opinion
Minorities
Reader: No‘dorm racism
Editor:
Dear President Vandiver:
We, the council of Mclnnis Hall, feel it
is our obligation to give you our response
to the article in the Jan. 21 Battalion,
based on a study released from your
office concerning the underrecruitment
of minority students here at Texas A&M.
It is the opinion of our council that
comments found in the article regarding
racism and discrimination in the dorms
are in general inaccurate and misleading.
While we understand that there is a large
problem with the percentage of minority
students here at Texas A&M, we do not
feel that your committee’s implications of
dorm “racism” were justified in their
attempt to draw support to their recom
mendations.
While some acts of discrimination may
have occurred in one form or another on
campus, these were merely localized mis
haps, and in no way reflect the general
attitude of the residence hall council,
staff, and residents of Mclnnis, as the
article leads readers to believe. We can
guarantee you that we are not aware of
anyone here who is “living with constant
fear” for reasons of racism, and it is un
fortunate that your committee is disillu
sioned into believing that this is so.
Obviously, none of your committee
has ever lived in Mclnnis Hall, much less
any other dorm on campus.
Thank you for your time and attention
to this matter.
Bruce C. Moore, president, Mclnnis
Hall
J. Colin Kirkham, vice president
Editors Note: This letter was also signed
by the dorm treasurer, secretary and in
tramural chairman.
Report called forceful ruse
Editor:
The spate of articles and editorials
concerning the recently issued minority
report that have appeared in The Batta
lion is the biggest collection of sophistry
and non sequiturs I’ve encountered in
quite a while. The main conclusion of the
report, as summarized in The Battalion,
was that since the University of Texas has
more minority students and faculty than
A&M, then UT is a better school than
A&M.
I totally disagree with this conclusion
and submit that the quality of a university
is related to the moral and intellectual
character of those associated with it, not
their race. One point overlooked in the
comparison is the substantially higher
minority population in Austin thus im
plying that, other things equal, UT
should have more minorities.
Another specious conclusion the re
port comes to is that setting aside money
for minority student scholarships prom
otes equal opportunity, in fact the oppo
site is true. Reserving scholarships for
minorities only is discrimination against
non-minority students and no amount of
rationalization can change that fact. The
minority r eport is in general a collection
of special privileges for minorities and as
such is inherently in conflict with Texas
A&M’s stated goal of equal opportunity
for all.
Instead of facilitating the ascendancy
of A&M, as Dr. Vandiver claims, the im
plementation of the actions the report
recommends will have the opposite
effect. The increased emphasis that will
be placed on a prospective student or
professor’s ethnic background will inevit
ably cause the academic qualifications of
the applicant to be de-emphasized and
thereby lower the overall quality of the
faculty and student body.
Support for this argument is provided
in the minority report itself. At UT they
spend several times as much money on
minority scholarships as A&M does;
however, their minority student reten
tion rate is lower than ours. In short, a
good portion of their minority scholar
ship money is wasted.
In summary, the minority report is no
thing but a ruse designed by those in
positions of authority at A&M to force
their oppressive socio-political philoso
phy on others while having the tax
payers pick up the tab.
Richard H. Fosberg ’78
Course of evolution
Editor:
Readers of the article that discusses
the minority report (Battalion, Jan. 21)
should recognize that any effort to favor
minorities at Texas A&M will create
some problems while presumably alle
viating others.
Certainly every group on the planet
has a right to exist and to perpetuate
itself and its culture. These rights cannot
be pursued without the use of real estate
which allows the practice and perpetua
tion of culture, and jobs, by the members.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the
growth rate of most clusters of western
man, as opposed to those of blacks, Latin
Americans, and Asians, is zero or nega
tive; that is, on the average, gendered
pairs are not replacing themselves. The
growth rate for western man in Austria,
Western Germany, Eastern Germany,
British Isles, Portugal, and almost cer
tainly the United States and European
Russia is zero or negative.
Add to this the high immigration rate
of non-western man and it at once be
comes obvious that with every passing
hour western man constitutes a decreas
ing proportion of human beings in the
United States.
