thebattalion
this day in
rld wohistory
Jan. 20, 1942
● wednesday,
During the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution, Endlösung, in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million people.
january 20, 2010
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Finances stall, halt Carpool briefly ■ Discrepancies in records cause Enterprise to pause services Kyle Cunningham The Battalion Inaccuracies in bookkeeping led to the temporary shutdown of CARPOOL, officials with CARPOOL said in a press release. “Our checks and balances process for rental car invoices contributed to inaccuracies in record keeping,” CARPOOL officials said in the press release. “This caused a gap in payment to Enterprise [the rental car company].” The difference has been paid, said CARPOOL chairwoman Rebecca Cain, a senior agribusiness major. The organization plans to create a system that tracks all rental car invoices to ensure a discrepancy does not happen again. Cain said the organization’s expenses roughly average $2,500 per week, and that figure is with a smaller fleet of automobiles.
b!
coming thursday
Best video games of 2009 A look back at the best video games of 2009, and promising ones for this year.
See Carpool on page 7
trends | 3
Winter fashions Which scarves, boots and coats will keep you warm and looking good while keeping your wallet full?
Courtesy Photo
David Applebaum, Class of 1983 recently appeared on Bravo’s ‘Launch my Line.’
sports | 5
OU vs A&M
Architect
The Aggies defeated the Sooners 65-62 in Tuesday’s game.
to the stars
Former student appears on Bravo’s ‘Launch my Line’ Vicky Flores
voices | 11
Haitian hardships The misfortune stricken Haiti faces a devastating Earthquake. Was disaster actually predictable and what can A&M do to help?
The Battalion Commonly known as the “Architect to the Stars,” David Applebaum, Class of 1983 with a degree in environmental design, is living the Hollywood life, complete with LA’s right of passage of being featured on a reality television show: Bravo’s “Launch my Line.” Similar to Lifetime’s “Project Runway,” “Launch my Line” is a reality show featuring 10 industry professionals coupled with 10 established fashion experts to create their own clothing line, with one team being eliminated at the end of each show. “It was a lot like architecture school. They give you a couple of guidelines to work with and it is a really, really difficult thing to do, but when you finish it is just a really great experience,” Applebaum said. Behind the set of the reality show it was See Architect on page 8
David Applebaum is seen here standing by one the houses that he designed. Applebaum has designed houses for high-profiled celebrities such as Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra.
A&M, System sharing leaders ■ Chancellor takes action to save money Robert Carpenter The Battalion Big changes are taking place in the Texas A&M System’s administrative ranks, and its flagship academic institution will be seeing significant reorganization in their wake. Citing concerns over the current financial difficulties being experienced by other public universities, Michael McKinney, chancellor of the Texas A&M System, announced a series of position changes for administration officials at the University and system levels. “We discovered that additional cost savings and efficiencies could be realized through several organizational changes between the flagship university and system offices,” McKinney said in a letter released Jan. 13. The “organizational changes” referred to by McKinney involve business information, information technology, communications, safety, facilities construction and treasury services. The Texas A&M System oversees 11 universities, a health-science See Shared on page 8
Informational helps students start organizations
Sigma Xi honors veterinary professor Ann Littmann The Battalion In 1996, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice received the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award. Seven years later Norman Borlaug, billed the father of the Green Revolution, received the award. This year an A&M professor in the Veterinary Integrative
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Biosciences department in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences joined the group of award winners. After being passed over in 2009, Barbara Gastel said she was surprised to be the recipient of the McGovern award. “Dr. John P. McGovern, who funded the award, was very generous and funded many See Award on page 7
Jeramie Heflin — THE BATTALION
Barbara Gastel is the recipient of the McGovern award this year.
Students wanting to start a new student organization will have two opportunities to learn about the ways to make it happen. “We’ve decided to hold these [meetings] because of the increased interest in starting new organizations,” said Bill Stackman, director of Student Activities. “There was more last semester than other times in recent history.” The first informational will be from 2 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday in Koldus 146. The second meeting will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, also in Koldus 146. Stackman said the meetings are meant to get people familiar with the process and avoid duplicate groups.
“We really want to expedite the process. A lot of student groups get the information and realize they don’t need to start the organization because a similar one exists,” he said. Jennifer Boyle, the program coordinator for the Department of Recognition for Student Activities, will lead the meetings. Since these are preliminary meetings, students will not be required to bring much information about the organization they are starting; however, a student I.D. is required to check in to the meeting. Samantha Johnson, staff writer
1/19/10 10:11 PM