Listen up
Student explains ‘disloyal’letter
Page 2
THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1974
Editor:
As I am hard to get ahold of, I
know nothing of the article that ap
peared in the Batt on Nov. 6, con
cerning my problem with the Hous
ing Office, until I read it. I wish to
make a few comments that perhaps
express my view of the situation a
little better.
An administration that takes an
explanation directed to the students
and misconstrues it as a complaint
directed against itself doesn’t just
lack foresight, it is paranoid. I
couldn’t work for it again if I was
asked to, so keep the “recommenda
tion”.
If I had asked the administration
to print an explanation on why the
Centrex service is the way it is,
would it have gotten to the stu
dents? We have never received one
for the maniacal Northgate wall.
The central point is that the “mis
take” I lost my job for was that, as I
was told, I lacked the loyalty I owed
the University. I owed the Univer
sity loyalty.
Well, I was paid out of University
funds but I feel the students are the
University and the two are not sepa
rate entities. In my capacity, I felt I
presented a student service and was
not just an administration flunky. I
owed the students, as my emp
loyers, loyalty. I owed the administ
ration nothing. If I am disloyal to
want to help explain a problem to
fellow students, then disloyal I will
be.
But why do I have to go against
the administration’s wishes? The
letter of explanation the Housing
Office was to publish would have di
rected students to call Centrex, but
I know it would not have told the
students why the phone must ring
50 times before it’s answered. The
'I'M WITH YOU . . . THE LORD WILL PROVIDE!'
'Sri 'Roomy
system can’t go against itself; it must
be loyal to itself.
I believed then that the students
deserved an explanation and I be
lieved they would not get it unless I
made it. I believe it still and would
do it all over again in the same man-
. Greg Marchand
Hats off
“I’d like to turn in my lab project for extra credit
(Your Man at Batt)
I By WILL ANDERSON J
When Steve Korte returned to his car earlier this
month it wasn’t there.
University police had had his car towed away after
issuing Korte his eighth ticket for parking on campus
without displaying his University sticker. None of the
tickets had been paid for.
Korte said he understood why his car was im
pounded and he had no complaints about the procedure,
fines or towing fees; however, he did ask The Battalion
why cars are towed away instead of being immobilized
with a rhino wheel lock.
A rhino is locked onto the wheel of an offending car
to prevent the owner from driving it until he checks with
the police to remove it. It is a less expensive and incon
veniencing method since violators don’t have to go to
Bryan to get their cars or pay a towing fee.
Chief of Campus Police O. L. Luther said he did not
know why the car was towed away instead of im
mobilized. He suggested that both university wheel
locks were already being used.
“University rules allow police to impound any car
with three or more unpaid tickets,” he said. “Towing is
preferred only when a car is illegally parked in a space for
reserved or disabled drivers. If we put a rhino on the car
it could sit there for three or four days taking up the
parking space.
“As far as I’m concerned, if the car’s not in one of
these spaces. I’d use an immobilizer.”
He said cars were towed to Bryan because that was
the only place that provided a reasonable amount of
safety from vandalism to the cars.
I suggested the wheel locks could be the preferred
method of impounding except in the cases of parking in
reserved or disabled spaces.
Luther said that such a policy was possible but that
any ruling would have to be passed by the University
Traffic Panel.
Steve Wakefield, senior member of the Traffic
Panel, said he was not aware that the university towing
policy was a problem. The panel meets again on Nov. 20
and Wakefield said he would bring up consideration of a
new policy then.
Editor:
In response to Win. Sheen’s col
umn about the removal of a
gentleman’s hat in the MSC, I have
this to say.
1. Why the hell do you bicker,
whimper, whine and complain over
time-honored, and manly traditions
never before contested at this uni
que University?
2. In your long wordy and vague
letter you use such nebulous words
as spontaneity, individualism, etc.,
to exaggerate, twist, distort, and by
any other means project the image
that the hat custom is enforced. The
signs at both entrances only say
please.
Now I ll admit some Aggie may
punch you right in the nose for your
own lack of respect but he is only
doing it because of the pride and
love he feels for this college and not
because of some University regula
tion.
3. Lastly, you say, “Do I not have
the right to honor the dead of World
War II in my own way without fear
of personal humiliation or injury?
This shows your main problem is
not an infringement of rights or
freedom but fear of public humilia
tion by being roughed by faithful
Aggies in the open.
If you are too damn lazy or dis
loyal to remove your hat in respect
of tradition and Aggie dead then,
two percenter, you may go on fear
ing fear itself.
Eddie Mee ’77
Hats on
Editor:
I think that persons voicing sup
port for the hats-off and keeping-
off-the-grass policies of the MSC are
making three simultaneous mis
takes which reflect their lack of un
derstanding of the true nature of re
spect.
First, they do not realize that one
of the important properties of true
respect is that it should never need
to be asked for. A man does not beg
for respect, or ask for it, or even
demand it — he commands it. A
request for respect is strong evi
dence that the person asking for it
does not deserve it.
Secondly, a person who asks for
respect in behalf of someone else is
not only bringing himself down in
the eyes of the world—he is also
degrading and insulting the people
for whom he is asking the respect by
implying that they are not capable of
commanding respect on their own.
Thirdly, those defending the
Cbe Battalion
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Editor Greg Moses
Assistant Editor ... .Will Anderson
Managing Editor LaTonya Perrin
Sports Editor Mark Weaver
Photo Editor Alan Killingsworth
Copy Editors Cynthia Maciel,
Carson Campbell
News Editor , Roxie Hearn,
Steve Bales
City Editor Rod Speer
Special Assignment Reporters Teresa Coslett,
Mary Russo, Jim Crawley, Paul McGrath, Tony
Gallucci,Gerald Olivier, Steve Gray, Jack Hodges, Judy
Baggett, Barbara West
General Assignment Reporters Dave Johnson,
Kanaya Mahendra, Jim Peters, David White, Cindy Taber,
Roxie Hearn, Debi Holliday, Rose Mary Traverse, Ron Ams-
ler, Robert Cessna, Richard Henderson, Daralyn Greene,
Scott Reynolds, Sandra Chandler, Jim Sullivan, Leroy Dettl-
ing
Photographers Douglas Winship,
David Kimmel, Jack Holm, Glen Johnson, Chris Svatek,
Gary Baldasari, Rodger Mallison, Steve Krauss
MSC policies foil to see the inap
propriateness of the MSC as a
memorial. A true monument or
memorial is a structure that is built
for the purpose of being a monu
ment or memorial. Merely being
named after or dedicated to some
one does not make something a
memorial. The MSC’s major func
tion as a social hub for the Univer
sity precludes its appropriateness as
a memorial.
I might also point out that living
things, such as trees or grass, h ave
lives and purposes of their own. A
living thing ought not to be made a
memorial to the dead.
I suggest that the University do
the following:
1) Cease to designate the MSC
in its entirety as a memorial.
2) Eliminate any policies or
regulations explicitly requesting or
requiring acts of respect.
3) Cease to designate living
things as memorials.
I suggest that individual students
of the University command
respect—not ask for it.
Johnnie B. Linn III
g pent bouse 1
I
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