V, V * *’ ■'’**■*>*'♦ V
opinion
Battalion/Page 2
February 11,
Sherrill’s attendance
policies succeeding
Congratulations to Athletic Director
Jackie Sherrill for the apparent success of
his program to keep athletes in school —
and most importantly, to keep them
Studying.
Sherrill has shown that he is commit-
ed to providing athletes with an oppor-
Editorial
tunity to succeed in the classroom as well
as on the field.
Starting last fall, new class attendance
policies were established requiring man
datory class attendance — and study hall
if needed — for all scholarship athletes.
And the program seems to be
working.
Only one freshman football player
had a GPR below 2.0. The average GPR
for freshman football players was 2.6.
The highest GPR among the freshman
football players was 3.69.
And freshman football players aren’t
the only ones studying. About 30 former
athletes — including former T exas A&M
running back Curtis Dickey — are study
ing in the offseason in order to receive a
degree from Texas A&M.
According to figures compiled by the
Southwest Conference, about half of the
athletes who enroll at Texas A&M even
tually receive their degrees. That com
pares to 30 percent at other Southwest
Conference schools.
The academic staff employed by the
Athletic Department has been expanded
to run these programs. About $40,000 is
spent each year to keep this staff run
ning.
T he Athletic Department seems to be
turning out some well-rounded athletes.
The department apparently realizes that
studying and class attendance, as well as
extracurricular activities, should be part
of every college student’s life. But the
extracurricular part never should be
allowed to take over.
If Sherrill’s programs — and the
athletes — continue to work, the old
brawn-over-brains stereotype of the col
lege athlete may lose some ground at
Texas A&M.
Good news story
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by Art Buchwald
Larry Speaks, as all presidential press
secretaries seem to do when their boss is
in trouble, took out after the press the
'other day. In a speech he complained
-about coverage of the bad economic news
♦by the media, as opposed to the good
Inews.
*■ When inflation was at 13 percent, he
^complained, the media reported it. Now
that it is 3 percent (that’s Larry’s figure,
iiot mine) the press has ignored the fact
that the Reagan administration licked the
country’s number one problem.
Speakes also questioned the public
opinion polls that indicated the Amer
ican people considered unemployment
the present number one problem.
“And why not?” he asked his audience.
.-“Every night we have seen the unem-
;-ployed line up and march across the tele-
;-vision screen, and I certainly would not
Tmake light of the people who are unem-
Gployed ... But why is it that 10.8 percent is
' ’news, but 89.2 percent of Americans who
*>tre employed and enjoy the highest stan-
-;dard of living is not?”
• I Larry posed a good question. Why
I‘aren’t the news programs covering the
[-employed people instead of the unem-
‘-ployed? And how would they handle it, if
[•they did?
;* “This is Tom Brokaw in New York.
>The big news tonight is that 89.2 percent
;'of all Americans who want jobs have
-them. Irving R. Levine reports on the
[[plight of one of these men in Scarsdale,
[New York.”
•[ “This is Irving R. Levine and I’m
[standing here with Frank Davis, broker
■[for E.F. Hutton, who is one of the mil-
• [lions of people now employed in the Un-
[ited States. To the Reagan administra-
[tion, Davis is just another statistic. But in
[human terms, he and his family tell the
[real story of what is going on in America
-today.
- “Frank, this is a lovely house you
-have.”
[- “Yup. It’s worth $250,000. But since
-I’m working, I’m not about to sell it.”
“How much do you make a year?”
- “With bonuses about $100,000.”
> “Then you don’t have to depend on
food stamps, unemployment insurance
or use up your savings to keep going?”
“Certainly not. We eat very well, and
we have enough money left over to own a
boat, and send our kids to private
schools, and go out to a good restaurant
when it moves us. If the stock market
keeps up the way it is, we might buy a
second home in East Hampton.”
“Does being employed make you feel
any different than being unemployed?”
“Very much so. It makes me feel good.
I like to work, and I enjoy being paid for
it, and I’m not mad at anybody.”
“How does your wife feel about you
being employed?”
“She thinks it’s just great. She’s very
supportive, as are the children, that I’m
making it during the recession. I don’t
know what I’d do without them.”
“But don’t you get discouraged some
times and say to yourself, ‘I’m sick and
tired of working, and I’m going to throw
in the towel.’?”
“I imagine the thought has occurred to
me. But my wife and I like nice things,
and if I threw in the towel, we couldn’t
afford them. We’re going on a ski trip
next week to Vail.”
“Then you’re not angry at President
Reagan because you have a job?”
“Why should I be mad at Reagan? He’s
not to blame because I’m making a good
living.”
(Cut to Irving R. Levine standing be
side the Davis swimming pool, alone.)
