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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2004)
I math AI TAIi The Volume 111* Issue 7*8 pages Monday, September 6, 2004 ■Ami ¥lt A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893 AGGIELIFE: Keeping the faith Page 3 www.thebaU.com PACE DESIGN BY: LAUREN ROUSE SSOCIATEBT tary SchtJ shelter h ‘ bccati * pf high I os a Ion. ■ -gun d:l os that <1 od of K-| -i goods, f; ned olI es as pci ance tol r g ener -« oliver)’!■ ous apr'l >unty. I ong ast* s size, f rind ettts I cs froirl hen Bail ational# liami. about t>| s Huml :ory 5 sgt uch of sd County, i two nl so clostB ,irs ago. v| it the fw e Kings® weeks as po#|| ices. Parking spaces in high-demand lots open By Rhiannon Meyers THE BATTALION Rod Weis, director of Trans portation Services, said TS would be overselling certain high-demand lots this week, moving between 1,500 and 1,700 students currently on waiting lists into these lots. Weis said TS conducted oc cupancy counts on the high- demand lots last week and de termined that because certain lots remained partly empty throughout the day, they could afford to be oversold. “We’ve already gathered data, and we know roughly where to put in students,” Weis said. “The high-demand lots are going to be moved first.” Weis said TS will start no tifying students on Monday of the additional parking space, and there will be a $10 service charge for students to move to a new lot. He said that residential lots would not be oversold. “We’re moving very, very carefully to ensure that we live up to what we promised the stu dents,” Weis said. Weis said this movement of students to high-demand lots came a week earlier than scheduled, and that once movement is made into high- demand lots, additional space will open in low-demand lots, allowing for the distribution of more parking permits. “When you make the first moves, then you open up space for additional people to park,” Weis said. “ It’s just like a wave going across campus.” Weis said these occupancy counts will be done throughout the year, and as long as there is space available, TS will continue to move students to new lots and fill spaces. “This is the start of moving everyone as close as we can get them without overfilling the lots,” Weis said. Weis said the data gathered from occupancy counts will be used next year to determine how much lots can be oversold next year. “Next year we’ll be able to get a lot closer to that mark and be able to fill lots in the beginning of the year,” Weis said. Weis said TS has received several e-mails from students commending the program and that the rate of on-campus park ing violations has decreased. “There were two mornings in a row’ (last week) where we did not have to tow one car,” Weis said. “This is the first time in 15 years that has happened, and I’m delighted by that because I don’t want to tow students.” Weis also said this new parking plan has caused traffic to decrease on Main Campus, but increase on West Cam pus, and has also made a more pedestrian-friendly campus, reducing the risk of students getting hit by cars. Weis asked students on waiting lists for high-demand lots to be patient. “We’re moving as quickly as we can,” Weis said. “The last thing we want to do is make a mistake and not deliver what we promised.” Sally Ng, a junior kinesiology major, said she is frustrated that the new parking plan only allows students to park in one area. “I thought the new parking lots were supposed to be bet ter than last year,” Ng said. “I thought the lots were supposed to be more convenient and more efficient to park in, but (...) it’s a bunch of crap that people have to See Parking on page 4 Vacant spaces STEE EVAN O'CONNELL • THE BATTALION Swarms of cars crowd the Reed Arena parking lot Wednesday afternoon, while other campus parking lots remain vacant. The plan was devised by the Transportation Services Department and the Student Government Association. This week the new parking system will continue to accommodate more students. Between 1,500 and 1,700 students wil be moved to high- demand lots beginning Monday Traffic has decreased on Main Campus but increased on West Campus Residential lots will not be oversold The number of bicycles on campus has increased EVAN O’CONNELL • THE BATTALION PA 74 lot on West Campus Wednesday afternoon. BRANDI DUNN • THE BATTALION SOURCE : RODNEY WEIS, DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES Coalition for Life begins 40-day protest rj rds, Shiiw lewelry ds, oducts series ve., Bryan 36 i lion's) By Stacy Thompson THE BATTALION On Wednesday, the Coalition for Life began a 40-day protest in front of the Planned Parenthood facility in Bryan that is set to end Oct. 10. The event was started to protest abor tions performed by the Bryan Planned Parenthood facility on 29th street. The Co alition for Life’s Executive Director David Bereit said 130 adults were in attendance at the kickoff rally Tuesday. The members are to stand outside for 24 hours a day and protest with prayer- related activities. “(This program was started) to make a public statement about this injustice in the community and to take a stand against this,” said extended-pray volunteer Patrick Williams. “We pray and then we try to evangelize the Gospel of Life; (we) try to get community involvement and to council girls as they walk into the clinic.” The Houston and Southeast Texas Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Terri Larson said Planned Parenthood was cre ated with the .intention of helping women plan ahead. “(Planned Parenthood was made) for women to learn how to properly space out pregnancies,” Larson said. Larson said protests are common in the Houston and Bryan Planned Parent hood locations. “In Houston we