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^ ^ Wednesday, September 8, 2004
The Battalion
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ildebrand defends statement on Greek block
By Shawn C. Millender
THE BATTALION
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we thought we had a shoe in the door because he
was such a proponent of the proposal. We didn’t
hear from him and then, come to find out, he
didn’t sign it.”
Hildebrand said students are receiving one-sid
ed accounts of the Greek block controversy and
that he did not retract any agreements with the In-
terfratemity Council.
“1 am an advocate for Greek life and their issues,”
Hildebrand said in his statement. “However, from the
beginning, I never promised to have a Greek block,
nor do 1 choose to support the notion today. I have
been consistent in my position since the campaign.”
Hildebrand said he issued the statement to give
an accurate account of what happened.
“(The statement) wasn’t an emotional letter,”
Hildebrand said, “rather a detailed account of
what happened.”
According to Hildebrand’s statement, the con
sensus among the Athletic Department and campus
student leaders is “the block would only strengthen
few at the cost of many.”
“It’s a small number that are angry,” Hildebrand
said. “For every negative, there’s still 10 positives.”
The only group on campus that currently has
block seating is the Coips of Cadets. Athletic De
partment ticket office employee Nicole McCol-
lough said the first 30 rows of sections 138-140
are set aside for the Corps.
“The (Greek) community is seeking campus
recognition and I can’t blame them for that,” King
said. “I support the body as a whole wanting to be
recognized as a whole body.”
Hildebrand added that he is still in support of a
pre-game tailgate row for Greek life.
“As another student leader I can’t discredit him for
making decisions he feels are necessary,” King said.
“1 look forward to witnessing the further integration
of Greeks in the student government as well as work
ing with his support and creating a Greek tailgate.”
Freshman biology major Amber James said she
doesn’t have a problem with the proposal, but that
it might take away her chances of pulling good
tickets for games.
“If they want to sit with their friends, I have no
problem with that,” Smith said. “But as a fresh
man, they’re taking away our good seats.”
Junior elementary education major Miranda
Looney said she is against the Greek block.
“If the Greeks get their own block, every stu
dent group will want theirs, too,” Looney said. “I
don’t have a problem with the Greeks personally
but 1 think it would set a bad precedent.”
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Sharon Aeschbach • THE BATTALION
to play at volleyball and basketball games, plays various tunes — from traditional
Aggie music to pop music and movie soundtracks.
rX
& Gr
Aggies urged to recycle plastic bottles at
Kyle Field through Earthpak competition
?St
By Emily Guevara
THE BATTALION
The home football season
ill start this weekend, and
ith that comes trash. This sea-
ion, win or lose, the stands will
)e cleaner.
The Earthpak Corporation
■vill place 150 to 200 cardboard
‘ecycling bins around Kyle Field
Jeginning Saturday in an effort
o use the approximately 30,000
Tasani water bottles consumed
ind trashed per game.
The Texas A&M Athletic
Department, Texas Environmen
tal Action Coalition (TEAC) and
the Student Government Asso
ciation (SGA) will sponsor this
project with Earthpak.
“My organization has been
working on how to make recy
cling possible in Kyle Field for
a year,” said TEAC Vice Presi
dent and senior marketing major
Brian Keaveny.
Keaveny talked to several
University departments this past
year, but could not find a way
that did not involve cleaning and
drying each bottle, he said.
See Recycle on page 10
Recycling Mg.e.ts Kyle Field
Texas A&M and UT are currently competing
against each other in a bottle recycling contest
which ends at the end of September.
O Crews will place 150-200 cardboard
recycling bins around Kyle Field
starting Saturday.
O Plastic bottles and cups must be
placed in the bins or they will not
be recycled.
O Plastic bottles can be taken to Traditions
Bookstores in exchange for up to
12 percent off Earthpak backpacks.
Andrew Burleson • THE BATTALION
Source: Scott Ficueiredo
Founder and President of Earthpak
|M Residence hall hits all-time low residency
By Luke Jackson
THE BATTALION
Spence Hall, a Southside women’s resi
dence hall located on the quad, is filled to a
six-year low of 50 percent resident capacity
his semester. According to Matt Thomas,
ssistant director of Student Housing only
7 out of 197 rooms occupied this semester.
Thomas said privacy issues played a role in
this recent decrease in occupancies.
1 “I believe the students prefer private or
semi-private bathrooms and showers over
the communal ones that are in the Spence
dorms,” Thomas said. “Our female residents
(more so than men) do not like facilities
with communal showers and bathrooms.
Also, Spence is a corridor-style residence
hall and (corridors) are the least requested
of the dorm types here at Texas A&M.”
