NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION WWW.BAYLOR.EDU/LARIAT U.S. POSTAGE JOURNALISM PRODIGIES: ‘thE LARIAt’ WINS NINE AWARDS FROM SPJ PAID BAYLOR UNIVERSITY ROUNDING UP CAMPUS NEWS SINCE 1900 THE BAYLOR LARIAT WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008 BU to sell Frat instability $274.1 inconsistent with sororities million By Shannon Daily groups, including why new Staff writer groups are being brought to campus if groups already here Fraternities on Baylor’s cam- continue to struggle. pus seem to come and go as Staff within Student Activi- in bonds much as your average pop star. ties declined to comment on Over the past few years, groups these issues. By Anita Pere such as Alpha Tau Omega, Pi “There’s a natural turnover Staff writer Kappa Phi and Sigma Phi Epsi- in fraternities and sororities. lon have joined (or re-joined) You know, one group will be on Baylor University will begin selling $115 million the ranks of Baylor fraternities, top, one group will be on bot- in fixed interest bonds to the public Wednesday. while others have faded from tom. Somebody’s going to win The university, through an independent banker, will the public eye. Sing one year, or somebody will look for buyers for an additional $159.1 million of Alpha Tau Omega and win Float. That’s just kind of variable interest bonds April 7. Sigma Phi Epsilon have both how it works,” San Diego, Calif., A bond is a loan to a community, school district or been chartered at Baylor before senior David Hammack said. company for a specific purpose. Unlike stockhold- but were removed for disciplin- Within the Panhellenic ers who own a piece of a company, a bondholder ary reasons. Sigma Phi Epsilon Council, the same nine sorori- merely loans money to an entity. The bondholders is still in the process of having ties have remained on campus, receive their loan back, plus interest, by a specified its new charter approved. Both no matter their size, for the date, known as the bond maturity date. groups have reorganized to past several years. This has The bonds issued Wednesday will come with a help prevent future disciplin- happened partly because of the fixed interest rate of close to 5 percent, while the ary problems. support system the council and bonds issued April 7 will have a variable rate that Some groups also have left Student Activities provide the is yet to be determined. A “fixed rate” is a set inter- because they’ve become too organizations, said Lubbock est rate that won’t change over the life of the loan. small to function. Others have senior Alex Knight. A “variable rate” fluctuates according to economic simply faded into the back- “Whenever I’ve met with factors. ground. At the moment the Student Activities throughout Reagan Ramsower, vice president for finance and Student Activities Web site lists my time at Baylor, they’ve gen- administration, said variable rate bonds are tradi- 14 active fraternities within the erally been helpful...I think the tionally traded every week as the market fluctuates. Interfraternity Council. main difference in the strength The university favors offering investors “a diversi- Sigma Tau Gamma and Pi of fraternities and the strength fied mix of bonds,” Ramsower said of the two bond- Kappa Alpha are two examples of sororities is between the Pan- types. of fraternities that have left hellenic and the IFC councils,” The bonds issued this year will be used to pay Baylor for different reasons Knight said. back bonds issued in 2002 and 2006, which total within the past few semesters. The IFC council generally $274.1 million. The IFC organizes fraterni- hasn’t taken a role in anything “This particular refinance will not have an impact ties at a national level, helping the fraternities do other than on our operating budget,” Ramsower said, reiterat- Courtesy photo them to streamline their poli- recruitment, Knight said. ing that the university isn’t looking to raise money cies and promote interfraternal “And it’s nice to have that through the bonds. brotherhood. The Panhellenic freedom, unless you’re really Part of the bonds issued this year will also be April Fool’s Council operates the same way struggling. And then you’ve got used to cover costs associated with the circulation for sororities. freedom, but now there’s a sup- of bonds, according to a Waco Tribune-Herald classi- South Russell Residence Hall director Nadine Bruner reacts to an April Fool’s Day joke The question has turned to port net,” he said. fied ad appearing in early March. played on her by South Russell residents and staff. Buner’s office was filled almost com- what Student Life and the IFC The ad served as an announcement of a public pletely with multi-colored balloons. are doing to help struggling Please see FRAT, page 6 