Student Senate opens fee talks The Student Senate met at 7 p.m. Tuesday night to discuss the potential student fee increase in the upcoming school year of 2011-2012. Nine departments presented their cases as to why they asked to increase the following student fees: computer access and instructional technology fee, student service fee, recreational sports fee, group hospital and medical services fee, diploma fee, master’s in business administration program fee, master’s of real estate program fee, professional program in biotechnology program fee and master’s of agribusiness program fee. After each presentation, the floor opened for senators and students to ask questions about how the increase in fees will benefit the student body. The Student Government Association asked students to participate in a survey about the proposed increases starting today on the Student Government Association website, http://sga.tamu. edu/. Katie White, staff writer
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Student workers handle upkeep at Kyle Field Sean Lester The Battalion A crowd of 80,000 plus Twelfth Man flagwaving fans will enter Kyle Field Saturday and file into their seats. As they settle in, the band will blare and the Aggie football team will enter onto the field. After the national anthem, each team will line up on the on its respective sides of the field staying on one side of the white lines in front of them. As the opening kickoff is booted the players will dig into the grass and tear down the field heading full speed at one another. As the team runs over the field, many fans will fail to notice the beauty of Kyle Field. We often think of Kyle Field as a structure. We see the stands and the jumbotron but if we look of that, the beauty lies within the name. The beauty lies in the field. “In this business you get 80,000 people that
Siegel, who is also a second field maintenance manager. “It’s a team effort.� Pierce and Siegel are agronomy-turf management majors who graduated in May 2008. They have worked on Kyle Field since they were college students at A&M and were a part of the crew who helped Kyle Field be named the best collegiate football field in the nation by the National Sports Turf Managers Association. “A buddy of mine told me, ‘Hey, take this turf class with me, it’s an easy class,’� Siegel said. “I said, ‘You mean I can get paid to wear shorts and a T-shirt every day to work and get to go to sports free? Sign me up.’� The crew uses six to seven student workers who, like Siegel and Pierce, work as part of a class. The crew members never know what challenges they will face each day as the job entitles
come in once a week and they expect this stadium and the field to look the same way it did the last time they left,� said Leo Goertz, athletic field maintenance manager. “So we try to catch every little detail.� Those repeats details are the same details that make up the big picture of Kyle Field on game days. Some crewmembers such as Matthew Pierce, second assistant grounds keeper, will work 70 to 80 hours a week to make sure everything is just right for game day. “Painting the lines isn’t hard; it’s making a precise line and I’m talking within an eighth of an inch,� Pierce said. Student workers contribute to the painting and maintenance of the field. “We can get this whole thing painted in one morning, not counting end zones and depending on how many people we have,� said Andrew
See Field on page 4
Zogby visits campus Austin Burgart The Battalion The mid-term elections on Nov. 2 are going to bring change to this country’s Congress. For an average person to make such an assumption many might not take it very seriously. But when John Zogby, the president and CEO of Zogby International, the polling firm used by every major news network for upto-date statistics and research, makes this claim, you should believe him. Zogby brought his expertise and insight Monday to the George Bush Presidential Library. “To be honest I have no idea what will happen Tuesday,� Zogby said. “I expect the Republicans to win substantially in the House of Representatives, as for a majority I’m not quite sure if they will get it. The Republicans will not take over the Senate either.� The Republicans are currently down 178 seats to the Democrat’s 257, but with public dissatisfaction for democratic policies being pushed since the Democrats took over the House in 2006 and since President Obama’s election in 2008, the Republicans look to gain big. John Zogby’s job is to predict the future and tell us how the elections will pan out long before they happen, and he has perfected the art. Since 1984, the year his firm was founded, he has created an extremely accurate polling process. Zogby attributes to his own unique interactive polling methodology which is constantly embracing new technologies such as cellular devices and the internet to get their data. “The increasing use of technology is doing great letting our own generation get their say in current issues,� said sophomore Tucker Bomar, sociology major. “ The revolution that is embracing these devices shows that our country is moving forward instead of staying in the background.� Zogby finds statistics by surveying a sample of people which will show how the population feels as a whole. Even though many numbers and percentages See Zogby on page 4
