Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1981)
Viewpoint L The Battalion Texas A&M University Monday March 23, 1981 $ S- o 05 ^ S S D-C _ S’ r i ^ (Q ► 0-1 T] 05 CO 2 o D 5- z ■ 55 115 o -?•_ 3 ° g 2 s ® O- c i2 o 3 w =6. o CD 0) ^ CQ ~ 0>’ S-H. 3 S' W : 2 =F<? 8 ^ O CD 1 “ CO 3 05 (q‘ 1 2 ^ c/> cr it r» o) ! ^ i 3 l o S 3 1 o _ 3 £ Cl. .. 05 3 5 Slouch By Jim Earle “We probably ought to put the kerosene in something be sides a coffee pot, but I guess it doesn’t matter now. ” Feeling education’s pincers Maybe there’s a method in the madness. That the cost of everything — including education — is spiraling upward at a dou ble-digit rate should surprise no one. The surprise comes when “double-digit” is translated first into figures like “20 per cent, ” then into a phrase such as “a $109 per semester increase. ” Tuesday, the Texas A&M System Board of Regents will consider a slate of fee in creases for the fall semester. Sidebars By Dillard Stone lc The biggest jump is represented in a 20 percent increase in dormitory room rates, effective with the fall semester. The cheapest rooms, in un-air conditioned men’s dorms, will go up from $219 per semester to $263; the most expensive, the Commons halls, will increase from $546 to $655 per semester. Reasons? Increased energy and labor costs make much of the increase necessary. The other huge slice of the pie is taken up by the need to pay off construction bonds sold to finance the two new modular dorms. At first glance a 20 percent increase may seem pretty exorbitant. But at second glance it’s easily justified — to some extent — by the 14.3 percent legislature- mandated pay raises and an anticipated 20 percent rise in next year’s utility costs. At third glance — OUCH! Texas A&M students are going to get gouged nextya It’s almost a sure bet the Legislature* increase tuition by 50 percent, toSf hour — and there’s no guarantee tk tion won’t rise by 100 percent, to$! hour. Board rates are going up about 9pei (food costs are going up, too). Thestu service fee will probably rise by about percent (remember those services that; all of us use, but which we all pay for). 1 upcoming one-year increase in thera going to school next year will probabl] higher than it ever has before, especiallj the on-campus student. It appears as if we may have foundi; answer to the limiting-enrollmentquestij; Make going to school so expensive thatoi a limited number can afford it. Maybe that’s the method; will them ness end? I doubt it. zoo, $85. ( Cou try i shel A shel fron $15, fron F hole p.m 10 ft best mum- Direct approach for Standard Oil By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — A friend of mine who owns stock in the Standard Oil Com pany of Indiana found a letter from the com pany in her mail the other day. When she opened it, she extracted not a dividend check or a proxy form but a letter from the chairman of the board, John E. Swearing en, which she passed on to me. Addressed “to our stockholders,” it was admirably direct: “President Reagan has proposed to the Congress a comprehensive economic prog ram involving substantial reductions in the federal budget coupled with tax cut propos als that are together designed to restore vitality to the nation’s economy and to arrest inflation. “The management of Standard Oil Com pany (Indiana) wholeheartedly endorses the President’s program, and I am writing to urge our stockholders to express their support for it. “While the President’s party controls the United States Senate, the Democratic party is in the majority in the House of Represen tatives. Some Congressmen have stated their opposition to the President’s program and have been quoted in the press as saying that it will not pass.” Then Swearingen talked about the “fai lures of past programs” and the resulting damage to the economy, concluding that “the package President Reagan has prop osed must be enacted, in its entirety, in order to reverse these trends and restore confidence in our economy and in our country. “This may not happen, ” he warned, “un less the members of the House and Senate are reminded that Mr. Reagan’s program represents the will of the people. I urge you, therefore, to write promptly to your Representatives and to your Senators to ex press your support for his proposals. The future of our nation is at stake. ” That sort of direct and dramatic pleading is rather unusual in a letter to stockholders. I do not recall an oil company president being quite so sure that the election repre sented “the will of the people” when the President was Jimmy Carter and the prog ram involved a windfall profits tax. But the courts have upheld the use of corporate funds for the expression of opinions on re ferenda and legislative issues, and as a bit of a First Amendment fan myself, I have no desire to restrain Swearingen’s freedom of expression. But if one has any sense of American history, one has to believe that both the corporations and the President whose prog ram they are so enthusiastically promoting are on somewhat shaky ground. Ronald Reagan came to the White House probably less beholden to big business than any other Republican President in this cen tury. Big businessmen came rather late to his cause, and only after their original heart- throb, John B. Connally, had demonstrated he had less appeal in the polling-places than in the boardrooms. As a consequence, big business probably contributed less to Reagan’s campaign than to any previous GOP nominee. And the votes that put Reagan in office obviously were not cast, for the most part, by the John Swearingens of this country. But Reagan’s budget and tax plans and his efforts to reduce government regulation of business have been embraced so passion ately by corporate America that there is an almost automatic suspicion that the Reagan program may have been designed with big business in mind. One has to wonder how helpful that will be to Reagan in the long run. Americans have learned to view skeptically the prom ises of big government, but that does not mean they are prepared automatically to accept political instruction from big busi ness. There is also a bit of a risk for business in this arrangement. Reagan’s supply-side economics is a theory of uncertain validity. If its promise of abudance proves empty, and produces only higher unemployment, deficits and inflation, then the adverse reac tion could engulf