thebattalion After ● wednesday,
Loftin willing to accept presidency Texas A&M Interim President R. Bowen Loftin said Monday he would be willing to fill the position as Texas A&M President if he were offered the job. “As a former student of Texas A&M and as someone who has spent my entire career in higher education, it would be an honor and privilege to serve this great University as its president,” said Loftin, Class of 1970. Loftin stressed that the President Search Committee is still in the process of naming finalists for the position. “However, the position certainly has not been offered to me, and I have faith that the search committee will accomplish its charge in finding the best leader for Texas A&M for now and into the future,” Loftin said. Loftin has served as interim president since June 15, after the resignation of President Elsa Murano. Loftin was previously the vice president and chief executive officer of Texas A&M UniversityGalveston. During his time at the mother ship of the Texas A&M University System, Loftin has worked to continue the tradition of excellence and promote future successes for the school. “My focus during this interim period is to continue preparing the University for what could be uncertain financial times,” Loftin said, “while also pushing forward into the second decade of Vision 2020.”
november 4, 2009
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Coverage of After Dark event and concert. lifestyles | 3
Melissa Appel, staff writer Photos by J.D. Swiger — THE BATTALION
Singer-songwriter Matt Wertz performs for thousands of students on Monday in Reed Arena.
Research earns place in top 20 National Science Foundation ranks A&M high among academic research performers STOCK.XCHNG
City votes to remove red light cameras A proposition to ban red light cameras in College Station passed by a 52 to 48 percent margin. Final numbers from Tuesday’s election show that 3,805 people voted to keep the cameras, while 4,077 cast ballots to ban the cameras. The cameras will be turned off Nov. 11 when the ballots are canvassed, or made official, by the City Council. The cameras are then slated to be removed between Nov. 11 to 14, with enforcement signs coming down at intersections on Nov. 12. Citations issued for red light violations during the period between election day and Nov. 11 will still have to pay fines, said Jay Socol, director of communications for the City of College Station. The cameras have garnered close to $2 million in 2008 and 2009, with College Station collecting more than $400,000. Revenue from the cameras is split between the vendor, police labor and e-payments. Remaining revenue was then divided between the City of College Station and the state. “Some traffic-related projects that were to be financed by camera revenues will have to be reprioritized so we can find funding for them,” Socol said. Also, the proposition to establish a “national research fund” to push Texas public universities to pursue research failed with 68 percent against. Amanda Casanova, editor in chief
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Top 20 List 1. Johns Hopkins University 2. University of California, San Francisco 3. University of Wisconsin, Madison 4. University of Michigan 5. University of California, Los Angeles 6. University of California, San Diego 7. Duke University 8. University of Washington 9. University of Pennsylvania 10. Ohio State University 11. Pennsylvania State University 12. Stanford University 13. University of Minnesota 14. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 15. Cornell University 16. University of California, Davis 17. University of Pittsburgh 18. University of California, Berkeley 19. University of Florida 20. Texas A&M University
Jeramie Heflin The Battalion When most people think of things Texas A&M University excels in they think of tradition, national championship golf and track teams, a great engineering program and business school and spirit. Now they can also think of A&M as a top academic research performer. The National Science Foundation has named Texas A&M University as the only new member of the foundation’s annual Top 20 Academic Research Performers in the United States. Each year, the National Science Foundation surveys 690 U.S. institutions and ranks them according to research and development expenditures in science and engineering. Jeffrey R. Seemann, vice president for research at A&M, said “it means that we have some of the best faculty in the world (nearly 3,000 of them) doing research that is vitally important in a whole variety of arenas. We are making gains all over the
place, our environmental sciences program has shown enormous leaps and bounds, and engineering of coursewe have one of the most spectacular sets of engineering programs in the country, in addition to our social sciences, agriculture, geo sciences and architecture arenas. We really have a lot to be proud of here.” The foundation is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare and to secure the national defense.” The federal government is the largest source of university research and development funding in science and engineering, and the foundation is no exception with an annual budget of about $6.06 billion. It funds about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities.
Scotty’s House loses juror donations
See NSF on page 6
Evan Andrews — THE BATTALION
Video Hear from Jeffrey Seemann, A&M’s vice president of research.
thebatt.com
Texas A&M agricultural research fund blooms Ann Littmann
“It also helps because we are supposed to receive some reimbursements from law enforcement agencies for the services we provide, even though we don’t always receive them.” The Commissioners Court decision was a close one, with one vote making the difference. Commissioners Kenny Mallard, who originally made the motion to add Scotty’s House to the juror’s donation list, and Irma Cauley both voted to keep Scotty’s House in the list.
The Battalion The creation of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will offset the effects of booming population and increased demand for food, said United States Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “[NIFA comes] not a moment too soon. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that food production will need to double by 2050 to meet demand, and this has to happen in an environment where our production system already is under threat,” Vilsack said. “For every one degree increase in temperature from global warming, we expect a 10 percent drop in yields.” Vilsack launched the National Institute of Food and Agriculture on Oct. 8. The Association of Public and LandGrant Universities anticipate the creation of this institute will increase federally allocated funds for agricultural research. “It is no exaggeration to say that NIFA will be a research ‘start-up’ company,” Vilsack said. “We will be rebuilding our competitive grants program from the ground up to generate real results for the American people.”
See Scotty’s House on page 5
See Land grant on page 5
Joaquin Villegas The Battalion Scotty’s House, a child advocacy center, has been voted off the jurors’ donation list by the Brazos County Commissioners Court in a close 3-2 vote in early October. The jurors’ donation list is a list of options for jurors who want to donate daily pay to organizations. Jurors can still donate to the two statute-mandated options, the Child Welfare Board and the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund. The decision could cost Scotty’s House a large fraction of donations. McDaniel said Scotty’s House would lose an average of $20,000 a year from donations. “The money from donations helps pay for medical examinations and equipment, along with other general operating costs,” McDaniel said.
WE’RE #20!
scottyshouse.org
11/3/09 10:33 PM