Photos by J.D. Swiger — THE BATTALION
Health program ranks amid nation’s top Luz Morena-Lozano The Battalion The National Research Council rankings, released in September, show the Texas A&M doctoral health and kinesiology program as one of the top in the country. “It is a tribute to all the hard work of the students and faculty,� said Richard Kreider, professor and department head of the health and kinesiology program. “It helps with recruiting, jobs for students, recruit faculty and the reputation of our students.� The research council analyzed information from the 2005-2006 academic year, based on two parallel sets of rankings. The analysis included information from more than 5,000 doctoral programs at 212 uni-
versities in 62 fields of study based on quality. “It’s great when rankings like these from the National Research Council confirm what we believe to be true about our program as one of the strongest in the country, and it may raise our visibility with the Texas A&M administration,� said Susan Bloomfield, a professor and associate department head and chairwoman of graduate programs. “It may lead to a few more students each year inquiring about our graduate programs. However, I don’t expect these high rankings to change how we operate, which is to recruit the very best students we can and then, once they are here, to provide a supportive and intellectually rich environment for all our
Joanna Raines The Battalion From $5 subs to dollar menus, it seems the food industry is selling dinners cheaper than ever. But what we gain in our wallet we lose in our stomachs. Monday, Texas A&M Rotaract students waving signs with smiles offered a bargain that could not be rivaled. Bryan Rotary club provided the “whole enchiladaâ€? for $10, and it went to a good cause. At the Bryan Rotary Club’s annual benefit dinner Monday, guests paid $10 for a full Mexican-style dinner including enchiladas, chips and salsa, beans, rice and beverages. The members of the rotary club prepared the dinner and served it. Aggie Rotaracts, the Texas A&M organization affiliated with the club took pickup orders from members of the community who paid in advance to get car-side service. “Right now we have people that are running in and out, serving people in cars,â€? said Imran Chaudhry, senior University studies major and rotary relations officer. Guests who dined in participated in a silent auction, where items included a basketball signed by the Texas A&M Women’s basketball team, gift cards to restaurants and home dĂŠcor. Guests were able to browse a display of the programs the dinner bill sup-
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ported. The Bryan Rotary Club and Aggie Rotaracts sponsor the community events and fundraisers. “We go out to the food bank and assemble the backpack food, and we have Rotarians that participate in the Veterans Parade as well,� said Rusleen Maurice, Bryan Rotary Club member and committee member of the dinner. Meanwhile, Aggie RoMichelle Myers — THE BATTALION taracts provide assistance in nursing homes, clothing Bryan Rotary Club hosted its banquet on Monday at Bryan High School. The annual event benefits various local charities. drives and Big Event. “We look for opportunities to serve in the comlibrary for a primary school. munity,� said Matthew “Rotaract and Rotary, they’re international,� Margett, Aggie Rotaracts vice president and senior Chaudhry said. “The focus is so much on helping biology major. Aggie Rotaracts collect change at meetings, which one another as human beings; mankind, that kind of will benefit Doctors Without Borders. In 2009, Ro- idea. Not really separating ourselves by country, race, taracts were involved in a trip to Mexico to build a and religion.�
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graduate students.� This is the second time the health and kinesiology program was included in the NRC rankings under the biological and health science field. Doctoral programs were rated on 20 characteristics such as faculty publications, grants and awards; student Graduate Record Examination scores, financial support and employment outcomes, and program size, completion time for a degree and faculty composition. Measures of faculty and student diversity were also included. The program was the highest-rated doctoral program at the University among the 48 doctoral programs evaluated by the research council.
Aggie Rotarians work together to help community
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Matthew Pierce, class of 2008 and second assistant grounds keeper, prepares Kyle Field for a Saturday football game.
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