—
Columns
• Editorials
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Cbe Battalion
Pag-e 2
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, May 10, 1966
• Opinions
• Cartoons
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A New Look At Excellence
Editor’s Note: The following
guest column was written by
William T. Dowden, a senior
English major.
Since Texas A&M has begun
its pursuit of academic excel
lence, the standards for the per
fect university, as presented by
Morris Bishop of Cornell in this
month’s Atlantic, should be re
viewed by our well-meaning ad
ministration. Although Texas
A&M has made many changes in
the last few years, it should be
remembered that A&M is still
far from being the perfect Uni
versity. Perhaps Mr. Bishop’s
article could present some new
ideas of the standards of excel
lence.
Mr. Bishop’s first principle of
the perfect university is that
“It will build character in its
students. Since character is built
by the surmounting of difficulties,
it will provide difficultes for the
students to surmount.” I am con
fident that the faculty and ad
ministration are doing their best
to implement this principle. Mr.
Bishop must have directed some
of his remarks directly at Texas
A&M because so many of his
comments indicate faults in our
yet imperfect university, if it can
be called a university. He has
this to say of coeducation in the "
perfect university. “Since the
presence of young women on the
campus is upsetting to young
men, the perfect university will
admit men only.” Of course the
administration is following the
principle of providing difficulties
for the students by permitting all
those unsettling coeds on cam
pus, but too much emphasis upon
one principle may be prejudicial
to others, equally important.
Mr. Bishop is certainly aware
of the novelty of his ideas. His
defense is sharply ironic, but di
rect:
“The exclusion of women
students from the university
will no doubt evoke sharp
criticism. It will be charged
that we are reverting to me
dievalism, that we are re
jecting the principle of co
education, now universally
accepted, that we are depriv
ing young men and women of
the opportunity to grow up
together, to experience
youthful romance, to marry
and begat. Certainly, and a
very good thing too.”
Someone may inquire about the
quality of the graduates of the
perfect university. Many critics
would doubt that students who
are not required to attend class
es, or to abstain from drinking,
or to maintain a Christain at
mosphere could ever become
great. These things were not re
quired of the men of eighteenth-
century Oxford and Cambridge,
two universities which Mr. Bishop
considers as approximates of his
perfect university. What became
of those graduates ? “They made
the British Empire. Long years
after, under the pressures of
grubby modernity, Oxford re
solved to be practical, to fit it
self to the modern world. In
1920 Oxford abolished compul
sory Greek. And look what hap
pened to the British Empire.”
How is the graduate of the
Perfect University different from
those of lesser universities ? He
is curious; he is original; he is
not afraid to be critical nor to be
criticized. He knows when to re
buke authority and when to ac
cept rebuke. “The graduate of
the perfect university will pos
sess the graceful and unconscious
arrogance of superiority, the
quality of the world’s master.”
A&M in the past has produced
leaders, but not masters of the
world. We have failed in our
threefold goal of producing sol
dier-statesman-knightly gentle
men, each factor balanced in re
lationship with the others. Our
administration hopes to produce
a better balance by introducing
coeds instead of a school of music
or fine arts. They bring us bet
ter communications systems while
continuing to resist contacts be
tween the faculty and students.
These days many things are
proclaimed in the name of Prog
ress. There will be complaints
that Mr. Bishop’s university is
neither perfect nor progressive.
In the final paragraph of his
article, Mr. Bishop leaves us with
this parting shot:
“You protest that this per
fect university is sadly im
perfect, that it is backward
looking, not forward looking.
Is then forward morally
superior to backward? You
complain that this scheme
expresses the obsolete, un
democratic ideal of the edu
cation of a gentleman. Egad,
boy, you are quite right.”
Mr. Bishop might have asked if j
a competively progressive uni
versity is perfect or even excel
lent. I would like to think of
an excellent university as one
that balances all the interests of
the institution toward the ever
present idea of striving to com
municate konwledge from the
teacher and the university envi
ronment to the student, in class
and out, without destroying the
student’s desire to learn as de
monstrated by his first coming
to college.
MEMOIRS OF AN AMNESIAC
by Oscar Levant
now at
THE WORLD OF BOOKS SHOPPE
207 S. Main 823-8366
SHAFFER’S
Will Give You The Most For Your Used Books.
Sound Off
Editor,
The Battalion:
I have read your editorials and
comments for more years than
most Aggies and, in the past, I
agreed with many of your ideas.
I cannot go along with your edi
torial of May 5, 1966.
