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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1958)
The Battalion College Station (Brazos County), Texas PAGE 2 Wednesday, February 5, 1958 Aii Editorial Vote Important Tuesday has been set for the co-education referendum and that vote definitely will have a great effect on A&M’s future. In fact, it is so important that it must represent the true feeling of all the voters. A vote for co-education need not mean a vote to end the Corps. It will only mean that Aggies approve of women at tending classes at A&M and living as day students. Later it could mean that women can live on campus and attend classes, but by this time, the Corps could be organized to accept the women without disrupting their program. On the other hand, a vote against co-education could mean Aggies feel the Corps could not adjust to a co-educa- tional situation and function properly or that women could not be made a part of the great traditions of A&M. A point to be considered, undoubtedly, but one which is not of primary importance, will be the companionship of the fair sex and their enhancement of campus atmosphere. Only the advantages and disadvantages should be weighed in coming to a conclusion about the right way to vote. Some of them are as follows: Advantages: 1. Texas A&M, as a state school, has an obligation to the young men AND women of Texas in this age when the “war babies” are flooding the colleges and universities of the state. 2. Enrollment, which so drastically dipped this semes ter, must be kept high and increased to assure good salaries for professors. If salaries are good, A&M will keep the good professors it now has and attract other good ones and as a result increase educational standards. 3. Women on the campus would improve training in social activties since men will have to work and associate with women as well as with other men when they graduate. 4. Of the least importance, but still to be considered is the aid co-education would give coaches in securing top- notch athletes. Disadvantages: 1. Probably greatest among disadvantages would be the loss of school-wide unity which was once so prevalent on the campus. (It has dwindled in the last few years.) Bring a woman into the picture where there are two males who are good friends and immediately competition begins and the friendship is not so great. 2. Some A&M traditions, which are of questionable nature in the first place, would have to be abandoned. 3. A&M would lose its chance to become the great military school it strives to be. 4. Many courses offered at A&M are of little attraction to women. i These and other advantages and disadvantages might be enumerated except for lack of space. The Battalion, after studying both sides, must vote for and support co-education in the interest of A&M’s progress as an educational institution. It does, however, feel that only day student co-educa tion must come immediately. Full-time co-education, regard less of physical facilities, should come only after prepara tion by both Civilians and Corps members so A&M’s best traditions will not be lost in the transition. NOTICE! R.O.T.C. GRADS ^ Army Uniforms ® Air Force Uniforms Will Be On Display In KOOM 3D MSC FEBRUARY 5-6-7 Complete Line in Blue and Green Sugarman Uniform Company THE BATTALION Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the stu dent writers only. The Battalion is a non-tax-supported, non-profit, self-supporting educational enterprise edited and operated by students as a community newspaper and is gov erned by the student-faculty Student Publications Board at Texas A. & M. College. The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A & M. f is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and holiday periods, September through May, and once a week during summer school. Faculty members of the Student Publications Board are Dr. Carroll D. Layerty, Chairman; Prof. Donald D. Burchard; Prof. Robert M, Stevenson; and Mr. Bennie Zinn. Student members are W. T. Williams, John Avant, and Billy W. Libby. Ex- officio members are Mr. Charles A. Koeber; and Ross Strader, Secretary and Direc tor of Student Publications. Mail subscriptions are S3.50 per semester, S6 per school year, $6.50 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request Address: The Battalion, Room 4, YMCA, College Station, Texas, Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office In College Station, Texas, under the Act of Con gress of March 8, 1870. MEMBER: The Associated Press Texas Press Ass’n Associated Collegiate Press Represented nationally by N a t i o n a 1 Advertising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago, Los An geles, and San Francisco. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights of republication of all other matter here in are also reserved. News the editor contributions may ial office. Room 4, be made by telephoning VI 6-6918 or VI 6-4910 or YMCA. For advertising or delivery call VI 6-6415. at JOE TINDEL Jim Neighbors Gary Rollins Joy Roner Gayle McNutt, Val Polk Joe Buser, Fred Meurer Jim Carrell George Wise Editor Managing Editor ...Sports Society Editor ..City Editors News Editors .Assistant Sports Editor Circulation Manager CADET SLOUCH by Jim Earle Letters To The Editor A&M Lagging In Military Facilities By FRED MEURER Universities with ROTC train ing on a part-time basis are sur passing A&M—noted for its mil itary training program—in that field, as far as facilities are con cerned. Our neighbor to the West, for example, the University of Texas by name, dedicated an $850,000 ROTC building in November, de signed strictly for teaching mili tary tactics to its cadets for four or five hours each week per indi vidual. Here at A&M, advanced ROTC classes are held in crowded, hot- in-the-spring, cold-in-the-winter buildings — properly named the “Shacks”. Cadets at Texas — be they in the Air Force, Army or N^val ROTC — sport the authenic uni forms of their branch. And here at A&M ? Shades of General MacArthur! The Army cadets gripe because they wear the uniform of pre-WW II vint age. But Air Force cadets have a double gripe because they wear the same outdated Army uni forms rather than Air Force blues. While TU is noted for its tower, A&M is noted for its ability to turn out a high quality of offi cers. While TU teaches some 1,300 cadets on a part-time basis, A&M has some 2,800 cadets who live in a military atmosphere seven days a week. Yet the train ing facilities at Texas offer a young man so much more. With their new ROTC building, Texas ranks among the top three schools in the nation as far as military facilities are concerned. Editor, The Battalion: Here is a letter written by a sophomore at Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. I be lieve that she has expressed something that is in the heart of every bright-eyed girl who visits Aggieland for the first time. It came as an answer to the question: “What do you think of A&M being co-educa- tional ?” I quote: “As for Aggie land being coed, I’m against it all the way. More than half the Aggie spirit would be gone to the four winds, with girls on the campus. For a girl, after she got there all her dreams would be lost, because it wouldn’t be a dream anymore or some thing to dream of. Think of all the work students and profs would have to go to. Anyway where could girls dorm in that man’s world? I just can’t see Aggieland coed! You asked for my opinion and there you have it.” Just a note for all the fair ones trying to enter A&M, I say, “Don’t go away mad—just go away!” John C. Bullard ’58 Editor, The Battalion: I have just read a letter in the Dallas News from a certain Dav id M. Kravitz, Box 5951, College Station, Texas. “To make A&M coed would destroy everything that 82 years of traditions and customs have created,” he wrote. If he stops to think I believe he will realize this—if America, rich in tradition as it is, had kept all its traditions and customs, we would still be driving covered wagons and using spinning wheels. Maybe all-male schools were the vogue 82 years ago, but times have changed. Maybe women didn’t go to A&M when it was founded; does that that mean they shouldn’t now ? A&M could offer many outstanding curricula to/women; why not let them have a chance? Women didn’t vote when the US was founded, but the 19th amendment changed this. He goes on to say that Bryan people are interested in having the school go coed, not for the benefit of the school, but to add to their cash registers. Maybe this is true; I don’t know. But it seems to me that if it would help the merchants, it might also con ceivably with the increased en rollment help the school in the form of more money, stretching the taxpayer’s dollar further and bringing better classrooms, equip ment and professors. He classifies A&M with West Point and Annapolis. Here I feel he is mistaken, since A&M, al though it has an outstanding ROTC, is a state land grant col lege, not a military academy. This I say to you, Mr. Kravitz, There’s no use fighting it. Wo men' are here to stay. Name Withheld P.S. I’m withholding my name for obvious reasons. I am a high school senior and plan to attend —you guessed it—Texas Univer sity. Oh, yes. I’m a girl. DON’T MISS OUR GIGANTIC SALE NOW IN PROGRESS LEON B. 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