The Battalion
Volume 111* Issue 8 • 14 pages
ATexas A&M Tradition Since 1893
OPINION:
An issue of
privacy.
page 5B
www.thebatt.com
PACE DESIGN BY: LAUREN ROUSE
Victim of University apartment fire dies
By Jibran Najmi
THE BATTALION
The mother of a Texas A&M doctoral student,
whose apartment caught fire this summer, died
Monday afternoon at approximately 1:30 p.m.
Rabeya Chaudhury had been recovering from
bum injuries that covered 50 percent of her body
sustained in the July 31 explosion at the Univer
sity Apartments off Hensel Drive. Chaudhury had
come to College Station from Bangladesh to visit
her son Saquib Ejaz, a doctoral student at Texas
A&M, when the incident occurred.
Ejaz had left to meet some friends on the eve
ning of July 31 when his apartment exploded in
flames, injuring his parents, pregnant wife and 4-
year-old daughter. 1 ja/'s daughter Lamiya Zahin
died Aug. 2 at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston.
“(Saquib’s) father remains in critical condition,
but is making major improvements, as (...) I’m
told (he’s) now able to sit up,” said Rahul Ribeiro,
president of the University Apartments Commu
nity Council and a close family friend.
Ribeiro said Ejaz’s wife is walking again, her overall
health is improving and her unborn child is doing well.
“We are very saddened to learn of the death of
Rabeya Chaudhury, Saquib Ejaz’s mother,” said
Cynthia Lawson, executive director of the Office
of University Relations. “Our thoughts and prayers
continue to be with them during this difficult time.”
Jerry Higgins, spokesman for the Texas State Fire
Marshal’s Office, said on Tuesday that the fire mar
shal is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire.
“We still need to complete follow-up interviews with
the victims and other survivors and tic up some loose
ends before we can issue a final report,” Higgins said.
No date has been set for the completion of the
fire marshal’s report.
Meanwhile, Brazos County District Attorney
Bill Turner has opened a criminal investigation
into this incident and requested that A&M suspend
its Presidential Task Force investigations until the
criminal investigation is complete.
“Public release of records related to the University
Apartments at this time will interfere with the investi
gation and detection of crime,” Turner said. “Howev
er, as soon as our investigation is complete, the public
will be made privy to all of those documents.”
Faisal Chaudhry, president of the Islamic Commu
nity of Bryan/College Station (ICBCS) told The Battal
ion that Muslim funeral services for Rabeya Chaudhury
would be held in Houston on Wednesday at the South
East Zone Mosque. Chaudhry said the funeral would
follow Duhr, the early afternoon prayer in Islam.
“In Islam, it is recommended that the deceased be
buried within 24 hours of their death. Sometimes it’s
out of our control, and it cannot be helped, however it
is recommended,” Chaudhry said.
The Janaaza funeral services will be held at 8830
Old Galveston Road, Houston, Texas 77034. Chaud
hury will be buried in Houston at the Forest Lawn
Cemetery. The Duhr prayer is scheduled for 1:20
p.m. on Wednesday.
“Events like this are heartbreaking and part of
the continuing tragedy that’s unfolded upon this
family,” Chaudhry said. “Our prayers are with the
family, and with Saquib, of course, during this ex
cruciating part of his life.”
In perspective
Freshman environmental design major Heather Holly, work on their 2D perspective drawing for ENDS 115 on
freshman environmental design major Tess Kroeger the second floor of the Langford Architecture building
and sophomore architecture major Steven Castaneda Monday afternoon.
A&M weather radars
enlisted to track Frances
By Liang Liang
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M was called on for its
weather expertise to help Florida moni
tor Hurricane Frances, which reached the
Florida Panhandle Monday morning and
has cut power and water for six million
residents in Florida in the past few days.
Two Shared Mobile Atmospheric
Research & Teaching (SMART) radar
units, designed by Jerry Guynes and
Rick O’Neill, instrumentation spe
cialists at A&M, were being used in a
research project at Texas Tech before
the arrival of Hurricane Frances. The
SMART system is a joint operation
of A&M, Texas Tech, the University
of Oklahoma and the National Severe
Storm Lab in Norman, Okla. The op
eration system has reserved fees for a
prompt action to dispatch its radar sys
tem where it is needed.
The radars, which are housed at
A&M, were called on by the National
Weather Service Radar Operations
Center to replace the main radar sys
tem of the National Hurricane Center
in Miami, which was disabled by a
lightning strike before the arrival of
Frances. Most parts of south Florida
were in a desperate need for a complete
radar system to monitor the hurricane.
“It’s a scary situation when you realize
you have a Category 4 hurricane heading
your way, and you have no radar,” said
Richard Orville, professor and interim
chair of the Department of Atmospheric
Sciences in Texas A&M’s College of
Geosciences. “The SMART radar sys
tem is the only one of its kind that can
get to Miami in a hurry,”
The two SMART radars are housed
on two flatbed diesel trucks, and were
ready to go on call.
SMART Radar
TexEis A&M"s SMART
radar is the only mobile
radar of its kind.
