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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2004)
he Battalion ume 110 • Issue 176 • 6 pages A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893 AGGIELIFE: Home on the ranch Page 3 www.thebatt.com PACE DESIGN BY: RACHEL SMITH exas A&M affiliates with Folger Institute By Suzy Green THE BATTALION « Texas A&M will begin an affiliation in fall 2004 : th Folger Institute, a Washington, D.C. sed center for advanced study in the humanities, e Folger Institute attracts scholars from across mum; tjountry to its programs where participants use extended literary collection to research humani- Bstopics while receiving feedback from others. JS“The Folger Institute is a Mecca in the United ajfs for communities of like-minded scholars to and work together on projects about similar pics,” said Kathleen Lynch, executive director of the Folger Institute. The affiliation will give A&M faculty and grad uate students easier access to academic and educa tional programs at the institute, Lynch said. The Folger Institute is sponsored by the Folger Shakespeare Library, the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works. The library also has Renaissance books and manuscripts and serves as a museum that chronicles Shakespeare’s life. The institute’s programs, usually led by promi nent scholars, promote and encourage the use of the library’s collection, said Steven Smith, as sociate dean for advancement and director of the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives. Faculty and students from affiliated universities have priority for admittance to programs, do not have to pay individual program participation fees and are eligible for individual travel grants, Lynch said. “We will attract and develop students and facul ty of a much higher caliber because of our affilia tion and the opportunities that affiliation will offer for research, learning and teaching,” Smith said. Working with the Folger Institute and with other participating scholars provides a way for projects to get polished before publishing or presenting, Lynch said. “We’re a crossroads where early modernists come together to meet and work out issues about works in progress,” Lynch said. Melissa Martin, a senior journalism major and Eng lish minor is excited about the affiliation and thinks it will add to A&M’s overall educational strength. “The more resources accessible to the faculty and graduate students, the better equipped they will be to share their knowledge with other stu dents,” Martin said. “Being affiliated with such a renowned research facility is sure to strengthen the liberal arts department.” Participants are admitted individually to each program at the institute, Lynch said. See Folger on page 2 Identity theft a growing threat to consumers By Chelsea Sledge THE BATTALION Becoming a victim of an Internet hoax was the last thing on David Zantop’s mind as he checked his e-mail one Saturday morning in February of 2004. He received an e-mail message informing him that his e-Bay user account had some problems that needed to be resolved or his account could be tenninated. “People always say they would never fall for something like this,” Zantop, a senior animal science major said. “I’m telling you it looked real. They had copied and pasted the e- Bay logo on the e-mail and everything.” Without a second thought, Zantop followed the link to the Web site on the e-mail. There, he was prompted to enter his e-Bay user name and password. Like five million other Ameri cans each year, Zantop had fallen prey to online identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal in formation, such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information without your permission. Each year, the cost of identity theft approaches $48 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to stolen or lost wallets, identity thieves can compile information from Internet records and hoaxes, stolen See Theft on page 2 iral votes BRIAN WILLS • THE BATTALION IDENTITY CRISIS tin Cruz fills a hole with dirt while working on Clark Street between the Memorial 1 vof " . ^ ent Center and Cain Hall. Cruz has been working on reconstructing the street for about P P ‘/Minth and plans to have it finished before the fall semester begins. The construction on Clark Street is a part of a campus-wide revitalization project that includes renovations to the MSC, the new Jack E. Brown engineering building and the Bonfire Memorial, which are scheduled to be completed in the next couple of months. eople. Is states i s are wf ry conso! states. Democi elects ash’s c( the elii mployment Services to relocate office By Emily Guevara THE BATTALION e Texas A&M Employment Services of- moved to suite 110C in the College Sta- Village Shopping Center Monday to bet- five ll »erve job seekers and hiring supervisors, i ^ BJhe Employment Services office, which >. eludes the Classification and Compensation lb 1111 ! 1 ' Tice, is responsible for receiving applications Istaff and research positions, said Virginia il v0tes l:er, associate director of human resources. .lusan Irza, director of human resources, its lasfl this j s a “good place for us, (it is) on the mll! usline, it’s visible and there are other Univer- ise,v ty|operations in the same area.” ^ a ,phe office, previously located in the Creek- ’* lb T Plaza on University Drive, will now be at 700 E. University Drive. Parker said the previous “space did not fit our needs” and that the new location will better meet the needs of the services the office provides. Irza said there were several needs Employment Services had in mind when looking for a location. We were looking for a place “relatively close to the Texas Workforce Center and we are, and we wanted to be on the bus line and we are, so we’ll be easy to find.” Irza said the requested location change went through