Maggie Aguas, a sophomore psychol
ogy major who lived in Spence last year
said noise was a reason that Spence wasn’t
right for her.
“I don’t have anything against the Corps,
but it’s really loud around here,” Aguas
said. “It took me a week or two when I
first moved in to get used to the yells and
the gunshots they sometimes set off.”
Carmen Miranda, a sophomore psychol
ogy major and current resident of Spence,
said the lack of privacy is also a problem.
“I really feel like there is a lack of privacy
in Spence,” she said. “The walls are paper
thin, and we can hear almost everything go
ing on outside our rooms and vice-versa.”
However, Miranda said Spence does
have positive factors that make it a favor
able residence hall. She said the low cost of
living in Spence compared with the other
See Hall on page 10
ID changeover
garners mixed
student reactions
By Pammy Ramji
THE BATTALION
Due to the conversion from
SSNs to Universal Identification
Numbers (UIN), the Aggie Bucks
and Aggie Card Office has begun
issuing new Aggie cards to stu
dents, faculty and stall.
While some students are grate
ful for the increased security of
fered by the new cards, many are
frustrated with the process.
Aggie Card Office Manager
Bob Mask said changing cards is
in students’ best interest.
“We needed to make the card
more secure,” Mask said. “To
do this we needed to change the
look of the card.”
The new Aggie cards include
a larger picture, a randomized
number (neither the SSN nor the
UIN) encoded in the magnetic
stripe and a bigger font.
In the spring of 2004, students
were able to cast their votes and
choose a card design that they
liked best, but sophomore in
ternational studies major Hallie
Pendleton said she isn’t happy
about the new look.
“The old Aggie card had char
acter and vibrancy, and the new
one is just plain,” Pendleton
said. “It seems that Aggieland
traditions (lately), including the
ID card, are being toned down to
be like everyone else.”
Mask disagrees with Pendle-
Student Recardinq Schedule
Students will need to go by the
Aggie Card Office in room 114
of the Pavilion.
Reveille VH
First Lady of Texas A&M
125456789
Aug. 30 to Sept. 24: Vet seniors
and seniors not graduating in
December
Sept. 27 to Oct. 22: Juniors
Oct. 25 to Nov. 19: Sopho-
Oct. 25 to Nov. 19: Graduate
students and freshmen not
yet recarded
Andrew Burleson • THE BATTALION
Source: The Aggie Card Office
ton. He said the Aggie card still
holds tradition.
“What are you calling a tradi
tion?” he asked. “The block ATM
is the symbol, if that’s not making
tradition I’m not sure what else is.”
The Aggie Card Office pre
pared a schedule for students to
come in and receive their new
Aggie card. From Aug. 30 to
See Cards on page 2
Wohlgemuth and
Edwards debate issues
By Jibran Najmi
THE BATTALION
Congressman Chet Edwards denounced tuition deregulation and at
tacked the record of opponent State Rep Arlene Wohlgemuth Thursday in
a speech to Texas A&M students at the Earl Rudder Statue on campus.
“I am here today to oppose the unfair tax that has been placed on
college students, Texas families and property taxpayers because of
three policies supported by Rep. Wohlgemuth (which include) under
funding of public schools, under-investment in higher education and
tuition deregulation,” Edwards said.
Edwards referred to tuition deregulation as a “backdoor tax upon
college students and their families,” and said he strongly opposed
deregulation in the past and will continue to do so until the caps on
tuition are restored.
“When the federal government created the land-grant college sys
tem, its goal was to make higher education affordable to students
from working families,” said Edwards, Class of 1974. “The Legisla
ture has retreated from that policy and has reduced the state’s share
of an A&M student’s cost to 27 cents per dollar.”
Wohlgemuth held a campaign rally later that night to gamer Re
publican support and watch President Bush accept the RepLiblican
nomination for the presidency.
“We had inherited during this last legislative session a $ 10-billion
budget shortfall from the Democrats, who had been in the majority in
the Texas Holisc since Reconstruction,” Wohlgemuth said. “I believe we
did a very responsible job of balancing the needs of this state.”
Edwards also mentioned that he was able to attend A&M as a re
sult of an athletic/academic scholarship and received his Masters in
business administration from Harvard as a result of a student loan.
“1 want present and future students at A&M, Blinn and other
schools across our state and the nation to have the same opportuni
ties I did to pursue their dreams,” Edwards said.
Edwards said he has spoken to students who have taken extreme
measures to pay for their education and put their dreams on hold.
“The dramatic hike in tuition has caused some students to set aside
See Edwards on page 2