hearing regarding the bonds March 18. The Waco Education Finance Corporation gave the meeting, with their attorney Dan Pleitz overseeing. The Waco Education Finance Corporation is a non-profit organization that helps area private Raul Castro offers more reform schools borrow money tax-free. The tax-free aspect translates into a lower interest rate on the bonds, Cubans were afforded lives of Cubans. cost $814. The Chinese-made Pleitz said. Public schools may borrow money tax- greater rights Analysts wondered how far bikes can be charged with an free on their own behalf because they are govern- the communist government is electric cord and had been ment entities. for consumer goods, willing to go. barred for general sale because The Lehman Brothers Investment Bank will private farms “Cuban people can’t sur- officials feared a strain on the underwrite the bonds and connect the university to vive on the salaries people are power grid. lenders. The bank has served this intermediary role By Will Weissert paying them. Average men and On Monday, the Tourism between the university and lenders for all past bond The Associated Press women have been screaming Ministry announced that any issuances, Ramsower said. that at the top of their lungs for Cuban with enough money Attaining a lower interest rate will be possible HAVANA — Cubans snapped many years,” said Felix Masud- can now stay in luxury hotels with the drop of the bond insurer, XL Capital. As up DVD players, motorbikes Piloto, director of the Center for and rent cars, doing away with XL Capital struggled to keep its head above water and pressure cookers for the Latino Research at DePaul Uni- restrictions that made ordinary this year in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the com- first time Tuesday as Raul Cas- versity. “Now after many years, people feel like second-class pany’s credit rating plunged to a BB-. tro’s new government loosened the government is listening.” citizens. And last week, Cuba Corporations are assigned a set of letters to show controls on consumer goods Many of the shoppers filling said citizens will be able to get credit rating, AAA being the highest score and DDD and invited private farmers to stores Tuesday lamented the cell phones legally in their own being the lowest. plant tobacco, coffee and other fact that the goods are unaf- names, a luxury long reserved Ramsower said of XL Capital’s score, “You can’t crops on unused state land. fordable on the government sal- for the lucky few. get much worse than that,” adding that most compa- Combined with other aries they earn. But that didn’t The land reform, however, nies that invested heavily in sub-prime mortgages, reforms announced in recent stop them from lining up to see potentially could put more food “suffered huge setbacks.” days, the measures suggest electronic gadgets previously on the table of all Cubans while The Dallas Business Journal reported a similar substantial changes are being available only to foreigners and helping to develop a new con- Associated Press problem debt taken on by the City of Arlington and driven by the new president, companies. sumer economy. A woman leaves Tuesday after buying a pressure cooker the Dallas Cowboys. who vowed when he took “They should have done this Government television said in a store in Havana. Cuban shoppers are buying goods for “The city of Arlington and the Dallas Cowboys over from his brother Fidel to a long time ago,” one man said 51 percent of arable land is the first time that were previously available only to foreign- remove some of the more irk- as he left a store with a red and ers after the government of new President Raul Castro Please see BOND, page 6 some limitations on the daily silver electric motorbike that Please see CUBA, page 6 lifted a ban on products that affected Cuban citizens. Congress presses oil chiefs on big profits By H. Josef Hebert paying record gasoline prices record $40 billion last year. at the pump, now averaging The Associated Press at the pump. “We depend on high earn- $3.29 a gallon amid talk of $4 “On April Fool’s Day, the ings during the up cycle to a gallon this summer. WASHINGTON — Don’t biggest joke of all is being sustain ... investment over the “I heard what you are hear- blame us, oil industry chiefs played on American families long term, including the down ing. Americans are very wor- told a skeptical Congress. by Big Oil,” Rep. Edward Mar- cycles,” he continued. ried about the rising price of Top executives of the coun- key, D-Mass., said, aiming his The up cycle has been energy,” said John Hofmeis- try’s five biggest oil companies remarks at the five executives going on too long, suggested ter, president of Shell Oil Co., said Tuesday they know record sitting shoulder-to-shoulder Rep.