High birth and immigration rates have
diluted out both western man and west
ern civilation in the coastal cities, leaving
the midwest and south to perpetuate and
develop western civilization. While it is
true that both species and cultures
evolve, no natural law that I am aware of
rules that just any evolution has to be an
improvement for future circumstances.
With his steadily-decreasing numbers,
western man will have less and less to say
about the course of his evolution. He
should preserve the one he has until
knowledge is such that he can direct his
cultural evolution toward a higher plane.
Who knows, with his identity intact, by
deed or dissertation he may even be able
to convince other groups to control their
numbers before we all are destroyed by
the consequences of overpopulation.
Willard A. Taber
College Station
Problem does exist
Editor:
Dear Student from Dorm 9:
It’s nice to know that such bigotted,
narrow-minded morons like you still ex
ist in this world. It gives us minorities an
opportunity to realize that people with
your mentality still exist.
It is not that your reaction to the
minority article is wrong, it just isn’t
right. To defend something on the basis
of tradition and what might happen if...
is asinine.
Tm sorry if I offended you but that’s
too bad. A university’s problems that in
voke such magnitude as the minority
issue can no longer be answered with,
“Highway 6 runs both ways,” “If you
don’t like it leave,” or “But it’s tradition.”
If this University wants to compete
with other universities then it is going to
have to make changes. Some of those
changes will have to include “traditions”
that no longer apply to this day and age.
Especially ones that can be judged as
offensive or degrading.
Answering the problems of prejudice
with prejudice are not valid nor should
they be applied. It is time for everyone
that is in someway involved with Texas
A&M to sit down and start coming up
with some constructive reforms to solve
some of this University’s problems. Espe
cially the problems that deal with pre
judice.
It is nice to know, though, that there
are thinking people on this campus. Af
ter all, who would have known that there
was a minority problem on this campus.
It must have been a real genius of a man
with the intellect of ... anyone to figure it
out.
Stephen Weiss ’84
Radio’s homogenized future
by t
Bi
The n<
nter,
nd Hal
TipilS, I
by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
Often described by New Yorkers as a
city lacking cultural and spiritual depth,
Washington learned recently that it
would lose a local institution that suggests
an opposite impression.
A progressive radio station long rec
ognized as a national pioneer in promot
ing new sounds and fledgling musicians,
WHFS-FM, announced that it will be sold
to a Rhode Island media conglomerate
and would assume a newsier format.
Many people in this city, particularly its
younger residents, were heartbroken.
Like many EM stations spawned dur
ing the late 1960s, WHFS challenged the
top-40 predictability of AM radio. Its
programming dodged commercials for
album play, introducing Washingtonians
to artists such as Bruce Springsteen,
David Bromberg and, more recently, the
Go-Go’s and Human League.
found that outside companies can select,
tape and supply “music packages” more
efficiently than an in-house music dire
ctor. As a result, radio preprogramming
is a booming business.
In little more than a year, for example,
200 stations have begun to pay a Dallas-
based firm $1,000 a month to provide
24-hour music via satellite. Subscribers to
the Satellite Music Network (SMN) re
broadcast to local audiences live prog
rams which originate in Chicago. SMN
programs include station IDs, news and
commercial breaks and generic time
“It’s a Catch-22. You can't sell re
cords unless you get air time, but
you can’t get air time unless you
sell records. ” — WHFS DJ John
“Weasel” Gilbert.
Unlike most other “progressive” EM
stations, however, WHFS refused to go
mainstream during the 1970s. Its prog
ramming remained too eclectic to clas
sify: In a single hour, it has been known
to mix rock, new wave, jazz, Texas swing,
latin, English folk, fusion, rock-a-billy,
R&B, and reggae. The station’s discjock-
ies, many of whom have been broadcast
ing for a dozen years from the studios in
suburban Bethesda, Md., possess a know
ledge of contemporary music that goes
beyond simply knowing what sells.
checks, and come in either rock, country
or “beautiful music” formats. Music by
satellite isn’t exactly free-spirited: Satel
lite Music officials told our reporter,
Michael Duffy, that their rock DJs stick to
a 30-song play list when spinning re
cords.
For many Washingtonians, life with
out WHFS will be akin to confinement in
a cell fed continuously with top-40 hits.
Weekly “play lists,” based on record sales,
already dictate what most EM stations air
here and in other markets.
