thebattalion ● tuesday,
august 31, 2010
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Gates to step down ■ Secretary of defense, former A&M president says he’ll retire in 2011 Brandi Tevebaugh
Christina Francisco and JD Swiger— THE BATTALION
Junior communication major Aly Quinones is paying for parking before going to work out Monday at the Student Recreation Center. As of this month, students and visitors without parking permits can park at the Rec for a fee.
Pay to park
The Batt picks a spot on the parking issue To read about our solution, see page 6a.
Visitor parking eliminated from garage Angela Washeck The Battalion As classes commenced and students begin using campus resources, Aggies might notice a significant change in the Student Recreation Center parking lot. During the summer, 61 paid spots replaced what was before a free lot of 243 spaces, provided that the student had a valid A&M parking pass. Lot 100h is the first of several campus parking areas to undergo change over the course of the year, including Lots 97, 100d, 100g and 100j. The 61 and 74 lots have added visitor spaces, said June Broughton, marketing manager for Trans-
portation Services. Transportation Services initiated the reallocation process in February, with proposals of eliminating visitor parking in West Campus Garage. Once Transportation Services agreed to get rid of spaces designated for visitors in the garage, they decided to replace those spots among the individual lots scattered across West Campus. “Ultimately, each group voted to eliminate paid, hourly visitor parking in West Campus Garage because of the great expense to replace the failing revenue access equipment and because more convenient visitor parking on West Campus would be better served by small clusters
of paid parking in surface lots,” Broughton said. In the beginning proposal, Transportation Services planned to add 105 designated spaces, but the final decision delivered 61. Broughton said more adjusting will occur as data is collected concerning the effectiveness of the parking plan. Because statistics incurred showed that the majority of hourly paid visitor parking in the garage was closest in vicinity to the Rec, the department derived that patrons were using the recreational facility. With this knowledge in mind, they went ahead with Student Recreation Center administrators to devise an efficient parkSee Parking on page 7a
The Battalion Secretary of Defense and former Texas A&M President Robert Gates announced Aug. 16 that he planned to retire in 2011. Gates, as the only member of George W. Gates Bush’s cabinet still serving, is the longest-sitting current member of the cabinet and arguably the most powerful. “He’s a very influential man, and he’s a very strong personality,” said senior construction science major Brad Bynum. “With him gone, somebody coming in might not be as strong. I think more extreme decisions might be made, and I think the cabinet might go more to the Democratic side.” Gates took the role of secretary of defense in 2006. After the election of President Barack Obama, Gates was asked to remain in his position — a first in U.S. history. Eric Chao, sophomore biomedical engineering major, said he thought the next secretary of defense would most likely be a Democrat. “Usually whatever president is in office, it’s whatever his party is that makes up the dominant amount,” Chao said. “It’s going to always be whatever party that is and be the majority of that party and that’s it.” Gates has played a central See Gates on page 2a
Engineering lab gets upgrade with grant Katy Ralston The Battalion The chemical engineering department’s unit operations laboratory will receive an upgrade from an endowed gift given by the Dow Chemical Co. “The benefit is really to the students. The students will essentially see modernized experiments,” said chemical engineering department head Michael Pishko. The funds will go toward new equipment, fittings, supplies and other necessities for experimentation as well as upgrades to classrooms, offices and study areas.
Chemical engineering lecture and lab course instructor Jeffery Gaspard said it is imperative to have the most modern equipment in the laboratory. “I think it can help students stay on the top of the technology curve as it is applied to chemical engineering,” Gaspard said. Gaspard also spent time as an A&M student in the laboratory and said the unit operations lab plays a vital part in a chemical engineering major’s education. “I feel, personally, better when I can see, touch, handle experiSee Engineering on page 7a
Aggie medics work to educate students Kate Hill
April Baltensperger — THE BATTALION
A Texas A&M University Emergency Medical Services ambulance sits Monday by the A.P. Beutel Health Center.
The Battalion There are hundreds of student organizations on campus, but not all save lives. The Texas A&M Emergency Care Team is a state-recognized first responder student organization providing emergency medical care and educational services to team members and members of the community. It serves the student body in ways Aggies said they had not known. “I never thought about the services that the team provides. We often take our health and safety for granted without considering the hard work that goes into it, until a medical emergency arises and we are taken off See EMS on page 7a
In case of emergency For on-campus emergencies, dial 9-911 from a campus phone, or 911 from a cell phone. For off-campus emergencies, dial 911. For emergency preparedness information, visit http://tamu. edu/emergency/ procedures
Drilling begins in effort to free miners Chile’s northern Atacama Desert. Before rescuers dug bore holes to reach them, they survived 17 days without contact with the outside world by rationing a 48-hour supply of food and digging for water in the ground. Only three miners who survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China last year are known to have survived underground as long. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks.
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Associated Press
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chile’s Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, left, holds a telephone cable linking inside the collapsed Sunday in San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile.
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — An enormous drill began preliminary work Monday on carving a half-mile chimney through solid rock to free the 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine, their ordeal now having equaled the longest known survival in an underground disaster. The 31-ton drill bored 50 feet into the rock, the first step in the weeklong digging of a “pilot hole” to guide the way for the rescue. Later the drill will be outfitted with larger bits to expand the hole and pull the men through — a process that could take four months. The men were trapped Aug. 5 in the San Jose mine in
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