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The Battalion
The Battalion
Joshua Hobson, Editor in Chief
Elizabeth Webb, Managing Editor
Brian Cain, News Editor
Julie Bone, Aggielife Editor
Jordan Meserole, Sports Editor
George Deutsch, Opinion Editor
Lauren Rouse, Copy Chief
Ruben DeLuna, Graphics Editor
JP Beato 111, Photo Editor
Kendra Kingsley, Radio Producer
Yen Hai Cao, Webmaster
THE BATTALION (ISSN #1055-4726) is published daily, Monday through Friday dur
ing the fall and spring semesters and Monday through Thursday during the summer
session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University.
Periodicals Postage Paid at College Station, TX 77840. POSTMASTER: Send address
changes to The Battalion, Texas A&M University, 1111 TAMU, College Station, TX
77843-1111.
News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M
University in the Division of Student Media. News offices are in 014 Reed McDonald
Building. Newsroom phone: 845-3313; Fax: 845-2647; E-mail:
news@thebattalion.net; Web site: http://www.thebatt.com
Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by
The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 845-2696. For
classified advertising, call 845-0569. Advertising offices are in 015 Reed McDonald,
and office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Fax: 845-2678.
Subscriptions: A phrt of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to
pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies 25$. Mail sub
scriptions are $60 per school year, $30 for the fall or spring semester, $17.50 for the
summer or $10 a month. To charge by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American
Express, call 845-2611.
2
Mi
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
THE BATUi
1
OYZ
by Will lie
Graduation
Continued from page 1
al-Qaida
Continued from paw
only surpassed by the University of Texas, which awarded 11,704
undergraduate degrees.
“We are, of course, pleased to see that these figures validate our
own long-held assessment that students who choose to attend Texas
A&M not only receive an outstanding education but also have a bet
ter chance of graduating from A&M than from any public universi
ty in the state,” said University President Robert M. Gates. “We
attribute that high degree of success to the caliber of students we
attract and to the quality and dedication of our faculty and staff.”
These numbers can be interpreted as a move in the right direction
toward successful campus diversity, but numbers can be misleading.
According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s
Data and Performance Report, only 2.4 percent of all students that
attended A&M in 2001 were black, and 8.2 percent were Hispanic.
“It’s a smaller population of minorities so they are more pres
sured to perform and ,” said West ley Ashley, 2004 A&M
graduate in Anthropology and minority student. “With student pop
ulation diversity, it doesn’t guarantee diversity in the classroom.”
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Alice Reinar/. said the
statistics should be seen a bit differently because A&M is striving to
increase representation of minority groups. This data suggests that
students are successful in larger proportional numbers than other
state universities, Reinarz said.
“The graduation rates for underrepresented minority students
show prospective minority students that they can be successful at
Texas A&M University,” Reinarz said. “This is something about
which we are very proud.”
Sprague
Continued from page 1
an exceptional feat, but in
1925?” Kalmus said.
Williams said the music
industry had been recording
jazz, classical music and so-
called hillbilly music for about
10 years when Sprague’s cow
boy music caught the indus
try’s attention.
“When Sprague had this big
monster hit with his song about
a cowboy getting killed on a
trail drive and not being able to
see his mother, the dollar signs
started ringing up,” he said.
Sprague was born in Manvel,
near Houston, in 1895. As a
teenager, he learned cowboy
songs from his uncles during
cattle drives.
Sprague entered A&M in
1913 but did not graduate until
nine years later because he took
time off to join the army during
World War I. He also pitched
for the Aggie baseball team.
Williams said D.X. Bible,
legendary A&M head football
coach, hired Sprague as an ath
letic trainer immediately after
his graduation in 1922.
While working for Bible,
Sprague sang cowboy songs for
his family and friends as a
hobby.
Acting on encouragement
from his wife-to-be, he recorded
10 songs from the Talking
machine Co. in 1925 and was
soon recording “When the
Work's All Done This Fall.”
