REFER1: TEXT GOES HERE IN ALL CAPS XXXXXXX, PAGE X I • REFER2: TEXT GOES HERE IN ALL CAPS XXXXXXX, PAGE X Thursday, January 17,2002 ^ fc TCU DAILY SKIFF 18C In its 100th year of service to Texas Christian University • Vol. 99 • Issue 58 • Fort Worth, Texas • www.skiff.tcu.edu I i It Today'sNews Assoc. Neeley STATE NEWS Admissions not affected AUSTIN (AP) — Background checks failed to prevent more than 1,100 guns from being sold Economy has no dean steps in Texas to felons or other peo- ple prohibited from buying effect on applications firearms over a 2 1/2-year period down to teach because of incomplete records, according to a study released BY DAVID REESE BY ANTHONY K1RCHNER Wednesday. Staff Reporter Staff Reporter The Pulse on Page 2 Dean of Admissions Ray Brown Administrators in the MJ. Neeley School of Business said TCU admission applications said they will begin discussions about a search for a new NATIONALNEWS have remained consistent with last associate dean for the school next week. WASHINGTON— A federal year's numbers despite the eco- Robert Lusch, dean of the Neeley grand jury on Wednesday nomic downturn in recent months. School, announced Tuesday that this will charged alleged shoe bomber Brown said most universities can be Chuck Williams' last semester as as- Richard Reid with being an al expect between a 1 to 5 percent in- sociate dean for the business school. Qaeda trained terrorist in an in- crease in applications from year to Williams said he will not be leaving dictment Attorney General John year, bu after al7 percent increase TCU but will become a full-time profes- Ashcroft hailed as fresh proof of in applications for the 2001-2002 sor here in the fall. the government's ability to pros- school year it was unrealistic to ex- Williams decided over the holiday ecute terrorists. pect the same type of increase any WILLIAMS break to return to full-time teaching and News Digest on Page 4 time soon. research at TCU in the fall of 2002. He said the admissions depart- "Being an administrator is an all-consuming full- ment received about 4,600 applica- time job," Williams said. "Department chairs and ad- OnCampus tions since the beginning of this ministrators are some of the hardest working people at Ben Andrews/SKIFF STAFF this university." Student kills three people at a (More on ADMISSIONS, page 6) John Billlngsley, a junior accounting major, helps prospective students to gain more knowledge about TCU during a campus tour Lusch said he will be in charge of the search for a new Virginia Law school associate dean. GRUNDY, Va. — A law school In an e-mail sent to faculty and administrators in the student upset about his grades Neeley School, Lusch said that William's presence will went on a shooting spree be missed in the dean's office. Wednesday, killing three people Williams said that being a member of the teaching fac- and critically wounding three oth- ers before he was wrestled to the ulty will allow him a more flexible schedule. ground by students, officials said. "For me this decision was about my family. I have a Perry backs prayer son at TCU, a daughter in high school and a son in jun- The victims included the dean of the Appalachian School of Law ior high. I only have a few more years with them around and a professor who were gunned so I want to spend as much time with them as possible," down in their offices. The third person slain was a student, said Williams said. Ellen Quails, a spokeswoman for /More on WILLIAMS, page 6) Gov. Mark Warner. "When I got there there were bodies laying everywhere," said Dr. Jack Briggs, who has a private practice a half-mile from the school in this tiny western Virginia community. Briggs said he had treated the RTVF buys suspect in the past year. He described the gunman as a Nigerian in his early 40s who had flunked out last year and been allowed to return. "I think they were getting ready state-of-the- to tell him that he had not made the grade this year," Briggs said. Dean L. Anthony Sutin and the professor were "executed" in their offices, Briggs said. art equipment Other details were not immedi- ately available, but Quails said the weapon used was a 380-caliber semiautomatic handgun. BY COLLEEN CASEY The three wounded students Staff Reporter were taken to Buchanan General This semester the radio-TV-film department purchased Hospital, Quails said. The governor said they were in critical condition. five state-of-the-art video editing machines, that will help Sutin, a 1984 graduate of the department become nationally known, radio-TV-film Harvard Law School, was also an instructor Chuck LaMendola said. associate professor at the school. The Avid digital editing technology is the pioneer He left the