Monday, June 28, 2004
THE BATTAl
by Will Uoy<A
Sea Camp
Continued from page 1
Jaclyn Wright, a 15-year-old
from Katy attended her fourth Sea
Camp this summer. When she grad
uates high school, she wants to
major in marine biology at A&M-
Galveston and eventually open a
research facility.
Tidwell said she also wants to
major in marine biology at A&M-
Galveston after graduating from
high school.
“It was not our intent to do
recruiting for the University, but we
find we’re accidentally a
recruiter,” Wern said.
Sea Camp was founds
Sammy Ray, a biologisi
researcher, in 1986.
“I didn’t want to (stai
myself, because I wasadet
a researcher,” he said,
(school administrators) saii
did a survey and found il
would be a losing propos
Well, I didn't believe it.”
Since 1986, 10,000 cki
have attended the camp. Ra :
takes 40 to 50 campers outi
oyster boat every Wednesi
June and July.
c
c
Research
Continued from page 1
Initiative. A&M submitted the winning bid on a proposal from the
United States Air Force.
Bowersox said that each member of the team has complemen
tary expertise. “My role is setting up the infrastructure and exper
imental techniques for the new wind tunnel research facility.”
The new facility will explore the effect of high-temperature gas
dynamics on aerodynamics, Bowersox said.
“In addition to the new facility, this program will provide
funding for graduate studies and new avenues of research,”
Bowersox said. “This program is very basic in the sense that it
can be applied to many different areas.”
Bowersox said that about $3 million of the grant would stay
at A&M in the form of new facilities and student salaries.
While primarily initiated for military purposes, the project may
have some benefits for private citizens as well.
“This project absolutely benefits consumers,” Bowersox said.
“Putting things like communication satellites into orbit is very
expensive. We can develop less expensive and more efficient
ways of getting things into space.”
At first glance, North seems like the odd man out as the only
member of the team outside of the engineering department.
However, as he explains, “In order to describe this phenomenon we
have to start at the molecular level. It all boils down to chemistry.”
North said A&M’s benefits from this project will be more than
just funding and a new research facility.
“This research will require high-level calculations and we will
develop the computer resources to do them,” North said. “That will
also develop long-term research that will put us at the forefront of
these new technologies.”
North said that diverse backgrounds are vital in order to
research thoroughly and effectively.
“Increasingly, we as scientists encounter problems that need
an interdisciplinary approach,” North said. “This project will
exhibit the advantages of having a broad group of collaborators.
We all learn from each other. This is a great opportunity to
expand our horizons.”
Center
Continued from page 1
Although many professors from the biolo
gy department may occupy the building,
the facility will not house a department, the
administration has said.
Due to recent grievances that were noted
by the advisory group, an additional draft
of the project was made that increases the
scope and capabilities of the facility, with a
dramatic increase in price.
Draft D, the most current draft, has the
square footage increased from 175,000 to
230,000, making the building more compa
rable to the new Brown Chemical
Engineering building that contains a little
less than 205,000 total square feet.
The new draft has a vivarium, or “mouse
house” for animal testing, a partially
duplicative NMR and imaging facility,
more office and desk space and more
sophisticated lab space. The cost of the
newest draft is approximately $131 million.
Various interdisciplinary science centers
across the country were visited for ideas,
but administrative officials at the forum
said that the facility at A&M will be one of
a kind and will not be modeled after any of
the centers.
Some faculty dissented on the idea of
the building’s occupancy being merit-
based. Although it is still unclear as to
whom exactly will occupy the facility,
some faculty feel that due to the nonspecif
ic layout of the center no one will wish to
occupy it at all.
“We‘re going to end up with this gener
ic building that’s not going to be a life sci
ences center; it’s going to be a life sciences
mausoleum,” said Dr. Mike Manson at the
forum on Wednesday.
Considering the large population of fac
ulty on campus, the attendance at both open
forums was relatively low. Manson attrib
uted the lack of attendance to be a direct
result of a general division being expressed
by members of the Department of Biology.
“People that you would consider being
the major stakeholders are extremely disaf
fected,” Manson said.