The SMART radar:
o Can withstand
100 m.p.h. winds
o FHas extremely
sensitive electronics
that minimize noise
o Is part of a joint
operation between
Texas A&M, Texas
Tech, Oklahoma
University arid the
National Severe
Storm Lab
ANDREW BURLESON • THE BATTALION
SOURCE & PHOTO COURTESY OF:
JERRY GUYNES, INSTRUMENTATION SPECIALIST AT A&M
“Being mobile also enables the
SMART radars to get very close to
storms and catch (the motion of) the
bottom of storms (and) therefore per
form tasks that other radars can not
perform,” Guynes said.
“The SMART radars are designed
to withstand 100 mph wind speed of a
land-falling hurricane. The higher out
put power not only enables the radars
to penetrate storms, but also enables
the systems to be deployed at a safer
distance during a tornado research. In
See Weather on page 2A
Playhouses to be raffled to help
raise money for Voices for Children
By Pam my Ramji
THE BATTALION
Six playhouses, five of which were de
signed and built by Texas A&M affiliates,
will be raffled off Sept. 25 at Post Oak Mall
to help raise money for Voices For Children,
Inc., Court Appointed Special Advocates
(CASA) of the Brazos Valley.
Four of the playhouses were donated to
Voices of Children from the A&M construc
tion science department; two were first-place
winners in a judging competition. The Texas
A&M Chapter of the National Association of
New Homebuilders and Stylecraft Builders,
Inc. built two other playhouses.
The proceeds from the raffle will go to sup
port CASA, an organization that trains and
supports volunteers to advocate for the best
interest of abused and neglected children under
See Playhouse on page 2A
Aggie Marine teaches calc in Iraq
By Lacy Ledford
THE BATTALION
A Math 151 textbook from Loupot’s Bookstore is
currently en route to Iraq. Texas A&M Class of 2005
electrical engineering major and U.S. Marine Reserves
Cpl. Charles Holland recently requested a textbook to
guide him in teaching calculus to his fellow marines.
His mother, Marti Holland, received his call about the
textbook the night before his deployment Aug. 23.
“Some of the other soldiers there wanted to CLEP
out of calculus when they got back from Iraq,” Marti
Holland said. “Charles absolutely loves anything to
do with math, and loves teaching calculus.”
Marti Holland and her daugh
ter Rebecca, a freshman general
studies major, asked a College
Station bookstore for a book do
nation and were instead offered
a 20 percent discount. Declin
ing the offer, they next went to
Southgate Loupot’s.
HOLLAND “I thought I might as well ask,”
Marti Holland said. “Before I
could barely finish my sentence, the manager said
‘absolutely.’”
See Calc on page 2A
M ver Tap s
The Silver Taps
Ceremony will be
conducted in front of the
Academic Building on
Tuesday, September 7.2004,
at 10:30 p.m. In memory of the
following students.
Courtney Karl Tullier
Earth Science
Chase Nicholas McCool
General Studies
Peter Frederick Meier
Biomedical Science
Sergui Jourine
Petroleum Engineering
Kathryn Marie McLellan
Nutritional Science
Kara Lyn Grouthues
Economics
Ronald Ian Hord
Psychology
Robert Edward Brabham
Political Science
Kyle Dean Ferguson
Construction Science
Gates keeps students informed of University improvements
By Lacy Ledford
THE BATTALION
A&M President Robert Gates sent
an e-mail Thursday with the full text
of his State of the University Address
made at the end of August to keep
students abreast to the significant im
provements to the University.
“1 think Dr. Gates sending out a
mass e-mail is an obvious statement
that he wants students to know what’s
going on in the University,” said Stu
dent Body President Jack Flildebrand.
In addition to other issues affecting
students, Gates announced progress on
the priorities of elevating the faculty and
improving undergraduate and graduate
education, diversity and space.
Gates said A&M’s diversity en
rollment efforts have been a major
source of controversy over the past
year, but that they ultimately resulted
in success and recognition as minor
ity enrollment has increased across
the board over the past year.
Gates said that based on enroll
ment data of Aug. 14, of the 6,800
incoming freshman, there has been
a 39 percent increase in African-
American student enrollment, a 26
percent increase in Hispanic enroll
ment and an 18 percent increase in
Asian-American enrollment.
“Dr. Gates has supported diversi
fying the student body philosophical
ly, and he has included resources to
recruit previously underrepresented
students,” said Interim Assistant Pro
vost for Enrollment Alice Reinarz.
Over the past months, more than
600 of the new Regents’ Scholarships
have been awarded. These scholar
ships aid first-generation college stu
dents and low-income families.
Reinarz said the new scholarships
have improved recruitment.
“1 think we have momentum and
we are going to be putting enormous
energy into building that momentum
to further increase the diversity of
undergraduate and graduate popula
tions,” Reinarz said.
In the convocation address, Gates
said faculty reinvestment, a pro
gram designed to hire 447 net new
tenured or tenure-track faculty by
the year 2008, is going well.
More new faculty has been hired
in the past 18 months than the 115
positions that were lost between
1992 and 2002.
One goal is to help ensure a com
mon academic experience for all
students during their freshman year.
The efforts made to accomplish this
include the expansion of learning
communities such as the freshman
Aggie ACCESS program.
In the convocation address, Gates
said progress has also been made
in eliminating the space shortage at
A&M. Space issues have been ad
dressed through the addition of the
See Gates on page 7A