Justice Department to found the school after working for of digital media, LaMendola said. Along with the new the Democratic National editing equipment, TCU will become an Avid Autho- Committee and Bill Clinton's rized Education Center, meaning anyone interested in campaign in 1992, according to training can come to TCU for a three-day certification the Web site of Jurist, the Legal Education Network. program, he said. —Associated Press "This is huge," LaMendola said. "This is one more thing TCU becomes known for." In addition to buying new machines to replace the out- Htdnm/StarF STUFF dated equipment, LaMendola said he hopes that certify- InsideSkiff High school students at University Baptist Church bow their heads in prayer at a weekly youth group meeting Wednesday night ing TCU as an Avid education center would create an The Pulse/Campus Lines 2 elite credential that should make the radio-TV-film de- partment nationally recognized. Opinion 3 BY MATT.STJVER fault the governor's thinking. Even his stitutional law and the interpretation of Special to the Skiff Democratic opponent in 2002, Tony the intent of America's founders re- LaMendola said it was an easy decision to get the News Digest Students in their early teens filed Sanchez, has voiced limited support of garding the interplay of religion and the equipment, once he found out that the radio-TV-film de- Features slowly into the auditorium. Five weeks prayer in public schools. state. Some argue the role of religion in partment could receive discounted Avid equipment if Etc. after terrorism had reached the shores 'Texas tends to be a conservative schools funded with taxpayer dollars, they became a certified education center. Sports 8 of their country, the students of Pales- state, both politically and religiously," while others point to the decline of "Students are really going to get a leg up because this tine Middle School came to hear the strategist Brian Eppstein said. "Prayer morals in America. system is so advanced," LaMendola said. Texas governor offer some advice. in school is a popular issue among con- Those on both sides of the issue point The new non-linear editing machines digitally edit They heard him offer something else, servatives, so the governor shored up to 1962, when the Supreme Court heard more efficiently because it is easier to make adjustments theWeather something that would revitalize a ques- his base and started reaching deeper in a case challenging the constitutionality to the video without having to manually cut the film, and tion argued in America since the 1780s. East Texas. Even if he backs off the is- of prayer in New York public schools. At then rearrange linearly, he said. TODAY While visiting Palestine Middle sue later, he has already increased his that time, a state board of education rul- Rebecca Wren, senior radio-TV-film major who is in High: 54; Low: 37; Mostly School on Oct. 18, Gov. Rick Perry par- standing among a constituency that ing required the reading of a prayer at an advanced post-production class, said she will get to cloudy in the early morning; partly ticipated in a prayer session. In state- votes in high percentages." the start of each school day. Students use the new equipment once it is fully installed. She said cloudy by mid-morning into the ments following the school-wide Stephanie Klick, vice-chairwoman of would recite the Pledge of Allegiance it is important to be certified because Avid is the main afternoon assembly and comments made in the fol- the Tarrant County Republican Party, and following prayer: "Almighty God, editing system used professionally. FTODAY lowing weeks, the governor expressed said public response to the governor's we acknowledge our dependence on "Avid is pretty much an industry standard," Wren said. his belief that open prayer should be al- proposal has been positive. thee, and we beg thy blessings on us, our "It should help out a lot for students." High: 50; Low: 40; Scattered lowed in Texas public schools, regard- "Our polling data shows that at this parents, our teachers and our country." The department plans to train and certify approxi- Showers less of Supreme Court rulings. time in our history, people overwhelm- In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the mately 50 TCU students and 100 outside people a year, With that statement, the governor ingly support prayer in schools," Klick Supreme Court ordered that the ruling LaMendola said. reawakened a debate that has raged for said. "The governor is standing up for violated the establishment clause of the In order to keep Avid certification, the department is LookingBack decades: What is the place of prayer in what he believes." First Amendment.