Other faculty members had qualms with
the minimal amount of faculty input that
the project has amassed throughout the
planning process. Dr. Jim Hu of
Biochemistry and Biophysics said that the
plan for the building itself is not connected
to the academic needs of the University.
“It’s not just the students that don’t get
listened to, the faculty feel the exact same
way,” Hu said at Friday’s open forum.
Vice President for Research Richard E.
Ewing was adamant that the administration
is trying to build a dialogue with faculty,
but there are certain obstacles that remain
between the two groups.
“How do you get faculty input with a
room of 15 people that each have their own
agenda?” Ewing asked faculty members at
the Friday forum.
Dr. Joseph Newton, Dean and
Professor of Statistics, called the facility a
“placeholder” for future campus develop
ment that will enable the University to
start somewhere.
“We’re competing with our sister system
schools that are growing much faster than
we are,” Newton said at the Friday forum.
The process of defining, planning and
ultimately designing and building the life
science center facility was described at the
meeting as peeling the layers of an onion.
Now that the few faculty who attended
the meeting have voiced their opinions, the
administration can choose to modify the
existing plans, continue on only moderate
ly affected or go back to the drawing board.
Dr. Jim Grau of Psychology and mem
ber of the advisory group stated that the
program underway now is not an architec
tural design, and is still malleable by the
opinions of concerned stakeholders.
“This is an evolutionary process,”
Grau said.
Currently, the project is slated to start
construction in August 2006 and reach post
commissioning completion December 2008.
Militants threaten to behead
two hostages, one a U.S. Marine
By Chris Tomlinson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Arab
television broadcast videotape
Sunday of two men taken
hostage by militants, one
described as a U.S. Marine lured
from his base and the other a
Pakistani driver for an American
contractor. Insurgents threat
ened to behead them both.
Also, militants hit a coalition
transport plane with small arms
fire after takeoff from
Baghdad’s airport, killing an
American passenger and forcing
the aircraft to return. Turkey
rejected demands by militants
threatening to behead thrpe
Turkish hostages unless Turkish
companies cease business with
U.S. forces in Iraq.
Death threats against hostages
as well as insurgent attacks on
U.S. and Iraqi security forces
have accelerated as Iraq’s interim
government prepares to assume
sovereignty Wednesday.
The U.S. military confirmed
that a Marine named Wassef Ali
Hassoun had been missing from
his unit for nearly a week. It said
it was unclear if he had been
taken hostage, but Hassoun’s
name was on a Marine “active
duty” identification card shown
by militants in the videotape
aired by the Al-Jazeera network.
In the video, the hostage
had a white blindfold covering
his eyes. He wore military
fatigues, and his mustache was
trimmed. The U.S. military
said Hassoun was of Lebanese
descent, though the Al-Jazerra
report said the hostage’s ori
gins were Pakistani.
The kidnappers claimed to
have infiltrated a Marine out
post, lured Hassoun outside and
abducted him. Al-Jazeera said
the militants demanded the
release of all Iraqis “in occupa
tion jails” or the hostage would
be killed.
They identified themselves
as part of “Islamic Response,”
the security wing of the
“National Islamic Resistance
— 1920 Revolution Brigades.”
The name refers to the uprising
against the British after World
War I.
The group, which has
claimed responsibility for previ
ous anti-American attacks, first
surfaced in an Aug. 12 statement
claiming the United States was
hiding its casualty tolls in Iraq
to help President Bush’s elec
tion chances.
Tape shows U.S. Marine held hostage
broadcast a videotape
Sunday showing a ***
mBitary fatigues and
broadcast by an Arab
Turkey rojoctod Dio demands of Islamic
milHenfe who are threatening to behead
U.S. officials believe the
insurgency consists of several
groups with different ideologies,
among them Arab nationalists,
former Baath Party members
and Islamic extremists.
Earlier Sunday, the Pakistani
driver was shown on a tape
broadcast by a different Arab
television station, Al-Arabiya.
Theft
Continued from page 1
Matt Friemel, senior finance
major. “I don’t have one of
those automatic lock things and
it can be a pain trying to fish
out my keys.”