You state that “no one sings”
the proper (yes, I said proper,)
words to the “Spirit of Aggie-
land.” For your information, the
Singing Cadets of Texas A&M
University have been singing
these words since their adoption
three years ago. Also, unplug
your ears sometime at Muster.
There were fifty strong voices
of men whose names may be
called at that ceremony in the
future who were singing the of
ficial words.
I recall an explanation that to
use the last of the AMC patches
the letter C would stand for
Corps. Are most Aggies today
singing a song for the Corps ?
This is not a bad idea, but don’t
call it the school song.
The Singing Cadets have per
formed from Beaumont to El
Paso and San Antonio to Dallas
singing these words for multi
tudes of former students without
a complaint. Yet, this December
in the MSC during a performance
by the Singing Cadets for
SCONA, a Corps senior hissed his
own school song. This was hard
ly the right impression to give
the young lady from another
school who was with him.
It may be years before the
majority comes around, but they
will. The singing of the new
words hasn’t hurt the Muster tra
dition nearly as much as the
showing of a film immediately
afterwards.
By the way, Mr. Editor, since
you haven’t heard the official
words, you might drop by Guion
Hall at 8 p.m. on May 13. It
might not sound so terrible to
hear someone sing about your
school, Texas A&M University.
John B. Beckham Jr. ’67
longhair needs
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Shortcut 0 H2ir6iwiw-bYOtdSpiGeTubeor)ar, l^oz- onlysvtf.
THE BATTALION
Opinions expressed in The Battalion
are those of. the student writers only. The
Battalion is a non tax-supported non
profit, self-supporting educational enter
prise edited and operated by students as
a university and community newspaper.
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
origin published herein. ,
matter herein are also reserved.
paper
High
ights of repu
news of spontaneou
blication of all othe
- r~ % 1' >
• VC,:*- yx:rsv
To a motorist who still
hasn’t put a Tiger in his tank.
You’re a skeptic. Good. Then
you’re going to be a good cus
tomer, if we can ever win you.
We showed you proof on tele
vision that High-energy Enco
Extra cleans your carburetor
while you drive.
(Probably you said, "So what?
My car still runs.”)
We told you it improves firing power, helps
prevent hot spots and misfiring and gives
you the high octane to help you take off
like a cat.
(You drove right on by.)
It’s frustrating to develop a gasoline that
gives this kind of performance and then
not even have you try it.
That the Tiger is now the favorite of motor
ists all over the world? And that Jimmy
Clark became the World’s Champion Race
Driver with a Tiger in his tank?
So why not “Put a Tiger in Your Tank®!”
“Happy Motoring 1’’®
Here's that Tiger.
Did you know new High-energy Enco
Extra is more powerful than aviation gaso
line of just a few years ago?
HUMBLE
OIL A REFINING COMPANY
AMERICA’S LEADING ENERGY COMPANY
(Enco)
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PEANUTS
By Charles M. Sehuh
lere
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oom
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Members of the Student Publications Board are: Joe BuseJ;
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Robert A. Clark, College of Geosciences; Dr. Frank A. Me
Robert A. Clark, College of Geosciences; Dr. Frank A. Mc
Donald, College of Science; Dr. J. G. McGuire, College of
Engineering; Dr. Robert S. Titus, College of Veterinary
Medicine; and Dr. A. B. Wooten, College of Agriculture.
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Texas A&M ia
The Battalion, a student newspaper i
published in College Station, Texas daily except Saturday,
Sunday, and Monday, and holiday periods, September through
May, and once a week during summer school.
MEMBER
The Associated Press, Texas Press Association
Represented nationally by National Advertising Service,
Ine.. New York City. Chicago. Los Angeles and San Franciaco.
Managing Editor Tommy DeFrank
Associate Editor Larry Jerden
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News Editor Dani Presswood
Amusements Editor Lani Presswood
Staff Writers Robert Solovey, John Fuller,
James Sizemore, Judy Franklin
Sports Writer Larry Upshaw
Photographer Herky Killingsworth
TRY TO STAY CALM..
1 HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS. 1
IT
DAD'S BEEN TRANSFERRED/
WE'RE MOVING TO ANEW CITY/
AAU6HI
MV DAD'5 BEEN TRANSFERRED...
WE'RE MOVING TO A NEld CITY... l'LL
PROBABLY NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN...
UNLESS, OF COURSE, WE HAPPEN
Tt 60 TO THE GAME COLLEGE..
WHAT COLLEGE DO YOU THINK
YOU'LL BE GOING TO ?
V
ITS - KIND OF HARD TO PECIPE IN
THE LAST HALF OF THE NINTH INNING
T
I YOU CAN'T LOSE WHEN YOU TRADE AT LOU'S!