Indeed, as economics pinch budget
conscious stations, many owners have
Meanwhile, hundreds of stations
routinely purchase reel-to-reel tapes
from “music consultants.” Tapes pro
duced by TM Productions, of Dallas, can
provide continuous play on standard stu
dio equipment for days on end. Station
managers can flip a switch and walk
away. The technique is about as sponta-
nious as Muzak.
“It’s the McDonald’s of radio,” admit
ted Bernie O’Brien, manager of
WWWK-FM, a Warrenton, Va., station
which once resembled WHFS in format
but now takes its music via satellite.
“They cook out everything but what they
:tecl ir
i • • ii 3111(1 b
know is going to lie abso )r j|
cessful.” Re T
Gentralized programming, ess off!
means that fewer people detections
Americans hear on their radioq ee tra i
reliance on record sales assurcs| 1 'f rsit ’
time for the new and unhypednuR'
has made progressive FM radioilLloyd 1
“Musically, we’ve been prett; thesch
live up to now," said Satellite'yed aboi
ming chief (ieorge Williams.“VfR er y
make sure that an artist is e\[ e >*
every part of the country priorR ° ,
with a particular record." Me,
While hot consultants and|]i laVe j
promoters admit that preprofisBand
lias overtaken the radio indusi*
say that little can be done toiR
situation. The Federal CommutR
Commission, which has purged®
her of low-watt college statiorsitM
several years, has rejected a propM
would open the airwaves to®
stations. Meanwhile, cable rat
cates have begun to sell prograi
dio channels to cable TV-sutt
f urt her reducing demand fordid
al programming.
Losers in this centralization
The already-slumped music
whose long-term profits depend
success of new artists, is sapping
lifeblood. “It’s a Catch-22,”said!
WHFS DJ John “Weasel” Gilto
can’t sell records unless yougeu
but you can’t get air time unless 1
records.”
Cut off from the new anddj
many listeners will also miss
depth and breadth of contcn
music. Whatever its technology
tiers, the dark side of centralized
ramming may be personifiedbf
lerskater who, ears wrapped in>
man, listens unwittingly to
from a tape machine 3,000 mfc
Traffic, parking
in need of solutions
20,000 permits for 10,000 personnel
safety zones.
Since I have already tried talking with
everyone connected with parking and
traffic on this campus all 1 cwt
“Good Hunting Ags.”
chip bn
Editor:
Well it’s the spring semester of ’83,
welcome back Ags!
I’ll bet you’re looking forward to all
those good times here at A&M, like Aggie
Asteroids, you know. It’s where you de
posit your hundreds in tuition and see if
you can walk across campus without get
ting zapped by Zero on his ten-speed
fighter.
Oh, and now there is a new twist to this
well loved game. Same plot, but now you
have to keep your senses on long range
scan for your newest enemy, Ellie May on
her Mitzubishi moped. Watch out Ags,
she can come from anywhere, sidewalks,
lawns or behind the fountains. And her
arsenal includes 150 pedestrians per gal
lon. The only place you have for a safety
zone is in a building.
I believe congratulations are in order
for the designers of this traditional Aggie
game, the Safety and Security office. Hey
guys, I really gotta hand it to you, you’ve
got sit coming and going. I mean when
you get your cut from the contestants
tuition fees plus license the competitors
with what you call parking permits, and
then collect some $18,000 more a semes
ter from fines levied by your own parking
lot paratroopers because you issue
The Battalion
USES 045 360
Member ol •
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Diana Sultenfuss
Managing Editor Gary Barker
Associate Editor Denise Richter
City Editor HopeE.Paasch
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Sports Editor John Wagner
Entertainment Editor Colette Hutchings
Assistant Entertainment Editor . . . . Diane Yount
News Editors Daran Bishop, Jennifer
Carr, Elaine Engstrom,
Johna Jo Maurer, Jan Werner,
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Ramsbottom, Kim Schmidt, Patti
Schwierzke, Kelley Smith, Angel
Stokes, Tracey Taylor, Joe Tindel
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Thayer
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Graphic Artist Pam Starasinic
Photographers David Fisher,Jorge Casari,
Ronald W. Emerson, Octavio
Garcia, Rob Johnston, Irene Mees
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