The album was recorded with
two men who were also Aggies,
Kalmus said.
Sprague has two great-
nephews who currently live in
Bryan: Travis Bryan III,
attorney, and Tim Bryan,
chairman of the board and
chief executive officer of
First National Bank.
Tim Bryan said he remem-' i
bers Sprague playing his guitar
and singing, but he mostly
remembers him as a kind man.
“He was a second father who
taught me how to hunt and fish
and water ski and go camping,”
Bryan said.
Williams said Sprague has
not received the recognition he
deserves because his career was
short and overshadowed by
later stars.
“He lit the fuse and the
explosion was so big that people
forgot about him because people
came along like Gene Autry and
Roy Rogers,” he said.
Williams never met
Sprague, but he plays his music
on his local radio show,
“Swing-N R.F.D.,” which is on
KAGC-AM 1510 Saturdays,
from 2 to 5 p.m.
Visitors can view the Sprague
display at the Corps center from
8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Saturday.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Oil prices renewing demand for veterans
ODESSA, Texas (AP) — The high price of oil is increasing exploration
and well redevelopment in the Permian Basin, but a few factors are sup
pressing the size of the apparent boom.
A shortage of steel, workover rigs and experienced oilfield workers are
limiting the industry's growth, said Texas Railroad Commission
Chairman Victor Carrillo.
“Some crew and rig availability may be a limiting factor,” Carrillo said.
The lack of oilfield veterans has been a persistent problem, said Willie
Taylor, executive director of the Permian Basin Workforce Development
Board, the employment agency and job-training arm of the Texas Workforce
Commission. Industry downturns in the 1980s and late 1990s drained the
large pool of talented drillers, riggers, roustabouts and toolpushers, he said.
Independent producer John Bell of Kermit estimates the oil industry
nationwide has lost about 800,000 workers since the early 1980s.
Another producer told Bell the 1998-’99 bust took about 60,000 oil-
patch jobs, Bell said.
Arabia and urge Amenc®
take that into account ■
making their travelplJ
The Internet slat®
warns all Muslims to*
“contact with the Atl
and Western crusadersri
nonbelievers in theAri
peninsula.”
Muslims should stay i
from Americans I
Westerners “in their tf
compounds, movement:I
means of transport- J
shapes and forms.”
The statement said the |
ing aimed to spare
bkxxl. “We act only top
them, their religion, lw|
life,” the statement said.
Militants have steppej
attacks on foreigners i
Arabia in past weeks,
recently in a shootingSJ
that killed an Irish cT
man and wounded a If
Broadcasting Corp.repj
On May 29, gua
attacked a complex kJ
oil workers in the easier*
of Khobar, killing 22 pep
most of them forei®
During that assault—cM
by al-Qaida — the grl-
reportedly separated ap
spared Muslims and f:
and killed non-Muslims 1
Previous bombings t||
Qaida that killed Mp
raised an outcry in Saudi
against the terror network I
The statement calle||;
“all security pew®
guards of crusader.®
pounds and American®
and all those that have*
by America and itsallie'l 1
return to the right path.: i
arate themselves fromrl-
lievers, to become theitp
mies and to fight hohgf
against them by money.*
and weapon.”
“This enemy nttisl:
fought,” the statement p
“There is no other way w
fight it and eradicate it I
Scholarship
Cont. from page 1 I
Suel said. “This istheii
time the Brackenril
foundation has parte*
with us in 20 years." |
Brackenridge has I
donated to other schl j
in Texas to enhanceef
cational opportunities
and around San Antofl |
Suel said.
Scholarships fe
been funded at 2
University of Texas*
through some youth e
cation programs atTri |
University with focr
minority education.
“We feel these yoij
people will come bad
the community and be: j
models and teachers he
Thuss said. “We waul
demonstrate to students:;
they can go to college \
influence peoples lives.
The two Brackenril |
foundation scholars!:
awarded will be ini
amount of $2,000 peryi;;
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