BPD is promoting the pro
gram to inform citizens that
theft is a reality in the communi
ty. BPD hopes to educate people
about dangers and teach preven
tion strategies by sending infor
mation to news stations and
appearing on local radio stations
such as 101.9, Manry said.
“My truck got broken into at
(The Ptannigan, a local shot
bar),” said Kyle Cramer, a senior
industrial distribution major.
“They took my CDs and my
backpack that had all my notes
and a $100 calculator in it. It
was bad because I lost all my
notes right before finals.”
Car stereos rank the highest
among items taken from automo
biles. The problem arises when
people blare their stereos so loud
that they can be heard from out
side of their cars. In addition to
violating a city ordinance, it is an
advertisement to burglars that the
vehicle has a valuable stereo sys
tem, according to BPD.
“People leave valuables sitting
on the seat in plain sight,” Manry
said. "Items such as purses and
items that can be traded for cash
become primary targets.”
Another risk factor common
in the Bryan-College Station
area is a large congregation of
vehicles. High volumes of vehi
cles in a small area, suet
parties, apartment comply
at the mall creates a
environment, Manry said
BPD is reminding peo:
always lock their hoi®
vehicles, to take pictur-
valuable jewelry and to
the serial numbers of val
items such as CD players,
cles, televisions and {k
case they are stolen.
V
Si
They are also askingd
to be watchful of theirsuirj
ings and to report
cious activity immediate!)[
“We would rather resp?
a suspicious activity c£
burglary,” Manry said
recently had a situation »i
person watched someone j
ing and hiding stolen p;
They didn’t call us andt
track the property ownetst
a result the suspect isnont
Unfortunately, the imr
theft problem in the
College Station area is old:
the Crime Prevention pro
Fatter said a friend,
Mitchell. Class of 2001
victim of burglary on tv
rate occasions while pad;
front of A-Plus Tutoring in
Crime prevention teclii
are not infallible, but
hopes this program will lit
educate citizens to become
aware and lessen their cli
of being victims.
“People get very
and feel like, ‘Oh, it won;
pen to me,’ and they
their stuff up,” Mann
“(This effort) is a pait®;
and we need hjelp.’’ , ,, &y
to a
Parking
Continued from page 1
access for emergency vehicles and other vehicles. Lightseysaii
Philip Shackelford, a junior political science major andAi
Student Senate speaker, is one of the five task force members'
resenting the student population. He agreed that parkings!
be limited to one side of the street if it’s what the residents*!
Bubela, who has a fire hydrant in his front yard and there
would need to park on the opposite side, said there are tool
cars on his street to limit parking.
“What about the people on the other side? Where would
park?” Bubela said. “There wouldn’t be enough room.”
Bubela said the neighbor who lives across the street from
complains when cars are parked in front of her house.
Bubela said he didn’t think 60 percent of his neighbors*
agree to parking on one side because they are mostly studett
The 28 members of the task force could not reach aconse;
on parking problem solutions, so a mediator instructed thff
assign points to their preferences, Brown said.
Limiting parking to one side of the street received 58 pc
Another option, requiring single-family homes to have one
street parking space per bedroom, received 44 points. Lint
on-street parking hours received 29 points and implemenliit
on-street parking pennit system received three points.
Brown said the city council could decide to approve anyc
bination of the recommendations.
The code would mainly affect homes that were built fora
gle family but were turned into rental property. Duplexes
already required to have one off-street parking space per
room, Lightsey said.
“New developments should have off-street parking fore' 1
bedroom that they build,” Shackelford said. “For existing!
ing that’s a very tricky situation.”
Lightsey said the feasibility of adding parking space
homes would depend on the lot size and lot layout.
Lightsey said limiting on-street parking hours would bed
cult and take lots of manpower to enforce it.
The city council received the recommendations May liar-
expected to vote on them no earlier than July 22, Brown sa!
Shackelford said the recommendations are for the go
entire College Station community, including students.
“They’re just geared to be productive changes in acityli
running to catch up with its population,” he said.
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The Battalio
Joshua Hobson, Editor in Chief
ipTi
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