“Frank Davis is an example of one of
the 89.2 percent of the American work
ing class, blessed with all the things this
country has to offer. Unlike the 10.9 per
cent who are unemployed, he believes in
tax cuts, military aid to foreign govern
ments and an increase in defense spend
ing. He may not represent all the em
ployed people in this country, but his
story is worth telling because it gives a
true picture of what is really going on in
the country today.
“Tomorrow we’ll talk to another em
ployed person who is doing very well as a
golf pro in Palm Springs, California. This
is Irving R. Levine in Scarsdale, New
York.”
by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
Before a Senate subcommittee the
other day, former governor Jerry Brown
of California articulated the kind of para
digm for which he’s become famous.
“The nation needs a vision of where
we are going for the rest of the century,”
he told the Finance Subcommittee on
Savings, Pensions and Investment Policy.
“And out of that comes a consensus, and
out of that consensus will come a disci
pline that will pervade our schools, our
factories, our public sector.”
If Brown’s model is valid for U.S. sci
entific educational policy, one could
argue Ronald Reagan's vision of Amer :
ica’s future is fuzzy at best.
Reagan has, of course, tried to catch a
wave that he virtually ignored two years
ago. His 1984 budget asks for $50 million
in one-year scholarship grants to be
awarded by the Education Department
(and matched by states) to prospective
science teachers. Through the National
Science Foundation (NSF), he also wants
to provide $26 million for three other
“quick-fix” programs to attract more stu
dents to graduate study.
. “Our economic strength, our military
strength, and our health and well-being
depend to a very large degree on the
fruits that modern science and technolo
gy ... have brought to us,” Education Sec
retary Terrel H. Bell told a House panel
last Monday.
While the administration’s efforts rep
resent something of a turnaround, its
scope seems paltry given national needs.
Even at 156,000 the number of high
school math and science teachers is noto
riously short of demand; poor quality has
become a national scandal. But the Edu
cation Department programs would
assist perhaps 10,000 individuals (using
$10,000 as an average cost per student)
for two semesters and a summer session,
when adequate training might require
three years.
Meanwhile, NSF grant recipients
could number but a fortunate few.
Perhaps 200 students would be eligible
for the proposed $6 million Presidential
Young Investigator Awards program.
While the administration's eitorts
represent something of a turnar
ound, its sc(fpe,see ms paltry given
national needs.
which is designed to encourage graduate
study over more lucrative private-sector
jobs. Will that be enough to solve the
attrition problem plaguing universities?
Reports last week that infant mortality
rates are rising in nine state's might have
been expected to result from waning fed
eral and state support for the women and
children nutrition program. Unhealthy
mothers make for unhealthy babies.
Yet, secondary surveys by the Food
Research . Action Council (FRAG) re
vealed that infant mortality rates in sub
sections of some urban and rural areas
far exceed the national average of 1 1.7
deaths per 1,900 births. In parts of De
troit, the rate exceeds 33 (higher than the
national average of Honduras). Else
where, 55 deaths per 1,000 were re
ported.
Perhaps worse, declining federal sup
port for prenatal care providers has lef t
many states without the manpower to
monitor infant mortality and low-weight
The h
Jure wil
[Ulege
'vironme
lectures
and 2 p
Rudder
oirth rates. As a result, we wont« The
know the current recession'sImnu second f
Watergate sleuth Robert V\’(Kxl":ff n ^ n
preparing to lake a leave InniiK sa j (
W ashington I’osi's investigativejBck, h
write a book on the death of con (architec
John Belushi. 1 he
»W2LS cl let
Politics and movies are renewiijH 1 j vers
ties. Last \ ear's mammoth antfptM| P ser
rails in New York Cits is currenthmnalisi
pieced into a major motion pictureBxas. '
f rom I lollswood comes the report® be
the Democratic National ComnifM 61 'thi
organizing a national telethonoiOlff; sa ' c
rial Day sseekend that will bea“vet® ^ * 1<
Woodstoc k ol teles ision." uIl 111 *
the com
Peter Hannaford, a former aiMThe
Ronald Reagan in California and,i'p rc hi te(
time business associate of preside®* P u ^
assistant Michael Deaver. istheaiilt# * e ^ a
set anothet book about the curraitj^ jj
family. The sumptuous fare of
literature mas explain why Mcord
Reagans,” due next March, is nwlett, W
Conservatise Book Club alternatf jVictorss
tion.
series.
Once esoteric in Washington®
the applications of high technoloj
war and commerce have vvonwii
notice at the White House and onCa]
Hill. Now Georgetown Univeti
School of Foriegn Service isconsiden
proposal to establish a research;?
and degree program in internal
communication. Said Stephen (lilts
who heads the Foreign Service sell
science program and will supervist
project: “We scant to combinetoim
standing of international affairs\il
language of technologies and inft
tional revolution in a way more
the 2 1 st century.”
Slouch
Canned art
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