have protesters two days every week and on every Saturday,” she said. “In Bryan (protests happen) every single day that we are open, and they are a lot more aggressive.” The Coalition has planned to promote prayer to get the public involved in its cause. See Protest on page 2 I HOWsVr >(0\m pro un Russians begin burying hostage victims " Jr* SHARON AESCHBACH • THE BATTALION Junior philosophy major Cody Sain protests abortion on 29th street in Bryan, in front of Planned Parenthood Sunday evening. Two Student Senate officers resign wL Former Aggie football player Bill Hobbs dies after traffic accident By Jibran Najmi THE BATTALION Two Student Senate offi cers resigned simultaneously this weekend due to personal reasons and to be more avail able to their families. Christin Smith, rules and regulations chair, and Dustin Teems, ex ternal affairs chair, declined further comment on their res ignations. “The two officers resigned due to personal reasons,” said Logan Renfrew, speaker of the Student Senate. “The two officer positions will be filled through a special nomination and election process among the senators present and voting at our Sept. 8 meeting.” The Student Senate by laws state that if an officer resigns, nominations will be called for from the members of the current senate. “Once the nominations have been made and seconded, each candidate will be given an al lotted time to speak and pres ent his platform as well as time for a character witness to speak on his behalf,” Renfrew said. Following all of the presen tations, those present and hold ing voting privileges will cast their ballots, and the candidate with a simple majority will be elected. If no majority can be obtained by any of the candi dates, a run-off will be held immediately after. Senator Corey Nichols, a sophomore general studies major; Senator Brian Foley, a sophomore political science ma jor; and Senator William Dugat, a sophomore geology major; have expressed interest in the See Senate on page 4 By Burt Herman THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BESLAN, Russia — Mothers wailed over the coffins of their children Sunday, and dozens of townsmen dug graves in a football field-sized piece of scrubland next to the cemetery. Funeral proces sions snaked through the streets of this grief-stricken town as Rus sians began to bury victims of the tenor attack on a school that left more than 350 people dead. Frantic relatives also were still searching for 180 people still unaccounted for — many of them children — two days after the bloody climax of the hostage crisis that left few families un touched in this tight-knit, mostly industrial town of 30,000. Weeping mourners placed flowers and wreaths at the graves, including one where two sisters Alina, 12 and Ira Tetova, 13 — were laid to rest together. Relatives walked toward the cemetery bear ing portraits of the dark-haired girls and simple wooden planks — tem porary grave markers — bearing their names and the dates framing their short lives. Both listed the date of death as Sept. 3, 2004, the day the hostage seizure — the third deadly terrorist attack to strike Russia in just over a week — ended in an a bloody wave of explosions and gunfire as commandos stormed the school and hostages fled after powerful blasts shook the building. Wails of mourning women echoed from courtyards where families made ritual meals, while surveyors used wooden planks and string to mark new graves being dug in a field near the town’s cemetery. “When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it’s sad, but nothing like this — when you dig graves for your chil dren,” volunteer gravedigger Anzor Kudziyev, 25, said. “The grief is for all of our people.” Officials in the southern North Ossetia region scrambled to identi fy and confirm the number of peo ple killed amid conflicting reports, apparently confused in part because of the large number of body frag ments collected at the school. North Ossetia’s health minis ter Alexander Soplevenko said at least 340 people were dead, while his deputy Taimuraz Re- vazov said 324 fatalities were confirmed. The Interfax news agency quoted regional govern ment spokesman Lev Dzugayev as saying the toll stood at 338, See Hostages on page 4 By Pammy Ramji THE BATTALION Former Texas A&M and NFL football player Bill Hobbs, Class of 1969, was killed in a mo-ped accident in San Antonio on Aug. 21. Hobbs’ funeral was held in San Antonio on Wednesday, Aug. 25 at Alamo City Christian Fellowship. Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations Alan Cannon said he was impressed by Hobbs. “He was a wonderful person,” Cannon said. Hobbs, 57, became a two-time, All-American linebacker at A&M, 1967 Southwest Conference Player of the Year, the Cotton Bowl MVP and Na tional Defensive Player of the Year. He went to the NFL and played for the Philadelphia Eagles, spending some of his career with the San Antonio Wings afterward, Cannon said. Sammy Tippit, president of Sammy Tippil Ministries, was a close friend of Hobbs and said Hobbs applied what he had learned in football to his work in ministry. “Hobbs took the same competitive spirit to help people,” Tippit said. Alter his football career, Hobbs became a min ister at Amarillo’s San Jacinto Baptist, joined the Alamo City Christian Fellowship and recently traveled the world as a missionary. Hobbs later started the Mercy Foundation, which he was also president of, Tippit said. The Mercy Foundation is a family shelter for those in need of a place to go, whether it’s single moms and their children or families who need help getting back on their feet. It is located in San Antonio and also includes a prison release program for men. As well as helping people in the United States, See Player on page 2