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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1983)
p Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, May 6, 1983 opinion Softball comes to Capitol Hill 3 by Steve Gerstel United Press International WASHINGTON — Despite the end less rain of the past month, staff aides who work behind the scenes in the Senate have decreed that winter is over and ruled it is high time to throw out the first pitch of the softball season. * As in many undertakings, ranging from play to work, the denizens of Capi tol Hill sometimes go about their business | in different ways. * For instance, after years of playing by “rules we have all taken for granted,” the j U.S. Senate Staff Club Softball League ; j has, in the language of barristers, codi- ' j - fled all procedures. : " In fact, the seven commissioners of the ;USSCFL have drawn up no less than 37 i .rules for the coming season, most of ' j them generally accepted in slow-pitch softball circles. ! The most intriguing is rule 23 which states: “Alcoholic beverages shall be re stricted to sidelines.” Which is a painful prohibition for a • ; rightfielder on a hot August day who would love to take his still ice-cold beer out to the pasture. More socially significant is the require ment that at least three females must be on the field. This is a radical departure for anyone connected with the Senate, which has tra ditionally exempted itself from rules and regulations imposed on all others — in cluding the ban on sex discrimination. Yet, a tinge of traditional sexism also can be found in the USSCFL rules. Rule 6 states: “The pitcher must be a female.” Why? One possible explanation, which com es easily to a chauvinist, is that in slow- pitch softball, it really doesn’t matter who pitches. The only requirement is that the ball “must be delivered with a perceptible arc” and there are no balls and no called strikes. Maybe women arc better. But there is even more of that in the USSCFL rules. The very following rules states: “At least three positions in the lineup must be designated female slots and remain so during the game.” That should put some of the managers in a quandary. But, if a team does not have a sharp female player from a good fast-pitch league (and there are many), most mana gers probably will opt for pitcher and second base, plus either shortfield or catcher. While the rules are generally unimagi- nitive, some of the nicknames the teams have adopted show a genuine flair. Others have yet to come up with a suit able monicker. One of the best may be the team orga nized by the office of Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., who are known as “The Hot D’Amatos.” Other nicknames include: the Agricul ture Department, “USDA Choice;” AT&T, “The Defendants;” Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., “Strom’s Right Swin gers;” and Sen. Larry Pressler, “Pressler Pheasants.” Also: Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., “Nunn Better;” Sen. Alan Dixon, D-Ill., “Al’s Pals;” the office of the Senate Legislative Counsel, “Premium Drafts;” Sen. Roger Jepsen, R-Iowa, “Rogers Dodgers;” Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., and Wendell Ford, D-Ky., “Tsongas Tsolarstars;” and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, “Ted’s Ptar- migains.” And more: Sen. Barry Goldwater, R- Ariz., “Barry’s Bombers;” Department of Labor-Administrative Law Judges, “Dim Watts;” Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill., “Per- cycutions,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R- lowa, “Grassley Hoppers;” and Sen. Lowell Weicker, R-Conn., “Weicker’s Whalers.” Well, anyway, it sounds like fun and it costs only $20 to field a team. PROFESSORTHAT5TUPY5 RIGHT,,, WERE OFFERING TOO MANY MICKEY MOUSE COU RSES. „ Letters: Student Senate and tuition Editor: What’s up with tuition? How are j Texas A&M students being represented in Austin? We are being represented by the Legislative Study Group just the way that the Student Senate voted to on March 9. The Senate voted to oppose an increase in tuition. During spring break, a fee bill was proposed by Rep. Bill Presnal from Bra zos County. A rider on the bill would have increased tuition by 100 percent. ^However, during testimony before the TIouse Appropriations committee, LSG ^member Madelan Yanta asked Rep. Pre snal to clarify the attached rider. He went Ion public record as stating that the rider 3vas a mistake and was not a part of the 1 bill. i At that point, the bill no longer dealt with tuition. However, in the event that the bill might later include tuition, Ms. Yanta made two recommendations to the committee. First, the LSG asked that an amendment be added to allow the sub stantive committee to hear testimony and recommend the level of fee increase. Second, the LSG asked that if tuition were included in the bill that it be in creased “at a fixed percentage (index) of a predefined