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
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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
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