thebattalion ● wednesday,
july 1, 2009
● Serving
Texas A&M since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2009 Student Media
A&M marketing department head Conant dies Meagan O’Toole-Pitts The Battalion Jeffrey Conant, department head, professor of marketing and presidential and Eppright professor for teaching excellence at Mays Business School, died Tuesday morning at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas, after being admitted with pneumonia. He had been undergoing chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with leukemia. “It was absolutely unexpected. It was a great shock,” said Leonard Berry, distinguished marketing professor. “We received a an e-mail from Jeff one week ago telling us he was diagnosed with a particular type of leukemia, and that it was
a highly treatable disease and he expected to be back in the office in December.” Conant began his 23-year career at Texas A&M University in 1986 as an associate marketing professor before earning his doctorate degree in marketing from Arizona State University the same year. He received his bachelor’s CONANT degree in political science from New York University in 1977 and his master’s degree in marketing and finance from the University of Arizona in 1979. “Ever since he joined in 1986, his colleagues and I were in awe and admiration of the time and
effort he devoted to prepare for each class session, the mastery of the subject he demonstrated when he was teaching,” said Rajan Varadarajan, distinguished marketing professor and preceding department head. “He will go into A&M history as one of the teaching legends. He was such an outstanding teacher, at the undergraduate and graduate level. He had this burning passion to excel in teaching.” He became a marketing professor in 2000 and the head of the marketing department in 2006. “In the last three years as the department head, the faculty, staff and students have come to know him as a very caring, considerate and compassionate department head. The thing that stood out
was the great lengths he went to publicize and recognize the accomplishments of the faculty and doctoral students,” Varadarajan said. “Anytime a faculty member or staff member or a student received an award for outstanding teaching, or outstanding service, or outstanding research, the world was made aware of it; he made sure this news was very widely publicized.” Leading up to his appointment as department head, he was named Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence in 2004, and he was named Eppright University Professor in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence in 2005. See Conant on page 2
Drought affects farms and ranches ■ Texas is in the middle of a severe drought with crops at or below half yield Julie Rambin
Jeremy Northum — THE BATTALION
Petroleum engineering graduate student Husameddin AlMadani says one of his most important priorities as the new president of the Graduate Student Council is to increase communication between Graduate Student Council representatives and their graduate student constituents.
The Battalion Texas is experiencing a drought. “From 2006 to this point now, there are some places in the state that have not received any significant rainfall,” said Larry Redmon, Texas Agrilife Extension Service forage specialist and soil and crop sciences professor. The drought has done considerable damage to Texas farms and ranches, said Al Nelson, Texas Agrilife Research agricultural research superintendent. “The pastures and hay meadows are really suffering The pastures and hay tremendous losses,” Nelson meadows are really said. “A lot of cattle owners are liquidating their herds besuffering tremendous cause they don’t have enough losses. A lot of cattle hay or grazing.” owners are liquidating Even the agricultural research divisions at Texas A&M their herds because they University have been affected don’t have enough hay or by the drought, said agronomy professor Tom Cothren. grazing. “We pump water out of the Brazos River into a reservoir — Al Nelson and we depend on the water Texas Agrilife Research in the reservoir to irrigate the agricultural research plants. It’s hard for us to keep superintendent up, even if we’re trying to work around the clock with the employees,” Cothren said. “There’s just too many people asking for availability to the water source and there’s not enough.” Many Texas crops have been a total loss, Redmon said. “If you don’t get the moisture to make the crop then you’re not able to harvest,” he said. “In some cases you don’t harvest anything, and in some cases the harvest is so minimal that it’s not worth going through the harvest activity.” The most heavily affected crops include cotton and corn, Cothren said. “Our South Texas people lost crops early in the year. They had cotton acreage they couldn’t irrigate, and corn acreage they See Drought on page 2
Rising above the crowd By Patrique Ludan | The Battalion
Student leader profile series Once a week during the summer, The Battalion will be profiling a student leader to gain insight into their lives and what it takes to do their job.
As Graduate Student Council president, a proud parent and petroleum engineering student, Saudi Arabia native Husameddin AlMadani knows the meaning of hard work, and its rewards. When AlMadani came to the U.S., he quickly exhibited the characteristics of a leader — dedication, and having a significant organizational capacity, said Mark Algren, associate director of the Applied English Center at the University of Kansas. See Leading on page 5
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Meet Husameddin Find out what he loves most about being an Aggie. Tennis talent Learn about his many sports interests. Hear from him Read Husameddin’s guest column to students. student leaders | 5
Natasha Sankovich — THE BATTALION
Junior biomedical science major Jessica Vasquez listens to her iPod Tuesday while waiting for the bus in the rain in front of the Coke Building.
6/30/09 10:12 PM