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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1981)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Monday March 2, 1981 Some subsidies not necessary In the long run, the student service fee allocation process is going to run into an irresistible force vs. immovable object dilemma. On the one hand, students have come to expect the University to provide them with many “essential” services: intramurals, a health center, legal counsel, personal coun seling and a shuttle bus, to name only a few. On the other, the wish to maintain a reasonable, controllable ceiling on at least one area of college expenses might soon prompt some students to view these ser vices as expendable. There’s an easy compromise that can be reached between these two extremes: insti tution of user fees for some of the services which receive student service fees. Consider: — The student service fee subsidizes several services which generate some of their own income, and which could be cap able of generating more (student publica tions, intramurals, shuttle bus, health center). — Those users who can generate no income of their own could benefit by receiv- Sidebars By Dillard Stone ing a bigger slice of the pie. — In the interests of fairness, is it equit able for on-campus students to continue paying for shuttle bus service? Is it equit able for some to participate in several intra mural sports, others in only a few, and still others in no sports at all — while the intra mural department receives the same share from all students’ service fees? Is it equit able to demand that students who don’t use the health center pay the same as those who go five times per semester? While specific recommendations are out of the question before they’re studied, two areas deserve specific attention. Currently, intramural teams pay a $5- per-team fee. In softball, that amounts to somewhere around 30 cents per man. Sup pose that were raised to about $1 or $1.2 per man: How many could object to payiiij less than the cost of a pitcher of beer i order to play three softball games? Ail there’s certainly nothing unreasonable 4 out charging $1 per entry in individd sports. The health center is doing its best! provide quality health care at low coi Some sort of user fees should be institute! for all prescriptions, for x-ray, forsomes|)( cialized treatment. Rather than beingab den on those who use the center, such fa could serve to relieve the burden on thoii who use the center infrequently. So long as the health center keeps use costs below whatever they would be fi student went to an area doctor, it’s fulfil^ its duty of providing low-cost medical cart Sure, Texas A&M has a low studeii service fee rate, when compared to otkei schools. But keeping up with the Joneses isn’t a sound basis for blatant fee increases. And it’s best to examine the viable op tions now, before we trap ourselves inti having to use the student service fee to keep up with the services’ demands. 5 a Talented minds also vp responds about service fees are musically adept By PATRICIA McCORMACK United Press International What has one bugle, nine pianos, two guitars, two violins, one flute, two French horns, one madrigal singer and, for good measure, one composer and organist? Some new musical group called the odd balls? Wrong. It’s the high school science wizards — the winners in the 40th Westinghouse Sci ence Talent Search. It turns out that a big 40 percent of the science brains are also good at music — with the talents listed at the start of this story. Some of the young scientists play two instruments or three. One, a French horn player, toured Europe last summer, con- certizing with a group. The music-science-and-math combo doesn’t come as a shock to educators. The most obvious proof of a link in this century came from the man who gave the world the theory of relativity — Albert Einstein spoke the universal language of music via a violin. A space theme, incidentally, won for one young scientist who also happens to be a musician. John Scott Penberthy, the French horn player who toured Europe, won by invent ing a galactic battle game. It demonstrated something almost as impossible to under stand as Einstein’s theory of relativity. That is: “interterminal interactive com puter systems providing simultaneous ac cess.” Penberthy, 15, from Midlothian, Va., says the complex computer game “might have some practical application in science and business information systems.” The “Starship” game allows two to nine players to communicate with each other in battle. Each player has simultaneous access to 35 commands. These include information on speed, fuel consumption and laser fire. When a spaceship is hit, the player must size up the damage, including number of crew killed. When a ship no longer can move, its captain has lost. Scott intends to go to Massachusetts In stitute of Technology. His music shouldn’t suffer. The high-tech school, further pro ving the link between science and music, has its own student symphony orchestra, concert band, jazz band, musical ensembles and chamber music society. Other winning projects from gifted high school science students who also happen to be musicians included: — Composer, guitarist Michael