not just Reagan and the Republicans but the business institutions which asserted that “the future of our na tion” requires that the program be enacted “in its entirety.” But it may be that Swearingen is simply trying to revive the tradition of public per suasion that has been part of Standard Oil’s history since the days when that fabled pub lic relations man. Ivy Lee, undertook to improve the image of its Rockefeller founders. WOOTEROTO QUimjEL It’s your turn Texa chers h on dm; sed u The better sional c growi pressu some i study. “It 5 doctors same w ure,” s and ph Gross, Asp: dine (I ment d bitura) nophyl asthma ma exj hemon pressu | tested. The Sharing the grief at Taps ceremony In the biography of the Rockefellers by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Lee — the ex-newspaperman who, among other things, suggested that John D. dramatize his philanthropies by handing out dimes — is quoted as telling a group of executives: “Crowds are led by symbols and phrases. Success in dealing with crowds. . . rests upon the art of getting believed in. We know that Henry the Eighth by his obse quious deference to the forms of the law was able to get the people to believe in him so completely that he was able to do almost anything with them. ” Perhaps the latter-day Standard Oil ex ecutives believe the same thing. Editor: For the first time I went to Silver Taps, it was for a young 28-year-old philosophy ma jor who have been riding his bicycle at night and was struck and killed by a motorcyclist. 1 arrived at the Academic Building at 10 p. m.; all lights in the area were out except a few from Academic. Students began shuf fling in about the same time I did. I stood by a woman who I learned was the mother of the young man. She asked me if I knew her son. I answered no, I did not. Other than the shuffling of feet, silence was in the air, being pierced only by an occasional dove fluttering out of the trees and the call of a flock of geese flying north. I was also im pacted by the effect of the silhouetted, bar ren, yet sap-filled tree branches that reached up into the black of night. Then chimes rang out with renditions of “Nearer My God To Thee, ” “Onward Christian Sol diers,” and two other hymns. Faintly I heard the cadence of a marching group, soft commands, then a resounding thump as footsteps hit the sidewalk in unison. Another. And another. I counted them, ex pecting them to stop at 28, the age of the young man, but they continued for at least 26 more steps. Then soft commands: “Halt,” “Order Arms,” “Left Face,” “Open Ranks,” “March” along with several others. Then “First Platoon, Ready, Aim, Fire.” The night air was shattered with a volley of rifle fire: doves again fluttered into the air. Then, “Second Platoon, Ready, Aim, Fire”; another volley of fire, and another and another. The mother wept silently. Then Silver Taps by a group of buglers playing in unison. Once, twice. At that moment a stu dent behind me fainted, hitting the side walk with a quiet thud. A final Silver Taps. With a hust the crowd dispersed at which point I reached over to touch the mother. She had come from Dallas for the cere mony, would spend the night alone in Col lege Station in her anguish. But she was not alone at Silver Taps. At least 500 students and staff joined her. John Shirk bers of the Dr. UL Society of Theologv (DUST), would like to point out that although Scott McCullar’s humor is sonK' what (exclusively) unusual, the themesaif not necessarily so obscure as to be unpalat able or incompatible with the essence^: The Battalion. Recently, McCullar’s ever present illustrations have become the ohi jects of ridicule by certain segments ofth( A&M student body and subsequent lion readership. Dr. UL respectfully sf gests that those persons who have voiced criticism either develop a viable, interesi ing alternative or cease to read the columa Dr. UL would like to point out, logically, n( one is currently forcing these critics to read the feature to which they so vehement!' object. Furthermore, our Society makesita point to read McCullar’s inspiration Warped is DUSTed Editor: In defense of “Warped,’ we, the mem- The Dr. UL Society of Theology (DUSI) M.D. Edwards’S! G.O. Pearse ’Si J.P. O’Leary ’S! Warped By Scott McCullar The Battalion MEMBER ISPS (Mo Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Dillard Stone Managing Editor Angelique Copeland Asst. Managing Editor Todd Woodard City Editor Debbie Nelson Asst. City Editor Marcy Boyce Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy Photo Editor Greg Gammon Focus Editor Cathy SaathofF Asst. Focus Editor Susan Hopkins News Editors Venita McCellon, Scot K. Meyer Staff Writers Carolyn Barnes, Jane G. Brust, Terry Duran, Bernie Fette, Cindy Gee, Phyllis Henderson, Kathleen McElroy, Belinda McCoy, Marjorie McLaughlin, Kathy O’Connell, Richard Oliver, Rick Stolle Cartoonist Scott McCullar Photographers Chuck Chapman, Brian Tate :i60 The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper fci students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any editorial matte: should be directed to the editor. LETTERS POUCY Letters to the Editor should not exceed 350 words» length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style a® length, but will make every effort to maintain the authors intent. Each letter must also be signed, show the address and phone number of the writer. Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and are not subject to the same length constraints as letters Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, Th' Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843. EDITORIAL POUCY The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions ofTexas A&M Universi ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of Regents. The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M s M and spring semesters, except for holiday and examinad® periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester J33>’ per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising r* tei furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald BuiW' ing, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX77W United Press International is entitled exclusively to thf use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to' 1 Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved Second class postage paid at College Station, TX77Wi <