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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1982)
L L i L 'A A \ZJ •s e ' / S Z_ comments on ag journalism It’s coming to an end, almost faster than I can say. And as I sit here trying to meet the deadline for this editorial, I find my self looking back and reflecting on the things that have happened to me since I came to Aggieland all those years ago, and especially since I became an agricul tural journalism major. No, I’m not dying, though I guess in a way some people might consider gradua tion the death of a certain part of one’s life. In less than three weeks I will have reached the end of the yellow brick road that I have been traveling since I gradu ated from high school in 1977, and the thought thrills yet terrifies me. I don’t regret going to Texas Christ ian University for three semesters before transferring to A&M, and I don’t regret changing majors five times in my college career. Though it took me a while to find agricultural journalism, it was well worth the wait. Agricultural journalism is an excellent major but I get very frustrated with peo ple who treat us like second-class citizens. Ag journalism is in the College of Agri culture, but not really. And we’re part of the Department of Communications, but not really. We get the best of both worlds, but not really. Though we sometimes get the best of both worlds, we are really misfits. Agri culture people think we’re weird because we aren’t from farm backgrounds and don’t hang out at Kleberg. Journalism The Agriculturist Editor Valerie Clark Assit. editors David Hatch Cheryl Burke Photo editors Michael Raulerson Rose Delano Ad managers Kitty Fraley Cathy Anderson The Agriculturist is published each semester by the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow at Texas A&M University. people think we’re weird because we don t live at the Battalion and hang around Reed McDonald more. And how could we actually find anything exciting or fulfilling in writing about agriculture? But the worse thing is that both groups consider us only lukewarm wri ters. I am not an ag major because I couldn’t handle straight journalism, and I am not an journalism major because I couldn’t handle straight agriculture. I am an ag journalism major because I LOVE TO WRITE ABOUT AGRI CULTURE, PERIOD. Every semester since I have been asso ciated with ACT, members have ago nized over the decision concerning pro duction of the Agriculturist. And every semester I voted to continue the tradi tion. Well, the time has come to put the old dog to sleep. We try so hard to put this thing together: we ask, demand, threaten, plead, beg and cajole for stor ies and production help. But it always ends up being just a few people who do all the work, though others promised us faithfully at the beginning of the semes ter that we could count on them. t- ££ -i. — I I. r» An But w here do agjournalism majors go from here? I wish I knew...All com plaints and gripes aside, being in the Col lege of Agriculture is great, as is being part of the communications department. But apathy and ignorance are killing my major, and I can’t think of one single way to get people excited about ag communi cations. It amazes me that others don’t want to be ag communicators because it’s such a diverse, exciting field. And the agricultural industry desparately needs people trained in ag communications. Texas A&M has the opportunity to be the best ag communications school in the nation—the talent is here, as are the facili ties, information and money. But Aggie land doesn’t have the most important ingredient—interested students. As I look back, I don’t regret the hun dreds of hours that I have invested in this tabloid, it was a very valuable learning experience and one I wouldn't trade for anything. But I also remember all the sleepness nights, missed dates, hours spent writing headlines when nobody showed up, panic felt when I realized how much 1 had to accomplish and the time I had to do it in. And though I’ve never been a quitter before, I am sug gesting that this be the last copy of the Agriculturist. Even if I weren’t graduat ing, as president of ACT it would be my recommendation. This tabloid has served a purpose in the past, but I hon estly think that it is more of an albatross now than anything. Though it would be sorely missed by some, I have a feeling that most people wouldn’t even notice that it was gone. And like the Agriculturist, my time has come to move on. But before I go, I would like to thank Mr. Gougler, ACT advisor, companion and friend, for his endless devotion to ACT and agjournal ism. Many heart-felt thanks also go to everyone who has helped me with pro duction of this tabloid the past two years, I don’t need to name you individually because vou know who you are. —kittv fralev— Editor’s note I would like to thank everyone in volved in the production of the Agricul turist. Those who wrote stories, de veloped and printed pictures and those who edited worked hard. I would espe cially like to thank Mr. Doyle Gougler, our loyal and adored advisor. He always has time to help us out and he does a wonderful job of keeping us on the straight and narrow. We had a good production staff this semester. We also had some good writers and some extra help with the photo graphs. But we have experienced the same fizzling out of interest that we ex perience every semester. The Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow face printing the Agricultur ist with renewed interest every semester. The problem is since production is all on a volunteer basis, about half way through the production process a number of peo ple find that they have class assignments and other outside activities. When this happens the editorial staff ends up being stuck doing all the work. We as students find it hard to delegate our time. It’s hard to keep up with classes and still find time to participate in club activities and also do some nonschool # things ; . Although the Agriculturist is a lot of hard work and many hours are taken away from study time, I still believe it is the best way for the agricultural journal ism majors here at Texas A&M to learn production techniques and experience editorial responsibilities. We are not required to take any adv anced editorial or production type clas ses and it seems like most agjournalism students graduate without even knowing how a newpaper or magazine is pro duced. I have worked on the Agriculturist for four years now and I’ve seen the same sad situation develop every semester. Maybe it is about time to stop expect ing students to get