set of costs.” The impact of these amendments would allow students three additional levels of public testi mony on fee increases and significantly i lessen the severity of a tuition increase. What’s happening now? Why the nasty letters from UT students? Right now the bill has been rewritten to include both of the LSG’s recommendations. However, the misconception of our UT associates is that the bill will raise tuition. It does not!! House Bill 894 only changes the manner in which tuition can be raised and places a 100 percent ceiling on increases for fiscal years 1983 and 1984. In 1985, tuition can be increased only to compensate for in- s flation. HB 894 is good for students in I the state of Texas because it protects them from exorbitant increases in tuition and often higher educational, and it pro vides several opportunities for student input into the tuition and fee setting pro cess. In conclusion, tuition in Texas has not been raised since 1957 and students pay less than 5 percent of the cost of their education. But to maintain a superior quality of public education, Texas will sooner or later have to ask students to help bear some of the burden. When and if that happens, thanks to the responsible research and representa tion of the Legislative Study Group, stu dents will be protected. As newly appointed LSG director I can assure you that we will continue to oppose a tuition increase. But when and if it happens, we will see that its done right. Fred Billings LSG director Profs lament Editor: To All My Friends at Texas A&M: “They were the best of times, they were the worst of times ...” is a quotation that never meant much to me until now. This year has brought to me a great deal of joy, primarily from the privilege of working with the Aggies — truly the “salt of the the earth.” Now it has brought to me and to my family the almost unbear able heartache of losing the job that I loved so much. I could have remained as Director of First Year Chemistry Programs if I had agreed to implement directives of our department head, whether or not I be lieved such directives to be detrimental to our students. In good conscience, I could not accept those terms. There are no words to express the deep gratitude of myself and my family to the thousands of students, former stu dents, parents and other friends who cared enough to speak out in my support. We will always treasure that caring. I had hoped that we would win this one, but in a sense we really didn’t lose. You only truly lose when you succumb to pressure to do things you believe to be wrong. For whatever time I remain at Texas A&M, I will be in a much poorer position from which to help students. My love for students has not, however, been di minished and I will continue to try to be helpful in any way that I can. Thank you again for your support. May God bless you in all that you do. Rod O’Connor Chemistry professor Heldenfels Hogg Editor: To the James Stephan Hogg of Hel denfels Hall: The act of upholding ones belief in an issue regardless of personal consequ ence, is truly rare and commendable. Those in power can apply many unseen pressures making it difficult, if not im possible, for one to uphold that belief. This is an innate quality of few people — James Stephen Hogg (governor of Texas from 1891-1895) discharged his duties regardless of consequence or at times personal injury. Dr. O’Connor, throughout my time here at A&M your stern dealings with “those in power” have become that on which I base my personal pride. You have earned my respect and admiration. You are truly that dying breed which epitomizes being “a decent man.” Sam Payuso ’85 ■■ ' « Slouch By Jim Earl “They tell me it’s an experimental model that fights back!” Senior says goodby to rental company Ret lames lat i ife. Pi Editor: Well, I’m a senior now. I made it through four years and I only have one more semester to go. Actually, I’ve had a pretty good time — made some close friends, made some good grades and, oh, yeah ... tangled with Metro Properties. In my entire life I have never had to deal with a more frustrating set of people as the Scandia office department of Met ro Properties. I moved into Scandia apartments at the end of my sophomore year and life has been one headache ever since. In fact, I probably made the big gest mistake of my life when I didn’t get out of my lease after one year. I thought it would be too much trouble to move. Metro and I got started on the wrong foot when I first moved into my spacious Pei lived above us, they had to dealrf^ shaky floors, records skipping ||ei rc£ scratching and an occasional wort trouping through the apartment ! finally moved. Another of our neighbors, Jin worked for Metro during the sura He cleaned apartments. One of his: rite things to do was to tell us howc money he was making for not doing work. He wasn’t talking about leavit apartment in bad condition, hewasl ing about getting paid $60 for vaa ing one