thebattalion ● tuesday,
june 30, 2009
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2009 student media
hot to
Too handle
Nothing cool about summer weather Preventing water waste ■ Avoid watering with automatic or hose-end sprinklers between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. ■ Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses in landscape beds. ■ Don’t allow irrigation water to run off your property into the street. ■ Fix sprinkler heads and valves that are broken, leaking or out of alignment. ■ Install a rain shut-off sensor on your automatic landscape irrigation system.
Ramya Prakash — THE BATTALION
By Christen Beck | The Battalion
T
hough Aggieland has already endured hot weather for weeks, the driest month of the year, July, is still to come and with it come the “dog days of summer,” the hottest days of the year. “Ordinarily in June, it’s a bit windier and not as hot,” said John Nielson-Gammon, atmospheric science professor and local climate specialist. “But this summer there seems to be an exception to that.” The lack of rainfall during May and June is historically unusual, Nielson-Gammon said. The most recent summer on See Weather on page 6
Nine teams to look for shared service opportunities
Summer serenade
■ Institute commends College Station for excellence
■ Board of Regents asks for report from faculty and administrators by August
Alex Worsham
Kalee Bumguardner The Battalion The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents formed nine teams Friday to gather feedback about the initiative and look into ways to implement it. “The shared services initiative will lead to reduced costs, economies of scale, increased expertise, and expansion of shared resources,” Chancellor Mike McKinney said. “We will maintain our commitment to the highest quality educational experience at Texas A&M University while working to keep control of costs for students and families paying the bills.” Frank Ashley, vice chancellor for academic affairs and a former faculty member and administrator at the University, will direct the initiative. The teams have 60 members from around the System, including at least one faculty member in each team. Ashley said the team members were ASHLEY selected for knowledge in specialized areas, including business services, federal government relations, human resources, information technology, marketing and communications and research administration. “To be an honest, I’m not an expert in those areas. All I’m good at is leading the groups,” Ashley said. “I’m in academic affairs. That’s why it’s important for me to be in my role, I’ve got to look at how it impacts the academics and the students. I’m very, very protective of the impact on the faculty, and the students. That’s my No. 1 job. [Shared services] is my No. 2 job.” The teams were asked to have reports completed by mid-August for submission to the Board of Regents at the Sept. 24-25 meeting. “All we’re doing is preparing a report to the board,” Ashley said. “We can give this to the board and the board can say, ‘we don’t agree with any of this.’ The bottom line is we’re saying we believe that these will be opportunities for us to share services. It’s sort of like a presidential search. We make recommendations, but it’s ultimately the decision of the board.” The teams will be collecting comments and opinions See Initiative on page 6
Pg. 1-06.30.09.indd 1
City wins awards for public service
Jon Eilts — THE BATTALION
Clarinet player Randall Griffin performs Monday at the Presidential Conference Center as part of the Festival Artist Series of the Texas Music Festival. The performance was titled “Blockbusters by Request” and featured music from Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn.
Celloist Edward Arron plays Septet for Strings and Woodwinds in E-flat Major, Op. 20 by Ludwig van Beethoven Monday at the Bush Presidential Conference Center as part of the Texas Music Series. The Texas Music Series’ next performance will be July 3 at the University of Houston.
The Battalion The City of College Station’s public communications department won a record three awards at the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers, or TAMIO, conference. “We’re always excited when our public communications committee wins awards,” said assistant city manager Kathy Merrill. “They do a lot of good work with public service.” TAMIO members competed in the conference from June 17 to 19, in Lewisville, Texas. Each member submitted the best public communications campaign and was judged by non-TAMIO members. College Station received first place for smoke detector safety public service announcements for populations more than 75,000. The announcements were developed in conjunction with United Way, which gave smoke detectors to people who needed them. “It was very successful,” said Wayne Larson, public communications director and TAMIO member. “[United Way] gave away all the smoke detectors they had allocated for the program.” The department also won first place for its 2008 bond referendum marketing campaign for populations more than 100,000. These bonds, voted on during the 2008 presidential election, could not use taxpayers’ money to advertise the campaigns. The department employed low-cost methods to spread the word, such See Awards on page 6
6/29/09 10:58 PM