(SWIFA) championship tour
nament which will take place
at 11 a.m. Saturday at the
Student
Recreation
Center, said Liz
Machol, a junior
history major
and secretary of
the club.
We basically
(SWIFA),” she said.
SWIFA has four tourna
ments per school year: two in
the fall and two in the spring.
The fourth tournament deter
mines the champions of the
school year.
A&M has won all three of
[this school year’s SWIFA tour
naments and won the champi
onship tournament last year,
iMachol said.
“One of the reasons that
we do so well is because our
[club members, by and large,
[are more competitive than a
ot of the people from other
chools,” she said.
Machol said fencing is the
afest sport and that fencers
;et injured even less frequent-
y than golfers.
“The swords are not sharp
f all,” she said. “There’s a
>lunt tip.”
Machol said the University
fTexas-Austin, University of
exas-San Antonio,
niversity of Houston, Baylor
University, Texas State
University and Gary Job
Corps will participate.
Patrick Moore, a freshman
computer engineering major
and vice president of the
A&M Fencing Club, said
three types weapons are used
in fencing: foil, epee and
saber.
He said
fencers
may devel
op their
skills in
one, two or all three weapons.
The weapons have different
blades and call for different
styles of fencing, he said.
Moore said he likes fencing
because it is an individual
sport.
“It’s more dependent upon
me,” he said. “There isn’t a
team. If I win, I did it by
myself.”
Machol said the A&M
Fencing Club has 20 to 30
active members. She said any
student can join.
Tom Dyson, a senior
mechanical engineering
major, began fencing when he
was a child and is now a
member of the A&M Fencing
Club.
“My dad had done (fenc
ing) in college,” he said.
“When me and my friends
started going at each other
with broomsticks, he sug
gested that we learn how to
actually fence and not just
hurt each other with long
wooden poles.”
‘Project Playhouse’ to hold
silent auction Saturday
By Kyle Ross
THE BATTALION
This Saturday on Riverside Campus, cas
tles and pirate ships will be on sale to the
highest bidder.
Participating in a venture sponsored by the
construction science department called “Project
Playhouse,” groups of students will assemble
and display their self-built, miniature, architec
tural structures. Each playhouse will then be up
for a public silent auction.
“We have 19 teams of students that have
gone through all the steps of a real-world proj
ect,” said Russ Peterson, professor of the mate
rials and methods class where the students were
assigned the project. “From submitting plans, to
getting approvals, to dealing with a limited
budget, these students are learning what it’s like
to be a real construction company.”
Each playhouse cannot exceed eight feet in
all dimensions and must meet certain safety
requirements. A starting budget of $200 was
given to each group, but the students were
allowed to raise money and gather discounted
supplies from local stores and associations,
Peterson said.
“The students did an incredible job of get
ting creative and raising money from places like
the Local Homebuilder’s Association, Home
Depot and Ellis Homes,” he said. “Some of the
groups have gotten sponsorship for their play
houses, while one group in particular has raised
over a thousand dollars and will even feature
fully operating windows.”
Chris Psencik, a sophomore landscape archi
tecture major, said the most difficult aspect of
the project is not actually the construction, but
getting everyone together on a plan and work
ing around a limited budget.
“Our team went around to different con
struction sites in town and was able to get sup
plies and scraps from those companies,” said
Psencik, whose team will be displaying one of
See Auction on page 2
BUILD DAY
Construction science students will
be building playhouses to be
auctioned off on Saturday. The
proceeds will go toward the
Department of Construction Science
and unsold houses will be donated
to local children's organizations.
WHIN:
• Saturday, April 24
• Construction begins at 9 a.m.
• Judging begins at 3 p.m.
rs lyr.i-t. I
• Baseball field,
Texas A&M Riverside Campus
WHAT:
• Public is invited to view
construction and bid on
playhouses
• Playhouses start at $250
Ruben DeLuna • THE BATTALION
Source : RUSS PETERSON, CONSTRUCTION
SCIENCE PROFESSOR
Hispanic summit praises Gates’ diversity efforts
By Michael Player
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M President Robert
M. Gates outlined many of his
initiatives to increase diversity at
Texas A&M and gave summit
attendees statistics that indicated
the need for diversity.
“I want to create measures that
would force this University to
become more diverse,” Gates said
in his keynote address at the
Texas A&M Hispanic Network
Summit Thursday.
The Texas A&M Hispanic
Network Summit is an event
established to bring former stu
dents of Hispanic heritage togeth
er to discuss diversity at A&M.
The summit consisted of busi
nessmen, former students, faculty
and staff and University officials.
Hector Gutierrez, chair of the
TAMHN and Class of 1969,
opened the summit and said in his
welcoming speech that the
Summit was in fact at the behest
of Gates.
“In all of my years working
with the University, Dr. Gates is
the only president to seriously
address the issue of diversity,”
Gutierrez said.
“Our primary focus is the stu
dent: young Hispanic men and
women,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said the future of the
state and the University depends
on A&M’s ability to become
diverse.
“We want to make sure that
our outreach programs are more
active than any other school in the
entire nation,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said one of the main
obstacles of the TAMHN is
administrative.
“Our main goal at this time is
to organize our database in a
manner that will allow us to iden
tify former Hispanic student of
A&M in order to broaden our
network,” Gutierrez said.
“Currently the database we have
only goes back to 1988.”
Gates enumerated the issues
regarding diversity at A&M.
“When I took office, I was
told that diversity had become a
four-letter word here,” Gates
said. “Our weakness is the fact
that we are behind in the recruit
ment of minorities and minority
enrollment has been down in past
several years. The reason is that
our University has done nothing.”
Gates said the University’s
strength is that minorities who do
enroll at A&M have a high grad
uation rate.”
Gates said Hispanic enroll
ment is going to be larger this
coming school year and that there
have already been $12 million
reallocated to be offered as schol
arships and programs. Gates said
he wanted to increase assistance
for students whose families earn
$40,000 or less.
Gates said more emphasis will
be placed on A&M’s reputation.
“We will use the entire
University system to increase our
presence throughout the state,”
Gates said.