room —10 minutes of wort told us that the Metro representi would walk through the apartment him what to do, pay him large sum money and charge the previous residt for the work. He even showed us sou the apartments that he was respons two-bedroom apartment with three other girls. We wanted to move in one day before our lease officially started, so of course, Metro charged us big bucks for the extra night that we stayed there. No problem, but when we got to the apart ment, we discovered that it was filthy ... gross ... disgusting. Now Metro might claim that because we moved in early, they had no time to clean, but I take ex ception to that. It took me, three room mates and two mothers three days to make the apartment livable. There were plants growing out of the rug and moldy food particles behind the refrigerator. In addition, the toilet had been backed up for the entire summer (no one lived there) and it took Metro a week to get it working properly. During that week, they alternately ignored our requests and flooded the carpet. It was definitly not fun. Eventually, one of my other room mates wrote a complaint letter to The Battalion, which did elicit some response from the office. They fixed the ceilings in the bathrooms so that little flakes of paint wouldn’t float down on us during our daily showers — a small comfort. By this time we had become ac quainted with our upstairs neighbors, Mark and Mark — nice guys who were having as many problems with Metro as we were. The foundation of their living room floor (our ceiling) was totally crack ed. Throughout the entire year that they The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member ot Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor HopeE. Paasch Managing Editor Elaine Engstrom City Editor Beverly Hamilton Assistant City Editor Kelley Smith Sports Editor John Wagner Assistant Sports Editor J°hn Lopez Entertainment Editor .... Rebeca Zimmermann Assistant Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra News Editors Brian Boyer, Kathy Breard, Tracey Taylor, Kelly Miller Photo Editor Eric Evan Lee Staff Writers ........ Brigid Brockman, Ronnie Crocker, Scott Griffin, Christine Mallon, Robert McGlohon, Michelle Powe, Ann Ramsbottom, Stephanie Ross, Karen Schrimsher, Carol Smith, Angel Stokes, Joe Tindel, Kathy Wiesepape, Wanda Winkler Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Sergio Galvez Thompson Photographers Michael Davis, Guy Hood, Irene Mees, Barry Papke, William Schulz Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news- for “cleaning.” They weren’t dirty, my thought it was a big joke. We die The situation went on for two f Ignored maintenance requests, bro plumbing, a non-defrosting defrosi frigerator and a poorly functionine hwasher were just a few of the proble And to top it off, every onceiim I would see ads in the paper that) Metro Properties owned the mostpo lar places in B-CS to live. I feltreallyse for incoming freshmen who didn’t!® better, but what could I do? Finally, our last semester on theit has rolled around. I feel that I’ve bf: good tenant. We always paid ourreit time and never threw wild parties,! that didn’t seem to mean anything Metro. In fact, about two weeks ago theofi called and asked when we were moii out. They wanted us to move out earl) that the summer leasers could mol early. We told them we could moveoui May 16, but when we asked if theyvoi pro-rate our rent the caller said,‘‘fit think we can do that. I’ll have to diet Hmmmm. Well, we worked it out and they going to refund our money for mo'i out early. I guess that will maket* Metro and me happy. I’ll be ridoftl* and they’ll have another unsuspedi tenant. Diane W paper operated as a community service to Texas* University and Bryan-College Station. Opinion’ pressed in The Battalion are those of the editor^ author, and do not necessarily represent the opiniot 1 Texas A&M University administrators or facultf^ hers, or of the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newsfi for students in reporting, editing and photography ses within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any e<M matter should be directed to the editor. Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 wont 1 length, and are subject to being cut if they are loaf The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters* style and length, but will make every effort to tnaia* the author’s intent. Each letter must also be signed 11 show the address and phone number of the writes Columns and guest editorials are also welcome,® are not subject to the same length constraints as lea 9 Address all inquiries and correspondence to: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&Mf versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (713)^' 2611. The Battalion is published daily during Texas As- fall and spring semesters, except for holiday and eSJ® nation periods. 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