F. Reidy, 18, of Springfield, Va., performed experiments to determine how plasma membrane ATPase transports molecules and particles across living cell surface boundaries. The musician-scientist, who plays football at West Springfield High, is headed for Yale and biochemistry or medi- — Pianist and flutist Kori Ellen Kaplo- witz, 17, of Hewlett, N.Y., won with a pro ject in microbial genetics. She also is an award-winning puppeteer. Headed for Harvard. — Trombonist William Shelton Chit wood, 17, of Moulton, Ala., won by looking into how red light stimulates root growth in lettuce seeds. Chitwood is trombone sec tion leader in the school marching and con cert bands and pianist-organist at church. He’ll go to Auburn University or the Uni versity of Alabama in Birmingham. — Pianist Joan Ivul Chu, 17, of Lafayet te, Calif, won by separating genes from one circular piece of DNA and recombined these with a circular piece of bacteria DNA. She will study math and theoretical econo mics at Stanford. She believes work such as hers will point the way that research roads to cloning may take in years ahead. Among other winners Tan Dinh Ngo, 16, of John F. Kennedy High in the Bronx sec tion of New York City, overcame his lan guage difficulty by submitting a project in project in the universal language of mathe matics. A Vietnam refugee and native of Saigon, he has been in America two years. He’s aiming for MIT and will keep on the math trail. John Marion Geppert, 18, of Omaha, Neb., won with a solar energy concentra tor. He hopes it will bring more affordable heating to most homeowners. Geppert will go to Iowa State and study engineering or computer science. The 40 winners started meetings with a panel of scientists in Washington, D.C., Thursday. During the interviews that ran through Sunday, the 40 competed for 10 major prizes. The top is a $12,000 scholarship. The next nine scholarships are lesser amounts, ranging down to $5,000. The 30 who don’t make the top 10 will be given a one-time award of $500. With today’s college bills ranging up to $10,000 and above at top private schools, even the No. 1 winner won’t get a four-year ride on his scholarship. But it’s the glory — and the promise. Some past winners of the coveted nation al prizes for distinguished high school scien tists have gone on to win Nobel prizes. By TRACY COX In response to the recent allegations of incompetency the editor has awarded me and the Finance Committee, I have to com ment. First, I will respond to the reason for our closed hearing. If you’ll remember, we held four hearings open to the public in which everyone could attend and hear how the student service fee users justified their re quested budget. You thought that the pur pose of our closed meeting was to hide our incompetence — wrong. Under state law, a committee such as ours is allowed to close our meetings to the public because we are only making recommendations — not actual allocations. Whenever a group meets to discuss budgets someone is going to end up with less money. For a reporter to be leaning over our shoulder verifying every nickel and dime we cut would have been stifling to the budget process. Our commit tee had to work in an atmosphere of free dom — free to express personal beliefs, free to express opinions on budget cuts, and free to know that whatever a member in our metting said would not be quoted in the Battalion. Whenever you cut a depart ment’s budget, someone’s not going to like it, and that someone doesn’t need to know the student that instigated their cuts. I hold our whole committee accountable for our actions, not any one individual committee member. All of our supportive facts that came out of our closed meeting will be pre sented to the student senate; therefore, a M Guest Column closed meeting is irrelevant when the stu dent senate will be the body that makes the actual recommendation. You mentioned the lack of student input on the committee. If you haven’t forgotten, the Finance Com mittee is made up solely of students. Our committee’s recommendation goes to the student senate; that is where direct student input is possible. If any of the committee’s recommendations are felt to be unfair or unjust, then a student should contact his senator. Secondly, I will respond to your claim of the committee’s “incompetence and lack of preparation.” During the fall semester, our committee split up into individual subcom mittees to make a special effort to get to know each user’s budget and to visit with each administrator. Each person met with the administrator and openly discussed their budgets. We were prepared for our meeting, even though it was closed. As for competence, I will simply speak for myself and not my committee members. As a senior I have been involved with these budgets since I was a freshman. The two vice presidents before me met with me James Bom contract oi part of the ■ personally at separate times and trained me for the budgeting process. I have been a member of the Finance Committee fm three years. Personally, I know these budgets better than any other student on this campus. If you still feel that with this much experience I am incompetent, thenl feel you’re shortsighted. Thirdly, I will respond to the $7 or $1 mix-up. Our committee knew on