the chain of command for approval. “It involved going to the (Texas A&M Uni versity) System, bounced back to the purchas ing department and then was signed off from the division of finance,” she said. Irza said the Employment Services office provides bilingual personnel, shows job seek ers how to find available jobs on computers, and helps them turn in their applications. Pat Hurst, cash facility manager of Rumours Coffee House & Deli and Hullabaloo! Food Court, said, “I do recommend the human resourc es employment office quite often to people that are looking for a full-time or part-time position.” Hurst, who applied for her job at the office six years ago, said she does not believe mov ing the office will affect job seekers. “I think if someone is seeking out a job they are going to find the location where they can find out about the positions,” Hurst said. The Employment Services office will open at the new site at 8 a.m. today. Besides the new physical address, all contact in formation remains the same. Visit http://hr.tamu. edu/employment for employment information. j|oogle announces public stock offering By Matthew Fordahl THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AN JOSE, Calif. — Google announced plans Monday to sell about lillion shares at up to $ 135 each when it goes public as early as next ith — giving the Internet search engine a total market value of as as $36 billion, on par with the likes of McDonald’s and Sony, would be the eighth-largest initial public offering in history, big- Ithan most of the IPOs that took place during the dot-com craze of 11990s. le details of one of the most highly anticipated stock offerings in fs were spelled out in a filing with the Securities and Exchange imission. tn exact date for the IPO has not been set yet. But when it happens, foil should fasten your seat belt and have oxygen nearby,” said Barry 1, portfolio manager of the First American Technology Fund at S Bancorp Asset Management in Minneapolis, toogle stock, once issued, could rise — or fall — with frighten- speed. Jnlike some of the hot stocks of the ‘90s, Google — a search engine ddely used that its very name has become a verb meaning to “con- an Internet background check on someone of something” — is leymaker. In the first six months of 2004, Google earned $143 mil- 1, up from $58 million from the same period last year, roogle plans to offer just 9 percent of its stock at a price range of to $135 per share. At those prices, the company would have a |ket capitalization of between $29 billion and $36 billion, he average in the S&P 500 is $21.25 billion. Google rival Yahoo! has Largest initial public offerings As much as $3.3 billion in Google stock could be sold at the company’s IPO, making it the eighth largest in U.S. history. ISSUER DATE AMOUNT (IN BILLIONS) AT&T Wireless Group April 26, 2000 $10.6 Kraft Foods Inc. June 12, 2001 8.7 UPS Nov. 9, 1999 5.5 Citigroup Inc. July 1,2002 4.6 Conoco Oct. 21, 1998 4.4 Travelers Property Casualty Corp. March 21,2002 3.9 Ager© Systems Inc. March 27, 2001 3.6 Google Expected 2004 3.3 Charter Com munications Inc. Nov. 8, 1999 3.2 ;■ ■■ Goldman Sachs Group Inc. May 3, 1999 3.2 NOTE: Does not include overallotments SOURCE: Thomson Financial AP a market capitalization of nearly $38 billion. The company’s plan calls for selling between $2.66 billion and $3.32 billion in stock in the initial public offering. However, the amount the company itself expects to raise is $1.66 billion, because some of shares being offered are being sold by existing stockholders. Once trading of the shares begins on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Google expects to have the ticker symbol GOOG. While the IPO will be big, it is not expected to generate the kind of hysteria that surrounded tech offerings during the 1990s boom, when See Google on page 2 Identity theft is a growing problem among American consumers. Here are some tips to prevent being victimized: URLs that read "https:’' instead of "http:"guarantee that information will be encrypted and safe Never use debit cards for online purchases Order a credit report twice a year Memorize passwords Never give out a Social Security number to identify yourself Write state and federal legislators for stronger privacy protection Will Lloyd • THE BATTALION Source: A&M COMPUTING INFORMATION SERVICES Report says Saddam writes poems in prison By Robert Barr THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON — Saddam Hussein spends his time in solitary confinement tending a garden, writing poetry and reading the Quran, according to published reports Mon day that de scribed him as depressed and demoralized. One of Sad dam’s poems is about George Bush, though it wasn’t clear whether that referred to President Bush or his father, Saddam’s foe in the 1991 Gulf War. The Guard ian newspa per in Britain and News- day in New York quoted Bakhtiar Amin, the human rights minister in the new Iraqi government, who said he visited Saddam’s cell on Saturday. Amin said he did not speak to the former Iraqi leader. Bakhtiar said Saddam ap peared “in good health and being kept in good condi tions,” but he “appeared demoralized and dejected,” The Guardian reported. Saddam’s air-conditioned cell in a U.S. military pris on is 10 feet wide and 13 feet long and contained a fold-up bed, a table and a single light bulb, Amin said. Saddam is not allowed to mix with other prison ers, and has no television, newspapers or radio. “Mostly he reads the Quran to day,” News- day quoted Amin as saying. “He feels more afraid for his life.” Amin had little to report on Saddam’s poetry. “One of the poems is about George Bush, but I had no time to read it,” Amin said. See Saddam on page 2 His apparent care for his surroundings is ironic when you think he was responsible for one of the biggest ecocides... — Bakhtiar Amin Iraqi human rights minister