this experience on their own (on a voluntary basis) and start requiring our agjournalism majors to do production work on a publication. The publication, in my opinion, should not be the Agriculturist, but a more profession al type magazine or tabloid or a newslet ter produced and mailed out to ag jour nalists across the country. In order for the students to get the experience they need, the students must be required to work on a publication be fore graduation. ■A- UOTJUDAUOD ! Ethical Agriculture By ANN RAMSBOTTOM Some of the toughest decisions to make involve conflicts between ethical beliefs and professional responsibility, said an agricultural ethics professor at Texas A&M University. Dr. Paul Thompson, assistant profes sor of philosopv and humanities, is teaching a new course this semester. The course deals with agricultural issues as they relate to cultural practices and the environment. The course is Agricultural Ethics and is cross-listed as a 489 agricultural econo mics and philosophy elective. “I don’t really like the name Ag Ethics,” Thompson said. “A better name would be Philisophical Problems In volved in Agriculture.” The purpose of the course is to expose students to agricultural issues so that they’re familiar with them when they get out of college. “We like to introduce students to a little bit of sophistication and language on the issues so that they can handle problems intelligently and form edu cated opinions,” Thompson said. “The difficult part about teaching this course,” Thompson said, “is that there are no clear cut answers.” Thompson gave several examples of issues that the class has dealt with. One example is pesticides. Pesticides are a big concern in modern agriculture, Thomp son said. By GRETCHEN RATLIFF There is a room in the Kleberg Center that houses a valuable timesaver for many students and faculty members working on the west side of the Texas A&M University campus. The room is 032 and it’s the Kleberg Computer Center. The center has been in existence for four years and is avail able to anyone needing to do computer work. The majority of its users, however, are from departments and classes on the west campus. The center consists of 16 Wilbur ter minals, microcomputers, printers and card readers. It is tied into the Universi ty’s main computer system and operat ing hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Jeff Royce uses the KCC computer Photo by Kitty Fraley “Pesticides get into the food chain and become a health problem,” Thompson said. “We’re forced to weigh the risks against the benefits of increased produc tivity.” Marketing practices in agribusiness present problems also, he said. “Agricul tural products are introduced to the con sumer by the manufacturers,” Thomp son said. “The manufacturer provides promotional information that may not be in the best interest of the consumer. The question is, do we trust the manu facturer.” Government health and nutrition reg ulations force people to make influential decisions all the time. Heavy subsidies are placed on some products, Thompson said. Tobacco and beef are two products which have been continually criticized by those in the medical profession. “On one hand,” Thompson said, “we have to keep the economy going. We can’t just put the producers of these pro ducts out of business.” On the other hand, he added, the consumer has to decide whether or not to support the industries which might be harmful to him. Finally, a key issue is world hunger. “There are thousands of people in the world that don’t get enough to eat,” Thompson said. “As a wealthy nation, we must decide what our responsibilities are — do we encourage agricultural de velopment in poor countries or do we just give them the food.” jonn Lahore, a graduate student from Kentucky working on his doctorate in agricultural economics, assists in the center. “We get quite a broad range of users,” he said. He added that most of the users are graduate students and faculty mem bers conducting research. Dr. Ron Edwards, associate professor of animal science, said the center is in an ideal location and that it helps students and faculty complete their computer programs more quickly and efficiently. “Otherwise, every time we wanted to do something, we’d have to walk across campus to the main terminal,” Edwards said. Studying By KITTY FRALEY Their offices are in the old hospital. They are faculty members of an official department in the College of Agricul ture, although the department has no academic program and their research is almost entirely funded by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. “The emphasis in rural sociology is on the analysis of the problems and poten tials of rural people and rural communi ties,” says Dr. Steve Murdock, depart ment head in rural sociology. “Rural sociology is concerned primar ily with rural areas and agriculture, and its research tends to be applied and oriented to the direct needs of decision makers,” he explained. Rural sociology was first offered at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in 1918 through the department of economics, which was in the School of Agriculture. In the fall of 1920, the department of rural social science was formed, and in 1921 the name was changed to the de partment of rural sociology. In 1946 the departments of agricultural economics rural life and rural sociology were combined into the department of agricultural econo mics and sociology (but courses were still listed as Rural Sociology 205, 315, etc.). In 1960 the term “rural” was dropped from all sociology courses. In 1963 the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas became Texas A&M University, and the School of Agriculture became the College qf Agriculture. The sociolo gy department was transferred to the College of Liberal Arts in 1960 but rural sociology stayed in the College of Agri culture. Research in rural sociology is con cerned with 10 major areas: population analysis, natural resource usage and im pacts, community development, rural services and institutions, sociology of agriculture, sociology of adoption and diffusion, social and demographic di mensions of the marketing of agricultu ral products, agricultural manpower and program/extension evaluation. “Our emphasis here is on research, because what findings we come up with are always applied,” Murdock said. “Our theory and training is the same as sociologists, only our emphasis is agricul ture.” A&M UNDERGRADUATE ENTOMOLOGY CLUB Pres. Michael Lidell 693-0018 V. P. Kelli Brown Sec. Bob Breene Treas. Bob Sprague Ag Council Rep., Tody Gladin KCC aids in teaching, research