Saturday that the possibility of a $7 increase could be be imminent. As students ourselves, we simply wanted to look out for the whole student body, and not raise the fees as much. We came up with our own estimate and increased the fee $1, and then disclosed this to your reporter on Sunday. All the time, we knew that our estimate had hif possibilities of being inflated and possibly | wrong. On Monday I found out our esti- are « mate was wrong, and on Tuesday we voted I on the $7 increase. We knew the commit-1 tee’s credibility would be questioned over this $6 difference, but in the interest of the students, we felt our credibility was unim portant when we decided to disclose the$l increase. Now, after the fact, I can say that the credibility of our committee has been hurt, I feel it’s unimportant. What is im portant is that our allocation to each useris credible, and we’re willing to justify every number, blr Tracy Cox is a senior finance major, and Student Government vice president ford- Felh appl gin 198: It’s your turn Rah, rah, rah! to Vernon and Rynn Editor: As the end of the season draws near, I wish to thank two individuals for the contri butions that they have made. I am referring to Vernon Smith and Rynn Wright. With the help of these two fine gentlemen, Texas A&M basketball has come of age. Watching these two players perform has been a great enjoyment. However, pure athletic ability is not all that they possess. I can think of many out standing players who I would not want on a Texas A&M basketball team. They lack an entity which only some individuals strive for and few possess. In my opinion, though, Vernon and Rynn have this entity. They have class. The basketball team is now receiving the respect that it has so long deserved. The team has made great strides in the last few years. Hopefully, future players will be able to push the A&M program to even greater heights. But, for right now we should appreciate the efforts that Vernon and Rynn have made for the last four years. I hope that Vernon and Rynn enjoyed playing for Texas A&M as much as I enjoyed watching them. I want to once again thank them and wish them much luck in the future. John J. Collins ’83 The letters to the editor are too few and the space doesn’t need to be used for more “Warped Humor!” While you were “editing” the “Letters’ into the trash, you should have included the “Hostage Movies” column! Randy Barron ’81 Trash McCullar! Editor: There is one movie that Scott McCullar left out of yesterday’s Battalion that a lot of Battalion readers would like to see, “Warped Meets Psycho” in the shower! Editor’s note: The death of letters to the qditor isn’t because we throw them into the trash; The Battalion runs about 90 percent of the letters it receives. Any discernible lack of letters can be attributed to a lackol reader initiative, not to overzealous cen sorship. Warped By Scott McCullar The Battalion MEMBER L s P S 0-15 :)«() Texas Press Assoeiation Th e Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for Southwest Journalism Congress students in reportingi editing and photography classes Editor . Dillard Stone within the Department of Communications. Managing Editor Angelique Copeland Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter Asst. Managing Editor Todd Woodard should be directed to the editor. City Editor Debbie Nelson Asst. City Editor Marcy Boyce LETTERS POUCY News Editors Venita McCellon, Scot K Mever Letters to the Editor should not exceed 350 words in Sports Editor Richard Oliver ,e "f h ’ . an f d £ re sub j ect ‘° ^"8 * they are longer. The r? tpj.. c .u rr editorial stan reserves the nght to edit letters lor style and Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff , h but ^ make effort to maintain the author - Asst Focus Editor ^Susan Hopkins intent Each , etter must a]so be si d show the address Staff Writers . .. Carolyn Barnes, and phone number of the writer Jane G. Brust, Terry Duran, Bernie Fette, Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and are Cindy Gee, Kathleen McElroy, Belinda McCoy, not subject to the same length constraints as letters. Marjorie McLaughlin, Kathy O Connell, Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The Ritchie Priddy, Rick Stolle Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Cartoonist Scott McCullar College Station, TX 77843. Photo Editor Greg Gammon Photographers Chuck Chapman The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M’s fell Brian Tate and spring semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 EDITORIAL POI ICY per scb ° o1 year and $ 35 P er h 1 * 1 year - Advertising rates rui-JCI furnished on request. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper 0ur address . Th e Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Build- operated as a community, service to Texas A&M University jng Xexas A&M Univers j tyj College Station, TX 77843. and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not United Press International is entitled exclusively to the necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M Universi- use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Regents. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. FI I oi> IN Becausi opportu stimulai Bight n< MEC ELEC Come t<